Seeing the world through an extractivist lens frees the US from concerns with democracy, stability and rule of law, even if it does little to free those who have long suffered under the regime now partnered with Trump. My piece in @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

the entire contradiction at the heart of the last 15 years of dem dysfunction has been simultaneously insisting the only mechanism for punishing republican malfeasance is the vote while also adopting a posture of bipartisan comity with those very politicians voters are supposed to be disciplining.

These fuckers were on top of the world and their grandfathers had managed to get much of that world to buy in to their being on top and they're now tearing apart the best deal America is ever going to get to make their dicks semi-hard

Palestinian member of Israeli parliament, Ahmad Tibi, called the Israeli police a "mafia" and then called a police spokesman a "loser" and "rascal". The police in turn are demanding an apology and are implying that Tibi, who has parliamentary immunity, could be prosecuted

Trump's conducting illegal kill campaigns and military raids and 7 of the 47 Senators in opposition just voted to confirm a Trump nominee to the Pentagon. We can dream of what it will take to change the party eagerly cheering the killing, but a good first step would be opposition from the opposition

box brownies are obviously just objectively good. if you judge people who use it you are going to hell

yeah i find the vast majority of the anglosphere politics hostility comes from two countries beginning and ending with A

I don't share the Ambassador's optimism but I will admit that symbolically it is important that the country which authored Balfour has finally accepted and acknowledged the political dimension of our existence as Palestinians.

Azerbaijan has announced that it will not participate in the Trump administration's ambiguously defined "International Stabilization Force" for the nakedly colonial "postwar" administration of the Gaza Strip.

If the biggest donor to the DCCC/DNC ran a website where you could use AI to take women's clothes off I feel like there'd be a demand for Dems to give the money back.

I think if I could do an edited anthology of anything, it would be of authors' acknowledgements. They give you such insight into the author's world and personality, and a well-written one is such a treat. It gets me rooting for them from the get go, and is often my favorite part of a book.

"It said on Sunday that there would be two days of mourning on ‌January 5 and ‌6 in ⁠honour of those killed and said ‌funeral arrangements would be announced." www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/...

my brother got me a fancy 4K steelbook set of the nolan batman movies so i’m rewatching BATMAN BEGINS for the 20th time and i still think this one is the best batman story of the bunch

Dear Future Historians: Today was the Day the U.S. Attacked Venezuela open.substack.com/pub/thepeopl...

If I were a betting woman, I'd put money on the legal battle over Texas' app store age verification law going all the way to SCOTUS. Why? Because it basically already happened with the porn age verification law. I blogged about it here: www.chron.com/culture/arti...

Tricking Americans into eating organ meats is probably for our own good

what a lot of people don’t understand is that there is a good chance that the higher echelons of the fascist administration is majority staffed with anti-NATO groypers and christian nationalists. This is an additional positive to invading Greenland, not a negative.

In summary -Labour and Tories aligned on supportive of US action, want Greenland protected. Labour actively saying there is no equivalence between US and Russia. -LDs, Labour backbenchers, Greens and SNP want condemnation of US. -Reform oddly focused on support for democratic transition.

I fled that hellhole because of the routine rape and death threats Hindu Nazis sent my way. There is absolutely no reason on earth to use Twitter and feed Grok.

Palestinian member of Israeli parliament, Ahmad Tibi, called the Israeli police a "mafia" and then called a police spokesman a "loser" and "rascal". The police in turn are demanding an apology and are implying that Tibi, who has parliamentary immunity, could be prosecuted

So beast to see Gulf accounts call KSA the Muslim Brotherhood

apart from the evil this is such weirdo shit. nobody normal talks this way!

Underrated just how common this is in diplomacy wherein the dominant party knowingly makes a demand that cannot under really any circumstances be met because it's existential and then uses the rational answer by the weaker party as pretext to derail and then aggress

Wonder whether having actual parties would improve upon the general sclerosis of the opposition. On the one hand I think it's fine that different people say different things in the abstract but on the other the lack of a single, unified, party line which emphasizes illegitimacy is really bad.

