Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Usman T. Malik

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 20h

Months before catastrophic floods swept through an Alaska Native village on Sunday, the Trump administration canceled a $20 million grant meant to protect the community from extreme flooding. At the time, the EPA administrator said he was eliminating "wasteful DEI and Environmental Justice grants."

E.P.A. Canceled $20 Million Flood Protection Grant to Alaska, Parts of Which Just Flooded

The remote village of Kipnuk planned to use the money to protect against flooding. On Sunday, it was inundated.

nyti.ms

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Schnorkles O'Bork @schnorkles.bsky.social · 21h

It should not be understated how much clever shit like this actually annihilates morale at places like ICE/CBP.

Getting made fun of like this on national television while people laugh at you is.. well, you may call it victory wine, but it ain't.

Heidi Kitrosser @heidikitrosser.bsky.social · 21h

I love this so much. Funny, sweet, hopeful, and kind of bad-ass.

youtu.be/bw5zxdSObso?...

A Message From The Frog Resistance

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

youtu.be

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 1d

"a test"? you mean...a violation?

AP: Israel plans to halve aid into Gaza over slow return of dead hostages, a test for the Gaza ceasefire

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Leah Millis @leahmillis.bsky.social · 21h

The @chicago.suntimes.com photographer who risked their personal health and safety to take this photograph is Anthony Vazquez. Please credit photographers and media outlets. In this age of misinformation, a photo with no context could be anything at all.

50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 21h

Please remind us who the domestic terrorists are again.

Photo from Chicago: DHS militarized agent holding a gun up directly in someone’s face as the victim has their hands up, pleading for them not to shoot.

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Kitty’s Ghost @kittysghost.bsky.social · 1d

In Chicago, ICE is filmed kidnapping unidentified people at an intersection before tear gassing civilians on the sidewalk and body slamming the ones in the cross walk.

In MA, they kidnapped a child asylee from school and transported him out of state without telling parents.

Everett 13-year-old arrested by ICE and sent to Virginia detention facility - The Boston Globe

The boy’s mother, Josiele Berto, was called to pick her son up from the Everett Police Department on Thursday, the day he was arrested.

www.bostonglobe.com

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SF Encyclopedia @sfencyclopedia.bsky.social · 3d

Storm Constantine sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/consta... Cynthia Felice sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/felice... Jonathan Green sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/green_... and Usman T Malik sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/malik_... were born on this day (Artist: Doug Beekman, Cortney Skinner, Pye Parr and Victo Ngai):

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Scott Edelman @scottedelman.bsky.social · 2d

Happy birthday to Cynthia Felice and @usmantm.bsky.social, two previous guests of my Eating the Fantastic podcast! Celebrate their most recent trips around the sun by chatting and chewing with them on Episode 37 (at the Watergate Hotel) and 163 (during the D.C. Worldcon). pod.link/1083737796

Two photos: on the left, me and Cynthia standing before the sign for Kingbird, which was the restaurant at the time within the Watergate Hotel, and on the right, Usman across the table from me, holding up a grilled shrimp on the end of a skewer.

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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 3d

Well done Shafaq Aftab. When a reviewer stole her work and published it under his own name, she fought for a YEAR to get the journal to retract the paper. Just wondering why it took Wiley a YEAR to do this. 🧪 #academicsky

retractionwatch.com/2025/10/03/w...

Wiley retracts study stolen by reviewer, following Retraction Watch coverage

A Wiley journal has retracted a paper more than a year after a researcher reported the work was hers and had been stolen by a reviewer for another journal. As we reported in July, Shafaq Aftab, now…

retractionwatch.com

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 4d

Is it cancel culture when they threaten to kill you?

www.nj.com/news/2025/10...

Sold-out Ta-Nehisi Coates speaker appearance in N.J. canceled over security reasons

Organizers canceled a sold-out Ta-Nehisi Coates event in Montclair citing undisclosed security concerns.

www.nj.com

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 4d

Military families on day 9 of the shutdown lining up at the food bank

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Sophie Sherry @sophiesherry.bsky.social · 5d

During a military-style raid on a building in Chicago’s South Shore, one resident heard a knock on his door.   It wasn’t the feds — it was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for help.

