AVDD Strait of Hormuz SITREP • 12 May 2026

The Strange Death of Labour and Tory Britain • Checking in from London, Dan reports on the demise of the UK's traditional parties

Has anyone seen Chris Alexander? • You're invited to a symposium with him today—if we can find him.

It’s Noon in Israel: The Kurdish Invasion That Couldn't • Also, Hamas splits in three, and the Likud's new nightmare.

The Price of Idiocracy • If you elect stupid people, you'll get stupid outcomes.

Why Washington's Red Sea Truce With the Houthis Is Haunting Hormuz • One year after the Trump-Houthi ceasefire in the Red Sea, the same pattern is playing out at the Strait of Hormuz.

The Tsar and His Vassals: Russia's Political Pyramid of Feudalism • Putin's Russia is better understood as a medieval feudal estate run by a mafia family in a Darwinian court - not as a modern state at all.

"Bu Kardeşiniz" - "This Brother of Yours"

"It’s Not 1939. It’s 1934." • Tim Judah joins Critical Conditions

The Iran War and the Middle East • A symposium with Frida Ghitis

Third-Worldism, Islamism, and the Return of Global Struggle • Understanding Third-Worldism

Issue 99: The Map Is Not the Corridor • New maps imagine the future of trade after the Hormuz shock. For now, oil is moving by truck.

A quick glimpse behind the curtain • What it's really like to be a glamorous writer in Paris

What if the White House correspondents had been in Mali? • Something isn't news just because a lot of journalists were there.

Wine Under the Bridge, Protestant Revival Juju, How I Stay Clever, Nuts of Data, Global Institutions, the Trajectory of Democracy, the Cycles of History, the SPLC, and Cheese • You asked. I answered.

Alas, there will be no symposium this weekend • But the weekend after this one will be great

Is Macron all hat and no cattle? Are the Russian Federation’s days numbered? • You asked. I answered.

We Ask Anything • Dan and I try asking anything that comes to mind.

Why do Elected Leaders Destroy Democracy? • A conversation with Susan Stokes

Liberalism and Literacy • A Symposium with Adam Garfinkle

Defending Israel in an Age of Madness • America’s national derangement poses almost insurmountable challenges to supporters of the Jewish state.

The Tape That Just Ended Mahmoud Abbas • He thought nobody was listening. The Saudis heard everything. And the Palestinian Authority will never recover.

🔜📌 REMINDER • Our Symposium with Adam Garfinkle begins in about 45 minutes

Literacy, Liberalism, and the Age of Spectacle • A Symposium with Adam Garfinkle

Dear Washington Press Corps • Would you kindly do me a favor?

The Hungarian Correction: A Nation Voted Out a Kleptocrat and the PsyOp Followed • Hungary votes out a corrupt autocrat, and the self-appointed defenders of Western civilisation immediately side with the autocrat.

Tristan Harris and Ted Tremper are WAKING UP Humanity to AI Extinction!

From the Danube to the Ayatollbooth • Orbán's defeat and the prospects of a Hormuz blockade

Peru extends voting in Lima • April 13, 2026

A Victory, at Last • Viktor Orbán has been utterly, totally, absolutely thrashed.

Trump and Vance happily smearing Ukraine to save Orbán • For the Trump administration, Ukraine is now reduced to a cheap punchline - lies and stereotypes they throw about - to help their political ally Viktor Orbán win the Hungarian elections Sunday.

Literacy and Liberalism • Part I

Time to give the Trump-Putin-Orban axis a slap in the face • English original of article published in Italian this morning by La Stampa. [Additions in square brackets.]

American Princelings • April 10, 2026

The Strangest Week • From Hormuz to Budapest to DC, nothing makes sense

The Symbiosis of Trump and Adversarial Intelligence Services • America First? Not so much

Trump Declared Victory in Iran. Don't Believe it. • After doomsday threats, Trump agrees to talks on a dangerous Iranian 10-point plan

The Tiger-Riding Predicament • How China views the Iran War

The American Way of Losing Wars - Blame Our Allies • Time is a Flat Circle

Ceasefire of the Damned • Behold the majesty of American statecraft. A 24-hour news roundup.

If Orbán Loses Hungary's Election, It Will Dispel the Air of Invincibility Around Strongmen • This would prove that consolidating power does not protect authoritarians from self-destructing, especially when a smart opposition exploits their vulnerabilities

Why Using Civilians as Bargaining Chips in War is Wrong • Trump is essentially holding the lives of 90 million Iranian civilians hostage to coerce the Iranian government into opening the Strait.

Sadism, madness and America's psychotic president • Tonight of all nights let us speak plainly

No Way Back • Living in the age of the Oedipus Trap

Impeach him. Remove him. Restrain him. • A president who threatens to destroy a civilization is unfit beyond argument.

Chokepoint Hostages • Welcome to the new world

The great divorce • Europe must learn how to bargain with the US

Washington is drowning the Iran War in noise • Strip away the bluster, and four outcomes remain. Only one stabilises the global economy, and it is the one least openly admitted.

Happy Easter • We got our pilot back!

The Architecture of Servitude: From the Arab Slave Trade to the Kafala System in the Middle East