Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 7h

Excited to share our term card for the Centre of Development Studies seminar series in @campolis.bsky.social!

Please feel free to join us if you are around.

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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 5d

No bomb should’ve ever dropped on a single civilian, a single child.

If this is the end of them I’m glad.

But the loss is so so immense and the future so uncertain.

What does “peace” mean when it sits atop a genocide? What peace when the genocider dictates its terms?

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CRASSH @crasshlive.bsky.social · 5d

🌱 Join us for the first event by the 'Decolonising Plant Knowledge' research network on 15 October

This interdisciplinary seminar series explores aspects of Rau as a crucible of creative epistemic frictions between botanical narratives and colonised plant worlds

2-5pm, Pembroke College, CB2 1RF

Decolonising Plant Knowledge Term Card.
15 October, Decolonising Plant Knowledge: Thinking around ‘Rau’.
22 October, Plant knowledge in plantation economies.
12 November, Reclaiming indigenous history from Amazonian soil and palaeobotany.
19 November, Toxicity, plant animacy and blurred categories.

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 8d

antropologların "çipura dayağı" kavramını literatüre kazandırmalarını bekliyorum

www.diken.com.tr/bozuk-baligi...

Bozuk balığı iade etmek isteyen adama çipurayla dayak - Diken

05/10/2025 - Eskişehir'de bozuk balığı iade etmek isteyen Hamza Çetinkaya çipurayla dövüldü. Mağdur adam dava açtı.

www.diken.com.tr

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 9d

Chicago ✌️ the city and its community that made me feel most at home while living in the US

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 9d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

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Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 11d

This is who @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social is. Brilliant. Fearless. I fucking hate typing this shit out: Free Eman.

Amplify amplify amplify please.

Preorder Read This When Things Fall Apart @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 11d

@emanabdelhadi.bsky.social tells these cops about themselves.

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 12d

It looks like both sailboats Mikeno and Ohwayla stopped moving. At the moment, 0.00 knots speed shown on the tracker.

Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 12d

Mikeno sailboat from the Global Sumud Flotilla is so close to Gaza! #globalsumudflotilla

globalsumudflotilla.org/tracker/

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 16d

#Portland city office that oversees land use and zoning notified the owner of the building that ICE had violated a conditional-use permit

Portland threatens to evict Ice from Oregon facility over permit violations

Records obtained by Street Roots and the Guardian back claim from Oregon city’s mayor that Ice violated a land-use permit to detain people overnight

www.theguardian.com

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 24d

A highly controversial new law in Turkey allows mining in olive groves, requiring tree transplantation.

My new open-access article in @politicalgeography.bsky.social explores the making of "movable nature"— salvage work that moves nature out of the way of infrastructure and extraction projects.

Salvage work: The making of movable nature for post-submergence life

This article critically examines environmental salvage projects undertaken in northeastern Turkey by focusing on political and technoscientific actors…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · 24d

A highly controversial new law in Turkey allows mining in olive groves, requiring tree transplantation.

My new open-access article in @politicalgeography.bsky.social explores the making of "movable nature"— salvage work that moves nature out of the way of infrastructure and extraction projects.

Salvage work: The making of movable nature for post-submergence life

This article critically examines environmental salvage projects undertaken in northeastern Turkey by focusing on political and technoscientific actors…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Transnational Institute @tninstitute.bsky.social · 27d

Palestinian liberation is not simply a moral or human rights issue: it is a direct confrontation with US imperialism and fossil capitalism. Thus, Palestinian liberation must be at the core of global environmental and climate justice struggles. www.tni.org/en/article/e...

Ecocide, Imperialism and Palestine Liberation | Transnational Institute

The devastation in Gaza is not only genocide but also ecocide: the deliberate destruction of an entire social and ecological fabric. From poisoned soil and decimated farmland to collapsing water syste...

www.tni.org

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · Sep 2

Authoritarian crackdown in Turkey continues at full force:

The court annulled the main opposition party’s provincial congress, removing the Istanbul leadership. CHP now faces the possible annulment of its national congress, putting its leader at risk of removal as well.

bianet English @bianet-eng.bsky.social · Sep 2

Court annuls CHP İstanbul congress, removes provincial leadership in critical verdict

The main opposition party is also facing annulment of its national congress held in Nov 2023, which could affect the position of the current party leader. bianet.org/haber/court-...

