Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2h

The thing I'm "stunned" about is why this isn't the biggest domestic news item on every flipping platform

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

38 320 730

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 1h

Read the piece on P Thiel's views on the antichrist and the apocalypse and I find it so horrific that someone with so much power and influence via wealth has such barking views, rooted in such cruelty. I can imagine him arguing that many people should die to lower his taxes, and this is "Christian".

1 2 8

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 1h

Thanks!

1

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2h

John - any idea why Barnsley, Doncaster, and Rotherham (each with >150k borough populations) are not on the map?

1

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

JP Spencer @jpspencer.bsky.social · 11h

All of the places in this map - and more - should have trams. We just need to let local areas get on with building things again, as they do in other countries.

Read more about how to get there here: futurenorth.substack.com/p/let-tracy-...

Large urban areas in the North like Leeds, Preston, Warrington and Hull should all have trams.

1 3 12

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 1d

👇🎯🧵

The Narrative™️ cannot fail. It can only be failed. "College isn't worth it for employment anymore & AI is taking all the jobs" edition.

Sam Thorpe @samthorpe.bsky.social · 1d

It turns out that once you correct for this error, unemployment is actually rising faster for NON-degree workers - meaning that explanations in terms of AI replacing the college-educated workforce don't make much sense, and this looks a lot more like an across-the-board labor market slowdown.

10 39

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Dan HIll @cityofsound.bsky.social · 16h

"Architect Duncan Baker-Brown answers your questions on adaptive re-use" (very good ... including interesting insight on the impact of replacing cork in wine bottles with plastics, a decision increasingly being reversed, increasingly. Also, nice tiles.) youtu.be/3u5uZRuT1H4?...

Architect Duncan Baker-Brown answers your questions on adaptive re-use

YouTube video by The Modern House & Inigo

youtu.be

2 4

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Tim Leunig @timleunig.bsky.social · 1d

I agree we should make housing transactions easier, but houses are cheap in the North East despite the same rules. Housing supply (lack thereof) is what makes prices high in the South East. Nothing else. Build more houses, solve the problem. Nothing else will solve it.

Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 1d

Brilliant and depressing piece on how hard it is to transact property

on.ft.com/4nHDf2m

I know some people think housing policy is simple - just build more! And to do that just have less planning! - but most appreciate the more complex tangles in life.

Moving home is maddening — here’s how the system needs to change

A new government consultation promises to speed up the conveyancing process in England and Wales. But will it work?

on.ft.com

3 5 18

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 1d

Reading this by m'learned colleague, and the nostalgia for 50s Britain is a crock. Much of the country was an exhausted dump. The Potteries were described as 'seven miles of concentrated ugliness and dirt'. Stoke was full of 'old clay working, old coal dumps, canal and industrial waste'. (1/2)

2 9 32

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 1d

After a long pause, I've just done another England Covid & NHS update as we head into the autumn/winter season.

TLDR: we're in a significant Covid wave now, the NHS is stretched, get boosted if you're eligible.

christinapagel.substack.com/p/england-is...

England is now experiencing a significant Covid wave, after 10 months of relative quiet

The latest Covid situation in England and a look at where NHS services are as we head into winter

christinapagel.substack.com

65 440 720

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

New York Attorney General Letitia James @newyorkstateag.bsky.social · 1d

This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.

I am not fearful — I am fearless.

We will fight these baseless charges aggressively, and my office will continue to fiercely protect New Yorkers and their rights..

1.8K 11K 39K

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 1d

A freely available AI literacy self-study tutorial from @sheffielduni.bsky.social about: rise.articulate.com/share/ckJWIi... via @altuk.bsky.social

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Dr Ellie Murray, ScD @epiellie.bsky.social · 1d

make. the. proof.

cool cool cool

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

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

9 16 100

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 1d

Informative as ever, by @julesbirch.bsky.social:
julesbirch.com/2025/09/22/m...

A year into the government’s five-year target to build 1.5 million additional homes and signs of progress are thin on the ground.

Indicators of new supply published on Friday estimate that 231,300 net additional homes were delivered in the just over 14 months between the start of the parliament on 9 July 2024 and 14 September 2025.

At this rate, the government will struggle to hit one million additional homes in this parliamentary term, let alone 1.5 million.

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Ufi VocTech Trust @ufitrust.bsky.social · 1d

If digital badging is to reach its full potential, we need a clear, coordinated strategy to guide it

The Digital Badging Commission, led by Ufi and The RSA will launch their digital badging recommendations on Monday at 2:30pm

Join us in-person or online to learn more: https://bit.ly/46DdzOl

1 1

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 1d

I see Robert Jenrick is supporting Hamit Coskun who is appealing his conviction by reference to the ECHR (which Jenrick wants to withdraw from).

Who knew that the ECHR could be useful, even to the anti-ECHR Hard Right?

12 100 310

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

Race and the Conservative New Order. Really good piece by @davidsonofaaron.bsky.social, highlighting the similarities between history graduate Robert Jenrick's language and Oswald Mosley's: davidaaronovitch.substack.com/p/not-anothe...

"Not another white face"

Race and the Conservative New Order

davidaaronovitch.substack.com

9 8

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 2d

Who benefits from the abolition of stamp duty land tax?

The first answer: people buying very expensive homes. Average saving for someone buying a £10m+ home is £1.7m. Average saving for someone buying a £250k-£500k home is £5k.

14 180 370

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

"Welcome, protect, promote and integrate." Pope Leo's first Apostolic Exhortation, published on 4 October has a terrific section on migrants and refugees. www.vatican.va/content/leo-... [I've no religion.] Indirectly via @alexvont.bsky.social.

75. The Church’s tradition of working for and with migrants continues, and today this service is expressed in initiatives such as refugee reception centers, border missions and the efforts of Caritas Internationalis and other institutions. Contemporary teaching clearly reaffirms this commitment. Pope Francis has recalled that the Church’s mission to migrants and refugees is even broader, insisting that “our response to the challenges posed by contemporary migration can be summed up in four verbs: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. Yet these verbs do not apply only to migrants and refugees. They describe the Church’s mission to all those living in the existential peripheries, who need to be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated.”

1 2

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

I'm all in favour of Ethio-Jazz.

2

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

"Welcome, protect, promote and integrate." Pope Leo's first Apostolic Exhortation, published on 4 October has a terrific section on migrants and refugees. www.vatican.va/content/leo-... [I've no religion.] Indirectly via @alexvont.bsky.social.

1 2

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2d

Marvellous column by @rafaelbehr.bsky.social that absolutely nails Kemi Badenoch - who clearly very deeply believes that the mere act of 'well, I'm saying it' means that something must be thoughtful, even if it is just a more innumerate and caustic echo of Nigel Farage:

Badenoch’s ‘thoughtful Conservatism’ turns out to be just the slower road to Faragism | Rafael Behr

The Tory leader’s intellectual meanderings have shrunk her party into little more than a holding pen for future Reform party candidates, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr

www.theguardian.com

5 27 120

Seb Schmoller @schmoller.net · 2d

A Yorkshire Sculpture Park miniature?

1

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 2d

I really don't know what to do about a situation where a plurality of the group that (rightly!) takes up most government spending thinks that it is unrepresented in politics.

Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 2d

Hollow laughter

59 100 520

Reposted by Seb Schmoller

David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 2d

Once you retire, you realise that you were never important to the organisation you worked for. That’s the reality that everyone discovers.

10 3 50