Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies

Judd Legum @juddlegum.bsky.social · 5h

Qatar gave Trump the luxury 747 that he wanted and now we are LETTING THEM BUILD A MILITARY BASE ON US SOIL

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 6h

Hegseth: "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 6h

This is exceptional: www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Dear Tilly Norwood: Some Blunt Advice, Actress to “Actress,” From Betty Gilpin

The Emmy-nominated actor and author pens an open letter to the AI avatar that's got Hollywood in a tizzy.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

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Lauren 🎃'Neal @laurenoneal.bsky.social · 20h

Very wealthy people once again learn the hard way that there are still a few things in this world that can't be bought. A clean conscience, for example.

Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 20h

whew

variety.com/2025/tv/news...

Human Rights Watch ‘Cannot Accept’ Donations From Aziz Ansari and Other Comedians Who Performed at Riyadh Comedy Festival

Human Rights Watch says it 'cannot accept' donations from Aziz Ansari and other comedians who performed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

variety.com

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Matt Negrin still host of Hardball on MSNBC @mattnegrin.bsky.social · 1d

That (NPR!) journalists think AI is a creative engine that can finesse iconic productions is not just context for the crap quality of writing in media but alarmingly the inability among a class of supposedly professional scrutinizers to distinguish between art and slop, good and bad, truth and lie

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 1d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 1d

just include the link in the main post, y'all. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

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Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies

Island of Reil - medicated, meddlesome, and quarrelsome @islandofreil.bsky.social · 1d

Reposting with alt-text

A few days before the taping, Colbert's producers held a prep call with the candidates and their aides. The sample questions covered basic political topics, such as the meaning of democratic socialism. Right before the candidates went onstage, the producers appeared in the greenroom and said that they wanted to go over a few more questions. Earlier that day, a group of prominent Jewish figures, including Elisha Wiesel, the son of Elie Wiesel, had sent a letter to Colbert demanding that he grill Mamdani on his views of Israel. According to people who were in the room, one of the producers suggested a “thumbs-up or thumbs-down” segment: "Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: Hamas. Thumbs-up or thumbs-down: a Palestinian state.”

Mamdani's face dropped. “I just couldn't believe what was happening," he told me. “That a genocide could be distilled into a late-night game.” His aides were incensed. “You have the first Muslim candidate for mayor in the history of New York," Zara Rahim, a senior adviser to Mamdani, told one of the producers. “You don't want to ask him a question about that?” (CBS did not respond to a request for comment.) In the end, the game didn't happen, but Colbert did ask Mamdani whether he believed that Israel had the right to exist. “Yes, like all nations, I believe it has a right to exist,” he said. “And a responsibility also to uphold international law."

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Jenny Croft @jenniferlcroft.bsky.social · 1d

I took this picture of Olga and László in London in 2018. Congrats to Krasznahorkai and his translators, including George Szirtes and @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social, and long live a Central Europe free of dictators (foreign and domestic) and full of magnificent minds like these!

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 1d

Absolutely thrilled to hear this. Congratulations & I cannot wait to read.

Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 1d

Essential, horrifying reading, and a testament to how vital local news is: southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 1d

makes an absolutely huge difference. most schools really suck at this

Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 1d

I'm always the most impressed with the teenagers I work with who are eager to be edited and genuinely thirst for constructive feedback because they want to get better. if literal children can have this mindset so can grown-ass adults.

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 1d

this is about books not journalism, but even so: I have had BAD editors and it absolutely sucks, but partly for that reason and the hollowing out of journalism... having a good editor is such a GIFT! how often have I had a bad editor or no editor at all! be grateful!!

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 1d

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 1d

Met most of my closest friends… so…

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 2d

I’ll be covering this for @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social next month and I wish it were not so important or feel so scarily relevant. Preorder:

Sarah Weinman @sarahweinman.com · 2d

Since @bookshop.org is offering free shipping through the end of the day why not pre-order my book and save a few coins?

