NEW in MER 317: "Burri Under Siege--How War Remade Everyday Life in a Sudanese Neighborhood" Niema Alhessen spoke with residents of the Khartoum neighborhood that has been remade as a warscape following the end of a siege in March 2025.

Dear Alumni, stay connected with us! 🎓 Share your latest career or life updates to help us highlight alumni achievements. Take a moment to fill out our Kevorkian Alumni News Updates form; we’d love to hear from you! 🖇️ buff.ly/ZJmnuSQ

Congratulations to our affiliated faculty member, Khaled Al-Hilli, on the incredible recognition for his work as a translator of Nasser Rabah’s recently published book, "Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece."

I don’t disagree with this op-Ed from Arne Duncan & David Pressman, but worth emphasizing that professors have been saying this for the past 385 days. And that at many universities the administration is about as authoritarian as the federal govt.

“Under any other president, a UAE royal secretly paying $500 million to the Trump family’s crypto business would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be demands for an investigation by Congress, televised hearings, and months of damage control” — my latest @theguardian.com

Can U.S. & Iran Lower Tensions? Officials Begin New Talks Amid Trump Threats of Military Strikes

My plants and I had a lovely conversation about Iranian protests and politics with Tomas Delgado, a thoughtful interviewer, New York City tour guide, comedian, and much more

On cue the news of Wash Post slashing international news desk

A review of the new magazine, Equator

“The American empire, less about the direct administration of territory than the projection of power, requires neither local competency nor even policy success.”

A very good piece on Iran that underscores the importance of thinking about austerity and sanctions together and the ways they produce inequality as well as pauperization www.merip.org/2026/01/gove...

Despite it all, Omid Maljoo articulates a hopeful development in Iran. Thanks to Naghmeh Sohrabi for translating the voice of Iranians in Iran

NEW PODCAST: Another installment of the MERIP Roundtable featuring a discussion of Iran's recent wave of protests, the regional political dilemma's Iran faces and thorny diaspora politics. Executive Director, James Ryan, is joined by Asma Abdi, Kaveh Ehsani and Maziyar Ghiabi.

Snow days were removed from the schedule in the covid-era because "remote school" - Blame deBlasio Secondly, NYC used to famously not call snow days. From 1990-2000 NYC public schools had a total of TWO snow days IIRC. Both for the Blizzard of 96 which dumped like 20 inches of snow in 24 hours

Sadly relevant to many places and states

As of Jan 26, Israel holds in its prisons: 1,293 convicted Palestinian prisoners 3,328 Palestinians awaiting trial 3,385 administrative detention (held without charges) 1,237 "illegal combatants" Torture is rampant and well documented. hamoked.org/prisoners-ch...

Some poignant observations from Iran “But what endures is what happens after the streets empty: the recalibration of fear, the small private negotiations with conscience, the decision each morning about how visible one can afford to be.”

Top two articles are about ICE abducting a 5 year old and a 2 year old. Below that, news about a historically large protest and general strike. Then articles detailing how ICE lies about their actions and how the White House makes/publishes fake images about the anti-ICE protests.

An account of Iran’s protests from someone who just returned to the U.S. —“I write here as a person with a deep love for the country and the people, and after decades of research into its culture and history. I ask that you hold all of the pieces below together, not in opposition to each other….”

Awful.

A lovely essay by Mona El-Ghobashy …”The challenge for any Gazan—including …scholar Haidar Eid & journalist Mohammed Omer Almoghayer—is how to communicate what it feels like to live this violent state of exception, but without being turned into symbols of abjection or hollow heroism.”

Greenland did not break the international rules based order. Ask Iraqis, Libyans, Palestinians…..

A good conjuncture analysis by Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

When you have bulldozers, everything looks like…something needing to be bulldozed

"Threatened simultaneously by external war and internal crisis, the state chooses to wage economic war on its own populations rather than purchase domestic peace through welfare." New online: Iman Ganji and Bahar Noorizadeh on the protests in Iran. www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...

A detailed report from a protestor in Iran and being “trapped between reactionary forces”

Sportswashing on steroids.

“People are emboldened in part by the weakness of the regime, but also because society has been brimming with energy from both previous national protests & daily claim-making by nurses, teachers, truck drivers, farmers, pensioners, oil workers & many others. These protests don’t exist in a vacuum.”

The image of people wandering among black body bags looking for the corpses of their missing loved ones is just devastating.

A good discussion from yesterday

I will be in Chicagoland next week for two talks on my book on the Persian Gulf. Please attend if you are so moved. Northwestern on 1/21 planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/637806 And U of Chicago on 1/23 events.uchicago.edu/event/258236...

Great take by @nargesbajoghli.bsky.social on why for #Iran 2026 is not repeat of 1979. time.com/7345623/iran...

I am glad Reza is doing this. But unfortunately this will be a very very long thread. (Yet more evidence that in the past 125 years Tehran loves to devour its periphery)

"It’s no coincidence that, after years of fighting abroad, the US is beset with paranoia, loss of trust,& increasingly bitter divisions" @stephenwalt.bsky.social on why #WarsComeHome: Blowback Low domestic welfare spending Elite exaggeration of foreign threats foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/03/a...

In a world of so many classless men, this a touching including quoting Shamloo

The Jerusalem Post promoting the Israeli line on Iran. For all its efforts to position Reza Pahlavi as a credible opposition force, the end game is the disintegration of Iran in the name of the “self-determination” of ethnic groups . The very thing Israel denies Palestinians /n

A woman recording an ICE agent tells him "Shame on you." The agent responds, "Have you all not learned from the past couple of days?" "Learned what?" she asks Then he knocks her phone out of her hand

Good discussion by someone tracking social movements in Iran for years, Kadivar. “once a contentious episode begins, diffusion dynamics can accelerate participation beyond what structural conditions alone would predict—through inspiration, shared emotions, & the rapid spread of information.”

Yes, Reza Pahlavi called on people to take to the streets last night. But he also did in the summer during the Israeli bombing of Iran and people ignored him. A broken clock…. U.S. media, including PBS, needs to stop framing protests in Iran around a 65 year old who has never held a job

Amwaj has been offering good summaries of what is happening in Iran and perspectives from many sides of the debates inside and outside Iran. Better than most English language sources

Read this on Iran and it will give you a sense of the bewilderment of following what is taking place in Iran from abroad

Good overview of what did and did not happen in Venezuela last week

Do revolutions come or are they made? We used to debate that in grad school. Tonight I am less confident about my thoughts about it

A judicious summary of where we are at in Iran and what helped get us here

Nice summary how oil does and does not figure into The question of Venezuela nbutler.substack.com/p/venezuela-...

They’ve got Twitter up on the big screens in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago makeshift “situation room.” Photos from Trump’s Truth Social account.

Damn it Qatar I was enjoying this one not being about the Middle East

that is what Bush said about Iraq - $7 trillion mistake

Over 50 percent of the bad takes on social media can be addressed by saying “people can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Really not that amazing for 2 things to be true at the same time