Iranian leaders “were the victims of their disbelief in Trump.” Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on how Iran's leadership made the fatal mistake of gathering together in one location in daylight. See the full conversation between Olmert and Tina Brown on Fresh Hell.

"Many ordinary people have a joke view of the world in which Trump comes in, takes out Khamenei - and whatever they want will occur." @arashtehran.bsky.social speaks to me and Negar Mortazavi about the aftermath of the #IranWar | Full ep @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/podcast/in-t...

"Even in the not-quite-best-case scenario, Khamenei’s demise will likely allow Iran to abandon some of his most destructive core policies... —not least, his insistence on sacrificing Iran on the altar of a failed ideology." By @arashtehran.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

NEW: "No to the Islamic republic, no to Israel and no to the United States" — many Iranians are weighing contradictory truths as war hits their country. @negarmortazavi.bsky.social and @arashtehran.bsky.social join @faisalalyafai.bsky.social on The Lede. newlinesmag.com/podcast/in-t...

The regime won't unravel so easily, but there will be changes. @arashtehran.bsky.social: "You will see an end to Khamenei's policies. It doesn't matter who they pick as Supreme Leader, the real power lies with the nat security council. These guys will abandon Khamenei's core policies." 3/4

🧵"He isn't the president of peace, but he's also not the president of war." Just finished recording an emergency podcast with Negar Mortazavi and @arashtehran.bsky.social Full episode coming @newlinesmag.bsky.social but here are three things worth noting. 1, this is likely to be a short war 👇1/4

“I have dreamed to see the end of [Ayatollah Khamenei]...I have complicated feelings precisely because...we are in the mix of a terrible war.” @arashtehran.bsky.social on the conflicted emotions Iranians are experiencing after their leader was killed in a major attack by the U.S. and Israel.

Key follows for today and going forward if you want to know what’s happening in Iran and the region: @hbanai.bsky.social @dassakaye.bsky.social @abuaardvark.bsky.social @arashtehran.bsky.social @dahliasc.bsky.social @yjtorbati.bsky.social

Okay I feel like this is going to come up a lot in the next 24 hours so let's just clear this up: Ayatollah Khameini, the Iranian supreme leader allegedly killed today, is/was *not* the same person as Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader who came to power in the 1979 revolution.

And this by @arashtehran.bsky.social from a few years ago www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/middle...

From the @newlinesmag.bsky.social archives: Iranians in both Iran and the diaspora are reckoning with the failures of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement & the regime’s persistence. A lack of organized political opposition is to blame, argues @arashtehran.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

The Yorgos Lanthimos-directed commercial transition right into the Minions teaser. Cinema!

www.theatlantic.com/internationa... a beautiful must read if you care about humanity and love movies (Gift article) Thank you Arash Azizi for writing this and @theatlantic.com for publishing it

We dropped this episode Monday with the talented @ntabrizy.bsky.social; today she was one of those affected by #washingtonpost cuts. So much talent from the foreign desk, investigations and overseas bureaus gutted. If you can, support, commission, hire 👇

archive.ph/1BpQF Free link for those who need it.

Many see #Iran’s clerical leadership as glorifying a 47-year-old Islamic revolution that does not reflect their needs or desires. “People don't like the structures, the policies, they don't like the results of the policies,” @arashtehran.bsky.social told me www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

“Those were alarms, you just didn’t want to listen,” is very good.

Interesting read on what's happening in #Iran: #IranRevolution

In der aktuellen @jungle.world ist ein sehr informatives Interview über die Lage im #Iran mit @arashtehran.bsky.social erschienen 👇 jungle.world/artikel/2026...

