Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · 7d

The girl died, sweating and shivering. The boy's hand slipped from his mother's as she screamed. Both could have been saved by drugs that the U.S. had already bought, paid for and shipped - only a couple of kilometers away. But USAID cuts had stopped deliveries www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Trump’s USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. Children died waiting.

USAID antimalarial and HIV supplies valued at nearly $140 million were delayed in the first half of the year or not delivered at all due to the Trump administration’s foreign aid pause, The Post found...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · 11d

Sudan's civil war has seen a proliferation of anti-aircraft weapons: deadly drones, MANPADS, and truck-borne surface-to-air missile systems. Even Turkey's advanced Akinci drones, which the military used to help retake the capital, are getting shot down. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

New antiaircraft weapons propel Sudan’s war, imperil global security

Fighters now possess antiaircraft weapons that could threaten civilian air traffic and what appears to be a Chinese surface-to-air missile system, experts said.

www.washingtonpost.com

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The World @theworld.org · 15d

Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher, cut off by 19 miles of earthen berms built by rebel forces now attacking the town. @khoureld.bsky.social and her @washingtonpost.com colleagues have been speaking with some of those behind the dirt walls.

Starving and surrounded: el-Fasher residents plead for aid - The World from PRX

Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher, cut off by 19 miles of earthen berms built by rebel forces now attacking the town. Katharine Houreld and her Was...

theworld.org

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · 18d

Love & pain in Sudan's el Fashir
- the father trying to comfort his daughter, raped when she went to pick wild weeds for her starving family. The man praying a last time with his dying brother, shot as they fled. The mother whose young sons are missing.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Starvation or execution: Sudanese under siege face ‘death everywhere’

Families in El Fashir are eating animal feed. Children have been raped while foraging for food. Those who try to escape have been kidnapped and killed.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · 22d

Excellent report by @propublica.org on abuses migrant workers face under the H2A visas. Sex trafficking, kidnapping, beatings, deaths. Sofi ended up bound in the back of a pickup, her abuser smearing her blood on a shrine. Police arrived before he killed her. projects.propublica.org/h2a-visa-far...

A Farmworkers Visa Promised Her a Better Life. It Was a Trap.

Sofi left behind her child in Mexico for the promise of providing him a better life. She ended up a victim of an operation that is alleged to have exploited the H-2A visa program — and the workers it ...

projects.propublica.org

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 23d

The U.S. Air Force has started upgrading the 747 jetliner that the government of Qatar donated to the U.S. this summer, the Air Force said in a statement this week. Industry and Pentagon officials have said the extensive upgrades could cost as much as $1 billion. nyti.ms/4prxszi

Upgrades Begin on Plane Donated by Qatar to Serve as Air Force One

The 747 jetliner needs extensive security modifications. Some members of Congress worry that President Trump will pressure the Air Force to do the work too quickly.

nyti.ms

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Jul 17

The last fight for Sudan's capital. Families desperate to escape. An influx of new fighters, drugged up and fleeing defeat. And a massacre denied by RSF leadership, but then proudly owned by a commander on the ground. These were the last days in Salha. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Drugs, blood and terror: Inside a paramilitary massacre in Sudan

At least 31 people were massacred on April 27 in Salha, a neighborhood south of Khartoum, survivors said. The Post has reconstructed the events of that day.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · Jul 15

0.1% of Dartmoor in good ecological condition. And each Dartmoor ewe loses its owner £16.90 – the ecological and economic craziness of the current sheep grazing regime well explained by @chrisgpackham.bsky.social. Time to change how this amazing place is managed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sheep are destroying precious British habitats – and we taxpayers are footing the bill | Chris Packham

Large parts of Dartmoor have been denuded of wildlife, harmed by farming and a mess of government schemes that are costly in every way, says naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham

www.theguardian.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Jul 8

We ran this story yesterday www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Foreseeable flaws in Gaza aid project led to shooting of Palestinians

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation program has produced huge crowds near Israeli troops, who opened fire multiple times, according to humanitarian experts, witnesses and visual evidence.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Jul 8

A U.S. company airdropped food to empty villages in South Sudan that had been attacked by government forces. Some were too afraid to get the aid; others crept back, fearful but starving. Here's what happened next: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

U.S. entrepreneurs want to tear up the international aid system’s rulebook

Fogbow is working with combatants to deliver food to some of the world’s most desperate and inaccessible places. Aid groups warn of unintended consequences.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Jun 30

Children clung to life in Sudan by the slenderest of threads, supported by community soup kitchens. Then the USAID funding cuts came, and their mothers watched them starve to death one by one. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

In Sudan, where children clung to life, doctors say USAID cuts have been fatal

The Trump administration’s cuts to USAID had an immediate and deadly impact in war-ravaged Sudan, according to civilians, doctors and aid officials.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Katharine Houreld

Yvonne Wingett Sanchez @yvonnewingett.bsky.social · May 22

House approves Trump’s massive tax and immigration package The legislation would extend tax cuts and add billions in new spending — and trillions in new debt. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... (Az delegation’s votes below)

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MethaneHunter @txsharon.bsky.social · Apr 21

U.S. methane gas can never meet the EU methane rules especially with Trump removing regulations. Everybody knew that. So...

