Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 2d

Also, a significant slice of French political opinion is increasingly turning towards a more British-style model of integration (witness Mélenchon's conversion from extreme laïcité to créolisation in the space of a decade) -- the model they want to draw on is much less stable than they think it is

6

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 6d

A labour government wants to make amendments to our laws to bring in conditions, and possible outright ban on protests in the UK because the Palestine movement got too big for them to continue to ignore.

A Labour government. Not Tory, not reform, but Labour.

1 4 3

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 6d

It's an unfortunate reality that it's-for-your-own-good authoritarianism is a component of Labour's political DNA, and when you put people like Jack Straw, David Blunkett, Charles Clarke, John Reid, Jacqui Smith et al in the Home Office, you get plain old you-can't-do-that authoritarianism on top...

Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 6d

Whatever your view on anything, if you don’t realise that initiatives like this spring from an impulse to authoritarianism, you’re deluding yourself I think.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office

Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday

www.theguardian.com

13 40

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 8d

I'll say it again. Our horror at the Gaza genocide and at the atrocity in Manchester comes in both cases from the same, inherent part of our shared humanity. We need to assert that shared humanity in the face of both these evils as loudly as possible, and in as many practical ways as we can.

Kevin Schofield @kevinschofied.bsky.social · 8d

NEW: Home secretary Shabana Mahmood urges pro-Palestine protesters to consider not taking part in marches this weekend.

"Imagine if you lost a loved one to a terror attack in this country ... sometimes a little unity, a little solidarity, some love to other people is required"

8 200 540

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 9d

In fact, if this New Yorker story is anything to go by, the generals probably largely agreed with this section of Hegseth's speech. That's what happens when one chooses selective outrage over war crimes
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

1

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 10d

Yolande Knell reports that Israel bombed a school sheltering displaced people "& then when civil defence workers went to the scene there was another attack"

'double tap' strikes are designed to deliberately kill rescue workers & other civilians. This is what Israel does.

4 55 64

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 11d

Trump controversially endorses traditional Marxist historiography on the Gracchi brothers

Matt McManus @mattpolprof.bsky.social · 11d

Beyond just suggesting socialism is "thousands of years old" Trump's comment illustrates something familiar: the "socialism always fails" crowd always present it as a descriptive claim while morally sidelining their own, often intense, efforts to make sure it fails....

1 3 11

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 11d

Do they have fact checkers at the New Yorker? Ben-Gurion, who green-lit multiple expulsion campaigns including Operation Dalet in 1948 and who dreamed of taking the West Bank by securing British backing for the liquidation of the Jordanian monarchy, would be shocked by ethnic cleansing?

At the same time, something strange has happened to

the State of Israel. Ben-Gurion was a hard man, who

never denied that Jewish settlement would involve

violence. Even he might have been shocked, though, to

see an Israeli government bent on ethnic cleansing
through bombing and starvation. Grossman, reflecting

10 49 230

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

The New Arab @thenewarab.bsky.social · 11d

After more than a decade of war, Aleppo’s historic citadel has reopened its gates to visitors, symbolizing resilience and recovery for the war-torn city.

8 14

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 11d

Call me a cynic but I just don't buy that this is Klein being too good-hearted to recognise a bad-faith actor. He portrays Kirk like this because his own liberal programme can only be sustained if one assumes there are good-faith actors on the other side; it's a psychological and political necessity

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 12d

People were talking on here the other day about what a good guy Klein is interpersonally. He's thoughtful, generous and always tries to see the best in people.

You can see that at play here. He simply cannot accept the fact that Kirk was acting in bad faith.

Meanwhile, this is why when I say, like in that initial piece, there was something that I respected in what Kirk was doing — like going in, having debates, using them opportunistically — people have thrown back at me that he wasn’t debating to find truth.

Of course, he wasn’t debating to find the truth. He was doing politics. He was trying to persuade people. And I’ve watched on our side, not opportunistic engagement but a lot of, I would say, counterproductive disengagement.

5

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Mai El-Sadany @maitelsadany.bsky.social · 18d

HUGE HUGE NEWS FROM EGYPT!!

Egyptian President Sisi has issued a presidential pardon for activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah.

7 110 390

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 19d

A last resister passes aged 99. Son of Italian refugees from fascism, "raised on red milk", only 14 at the Fall of France, his first resistance was pasting anti-Pétain messages on postboxes. By 16, he was in armed conflict. Captured in July 1944, tortured, escaping prison...

