Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Emma Yeomans

@yeomans.bsky.social

5K followers 700 following 300 posts

News reporter at The Times. Prior winner, Paul Foot Award, 30Under30, and Year Six Drawing Prize. Want to talk stories? DM or use yeomans.81 on Signal.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · Nov 12

Hi. I'm Emma. I work for The Times, where I write about everything from criminal money to charity shops. I take particular interest in refugees and asylum, mis- and disinformation, and security. I'm late to Bluesky because I hate change, and now I want to introduce myself properly.

6 10 77

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · 10d

Some good news.

London is meeting legal limits for toxic NO2 pollution for the first time – almost 200 years earlier than predicted – following the Mayor’s "world leading air pollution policies," City Hall announces.

The Ultra Low Emissions Zone - and similar policies - really do work.

24 1.4K 4.8K

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 10d

On Saturday, 52 people crossed the Channel in a single boat. Of them, only one was prosecuted for entering the UK illegally.

Why?

He was seen for a single minute with his hand on the boat's tiller.

My dispatch from the Kent courts on the migration frontline

www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...

Why me? The small detail that could mean jail for migrants

Inside the Kent court where migrants who make the mistake of putting their hand on the tiller of their boat in the Channel are prosecuted — and the rest aren’t

www.thetimes.com

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

Lewis Goodall @lewisgoodall.com · 17d

Farage asked on @lbc.co.uk whether he agreed with on the unproven link between paracetamol and autism

“I have no idea... We were told thalidomide was a v safe drug and it isn’t. who knows. I don’t know, you don’t know…when it comes to science I don’t side with anybody. It’s never settled.”

360 130 480

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

Adam Vaughan @adamvaughan.bsky.social · 18d

Meanwhile, back in the world of facts.
wmo.int/publication-...

2 11 42

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 19d

I love this project

Bellingcat @bellingcat.com · 19d

Check out @pa.nton.cx 's database of 'sketchy boats' here: sketchy.boats/about

sketchy.boats

Not saying this boat's shady. Just saying it ticks a lot of weird boxes. Sketchiness score inside.

sketchy.boats

1 1

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 19d

The most romantic spot in London, the aesthetics of a mid-tier hotel breakfast room

1 1

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

Robert Ferry @robertferry.bsky.social · 19d

Vertical rows are the agrivoltaic winner!

“The vertical panels produce slightly less electricity—but with higher value, as generation peaks coincide with morning and late afternoon demand…The crops don't seem to mind the presence of solar panels and they like the wind protection they provide.”

Double harvest: Vertical solar panels and crops thrive side by side

Imagine a field where solar panels and crops coexist—with no trade-off. It sounds like science fiction, but that's precisely what researchers from Aarhus University have now documented in a full-scale...

techxplore.com

17 400 990

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 19d

On the 90-day rule, another possible case: University student who came as a child (or was born here to non-UK nationals) and goes to study abroad for a year as part of a UK university degree.

1 4

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 19d

a woman is sitting at a table eating a huge piece of food

ALT: a woman is sitting at a table eating a huge piece of food

media.tenor.com

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 19d

Congratulations!

However I must say that this is terrible news for the London Bridge office, which will be much less fun without you around.

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 23d

TLDR: if I get appointed Washington Correspondent and move to America, I migrated. I'm a migrant. But I'm not qualified to judge asylum claims, especially when people's journeys and stories are this complicated.

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 23d

The terminology is genuinely difficult, but this tale from BIRN of an Indian man who tried to come to the EU via Serbia (though not Britain) is a great example of how diverse the journeys and reasons are.

1 1

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 23d

- Some asylum claims from Indians are on basis of caste, religion or persecution, but not all. I met a dozen Sikhs from the Punjab in Calais last month - asked why Britain, they said they wished to work as chefs in Indian restaurants! Migrant' or asylum seeker? There's not really a right answer...

1 1

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 23d

- Indian nationals have made up a sizable number of small boat arrivals in the past year
- Some of the prevalence is due to flight routes to Serbia, making onward travel easier to the EU. Serbia changed its laws causing chaos a couple of years ago: balkaninsight.com/2023/08/02/s...

