The political leadership of the UAE-backed STC has announced the dissolution of itself. In a statement they distanced themselves from recent STC military actions. The organisation and its military force, which held the greatest amount of Yemen's territory two weeks ago, now no longer exists.

I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now. But this spectacular fallout between Saudi and UAE is going to reshape the region and impact events beyond. It’s hard to overstate the Saudi anger at the UAE that’s expressed by revealing step-by-step details + officer names in the UAE operation

This is a humiliating blow for the STC. But, this is inevitable when you’re a proxy force and your one and only backer leaves you high and dry. It’s also a clear illustration of the stark contrast with the Houthis and how they are not a proxy of Iran.

More escalation in Yemen today, with reports of airstrikes amidst clashes between (Saudi-backed) National Shield forces and (UAE-backed) STC-aligned fighters in Hadramawt.

Is cosúil nach bhfuilim ath-imeasctha i gceart i sochaí na hÉireann go fóill. Níor rith sé liom in aon chor go mbeadh an siopa éisc druidte OÍCHE CINN BHLIANA!

Is é mo bharúil féin má bhí an Bardas sásta croílár na cathrach ársa a stoitheadh lena chuid buncar coincréite a shá ann gur cheart dóibh fanacht iontu go dtí go gcreimeann na cianta an choincréit chéanna.

In 2018–20, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation generously funded my research on Syrian armed groups, looking at why some factions grew while others fell apart. A year after Assad's ouster, we revisit the project to see what it might tell us about Syria's new rulers: www.hfg.org/insights/ref...

Cén fáth a gcuirfeá pictiúr de bheach san áit seo ar mhias ime? 1. Níl aon bhaint ag na beacha leis an im. 2. Níl sé deas feithide a fheiceáil gan choinne faoi do chuid bia!

Fun fact: you can automatically generate esoteric texts by machine translating Arabic Wikipedia pages on grammatical terms.

Agallamh iontach suimiúil fán aistriúchán liteartha ón Araibis i gcomhthéacs na débhéascna

Crucial on how ChatGPT detectors imperil “non-native” writers of English. Esp if these were trained in colonial or colonial-like systems based on making you sound like the perfect “authoritative” “native speaker” who doesn’t even exists. Truly, you can’t win. marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-...

Speaking as a linguist, I just feel this knock-off Labubu should be spikier, somehow...

Chomhghleacaí Liotuánach ag tairiscint gloine fíona dom ag cóisir na Nollag: 'You cannot refuse. You do not have 'no' in your grammar.'

Is fada liom oíche fhír-fhliuch gan suan gan srann gan ceathra, gan maoin, caoirigh, ná buaibh na mbeann; anfhaithe ar tuinn taoibh liom do bhuaidhir mo cheann, is nár chleachtas im naoidhin fíogaigh ná ruacain abhann.

Flashback to my childhood enthusiasm for Charlie Haughey to the horror of my parents

An extremely cool map

"Never spread the lie in the headline" should be a hard rule of 21st century journalism. Research shows that repeating lies helps to spread them, and people read headlines more than they read stories.

Meet Fadi and Jumaa Tamer Abu Asi, two brothers ages 8 and 10 who crossed Israel's "yellow line" as they gathered firewood for their injured father in Bani Suheila, Khan Younis. Israel deemed these children a "threat" and killed them in a drone attack. Is this the ceasefire of which we speak?

The memory, or forgetting, of the Achaemenids in Sasanian late antiquity and the medieval period is a robust debate. I wrote a rather longish blog about it here: iranologie.com/2025/11/29/d...

Uasdátú 2: bhí an mortadella i bhfad níos fearr lá i ndiaidh don phlaisteach a bheith bainte de. Ní dóigh liom go bhfuil aon teacht aniar i ndán don chumannachas áfach.

Uasdátú ☹️: Theip ar an chumannachas agus ní raibh an mortadella blasta.

'An bhfuil tú aayiz uisce tání?' adúirt mé leis an tachrán. B'fhéidir gur mithid srian a chur leis an chódaistriú sa teach seo!

All of this, also an obsession with controversialism over substance on large parts of political coverage such that the best writing often appears in blogs and newsletters

“Now that the dictator is gone, the people of Tadamon are breaking their silence. As they have begun to share their stories, it is becoming clear that the atrocities in the neighbourhood were far worse than initially reported…” www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...

He keeps doing it. Every time somebody gets beheaded in this text, the word "head" is replaced with a little hand-drawn emoticon. And considering how many people get beheaded in this story, that's a lot of lil face drawings.

🧵 Wisdom I have obtained after a whole decade of learning Irish (i mBéarla toisc go bhfuil sé ceadaithe uaireanta)

A (extensive) collection of maps showing how the YPG and later SDF ended up in control of almost all of eastern Syria akmckeever.substack.com/p/weekend-no...

