Emily Fishbein
@emilyfishbein11.bsky.social
Independent journalist focusing on Myanmar. Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network Fellow 2025
Between 2025 and August 2026, the Trump administration deported over 25,000 people to countries other than their country of origin. Very few of these removals were publicly announced by the US. The Deportation Project tracked them. forbiddenstories.org/the-deportat...
Barred from deporting asylum seekers back to places they face jail or death, Trump struck 35 secret deals to send people to places which will deport them there instead. - 25,000 people deported - $410 million spent. - UN aid used to sweeten the deals. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
Banished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation deals
After a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy dea...
theguardian.com
🔴🇺🇸 [#DeportationProject] The Office of Remigration: “America First” and its overseas negotiations. Behind the Trump administration’s third-country deportation system is a little-known Department of State: the Office of Remigration.
🔴🇺🇸 [#DeportationProject] Explore the Map Behind the US Third Country Deportation System When people are deported, but not to their countries of origin... Where do they go?
Press Release 📣 ASEAN Regional Forum must ban Myanmar junta from drone workshop and save lives ✅ Read the report on how the ARF drone workshop risks boosting the junta’s terror campaign here 👉🏽 buff.ly/gni6Bkc ✅ Read the press release online here 👉🏽 buff.ly/4d37TDt
1. This History Thread adds update articles on some previous 2020-26 History Thread topics (military, environmental, foreign relations, even poetry). Links to those original threads are at projectmaje.org + others, posted monthly since Sept. 2017. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
“Indonesia has the highest level of microplastic ingestion in the world, according to a study from Cornell University, which was published in 2024.” By Sui-Lee Wee, Pablo Robles and Rin Hindryati Photographs and videos by Ulet Ifansasti 1/3
The Microplastics Epidemic in Indonesia (Gift Article)
Tiny fragments of plastic are in the air, land and water in the country, where the burning of trash is common.
nytimes.com
""As an ordinary citizen, I don't have such a high expectation for pipelines or railways. For us, we would be satisfied if we could properly grow crops and do livestock farming" - village leader now living in an IDP camp. Report by Esther J in Ngape, Magway Region w/ photos by Myo Satt Hla Thaw
Nikkei Asia (Official)@asia.nikkei.com · 2w agoMyanmar military intensifies operations to retake China project areas https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/myanmar-crisis/myanmar-military-intensifies-operations-to-retake-china-project-areas
Brave reporting by Esther J and Myo Satt Hla Thaw from the Rakhine Yoma mountains of western Myanmar
Nikkei Asia (Official)@asia.nikkei.com · 2w agoWatch & Read Myanmar military intensifies operations to retake China project areas s.nikkei.com/4infehz
1. This History Thread is about money in Burma (Myanmar.) Various forms of currency have been used, often with significant political as well as economic effects. 21st Century Myanmar evolved from barter/cash to electronic innovations. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
Australian and UK Facebook pages & groups are asking thousands of people about immigration, politics and national identity. But they aren't as local as they look. I found 42 pages and 4 groups whose records link them to Sri Lanka. Details 👇🧵
NEW: Israel called its Beirut strikes "precise." @chrisosieck.bsky.social and I reconstructed five of them for @newlinesmag.bsky.social. One killed a man in his bedroom and spared his family. Another leveled two buildings to kill one man. Israel has not explained the difference f.mtr.cool/mivlcnrmvg
In #Myanmar, rare earth minerals have become key resource fueling the war machine, while also coming with severe environmental costs. Polluted agricultural areas, poisoned water sources and decline of wildlife in forested areas. Important read via @grist.org grist.org/internationa...
How war in Myanmar is driving a deadly rare earth mining boom
Decades of conflict have left Myanmar vulnerable to a secretive industry that is polluting communities and endangering workers.
grist.org
Myanmar’s military regime is moving to produce Jet A-1 aviation fuel domestically, with Chinese companies supplying the design, equipment and infrastructure for the project, a DVB investigation has found. english.dvb.no/chinese-firm... Stay up-to-date with the latest on #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
Chinese firms are helping Myanmar's military build a jet-fuel refinery, investigation finds - DVB
By *Alambara An investigation into the Thanlyin refinery project and its role in reducing the military regime’s dependence on imported aviation fuel. Myanmar’s military is moving to produce its own Je...
