Jon Sward

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza Israel controls the flow of food. It calculated how much Gaza needs – but data shows how this is being withheld The mathematics of famine are simple in Gaza. Palestinians cannot leave, war has ended farming and Israel has banned fishing, so practically every calorie its population eats must be brought in from outside. Israel knows how much food is needed. It has been calibrating hunger in Gaza for decades, initially calculating shipments to exert pressure while avoiding starvation. Continue reading...

The mathematics of starvation: how Israel caused a famine in Gaza

Motherfucking wind farms…

Fair Climate Finance Requires Debt Reform Mohamed Adow argues that a global financial system that entrenches inequality is a key obstacle to crisis responses.

Climate justice won’t happen without debt justice

Mohamed Adow lays it out:
🌍 Cancel the debt
📜 Reform the debt system via a UN convention
💸 Grants, not loans
🌐 Global tax reform

Brilliant piece via @powershiftafrica.bsky.social
🔗 www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/g...

🌎⚖️ Historic day for #ClimateJustice

The International Court of Justice affirmed in its Advisory Opinion that #ClimateAction isn’t a policy choice: it’s a legal duty under international law.
States must cut emissions, adapt, cooperate, uphold #HumanRights, & remedy harm.

No more excuses.

🧵⬇️

Israel blocking aid from Gaza is creating ‘chaos and death’, say humanitarian groups Letter signed by agencies including Doctors Without Borders condemns Israeli military attacks on Palestinians More than 100 aid agencies issued a dire warning that “mass starvation” was spreading across Gaza and urged Israel to let humanitarian aid into the besieged strip to alleviate the growing man-made hunger crisis. A letter signed by 109 agencies including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam International and Amnesty International says the Israeli government is blocking humanitarian organisations from effectively distributing life-saving aid. Continue reading...

Israel blocking aid from Gaza is creating ‘chaos and death’, say humanitarian groups

🔥 ⚖️ 🌐HAPPENING NOW: Historic #ClimateJustice Ruling being delivered by the 🇺🇳 🧑‍⚖️ International Court of Justice.
🚨This ruling could signal a new dawn for climate law & accountability
📝 🧵 Live thread below with context, summary & analysis 👇
#ClimateJusticeAO #AOLetsGo

Alex de Waal has worked on humanitarian causes across the globe for over 40 years.

“There is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today.”

'there are opportunities for follow-up that must be seized upon to advance the agenda of international financial architecture reform in the coming years. Notable among these is the call on the #IMF to design a #SDRs playbook'

@eurodadnews.bsky.social colleagues reflect on #FfD4 & 'systemic issues'👇

Jumbotron affair meme with text "Big Oil" on man and "Legacy Media" on woman.

I couldn't help myself (h/t @lucyvonsturmer.bsky.social!)

Newspapers need to be leading with the headline "Senior Reform party figure claims climate change is a hoax", alongside wildfire and flood imagery.

“I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost, you know, who uses the word. I started using the word. The groceries.” 🤡

- 12/8/24

apnews.com/article/beef...

US DOT announces it is planning to take back $4 billion in federal dollars that were awarded to the California High-Speed Rail project.

Expect lawsuits.

Civil society demands unconditional debt relief in Jubilee year - Bretton Woods Project In critical Jubilee year, civil society and Global South nations called for debt relief and UN-led debt workout mechanism at FfD4.

In crucial #JubileeYear calls at #FfD4 for UN-led debt workout mechanism watered down, as WorldBank and IMFNews’ rich shareholders refused to loosen their grip on the international financial architecture

Read our #ObserverSummer25 cover👇
tinyurl.com/JubileeCampa...

#FfD4Sevilla

CIEL analysis finds the UK govt's carbon capture plans are "a bottomless pit for public money".

Ghana's gas debt provides cautionary tale as World Bank reconsiders support for upstream gas projects After following World Bank energy reform model, government faced with crippling debts and high energy costs.

Ghana was among first Cs in Sub-Saharan Africa to pursue #WorldBank energy reform model, based on liberalisation and #PPPs...

If this model is more 'efficient', the evidence is very well-hidden: www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2025/07/ghan...

w/ @somoamsterdam.bsky.social @danielagabor.bsky.social

Summer 2025 - Bretton Woods Project This edition covers the Jubilee Year 2025 and calls at FfD4 to break the cycle of debt, IMF's Surveillance review, IDA21 package, Argentina, Sri Lanka and the IMF, and more.

Our new #ObserverSummer25 is out now🚀

This edition covers civil society demands of unconditional debt relief in #Jubilee2025, IMF's upcoming surveillance review, World Bank's billions to trillions 'fantasy', Sri Lanka, Argentina & the IMF, #FFD4, and more 🔥👇

tinyurl.com/ObserverSumm...

2125: Brontë country is a wilderness of mesquite, cactus and tumbleweed, with average daily temperatures of 40 degrees. “But at least we stopped the wind turbines”.

