Anyway, learning another language is good for you because you die a thousand deaths of embarrassment and then you come out more humble and even more aware of your various human failings

If this is what they say in public, one wonders what they say behind closed doors.

English translation of a Haaretz article, asking Israelis why they don't see the parallels between starvation in Gaza and the Holocaust: robertreich.substack.com/p/a-betrayal...

"The “Youthall Youth Expectations and Trends Survey” paints a grim picture: while [Turkish] graduates once looked forward to independence, today nearly 77% of young adults live with their parents, unable to afford rent or basic living costs" www.paturkey.com/news/2025/tr...

Creativity amid crisis in Istanbul: Roiled by economic and political turmoil but buoyed by a recast biennial, the Turkish art world is eager to demonstrate its resilience to the world - my new look at Istanbul's art scene for Art Basel: artbasel.com/stories/ista...

The 18th Istanbul Biennial opens to the public on Saturday! Sign up for my newsletter to get a visiting guide in your inbox this week: istanbuletcetera.substack.com

spent too much time thinking about this. realized i live in the pnw and minutes from my house i can get tacos, pad thai, pho, injera, biriyani, felafel... there's a french bakery, and a lot of stuff grows here. n. america gets a bad rap, but it's hella international here. gimme H, we have it all.

Belated congratulations to scientist Bülent Şık @bulentilgaz.bsky.social for being named this year's #HrantDinkAward laureate by the @hrantdinkfnd.bsky.social for work that "tirelessly reminds us that scientific data is inseparable from social responsibility". hrantdink.org/en/internati...

Fifth hearing and further postponement in the trial over allegations of fraud against the 38th ordinary congress of the CHP. The CHP therefore remains in limbo, with a case that will continue to take up much of its time and energy. On the government side, the war of attrition will continue.

From Brooks Brothers suits to to MAGA hats, @dieworkwear.bsky.social on the politics behind changing Republican fashion choices: "Everything is spectacle, and the louder the spectacle, the more authentic the power it claims to represent." www.thenation.com/article/soci...

I visited the Ulucanlar prison museum today. It accommodated quite some names back in the days: Nazım Hikmet, Bülent Ecevit, Deniz Gezmiş, Taner Akçam, Yılmaz Güney, Necip Fazil Kısakürek etc. Too bad, prisons full of politicians, journalists, artists etc. are not history in Turkey

My comments in FT “What the government seems to want to do is not destroy the CHP but to take it over; not to eradicate it, but to neuter it..." Turkey could then become like the joke about the Shah’s Iran “where there is a ‘Yes’ party and a ‘Yes, Sir’ party.” www.ft.com/content/423f...

It’s the weekend! Check out my latest newsletter for Istanbul cultural events to attend today, and to put on your calendar for the coming weeks, from artist talks to sonic explorations to fringe theater: istanbuletcetera.substack.com/p/whats-on-n...

"Türkiye’s slowing down (throttling) of social media and messaging platforms at moments of social or political importance is denying people important information and impeding democratic participation, 15 groups including @hrw.org said in a statement": www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

As if looking for work wasn't difficult and disheartening enough, 81% of recruiters said in a study last year that "their employer posts 'ghost jobs,' or positions that either don’t exist or are already filled", largely to improve the image of their businesses. fortune.com/2024/08/19/r...

1. Azerbaijan hasn't been at war with Albania. Trump confuses Albania with Armenia. But he wants credit, a Nobel Prize, for ending a war in which he can't identify the parties. 2. The Fox hosts are too ignorant or too sycophantic to correct him. 3. Imagine if Biden had said this.

these businesses have openly said they can't run without stealing material. that alone should be reason enough to not support them. instead, VC is hurling money at AI.

Mainstream pundits have instantly sanitized and ignored Charlie Kirk's core political project and its impacts. He has been remembered by the mainstream press as someone they merely disagreed with, a debate me-guy whose words and actions had zero consequences: www.404media.co/charlie-kirk...

Turkish police must investigate and hold those to account who shot freelance reporter Fatoş Erdoğan at least 3 times with rubber bullets after she identified herself as a journalist while covering Monday’s political unrest in Istanbul. x.com/puleragema/s...

📣 I'm moderating a panel this Friday as part of the Mahalla Festival on shaping new narratives & using art and storytelling as forms of resistance. Join us at Postane in Istanbul or on Zoom for "Greening News Deserts: The Innovative Power of Art and Media in Exile" mahalla.inenart.eu/2025/08/28/j...

14th hearing in the retrial of RSF Turkey representative Erol Önderoğlu, Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı and journalist-writer Ahmet Nesin in “Özgür Gündem solidarity” case was held in İstanbul today. The trial was adjourned until 25 December 2025.

Forgotten Palestinians trapped in Egypt’s medical limbo need global support www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2025...