The EU has decided to create some loopholes that will make dirty US LNG appear clean.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Exclusive: EU explores tweaking methane rules for US gas to help trade talks, sources say

The European Union is looking at ways to make it easier for U.S. gas exports to comply with its methane emissions rules, as the bloc attempts to avert a trade war with U.S. President Trump, three sources told Reuters.

www.reuters.com

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Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · Apr 17

"In an earlier post, she wrote: "As for the inevitable death, if I die, I want a loud death, I don't want me in a breaking news story, nor in a number with a group, I want a death that is heard by the world, a trace that lasts forever, and immortal images that neither time nor place can bury."

Photographer Fatima Hassona killed ahead of Cannes documentary debut

The Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassona, killed along with ten family members in an Israeli air strike on her home in northern Gaza, is the star of a documentary due to be screened at the Cannes film festival next month.

www.euronews.com

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Mark Chediak @mchediak.bsky.social · Apr 18

White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some enviro nonprofits of tax-exempt status for Earth Day, by @jendlouhy.bsky.social & @akshatrathi.bsky.social

🎁 Gift Link: Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Trump Officials Weigh Earth Day Move Against Green Groups

White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, setting up a possible Earth Day strike against organizations seen as sta...

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by Katharine Houreld

Larry Neufeld @larryneufeldsk.bsky.social · Apr 17

Revealed: world’s largest meat company may break Amazon deforestation pledges again www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Revealed: world’s largest meat company may break Amazon deforestation pledges again

Brazilian ranchers in Pará and Rondônia say JBS can not achieve stated goal of deforestation-free cattle

www.theguardian.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Apr 17

Incredible report by @newyorker: paid providers of care in US jails have allowed inmates to die of hunger and thirst, screaming for help; one had his lower leg rot off; others eaten by rodents or insects after they died. Some "look like famine victims" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Starved in Jail

Why are incarcerated people dying from lack of food or water, even as private companies are paid millions for their care?

www.newyorker.com

Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Apr 5

Mary, a Kenyan HIV outreach worker, has 4 children of her own. When a colleague was murdered, she took in the 4 orphans, one HIV+. In Jan, the US suspended the programs supporting the family. The kids were thrown out of school; today, they were evicted. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Trump’s PEPFAR cuts upend the lives of Kenyan families battling HIV

U.S. aid allowed Mary, a former sex worker, to do HIV outreach work and support eight children. Her future, and the U.S.-led fight against HIV, are now in doubt.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dr. Merritt Rae Turetsky @queenofpeat.bsky.social · Mar 24

New paper alert! Zombie fires overwinter, going underground to smolder through winter before reemerging. Until recently, we knew these fires occurred but knew little of their ecological or carbon impacts. Along with my amazing coauthors, we set out to change this. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Overwintering fires can occur in both peatlands and upland forests with varying ecological impacts - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Field measurements of fires burning over winter at 20 sites in the Northwest Territories of Canada and in Alaska find that such fires occur in both peatlands and upland forests, and provide informatio...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Katharine Houreld

David Enrich @davidenrich.bsky.social · Mar 24

How Trump is “effectively institutionalizing disinformation,” pushing a “new era of post-truth politics” that enables his administration to use fictions to promote its agenda. 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/b...

Trump Leads a ‘Machinery’ of Misinformation in Second Term (Gift Article)

President Trump’s first four years in the White House were filled with falsehoods. Now he and those around him are using false claims to justify their policy changes.

www.nytimes.com

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Mar 25

A dark joke in some diplomatic circles: "Call the U.S. for aid, China for trade and the Russians when you want to kill someone." - so what happens when the U.S. cuts its programs? with
@robyndixon.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Trump’s global funding cuts leave a void in Africa for rivals to exploit

America’s vanishing presence in Africa has upended critical programs, severed relationships and left a vacuum that Russia and China will look to capitalize on.

www.washingtonpost.com

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · Mar 18

Breaking News: The EPA plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists.

Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm

More than 1,000 chemists, biologists and other scientists could be laid off under a plan to dismantle the Office of Research and Development.

www.nytimes.com

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The Associated Press @apnews.com · Mar 18

BREAKING: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 235 Palestinians, according to local hospitals. Follow AP's live coverage.

Live updates: Hundreds killed as Israel launches airstrikes across Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire. Officials said the operation was open-ended and was expected to expand.

bit.ly

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Katharine Houreld @khoureld.bsky.social · Mar 17

They called him "El Hombre” — he moved cocaine by the ton. Last year, Columbian officers nabbed him after U.S. law enforcement taught them advanced skills on tracking fugitives. Now that program is shut down.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Trump’s aid freeze hampers anti-narcotics programs in Latin America

The U.S. aid freeze has upended anti-narcotics efforts in Latin America, with programs in Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador affected.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Harry Stevens @harrystevens.bsky.social · Mar 6

🦋 In 20 years, the contiguous U.S. lost 22 percent of its butterflies, according to a groundbreaking new study published today.

We got the data, and I made a tool that lets you find out what's happening with butterfly species in your town.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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See How Butterfly Numbers Are Dropping Near You (Gift Article)

Populations are falling in the United States, a new study has found. Look up what’s happening in your area.

www.nytimes.com

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