Atlantic Council giving FIFA head Gianni Infantino their “Global Citizen” award is truly hilarious in all the wrong ways. They sold out their “sponsor” spots though so it’s all good. www.atlanticcouncil.org/global-citiz...

“While 17% support normalization with Israel (which is actually one of the highest rates in any Arab country surveyed), 88% said that Israel threatens stability in Syria, with only 4% saying that it did not.” - big new @arabcenterdc.org survey of Syrians abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/how-to-recog...

The figures presented in an investigation by journalist Yuval Avraham, published by +972 & The Guardian, lead to the conclusion that "only about 17% of the dead were armed or identified as Hamas members." 🆓🔗 archive.is/1tN72

“If formal recognition becomes a substitute for defending the primacy of international law and addressing core realities of Palestinian suffering, it would be at best a hollow gesture—and at worst an epic misallocation of scarce international political capital.” sadat.umd.edu/sites/sadat....

Outstanding piece by Ann Marie Wainscott - scholar of religion and politics, political violence, and comparative authoritarianism - on the horrifying spectacle of the Charlie Kirk memorial. notes-from-a-political-scientist.ghost.io/kirk-memoria...

“Any recognition of Palestinian statehood should be accompanied by concrete action to hold Israel accountable for its illegal, destructive policies.” - Mustafa Barghouti www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/o...

The book draws on dozens of interviews with al-Sharaa, his associates who later became ministers, dissidents and opponents, as well as diplomats. www.amazon.com/Transformed-... www.amazon.co.uk/Transformed-...

The arrival of Ahmad al-Sharaa in NYC for the UNGA is a timely moment to highlight our new book, published a few weeks ago in Europe and in a month ago in the US (already on Kindle). What lessons can we draw from the past? A threat

🚨🚨🚨 NEW AAUP Report Analyzes Trump Admin Weaponization of Title VI to Undermine Civil Rights Protections. #Academicfreedom #AcademicSky #DefendHigherEd

How to recognize Palestine and still not get what you (say you) want. abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/how-to-recog...

Student visas dropped to a four year low. Trump also cuts spending on research by hundreds of billions on college campuses. This is how you end American exceptionalism. I gifted this article so you can read it www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Six years too many in prison but thank god he’s finally free

Finally

I wonder who on the zombie Post editorial board liked this insane idea, wouldn’t it be nice if they actually published a list of editorial board members

BREAKING: The U.K., Canada and Australia officially recognize a Palestinian state, a significant shift away from alignment with the U.S.

I basically stopped shopping at cvs in dc because of this

Israel bombed a Houthi-aligned newspaper office in Yemen, killing at least 31 journalists in the second largest targeted killing of media workers CPJ has ever recorded. One more expansion of Israel’s claimed right to bomb anyone, anywhere, any time with impunity. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

How sorry?

Another JSOC ground raid in Syria (second known one since Trump took office). Seemingly launched from Iraq, as the Iraqi government says ISOF/CTS troops were on the ground with the US operators (very unusual, and I’m curious whether that was coordinated with the new Syrian government).

You’ll never guess how Trump is acting out his well-leaked “rage” with Netanyahu www.wsj.com/world/middle...

I have to keep this deliberately vague, but this is a total disaster for academic research. And imposing it so suddenly is just cruel. I’ve got friends scrambling to get back to the US before midnight tonight. Do you know how hard that is to do on 36 hours of notice?

So proud Kat is a GW alum. Look at those ICE cowards armed like they are policing Iraq, hiding their faces. Look at that man grabbing a young woman by her breast, throwing her to the ground and then walking away. These are the bad guys in every dystopian movie and book. They must be resisted.

“I was fired by email, without a conversation— after 11 years at the WaPo Opinions section as an editor and then columnist.”

ICE continues to assault us. We are peacefully protesting. They are kidnapping and hurting us.

I cannot overstate how remarkable it is that under GOP rule, US federal health regulations have been captured by fringe crackpots who espouse views that the vast majority of the US public—and nearly 100% of health professionals—reject. Gift link:

i don’t think people on bluesky understand the severity of this situation. i woke up to literally hundreds of texts from friends and family thinking about either moving back home to india or applying to other countries for jobs. this includes me.

something something political violence

This is insane

I know we’re pretending there aren’t any laws anymore and Trump can just pull whatever sweaty grift he wants now, but what the everloving fuck is this?!

I can’t believe 42% still approve of RFK given the overwhelming support for vaccines. Bet support mostly just partisanship and most non-news junkies just don’t know what this dangerous crank is inflicting on them and their families.

“It has become alarmingly normalized that faculty working on the Middle East should simply expect to be the subjects of levels of abuse that would not be tolerated in virtually any other workplace environment.” From April 2024 abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/the-middle-e...

Squinting in Middle East Studies

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history." www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Canceled Disney+ and explained why. I will miss Daredevil when new season launches so I hope they reverse course!

In other words, 94% of those killed in Gaza since March 25 were civilians - up from 83% in the first 1.5 years of this genocidal war. Another symptom of stage 2 of the Gaza Genocide under Trump: fewer casualties so far, but targeting almost entirely civilians. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Some rare good news!

Fun fact: a few years back there was serious discussion about requiring evidence and metrics for public engagement in political science tenure cases

Blocked 7 more video game developers in the last 10 minutes. It’s almost every fifth post now. @support.bsky.team can’t you do anything to stop this “from discover” plague?

Blocked another 14 video game developer posts that @bsky.app inserted in my following feed via the broken discovery feed. It’s not that big a deal just so annoying that nothing seems to ever change

Human Rights Watch new release on Israel's actions in Syria, calling them “not legitimate acts of military necessity, but pages out of the playbook used in the occupied Palestinian territory & other parts of the region, stripping residents of basic rights & freedoms.” www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

one week after Israel struck Qatar, as the US stood watching: Saudi and nuclear-armed Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact, stating that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both” www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Will act out his rage by sending Netanyahu more weapons

Glad I never signed up for that site. Gross.

“Far too many of those who today recoil in horror at threats to punish anyone who fails to sufficiently mourn Kirk’s martydom were blisteringly enthusiastic to punish anyone who spoke out about the horrors in Gaza. Those were "controversial topics" too.” abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/the-straight...

The timing of the pact appeared to be a signal to Israel, long suspected to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, which has conducted a sprawling military offensive since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. apnews.com/article/paki...

This is a disgusting, horrifying weaponization of the courts to continue the administration’s persecution of Mahmoud Khalil for free speech

Canceling Jimmy Kimmel show is not about Charlie Kirk, just like going after universities was not about antisemitism and occupying DC was not about fighting crime.

Gift link for the afternoon crowd I write on why palestinian statehood recognition schemes are a trap www.worldpoliticsreview.com/palestine-st...

"I recognize that many people may disagree with this conclusion. The truth is, whether you call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities or war crimes, the path forward is clear." "We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people."

Nothing to add.