Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 3h

This clip from @mothinali.bsky.social - an impassioned human caring about other humans.

Isn’t that the very essence of what politics should be about?

It’s why I’ve joined @greenparty.org.uk and I urge you to do the same.

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James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 4h

As @zackpolanski.bsky.social says so well, we have lost #ordinaryhope after decades of it being drained from our communities, our work and our lives. And people should be fighting back. Not with hate, but with hope.

Your enemy is not other poor people.

youtu.be/qxt4HCjd7VA?...

Let's Make Hope Normal Again - Green Party Political Broadcast

YouTube video by Green Party of England & Wales

youtu.be

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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 4d

🔴How Western Media Whitewashed Israel’s Mass-Abduction of Activists

Over 450 members of the aid flotilla to Gaza are now being held by Israel in an “anti-terror” prison in the Negev desert, reports @mathildamall.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/04/h...

How Western Media Whitewashed Israel’s Mass-Abduction of Activists

Over 450 members of the aid flotilla to Gaza are now being held by Israel in an “anti-terror” prison in the Negev desert

bylinetimes.com

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EuropeanPowell @europeanpowell.bsky.social · 4d

Palantir has 24 contracts with key UK public institutions including, the NHS, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office, the DLUHC, and Coventry City Council. goodlawproject.org/case/were-ta...

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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 13d

It would be good if this was matched with a call for embedding critical thinking skills in primary and secondary education across Europe.

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 13d

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today backed a call to set a minimum age for accessing social media.

Von der Leyen calls for minimum age to access social media

Commission chief throws weight behind calls to ban social media use for kids.

ow.ly

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James Plunkett @jamestplunkett.bsky.social · 15d

📣 I'm excited to announce a new venture: Kinship Works!
Supporting the energy at the edges - and building a human alternative to our struggling bureaucratic settlement.
More details here, along with teasers on some wonderful work we'll be doing this Autumn:
medium.com/@jamestplunk...

Announcing Kinship Works

An alliance for a human alternative

medium.com

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James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 15d

This sounds like fascinating work James. Really looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

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Bold Politics with Zack Polanski @boldpolitics.bsky.social · 21d

How do we call people in rather than out?

The world is complicated - and our conversations should reflect that.

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New Civil Engineer @social.newcivilengineer.com · 21d

The UK government has calculated that nationalising the water sector would cost around £100bn, but this has been disputed by analysts at @cmmonwealth.bsky.social who argue the government has powers to do it at a far lower cost

Full story: buff.ly/knWquLB

Defra calculates £100bn to nationalise water sector but ‘true’ figure could be much lower | New Civil Engineer

The circa £100bn figure comes from a technical assessment by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). This figure is based on the

buff.ly

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James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 21d

They don’t want “free speech”, they want freedom to hate. Hate in thought, hate in policy, hated masked as free thinking. They wish they could talk in hate, but they can’t yet, so they hide it behind their free speech double talk.

Their core objective is to normalise and weaponise hate.

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Silkabelli (mutazione-piromane Edition) @silkabelli.bsky.social · 21d

Queen

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Truthout @truthout.org · 22d

Members of time exchange networks come together to help each other with every day tasks, navigating challenging paperwork, or even moving house. One such community has 530 active members and more than 101,000 hours exchanged over the past 15 years.

Digital Tools Are Fueling the Rise of New “Time Exchange” Solidarity Economies

Through time exchanges, members earn time credits by helping others, then redeem them when they need help themselves.

buff.ly

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Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 22d

When Miller worked as an aide for Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, he was so widely disliked by his colleagues that Republican staff in other offices would spread malicious rumors about him, such as that he liked to play with porcelain dolls.

Story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 23d

So we've gone from the shooter was trans to the shooter's bullets were trans to the shooter's roommate was trans to the shooter listened to a musical artist that sometimes mentions trans people

AF Post scromits: The shooter Spotify account includes a playlist of his favorite tracks from gender-bending artist Chonny Jash, whose songs explore cross-dressing and transgenderism

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 24d

reposting with alt text because this feels incredibly significant. the right-wing disinfo machine means a lot of the people grieving Charlie Kirk never heard any of the things he said that would have tarnished his brand as Guy Who Just Wants to Have Dialogue Across the Aisle

One thing that has become really clear since yesterday is that we live in at least two different realities. Talking to a friend who only knew Charlie as a Christian motivational speaker because that's all that ever came across her feed. Showed me videos I've never seen before of him saying perfectly reasonable and empowering things.

I showed her videos she'd never seen before of his racism, misogyny, homophobia, advocating for violence against specific groups of people. She was horrified by his remarks about Pelosi's husband's attacker being bailed out and celebrated for his violent act. She was horrified by a number of things that he said, but she had never seen or heard them before, the same as I had never seen or heard the generalized clips of him sounding like a perfectly nice loving man and father.

Neither of us had a whole picture of this man. I mentioned he was a known white supremacist and she thought I was joking.

She talked about him giving a speech about finding your purpose and doing good in the world and I thought she was joking.

