Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 3d

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

It's ON. Vote for your bird, every day from today...

Australian bird of the year 2025: vote for your favourite #birdoftheyear in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia poll

From little penguins to (very big) cassowaries, every bird has its fans. Vote for your favourite in the 2025 Guardian/BirdLife Australia poll

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 5d

Rachel Perkins likens it to a neighbour getting permission to put on a veranda, “and 21 years later they come back and say ‘we consulted you about the veranda but we’re putting a three-storey building there’”.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘An act of bastardry’: NT overruled Aboriginal authority to allow hotel on sacred site, advocates say

Film-maker Rachel Perkins says Larrakia people ‘would have never agreed’ to the planned 11-storey building

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 5d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Bitter fruit: the dark underside of the booming NSW blueberry industry

Labour hire companies operating on the mid-north coast said to be taking advantage of ‘extremely weak’ state regulation and visa loopholes

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 6d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘Psychologically unsettling’: ATO pursuing more taxpayers for decades-old debt

Tax office has launched a new initiative to claw back debts despite criticism of similar scheme dubbed ‘robotax’

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 6d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru going hungry despite government spending $1.5m a year for each person

The Australian government is spending millions of dollars a year to house asylum seekers, yet many say they can not afford food and are forced to skip meals

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 6d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The Friday pod is about why creatives and the media are getting so angry about proposals that AI companies should be able to take their work to train their LLMs

Newsroom edition: the battle to regulate AI - podcast

Bridie Jabour speaks with editor Lenore Taylor and deputy editor Patrick Keneally about the threat AI poses to journalism

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 6d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

At least 29 Americans have sought asylum in Australia since second Trump presidency began

Applications from US citizens make up less than 1% of monthly applications but have risen steadily since Trump’s inauguration

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 6d

JD Vance, the US vice-president, made light of the tactic during a rare appearance in the briefing room. “I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time.

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

White House plays racist deepfake video of Democratic leaders on loop

JD Vance, the VP, said he thought the video was ‘funny’ and the ‘sombrero memes’ would cease if government reopened

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 6d

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/oc...

A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0

If the first term of Donald Trump provoked anxiety over the fate of objective knowledge, the second has led to claims we live in a world-historical age of stupid, accelerated by big tech. But might th...

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 8d

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

50,000 year old art. Oldest known representation of a human face. Industrial pollution WILL damage. "Private negotiations". Remediation delayed. As @adammorton.bsky.social argues here, these laws do NOT work.

Australia’s laws to protect the environment don’t work. Woodside’s 40-year greenlight proves it

Approval of the North West Shelf extension shows the purpose of the EPBC Act is to allow developments, not to protect and preserve

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 8d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Productivity commission under fire for failing to consult Australian artists about copyright issues around AI recommendations

Productivity Commission under fire for failing to consult Australian artists about copyright issues around AI recommendations

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 9d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Minister acknowledged decision not to require immediate cuts in acidic pollution meant there was a higher likelihood of rock art being affected “in the short-term”, but any impact “would be small and therefore outweighed by the social or economic factors”.

Federal government agreed to weaken proposed protections for rock art from Woodside’s North West Shelf project

Document outlines negotiations over contentious extension of gas giant’s development after conditional approval in May

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 10d

some happy lunchtime bird content

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Floating nests and decoys: how fairy terns are being charmed back to Port Phillip Bay

These small seabirds are not faring well along Australia’s south-eastern coastline, but there is hope for their resurgence thanks to some novel tactics

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 10d

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
$350m to $750m 👀

US private prisons operator to be paid $790m to hold 100 people on Nauru in quiet expansion of contract

A sixteenfold increase in the original contract without public notification raises allegations of ‘gross mismanagement’ and a process ‘run out of control’

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 11d

There were just four protesters on the sidewalk near the Ice field office Trump claimed was “under siege”. One, wearing a chicken costume and draped in an American flag, held up a sign that read: “Portland Will Outlive Him.”

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

Donald Trump says he is deploying troops to Portland, Oregon

Apparently misled by hyperbolic reporting from conservative outlets on a single small protest, president described peaceful city as ‘war ravaged’

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 11d

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

‘Free speech for me, not for thee’: how Trump’s censorship blitz is splitting the right

After Charlie Kirk’s killing, the US president has unleashed an assault on free speech. Some conservatives are questioning his razor sharp U-turn

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 12d

Here @firstdogonthemoon.bsky.social is giving FAR TOO MUCH AWAY about the dark inner workings of the @australia.theguardian.com bird of the year poll. FAR. TOO. MUCH.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Australian bird of the year! A tiny feathery hiatus from the grim day-to-day | First Dog on the Moon

(unless you are a bird)

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 13d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

This week on the Friday pod we discuss the globalisation of misinformation. (It's not totally bleak, I promise)

Newsroom edition: Trump’s war on truth reverberates in Australia - podcast

Bridie Jabour talks to the editor, Lenore Taylor, and the national news editor, Josephine Tovey, about the globalisation of misinformation and why facts are more important than ever

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 14d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Electricity generation costs would be up to 50% higher if Australia stuck with coal and gas only

Griffith University experts reveal the 30% increase in consumer power bills since 2021 would have been worse under fossil fuel-only scenario

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 14d

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Childcare executives paid six-figure bonuses despite outrage over alleged abuse and safety failures

Generous salaries have sparked calls for boards to consider clawing back some of the money paid to bosses

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 15d

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

spoiler - a bad one...

Coalition MPs say Australia’s emissions are a fraction of the world’s total. What kind of argument is that?

Australia’s emissions are only about 1.1% of the global total. But it is scientifically wrong to say half a billion tonnes of CO2 don’t matter, experts say

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 15d

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

.... although perhaps not as much of. burden as dealing with this crisis????

Months before triple zero failure, Optus claimed that giving live updates on outages would impose ‘huge burden’

Telco had resisted new rules that will require greater sharing of information with authorities during outages

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 15d

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

So much to check...

Fact-check: Donald Trump’s false and misleading claims during his UN address

The US president made at least five spurious claims ranging from climate change and immigration to ending wars

www.theguardian.com

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Lenore Taylor @lenoret.bsky.social · 15d

The federal government spent more than $60m on private law firms to fight national disability insurance scheme participants appealing decisions about their packages last financial year, a 60% increase from the year before, Guardian Australia can reveal.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

‘They’ve engaged a barrister!’ Parents of high-needs children say Labor is waging lawfare over disability support

Exclusive: The federal government paid big law firms more than $60m in 2024-25 to fight NDIS participants appealing decisions about their care packages. Most families represent themselves

www.theguardian.com

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