Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Sarah Richards

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2d

One of the crazy things about the AI bubble bursting is that consumer sentiment toward AI has always leaned skeptical to outright negative but it’s an industry propped up by pure billionaire greed, sycophancy, and childish fantasy

35 320 1.7K

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 19h

He may be confusing tampons with sausages.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 20h

Extraordinary summation of Farage’s Gill-shaped problem.
Every escape route now looks like a blind alley. Latest: “I thought I new him…”
You did, Nigel. You did.

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 20h

“Here Farage is, in Gill’s office, with Voloshyn’s wife Nadia, on the day Gill makes an intervention on behalf of Medvedchuk’s channels, with an employee of one of those channels, whose husband started bribing Gill to make these statements 6 days earlier”

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/11/s...

'Stunned?' Farage's Admission He Knew Nathan Gill but Not His Kremlin Associates Does Not Stand Up to Scrutiny

Insiders have told Byline Times, it is 'inconceivable' the Reform Leader did not know about his close aide's pro Russian statements

bylinetimes.com

1 3 3

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 20h

It’s the dis-integration of Jenrick-style brains we should really worry about - where truth is commonly see as a dirty word:

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 21h

Sometimes, even BBC editorial policy can be seen as throwing fat on the fire. This, from BBC Chair Salma Shah (to MPs), last month:
bsky.app/profile/laur...

Samantha Asumadu @samanthaasumadu.substack.com · 1d

"Zia, do you ever think it's the number one problem because you spend a lot of time spreading misinformation and fear?"

— Zack Polanski

2

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 21h

This was a month ago. I’m intrigued to know if, in the BBC’s view, @zachpolanski’s now ”got a voice” and we can expect to see him as a regular panellist on #bbcqt.

Laura Phillips @lauraphillips.bsky.social · Sep 9

Tim Davie: since autumn 2024 "We've had 34 Labour 34 Conservatives 14 Lib Dems 8 Reform." @rupahuq.bsky.social “How do you get on the show?" Davie: "It's a judgement from the editorial team to reflect the political landscape but..not just about party politics, those ppl who've got a voice."

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 21h

Reform might as well blame “women and girls” for the parlous, clogged state of our judicial system - as if they were the cause of so many rape/sexual assault/domestic violence cases now queuing up (often for years) to be heard in the courts.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Fresh example today:
(More Putin sniggering as Trump laps it up)
bsky.app/profile/pale...

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Putin‘s modus operandi also seems typically associated with anything that appeals to his mordant, and very grim, sense of humour.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Yusuf may have a messaging bone to pick with Farage:
Farage, talking about Gill (in Wales) today:
“I‘m the only one [in Reform] that really knew him, going back a long way…”
www.thenational.scot/news/2553397...

Nigel Farage calls ex-Welsh Reform leader who took Russian bribes a 'bad apple'

Nigel Farage has described a former senior figure in his party who has been convicted of taking pro-Russian bribes as a “bad apple”.

www.thenational.scot

1 1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Gill’s no Epstein, but Farage doesn’t half tread a Mandelson/Prince Andrew path with him.

These days, Gill’s a “bad apple” Farage barely ever knew.

Ethan Jones @ethanjonesic.bsky.social · 1d

Oh look. Just Nigel Farage calling a Russian asset “terrific.”

You know, the guy who used to lead Reform in Wales and Reform now claims they’ve never heard of 🤷‍♂️

www.bbc.co.uk/news/electio...

Welsh election: UKIP's Farage backs 'terrific' Gill

UKIP leader Nigel Farage backs the party's Welsh leader Nathan Gill as

www.bbc.co.uk

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

Love this piece. Not for the dystopian future it sets out, which should genuinely alarm us all, but for the lunacy (see also “Mountainhead”) of ‘genius’, all-powerful billionaires who have such a poor grasp of human nature.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 1d

A new dawn has broken.

Reason and decency are back on the map - thanks to the wonderful people of Shrewsbury.

#BestOfBritish

#BBCQT

1 1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 2d

@davidallengreen.bsky.social
bsky.app/profile/wire...

WIRED @wired.com · 2d

US president Donald Trump appeared confused by a question over the possible suspension of habeas corpus, during an “antifa roundtable” event at the White House attended by conservative influencers.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Summat like that. I’ve become incredibly curious to know what he reads and who he talks to. On Newscast, the excellent Adam Fleming is now often compelled to chuck in a few factual constraints to Mason’s freeform blather. He’s a geography graduate - but appears to have entirely lost his bearings.

