It's shocking how little Gaza is front page news. Famine is an extreme status, an absolutely unliveable situation, moving out of that category doesn't mean much at all. The region is still teetering on the edge of barely surviving and the world has moved on. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Melissa Hortman's story reveals why I loved the promise and was disappointed by the reality of Obama. Hers was a life of grassroots organizing. A ground-up approach is especially challenging in today's America but I think potentially especially transformative. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

The Onion is becoming something different altogether. It's like... the mass shootings situation in the US is so unfathomably deeply offensive to human common sense and yet impossibly entrenched ... this is maybe the only way I can handle thinking about it? theonion.com/no-way-to-pr...

What Justice on a Burning Planet? Join Andreas Malm, Wim Carton, @triofrancos.bsky.social, and @learning2live.bsky.social for an urgent conversation on climate catastrophe and the left. With @versobooks.bsky.social. Friday, Dec 19th at 12PM ET RSVP: events.haymarketbooks.org/events/hayma...

Team Festivus — second place in Forestry’s holiday trivia! @forestry.ubc.ca

New paper out in the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs @jcca-gigahamburg.bsky.social China Aspires to be an Environmental Leader: How Should the Rest of the World Engage? It emerged from the Navigating Global China event @sppga.ubc.ca, Global Affairs Canada, & @asiapacificfdn.bsky.social

New faculty name, new entryway art! @forestry.ubc.ca

Thao Nguyen (MSc student @forestry.ubc.ca) & I spoke to authors of this series on EV growth and Rubber-driven-deforestation in the Mekong Region. We're optimistic about the company and sector-wide engagement campaigns to address rubber's impacts have raised, but www.mekongeye.com/reports/meko...

Our profile on Saysetta is out! Great work by @ellenlhl.bsky.social and thanks for the support from @globalchinamap.bsky.social

Gaza remains suspended in limbo. Waiting for aid. Waiting for news of prisoners. Waiting for the world to see that the genocide has not ended—it has only changed its form. https://bit.ly/48zjsvP

The Earth Systems Governance Conference will be in Bath, UK in September 2026 - Abstracts due Jan 15! www.earthsystemgovernance.org/2026-bath/ca...

This is the first Thanksgiving for Sophie & Colin Hortman without their parents, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman who were assassinated along with the family dog in an act of political murder. National guards troops were not deployed to the state in response.

Location change: Choi 120!

Who is coming to #AAS in Vancover in March and wants to talk China and/or Southeast Asia and/or Canadian engagement? No experts needed, but I'm trying to take the temperature so as to decide whether to host a pre-AAS event! Shoot me a message or reply here!

This Friday!!!

Listened to CBC’s Stephen Quinn iview Vancouver mayor Ken Sim this morning about the zero property tax. It was a serious debate, lots of tension, harmed questions, but ended on a warm note and gave me a much better understanding (of why it’s bad lol). This kind of tough debate is key to democracy.

Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 25 in Gaza Amid Truce, Officials Say www.nytimes.com/2025/11/19/w...

Shout out to the #AAUP (American Association of University Professors) for this win! Judge Orders Trump Not to Threaten University of California’s Funding www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/u...

Eyes should remain on Palestine. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

I worry a lot about the drying 'pipeline' of young people getting to study in China. So excited to see this incredible opportunity for Canada-based scholars *and* professionals. Please consider applying! www.educanada.ca/scholarships...

We're very excited to be hosting a visit by James Lin at the Centre for Chinese Research with support from @sppga.ubc.ca! His new book on Taiwan has lessons for the world about agrarian change, the food sector, and rural life. Friday November 28, 3pm in the Liu building's Place of Many Trees

NEW – Webinar: Carbon Brief’s first ‘ask us anything’ at COP30 | @drsimevans.carbonbrief.org @daisydunne.carbonbrief.org @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @arunacsekhar.bsky.social @mollylempriere.carbonbrief.org @anikanpatel.carbonbrief.org Watch the recording ⬇️

'Genocide stopped only in media': Gaza endures daily bombings a month into truce - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/genocide-stopped-only-media-gaza-endures-daily-bombings-month-truce

The new film featuring firsthand testimonies of Israeli soldiers in Gaza reveals patterns of systematic abuse.

Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians

Every once in a blue moon you come across something that puts into words something you've been turning over for a long time but haven't been able to pin down. That's how I felt stumbling upon and reading this excellent piece. The concerns of mine I think it puts into words are:

Event at the Museum of Anthropology tomorrow! My colleague in @sppga.ubc.ca Candis Calison is co-organizing with Cree journalist Rick Harp, host/producer of Media Indigena podcast and the APTN News Brief podcast. A reception will follow. sppga.ubc.ca/events/event...

