at least 455 Southasians killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine war- Sri Lankans top death toll, accounting for 275 of 455 killed, while Southasian fighters & their families report human trafficking and coercion in recruitment www.himalmag.com/politics/rus... via @himalsouthasian.bsky.social
Govt.’s failure to take firm stand on Israel/US attacks www.ft.lk/ft_view__edi... the JVP/NPP keeps telling on itself with its frankly *terrible* leftist/solidarity politics for a party founded on anti-imperialism and shockingly poor governance capacity. #SriLanka
essential reading: The dry and the wet burn together by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma... via @lrb.co.uk
US troops were told war on Iran was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’, watchdog alleges: Religious freedom group says 200 troops sent complaints of superiors using extremist Christian rhetoric to justify war www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
So glad to share this interview about Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy, coinciding with the US publication of the book with @academic.oup.com
Many thanks to @rohanvenkat.bsky.social for this thoughtful conversation and for his close and generous reading of my book.
need you lot to be doing a bit more than dissociating yourselves from your genocidal, colonising states/leaders who have been mass murdering the rest of the planet and stealing our labour and resources for centuries.
That argument exists because the lives of non-white people are cheap in imperial discourse. Mass death on the other side of the world has no reality outside of what space it takes up on the american tv news cycle. If it were otherwise, the old normal would have been as insupportable as the new
there are no ethical billionaires and there is certainly no ‘ethical’ AI. Shame on everyone (especially in HE) enabling this poison as a part of learning | U.S. Strikes in Middle East Use Anthropic, Hours After Trump Ban www.wsj.com/livecoverage...
my book uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295754444/a-volatile-picture/ is out in April. Anxious/excited to talk about it for the 1st time next week with many thanks to @kalathmika.bsky.social for the kind invitation. Also giving a lecture on more recent work on televising atrocity & maps in Sri Lanka.
corporatising/corporatised universities really are out here destroying everything that makes places of learning so valuable. | All good things come to an end | Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) - UCL – University College London www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
‘In the end, you feel blank’ - Women workers in rural communities in India describe having to watch hours of abusive content to train AI and the trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Studio Ilankai: A Tamil Photographic History of Sri Lankan Citizenship (happening soonish on the 6th of March and online!) - registration: www.byforcollective.com/programs/vin...
has anyone searched the files - I can think of a couple names which I wouldn’t be too surprised by.
nothing about this should surprise anyone in academia - we’ve all come across versions of these people. | In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
postcolonial states have been trained to turn/wield their weapons against their own citizens and uphold/continue the work of empire. So long as this system endures, we will continue to be collectively exploited and/or murdered for the benefit of our colonizers.
happy new year from Colombo friends!
wishing everyone a very happy Christmas from Colombo 🎄
‘This isn’t innovation—it’s institutional auto-cannibalism.’ | AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
A total of 70,055 people from 22,522 families are currently sheltered in 762 relief centres across Sri Lanka www.themorning.lk/articles/Qqt... #CycloneDitwah
giving a rare (these days) lecture online in the spring (6th March 2026): Studio Ilankai: A Tamil Photographic History of Sri Lankan Citizenship. Info and registration: www.byforcollective.com/programs/vin...
Severe weather conditions in Gaza have claimed the lives of 13 people, including babies who froze to death, as Israel continues to block the entry of aid that could provide shelter to 1.5 million Palestinians living in worn-out tents.
mondoweiss.net/2025/12/pale...
likewise 🙏🏽
More than 1,800 people have died as floods have ravaged Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
the figures charting the destruction to infrastructure presented in this UNDP / DMC rapid assessment are truly staggering. | Mapping the Initial Impact of Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka geosmart.undp.org/arcgis/apps/...
Sri Lanka declares emergency as floods wreak havoc across Colombo
- More than 25,000 homes destroyed, 147,000 displaced, as Sri Lanka faces its deadliest flood since 2017, affecting the capital. www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2025...
wrote about Trincomalee's long history of occupations not long ago. Relevant given the current discourse on the state's insidious, colonially-rooted practice of archaeological claim-making everydayphotography.org/journal/stud...
‘Picturing the Disappeared,’ which is focused on the protests of the Tamil families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka, making up ‘Images rémanentes de la disparition forcée’ at the Mural Alexei Jaccard-Droits Humains, Geneva will be on view until 15th February 2026 www.unige.ch/cite/eveneme...
surprising no one who has been living with the stress of this mess every time they need to verify ID. | Home Office eVisa failures leave thousands 'unable to work or leave UK' inews.co.uk/news/home-of...
Enforced Disappearances, Civil Resistance and the Rule of Law - this Wednesday in Geneva
(Universities cutting literature programmes) are robbing future generations of the capacity to determine what constitutes “good” art, take pleasure in it, and create their own—thereby leaving it to the elite, and to machines owned by the elite, to decide for them lareviewofbooks.org/article/lite...
