Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nate Schenkkan

@nateschenkkan.bsky.social

5.1K followers 1.1K following 6.8K posts

Independent human rights expert working on global authoritarianism, transnational repression, Turkey and Eurasia. Ex-Freedom House, SPLC. For your freedom and ours. https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-golden-age-of-transnational-repression/

www.journalofdemocracy.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · May 29

And here is my first post, explaining what I hope to do with this notebook while writing and looking for work: open.substack.com/pub/natesche...

Now What?

Starting a notebook on the current crisis

open.substack.com

4 17

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 33m

Not sure why else you would phrase it that way honestly

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 33m

You say “illegal rabble rouser” I say “dissident”

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1h

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

1 2

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

“Hey man did you get QA to sign off?” Gigan @gigansprogress.bsky.social · 38m

4 4 11

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1h

Bold prediction: Pashinyan will win easily, but Armenians will continue to grow ever more dissatisfied

OC Media @ocmedia.bsky.social · 1h

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan has announced his political comeback with sharp criticism of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government, alleging that Pashinyan does not have a chance to win the 2026 parliamentary elections.

Kocharyan returns to politics, claims Pashinyan has ‘zero chance’ of re-election

Kocharyan also said it was ‘fortunate’ that Pashinyan ‘was not born a girl; he would have been a national disgrace’.

oc-media.org

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1h

I wasn’t aware of all the ballot measures coming up in NYC—important to catch up before the vote

Rachel Holliday Smith @rachelholliday.bsky.social · 19h

yes, us! here you go:

9 13

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1h

I’m biased because I started my career working in Central Asia, but studying the region gives you an appreciation for how deep the global hierarchies of citizenship are, and how that affects whose rights get protection and whose don’t

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1h

This interview by @vlastkz.bsky.social with Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratbai goes into great detail about what being a Central Asian activist is like at a time when democratic states are turning away from the concept of refugee protection vlast.kz/english/6671...

Karakalpak Activist Decries Repression in Uzbekistan and Bureaucratic Barriers in Kazakhstan - Аналитический интернет-журнал Власть

Читайте этот материал на русском.

vlast.kz

1 3 4

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Wendy Siegelman @wendysiegelman.bsky.social · 16h

Trump Opens the White House Doors to Foreign Regimes and Their Dirty Money

Lobbyists for foreign countries have long helped other governments influence US policy but nothing compares to the brazen corruption of the 2nd Trump administration @cjcmichel.bsky.social
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump Opens the White House Doors to Foreign Regimes and Their Dirty Money

Lobbyists for foreign countries have long helped other governments influence US policy, but nothing compares to the brazen corruption of the second administration of Trump.

www.thenation.com

1 21 41

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1h

The idea of the nation contiguous with the state is 1) very recent, 2) a hell of a drug, 3) can only be sustained through force

1 1

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Phil Dorroll @phildorroll.bsky.social · 2h

I was just thinking yesterday about how anxiety re: assimilation is weirdly modern; in most large cities (and often in the countryside) for century after century it was considered completely unremarkable to interact with people who would never be expected to know your language or share your religion

2 5 12

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 1h

Exactly. There is no disarmament/demobilization, DEM leaders and Ocalan are still imprisoned… seems like a facade

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

stevelevitsky.bsky.social @stevelevitsky.bsky.social · 2h

They are not Trump's enemies. They are critics and opponents. He sees them as enemies, because that's how autocrats perceive their critics. NYT should not repeat and normalize authoritarian discourse.

How Trump Is Using the Justice Department to Target His Enemies www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

How Trump Is Using the Justice Department to Target His Enemies

President Trump has long spoken of seeking vengeance against his political enemies. Here’s a list of whom he is targeting.

www.nytimes.com

10 72 210

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 2h

Is it just me or after all the fuss in the spring is the “peace process” on ice again?

Clément Plaisant @cplaisant.bsky.social · 8h

Turkey’s Kurdish peace commission could visit jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan by the end of October or early November. While the most important figures in the ruling bloc have given their approval (from Bahçeli to Uçum), all that remains is the green light from the CHP.
t24.com.tr/haber/devlet...