FfD4 must mark the start of transformative Special Drawing Rights reform - ActionAid USA By Jon Sward, Bretton Woods Project, and Niranjali Amerasinghe, ActionAid USA Spain hosted the Fourth UN Financing for Development conference (FfD4) in

20+ years after Monterrey Consensus, we are still living in an international monetary ‘non-system’ where developing Cs must self-insure against shocks

#SDRsPlaybook agreed at #FfD4 must change this!

@ceprdc.bsky.social @latindadd.bsky.social @aausa.bsky.social

www.actionaidusa.org/insight/ffd4...

FfD4 must mark the start of transformative Special Drawing Rights reform - ActionAid USA By Jon Sward, Bretton Woods Project, and Niranjali Amerasinghe, ActionAid USA Spain hosted the Fourth UN Financing for Development conference (FfD4) in

20+ years after Monterrey Consensus, we are still living in an international monetary ‘non-system’ where developing Cs must self-insure against shocks

#SDRsPlaybook agreed at #FfD4 must change this!

@ceprdc.bsky.social @latindadd.bsky.social @aausa.bsky.social

www.actionaidusa.org/insight/ffd4...

🚨 My next book, EXTRACTION: THE FRONTIERS OF GREEN CAPITALISM is out 9/23 with @wwnorton.com

Today and tomorrow, you can pre-order it at 25% off 😊 Use code PREORDER25 at www.barnesandnoble.com/w/extraction...

As children are swept away in flash floods supercharged by climate change resulting from fossil fuel use, Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is Loaded with Oil and Gas Company Gifts.

FfD4 must mark the start of transformative Special Drawing Rights reform - ActionAid USA By Jon Sward, Bretton Woods Project, and Niranjali Amerasinghe, ActionAid USA Spain hosted the Fourth UN Financing for Development conference (FfD4) in

Global North have failed to deliver the reforms & actions required to make #SDRs more fit for purpose for the Global South, argue @jonsward.bsky.social & Niranjali Amerasinghe of @aausa.bsky.social

#FfD4 must mark the start of a new chapter #SDRsPlaybook

www.actionaidusa.org/insight/ffd4...

Coffee prices climb after Donald Trump threatens 50% tariffs on Brazil Levies on world’s top arabica producer rattles investors in sector

Buckle up for even higher prices for your morning coffee.

Coffee futures surge on news of potential 50% US tariff on Brazil on top of the US tariff on Vietnam of 20% - putting more fuel on the fire of financial speculation in coffee and pushing up prices.

www.ft.com/content/67de...

MEDIA STUDIES: How the Times bungled its coverage of the OBR report on climate change & UK govt debt

Yesterday's newspaper reported a major shift: "The OBR now thinks…net-zero will have a far more damaging impact on borrowing…"

In fact, the OBR had said the opposite!
1/6

Failing the climate test: LNG projects awaiting final investment decision do not stand up to U.S. Government analysis - Greenpeace - Greenpeace Read the report: Download "Failing the “Climate Test.” The multi-volume analysis, termed the 2024 LNG Export Study, represents the most comprehensive government assessment to-date of the energy, econo...

Our NEW report with @greenpeaceusa.bsky.social + @earthworks.bsky.social finds that further investments in exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are incompatible with a liveable climate. Learn more: www.greenpeace.org/usa/failing-the-climate-test/

Deadly floods could be new normal as Trump guts federal agencies, experts warn Trump’s ‘cuts and chaos’ to agencies are opposite of what’s needed for era of worsening weather disasters, experts say

I talked to @ninalakhani.bsky.social about some issues related to the Texas flood response and about how this is what disasters are going to look like in a world where climate action is banned and our emergency management system is dismantled.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

New data shows the World Bank counted 70% of energy-sector reforms in Development Policy Financing as having 'climate co-benefits' between 2018-2023 - but most of these promoted a private-led energy transition #JustTransitionDeferred Bretton Woods Project

Our latest study reveals how the World Bank is using its Development Policy Finance (DPF) instrument to push energy sector reforms that promote a private-led energy transition – while counting these policy changes as ‘climate finance’.

🔗 tinyurl.com/ClimateFinan...

"But while hawks frame BRICS as trying to overthrow global order, this year's summit is in many ways a strong defense of multilateralism. In the communique, there's strong commitment to the WTO, UNFCCC/Paris Agreement, IMF,UN"
Thread
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bri...
bsky.app/profile/timh...

This Day in Labor History: July 7, 1903. Mary “Mother” Jones launched the Children’s Crusade in support of a Philadelphia textile strike and to raise awareness about the need to end child labor!!!! They wanted to meet Theodore Roosevelt, but of course the cowardly president chickened out!

Who’s Afraid of a Fair Debt Architecture? | Iolanda Fresnillo The fourth Financing for Development Conference officially kicked off in Seville this Monday, as world leaders gathered with broad smiles to congratulate one another for the good work already achieved...

Great piece by @ifresnillo.bsky.social from @eurodadnews.bsky.social on #FfD4 debt outcome 👇

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/who...