Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Maura Conway

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 22h

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

150 690 2.5K

Reposted by Maura Conway

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 1d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

85 770 3.4K

Reposted by Maura Conway

The Bunker podcast – News without the nonsense @bunkerpod.bsky.social · 1d

🚨OUT NOW🚨
The men who hate women – How sexism powers the far right. @milleridriss.bsky.social talks to @emmakennedy.bsky.social about how toxic masculinity, digital radicalisation, and white supremacist ideas became so entangled and what we can do to combat them 👉 linktr.ee/bunker_pod

8 20

Maura Conway @galwaygrrl.bsky.social · 22h

“'My job is to go for the jugular against the Irish media on my channel, and I will do that until or unless I end up like Charlie Kirk,' [Eddie] Hobbs told the audience, which then pleaded with him to run for political office." www.wired.com/story/conspi...

At a Conspiracy Conference in Rural Ireland, Charlie Kirk Was the Star

The increasingly tight links between far-right groups in the US and Europe were on full display at the Rebels Across the Pond conference in Ireland. The star of the show? Charlie Kirk.

www.wired.com

Reposted by Maura Conway

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 1d

From the bad old site, in response to pro-immigration commentary from Cato scholars. I wonder whether there's something dangerous in letting presidents just arbitrarily declare one or another group to be a terrorist organization -- nah, I suppose that's alarmist.

Four tweets from X, text:

[user] Sep 20
The CATO Institute should be labeled as a domestic terrorist organization.

[user] Sep 20
Replying to
@AlexNowrasteh
Trump's next EO needs to be declaring the CATO Institute a terrorist organization.

[user]
·
Sep 19
The next group that
@realDonaldTrump
needs to designate as a terrorist organization is the Cato Institute

[user]
·
Sep 19
Replying to
@David_J_Bier
we are going to designate the CATO Institute as a terrorist organization next.

Tweets from X, text: "

[user]
·
11h
Replying to
@David_J_Bier
The Cato Institute should be declared a terrorist organization.

[user]
·
11h
President Trump needs to declare Cato institute domestic terror organization
Quote
The Alex Nowrasteh
@AlexNowrasteh
·
Oct 8
Americans would be slightly more pro-immigration if they knew how hard it is to come here legally."

24 110 560

Reposted by Maura Conway

Science Magazine @science.org · 1d

In an analysis of 1.2 million news stories about scholarly research, men-led papers were found to receive more attention overall and were heavily overrepresented in the top 5% of most covered studies. https://scim.ag/4o7l5a5

When women researchers publish, media attention doesn’t always follow

Men-led papers receive more media coverage than women’s, new study finds

scim.ag

4 33 53

Reposted by Maura Conway

David_j_roth @davidjroth.bsky.social · 1d

The "somebody showed me a TikTok" era of American government is going pretty much exactly how you'd expect.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant -- she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School -- and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."

46 360 1.9K

Reposted by Maura Conway

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

We never incited violence, we just called this guy a member of antifa who funded terrorism and told our followers to pay him a visit ha ha and then a totally unrelated group of people threatened to murder him in front of his students ha ha

"The petition to disband our Turning Point chapter is blatantly defamatory," Ava Kwan, outreach coordinator for the Turning Point USA chapter at Rutgers, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"The accusations of 'inciting violence' and 'making threats' are complete lies," Kwan said. "The same people claiming we're suppressing their free speech are actively trying to silence us for speaking the truth. It's not just ironic, it's hypocritical and absurd."

tpusa_rutgers Do you want to become a socialist? If so, make sure to pay this professor a visit!!!! All jokes aside help us report this professor who has ties to Antifa which now is designated as a domestic terrorist organization. DO YOUR PART AND HELP MAKE RUTGERS A PLACE FOR ALL STUDENTS TO LEARN WITHOUT BECOMING A RADICAL SOCIALIST

20 400 1.7K

Reposted by Maura Conway

George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · 1d

Apart from helping Comey's selective prosecution defense, this also means the president of the United States uses direct messages on Truth Social to communicate with cabinet officials.

