Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Stefan Kirchner 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇱🇨🇦 @stefankirchner.bsky.social · Aug 11

Interesting summary on why so many institutions in the US seem to fail to effectively resist the rapid descent into fascism: a fundamental misunderstanding about the limits of input legitimacy in a system nominally based on democracy, separation of powers and the rule of law.

Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · Aug 11

people are mad about this but it's just on-its-face true. trump won the popular vote and because of a few decades of the media priming people to believe that only conservatives can truly represent The People, that popular vote victory was treated as a defacto enabling act

Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · Aug 11

Society generally has recognized him as the embodiment of the will of the Volk in a way that transcends and supercedes the Constitution

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Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · Aug 11

people are mad about this but it's just on-its-face true. trump won the popular vote and because of a few decades of the media priming people to believe that only conservatives can truly represent The People, that popular vote victory was treated as a defacto enabling act

Robert Black @hurricanexyz.bsky.social · Aug 11

Society generally has recognized him as the embodiment of the will of the Volk in a way that transcends and supercedes the Constitution

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Winnipeg Free Press @winnipegfreepress.com · Jul 22

PARIS (AP) — Interpol said Tuesday it was removing a most-wanted designation for anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson, who is sought by Japan over an encounter with a whaling ship and who was jailed for several months last year in Greenland.

Interpol takes anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson off its most-wanted list

PARIS (AP) — Interpol said Tuesday it was removing a most-wanted designation for anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson, who is sought by Japan over an encounter with a whaling ship and who was jailed for several months last year in Greenland.

www.winnipegfreepress.com

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Der Volksverpetzer @volksverpetzer.de · Jul 22

Als Robert Habeck aus dem Urlaub kam und von demonstrierenden Bauern (darunter Rechtsextreme) bedrängt wurde, hat keiner gesagt: Das stärkt die Grünen, wir müssen sie argumentativ stellen! Nein, da sollte Habeck die bedrohliche "Kritik" ernst nehmen. Heute sagt das keiner zu Weidel.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · Jul 22

Head of FEMA Urban Search and Rescue branch resigns.
He told colleagues that TX delay was tipping point after months of admin efforts to dismantle the agency. DHS Sec Noem took 72 hours after TX flooding to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network
www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/p...

FEMA search and rescue chief resigns after frustration with Texas flood response | CNN Politics

The head of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue branch, which runs a network of teams stationed across the country that can swiftly respond to natural disasters, resigned on Monday.

www.cnn.com

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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · Jul 20

Monitoring channels report that russia has launched drones from 6 different directions. We expect over 500 drones to attack Ukraine tonight ‼️

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Stefan Kirchner 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇱🇨🇦 @stefankirchner.bsky.social · Jul 20

2/2 All states are obliged to prevent genocide. There is a universal responsibility to protect human rights, if all else fails also through humanitarian intervention.

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Stefan Kirchner 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇱🇨🇦 @stefankirchner.bsky.social · Jul 20

The attacks against the Druze people in Syria are genocidal in nature because they are aimed at erasing the Druze community in their home region in the South of Syria. The situation is similar to the situation in Kosova in 1999. All states are obliged to prevent genocide. 1/2

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Rep. Jamie Raskin @raskin.house.gov · Jul 18

Trump’s rolling campaign of shakedown censorship, blackmail and purge has now felled the Late Show. But Stephen Colbert, a true-blue patriot and comic genius who skewers dunce-tyrants for a living, is irrepressible and invincible.

Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' canceled by CBS, ends May 2026

CBS is canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May, shuttering a decades-old TV institution and removing from air one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent late-night critics

www.washingtonpost.com

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The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · Jul 17

“The three liberal justices are writing about a majority unbound by law,” Aziz Huq argues—a dramatic change in the way that Supreme Court dissents work.

The Court’s Liberals Are Trying to Tell Americans Something

Justices Kagan, Jackson, and Sotomayor aren’t merely disagreeing with the majority’s technical readings of the law.

bit.ly

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Catalin Cimpanu @campuscodi.risky.biz · Jul 17

Belgian authorities are using messages printed on bread bags to warn the elderly about cybercrime threats

The bags contain tips on dealing with scammers who request PINs and passwords

www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...

Politie waarschuwt voor cybercriminelen op broodzakken in het Pajottenland | VRT NWS: nieuws

In het Pajottenland waarschuwt de lokale politie voor internetcriminaliteit. Met de campagne "laat je niet in 't zak zetten" geeft de politie tips op broodzakken.

www.vrt.be

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jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · Jul 17

Well, the internal order targeting solar and wind permitting is no longer secret.

