Helen Frankenthaler, A Green Thought in a Green Shade, 1981

Greed puts out the sun.

How This ‘Out and Proud Trans Woman’ Navigates Missouri Men’s Prisons “Although there are still instances of transphobia, I no longer let it break me down,” writes Lexie Handlang. “I feel sorry for those people.”

“Although there are still instances of transphobia, I no longer let it break me down,” writes Lexie Handlang. “I feel sorry for those people.”

The Land Question Fighting apartheid has become a global paradigm for justice struggles. That’s not how many Black liberationists in South Africa understood their cause.

It's always about land. www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

House Republicans move to kill D.C. traffic cameras—despite using them back home The GOP's latest attempt to interfere with local affairs would also stop the city from banning right turns on red.

In 2025, D.C.'s speed cameras issued more than 3.3 million tickets — 70% of which were for speeding — worth some $383M in fines.

The GOP's latest attempt to interfere in local affairs would prohibit D.C. from using them as well as from banning right turns on red, @maustermuhle.bsky.social reports:

War exacerbates long-standing irrigation crisis for Sudan farmers In happier times, Mohamed Ahmed grows sorghum, lentils and beans on three feddans of land in Gezira state. But for more than a year, no irrigation water has reached the 1.2 hectares (3 acres) he…

Sudan’s Gezira irrigation scheme, once a state-run lifeline for 890,000 hectares, is collapsing. Decades of privatization followed by civil war have left canals in ruins, many small-scale farmers can no longer afford to grow food.

Story by Albashir Dahab for #Mongabay.

In my dreams, we have 5 more Mariah albums 😌

Peace and fossil fuel dependency are inherently incompatible

What was Doge? How Elon Musk tried to gamify government The long read: Steeped in gaming and rightwing culture wars, Musk and his team of teenage coders set out to defeat the enemy of the United States: its people

Long read on DOGE and Musk from @bentarnoff.com and @quinnslobodian.com this morning. "Muskism proved not a governing philosophy but a toolkit available to those who govern," they write.

US oil groups in line for $63bn windfall from Gulf war disruption American producers will be among biggest beneficiaries if crude prices average $100 a barrel this year

It's called 'oil price shock' because someone is making a shocking profit.
www.ft.com/content/37d4...

42 people. millions of trans people are being tortured by their governments because of 42 people.

As a point of comparison, the US spent $21 billion in FY 2022 to feed billions of breakfasts and lunches to kids in schools across our whole country for an entire year under the universal school meals program that was later discontinued.

A screenshot of a mobile Google search results page in dark mode for the query "Kansas trans". Under the heading "News about Kansas," there is a list of four news articles: ​An article from the Kansas City Star, published 13 hours ago, with the headline "Kansas informs trans residents their driver’s licenses become invalid on Thursday". The thumbnail shows a sample Kansas driver's license. ​An article from The Independent, published 7 hours ago, with the headline "Kansas sends letters to trans drivers demanding the immediate surrender of their licenses over birthright law". The thumbnail shows small pride flags on desks inside a legislative chamber. ​An article from The Topeka Capital-Journal, published 7 hours ago, with the headline "Kansas invalidates IDs and birth certificates of transgender people". The thumbnail features a close-up of colorful pride flag stickers. ​An article from Erin In The Morning, published 16 hours ago, with the headline "Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses". The thumbnail is a nighttime photo of a state capitol building illuminated in pink and red lights.

A day later and no major national news org has covered what they're doing in Kansas.

This is the flip side of the hyper focus on trans issues by the right. The national media ignores what's actually being done to trans people.

This erasure is what contributes to the persecution.

How intermediaries are reshaping mangrove restoration Mangrove forests, located along tropical and subtropical coastlines, are increasingly recognized for their role in buffering climate disasters, storing carbon, supporting wildlife and livelihoods. Yet...

Financial intermediation done right actually puts *more money* into the hands of local people and their institutions.

Next step? Localize the intermediaries!
news.mongabay.com/2026/02/cali...

JAMA Investigation: 26% of Trans and Gender Diverse Youth Have Attempted Suicide The highest attempt rates came out of North America amidst the United States’ war on trans kids.

The latest review from JAMA Pediatrics has uncovered that 26% of trans youth have attempted suicide. That's actual attempts, ideation was even higher.

The trend was most pronounced in North America, where anti-trans laws have been common.

The latest from our writer S. Baum.

‘The goal has been to demystify’: how a colonial Nairobi library was restored and given back to the people Once a whites-only enclave, the grand McMillan Memorial library is one of three in the Kenyan capital that have been transformed for the community

Lovely piece about Book Bunk, an organisation restoring colonial-era libraries in Nairobi and making them free, accessible spaces for children

My hero!

Trans rights aren’t tanking the Democrats. Julia Serano responds in a forum on “How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism.”

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Feb 3 Boston Review: Julia Serano pens a killer -down on the long-running argument that Dems should "moderate" by adopting "common sense" positions that essentially throw tarns people under the bus: "Trans Rights Aren’t Tanking the Democrats."

Allowables by Nikki Giovanni Allowables I killed a spider Not a murderous brown recluse Nor even a black widow And if the truth were told...

Allowables by Nikki Giovanni
www.divasofverse.com/2016/07/allo...

recommended reading volume 1: awoe, ben, jalen, juliette, noah, persimmon, sabrina, tommy, and will

My pal Morgan Ome asked me to recommend my favorite books of the year: Such Times by Christopher Coe and Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun: An Almanac of Extreme Girlhood by Jackie Wang.

Check it out, paired with recs from other cool people at goodbyeevergreen.substack.com/p/recommended-reading

This must've been an extraordinarily challenging piece to write. You try explaining the budgetary constraints of the Brazilian Government in clear prose...

Lula’s Budget Dispute | Clara Zanon Brenck & Lucca Rodrigues The winners and losers in Brazil’s new tax regime

“An economy that says it needs to stabilize first, then grow, and then distribute is a fallacy and has been a fallacy. It does not stabilize, it grows in fits and starts, and it does not distribute.” – Maria Conceição Tavares

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/lul...

There Is No Such Thing as Impact Investing (SSIR) There is philanthropic investing, and there is commercial investing, and there is nothing in between.

Fresh because it isn't new: Philanthropic investors can use patient and concessional capital (grants, cheap debt, generous equity) to prove the profitability of a business or a model. Then, let the commercial investors comes in when the math maths.
ssir.org/articles/ent...

The Chinese migrant workers powering the deadly EV nickel boom 30,000 Chinese workers travel thousands of miles to remote islands in Eastern Indonesia to process nickel — and put their lives at risk on the frontier of the green energy transition.

Tens of thousands of Chinese migrant workers have gone to Indonesia to work in nickel for EV batteries, risking their safety to save money for a better life back home restofworld.org/2025/chinese-migrant-wor...

“I know that if I was diagnosed with cancer, then I’d be seeking advice from an oncologist, not listening to some other random doctor.”

Puberty blocker bans in Queensland and NZ risk extreme harm to trans youth, UK expert warns Sociologist who surveyed effect of 2024 UK ban says denial of gender-affirming care has left trans and non-binary children in ‘abject misery and severe distress’

“Many of the people who criticise gender-affirming care have never actually worked with transgender young people, but that doesn’t stop them from claiming to be experts in the area.”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

MacKenzie Scott Announces $7 Billion of Charitable Giving This Year

An important thing about Mackenzie Scott's philanthropy is that all of her gifts are *unrestricted.* She often gives to smaller nonprofits where those unrestricted gifts can have a huge impact, allowing organizations to use the money where it's needed most, not just where a donor wants.