Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 1d

"Interfering with (the academic) process by forcing knowledge through a political filter is a tactic adopted by the Soviet Union and other authoritarian states. Scholarship is part of democratic public discourse, and no administration or party has the right to silence it for its own convenience."

American Council of Learned Societies @acls1919.bsky.social · 1d

ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”: bit.ly/3IviMig

We call for the immediate rejection of the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”...No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it. -ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Miranda Yaver @mirandayaver.bsky.social · 1d

New Yorker cartoons nail it again.

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 1d

"Every single day you live, you make a difference in the world. And you get to choose the difference that you make.
Don't lose hope."

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

v e l o c i t y @velocity69.bsky.social · 1d

Greta Thunberg has arrived in Greece following her deportation from Israel,
after the Gaza aid flotilla was intercepted
#GlobalSumudFlotilla
She said:
“I could talk for a very,very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment.
Trust me, but that is not the story.”
#Athens airport

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 1d

"the former mayor of Barcelona said the prison yard had been decorated with a photo of a bombed-out Gaza, with the caption in Arabic: “Welcome to the new Gaza."

She said it showed that the jail was “the prison of a fascist state”. “We asked for a doctor, we were told that that was for humans”."

Amal Chatterjee (migrant, grumbler) @amalkc.bsky.social · 2d

A violent racist coloniser regime that attacks those who oppose it peacefully. Gandhi would recognise this, as would those who walked with him.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Gaza flotilla members allege beatings and insults in Israeli detention

Some of those held say guns were pointed at them, they were threatened with dogs and deprived of sleep

www.theguardian.com

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 2d

Waiting for the march to begin, I was standing for a while next to a group of Doctors without Borders...

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 2d

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 2d

Yesterday, it was my great privilege to protest with 250.000 Dutch people in Amsterdam and demand drawing a red line against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Organised by many Dutch NGOs and organisations including Jewish ones.

#RodeLijn

nos.nl/video/258528...

Museumplein in Amsterdam vol voor rode lijn-protest tegen Israël-standpunt kabinet

De demonstranten eisen actie van het Nederlandse kabinet om het genocidale geweld van Israël in Gaza te stoppen. Volgens de organisatie zijn er dit keer 250.000 mensen aanwezig.

nos.nl

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 5d

These images are magic.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Jem Cresswell’s striking whale images – in pictures

The photographer spent five years documenting humpback whales in the waters surrounding the Tonga Trench

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Jochen Hung @jochenhung.bsky.social · 5d

On 1 July 1933, the Ullstein company, Germany's biggest liberal publishing house at the time, hired Eduard Stadtler, a member of the NSDAP parliamentary group, for the new position of ‘political director’ to negotiate with the new Hitler-led government.

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 5d

Bari Weiss is set to be named the editor in chief of CBS News, the New York Post reports

Paramount Skydance is poised to name Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News in the coming days — giving the hard-charging journalist unusual clout to revamp the struggling network as it also acquires her scrappy news site the Free Press, The Post has learned.

Weiss — a 41-year-old former New York Times opinion writer who has built the Free Press into a buzzworthy site with a contrarian bent — is expected to be named to the top post in a Monday announcement, although the talks are in flux and the timing could change, a source close to the situation said.

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 5d

Signs of autumn

First cup of herbal tea.
First hot water bottle.
First woollen sweater,
though still too warm at the middle of day.
First time a beret on my head.
First bike ride with gloves.

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 5d

The power of a last sentence.

Elad Lapidot in the Berlin review.

blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/...

Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Josef Früchtl @fruechtl.bsky.social · 7d

Trump may often not mean what he says. He 's an impulse machine. But the second row behind him means what it says. Fanatics are always clear.
Poets aren't, but they have words for what we don't want to hear: "A hard rain's a-gonna fall."

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Hegseth: "We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."

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Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Sybrand Frietema @frietema.bsky.social · 8d

Betere illustratie van mijn scenario (draadje hieronder👇) kon ik niet bedenken.

Dit is precies wat opstellers anti-antifa-motie voor ogen hadden. Door plakken van etiket ‘antifa’ kan elk protest, elke vreedzame bijeenkomst, elk drukwerk als een activiteit met terroristisch doel worden aangepakt.

Vox @voxweb.bsky.social · 8d

UPDATE: De politie bevestigt dat het woord ‘antifa’ inderdaad door een agent ter plekke is gebruikt. De agent riep met deze aanduiding de groep tegendemonstranten op te vertrekken, aldus een woordvoerder van de politie. ‘De sfeer op de plek van de demonstratie was erg grimmig.’