A great group of China environment Scholars (Annah Zhu, Coraline Goron, and Kevin Lo) are putting together a proposal for a special issue on "China’s Role in a Global Just Transition: Contradictions, (Geo)Politics, and Alternative Futures" Do consider submitting! drive.google.com/file/d/1c9hE...

My wonderful @forestry.ubc.ca PhD student Joachim Stassart has an article out in Political Geography on corruption and land grabs in Brazil! doi.org/10.1016/j.po... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

China's astounding ability to build and deploy renewables, batteries, and EVs is perhaps the brightest spark in the global fight against climate change. But @yixiansun.bsky.social and I ask what would it really take for China to lead www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/02/07/2...

Read the article here: www.carbonbrief.org/qa-will-chin... Featuring excellent insights from @katelogan.bsky.social @jamesnorman.bsky.social @yixiansun.bsky.social and others!

Well this was hilariously written www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Lue Yang, a Hmong refugee and father of six, was detained by ICE due to a decades-old felony conviction. He could be sent to Laos, a communist nation he has never visited.

Report by Keith Barney et al. is a great contribution to the Laos development community and we should see it also as hugely valuable for the #globalChina literature and debt trap diplomacy debates. www.lowyinstitute.org/publications...

I just struggle with how to protect those around me. e.g. right now: Should I advise students not to attend conferences in the US that I know to be wonderful hubs of intellectual inspiration and community that I've benefited from and am myself planning on attending? My approach is to tell them

Let's all to take a deep breath & understand that we have reached the phase in fascism where if they want to declare you a criminal, you are a criminal. You can not magically avoid it, or do exactly the right thing to stay off the list. Fascism must always have enemies, and one day you will be one.

I always try to stress that Chinese mining companies should be compared to other mining companies, that their violations are often a product of the sector as much as, if not more than, the investor country. That said, a reminder that *mining is a pretty awful sector*... www.bbc.com/news/article...

I’m excited to discuss the new book “Seeing China’s Belt and Road” edited by Rachel Silvey and Ed Schatz this morning at APSA! joined by two brilliant discussants @mariarepnikova.bsky.social and Enze Han talking about future directions 🔮🇨🇳🌏

My wonderful colleague at @sppga.ubc.ca, Tarun Khanna, is looking to hire a postdoc on community virtual power plants, ideally someone interested in community and policy engagement! sppga.ubc.ca/news/postdoc...

Fantastic podcast !!! Just listened to the two latest episodes, but if they are all the same quality, I know what I will be listening the next dew days. www.theoutlawocean.com/the-outlaw-o... #FoodSystem #fisheries #humanrights #extraction #slavery

Thanks to Jess for pushing us both to get this done, and to Michael Epprecht and Vong Nanthavong at the Centre for Development and Environment for supporting both of our research programs. We hope this snapshot of Chinese investment in Laos will be useful to a range of folks working on the ground.

@mklaz.bsky.social Miles Kenney-Lazar's book is out!! 👏🏼 I have to say the cover is one of the coolest I've seen in awhile... uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/social...

A fascinating read from The Diplomat today about Nepal and the BRI! thediplomat.com/2025/06/why-...

China’s Belt and Road Initiative shattered records in early 2025 with $124B in deals, signaling a renewed appetite for large-scale projects, especially in energy, mining, and fast-growing regions like Africa.

Come learn about food security in Central Myanmar: Mark Vicol is speaking July 29, 1-2pm "An everyday political economy of food insecurity in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone" 120 Choi Building All are welcome! sppga.ubc.ca/events/event... @sppga.ubc.ca @forestry.ubc.ca @markvicol.bsky.social

This is insane overstep into another country's sovereignty. It's also interesting in contrast to China's non-interference stance and just general position of just automatically gaining from America's just implosion of its own relationships with the developing world. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/w...

Anyone get an email from the Social Security Administration praising Trump's BB Bill for cutting taxes on SS? Obviously totally ridiculous but also ... maybe when leaders actually do good things they should be doing things like this to make Americans aware of it? Also what is the mechanisms for

She’s a national treasure

This is a pretty tortured statement, but seems like PUP didn't intend to do a whitewashing tour of Xinjiang. Also it's honestly insane that they still trot out dancing minorities in trad garb to prove that things are going well via @jimmillward.bsky.social

Can someone explain the stock market to me? Does this suggest trump’s policies are actually making the us economy stronger? or at least benefiting corporations? What kind of questions is it really a barometer for?