Steve Metcalfe

Family seeks £180,000 tutor for toddler to help him become ‘an English gentleman’ Parents hope immersion in a ‘comprehensive British cultural environment’ will help prepare their son for Eton or Harrow

"the Tutor will be someone qualified to support the educational and developmental needs of children from ultra-high-net-worth and royal families" 🤮🤮 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Super excited by this new IDS initiative!

Sums up #WorldFoodDay rather well

It's Prime Day so here's your regular reminder that:

- Amazon has been exposed for throwing away millions of unused products each year
- Amazon emits MORE CO2 than Hong Kong & Denmark
- Jeff Bezos earns more in 1 MINUTE than many of his workers do in a year

Overconsumption is KILLING our planet

Excellent series on overshooting 1.5°C warming.

First 2 episodes VERY gloomy (1.5°C much worse than we thought and we're going well past that; collapse of Atlantic AMOC current looking more likely; and the follies of carbon capture tech).

Dare I hope for some optimism in the final 2 episodes?

NEW | Solar and wind OUTPACED global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025, leading to a fall in fossil fuels compared to this time last year ☀️🌪️

Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal for the first time.

https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk

Critical thinking on development is under threat!

Please sign this petition and show your support for the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), which has been hit by a sudden EU2.6m funding cut from the Flemish government.

10 years since the Sustainable Dev Goals were agreed: impossible to imagine that kind of consensus in today's world.

The SDGs are damaged but still important, and new international alliances can bring new approaches

Valuable insights from @petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, Director of @ids.ac.uk

‘It goes beyond getting a cash refund for slavery’: Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder on the case for reparations With their new book, Henry and Ryder are determined to start a discussion about compensation for the descendants of slaves. But how would any scheme work? And why is it yet to happen?

Reparations are about justice, not just money. "If you don’t change the actual power dynamics, it’s little more than charity."

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Great video. No mean feat to make jokes out of the arcane world of climate finance, and the myth that the private sector alone can fill the adaptation finance gap

Nepal’s horrific reckoning with its failed political class Nepalis don’t often pay attention to the politics of their Southasian neighbours beyond India. But when Sri Lankans rose up in 2022 to boot out the Rajapaksa re

After anti-corruption #GenZprotests and a deadly uprising forced the prime minister and government to resign, #Nepal searches for a new politics that can jettison its failed establishment. Commentary by Himal EIC @romangtm.bsky.social

Great thread.

I think the majority of public understand risks of climate change and are crying out for a vision that is not 'pragmatic' (i.e. stuck in the past) but is ambitious, forward-looking and shows how we can create jobs and prosperity through the shift to a low-carbon economy.

National Trust heartened by surge in young members Some 40,000 people aged 18-25 signed up in the past year as research suggests young adults are showing more interest in culture, heritage and history

It's almost like young people are interested in institutions facing up to their history in a frank and nuanced way

www.thetimes.com/uk/environme...

Why does the US support Israel's crimes? Why does the US support Israel’s genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people, even in the face of overwhelming international condemnation, at massive expense, and to the point of totally debasing ...

Why does the US - and presumably the UK? - support Israel's crimes? Because "economic sovereignty in the periphery threatens capital accumulation in the core".

Jason Hickel on how Israel acts as a military proxy for the US:

jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...

Chart showing 2012-2025 trends in migration. It shows a spike from 2020, then rapid decline from 2023. Graph sourced from anti-migration lobby group Migration Watch UK

UK public debate on migration is divorced from reality.

Any right minded person would think - from barrage of news - that its spiraling out of control.

Yet data shows its falling dramatically.

How did we allow far-right to manipulate facts like this?

Bluefin tuna are miraculously returning to UK shores – only to be tormented for ‘sport’ | George Monbiot A tournament in Cornwall will pit anglers against these magnificent creatures, as part of a rising trend for so-called ‘sportfishing’, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

This week's column. The details will make you gasp and rage. This massive desecration of nature is almost unbelievable, but it is happening in the UK right now.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Famine declared as the international system continues to fail Gaza - Institute of Development Studies Famine has been declared in Gaza City but the international system still fails to act, according to IDS researcher Philip Proudfoot.

Famine in Gaza City has been officially confirmed today by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

IDS researcher Philip Proudfoot calls for the international system to act, and for “immediate, full, and unfettered” humanitarian access.

https://ids.pulse.ly/p9qlfxex8g

"It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war."

Israel created this - but we have allowed it to happen.

Take away our language and we will forget who we are: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and the language of conquest The long read: The late Kenyan novelist and activist believed erasing language was the most lasting weapon of oppression. Here, Aminatta Forna recalls the man and introduces his essay on decolonisatio...

Language is vital to identity and culture.

Just back from the brilliant @greenmanfest.bsky.social, where Welsh was in abundance and artists also promoted Gaelic and Cornish.

So this from the late Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o seems more relevant than ever:

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

The World Needs a New Economics of Water Mariana Mazzucato proposes a radical change in perspective toward humanity's most precious resource.

Water connects us all through atmospheric moisture that travels across continents. Deforestation in the Amazon reduces rainfall as far as the Congo Basin. We need a new lens that treats the hydrological cycle as a global common good requiring collective action. 1/2

Back from two idyllic weeks in the French Alps

Now sweltering in the office, and not yet feeling the work vibes

So here's a nice pic of some mountain cows instead

Tomorrow's front page 📰

Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland

Food systems work perfectly...

...for the handful of multinational corporations who control them, that is 😱

We need to focus less on profit, and more on people and planet.

To achieve this we need government action and strong social movements, says @stuartgillespie.bsky.social

Just brilliant

Imagine writing 464 pages to analyse a problem, but failing to say anything about the actual cause of the problem.

The UK can learn so much from other countries about reducing inequality and improving society.

Here, we outline how the Department for Health and Social Care can learn from Brazil, Canada and other countries which have led the way in community-based care.

China rare earths: The BBC visits the world's mining capital for the metals - BBC News The price of the rare earth metals the world buys from China

"Life as we know it could grind to a halt without Bayan Obo."

The town producing rare earth metals needed for our phones, solar panels and EVs - and where one tonne of minerals processed produces a staggering 2,000 tonnes of toxic waste.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

a couple of hours before my keynote, I went through an intense negotiation with the organisers (for over a hour) where we went through my slides and had to remove anything that mentions 'Palestine' 'Israel' and replace 'genocide' with 'war crimes'

1/

Huge changes taking place in development right now - declines in civic space and freedoms, emergence of polycrises, failures of multilateralism and cuts in funding. What should a development-focused research and teaching institute prioritise?

Please share your thoughts - survey is very quick ⬇️

"A chant directed at a military force currently under investigation for war crimes by the International Criminal Court". So, nothing to do with anti-Semitism, then.

Great analysis of the Bob Vylan controversy and how the real issue is the Mail on Sunday fabricating a quote.