Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 35m

I applaud ayeshahazarika.bsky.social reaching the end of her tether when it comes to ludicrous political argument being given any headroom on Times Radio. Today, Laila Cunningham (forced to resign as CPS prosecutor because of her Reform Party affiliation) was given wonderful & timely short shrift.

https://ayeshahazarika.bsky.social’s

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 4h

Double slit news. The results all depend on how you look at it:
sciencenotes.org/double-slit-...

Democracy generally benefits when we see news as a particle, not a wave (the duality, for inferior intellects, does nothing but cultivate fury and confusion):

Double Slit Experiment

Explore the double slit experiment, a key demonstration of wave-particle duality and quantum behavior in light and matter.

sciencenotes.org

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 5h

How long before we recognise the collection of personal data (including any simple search terms we might use) amounts to the strategic identification of individual vulnerabilities for commercial gain? A particularly painful (unusually obvious) example of what it means:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The women taking tech giant Meta to task after their baby loss

Several women say the pain of losing their babies was made worse by targeted advertising.

www.bbc.co.uk

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 6h

A good measure of these comedians’ moral consistency will be how quickly they take money direct from Putin’s regime to get out to Moscow and give average Russians a well-deserved chance for a giggle.

🇪🇺🇺🇦 Das Wurfkissen 🚵🇪🇺 @williw01.bsky.social · 1d

We know what the comedians got out of the Riyadh comedy festival. What about the Saudi regime?
Jimmy Carr, Louis CK, Jack Whitehall, Omid Djalili, Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Pete Davidson
Es ist unglaublich...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We know what the comedians got out of the Riyadh comedy festival. What about the Saudi regime? | Jonathan Liew

The tawdry event was an ultimately doomed attempt by the Saudi government to buy the kind of authentic grassroots culture it is unwilling to countenance, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew

www.theguardian.com

1 1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 7h

I was just too young to take part in it - but remember many of the arguments, not least from nervous Europeans (including Jan De Koning, Dutch CDA frontbench politicIan, MEP and, later, Government Minister) who worried British people were essentially opposed to thinking of themselves as ‘European’.

1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 7h

The 1975 referendum provides a useful precedent for an electorate being offered the chance to confirm (or reject) recent fundamental change to the UK’s relationship with Europe (Britain had officially joined the EEC on 1 January 1973).
“Try before you buy” - when possible - can be a great option.

1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 8h

When Britain returns to its once enviable decency, and ponders issues according to the quality of argument not the overblown noise some people make about them, good points - whoever makes them - will be widely acknowledged and borne in mind for future electoral consideration...

Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 2d

"Zia, do you ever think it's the number one problem because you spend a lot of time spreading misinformation and fear?"

— Zack Polanski

1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 8h

*Samir* Shah.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 8h

The actual report has far more nuance than the highlighting of individual statistical strands may suggest. It also has another, telling, way of looking at the figures. Statistics can mask the fact some minorities are much smaller (& so face a greater threat) than others:
www.gov.uk/government/s...

3

Reposted by Sarah Richards

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 3d

One of the crazy things about the AI bubble bursting is that consumer sentiment toward AI has always leaned skeptical to outright negative but it’s an industry propped up by pure billionaire greed, sycophancy, and childish fantasy

35 320 1.7K

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

He may be confusing tampons with sausages.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Extraordinary summation of Farage’s Gill-shaped problem.
Every escape route now looks like a blind alley. Latest: “I thought I new him…”
You did, Nigel. You did.

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 1d

“Here Farage is, in Gill’s office, with Voloshyn’s wife Nadia, on the day Gill makes an intervention on behalf of Medvedchuk’s channels, with an employee of one of those channels, whose husband started bribing Gill to make these statements 6 days earlier”

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...

'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny

Insiders have told Byline Times, it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements

bylinetimes.com

1 3 3

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

It’s the dis-integration of Jenrick-style brains we should really worry about - where truth is commonly see as a dirty word:

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Sometimes, even BBC editorial policy can be seen as throwing fat on the fire. This, from BBC Chair Salma Shah (to MPs), last month:
bsky.app/profile/laur...

Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 2d

"Zia, do you ever think it's the number one problem because you spend a lot of time spreading misinformation and fear?"

— Zack Polanski

1 2

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

This was a month ago. I’m intrigued to know if, in the BBC’s view, @zachpolanski’s now ”got a voice” and we can expect to see him as a regular panellist on #bbcqt.

Laura Phillips @lauraphillips.bsky.social · Sep 9

Tim Davie: since autumn 2024 "We've had 34 Labour 34 Conservatives 14 Lib Dems 8 Reform." @rupahuq.bsky.social “How do you get on the show?" Davie: "It's a judgement from the editorial team to reflect the political landscape but..not just about party politics, those ppl who've got a voice."

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Reform might as well blame “women and girls” for the parlous, clogged state of our judicial system - as if they were the cause of so many rape/sexual assault/domestic violence cases now queuing up (often for years) to be heard in the courts.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 2d

Fresh example today:
(More Putin sniggering as Trump laps it up)
bsky.app/profile/pale...

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 4d

Putin‘s modus operandi also seems typically associated with anything that appeals to his mordant, and very grim, sense of humour.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 2d

Yusuf may have a messaging bone to pick with Farage:
Farage, talking about Gill (in Wales) today:
“I‘m the only one [in Reform] that really knew him, going back a long way…”
www.thenational.scot/news/2553397...

Nigel Farage calls ex-Welsh Reform leader who took Russian bribes a 'bad apple'

Nigel Farage has described a former senior figure in his party who has been convicted of taking pro-Russian bribes as a “bad apple”.

www.thenational.scot

1 1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 2d

Gill’s no Epstein, but Farage doesn’t half tread a Mandelson/Prince Andrew path with him.

These days, Gill’s a “bad apple” Farage barely ever knew.

Ethan Jones @ethanjonesic.bsky.social · 2d

Oh look. Just Nigel Farage calling a Russian asset “terrific.”

You know, the guy who used to lead Reform in Wales and Reform now claims they’ve never heard of 🤷‍♂️

www.bbc.co.uk/news/electio...

Welsh election: UKIP's Farage backs 'terrific' Gill

UKIP leader Nigel Farage backs the party's Welsh leader Nathan Gill as

www.bbc.co.uk

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 2d

Love this piece. Not for the dystopian future it sets out, which should genuinely alarm us all, but for the lunacy (see also “Mountainhead”) of ‘genius’, all-powerful billionaires who have such a poor grasp of human nature.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 2d

A new dawn has broken.

Reason and decency are back on the map - thanks to the wonderful people of Shrewsbury.

#BestOfBritish

#BBCQT

1 1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

@davidallengreen.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/wire...

WIRED @wired.com · 3d

US president Donald Trump appeared confused by a question over the possible suspension of habeas corpus, during an “antifa roundtable” event at the White House attended by conservative influencers.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 4d

Summat like that. I’ve become incredibly curious to know what he reads and who he talks to. On Newscast, the excellent Adam Fleming is now often compelled to chuck in a few factual constraints to Mason’s freeform blather. He’s a geography graduate - but appears to have entirely lost his bearings.

1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 4d

Perhaps this is what happens when words and their meanings become fatally untethered from objective reality. Not so much inaccuracy/misrepresentation as unfathomable garble.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 4d

I’m really flummoxed by Chris Mason these days. Here, he tells us Badenoch has “authentic belief in thinking things through” and also that he’s “noticed there’s a Darwinian selection about the people who have come to the conference…”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Kemi Badenoch hopes to grab attention with policy blitz

The Tory leader's conference speech included a new pledge to scrap stamp duty on the purchase of main homes.

www.bbc.com

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 4d

I’m really flummoxed by Chris Mason these days. Here, he tells us Badenoch has “authentic belief in thinking things through” and also that he’s “noticed there’s a Darwinian selection about the people who have come to the conference…”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Kemi Badenoch hopes to grab attention with policy blitz

The Tory leader's conference speech included a new pledge to scrap stamp duty on the purchase of main homes.

www.bbc.com

1