Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · 13h

"escalating his challenge to the authority" @nytpitchbot.bsky.social is this you??

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 14h

President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum expanding his administration’s authority to repurpose unspent federal funds to pay members of the military during the government shutdown, escalating his challenge to the authority of Congress on spending matters.

Trump Signs Memo Expanding His Authority to Spend Federal Money

The president gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wide authority to repurpose funds to pay members of the military without approval from Congress, which has the sole constitutional authority to decide federal spending.

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Mareike Ohlberg

Noah Barkin @noahbarkin.bsky.social · 12d

Is Trump irresponsible enough to fall for this? China’s leadership must think so

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

China Pushes Trump to Drop Curbs as It Dangles Investment Pledge

China is pushing the Trump administration to roll back national-security restrictions on Chinese deals in the US, dangling the prospect of a massive investment package as part of a proposal that would...

www.bloomberg.com

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Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻‍♀️ @chenchenzhang.net · 12d

continue on the theme of different "toilet cultures", I grew up using toilets without flush water and without cubicles. this is a widely circulated image showing an illustrated 007 book likely from the 1980s. the illustration is about James Bond retrieving a secret letter in a public restroom...

Black-and-white photo of a man retrieving a letter from a partitioned restroom stall, while others stand nearby observing. Chinese text is printed below the image.

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Carrie A Lee @carriealee.bsky.social · 13d

My analysis of Tuesday's mtg:

"...It underscored the admin’s intention to shift its focus... toward homeland issues, and provided the clearest indication yet that US partners and allies will have to contend with a military increasingly operating outside of int'l law."

www.gmfus.org/news/rough-s...

Rough Seas Ahead

www.gmfus.org

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Reposted by Mareike Ohlberg

Alex Dukalskis @alexdukalskis.bsky.social · Sep 15

Author copies for

Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics

by me & @cooleyoneurasia.bsky.social arrived today!

If you re-post this by Sept 30 we'll put you in a drawing & send the winner a free signed copy anywhere they happen to be on the planet.

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · 20d

Glad to see people finally talking about this.

Zack Cooper @zackcooper.bsky.social · 20d

I'm just going to leave this here... 🤔

www.aei.org/foreign-and-...

www.aei.org

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · 24d

Chinese readout from the Trump-Xi call www.cac.gov.cn/2025-09/19/c...

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · 24d

""Fünf nach zwölf" heißt jetzt: Ich weiß nicht, ob wir noch die Freiheit, die Vielfalt der Lebensformen, die Toleranz verteidigen können; aber mehr als verlieren können wir nicht."

Rudi Bachmann @bachmannrudi.bsky.social · 25d

Lesen!

www.zeit.de/kultur/2025-...

Tech-Oligarchie: Es ist fünf nach zwölf

Die Verschmelzung von Autoritarismus und Tech-Wirtschaft könnte bald die liberale Demokratie zerstören. Um sie davor zu retten, darf man eines nicht sein: optimistisch.

www.zeit.de

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · 24d

I've had my fair share of disagreements with Mr. Niblett on China (and still do), but we are, sadly, in agreement here.

Dave Keating @davekeating.substack.com · 24d

The Trump regime is seeking "regime change in Europe" former Chatham House director Robin Niblet tells the New York Times.

This American-led global far right movement is turning into the Comintern of our times, warns Dutch historian @luukvmiddelaar.bsky.social.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/w...

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · 24d

One of my last few trusted online resources really let me down today, and it feels like we have entered a new era where anything and everything can and will be taken down. Even the most trustworthy corners of the internet are no longer exempted.

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Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 27d

Brendan Carr had better get on the ball to silence this Brendan Carr guy

Mark F @markfford.bsky.social · 28d

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Canaan Morse 莫楷 @canaanmorse.bsky.social · 27d

Tired: Qu Yuan 屈原 as the voice of a pearl-clutching elitist

Wired: Qu Yuan as a queer flower queen who’s utterly unwilling to just be cool with appalling government

Canaan Morse 莫楷 @canaanmorse.bsky.social · 27d

Turns out that our current sociopolitical moment makes the Li Sao 《离骚》hit waaay different when you read it in class.

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Reposted by Mareike Ohlberg

Aleksandra Bielakowska 白奧蘭 @ketalaolan.bsky.social · 27d

❗ #China: Zhang Zhan spent 4 years in prison for reporting on COVID-19. She is to be tried in Shanghai tomorrow after being re-arrested a year ago for a bogus offense. It’s urgent for the international community to pressure Beijing for her release. #FreeZhangZhan! rsf.org/en/covid-19-...

