Delighted to have a guest post from @melissakchan.bsky.social in Proximities today. She has written an explainer about Taiwan with a level of depth and insight you rarely see elsewhere. Please give it your time. www.proximities.news/p/what-youre...

Restrictions on books in public schools have become “rampant and common,” according to a new report by the free speech organization PEN America, so frequent in some states that they are now considered “routine and expected part of school operations"... Read free: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/b...

Arrived in Prague and thinking of Václav Havel's great line: "Each person is capable, to a greater or lesser degree, of coming to terms with living within the lie."

Is it because there are no organisations that could get Americans out into the streets? In France (or Germany, or Italy...) trade unions would be key. Churches would probably call for protests or strikes, too

ICYMI: Am late to this but appreciate @dhpierson.bsky.social, Berry Wang, and Billy H.C. Kwok's coverage of Hong Kong's vanishing dim sum carts. I've always resented restaurants' moves away from cart service as the petty bourgeois decided it wasn't genteel enough:

“They are setting the stage for the institution of the military to undergo the same processes of moral collapse and moral deregulation as are now unfolding in the civilian sphere,” writes @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social:

“It’s not like air traffic controllers will stop working... Saying these are government shutdowns teaches Americans the government isn’t necessary, since stuff seems to mostly work.” From @matthewstoller.bsky.social:

Bill Burr’s gobsmackingly idiotic insight the Saudis are “just like us” because he didn’t see an execution highlights the danger of autocracy / fascism: normal people perpetrate it. Italians and Germans were pretty normie. It’s called the banality of evil, Bill.

🇲🇽 One president people are happy with: Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum with 70-80% approval ratings! One year into her leadership, I spoke to Zirahuén Villamar and Alex González Ormerod of The Mexico Political Economist (www.mxpe.org) to learn more: bit.ly/dw-newsdesk-mexico

"Bittersweet Symphony” almost stole the Oasis show given it’s one of the greatest stadium anthems out there. What a hell of an “opener” with Richard Ashcroft. Just had to share this.

These stories of state-led law enforcement cruelty with no respect for process, inflicted on ordinary citizens with tiny infractions, remind me of my time reporting from authoritarian China.

I'm very excited about meeting authors Adania Shibli, Paul Lynch, artist Miquel Barceló, and more at Prague's Festival of Arts, Literature & Learning — and am feeling massive imposter syndrome and can't believe I'm part of the program! 💥 October 5th @ 12 PM. Details here: bit.ly/dox-revolution

Great piece in Le Monde on the amped up rhetoric from Italy's Meloni after the killing of Charlie Kirk:

✊ "In recent years, anime and manga have played a prominent role in protest movements across the world." Nice piece in @newlinesmag.bsky.social:

OASIS x WEMBLEY, after having done OASIS x CDMX. My Eras Tour.

Okatsuka posted the censorship rules for the controversial comedy festival, noting how many "You can’t say anything anymore!" comedians have signed on. www.avclub.com/riyadh-comed...

Moldova’s pro-Western ruling party decisively wins a tense parliamentary election fraught with Russian interference claims.

Sharing a page from our graphic novel, YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION. Feeling nostalgic about neon Hong Kong at night. Have a good weekend.

Someone from Radio Free Asia came to our book talk in DC this past spring and gave me this mug. I would love to thank whoever gifted me this — you didn't leave a card or name! It's been awful to see RFA's newsroom gutted, and I hope it gets reconstituted soon.

Let's not forget the Tibetans. For burning a poster of Mao Zedong, one Tibetan's entire life and family is torn apart, and he goes on a decade-long journey before he reaches freedom. Incredible reporting from Niharika Mandhana and @joshchin.bsky.social:

🌴 Miami! @badiucao.bsky.social and I are so excited we will be at @miamibookfair.bsky.social this November to talk about YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION! Please come say hi! 💥 And if you can't make it to Miami and haven't already — here are ways to grab your copy! www.melissachan.com/revolution

Teaser for Deadline, the latest from Kiwi Chow (Beyond the Dream, Revolution of Our Times). I'm not completely sold on Chow as an artist, but he's undoubtedly one of the most pertinent working Hong Kong filmmakers right now. This looks good, though.

[email protected] writing in @status.news: "Coverage has cast Kirk as a mainstream conservative commentator rather than as a radical who openly called for President Joe Biden’s imprisonment or execution."

Everyone's very excited about Trump's Ukraine comments and of course, it's better he's saying this than just about anything else. But the guy can wake up the next day, change his mind, and say something at Tylenol-proportions of irresponsibility. Have we not learned the pattern.

Some publishing news, although I am confused why the title is the same as Antony Daparin's non-fiction Hong Kong book: ➡️ "Simon Elegant's CITY ON FIRE, a police procedural murder mystery set in Hong Kong during the freedom demonstrations... for publication in spring 2026."

