Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

John Heathershaw @jheathershaw.bsky.social · 1h

Fantastic reporting by @occrp.org

If you scroll down you can see the Boeing 737 which flew Kerimguly Berdimuhamedov into Exeter, apparently to study for his Politics degree.

occrp.org/en/scoop/gol... via
@occrp.org

Gold Taps and Towel Racks: How a Plane Used by Turkmenistan’s Ruling Family Got a Royal Makeover

In authoritarian Turkmenistan, even a single airplane trip abroad is out of reach for most citizens. But the country’s ruling Berdimuhamedov family, which has held power across two generations, recent...

occrp.org

1 2 6

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1d

New from me in @foreignpolicy.com: how the US has gone from leading a global push against transnational repression, to proactively supporting it:

foreignpolicy.com/2025/10/08/t...

Trump Is Supporting Transnational Repression

Instead of sheltering pro-democracy dissidents, America is now returning them for arrest.

foreignpolicy.com

1 37 67

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 23h

Mindy O'Neall is the executive director of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, which is a wonderful and very important institution in Alaska. Couldn't think of a more competent mayor for a city with a rough climate and difficult socioeconomic situation.

1

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 23h

Small personal bright spot for me: my hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska just elected Mindy O'Neall (D) as mayor. Turnout was abysmal, but the incumbent Republican mayor is out and I'll take that as a win.

www.alaskasnewssource.com/2025/10/08/m...

Mayor Pruhs concedes reelection race to challenger Mindy O’Neall

Fairbanks Mayor David Pruhs conceded the race for his position to challenger Mindy O’Neall on Tuesday night.

www.alaskasnewssource.com

1 1 9

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 1d

Working with great editors has been a life-changing experience. It’s actually helped me get over my perfectionism and fear of making mistakes. If only journalism wasn’t being gutted as profession 😭

1 18

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1d

This interview by @vlastkz.bsky.social with Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratbai goes into great detail about what being a Central Asian activist is like at a time when democratic states are turning away from the concept of refugee protection vlast.kz/english/6671...

Karakalpak Activist Decries Repression in Uzbekistan and Bureaucratic Barriers in Kazakhstan - Аналитический интернет-журнал Власть

Читайте этот материал на русском.

vlast.kz

1 5 8

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 1d

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

55 1.4K 2.3K

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 2d

any ideas? my instinct is to blame user error, but maybe it's something more widespread. The adoption of Signal remains abysmal, unfortunately.

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 2d

in my futile attempt to get friends and family to use encrypted messengers, I have noticed that the Telegram secret chat function seemingly never works. I know we shouldn't be using Telegram in the first place, but it's become a pattern that I open a secret chat and the contact is never notified

1

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Kevin Rothrock @kevinrothrock.me · 3d

Russia has imposed a 24-hour “cooling period” on foreign SIM cards entering the country, blocking mobile Internet and SMS services. It will also reblock inactive SIM cards, presumably to disrupt Ukrainian drones—both those that are newly introduced and those that are dormant or hidden.

МТС информирует об изменениях в работе роуминга на территории России | Новости МТС

МТС информирует об изменениях в работе роуминга на территории России новости МТС от 06.10.2025⭕️. Подписывайтесь на новостную рассылку от МТС и оставайтесь в ку...

www.mts.by

8 25

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 3d

There’s no need to rewrite the 1951 Convention on Refugees as many EU officials have discussed in the past when it has for all intents and purposes been put to rest

1

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 3d

IOM and UNHCR are facing budget crisis like the entire UN system. Resettlement is basically dead without the US and Canada (not seeing other countries filling in the breach). Countries like Germany are reneging on their resettlement commitments, the UK is finding new ways to dismantle asylum

1 4

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 3d

The international refugee protection system is effectively on its last legs. Ukrainians will get their status extended in most European countries, but beyond that we’re looking at the end of asylum as we know it.

