Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Politico @politico.com · 17h

Pope Leo XIV says he will "stand with" Catholic leaders in protecting immigrants facing mass deportations in the U.S., according to advocates who recently met with the Pope.

Pope Leo will ‘stand with’ Catholic leaders in protecting immigrants’ rights, advocates say

The comments from the pope mark the most recent push from the Vatican against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

www.politico.com

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 17h

I don’t really know what this game involves but I’m imagining a quest for the last blight-free potato in Ireland.

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 17h

Mit brennender Sorge.

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 17h

“Pope Leo XIV’s eyes grew misty Wednesday as an El Paso delegation led by Bishop Mark Seitz presented him letters and a video that captured the fears and anxieties of people facing mass deportation in the United States …”

The church “cannot be silent,” Pope Leo said.

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 18h

Oh — new reporting on Pope Leo from El Paso Matters, citing footage they have of yesterday's meeting.

Sounds like the pope was even *more* forceful in urging U.S. bishops to speak out about immigration than first reported.

I mean, that's…not subtle. elpasomatters.org/2025/10/08/e...

Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 1d

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 17h

oof

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 1d

I hope and believe that most of my fellow Jews will join me in saying that it is sickening that anyone should justify this outpouring of execrable racist bile by claiming that it's for our sake.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 1d

Outstanding piece by Stephen Daisley.

Ethnicity is no barrier to Britishness - it's culture and integration.

That means 'smaller cohorts and aggressive integration policies' - and tackling the institutions that 'have amplified grievance narratives and radical anti-Western ideologies'.

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 18h

Disinformation, now in 3D.

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 20h

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Jack Sapoch @jacksapoch.bsky.social · 20h

NEW: Since October 2023, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has released dozens of 3D animations illustrating alleged Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iranian sites

The style is now unmistakable: satellite zoom-ins, black & white wireframes, and red-textured houses - a new visual language of war

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project @occrp.org · 18h

In 2007, an employee of Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling Barzani family wrote to a U.S. lawyer with a problem.

Two Barzani brothers had bought properties in the U.S. — but they were concerned that this information was public.

So the lawyer looked to the Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project @occrp.org · 22h

Lawyers for Iraqi Kurdistan’s PM Masrour Barzani rejected any wrongdoing and said he had a “fervent commitment” to anti-corruption, and that it was reasonable for him to protect his privacy. They didn’t reply to questions about potential conflicts of interest.

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project @occrp.org · 22h

NEW: Four brothers from Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling Barzani family bought over $100 million in U.S. properties, leaked documents show.

At least some of the money came from major Kurdish companies two of the brothers secretly controlled, leaked records suggest.

www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

Mansions, Horses, and Designer Bags: How the Ruling Family of Iraqi Kurdistan Splurged in the U.S.

The five sons of Iraqi Kurdistan’s founding president acquired real estate across the United States and went on luxury shopping sprees. At least some of the money came from major Kurdish…

www.occrp.org

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · 4d

Extremely disappointed to discover that the Marc Bloch Chair at the University of Strasbourg is alas not called the Chaise Longue Durée.

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 1d

Serialist, minimalist, neo-romanticist.

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 2d

quantitative methods, qualitative methods, mixed methods

Photo of a Kansas City Chiefs press conference with Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, and Patrick Mahomes. Reid is wearing a gray suit and red tie with a lapel pin. Kelce is wearing a camp-style short-sleeved shirt with a bird print, along with a suede cap, and Mahomes is wearing a white collared shirt, a pink checkered double-breasted vest, and a pale pink tie.

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 1d

Not sure it’s fair for that article to adopt “in another blow form beleaguered ONS” since in this case it’s HMRC that cocked up. I mean, you hope that ONS at the time said “that figure looks low, are you sure” but even so it wasn’t their mistake.

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

Never forget that Dolly Parton gave a million bucks for covid research at the *very start* of the pandemic—including money that helped fund the development of the Moderna vaccine.

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Cas Piancey @cascoinfoundation.org · 1d

Almost everyone from Cryptocurrency Twitter has remained on Cryptocurrency Twitter, and almost all of those people voted for Donald Trump and almost all of those people’s minds haven’t changed.

They have no morals or ethics outside of “number go up”

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Ilya Lozovsky @ichbinilya.bsky.social · 2d

You've probably seen a lot of angry posts today about how "Angela Merkel blamed Poland and the Baltics for the Ukraine war" in a recent interview.

They're far off the mark — she did no such thing! 👇

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Phil Creighton @philcreighton.uk · 2d

Happy ninth anniversary to this little gem @apiln.bsky.social

A press cutting from a newspaper headed: Crane disruption.
The story reads: An enormous crane that will lift a room full of plants into a 14 storey building will close town centre roads in October. Station Road and Garrard Street will be shut and Friar Street and Blagrave Street reversed between 5am October 15 and 5am October 17. The temporary measures will allow contractors working on the Thames Tower to install a 500 tonne crane that will put a prefabricated plant room onto the roof of the building.

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 2d

With no call-in line, so far, this is the only journalist I’m seeing live-posting —>

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 2d

Good afternoon. U.S. District Judge April Perry just took the bench for today's status hearing in Illinois v. Trump, over deployment of the National Guard.

A link to the complaint, for those who don't have it: t.co/yaknq55rr8

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 3d

Qv www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/w...

Secret Report Undercuts U.K. Condemnations of Pro-Palestinian Group

www.nytimes.com

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Oliver Rivers @maxrothbarth.bsky.social · 3d

My assumption is that they do not have that material, which is one reason why they’re desperate for the judicial review not to go ahead.

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 3d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 5d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

Ruslan Trad @ruslantrad.bsky.social · 3d

A joint investigation by the OCCRP, iStories, All Eyes On Wagner, Slidstvo.Info, and the Belarusian Investigative Center found that the Oleinikova family, owners of a trendy tapas bar in Barcelona, is under investigation for smuggling EU-sanctioned chemicals to Russia.

Tapas and Toxins

An investigation by IStories, OCCRP, All Eyes On Wagner, Slidstvo.Info, and Belarusian Investigative Center

istories.media

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Reposted by Oliver Rivers

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 3d

NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)

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