1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Perhaps this is what happens when words and their meanings become fatally untethered from objective reality. Not so much inaccuracy/misrepresentation as unfathomable garble.

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

I’m really flummoxed by Chris Mason these days. Here, he tells us Badenoch has “authentic belief in thinking things through” and also that he’s “noticed there’s a Darwinian selection about the people who have come to the conference…”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Kemi Badenoch hopes to grab attention with policy blitz

The Tory leader's conference speech included a new pledge to scrap stamp duty on the purchase of main homes.

www.bbc.com

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

I’m really flummoxed by Chris Mason these days. Here, he tells us Badenoch has “authentic belief in thinking things through” and also that he’s “noticed there’s a Darwinian selection about the people who have come to the conference…”

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Kemi Badenoch hopes to grab attention with policy blitz

The Tory leader's conference speech included a new pledge to scrap stamp duty on the purchase of main homes.

www.bbc.com

1

Reposted by Sarah Richards

Scott Imberman @imbernomics.bsky.social · 3d

Constant mockery is how we win this.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d

#WarRavagedPortland

5 31

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

And how many dragon jockeys know St George is also the patron saint of Moscow?

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Beware of seeing only one true enemy and assuming literally everyone else is your friend.

Andrew Fisher @fisherandrew79.bsky.social · 11d

Blair had the same line in 2014. Two truly awful people
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/23/t...

Blair Says Forget The People Of Ukraine, Let's Side With Putin And Fight Radical Islam

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Reposted by Sarah Richards

Matthew @calmeilles.bsky.social · 3d

Kemi at the Speccy

If you thought that Boris Johnson was going to be the Spectator's last Prime Minister, then think again: Kemi Badenoch worked at the Conservative Party's journal of ideas from 2015 to 2016, which is a fascinatingly short stint. Intrigued by this, we asked a number of her former co-workers about her tenure at Old Queen Street, where she worked as a digital director.

She was 'unbelievably crap' according to one source, who relays that she was inefficient and idle, who struggled with organisation, loudly declaring that tasks were her 'top priority, my top priority', before leaving them unfinished at the end of the week.

She would make bizarre non-sequiturs in meetings, saying that 'the Spectator is a shop, and the editorial team are the shop window', and advertise that she spent a lot of time on the 'message boards'. She also, in one source's telling, would announce that 'there is no one more right-wing than me' to her colleagues at the magazine. Leaving in 2016 to focus on her nascent political career, she maintains friendships with Fraser Nelson and Andrew Neil, but operated a 'kiss-up, kick-down' policy, and was apparently combative and rude to her junior staff.

All the sources we spoke to are astonished that she is being spoken about as a potential Prime Minister. So what does Michael Gove see in her?

3 1

Reposted by Sarah Richards

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 3d

Reaction to Badenoch's speech is everything wrong with Britain's policymaking community. Mostly couched in terms of the politics and her survival. Nothing on the utter garbage of policies that would leave us in an even bigger mess. UK policymaking may be irredeemable.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cl...

Conservatives would scrap stamp duty, Kemi Badenoch says - follow live

The party says it would scrap the

www.bbc.co.uk

3 12 51

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Tory party jokes, analysis, rhetoric and strategy all rely on one golden rule: walk through every room deliberately ignoring the elephant.

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 3d

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch.

Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Always worth looking at what Dan Neidle has to say about stamp duty. He’s enthusiastic about abolishing it, but only as part of a much wider set of changes; otherwise, it would have pretty stupid consequences:

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Badenoch said it would be abolished on “your home”. Tellingly, she didn’t clarify whether this meant only “first” home or would apply to 2nd, 3rd (etc) homes too. Her arch rival Robert Jenrick owns three (not including his constituency home which he rents):
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Newark Tory candidate Jenrick says he understands life on breadline

Mr Jenrick presents himself as a 'father, local man, son of a secretary and small businessman and state primary school-educated' candidate.

www.dailymail.co.uk

1

Sarah Richards @sarahrichards.bsky.social · 3d

Putin‘s modus operandi also seems typically associated with anything that appeals to his mordant, and very grim, sense of humour.