I didn't know that, but we can be sure intelligence agencies all over the planet already did.

520 4.5K 12K

Maura Conway @galwaygrrl.bsky.social · 1d

"We are appealing the decision to dismiss this case as we believe there is an important point of law which needs to be clarified," a British Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said. www.france24.com/en/live-news...

UK prosecutors to appeal dropped 'terrorism' case against Kneecap rapper

UK prosecutors Tuesday said they would appeal a court's decision to drop a charge of supporting "terrorism" brought against a Northern Irish singer from punk rap group Kneecap.

www.france24.com

Maura Conway @galwaygrrl.bsky.social · 1d

A RACO statement said “The Commission on the Defence Forces recommended achieving Level of Ambition (LOA) 2 of €1.5Bn (in 2022 prices, so this would be closer to €2Bn) by 2028. So, it appears that we are on track to meet LOA 2 by 2028" as recommended by the CODF. www.thejournal.ie/national-sec...

Disappointing and underwhelming: the verdict of defence and garda groups on today's budget

Extra gardaí, military personnel and projects announced in Budget for national security agencies.

www.thejournal.ie

1

Reposted by Maura Conway

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 2d

'Arm’s-length bodies such as the Office for Students (OfS) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) are particularly “vulnerable to political interference”, a new report has warned.' 1/3

‘Learn lessons from US’ and stop political interference, UK told

OfS and UKRI seen as particularly vulnerable to meddling from government, with report authors calling for more safeguards to ensure independence

www.timeshighereducation.com

2 17 41

Reposted by Maura Conway

Toni Rodon @tonirodon.bsky.social · 2d

Even subtle online rumours change sentiments toward entire groups and heighten conflict-related emotions, especially when combined with injustice frames doi.org/10.1177/0010...

Beyond Hate Speech: Online Rumors and Out-Group Resentment in Divided Societies - Mathilde B. Mjelva, Sebastian Schutte, Helga Malmin Binningsbø, Francesca R. Jensenius, 2025

The political consequences of hate speech on social media are the subject of intense research. Studies from Europe and North America have found that online expo...

doi.org

5 10

Reposted by Maura Conway

Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 2d

Big piece in POLITICO asking about the independence of Ireland's process of appointing people to its Data Protection Commission. There is deep unease in Brussels about Ireland appointing a former Meta lobbyist as Meta's watchdog. Now questions about who was involved.

www.politico.eu/article/big-...

Big Tech lawyer played key role in picking Ireland’s new privacy regulator

Former Meta lobbyist Niamh Sweeney will co-lead the Irish Data Protection Commission from mid-October.

www.politico.eu

5 91 160

Reposted by Maura Conway

VOX-Pol @vox-pol.bsky.social · 1d

We're launching our latest report on researching the far-right at 6pm UK/1pm US east coast time today.

The webinar will be chaired by @lizzypearson.bsky.social & feature author @antoniavaughan.bsky.social & discussant @audreygagnon.bsky.social.

More info.: voxpol.eu/events/new-v...

#PleaseRS

9 12

Reposted by Maura Conway

Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 2d

As I write in The Guardian this morning, the danger of this moment is that if Europe does not act against Trump now, it will never act again.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The EU has a secret weapon to counter Trump’s economic bullying. It’s time to use it | Johnny Ryan

The anti-coercion instrument, or ‘trade bazooka’, is designed to shield against foreign pressure, says civil liberties campaigner Johnny Ryan

www.theguardian.com

4 27 50

Reposted by Maura Conway

Ryan Bort @ryanbort.bsky.social · 2d

MAGA lawmakers regularly share its content. Elon called it "one of the best accounts on X." It's run by a Macedonian who has never set foot in America — and who illegally donated to a U.S. congressional campaign.

