Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jesse D. Jenkins @jessedjenkins.com · 12h

“I actually don’t think Washington has really woken up to just how popular these new energy and electro technologies that China is exporting are.” FT on the "profound" global impact of China's rise as an electrostate www.ft.com/content/013e... 🔌💡

The ‘profound’ global impact of China’s rise as an electrostate

The country’s companies now dominate many clean technology industries

www.ft.com

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 21h

Unsolicited brick pic

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 21h

Second pair in two days.

*fumes*

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 21h

NEW: Weekend News Agents

40 years ago this month Neil Kinnock delivered his famous, fervent conference speech against Militant. In this special episode, we discuss that extraordinary day, at length, with the man himself. Living history.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Neil Kinnock on the speech that changed the Labour Party

Podcast Episode · The News Agents · 10/10/2025 · 56m

podcasts.apple.com

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 1d

This is great! I love my ebike.

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 1d

Kinda annoying

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Donald Szlosek @dszlosek.bsky.social · 1d

Excellent advice on paper review:

1. Peer reviewers are volunteers.

2. Map all comments to actions.

3. Address all comments.

4. Focus on improving your paper, instead of arguing.

5. Rarely, and only with strong defense, say no.

6. Don’t take things personally.

7. Avoid recreational revisions.

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 3d

This is great!

Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 3d

I agree but there is a distinction between center right "here are a bunch of market friendly policies" and the wierdo cults with Mirowski's "dual truth doctrine" trying to capture institutions. Truss badly damaged them, and the big recent shift in think tank wonkery in Washington has left them lost.

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Gavin Kelly @gavin-kelly.bsky.social · 4d

Well worth reading this thoughtful interview on race, identity and much else with the optimistic realist @sundersays.bsky.social

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4d

"We haven’t come all this way, Katwala says, “just for Elon Musk, a man born into an apartheid state, who’s polarised America, to come and start a civil war here by breaking the law"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Sunder Katwala on race, patriotism and flag-waving: ‘The far right is vocal and angry because it is shrinking’

The director of British Future has spent his career trying to find common ground when it comes to race and immigration. He describes his own experience of racism – and why he’s still hopeful for the U...

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 4d

I'd be much more sympathetic to the REF culture warriors if they could (a) tell me if culture is a cause or effect, and (b) show some evidence of having read the extensive academic research on how organisations work.

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Bennett School of Public Policy, University of Cambridge @bennettschool.cam.ac.uk · 5d

🆕Welcome to our fifth series of Crossing Channels podcasts — giving interdisciplinary answers to today's challenging questions

🎙️First up: Are universities ready for the age of AI?

Richard Westcott talks to @jonathancgrant.bsky.social François Bonnefon & François Poinas.

🎧Listen: pod.fo/e/337864

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 6d

One for the Brits as well.

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 6d

My favorite gig in the world is this "Professor Is In" segment I do with @anacabrera.bsky.social , where we step back from the news cycle to do what I really love: Teach economics.

Our latest: The economics of high-skill immigration, and the H-1B visa program.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sxg...

The Professor Is In—Justin Wolfers on H-1B Visas: H-1B Talent Lifts U.S. Wages and Innovation

In this episode of "The Professor Is In," economist Justin Wolfers explores the economics of high-skill immigration. Do high-skill immigrants take jobs—or help build more of them? Economist Justin…

www.youtube.com

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 6d

My favorite gig in the world is this "Professor Is In" segment I do with @anacabrera.bsky.social , where we step back from the news cycle to do what I really love: Teach economics.

Our latest: The economics of high-skill immigration, and the H-1B visa program.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sxg...

The Professor Is In—Justin Wolfers on H-1B Visas: H-1B Talent Lifts U.S. Wages and Innovation

In this episode of "The Professor Is In," economist Justin Wolfers explores the economics of high-skill immigration. Do high-skill immigrants take jobs—or help build more of them? Economist Justin…

www.youtube.com

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 6d

This is great. Cory D nails the business model in all its dismal detail. He had consistently been excellent doing a job, that let's be honest, professors in business schools should have done.

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d

This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.

Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...

www.theguardian.com

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Linda Yueh @lindayueh.bsky.social · 6d

Belt and Road Initiative significantly crowded out Japanese infrastructure projects & reduced frequency of foreign leaders’ visits to Japan, particularly those from countries in East Asia including Pacific & South Asian regions where Sino-Japanese competition is most intense
cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Infrastructure diplomacy in the shadow of the Belt and Road: Lessons from Japan’s experience

Infrastructure diplomacy has become a central arena for strategic competition. This column examines how China’s Belt and Road Initiative has reshaped Japan’s overseas infrastructure engagement and diplomacy with participants of the initiative. It finds that Japanese project counts fell and foreign leaders visited Japan less often. To be successful, Western initiatives such as Build Back Better World and the EU’s Global Gateway need coordinated strategies and rapid deployment mechanisms. They should also integrate infrastructure finance with strategic diplomacy, ensuring that development efforts reinforce political engagement instead of attempting to replace it.

cepr.org

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d

This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.

Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...

www.theguardian.com

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 6d

British grid had a number of hours last night when exports > fossil fuel generation - ie net zero operation. It will be at least another month or so before the British grid can operate with no fossil fuels due to inertia and other services being supplied in other ways (chart from grid.iamkate.com)

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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 6d

"Polarisation may be an unhelpful term .... It implies that both sides are becoming equally extreme. Arguably the real dynamic is that elements of the right have hardened, embracing positions that would have been unacceptable a decade ago" on.ft.com/46TGRHs by @henrymance.ft.com 1/

How polarised is Britain?

Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture

on.ft.com

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 7d

Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.

sites.stat.columbia.edu

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NBER @nber.org · 7d

Equity frictions vary widely across Europe, shaping entrepreneurial finance, wealth, and output. Unlike debt, reducing them boosts efficiency while also reducing inequality, from Alessandra Peter https://www.nber.org/papers/w34301

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 7d

Natch.🙄"Even when we control for both age 16 and age 18 academic achievement, private school pupils still attend much higher ranked university courses than their peers of similar achievement." (Reason being they make fewer 'safety' applications, material comfort encouraging them to take more risks).

Elite school students end up in better universities than expected, based on their grades | British Politics and Policy at LSE

Students of private and grammar schools are over-represented in elite universities, but only part of that is explained by better grades.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 7d

This by @crookedfootball.bsky.social is rather excellent on the goals of politics.

When i was young and going to Brussels as an academic policy wonk, I didn't know who to support (Kissinger's problem). Marie Jahoda told me "the Scandinavian grandmothers!!"

Louise Ankers @louiseankers.bsky.social · 8d

@crookedfootball.bsky.social I thought this was excellent

crookedtimber.org/2025/01/29/t...

The death of the hope of progress and the fear of being left behind — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 7d

It's also a big thing for racists. Plays into all their fears.... And into their "women should be in the kitchen raising kids not at work" guff.

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Paul Nightingale @paulnightingale.bsky.social · 7d

There are a couple of issues. First, many women would like to have more kids than they do. But housing, wages, childcare etc make it very difficult. I guess men as well???? Second, there is a great about future ratios between working pop and retired. And third politics gets nasty. usual caveats

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 7d

Under UK law, a company can make £200m+ in sales and still hide its profit & loss by calling itself “small”.

That’s how PPE Medpro kept its finances secret.

A short thread on one of Britain’s daftest loopholes, the 1970s EU compromise that created it — and how to fix it.

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Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 7d

While poor ‘frazzled’ civil servants chat in beautiful surroundings over ‘very nice dinners’, we wonder why people have voted serially for profound change and are now embracing populism….. Cambridge sets up ‘fresh thinking’ retreat for frazzled civil servants

www.thetimes.com/article/ca17...

Cambridge sets up ‘fresh thinking’ retreat for frazzled civil servants

The Downing Battcock Institute aims to provide a safe space where harassed policymakers can meet academics and contemplate offbeat ideas over ‘nice dinners’

www.thetimes.com

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 8d

Just had time to properly read this brilliant piece by @benansell.bsky.social. It left me even more convinced than I already was that what he calls Labour's (and indeed the Conservative's) "prole-whisperers" are horribly mistaken if they genuinely think chasing after Reform voters is the way to go.

British Politics' Midlife Crisis

Why British Parties Can't Make Peace with Their Actual Voters

benansell.substack.com

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Louise Ankers @louiseankers.bsky.social · 8d

@crookedfootball.bsky.social I thought this was excellent

crookedtimber.org/2025/01/29/t...

The death of the hope of progress and the fear of being left behind — Crooked Timber

crookedtimber.org

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