Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Giancarlo Fiorella

@giancarlofiorella.bsky.social

21K followers 490 following 220 posts

Director of Research and Training | Bellingcat Assistant Professor | Utrecht University PhD, Criminology & Sociolegal Studies | University of Toronto www.giancarlofiorella.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Giancarlo Fiorella @giancarlofiorella.bsky.social · Sep 3

I'm re-starting my charity Twitch streams starting tonight at 7:00 PM EST via @extralife4kids.bsky.social! Come hang out in the chat, and if you've got a dollar, donate it to Toronto's SickKids Hospital.

100% of proceeds go directly to the hospital!

www.twitch.tv/gianfiorel

gianfiorel - Twitch

Hi! I live in Toronto and I stream to raise funds for SickKids via ExtraLife! Here is my ExtraLife page: https://www.extra-life.org/participant/548667

www.twitch.tv

1 2 6

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 1d

News footage from Portland shows a calm, tranquil city. But an AI video that Stephen Miller texted to Donald Trump shows the city as a burning hellhole. The truth may lie somewhere in between.

43 390 2.4K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 5h

chat it's happening

uk.news.yahoo.com/katy-perry-j...

Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau appear to confirm romance - report

After months of rumours, proof seems to be in that Katy Perry is dating former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The loved-up couple were spotted kissing and cuddling on board Perry's 24-metre y...

uk.news.yahoo.com

25 29 330

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Observing The City @observingthecity.bsky.social · 1d

One intersection on Bloor saw average daily bike ridership consistently hover around 6000 for the past 4 months. This is a 20% increase over last year. Yet, Premier Ford wants to target this lane for removal. I wanted to highlight this, one year after the passage of Bill 212.

4 14 55

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 1d

FULL STORY HERE: Emails began flooding CDC inboxes late Friday night announcing dozens of layoffs. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee the RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those hit.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

67 810 1.5K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

The campaign against “antifa” is about establishing a beachhead for further attacks on speech and assembly rights. We see that today in the effort to preemptively label No Kings protesters as “terrorists.”

870 6K 19K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Etienne - Tek @tek.randhome.io · 1d

NSO to be acquired by U.S. investors, ending Israeli control of Pegasus maker | Ctech https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/s1jgvmitgx

NSO to be acquired by U.S. investors, ending Israeli control of Pegasus maker | CTech

Hollywood producer Robert Simonds leads the deal, subject to Israeli and U.S. regulatory review.

www.calcalistech.com

5 7

Giancarlo Fiorella @giancarlofiorella.bsky.social · 1d

From the same people who brought you "participation trophies are for snowflakes"

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Rep. Buddy Carter: "Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. That's why I'm introducing a resolution today that will honor him with the Nobel Peace Prize."

(It doesn't work like that lol)

1 2 12

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

The Speaker of the House is telling the Fox News audience that a peaceful demonstration by Americans on the National Mall will actually be a gathering of organizations the administration has designated as violent terrorists.

Seems bad?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

560 1.8K 5.9K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

makena kelly @makenakelly.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: Trump Wants to Take Over Cities. Influencers Are Giving Him the Fuel to Do It

Wrote a bit about the content mill for consensus the Trump administration has created to justify its law-and-order immigration agenda.

More here:
www.wired.com/story/trump-...

Trump Wants to Take Over Cities. Influencers Are Giving Him the Fuel to Do It

The Trump administration has built its own content mill to justify its law-and-order immigration agenda.

www.wired.com

6 150 310

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Nick Turse @nickturse.bsky.social · 2d

SCOOP: An @theintercept.com analysis finds that almost all Republican-led states — 23 of the 27 with Republican governors — have deployed National Guard troops in support of Trump’s war on immigrants or military occupations of Blue cities

theintercept.com/2025/10/09/r...

Republican Governors Eagerly Join Trump’s Military Campaign Against Blue Cities

An Intercept analysis finds nearly every Republican governor has deployed National Guard members to aid Trump’s domestic military agenda.

theintercept.com

23 77 140

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 1d

They didn’t just NOT give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, they wrote a citation that reads like an anti-Trump rallying cry.

