This an official Vatican photograph of Leo at Lampedusa, Italy - one of the world’s heaviest migrant sites - where he went this morning to pray for migrants who died at sea. This is after turning down the offer to come to the United States.

Never mind 1776, here's the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

Hossam Hassan, Egypt’s head coach, carried the Palestinian flag after Egypt advanced to the Round of 16 of the World Cup. He said, “I dedicate this victory to the Egyptian and Palestinian people.”

my mona lisa moment is seeing Klee’s *Angelus Novus* in person at the excellent Klee show at the Jewish Museum. Don’t skip this! (i wrote my BA thesis on Klee and Kahlo)

Then, unis are increasingly spending money on other stuff, so we are a lower portion of the budget. Because our dept budgets are >90% salary faculty may not realize this. But remember that's because they're underfunding each dept & expecting us to find ways to "generate revenue" to do the rest.

Fantastic trip down memory lane of 2011 revolutions in rendering Arabic digitally/online! (and histories and current hiccups)

NEW: American victims of Palestinian acts deemed terrorist can sue in U.S. court. But if the perpetrator is Israeli, there is no path to compensation. Congress can and must rectify this profoundly unequal situation, argues Rachel Nelson for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

Why were anti-ICE protestors--the Prarieland defendants--convicted as terrorists and sentenced to decades in prison? There's a long history behind this, which I lay out in my forthcoming book SEASONS OF FURY www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/672414...

“The process of India becoming a post-truth society is near complete” I continue to look forward to the day when India rejects Hindutva and begins to rebuild from its current catastrophe. That will involve reckoning with how the state treated its own... www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

What people forget is that Khalid is also an incredibly promising young scholar. If you can buy, cite and assign his brilliant book on India’s indigenous people, based on his doctoral thesis. www.juggernaut.in/products/fra...

www.somo.nl/the-netherla... ‘It is not possible to assess the financial success of Israel’s largest corporations without considering the role of the Netherlands. The Netherlands is the biggest destination for Israeli capital in the world.’

"I think Audrey Truschke’s work opened the door to a long overdue reassessment of Aurangzeb." timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-...

Sanjay Subrahmanyam on the late, great Carlo Ginzburg

feels like a good time to remind us all of this perverse oped by Orlando Patterson justifying the harassment of Anita Hill by Clarence Thomas www.nytimes.com/1991/10/20/o...

The power of a union contract in action! Congratulations to the California Faculty Association for fighting for Prof. Sang Hea Kil & winning reinstatement!

so, Hindu nationalists -destroyed the Babri Masjid in the '90s -gained enough political influence for the Supreme Court to approve the Ram Mandir's construction -turned the temple into a global Hindutva symbol -are now reportedly embezzling temple donations www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...

today’s walk

For @theguardian.com I write that ending TPS is the single largest assault on immigrant lives in contemporary US & part of a playbook that couples expanded enforcement with canceling legal status. “Legal” & “illegal” are decisions about whose life is valued. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Is there some sort of international relations term for this, such as “weekend wars” or “market-driven peace dividend?”

for my bday I'm going to be self-indulgent and link to some pieces I published this year. I reviewed two short story collections from trans authors for The Metropolitan Review, arguing for a critical lens that splits from the discourse of representation substack.com/@metropolita...

An immigration attorney says that there are now swaths of people held in immigration detention centers who shouldn’t be detained at all. “The number of people who are detained outside the scope of the law has increased dramatically.”

Read him since my early blog (1997/98) and met him once. He was incredibly huge for early desi internet and SAJA ofc. RIP.

"A History of the United States in 100 Objects" series by Roman Mars is proving to be quite good. I appreciated #6 "Sharpened Screwdriver"

👏 🇨🇻

Robin D.G. Kelley recommends three books every radical should read

Braudel by way of chickpeas. Fast becoming one of my favorite food writers. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

man, rest in peace to Om Malik, one of the most grounded, human, thoughtful people in Silicon Valley. some may know him for helping to break the Stephen Glass story; others may know him as pioneering blogger and microblogger; others may know him as investor. a remarkable man om.co/2026/06/24/1...

