Honestly, I just laughed through most of this article: ““When you flush the toilet, the stuff goes downhill, right?” the architect asked…“We’re going to have hundreds of shuttle cars running back and forth, picking up the sewage on retractable bridges.”” End of The Line ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

What is happening in Darfur is utterly devastating, made more painful by how we all saw it coming. You can’t really say you didn’t know, but if you didn’t, read this: An atrocity foretold: How the RSF siege of El Fasher turned into genocidal slaughter www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/202...

First London, now New York. If there’s one post-2001 legacy thesis that is yet to be written, it’s about mayoral elections in these two cities.

There should be something impactful and meaningful about accountability that one has ready to say when it’s announced Dick Cheney has died. But maybe, actually, it’s enough that today will only ever be remembered as the day Zohran Mamdani becomes the Mayor of New York City.

Blood spilled in Sudan can be seen from space. Nobody can feign ignorance about what’s going on | Nesrine Malik

The folks at The Continent continue to commission the reporting of some of the best Sudanese journalists on the ground, read Khalid Elwalid's full story from page 13 onwards. And check in with your Sudanese friends. www.thecontinent.org

Sudan’s cultural heritage becomes a casualty in its civil war www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...

Infuriating to see political voices in the West against what is happening in El Fasher, when powerful Sudanese voices have been warning about this for months if not years. It’s disingenuous to act surprised, pretend it’s a shock or find your voice now with this phase of genocide in Darfur underway.

We need urgent, immediate intervention in Sudan. For months now, I’ve been proposing an Astana-like process to conduct negotiations between Egypt & UAE - be it convened by Russia or by the United States. We can sit on our hands and argue ‘do no harm’ principles, or we can be realistic about this war

We live in an era of changed diplomacy in the Middle East, with the rising power of Gulf nations and their influence on regional dynamics and international diplomacy. Whilst a more coherent Arab position has long been sought…(1/2)

Must watch interview on @channel4news.bsky.social by @krishgm.bsky.social last night with Kholood Khair on developments in Sudan amid the RSF takeover of El Fasher in North Darfur. Utterly devastating for all Sudanese; important info, background & warnings from Kholood: youtu.be/XQV8ZMR3CrM?...

El Fasher is on all of those who have remained silent, or ignored the cold reality of what all knew would happen under RSF takeover. Geneina, Zamzam…we knew this. We were warned. Two previous genocides just in this war alone. Everyone stood back, watched. Stayed silent, and let this happen.

Americans are actually coming out en masse to *defend* Islamophobia. Up in arms at Mamdani giving agency and voice to the discrimination that Muslims have endured in the West, escalating on a visceral scale since 2001. I’ve long thought nothing can surprise me, but honestly, this really does.

“Tigray is broken. Its leaders divided, some aligning with Addis Ababa, others with Eritrea. Another war looms, one that could pit Tigrayans against each other. I fought once to defend my people; I will not fight again in a war that will destroy what remains.” continent.substack.com/p/the-exodus...

Embracing secondary, doubtful status for Muslims has major policy implications. Biden’s moral+strategic disaster on Gaza, for instance, flows directly from the broad acceptance among US elites that mass punishment + destruction post-10/7 was unavoidable. Huge, horrific, still unfolding consequences.

These are moments when history is being made. In this election, a monumental watershed moment has arrived. “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct—there are many who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.” - Zohran Mamdani.

The last few weeks of this heightened, racialised, sectarian narrative growing against Mamdani as he runs away with the election reminds me of where we were when Zac Goldsmith spewed utter bile and venomous crap about Sadiq Khan before Khan stormed the election to become the Mayor of London.

It’s really incredible how, despite 10 years in (de facto) power, no one in the West seems to have learnt a single thing about MbS’ Saudi Arabia. But please, carry on filling your time with hopeless, wasteful words that don’t ring true of any kind of real analysis or understanding.

Today is a reminder that the shrill, baseless screaming coming from Israel that “everything is Hamas” doesn’t stand up to any real scrutiny by serious people or serious institutions. Today is a victory not just for UNRWA. But for rule of law. And serious judges that occupy the seats at the ICJ.

The years-long trickle of information crystallising the story, is just utterly chilling. It’s hard to stomach, it’s almost too hard to believe, I cannot imagine the trauma inflicted upon these young girls for so long. Rest in your truth, rest in power, Virginia. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Raila Odinga, Former Kenyan Prime Minister and Champion of Democracy, Dies at 80 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/w...

He’s trying to orchestrate an “Oslo moment”.

If you've never been to Gaza, you won't appreciate what the yellow line means. Basically Israel now holds most of Gaza's small but important agricultural land. Continued Israeli occupation, which I judge the likely outcome, makes Gaza even more unliveable and more dependent on outside goods.