Lifelong Communist.

l'Humanité @humanite.fr · 19d

Mort de Léon Landini, le dernier FTP-MOI

➡️ https://l.humanite.fr/UEY

1 3 12

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 19d

Likewise, people are fond of saying Arafat rejected a Palestinian "state" at Camp David, when said state was under US proposals going to be demilitarised, territorially non-continguous, and deprived of control of its own foreign policy, airspace, and even water -- i.e. not a state

Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 19d

Govt minister Hamish Falconer explains that the Palestinian state should have no army or air force. So it can't defend itself.

The Labour govt is fond of saying the first duty of any govt is to defend its own people. Why doesn't that apply to Palestinians?

1

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 21d

And Reform's attempts to create local DOGEs as well of course

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 21d

Despite endless scolding about the British left being too America-brained, it's the two parties of the right that believe they can essentially just do what the US did and get the same results in Britain, ignoring basic local economic, social, and indeed geological facts. See also: fracking

James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 22d

This is so deeply unserious. Throughout the entire 14 years of the Conservative government oil and gas licenses were routinely issued and for much of the period there was a policy of maximising extraction.

Production still fell, the economy flatlined, and energy security got worse.

1 4

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Dirk Moses @dirkmoses.bsky.social · Sep 7

'Anti-Palestiniaism is so difficult to refute because the psychic economy of innumerable people needs it. I was told the story of a woman who, upset after seeing a dramatization of the "Voice of Hind Rajab," said: “Yes, but that girl at least should have been allowed to live.”'

5 5

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 22d

In essence, this really is just liberal campism

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 22d

"Reorientating"? The US has never had a problem with autocracies that suppress access to information. Egypt, UAE, Saudi, and Israel constantly arrest, assault, or kill journalists. Applebaum just doesn't want this principle extended to the *anti-American* autocracies

Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 22d

🚨🚨" . Without openly saying so, the United States is reorienting its foreign policy to protect governments that manipulate and censor information, both inside their own countries and around the world." Another excellent instalment by @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 22d

For her views on the principle of states of using deadly violence to suppress unwelcome information, see below
slate.com/news-and-pol...

Targeting radio and TV stations.

To date, most of the Israeli attacks on Palestinian Authority targets have struck me as utterly pointless. I understand their logic, as far as it goes....

slate.com

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 22d

"Reorientating"? The US has never had a problem with autocracies that suppress access to information. Egypt, UAE, Saudi, and Israel constantly arrest, assault, or kill journalists. Applebaum just doesn't want this principle extended to the *anti-American* autocracies

Jacob Öberg @profjacob.bsky.social · 22d

🚨🚨" . Without openly saying so, the United States is reorienting its foreign policy to protect governments that manipulate and censor information, both inside their own countries and around the world." Another excellent instalment by @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

1 2

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 24d

Again, I don't think Klein and the other purveyors of this idea are ignorant of the below, they just think it furthers liberal aims to co-opt Kirk as an honourable political opponent. Unfortunately, this is stupid, insofar as it relies on the idea their own audiences are stupid

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 24d

Getting at the basic contradiction in the "Kirk was doing politics" idea: we tend to think the opposite of politics is violence, but its more direct opposite is conspiracy. Telling people there's a left-wing plot to harm their families will in turn persuade them their only recourse is violence

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 24d

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk’s record.

archive.ph/2025.09.16-2...

1

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 24d

Getting at the basic contradiction in the "Kirk was doing politics" idea: we tend to think the opposite of politics is violence, but its more direct opposite is conspiracy. Telling people there's a left-wing plot to harm their families will in turn persuade them their only recourse is violence

Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan.bsky.social · 24d

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Charlie Kirk’s record.

archive.ph/2025.09.16-2...

1

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Viet Thanh Nguyen @vietthanhnguyen.bsky.social · 24d

Another compelling factor was Israeli troops’ “extensive and deliberate” targeting of Palestinian children, Mr. Sidoti said. Medical workers testified they had treated many children with direct gunshot wounds to the head and upper body.

3 71 120

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

David Owen @artsofdenial.bsky.social · 25d

BBC News - Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says

The panel finds that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out against Palestinians during the war.

www.bbc.com

1 2

Reposted by Samuel Harrison

Aaliyah 🇮🇪🇵🇸 ‼️SAVE GAZA‼️ @aaliyahxx.bsky.social · 25d

Every neighborhood in Gaza City is facing nonstop Israeli airstrikes, with civilians trapped in the devastation and thousands of families forced onto the streets, having nowhere safe to go.

1 48 53

Samuel Harrison @samharrison1812.bsky.social · 25d

A tiny martial autocracy, obsessed with its own mythologised past, exhausting all its resources by constantly bullying its neighbours and brutally suppressing rebellions amongst the Othered domestic population that it keeps in a state of perpetual servitude? This stuff writes itself

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 25d

Netanyahu's on Israel's growing international isolation: we are about to become "super Sparta"

6