You can read it here. #greensky #energysky

Departmental Review Procedures for Decisions, Actions, Consultations, and Other Undertakings Related to Wind and Solar Energy Facilities | U.S. Department of the Interior

Consistent with Executive Order (EO) 14315, entitled “Ending Market Distorting Subsidies for Unreliable, Foreign-Controlled Energy Sources,” EO 14156, entitled “Declaring a National Energy Emergency,”...

www.doi.gov

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Stefan Kirchner 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇱🇨🇦 @stefankirchner.bsky.social · Jul 14

German govt fails to honor Merz election campaign commitment to send #Taurus missiles to #Ukraine.

Russia-Ukraine Daily News @rvps2001.bsky.social · Jul 14

💬 #Germany won't supply #Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, but will provide Kyiv with Patriot air defense systems purchased from the U.S., German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

kyivindependent.com/germany-wont...

Germany won't supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles, urges weapons makers to step up, defense minister says

"Industry needs to ramp up its capacities. That applies to ammunition, to drones, to tanks — really to almost every area," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

kyivindependent.com

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Frau Büüsker @uedio.bsky.social · Jul 14

Derzeit läuft eine Lobbyschlacht gegen das Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung der Natur.
taz.de/Gesunde-Boed...

Gesunde Böden, Gewässer, Wälder: Bauernverband möchte lieber keinen Naturschutz

Drei Wirtschaftsverbände schreiben ans Kanzleramt, um die Verordnung zur Wiederherstellung der Natur zu beseitigen. Sie nutzen ein bewährtes Argument.

taz.de

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Russia-Ukraine Daily News @rvps2001.bsky.social · Jul 14

💬 #Germany won't supply #Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles, but will provide Kyiv with Patriot air defense systems purchased from the U.S., German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

kyivindependent.com/germany-wont...

Germany won't supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles, urges weapons makers to step up, defense minister says

"Industry needs to ramp up its capacities. That applies to ammunition, to drones, to tanks — really to almost every area," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

kyivindependent.com

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Stefan Kirchner 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇱🇨🇦 @stefankirchner.bsky.social · Jul 9

Let's do this 🇳🇴🇺🇦 and include 🇫🇴🇮🇸🇬🇱🇲🇩 as well. #EUenlargement2025

Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · Jul 9

Got a funky idea:

Norway should join the EU and insist on joining in the same enlargement round as Ukraine. That would tip the scales as even Hungary wouldn’t oppose Norway’s membership.

🇳🇴🇺🇦🇪🇺

But first, the EU needs to get over the fish

Böll EU Brief 04/2025 | Northern EU enlargement in sight? | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Brussels office - European Union

Northern EU accession is becoming a political possibility that requires attention. Bundling enlargement could help build momentum. A carefully sequenced enlargement round that includes both Nordic and...

eu.boell.org

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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · Jul 9

Got a funky idea:

Norway should join the EU and insist on joining in the same enlargement round as Ukraine. That would tip the scales as even Hungary wouldn’t oppose Norway’s membership.

🇳🇴🇺🇦🇪🇺

But first, the EU needs to get over the fish

Böll EU Brief 04/2025 | Northern EU enlargement in sight? | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Brussels office - European Union

Northern EU accession is becoming a political possibility that requires attention. Bundling enlargement could help build momentum. A carefully sequenced enlargement round that includes both Nordic and...

eu.boell.org

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Rich Raho @richraho.bsky.social · Jul 9

NEW: Bishop Rojas of San Bernardino has dispensed his Diocese from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass due to ongoing ICE raids.

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DerBesserossi 🩷 #TeamAntifa 💚 @besserossi.bsky.social · Jul 6

Gern auch hier beteiligen! Danke.

weact.campact.de/petitions/je...