The only thing worth reading today as leaders gather in Sharm el Sheikh: While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland - @nesrinemalik.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms: the continuous moral winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in the eyes of those who know their sacrifice, the risk they take, the losses endured. (Taking nothing away from the winner, but two years in a row, the ERRs are robbed of their rightful place in peace building)

I don’t have the energy to listen to or read anything on Gaza ceasefire. There is merit in arguing global support for this deal may act as a deterrent to restarting the war, but the reality is what it’s been for 77 years - inside Israel above all, things have not changed when it comes to Palestine.

This is not a story of two sides finally finding peace. It is a story of two peoples who will wake up tomorrow under two very different skies: one free to heal, the other trapped in the ruins Nagham Zbeedat www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

"ستنتهي الحرب، ويتصافح القادة، وتبقى تلك العجوز تنتظر ولدها الشهيد، وتلك الفتاة تنتظر زوجها الحبيب، وأولئك الأطفال ينتظرون والدهم البطل. لا أعلم من باع الوطن ولكنني رأيت من دفع الثمن." - محمود درويش

As I predicted before, we have the lowest hanging fruit of a deal: hostage exchange and aid entry. Any attempts to look at the deeper, longer “20 point plan” and see a viable deal are futile, those positions cannot be reconciled, not just between Hamas and Israel, but Israel and the Arab States.

Bassem Youssef is back on Egypt’s airwaves, writing again in Shorouk. Plus ça change…

Keir Starmer calls us “un British” because we can acknowledge all victims are the same victims of the same brutality, same occupation - one original sin. Being anti-violence, being anti-war, being anti-occupation is an absolute principle. Real Principle can never be selective. @mrjamesob.bsky.social

Ali Kushayb, former senior leader of the Janjaweed - who ravaged and killed hundreds of thousands of people - convicted of war crimes in Darfur bbc.com/news/article...

Let it breathe.

Van Jones’ “joke” has gone so viral is headline news in Arabic mainstream media, not just social media. Silly to underestimate how much Arabs follow and see from the West, and it’s always been a surprise to me how much Westerners don’t understand or internalise how long and deep memories can be.

Nesrine is just so, so good. @nesrinemalik.bsky.social always brilliant reading.

A labour government wants to make amendments to our laws to bring in conditions, and possible outright ban on protests in the UK because the Palestine movement got too big for them to continue to ignore. A Labour government. Not Tory, not reform, but Labour.

10 months into this administration, and this will be the first trip for the US Middle East envoy to Cairo (Witkoff) for discussions on Gaza. It is difficult to underplay or exaggerate the level of isolation Egypt is experiencing in Washington since Sisi’s diplomatic “middle finger” to Trump in Feb.

Hamas’ statement is not acceptance of the new Trump plan. It’s an agreement to end the war & reach terms of agreement “upon further negotiations”. The momentum created by the Trump/Arab States meeting in NY has largely dissipated through Netanyahu’s efforts. I don’t think we’re going to get a deal.

A fascinating, brilliant, and engaging 3-episode mini-series from the Empire podcast on the history of Gaza. A Must-listen @willdalrymple.bsky.social @empirepoduk.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

This is a really good interview, deeply intellectual and thought-provoking. Leo Varadkar is a fascinating politician.

Tony Blair. Unbelievable. Of all the people, of all the names, of all the possible “ideas” for the Middle East, effin white people come up with this man. I feel too exhausted to be livid. But I’m also livid.

Read every word. A harrowing, ugly, disturbing account of the last few months of the 500+ day siege on El Fasher, North Darfur in Sudan. ‘We will never, ever escape’: inside the ever-tightening siege of the Sudanese city of El Fasher: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

I can only imagine what Alaa might think or feel about the Cairo he has stepped into upon his release from prison. What he will see in today’s Egypt as he sets his eyes, heart, mind on our country for the first time in years. Alaa is home. Alaa has been rightfully pardoned. None of us are yet free.

It is not the job nor responsibility of Palestinians, Arabs to accommodate the West’s mea culpa’s on Israel. It’s 77 years since 1948. This war, apartheid, genocide has been ongoing for 77 years. The region’s heart lies in Jerusalem - all that encompasses, including the insecurity - it always has.

Hope. Above all, above everything. Hope.

Arab States concluding Israel is the biggest threat to the region is not new, nor is it a result of the attack on Doha. What has changed is an internalisation that absolutely nothing is off the table, and for the Gulf, a physical wake up call that they cannot contain this and are not immune to it.

There’s so much to being Palestinian, being Arab - more than war & death. Zaid Farouki isn’t just revolutionising how to dress as an Arab, he’s changing the way we express our identity. He’s also an incredible soul, one of my besties and OG Dubai peeps 🤩 www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/lu...

Agree with Michael. The GCC as a whole has been unsettled with some recalibration on regional policy since the Iran attack on Al Udeid, but has largely felt despite the ceiling of Iranian rapprochement being met ,it can contain spillover from Gaza. This, completely changes their threat perception.

While the headlines will be rightly about the violation of Qatari sovereignty, questions about the GCC policy pursuit of US security guarantees for decades, and Israel’s basic madness, another story lies in what is clearly a massive Israeli intelligence blunder. No Hamas leaders killed or injured.