Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Stuart Horrex

Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 9h

Did you know, it’s 30 years to the day since the Financial Times killed one of Britain’s finest poets? They didn’t mean to. It’s just that Gavin Ewart was 79, and – according to legend – the day before they’d bought him a lunch that involved enough booze to fell an ox 🧵

The menus were not printed until 2003, so we cannot be sure of the all-time record for the most expensive lunch. It may have been achieved when Spivey met the 79-year-old poet Gavin Ewart at the Café Royal in October 1995. The exact cost is lost somewhere in the bowels of the FT accounts department. But the bill was somewhat overshadowed by the aftermath.

The main item on the agenda was alcohol, not food. Ewart began with several negronis (gin, vermouth, Campari), which is not an amateur’s drink, and carried on from there. “We departed the Café Royal in a moderately straight line,” Spivey said in the article. He put Ewart on a bus home then lurched off himself. The following day he received a call from Mrs Ewart.

“There are two things you need to know,” she said. “The first is that Gavin came home yesterday happier than I have seen him in a long time. The second – and you are not to feel bad about this – is that he died this morning.”

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 8h

Why China is winning the trade war

It has rebuffed America and rewritten the norms of global commerce

www.economist.com

Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 8h

As ANZ duped customers and ignored hardship notices, the bank’s bosses raked in $26m in bonuses

The bonuses – awarded during the bank’s three years of misconduct – have been condemned as ‘indefensible’ and ‘tone-deaf’, especially given recent job cuts

search.app

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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 16h

In the audience tonight is Charlotte Bennett, one of the 13 women that Andrew Cuomo is credibly alleged to have sexually harassed while they worked in his government.

She can't speak for herself because Cuomo's lawyers have hounded her.

So I confronted him.

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 12h

Shopping trolley - Western Australia

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Stanley Johnson @branddna.bsky.social · 15h

Meanwhile at a pub in Soho, a copywriter is quietly chuckling to himself about the ironic headline he wrote that the London Business School approved. #LastDrinks

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Jeremy Poxon @jeremypoxon.bsky.social · 13h

"[The Deloitte AI scandal] is such important story, because of how serious the underlying issue is"

"Is [the government] paying hundreds of thousands of recipients of welfare correctly or is it illegally docking their payments?"

good gear from ‪‪@paulkarp.bsky.social‬ www.afr.com/podcast/the-...

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Antoinette Lattouf @antoinettelattouf.bsky.social · 13h

This is a little taste of my long chat with Chris Hedges.
You're welcome.

Ette Media @ettemedia.bsky.social · 13h

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges and I have plenty to cover — his remarkable career, the betrayal of Palestinian journalists, the National Press Club fiasco, and *that* ABC Late Night Live interview.

We Used To Be Journos bonus episode drops Friday, 5am AEDT.

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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 15h

Congrats, The Atlantic and The New York Times, this is the country you've created.

Dr Matt Lodder @mattlodder.com · 1d

Incredible scenes.

www.wdbj7.com/2025/10/19/t...

Teen removed from boys basketball tryouts, told to join girls team over birth certificate error

The boy's parents say a mix-up at the hospital led to him being mistakenly listed as female on his birth certificate.

www.wdbj7.com

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Independent Australia @independentaus.bsky.social · 20h

The Australian Public Service has evolved into a revolving order of consultants working for mini warlords.
~ Vince Hooper

Managing warlords in the workplace: Inside Australia’s bureaucratic feudalism
independentaustralia.net/politics/pol...

Managing warlords in the workplace: Inside Australia’s bureaucratic feudalism

The Australian Public Service has evolved into a revolving order of consultants working for mini warlords.

independentaustralia.net

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Demos @demos-uk.bsky.social · 1d

🧵 Across the world, democracy isn’t just under pressure, it’s facing epistemic collapse: a breakdown in the shared ability to know what’s true, to reason together and to hold power to account.

A new guest paper by @eliothiggins.bsky.social and @drnataliemartin.bsky.social explores how to fix it.

Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A new framework for tackling epistemic collapse and renewing democracy

Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.

demos.co.uk

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Miriam Cosic @miriamcosic.bsky.social · 1d

I hate the way the political commentariat refers to the Far Right now as "conservative".

Apart from its misogyny, the Far Right isn't conservative. It's radical. Like fascism is radical.

