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Vivek Prakash

@vivekprakash.bsky.social
169 followers 962 following 18 posts

Problem solver. Economics & human rights. Dreaming of justice, ending poverty, and photography. Opinions my own; ❤️,🔁≠endorsement. He/him.

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Reposted by Vivek Prakash
The Sunday Long Read @thesundaylongread.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
“Freelance journalism in 2025 is an incredibly difficult place to build a career,” Nicholas Hune-Brown writes. “But, it turns out, it’s a decent enough arena for a scam.” @jacobfeldman.bsky.social's favorite this week thelocal.to/investigatin...
thelocal.to
Investigating a Possible Scammer in Journalism’s AI Era | The Local
A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work. By the end, four publications, including The Guardian and Dwell, had removed articles from their sites.
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eggnog slut @deus01.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
postmodern finance theory
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Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
A dose of hope, from one of my fav climate scientists @drkatemarvel.bsky.social. A long read, but a good one.👇 www.theguardian.com/news/2025/se...
theguardian.com
‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster
Some days it can feel as if climate catastrophe is inevitable. But history is full of cases – such as the banning of whaling and CFCs – that show humanity can come together to avert disaster
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Hannah Ritchie @hannahritchie.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
This is an excerpt from Kate's new book, which is just out in the UK. I've been inspired by Kate's work for a long time, so I'm super-excited to read it. I bet a lot of you will enjoy it too!
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APTN News @aptnnews.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Other than standing in a greeting line at the Calgary airport on Sunday, Indigenous leaders had nothing to do with the meetings taking place around a very small table of the world’s G7 leaders.
aptnnews.ca
G7 Summit going forward needs to have Indigenous participation
Indigenous people need to be part of the G7 Summit going forward as world leaders try to work out everything from water to conflict issues.
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Jenny Yeremiy, P. Geoph 🪶🌿🇵🇸🇳🇬🇱🇧🇨🇦 @jennyyeremiy.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
🤩 “The court…confirm[s] that private companies can… be held liable for their share in causing climate damages. This finding has major ramifications for the wider legal battle to make fossil fuel companies accountable.” #swiss #us #uk #japan #netherlands #cdnpoli theconversation.com/one-lawsuit-...
theconversation.com
One lawsuit just helped melt the fossil fuel industry’s defence against being held accountable for climate change
Legal action by a Peruvian farmer has signalled a shift in the global conversation.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Listening tonight and glad that you touched on Myanmar earthquake. Here’s a number for you @adamtooze.bsky.social: $12. That’s how much a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh gets to spend on food all month, ~13 cents per meal, if you want three meals a day. (The bulk of it funded by USAID.)
Image shows a tray with items illustrating what $12 monthly ration for Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh would purchase in Sept 2023: with 13 kg rice, 1L oil, .5 kg lentils, .5 kg salt, .2kg dry red chillies, 8 eggs, 200g onion, 150g garlic, a small amount of fresh vegetables and a few fish. This is the total amount of money that each refugee receives from the international community via the UN World Food Programme, estimated to add up to about 2000 kilocalories a day. The bulk of this funding is from USAID, with other developed countries like Canada, Australia, Japan, Sweden and Norway also contributing. In 2023, dwindling donor funding forced WFP to reduce the monthly food entitlement for the entire Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar from US$12 per person per month to US$10 in March, then to US$8 in June.

1 million+ Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh are almost entirely reliant on international assistance to survive. Image shows shows a tray with items illustrating what $8 monthly ration for Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh would purchase in Sept 2023: 13 kg rice, 1L oil, 500g salt, 200g dry red chillies. In 2023, dwindling donor funding forced WFP to reduce the monthly food entitlement for the entire Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar from US$12 per person per month to US$10 in March, then to US$8 in June. People shifted from a more balanced diet to mostly rice, to maintain the calories.
1 million+ Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh are almost entirely reliant on international assistance to survive.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
“Specifically, various contrasting narratives were spread on WeChat about Mr. Carney – first amplifying the candidate's stance with the United States[ii], then targeting his experience and credentials.” www.canada.ca/en/privy-cou...
canada.ca
Information operation on WeChat targeting the 45th General Election
The Government of Canada held its third briefing to media regarding the actions that it is taking to protect the 45th General Election from foreign interference.
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Reposted by Vivek Prakash
Steve Herman @newsguy.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
Statement from the director of the Voice of America (who has been placed on administrative leave).
