Trump and his allies have so undermined the US government that we need a new vocabulary to describe them. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/25/american-presidency-trump

“Sisi embarked, with the full support of the senior brass, to militarize state organs and securitize public spaces in a quest to turn Egypt into what Michel Foucault envisioned as the ‘perfect military camp.’” @barracks.substack.com in @hidden-cities.com www.hidden-cities.com/p/how-sisis-...

My colleague @chriselkholy.bsky.social and I picked the brains of several Iran scholars (Babak Rahimi, Claudia Yaghoobi, Janet Afary) to make sense of the religious, cultural & ideological symbolism at work in the recent state-sponsored mass weddings in Tehran ⏬ newlinesmag.com/running-note...

A monument to New York’s “Little Syria” has sparked a diplomatic row after Lebanon’s FM objected to how it characterizes writers like Kahlil Gibran — but the dispute exposes deeper fights over diaspora history and national identity, @chriselkholy.bsky.social reports. newlinesmag.com/running-note...

In his recent summit with Trump, Xi invoked the “Thucydides trap,” framing China’s rivalry with the U.S. in terms that serve Beijing—and laying an actual trap for the U.S. president. Engaging piece by my @newlinesmag.bsky.social colleague @faisalalyafai.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/spotlight/fr...

"The biggest social problem in Syria is that there is blood between us." @qunfuz.bsky.social, one of the most astute writers on modern Syria, joins me on The Lede to talk revolution, justice and anger. Listen @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/podcast/when...

Great piece by my colleague @chriselkholy.bsky.social! Drake’s jab at DJ Khaled exposed the strange role Israel’s assault on Gaza now occupies in public life—less a political reality centered on Palestinians than a way for audiences to evaluate celebrity integrity. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/dr...

“I vote with Republicans 91 percent of the time. And the 9 percent I don’t, they’re taking up for pedophiles, starting another war, or bankrupting our country.” @smencimer.bsky.social reports on Rep. Thomas Massie and one of the most expensive, high-stakes primaries in the country.

We've become numb to this stuff, but a president accusing a journalist of treason -- a capital crime -- for reporting on an ongoing war is not normal, and we should never accept it as normal.

New piece out on Musk’s Star Trek speech, Palantir’s recent X manifesto, @quinnslobodian.com and @bentarnoff.com’s Muskism, and materialized science fiction. SF is not decoration - it’s the medium that makes accumulation strategies feel natural, necessary, & inevitable. untoldmag.org/silicon-vall...

Veteran film critic @raypride.bsky.social previews Saturday's event with @purenonfiction.bsky.social host & documentary film curator Thom Powers in the @newlinesmag.bsky.social + Nighthawk series Juxtapositions—join us if you're in Chicago! Details on Eventbrite ⏬ www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-of...

Appreciate you doing this in a thoughtful way. Don't want to left punch when he's under attack about Palestine, but his views on China are inexcusable (and extremely naive)

Quoted here on Hasan Piker's views of China--this kind of western leftist projection onto non-western contexts is a phenomenon worth examining more closely, with many variations out there, it's often a refusal to apply the same logic to a non-western context one would at home

I fully agree with progressives who are defending Hasan Piker against the establishment Democrats attacking him and falsely accusing him of antisemitism. But Asian leftists like Kevin Lin & @brianhioe.bsky.social find his views on China problematic. My latest piece ⤵️ newlinesmag.com/running-note...

This is a mind-bender of a story. She was a beloved Damascus hairdresser with 7,000 followers. But inside al-Mazzeh prison, she was known as Mounira—the guard with the green pipe. @newlinesmag.bsky.social spoke to her family, neighbors and survivors who hunted her. newlinesmag.com/reportage/in...

I spoke to Branko Marcetic about the alliance between Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein www.thenation.com/podcast/poli...

US democratic backsliding deepened as the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Appeasement won't work. Fighting back (nonviolently) might. As Hungary shows, winning power in competitive authoritarianism is possible. But you have to really compete. My latest, on SCOTUS, Virginia, and more:

"America’s pro-democracy opposition is down, but not out. Success is possible under competitive authoritarianism. But you have to really compete." This piece gets it right on the balance that's now required between doing good politics/winning elections and scorched earth procedural warfare:

Chicagoans: Saturday May 16 at 2pm at Nighthawk I'll be talking with Thom Powers about his new book Mondo Documentary, which Judd Apatow calls a “love letter to the art of nonfiction filmmaking.” Join us! Fee and open to the public. More details on Eventbrite ⤵️ www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-of...

When it attacked Iran, Israel nearly dragged the UAE into a regional war. Why, then, is the relationship between the two countries now stronger than ever? For @newlinesmag.bsky.social I spoke to some well-placed experts who provided fascinating insights. newlinesmag.com/running-note...

I was surprised to learn recently that outside of Israel few people knew that Sara Netanyahu is not only deeply corrupt, but bonkers and possibly a full-blown alcoholic who drinks a case of pink champagne a week. So I wrote about her for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/running-note...

Republicans picked the perfect place to vote on stripping Black political power in their state: the Old Capitol, where Mississippi voted to secede from the union in 1861, and where lawmakers met to establish Jim Crow segregation against its Black population. trib.al/ORccS1R

MUST-read interview with Syrian-British writer @leilashami.bsky.social of @thepeopleswant.bsky.social & Ukrainian activist Oleksandr Kyselov on *true* internationalism, the trouble with campism & the Eurocentrism of much of the “anti-imperialist” left in the West radiofreesyria.com/internationa...

A must-read interview with prominent Syrian writer Leila al-Shami and Ukrainian activist Oleksandr Kyselov In Leila al-Shami's words: "We are undoubtedly heading towards a multipolar world order in which various imperialisms compete with one another.

