One of the greats, RIP

Saturday. 10am. Denton. Biggest action day ever? We have to stop Reform. Let’s elect Hannah Spencer 💚 actionnetwork.org/events/big-d...

📢 Call for papers: Envisioning Labour-Led Urban Development by @globaldevinst.bsky.social 📍 @manchester.ac.uk / hybrid 📆 23-24th April 2026 ⏰ Abstracts by 31st January Find out more: buff.ly/r3tlxKt

On Tuesday, the Israeli military invaded Birzeit University, attacking students with live ammunition. Israel's scholasticide is a core part of its attempt to obliterate the collective life of the Palestinian people. We have written to Yvette Cooper urging the British government to take action.

⚡️NEW from Drop Site: Israel Kills Five Children in Surge of Attacks on Gaza “Safe Zone” Since the October “ceasefire,” an average of five Palestinians have been killed every day. Report by Abd Sabbah (X: @AbdSabbah91) and Sharif Kouddous (X: @sharifkouddous) www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-gaz...

‘Birzeit University affirms that education will remain an act of anti-colonial resistance, and that the University will continue to be a space for knowledge and freedom, despite all attempts at repression and aggression’ Solidarity with staff and students at Birzeit www.birzeit.edu/en/news/stat...

1/Leaders are abducted/allies are threatened but pundits and governments are scratching their heads on what the US is doing. Danish PM on Greenland "It makes absolutely no sense". Why? Because actors using old IR models when we need a new lens. Enter neo-royalism. abcnews.go.com/Internationa...

Campaign Against Arms Trade are a great source of reliable information and high quality analysis on UK arms sales. They have important resources on UK arms to Israel in the context of the Gaza genocide. Vital that we keep ourselves informed about these things. caat.org.uk/publications...

Good to see that this hunger strike is now getting some attention, at least in the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"Qesser Zuhrah has been refusing food for almost 2 months now" #C4News last night. The first time I've seen the mainstream news cover the Palestine hunger strikers.

It is shocking that people have been pushed to take such serious action just to be heard. These events did not happen by accident. They are the result of the government misusing anti-terror laws.

1/AI chip sale to China strike a tectonic shift in US national security policy? Whats diving it:"It is a system that closely reflects what Stacie Goddard and Abraham Newman have referred to as neo-royalism...The winning clique is clear: Nvidia, Trump’s inner circle" open.substack.com/pub/mileskel...

If you're concerned about the erosion of anti racist norms and the rise of the far right, you have to factor in two solid years of bipartisan British complicity in this genocide. What do you think our government's role in this racist bloodbath tells us about the state of our political culture?

🎉'Global Marxism: Decolonisation and Revolutionary Politics' written by Simin Fadaee, has been selected as one of CHOICE’s outstanding academic titles for 2025 @manchesterup.bsky.social @uomsoss.bsky.social manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177988/

"The genocide never really ended" Hani Mahmoud reporting from Gaza this morning.

Organised by Debolina Majumder and Michaela Collord, a workshop taking place 23-24 April 2026 will collectively envision the key features of what we call “labour-led urban development” in the Global South. Accepting abstracts until 15 Jan 2026: bit.ly/4ppGcph

The 'Manchester Model' in one story...public money subsidising private profit Renaker borrowed £700+ million from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) + its affiliates to build high end skyscapers... Now it's owner is fleeing with the profits to tax-free Monaco

This is fascinating and disturbing from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com on rise of 'financial nihilism' (cc @aminsamman.bsky.social !) in the asset economy www.ft.com/content/c17a...

The diplomatic "achievement" of the ceasefire was to recalibrate the tempo of the genocide sufficiently to get it off the front pages and the news bulletins, thus alleviating the political pressure on Israel's western accomplices. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

Harvey at 90: A @versobooks.bsky.social series of short essays davidharvey.org/2025/11/harv...

Gaza after the ceasefire is defined by the ‘yellow line’ — drawn by Israel, and dividing the strip in two. Our evidence suggests that Israel seeks to make the line permanent, as ‘reconstruction’ plans normalise this new stage of Israel’s occupation: frames.forensic-architecture.org/gaza/ceasefire

BREAKING: Mass 'terror' arrests outside the Home Office of protestors holding signs which say "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action". The government is guilty of protecting a foreign genocidal regime, over the lives of Palestinians and our rights. Lift the ban.

1/This week has seen a blitz of what looks like corruption sandals: Saudi development deals for US military tech, Pakistani payments to Trump insiders for tariff relief, Swiss gold bars for a trade deal. Far from a payoff, this is a reordering of internat'l system. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mxthh...

