Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 17h

"ICE has also purchased spyware in recent weeks that enables it to remotely hack into smartphones and extract data, even if the phones are locked or communication is over encrypted apps."

ICE amps up its surveillance powers, targeting immigrants and antifa

Iris scanners, facial recognition apps, phone-hacking software and cellphone location data are among the agency’s recent technological purchases.

www.washingtonpost.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14h

it is funny how much studio executives dislike making money

Braddington @bradwhipple.bsky.social · 15h

whelp, I’ll be thinking about the Steven Soderbergh movie about Ben Solo until the day I die, I guess. we could’ve had it all.

apnews.com/article/adam...

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Disco Elysium Quotes @discoelysiumbot.bsky.social · 10h

YOU - No, I'll show you how a gentleman treats a doorbell! (Kiss the doorbell.)

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Schooley @schooley.bsky.social · 10h

The funny thing is if they weren’t obviously half-assing this thing they could have put up giant screens to hide the demolition. Disneyland does it all the time.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 10h

The Treasury Department instructed employees not to share to share photos of the demolition of parts of the White House’s East Wing

Exclusive | Treasury Tells Employees Not to Share Photos of White House Ballroom Construction

Images of the demolition of parts of the East Wing went viral on Monday, and Treasury’s headquarters next door to the White House has a front-row seat.

www.wsj.com

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spooky mental haunted house @jesseltaylor.bsky.social · 10h

twitter is making mainstream reporters dumber, and because they're all getting dumber together, none of them can recognize it and they actually think they're getting smarter

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Very 🫘 @veryvaluable.bsky.social · 12h

And the trees! Those really hurt.

(Photo source unknown because I’d saved it on my phone)

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Nash @radiodeadair.com · 11h

The main thing keeping Netanyahu out of Israeli court on corruption charges (which are unrelated to Gaza, somehow) is the ongoing conflict.

If the conflict stops, his head is back on the block.

So the conflict is never gonna stop.

shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 11h

from the cover of Time magazine blaring HIS TRIUMPH to this in a week

NYT Breaking News
American officials said they were increasingly concerned that Benjamin Netanyahu could dismantle the Gaza peace deal.

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Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 19h

So, per reporting from Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng, in today’s new ‘First Draft’ newsletter, Trump tried to get a newly-divorced Russ Vought, Project 2025 architect & now budget chief, laid at Mar-a-Lago.

The details are, ahem, as crude as you’d expect from Trump.
zeteo.com/p/trump-shit...

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RiotGrlErin @riotgrlerin.bsky.social · 10h

the pumpkin spice girls: thread

The Spice Girls wearing reds, green and darker fall colors.

Pumpkins that match the same aesthetic as The Spice Girls.

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Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 11h

The @nytimes.com decided last year what the story was; Trump II was the righteous punishment visited upon their interns and junior staffers and grandchildren for being so annoying about MeToo and BLM, and once they understood that and repented, they could have democracy back.

Paul Tree @paultree10.bsky.social · 1d

Just insane thing for a NYT editor to say publicly:

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 12h

Bring this shit back with a vengeance, and then some

screenshot from the "How Can We Live Together" Boston Review article, reading "Not all overt bigots hid behind robes or discreet book clubs, however. Some of them were willing to skirt the PC rules: the disparaging reference to the ghetto, the thoughtful suggestion to go back to Africa, the occasional “hard R.”

But these were the exception. This kind of behavior got you suspended at school, in hot water with HR, disinvited from dinner parties. In other words, it was the kind of behavior that would make the Bertrand Russells of the world think better of association with you."

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NPR @npr.org · 12h

Dramatic photos show construction equipment tearing into the East Wing façade and windows, though the federal agency that oversees such projects has not approved President Trump's 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom. n.pr/48AUON2

The White House starts demolishing part of the East Wing to build Trump's ballroom

Dramatic photos show construction equipment tearing into the East Wing façade and windows, though the federal agency that oversees such projects has not approved President Trump's 90,000-square-foot, $250 million ballroom.

n.pr

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 15h

EXCLUSIVE: One Saturday afternoon in October, my phone lit up with a notification.

I glanced down at the message.

“Anna, Lindsey Halligan here,” it began.

So began my text exchange with the woman who is prosecuting the president's perceived political enemies.

