Elham Shirin

The threat of unilateral action to license #deepseamining was on #ISA31 delegates' minds

Whether this should push them to urgently settle exploitation regulations—or take the time to get the rules right—framed the opening day

Read ➡️ enb.iisd.org/internationa...

#Ocean #mining

How the blues brought musical journeyman Raphael Saadiq to the Oscars The singer-songwriter and producer has had one of the more distinguished and multifaceted careers in modern music. He talks about following an unconventional path from Tony! Toni! Toné! to Sinners.

How the blues brought musical journeyman Raphael Saadiq to the Oscars www.npr.org/2026/03/10/g...

$275k for a fashion substacker...🫠

Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure to have major environmental fallout, experts warn Monitors admit they are struggling to keep track of the environmental disasters arising from widening war

Bombing of Iran’s oil infrastructure by Israel to have toxic environmental fallout, experts warn

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

An Island Nation in the South Pacific Leads the Latest Push for Climate Justice at the UN - Inside Climate News Vanuatu urges the U.N. to support a landmark International Court of Justice climate opinion that says governments have legal duties to confront climate change.

Thanks to Vanuatu, he UN General Assembly may have a chance to take some climate action based on emerging international law.

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

exterior shot of the pavilion Chehel Sotun, Isfahan

decorated ceilings of Chehel Sotun

image of destruction

image of destruction

More destruction of the cultural heritage in Iran. Chehel Sotun in Isfahan, dating back to the 17th c, a UNESCO World Heritage site sustained damage in the war.

Happy International Women's Day to all the queens who struggle everyday to make life better for their families, communities and the planet. They bomb our little girls, take our best leaders and try to silence our voices, but we never give up.

“I wanted to read what my students had written. I’d been telling them all semester that writing was a gift humanity had made for itself, a way for us to know ourselves and each other across space and time.”

Beautiful piece by Peter Baker.

This Tech Company Turned Into a Resistance Icon Overnight. The Reality Is Much Darker. The A.I. firm behind Claude is far from an ethical company.

Anthropic's defiance of the Pentagon's A.I. orders was undeniably brave, a welcome contrast with Big Tech's general approach to the Trump admin. but the resistance folks shooting Claude to the top of the app charts need to understand that Anthropic is not very principled, and is not your friend:

CPAC Head Says Iranian Schoolgirls Are Better Dead Than “in a Burqa” Leading Republicans don’t seem to care about the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran.

Matt Schlapp has attempted to justify the killing of more than 100 young girls at an elementary school in southern Iran, by claiming they were saved from religious extremism. trib.al/mpzZynt

How Trump's DHS is Fighting to Pull Local Cops to its Side As Trump's DHS grows in size and power, it is attempting to pull local law enforcement on its side in its war on sanctuary policies.

As Trump's DHS fights to pull local police onto its side, an immigrant’s safety largely depends on how much their community stands up for them.

By: @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social

inkstickmedia.com/how-trumps-d...

My take on the impact of climate change on Somalis in today’s @newrepublic.com article by @eshirin.bsky.social.

Somali Immigrants Fled Climate Change. Now They’re Facing ICE. Somali immigrants in the U.S. haven’t just fled violence—they’ve fled climate catastrophes that the U.S. has helped create.

Persistent drought—made a hundred times more likely due to warming caused by fossil fuel emissions—is affecting Somali people’s decisions to either relocate internally or migrate across international borders. My latest for @thenewrepublic.bsky.social:

newrepublic.com/article/2072...

Somali Immigrants Fled Climate Change. Now They’re Facing ICE. Somali immigrants in the U.S. haven’t just fled violence—they’ve fled climate catastrophes that the U.S. has helped create.

In late February, after reopening thousands of refugee claims in Minnesota, the White House said ICE agents would be empowered to detain legal refugees in the U.S. indefinitely for “aggressive rescreening.” trib.al/H9nHeqf

10 Years After Berta Cáceres’ Murder, Why Is Honduras Still So Dangerous for Environmental Activists? Despite some prosecutions, the criminal masterminds behind the Indigenous leader's murder remain at large, while illegal land grabs, international finance and attacks against defenders continues with ...

