Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ruth Watson

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 2h

Like a canary in coal mine…

More than half of world’s bird species in decline, as leaders meet on extinction crisis

Biodiversity losses are growing, the IUCN reports as summit opens, but green turtle’s recovery ‘reminds us conservation works’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 14h

Over 40% of corn grown in Indiana is used to make ethanol that cars burn. One acre of corn yields about 16,500 vehicle-miles per year of ethanol, which sounds high until you realize that one acre of solar yields about 2,700,000 vehicle-miles per year: 16,000% more driving for a given plot of land.

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

John Swinney @johnswinney.bsky.social · 1h

Do you feel better off after austerity, Brexit and rising bills under Westminster?

With independence, we can raise living standards and build an economy that works for Scotland.

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 1h

Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize - her incredible optimism has already changed her country. I spoke to her, and wrote about her, at the beginning of this year:
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

The ‘Anthropological Change’ Happening in Venezuela

Maduro is still in place, but a pro-democracy movement is transforming the beleaguered country.

www.theatlantic.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Channel 4 News @channel4news.bsky.social · 38m

"I have no doubt that Netanyahu has to end his historic role. That, I believe, will come naturally once the war is over."

Former Israeli Prime Minister and IDF Chief of Staff, Ehud Barak, speaks to @krishgm.bsky.social about the ceasefire.

www.channel4.com/news/two-sta...

‘Two state solution only sustainable option’ – former Israeli PM

We spoke to former Israeli Prime Minister and IDF Chief of Staff, Ehud Barak. He is one of around 600 retired Israeli officials who sent an open letter to Donald Trump in August requesting he put pres...

www.channel4.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Keep Scotland the Brand @keepscotlandbrand.bsky.social · 3h

Onybody ken a body wha might be keen?

@orkneylibrary.bsky.social @theorkneynews.bsky.social @shetlandlibrary.bsky.social @edinburghlibraries.bsky.social @natlibscot.bsky.social

oorNews - Scots Language News @oornews.bsky.social · 1d

Gif onybody is efter jynin-in mair than a wee correction here or there whan readin, we huvnae ony sillar tae offer noo - but wid gie future royalties based on share o text an audio words in the database for fowk waantin tae gie a haun wi Central/Staundart Scots, Shetlandic an Orcadian airticles :-)

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Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.bsky.social · 3h

Statement from a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 17h

My statement on Middle East peace

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 10h

Of all the clerics they could have popped, those ICE idiots had to hit Hot Priest.

Presbyterian minister David Black on CNN, who was shot with pepper balls while praying outside an ICE facility.

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

ProPublica @propublica.org · 9h

Kristi Noem, while governor of South Dakota, supplemented her roughly $130,000 salary by secretly accepting $80,000 donated to a political nonprofit she was affiliated with, records show.

She never disclosed this income on federal ethics forms.

(Published June)

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirem...

www.propublica.org

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

BladeoftheSun @bladeofthes.bsky.social · 14h

Lets make different political choices says Zack Polanski.

Like taxing billionaires instead of blaming poor people.

#bbcqt

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 11h

Zack Polanski, "The four wealthiest people in this country have more wealth than 20 million people"

"Inequality in our society is absolutely huge"

"We need to be taxing the super rich"

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 1d

Daith an’ dule will stab ye surely,
Be ye man or wife,
Mony trauchles an’ mischances
In ilk weird are rife;
Bide the storm ye canna hinder,
Mindin’ through the strife,
Hoo the luntin’ lowe o’ beauty
Lichts the grey o’ life.

—Helen Cruickshank, “Sea Buckthorn”
#Scotstober
asls.org.uk/publications...

Sea Buckthorn
by Helen Cruickshank

Saut an’ cruel winds tae shear it,
Nichts o’ haar an’ rain –
Ye micht think the sallow buckthorn
Ne’er a hairst could hain;
But amang the sea-bleached branches
Ashen-grey as pain,
Thornset orange berries cluster
Flamin’, beauty-fain.

Daith an’ dule will stab ye surely,
Be ye man or wife,
Mony trauchles an’ mischances
In ilk weird are rife;
Bide the storm ye canna hinder,
Mindin’ through the strife,
Hoo the luntin’ lowe o’ beauty
Lichts the grey o’ life.

