Meredith DeBoom
@meredeboom.bsky.social
Former policy wonk, current prof @josefkorbelschool.bsky.social Researching energy transition (uranium, hydrogen, phosphate), climate justice, resource geopolitics, global China, African politics. First-gen college grad. Iowan.
Earth’s most money-choked person, who says it’s “not okay” to be cruel to inanimate objects, personally led the destruction of USAID…which will result in about 4.5 million deaths of (human!) children by 2030—> www.thelancet.com/article/S014...
onion person@junlper.beer · 3d agoelon musk has more empathy for lines of code than a majority of humanity
Call for Papers AAG 2027 // NYC Critical Geographies of the Infrastructure Corridor globalcorridor.eu/news/cfp-aag... Alan Wiig + I are excited to bring together a dialogue centring corridors in geographic scholarship + debate. Please do circulate and think about submitting a paper
NEW: In March the White House released an FY27 budget request that zeroed out the National Science Foundation's directorate of Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). For months it was unclear what would happen. Now, with FY26 over, the damage to SBE is coming to light. My reporting:
‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research
Agency body that funds sociology, linguistics, and archaeology studies in U.S. gave 90% fewer new grants this year
science.org
The government doesn’t track how often immigration agents detain U.S. citizens. So ProPublica did. We’ve tallied more than 500 Americans held against their will in warrantless arrests and detentions during President Trump’s second term.
In Wisconsin alone, there were 39 private schools where every student used tuition vouchers during the most recent school year. Together, these schools educated 7,923 children and took in roughly $87 million from the voucher program. (Published August)
At “Quasi-Public” Private Schools, 100% of Students Get Tuition Vouchers. There’s Almost No Accountability.
Private schools — even those that are heavily dependent on taxpayer funding — often operate without the scrutiny public schools are subject to. Following the money at one Milwaukee private school reve...
propublica.org
China’s factories are back in expansion territory, with September’s manufacturing PMI hitting 50.1 as production and new orders picked up. China’s industrial machine is still finding new fuel even as weak domestic demand and the property slump weigh on the economy. buff.ly/wnC2AsB
China Factory Activity Returns to Growth in September
Factory activity in China crept back to growth in September, official data showed Wednesday, providing a positive sign for the country's leaders after two months of contraction. The data came after…
buff.ly
Zambia’s Chisamba solar plant shows how Chinese investment is reshaping the country’s energy landscape, with new solar power tied to the demands of a mining economy. buff.ly/MtJ6VZt
Zambia’s Chinese-Built Solar Plant to Keep Mines Running and Shape Its Energy Future
In a country where rolling blackouts last up to 17 hours a day, Zambia’s new $100 million Chisamba solar plant offers both hope and hard choices. The project, built by the Chinese state-run energy…
buff.ly
The UAE shares no border with Sudan and faces no refugee crisis from its war. It has only an interest in the country’s gold, ports, and in making sure a popular revolution doesn’t spread. africasacountry.com/2026/09/the-...
The war Abu Dhabi didn’t need to fight
The UAE shares no border with Sudan and faces no refugee crisis from its war. It has only an interest in the country’s gold, ports, and in making sure a popular revolution doesn’t spread.
africasacountry.com
China’s steel giant Tsingshan's deal with Dinson puts Chinese industrial capital at the center of a wider logistics push linking Zimbabwe’s mines, factories and export markets. chinaglobalsouth.com/2026/10/06/t...
Tsingshan’s Zimbabwe Steel Unit Partners With State Rail Firm to Boost Haulage Capacity
The Zimbabwean steelmaking unit of Chinese metals giant Tsingshan Holding Group has signed a partnership agreement with the National Railways of Zimbabwe to expand capacity to transport coal and…
chinaglobalsouth.com
The DRC exports cobalt to China, but may also be exporting uranium. What does this mean for nuclear security, environmental risks, and China’s supply chain? Watch - tinyurl.com/4ymwnzte
Here’s the study link. This study upended the idea that campus rape is perpetrated by a small group of sociopaths. In all reality, most rapists are just ordinary men who hold sexist views, hang out with other men who hold sexist views, and seek power and status.
Trajectory Analysis of the Campus Serial Rapist Assumption
This cohort study investigates whether most college men who commit rape do so consistently across time.
jamanetwork.com
The more slurs he hurls, the more fear he feels. Go get 'em, @drannieandrews.com! 🔥Y'all means all.
Trump hurls anti-trans slurs at Graham’s opponent as South Carolina race tightens
President Trump on Monday used an anti-transgender slur several times against Sen. Darline Graham’s (R-S.C.) Democratic opponent Dr. Annie Andrews, as the race for the Senate seat tightens. &…
thehill.com
NEW: We’re reporters, not teachers. We have no business running a private school. But to show you just how easy it is to start one, we decided to test the process ourselves.
Almost Anyone Can Start a Private School. We Put This to the Test.
