As the year of the Trillion-Dollar US military budget begins, @tkbarnes.bsky.social & @hurwitz.bsky.social speak to William D. Hartung about the new book he co-authored, Trump, the military industrial complex, and the forever wars: inkstickmedia.com/the-year-of-...

Humbled and honored to see my book included on @inkstickmedia.com's list of their most anticipated books of the year, along some very other nice-looking books! inkstickmedia.com/inksticks-mo...

My next book, Smuggler, is one of @inkstickmedia.com most anticipated books of the year inkstickmedia.com/inksticks-mo...

The top-10 most-read reported pieces Inkstick published in 2025.

“Increasingly, climate change is both magnifying the underlying drivers of conflict and striking the people fleeing war perniciously hard.” Read @jmhattem.bsky.social's new excerpt from his new book on refugees, climate disasters, and movement in a warming world:

Inkstick’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026 (So Far) Ft. - @jmhattem.bsky.social - @mollycrabapple.bsky.social - Robin Andersen - Lionel & Liz Morrison - @rozinaali.bsky.social - @reecejones.bsky.social & Greg Boos

"After fighting for four years and sacrificing 400,000 lives during World War II, Washington captured vital bastions at both ends of the vast Eurasian land mass and spent the next 40 years of the Cold War ensuring its control of that strategic continent with circles of steel ."

For a variety of reasons, refugees may be the most vulnerable victims of climate change Can they outrun both war and disasters? Excerpt from SHELTER FROM THE STORM is up today in @inkstickmedia.com inkstickmedia.com/can-refugees...

"People fleeing warzones may sometimes successfully outrun the bullets. But disasters do not stop at the border and often follow people into refugee camps." Read an excerpt of Julian Hattem’s new book, ‘Shelter from the Storm,’ which will be out tomorrow with @thenewpress.bsky.social

From Marvel to Musk: Inkstick’s Most-Read Commentary of 2025

"As countries around the world join the crackdown on Palestine solidarity, legal experts and free speech watchdogs warn of consequences that could reverberate for years. Last October, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Irene Khan warned of a “global crisis of freedom of expression.'"

From Gaza to DC: Inkstick’s Most-Read Reportage of 2025

"Both proximity and resistance define San Diego’s Barrio Logan. It is a place pressed against naval shipyards, fenced in by freeways, and crowned by the Coronado Bridge. For decades, the community has lived with the noise, the pollution, and the promises that never quite came true."

"Donald Trump says he's against endless wars, but the US is still launching strikes in Somalia."

"For a Trump administration hoping to get drugs and crime off US streets, military action in Venezuela is likely to backfire, further destabilizing a region key to US interests while inflicting unnecessary suffering and failing to achieve its stated objectives." inkstickmedia.com/trumps-venez...

"I sat by the window, hoping for some relief from the noise of my thoughts, when gunfire suddenly cut through them. Looking up, I saw a quadcopter drone hovering low above our neighborhood. My heart jolted. It was the first time I had seen it this close."

'Vandenberg Space Force Base, “the missile capital of the free world,” is the only place in the US where intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launch. It was claimed by the Air Force in 1956 and “designed to fire in anger at Russia” in the event of nuclear war.'

"Throughout the rest of the 20th century, anti-immigrant activists and politicians used invasion rhetoric to rally support against newcomers and foreign-born citizens alike. In the 1920s, fears of a 'Mexican invasion' weren’t uncommon, and the KKK aimed much of its propaganda at the foreign-born."

"Then came President Donald Trump. From the first day of his second term in office in January 2025, he set out to tear down the US global order and transform America’s place in the world."

"Clearly, the Trump administration is claiming war authorities where none exist, as anyone can see that there is no actual state of war. Under international law, a president cannot merely declare an 'armed conflict.' Rather, the term is meant to be a factual description of what is happening."

"A small but significant number of anti-immigration voices have begun to challenge the accepted view that Scotland is a more welcoming and progressive place than its southern neighbor, England. Clouds of nativism and xenophobia are looming on the horizon." inkstickmedia.com/the-reality-...

"From US intervention in Iraq to Israel's war in Gaza, an American base in Greece has facilitated conflict for decades."

From the deportations redrawing Haiti's map to the 'dehumanization' crisis in the US military, here are Inkstick's most-read reported articles from 2025:

Detainees reported “overflowing toilets with fecal matter seeping into where people are sleeping,” constant lighting, and cameras installed above toilets.

