India's attempt at a feminist military operation.
Plus lots of climate solutions and investments.
Your Monday, Wednesday, and Friday briefing on global affairs, human rights, environment, social innovation, business, culture, and design—offering fresh insights through the lenses of sustainable development, women-centered perspectives, and emerging global trends. The aim? To keep you informed, curious, and always ready with a compelling conversation starter at the dinner table.
In today’s letter: sanctions on Israeli ministers, an update on Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, the World Bank will now fund nuclear energy, climate change solutions week at NPR, fungi is being turned into fashion, emerging women’s voices in African fiction, pink benches in LA, and much more.
Hello,
If there is one thing I have thoroughly enjoyed this week (which is saying a lot because this week is heavy and horrifying), it is Miley Cyrus’s newest album. Something Beautiful is a no-skip album featuring great songs that allow her wonderful voice to fill the sound completely. I had already been playing it on repeat, and then I watched this interview with her and fell in love with the album even more. Tomorrow, I am going to see the film she made to accompany it, just so I can get the whole experience. (It is in cinemas for one night only!)
When I finally stop reading the news each evening, I’m switching to Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism, Sarah Wynn-Williams’ memoir about her years at Facebook. It is a pretty interesting read so far. Mostly, I can’t stop thinking about the huge gap between how Sheryl Sandberg portrayed herself to the world and what she actually was like as a leader…
Apart from that, I need to pack because we are heading to Spain on Friday evening. There will be a newsletter on Friday, and then I will be taking a week-ish off and will return on Wednesday, 25th June!
In a rare show of coordinated dissent, five Western nations (Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway) have imposed sanctions on two of Israel’s most hard-line cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, citing their incitement of extremist violence and abuses of Palestinian rights. The move (travel bans and asset freezes) marks a notable escalation in international pressure over the conduct of the war in Gaza and settler violence in the West Bank. The U.S., however, swiftly pushed back, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticising the sanctions as unhelpful to cease-fire negotiations and reaffirming America’s support for Israel. Critics see the sanctions as largely symbolic, unlikely to shift policy or public opinion inside Israel, where both ministers remain defiant and frame the action as colonial meddling. However, it is clear that Israel’s international isolation is growing, with some countries (like Norway and Spain) moving to recognise a Palestinian state. Whether this marks a turning point in Western policy or simply a well-aimed slap on the wrist remains to be seen, but for now, it’s clear that patience with Netanyahu’s far-right allies is wearing thin.
Sudan is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, as a brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces continues into its third year. Millions have been displaced, and basic services like water, healthcare, and food distribution have collapsed, leaving communities on the brink of survival. Famine is looming particularly in the country’s south and close to the capital, Khartoum. More than four million people have fled Sudan since the start of the civil war in 2023, with an estimated 1.2 million seeking refuge in the eastern part of Chad, placing significant pressure on the country’s infrastructure. In the first five months of 2025, the number of Sudanese nationals arriving in Europe jumped 134% from a year earlier, while Egypt has started cracking down on Sudanese refugees, driving them onwards to Libya. There are so many devastating things happening around the world at the moment, but I urge us to keep learning about, donating to, and advocating for the people of Sudan. This conflict seems to have been largely forgotten.
For more on this topic, I recommend this podcast episode that does a deep dive into the use of mass sexual violence as a weapon of war in Sudan.
I’m thinking a lot about this opinion piece on Operation Sindoor. Launched by India with two women officers at the helm, this military action was presented to the country as a triumph of gender inclusion, but beneath its spectacle lies a deeper entrenchment of patriarchal nationalism. Draped in the symbolism of sindoor, widowhood, and warrior femininity, the operation (according to the writers) casts women not as autonomous agents but as vessels of national honour, echoing a long history of mythologised femininity in Indian statecraft. Feminist scholars argue that this kind of representation, where women gain visibility only by performing masculine-coded nationalism, serves to legitimise militarism rather than challenge it. It reveals how women’s participation in war can be co-opted to uphold the very systems that marginalise them, turning feminist promise into nationalist performance.
“Feminist politics in war must decentre militarism, prioritise civilian protection, and insist that women’s leadership be recognised in peacebuilding, rehabilitation, and policymaking.”
In a significant policy shift, the World Bank has ended its decades-long ban on funding nuclear energy, marking a pivotal moment for emerging economies seeking cleaner industrial growth. The move, announced to staff this week, opens the door for countries such as Ghana, Vietnam, and Indonesia to reduce their reliance on coal and invest in next-generation nuclear technology. Backed by growing international momentum to triple nuclear capacity by 2050, the decision also reflects shifting political tides in key donor nations, including Germany and the U.S.—the Bank’s largest shareholder. As small modular reactors gain traction, the Bank’s backing could offer a counterweight to Russia and China’s dominant role in global nuclear development and provide developing nations with more balanced energy choices.
