Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Fergus Ryan

@fergus.bsky.social

3.5K followers 1.5K following 5.1K posts

Wordcel, aspiring prompt engineer & China analyst. 🧧 Join my newsletter: http://redpacket.substack.com

redpacket.substack.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Fergus Ryan @fergus.bsky.social · Jul 8

China wants to add AI to the FTA with Australia.

Here’s why that’s a dangerous idea, & what’s really at stake if we say yes.

AI isn’t just another export sector. It’s infrastructure, ideology, & surveillance all rolled into one.

My take (gift link): www.theaustralian.co...

Opening systems to Chinese AI is a risk we can’t ignore

There’s one thing China’s ambassador to Australia got right in a call to add artificial intelligence to the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement: “China has always viewed Australia and China-Australia relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.”

www.theaustralian.com.au

1 3 8

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1h

John Fetterman, ladies and gentlemen

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 1h

Trump has been illegally bombing boats off the coast of Venezuela.

Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff forced a vote on reasserting Congress's role over war powers and ending this reckless
warmongering.

It failed 48-51.

Murkowski and Paul voted yes.

Fetterman voted no.

32 140 630

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Brad Heath @bradheath.bsky.social · 2h

WSJ: President Trump believed his Truth Social post demanding prosecutions of James Comey and other political foes was a private message to his attorney general, and "and was surprised to learn it was public."

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

49 180 580

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 1d

If you thought having to stand up for Kimmel was bad, try a guy who pledged a 50 million yuan donation to support invasion of Taiwan.

China Digital Times @chinadigitaltimes.net · 1d

Translations: As CAC Tackles “Malicious” Negativity Online, Popular Influencers Hit With Bans

"Hu and Zhang often danced on the red line, but they had a firm grasp of where the boundaries were. Now both have crashed and burned, because the line has begun moving higher. Whose turn will be next?"

Translations: As CAC Tackles “Malicious” Negativity Online, Popular Influencers Zhang Xuefeng, Hu Chenfeng, Lan Zhanfei Hit With Bans

Amid a new two-month “Clear and Bright” campaign by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) to clean up internet content that “maliciously incites” polarization, pessimism, anxiety, and other neg...

chinadigitaltimes.net

1 2 7

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Podcast @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 1h

Curious to learn whether other cabinet level officials have Truth Social inboxes they’re getting semi-official directives in

1 3 24

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 2h

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Jack Smith’s lawfare and James Comey’s arraignment on pathetically weak charges

Good people will be deterred from public service if they see a meaningful risk of winding up in jail afterward.

www.washingtonpost.com

59 440 1.9K

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast) @brainnotonyet.bsky.social · 4h

Just a reminder that Jack published a book last year called “unhumans” that makes the argument that all Democrats and anyone left of Francisco Franco should be rounded up and murdered en mass for the rest of the populations entertainment.
Jack is a Nazi and hell bent on the murder of his opponents

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective @crimethinc.com · 6h

Jack Posobiec explicitly says that "Antifa" dates back to the Weimar Republic, explicitly acknowledging that this administration is opposed to those who resisted the arrival of Adolf Hitler in Power.

A screenshot of C-Span showing Jack Posobiec speaking during a panel on "Antifa."

7 110 330

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 1h

Quite a headline
www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

Trump to get a 'routine yearly' medical check-up — his second in 6 months

The White House said Trump would be at Walter Reed Medical Center and undergo a checkup after a planned meeting with service members in the facility.

www.nbcnews.com

62 170 580

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

William Moss @williammoss.bsky.social · 1h

I'm reading a WSJ story about high-priced consultants in New York that help parents get their kids into selective high schools, and I can't get over one of the consultants having having the last name "Shashou" which is the pinyin for the Chinese word for assassin.

2 6 48

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Joseph Menn @joemenn.bsky.social · 4h

The president's antifa expert tells Holocaust jokes and uses neo-Nazi codes like 1488. www.splcenter.org/resources/ha...

13 170 470

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 6h

From Donald Trump's Roundtable on Antifa just now —
"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."
— special guest Jack Posobiec

92 120 460

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5h

Good lord.

