Happy Nowruz, New York City.   As Persian and other communities welcome the new year, I joined our team to learn about the Haft-seen table — a tradition rooted in renewal, reflection, and hope.   Wishing you all a new year filled with peace, light, and understanding.

"The 5 Most Islamophobic Tweets From Republicans Since the Iran War Began" GOP members of Congress are now saying insanely vile and racist things about Muslims that they couldn’t say about any other group.

Another day, another violation of academic freedom in Texas. This time a university is firing a philosophy professor owing to complaints about an off-campus talk he gave on the Israeli-Palestine conflict...

Quite remarkable how the final dismantling of Lebanon in its current form is barely eliciting a shrug from American policymakers whether pro-Trump or anti

The recommendation to remove topics related to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Syed Ahmad Khan and Mohammad Iqbal from the syllabus of MA Political Science has been forwarded to the Board of Studies, which will meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter. Read more: scroll.in/latest/10915... #JammuUniversity

this is a crime against humanity

Why the humanities matter! Also, LOL www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Trump: I’m going to put ICE in the airports, where they will target and arrest all the illegals, especially Somalis, because I hate the Democrats Headlines: Trump puts ICE officers in airports to ease long lines, provide relief for weary travelers

Another university getting rid of things you could only ever do at a university and replacing them with stuff a 13-year-old can do on a phone

So, um... this is bad. Really bad. I looked at the letters that were translated by the AI, and the very first one I found was almost entirely hallucination. Thread:

Secret tricks to get much better results out of the very dreadful 'Google search' these days, plus other search engines for specific things. Statospherically useful for researchers. open.substack.com/pub/cardcata...

Solidarity with Emily Tucker and her open letter to students. Tucker writes, "But the great thing is, you don’t have to go along with this, and I urge you not to. You can refuse to use the chatbot. You can tell your professors that you don’t want them to use it or to require you to use it."

“What was really surprising to me during my initial dive into all of this was how, when you look at the question of superintelligence as a documentarian or journalist, it doesn’t take long before you smack your forehead into the low doorframe of race science, because it’s baked into this technology”

“Guillo-teen” was right there.

I will never use AI to write anything. Even if it weren't ethically dubious, using AI to write is like having a robot do the reps during weight lifting. Your writing skills will deteriorate. Your voice will atrophy. I genuinely don't understand why any writer would do it. Makes no sense.

It feels like what Israel is doing in Lebanon is under-reported – of course there is a lot happening elsewhere. But a million people displaced is massive and horrifying, even aside from the growing death toll. This is a disaster www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Happy St. Patrick's Day, New York.

for a second I thought he was holding aloft his German Lightsaber

I'm one of many professors quoted in this report from Alice Speri. I really appreciate The Guardian taking an angle which has basically eluded every other major outlet.

Beyond his genius, no one went as hard as Dr. Ambedkar. Like look at that epigraph!

The US/Israel is obliterating one of the world’s most historically and culturally important cities. Esfahan is filled with the most stunning monuments and is a center of Iranian arts and crafts. Here are just a few pictures of of its splendor x.com/soureh_desig...

687 people have been killed in Lebanon in barely 2 weeks. Thousands have been injured. 800,00 have been displaced. Out of a population of 5 million. Reckon with that slaughter and horror. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

For the new South Asia book forum section, I reviewed and put into conversation three excellent recent books: Rishad Choudhury‘s Hajj Across Empires, @ajab.bsky.social 's The Making of Persianate Modernity & Daniel Majchrowicz’s The World in Words. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

What Israel/US is doing to Iran is horrifying but it doesn’t compare to what Israel, with full US support, is doing to Lebanon and Palestine. Not even close x.com/mamoun_linda...

Here's the research, and a fascinating article how using ChatGPT may permanently damage your cognitive and creative abilities. This is a must read for teachers and students alike. I'm sure we'll see more of these studies too. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Deep dive on Raja Krishnamoorthi, including a bit on his far-right ties with Hindu supremacist groups. In today’s America, we are all seeing the horrors of giving a pass to those with far-right ties. Don’t make that mistake with him. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/03/10/r...

just saying: it's possible that "I'm gonna dramatically constrict my state capacity while plotting dramatic imperial expansion, and expanding my set of internal enemies while alienating most of my foreign allies" is the beginning of a world-historical masterstroke. but also possible that it isn't

Malacca!

Just a reminder that Muslims have been on this continent since the first arrival of non-Indigenous people. They were among the first generation of Americans, and have been here ever since.

Historians are quite capable of explaining the hellscape that is the US at this particular minute, and its kind of telling that you imagine we won't because it means you haven't been listening or reading

I’m briefly in India. This is a facile observation, but Americans have barely scratched the surface in understanding how the rest of the world is reacting to this war. It’s already an Iraq War-style disaster in the global imagination, underscored by the thuggishness and caprice of the Trump approach

The horror Israel/US has unleashed on Iran is going to unfold over time, over generations x.com/arianajasmin...

Legendary Anglo-Indian dancer Olive Craddock who performed internationally as Roshanara. Photo by Underwood and Underwood, New York c 1918. (Thread)

I was in Tehran this time last year. I want you to see how beautiful my city is. I want you to see the city the US/Israel is trying to wipe off the face of the earth

Back in September, OpenAI released a paper showing that ChatGPT will always make things up. Not sometimes. Not until the next update. Always. It's how the system fundamentally works. Which means there is no "fix."

It was wrong and harmful - and quite possibly unlawful - to cut already approved NEH grants because Donald Trump hates "DEI." But the way DOGE went about doing it was even dumber than you probably imagined. They fed abstracts into ChatGPT and demanded an answer in fewer than 120 characters.

Trump is calling this a "minor excursion"

Just heard from a friend in Tehran who says reality is even worse than the pictures. When they hit the depot in Aghdasiyeh, he could hear and feel it from 15km away. He says if he could reach internet he’d say: “today is the day the world shall end, as the scripture has foretold,” he says.

North Tehran’s Aqdasiyeh oil depot is ablaze tonight after it was targeted by multiple US-Israeli airstrikes. Apocalyptic scenes filmed by Iranians driving on the nearby highway. Local reporters saying firefighters can’t put it out. This depot is critical energy infrastructure for Iran.

Hegseth needs to stand trial after this as a war criminal. Between this attack and the girls' school, there's no ambiguity. He is responsible for mass murder and must be held accountable.

“You better call up Tyroooone…” 🎶 @murcoil.bsky.social

Fun update on National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships: they have to focus on "American history and culture and Western civilization." Sinologists et al. are no longer welcome. www.neh.gov/grants/resea... #Sinology 🀄️📚

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

The Reza Pahlavi thing is where it gets into pure fanfic- so the plan is to parachute in the guy only known for being the son of the man remembered in Iran for selling national resources to foreigners and using the proceeds to throw the most expensive parties of the century?? gluck with that

The Trump administration’s global havoc is unending. My latest story is about how the Trump admin is amplifying anti vaxx conspiracies just as measles outbreaks are spreading across the globe; many countries have just lost elimination status, and others are on the brink.

This is amazing. www.getyourfuckingmoneyback.com