When you unlock your phone in the morning

Police use tear gas outside CHP office as court-appointed İstanbul leadership prepares to take over 🗞️Evrim Kepenek & Gülseven Özkan bianet.org/haber/police...

"Everywhere American voices disappear, other powers will fill the gap." On the destruction of America's foreign broadcasters, and the dismantling of organizations that identify and monitor Russian, Chinese and Iranian propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Riot police have been deployed to the Istanbul headquarters of Turkey's main opposition and roads around the building blocked as party members rally there against a court's suspension of its local leadership in what they see as the 'judiciary being used as a political weapon'.

Yesterday, I read the news that a court had released the CHP mayor of Beykoz, Istanbul. Today, I see he has been put back behind the bars. #Turkey

In earthquake that killed 2,200 in Afghanistan, "members of the all-male medical team were hesitant to pull women out from under the rubble... Trapped & injured women were left under stones, waiting for women from other villages to reach the site and dig them out." 🤬 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/w...

It's all fun and games … until your drafts are gone, your personal diary notes leaked, and the AI trained on your ideas liked them so much, it starts spreading them before you can. Yeah, colour me sceptic. 🤨

Feeling seen by the Oxford Uni job portal

“… the technology might never live up to its promise. But this would require every CEO of America's seven biggest companies to be collectively delusional about where they're spending trillions in combined capital.” Yes. Yes it would. You’re sooo close, Axios… www.axios.com/2025/09/02/a...

#Turkey: IPI joins Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) partners in condemning five-day broadcast blackout imposed on @tele1comtr.bsky.social. Already the third broadcast ban on critical TV channels this year. We urge authorities to stop targeting opposing views. Our joint statement: buff.ly/FjOwxfG

Tainted love: how Ukrainians are ridding themselves of Russian-language books

Thank you Lisel! I'm still actively looking for new journalism assignments, writing or editing gigs, or other work using my communications skills, ideally to make positive social/cultural/environmental impact. Check out what I do and get in touch about projects that might be a match!

Discovering Istanbul's Street Art: From breakdancing cassettes to 3D printing, a short look at how Istanbul's street art & graffiti scenes have developed since the 1980s, out now in my latest newsletter. Plus: A street art flea market to catch this week. istanbuletcetera.substack.com/p/discoverin...

Court annuls CHP İstanbul congress, removes provincial leadership in critical verdict The main opposition party is also facing annulment of its national congress held in Nov 2023, which could affect the position of the current party leader. bianet.org/haber/court-...

“AI” can’t suffer, but the grossly underpaid, overworked workers in the global south who consumed mountains of abusive material to train its safety parameters sure did.

Rescuers desperately search for survivors in the rubble of homes flattened by an earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 800 people u.afp.com/SAFF

we have an asylum hotel down the road from our house in Saint Germain en laye. My daughter walks past every few days as does my wife and it never even crossed their mind to be bothered by it. Wtf is wrong with these people?

#Turkey: IPI strongly condemns 5-day blackout on @tele1comtr.bsky.social that began last night. In July, @sozcutv.bsky.social was silenced for 10 days; @halktvcomtr.bsky.social faced the same, but a court suspended it. RTÜK's blackouts of critical media mark a dangerous new trend to silence dissent.

At least 210 journalists in the Gaza Strip have been killed by the Israeli army while Israeli authorities refuse to allow independent access for the international press. This is a direct attack on #pressfreedom and the right to information. #ProtectJournalistsInGaza #LetReportersIntoGaza

Just $120 and we’ll cross over the halfway point on this fundraiser! C’mon let’s make it happen for him today! We are so close!

Israeli forces have killed so many journalists that Reuters has stopped sharing the locations of its teams in the Gaza Strip with the country's military, the international news agency told NBC News. www.nbcnews.com/world/gaza/n...

Old Soviet jokes are back in style. Turns out, dark humor ages better than democracy.

We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.

Reporters Without Borders @rsf.org calls for media outlets worldwide to join a global action on 1 September demanding urgent protection for Palestinian media professionals in the Gaza Strip and foreign press to be granted independent access. #StopKillingJournalists rsf.org/en/over-210-...

Sent out 43 emails 😵 this afternoon looking for freelancing work or referrals 🤞🧿, can I have a cookie now? 🍪

Press freedom activists now meeting in Brussels to denounce killings of journalists in Palestine and call for an end to impunity. Failure of the EU to stand up to Israel is a shameful stain on the bloc’s human rights record.

"The clip, set to folk music and excerpts of a speech by President Tayyip Erdogan praising the government's infrastructure, showed Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu's speedometer soaring and his car zipping past others in the fast lane on the Ankara–Nigde motorway."

Very friendly and Energetic female Pitbull needs a new home