Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 18h

"I wish I had told you, before our dinners grew cold, that one day I would speak loudly. Not to wound, but because not speaking would betray everything I was taught to honour.
Because for me, love is not blind loyalty – to an ideology, a state or even a community"
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When you first heard me speak against this genocide, you heard my words as betrayal. But they were meant as love | Sarah Schwartz

Not speaking would go against everything I was taught to honour: the righteous among the nations – those who refused to be bystanders to injustice

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by gina rushton

ABC News (Unofficial) @abc-news.bsky.social · 1d

Google is ramping up AI. Here's why that may be bad for news sites: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-10-08/how-googles-ai-overviews-are-affecting-australian-news-websites/105839588

Google is ramping up AI. Here's why that may be bad for news sites

One year on from the rollout of Google AI Overviews in Australia, exclusive data shows steep year-on-year declines in readership for the top news websites as smaller publishers warn of lay-offs.

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 1d

Scoop: OpenAI has signed its first ever Australia government contract, quietly inking a deal with Treasury amid the ChatGPT-maker's charm offensive on policymakers.

This modest contract is an ideal foothold into future, more lucrative deals, according to one firm's analysis.
www.crikey.com.au/20...

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Reposted by gina rushton

Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 1d

Hard to figure out sometimes whether submissions were made using AI, but then sometimes they make it fairly easy.

Three citation urls that include the source being chatgpt.

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 2d

Favourite legal newsletter Headnote says read the piece!

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 2d

"Dalton’s fourth novel is a wife-guy manifesto, an uxorious fable. It’s bleakly retrograde: women as redeemers; men as awestruck limpets; love as an unyielding grip."

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Gravity Let Me Go by Trent Dalton review – ocker crime caper plagued by more than a beleaguered ballsack

The bestseller’s fourth novel could have tackled timely questions about true crime – but instead it offers a bleakly retrograde fable about being a good bloke

www.theguardian.com

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 3d

Wrote about anxiety about the creep of artificial intelligence into the courts and concerns that the use of these tools could erode Australia’s core judicial values

ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 4d

Artificial intelligence is coming for the law. Are we ready for robots to become judge and jury?

Lawyers are already using AI. Will judges be next?

Artificial intelligence is coming for the law. Are we ready for robots to become judge and jury?

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 8d

2 bits of new info in my piece:

- eSafety Commissioner will say which platforms that it considers in the teen social media ban
- Communication Minister has not asked the Privacy Commissioner for advice on what data social media companies may not collect

Anthony Albanese is taking a victory lap on the teen social media ban before we know how — let alone if — it works

You’d be forgiven for assuming that the government’s victory lap meant it had settled details like what social media companies are in the ban, or how well the ban has to be enforced. It hasn’t.

www.crikey.com.au

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 7d

RIP Chad Profitz (who was deactivated after posting too close to the sun). Will love you 4eva.

www.capitalbrief.com/article/meet...

Meet Chad Profitz, Australia's best LinkedIn creator

Rarely professional, Chad might just be what the networking platform needs most.

www.capitalbrief.com

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Reposted by gina rushton

ProPublica @propublica.org · 21d

Research shows police regularly perform inadequate rape investigations and fail to test for DNA evidence. That has led lawmakers across the country to extend their statutes of limitations.

This hasn’t happened in Massachusetts.

👉 Read more (w/ @wbur.org):
www.propublica.org/article/mass...

Article excerpt: Other states followed as police departments began to disclose in the 2010s that they systemically failed to test DNA evidence in rape cases. Meanwhile, a growing body of research found that police regularly performed inadequate rape investigations, deciding reports were unfounded before interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence or testing DNA. Across the country, most reports of rape do not result in prosecution, research shows.

”They judge the victim,” said Michigan State University professor Rebecca Campbell, who has authored multiple studies on how police conduct rape investigations. “That’s what I found in my research, and it’s been replicated by other research teams and other jurisdictions throughout the United States.”

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 14d

From premiers to pariahs, the predominantly Indigenous side was expelled from the league after just one season. The video footage that condemned them remained hidden for decades: until now.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Blood on the grass: Forgotten final that exposed football's racial fault lines

The Purnim Bears were supposed to be the feel-good story of country football — a team uniting black and white communities. But their 1987 grand final was so violent it ended with their expulsion.

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 15d

Australia's teen social media ban has been sold as being the solution to, or at least helping to solve, a lot of different problems.