@apnews.com

850 2.9K 9K

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 7h

News Corp's chair yesterday gave me a bit of a puzzled look when I mentioned in a question that News corp routinely uses AI generated images in its papers. Today:

Andrew Bolt's column with an AI generated image of Chris Bowen

10 12 84

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Unusual Whales @unusualwhales.bsky.social · 21h

Fed's Kashkari says he hasn't seen large-scale unemployment due to AI

9 2 33

Fergus Ryan @fergus.bsky.social · 22h

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/w...

Cheer Up, or Else. China Cracks Down on the Haters and Cynics

www.nytimes.com

Fergus Ryan @fergus.bsky.social · 22h

When you’re reading a NYT story about China’s latest censorship campaign and spot your old apartment in Sanlitun.

1 6

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

News out of estimates today is that Optus sent the alert about the triple zero outage to the department to an old communications email address for outages, not a new one, and the government didn't see it til later.

From:
Sent: Thursday, 18 September 2025 2:45 PM
To: cialerts < @communications.gov.au>
Cc: @mo.communications.gov.au; < @optus.com.au>; Optus
Government Affairs < @optus.com.au>
Subject: NOTIFICATION | Issue with calls to Triple Zero in SA and WA
Good aernoon team,
I have just been informed that Optus has received reports that some customers in SA and WA are experiencing
impacts to Triple Zero calls.
Suspected cause has been indicated to stem from our Regency Park exchange (which services SA and WA), this
matter is urgently being worked through.
-
3
I have no further details yet, but our Networks team have commenced the welfare check processes and relevant
protocols.
As more information is made available, I will provide updates, and let you know when the issue is resolved.
Kind regards,
Associate Director, Government Affairs
1 Lyonpark Road, Macquarie Park, NSW 2113 Aust

7 10 22

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Quantian @quantian.bsky.social · 2d

Sora is not the real problem here. The real problem is that in 12, at most 24 months, there will be a Sora clone from Tencent or Alibaba that is just as good and can be run by anybody with a 5099, at which point everyone in society needs to rapidly agree to treat all digital video as fake, period.

38 270 1.7K

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

svl @droseph.bsky.social · 5d

I have yet to hear of any accounts or connections between Kirk's shooter and Twitch, or reddit. There were supposed accounts from his partner and roommate, but who knows. Why not Twitter? I think the answer to that question is glaringly obvious.

1 2

Fergus Ryan @fergus.bsky.social · 5d

👏

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

The White Rose Society (Australia) @whiterosesociety.bsky.social · 5d

Neo-Nazi dentist and member of the National Socialist Network, Ian Lomax, has been suspended from practising. Happy Friday.

5 39 150

Fergus Ryan @fergus.bsky.social · 5d

US Congress has formally invited the CEOs of Discord, Steam, Twitch & Reddit to testify on radicalization.

Why didn't they ask Kick to come too?

Is it just because those four were allegedly tied to Kirk’s shooter?

1 3

Fergus Ryan @fergus.bsky.social · 7d

Research from economists at the Yale University Budget Lab and the Brookings Institution shows little evidence that cutting-edge tech such as chatbots is putting people out of work.

www.ft.com/content/c...

2 5 30

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 7d

Last night, the ADL took down its "Glossary of antisemitism" which included an entry for the term "globalist," describing it as a far-right codeword for Jews.

Hours later, the official DHS account authors a post with a common far-right meme, saying that "globalists" will be denied entry to the US.

32 460 1.3K

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 7d

Here's a video I made of Sam Altman as a World War 2 leader in an Axis uniform

17 79 460

Reposted by Fergus Ryan

Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 8d

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 9d

⚠️ Chinese researchers have invented bone glue that mimics how oysters stick to surfaces underwater.

The adhesive can reportedly repair orthopedic fractures in 2-3 minutes, even in blood-rich environments, and is bioabsorbable.

interestingengineering.com/science/chin...

China's oyster-inspired 'bone glue' bonds fractures in minutes

A new oyster-inspired Bone-02 adhesive can revolutionize bone repair without metal fasteners.

interestingengineering.com

160 6.4K 17K