Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 4h

His clearup rate looks good because he spends all his time on office politics, scheming to pass off long and complicated cases to his unlucky colleagues while he bumps up his stats by concentrating on the simple stuff and/or plotting to take the credit for the work of others.

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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 8h

Everyone knows at least one person (normally, but not exclusively, a guy) whose gone properly mental due to net rabbit holes.

We see public figures regularly go mad and destroy themselves.

And we have, at a policy level, just decided to put our fingers in our ears and go nahnahnah

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 8h

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Rick Burin @rickburin.bsky.social · 8h

That, in our country, this is classed as entertainment and deemed worthy of being on television

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 7h

Russia is a country without a future. Putin has created a death cult.

Sven-Erik Volberg @volberg.bsky.social · 7h

Afghanistan - 3
Chechnya - 17
Ukraine - 100 with plenty of room for additions

Neftekumsk, Stavropol Krai, Russia, population 22000.

Pic via @killedinukraine.bsky.social

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 7h

Worth reading the small print on these adverts. 👇

Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 7h

Paul Greengrass did an excellent movie about it - worth checking out. Hugely controversial event in Northern Ireland - that ruled out a peaceful resolution and set the scene for a 30 year war.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytwl...

Bloody Sunday (2002) ORIGINAL TRAILER

YouTube video by Unseen Trailers

www.youtube.com

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Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham.bsky.social · 10h

A quiet bombshell in Europe’s tech world

The Dutch government seems to have effectively frozen operations of Nexperia, the Chinese-owned chipmaker, citing national security, according to corporate filing today - via @zichenwanghere

Dutch govt accused of freezing operations of Chinese semiconductor giant's chipmaker Nexperia

Wingtech, the Shanghai-listed parent, denounces what it essentially calls a boardroom coup involving the Dutch government and local executives

open.substack.com

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 15h

This is such a clever idea on taking kids to museums/galleries
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Nadia from London has an idea that sounds such fun you'll be booking a day out asap.
"I've always loved museums," she says,
"but they can be overwhelming for children. For decades now, I've done something called 'playing postcards'
We do
the museum backwards, visiting the gift shop first. Each child gets to choose three postcards. Then they take it in turns to find that particular artwork in the museum and give us a little information about the piece from the details on the postcard, or from any gallery plaque. At the end of this treasure-hunt-style activity, we vote for our favourite in the cafe."

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Mark Braxton @braxtm.bsky.social · 12h

Here's the @radiotimes.bsky.social article on the book...

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Robin Brooks @robin-j-brooks.bsky.social · 14h

The dominant narrative is that China has the upper hand over the US, but that's nonsense. China depends on its export sector to grow. US tariffs are a body blow to that sector, as China's exports show. China plays hardball on rare earths because it has to...
robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/the-mistak...

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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.bsky.social · 14h

This. It just doesn’t work anymore, so why should I be there?

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 16h

This is an exact encapsulation of why I moved to Bluesky.

No amount of handwringing in the Atlantic about how I owe some eternal Promethean suffering to the discourse is going to make me stay on a site I hate, that stopped doing anything for me professionally years ago.

Well – no. Bluesky may or may not be, as one centre-right friend who felt unwelcome put it, “self-righteous island”. But the idea that’s why we went is nonsense. That I’ve largely stopped posting on a site that’s done more to shape my career and social circle than the rest of the internet combined is less about avoiding rival opinions (I love arguing with people who are wrong!) than with the fact the site simply became unusable. It stopped generating the things (good jokes, interesting debate, clicks) I wanted; it became extremely good at generating the things (racists, pornbots, racist pornbots) I did not.

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The Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 1d

🇲🇩 Russia will not stop and will look for new ways to influence Moldova to destabilize the situation, - President Sandu

"Moscow tested its hybrid attacks in elections, culminating in presidential elections and the referendum on the EU. But the real goal was parliamentary elections," - Sandu said.

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The Ukrainian Review @theukrainianreview.bsky.social · 1d

She stressed that Moldovan citizens voted for democracy, Europe and peace, but the victory is temporary.

"If authoritarian regimes adapt faster than democracies, freedom will be lost," - the president said.

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David Higham @oldtrotter.bsky.social · 1d

Free trade and laisser faire are not the same thing. Unfortunately, we’ve spent the last few decades assuming that they are, with consequences tgat are all too apparent on.ft.com/48YLOBs A bad bet on globalisation — and the new age of tech autocrats

A bad bet on globalisation — and the new age of tech autocrats

Bill Clinton emerges as something of a prophet in a book about a gamble on free trade, while Giuliano da Empoli offers a stark warning on the coming world order

on.ft.com

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

Yup - the glorious Trump dynastic succession isn't going to last long if they don't feed their security forces.

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Birds Are Dinosaurs 🦢=🦖 @birdsaredinosaurs.bsky.social · 1d

Even North Korea knows better than to let their soldiers go hungry.

Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 1d

If this was happening in any other country you'd have journalists and analysts discussing risks of state failure

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

Looks like sonny's growing up to be a chip off the block. 😬

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 1d

Turns out protest alone was never what changed things, it was protest *plus media coverage of protests*, which prompted officials to respond to protests, which increased public awareness of protests, etc.

If the protest happens & corporate media simply ignores it ... it's inert.

ineptitudinous.bsky.social @ineptitudinous.bsky.social · 1d

Six out of eight of the largest mass-movement protests in US history have happened since 2017. You wouldn't know this from most media reporting, and you sure af wouldn't know this from the way either major party has reacted.

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

This is a very good article about how US political communication works in Trump 2.0. 👇
Similar in many ways to what @jenmercieca.bsky.social talked about in terms of weirdifying fascism.
www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 1d

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

Interesting regional variations. Irish one needs a few slices of white pudding and grilled tomatoes. And a couple of slices of fried bread to clog those arteries good and proper.

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah - the orange juice is essential to delude yourself about the crime against your health that you are about to commit.

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

A personality cult? Megalomania? No! Surely not...

hitler-speer-bormann-inspect-a-model-of-the-triumphal-arch-for-berlin

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

Not enough gold. More gold. And giant neon letters saying TRUMP. And a giant statue of the Orange God on top. Also made from gold (or something that looks like gold from the distance).

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

Trump’s Albert Speer-style German Arch of Triumph now planned for DC.

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Ian Ford 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @ianford.bsky.social · 1d

Personally I think the ratio of eggs to fried pork products is all wrong on that plate.

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