C C Couper 顾丽丽
ibscholar.bsky.social
C C Couper 顾丽丽
@ibscholar.bsky.social
Associate Professor at U of Birmingham researching SME internationalisation, collaboration, and networks. The paradox of human existence: each of us is unique, all of us are connected. Dialogue towards mutual understanding is the only way for peace.
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
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
October 12, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Well done Shafaq Aftab. When a reviewer stole her work and published it under his own name, she fought for a YEAR to get the journal to retract the paper. Just wondering why it took Wiley a YEAR to do this. 🧪 #academicsky

retractionwatch.com/2025/10/03/w...
Wiley retracts study stolen by reviewer, following Retraction Watch coverage
A Wiley journal has retracted a paper more than a year after a researcher reported the work was hers and had been stolen by a reviewer for another journal. As we reported in July, Shafaq Aftab, now…
retractionwatch.com
October 12, 2025 at 4:57 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Circular Economy 2.0
or
The Technocapital Hyperobject at the End of Time Begins to Draw Itself Together
October 10, 2025 at 5:49 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
“When historians look back on the collapse of the American empire, the only part that will baffle them for centuries to come will be that the poor voted over and over and over again to cut their own benefits in order to give more and more benefits to the rich and elite.”
👇 Interesting read
October 9, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
More water bills rises announced today, on top of those already planned.

Privatisation without competition, arguably the worst of both worlds
October 9, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
⚡️Russia launched a large-scale drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Oct. 10, potentially disrupting the city's water and power supplies.

"All emergency teams are monitoring the situation and ready to respond," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Potential water, power shortages reported in Kyiv amid massive drone strikes
"Due to a massive enemy UAV attack on the capital, there may be outages in electricity and water services," Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.
kyivindependent.com
October 9, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that it would investigate how Tesla’s semi-autonomous driving software handles railroad crossings as part of a wide-ranging investigation of incidents where the agency said Tesla vehicles have violated traffic safety laws.
Tesla's Full Self-Driving software under investigation after railroad incidents
NBC News reported last month that Tesla vehicles using Full Self-Driving software sometimes fail to stop for train tracks.
nbcnews.to
October 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Sure, let's award prizes to the Bunsen burners, Erlenmeyer flasks, and of course the inanimate carbon rods...

It's getting harder and harder to separate satire from bad AI takes
October 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.
October 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Private companies incentivised to put asylum seekers in hotels rather than bedsits as they could earn EIGHT TIMES as much profit, says @paulkohlersw19.bsky.social

Hotel owners and private companies benefiting despite allegations of terrible conditions

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Asylum hotel provider makes £180m profit despite claims of inedible food and rationed loo paper
Asylum seekers and charities tell BBC of
www.bbc.co.uk
October 7, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
British politics is basically a doom spiral of increasingly unhinged hostile policies.

Reform says something unhinged
⬇️
Labour counters with their own unhinged policy
⬇️
Tories shout from back they'll be even more unhinged
⬇️
Reform announces different unhinged proposal in response
⬇️
And repeat...🔁
October 5, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America
October 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)
October 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
"At the last count, we had incinerated 1 million pallets of PPE that cost £8.6 billion pounds to buy, literally up in smoke."

@russellscott1.bsky.social talks #PPE scandal with @goldbergradio.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social

podfollow.com/byline-podca...
Byline Podcast: PPE, The Pandemic and Cronyism with Russell Scott
Adrian Goldberg hears from Russell Scott, author of 'VIP Lane – Cronysim and the Pandemic', which is out now via Byline Books.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Learn mor...
podfollow.com
October 5, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
In Scotland billionaires can get a 100% tax break on their shooting estates, but the poorest are hounded under a council tax debt system four times harsher than England.

For my first FMQ as @scottishgreens.org co-leader I asked John Swinney to support Green plans to put that right.
September 4, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
After the tea break, we continue with the "Research Misconduct and Integrity" session (Woohoo!).
We start off with 'Retractions and Democracy Index Scores Across 167 countries' by Ahmad Sofi-Mahmudi (online)
We studied relationship between democratic status and retractions - sensitive topic.
#PRC10
September 3, 2025 at 8:17 PM
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[Sky News, which has spent years inciting hatred against migrants] Wow, how could this possibly happen?
September 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Get the hell off Substack before you literally can’t anymore without blowing up your business
August 31, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
This graph shows why so called ‘stealth taxes’ are very effective. Who would have guessed that if the higher rate limit of about £44k from 2010 had been uprated by inflation it would now be over £67k?
on.ft.com/47bGkm2
August 24, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Tom Fishburne commemorated this a couple years ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-w...
August 24, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Trump gets tariffs; Americans get price hikes reut.rs/45f1cGp
Trump gets tariffs; Americans get price hikes
U.S. President Donald Trump is getting his tariffs. Companies are making it clear how they intend to deal with it - passing them on to American consumers.
reut.rs
July 29, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
What the hell is this? Recognise the state or don't, but don't act like this is part of some potty-training reward chart www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
UK to recognise state of Palestine in September unless Israel holds to ceasefire
Cabinet agrees to support Middle East roadmap at emergency meeting called amid humanitarian crisis in Gaza
www.theguardian.com
July 29, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
I've written a deep dive into Labour's partnership with US Blackrock; corporate land grabbing, freeports, AI Growth Zones, and US Vassalism.
Please read, share, and, where possible, subscribe. I'm a volunteer uncovering the zonification of the UK.
europeanpowell.substack.com/p/labours-co...
Labour’s Corporate Capitulation: How Starmer’s BlackRock Partnership Betrays the Post-Corbyn Vision
The Labour Party under Keir Starmer has fully entrenched its partnership with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, marking a stark betrayal of its post-Corbyn distrust of multinationals.
europeanpowell.substack.com
July 25, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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July 25, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by C C Couper 顾丽丽
Protesters in Scotland say they will mount a wave of resistance as President Donald Trump prepares to travel to the country for a five-day private visit: cnn.it/3IJfozY
Protests expected as Trump arrives in Scotland for five-day visit | CNN
Protestors in Scotland say they will mount a wave of resistance as US President Donald Trump arrived in the country on Friday for a five-day private visit.
cnn.it
July 25, 2025 at 12:17 PM