Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 16h

Yikes. Get well soon Pat.

Astounding that even that doesn’t qualify you.

I live in France now, and will just rock up to the pharmacy in our village tomorrow when I go to the market, for my six monthly booster, without appointment. I’m not in any vulnerable group, but understand real herd immunity!

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 18h

I'm astounded the UK is restricting booster access so much... and that private providers like Boots are profiteering so extremely without any flack for it in the media.

Surely it'd be better value for the DoH to get as many boosters in as many arms as possible, to reduce pressure on hospitals?!

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 18h

Folks, that wasn't a 'just a nasty cold' after the return to school/work...

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 18h

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

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 22h

😂

Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 22h

All my comics have happy endings!

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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 22h

The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 has been awarded to Venezuelan democracy activist María Corina Machado.

The Nobel Committee recognised her “struggle to achieve a just & peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

In other words, exactly the opposite of what Trump is doing to the United States.

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 23h

Agree on all points.

Incredibly depressing though that, according to polling, the electorate thinks:
A) this brexit thing is turning out to be a really shit idea
B) let’s give Nigel Farage more power and see what other ideas he has

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The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 1d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Signe Johansen @signesjohansen.bsky.social · 1d

Better late than ever, but hard not to roll one’s eyes at how credulous the manosphere podcasting bros were when they indulged Trump during last year’s election campaign

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 1d

"None of what Trump has done since retaking office should come as a shock... It’s a shame that many of the content creators who helped put him back in office only seem to be realizing it now."

Manosphere Influencers Who Boosted Trump Are Now Cooling on Him

bit.ly

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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 2d

This is the old joke about the guy who kills his parents, then begs the court for mercy because he's an orphan.

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 2d

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

Ha! I wonder if he’s grown even further than 6’2 since the first one?

Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

On another note, remember the press going crazy with revealing Biden’s staff had even considered having him do a cognitive test?
So how big are they going to go about a President actually being asked to do one?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "I also did a cognitive exam. Which is always very risky because if I didn't do well, you'd be the first to be blaring it and I had a perfect score. And one of the doctors said he's almost never seen a perfect score. I had a perfect score. That made me well good ... not the easiest test."

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

“Sir, that’s not a cognitive exam, it’s hungry hippo, but yes, you’re doing very well”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "I also did a cognitive exam. Which is always very risky because if I didn't do well, you'd be the first to be blaring it and I had a perfect score. And one of the doctors said he's almost never seen a perfect score. I had a perfect score. That made me well good ... not the easiest test."

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CollinCountyDems @collincountydems.bsky.social · 1d

This is terrifying!

ICE breaks into this woman’s car in the pick-up line at West Loop Elementary school in Chicago and detains her before she can pick her kids up from school. (They were eventually let go after showing their documents)

This is Trump’s America.

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

If you haven't had your vaccine top-up yet, folks, I highly recommend getting it pronto!

Stuart McDonald @actuarybyday.bsky.social · 1d

First Covid wave for 12 months is well underway. Hospital admissions are already higher than last year's peak, but are much lower than we were seeing in earlier waves.

There will be weekly surveillance reports through the winter months here:
www.gov.uk/government/s...

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

Private companies should not hold such comprehensive personal data on people. They just can't/won't keep it safe.

404 Media @404media.co · 1d

BREAKING: A catastrophic breach has impacted Discord user data including selfies and identity documents uploaded as part of the app’s verification process, email addresses, phone numbers, approximately where the user lives, and much more.

🔗 www.404media.co/the-discord-...

The Discord Hack is Every Users’ Worst Nightmare

A hack impacting Discord’s age verification process shows in stark terms the risk of tech companies collecting users’ ID documents. Now the hackers are posting peoples’ IDs and other sensitive informa...

www.404media.co

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

So, now I think we all need to know what these passages are that the Trump family, and Murdoch, want to hide.

With a major UK publishing house, a book like this would not have got to print without lawyers having been all over it and wanting to see the evidence behind any such claims.

Jay Rayner @jayrayner1.bsky.social · 1d

In other news Charlie Redmayne, the long serving CEO of HC in the UK, resigned yesterday.

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

Whether it’s Joe Biden attending weekly mass or Donald Trump’s ICE agents shooting a priest in the face with a pepper ball, presidents of both sides have directly engaged with the Catholic faith.

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 1d

Finally a sensible take on all this (from Jon, not Politico, of course)

Jon Worth @jonworth.eu · 1d

😡 I find "analysis" like this annoying
www.politico.eu/article/brus...

Yes, Macron is in a difficult spot. Yes, this plays into hands of the far right. But you can only assess the risk if you examine procedures and systems (such as the electoral system), & numbers (polling, as far as there is any)

The EU’s worst nightmare has never looked so real

If the far right gains control of parliament in the EU’s second-largest country, Europe will fundamentally change.

www.politico.eu

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Ann Kempster @annkempster.com · 2d

Flu and Covid jabs today. Had to pay for both. Whatevs.

If you are eligible for them on the NHS please get them. If you aren’t, please consider paying.

Respiratory illness is already putting a big strain on hospitals and it’s only October.

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 2d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 2d

My first reaction too. They love hamming it up

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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 2d

Turns out that when Americans said "If it weren't for us you'd be speaking German now..." their objection was to learning a second language, not fascism.

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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 2d

Today's the day: DARK WIRE, my book on how the FBI secretly ran a tech company for criminals and wiretapped the world, coming to paperback. Updated with many more details. An Economist and FT book of the year. 404 Media subs: you just got 20% to your email www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/josep...

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Steve Parks @steveparks.me · 2d

And the issues on the domestic front have at least some of their roots in this issue. The extremes have been massively boosted by the easy spread of disinformation on social media, backed by foreign influence powerhouses, such as those in Saint Petersburg. That's led to their power in parliament.

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