(He’s gonna extra-tariff Norway now, isn’t he?)

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

'When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,' the Norwegian Nobel Committee said as it announced Maria Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

310 1.4K 6.5K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

140 1.9K 5.2K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Edward Luce @edwardluce.bsky.social · 4d

"None — repeat none — of America’s fentanyl has been found to originate from Venezuela. Yet Trump and Pete Hegseth, his compulsively strutting “secretary of war”, insist that the country is fuelling America’s opioid epidemic." Me on Trump's wag the dog script. www.ft.com/content/5b3e...

Venezuela is Trump’s useful enemy

Despite the president’s claims, the South American country is nowhere close to being the US’s biggest drug supplier

www.ft.com

20 300 800

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Tomi McCluskey @tomi-mcc.bsky.social · 2d

Colombia's President claimed US struck a "Colombian vessel" with Colombian citizens aboard.

NYT now reports: Unnamed US officials confirm Colombian nationals were on at least one struck vessel - but make no statement about the vessel's nationality.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/w...

Colombia’s President Says Boat Bombed by U.S. Was Carrying Colombians

www.nytimes.com

3 14 42

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Gabòr Friesen @gaborfriesen.bsky.social · 2d

For my 2nd undergraduate thesis, I researched the feasibility of using Convolutional Neural Networks to automate the process of mapping military trenches. Thought this summary might interest some of you.
medium.com/@gaborfriese...

Using AI to Detect Military Trenches on Satellite Imagery

This article provides a simplified and summarised view of my second undergraduate thesis. For access to the full thesis on this topic (14 pages) or underlying datasets, please reach out to me …

medium.com

2 5 28

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

David Corn @davidcorn.bsky.social · 2d

That got dark quickly.

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 3d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

52 150 980

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 2d

Autism antibodies are stored in the foreskin.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 2d

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

700 1.1K 6.7K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 2d

NEW: A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order barring Chicago-area fed agents from several violent actions they’ve taken against journalists, activists and “religious practitioners” protesting ICE — including Rev. Black, a plaintiff in the case. www.courtlistener.com/docket/71559...

5 200 560

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 2d

New from 404 Media: a data hoarder created a searchable data of Epstein files. "This is a public service project. All documents are from public releases. This archive makes them more accessible and searchable."

www.404media.co/data-hoarder...

Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files

The open source project has been mirrored as a torrent file and represents one of the easiest ways to navigate a messy data dump.

www.404media.co

5 86 230

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 2d

Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile debuts tonight on The Onion's YouTube channel at 7 p.m. ET.

Finally somebody will release some dang Epstein Files if you know what I'm sayin'!!!

29 560 2.9K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 2d

Join us in one hour's time as we discuss the role of universities and the open source research community in tackling misinformation discord.gg/bellingcat?e...

27 89

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Rory White @rorywh.bsky.social · 3d

Today we launch Civic Searchlight, a tool for searching local government meeting transcripts across 550 municipalities in Canada.

Access is open for researchers and journalists:

civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

CivicSearchlight - by Canada's National Observer

Search transcripts of municipal meetings across Canada. Find discussions about topics that matter to your community with Canada's National Observer's search tool.

civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

10 23

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 2d

So yesterday a reporter asked Donald Trump about the writ of habeas corpus, and he had no idea what it was.

"I don't know," he said. "I'd rather leave that to Kristi."

Well, It turns out Sen. Hassan asked Kristi Noem about it in May, and this was Noem's response:

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · May 20

HASSAN: What is habeas corpus?

NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country

HASSAN: That's incorrect

300 2K 5.8K

Reposted by Giancarlo Fiorella

Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 3d

So of course the weirdest and most alarming thing here is that Trump intended to DM the AG on Truth Social to order her to indict Comey and accidentally posted it publicly. But there are other very weird details within...

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Inside the Justice Department Where the President Calls the Shots

The president has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department, taking control in ways he could have only dreamed of in his first term.

www.wsj.com

9 110 340