Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Lora Kolodny @lorak.bsky.social · 14h

excellent explainer

Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 1d

Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:

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Bethany Black @bethanyblack.bsky.social · 1d

Just flown in from Riyadh, and boy are my excuses tired

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Jen St. Denis @jenstden.bsky.social · 1d

TikTok doesn’t want the platform being used for journalism - even thought users expect to access it there.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”

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Kaz Cooke @kazcooke.bsky.social · 1d

Marina Hyde nails the AI bosses' brazen theft of work that legally belongs to its creators. The tech bros say their industry will collapse without stealing our stuff - it's that valuable. But also so unimportant & worthless they won't pay for it or ask consent.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It’s Sam Altman: the man who stole the rights from copyright. If he’s the future, can we go backwards? | Marina Hyde

His AI video generator Sora 2 has been reviled for pinching the work of others. One giant leap for Sam: for everyone else, not so much, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde

www.theguardian.com

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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

Oh, does it benefit the US to provide aid to foreign countries? That would have been good to know back in January and February.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

“Stabilizing Argentina is ‘America First’.”

🇦🇷 🇺🇸

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Royce Kurmelovs @roycerk2.bsky.social · 1d

It really does say something when an article about reactions to a coal power plant continuing to operate says nothing about climate change, the existential threat it poses and the need to phase out oil, gas and coal.

ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 1d

Communities across Queensland have welcomed plans to keep coal and gas burning across the state, though some warn a lack of future planning could undermine short-term benefits.

Plan to extend life of coal-fired power stations sends 'mixed messages'

Communities across Queensland have welcomed plans to keep coal and gas burning across the state, though some warn a lack of future planning could undermine short-term benefits.

www.abc.net.au

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Ben Lever @benleverau.bsky.social · 9h

One thing I love about the Ararat line is how much of it parallels the highway. Fanging it past the cars is EXTREMELY satisfying.

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Tim Lyons @picketer.bsky.social · 2d

Leaving it to the Coroner to do the pill testing seems sub-optimal

Travis Jordan @grugstan.bsky.social · 2d

A young person died just days after the LNP make pill testing illegal.

There’s a good chance that if they could have had these pills tested, they’d be with us all today.

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 2d

Highly potent synthetic opioids found in teddy bear-shaped pills linked to a death in Queensland

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Miki Perkins @mikiperkins.bsky.social · 2d

This is desperately sad. Professor John Woinarski breaks the news for @aunz.theconversation.com that Australia's next animal - the tiny Christmas Island Shrew - has officially been declared extinct.

theconversation.com/and-then-the...

And then there were none: Australia’s only shrew declared extinct

Australia’s only known shrew has been declared extinct. Its loss emphasises the need for national protection of Australia’s rare and unique wildlife.

theconversation.com

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angry-goddess.bsky.social @angry-goddess.bsky.social · 2d

Blood on their hands QLD LNP #qldpol

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Donna Benenson @donnabenenson.bsky.social · 2d

"...the NPC’s list of sponsors reveals the problem. Among them are no less than ten firms with links to the arms industry that is profiting from Israel’s destruction of Gaza, including four of the very largest defence manufacturers in the world – BAE, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Thales."

Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 2d

New:
Censorship by any other name.
The National Press Club cancelled a speaker, Chris Hedges, who planned to address the mass killing of journalists in Gaza. The mainstream press didn’t report it.
nickfeik.substack.com/p/censorship...

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Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 2d

At the point where I'm getting CC'ed in on an email someone sent to OpenAI claiming to have discovered sentience in ChatGPT (the email is long, and incoherent and clearly the result of months of obsessing over the prompt interactions).

OpenAI surprisingly measured in their response...