Devlet Bahçeli kapıyı araladı: TBMM komisyonu, MİT Başkanı Kalın’ın sunumundan sonra İmralı’ya gidebilir

Heyette kimler olacak, hangi tarih konuşuluyor?

t24.com.tr

1 5

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 2h

Everyone interested in democracy should get familiar with the details of the DSA

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 3h

Last week, a Dutch court ordered Meta to let Facebook and Instagram users set a chronological feed by default, a first test of the EU’s Digital Services Act in civil court.
Tech Policy Press spoke with Bits of Freedom’s Rejo Zenger on the ruling’s significance.

What a Dutch Court Ruling Against Meta Signals for Private DSA Enforcement | TechPolicy.Press

Tech Policy Press spoke with Rejo Zenger, Policy and Advocacy Lead at Bits of Freedom, to better understand the significance of the ruling.

www.techpolicy.press

1 8 17

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 3h

At a certain point you have to confront that this is what people object to

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 4h

No, it's not. It's all a lie. The blunt truth is across the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 4h

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'.

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 4h

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Spy case collapse blamed on UK government failure to label China a threat

Prosecutors say they were unable to obtain evidence from the government to meet the threshold for prosecution.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Howard Eissenstat @heissenstat.bsky.social · 4h

One of the big stories underway in Turkey is the process by which the ruling party is pulling in opposition leaders at both the municipal level and, more importantly, in parliament

It has both symbolic importance and direct political implications, moving TR towards a consolidated autocracy

dokuz8HABER @dokuz8haber.bsky.social · 4h

🔴 7 belediye başkanı AKP'ye katıldı: Rozetlerini Erdoğan taktı
www.dokuz8haber.net/7-belediye-b...

7 belediye başkanı AKP'ye katıldı: Rozetlerini Erdoğan taktı

Ardahan, Gümüşhane, Muş, Bingöl ve Giresun'dan 7 belediye başkanı AKP'ye katıldı. Erdoğan, Milletvekilleri Buluşması programında partiye katılan belediye başkanlarına rozetlerini taktı.

www.dokuz8haber.net

2 10 17

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 14h

America’s team, the Toronto Bluejays

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 21h

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

32 570 1.7K

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Ting @tingguowrites.bsky.social · 1d

Frequent labor movements in China contradict Wang’s claim. It's not the lack of “development,” but the state machinery - in "constant adjustment" - that suppresses. The New Left evades and alienates the very subject of leftist critique: the working people and their lived experiences & voices

1 4 12

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 1d

this is a common High Church Conservatism position: that while bigotry might be "unfortunate" it's also the glue that holds society together, especially the most manly manliest operatoring societies, which ("so sad") are in fact the fundamental of social order

1 16 210

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 20h

“There should be a permanent underclass of servants and construction workers who cannot escape exploitation” is a policy position held by many

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 20h

It’s a revealing thing because it *is* what many want in terms of the relationship to immigrants

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 21h

The UAE is an authoritarian autocracy, a petro-state with no income tax for citizens, to bribe them for the lack of democratic voice or free speech

It is 85% migrant, a segregated society with a ban on integration in principle and practice, few rights, equal opportunities, nor voice for incomers

1 3 11

Reposted by Nate Schenkkan

YES on Affordable Housing @yesonaffhousing.bsky.social · 20h

Everyone knows it's too hard to build affordable housing in NYC. We need hundreds of thousands of new units - now.

After voting for Mayor, flip your ballot and vote YES on Affordable Housing Proposals 2-5 to fix our broken system and bring down costs for working New Yorkers!

5 15

Nate Schenkkan @nateschenkkan.bsky.social · 21h

So this is how it ends right?

Techmeme @techmeme.com · 1d

JPMorgan Chase reports that $1.2T of debt is now tied to AI-related companies, making it the largest segment in the investment-grade market (Caleb Mutua/Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

1 7