Great stuff from @jsweetli.bsky.social:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

The Viral MAGA Accounts Run by a Man Who Has Never Been to America

Two influential MAGA social media accounts are run by Rumen Naumovski, a Macedonian who may have illegally donated to a U.S. election.

www.rollingstone.com

11 310 820

Reposted by Maura Conway

The New Republic @newrepublic.com · 2d

Noem said antifa is “just as dangerous” as ISIS with a completely straight face. trib.al/KLTVMrr

39 30 110

Reposted by Maura Conway

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 2d

Incredible.

Jack Posobiec references the earliest version of antifa -- the anti-fascists in the Weimar Republic who were opposed to the Nazi Party -- as the bad guys.

380 2K 6.1K

Reposted by Maura Conway

David Wells @davidwellsct.bsky.social · 3d

New paper out with the CoE exploring how and how quickly terrorists adopt new technologies. It identifies factors inhibiting or encouraging new tech adoption - with two case studies on virtual assets and drones - and analyses the impact of new tech on terrorism in Europe rm.coe.int/report-on-th...

rm.coe.int

5 3

Reposted by Maura Conway

Isabelle van der Vegt 🟥 @isabellevdv.bsky.social · 3d

PhD opportunity on online hate among youth (Dutch required). Come work with us! #DutchAcademia #AcademicJobs www.uu.nl/organisatie/...

PhD: Cyberhaat begrijpen en aanpakken

Wil jij een bijdrage leveren aan het beter begrijpen, in kaart brengen en aanpakken van cyberhaat? Dan is deze positie iets voor jou!

www.uu.nl

9 6

Reposted by Maura Conway

James Ker-Lindsay @jameskerlindsay.bsky.social · 3d

#Ireland has a truly fascinating, controversial, but often misunderstood, foreign policy history. From WWII to Ukraine, neutrality to peacekeeping, Good Friday to Brexit, Trump to Palestine. Really great to discuss all this with @bentonra.bsky.social
youtu.be/hv5ggSV2-vQ

Understanding Irish Foreign Policy | Ben Tonra

YouTube video by Prof James Ker-Lindsay

youtu.be

3 10

Reposted by Maura Conway

C-REX @crexuio.bsky.social · 2d

📚 New edited volume "(Un)Silencing Academia in Times of Epistemic Conflicts: Navigating Online Violence"! Featuring contributions from former and current C-REX scholars, including @audreygagnon.bsky.social, @tamtagelashvili.bsky.social, & Iris Segers. www.routledge.com/UnSilencing-...

(Un)Silencing Academia in Times of Epistemic Conflicts: Navigating Online Violence

This volume tackles the pressing issue of online violence against academics, considering the diverse forms that cyberbullying and harassment can take, as well as their likely targets. Offering both th...

www.routledge.com

2 2

Reposted by Maura Conway

Dónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 2d

We are delighted to welcome @susiedeedigan.bsky.social to Maynooth tomorrow evening for a research seminar entitled '"Hardly serious”: the detention of republican women in wartime Ireland, 1939-45'. The seminar is open to the public and will take place in Roque Lab, Rhetoric House 17:00-18:00.

1 9 21

Reposted by Maura Conway

Elizabeth Pearson @lizzypearson.bsky.social · 2d

Tomorrow 9 October @vox-pol.bsky.social launches this excellent new report by @antoniavaughan.bsky.social Researching the Far Right Safely in Academia.

I'm chairing, @audreygagnon.bsky.social is discussing. Do come along!

Sign up below. Webinar - 9 October - 6pm BST 🕸️

voxpol.eu/events/new-v...

New VOX-Pol Report Online Launch - VOX - Pol

09/10/2025 @ 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm - VOX-Pol is publishing a new report titled Researching the Far Right Safely in Academia: Current Practices and Constraints by Dr Antonia Vaughan on Thursday 9 October 2...

voxpol.eu

15 21