@richardjcatherall.bsky.social

I once enjoyed Twitter very much. I’m starting again and with a different focus. Hope to see you there :)

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

I joined X at the beginning of my international development journey. It helped me connect with inspiring thinkers, and engage in courageous conversations, with entrepreneurial pioneers. As the platform evolves it feels right to move on. You can reengage me https://t.co/ZSd9FGEcjs

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

How many ways can #colonization be reinvented?

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is, without exaggerating, one of the most extraordinary things a US Treasury Secretary ever said.

It should be mandatory viewing for all citizens of US "allies", Europeans first and foremost.

What Bessent is saying is that the US will now treat US allies' wealth as an American "sovereign wealth fund" (his words), "directing" them, "largely at the [US] president's discretion", how to use their money in order to build American factories and reshore American industries.

Even the Fox News host can't believe it, calling it "offshore appropriation", another word for theft.

That's exactly what it is: straight up unabashed colonial plunder.

That's the pattern we see emerge: unable to extract wealth or win wars against an increasingly strong Global South, the US has turned inward to feast on its own "allies" - who can't resist precisely because they depend on their exploiter for military "protection". They're as defenseless against American wealth extraction as any 19th-century colony was against its colonial "protector."

That's exactly what I wrote in my latest article on "Europe's colonial moment": https://t.co/QwO6zB1Trz

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

I was challenged yesterday why the financial returns projected for #NZ #housing #impactinvestment are lower than overseas. Market & political failure are still converging. Over 500,000 older people will seek to RENT by 2030. How much influence will they have on these conditions?

[E-Tangata @etangata]

“Poor housing conditions costs New Zealand taxpayers $141 million annually in avoidable healthcare costs and are linked to over 200 preventable deaths each year.” — Rebekah Graham

https://t.co/EeoAKYakxN

[Abier @abierkhatib]

By the time u blink, Mehdi’s already shredded 3 lies and cited 4 sources

😂
Mehdi crushes Israel’s top 10 Gaza genocide lies in under 3 minutes.

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

https://t.co/H2ILO9cxEm

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

https://t.co/zRCSQfr58a

[Michael Walker @michaeljswalker]

Best thing he’s ever said

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

https://t.co/oya9S2QgKp

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

https://t.co/O6Xh3ocJyc

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

Anxiety can drop naturally, not because risk disappears, but because you are less afraid of your own navigation.

I left a toxic environment at the end of March and had two anxiety attacks in early April. I consider these as old stress amplifying the new stress. I over revved.

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

I donated to help Sadiq. In the face of total destruction of education infrastructure most of my network in Gaza seeks to keep contributing through academia. Sadiq has secured a rare PhD scholarship and now needs to resource relocating his family out. https://t.co/pKFI88yJcy

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

If we can levy a #windfalltax on oil companies after an unearned benefit, why can’t we do it to the 1%?

[Eric Reinhart @_Eric_Reinhart]

The answer.

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

My partner is p*ssed about this having been born in a non-western and largely anti-capitalist “developing” country. I was born western and in a capitalist country and I’m seething too. Direct transfer from pensions of working people to people with power.

[Eric Reinhart @_Eric_Reinhart]

The answer.

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

I know what it feels like when immigration status becomes uncertain. I’m under no illusion about that it takes for some migrants to pursue the promise of what the US offers. That promise is not just being broken - institutions and individuals are racked with fear and real threats

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

As we are so distracted by Trumps indirect control of the. Red we consume, this is a sobering insight into the narrative untold.

[Justin Sandefur @JustinSandefur]

And we've said it before, but the actual numbers belie Rubio's claim to be cutting frivolous things and protecting life-saving programs.

Look at maternal and child health:

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

Instead of saying “it isn’t genocide,” states should be asked why they’re not honouring their legal duty to prevent it. The Genocide Convention doesn’t just punish—it obliges action at the first serious risk.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

I force myself to repeat it, again and again.
The destruction of a group as such, of a people as such (i.e. a genocide) can unfold in many horrific forms—through crematoria, machetes, bombs, and more. It’s not the method of destruction: it is the intent to destroy/annihilate a targeted group, that defines it. Israel has so far chosen bombs, starvation, torture, and many other methods. Question is: when are we going to stop it?

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

BREAKING:

The DOJ has informed European officials that the U.S. is withdrawing from a multinational group established to investigate war crimes in Ukraine and hold those responsible accountable, including Vladimir Putin, The New York Times reports.

The US can no longer claim to be the leader of the free world

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

It’s been some time since we paused our conversation yet life didn’t filter it, it supercharged how it restarted. With hours together Regis and I did a volcano 🌋 and the panoramic views kept it all in perspective. Actually I went back up and watched him fly home.

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

Proud of these smiles @InternsGoPro closing a deal with a major utility company as I tweet I hope. #socent #Paris #E4SC

[@richardjcatherall.bsky.social @RJCatherall]

@RichardHills_ Is government support supposed to subsidise public procurement? Perhaps an unintended consequence to simplistically swap social value for economic value here.

[Carne Ross @carneross]

Positive news. Much to be negotiated inc precise sharing of powers. But there’s now a process.

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

The European Commission has just made it clear that the rigid constraints they had placed on public finance were totally artificial. They have now lifted them to enable massive military production.

The EC could have done the same thing to achieve rapid decarbonization and ensure good housing, healthcare, and public transit for all. They could have abolished deprivation, unemployment and economic insecurity. But they did not.

This exposes an extraordinary betrayal. It reveals that the European working classes have been lied to, over and over.

The European Commission has suppressed production of public services, not because it has been fiscally necessary to do so, but because it ensures the conditions for capital accumulation.