Our reporting has shown how easily people — some with questionable backgrounds — have founded their own private schools in barns, strip malls and other places. That led us to an experiment: If the hur...
propublica.org
Nigeria is building a solar manufacturing industry, but China’s grip on the upstream supply chain means local production may still depend heavily on Chinese technology, equipment, and inputs. buff.ly/hdXW3o5
Nigeria Moves to Build Solar Manufacturing Industry, But Reliance on China is Inevitable
Nigeria imported Chinese solar panels last year with a combined capacity of 1,721 megawatts (MW)- enough to power roughly half a million homes. The country now ranks as Africa’s second-largest…
chinaglobalsouth.com
Namibia has granted environmental clearance for a controversial seabed mining project off its Atlantic coast. Company Namibian Marine Phosphate plans to dredge phosphate rock, raising sharp warnings over risks to the Benguela marine ecosystem and fisheries. Jemima Beukes reports for #Mongabay.
Namibia greenlights controversial project to dredge phosphate from seabed
Namibia has granted an environmental clearance to a controversial marine phosphate extraction project. The clearance allows the Sandpiper Project, operated by Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP), to…
mongabay.cc
I'm very excited to share some new reporting that Sentient has been working on for quite some time! Lots more to come but today we're launching a new interactive map where you can explore Iowa's nearly 11,000 factory farms and a whole lot of resulting manure: sentientmedia.org/five-takeawa...
We Mapped All 11,000 Factory Farms in Iowa. Here Are Five Things We Learned.
Here’s what the data reveal about the country’s factory farm hotbed.
sentientmedia.org
China’s renewed push into Africa’s energy sector is opening a new window for African countries to expand electrification, but the bigger question is whether they can use that capital and technology to shape their own energy futures chinaglobalsouth.com/analysis/afr...
Plugging into African Agency
After several years of declining funding, the African end of the Belt and Road Initiative seems to be roaring back. The newest Griffith University/Green Development Finance Center data on the Belt…
chinaglobalsouth.com
China’s role in Africa’s power sector is driven by more than resource access or geopolitics: domestic industrial capacity, the search for overseas markets and Africa’s huge infrastructure needs are reshaping how electricity projects get financed and built. chinaglobalsouth.com/analysis/chi...
Motives That Matter: The Economic and Strategic Logic Behind China’s Power Sector Engagement in Africa
Why is China building power plants across Sub-Saharan Africa? What exactly motivates its involvement in the sector? What does it hope to gain, and what does this mean for countries on the receiving…
chinaglobalsouth.com
I'm really glad that Code Switch included this part of my interview, because I think these are the points that so often get lost in the discussion of trans panic and why the WNBA might be an ideal target for those anti-trans groups to latch onto. www.npr.org/2026/09/15/n...
China’s shift from oil dependence toward clean energy is reshaping more than energy markets. It is shifting oil producers' leverage and opening new economic pathways across the Global South. chinaglobalsouth.com/analysis/chi...
The End of the Oil Order Is Here and China Is Already Winning
The Iran war has been a real education in how global orders change. The system built on the immutable logic of oil and gas trade seemed as solid as a continent. Now it looks as wobbly as a Jenga…
chinaglobalsouth.com
If you only have time for one piece on so-called intellectual freedom centers, this one's a banger. Student journalist Anna Mitchell @thedailyiowan.bsky.social out here putting on a clinic. 💪🏻🗞️
Uncertainty in leadership, curriculum surrounds UI Center for Intellectual Freedom
In the barren walls of his Calvin Hall office, where the Center for Intellectual Freedom resides, interim director and University of Iowa economics professor Luciano de Castro shuffles a stack of pape...
dailyiowan.com
Iconic St. Mary’s Glacier has disappeared amid record-hot summer coloradosun.com/2026/09/18/s...
A small Chinese solar company found a way into Africa’s off-grid energy market by adapting to local needs from $5 solar lights replacing kerosene to offline tablets bringing education to places without electricity. chinaglobalsouth.com/analysis/chi...
How a Small Chinese Solar Company Found Success in Africa
A beauty salon in a small southern Kenyan town is dimly lit by a few lights. There’s no streetlighting here in Mtito Andei, so those lights are how customers make their way. The salon’s owner is…
chinaglobalsouth.com
the way to understand a piece like this from schmitz is that he lives in an urban, cosmopolitan millieu and the popularity of country music is a novelty to him. and so to explain it, he has to fit it into his volkish conception of america, whether or not that makes any actual sense.
@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze)@newsjennifer.bsky.social · 4w agoI see the NYT is still platforming 'dei crushed white men' bullsh*t. Here it's buried in a 'why rural themed pop culture' is so popular in a piece written by a Princeton grad who lives in New York City. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/o...
"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." -Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations
A milestone document in the history of human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights set out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. It has been translated...
un.org
Abdul El-Sayed@abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe're being told that if we sacrifice the rights of some people, then the rest of us get to keep our rights. We all know that's some BS.
This will devastate our research+innovation capacity, bedrock of the 21st century economy. 35% of *all* employed people in the US with STEM PhD degrees are both foreign-born *and* graduated from a US university. —> nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/292... Shutting them out is extremist folly.
This is it. Learning is a beautiful struggle. “All of us who teach at MIT will need to be prepared to help students understand both that the process of education is necessarily a productive struggle, and that the most important product of their education is not a GPA or a diploma but themselves”
Grace Lindsay@neurograce.bsky.social · 2mo agoMIT has put out an "AI and Education" report summarizing what they've found at their own institution. Seems thoughtful. aiandeducation.mit.edu/report/