I met Jerry as a young foreign correspondent in China. In any field there are those who gate keep, and those who do the opposite. Jerry treated what I said seriously in a way that made me feel he considered me an equal. That is so rare. In other words — he had deep kindness... (1/2)

R.F. Kuang's next book is TAIPEI STORY "a coming-of-age novel about a student reckoning with her family history during a study-abroad program in Taipei." Hope she's better than in BABEL when she gave someone f/ Guangdong a Mandarin pinyin monologue. That cut deep for Canto folk.

🇪🇺🇮🇩 NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Indonesia and the European Union concluded a free trade agreement [to offset] Trump's tariffs. Both sides will remove import duties on more than 90% of products... [EU] exporters will be spared 600 million euros of [duties].

Must-read from @matthewstoller.bsky.social, looking at both the Republican attraction to a Hobbesian oligarchy and / or sovereign, but also "trying to get anti-monopolism into the Democratic establishment has been like mixing oil and water."

👀 An absolutely wild piece about a Chinese policymaker who thinks German reunification offers lessons. The most glaring oversight being how East Berliners died fleeing to freedom and democracy, while no one in Taiwan wants any bit of Beijing's autocracy.

Europe should tell Trump and RFK Jr. it exports an amazing alternative to Tylenol called paracetamol and use that as leverage in tariff negotiations.

This autism press conference is an insult to science and medicine. It is a bunch of shameless male quacks shoveling bullshit at pregnant women, families and people with autism. This is a historic embarrassment for America and it is wildly dangerous.

In sea of global human rights setbacks, this is the best piece of news I've heard in a very long time. Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah will be freed.

It's usually "activists" in the US and "dissidents" in China and Russia — underscoring a difference between resistance in a democracy versus autocracies. Earlier this year @badiucao.bsky.social and I were on @msnbc.com with @velshi.com discussing dystopia, fascism. This clip feels apt to share now.

"Hong Kong cinema of the 80s never met a rule it wouldn’t break... ["Girls with guns"] helped define the cinematic potential for female characters and should be thought of as the predecessors to today’s female action stars." Great piece by Sean Tierney:

🇺🇸🗳️💉 Voted and vaccinated! I submitted my ballot as an overseas American for California's November special ballot measure election on temporary redistricting. And I got my flu and COVID jabs. All of which feel like revolutionary acts — when none of this should be.

🇨🇿 Prague! I'm so excited to back in one of my favorite cities in Europe in less than two weeks, with @badiucao.bsky.social at the Festival of Arts, Literature & Learning! Our book talk is on October 5th @ 12 PM. 🔗 Details here: bit.ly/dox-revolution

🇮🇹 On my way to Sardinia and very much looking forward to this... thank you again Festival della Resilienza for the invite!

Well I hope all those Americans who thought I was hyperventilating about Chinese authoritarianism as overblown now knows what every correspondent who actually reported and worked in China was talking about. Even comparatively little doesn’t feel great, does it.

Becoming increasingly clear we’re gonna have to build a parallel infrastructure for all the media we really love. The reason all of this is happening under the color of law is hyperconsolidation, dissent being traded straight up for merger approval, or fear of harassment.

Silly Jimmy Kimmel. He should have just called for all homeless people to be killed and he’d still have a job.

It was fun to lead a talk with women in film as part of FEMRISES in Berlin a few weeks ago. And awesome to share YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION in a second session! ⚾️ And for anyone wondering — I was wearing my red Wei Chuan Dragons baseball cap I got in Taipei!

"It becomes less about what happened and more about who to blame." An important Q&A with online disinformation expert @noupside.bsky.social:

One of the most wondrous things for many immigrants coming to the US has been how honestly America grappled with its history — the good and the ugly. It shows confidence when a country does that. Hiding, rewriting — those are cowardly acts we associate with Communist China.

🇮🇹 Sardinia, Italy! @badiucao.bsky.social and I are coming to discuss how YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION! An apt theme for the Festival della Resilienza. With two events, come catch us and also grab copies of the book!

DC unveils activities and content for #BatmanDay this weekend!

Here are our fall book events for YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION! Come say hi! We have stuff happening across Europe — and also Miami. Details about individual talks available soon (and also, searchable on the interwebs 😆). 💥 GRAB YOUR COPY: www.streetnoisebooks.com

OASIS x CDMX. Liam in a sombrero 🤣 closing out with Champagne Supernova and Mexico-colored fireworks. His voice sounds better than when I saw him live as a teen. Older Gallaghers probably doing more self-care these days. 😂 A concert for the ages. 📸 All snaps off my iPhone 13 Pro.

🐵 I love the @penguinclassicsusa.bsky.social cover design for this edition of JOURNEY TO THE WEST, translated by Julia Lovell.

San Francisco just loves YOU MUST TAKE PART IN REVOLUTION! Spotted in the wild this time on the shelves of Medicine for Nightmares! Swing by to 24th Street and grab your copy!