This literary review by Mark Lilla:

#politicaltheory
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

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Miriam Cosic @miriamcosic.bsky.social · 1d

When I was teaching Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism in political philosophy a scant decade ago, I found it a historically powerful explainer.

Today I find it chillingly resonant, as I just posted, amid the deeply unnerving confronting shift in contemporary politics ...

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 1d

Nelson's Victory crew included a Brazilian and a Russian, 2 Indians, 2 Swiss, 2 Portuguese, 3 Danes and 3 Norwegian sailors. There were 3 Germans, 4 Italians, 6 Swedes, 7 Dutchmen, 9 West Indians and an African, as well as 21 Americans, 63 Irish, 64 Scots, 441 English.... oh, and 3 French men, too.

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 1d

The ABC’s Top 100 books poll lacks diversity. Here are my 10 First Nations ‘books of the 21st century’

Just three Aboriginal writers appeared in Radio National’s poll. There was little sense of the breadth and creativity of our First Nations writing scene.

theconversation.com

Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 1d

Some Samsung phones unable to make triple-0 calls

Some Samsung mobile phone users may be unable to call triple-0 in an emergency after Telstra announced testing had revealed more than 70 models were not connecting correctly.

www.abc.net.au

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 1d

#PayTheRent

Colonialism's new Gold Rush: how 80 per cent of Australia's critical mineral mines exploit Aboriginal land without true consent - Overland literary journal

This fight over the Pilbara mine is not an isolated spat — it hints at a much larger problem. A new study finds that nearly four out of five of Australia’s critical mineral projects sit on Indigenous ...

overland.org.au

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Pearls and Irritations @johnmenadue.com · 1d

For Jakarta and Canberra, the challenge is to build resilience and attract diversified partnerships while avoiding a zero-sum contest between the two superpowers. This means translating high-level agreements into shared projects. #auspol #partnership #Indonesia

Indonesia-Australia economic partnership can power Indo-Pacific resilience

Amid intensifying great power rivalry, middle powers like Indonesia and Australia face a critical question – can economic co-operation help them hedge against strategic vulnerability?

johnmenadue.com

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 2d

Check out this fascinating lecture

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · 3d

I was just in Australia giving the Boyer Lecture. It's an economist's love letter to his home country. It's also relevant to the current American moment, as the main point is to link institutions with prosperity.

Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAa9...

Justin Wolfers Delivers the 2025 Boyer Lecture: Australia is Freaking Amazing

YouTube video by Justin Wolfers

www.youtube.com

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Emma Jacobs @emmavj.bsky.social · 2d

The ‘trying ever so hard’ bit kills me

Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 5d

I've had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mishal Husain three times. One of the most intelligent and accomplished people I've ever met.

Here's Nigel Farage trying to shut her down with the words "Listen, love ..." like it was still the 1970s. I'd say it was unbelievable, only it isn't.

Nigel Farage says"gotta shoot" down Russian jets | The Mishal Husain Show

YouTube video by Bloomberg Podcasts

www.youtube.com

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The Conversation AUNZ @aunz.theconversation.com · 2d

At the heart of the dispute between the BSA and The Platform is an outdated media law that hasn’t adapted to the online streaming era.

‘Soviet-era Stasi’ or defender of media freedoms? The battle for the Broadcasting Standards Authority

theconversation.com

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Jason Reid @jasonreiduk.bsky.social · 2d

you have to be a certain age but it’s uncanny

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 2d

He's not all bad

I have a copy of his latest tome on China as an audiobook

Use it to put myself to sleep...

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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 2d

Mainstream media thinks it's news that Trump dislikes Kevin Rudd.

Rudd should wear Trump's disdain as a badge of honour.

And his view of the Sundowning Stalin as “village idiot” and a “traitor to the West” may not have been diplomatic.
But very accurate.
www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘I don’t like you either’: diplomats hold their breath as Trump chides Rudd over previous comments

President’s comments were greeted with laughter as diplomatic pressure valve finally released

www.theguardian.com

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Stuart Horrex @stuarthorrex.bsky.social · 2d

I wouldn't worry too much

You can't find too many people in Australia who like Keven Rudd either...

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 3d

“You said bad? I don’t like you either. And i probably never will.”

Trump is asked about 🇦🇺 ambassador Rudd, who is sitting right in front of him.

(He previously called him “the most destructive president in history” who “drags 🇺🇸 & democracy through the mud”)

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