Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 9h

‘“For so long, Palestinians have been seen through others’ eyes. Now, we’re telling our own stories.”

He recalls receiving messages from fans across the Arab world - queer teens, Arab diasporas, and even 🇮🇸 fans who’d never heard a word of Arabic before Wild West’ d-journaldubai.com/people/the-m...

The Many Lives of Bashar Murad — D-journal - Creative News from the GCC

Photography by Fred Leveugle at D&D MGMT Artistic Direction by Benjamin Daugeard at D&D MGMT Interview by Meredith Damouni Few artists can move as fluidly between genres, langua...

d-journaldubai.com

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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 9h

"The EHRC’s exclusionary interim guidance has had a devastating impact on trans people’s lives"

“Now the guidance has been withdrawn, so should the exclusionary policies that organisations rashly implemented in its aftermath. If not, they could find themselves in hot water.”

EHRC withdraws interim guidance encouraging trans exclusion

After six months of confusion and delay, the EHRC has taken down interim guidance rushed out in April. But the damage has already been done.

goodlawproject.org

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Kate Tsurkan @katetsurkan.bsky.social · 1d

I reviewed Darya Tsymbalyuk's soul-crushing yet vital book "Ecocide in Ukraine," my latest for @kyivindependent.com.

kyivindependent.com/new-book-exp...

New book exposes Russia’s ecocide as a war against Ukraine’s land – and memory

When Russia destroyed Ukraine’s Kakhovka Hydroelectric Dam in June 2023, unleashing catastrophic floods across the country’s south, it seemed like such a blatant act of environmental and humanitarian ...

kyivindependent.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d

With an unexpected appearance from one member of the Armenian diaspora supergroup at Eurovision 2015 that becomes a lot less unexpected once you’ve read the thing.

New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 1d

When Ras Tafari Makonnen, later Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, adopted 40 Armenian orphans, he could never know the lasting mark they would leave on the country’s music. Irina Costache traces the fascinating story for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

Haile Selassie’s Band of Armenian Orphans

A bond forged through a common Orthodox faith left a lasting imprint on Ethiopia’s music

newlinesmag.com

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New Lines Magazine @newlinesmag.bsky.social · 1d

When Ras Tafari Makonnen, later Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, adopted 40 Armenian orphans, he could never know the lasting mark they would leave on the country’s music. Irina Costache traces the fascinating story for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

Haile Selassie’s Band of Armenian Orphans

A bond forged through a common Orthodox faith left a lasting imprint on Ethiopia’s music

newlinesmag.com

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LSE Library @lselibrary.bsky.social · 1d

New online: The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) collection is now available on LSE Digital Library! We’ve digitised and published the GLF Diaries and the GLF newspaper Come Together. Further series from the archives will be added as digitisation continues.
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digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/...

Cover image of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) Diary, December 21-30, 1972. A purple and green poster-style image featuring text and a leafy plant design.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d

‘I am concerned that a debate about violence against women, framed in a way that restricts the human rights and freedoms of trans people, risks undermining the comprehensive, evidence-based approach needed to address this epidemic’

Commissioner for Human Rights @commissionerhr.coe.int · 1d

Read my two letters to the #UK:
1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly.
2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches
👇#HumanRights
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

United Kingdom: Commissioner addresses human rights issues in policing of protests and the situation of trans people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int

Strasbourg 14/10/2025

www.coe.int

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Commissioner for Human Rights @commissionerhr.coe.int · 1d

Read my two letters to the #UK:
1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly.
2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches
👇#HumanRights
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

United Kingdom: Commissioner addresses human rights issues in policing of protests and the situation of trans people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int

Strasbourg 14/10/2025

www.coe.int

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ESC Discord @escdiscord.com · 2d

🚨 The vote to determine Israel's participation in #Eurovision 2026 will no longer take place in November, the EBU has confirmed today.

Instead, an "open and in-person discussion" will take place at the EBU General Assembly in December. No vote is currently planned.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 3d

Also: the shopping trollies. Shopping trolleys? Shopping trolleys.

It didn’t used to be a proper railway cutting until somebody had chucked a few down there.

the ghost of pony pony huckabuck @spindlypete.bsky.social · Aug 17

based on how often the naughty teens of major cities throw the rentable scooters directly into the river i've formed a theory that the many iron age swords and cauldrons found in lakes around europe that we've previously assumed were ceremonial and sacrificial in nature were in fact thrown by teens

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 4d

Definitely has some local reasons to stand out more in various places - ‘everyone’ in Hull knows the parliamentarian city governor wouldn’t open gates to the King in 1642 leading to first siege of civil war…

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Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 4d

I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:

www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d

Language is brilliant.

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 6d

Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

tweet from childish branzino @absflora:
timothée chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.

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Rachel Shabi @rachelshabi.bsky.social · 5d

I wrote about the Manchester synagogue attack and attempts to blame Gaza protests
rachelshabi.substack.com/p/indivisibl...