By me: Today marks 10 years since the assassination of Indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres, a rare leader whose death marked a before and after for many including me. Despite some justice, the extractive economic model and its criminal modus operandi continues apace.

drilled.media/news/berta

"Music is not created / It is always here / surrounding us / like the infinite particles that constitute life, it cannot be seen but can only be felt […] / Music with out the Musician is like life with out Allah / both in desperate need of a home / a body."

@longreads.com

The Poetics of Malcolm X On the poetry that influenced the Civil Rights trailblazer and the art he inspired.

"Malcolm’s poetics — his love of language and for his people, his gentleness and ability to speak to the truth of things for oppressed peoples across the continents — is what shaped and awakened his radical politics", writes Elham Shirin in, "In These Times". inthesetimes.com/article/poet...

And Malcolm's legacy—the spirit of which is visible in Black and brown poets across the world, shows the power of language to shape who people are, to imagine another world on her way, quietly breathing.

I discovered Brother Malcolm a long time ago, but his life, his words have gained a deeper resonance over time—especially now, in the midst of this American nightmare. Malcolm’s power, his path, his poetry, his gentleness—all lay bare the truth of things for oppressed people across the continents.

The Poetics of Malcolm X On the poetry that influenced the Civil Rights trailblazer and the art he inspired.

“I’m a real bug for poetry,” Malcolm wrote in prison. “When you think back over all of our past lives, only poetry could best fit into the vast emptiness created by man.” I explore the poetic sensibility of Malcolm X for @inthesetimes.com: inthesetimes.com/article/poet...

The Poetics of Malcolm X On the poetry that influenced the Civil Rights trailblazer and the art he inspired.

Malcolm X: “I’m a real bug for poetry.”

Elham Shirin traces the poets who shaped him—from prison reading and “Music” to the lyric power of his speeches—and the art his words set in motion across Black radical tradition and global solidarity.

Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster, a New Study Finds.

“The American dream turns into the American nightmare as we start to look at what we’re doing to biodiversity and systems that we depend on as humans."

After my ICE arrest, I learned one crucial way to respond to trauma. We can all take part | Rümeysa Öztürk I was detained for co-writing a op-ed about Gaza as a student at Tufts. My experience has only made me feel more connected to others facing oppression

"The trauma I experienced taught me first-hand how acts of human violence cultivate isolation, shame and fear. It also taught me the value of a community in one’s healing. My friends and community gave back more than what others sought to take."

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

What technology takes from us – and how to take it back | Rebecca Solnit The long read: Decisions outsourced, chatbots for friends, the natural world an afterthought: Silicon Valley is giving us life void of connection. There is a way out – but it’s going to take collectiv...

“Joy in ordinary things, in each other, in embodied life, and the language with which to value it, is essential to this resistance, which is resistance to dehumanisation.”

www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Worries grow for Sulawesi farmers as nickel mining company plans expansion LOEHA RAYA, Indonesia — The road to the headquarters of the Loeha Raya Farmers’ Cooperative is inundated from the monsoon, and a baby cayman splashes around in a puddle formed in a natural crater by…

PT Vale Indonesia, operator of the country’s longest-running nickel mine, plans to expand as EV battery demand surges.

But in Sulawesi, farmers fear the move could swallow forests and farmlands rich in endemic wildlife.

Trump to speed permits for deep-sea mining in international waters The Trump administration is pressing ahead on Wednesday with an effort to encourage U.S. exploration of the deep sea by accelerating permitting for companies hunting for critical minerals in international waters, a move that is likely to face environmental and legal concerns.

Trump to speed permits for deep-sea mining in international waters reut.rs/3Zqekpy

Channel Your Energy: Seven Writerly Habits to Adopt in 2026 Writing Desk//January 2026

A gift from @hollyhaworth.bsky.social on how to sustain our writing practices: open.substack.com/pub/earthspe...

States consider suing fossil fuel industry over insurance hikes New York and Hawaii could expand the legal battlefield and seek to hold companies liable for disasters that cause premiums to rise.

Legislators in New York and Hawaiʻi are considering bills that allow their attorneys general to sue fossil fuel companies if climate-related disasters cause residents’ property insurance premiums to rise.

Aloha.