Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joel Quirk @joelquirk.bsky.social · 28d

Two data points:

1) Trump killing 11 people via drone strike off the Venezuelan coast
2) Isreal violating international law to strike Hamas in Doha

These are cut from the same cloth. Once you create a state of exception you keep using it over and over

Really baaaaaad shit is coming down the pipe

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Journal of Southern African Studies @jsas-journal.bsky.social · Aug 27

Applications are now open for the 2025 Colin Murray Award. Deadline: 30 September 2025. The award supports post-doctoral researchers to carry out original ‘engaged field research’ in Southern Africa. Please see the link below for more details jsas.blog

Journal of Southern African Studies

Publishes leading research concerning the history, economics, sociology, demography and anthropology of Southern Africa.

jsas.blog

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · Sep 6

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

‘I escaped a Russian prison — only to end up in an American jail’

Dozens of Russian dissidents have been expelled from the US and forcibly returned to Russia with the co-operation of immigration authorities

www.thetimes.com

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Annie Andrews, MD @drannieandrews.com · Sep 4

I’m just a girl, who did a spinal tap on a preschooler last week, asking you to fire RFK Jr.

a woman in a blue shirt is looking at a man in a pink shirt .

Alt: a woman in a blue shirt is looking at a man in a pink shirt , scene from Notting Hill

media.tenor.com

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · Aug 25

Imagine picking a “businessman” to be your leader, but instead of a great businessman, or even a good one, you pick the absolute worst one…I mean, the laughing stock of his sector (land dev’t), known for many bankruptcies, cheating people, crooked deals, etc.

Now imagine letting him be a dictator.

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Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · Aug 20

Call from a producer this morning:

Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice?

We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.

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Beyond Slavery @beyondslavery.bsky.social · Aug 20

Laura Bates' book The New Age of Sexism takes a sobering look at how tech accelerates misogyny. But the book makes a pretty glaring failure, in that it overlooks the very real and harmful impact that AI has on sex workers. Which should be the real story.

The New Age of Sexism: AI impact on sex workers overlooked

Laura Bates’ new book is distracted by sexbots. AI’s power to surveil and marginalise sex workers is the real story

www.opendemocracy.net

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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · Aug 20

This is all becoming very dangerous and the Government's failure to show any kind of resistance to it is a disgrace www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters

Exclusive: Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park

www.theguardian.com

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Hilary Matfess @hilarymatfess.bsky.social · Aug 19

My latest with the Global Observatory, on the need for urgent action in #Tigray: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/08/urge...

Urgent Action Is Needed to Prevent Tigray from Sliding Back into War - IPI Global Observatory

The current state of “no war no peace” in northern Ethiopia seems to be preserved only by the rainy season’s predictable afternoon showers and relatively chill air. Tigrayans are making anxious prepar...

theglobalobservatory.org

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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · Aug 19

Apartheid South Africa banned television until 1977, partly due to a belief that TV was satanic.

www.researchgate.net/publication/...

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Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · Aug 19

At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.

It’s a moment decades in the making, which could bring real gains for the safety, dignity, and equality of sex workers.

Standing with Sex Workers: Why This Case Matters

At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.

www.hrw.org

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Melissa Gira Grant @melissagiragrant.com · Aug 19

I understand why Democrats are citing things like a "human trafficking investigation" as evidence of beneficial local/federal enforcement cooperation, but the one cited here appears to have not resulted in any arrests for human trafficking, but for sex-for-a-fee: police.boston.gov/2025/08/12/t...

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Cllr Dr Alex Powell @apowelllaw.bsky.social · Aug 18

I am genuinely impressed at the government's capacity to undermine the normative power of invoking terrorism and national security. They have done more in 30 days to problematise the concepts than 30 years of leftist scholarship.

