Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Kevin Rye

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 7h

It’s infuriating that so mediocre and crude a power as Russia is running rings round European democracies and that they have so many willing collaborators.

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10h

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

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Kevin Rye @kevinrye.bsky.social · 6m

@iwriteok.bsky.social

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 1h

Goes back to the argument I made in the Guardian earlier this year that the world is in danger because the techbros have completely misunderstood a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy...

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

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John Springford @johnspringford.bsky.social · 5h

Has there been a more successful EU policy than enlargement?

Tom Calver @tomcalver.bsky.social · 6h

🇵🇱 My @thetimes column: Poland’s economic miracle

12 out of 17 Polish regions are now richer than West Wales. It has faster internet, cheaper electricity and more high speed rail than Britain

When it comes to regional development it’s the UK, not Poland, that needs to catch up

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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 16h

This Is Fascism

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 3h

Please join me in a new campaign to help protect Ukrainians in a very special way. My Ukrainian friends chose to call this campaign Freedom is Action. They are making an important point. One way to find our own courage is to act in support those who are showing it
snyder.substack.com/p/freedom-is...

Freedom is Action: A Campaign for Ukraine

A fundraiser for life-saving drone-jamming cars and trucks

snyder.substack.com

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Zöe Franklin MP @zoefranklinld.bsky.social · 3h

It's the final week of conference recess before Parliament returns next week and I've been making the most of it with meetings and visits galore! Here is a snapshot of my week.

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Kevin Rye @kevinrye.bsky.social · 6h

Bloody PC nonsense. Bring back polystyrene cups.

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Kevin Rye @kevinrye.bsky.social · 6h

Buy a little collapsible cup from Robert Dyas. You can fold it up and put it in your bag/pocket afterwards, and on the rare occasions I buy takeaway coffee I frequently get a discount for using my own cup!

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Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺 @marikamikiashvili.bsky.social · 7h

"Brussels stands behind the street wars in Tbilisi."

- Georgia's illegitimate Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili.

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 9h

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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Dr Stylite @columnist.bsky.social · 7h

On this particular point, there’s enormous appetite for the ‘you left Twitter because the didn’t like disagreement and have therefore abandoned the discourse for the Bluesky echo chamber’. But IN FACT, Twitter had become virtually unusable as a practical matter.

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 9h

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

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Reposted by Kevin Rye

Ian King @twoht.bsky.social · 9h

Morning loves, words and pictures from Slough Town vs Enfield Town yesterday, where sitting in a cemetary offered some perspective on losing a football match.

unexpecteddelirium.substack.com/p/the-weeken...

The Weekend Match: Slough Town 3-2 Enfield Town: Come, Friendly Bombs

Enfield Town have reached this stage of the FA Cup on three previous occasions, but have never gone further. And that'll have to wait another year after an eventful afternoon in Berkshire.

unexpecteddelirium.substack.com

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Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 9h

An admirable article that is as insightful as the libel laws permit given present publicly available information.

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10h

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

2 17 44

Reposted by Kevin Rye

Emily ✨🎃 @emilyoram.bsky.social · 9h

God love Kew, this is incredible

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John Springford @johnspringford.bsky.social · 8h

Good piece. I use WhatsApp despite it being used to coordinate last year's violence against asylum-seekers, but algorithms weren't involved. That's the key difference.

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 1d

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it is still shaping policy. So were we all wrong to leave?

Was the left wrong to leave X for BlueSky?

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it's still shaping policy

www.newstatesman.com

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Kevin Rye @kevinrye.bsky.social · 8h

This is the telegraph on Farage, who has repeatedly sided with Vladimir Putin against innocent people and our own allies. He's a useful idiot and a Russian asset. uk.news.yahoo.com/nigel-farage...

Nigel Farage has a Russia problem

It was the founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius of Loyola, who is supposed to have said: “Give me a child until he is seven years old and I will show you the man.” Those words might have inspired the g...

uk.news.yahoo.com

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 1d

Glad to see Nigel Farage has finally remembered Nathan Gill, former leader of Reform in Wales - found guilty of taking bribes from Russia.

Maybe he'll now remember how much he took from Putin's propaganda broadcaster Russia Today for all his TV appearances when he was a MEP?

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10h

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

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Kevin Rye @kevinrye.bsky.social · 20h

Even when the sensibles do get hold of the govt again, they're going to have such a massive job rebuilding it's going to take years.

The delusions, stupidity and wanton vandalism of Trump's govt of grudges is just incredible.

Sara Silverstein @sarasilverstein.bsky.social · 1d

Trump govt further gutted the CDC last night, while continuing the govt shutdown instead of protecting healthcare for Americans. Areas affected last night include policy, comms, intelligence, infrastructure, global health & more. This is an attack on national security
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

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

www.nytimes.com

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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 1d

RFK fired the CDC official (w/decades of experience) leading the measles outbreak response. It's been decades since we've had such a large outbreak. And just to ensure they they can spread the measles outbreak even farther, they also fired the leadership for the center focused on immunization.

Figure showing the largest measles outbreak in the US in decades. There are over 1500 cases as of October 7 2025

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Kevin Rye @kevinrye.bsky.social · 1d

Rage at the dying of the light.

Reposted by Kevin Rye

Trades Union Congress @tuc.org.uk · 2d

Is Nigel Farage a fascist?

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1d

Did Farage ever sue the Mail on Sunday?

This threat was issued in June 2025, but I can find no further reference to events after that.

Zelenskyy: Farage is infected with the virus of putin

Farage on twitter threatening to sue the Mail on Sunday

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Reposted by Kevin Rye

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 1d

Here is a reporter who deserves to be remembered.
kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-jo...

Ukrainian journalist Roshchyna posthumously named Press Freedom Hero

The IPI said Roshchyna's death on Sept. 19, 2024 "exposed the brutal treatment suffered by the dozens of Ukrainian journalists unjustly held by Russian authorities, and brought new urgency to the need...

kyivindependent.com

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

George was just trying to get to work.

ICE pepper-sprayed him, dragged him from his car, locked him in a detention center, and placed him on suicide watch. He even missed his young daughter’s birthday in the process.

This man is a veteran and American citizen. Don't look away.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 2d

"They put me on suicide watch and they put me in the cell, I'm naked, in like a hospital dress and just a concrete bed with like a mattress, like a thin mattress and, they leave the light on 24/7."

@timmiller.bsky.social talked to a veteran who ICE wrongly detained and brutalized

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