Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Tim Carvell

@timcarvell.bsky.social

Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.

Surviving CECOT (full documentary) | Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison | FRONTLINE + ProPublica

YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official

m.youtube.com

December 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM

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Endless Screaming

@infinitescream.bsky.social

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

December 18, 2025 at 2:17 AM

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Tech Won’t Save Us

@techwontsave.us

🚨 THE FINAL EIGHT 🚨

We’ve made it to the quarter finals — only two days away from crowning a winner for Worst Person in Tech 2025.

Don’t miss your chance to vote!

🗳️ Cast your ballot: twsu.forms.app/wpit2025-qf

Bracket showing 32 names narrowed down to a top 8.

December 17, 2025 at 2:16 PM

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Publica os ficheiros means Release the files

@ceu---azul.bsky.social

Bluesky!

Let's set things straight:
The one on the left is our leader. She is serious, respectable, strong. She has no crypto coins and hasn't been found to be rapist by a court. Doesn't work for putin;
The one on the right is a piggy.

SURPRISINGLY NO, we don't want to trade one for the other.

December 12, 2025 at 5:25 PM

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The Guardian

@theguardian.com

Brian Eno urges support to get Together for Palestine song to Christmas No 1

Lullaby features Palestinian singer, lyrics written by Peter Gabriel and artists including Eno and Celeste The Together for Palestine fund is trying to get a Palestinian lullaby to Christmas No 1 in the UK charts in an effort to help provide aid to the people of Gaza, but also showcase their culture and creativity. The musician Brian Eno, who performs on the track, said Lullaby, which will be released on Friday, is a chance to support Palestinians over Christmas and potentially stage an unlikely coup by getting to No 1. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

December 11, 2025 at 12:12 PM

go-between

@gobetween.bsky.social

Delete Meta.

Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, documents show

Meta projected 10% of its 2024 revenue would come from ads for scams and banned goods, and it internally estimates that its platforms show users 15 billion scam ads a day, company documents show.

www.reuters.com

November 6, 2025 at 10:08 PM

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Lex McMenamin (they/them)

@lexmcmenamin.com

thank you for the outpouring of support!

those of us laid off from Teen Vogue yesterday are now sharing our GoFundMe to help us cover our emergency expenses now that we've lost our incomes, as we get back on our feet.

Donate to Help Laid-Off Teen Vogue Staffers Recover, organized by Lexi McMenamin

More than half the team at Teen Vogue was laid off this week by our parent co… Lexi McMenamin needs your support for Help Laid-Off Teen Vogue Staffers Recover

www.gofundme.com

November 4, 2025 at 9:17 PM

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The New Yorker

@newyorker.com

On social media, Donald Trump riffs, cusses, dodges, weaves, raises money, and spreads lies. “He is the world’s most outspoken troll, and its most dangerous,” Jill Lepore writes. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/03/how-the-president-talks-to-the-people

October 30, 2025 at 9:00 PM

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Ian Miles Schlong

@tedcruznipples.com

It’s so funny that for the past week republicans have all been like “the only people out there are gonna be Hamas.” Everyone in this crowd is signed up for Kohl’s rewards points.

Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · Oct 18

“This is what democracy looks like.”
“This is what America looks like.”
NYC

October 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM

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Mother Jones

@motherjones.com

"What brings you out to the No Kings rally?"

"Trump is being an asshole."

Oakland, California, protesters showed out for their local No Kings rally—and Mother Jones' @michaelmechanic.bsky.social caught up with a few to talk.

October 18, 2025 at 11:07 PM

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utopia deferred

@utopia-defer.red

Another good way to think of this moment is that the American secret police are increasingly comfortable black bagging American citizens on camera and in broad daylight with no basis of detention. The mere act of criticism, no matter how petty and silly, is its own justification for brutality.

Robby Roadsteamer @roadsteamer.bsky.social · Oct 15

🚨 *Breaking News* Robby Roadsteamer has been detained by ICE Portland after singing Rod Stewart with the Portland Frog! We need your help!

Please support Robby's campaign and lawyer fees at robbyroadsteamer.com link on bio 💙🦒🦒🦒

October 15, 2025 at 5:14 PM

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Kathleen Clark

@kathleenclark.bsky.social

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source:
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

October 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM

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Endless Screaming

@infinitescream.bsky.social

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

October 4, 2025 at 8:05 PM

go-between

@gobetween.bsky.social

"There is nothing funny about calling me or Donald Trump a fascist, and if you do, we will ship you to Guantanamo."

