With the expiration of New START and warnings about nuclear proliferation... I figured it'd be worth restarting a very topical piece I wrote about the subject late last year ⬇️ (it's been a while but I have something in the works which should come out soon too 🤞)

Iran's internet shutdown is now in its eighth day and is expected to continue. The regime has said its intranet service is open, but what exactly does this mean and how are Iranians attempting to circumvent this? My coverage of the blackout for @thenewarab.bsky.social below

Was NATO collapsing by years end on anyone's 2026 predictions? Anyone's?

It’s worth mentioning, though it’s been said repeatedly: the Lizzie Line carries 1/6th of UK daily rail passengers (not including the Tube) and has already paid off its entire costs. And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.

We've always had these dead-eyed socipaths around. It's just a few years ago they were ignored and now they're "senior fellow" at places funded by evil millionaires + going on podcasts with a brain-rotted ex-PM.

It's that time of the year again for @newarab.bsky.social year in review. Myself, Hugo Goodridge and Karim Traboulsi breakdown the biggest stories we covered this year, and reveal what we're keeping an eye on for next, so take note! You can listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The headline, the main takeaway from a European viewpoint is this: The transatlantic relationship as we know it is over. Yes, we kinda knew this. But this is now official US White House policy. Not a sppech, not a statement. The West as it used to be no longer exists.

Nuclear war is back on the big screen, a marker of the increasing tension brought about by unprecedented changes underway in international politics. We've once again been enveloped by a nuclear zeitgeist - and it's anxiety inducing ⬇️

Took me long enough, but finally published my companion critique (below) to my review of Kropotkin. If you have a heart, read and sub. ollymizzi99.substack.com/p/kropotkins...

The proliferation of watching people get killed on the internet, from murder to warfare and all the in-betweens, is having a deep psychological impact on our society and psyche (myself included) and NOBODY is addressing it.

Time to buy shares in ALL the domestic competitors

@gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social thoughts? 🤔https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/military-preparing-attacks-on-mexican

Hello! If anyone who follows me knows anyone, or is, in the Maltese community in the UK (especially old timers) please do let me know! Am looking to write about it (as a fellow member of course). Feel free to share :)

Just saw missile hit the middle of Tel Aviv (via live cam)

Book launch event: War in the Smartphone Age. Panel discussion on how smart tech & civilian comms reshape warfare. In collaboration with @forsvarshogskolan.bsky.social 🗓️ 2 July 2025, 18:00 BST 📍 Nash Lecture Theatre, Strand Campus, KCL 🎟️ shorturl.at/QC8bE #WarStudies #KCL #DigitalWarfare

Since the resumption of Israel's assault on Gaza, the country's anti-war movement has gained significant momentum. Yet it is plagued by divided motivations, and on Gaza's future. My new article for @thenewarab.bsky.social www.newarab.com/news/not-so-...

Another way the world has got worse. Despair everywhere.

Media are making mistakes in their reporting on recent Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. In this example, @vrtnws.be, writes that it's the Nasser Hospital while it happened at the European Hospital. People could just ask researchers who have been working on this for years. www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...

Hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in the town of Tawila following an RSF attack on the Zamzam refugee camp in #Darfur. I spoke to MSF and UN teams on the ground in the region to discuss the situation, which was described to me as "desperate". New from me for @thenewarab.bsky.social

Syria: The Inconvenient Revolution is out! In Episode 1, @leilashami.bsky.social @ayoub.bsky.social go through what the STIR podcast is about, and why Syria? Available for free on Patreon and wherever you get your podcasts www.patreon.com/posts/128666... Part of @fromtheperiphery.com

It's 'Victory' Day this week, when we celebrate that initial defeat of fascism of the 1940s, when ideas like annexing land through genocide were deemed too barbaric. International law, the UN - all of those nice ideas cheapened by both Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Palestine.

Europe's time?

A step may have been taken in determining the fate of hundreds of thousands of Syria's disappeared after a UN agency handed a plan on the issue to the government at a meeting on the sidelines of Monday's aid conference in Brussels. From me for @thenewarab.bsky.social www.newarab.com/news/un-agen...

New from me: on the pressures faced by the Syrian government and newly formed committee tasked with investigating the sectarian killings on Syria's coast for @thenewarab.bsky.social with comment from @fadel-abdulghany.bsky.social Haian Dukhan and Razan Rashidi www.newarab.com/news/syria-p...

