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Offshore jurisdictions—commonly known as tax havens—play a central role in sustaining the fossil fuel industry through legal, financial, and regulatory frameworks. Over 68% of fossil fuel financing by the world’s 60 largest banks flows through secrecy jurisdictions. These jurisdictions serve as critical nodes in the global economy, shielding corporations from accountability from environmental and labor regulation, transparency and disclosure requirements, and banking and investment protections. This secrecy provides a veil of sovereignty for fossil fuel profits and hinders corporate accountability for environmental harms.

While the role of offshore jurisdictions in tax avoidance and financial secrecy has been extensively studied, their contribution to environmental degradation and the fossil fuel industry remains underexplored. In a recent publication, we address this gap by framing secrecy jurisdictions as regulatory havens. These havens facilitate the avoidance of financial, legal, and political liabilities central to environmental protection.

It is bitterly ironic that the Caribbean—the place where the key fossil fuel offshore jurisdictions facilitate the extraction of carbon profits—is the region that is most exposed to the devastation wreaked by climate change manifesting as hurricanes, rising sea levels, and wholesale destruction of communities. In this regard, regulatory havens also sustain neocolonial power dynamics and systemic exploitation.

• Protect Utah Workers coalition exceeded its goal, submitting over 320,000 signatures supporting referendum against HB267.
• If enough signatures are verified, a referendum to repeal HB267 will go on the ballot in 2026.
• A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showed that 34% of Utahns support the law and 38% are against it.

During a press conference after the signatures were submitted to the Salt Lake County clerk, John Arthur, a sixth grade teacher in Salt Lake City and a member of the Utah Education Association, shared that the coalition had collected over 320,000 signatures in support of the referendum.

“We are on track to becoming not only the most successful citizen led referendum in Utah history, but one of the most successful in our nation’s history. I’m used to teaching history, but today we’re out here making it because we turn frustration into action and action into results,” Arthur said.

If the group has gathered enough signatures, it can get a referendum on the ballot in 2026 allowing Utahns to vote on whether to repeal HB267, a law which bans public sector collective bargaining. The law was passed by the Legislature earlier this year and was one of the first bills signed by the governor during the session.

California has a major slate of housing law that’ll significantly push housing production this session and dramatically transform the state. There are three major proposed bills that have caught my eye. The first is Senate Bill 79, authored by state senator Scott Wiener (D - San Francisco), which is his fourth attempt at a transit-upzoning bill. SB 79 would re-zone areas around “high quality” transit stops, primarily rail stations, to allow for 6 - 7 story apartments within a quarter-mile of a major transit stations and 4 - 6 stories within a half-mile. The bill also removes a legal constraint on public transit agencies by allowing them to develop high-density housing and commercial properties on their public property with few restrictions. This is how East Asian countries approach mass transportation and it would provide alternative revenue for public transit by not leaving them dependent on fares and taxes for operations exclusively.

The other notable bill is Senate Bill 607, also authored by Wiener, which functionally exempts nearly all infill sites (meaning areas already developed) from CEQA lawsuits where the proposed project is housing, public transit and green energy related. By default, it declares these things in infill locations as inherently a climate and environmental good. Usage of CEQA to delay housing, green energy and transportation projects by NIMBYs in California was repeatedly cited in Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein’s “Abundance” book. CEQA is also used by the Building Trades to negotiate with non-profit and for-profit developers to use their labor or risk litigation. The last bill is Assembly Bill 647, authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D - Oakland) and Mark González ( D - Los Angeles), which would legalize 2-8 unit homes on every owner-occupied parcel in California with 1 low income unit required. This bill will not be at the Senate Housing committee hearing on Tuesday since it’s an Assembly bill, but its significance is worth putting on your radar.

The situation in Sacramento today is much different than in 2019. The state has begun passing streamlining laws and zoning reforms with no political blowback as was once feared. After Trump’s 2024 victory, Democrats both at the state and federal level are looking at the grim projections of California’s housing shortage ceding more population to red states, who are rapidly out-building California in homes, which will cause the Democrats to be locked out of the presidency after 2030. This and the devastating fires in Los Angeles explains why so many major housing bills have been introduced this session, and why the stakes are high in the Housing Committee hearing on Tuesday.

With national pressure on California, state legislators are beginning to take this situation seriously and that’s reflected by AB 647, the 8-unit statewide law. What’s unique about this law is that co-authoring it with zoning trailblazer Buffy Wicks (D - Oakland) is Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D - Los Angeles), who is the former chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and a former presidential elector of the Electoral College. His co-authoring is a major deal since historically Los Angeles legislators are the most antagonistic to state housing laws due L.A.’s cultural disposition for single-family suburbanism. Gonzalez’s authoring of such a major law means L.A. legislators are probably thawing in favor of more home construction after years of fighting against the more pro-growth Bay Area represenatives.

Chrysalis is a literary magazine by trans youth, for trans youth (created with a little help from trans adults). These days, it feels like we are always hearing about trans kids and teens. Chrysalis was created so that trans, non-binary, intersex, genderqueer, agender, two-spirit, and otherwise gender expansive youth can speak for themselves – and most importantly, speak to one another.

