Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 4h

Wow the Greens got permission from the late, great poet Benjamin Zephaniah’s family for Zack Polanski to perform ‘British’

What an honour

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 6h

British.

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 1d

💉 Shingles vaccine proves highly effective

A US Medicare study found the recombinant shingles vaccine cut infection risk by over 50% in older adults, including those with weak immunity. Two doses worked best.

🔗 doi.org/10.7326/ANNA...

#Vaccines #SciComm 🧪

Effectiveness of Recombinant Herpes Zoster Vaccine in the U.S. Medicare Population, 2018 to 2019, by Immunocompetence and Prior Receipt of Live Zoster Vaccine | Annals of Internal Medicine

Background: Recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV) was preferentially recommended over live zoster vaccine (ZVL) starting in 2018. Objective: To assess RZV effectiveness using target trial emulation, accoun...

doi.org

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Prof Sam Illingworth @samillingworth.com · 5h

🌸 The orchid that blooms underground

Australia’s rare Rhizanthella orchid lives, feeds, and flowers entirely underground, relying on a fungus and bush roots to survive, now near extinction.

🔗 www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

#Botany #SciComm 🧪

Plantwatch: An extraordinary orchid that lives and flowers underground

Botanist trying to conserve highly vulnerable rhizanthella that survives by feeding on nutrients from a fungus

www.theguardian.com

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 6h

British.

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ASH TRAY The First, Popetato of wulferhampton 📎 @ashashman1.bsky.social · 13h

26 years ago today, my best friend took his own life.. he was the best of us Happy full of fun. Our leader our brother. Fiercely intelligent and the funniest man I've ever known. He had a beautiful daughter. He had a well paid job.

I miss him so much

Reach out for help RIP DOMINIC i love you

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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 14h

With the right equipment and knowledge, we can make London a city where everyone feels confident to step in and help during a cardiac arrest.

Our new funding will help the London Ambulance Service install 200 new defibrillators across 84 neighbourhoods without easy access to one currently.

London's 'defibrillator deserts' to get 200 extra machines

The life-saving machines are to be installed in some neighbourhoods where there are currently none.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 12h

This is truly chilling - both Labour & Tory conferences cancelled the appearance of a highly respected economist who dares to suggest that more North Sea oil doesn’t cut energy bills #InconvenientTruth 👇

Bennett Institute for Innovation and Policy Acceleration @bennett-innovate.bsky.social · 1d

"I used to think cancellation was for culture warriors and comedians, not economists" - Matthew Agarwala's @matthewagarwala.bsky.social opinion piece of a party conference fringe event.

bennettinstitutesussex.org/stories/when...
@bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social

Stories - The Bennett Institute

Announcing the Bennett Institute's 2026 Symposium, register now

bennettinstitutesussex.org

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John Simpson @johnsimpsonnews.bsky.social · 1d

Donald Trump says crime in London is going through the roof. In reality the latest figures show that murders in London in the first nine months of 2025 were lower than in any year since monthly homicide records began in 2003, and 2025 saw a 7% drop in knife crime.

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 7d

Marvellous column by @rafaelbehr.bsky.social that absolutely nails Kemi Badenoch - who clearly very deeply believes that the mere act of 'well, I'm saying it' means that something must be thoughtful, even if it is just a more innumerate and caustic echo of Nigel Farage:

Badenoch’s ‘thoughtful Conservatism’ turns out to be just the slower road to Faragism | Rafael Behr

The Tory leader’s intellectual meanderings have shrunk her party into little more than a holding pen for future Reform party candidates, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

www.theguardian.com

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paulusthewoodgnome @paulusthewoodgnome.bsky.social · 2d

Lest we forget...

Thérèse Coffey claimed £201,278.38 in expenses between 2019 and 2020, according to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, while she campaigned to remove the £20 per week uplift to universal credit.' (Sep 2019)

#newsnight
www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/the...

Thérèse Coffey claimed £200,000 on expenses while cutting your benefits

The work and pensions secretary suggested that those set to lose out from the UC cut should work more hours.

www.thelondoneconomic.com

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Claire #FBPE ☘️ 🍉 🇺🇦 🇪🇺🐝 🦮🇮🇪🇧🇪 💙💚 @fbpech.bsky.social · 1d

Has everyone seen this?
Seriously!

NanaJan @50swoman.bsky.social · 1d

It's happening!
www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/dwp-pla...

