Phil Free
LightNews LightNews
banner
philfree.bsky.social
Phil Free
@philfree.bsky.social
860 followers 840 following 8.2K posts
Politics, economics, planet - I live in Essex, UK.
Posts Replies Media Videos
philfree.bsky.social
Top US Lobby API Targets Landmark EU Climate Law, Policy Document Shows
www.desmog.com/2026/01/28/t...
Top U.S. Oil Lobby API Targets Landmark EU Climate Law, Policy Document Shows
The declaration coincides with U.S. fossil fuel companies’ use of Trump’s trade tensions and international discord to undermine EU climate laws.
www.desmog.com
February 7, 2026 at 1:21 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Debt & the cockroaches
braveneweurope.com/michael-robe...
Michael Roberts - Debt and the cockroaches - Brave New Europe
The US stock market is bullish, but there are signs that the financial system has found new ways to re-produce risky lending crisis eerily familiar to the notorious sub-prime loans in 2008. Michael Ro...
braveneweurope.com
February 7, 2026 at 12:59 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Blind psychologist fears losing job after DWP slashed her Access to Work support
www.bigissue.com/news/social-...
Blind psychologist fears losing job after DWP slashed her Access to Work support
Cuts to the DWP's Access to Work support could force a visually impaired clinical psychologist out of her NHS role.
www.bigissue.com
February 7, 2026 at 12:39 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“Bubbles” & Neo-Liberal Capitalism
mronline.org/2025/10/24/b...
“Bubbles” and Neo-Liberal Capitalism - MR Online
This continuous tendency towards a rise in income inequality arises from the fact that, owing to the mobility of capital across country borders, wages across the entire world have to suffer the banefu...
mronline.org
February 6, 2026 at 11:36 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Melancholy, Allegory & Tyranny - @pure-culture.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/blackd/p...
Melancholy, Allegory and Tyranny
Reading the Ruins with Walter Benjamin
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:09 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Israeli agricultural exports face looming ‘collapse’ as world rejects products over Gaza genocide
mondoweiss.net/2026/01/isra...
Israeli agricultural exports face looming ‘collapse’ as world rejects products over Gaza genocide
Israeli farmers warn the country’s agricultural export industry is facing a looming “collapse” due to international opposition to the Gaza genocide. Recent reports show the impact of boycotting Israel...
mondoweiss.net
February 6, 2026 at 10:50 PM
philfree.bsky.social
George Orwell called for a new way of thinking about science
theconversation.com/george-orwel...
George Orwell called for a new way of thinking about science
Orwell argued that you don’t have to be a scientist to think more scientifically.
theconversation.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:26 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Moltbook: AI bots use social network to create religions & deal digital drugs – but are some really humans in disguise?
theconversation.com/moltbook-ai-...
Moltbook: AI bots use social network to create religions and deal digital drugs – but are some really humans in disguise?
Researchers are wondering whether the AIs have developed capabilities they weren’t programmed with.
theconversation.com
February 6, 2026 at 10:01 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Climate ‘fingerprints’ mark human activity from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean
theconversation.com/climate-fing...
Climate ‘fingerprints’ mark human activity from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean
The ocean is warming as the upper atmosphere is cooling – both as a result of excessive greenhouse gas emissions.
theconversation.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:31 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Bolivia’s ‘capitalism for all’ project sparks backlash for selling-out on natural resources
theconversation.com/bolivias-cap...
Bolivia’s ‘capitalism for all’ project sparks backlash for selling-out on natural resources
Bolivia’s new government has buried 20 years of socialist rule with reforms promising ‘capitalism for all’.
theconversation.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 PM
philfree.bsky.social
What is the Labour Government For?
fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com/2026/01/what...
What Is the Labour Government For?
The problem for Labour is that a dwindling number of voters are convinced of the party's core values, or even believe that they have any.
fromarsetoelbow.blogspot.com
February 6, 2026 at 6:54 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“Perhaps it’s time for all of us to face up to what the victims of empire & colonisation have known all along: that, for generations, those hopes have been built on a gross distortion of history, on a set of lies & illusions.”

Against the Grotian Tradition
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ja...
David Wengrow | Against the Grotian Tradition
The World Economic Forum in Davos is ending with talk of a rupture in world affairs, a collapse of international law, a...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 6, 2026 at 6:28 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“My own family is no longer allowed near the house we own & lived in when I was young; the Israeli army evicted us & shut down the area as an Israeli settlement sprang up there.”