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
“The focus of the U.S. government is dealing with its yearly deficit in federal spending” www.cbc.ca/news/politic... Immediate thoughts as an economist: Volume drives revenue, but industrial policy restrictions may conflict with this. Trade reciprocity ~~> current trade systems.
cbc.ca
What's Trump's endgame with global tariffs? Canadian officials say they have a clearer idea | CBC News
After a lengthy meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump’s top trade officials on Thursday, Canadian representatives say they have a clearer understanding of the rationale behind Trump’s insistence on...
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Winter’s cold blanket, Contrasted by cardinal. Spring still holds its breath. 🪶🇨🇦
Closeup of red Northern cardinal bird against blue and white background
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Medias 🇨🇦 @mediasca.skyfleet.blue · 01/03/2025
Affrontement Trump-Zelensky | L’Ukraine a besoin de garanties de sécurité, exhorte Mélanie Joly
lapresse.ca
Affrontement Trump-Zelensky | L’Ukraine a besoin de garanties de sécurité, exhorte Mélanie Joly
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Inspired by the thought of balancing darkness and light: butterfly closeup #NaturePhotography 🦋🌿
Butterfly with black eyes and black wings, with a few orange spots
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 19/02/2025
I really liked this idea of using a histogram as a legend in a choropleth map (since land isn't unemployed; people are), so I made a little guide to doing it with #rstats, {ggplot2}, and {patchwork} www.andrewheiss.com/blog/2025/02...
andrewheiss.com
How to use a histogram as a legend in {ggplot2} | Andrew Heiss
Land isn’t unemployed—people are. Here’s how to use R, {ggplot2}, {sf}, and {patchwork} to create a histogram legend in a choropleth map to better see the distribution of values.
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Zoe Tillman @zoetillman.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
New day, new lawsuit against the Trump admin: latest challenging the halt of USAID funds, brought by plaintiffs incl. private contractors, small business group, nonprofits and the American Bar Association (gets $ for int'l rule of law programs) assets.bwbx.io/documents/us...
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 04/02/2025
Here is United States law regarding the President's attempts to close our development assistance agency in secret over the weekend. It is illegal. No ambiguity. Americans decide with their actions, today, if the US is a country of laws or—something else. —> crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/...
Can the President Abolish, Move, or Consolidate USAID?
Because Congress established USAID as an independent establishment (defined in 5 U.S.C. 104) within
the executive branch, the President does not have the authority to abolish it; congressional authorization
would be required to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID.
The Secretary of State established USAID as directed by Executive Order 10973, signed on November 3,
1961. The agency was meant to implement components of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA, P.L.
87-195), enacted on September 4, 1961.
Section 1413 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Division G of P.L. 105-277,
established USAID as an “independent establishment” outside of the State Department (22 U.S.C. 6563).
In that act, Congress provided the President with temporary authority to reorganize the agency (22 U.S.C.
6601). President Clinton retained the status of USAID as an independent entity, and the authority to
reorganize expired in 1999. Congress has not granted the President further authority to abolish, move, or
consolidate USAID since.
Congressional Research Service
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Alex Panetta @alexpanetta.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
/ So the moral of the story, after everyone spent the day arguing about, "He just wants some changes at the border," versus, "He wants a whole bunch of other stuff," is: Trump wants both. As per last post. We're through Round 1. Onto Round 2.
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Amy Romer @amyromer.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
This is nuts. On av. 15% of families with children who have disabilities have considered placing their child into foster care, solely to access disability services not funded if their child remained at home. My latest for @indiginews.bsky.social.
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Brilliant Maps @brilliantmaps.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Each State's Top Country For Exports. Canada is number 1 for 32 states, Mexico for 6 and China for 5 See the import map here: brilliantmaps.com/the-top-i...
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Our Litigation Tracker is now souped up with interactive Table. ⬇️ Now tracking 23 cases and expecting more to drop soon. Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions www.justsecurity.org/107087/track...
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 01/02/2025
Reminder: They're trying to demoralize you, and they're doing a great job of it. Part of resisting is making time for joy despite the attempts to make you feel this is not the time for it. Love your people. Dig the art that speaks to you. Go to the places where life flows into you. You deserve joy.
