LightNews LightNews
sensibleblu.bsky.social
@sensibleblu.bsky.social
82 followers 81 following 1 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted
newyorker.com
One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 6, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted
jamellebouie.net
jesus christ
ericumansky.bsky.social Eric Umansky @ericumansky.bsky.social · Sep 4
You know that boat the administration blew up? A former law enforcement official told the NYT the boat seemed to be carrying not drugs but *’migrants *
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...
In the former official’s opinion, it was more likely that the vessel was carrying migrants on a human smuggling run. It would be impossible to know for sure, however, given that any evidence of drug smuggling was destroyed in the attack.
September 4, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted
atrupar.com
Pritzker on Trump sending troops into cities: "He has other aims other than fighting crime... he would like to stop the elections in 2026 or frankly take control of those elections. He'll just claim there's some problem with an election and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control."
August 31, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Reposted
mollyjongfast.bsky.social
This is fucked up
jessicacalarco.com Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · Aug 4
Go, a college student, has a dependent visa (her mother, an Episcopal minister, is here on a religious worker visa), which doesn't expire until Dec. But when she tried to renew it early, ICE nabbed her and sent her halfway across the US to a detention center.
www.wthr.com/article/news...
Purdue student detained by ICE and taken to troubled Louisiana holding facility
Yeonsoo Go, 20, was detained after her immigration hearing in Manhattan and taken away by ICE agents.
www.wthr.com
August 4, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted
sanders.senate.gov
Tonight, I introduced legislation to stop Trump from from leading us into an illegal war with Iran.

Another war in the Middle East could cost countless lives, waste trillions more dollars, and lead to even more deaths, more conflict, and more displacement.
June 17, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted
jdcmedlock.bsky.social
The DOGE mindset, perfectly encapsulated in one tweet. Destroy incredible public assets for a short term sugar high that would not come remotely close to ending the national debt
May 27, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted
ilhanmn.bsky.social
It is unconscionable and immoral for the world to allow this horror to take place. 

2.2 million people are trapped with no food, water, aid, medicine, and baby formula. 

This genocide must end and we must stop being complicit in the mass slaughter of babies and civilians.
May 20, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted
chanda.blacksky.app
It’s not making it into most newspapers but people in Gaza are not only being starved to death and denied essential medical care like cancer treatments but they are also still being slaughtered by missiles on a daily basis.

Tens of people are dying every day.
May 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted
bubbaprog.xyz
The federal government is attempting a radical, massive expansion of what constitutes "wiretapping" that threatens everyone working in media/as a journalist today and I hope you'll read this and share it with everyone you know.