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna...

"Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here."
Anna Bower
Monday, October 20, 2025, 5:40 PM
Share On: f X inK My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about
the Letitia James grand jury.

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Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · Apr 2

I'm just a lowly art historian, but in moments like these I always think back to one early sign of Trump's wanton, pointless destructiveness: his demolition of the priceless & irreplaceable Art Deco relief sculptures on facade of the Bonwit Teller building, which he tore down to build Trump Tower

Relief sculpture of a lithe figure in a dancing-like pose

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Jonathan Edwards @jonathanreports.bsky.social · 18h

Scoop: Trump has started demolishing the White House's East Wing facade to build his ballroom. The president had claimed construction of the $250 million building wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure. /W @ddiamond.bsky.social wapo.st/4hqBNiU

White House begins demolishing East Wing facade to build Trump’s ballroom

The president had claimed construction of the $250 million ballroom wouldn’t ‘interfere’ with the existing White House structure.

wapo.st

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 16h

MAYBE THE NATIONAL GUARD SHOULD BE STOPPING TRUMP FROM LITERALLY TEARING DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE?!?

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Return of the Cmonstermacques @cmonmaque.bsky.social · 23h

Sorry everyone. I said “movie studios can’t get any worse” and forgot to knock on wood. This is my bad.

Semafor @semafor.com · 1d

Investors await Paramount's next bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

www.semafor.com/article/10/1...

Investors await Paramount’s next bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

CEO David Zaslav and his board rejected an initial bid of roughly $20 per share.

www.semafor.com

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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 3d

The long awaited time lapse of how i wrap my tentacle pots for shipping! Lots of bubblewrap around all the limbs then layered up to make a big ball and then secured in the box with paper all around!

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Shiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 1d

Writers: Ok so the heist team will include someone to get close to the curator's son and seduce him into revealing the whereabouts of the key that we will then briefly steal and make a copy of and return without anyone noticing via second to second precision and thats how we get in

Real thieves:

Photo of the Louvre with a ladder placed against an open 2nd floor window

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Razzball @razzball.bsky.social · 1d

“All my friends murdered and raped, sometimes they hung out at my house. Get over yourself.”

RFK Jr. explains why socializing with Jeffrey Epstein wasn't such a big deal for him:
...l ran into everybody in NY. I mean, I knew Harvey Weinstein, I knew Roger Ailes, I knew
-- O.J. Simpson came to my house. Bill Cosby came to my house."

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60 Minutes @60minutes.bsky.social · 1d

“We found over 35 cases in which the judges have specifically said what the government is providing…false information. It might be intentionally false information, including false sworn declarations time and again," says Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

seems that RFK is clearing the path for his CDC to do tuskegee syphillis experiments as a matter of course. in other news, RFK is a genuine monster who relishes in the pain and suffering of those he feels he has control or dominion over

Julia Lynch @jlynch13.bsky.social · 1d

RFK is undoing human subjects protections so he can conduct placebo trials of vaccines. That means infecting people knowingly. I wonder who will “volunteer” for these trials? If history is any guide, a lot of incarcerated and other powerless people.

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 1d

Dismantling the Institutional Review Board (IRB), that oversees all human subjects research, is bad. Really bad.

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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 2d

America is being run by people whose social media presence would see them getting fired from a part time job stacking shelves.
If you worked at Aldi and posted a video of you pouring shit all over Aldi customers, you wouldn't work at Aldi.

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Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 2d

The average amount of SNAP received is about $173. Which means you could fund nearly a million families for a month if we just didn't buy her two private jets to fly around and do racist pressers. Which by the way, seems excessive.

Rory Flynn @roryflynn808.bsky.social · 2d

Do I understand this correctly? We're shelling out $172 million for two private jets for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal officials while no funds are available for SNAP (food stamp) recipients in November. Does that about cover it?

LyndaGood @lyndagood.bsky.social · 2d

$172 million on private jets for Kristi Noem? Incredible.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard is supposed to save lives and protect our coasts, but apparently it’s easier and far more important to fund her personal travel budget. Wasteful doesn’t even begin to cover it.

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amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 2d

The crowd did not disperse, an instead started playing Tubthumping by Chumbawamba — I get knocked down, but I get up again.

amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 2d

Portland ICE facility now.

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