Since we're not far off from the ban's start, I thought I would be good to pull together all the government's many claims about its benefits:

www.crikey.com.au/20...

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 20d

Oi!

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 22d

Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide in Gaza, according to the "most authoritative assessment" to date.
The inquiry's report follows a two-year investigation and builds on a growing number of assessments labelling Israel's actions as genocide.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, major UN report finds

Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide in Gaza, according to the "most authoritative assessment" to date.

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

Katie Notopoulos @katienotopoulos.bsky.social · 29d

People have focused so much on the predator problem on Roblox (which is honestly fairly solvable by utilizing parental controls/blocking chat) that they've missed the forest for the trees: it's all junky games laden with in-app purchases, pay-to-win, and dark patterns nymag.com/intelligence...

The Brain-Rotting Dystopia of Roblox

What if the world’s most beloved video-game app is turning children into mindless hyperconsumers?

nymag.com

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · 27d

A five-month investigation has identified six people shot by Israeli snipers on 22 November 2023, revealing how a family from Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood was torn apart in a few hours by men who grew up in Naperville, Illinois and Munich, Germany.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

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Reposted by gina rushton

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 27d

Charlie Kirk's murder has plunged us into a democratic crisis www.vox.com/politics/461...

Our country is not prepared for this

On the horrible murder of Charlie Kirk — and the threat to democracy it created.

www.vox.com

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · Sep 8

“When people talk about cultural vandalism and the insult to the legacy of Meanjin, I think they mean the decision to close the journal severs a connection to this history, to the possibility of a cultural nationalism that isn’t defined by racism & imperial fealty” www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/08/m...

Meanjin's 'financial' shutdown doesn't add up

Melbourne University reported a $273 million surplus in 2024 on an operating income of $3.2 billion. It is against these figures that the 'purely financial decision' to close Meanjin has raised eyebro...

www.crikey.com.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Aug 23

Why do we feel inadequate, and how does that feeling shape our characters? Vivian Gornick writes about low self-esteem.

Always Inadequate

The force of low self-esteem can feel so enormous, so unexplainable, it seems almost mythic.

nyer.cm

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · Sep 8

Love love love this!

Crikey @crikey.com.au · Sep 8

Anthony Albanese is trying to make it harder to hold him accountable. We're fighting back. Let us file an FOI for you.

Labor wants fewer FOIs. Crikey wants more — let us file them for you

www.crikey.com.au

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · Sep 7

"Those lofty words aged like milk this week as Albanese's government revealed its plans to water down Australia's transparency laws and make secrets easier to keep"

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Albanese scoffed at Morrison's secrecy. Then he copied it

When he lashed Scott Morrison over the multiple ministries affair, Anthony Albanese said his predecessor "operated in darkness". But this week, a PM with a patchy transparency record of his own announ...

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

Daniel James @mrdtjames.bsky.social · Sep 5

Want to work with the 7am team? Take a look at this gig, and if you think you’re the right fit - APPLY. www.seek.com.au/job/86881346...

Video Producer Job in Melbourne VIC - SEEK

7am seeks a part-time video producer to create social and podcast video content, driving audience growth through sharp visual storytelling.

www.seek.com.au

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · Sep 4

This story is absolutely horrific. www.wired.com/story/the-ba...

The Baby Died. Whose Fault Is It?

When her son died in utero, a venture capitalist went to extremes to punish her surrogate.

www.wired.com

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gina rushton @ginarush.bsky.social · Sep 4

This sucks!!!

Charlie Lewis @theshufflediary.bsky.social · Sep 4

This, from Jonathan Green, pretty much sums it up: “Meanjin’s financial demand is trivial … a few hundred thousand dollars … the cultural loss of its death is as significant as it is tragic.”
www.crikey.com.au/2025/09/04/m...

Literary journal Meanjin to close after 85 years of publishing

Meanjin, a mainstay of Australia's cultural landscape and the nation's second-oldest literary publication, is shuttering after Melbourne University Publishing decided to cease financial support.

www.crikey.com.au

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Reposted by gina rushton

Bill Browne @browne90.bsky.social · Sep 3

Govt leans heavily on eSafety Commissioner receiving 600 FOI requests in one year.

However frivolous they may be, they were overwhelmingly for personal info - so fees wouldn't apply.

And at just 1 or 2% of all FOIs, they are not the reason the system is so expensive in money and work-hours.

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