Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Tim Smedley

Jonathan Ladd @jonmladd.bsky.social · 1h

TikTok is controlled by an authoritarian government. One of their goals is the weakening of democracies around the world.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 20h

Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 1d

Help the World Food Programme (WFP) to scale operations and deliver food assistance as people return to Gaza. Donate and
#ShareTheMeal sharethemeal.org/campaigns/pa...

Donate to Palestine with ShareTheMeal!

Help fight hunger by donating cash assistance to people in Palestine so they can feed their families. Join ShareTheMeal — part of the UN World Food Programme — now.

sharethemeal.org

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Central Bylines @centralbylines.co.uk · 22h

Great news.....

Great Britain has run on 100% clean power for record 87 hours in 2025 so far

@eastangliabylines.co.uk @carbonbrief.org

Great Britain has run on 100% clean power for record 87 hours in 2025 so far

Clean-energy sources have powered Great Britain entirely for a record 87 hours this year — a milestone toward 2030 targets

eastangliabylines.co.uk

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 7h

This is a beautiful read. Welcome back Alaa Abd el-Fattah!

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘I deserve to heal’: freed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah on his prison ordeal and next steps

The campaigner, who spent more than a decade in an Egyptian ‘vortex of incarceration’, wants to join his son in the UK while he reflects on the fight for freedom

www.theguardian.com

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 3d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 1d

Help the World Food Programme (WFP) to scale operations and deliver food assistance as people return to Gaza. Donate and
#ShareTheMeal sharethemeal.org/campaigns/pa...

Donate to Palestine with ShareTheMeal!

Help fight hunger by donating cash assistance to people in Palestine so they can feed their families. Join ShareTheMeal — part of the UN World Food Programme — now.

sharethemeal.org

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Reposted by Tim Smedley

Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 1d

The picture of Farage with the T shirt from Gill’s briber’s wife, taken the day Gill appears her Pro Russian TV channel, is taken in Gill’s office

Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 1d

Farage on Gill and Pro Russian media bribes” I told him not to go. He defied me and went. I was completely unaware of any statements that he made."

Farage with pro Russian media (and wife of briber) on the day Gill made his statements in 2018

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Jennifer Molidor @jennifermolidor.bsky.social · 1d

Hanging onto every bit of good news

The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing.

This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better.

lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 1d

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 1d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 2d

Ha - was just talking about this earlier. Yup. (Think we contemplated the same cover at one point too?!)

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Robert Llewellyn @bobbyllew.bsky.social · 2d

No point denying it, I’m a bit of a Nissan Leaf fanboy. I’ve driven my 1st generation Leaf over 80,000 miles and it’s never had anything resembling a mechanical problem. Incredibly reliable. If this new version is similar, it’s a very long-term vehicle.

Front view of the new Nissan leaf again parked by the seaside and again resting in dappled sunlight in northern Denmark

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Prospect Magazine @prospectmagazine.co.uk · 3d

Wind and solar came close to surpassing global gas power generation in April, for the first time, writes @timsmedley.bsky.social.

As Bill McKibben says, “Everything is going wrong, except this one big thing.”

The great 2025 solar boom

One massive thing is going really well, according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Gregory Norminton @gregorynorminton.bsky.social · 4d

Fascism in its purest form.

The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 4d

Stephen Miller is portraying opposition to Donald Trump in any form, including by judges issuing legal rulings, as an illegal rebellion, Jonathan Chait argues:

Stephen Miller Lays Out the Plan in Public

The White House aide equates opposition to Trump’s agenda with terrorism—and pushes for the use of state power to suppress it.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Tim Smedley

Prospect Magazine @prospectmagazine.co.uk · 7d

Some rare good climate news: wind is vying to be the cheapest form of electricity generation there is, and solar adoption figures have surpassed all expectations, writes @timsmedley.bsky.social.

The great 2025 solar boom

One massive thing is going really well, according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 8d

Thanks for reading and sharing Emma!

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Reposted by Tim Smedley

Emma Rose 🌹Purposeful Poetry @emmarosepoetry.bsky.social · 9d

There IS good happening in our world!

I highly recommend #reading Tim’s article if you’d like to learn about progress being made in an area it’s truly needed 💚

#GoodNews #News #Positivity #Optimism #Climate #Care #Nature #NatureLovers #Sustainability #Solar #Environment #ClimateAction #ClimateHope

Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 10d

Want some truly good news?! Solar energy is booming like never before! Several countries have already doubled their solar capacity in 2025 alone (including China! 🤯☀️)

Me for @prospectmagazine.co.uk feat. @billmckibben.bsky.social & @ember-energy.org

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

The great 2025 solar boom

One massive thing is going really well, according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Reposted by Tim Smedley

Earthling @ziyatong.bsky.social · 8d

“It’s easier to talk here than it is in America," the comedian told an audience at the Riyadh Comedy Festival.