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · Aug 18

BREAKING: Downing Street has warned Sally Rooney risks committing a terrorist offence if she funds Palestine Action

It comes after the author said she would continue to support the group financially

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · Aug 18

The return to the Gilded Age continues as ICE detention centers have become a spawning ground for consumption, AKA tuberculosis. It goes without saying that ICE isn't doing what it takes to prevent this. @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social has the disturbing story:
prospect.org/health/2025-...

Tuberculosis Spawning in Crowded, Dirty ICE Detention Centers

Doctors and medical researchers expect more outbreaks of infectious disease as the Trump administration crams thousands more people into miserable conditions.

prospect.org

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Nuzhat Uthmani @nuthmani.bsky.social · Aug 17

@theguardian.com doesn't reflect the reality of what happened yesterday. The fascist group held signs saying "Kill them all" (no arrests), made obscene gestures, did nazi salutes, used abusive & obscene language (vocabulary not usually a strong skill for them).

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Anti-racism and anti-immigration protesters in Falkirk face off outside asylum hotel

Counter-demonstration offers welcome to refugees as anti-migrant protesters gather outside Cladhan hotel

www.theguardian.com

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The Human Trafficking Legal Center @htlegalcenter.bsky.social · Aug 14

There are no magic fixes, but Section 307 of the US Tariff Act delivers results. Import bans blocking forced-labor tainted goods from the US market have led to more than $62 million in back wages & fees returned to workers. Read our @opendemocracy.net oped: www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...

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Joel Quirk @joelquirk.bsky.social · Aug 12

Seminar (online only): Female Politicians Running for Office

Thursday 10am SAST
Meeting link: lnkd.in/d3gxgGUm

Causes of Women's Descriptive Under-representation in Zambia, Janet Mundando

Between Rhetoric and Reform: The Failure of Gender Quotas in Liberia, Lisa Kindervater

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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · Aug 12

Facebook reminds me that a year ago I started a project of scanning the journals of the Central African Historical Association, based at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, which ran from 1970 to the early 1980s. I have uploaded my scans to Dropbox here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ruzbp...

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unraveled @unraveledpress.com · Aug 7

Happening now: protesters in Chicago are interrupting a hiring fair at the Congress Hotel, where U.S. Customs and Border protection is recruiting today.

Banner reads, "stop kidnapping our neighbors!"

It's quite the scene in here, and the DHS table has been blocked for several minutes already.

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Joel Quirk @joelquirk.bsky.social · Aug 10

This is nuts. 474 people have been arrested and are now facing being charged with terrorism for showing up in a public place to peacefully protest against the most well documented genocide in human history…

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Police arrest 474 people at protest over Palestine Action ban in London

Number of arrests was highest recorded in relation to single operation in at least past decade, according to Met police

www.theguardian.com

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Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · Aug 6

UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-still-sharing-intelligence-israel-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-continue

UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue

Despite escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries, Britain has continued to assist Israel militarily

www.middleeasteye.net

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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · Jul 22

Texas has made "trans women peeing" a higher governmental priority than human trafficking.

ghostly gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · Jul 22

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has listed the anti-trans bathroom bill as the 7th highest priority on his list of 16 priority bills #txlege

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Nicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · Jul 18

The stranger danger panic has convinced a whole lot of people that rapists are never people you know.

And they interpret that to mean that, if they know someone—personally or parasocially—that they must be innocent.

No matter how many victims come forward.

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Joel Quirk @joelquirk.bsky.social · Jul 17

Public Lecture Series: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Semester Two, 2025

For further information please contact [email protected]

All sessions are hybrid, with meeting links being circulated close to time. There is no need to register in advance.

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Anna Forringer-Beal @annaf-b.bsky.social · Jul 17

an absolute must read.

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · Jul 17

"This narrative of human suffering, set in 2025, is filled with tears and resilience. It is a story of women. It is our story. It could very well be your story too."

A stunning essay from Rümeysa Öztürk on the 45 days she spent in an ICE detention center just for speaking her mind

“Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison

Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk opens up about her 45 days in a South Louisiana processing facility—and the generous and compassionate women she met.

www.vanityfair.com

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