He let them hide in his unit for the next 3 days.

chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Neighbor shielded 7-year-old during South Shore federal raid: ‘I didn’t want them to take her’

During the Sept. 30 raid one tenant protected a terrified girl and her mom. Remnants at the complex, including a detailed map of all the units, offer clues to what authorities may have known before th...

chicago.suntimes.com

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Reverend Jesus "Ł" Christ @reverendjesus.com · 5d

Blessed are the frogs, for they keep making authoritarians look incredibly stupid

Three persons in inflatable frog costumes. One of them is holding a nicely painted sign with two little cartoon frogs holding hands, below the text "FROGS TOGETHER STRONG"

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Scoiattolo @offline.mountainherder.xyz · 4d

The frogs have landed in Chicago! (2025)

YOU ARE NOT

ALONE IN THIS

ABYSSAL DARKNESS.

I AM HERE, AND WE

SHALL FACE THE

CHASM AS

BROTHERS.

Here comes that fellow
"My goodness, how do you do?"

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Democratic Activists @democratswin.bsky.social · 5d

Frogtifa

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Mx Arjuna @continuation.bsky.social · 5d

Never forget that the Committee gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger in 1973. Two committee members resigned in protest, and history sees that award choice as one of the Nobel’s greatest failures.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_No...

1973 Nobel Peace Prize - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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الكسندرا ميراي @lexialex.bsky.social · 6d

If you live in Ireland or the UK, Absolute Dominion is available today on Google or Apple TV
www.rte.ie/video/id/28161

Absolute Dominion, the new film from Palestinian-American Oscar®-nominated director Lexi Alexander

This superb martial arts battle for humanity begins on October 9.

www.rte.ie

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dr. caitlin m. green @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social · 5d

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

Wide shot of many people in inflatable costumes

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Daisy Rockwell @shreedaisy.bsky.social · 5d

Congratulations! 🎉🎈💖

ottilie mulzet @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social · 5d

It has been such a great honour to be one of Krasznahorkai's interpreters into English (since 2008), along with George Szirtes and John Batki. I also have to mention the visionary New Directions and my beyond stellar editor Declan Spring 🧡

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...

Laszlo Krasznahorkai Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

www.nytimes.com

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الكسندرا ميراي @lexialex.bsky.social · 5d

Naoise's brother is asking Irish people to please contact the government #Speirgorm

My sister @NaoiseDolan, alongside other members of the Thousand Madleens flotilla, has been abducted by Israeli forces while on a humanitarian mission to break the illegal siege and deliver aid to Gaza.
Please join me in urging the Irish government to demand their safe return.

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Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 5d

since denver launched its e-bike rebate program - the have sold 10,000 e-bikes and reduced an estimated 1,000,000 car trips - replacing millions of VMTs and reducing air pollution

there are no climate silver bullets... but damn - e-bikes and e-cargo bikes are close

denvergov.org/Government/A...

Denver Celebrates 10,000 E-Bike Rebates

Since its inception in April 2022, Denver has distributed over 10,000 electric bikes (e-bikes) to community members through its pioneering e-bike rebate program. As the first U.S. city to implement su...

denvergov.org

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Just a girl and her books @thebookwyrmshoard2.bsky.social · 5d

These all look amazing. And wonderful reads for children to learn more about Palestine.

Rachel Malik @rachelmalik.bsky.social · 6d

For #BannedBooksWeek

‘They didn’t even read the book’: How children’s authors are being canceled over Palestine

Authors tell of book bans, cancellations and harassment – ‘they’re trying to disconnect us from our stories’

www.theguardian.com

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Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 6d

Irish novelist Naoise Dolan has been abducted by Israel.
lithub.com/irish-noveli...

Irish novelist Naoise Dolan has been abducted by Israel.

Naoise Dolan, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed young novelists, was earlier today abducted and detained by Israeli forces after the aid flotilla on which she was traveling to Gaza was intercep…

lithub.com

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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 7d

This is what they've done.

Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 8d

Let me be clear: backpay for these workers is required under a federal law I wrote with former Senator Cardin — which Trump signed — during the last Trump shutdown.

This is just more fear mongering from a president who wants a blank check for lawlessness. It won't work.

Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims

Federal workers may not be entitled to back pay after the government shutdown ends, the Trump administration’s budget office wrote in a new draft memo obtained by The Washington Post, ratcheting up te...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 5d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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David Lo Pun-ch Nazis @helpmeskeletor.bsky.social · 5d

Just for some perspective, Israel has dropped about 11 tons of bombs an hour on Palestinians every day on average for 2 years.

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