Dr Bertha Chin

UPDATE Australia will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, says Prime Minister Albanese.

"Until Israeli and Palestinian statehood is permanent, peace can only be temporary... Australia will recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own"

Transport of London staff face deportation under new visa rules More than 60 employees who came to the UK on skilled worker visas may have to leave the transport body.

The UK, on a steady mission to implode as it continues to make itself available on to people who work in banks and finance, if at all now.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

South Korea set to decide whether to let Google Maps finally work properly The country is one of only a handful in the world – alongside China and North Korea – where Google Maps fails to function as it should

I’ve just been using KakaoMap, although not navigating between the two would be easier.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Screen cap of Malaysian news portal Malaysiakini with headlines reading “MCA demands uni admission data amid foreign student concerns”

But! It’s not like Malaysian public universities are the bastion of diversity for locals either. Please don’t try and emulate American politics; Malaysian politics is toxic enough without tone deaf politicians trying to get soundbites.

I feel like I need to have a towel permanently around my neck, like in Ghibli films, to survive this heatwave in Singapore right now. Even making a salad for dinner = sweating buckets load of water.

Language on immigration in UK news and politics found to have ‘shaped backlash against antiracism’ Pattern of ‘hostile language’ in media and debates likely to describe people of colour with less sympathy, report says A pattern of “hostile language” in news reports and UK parliamentary debates is more likely to describe people of colour as immigrants, or with less sympathy, researchers have found. The race equality thinktank the Runnymede Trust analysed more than 63m words from 52,990 news articles and 317 House of Commons debates on immigration between 2019 and the general election in July 2024. Continue reading...

Language on immigration in UK news and politics found to have ‘shaped backlash against antiracism’

Yay! Another output from our Posthuman digital intimacies project!!! This is our Women and Video Games block! Plz do check it out!

The irony that Mahathir called for this, for when he was PM, every single person who dared attend the rally would have been arrested. 🙄

Omg! 😂😂

A TV console, with Netflix on and a poster and description of the Korean series, Mr Sunshine

Omg Netflix, no. I’m not getting sucked back into this. I LOVE the series, it took me ages to get out of the headspace it put me in and nothing I watched afterward was good enough. 😅

Superman was better than I expected it to be. It looked like it was going to be loud and shout-y, but am glad it wasn’t.

WGA statement on Paramount’s decision to cancel the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The End of Colbert's Show Signals Trouble One of the first signs of authoritarianism is headwinds against comedians

You can measure a society’s political freedom by how openly comedians are able to mock or satirize the government. CBS’s decision to silence Stephen Colbert, announcing the impending end of The Late Show, is another incipient sign of trouble in the United States.

open.substack.com/pub/fridains...

DMed. Probably not a conversation for social media lol

Yeah, and maybe it’s time to start stepping away from it after my own experience during the pandemic. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes, indeed. I’m going to wait for a few more episodes before I start downloading.

Screencap of Amazon Prime interface for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, with a button saying “this video is currently unavailable”

Prime and Paramount, encouraging piracy.

Beyond Evil is so drawn out, and it feels like the younger protagonist is just running around in circles like a stupid fool pointing fingers at everyone. I’m suffering from “having to go to mediocre series after back-to-back emotionally ones”…. #FangirlProblems

Everytime there’s new Star Trek, I say this: Paramount is the worst for a so-called “global” franchise because their sense of global doesn’t extend beyond North America. And it bloody sucks because I really love Strange New Worlds but Paramount doesn’t care. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also very glad that I connected with (Korean) academics who were really supportive & curious of my paper, as it was so niche! As I was setting it within the context of Korean pop culture, it was especially appreciated that I met fellow fans of the Bao pandas too. Thanks for a great time, #IAMCR2025

Too knackered to post yesterday. Paper delivered & done! My first experience with #IAMCR2025 was pleasant -- the conference is massive, so it was hard to see everyone, but I'm glad I caught up with friends and met people whose work I've admired but didn't have a chance to really meet till now!

As an aside, it's really nice to start seeing presenters actually sharing their Bluesky IDs rather than the other evil place! #IAMCR2025

In another fascinating paper, Tianyi Yang & @wildcaughtbonnie.bsky.social explore how the use of lightsticks in Kpop concerts are used & localised, and how that reflects different approaches to concepts of sociopolitical issues & fan material cultures. #IAMCR2025

1st panel for the day at #IAMCR2025 and @wildcaughtbonnie.bsky.social appeals for a cautious celebration of K-pop as global success or representation of Asian pop culture when so much of it is hybridised & still controlled by US powers. Such an interesting paper!

Conference name label for IAMCR

It begins! Registered, and here’s to the first conference for 2025. #IAMCR2025

10 minute papers are always so much harder than 20-minute ones. Especially at large conferences where you feel like you have to provide more context, as opposed to smaller, more intimate symposiums, where you can somewhat shorthand through the shared theoretical knowledge

Finishing up my slides for #IAMCR2025 so I can start properly enjoying attending the panels later today. Also @svegaard.bsky.social, see you later!

I also don’t know what to do with myself now that I’m done with #MyLiberationNotes. This is always the case when I chance upon a series that resonates deeply and hits differently. You want the emotions to linger, and you want to continue learning about the characters and the universe more.

Screencap of a PowerPoint presentation cover page with a picture of the panda “Fubao” under the directions to Zootopia with Korean writing on the left hand side of the screen. On the right, is the presentation title: “My Dearest Fubao: panda fandom and the culture of cute”

Prepping for #IAMCR2025 presentation — what I’d call my first foray into Korean pop culture — as my focus is totally on the fandom surrounding the pandas in Everland theme park. Exploring whether this is a potential small-ish research project…

I fell in love with #MyLiberationNotes more than I expected. There’s just something about the quietness of the story that resonates deeply.