We Are Not Fascists, and If You Call Us Fascists, We Will Arrest You

President Trump had another successful week of what is already the greatest presidency of all time, and yet, the woke leftist mob continues to deli...

www.mcsweeneys.net

October 4, 2025 at 4:24 PM

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Christopher Mims

@mims.bsky.social

*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history

* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system

* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

This week, consultants at Bain & Co. estimated the wave of AI infrastructure spending will require $2 trillion in annual AI revenue by 2030. By comparison, that is more than the combined 2024 revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia, and more than five times the size of the entire global subscription software market.

Morgan Stanley estimates that last year there was around $45 billion of revenue for AI products. The sector makes money from a combination of subscription fees for chatbots such as ChatGPT and money paid to use these companies’ data centers.

How the tech sector will cover the gap is “the trillion dollar question,” said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Bernstein.

September 26, 2025 at 1:50 PM

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The Economist

@economist.com

AI agents promise to “put our brain in a jar while a bundle of AI systems does our living for us”, writes Meredith Whittaker. “But as in fairy tales, so in life: relying on magical fixes leads to trouble,” she warns

AI agents are coming for your privacy, warns Meredith Whittaker

The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security

econ.st

September 10, 2025 at 11:20 AM

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50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑

@50501movement.bsky.social

TikTok will officially become a surveillance tool for the Trump regime and its billionaire backers.

Larry Ellison helped build the detention and surveillance state in China via his company—Oracle—and now he’ll do it here.

Spread the news, tell your friends, and encourage everyone to delete TikTok.

Larry Ellison’s Oracle Among Controlling Investors In TikTok Deal, Report Says

President Donald Trump signaled earlier, “We’ve got a deal on TikTok.”

www.forbes.com

September 16, 2025 at 9:37 PM

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Kat Abughazaleh

@katmabu.bsky.social

Today, the UN officially designated Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide.

As a party to the Genocide Convention, the U.S. has a legal obligation to obey our own laws, stop weapons sales to Israel, and demand a permanent ceasefire.

End the genocide. Ceasefire now.

257. The Commission recommends that all Member States:
(a) Employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in the Gaza Strip;
(b) Cease the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to the State of Israel or third States where there is reason to suspect their use in military operations that have involved or could involve the commission of genocide;
(c) Ensure individuals and corporations in their territories and within their jurisdiction are not involved in the commission of genocide, aiding and assisting the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide and investigate and prosecute those who may be implicated in these crimes under international law;
(d) Facilitate the investigations and domestic proceedings and take action (including imposing sanctions) against the State of Israel and against individuals or corporations that are involved in or facilitating the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide;
(e) Cooperate with the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
258. The Commission recommends that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
(a) Examine, within its continuing investigation in the Situation in the State of Palestine, the crime of genocide for amendment to existing arrest warrants and addition to future application for arrest warrants;
(b) Examine the involvement of officials mentioned in this report for inclusion as those most responsible for international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory.

September 16, 2025 at 1:34 PM

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Radley Balko

@radleybalko.bsky.social

We're witnessing the most aggressive, fanatical crackdown on free speech in my lifetime. The speed and breadth of government censorship and private sector and nonprofit capitulation has been astonishing. As has the lack of urgency/silence from people who've long claimed to care about this stuff.

September 15, 2025 at 12:30 PM

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Miles Howard

@milesperhoward.bsky.social

A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class.

This is Kirk's legacy.

You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.

September 12, 2025 at 7:14 PM

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Ghost of Yossarian

@ghostofyossarian.bsky.social

And they call this 'Representative Government.'
What a joke.

✨ A Goddess has NO KING ✨ @the-goddess-speaks.bsky.social · Sep 14

LOOK at this Missouri redistricting plan.

Can you find the one blue seat on this map?

The map splits and dilutes the votes of Black Americans around Kansas City.

September 14, 2025 at 4:58 PM

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Rolling Stone

@rollingstone.com

“Fuck ICE and free Palestine,” Hannah Einbinder said while accepting her award at the #Emmys, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and condemning ICE while wearing an #Artists4Ceasefire pin onstage.

Story: www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv...