Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 9h

Pope Leo quotes Hannah Arendt:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

Pope Leo calls for news agencies to stand as bulwark against "post-truths," lies and manipulation

Pope Leo XIV has encouraged international news agencies to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation.

www.cbsnews.com

150 2.6K 7.9K

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

David Graeber Institute @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social · 5h

Yes.

“Everyday we wake up
and collectively make
a world together; but
which one of us, left to
our own devices, would
ever decide they wanted
to make a world like this
one?”

— David Graeber, “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory”

1 56 130

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social · 13h

Crypto: "most top coins down a mere fifth or so over the 24 hours to noonish London time, wiping a mere $388bn off the market cap of the top 100 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies”

www.ft.com/content/75fa...

3 4 17

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Ken @cowcakes.bsky.social · 19h

The continuing environmental devastation of coal mining and burning.

Dr Bino says the results "clearly show toxic brine is leaking from Energy Australia's Mount Piper Power Station ash dump".

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Platypus vanish from river where Charles Darwin pondered evolution

Almost 190 years on, in the place where Charles Darwin first spotted a platypus, the egg-laying mammal seems to have disappeared.

www.abc.net.au

6 72 170

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 14h

BBC asking Bridget Phillipson at length about rising antisemitism in the UK (which actually fell last year according to new figures, albeit still very high) but not at all about rising Islamophobia, which is up by 19% year-on-year

76 270 810

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Jasper Blom @jasprblom.bsky.social · 14h

Flashbacks to my first job working on an earlier Argentinean crisis. That on this occasion a libertarian extremist is asking for a governmental bail-out, though, tells you all you need to know about the fairy-tale nature of their ideology. Living in economic la-la-land till the powerful also get hit

Peterson Institute for International Economics @piie.com · 1d

Even concrete US interventions are unlikely to save Argentina's peso for long unless they go further than so far promised—though it might give Milei a rickety bridge through the October election without an embarrassing devaluation.
By Maurice Obstfeld:

America's Argentina rescue won’t save the peso for long

The Argentine peso is in trouble again, but this time the US government is riding to the rescue. In late September, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced several supportive measures, including po...

www.piie.com

6 12

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 14h

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

29 360 650

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 14h

Good this. The thing is that Macmillan could be a one-nation Tory because British capitalism then was working for millions. Today it is not. That removes the economic base of one-nation Toryism.

Phil Burton-Cartledge @philbc3.bsky.social · 14h

"For the first time the right are open and honest about what they're about, and it's best for us to face them as they are ... There are no good Tories. Only class conscious defenders of a decaying system."

What Happened to One Nation Conservatism?

The jamboree of delusion and extremism that was Conservative Party conference birthed a small, fleeting genre of political centrist-to-soft...

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com

5 17 34

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

الكسندرا ميراي @lexialex.bsky.social · 13h

"We've seen a significant increase in donations, unlike we've ever seen before," said Steve Sosebee, president of the U.S.-based Palestine Children's Relief Fund...."the fund, which usually has an annual budget of around $12 million, had raised $15 million in just 10 days."

2 13 60

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social · 13h

"the gruesome Badenoch-Jenrick double act, and the Putin-friendly chums of the oil lobby in Nigel Farage and Reform is where right wing politics is right now: as a naked and open defence of class relations and oligarchical interests.”

averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/p/about.html

9 57 150

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Mohamed A. El-Erian @elerianm.bsky.social · 1d

From the FT:
“UK consumers have curbed spending more than anywhere else in the G7 since the pandemic…
Since the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020, UK household spending has risen just 1 per cent in real terms and fallen 3 per cent on a per capita basis.”
#economy #uk @financialtimes.com

6 21 53

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social · 1d

Trump, no doubt from a sense of inadequacy - hates strong women - Letitia James Is Among Prominent Black Women Targeted by Trump www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/u...

Letitia James Is Among Prominent Black Women Targeted by Trump

www.nytimes.com

1 5 10

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social · 1d

It is easy to see why financiers - and Silicon Valley tech billionaires - would want to remove the full employment mandate. Robots and Ai are expected to displace human labour and increase profits. open.substack.com/pub/annpetti...

Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve, Full Employment & Civil Rights. CBs Pt 3

The Real Reason for Trumpist Attacks on a Black Fed Governor

open.substack.com

1 7 13

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social · 1d

The Sparrowhawk has devoured a victim in our courtyard. Was it a collared dove or pigeon?

2 4

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · May 23

This racist stalker on X explains why he is confident in his sense of impunity for racist abuse on the platform. (He may be proved right about that, but let's see)

79 130 580

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 1d

The storms have caused devastation nationwide as rains are expected to continue through Sunday.

At least 28 killed in heavy flooding caused by tropical storms in Mexico

The storms have caused devastation nationwide as rains are expected to continue through Sunday.

bit.ly

27 67

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

It would be helpful to have 6+ people willing to share a shockingly egregious example of having a report rejected.

It would also be helpful to hear from MPs & other public voices willing to add their voices to calls on Ofcom (new powers Nov) and EHRC (new chair Dec) to act
bsky.app/profile/sund...

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 2d

If I had 6-12 people who had reported something unlawful & obviously indefensible, get the report rejected, and be willing to speak/advocate about it, that would be a good basis for asking a wider group of people - eg MPs - to support the call for an intervention & investigation of legal duties

1 15 16

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Heather Stewart @guardianheather.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: the chancellor will target more headroom against her fiscal rules in the 26 November Budget as a buffer against volatile bond markets - www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Rachel Reeves looks for extra headroom in budget to insulate UK economy against bond market

Chancellor hopes to raise enough funds to stop damaging speculation about breaching fiscal rules

www.theguardian.com

3 9 23

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

The Daily Politik @dailypolitik.bsky.social · 2d

Zack Polanski used the ‘F’ word twice on BBCQT last night… and the audience applauded him for it 👇

"You actually are a fascist from a far right party… this is racism, this is facism and we should call it out"

5 71 210

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Al Quds News Network @alqudsnewsnet.bsky.social · 2d

With unbreakable determination..... Hundreds of thousands return to Gaza city after being forcefully evacuated from it.

3 50 67

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Calgary Climate Hub @calgaryclimatehub.ca · 2d

It's only a trillion dollars. There's always bailouts, right? #CostOfClimate #ClimateChange theecologist.org/2025/oct/09/...

A trillion dollar climate risk

New research shows fossil fuel exposures of the world’s 60 biggest banks.

theecologist.org

13 22

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Steve Randy Waldman @interfluidity.com · 2d

“If your government is for sale to any billionaire willing to pay, you do not have a democracy… arbitrary power is arbitrary power, whether it belongs to a king of England or a prince of Silicon Valley… Billionaires are dangerous. We shld tax them until they aren’t.” @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 2d

“The problem with billionaires isn’t that they’re hoarding money that would otherwise pay for a Scandinavian social utopia. It’s that their money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.”

Billionaires Are Hoarding Power, Not Money

Billionaire money has become a source of wildly distorted political power that allows a few men with extremist views to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

www.liberalcurrents.com

5 57 190

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 2d

“The automatic rise in public debt since the GFC & the COVID pandemic is a consequence of economic weakness & private sector failure. It is not caused by fiscal profligacy.”

Technocrats as handmaidens to authoritarianism - Pt 1 - @annpettifor.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/annpetti...

Technocrats as handmaidens to authoritarianism - Pt 1

Central bank technocrats are not ‘independent’

open.substack.com

1 2

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 2d

“We all know Brexit’s to blame for the crisis facing UK steel.. While Keir Starmer fiddles in India, Rome burns. The British steel industry now faces a calamity so severe, insiders say it could be “terminal”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We all know Brexit’s to blame for the crisis facing UK steel – it’s time for politicians to be honest and reverse it | Simon Jenkins

With British industry faltering, the excuse that the public wants this is risible. Parliament must force Starmer to act, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

www.theguardian.com

15 120 410

Reposted by Ann Pettifor

Doktor Zoom @doktorzoom.bsky.social · 2d

Excellent thread!

Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 2d

JB Pritzker has also been emphatically placing Trump's mental decline squarely on the agenda. On our pod, he adds a new element: People around Trump are using his decline to manipulate him, so they're less likely to intervene. More Dems should say this. 1/

newrepublic.com/article/2016...

2 10 74