Nithin Coca

An intro post: I'm a Japan-based, Indian-American environment and human rights freelance journalist (for @vox.com @aljazeera.com @nikkei.com @mongabay.bsky.social @thenation.com and elsewhere). Was quite active on Twitter & still active on Mastodon & looking forward to connecting with people here!

"In 2015 the Chinese government announced an ambitious plan to build the world’s largest national park system." But first, they needed to get local peoples out of the way... (Sound familiar?) @nithincoca.com reports for @therevelator.org therevelator.org/china-nation...

What a nice surprise, to wake up to positive results (for democracy, environment, and human rights) in #Brazil and, more shockingly, #Serbia

What's your excuse for still having an account on a #Meta platform? There's no reason for anyone who is anti-fascist to be there, and has not for almost a decade. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

This is a case that makes my heart sink. Feng Rui (known as xiaowu) is an activist/writer focused on labour rights and one of my mutuals on social media. We don't always agree on things and sometimes he'd repost my post and challenge my view. He was arrested after

Today marks 11 years since Gui Minhai, a Hong Kong bookseller was abducted in Thailand by the Chinese State. He now is imprisoned in China on bullshit charges. Each year Swedish publishers commission a new portrait of him to highlight his case. Here is this years by Stina Wirsén. #FreeGuiMinhai

Damn, its really gonna happen Taking away the Chargers from their rightful home, San Diego, killing the Pac-12, killing SC's best rivalries (ND, Cal, Stanford), and now this? It really seems like football doesn't want me as a fan. www.espn.com/college-foot...

Joshua Wong turned 30. He spent more than half of his twenties behind bars. From a 14-year-old student activist to one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy voices, Joshua’s story traces the dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms.

The decline of U.S. foreign bureaus & reporting budgets has led to a devastating loss of independent reporting around the world. My deep dive for @objectivejournos.bsky.social looks at the systemic crisis facing freelancers today objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/u-s-...

Siraya, an Indigenous language declared extinct in the 19th century, is now being taught in 26 schools in Taiwan. Siraya activist Uma Talavan & her husband Edgar Macapili spent over 20 years reconstructing the language. buff.ly/2roj7FB #ShareGoodNewsToo

Still find it fascinating (and sad) how readily the climate movement will speak up for #Palestine or against #Israel, but give so many excuses to avoid - Saying anything even remotely critical of #China - Providing any support for #Tibetans Uyghurs, Hong Kong or #Taiwan.

I criticize Japanese companies a lot, but I do like this aspect of Japanese corporate culture - executives taking pay cuts in response to company failures - in this case, actions by subordinates. Can you even imagine something like this in America? www.japantimes.co.jp/business/202...

🇲🇾 Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, don’t betray your principled past! Read more here 👇👇👇 kohmar.substack.com/p/a-letter-t... #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #Malaysia #ASEAN #anwaribrahim @pvamplify.bsky.social

#Xinjiang Week in #Japan, at the Osaka #WorldExpo was being framed as a celebration of innovation, but the absence of #Uyghur language or any #Islamic symbols tells a different story. My latest for @mekongreview.com into #China’s overseas propaganda efforts mekongreview.com/xinjiang-week/

China once went to great lengths to present the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as independent and technocratic. Installing a Communist Party insider as its president, @nithincoca.com writes, suggests Beijing no longer cares to keep up that image.

Padres are cursed.

Zafar Ghani been arrested by Malaysia authorities. For years I've had messages from Zafar about his precarious situation in Malaysia & that of the Rohingya. Trying to get more support, raise awareness & find solutions, I know I'm not the only one... he's never given up. #FreeZafarGhani

Are we trading one environmental catastrophe for another under the disguise of #EnergySecurity? The reality on the ground at #Japan’s biomass plants dangerous explosions and pollution. For @mongabay.com, my latest piece on the risks of woody biomass news.mongabay.com/2026/08/conc...

So here's #Greenpeace, responding to a data release by the Chinese government with...nothing but praise Zero mention of any issues related to labor or human rights issues in Chinese cleantech exports. www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/pre...

There are far too many links like this between Europe's far-right and the #CCP to be just a coincidence. #Germany, #Hungary & now #UK too. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Some news - I'll be speaking at the virtual tbd/Con organized by Gazzetta next week. My focus - the scale of digital surveillance and censorship in #Tibet, a relevant topic due to the information blackout after the recent Nepal/Tibet floods. Details here - free to join ask.gazzetta.xyz/tbdcon26

Are we trading one environmental catastrophe for another under the disguise of #EnergySecurity? Why do #Japan’s biomass plants include dangerous explosions and heavy pollution? For @mongabay.com, my latest piece unpacks the risks of wood pellets for power news.mongabay.com/2026/08/conc...