COVID-19 journalist Zhang Zhan will be tried this week in China, RSF calls on international community to act

Chinese journalist Zhang Zhan spent four years in prison for breaking some of the earliest COVID-19 stories from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus took hold. Now, she is about to be tried in the...

rsf.org

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Reposted by Mareike Ohlberg

Nicolai von Ondarza @nvondarza.bsky.social · 28d

For EU nerds, helpful list of all EP Committees now on Bluesky:

EP Press Service @press.europarl.europa.eu · 28d

We are delighted to announce that the European Parliament's Bluesky family is expanding, with the arrival of accounts for each of the Parliament's Committees 🦋

Check out the full list below, and follow them for regular updates on Committee activity - votes, meetings, etc.!

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Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 29d

No one has the goods yet, but journalists should be digging to see if there is an agreement with Russia about these deportations

Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 29d

Horrible story about a Russian man who fled the military, hoped for asylum in the United States, but has now been sent back to the gulag.

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Reposted by Mareike Ohlberg

Elise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · Sep 16

Russia designated the 'LGBT Movement' as a terrorist organisation. They know there is no such group; that's the point. It means they can choose to arrest ANYONE with any association with LGBT issues and treat them as a terrorist.

The fact that 'antifa' is not a group should not be a comfort here.

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · Sep 15

The correct term is "historical nihilism", and you got to fight it.

Robert Loerzel @robertloerzel.bsky.social · Sep 15

The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.” wapo.st/4mnNDLt

Trump officials order removal of photograph of enslaved man’s scars

The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.”

wapo.st

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · Sep 15

Apropos of current events, here's Silent Contest (2013), produced by the PLA and the National Defense University. Consider it. a prelude to China's NGO Law. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUjk...

较量无声-国防大学内部片

YouTube video by Dali Tang

www.youtube.com

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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · Sep 15

this is a gloriously stupid new take on a book that is a constant generator of stupid takes

Murray Lumley @satyagraha25.bsky.social · Sep 13

Sign the petition: Tell Pete Hegseth to Learn About Peace & Send Him Ancient Chinese Philosophy #ChinaIsNotOurEnemy @codepink www.codepink.org/hegsethwar?r...

Tell Pete Hegseth to Learn About Peace & Send Him Ancient Chinese Philosophy

Send Pete Hegseth Sun Tzu's The Art of War and tell him to learn about peace!

www.codepink.org

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Reposted by Mareike Ohlberg

samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · Sep 11

I spoke with @whiskeyocelot.bsky.social and @chinafile.bsky.social's Jessica Batke about their recent Locknet report, which provides a brilliant, concise, detailed but accessible overview of China's online censorship system.

China Digital Times @chinadigitaltimes.net · Sep 11

Interview: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”

"Just because there are gaps, that doesn't mean the system as a whole is not effective. The human psychological component to this is that for most people, most of the time, as long as it's inconvenient, that's enough."

Interview: Jessica Batke and Laura Edelson on China’s “Locknet”

In June, ChinaFile published a new report, "The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters"—the product of 18 months’ work by Jessica Batke, ChinaFile’s senior editor for investigatio...

chinadigitaltimes.net

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Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · Sep 14

Lol. A year ago these same people insisted that any effort to label foreign propaganda was an attack on free speech, and forced the dismantling of multiple orgs studying foreign disinformation

GuyWhoNeverWenttoEpsteinsIsland @ratelimitexceeder.bsky.social · Sep 14

All the sudden these people believe in content moderation and foreign disinformation!

Laura Loomer & @LauraLoomer
X.com
After this week, I would like to see X put country tags on X accounts so we know which country someone is tweeting from.
Too many foreigners on X pretending to be Americans for the sake of creating discord and political violence in the US.
It's totally out of control. @elonmusk

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · Sep 13

Last point: I'm increasingly convinced that a solid 70% of our problems in dealing with authoritarians (both the established and the aspiring ones) stem from media, pundits, and even people who should know better failing to call out bad faith bs when they see it and instead try to "engage."

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · Sep 13

People in DC keep telling me how hawkish Trump 2 is on China. The truth is, I'd even advocate for this proposal now if I believed for a second that this was actually true. But all relevant signs point towards accommodation and profit maximization as the sole driving factor of China policy.

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Mareike Ohlberg @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social · Sep 13

Agree with Noah: this one might have led to interesting results (if not a 1:1 adoption) if it had come in January in the form of a closed-door ask. Instead, we're getting this bad faith bs. I say this as someone who would have advocated for this if we had a good-faith partner on China in the US.

Noah Barkin @noahbarkin.bsky.social · Sep 13

If this conversation had taken place behind closed doors between the Trump administration and Europe/NATO six months ago, the outcome would have been interesting. My guess is that it is now too late. Trump is not seen as a reliable partner and China can flex its CRM muscles at any time. One to watch

Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · Sep 13

Trump now publicly calling all Nato members to put 50-100% tariffs on China

'I am ready to “go” when you are. Just say when? I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended'

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · Sep 6

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

‘I escaped a Russian prison — only to end up in an American jail’

Dozens of Russian dissidents have been expelled from the US and forcibly returned to Russia with the co-operation of immigration authorities

www.thetimes.com

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