Steven Heydemann

King Mohammed VI set to speak as Gen Z protesters demand reforms in Morocco Morocco’s elusive King Mohammed VI is inaugurating parliament in a speech with far higher stakes than his annual addresses as anti-government protests have swept the nation’s cities and questioned the...

abcnews.go.com/Business/wir...

The Palestine Branch: A den of torture in Assad’s Syria Branch 235, also known as the Palestine Branch, was one of the most notorious prisons run by the Syrian military intelligence services during the Assad era. Located on the outskirts of Damascus, its…

www.france24.com/en/middle-ea...

Decomposing. Complete collapse.

Rape and torture in Assad's prisons: Syrian women break their silence During the brutal 13-year Syrian civil war, Bashar al-Assad's regime imprisoned women for their real or presumed links to the “terrorist” opposition. Many endured rape, sexual violence, and torture du...

www.france24.com/en/middle-ea...

The campaign against “antifa” is about establishing a beachhead for further attacks on speech and assembly rights. We see that today in the effort to preemptively label No Kings protesters as “terrorists.”

"After a few moments of laughter, the No Kings Coalition issued the following statement"

University Administrations: Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compacts The Trump administration is trying to blackmail schools to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. They want to dictate what schools teach, who they admit and hire, what researchers s...

Trump’s regime is trying to blackmail colleges and universities to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run our schools. We must demand that our universities commit to upholding freedom of speech and to providing an affordable, safe education for all. Take action to stop Trump’s “Loyalty Oath.” 👇

Maybe. Let’s wait and see. Loads of ways this can fall apart. Hoping it won’t.

International commission ends first visit to Syria’s Suweida A commission looking into violations in Suweida after this year’s sectarian clashes has ended its first visit to the Druze-majority province

www.newarab.com/news/interna...

When you elect hatemongers and racists, the results are not a surprise. The protest vote for Trump among Arab communities in MI was understandable, but tragically misguided.

Immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago Activists, residents and elected leaders say increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensions in the nation’s third-largest cit...

The scenes out of Chicago should outrage us all. These federal agents are out of control, committing senseless acts of violence & putting everyone at risk.
 
American citizens are being detained & brutalized.
 
This kind of immigration "enforcement" shouldn't be acceptable to anyone.

I thought menacing immigrants with a gun was required for membership in the AfD.

Part of upcoming Bellingcat reporting, with Evident Media, Frontline PBS and The Washington Post -
After U.S. strikes, Iran increases work at mysterious underground site
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

ICE admits that up to 50% of arrests in its Chicago raids are "collateral.” These aren't statistics. They are parents taken from their children, neighbors taken from our communities. When does a "collateral" U.S. citizen child's trauma matter? This isn't law enforcement; it's a campaign of terror.

German police arrest Syrian man suspected of crimes against humanity German police arrested on Tuesday a Syrian man suspected of committing crimes against humanity, including killing and torturing, as a militia leader in 2011 in Aleppo, prosecutors said.

Anwar S. - a suspected former #Shabbiha militia leader in #Aleppo, #Syria - was arrested in #Germany last week on charges of Crimes Against Humanity: killing and torture.

Assad used Shabbiha both for the commission of violence, and the evasion of responsibility.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Indeed. Fuck ICE.

State Terror A brief guide for Americans

"State Terror: A brief guide for Americans"
Revisiting a piece I wrote in April 2025
"In the history of state terror, the escape from law into coercion takes three forms... the leader principle; the state of exception; and the zone of statelessness."
snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror

Ever See Our Shocking Film on Online Extremism in Israel? On the eve of the second anniversary of the Oct 7. attack, here's another opportunity to watch our acclaimed short film ‘Israel’s Reel Extremism’, featuring rare interviews with those Israeli troops.

zeteo.com/p/ever-see-o...

It really is striking how much they want us to see images of their own brutality. The pretense of being anything but a exercise in violence has all but disappeared.

The Return of the Starvation Weapon The collapse of global norms fueling the catastrophes in Gaza and Sudan.

"The global consensus against the starvation weapon took decades to achieve. Now, international apathy risks letting it collapse at the moment it is most needed." - Alex de Waal in @foreignaffairs.com

Syria to establish first post-Assad parliament amid political inclusivity concerns Syria will hold an indirect vote on Sunday to establish its first parliament since Bashar al-Assad was ousted, a key step in the transition from his rule but one that has stirred concerns about political inclusivity under the country's new leaders.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

This is fascism.

Megachurch pastor and ex-Trump adviser pleads guilty to child sexual abuse Robert Morris to serve only six months in county jail after charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with child

Trump’s advisor?! On child sexual abuse?! What? Trump didn’t get enough practice with Epstein? Fucking republicans.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

🚨The Graduate Student Support Grant is now open 🚨 If you are a graduate student in political science with an urgent financial need-please apply today! Awards are given to applicants on a lottery basis. It doesn't hurt to apply. connect.apsanet.org/graduate/gra...

BREAKING: The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 100-page opinion -- says it is unequivocally, lopsidedly easy to determine that the Trump administration's view of birthright citizenship is wrong.

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

BREAKING: A federal judge says there is a realistic likelihood that the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was driven by vindictive motives — reflected in the public statements of Bondi, Blanche, Noem et al.

He has ordered discovery on the question.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Syria’s Stolen Children Under the Assad regime, hundreds of Syrian children were hidden in orphanages to extort their parents. Families still have few answers from the new government or the international charity that kept it...

The Trump administration is again stealing children from their families to coerce detainees, including those requesting asylum or in the US legally, to cooperate by "self deporting." What kind of regime would do this? See below.

www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

The Trump administration has publicly declared its support for a "one Syria" policy. Israel doesn't seem to have gotten the message.

Israel's Defense Minister, Yisrael Katz, says Palestinian noncombatants will be treated as "terrorists and terror supporters" if they don't agree to be expelled from Gaza City.

Between 2021-2024 China accounted for half of US soybean exports.

Now? Nothing.