"Not only is he not a senior religious figure, he's barely a political figure – he has operated in the background," is how Iran expert Farzan Sabet described Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader. My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Even as some Iranians allowed themselves private joy in watching sites where they were detained get hit in strikes, the regime made sure to stoke fear– blasting citizens with texts threatening them for using VPNs or "speaking to the enemy." My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

The Trump administration currently has no viable way of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Military escorts for tankers and other civilian ships are too dangerous to try, U.S. officials and military analysts told us: www.wsj.com/world/middle...

“This is going to have massive consequences for how we tell this story.”

Strongly considering mentioning this the next time anyone asks me about Trump's "strategy" in Iran. Answer: There clearly isn't one, and any attempt to claim that there is, is simply projection.

Israel has just issued a demand that all of Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area roughly the size of central Berlin or lower Manhattan, run for their lives. Tens of thousands are forced to flee- again. Real fears that they will level much of southern Beirut- an area where more than 500,000 live.

What happens after the killing of the Middle East's longest-serving leader, as those at the top of the Iranian regime jostle for power. The regime had planned for years about what to do after Khamenei's death– but is now focused on ensuring its own survival. My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

“From a purely technical perspective this is one of the greatest intelligence successes in modern military history, without exaggeration – to reach that kind of depth of penetration and that precision is extraordinary,” @thomasjuneau.bsky.social told me: On the strike that killed Khamenei.

If you want to know how the British print news industry ends (which is, de facto, amazingly still what supports most newspaper websites) it's the distribution channels getting banjaxed. When you lose "TG Jones" etc even people who want a paper can't get one. That'll be the real start of the ending.

“The streets are really scary here. Regime forces have appeared on the streets in high numbers – on motorcycles, showing their guns to create fear,” - life in Iran where people stockpiled food and hoarded cash in fear, as Trump launched an attack he claimed would allow them to seize control.

A quote for the ages.

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

“Almost all of the most viral posts reviewed by WIRED on Saturday came from accounts with blue check marks, meaning they…could be eligible to earn money based on how much engagement their posts generate, even if the content is false.” From @davidgilbert.bsky.social

a year is a long time in politics

An ad for Mullvad VPN was banned in the U.K. for potential references including: “Journalists, Refugees, Controversial opinions, People’s bedrooms, Police officers, Children’s headsets … is inappropriate and irrelevant to the average consumer’s experience with a VPN.”

@ishaantharoor.bsky.social wrote The Washington Post's WorldView column for its flagship newsletter on international affairs. It had around half a million subscribers when management eliminated it — and Ishaan's position — last week. You can continue to follow his work by signing up here ⬇️

jeeeeeeesus: theintercept.com/2026/02/10/g...

Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years for publishing a newspaper. www.cnn.com/2026/02/08/c...

Incredible stuff from @wsj.com www.wsj.com/us-news/igno...

Extreme weather disasters and climate tipping points aren't in economic models of the impact of climate change on the global economy The result "is widespread complacency amongst investors and policymakers" We will all suffer as a consequence www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“What Bezos, Lewis, and their jargon-loving underlings also fail to understand is that the paper’s coverage of Washington will be neither as vivid nor as authoritative without the contributions of journalists in bureaus around the world.“

“The public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed now more than ever.”

This is most likely a terrible day for our industry and a self-inflicted wound by the Post's top staff. Solidarity rage with everyone at WaPo, particularly on the international desk which has done so much excellent coverage for years.

1. Build huge subscriber base by telling them their $ supports democracy. 2. Don’t establish other revenue sources. 3. Rug-pull subscribers by pushing opinion side to the right. 4. Subscribers leave, revenue falls. 5. Enact crippling newsroom cuts.

I realise in the age of impunity we are all blunted to how appalling this is, but a reporter asked the US president about Jeffrey Epstein's victims and he came back with a personal attack on her for "not smiling." One of many disgusting things – let's not forget "quiet piggy" – to keep in mind.

"Elon Musk’s flagship artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, continues to generate sexualized images of people even when users explicitly warn that the subjects do not consent, Reuters has found." www.reuters.com/business/des...

There is something I deeply love about this @annamerlan.bsky.social story on the chief proponent of raw milk complaining that RFK Jr "won’t return his calls or texts" a year after becoming HHS secretary - even if even the words "raw milk" make me nauseous.