Without Consent: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime

A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime

bookshop.org

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 2d

This is hair-raising on so many levels… www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

How Kevin Costner Lost Hollywood

On-set brawls. Courtroom battles. Epic bombs. Why the world's most bankable cowboy is suddenly shooting blanks.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

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Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies

alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 2d

kinda sweet that bookshop.org's anti-prime sale overlaps with banned books week, which means today you can get free shipping PLUS 20% off their banned books list! bookshop.org/info/banned-...

Banned Books

bookshop.org

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Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 2d

They had to buy the Post, gut the newsroom, and restaff with reactionary grifters that don't deserve to carry their predecessors' dirty socks; that was the only way to remake the paper, because they were never gonna get through the front door on merit.

Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 2d

This little twerp, who’s been there a few months, axed two of the lions of WaPo??

Fisher is an investigative champion and had been at The Post for 39 years. Hoffman had been there for 42, and he won a Pulitzer LAST YEAR.

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 2d

Last week, new WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal quietly carried out another purge of staffers, cutting editors and major names like Marc Fisher and David Hoffman, among others.

Meanwhile, he welcomed three conservatives to the section.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/washington...

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 2d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Gillian Brockell @gbrockell.bsky.social · 2d

This little twerp, who’s been there a few months, axed two of the lions of WaPo??

Fisher is an investigative champion and had been at The Post for 39 years. Hoffman had been there for 42, and he won a Pulitzer LAST YEAR.

Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 2d

Last week, new WaPo opinion editor Adam O'Neal quietly carried out another purge of staffers, cutting editors and major names like Marc Fisher and David Hoffman, among others.

Meanwhile, he welcomed three conservatives to the section.

Details in @status.news: www.status.news/p/washington...

Post Traumatic Disorder

Adam O’Neal says he’s bringing “intellectual diversity” to The Washington Post’s opinion pages—but the moves he’s making behind the scenes tell a different story.

www.status.news

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Reposted by Morgan Leigh Davies

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 2d

Fascinating report just released by DropSite which reveals that David Frum, while working on a profile of an Israeli ambassador to the United Nations for the Atlantic, was also shadow-writing speeches for that same ambassador.

David Frum, Douglas Murray Secretly Drafted Speeches for Israeli Ambassador

Leaked emails from former Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor show David Frum, Douglas Murray offering to write his speeches and a CNN producer fundraising for Israel’s Iron Dome during Israel’s 2014 war

www.dropsitenews.com

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Yo Gabapentin @yogabapentin.bsky.social · 3d

Obligatory Jenny Nicholson Tweet

Jenny Nicholson Tweet:

How come major film studios keep being like Jared Leto may have allegations, but at least he looks weird, stars in box office bombs, and is not a good actor

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Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 2d

I've written my analysis of today's grim Supreme Court oral argument in the conversion therapy case:

As far as the Court's concerned, imaginary medical uncertainty gives states the authority to hurt queer kids, and takes away states' authority to protect them

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/chile...

The Conservative Justices Don't Trust Any Science That Supports LGBTQ Kids

States that want to facilitate discrimination against LGBTQ people have the Court's blessing. States that want to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination do not.

ballsandstrikes.org

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Alexa Ray Corriea @alexaray.bsky.social · 3d

It’s boiling in October because you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, Janice.

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 3d

swan diving into the abyss

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 4d

I have been trying to explain a microfiche machine to one of my dear, brilliant, talented, but clearly too young to be alive collaborators. And it is taking the last of my soul.

“Micro…fish?? I have never heard that word in my life.” I recorded the timestamp so it can be put on my tombstone.

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Morgan Leigh Davies @mldavies.bsky.social · 3d

Great review here defector.com/taylor-swift...

No Good Art Comes From Greed | Defector

The packages arrived square and thin and carefully wrapped on Saturday afternoon. There were three of them, but only one was mine. If I could have rejected my package, sent it back from whence it came...

defector.com

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