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Mark McGeoghegan @markmcgeoghegan.bsky.social · 22h

Identity findings in the SSA very much tally with what we saw in the census. Sharply declining British identity, growing Scottish identity.

The SSA also finds that these correlate with constitutional preference...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 23h

Scottish Social Attitudes report a dramatic dip in British identity in Scotland in 2024

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 17h

The European Commission is going to investigate allegations that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's government placed intelligence officers in Brussels to gather information on EU institutions and recruit an EU official.

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 16h

You *really* should be by now but you don’t *actually* have to call them liars or racists, if it offends your commitment to now almost entirely redundant BBC principles of ‘objectivity’ & ‘ balance’. You just have to ask them again & again & again to justify their words & explain their exact meaning

James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 16h

I’ve been saying this for ten years now but possibly not often enough: Ask Them What They Think The Words They’re Using Mean. And then ask them to name the ‘problematic’ people. We had ‘sovereignty’, ‘laws’ & ‘unelected bureaucrats’. The US now has ‘Antifa’, the ‘radical left’ & ‘insurrection’. Ask!

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 20h

Rep. Jamie Raskin has sent letters to four of the nation's largest banks demanding information related to "more than $1.5 billion in suspicious financial transactions flagged by the banks tied to sex trafficking crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their co-conspirators."

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Ozzy @karohemd.bsky.social · 14h

To save you the search, here's the youtube link to the full interview: youtu.be/V6_FWKLuY2s

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 17h

Head hits desk.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 18h

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 1d

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

Pope urges news agencies to stand as bulwark against lies, manipulation and post-truths

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the “ancient art of lying” and manipulation.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 19h

"Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, this week fired two agents who were identified as having worked with Jack Smith, the special counsel who led the federal investigations into Donald J. Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the situation."

Kash Patel Fires Two F.B.I. Agents Who Worked on Trump Investigation

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Martin Jay @martinrjay.bsky.social · 16h

Mali: Crowds scavenge for fuel in Bamako

In desperate need of fuel, people queue overnight in gas stations of Mali’s capital, Bamako, a new worrying trend for the country and its gold industry, reported the Associated Press on October 7th. The scarcity of fuel is a direct impact of the blockades…

Mali: Crowds scavenge for fuel in Bamako

In desperate need of fuel, people queue overnight in gas stations of Mali’s capital, Bamako, a new worrying trend for the country and its gold industry, reported the Associated Press on October 7th. The scarcity of fuel is a direct impact of the blockades on fuel implemented in early September by Jama’at Nurat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a militant group affiliated with al-Qaida.

maghrebi.org

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Neil Mackay @neilmackay.bsky.social · 1d

Mass deportations and Trump-style ICE snatch squads: British politicians are in a race to the bottom on race. They disgrace the country

My column in @heraldscotland.bsky.social

www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

'It feels like British politics has become some grotesque carnival'

Policies from Farage and Badenoch for mass deportations and ICE-style removal squads are the antithesis of everything Britain stands for, our Writer…

www.heraldscotland.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

Médias 🇫🇷 @mediasfr.skyfleet.blue · 18h

En Allemagne, la fin de la “saucisse végétale” déchaîne les passions

Les députés européens se sont majoritairement prononcés, mercredi 8 octobre, en faveur de l’interdiction des dénominations “steak”, “escalope” ou encore “saucisse” pour les produits végétariens ou végans. Outre-Rhin, la “Wurst” reste une institution et la décision ravie les conservateurs, mais indigne une partie de la presse de gauche.

www.courrierinternational.com

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Reposted by Ruth Watson

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 19h

That England has had its three worst harvests on record inside the past five years really should be being treated as a much bigger cause for concern than is currently the case. www.businessgreen.com/news/4520171...

'This is what farming with climate change looks like': England endures second worst harvest on record

New analysis confirms three of the five worst harvests on record have occurred in the past five years on the back of extreme heat, drought, and rainfall

www.businessgreen.com

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Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.bsky.social · 18h

The #CountryNWestern bros were #Antifa

Real men hate fascism.

(To watch the original programme, check out the post by @classicnal.bsky.social further down the thread).

Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 1d

Country fans are upset with Zach Bryan after he criticized ICE in a song.

But don't let it be known that Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash all despised fascism and leaned heavily to the left.

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