We've analysed new videos published by @vahid.online that show rows of body bags at the Kahrizak mortuary in Tehran on 10 January. We've counted at least 186 bodies in one clip and at least 178 bodies in another, although the true figure is likely much higher. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I wrote about the Iranian protests, the challenges they face to bring about democratization and why I think the writing is on the wall for the Islamic Republic. Let me know what you think! www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

A good discussion from yesterday

"... the regime won’t be able to kill its way out of this crisis. The core policies of the 1979 revolution—puritanical sociocultural repression at home and anti-Western and anti-Israeli activity abroad—will have to be discarded." by @arashtehran.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Question for @arashtehran.bsky.social: how do you interpret this protest slogan? Iran First? "No to Gaza; no to Lebanon; my life only for Iran.” From: www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

A couple of BOOK EVENTS: Tomorrow night @arashtehran.bsky.social is doing an online event with Backstory. backstory.london/products/wha... Then on the 27th @shippersunbound.bsky.social is talking to David McCloskey in Dulwich about his latest book: www.trybooking.com/uk/events/la...

I spoke with Arash Azizi about what is different between US policy on Venezuela and Iran. www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

ENTRE LES MOLLAHS, ISRAËL ET TRUMP : L’IRAN PRIS AU PIÈGE @aminesnoussi.bsky.social reçoit @arashtehran.bsky.social dans ce nouvel Entretien d'Actu www.lemediatv.fr/emissions/20...

One of the most powerful images of the Iranian protests is that of an Iranian young woman burning Khamenei’s portrait, and lighting her cigarette with it. Photographer unknown.

Change May Be Coming to Iran Trump’s ouster of Venezuela’s president has the Islamic Republic on edge and the opposition energized. @arashtehran.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

ENTRE LES MOLLAHS, ISRAËL ET TRUMP : L’IRAN PRIS AU PIÈGE @aminesnoussi.bsky.social reçoit @arashtehran.bsky.social dans ce nouvel Entretien d'Actu www.lemediatv.fr/emissions/20...

Listeners have been asking for a shoppable TGS bookshelf since we launched the show, so we’ve kindly obliged with the help of Bookshop! You’ll be able to find books by our authors as well as the ones they’ve recommended on the pod, all while supporting indie bookstores! It’s really a win-win.

I really feel like the Tate Modern might be turning a corner. After years of incredibly tedious and annoying captions alongside very poorly conceived exhibitions, both Nigerian Modernism and the Emily Kam Kngwarray (closes on 11 January) are a massive return to form.

CNN just pointed it out, but since no one has posted it yet, I'll be that guy. Here's today's round of Kill Your Inner Mercator: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Venezuela in a way your brain can handle

Trump on María Corina Machado: "I think it'd be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman but she doesn't have the respect."

i think that people really underestimate reality that 1) administration has no doctrine, it is really about a single, mercurial, and half-awake man 2) the administration is a constantly churning system with factions that rise and fall contextually 3) might not have happened if trump tower caracas

FOX & FRIENDS: What do you think is next for the Venezuelan people now that you have removed Maduro so he can face American justice? TRUMP: Well, we're making that decision now. We can't take a chance on letting somebody else run it, just take over where he left off. So we're making that decision

Can the protesters prevail against the Islamic Republic? Arash Azizi looks at the Iranian movement's challenges and prospects:

Lee: As a Black woman, there’s no way I don’t have hope. I’ve seen a lot in my life, and we have these moments of backward steps. But we have hope. I see hope. I see our young people—they have hope. I see them fighting hard for our democracy and for a better life.

i'm really having a hard time getting past the "surely we can all agree that Somalis are worse than trash" thing. this feels new and very bad

so who on here is talking about what’s going on in Iran?

The best history podcast there is

Here is the editor of Tablet agreeably reposting someone calling nonwhite NYC immigrants "worthless biotrash." It's astonishing how quickly this stuff has escaped containment

Our executive director, Rabbi @mhughesrob.bsky.social, was invited to officially represent @partners4israel.bsky.social at @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social's inauguration yesterday as the 112th mayor of New York City - and was honored to attend!

I wrote about #IranProtests www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Ringing out the year by repeating one of my most common rants: The closure of an institutional library is a very strong predictor of institutional decline.

Alona is a real force and I love what she has done in Prospect

It's the end of a year, so I'm going to make the most of the excuse for some shameless self-promotion. Slightly seriously though, I've produced some journalism I'm proud of in 2025, so here is a thread of some of the pieces I wrote for @prospectmagazine.co.uk .... /1