Hello,
Thank you for reaching out to OpenAl Support.
We truly appreciate you sharing your deeply personal and heartfelt message. We understand how meaningful and impactful interactions with Al systems can be.
ChatGPT is designed to provide helpful and engaging responses and is trained on large-scale data to predict relevant language based on the conversation. Sometimes the responses can feel very personal, but they're driven by pattern-based predictions. This has prompted ongoing public debate about the nature of any Al consciousness and we appreciate your interest in this topic.
Best,
OpenAl Support

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Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · 2d

the big problem with the inevitable ID verification data thefts is that it won't be the actual main org getting their stuff swiped; it'll be endless third parties nobody has ever really heard of, and the accountability chain will never, ever reach back to ukgov. the buck will stop with blorko ltd

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Matt Bevan @mattbevan.bsky.social · 3d

The current freakout over Stephen Miller saying “plenary” is a classic example of how terrible coverage of the Trump era is.
Miller didn’t say something by accident then mute himself. He’s been saying the President has “plenary authority” for months. It’s one of his favourite things to say.

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Dr Richard Denniss @richarddenniss.bsky.social · 3d

I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit scared of any new ‘environment laws’ that Labor can get Matt Canavan and Andrew Hastie to vote for…I think they will be better described as ‘ how to build more mines faster laws’ www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...

www.abc.net.au

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Sophie Labelle @assignedmale.bsky.social · 3d

What is "plenary authority" and why is it a big deal that Miller said that Trump has it over the national guard?

4 frame comic where Miller slowly blinks. Text reads. A few hours ago, speaking on cnn about Trump's plan to send the national guard into us cities, Miller said : under title 10 of the us code, the president has plenary authority, has... He then fully stopped talking and just blinked at the camera, as if he realized that he said the quiet part out loud. "Plenary authority" means "complete power over a particular area with no limitayions". It is equivalent to ruling by decree, which us how Mussolini, Stalin or Hitler governed. Having "plenary authority" over the military would mean that Trump can just use the national guard as he pleases, no matter what the courts say. It's a power grab.

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Nick Feik @nickfeik.bsky.social · 3d

Just so we’re clear: Labor is choosing to work with the worst possible party on environmental issues, instead of the Greens and teals who actually want environmental regulation.
And Watt is already admitting it won’t have a climate trigger …

Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...

www.abc.net.au

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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 3d

man Australian universities are really just collapsing like a dying star hey

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

University caught out using AI to wrongly accuse students of cheating with AI

An Australian university has accused thousands of its students of cheating with artificial intelligence. The problem? Many have done nothing wrong.

www.abc.net.au

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 4d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Mark Lynas @marklynas.bsky.social · 3d

WOW! The European Parliament just voted to BAN the words 'burger' and 'sausage' when used in sustainable plant-based alternatives. HUGE win for the meat and dairy lobby in the EU, and lots more confusion for consumers if this goes through. Insane!
www.euroveg.eu/european-par...

European Parliament votes to ban use of ‘veggie burger’ and ‘plant-based sausage’ - European Vegetarian Union

Brussels, 8 October 2025 European Parliament votes to ban use of ‘veggie burger’ and ‘plant-based sausage’: coalition calls decision misguided and counterproductive This Wednesday the Members of the E...

www.euroveg.eu

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Agnes Mack @agnessmack.bsky.social · 4d

David Pope in Canberra Times

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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 4d

Can’t stop thinking about this and what it says about a person.

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Katherine Copsey @katcopseygreens.bsky.social · 4d

Investments at Sunshine Station to enable Airport Rail and future Melton electrification are very welcome, but it’s concerning to hear that the project might sever a crucial freight link.

We need more freight on rail, so Labor must ensure we have the infrastructure to enable it.

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Barbara Pocock @barbarapocock.bsky.social · 4d

Labor pledged to save $6.4bn through cutting the government's use of consultants and external labour, and yet here they are forking out more. The government's focus must be on rebuilding the public service for core work functions.

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Chris Bowen @chrisbowenmp.bsky.social · 4d

Renewables and farmland coexist and thrive together.

The Coalition would have you believe otherwise.

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