Israel’s border tech is a tool for ethnic cleansing
www.opendemocracy.net/en/israel-bo...
Israel’s border tech is a tool for ethnic cleansing
In the West Bank, we are the unwilling test subjects for digital advancements in methods of population control
www.opendemocracy.net
February 6, 2026 at 6:12 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Pesticide Politics: Defending Europe Against the Return of Banned Chemicals - @greeneujournal.bsky.social
www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/pesticide-po...
Pesticide Politics: Defending Europe Against the Return of Banned Chemicals
As the failed recent push to reauthorise neonicotinoids in France shows, there is a risk that restricted substances could make a comeback.
www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu
February 6, 2026 at 5:50 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“The people spreading market ideology knew this very well: telling people they live in a free market system in which the talented rise to the top & the losers fail was a great way to legitimise a fundamentally unfree, unequal, & unfair economic hierarchy.”
open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...
The voice in your head is political
Market ideology teaches us to blame ourselves for a rigged economy - and doing so makes us feel in control.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 5:20 PM
philfree.bsky.social
BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists
open.substack.com/pub/democrac...
BREAKING: McSweeney’s think tank paid PR firm to investigate journalists
Labour Together put private investigators onto journalists writing about its funding. Starmer's right-hand man knew.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Phil Free
scottsantens.com
Four-panel cartoon of a person drowning in the ocean. Panel 1: a hand is raised above the waves labeled “UNEMPLOYED BY AI.” Panel 2: a rescuing hand reaches down from above labeled “GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE.” Panel 3: the rescuer pushes the drowning person underwater; the drowning hand is labeled “AI-FUELED JOB COACHING.” Panel 4: only bubbles and two fingers remain above the water.
February 6, 2026 at 3:59 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“Green growth deals with the supply side of the energy equation. We should green that supply as quickly as possible. But we need to tackle the demand side of things as well. That is where #degrowth comes in.”

- @mattorsagh.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/degrowth...
The Media Don't Get Degrowth
Yet.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 4:04 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“Trump’s plan for Gaza follows the tried-&-tested model of North American genocide, in which survivors are confined to Indigenous reservations.”

Ex-CIA Chief David Petraeus Briefs Officials in Israel Overseeing "New Gaza"
open.substack.com/pub/dropsite...
Ex-CIA Chief David Petraeus Briefs Officials in Israel Overseeing "New Gaza"
Petraeus, who was a major proponent of biometric gated communities in counterinsurgency, now works for KKR whose portfolio includes companies that have technology and defense interests in Gaza.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:34 PM
philfree.bsky.social
World roundup: February 5 2026
open.substack.com/pub/fx/p/wor...
World roundup: February 5 2026
Stories from Iran, Mali, Russia, and elsewhere
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:11 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“This suggests the demand for lithium in 2030 will equate to 25% of global supply: just one country—out of nearly 200 nations…

Surely this, rather than campaigner’s calls for an exploration of #degrowth, is what is idealistic & unfathomable?”
theecologist.org/2025/dec/11/...
Britain 'seeking a quarter of global lithium'
Britain's Critical Minerals Strategy fails on its own terms – and on the necessity of global resource justice.
theecologist.org
February 6, 2026 at 1:36 PM
philfree.bsky.social
“It is an ouroboros—never ending & self-consuming.

The death cult nature of capitalism is precisely that politicians & business leaders cannot escape the logic of capitalism which is the cause of these devastating problems.” #PostCapitalism #Degrowth #EcoSocialism
theecologist.org/2026/jan/23/...
Bunker billionaires on a burning planet
Capitalism is driving ecological destruction and social upheaval. Is it a death cult, and can we escape it?
theecologist.org
February 6, 2026 at 1:20 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Should designers specify quartz countertops when workers who cut them are dying from silicosis?
open.substack.com/pub/lloydalt...
Should designers specify quartz countertops when workers who cut them are dying from silicosis?
Whatever happened to the professional obligation to practice with "due regard to public health and safety?”
open.substack.com
February 5, 2026 at 11:47 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Mozambique Floods Affect Over 500,000
open.substack.com/pub/savagemi...
Mozambique Floods Affect Over 500,000
Heavy Rains Devastate Multiple Provinces
open.substack.com
February 5, 2026 at 11:20 PM
philfree.bsky.social
Sudan's peace efforts will fail until civilians are finally put at the centre
www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/suda...
Sudan's peace efforts will fail until civilians are finally put at the centre
Ceasefires marked by massacres, blocked aid routes and struck convoys show how agreements built around armed groups leave communities vulnerable to further atrocities
www.middleeasteye.net
February 5, 2026 at 11:07 PM