Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Persistently Earnest @spartanoverseas.bsky.social · 1h

There are some real gems in here while discussing an important topic of AI usage in the judiciary:

"asking ChatGPT Jesus to take the wheel"

Patrick C Miller @patrickcmiller.bsky.social · 11h

Senator Wants To Know How All These Fake Cites Ended Up In These Judicial Opinions - Above the Law abovethelaw.com/2025/10/sena...

Senator Wants To Know How All These Fake Cites Ended Up In These Judicial Opinions - Above the Law

We pretty much know exactly how.

abovethelaw.com

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Patrick C Miller @patrickcmiller.bsky.social · 9h

Wikipedia Says AI Is Causing a Dangerous Decline in Human Visitors

“With fewer visits to Wikipedia, fewer volunteers may grow and enrich the content, and fewer individual donors may support this work.”

www.404media.co

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 19h

UPDATE: Israel is striking all over Gaza, claiming Hamas violated the ceasefire.

Hamas says they didn’t, and it was settlers running over an explosive device.

Bottom line: people are still dying, including children.

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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 20h

The WaPo is becoming like the WSJ: a news side that does important work, an Op-Ed side that doesn’t even seem to read it.

Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 21h

This story is extraordinary even by 2025 standards. Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, made a deal with Bukele and agreed to renege on informant agreements in a years-long DOJ investigation into MS-13, totally undercutting credibility of such agreements.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Rubio promised to betray U.S. informants to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal

To secure U.S. access to President Nayib Bukele’s notorious CECOT prison, Rubio agreed to turn over several MS-13 leaders central to a long-running Justice Department investigation.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

According to Russ Vought, this is essential government work that must be continued throughout the shutdown

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 1d

This is what the Department of Transportation is tweeting out today.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

The administration simultaneously says it needs to lay off employees because it is out of money and also that Kristi Noem needs two private jets because it is not safe for her to travel through the airports where her propaganda is running 24/7

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 2d

This is the beauty of BlueSky. No-one will be force-fed this via algorithm. Trolling draws blocks rather than amplification.

David S. Bernstein @dbernstein.bsky.social · 2d

By my count: Of the 15 Departments of the US Government, 13 launched new BlueSky accounts tonight (all but Justice and HUD), and all 13 have posted explicitly partisan political posts blaming Democrats and/or Chuck Schumer for the government shutdown.

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Persistently Earnest @spartanoverseas.bsky.social · 2d

Came here to say exactly this. Well done.

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 3d

a stunning indictment of US infrastructure: “in some locations, data centers won’t be able to plug into the power grid until the 2030s because of the sheer backlog of projects and the fact that the nation’s high-voltage electric wires are running out of room”
www.wsj.com/business/ene...

AI Data Centers, Desperate for Electricity, Are Building Their Own Power Plants

Utilities are pushing to increase supply, but meeting the surge in demand won’t be easy or fast. Tech companies aren’t waiting around.

www.wsj.com

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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 3d

Will they do it anyway? Idk, probably. But it is by illegally annexing the power of appropriations away from congress, not because this is a legal workaround for appropriations

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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · 3d

To the extent anyone cares, the legality of tapping into tariff money is identical to the legality of tapping into federal income tax money, because they are both taxes that accrue to the treasury. Appropriations are still needed to spend it

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Leavitt: "The president tapped into tariff revenue to keep WIC money going out the door. He found a creative solution to keep the troops paid. And rather than congratulate him for doing that, this unprecedented action to get our troops paid, Dems want to sue him for it. They're saying it's illegal."

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John Schwartz @jswatz.bsky.social · 3d

Gift link for the Kryptos story:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/s...

A C.I.A. Secret Kept for 35 Years Is Found in the Smithsonian’s Vault

www.nytimes.com

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Persistently Earnest @spartanoverseas.bsky.social · 3d

Yay for public health!

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 4d

15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more.

Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.