1 5 4

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 3d

This opens the door to more transnational repression

Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 3d

Plans to further reduce EU standards for expulsion of non-EU citizens, via @statewatch.bsky.social

Jonathan Tranter @jonathantranter.bsky.social · 6d

www.statewatch.org/news/2025/oc...

1 6 17

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Emma Collet @emmcollet.bsky.social · 4d

Cette semaine dans @lexpress.fr, retrouvez mon reportage à Baïkonour, visité cet été. Situé dans les steppes du 🇰🇿, ce cosmodrome soviétique -d’où s’est envolé le premier homme dans l’espace, Youry Gagarine- et encore loué par la 🇷🇺, fête ses 70 ans cette année www.lexpress.fr/monde/asie/b...

Baïkonour ne répond plus : plongée au cœur du légendaire mais menacé cosmodrome russe

Situé au Kazakhstan, le mythique cosmodrome soviétique fête cette année ses 70 ans. Délaissé par Moscou, il se cherche un avenir.

www.lexpress.fr

1 2 4

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 5d

I keep going back to this, but one of the reasons South Korea has an incredibly effective protest culture is because they have *decades* of organizational experience through daily/weekly protesting. it helps a lot to do the routine stuff to be able to pull off the big stuff.

Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 5d

Why doesn't the US have a general strike? Well you can point to culture or whatever but I think structure is of not immediate use here: does the US have organizations and institutions it can use to network, organize and mobilize a general strike? No.

23 180 980

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 6d

Came across a Chechen AfD member named Noah Krieger (allegedly not his birth name) from Hannover who is all over Instagram promoting pretty cringy fascist content. Feels like the guy was created in an FSB lab

www.instagram.com/krieger_advo...

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

2

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 6d

The current regime have found a tried and true method of combining symbolic nationalism while maintaining a very close relationship with Russia, particularly between security services.

1

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 6d

Now that Jalal-Abad has been renamed “Manas” by the current regime, the next step is renaming the streets after the “Kyrk Choro”, the forty warriors in the Manas epic.

Kyrk Choro also happens to be a nationalist vigilante group that is known for its homophobia and xenophobic violence.

1 3

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 6d

Props to @tumarov.bsky.social for very skillfully describing the cult of raw power being created by Tashiev, the Sopranos-esque head of Kyrgyzstan’s rapidly expanding security services

youtu.be/cQeb5cdHs1I?...

Могу и «отлупить»: культ силы Ташиева

YouTube video by Kloop на русском

youtu.be

3 6

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 7d

I’ve been puzzled with the resurgence of far-right violence in Russia, echoing the bloody 2000s. But I think seething veterans scapegoating migrants for their problems is a big part of the answer

2

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 7d

There’s a new “great replacement” conspiracy circulating among Russian soldiers: they are being killed off to be replaced by Muslim migrants. This may explain the new rise in xenophobia in Russia, re-appearance of fascist vigilante groups like Russkaya Obshchina

verstka.media/kak-zhivut-m...

«Вот бы всем вместе домой уехать, в один момент. Вот они охуеют». Как живут мобилизованные спустя три года

Трудности с близкими, подорванное здоровье, вера в теории заговора и тотальное разочарование

verstka.media

2 2 9

Reposted by Yan Matusevich

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 7d

(Russia has one of the largest populations of immigrants in the world)

Kevin Rothrock @kevinrothrock.me · 7d

Putin compares Russia to America's "melting pot" (I guess he hasn't heard of the "salad bowl"), but stresses that America is a land of immigrants, where Russia's diversity comprises peoples living on their native soil. Quite an interesting comment.

2 1 13

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 8d

Not that international law matters much these days, but Kyrgyzstan is a signatory of the Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR on the abolition of the death penalty

Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 8d

Another terrible femicide is causing a public outcry in Kyrgyzstan—and in typical populist fashion President Japarov vows to introduce the death penalty for crimes against minors. Emotions are running high and there’s a lot of justified anger, but this does little to address violence against women

1 1 4