Awesome

yougov.co.uk/politics/art... massively more popular than the previous 4

Taken in Ramallah during the First Intifada, this black-and-white photograph captures a glimpse of women reading Al-Fatiha Surah on the souls of the dead.

Taken in Jenin Palestinian Refugee Camp, during the first Intifada, this black-and-white photograph captures children holding bullets fired by the Israeli occupation forces.

photo shows young men carrying a poster of their friend, Mohammad Abu Aker, after he was shot by the Israeli occupation. He was assumed to be dead after he was shot. The PSLF designed his poster, before finding out that he was only injured. Abu Aker died as a result of his injury, a few years later.

Taken in Dheisheh Palestinian Refugee Camp in 1989, this black-and-white photograph shows a mother with her two children inside their shelter-home.

Taken in Kober on July 1, 1989, for family of the prisoner Tawfiq Al-Barghouti “Abu Mukhles” shows: his father Shaaban Hussein Al-Barghouti, his mother Warda, next to them the painting Camel of hardship by Suliman Mansour, and his wife Feryal Al-Barghouti holding his photo.

Taken in Kaubar, a village in Ramallah, during the first Intifada, this black-and-white photograph captures a glimpse of a mother sitting next to her daughter holding photos of her imprisoned sons. Photographer: Joss Dray

Will always be funny that Edward Said was a DFLP guy

Poll the PFLP

🚨 NEW | Keir Starmer is less popular in Britain than Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. 🟡 Maduro -31 ⚫ Trump -56 🔴 Starmer -56 🟩 Hamas -58 Net favourability ratings via @YouGov, 4-5 Jan

It would be good for people to update their priors

A Fetterman Torres ticket would be funny so i'm okay with them trying that

Underrated just how common this is in diplomacy wherein the dominant party knowingly makes a demand that cannot under really any circumstances be met because it's existential and then uses the rational answer by the weaker party as pretext to derail and then aggress

It's true that the zero enrichment demand has kept talks from succeeding - but that's the United States' fault, not Iran's for refusing to breach a redline it has constantly reiterated. Trump doesn't want a deal that recalls the JCPOA, which, again, he left - not Iran. www.wsj.com/world/middle...

…because the U.S. kidnapped him. This makes it sound like Maduro is saying something deceitful and self-serving when he is describing what unfolded before our eyes.

Pleased to speak with @axios.com about the US attack on VZ. "There may have been some DEA agents tagging along for the ride, but that doesn't change the fundamental fact that it's a use of force under international law, and ... it implicates Congress' war powers." www.axios.com/2026/01/05/r...

As Israel continues to break the ceasefire in Gaza, nations are tabling their proposals to sanction Israel and falling back to the status quo. We must continue pressuring our governments to stop providing Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians.

Mostly an adjacent point but there are so many English-only speakers on here who repeatedly, day after day, act absolutely surprised and befuddled that people who live in Asia or Africa don't really hear or think about Elon Musk as much as they do. MENAsky for example is, to be blunt, very small.

I find it hard to square the preciousness about "why would someone ever stay on Twitter?" when everyone on this site knows that the community here intentionally chased off lots of people.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays presses German fmr. Foreign Min. Annalena Baerbock on the central contradiction in Germany’s Gaza stance: loud commitments to internat'l law alongside continued political and military backing of Israel as it committed genocide in Gaza, including as aid remained blocked and...

It is pretty amusing how self-proud Blinken seems to be about his tenure overall. Wonder if he's so delusional that he believes it makes him look good when he claims that the Trump plan is essentially his plan with a few tweaks, or if he is saving his attempt to extricate himself for his book.

Ed Davey quoting Margaret Thatcher regarding Grenada and mentioning Iraq. Makes points regarding the hostility of US foreign policy and asks Ministers publish legal advice received on US actions. Cooper reiterates points about a democratic transition and refers to ministerial code on legal advice.