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Matthew Medinsky

5 takeaways: China's foreign minister slams Trump's 'two-faced' policies

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaks during a news conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing on Friday. Ng Han Guan/AP

Automakers granted relief from tariffs. And, fired USDA workers return to work

Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today's top stories President Trump has granted automake

Extractivism and Resistance: Gendered Perspectives on the Global Resource Economy

Extractive economies are deeply gendered, disproportionately harming women and Indigenous communities (mining, land dispossession, violence, health effects) while benefiting multinational corporations and financial markets (Altamirano-Jimén

How Can the Study of Hierarchy/Heterarchy Influence the Future?

This article was produced by Human Bridges. Hierarchies are a familiar form of human organization where individuals and groups of high social status are ranked above others and make decisions. Some examples are an oligarchy, a small group o

Insight: Is China Still a Communist Country? With Carl Zha

Mike Robinson speaks to Carl Zha for more discussion of China. Carl is a Caltech graduate and is host of the Silk and Steel Podcast focusing on everything China, history, culture and politics Carl was born in China at the end of the Cultur

Kenya’s problems with electronic voting methods continue

An audit has found that more than 200 biometric election devices linked to the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (“KIEMS”) have gone missing and cannot be accounted for. These devices are crucial for voter authentication during e

Solar power is at least 10 times more expensive than natural gas

A peer-reviewed study published in 2022 found that wind and solar power are more expensive than coal, natural gas and nuclear power. The study shows that even in favourable locations like Texas, solar power is 10 times and wind power 7 time

Mexico faces off with U.S. gunmakers at the Supreme Court

Mexico is arguing at the Supreme Court that U.S. gun manufacturers are aiding and abetting an illegal invasion of guns from the United States into Mexico. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: 'I have always longed to be known'

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the themes of her new novel, Dream Count: "I wanted to write about women's lives. And the reality of it is that for many women, the men in their lives in some ways, shape their lives."

Turkish attacks on Tishreen water dam are an ecological threat to the whole region

Ed note: To give the following post some context, Make Rojava Green Again is an organisation that describes itself as the following: We, the Internationalist Commune of Rojava, want to contribute to the ecological revolution in Northern Sy

China slaps extra tariffs of up to 15% on imports of major U.S. farm exports

A woman walks by the Chinese and U.S. national flags on display outside a souvenir shop in Beijing on Jan. 31, 2025. Andy Wong/AP hide caption

Seeing My Settler Ignorance in the Mirror of This Moment

This essay is excerpted with permission from Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair, by Hilary Giovale. (Green Writers Press, 2024) A decade ago, I sat on the floor of my living room in Flagstaff, Arizona with a new friend named Marie Gladue.

Taiwan condemns China for conducting shooting drills off its coast

In this image taken off a video released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, a member of Taiwan Navy reacts on the intercom to Chinese war ships conducting drills about 40 nautical miles off the coast of western Taiwan's Kaohsiung and Pingtung cities on Feb.

Ukraine's Zelenskyy will meet Trump Friday to finish a minerals deal

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to journalists during press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP hide caption KYIV, Ukraine, and WASHINGTON, D.C.

Larder

One of the key practices on this Earth takes place every day before the store cupboard, and this extract, about the cherry plum tree, records the moment, one late summer’s day in Oxfordshire, when I shifted my allegiance from the city larder to the wild. I did not look back.