It is sad that a large part of the Western left regards non-Western forms of imperialism as alternatives and fails to recognise their imperialist nature. A world in which imperial powers fight to establish spheres of influence only leads to greater instability." radiofreesyria.com/internationa...

Lionel Messi's embrace of Donald is costing him the kind of national hero status that Diego Maradona embodied for Argentines. @palabarces.bsky.social, a sociologist at the University of Buenos Aires, explains why in this marvelous piece for @newlinesmag.bsky.social. newlinesmag.com/argument/des...

Latest from me at @newlinesmag.bsky.social: I look at the rapidly deteriorating Christian Zionist coalition as the young energy and most dynamic figures now associated with the GOP are pushing for a starkly isolationist and antisemitic form of Christian Nationalism.

As the Iran war alienates more and more conservatives and the MAGA-verse grows more critical of Israel, Christian Zionism — long dominant on the right — now finds itself on the defensive. @shaneburley.bsky.social does a deep dive for @newlinesmag.bsky.social. newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

The international furore over a photograph of an Israeli soldier destroying a crucifix in southern Lebanon seemed louder than reactions to the displacing of 1.2 mil Lebanese or the genocide in Gaza. Why? My analysis for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/running-note...

What is happening in Louisiana right now is both a redistricting power grab and a dry run for authoritarian election subversion this Fall. The governor has declared a state of emergency to suspend the congressional elections because he doesn't like the current map.

What an incredible and shameful headline for Judson University. But this is what happens when you allow an arms dealer to buy-off your school's credibility to fete a Russian-backed secessionist, genocide denier, and hate monger. abc7chicago.com/post/elgins-...

WATCH: @dahliasc.bsky.social  joins @kayliwewe.bsky.social  to discuss her recent @newlinesmag.bsky.social  essay on the destruction of infrastructure across Lebanon, and whether it reflects a broader Israeli pattern of targeting already fragile states.

From the @newlinesmag.bsky.social  archives:  As war clouds gathered over Lebanon in Oct. 2023, @alexjrowell.bsky.social  watched with concern for the country — and his family's safety. He recalls the events that prompted him to leave his home of 11 years.

Senegal’s cafe Touba was created to provide spiritual stamina to praying Sufis, but the drink has become so popular that the sales of multinational coffee companies are dropping in the country,

NEW: Pakistan’s mediation in the Iran war and its growing ties in the Middle East signal its emergence as a key security actor in the region with an expanding role beyond South Asia, writes @surbhigupta.bsky.social for @newlinesmag.bsky.social . newlinesmag.com/reportage/pa...

NEW: Many right-leaning American Catholics have expressed dismay about President Trump’s recent diatribe against Pope Leo, but leading conservative Catholic intellectuals have been conspicuously quiet about the brouhaha. @dannypostel.bsky.social explores newlinesmag.com/running-note...

Pakistan’s mediation in the Iran war signals its growing importance beyond South Asia. But that’s just one aspect of its expanding role, writes @surbhigupta.bsky.social .

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 69 people, including entire families with Shiite and Indo-Iranian roots, accusing them of sympathizing with Tehran.

As U.S. and Israeli bombs rained down on Iran, music emerged as a means of fostering resilience and a tool of resistance, but the war’s destruction has left many artists struggling to support themselves, writes @KarimkhanF.

Cannot stress enough that what's happening now and will accelerate over next few weeks is a big spike in fuel costs paid for by every American that will flow *directly* into insane, unprecedented profits for American oil companies. They're going to be the big winners of this.

Marco Rubio and the neocon “Miami lobby” mirror the socialist regimes they seek to topple, seeing the world as neatly divided between friends and foes of Washington, argues @rojasrjuand.bsky.social in a thought-provoking essay for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

The White House encouraged agents to act recklessly during Operation Midway Blitz, a state panel found. blockclubchi.co/4t8ymBA

NEW: Pakistani nationals, many of them Shiite, allege being detained and deported from the UAE amid deteriorating relations between the countries in the wake of the Iran war, report @chriselkholy.bsky.social and @surbhigupta.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/spotlight/pa...

NEW: The Ojibwe tribes regard their fate as intertwined with that of gray wolves. Amid renewed federal efforts to strip the animals of protections, they are fighting for the wolves’ future, and their own rights, writes @samafaruqi.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/reportage/in...

The “Butcher of Tadamon” hid in plain sight for over a year, slipping between a mountain hideout and his family home in rural Hama. Yazan Shahdawi reports from the scene on how Syrian intelligence caught Amjad Youssef. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/ho...

The UAE is pulling out of OPEC, a move that signals Abu Dhabi's deepening frustration with Riyadh and the wider Gulf response to Iranian bombardment, writes @kshaheen.bsky.social . newlinesmag.com/running-note...

Leading conservative Catholic intellectuals have been missing in action on the Trump-pope controversy. "The silence is deafening," writes @dannypostel.bsky.social .

Ramy Youssef’s Elmo appearance and the reactions to it hint at a conditional acceptance for Arab Americans, still marked by suspicion and misinterpretation.

“This is making a lot of Catholic intellectuals very uncomfortable,” Steve Millies of the Catholic Theological Union said. Me in @newlinesmag.bsky.social on the conspicuous silence of conservative Catholic scholars in response to Trump's diatribes against Pope Leo ⤵️ newlinesmag.com/running-note...

If you're in Chicago on Saturday May 16, join us for a conversation with Thom Powers — lead documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival & host of the @purenonfiction.bsky.social podcast — about his new book “Mondo Documentary.” Details ⤵️ www.eventbrite.com/e/the-art-of...