Jens Spahn - Untersuchungsausschuss anstatt Enquete-Kommission

Der gesundheitspolitische Sprecher der SPD-Fraktion hat im Moment noch die Möglichkeit, die fehlenden Stimmen aus seinen Reihen ohne die Hilfe der AfD zu organisieren

weact.campact.de

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · Jul 3

Justice Sotomayor: "Today's order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial."

adjudicating this case. But if this Court wishes to permit the Government to flout the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Due Process Clause, it cannot avoid accountability for that lawlessness by tasking the lower courts with inventing a rationale. The Court's continued refusal to justify its extraordinary decisions in this case, even as it faults lower courts for failing properly to divine their import, is indefensible.
"In a democracy, power implies responsibility. The greater the power that defies law the less tolerant can this Court be of defiance. As the Nation's ultimate judicial tri-bunal, this Court, beyond any other organ of society, is the trustee of law and charged with the duty of securing obedience to it." Mine Workers, 330 U.S., at 312 (Frankfurter,
J., concurring in judgment). This Court continues to invert those principles. Today's order clarifies only one thing:
Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial. Respectfully, I dissent.

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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · Jul 3

NEW: SCOTUS shoots down a federal judge’s effort to protect eight men from being expelled—without due process—to South Sudan, where they face torture and death.

Dissenting, Sotomayor says the court’s “indefensible” decision makes it complicit in “lawlessness.” www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting
adjudicating this case. But if this Court wishes to permit the Government to flout the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Due Process Clause, it cannot avoid accountability for that lawlessness by tasking the lower courts with inventing a rationale. The Court's continued refusal to justify its extraordinary decisions in this case, even as it faults lower courts for failing properly to divine their import, is indefensible.
*
"In a democracy, power implies responsibility. The greater the power that defies law the less tolerant can this Court be of defiance. As the Nation's ultimate judicial tri-bunal, this Court, beyond any other organ of society, is the trustee of law and charged with the duty of securing obedience to it." Mine Workers, 330 U.S., at 312 (Frankfurter,
J., concurring in judgment). This Court continues to invert those principles. Today's order clarifies only one thing:
Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial. Respectfully, I dissent.

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George Conway 🇺🇸🚫👑🐸 @gtconway.bsky.social · Jul 2

@yarotrof.bsky.social

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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · Jun 28

Trump is up to something, he's been barricading the White House and US treasury overnight.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · Jun 23

It is hard to express enough how terrible today's decision is.

ICE will now send people to countries they've never been to or even heard of — Mexicans to South Sudan, Vietnamese to Libya, Venezuelans to Kosovo —and those people will have no right to challenge that decision.

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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · Jun 23

A divided Supreme Court lifted a judge’s order that required Trump’s administration to give people 10 days notice and a chance to object before they are deported to a so-called third country

Supreme Court Blocks Deportation-Notice Rule in Win for Trump

A divided US Supreme Court lifted a judge’s order that required President Donald Trump’s administration to give people 10 days notice and a chance to object before they are deported to a so-called third country.

bloom.bg

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Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · Jun 23

BREAKING: #SCOTUS lifts nationwide order requiring Trump administration give advance notice/chance to object before deporting foreigners to 3rd countries they often have no ties to. 3 liberals dissent, say court is 'rewarding lawlessness.' w/ @kyledcheney www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Supreme Court OKs rapid deportations to countries where immigrants have no ties

The high court’s majority offered no explanation for its ruling.

www.politico.com

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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Jun 23

#BREAKING: Over a (sharp) public dissent from the three Democratic appointees, #SCOTUS clears the way for the Trump administration to remove migrants to third countries *without* giving them an additional opportunity to contest whether they face persecution or other forms of mistreatment there:

www.supremecourt.gov

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · Jun 23

ICE has imprisoned the wife of a Marine veteran who was still breastfeeding a 3-month-old baby because her *mother* failed to attend a hearing in 2018 apnews.com/article/ice-...

ICE detains Marine Corps veteran's wife who was still breastfeeding their baby

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained the wife of a Marine Corps veteran in Louisiana during a routine immigration appointment in New Orleans.

apnews.com

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Der Volksverpetzer @volksverpetzer.de · Jun 19

Faschismus ist, wenn das, was noch kurz zuvor als extrem angesehen wurde, heute normal behandelt wird. Und alle, die das ansprechen, als "hysterische" abgetan werden. Sagt es weiter laut: Das ist nicht normal. Was Medien & Politik normalisieren wollen, ist gefährlich. Lasst euch nicht gaslighten.

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Tadzio Mueller @tadziomueller.bsky.social · Jun 18

Die Abschaffung der letzten Reste des #Völkerrechts durch die coalition of white supremacists ist auch Teil dessen, was ich #Arschlochisierung nenne: die Wiederherstellung einer Welt, in der nur die Reichen und Mächtigen Rechte haben.

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