This is wild

I just discovered the perfect inbox search to find all of those pesky article reviews I agreed to: "Thank you for agreeing"

Mapping Global China workshop underway at @ox.ac.uk

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, Blind Rohingya refugee dumped by CBP, dies in cold "They just left him."

A blind Rohingya man survived a genocide in Burma, escaped to the United States, and then died because immigration officers treated him with such callousness. This story is a tragedy www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/20...

An enraging, enraging case.

ICE agents taking cosplay in new directions to deceive Americans.

“Institutions that once proclaimed their commitment to humanistic inquiry now appear eager to embrace a set of tools whose leading use cases—predictive policing, military targeting, advertising, and porn—stand in profound contradiction to the values they claim to uphold.”

Florida bill seeks to ban use of ‘West Bank’ in schools and state agencies The bill would mandate use of the biblical term ‘Judea and Samaria’ after a similar effort passed in Arkansas

Party of free speech strikes again

Thanks Jeff! Thanks Zuck! “More together” indeed!

Exciting for the kickoff of the Asian Borderlands Research Network conference in Taipei today. It is my first time attending in person. I am presenting on my recent research on China's borders with Nepal and Kazakhstan. What leads to Border Fortune? TLDR: Changes to security and logistics. #ABRN2026

A headline to sum up our times:

With this regime anything is possible…

Screenshot of a verified U.S. Department of Homeland Security post on X. The post includes an illustrated, retro-style image of a sunny beach scene with blue sky, ocean waves, palm trees, and a classic car parked near the shore. Text overlaid on the image reads “America After 100 Million Deportations.” The caption above references national peace and security, framing the image as a political message.

In case you thought they just meant undocumented immigrants…

There must be a term for what AI does to our brains at the end of the semester

Exclusive | Tibetan Activists Say China Has Detained Protesters Who Staged Rare Act of Defiance Chinese authorities arrested dozens of Tibetans who were protesting a mining project, according to Tibetan activists and the government in exile.

"Chinese authorities arrested dozens of Tibetans who were protesting a mining project in one of their communities, according to Tibetan activists and the government in exile, an act of defiance by a community that has been tightly controlled by Beijing." www.wsj.com/world/asia/t...

A Poem for Semester’s End

Twas the night before course evals,
and all through RMP,
the students were bitching,
“I worked too hard for the C!”
The ChatGPT essay,
submitted without care,
And the always faithful, never failing, “this grade just is NOT fair!”

How terrified of the administration is @cnn.com to lead with such a limp headline? "Images of Trump appearing to close his eyes during Oval Office event spread across social media" You can't say sleep, you can't say dozed, you can't even say with conviction that he closed his eyes. Cowards.

An astonishingly large crowd!
Chicago

Digitally visiting Centro SELISI in Venice on 10/23 to give this talk. Open to all who register: Unstable Bordering: Chinese Development at Two Nepalese Border Sites.
Zoom (registration required):
unive.zoom.us/mee.../regis...

Ohhh both sound very interesting!

They’re only going after Tylenol because the president of the United States can’t say acetaminophen. 🤦‍♂️

Some of the readings and materials I am folding into my Silk Roads History class this semester. Really enjoying it!

My head is actually spinning at how many current and future colleagues, both in the China field and beyond it, we are about to lose because of this

When did promoting cancel culture become part of the DHS mandate?

Khorgos is a self-contained duty-free territorial unit that carves out territory from Kazakhstan and China. You need entry from either side, but then can't cross through the other country's migration: you have to go back home. How common are border sites like this around the world?

Anti-ICE Superman mural vandalized in Chicago, but artist came back and repainted it with Krypto pissing on ICE.
Subscribe to my rumble to help the cause: rumble.com/v6y7a1c-minn...

My new essay for @nbr.org that explores the convergence of geopolitical space and propaganda in China's "external periphery." To learn what (and where) that is, read on...

Who Will Be the Next Dalai Lama? | China Books Review The Dalai Lama, who just turned 90, writes in his memoir that he will reincarnate in the “free world.” But will his political, religious and moral power transfer with him?

A real honor to work with @tshakya.bsky.social on this incredible piece on the Dalai Lama's book. Please read and share!

chinabooksreview.com/2025/07/24/d...

Monsoonal rainfall contributed to the flooding of the Bhote Koshi River at the Rasuwagadhi border of Nepal and China, damaging the dry port and destroying a key bridge. Thankfully, Timure town is above the river. Here are two photos I took there last month.

Hanging out in the CU Boulder library this morning to access CNKI. Good memories of this campus!