Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · 27d

Ros Atkins on... Israel's war in Gaza and proportionality

“Israel insists it followed international law throughout this conflict - and that its actions are proportionate. But nearly all of the experts we spoke to aren't convinced.”

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 27d

'my instinct is that our troubled world needs Humanities Studies as much – if not more – than in many past years'. (John Major: johnmajorarchive.org.uk/2025/09/10/s... )

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 28d

Powerful speech from John Major today at the Mansion House indicating his personal concern about the decline of study of the humanities

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University of Oxford @ox.ac.uk · Sep 4

NEW: An Oxford report warns that misleading media coverage is shaping public debate on immigration and human rights.

The study finds the ECHR is frequently misreported in deportation cases, fueling misconceptions that erode trust in the legal system.

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Silhouettes of three people in front of a weathered British flag, with the headline: Misrepresentations around human rights and immigration fuelling calls to quit ECHR, Oxford report finds

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Monica Hakimi @monicahakimi.bsky.social · Sep 5

Ingrid and I issued the following statement in the just-released issue of @ajil.bsky.social. A travesty that it has to be said.

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Sep 2

This is a great film. Wish I was anywhere near Georgetown.

Reposted by Fernanda Pirie

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · Aug 28

A courteous but very impressive rebuke to Nigel Farage from the Bishop of Oxford.

"I heard no compassion in what you said...".

"I disagree profoundly with your attempts to ... increase fear of the stranger in our communities".

Do read.
blogs.oxford.anglican.org/an-open-lett...

An open letter to Nigel Farage - Bishop Steven's Blog

Bishop Steven writes an open letter in response to Nigel Farage MP's immigration policy which was launched in Oxford this week.

blogs.oxford.anglican.org

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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · Aug 25

Dr. Tarek Loubani, who is in Gaza right now, was invited to give a talk to emergency workers about the attacks on health care facilities in Gaza.

But he was instructed - get this - not to say who was doing the attacking. Take a look at how this hero of a human responded: vimeo.com/1112115018/c...

Stethoscope Story #8

This is "Stethoscope Story #8" by Albino Squirrel Channel on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Aug 23

Me too. Milk and More.

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Aug 19

Very bad news.

Daniel Hansen @danrhan.bsky.social · Aug 19

Well, UChicago has paused new PhD admissions in my department now, too. One of the flagship departments for anthropology in the US and worldwide.

This on top of hum, social thought, social work, and others. What happens to UChicago's brand--the so-called "life of the mind"--now?

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East Anglia Bylines @eastangliabylines.co.uk · Aug 17

Want fewer migrants?

Say goodbye to:
* 30% of our tech workforce;
* 1 in 4 hospitality workers;
* 1 in 5 construction workers;
* 16% of the NHS.

Still sound like a good plan?

Stephen McNair reports

Do we really want a big reduction in immigration?

Voters see immigration as the most important issue facing the country. There are things to be done. But can we really afford major reductions?

eastangliabylines.co.uk

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Aug 8

‘Graeber does seem to have had most fun as an outsider, a movement anthropologist wending his way among anticapitalist militants, or sitting in on horizontalist spokescouncils, arguing and taking field notes.’

@leninology.bsky.social reads David Graeber’s essays:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Richard Seymour · Baseline Communism: David Graeber’s Innovations

In his critique of economics, as in his philippic against ‘bullshit jobs’, Graeber stresses the political decisions...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Nicholas Witkowski @nwitkowski.bsky.social · Aug 10

JOB: Assistant Professor in South/Southeast Asian Religions (w/ focus on Hindu Traditions, defined BROADLY) in my department at the University of San Diego (PLEASE SHARE WIDELY).

Apply here: jobs.sandiego.edu/cw/en-us/job...

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Aug 6

Delighted #TheRuleofLaws gets a mention in The Economist though the laws of war don’t feature highly. Tricky subject!