He could not be that ignorant. How callous. What an insult to the life of Jamal Khashoggi.

The Hollywood Reporter @thr.com · 9d

Dave Chappelle criticized the status of free speech in the United States while on stage at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

Dave Chappelle Criticizes Free Speech in America at Saudi Arabia Comedy Festival

Dave Chappelle criticized the status of free speech in the United States while on stage at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

bit.ly

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Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 9d

"Spain’s rapid renewables build-out means its power prices were set by fossil generation just 19% of the time, down from 75% in 2019. As a result, wholesale electricity was almost a third cheaper than the EU average"

Imagine having cheaper power

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Spain’s Renewable-Energy Boom Loosens Gas’s Grip on Power Prices

Soaring renewables output in Spain is weakening gas’s grip on electricity prices, setting the country apart from much of Europe where fossil fuels still dictate the cost of power.

www.bloomberg.com

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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 9d

Thames Water's bidders ask to be excused from fully complying with rules on pollution until 2035-40.

Rule of law?

Anything given to TW can't be denied to others. Sewage will be dumped. Customers will be fleeced. Returns will be extracted.

One law for corporations, another for lesser mortals.

Thames Water creditors ask for up to 15 years’ leniency from river pollution rules

Lenders say a ‘full return to legal, regulatory and environmental compliance’ under new rescue plan would not be completed until at least 2035-2040

www.theguardian.com

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MythicalDragoness 🇨🇦 @mythicaldragoness.bsky.social · 9d

🇨🇦 Ahem, #Canada? 👋

How Germany outfitted half a million balconies with #solar panels
The country’s residents installed 200MW of balcony solar during the first half of 2024. It’s becoming an increasingly popular way to take #climate action in Germany.

#Energy
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

How Germany outfitted half a million balconies with solar panels

The country’s residents installed 200MW of balcony solar during the first half of 2024. It’s becoming an increasingly popular way to take climate action…

www.canarymedia.com

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Reposted by Tim Smedley

Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 10d

Want some truly good news?! Solar energy is booming like never before! Several countries have already doubled their solar capacity in 2025 alone (including China! 🤯☀️)

Me for @prospectmagazine.co.uk feat. @billmckibben.bsky.social & @ember-energy.org

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

The great 2025 solar boom

One massive thing is going really well, according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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Reposted by Tim Smedley

Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 9d

Having promised to peak emissions this decade, barely 50 years after it began to industrialise in earnest, China looks set to achieve that. And in the process, become a world leader in wind power, solar energy and electric vehicles. theconversation.com/when-china-m...

When China makes a climate pledge, the world should listen

Beijing has a track record of only promising what it plans to deliver. But too often the world’s attention is elsewhere.

theconversation.com

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 10d

And wind & solar will surpass gas generation (globally!!) any month now, having lagged by close to 20% just six years ago. This is rapid progress, people! As McKibben writes in Here Comes The Sun, “Everything is going wrong, except this one big thing.”

Line graph titled "Global electricity generation from wind and solar is quickly catching up to gas power." The vertical axis shows the share of electricity generation (%) ranging from 0% to 25%, and the horizontal axis spans from April 2019 to April 2025.

Two lines are plotted:

Black line for gas power, which remains fairly stable around 22–24% throughout the period.

Green line for wind and solar, which rises steadily from around 7% in 2019 to meet gas power at about 21% by April 2025.

The graph shows wind and solar generation catching up to gas by the end of the timeline, and set to soon surpass it within coming months. Source: Monthly electricity data, Ember.

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 10d

Couldn't fit these @ember-energy.org graphs in the piece, but check out just how rapidly solar is taking off in Africa. You love to see it:

A multi-panel line graph titled: "20 African countries imported a record amount of solar panels in the 12 months to June 2025. Rolling 12 months imports of solar panels from China, megawatts." All graphs show a sharp increase in imports in 2025.

Each small graph represents a different African country, showing solar panel imports from January 2021 to June 2025. The countries shown are:

Top row: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC)
Second row: Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya
Third row: Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone
Bottom row: Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia

source: https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-first-evidence-of-a-take-off-in-solar-in-africa

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Tim Smedley @timsmedley.bsky.social · 10d

Want some truly good news?! Solar energy is booming like never before! Several countries have already doubled their solar capacity in 2025 alone (including China! 🤯☀️)

Me for @prospectmagazine.co.uk feat. @billmckibben.bsky.social & @ember-energy.org

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...

The great 2025 solar boom

One massive thing is going really well, according to veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

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