🚨 "This year, Saudi Arabia will use drones with thermal imaging as well as artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to ensure that only those who have Hajj permits are allowed in..." @cathrinschaer.bsky.social l‬ www.dw.com/en/hajj-isla...

So everybody - including international law - says starvation is a war crime. There's more of it about than ever too (well, since about 2011/15). But that's never been tested in an international court. Wrote about why and how that may soon change: www.dw.com/en/starvatio...

The more digital technology deployed during #Hajj2025 , the more attack surface in Saudi Arabia. Questions about pilgrims' digital privacy are also coming up, as is the impact of tech on the spiritual journey as a whole. Also interesting was... www.dw.com/en/high-tech...

Must read.

“Ein Staatsbesuch zeigt in diesem Kontext die völlige Gleichgültigkeit gegenüber der Tötung der Palästinenser:innen, der völkerrechtswidrigen israelischen Gewalt im Gazastreifen sowie im Westjordanland und Deutschlands eigener Verpflichtung unter der Genozid-Konvention.” taz.de/Steinmeier-i...

Walz: If you say you love freedom but you don't believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love is not freedom, it is privilege.

Not everything is perfect (obvsly) but how Syrians are trying to rebuild their country continues to give hope in these pretty dark times. 👑 Latest story... www.dw.com/en/syrian-do...

This is a popular thesis but a superficial one. It's not like Biden was a meaningful constraint on Netanyahu's judicial overhaul (it started when Biden was in office!). What stalled it was Israeli opposition and, ultimately, the October 7th massacre. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/w...

Last weekend, a huge and, in some cases, coordinated wave of disinfo/misinfo rolled over Syria. Spoke to the awesome folks @VeSyria (doing god's work on the "other site"), and asked an Iraqi user why they keep posting fake news about Syria (answer : $$ + Iran). www.dw.com/en/how-disin...

Sectarian disinformation from Iraq “DW messaged several users on social media who portrayed themselves as non-Syrian and posted information that was later debunked. Only one, whose profile said they were based in southern Iraq, responded…” @cathrinschaer.bsky.social www.dw.com/en/how-disin...

New analysis by @isdglobal.bsky.social suggests that the alleged Magdeburg Christmas market attacker in Germany was deeply immersed in far-right and anti-Muslim circles online, writes Jakob Guhl. http://prospectmagaz...

Israel wants to “defend” minorities in Syria, has moved troops into Syria and is regularly bombing the country. That’s despite the fact that Syria’s new rulers have said they don’t pose a threat to Israel, @cathrinschaer.bsky.social reports. www.dw.com/en/what-is-i...

Wrote about why Israel is bombing/occupying Syria and why it's (surprise!) not helpful (for anybody, not the Syrians, not Israel): www.dw.com/en/what-is-i...

Trump's plan for Gaza is delusional but the various Arab proposals circulating right now are hardly realistic. If you think Egyptian firms (or anyone) can rebuild the territory in three years, I have a bridge over the Nile to sell you nytimes.com/2025/02/21/w...

Simon Strick with an excellent postmortem on the "Brandmauer", here in English: thediasporist.de/no-wall-only... and here in German: thediasporist.de/de/keine-mau... @thediasporist.bsky.social

Many reports lately about Egyptian troop +tank build up near Israeli border. But as one interviewee told me, that's "total bullsh*t". www.dw.com/en/making-se...

Love this report from inside post-Assad Syria by @mazmhussain.bsky.social mazmhussain.substack.com/p/the-road-t...

Sanctions in Syria: complex 🐔or🥚? situation. Sanction-setting Western nations want new Syrian govt. to achieve inclusive, democratic governance before they roll back sanctions. But the new Syrian govt. likely can't achieve that without sanctions being relaxed. www.dw.com/en/experts-w...

Lashings of disinfo/misinfo on Syria. No matter what you think of them, a wide variety of this 'fake news', being amplified by everyone from far left to far right, from MidEast to EU and US, aligns against Syria's new leadership... which is - to say the least - worrying. www.dw.com/en/disinform...

On this special day, may all your wishes seem momentarily achievable x

All the videos of the Azerbaijan Airlines flight showing the damage show holes in the wreckage have entry holes on the port side and exit holes on the starboard side, likely with a slight angle from below.

Shooting people for sport, ignoring any distinction between civilian and combatant ("no exceptions, no civilians, everyone's a terrorist"), calling in air strikes on unarmed families: this is what Israeli soldiers are doing in Gaza, in their own words. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

More knock-on effects of Assad's fall: Is Russia withdrawing military assets from Syria and heading for Libya? Nobody knows for sure quite yet but if they do, there's danger of another frozen conflict (in Libya) unfreezing🥶 www.dw.com/en/russian-m...