“it is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth”. This is an excellent piece on the problem of waste by @brettchristophers.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

A reminder to join us and @gdi-students-4-pal.bsky.social at 4:30pm today for a lecture by Gilbert Achcar from @soasdevelopment.bsky.social More info below:

BREAKING: Hundreds of people in 10 towns and cities are peacefully holding signs which say: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" Across England, Wales and Scotland, people are coming together to defy an unjust law and demand the ban is lifted.

A Government of cowards. Rather than tackle inequality - they've gone for pensioners, disabled people and now it's people fleeing war and persecution. They can't get away with this. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Not everyone is unhappy about the Government's descent into anti-refugee politics

Zohran Mamdani’s election victory indicates that housing affordability is emerging as a key political issue in the 21st century Short piece on the potential of cross-city learning for addressing the global housing challenge blog.gdi.manchester.ac.uk/cross-city-l...

This is a banger of an interview, many gems: “I work as a foreclosure prevention housing counselor, I work with low income homeowners. What I’ve seen in my work is, it’s not tenant versus homeowner. Really, it is tenant and homeowner versus financial speculator and investment bank portfolio.”

NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

Fascinating background & insight into the real estate politics of the NYC mayoral race: www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/sta...

New call for papers: What is the future for global development? We are pleased to announce that GDI is hosting a conference in April 2026, and we are now accepting abstracts for papers and posters. Please see the full Call for Papers for more info as well as the form to submit: bit.ly/4omBJ6o

Blood spilled in Sudan can be seen from space. Nobody can feign ignorance about what’s going on | Nesrine Malik

The Rapid Support Forces in Sudan are massacring civilians. They're armed by the United Arab Emirates - a key Western ally. This is yet more genocidal mayhem armed and facilitated by the West.

When we said we don't intend to be concerned or disappointed by the Labour Government - we intend to replace them, we meant it. Yougov have Labours lowest poll ever and Greens highest ever. Keep going everybody. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Looking forward to listening to this. The alter-globalisation movement was very formative for me too. Has anyone written anything comparing this movement of the 90s-00s to the current global Palestine movement?

Nice collection of essays on David Harvey at 90, on the Verso site www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...

This is an escalating national emergency that requires a mass social housing programme, not more business-as-usual policies seeking to deregulate planning and 'enable' private construction

‘One former insider at the department recalls sustained pressure from No 10 and the Treasury to bin the emphasis on social housing, which was always successfully resisted by Angela Rayner…Until the government’s personnel changed abruptly last month, that is’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Raila Amolo Odinga: kenopalo.substack.com/p/raila-amol...

If this $53 billion estimate is from February, it’s from before a very large proportion of the most methodical IDF destruction of urban Gazan neighborhoods

If you don’t see the link between ICE and the IDF, you haven’t been paying attention. We are being asked to accept a world where whole communities are made disposable and marked for disappearance. If we accept that for anyone, no one is safe anywhere.

📣 New Special Issue 📣 'New Urban Frontiers' co-edited by Tom Gillespie and Claire Mercer collects four original research articles that can be found in Volume 46 issue 8 out now! www.urbangeographyjournal.org/journal/volu...

If you've never been to Gaza, you won't appreciate what the yellow line means. Basically Israel now holds most of Gaza's small but important agricultural land. Continued Israeli occupation, which I judge the likely outcome, makes Gaza even more unliveable and more dependent on outside goods.

"In Gaza, destruction is rewarded with contracts and the “peace plan” is property development. Historian @adam_tooze & economist @ClaraEMattei trace how capitalism profits through ruin: war, austerity, and reconstruction form one system of control. " youtu.be/0iIEgp1LPpA

stellar investigation by 972Mag on IDF's manufactured videos that are reproduced uncritically in media. Truly a propaganda war."These videos are produced in-house by a small animation cell in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, working mainly in After Effects + Blender" www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

The World Transformed is in Manchester this weekend and the programme is EPIC Looking forward to leading an urban financialisation field trip with @invisiblemapper.bsky.social at 11am tomorrow We will discuss MCR's real estate boom and community resistance theworldtransformed.org/twt25/

Palestinians will feel understandable relief. The West should feel nothing but shame. Gaza has been obliterated. The territory rendered uninhabitable. Tens of thousands murdered in cold blood. The entire population subjected to starvation tactics. And now, colonial subjugation under Trump and Blair