More than a week after the deadly Nepal China floods, very little is known about the dead or missing in Tibet. China's control over media and digital censorship is in stark contrast to open reporting in Nepal. But it's not new. www.npr.org/2026/09/07/n...

As newsrooms obsess over the latest Trump blunders, what happens to the rest of the world? International journalists are being left behind. For @objectivejournos.bsky.social my latest unpacks the hidden costs of shrinking foreign reporting budgets objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/u-s-...

So, #Google will no longer let you see even basic details - like hours - unless you login. Which, of course, I can't since I have no account. #enshittification #bigtech #tech

The Chinese government relies on dancing ethnic minorities to project normalcy. Last year, it brought dancing #Uyghurs to #Japan. For the wonderful @mekongreview.com, I unpack the bizarre propaganda of 'Xinjiang Week' mekongreview.com/xinjiang-week/

“The next day, the messages grew more panicked. ‘Mama, please get home quickly.’ Finally, she sent the same text, four times in a row: ‘Mama, I miss you.’” Relatives Go Online to Grieve #Tibet’s Flood Victims. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/w...

“There is barely any lake left,” Ghulam Mohammad, a 70-year-old resident of Anchar who has been fishing in the lake for nearly 40 years, said. “The water is shrinking, pollution is increasing, and the ecosystem is dying before our eyes.” www.thexylom.com/post/kashmir...

RSF warns that censorship and information controls are obscuring the toll of the devastating floods in Tibet. No independent #Tibetan or international media have been allowed into affected areas rsf.org/en/floods-ne...

The Nepal-Tibet Catastrophe: What Is China Hiding? Nepal counted its dead and opened its data; Tibet’s losses vanished behind China’s digital erasure. By Lopsang Gurung bitterwinter.org/the-nepal-ti...

You can tell a lot by who calls it the #Nepal-#Tibet floods and who calls its the #Nepal-#China floods.

Honestly, just tragic. A society that devours its young has no future but that is what the CCP has in the cards for Hong Kong, while Wong and many nameless others have sacrificed so much to defend their home

So, are all the people angry at #Google maps for predictably renaming Lake Ontario actually going to stop using it? Or are they just going to complain and then make excuses, just like they've done with basically every other #bigtech platform that supports fascists? This is why they keep winning.

Got a CSO press release on the #Nepal #Tibet glacier floods disaster that really went out of its way to avoid mentioning Tibet at all, or anything about what is happening on that side of the border.

Ten years after the Chinese Communist Party sharply escalated abuses against Uyghurs in the far western Xinjiang region, the crackdown on rights remains severe, @hrw.org reports. The repression amounts to crimes against humanity. www.hrw.org/news/2026/08...

Worth #reading this piece - a level-headed take on #China and how its changed.

Devastating flash floods have taken place on the Nepal-Tibet border. We must ensure that reporting on this disaster focuses on Nepal and Tibet, not China. This tragedy did not occur in “Western China,” “China’s Tibet,” or “Xizang.” Tibet is Tibet and must remain so.

Devastating news from the Nepal–Tibet border, where flash floods & mudslides have killed at least 17 people. As climate change accelerates snow & ice melt across the #Himalayas, the need for early warning systems & climate-resilient infrastructure grows ever more urgent www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“… the artworks at the centre of the case were created more than 10 years before China created the law under which Gao was charged.” 🤯 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...?

And we have a new all-time record warm *absolute* temperature for the oceans, according to ERA5 (which goes back to 1940): August 21st likely marked the warmest Sea Surface Temperatures have been for the entire Holocene period. Should be major news!

A new #taco place opened near me. Looks good. But its all #LA #Dodgers themed so...unfortunately can never go. #Japan

#Climate groups, rightly, spoke out when #COP was in countries with horrific #humanrights records like #Azerbaijan #Egypt & the #UAE, all of which didn't provide much space for #civilsociety. Unfortunately, so far not seeing much of that with this potential news www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

End one party dictatorship!

Once promoted as a green coal alternative, Japan’s biomass power sector faces growing backlash after a series of industrial accidents. With rising costs and expiring government tariffs, critics are questioning the industry's future. Learn more in this story by @nithincoca.com for #Mongabay.

At one of my favorite cafes, like 3 blocks from a popular foreign #tourism area in #Japan and its all #Japanese #tourists here. It's still crazy how tourists stick to such a narrow path.