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?

Today my baby crawled up to a woman watching her daughter at the pool. She is from Iran, I’m from the US. She said it’s been hard to adjust to being in Canada this year so far from her mother. It’s the first year of many she’ll live here. When Israel began bombing she couldn’t get word from her

Each time a remotely progressive candidate wins office in the US, the rich declare they're going to leave town. What do they actually do? Nothing. A 2016 study found only 0.04% of millionaires move in a given year due to tax increases. Rich people talk to feel important. Please properly tax them.

An example of a time when an old white guy telling people to smile more is very very welcome 🤗

✊🏼

Republicans in Congress are still planning to start selling off public lands. Here’s what’s coming. 👇

Join Dr. Laura Harrington's lecture: "Shaken, Not Stirred: Richard Gard, the CIA, and the Invention of Cold War Buddhism" to learn how the CIA-backed Asia Foundation sought to “modernize” Buddhist monastic education during the Cold War. June 27 @ 7 pm PST tinyurl.com/3ja34hcf

its so early every year aah!

This is the Key: "They do not make us any safer"

ICE just arrested Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller and one of the leading candidates for Mayor, without grounds. He was conducting routine immigration court work, escorting individuals from hearings. He asked ICE for their warrant - well within his legal rights. This is political intimidation.

I keep saying we are not immune in Canada to the rise in censorship of academic spaces south of the border. Here is a great example of that.

I heard somewhere that Uber can generate individualized playlists and now im feeling very attacked because this driver is playing a country version of Shabbozey’s “errbody in the bar gettin tipsy”. I don’t want to stereotype but driver is an elderly gentleman who I feel like didn’t choose this.

Just keeping tabs on the brazen corruption: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

This interview on The World about killings at Gaza aid points is 🔥. The interviewee Arwa Damon is so sharp in her criticism of the US, Israel, and the global narrative spinners. The pathways of argument she uses are 💯 how these conversations should be approached. theworld.org/segments/202...

My brother spent days on the phone trying to get care in Nashua NH in the weeks before he passed away. He spent over a year in jail, delayed partly for lack of hospital openings for him. We (his family) struggled to get him care at every step of the way. I hope cases like this improve things.

Hard to think of a clear depiction of climate politics in Canada than provincial premiers calling for more pipelines and deregulation of oil and gas development as climate-amplified wildfires rage in their own provinces. #cdnpoli

UBC thunderbirds win ultimate championship! ultiworld.com/2025/05/27/u...

Making a playlist for spontaneous dance parties with my kids. Realizing my life may have peaked when this song was on the radio… open.spotify.com/track/3NHfaI...

George Floyd was murdered by police five years ago today. The Say Their Names cemetery in Minneapolis features memorials for Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant, Korryn Gaines, Freddie Gray and far too many more Black people who died at the hands of police.

This thing is supposed to be way bigger than the Three Gorges Dam, its insane that dams this size are still being built. Only in the hinterlands, the peripheries, is this kind of thing still permitted. www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

Climate Reparations Summer Camp 2025 August 4th - 7th | Near New Orleans, Louisiana ActionAid USA, alongside Justice Is Global, Youth N’ Power and the National Partnership for New Americans are sponsoring a fully-funded camp for up to 25 young people (ages 18+)! bit.ly/crc-2025

Responding to the mass cancellation of NSF grants, Fazio (@lkfazio.bsky.social), a researcher who studies misinformation: “What can US researchers do in this situation? One thing is clear: do not surrender to political pressure or abandon crucial research questions.”

I had to cut myself into this episode after the fact because I'd lost my voice! But that didn't stop me from asking Mingwei about a number of ways her book blew me away, I can't recommend it enough and hope you'll enjoy this too. www.dukeupress.edu/reconfigurin...

A US-based investment firm -- (partially headed by former Trump appointed ambassador to Kenya) is planning to be the main investors into the $3.4bn Nairobi-Mombasa toll-expressway. The project would be a competitor (compliment?) to China-backed SGR. constructionreviewonline.com/news/usahihi...

We've got Isaac Herzog @zznstudies.bsky.social on our socials now, and he's doing way more than reposting - follow us and check out his updates!

With US-China trade and tariffs dominating the news, I’ve decided to make this week’s Trade War unpaywalled and free to read in its entirety. Welcome to the 260th edition of Trade War. Enjoy! open.substack.com/pub/dexter/p...

Texas Bans Being Different Around Children theonion.com/texas-b...

Absolutely horrifying case where the boss reported their own workers to ICE for unionizing. Labor movement cannot sit out the attack on immigrants

But like are the people @theonion.com ok? I guess it’s not their fault that satire and reality are no longer clearly separable…

Well if this isn’t a clever corporate spin: “Best credit card for rising grocery prices”

Yo the onion is getting dark

I've been working on a series about the systems that undergird our lives. This one, about water, is personally important. Fresh water is our worst immediate environmental problem--and one that we've known how to solve for more than a century. That we don't is infuriating. (Paywall lifted for today)

Stephen Colbert ftw www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J-9...

We have a new social media manager, and I'd like to introduce myself! My name is Isaac. A Cornell and Oxford grad, I work in Chinese intnl finance, lending, and the BRI. I worked with Juliet in undergrad and have the pleasure of joining her team again! Excited to keep you all up to date on BRI news.