“She was my daughter for 29 years – it’s impossible she jumped from that height." Hundreds of women are recorded in Turkish state data every year as committing suicide by 'throwing themselves from a high place.' But did they all jump– or were they pushed? Reporting with @berileski.bsky.social

New court record from the FBI details the state of the devices seized from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson: phone was on w/Lockdown Mode; personal laptop was off; work laptop was on w/Touch ID; several Signal chats used disappearing messages. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

9-9-6 was a Chinese term invented mostly to show how depressing and lifeless work culture was; watching softbrained AI guys adopt it as an ideal is ... well, entirely predictable

Personally I think this is too much money for Donald trumps untrained heavily armed militia

Tragedy of epic proportions being voluntarily enacted by WaPo management- audiences want to read quality journalism, not AI brain-rot or random blogs. This is damage with no aim. “It’s like someone who slices your Achilles and then asks you why you’re limping,” one reporter said.”

RFKJr's principal accomplishment as the nation's health guardian.

The latest example of Interpol being abused by authoritarian regimes: "La Russie n’a jamais cessé de traquer opposants, journalistes et dissidents en exil grâce aux outils de l’organisation."

Iranian security bodies are out in force on the streets, with citizens still left in the dark of an Internet blackout. “It seems like the internet is going to be cut permanently, and this is really horrifying,” one protestor said. “They want to kill us all.”|My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

A producer in the London bureau is the *only* CBS person quoted in their story about Israel killing its longtime freelance cameramen in Gaza—someone who once filed dispatches for them from an ambulance, while wounded. Not quoted: The network’s editor in chief. www.cbsnews.com/news/journal...

"Five days later, the same doctor came back online long enough to describe a nightmare scenario: the first thing he told Qorashi was he could still see “blood in the streets”, during his journey to work at the hospital." How Iran's brutal crackdown unfolded, my piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Hundreds of photos revealing the faces of those killed during the violent crackdown on protests in Iran have been leaked to BBC Verify. The pictures reveal the bloodied, swollen and bruised faces of at least 326 victims - including 18 women. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In the increasingly difficult reporting environment here in Turkey, a French journalist was detained while covering a protest from a Kurdish party in Istanbul earlier this week. He is being threatened with deportation, for doing a basic reporting task.

Activists worldwide have been warning for years, decades, that these supposed crowd control weapons like tear gas, rubber bullets etc can be dangerous or even deadly. Now US forces feel they have a free hand to misuse them in this way- starting with shots to the head.

Hannah Natanson is an exceptional reporter and should never have been subjected to this type of extraordinary intimidation tactic. We have few details now, but it’s hard to interpret this as anything other than an attempt to squash the freedom of the press.

The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...

Even some in Iran's religious community have voiced their discontent with the regime – and protests grew in the Mashhad, a pilgrimage site + hometown of supreme leader Khamenei. But Mashhad hasn't been spared the brutal crackdown even with its holy status. My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Before the Internet was shut off, cutting off Iran from the outside world, one protestor in Rasht told me “I am ready to pay a price to bring down this regime, even if that price is my death.” Those taking to the streets have "nothing left to lose," he said. My piece @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Polymarket is refusing to pay out millions - notably including $400,000 in winnings for one single anonymous trader - due to disputes over whether the US “invaded” Venezuela in order to capture Maduro. It will only pay out if the US captures territory, they said.

When U.S. forces captured Maduro, Chinese social media lit up. People with nationalist views asked: Why can’t Beijing do the same in Taiwan? On the other side of the political spectrum, people cheered the downfall of a dictator. by Li Yuan www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/b...

WH sources say Venezuela's opposition leader committed the "ultimate sin": She accepted the Nobel Peace prize. “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

“Replacing the man at the top will not dismantle the web of bosses, private loyalties, corrupt practices and institutional ruins that have replaced public life here.”

Rights group says at least 16 dead in Iran during week of protests reut.rs/4spQnMw

“Mr. Maduro in late December rejected an ultimatum from President Trump to leave office and go into a gilded exile in Turkey, according to several Americans and Venezuelans involved in transition talks.” Sounds like Trump made this offer without buy-in from Ankara…?