As Brazil positions itself to host COP30 and tout climate leadership on the world stage, a sweeping new bill threatens to undermine that very credibility. The General Environmental Licensing Law (LGLA), backed by powerful agribusiness and oil lobbies, would roll back decades of environmental protections by fast-tracking approvals for high-impact projects, including oil exploration in the Amazon, without requiring proper ecological assessments. Critics have dubbed it the “devastation bill,” warning it would exempt entire industries like livestock and agroforestry from licensing and sideline Indigenous communities by allowing development on untitled ancestral lands without their consent. With mounting public protests, Indigenous opposition, and scrutiny from UN experts, the pressure is on Brazil’s legislature to scrap the bill—and, failing that, for President Lula to veto it. We will be watching whether Brazil walks the talk or clears the way for ecological ruin.
NPR is dedicating this week to stories about climate change solutions (which we always want to hear more about). This year’s theme is “Rethinking Home,” and so far has included stories on topics such as a city exploring using sewage to solve water scarcity, Las Vegas’s plan to plant thousands of trees to help cool it down, how homeowners are retrofitting their homes to decrease insurance costs, and (my favourite) why knowing your neighbors can be an important climate solution.
U.S. textile recycling firm Circ is set to build a $500 million plant in Saint-Avold, northeast France, with backing from the French government and the EU. Slated to open in 2028, the facility will be the first to recycle cotton and polyester at scale, processing 70,000 metric tons annually and employing 200 people. Circ’s hydrothermal technology separates the fibres without damage, enabling reuse—an innovation already adopted by brands such as Zara and Patagonia. The company hopes the French site will serve as a model for future projects from Asia to North America. I think 2028 seems too far away. I’m also curious if they always planned on opening the first one in France? Or if the U.S. wasn’t providing any support?
A coalition of development banks, led by the European Investment Bank, has pledged at least €3 billion to combat marine plastic pollution by 2030, as part of an expanded Clean Oceans Initiative unveiled at the UN conference in Nice. The effort—already the largest of its kind—builds on €4 billion in investments since 2018, with projects spanning wastewater treatment in Sri Lanka to flood defences in Benin. The next phase will go further upstream, supporting innovation in packaging, recycling systems, and circular design. With partners like the Asian Development Bank already on board, the initiative aims to scale globally, just as countries prepare to resume negotiations on a global plastics treaty this August. As predicted, the rest of the world is continuing on with trying to combat climate change without the U.S.
Chicago start-up Hydefy is turning fungi into fashion with its debut product: a sleek $1,500 purse for Stella McCartney made from Fy, a mycelium-based leather alternative. Brewed in retrofitted beer tanks and refined on machines built for vinyl flooring, Fy™ is part of a new class of low-impact materials made without animals or petroleum. The start-up, a sibling of fungus-food innovator Nature’s Fynd (which I eat frequently), operates out of Chicago’s former Union Stock Yards—an ironic backdrop for a company reimagining livestock-free consumer goods. With scalable, scented, and customisable finishes, from pebbled leather to metallic sheens, Fy™ aims to position itself as a versatile, low-impact material. I believe that fungi can do and be almost anything.
How do you feel about eating alone? I do not do it as much as I used to, so when I do, it feels luxurious. Eating alone with a good book? Delightful.
Ugandan writer Zabu Wamara and South African author Kristien Potgieter have jointly won the 2025 Island Prize for their debut novels Night Dancer and In the Valley of Bones. Now in its fourth year, the award celebrates emerging voices in African fiction, spotlighting bold new narratives from the continent.
A couple of UK exhibits for our radar:
Modern Two, part of the National Galleries Scotland in Edinburgh, presents Resistance, an exhibition exploring photography’s role in capturing and catalysing social change across the UK over the past two centuries. Conceived by artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen, the show spans moments of protest from the 1903 women’s suffrage movement to Scottish hunger marches of the 1930s and anti-Iraq war demonstrations. The exhibition runs from 21 June until January 2026.
At the LSE Library Gallery, Women of the World Unite charts the legacy of the UN Decade for Women and the rise of transnational feminisms from 1975 to the present. Drawing from The Women’s Library at LSE, the exhibition showcases posters, photographs, books and badges that trace the promises and tensions of global feminist movements—from the landmark 1975 Mexico City conference through to Beijing in 1995. It examines how questions of equality, development, decolonisation, and solidarity have shaped, and continue to shape, international women’s rights. Open until 22 August 2025.
Hot pink benches weren’t designed to be shields, but in Los Angeles’s Gloria Molina Grand Park, they’ve become just that. As protests against immigration raids erupted across the city, demonstrators took cover behind the brightly coloured furniture, originally intended to offer flexible seating and reflect the city’s multicultural roots. Designed by the architecture firm Rios, the aluminium pieces were intended to foster community in a park envisioned as a space for all. But in the face of tear gas and rubber bullets, they’ve taken on new meaning: a vivid symbol of civic resistance and the evolving role of public design in turbulent times.
Thank you for reading! Please share with an interesting and interested person in your life. xxx
Always appreciate these roundups, Jennifer. I've been wanting to read Careless People as well. Do you have a Substack or a link somewhere to your full book list? I'd be super interested in that!