I saw why this friend was mourning the loss of a person she thought was a good person.
My friend, bless her, saw why I feel the way I do about him. We understood each other better. In spite of a multi-billion dollar internet machine specifically focused on keeping us apart. Because we talked to each other with the desire to listen and to learn rather than the desire to change someone else's mind or to be "right".

None of those motivational things he said change my opinion about him because they don't erase the negativity, the subtle calls for violence, the belittling and denigrating of other races religions genders etc. His negative and blaming comments about homeless people, the poor, and victims of domestic violence. His comments about rounding up people who didn't think like him and putting them in camps where their behavior could be corrected. That time he said empathy was a made-up word he didnt believe in. That other time he said the Civil Rights Act was a mistake. The time he said most people are afraid when they get on a plane and see that there's a black pilot. His anti-vaccination rhetoric and his active campaigning against people being allowed to wear masks for their own health. His open support of fascism and white supremacy. To me, all of those are fully unchristian sentiments. Those are undeniable and just one of them would be a deal-breaker for me. All of them together are a picture of a man who was polarizing,

enraged a lot of people and rightly so, but even with all of that I would never wish upon him or especially his children the end that he got.
Oh, and my friend had never heard, and God help me I don't know how she escaped the news, but she had never heard of the Minnesota legislators who were shot in June. The husband and wife and dog who were killed, one after throwing themselves over their child to protect the child. The other couple who somehow survived.

Politically motivated attacks specifically because they were democrats. She learned about those shootings that happened months ago because I showed her Charlie Kirk's comments about them. The kidnapping plot against a female Midwestern Democratic governor. The assassination attempt against Pennsylvania's democratic governor. All things Charlie had plenty to say about while supporting the Second Amendment and bashing the Democratic party. She didn't know about any of it because we're all living in two different worlds and none of us have the whole story.

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James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 23d

This sounds like a fascinating read - can’t wait to grab a copy!

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Bracknell Forest Community Climate Action @bfcca2025.bsky.social · 23d

64% of UK electricity this evening is from wind via grid.iamkate.com #NetZero #LoveNetZero

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Sean Enda Power @sdepaor.bsky.social · 24d

More and more it seems true the saying my secondary school friend from Kilrossanty, Jeffrey, said to me once:
“Suspicion haunts the guilty mind“

onion person @junlper.beer · 24d

what we’ve seen from the right is the most insane case of cancel culture i’ve ever witnessed. the left has never even done close to a fraction of a fraction of what they want to do now

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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 24d

Just look at what happened with solar investment - it’s astonishing.

Solar has seen the most rapid investment growth, soaring from $142 billion in 2015 to a projected $441 billion this year.

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Alison McGovern @allymcgovern.bsky.social · Jul 6

www.gov.uk/government/n...

Government revives family services, supporting 500,000 more kids

Up to 1,000 Best Start Family Hubs to be rolled out across the country to provide wide-ranging help for families, such as parenting and early development.

www.gov.uk

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James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 24d

Follow the money.

Cat Neilan @catneilan.bsky.social · 24d

My colleague @thejohnsimpson.bsky.social has done a terrific deep dive into the financial links between US tech billionaires and Tommy Robinson

Well worth a read

observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

US cash turned Tommy Robinson into the poster boy of UK f...

Outside the Old Bailey in 2018, a reinvented Tommy Robinson flashed his perfect new teeth to 2,000 diehard supporters at a “free Tommy” rally on a stage ...

observer.co.uk

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HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 24d

Hat tip @clownf1st.bsky.social

This is fine, but Keir Starmer surrounded by violent, foreign money funded bigots waving flags

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Ewamore, Quoth the Raven @ewacat.bsky.social · 29d

this is called "doing a streeting" which is to position yourself firmly on the wrong side of an issue for no reason and to no one's benefit

The National @scotnational.bsky.social · 29d

Wes Streeting has defended Lord Peter Mandelson’s relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein after it was revealed the Labour peer called the convicted paedophile his 'best pal'

Wes Streeting defends Lord Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

www.thenational.scot

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · Sep 7

meanwhile, in Nuneaton

Post on Facebook by young white Nuneaton mum 22h

Whilst I'm ranting we walked from bowling to middlemarch and saw this... a coach load of immigrants being lead into the back door of the holiday inn!!! Hang the flags high and realise that this isn't a joke!! I'll be at the next protest for sure!!!

I'm not racist I'm a MOTHER!!!!!!!!!

[Photo across carpark of Holiday Inn Nuneaton to where there is a white coach with its luggage storage partly open and a group of men standing nearby]

Zoom in on photo

Coach looks quite plush, young men standing in a group at the rear

Facebook post: London Warriors Urban
American Football Program 3h.

Congratulations to the Bristol Aztecs who claimed their championship title today, unfortunately not going our way but we will rebuild and see them next year.

We would also like to express our gratitude to Holiday Inn Express Nuneaton for the pleasant stay and allowing us to use their car park for walk thru preparation ahead of the game.

Thank you for the continued support throughout our 2025 season and we will be back.

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James @mutomorro.bsky.social · 24d

"We have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. But we are led by the least among us — the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary.
Terence McKenna

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