Chuamar go Bologna is thugamar na rudaí is Bolognesi amuigh abhaile linn

We spirantize differently in Ireland

Béile an-dheas caite againn i mBologna anocht. Riail na n-athbhreithithe Google: is iad na háiteanna is fearr iad na háiteanna a bhfuil neart athbhreithnithe 4 réalt acu lán dea-thuairimí.

Back in the late twelfth century Al-Baghdadi saw your post about how ancient aliens built the pyramids and is embarrassed for you.

Achainí ar pholaiteoirí agus lucht aistrithe óráidí polaiteoirí: Tá sé ceart go leor an uimhir 10 a athrú go 20 scaití. Is deise i bhfad 'na scórtha blianta' in áit 'na deicheanna de bhlianta'. Scaoiligí uaibh 'decades' an Bhéarla.

Syria announces that March 18 will be its official Revolution Day: sana.sy/en/presidenc... For years, celebrations were held on March 15, despite the fact that the Deraa uprising happened on March 18, 2011. Here’s my 2021 essay on how that came to be: tcf.org/content/comm...

Ilan Stavans and Peter Gilliver discuss the art of creating a dictionary: “The size of the task of compiling a comprehensive dictionary…has now grown far beyond what a single individual could hope to achieve in a lifetime.” lithub.com/how-to-build...

Oh, wait, I've got one take with no canceling counter-takes that's good to go right now: DON'T. WATCH. GORE.

Mise ceartaithe ag leanaí éigipteacha an cheantair toisc go ndúirt mé 'maith' seachas 'go math'. Is cosúil nach bhfuil deireadh go fóill le forlámhas Chuige Mumhan ar na múinteoirí bunscoile.

Gareth Roberts, Associate Professor of Linguistics, presents "How Old is Language?" at today's first 60-Second Lecture of the fall semester. @upenn.edu @garicgymro.bsky.social #60Second #language #linguistics

Cad é a tharla do na siopaí rothar in Éirinn, táthar ag rá liom nach bhfuil sliotán ar fáil go ceann seachtaine le mo rothar a dheisiú!

Beannachtaí na Cásca ó Chaireo na hÉigipte

An bhfuil 'Scéal' ar fáil ar shuiomh/aip an Irish Times? Tá síntiús agam ach ní fheicim áit ar bith é.

Dans la série, y a des comptes qui ne postent toujours pas ici et c'est un scandale, voici : @ami-ininteressant.bsky.social

“To return home requires humility in the face of friends and family who stayed behind in Syria with so much dignity and strength. Those of us who are returning owe them compassion and a willingness to listen.” ✍Tamara Alrifai bit.ly/4hrQ2Cu #damascus #syria

Fieldwork tip: if, in the course of a long elicitation session, your consultant translates "black pepper" as "may it get into your eyes", it may be time for a break. (from Barth's 1850 vocabulary of Emghedesie. My reconstruction: nda a-hur ni-n moo-yo if 3SG-enter 2SG-GEN eye-PL)

Does anyone know of anywhere in Brussels to get good children's books in Arabic?

Bhuel anois, is aisteach gur luaigh tú é sin ach beidh an leagan closleabhair de m'úrscéal, Madame Lazare, ar fáil faoi cheann cúpla seachtainí. Tá sé i gceist ag @barzazie.bsky.social a bheith ag foilsiú de réir a chéile leaganacha closleabhar de na húrscéalta atá á n-aistriú go Gaeilge acu.

Relatively few Syrians in Jordan risk one-way trip home syriadirect.org/relatively-f...

Informative piece on Assad’s last days in power and what became of several other regime insiders, by FT’s Raya Jalabi, Sarah Dadouch, Chloe Cornish, and Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper. www.ft.com/content/747f... @financialtimes.com

Sitcom idea: The Office, but about when a young go-getter mujahed arrives to take over a dilapidated Baathist ministry full of work-shy, scheming nepotism hires.

Not sure who’s on this platform yet, and it’s very poor for Arabic content so far. But if you’re looking for Syria info, these are all great: @akmckeever.bsky.social @syrianzo.bsky.social @abujamajem.com @ajaltamimi.bsky.social @jeromed.bsky.social And many others. Feel free to add in comments!

dán a thaitin thar cionn liom Mug, cupán, agus píopa tá annso sgríobhtha ar a leabaidh; is olc a bpáirt re Maoilre, nách leigeadh dhóibh sgíth ná colladh! 'Ní misde liom féin,' ar an Mug, 'má bhíon sé gan musgailt chuíche; is minic d'fhág sé mo bholg folamh lá fada agus uíche.' (ar leanúint)