"Israel has never officially defined the entirety of its borders — then as now, the story of Palestine is one of drawing and redrawing boundaries over the indigenous people."

From Trump's overhyped peace deals to Russia's wars, Inkstick's most-read commentary of 2025:

"As the first African host of the Road World Championships, Rwanda projected stability and security to the world — but behind the polished streets and cheering crowds, dissent was tightly controlled."

“Branding your political enemies as terrorists is a classic fascist move,” says David Noll, a legal scholar and author of the book Vigilante Nation. “If you look at prototypical fascist states, what they do is attempt to stamp out dissent by branding people as terrorists.”

It's the last day of our annual fundraising campaign. As a nonprofit news platform, Inkstick relies on private support from our readers and listeners to tell the stories that need to be told. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.

"The only outcome of a revival of regular nuclear testing would be an increase in nuclear risk and an alarming acceleration of the new arms race — something the world has not felt since the Cold War and hoped to never feel again."

Excerpts, Reviews, and Author Interviews: Inkstick's Year in Books, 2025 Edition

"Trump cannot simply manufacture a war that does not exist. The victims of these strikes have not attacked the US and do not qualify as combatants under international law. As experts have made clear, these attacks are categorically not part of an armed conflict." inkstickmedia.com/the-united-s...

Today is the last day to support Inkstick during our annual NewsMatch campaign. If you donate today, your contribution will count as double. Support independent, nonprofit journalism.

"For decades, PTA has been used by every branch of the US military as well as ally and partner nation militaries for everything from live fire training (mortars, artillery, rockets), small arms and sniper training to the testing of drones, aircraft, and other weapons systems."

"The invasion rhetoric of Trump and his far-right allies has echoed two closely linked, decades-old conspiracy theories: the great replacement theory and the paranoid, debunked belief that white people are enduring a genocide."

In his first year back in office, Trump has demolished the fundamental geopolitics that upheld US hegemony for eight decades. inkstickmedia.com/what-will-th...

"Look at all that foregone tax money that might have been used to help local businesses and infrastructure, maybe provide subsidies for solar energy and other good things for us.”

At Inkstick, we are building a public interest outlet dedicated to covering the defining feature of our time: endless war. Donate today and your contribution will not only go directly toward supporting our journalism; it will also be doubled by NewsMatch.

In the 1920s, the KKK was one of the strongest political forces in Dallas. Six decades later, a local Klan leader named Addie Barlow Frazier tried to orchestrate the group’s comeback. But anti-Klan protesters flooded the streets of Dallas, and the police had to hide Klansmen in a downtown basement.

Under Israeli bombardment that continues despite a declared ceasefire, farmers in southern Lebanon still venture into their groves.

"Trump's NSS has prompted debate over what US priorities in the world should actually be — but such a discussion needs to be expanded to include the perspectives of people and organizations actually suffering the consequences of our militarized domestic and foreign policies."

Around the world, dockworkers have slowed or stopped weapons shipments bound for Israel. But in the US, a divided labor movement and opaque weapons logistics reveal the limits — and possibilities — of this strategy.

From Marvel's military industrial complex to Elon Musk's empathy remarks, here are Inkstick's most-read commentary articles from 2025: inkstickmedia.com/from-marvel-...

Mexico has one of the world’s highest femicide rates, with about 10 women violently killed every day. The rate of women’s killings has increased by 137% since 2015 — four times that of other homicides. Critics say it will take more than a female president to end gender-based violence in the country.

Help Inkstick expose war profiteers and would-be authoritarians: inkstick.substack.com/p/help-inkst...

Ethiopians making the journey through Somalia face exploitation, forced labor, and militant groups along the way.

From Israel's war on the Gaza Strip to Trump's militarization of DC, here are Inkstick's 10 most-read pieces of reporting in 2025: inkstickmedia.com/from-gaza-to...

"Peace between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan hinges on their ability to agree on Red Sea trade routes, set rules for shipping, and even divide up parts of the coast."

At Alligator Alcatraz, according to rights groups, detainees were effectively “disappeared.” Others were blocked from contacting their lawyers or their families. Many say that speaking out for better conditions inside the facility resulted in authorities punishing them.

From books on nuclear war to the everyday joys of life in Gaza, here are a few of our new books from 2025.