A man jumping, under the words "Make Time For Joy"
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
From December, Northern Cardinal in juniper tree. 🪶
Red Northern Cardinal sits in juniper tree branches
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 13/09/2024
Great White Pelican, inspired by @edyong209.bsky.social 🪶📷
Big bird with yellow bill preens while looking sideways at photographer. The bill has blue and red tones on it.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 06/09/2024
Gray-crowned cranes 🪶
Two gray-crowned cranes (grey and white bodies with golden spikes and touches of red on the face) express affection to each other in a green field. The shape of their two necks and heads meeting makes a heart.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 04/06/2024
Red-vented Bulbul 🪶
A small dark brown bird with a red vent perched on a wire. The bird has its beak open.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 03/06/2024
Coppersmith Barbet 🪶
The image shows a small bird perched on a branch against a clear sky. The bird has distinctive markings, including a red patch around its throat, yellow and black around its eyes, and greenish plumage. The tree branch is bare, with a few green leaves visible lower in the frame.
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Aves • Artist & Finch Parent @avian-aves.bsky.social · 17/05/2024
Afternoon nap 🪶
A fluffed up male zebra finch lying on a flat perch.A fluffed up male zebra finch lying on a flat perch. His head is tucked into his shoulder feathers.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 17/05/2024
“Success!” / “Oh wait, it’s stuck..” White-throated Kingfisher #bird
Kingfisher mid-air with fish pierced in beak, flying upwardKingfisher sitting on wire, with its head twisted upside-down trying to loosen fish without dropping it
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Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 17/05/2024
A spot of pink -- Vancouver, May 16 #photography #birds #AnnasHummingbird
A male Anna's Hummingbird, his gorget fully pink, is sitting quietly at the end of a little bare branch sticking out of a bush
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
Ah, that’s the spot. Black-hooded Oriole #birds
Oriole perched on tree and preening, yellow body, black head, orange beak
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Billyt(✿ ͡◕ ᴗ◕)つ━✫🌈 @billiamtrungford.bsky.social · 26/04/2024
Finally got the shot I been trying all week. Breath of a red wing black bird. 🪶
RWBL sitting on a picnic table taking a drag on his break you can see it's breath. Singing for a mate is tough 🚬.
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 26/04/2024
A couple of blue-tailed bee-eaters catching dragonflies. 🪶 #birds #bangladesh
blue-tailed bee-eater bird in flight with dragonfly in its mouthblue-tailed bee-eater bird in flight with dragonfly in its mouth
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Glen Grambo 🇨🇦 @glengrambo.bsky.social · 06/04/2024
This male northern flicker has been around the area for a few weeks now, but he’s very wary and usually stays hidden in the branches. But sometimes he just needs to perch in the open and show off those spots!🪶
A male northern flicker perches on a broken poplar branch. With his spotted chest, striped back, red head patch and black moustache, he is very fancy!
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Enzo Giordani @enzogiordani.bsky.social · 13/04/2024
A kakīānau (black swan) cygnet I met this morning. 🪶
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jonathan r goodman @jonathanrgoodman.bsky.social · 12/04/2024
Really enjoyed reviewing Jonathan Silvertown's new book for Nature. A quick and great read that asks some big questions about cooperation and parasitism — and how we often and mistakenly apply moral frameworks to the world of biology 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Survival of the nicest: have we got evolution the wrong way round?
How humans, animals and even single-celled organisms cooperate to survive suggests there’s more to life than just competition, argues a cheering study of evolutionary biology. How humans, animals and ...
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Stephen Boisvert 🇨🇦 🟦⭐⭐⭐⭐🟦 @srboisvert.bsky.social · 11/04/2024
Told myself I was going take it easy and not bird myself to death today. Mission not accomplished. #birds #birdphotography #herons #kingfishers
Yellow-crowned Night Heron at LPZoo with the Black-crowned Night Heron Colony. (all wild animals they just nest above the wolf compound at the zoo)Belted Kingfisher female in flight at North Pond in Lincoln Park, ChicagoBelted Kingfisher female tossing a goldfish down the hatch at North Pond, Lincoln Park, ChicagoYellow-crowned Night Heron preening in an evergreen tree at Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago
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Vivek Prakash @vivekprakash.bsky.social · 11/04/2024
Good morning/good night. Spotted owlets. 🦉🪶
Two Spotted Owlets (juvenile?), one yawning.
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Dr Charlotte Findlay @chazzfindlay.bsky.social · 05/04/2024
🔊 🐬 ➡ Check out our new #OpenAccess paper where we present evidence that harbour #porpoises on the Scottish west coast responded to intense & chronic Acoustic Deterrent Device (ADD) noise from #aquaculture using 9-years of HWDT data! Paper link 🔗: lnkd.in/eMzGD_t6 #MarineLife #Animals
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