Court annuls CHP İstanbul congress, removes provincial leadership in critical verdict

The main opposition party is also facing annulment of its national congress held in Nov 2023. If that process is also annulled, it could affect the position of current party leader.

bianet.org

Reposted by Ekin Kurtiç

Eurozine @eurozine.bsky.social · Aug 13

Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook: Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade, writes @kayagenc.bsky.social via @indexoncensorship.org www.eurozine.com/borrowing-fr...

Borrowing from Erdoğan’s playbook

Assaults on academic freedoms in the US mirror those happening in Turkey for the past decade. Erdoğan’s silence about clampdowns on pro-Palestinian speech at US universities, even when Turkish student...

www.eurozine.com

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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · Jul 5

The mayors of three Turkish cities were arrested today morning, according to media reports, as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues his crackdown on the political opposition.

3 Turkish mayors reported arrested as Erdoğan continues crackdown on opposition

Saturday’s arrests come four months after the mayor of Istanbul, considered Erdoğan’s main political opponent, was jailed over corruption allegations.

www.politico.eu

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The London Economic @thelondoneconomic.bsky.social · Jun 24

Israel is one of 17 "countries of concern" the Co-op has announced it will no longer source from.

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · Jun 25

In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done.

My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it.

I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City.

Zohran looking out on a victory night crowd.

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Cambridge University Library @theul.bsky.social · Jun 24

📣NEW EVENT!

🌱Unearthing Curious Cures
📅Saturday 12 July
📍Milton Road Library, Cambridge
🎟️Book your tickets: https://loom.ly/CgD1dRU

Explore the healing powers of plants, past and present, with a panel of medieval medicine experts and garden historians.

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United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · Jun 11

We feed you.
They hunt us.

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Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition @freedomflotilla.bsky.social · Jun 3

Take one minute: go to bit.ly/IsraelOnNotice and send a letter to the Israeli government, UN officials, and diplomatic missions demanding that Israel abide by international law and refrain from attacking, sabotaging or otherwise interfering with the #Madleen and her mission.

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Levent Pişkin @leventpuskin.bsky.social · May 28

An ordinary day for international law: Netanyahu justifies a genocidal act with another crime against humanity, torture.

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Ekin Kurtiç @ekinkurtic.bsky.social · May 13

Thanks for sharing, Lyla! Adding this to my Critical Approaches to Sustainable Development syllabus.

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ACLU @aclu.org · May 9

Today, our client Rümeysa Öztürk was released on bail from ICE detention in Louisiana, and she will return to New England to continue her studies.

📸 Giancarlo D’Agostaro

Two woman walking and embracing each other in front of an ICE detention center. The woman on the left is wearing a black dress and heels. The woman on the right is smiling and wearing a white hijab, glasses, and a pink garment. Members of the press are in the background.

Two women standing, smiling, and embracing each other with grass, water, and the sky in the background. The woman on the left is wearing a white hijab, glasses, and a pink garment. The woman on the right is wearing a black dress.

Two woman stand next to each other and hold onto one another. The woman on the left is wearing a black dress. The woman on the right is smiling and wearing a white hijab, glasses, and a pink garment. In the background is the fence of an ICE detention center.

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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · May 6

🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants.

Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.

THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20202
May 5, 2025
Dr. Alan Garber
Office of the President
Harvard University
Massachusetts Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
Dr. Garber,
The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?
Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates.
Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?
Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then…

$running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party." Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt. If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy. At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal. Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans. The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede…$

Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University.
These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Sincerely,
Linda E. McMahon
Secretary of Education

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Selahattin Demirtaş @selahattindemirtas.bsky.social · May 4

Bir tane mezarın yok ki, on milyonların kalbine gömüleceksin. Hangi birini ziyaret edem, hangisine yüzüm sürem gardaş.

Git, yolun açık olsun abe can, her daim kıymetlimizsin. Ama gülüş değil ki, bıyık değil ki sana yakışsın; ölüm sana yakışmadı, olmadı gardaş.

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