​>​ At Chrysalis, we believe that art, literature, and culture are a key part of trans resistance and resilience for people of all ages. And we know that the creativity, talent, and imagination of trans youth is unparalleled. Chrysalis exists to give that radiance a platform.

Trans youth (18 or younger) are invited to submit visual art, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, advice questions, and journalistic reporting for our very first issue! ​Grown-ups can support the magazine by donating, spreading the word, and joining our mailing list so that we can let you know as soon as you can pre-order a copy. Our first issue is expected to launch in fall of 2025.

With gestures and mime rolled into one, this little-known art form, called Visual Vernacular (VV), is proudly used by the Deaf community for artistic expression. In VV, visual storytelling replaces formal signs, enabling people from both the Deaf and hearing communities to connect, understand each other and communicate without words.

In India, while Deaf artists are eager to showcase their art, there are very few welcoming, inclusive art spaces for them. A lack of familiarity among the hearing community with sign language and the access needs of d/Deaf people has resulted in inaccessibility not only in art and cultural spaces, but also in education and employment. This gap in knowledge among hearing people limits interaction between the hearing and Deaf communities and is also a barrier to current advocacy efforts to make Indian Sign Language (ISL) the 23rd official language of India.

Alim Chandani is a Deaf activist working to integrate Deaf artists into the mainstream art scene in India. As the mission leader of Hear A Million, a project by the NGO Enable India that helps the Deaf community to lead productive lives, and the founder of the social enterprise Freedom to Sign, Chandani is bringing together Deaf artists and supporting them in honing their skills in VV and other forms of art including photography, painting, filmmaking, and poetry.

VV is still an emerging art in India, but it is as old as The Beatles. It is said to date back to the 1960s in the United States, when Deaf artist Bernard Bragg began blending mime techniques with American Sign Language. Over the years, Bragg’s innovative art has spread worldwide, gaining popularity in countries like Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom. Joel Ortiz, a VV artist and founder of Joz Studio based in Orlando, Florida, says that across the globe, VV is being used not only as an art, but also “for activism and cultural expression.”

“It’s really hard out there for an original movie,” he said, urging everyone who liked the Universal Pictures release to “scream it from the rooftops” and on social media.

“Drop” opened this weekend to an estimated $7.5 million domestically, one of two new movies based on fresh ideas that fizzled at the box office. The other was Disney’s “The Amateur,” a spy thriller adapted from a little-known 1981 book, which opened to an estimated $15 million.

After years of gripes from average moviegoers and Hollywood insiders alike about the seemingly nonstop barrage of sequels, spin offs and adaptations of comic books and toys, the film industry placed more bets on original ideas.

The results have been ugly.

Nearly every movie released by a major studio in the past year based on an original script or a little-known book has been a box-office disappointment. Before this weekend’s flops were Warner Bros. Discovery’s “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” Paramount’s “Novocaine,” Apple’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Amazon’s “Red One,” and the independently financed “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” and “Megalopolis.”

Blue Origin’s “first all-female spaceflight” was framed as a bold step forward, a headline-grabbing moment for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Positioned as progress meant to encourage girls to pursue STEM and inspire the next generation of explorers, the mission missed a critical opportunity: to celebrate not just the six women aboard, but the thousands of others already leading innovation in science and technology. Instead, it became less about honoring their achievements and more about promoting a glossy, marketable image of what female success should look like.

The focus shifted from substance to spectacle. Rather than celebrating these six accomplished women for their courage or contributions, the spotlight fixated on appearance and celebrity. The message? Women and girls can reach for the stars, but only if they look good doing it.

The students are part of Deaf-in-Tech, a program designed to break barriers for Nigeria’s Deaf community in the country’s booming tech industry. Over the past decade, tech has emerged as one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing sectors, contributing at least 20 percent to the country’s GDP in the second quarter of 2024, and drawing in at least $2 billion in foreign investments. Yet, despite this growth, tech job opportunities for people with disabilities remain scarce.

Deaf-in-Tech aims to change that by providing a platform that empowers deaf individuals with the skills and resources needed to break into Nigeria’s tech industry through specialized training programs, mentorship initiatives and strategic partnerships. Unlike conventional coding boot camps, where spoken explanations dominate, here, lessons are delivered through sign language.

“All you need is their attention,” Oricha explains. “Once that is secured, you can be sure they will give you their best.”

While Western forestry experts accept some wildfire as redemption for the landscape, they’ve also learned that out-of-control megafires can do more harm than good. Now a new study puts a spotlight on the small, cartoon-cute creatures ready to serve as a stalwart defense against raging, 100,000-acre firestorms: the humble, hardworking beaver.

River segments hosting beaver-created dams fared far better during and after megafires than riverscapes without beaver activity, leaving pockets of intact habitat crucial for wildlife, and protecting waterways from runaway erosion, a study published in The Geological Society of America in January found.

Using a combination of infrared and optical satellite imagery, as well as field observations, a team of nine scientists assessed the burn severity along streams within the fire scars. They then compared reaches of stream that had beaver dams to stretches without, and to the surrounding forest.

“Beaver-modified riverscapes are resistant to megafire-scale disturbance,” the authors wrote. “This resilience is directly attributable to beaver dam- and canal-building activity.”