Map: Governors Public Health Alliance
* Guam is also a member of the alliance
Updated October 15, 2025
Map: @luckytran • Created with Datawrapper

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 4d

15 US states and territories have formed a new Public Health Alliance, which will counter the absence of federal leadership by tracking outbreaks, issuing guidance, buying vaccines and more.

Members of the new alliance include CA, CO, CT, DE, GU, HI, IL, MD, MA, NJ, NY, NC, OR, RI, WA.

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Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · 3d

BREAKING from PP

We found immigration agents have held more than 170 *citizens*

The govt doesn't track citizens held. So we did. We tallied:

Nearly 20 kids, two w/ cancer

More than 20 citizens held for day or more, incommunicado

www.propublica.org/article/immi...

by @nicolefoy.bsky.social

More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.

The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...

www.propublica.org

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freerangekids.bsky.social @freerangekids.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah, this makes sense:

MOM PLACED ON CHILD ABUSE REGISTRY FOR LETTING 13-YEAR-OLD BABYSIT

(Luckily: Pennsylvania’s “Reasonable Independence for Children” bill pushes back on overzealous child neglect laws.)

reason.com/2025/10/16/m...

Mom placed on child abuse registry for letting 13-year-old babysit

As constant adult supervision has become the norm, more and more kids are being reported to the authorities.

reason.com

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Persistently Earnest @spartanoverseas.bsky.social · 4d

Live shot of a bunch of Navy Seals arriving on a Venezuelan beach:

a baby is walking on a wooden floor with the words nope written on the floor .

ALT: a baby is walking on a wooden floor with the words nope written on the floor .

media.tenor.com

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Persistently Earnest @spartanoverseas.bsky.social · 4d

Doesn't seem so "covert"

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Angry @angrystaffer.bsky.social · 5d

That’s crazy. I wonder what happened in January

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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 5d

Sam Altman went from “AI will cure cancer" to "ChatGPT porn" in less than a month

ChatGPT boss predicts when AI could cure cancer

We made ChatGPT pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues. We realize this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right.

Now that we have been able to mitigate the serious mental health issues and have new tools, we are going to be able to safely relax the restrictions in most cases.

In a few weeks, we plan to put out a new version of ChatGPT that allows people to have a personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o (we hope it will be better!). If you want your ChatGPT to respond in a very human-like way, or use a ton of emoji, or act like a friend, ChatGPT should do it (but only if you want it, not because we are usage-maxxing).

In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our “treat adult users like adults” principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults.
12:02 PM · Oct 14, 2025
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 5d

He supported America’s war, escaped Afghanistan and started a family in the U.S. Then ICE arrested him. If he is deported, he expects the Taliban to kill him. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

America saved him from the Taliban. Trump wants to send him back.

He supported America’s war, escaped Afghanistan and started a family in the U.S. Then ICE arrested him. If he is deported, he expects the Taliban to kill him.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 5d

Traditionally that’s the trade off — the cop proves their authority and then expects people to respect it.

ICE refuses to give us proof but demands we respect them as if they had.

That’s not how this works

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Ian Bond @cerianbond.bsky.social · 6d

My new piece for @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social on EU-UK co-operation on China policy. Tl;dr: if you say a country is a systemic rival, or that competing with it may have huge consequences for your citizens, you need more serious policy responses than either the EU or UK have offered so far.

Centre for European Reform @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social · 6d

China’s rise, its support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine & the unreliability of Trump’s US have sharpened the dilemmas in European policy towards China. 🇪🇺 🇨🇳 🇬🇧

New @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social policy brief by @cerianbond.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/EJXAsaz

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Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 6d

Solidarity is the only way

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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 6d

Finally, a good explainer of Dems' other shutdown demand, via @citizencohn.bsky.social. It's about trying to make it harder for the Trump admin to continue unilaterally (and illegally) cutting funding for government programs substack.com/home/post/p-...

The OTHER Democratic Demand for Reopening the Government

It’s about stopping Donald Trump and Russ Vought—and it can’t happen soon enough.

substack.com

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