Tegendemonstrant over optreden bij anti-abortusprotest: 'In de ogen van de politiek en de politie ben ik een terrorist' - Vox magazine

OPINIE - Universitair docent Marieke van Houte was verbijsterd toen de politie vorige week donderdag een tegendemonstratie op de campus labelde als ‘antifa’ en de tegendemonstranten insloot. Zeker in ...

www.voxweb.nl

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 6d

"The existence of Israel is the key to Germany’s redemption, the “perfect circle” that allows it to move on from backward-facing guilt to forward-marching righteousness. To criticize Israel as unjust is tantamount to questioning Germany’s absolution."

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 6d

"The curator said, flatly, “I realized for the first time in my life what it must be like to work under an authoritarian regime.”

“It’s a disciplinary regime in the Foucauldian sense.”

Indeed, months later, almost everyone I contacted declined to discuss the subject, even off the record."

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The Nation Magazine @thenation.com · 7d

“In Germany, fascism repeats itself: first as antisemitism, then as anti-antisemitism.” So writes @nikkicolumbus.bsky.social in this feature exploring Germany’s crackdown on Palestine solidarity. www.thenation.com/article/worl...

How Germany Silenced Its Artists to Support Israel

As Israel intensified its genocide in Gaza, Germany ramped up its long-simmering war on dissent, silencing Palestine solidarity while bolstering its own far right.

www.thenation.com

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Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Owen Jones @owenjones.bsky.social · 8d

This means that it is now Labour’s official position that Israel is committing genocide.

While at the same time, the Labour government continues to arm that genocide

Absolutely extraordinary!

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 8d

Elon musk dismantled much of the Environmental Protection Agency so he would not be bothered building his supercomputer and poison the citizens of Memphis, Tennessee with its air pollution.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VJT...

We Went to the Town Elon Musk Is Poisoning

YouTube video by More Perfect Union

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Josef Früchtl @fruechtl.bsky.social · 14d

Jemand, der mit Heimatfilmen aufgewachsen ist, muss sich nun die Frage stellen: Gehören die Trapp-Familie und die Nonnen im Kloster, die sie vor den Nazis verstecken, auch zu einer "terroristischen Organisation" (USA & Niederlande 2025)?

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 14d

"In private business leaders bemoan that Trump harms the economy. But they capitulate to his demands because they expect him to consolidate autocratic power—which he can only do if businesses and other institutions continue to capitulate."

#ViciousCircle

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-the-jim...

Is the Jimmy Kimmel Saga a Sign that the Tide is Turning?

Why we may not be Russia or Hungary

paulkrugman.substack.com

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 15d

This piece makes the important argument that attacks on scholars based on claims of their alleged antisemitism are themselves shaped by an antisemitic structure reminiscent of McCarthyism.

Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 15d

"Just as" during the McCarthy era "the government wants to claim the scalp of a high-profile dissenting Jew, in the name of enforcing a conformity of acceptable Jewish politics."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Judith Butler is being targeted by the US government. We must stand up | Joel Swanson

What is happening to Judith Butler – a Jewish intellectual – in the name of fighting ‘antisemitism’ is outrageous

www.theguardian.com

Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 15d

"Just as" during the McCarthy era "the government wants to claim the scalp of a high-profile dissenting Jew, in the name of enforcing a conformity of acceptable Jewish politics."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Judith Butler is being targeted by the US government. We must stand up | Joel Swanson

What is happening to Judith Butler – a Jewish intellectual – in the name of fighting ‘antisemitism’ is outrageous

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Natalie Scholz, she/her

Hanno Hauenstein @hahauenstein.bsky.social · 21d

Israelis protesting the genocide - photos I took a few days ago in Tel Aviv

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 18d

👇🧵

Sybrand Frietema @frietema.bsky.social · 18d

Ik denk dat het zo zit.

‘Antifa’ is een containerbegrip - zoals ‘duurzaam’ dat is - met lange geschiedenis waarbij niet altijd geweldloosheid vooropstond.

Extreemrechts wil dat begrip in de toekomst kunnen plakken op organisaties waar ze het niet mee eens zijn. Dat werkt namelijk makkelijker. >>>

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Natalie Scholz, she/her @nataliescholz.bsky.social · 19d

The new era of Trump-approved comedy has begun.
And it's the best comedy ever.

#Kimmel

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GXN...

Jon Stewart's Post-Kimmel Primer on Free Speech in the Glorious Trump Era | The Daily Show

YouTube video by The Daily Show

www.youtube.com

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