David Rennie @dsorennie.bsky.social · Aug 6

With nods to Grotius, earning his second mention in The Telegram, and to a fine book on the 4,000 year history of legal codes by Prof @fernandapirie.bsky.social profilebooks.com/work/the-rul...

The Rule of Laws - Profile Books

profilebooks.com

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Aug 5

‘He has trouble completing a thought’: bizarre public appearances again cast doubt on Trump’s mental acuity

Reposted by Fernanda Pirie

Himal Southasian @himalmag.bsky.social · Jul 23

"The personal cost Tsering Döndrup has paid for ‘The Red Wind Howls’ is further evidence, if it were needed, of just how taboo his tale is."

Christopher Peacock on Tsering Döndrup’s defiant reckoning with Tibet’s legacy of violence:

Tsering Döndrup’s defiant reckoning with Tibet’s legacy of violence

I FIRST MET Tsering Döndrup at his home in Xining – the largest city on the Tibetan Plateau, located in Qinghai province in western China. This was in early 201

buff.ly

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · Jul 20

Why the UK won’t face hyperinflation – even with government money creation youtu.be/Jkx2YzakYNg?... Hyperinflation is the scare story threatened by those who want to stop government spending. But it’s just that: a scare story.

Why the UK won’t face hyperinflation – even with government money creation

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy

youtu.be

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · Jul 15

This is an important piece from a senior Holocaust scholar (who grew up in Israel and is an IDF veteran), and it’s important that it’s published in the NYT.

To this day, only a few scholars of the Holocaust, and no institution dedicated to researching and commemorating it, has issued a warning that Israel could be accused of carrying out war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing or genocide. This silence has made a mockery of the slogan “Never again,” transforming its meaning from an assertion of resistance to inhumanity wherever it is perpetrated to an excuse, an apology, indeed, even a carte blanche for destroying others by invoking one’s own past victimhood.

What I fear is that in the aftermath of the Gaza genocide, it will no longer be possible to continue teaching and researching the Holocaust in the same manner we did before. Because the Holocaust has been so relentlessly invoked by the State of Israel and its defenders as a cover-up for the crimes of the I.D.F., the study and remembrance of the Holocaust could lose its claim to be concerned with universal justice and retreat into the same ethnic ghetto in which it began its life at the end of World War II — as a marginalized preoccupation by the remnants of a marginalized people, an ethnically specific event, before it succeeded, decades later, to find its rightful place as a lesson and a warning for humanity as a whole.

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Jul 14

Splendid surroundings to hear the AG reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the rule of law and Venice Commission. And glad to be able
to offer socio-legal and historical perspective. @oxfordcsls.bsky.social

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Jul 9

The corporations aiding genocide www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07...

The corporations aiding genocide

I never imagined I would read a report like this in my lifetime, and yet it is in The Guardian, is corroborated elsewhere, and it is about a plan put forward by the Israeli government, with no doubt t...

www.taxresearch.org.uk

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · May 27

Glad to have been able to sign this.

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · May 27

UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers

Exclusive: Letter to PM signed by retired supreme court justices among others says lack of action will imperil international legal system

www.theguardian.com

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · May 27

UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

UK must impose sanctions on Israel to meet legal obligations, say more than 800 lawyers

Exclusive: Letter to PM signed by retired supreme court justices among others says lack of action will imperil international legal system

www.theguardian.com

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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · May 23

Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' ends US democracy. What happens next? youtu.be/JrpgSR0Y8Ms?...

Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' ends US democracy. What happens next?

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy

youtu.be

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Apr 16

👏👏👏

Harvard rejects Trump administration's sweeping demands for change

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Bo Tiojanco @botiojanco.bsky.social · Apr 14

Wonderful dinner discussing everything from Russian literature to legal history with @fernandapirie.bsky.social , Nick, and Kentaro.

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Fernanda Pirie @fernandapirie.bsky.social · Apr 14

Many congratulations Elena. It’s an important and original piece of work and I’m glad to have facilitated the early stages. I hope the publication process goes smoothly.

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