If you're in NYC and want a moratorium on "A.i." in the public schools, PLEASE submit your comments to the @council.nyc.gov TODAY. Under "Hearing," choose "Wed, Jun 24 2026 @ 1 PM - Committee on Education (jointly with the Committee on Technology) council.nyc.gov/testify/

"[Any species of understanding] can only be established on the basis of a shared culture. Substituting a monetizable ersatz culture for the one evolved through historical experience is a particularly insidious form of knowledge collapse."

Ashura is a time of remembrance, sacrifice and reflection. Today, on the 10th day of Muharram, we are reminded of Imam Hussain's unwavering commitment to truth and dignity. His legacy reminds us of the enduring values of faith, service to one another, and that justice is always worth fighting for.

Speaking of this theory... Recently the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh unveiled a statue of “Maharishi Sushruta” at the Royal College of Surgery, Edinburgh. I use quotation marks as there is no such person. www.thehindu.com/news/nationa...

French Resistance fighter and historian Marc Bloch, murdered by the Gestapo in 1944, is inducted into Panthéon in Paris.

Dense, deeply researched, this book focuses smartly on the 70s and 80s. The fight against authoritarianism it chronicles often ends badly, but the women at the center of this story never give up trying to bring better worlds into being.

tuesday flowers

I wrote about Mona Khalil's life and death, and what it means to do conservation work amid bombs, invasion, and occupation defector.com/mona-khalil-...

Absurd cruelty — the sign of a weakening regime trying to intimidate increasing and widespread resistance — against the Prairieland defendants, including two trans women. Solidarity with political prisoners is incredibly important right now.

That time Amy Goodman and I interviewed Alan Greenspan about the failure of trickle down economics, his role creating the 2008 financial collapse and the oligarch class, as well as his support for the invasion of Iraq and of shock therapy in Russia. He was mad. www.democracynow.org/2007/9/24/al...

📯JOB: two-year, fixed-term Teaching Fellowship in Early Modern European and Global History, tenable from 1 September 2026

Some reason (while watching the IR game), I started singing this!

Sad to hear the passing of one of the most prominent historian of modern South Asia, Thomas Metcalf (May 31, 1934–June 18, 2026) who spent his seven decades long career at UC Berkeley.

On the limits — intellectually and otherwise — of professional historians engaging with conspiracy theorists. The subject is Shakespeare, but there are some applicable points to dealing with Hindutva fantasies about the Indian past. contingentmagazine.org/2026/06/18/h...

This is Mona Khalil, a Lebanese environmentalist who spent many years protecting endangered sea turtles. Earlier this month, Israel struck her home in Mansouri, Tyre and today, she passed away after succumbing to her injuries. This is who Israel is killing in Lebanon.

This is a lovely piece to read today (by Hanif Abdurraqib) from 2025

“Detractors might scoff at Musk’s ambition to die on Mars, but at least the dying part would be easy.” — @henrywismayer.bsky.social #mars #spaceexploration #spacex

New York today for the #Knicks

1/4 Full press release: “UAW DELEGATES APPROVE HISTORIC DIVESTMENT FROM ISRAEL BONDS” docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Got a copy of Nehru’s *The Discovery of India* (1960 imprint) and discovered this ticket from Dec 1961!

amazing

1,000-year-old Major Oak in Sherwood Forest dies 😢😔 In 2017, I worked with Nottinghamshire campaigners to stop petrochemicals company INEOS from fracking Sherwood Forest. But the climate crisis got to the Major Oak in the end: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This appeal by Palestinians to recipients of the Dan David Prize to reject the award to help dismantle Israel's system of apartheid was penned three years ago. The need to reject these prizes has never been more urgent. bdsmovement.net/news/palesti...