english.dvb.no
1. This History Thread is about the roads of Burma (Myanmar). In contrast to rivers & railways (subjects of previous threads) these transport corridors have often been lower priority. Currently roads are scenes of coup regime convoys & anti-coup ambushes. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
1. This History Thread is about the mountains of Burma (Myanmar.) The distinctive terrain has formed borders & provided population enclaves with safe havens & means of resistance. Mountains may be sacred. Or despoiled by mineral & timber exploitation. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar 🌄
1. This History Thread is about the use of aerial drones in Myanmar (Burma). Before 2021 coup, drones had civilian uses & military surveillance. Post-coup, innovative improvised warfare usage by anti-coup forces; more recent increased use by coup regime. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
1. This History Thread is about the natural history of an Asian animal called mithun or gayal. Found in upland Burma (Myanmar) & India, it's among the topics of my book "Where the Mithuns Are: Essays on War, Art and Beasts" (now available in ebook, ordering info at end of thread)
Late post: In May, Abhishek Kumar, @jaumannaw.bsky.social & I published a three-part investigation about a mysterious article alleging a secret rare earths deal between India & the Kachin Independence Army in Myanmar. We found the article was inauthentic (1/6) www.altnews.in/narrative-wa...
Narrative Warfare: How an Inauthentic Disinformation Network Targeted India’s Rare Earth Outreach in Myanmar
Originally published as a three-part series, this version compiles the full investigation. On November 18, the website Tech Bullion ran a strange piece. Sandwiched between CEO profiles, marketing how-...
altnews.in
My article, co-written with @jaumannaw.bsky.social, looks at how decades of armed conflict, militarization and strategic ceasefires helped enable Myanmar’s rise as a global rare earth mining hub, and how unchecked extraction endangers lives and the environment (1/3).
Grist@grist.org · 2mo agoHow war in Myanmar is driving a deadly rare earth mining boom
1. This History Thread is about dams in Burma (Myanmar), a country of great river systems, where large dam projects have been locally seen as environmental & cultural threats. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar 🌿
1. This (recent) History Thread is about situation in Chin State, Burma (Myanmar) during 2025, based on my new Project Maje report "The Mountain People: An Update on Revolution in Chin State, 2025" www.projectmaje.org/chin_report_... #WhatsHappeningInChinState 🌄 #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar 🌿
In Memory: A 2022 interview with Chin activist Salai Ngun San Aung @emilyfishbein11.bsky.social remembers Salai Ngun San Aung, a Chin activist teacirclemyanmar.com/interview/in...
In Memory: A 2022 interview with Chin activist Salai Ngun San Aung - Tea Circle
Emily Fishbein remembers Salai Ngun San Aung, Chin journalist and campaigner.
teacirclemyanmar.com
1. This History Thread is about roles of #Nisei (Japanese ancestry, American born) soldiers in WW2 Burma. In Allies' fight vs Imperial Japan's occupation, Nisei were translators & psych war experts. My new book "Where the Mithuns Are" includes Karl Yoneda in Burma. (Order via last post #17.) 📚
#Breaking: Today, MSF learned of the bombing and destruction of the Mrauk-U general hospital in Rakhine State, #Myanmar. Reportedly, the airstrike resulted in the death of at least 30 civilians and injury to more than 70: https://ow.ly/uqV050XHrry
Statement: Deadly airstrike on a hospital in Mrauk-U (Rakhine State, Myanmar) | Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF ...
Today, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) learned of the bombing and destruction of the Mrauk-U general hospital in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Reportedly, the airstrike – which occurred around 9 p.m. on 10 December – resulted in the death of at least 30 civilians and injury to more than 70. It appears to be the deadliest recorded [...]Read More... from Statement: Deadly airstrike on a hospital in Mrauk-U (Rakhine State, Myanmar)
ow.ly
#Myanmar people across the country, from major cities to remote villages, joined the December 10 nationwide Silent Strike. The people are united in rejecting the criminal junta’s sham election ✊🏽 #SilentStrike #RejectShamElection #SayNoJustTrap
Moves to begin collecting face scans, fingerprints, and other data are adding to concerns over the Indian government’s close ties to the Myanmar regime Read more: myanmar-now.org/en/news/fear...
The Pulitzer Center’s 2025: A Year in Stories features 5 projects from our Information & AI Focus Area. These stories reveal failed AI systems, online criminal activities, & the expansion of tech companies' infrastructure into drought-ridden communities. 👉 bit.ly/YIStories25
Information & AI Senior Editor @joannaskao.bsky.social selected @emilyfishbein11.bsky.social & @peterguest.bsky.social's story "Inside a Romance Scam Compound—and How People Get Tricked Into Being There,” published in @techreviewjp.bsky.social, as her #PulitzerStaffPicks. 👉 bit.ly/YIStories25