I'm not just fighting this for me. I'm fighting it for everyone.
Advisory to Journalists: The Dangerous Expansion of the Federal Wiretap Law Journalists, podcasters, and digital media professionals beware: the U.S. government is currently advancing a legal theory under 18 U.S.C. § 2511—the federal wiretap statute—that threatens to criminalize the mere act of downloading publicly available videos or listening to podcasts. This interpretation risks not only chilling investigative journalism but undermines the very foundation of freedom of the press. The federal wiretap law makes it a felony to intentionally “intercept”—that is, acquire the contents of—a “wire communication” unless you are a party to the communication or a party has given prior consent. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2510(1), a "wire communication" includes any transfer containing the human voice that travels at any point by wire or cable. Originally meant to prevent unlawful phone taps in 1968, the statute has not meaningfully evolved to reflect digital media distribution in the 21st century. As a result, many core journalistic practices today—listening to audio on a video stream, downloading a podcast, reviewing livestreamed footage—can be construed as “intercepting” a wire communication. And unlike “oral communications” (which are only protected if private) or “electronic communications” (which are exempt if publicly accessible), wire communications have no similar public-access defense. This leaves journalists legally vulnerable for accessing material that is otherwise freely available to the public. This is not just a theoretical risk. In Tampa, Florida, the U.S. Department of Justice is actively prosecuting my client, journalist Timothy Burke for allegedly violating the wiretap statute by downloading publicly accessible livestreamed interviews from a video server. The journalist used only a URL—no password, no hack, no deception. The government claims that because the streams included the human voice and were transmitted in part by wire or cable, they are “wire communications”. Under this interpretation, even if the stream was intended for public consumption, and even if no reasonable expectation of privacy existed, the act of acquiring and publishing the content becomes a federal felony. The government also asserts that the same communications are also “electronic communications,” where the law makes it clear that it is not a violation if the electronic communication is obtained from a server that is configured so that the communication is “readily accessible to the general public” -- however, the government has argued (and the court has agreed) that whether or not the communication was obtained from a publicly accessible server is a fact question that the journalist must prove at trial - not an element of the offense that the government must prove. This means that a journalist that obtains public information may still be subject to search, seizure, arrest, indictment and prosecution. The implications for the First Amendment are chilling. Under the government’s interpretation of interception of “wire communications”, the government could prosecute journalists based not on their methods, but on the content they choose to listen to or report on. The wiretap law also criminalizes the disclosure of the contents of a wire communication. Thus, quoting from a podcast or a leaked livestream could subject a reporter to criminal liability regardless of intent, public interest, or harm. This is a dangerous expansion of government authority. It converts the passive act of receiving a communication—something essential to journalism—into a criminal offense based solely on outdated statutory definitions and prosecutorial discretion. The broader issue is not just technical—it’s constitutional. A law that is so vague or overbroad that it allows the government to pick and choose whom to prosecute based on their speech, targets the very heart of press freedom. It is unconstitutionally vague under the Fifth Amendment and overbroad under the First. By failing to modernize the statute—or at least to interpret it in line with modern communication platforms—the government risks turning millions of journalists, researchers, and citizens into potential criminals. The law as it stands today is an anachronism of the analog era being misapplied in a digital one. If you are a journalist, you should be alarmed. If the DOJ’s current theory prevails, simply clicking “play” could one day lead to prosecution. The press cannot operate in an environment where the law punishes access to speech—particularly where that speech is both public and newsworthy. The press must not only report on this misuse of power, but challenge it—legally, politically, and publicly. Because the right to receive and report information is not just a constitutional luxury. It’s a democratic necessity. -- Mark Rasch MDRasch@gmail.com (301) 547-6925
May 15, 2025 at 3:59 AM
Reposted
bcmerchant.bsky.social
This is insane. Republicans have inserted language into the budget reconciliation bill that would ban states from regulating AI in any capacity for 10 years.

from @404media.co

www.404media.co/republicans-...
(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para6 graph (2), no State or political subdivision thereof 7 may enforce any law or regulation regulating artifi8 cial intelligence models, artificial intelligence sys9 tems, or automated decision systems during the 10- 10 year period beginning on the date of the enactment 11 of this Act.
May 12, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted
glennkessler.bsky.social
A year ago, The Post documented the heartbreaking story of 6-year-old Hind Rajab and the paramedics who were killed trying to save her in Gaza (free link). Read this article (a Pulitzer finalist) and think of the children starving in Gaza today. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...
Palestinian paramedics said Israel gave them safe passage to save a 6-year-old girl in Gaza. They were all killed.
A Washington Post examination raises questions about Israel’s assertion that its forces were “not present near the vehicle or within the firing range” of 6-year-old Hind Rajab.
www.washingtonpost.com
May 7, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Reposted
acyn.bsky.social
Sanders: Our conservative friends say, “We support the Constitution.”

Well, if you support the Constitution, you don’t throw people into detention centers in El Salvador.
April 16, 2025 at 10:21 PM
Reposted
ckummer.bsky.social
A body blow. The best hope of learning the mechanics of why ultraprocessed foods are associated with so many bad health outcomes. An original mind and brilliant communicator. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w...
Leading Nutrition Scientist Departs N.I.H., Citing Censorship
Kevin Hall said his work on ultraprocessed foods has been “hobbled” under the Trump administration. Scientists have been raising such concerns for months.
www.nytimes.com
April 17, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted
adamserwer.bsky.social
Think about what kind of person you have to be to lie about sending someone to a torture prison for life based on nothing bsky.app/profile/atru...
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Apr 8
Bondi on Boasberg: "Those inmates, those violent gang members, those violent alien enemies will remain in El Salvador. He cannot get them back, so his jurisdiction is over ... going forward, these terrorists better look out."
April 8, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted
davidfrum.bsky.social
There is about to be a staggering amount of smuggling into the United States. In addition to searching for fentanyl, the 25,000 customs officers at America's land crossings, airports, and seaports will also have to watch for Nintendo consoles, Android phones, and jars of cloves.
April 3, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Despite admitting to having illegally sent a guy to El Salvador by mistake, and even though the U.S. is paying El Salvador to indefinitely imprison him, the DOJ is arguing that, well, nothing to do, it's not in our hands anymore. The general tone of their response is "welp, sucks to be him."
But there is no jurisdiction in habeas. Plaintiffs admit—as they must—that the United States does not have custody over Abrego Garcia. They acknowledge that there may be “difficult questions of redressability” in this case, reflecting their recognition that Defendants do not have “the power to produce” Abrego Garcia from CECOT in El Salvador. Mem. Supp. TRO Mot. 2. But even more, they concede that Abrego Garcia is not in Defendants’ custody. Id. (asking the Court to order Defendants to “request that the government of El Salvador return Plaintiff to Defendants’ custody”). Despite their allegations of continued payment for Abrego Garcia’s detention, Plaintiffs do not argue that the United States can exercise its will over a foreign sovereign. The most they ask for is a court order that the United States entreat—or even cajole—a close ally in its fight against transnational cartels. This is not “custody” to which the great writ may run. This Court therefore lacks jurisdiction.
April 1, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted
mtsw.bsky.social
use of starvation of a civilian population as a weapon of war is a completely unambiguous war crime
March 2, 2025 at 7:25 AM
Reposted
michaelwhitney.lol
AI mistakenly tagged an Excel spreadsheet of Palestinian high school students as a list of militants in the system that Israel uses to decide how to launch strikes. apnews.com/article/isra...
As Israel uses US-made AI models in war, concerns arise about tech’s role in who lives and who dies
U.S. tech giants have quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon through a sharp spike in artificial intelligence and computing services.
apnews.com
February 18, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted
makenakelly.bsky.social
I'm hearing now that *every* technologist CFPB hired to investigate Big Tech was fired this evening. That's somewhere between 70-100 people.

wired.com/story/dozens-of-cfpb-workers-terminated-in-after-hours-firing-blitz/
Dozens of CFPB Workers Fired in After-Hours Blitz
Some affected employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were notified with an email that addressed them as [EmployeeFirstName][EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division].
wired.com
February 14, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Reposted
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
These are Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division soldiers escorting the Little Rock Nine in 1957. Fort Campbell is erasing *its own* history.
Soldiers escorting the Little Rock Nine
February 16, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted
kevincollier.bsky.social
Confirming what @marisakabas.bsky.social had earlier today: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received an order this week from DOJ, its primary funder: remove references to trans people in its public materials, in accordance to Trump's anti-trans EO. NCMEC is complying.
DOJ orders child safety authority to comply with Trump's ‘gender ideology’ order
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it would be removing all references to transgender people from its public materials.
www.nbcnews.com
February 7, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted
mushtaqbilalphd.bsky.social
Meta illegaly downloaded 80+ terabytes of books from LibGen, Anna's Archive, and Z-library to train their AI models.

In 2010, Aaron Swartz downloaded only 70 GBs of articles from JSTOR (0.0875% of Meta). Faced $1 million in fine and 35 years in jail. Took his own life in 2013.
“Torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn’t feel right”: Meta emails unsealed A photo of Aaron Swartz (1986-2013) when he was 19. Last month, Meta admitted to torrenting a controversial large dataset known as LibGen, which includes tens of millions of pirated books. But details around the torrenting were murky until yesterday, when Meta's unredacted emails were made public for the first time. The new evidence showed that Meta torrented "at least 81.7 terabytes of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna’s Archive, including at least 35.7 terabytes of data from Z-Library and LibGen," the authors' court filing said. And "Meta also previously torrented 80.6 terabytes of data from LibGen."
February 7, 2025 at 4:45 PM