Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Rutger Bregman

@rutgerbregman.com

The biggest problem in the world isn’t climate change, future pandemics, or democratic collapse.

It’s that far too many of our most brilliant minds are working on *everything but* those problems. 🧵

July 29, 2025 at 5:23 PM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

🌬CasuallyLucid🌀🌊

@casuallylucid.bsky.social

Empathy is a superpower.

You are able to see others through the lens of all they've carried, and help restore balance.

Don't let the propaganda machine destroy it.

Two frames in black and white.
Top: Photo of Elon Musk, "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." Elon Musk
Bottom: Photo of Hannah Arendt, "The depth of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism." Hannah Arendt

November 7, 2025 at 5:17 PM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Otto English

@ottoenglish.bsky.social

If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight.

Use the Quick Vote option.

Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them

Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand

secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...

Log In

Welcome to the National Trust 2025 voting website, hosted by independent voting service provider Civica Election Services.

secure.cesvotes.com

October 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

LaindonFeminist: #LabourAchievements

@viviane49.bsky.social

For those who regularly tell me Labour are just Tory lite. They really aren’t. You’re being mugged off by the media who want you to believe that . I can give you multiple examples like this to prove my point. But this is worth a read esp if you’re outside London.

October 21, 2025 at 5:01 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Matterin a good way …

substack.com/@poemz/note/...

Amy King (@poemz)

Dr. Jane Goodall recorded this interview in March 2025, with the understanding that it would be released only after her death. #drjanegoodall

substack.com

October 18, 2025 at 9:29 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Why are the UK authorities and media so reluctant to investigate Russia’s interference in right wing UK? I thought it was purely to protect the Conservative Party, but Farage as well?🤷

Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · Oct 18

NEW: Police knew a Kremlin spy ring recruited former leader of Reform Wales at least 3 years ago.

So why was Nathan Gill not charged till Feb this year?

Pls read part 2 of @thenerve.news special investigation into Nathan Gill. And please share!
1/

October 18, 2025 at 9:08 AM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Naomi Smith

@pimlicat.bsky.social

Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley. Perfection.

October 16, 2025 at 3:04 PM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Thread

Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · Sep 22

This feels so much like pre referendum times. Opposition proposes crazy, damaging policy [then, Brexit, now, withdrawal of indefinite leave to remain retrospectively...]. Economic arguments made on both sides. Voters can't see the damage of the hypothetical because it hasn't happened...

September 22, 2025 at 7:54 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Ghislaine Maxwell, who was responsible for assembling the infamous birthday book, can’t remember how a lewd letter from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein (whether a forgery or genuine) came to be included in it.

Transcript of Todd Blanche’s interview of Ghislaine Maxwell, in which she confirms that she assembled the book of greetings for Epstein’s 50th birthday.

Transcript of Todd Blanche’s interview of Ghislaine Maxwell, in which she says she can’t remember anything about Donald Trump in connection with the book for Epstein’s 50th birthday.

September 10, 2025 at 8:00 AM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Larry & Paul

@larryandpaul.bsky.social

⛔️ HELP: Police Concerned For The Whereabouts Of Missing Man Nigel Paul Farage.

👇Please like and share this #BrokenNews to help with the search.

youtu.be/mi_4Xz9eF-Y?...

#BrokenNews: Search Continues For Missing Nigel Farage

YouTube video by Larry & Paul

youtu.be

September 4, 2025 at 8:55 AM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Dave Obscur

@daveyblahblah.bsky.social

Several questions:

1) Why is Farage "testifying" in the US about free speech bank home?

2) Why aren't any of our politicians back home laying into him like this?

3) Why does Farage's neck jiggle like that

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Sep 3

Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him

September 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Here’s a more hopeful picture of the country that Nigel Farage has been denouncing to lawmakers in the United States.

Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · Sep 3

With alt:

Smajo Beso • Follow
3d • ©
I started school in Newcastle in Year 5 without knowing a word of English. I was nine years old and had arrived as a refugee from Bosnia just a couple of months earlier.
I was one of those strangers our politicians often speak about.
I missed my grandparents and friends. I was having awful nightmares, and I would wake up screaming every single night. I hated going to school. I would sit in my chair, look out of the window, and spend my day daydreaming about ways to run back to Bosnia. I didn't want to be here.
After a couple of weeks at school, my teacher, Miss Webster, and my classmates did something special to help me settle, something that made me feel less of a stranger. That was the first day I went home with a smile on my face.
I have shared this story before, but as tomorrow is start of the new school year, I thought I would share it again.
**

Miss Webster was amazing, but I couldn't understand a word she was saying. She had this ritual where, at the end of each day, we would all sit on the floor around her, she would play the guitar, and we would all sing a song together.
I couldn't understand what they were singing, but I could see she would sing one part of the song, then she would say someone's name or point to them. The next part of the song would be sung with that person's name in it, and they would get to go home first.
My classmates loved this, but I hated it. It annoyed me because I couldn't understand what they were singing, but if I am honest, l hated it mainly because of how happy they all were. I definitely wasn't happy. I cried myself to sleep nearly every night.
I eventually started having separate English lessons, which I enjoyed more because it took me out of the classroom. It was always daunting coming to school because I felt everyone was looking at me or speaking about me. For months, my dad would stand with me outside the school gates in the morning until it was time to go in.