Rather than being a security guarantor, a force multiplier, the US has become a liability that can infringe on our sovereignty. The sooner the UK realises this the better. But is it really going to take an invasion of Canada for it to sink in? By that point it'll be too late.

The US has decided to destroy the system it has created and benefitted from over the last 80 years. Europe should take that as a literal statement of fact and act accordingly.

Aid agencies have condemned Israel's blockade of Gaza as "collective punishment", with an UNRWA spokesperson telling me that Israel's comments on Gaza's aid situation is a "mischaracterisation" of the situation. My latest for @thenewarab.bsky.social below: www.newarab.com/news/aid-age...

Syria's long-awaited national dialogue conference ended yesterday. Mired by disappointment but also opportunities, my report for @thenewarab.bsky.social takes a look at how the conference was received, and what it means for the country's ongoing political transition. www.newarab.com/news/was-syr...

International law cannot alone keep the peace, so instead of applying it in full, with force, we must undermine it when it doesn't suit us, and validate the above! First class logic 🥳

My first post on Substack. Have a read, or don't, but you'd be missing out if you didn't. open.substack.com/pub/ollymizz...

Three revisionist world superpowers... what could go wrong.

Around 2023 (i think) I read a review on a new Holocaust book. I think it was of Dan Stone's The Holocaust: An Unfinished History (not certain), and the review delved into wider themes of popular memory surrounding the holocaust. I can't remember it but would love to read again. Could anyone help?

2024 was named as a record year for killed journalists according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, with roughly 70 percent of those killed by Israel. CEO of the CPJ @jodieginsberg.bsky.social said that the report showed that "journalism is under attack like never before": ow.ly/2jts50UYO2q

"Nothing is over until we say it is." - @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social

Some interesting comments made by Mike Pompeo about "feeling" that the end of the regime in Iran is near with the arrival of Trump's second term... You can read about them here in my new piece for @thenewarab.bsky.social

With the fall of the Assad regime many host countries want Syrian refugees to go back home. Yet many are cautioning against an immediate influx of returnees, noting that refugees worry about the country's future, and economy. My new report for @thenewarab.bsky.social here:

All the footage coming out of Sednaya prison is unbelievable and heart-breaking. How many people can be in one prison, underground?

As we celebrate, remember all those who are not with us today ... those who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for a Free Syria. May their souls now rest in peace. My heart is with every family who will be anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones in detention.

Yassin Haj Saleh: “Oh Razan (Zeitouneh, still missing), oh Samira (Khalil, his wife, also still missing), Oh May (Skaff, died in exile in France), Oh Fadwa (Suleiman, also)… the eternity is over. If only you were with us.” “Eternity is over” a ref to Assadist slogan “Assad for all of eternity”

Syria rebels 'encircling Damascus' amid doubts over Assad regime survival www.newarab.com/news/syria-r...

They rose up together...

Being reminded about the Islamist struggle against the Ba'athist regime in Syria from the 60s, and the continuity it has with the fight for Hama, I thought I'd share an essay I did during my postgrad at St Andrews. Syria’s Long War – UCD and the Battle between Ba’athist and Islamist t.co/9GgXUzaei6

Carl Schmitt you fucking hack. You didn’t even consider that Parliament could just vote no to the Sovereign

Our book on Syria (2022) 👇 for those interested in the background of recent events. Most importantly it contains multiple chapters by Syrian scholars & chapters on the oft-neglected human impact of the conflict. TOC: www.routledge.com/Actors-and-D...

Really interesting situation update from ETANA released yesterday, and there's one point I want to discuss in particular: The changing composition of opposition fighters following the offensive. I will link ETANA at the end of the thread. (1)

With Hama now in the cross hair of rebel offensive, at what point are we going to discussing a split between regime held Latakia/Tartus and Damascus with a capture of Homs. The pace is unbelievable.

Things are fluid but this is the general situation: -HTS-led Rad' al-'Udwan offensive has captured the major towns NW of Aleppo up to Nubl/al-Zahraa' -SNA offensive Fajr al-Hurriyah launched around midnight has captured Tadif and villages to the south -SDF was handed a number of locations to SE

This has also been on my mind. Daraa goes through periods of open rebellion (with a small one occurring only the other week) and Suweida has also been having protests for over a year now. My take though: one won't revolt without the other.

Syrian rebel's are alleged to have reached the heart of the city of Aleppo, Syria's largest city. Frankly, this was not on my 2024 bingo card.

Now it has to hold