Serbia Rule Change Leaves Stranded Indians at Mercy of Smugglers

Under EU pressure, Serbia changed its visa rules to prevent Indians from using it as a transit country. But far from stopping Indians from trying to reach the bloc, it will only fuel the smuggling tra...

balkaninsight.com

1 1

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 23d

I've seen this sentiment around a bit today so a few notes from my reporting (thread):
- The person in question is Indian. He may have made an asylum claim, but has only a 2% chance of it being granted (and that rate is dropping as more claims are processed)

pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 23d

Hmm I've just noticed all the media are using "migrant" rather than the accurate "asylum seeker"

Paul Brand @paulbrand.bsky.social · 23d

BREAKING: The first migrant has now been deported under the government’s ‘one in one out’ deal with France.

The government has been scuppered by legal challenges in recent days, but the scheme has now officially begun.

1 1

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 24d

'don't kick Israel out of Eurovision, the arts aren't political' variety.com/2025/film/gl...

5 120 330

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24d

Now France is amending its legal framework to allow officers to carry out aggressive pushbacks in the channel. Here's what it's like to be on the receiving end of the police aggression:

1 4

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24d

Secondly, how will British authorities react to the evident hypocrisy? France has acknowledged in the Channel that ramming, swamping and blocking boats breaks maritime law. Yet these laws can be broken routinely and for years in Mayotte.

1 1 5

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24d

This investigation with @lighthousereports.com @maudjullien.bsky.social @tomasstatius.bsky.social will raise huge questions for France and Britain.

First, will Britain still urge France to intervene at sea knowing France's actions elsewhere have been deadly?

1 2 2

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24d

For years, the French government had maintained that intercepting boats at sea was illegal and dangerous.

But in the Indian Ocean, they've been doing just that, costing dozens of lives.

If these tactics were used in the Channel, it would risk hundreds of lives.
www.thetimes.com/article/46f9...

French police ‘illegally ram migrant boats in overseas territory’

France has said it can’t intervene in the Channel but police routinely use deadly tactics to stop boats reaching the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, an investigation found

www.thetimes.com

1 8 10

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

May Bulman @maybulman.bsky.social · 25d

NEW: French police have caused the deaths of dozens of people by intercepting small boats at sea

These violent tactics are deployed now off the French overseas island of Mayotte

Under pressure from the UK, France now plans to start intercepting boats in the Channel

This is where that could lead ⬇️

Lighthouse Reports @lighthousereports.com · 25d

REVEALED: French police have caused dozens of drownings by violently intercepting small boats trying to reach overseas territory Mayotte.

Similar tactics are being proposed for the Channel, to try to stop people from reaching the UK.

17 17

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · Sep 8

Completely depends on the book and the author. Recently I listened to Ferdia Lennon read his own book, and it added so much. But Charlie Thurston reading Demon Copperhead was so much more powerful than the author could have been.

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · Sep 8

Also, after a search of The Times archive, I believe this is the first article ever published with a dateline from the Isle of Kerrera. Proud to claim a very, very tiny slice of journalism history.

Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · Sep 8

Do you walk near/swim in/sail on bodies of water? You could help map the world's microplastics in a pioneering new "CSI for the Ocean" project. I met the scientists behind it in Scotland, where they were sleuthing for plastic among the otters, seals and sharks.

www.thetimes.com/article/2854...

Scientists need you to help map the world’s microplastics

A forensics professor has come up with a way to study and report microplastics using little more than a mobile phone

www.thetimes.com

1 2 6

Reposted by Emma Yeomans

Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · Aug 27

Eesh. Notts Reform leadership blacklisting both the local paper and the local democracy scheme that covers the council for the BBC. Don’t like this at all

www.nottinghampost.com/news/news-op...

Reform leader bans engagement with Notts Live in unprecedented step

All of Reform UK's Nottinghamshire county councillors will now refuse to speak to any of our journalists

www.nottinghampost.com

42 180 370