One day I came back into the classroom from my English lesson. We sat down, and everyone was extra-excited, looking at me more than usual for some reason. Of course, I thought it was because I was a refugee, because I couldn't speak English, or because they couldn't pronounce my name. I was bracing myself for another afternoon of my classmates encouraging me to sing. This was probably the closest I came to running out.
So we were all sitting on the floor around Miss Webster. She was holding her guitar, ready to sing. I remember the sun shining through the tall, narrow windows as I slowly drifted into a daydream of being back in Bosnia. She began playing the guitar, my classmates joined in, but this time, everything was different. I froze. I understood what they were signing. Not because I had miraculously learned English in one afternoon, but because they were singing in Bosnian for me. I looked around in shock, and they were all smiling at me, and for a moment I thought I was daydreaming.

While I was having separate English lessons, Miss Webster had taught our entire class to sing this song for me in Bosnian. They sang it terribly, but it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I skipped home that day with a huge smile on my face. For the first time, I looked forward to going back to school the next day.
I have often imagined Miss Webster and my classmates rehearsing, struggling with the strange Bosnian words and laughing at themselves. For me, that effort was the ultimate recognition, an act of peace that felt like the opposite of everything I had known during the war. It was special.
I do not know if they realised it then, but that moment helped to give me back my dignity, my belonging, and, for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel like I was just a refugee or an outsider. I was home.

September 4, 2025 at 3:57 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

This “Putin-loving free speech imposter and Trump sycophant”. 🐸

Charles Fourier @charlesfourier.bsky.social · Sep 3

"To the people of the UK who think this Putin-loving free-speech imposter and Trump sycophant will protect freedom in your country, come on over to America and see what Trump & MAGA are doing to destroy OUR freedom"

Farage has his arse handed to him on a plate.

September 4, 2025 at 3:36 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

At last someone in Labour who’s prepared to call out Farage for the ignorant divisive grifter that he really is.

Stella Creasy MP @stellacreasy.bsky.social · Aug 26

He caused havoc with Brexit. Don’t let him do it again - here’s five red flags about what Farage said today. Hit share to show him we see through him.

September 4, 2025 at 3:26 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

As always, Farage is ready to trash his own country in his bid to be taken seriously in America - where the real money is.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Elon Musk launches fresh attack on ‘weak’ Nigel Farage

Musk’s attack is the latest saga in his deteriorating relationship with Reform UK’s Farage

www.independent.co.uk

August 27, 2025 at 8:09 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Farage predicts rivers of blood.

news.sky.com/story/women-...

Women and children will be detained under Farage deportation plans

The Reform UK leaders tells a news conference that small boat crossings in the Channel have created a "genuine threat to public order".

news.sky.com

August 27, 2025 at 8:08 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

“One of the cranks who made the journey from Living Marxism to Spiked Online, leaving unreformed communism for primitivist libertarianism and thereby travelling from one embarrassment to another without stopping in the land of reason on the way.”
🎩

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · Aug 15

Tinderbox Britain: How conservatives ended up praying for violence iandunt.substack.com/p/tinderbox-...

August 17, 2025 at 7:42 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Why do the Western media always refer to people who attack Palestinian homes and villages in the West Bank and kill their occupants as “settlers”, and not as “invaders”, “bandits” or “terrorists”?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Israeli settler accused of shooting Palestinian involved in Oscar-winning West Bank film dead - BBC News

Odeh Hathaleen, who was killed, helped film the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land.

www.bbc.co.uk

August 1, 2025 at 7:43 AM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Confusing…

Larry & Paul @larryandpaul.bsky.social · Jul 27

The algo obviously HATES us talking about this.

So would you do us a favour and share?

UK Media Shifts Tone on Gaza - #BrokenNews
youtu.be/WmFD42E5_W4

UK Media Shifts Tone on Gaza - #BrokenNews

YouTube video by Larry & Paul

youtu.be

July 28, 2025 at 2:46 AM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Sean Jones KC

@seanjones.org

Once again, if you are pointing to a mob and arguing that their violence is a justification for doing what you want, it’s your mob and your violence.

July 24, 2025 at 7:25 AM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

Will Sebag-Montefiore

@wsebag.bsky.social

London is over

June 30, 2025 at 12:04 PM

Reposted by Paul Brennan

St0ney of Henge

@stonehenge.bsky.social

Dammit almost managed to climb the fence at Glastonbury this year. But the security guard caught me and told me I have to go back and watch Rod Stewart like everyone else....

June 29, 2025 at 4:30 PM

Paul Brennan

@paul-brennan.bsky.social

Happy #DanHannanDay!

Led By Donkeys @ledbydonkeys.org · Jun 23

Nine years ago the godfather of Brexit, Lord Daniel Hannan, predicted life in Brexit Britain in June 2025. Roll the tape…
(VO by @gavinesler.bsky.social. Part 2 below👇)