Russian Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of the military’s nuclear, chemical and biological defense forces, was killed by a bomb placed on a scooter in Moscow on Tuesday. He's the most prominent military officer to be assassinated of the war. w/ @maxseddon.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/ccb1...

Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed Al-Louh was killed in an Israeli strike, making him the third journalist killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours aje.io/a90xq1

Gaza aid close to all-time lows despite US warning to Israel www.ft.com/content/0291...

Syria's HTS are heading a transitional govt. but are also on terror lists in the West. That could impede the country's urgently needed transition (see bsky.app/profile/grae... great thread on this). Should they be taken off those lists for the sake of Syrians everywhere? www.dw.com/en/should-ht...

Still going this evening though police seem determined to sit things down.Not heard here but one of the most common chants this afternoon in Berlin, "one, one, one, the Syrian people are one."

Berlin today and this evening. Beautiful scenes, people hugging, crying, mabrouk (congratulations) was the most common greeting.

Berlin today

💚 💚 💚

Check out my latest investigation with L'Orient Le Jour. We analyzed satellite imagery to reveal that about 25% of #Israel’s evacuation warnings in #Beirut’s southern suburbs were followed by airstrikes that destroyed much more than their intended targets. today.lorientlejour.com/article/1437...

As we try to make sense of the rebel advance in Syria and the apparent collapse of the regime (and the puzzling lack of engagement from Russia and Iran), Aron Lund and Sam Heller delve into why this is happening, and some of the new risks for which we should prepare.

Iran has begun evacuating from Syria. This includes top commanders of the Quds Forces, some diplomatic staff, and IRGC personnel, three Iranian officials and other regional officials told @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/w...

Syria’s rebels reorganized, rearmed & seized the moment of maximum weakness among Syria’s allies. Iran is “the weakest it’s been in decades.” Hezbollah too. Russia is preoccupied in Ukraine. By @leloveluck @kfahim & @sgreports www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

‘She is an eyewitness’- how Merkel’s ‘office manager’ played key role in memoir www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

From photographer Omar Albam, another important follow from Syria. Yes, what's happening there is complicated, with competing narratives and interests, but under all that, just people who suffered so long and were happy to see home again. www.instagram.com/reel/DDAM2C0...

We're not about to enter paradise by any means. But now other parts of Syria are rising/ other power centers, which will dilute (the already greatly moderated) HTS. The civil revolution is crushed, but will return with millions of exiles if assad is brought down. this is movement

Eight years after Aleppo was starved by siege, pounded by regime, Russian & Iranian forces & it's population forcibly displaced, the Free Syria flag flies over the citadel ...

New flare up in northwestern Syria, including a rebel offensive to grab some territory in what is said to be retaliation for regime bombing etc. Seems small in scale, but noteworthy just because it’s so rare to see the rebels on the offensive at all these days. www.enabbaladi.net/726004/%D9%8...

People are often surprised when I tell them this: both Twitter and Facebook/insta/threads are now specifically engineered to downgrade, hide, suppress real journalism. If this platform is different, that's a huge change

This is not only terrible for the cultural community in Berlin but also incredibly stupid. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

Here's my latest (free!) Digital Investigations newsletter. It's got: 📍 Useful Bluesky tools & tips 📍 New tools for YouTube, AI prompts, username search & more! 📍 Webinars and articles to help with research and reporting Read/subscribe: digitalinvestigation...

This is more sinister activity from Xitter. Younis Tirawi’s account in Palestine, followed by many top reporters has been systematically de-followed by a ‘bug’ at X (not a bug clearly) . Consequently has lost almost 100k followers

WaPo Editorial Board thing starts with this. Stepping past the "what about"-ism going on here, many of these other atrocity cases are jurisdictionally hard for ICC--sadly ICC doesn't have (but should, imo have) universal jurisdiction to investigate any atrocity. So why not let's walk through them

‘You get desensitised to it’: how social media fuels fear of violence

hard to exaggerate how nuts the engagement is on Bluesky compared to 𝕏. a vastly smaller user base (at least officially), but just look at these stats for one of the biggest newspapers on Earth. Musk has absolutely trashed the platform. folks, you are not locked in on 𝕏. not even a little.

Why has Assad not yet been tried by the International Criminal Court? We break it down:

Mit einem viel zu langsamen Zeitplan, aber immerhin: Bei der UNO geht es auf dem Weg zu einem internationalen Vertrag gegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit voran.