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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 5d

One of the cartoons in my new book 'Physics for Cats' which is out now in the UK, USA, Canada, France and Germany. Order from your local bookshops or online: www.tomgauld.com/

Two beetles on a stick.
One beetle says to the other "Do you ever get the feeling we are being observed by another lifeform"
Zoom out to reveal that they are in a glass case with two scientists studying them.
One scientist says to the other "Do you ever get the feeling we are being observed by another lifeform"
Zoom out into space. Abouard a spaceship, two aliens watch the scientists on a screen.
One alien says to the other "Do you ever get the feeling we are being observed by another lifeform"
The aliens turn to look out at the reader.

Text below the cartoon reads:
From 'Physics for Cats' by Tom Gauld. Preorder it at www.tomgauld.

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Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · 5d

The Cass review into children's gender services in the UK continues to be terrible.

A new report from Australia led by the fantastic Dr. Julia Moore - and featuring me - looks into the issues in detail.

My new piece.

gidmk.substack.com/p/the-cass-r...

The Cass Review Continues To Be Severely Flawed

A new paper from an Australian team shines a light on the problems with the review

gidmk.substack.com

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 6d

Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

53 630 2.1K

Vjosa Musliu @vjosamusliu.bsky.social · 6d

"Girlhood At War" is going on tour.
Details will follow soon along with new dates for other European cities.

The book is available across all European and American online platforms.

All proceeds from book sales go to the children’s section of the public library in my hometown, Gjilan (Kosovo).

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Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 8d

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

Google search for "austria hungary in space"

Google excitedly tells you about the 1889 orbital flight, and that by 1908 there was a Mars research output with 30 people.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 9d

Early 80s birth year here. No memory of any Susans at all in class except one very accomplished Year 12 or 13 (?) when I was a Year 7. May have been The Last Susan.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 9d

This is *so many* email chains at work 😳

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Chrissy Stroop @thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social · 9d

“Given these actions against Kneecap and ongoing efforts to censor the group, it’s essential to ask: Why are governments so scared of the spread of decolonial speech?”

@nicolefroio.bsky.social answers this question effectively in this must-read on censorship and the revolutionary potential of music

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 10d

At what point does a historian of post-Cold-War popular culture have *had* to see these things

Asking for a me who does not have them in their workload

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 11d

‘Trump took the floor again, rattling off how much each state spent on defence as a %age of GDP as if he were announcing the Eurovision song contest results. “Belgium: 0.9. That’s less than 1%. Croatia – oh, I’m so disappointed in you”’

These were the summits Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović had to go to.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 11d

When Trump almost broke NATO.

“‘I’m leaving,’ Trump said. ‘There’s no reason to be here any more’”: inside the meeting that brought Nato to the brink

Former secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recalls the rollercoaster ride of dealing with Donald Trump – and how close the US president brought the alliance to the point of collapse

www.theguardian.com

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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 11d

When Trump almost broke NATO.

“‘I’m leaving,’ Trump said. ‘There’s no reason to be here any more’”: inside the meeting that brought Nato to the brink

Former secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recalls the rollercoaster ride of dealing with Donald Trump – and how close the US president brought the alliance to the point of collapse

www.theguardian.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12d

I’d just published an intro history of the Yugoslav Wars when the Brexit referendum happened. Wrote this for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social a week later: blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...

Can’t say we’re on the rosier side of those scenarios.

Brexit has echoes of the breakup of Yugoslavia - EUROPP

Is the stability of the European Union as a whole now under threat following the UK’s decision to leave? Catherine Baker draws a number of parallels between the dynamics that preceded the break-up of ...

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12d

Mary Gentle’s Ash: historian discovers story of an alternate Joan of Arc figure in a Burgundy that can’t have existed while translating medieval documents. Longer than Strange/Norrell and must read it again.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12d

‘The impression is of a regulator telling each audience what it wants to hear by pointing at one end of the see-saw, rather than grappling with the hard edges of the case law in ways that may temper expectations rather than raise them’

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 12d

'The interview centres on what I’ve previously described as the twin sandbags on the regulatory see-saw – the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 and the E6 condition on harassment and sexual misconduct.'

OfS rebalances the free speech/harassment see-saw on antisemitism

A probing exchange with OfS director Arif Ahmed exposes the legal and practical tensions at the heart of campus free speech guidance. Jim Dickinson looks at when happens when promises to Jewish studen...

wonkhe.com

1

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 12d

'The interview centres on what I’ve previously described as the twin sandbags on the regulatory see-saw – the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 and the E6 condition on harassment and sexual misconduct.'

OfS rebalances the free speech/harassment see-saw on antisemitism

A probing exchange with OfS director Arif Ahmed exposes the legal and practical tensions at the heart of campus free speech guidance. Jim Dickinson looks at when happens when promises to Jewish studen...

wonkhe.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 13d

‘How much hip-hop iconography would be considered anti-American under this new regime of revisionist history? Where would our legacy live, if banned from the Internet, besides our heads and our hearts? How would we preserve it for future generations?’

Urgent 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ question too

Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 13d

"Mark Anthony Neal notes the unprecedented "accessibility of the archive of contemporary and historical Blackness"...But "laments how digital accessibility has reduced our music to "the ambient background of the continued exploitation & commodification of Black culture."
www.npr.org/2025/10/01/g...

The BET Hip Hop Awards cut the cord as DEI dies

The show's suspension comes amid broader efforts to curb diversity at the institutional level. The next attempt to canonize the movement must learn lessons from its successes — and its missteps.

www.npr.org

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