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Ashoka Mukpo

@shokes.bsky.social

1.6K followers 360 following 430 posts

Features Writer, @mongabay.bsky.social ☀️

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · Apr 11

The last of three pieces I wrote about Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park is up now for @mongabay.bsky.social.

Protected areas across Africa have long colonial legacies that shape their relationship with people. This is my deep-dive into one of them:

news.mongabay.com/2025/04/the-...

The colonial ghosts of Uganda’s ‘Queen Elizabeth’ park

In 1889, the British journalist Henry Morton Stanley stumbled out of the forests of Central Africa into the town of Katwe, a settlement on the shore of a sulfurous volcanic lake. The lake’s vast depos...

news.mongabay.com

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 2d

I don't think this is necessarily all that smart. They're trying to stir up a Ferguson/Baltimore response, but I don't see that happening and most of the imagery is just going to be DHS violating people's rights. This could seriously backfire on them, especially if the economy starts cracking.

Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 2d

It does seem like the strategy here is to provoke some kind of major protest response in Chicago/Portland/NYC in order to justify repressive measures, potentially up to and including suspension of the 2026 midterms.

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Mr. Chau @srirachachau.bsky.social · 5d

Jane Goodall was actually the only one keeping the apes in control. Now there's a power vacuum

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 6d

Ghana has issued its first batch of sustainable timber licenses under the European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) system, which aims to block illegal logging and strengthen forest governance.

Ghana begins sustainable wood exports to EU under new license

Ghana has issued its first batch of sustainable timber licenses under the European Union Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) system, which aims to block illegal logging and…

news.mongabay.com

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 6d

Jane Goodall was a great friend to Mongabay. Here's our obit for her, by founder @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social news.mongabay.com/2025/10/jane...

Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope

Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. Over the course of six decades, she moved from an unlikely young r...

news.mongabay.com

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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 6d

Jane Goodall, ethologist and conservationist, has died. She was 91

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Aaron Bady @zunguzungu.bsky.social · 7d

"What that tells the FBI to do now is to employ the exact same tools that they fine-tuned against the Muslim community and wage them against leftists, liberals" www.forever-wars.com/an-fbi-count...

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Siddhartha Mitter @siddharthamitter.bsky.social · 8d

Mathieu Aikins on his 4-part series in the NYT today (totalling 25,000 words of investigative reporting) on crime and impunity in the US Special Forces and its domestic blowback now.

He provides gift links for all four articles.

mattaikins.substack.com/p/how-a-lawl...

How a lawless war overseas came home to the US

Crime and Impunity in the Special Forces

mattaikins.substack.com

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 8d

Where my lunatics, haters and punk trash at stand up

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Boo!-per Lund @cooperlund.online · 13d

I’m telling you, political violence is the new school shooting - angry and nihilistic young men doing violence for attention. Our years of lead aren’t ideological, they’re byproducts of the attention economy.

Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 13d

It feels like this is becoming a more common mass shooter profile: Someone who's interested in politics but not as a vehicle to express clear values or a coherent viewpoint. He just wants to mock anyone who takes it seriously.

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 16d

The problem with this is it presents X as a permanent town square and the heart of political culture in America. That’s both not true if you look at recent events and doesn’t have to be an inevitability even if it were.

Shadi Hamid @shadihamid.bsky.social · 20d

One of the biggest mistakes left-of-center pundits and influencers made was decamping to Bluesky. They made themselves irrelevant, shrunk their audiences, and dramatically lessened the positive impact they could have on our public debate at the precise time we needed it most.

Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · 17d

Nothing bothers them more than doing the thing they say they want you to do

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · 26d

🏆 Congrats to my colleagues at @mongabaylatam.bsky.social who collected a 1st place Future of Media Award at a London ceremony tonight from @pressgazette.co.uk: pressgazette.co.uk/press-gazett...

Judges said their investigation is a "powerful use of interactive maps, excellent photography & AI" 🏆 🥂

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Erik Hoffner @erikhoffner.bsky.social · Sep 5

Critics say carbon trading & offsets are merely a means for companies to keep polluting

But what if there was a way to pay communities to preserve forests that didn’t involve the carbon market?

Ireland is funding a #climate project in Liberia to find out, @shokes.bsky.social reports:

Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work?

Around half of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in the small coastal nation of Liberia. They’re home to species like western chimpanzees and pygmy hippos, valuable stands of hardwood — and hund...

news.mongabay.com

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Chris Lang @reddmonitor.bsky.social · Sep 3

A recent report by ActionAid USA highlights the dangers of carbon markets, for the climate and local communities.
The report includes a series of recommendations: ensuring land rights, transparency, grievance mechanisms, avoiding “middle men”, and no offsets.
reddmonitor.substack.com/p/protecting...

Protecting communities from carbon markets

A recent report from ActionAid USA highlights the dangers of carbon markets.

reddmonitor.substack.com

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · Sep 3

noted - lots to think about there that go beyond animal welfare, but it's a good starting point!

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · Sep 3

Glad you liked! But ftr while I hosted it on my blog it's actually a guest post authored by @birchlse.bsky.social

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · Sep 3

Reflecting on this essay by @lastpositivist.bsky.social . I just finished Disgrace and this helped clarify part of it. Is living our values to the point of self-destruction foolish, or is it brave?

sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/09/on-t...

sootyempiric.blogspot.com

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · Aug 15

"What began as a modest effort by a few members of a small congregation to reach out to migrants would evolve into a deep experiment in solidarity..."

our new issue of @hammerandhope.bsky.social is out! today I want to highlight this article by Benji Hart

hammerandhope.org/article/chic...

Venezuelan Migrants, a Black Church, and an Experiment in Solidarity

A pastor in Chicago helps build a coalition that aids recent arrivals by asking them what they need.

hammerandhope.org

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · Sep 2

lots of references to the "Third World" in US politics today given the deterioration of our institutions. there was a time when "Third World" named an alliance of people trying to decide their fate on their own terms and we would have to improve considerably to earn that description of our politics

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WhoKnowsWhatTiger @shonatiger.bsky.social · Sep 2

Well, yes

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Sep 1

A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic.

A Chinese mining company is accused of covering up the extent of a major toxic spill in Zambia

A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic.

bit.ly

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · Sep 1

there's already a term for this, and it's "ethnic cleansing"

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · Sep 1

Musk now supporting the deportation of anyone who isn’t white.

*Do not* use the term “remigration”. It’s an attempt to normalise Nazi hate.

Elon Musk & X @elonmusk • 1h
Remigration is the only way
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8 Steve Laws • @Steve_Laws_ • 13h
Go anywhere in the UK and look around, you'll just see foreigners everywhere.
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It's truly sickening the damage that has been done to our nation and our people....

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NBC News @nbcnews.com · Sep 1

The world’s leading genocide scholars’ association has passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president says.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli foreign ministry.

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, scholars' association says

Israel has strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defense. It is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice.

nbcnews.to

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Ashoka Mukpo @shokes.bsky.social · Sep 1

For the money that's spent it's potentially a big impact - all the more reason for someone to fund an expansion!