DWP Plans for Bank Account Surveillance Likely to Breach Privacy Law

www.disabilityrightsuk.org

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History Daily - This Many Years Ago @thismanyyearsago.bsky.social · 17h

1335 years ago, on the 16th of October 690, Wu Zetian became empress of the Zhou dynasty. She had held de facto power previously during the reigns of her late husband and two of her sons. She is the only female sovereign in the history of China who is widely regarded as legitimate. #otd #history 🗃️

Tang Empress' Travel painting in detail, depicting Wu Zetian and her attendants

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Hedley Thorne @hedleythorne.bsky.social · 20h

Online talks about the histories and mysteries of the landscape around the Ridgeway National Trail will resume soon. In the meantime, catch up with previous talks here.

www.facebook.com/share/p/17AP...

Redirecting...

www.facebook.com

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The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 17h

The Ceaseless Snip-Snip-Snip of a Dying State

Fifteen years of cuts have left the UK trying to "efficiency" its way out of a collapse - and somehow still expecting growth to show up as well.

www.bearlypolitics.co.uk

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The Bear @bearlypolitics.co.uk · 17h

Or, she could make other choices - like investing in growth to fix the damage caused by 15 years of cuts to public spending.

How about we do that instead?

Reeves should cut benefits to regain credibility, says IFS
Bond markets regard reducing welfare spending as key to repairing public finances

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17h

It leaves us without big institutional defenders. It means that, in contesting the assaults of capital, we have to start almost from scratch. I sometimes wonder whether we'd be better off without the big nature NGOs. Rather than mobilising, as we'd otherwise do, we wait and wait for them to step up.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17h

The same thing has happened to the Labour Party and the BBC. It's as if some vitiating mist has crept across the political landscape, sucking the courage out of all the institutions it touches. Perhaps it's neoliberalism. Perhaps it's the growing wealth and power of the very rich.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17h

Over the years, our big conservation groups, once brave and radical, have been taken over by suits: people with an Establishment mindset, who identify with the system they should be contesting. They wheedle and appease when they should be fighting with every legitimate tool they have.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17h

This bill will rip down more or less everything: almost all the nature protections that generations in this country have fought for. We're a nation of nature lovers, and that interest is meant to be represented by the big groups. But, yet again, they fail to fight for our species and ecosystems.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17h

Yet they've completely rolled over, withdrawing their opposition to the devastating Planning and Infrastructure Bill, in return for a handful of pathetic amendments that aren't worth the paper they're written on. Since then, the government has introduced further amendments, making it even worse.

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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 17h

Today's column is about the government's huge, unprecedented assault on nature ... and about the eerie, astonishing silence of the big nature groups. The RSPB, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts have 7.5m members between them. A vast force, completely unmobilised. 🧵
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Wage war on nature to build new homes: that’s Labour’s offer, but it’s a con trick | George Monbiot

The government’s new planning bill is tearing down environmental protections to benefit developers. This nation of nature lovers won’t stand for it, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Caroline Lucas @carolinelucas.bsky.social · 1d

The war on drugs clearly isn’t working. We need an urgent review of the 50 year old Misuse of Drugs Act, & to start treating drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one, & get drugs out of the hands of criminal gangs #Newsnight

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Michael Burchert @michaelburchert.bsky.social · 1d

If you are looking for the shape of a new sustainable economy; which you should, it is out there. It's maybe not the complicated tech-infused answer you'd expect.

Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 1d

Crypto vs AI — which bubble bursts first? youtu.be/9oP9HPhB-VI?...

AI doesn’t think. Crypto isn’t money. Both claim to be revolutionary, but both are built on fantasy.

From the greed driving crypto to the fear driving AI, I argue that both reflect a deeper crisis in capitalism itself.

Crypto vs AI — which bubble bursts first?

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy

youtu.be

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Another Green @anothergreen.bsky.social · 2d

Decarbonising central heating is a big challenge. Love visit a heat pump, really takes the mystery out of clean heating systems. www.visitaheatpump.com

Visit a heat pump

Visit a heat pump near you in real life. See it in action and get your questions answered by heat pump owners.

www.visitaheatpump.com

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Jeremy Corbyn @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social · 1d

The government says it is “driving forward private finance efforts for Gaza's reconstruction.”

As if enabling a genocide wasn't enough. Now, they are allowing private companies to make some money out of it as well.

Have they no shame?

www.middleeasteye.net/news/british...

'No shame': UK invites private firms to compete for Gaza reconstruction contracts

As Britain positions itself as key player in the rebuilding of territory devastated by Israel's genocide, MPs point to its role in its destruction

www.middleeasteye.net

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