Shiva Balaghi

If you'd like to delight in a side-by-side comparison, here's Bari Weiss' reported note to CBS staffers (left) and the one I cooked up on ChatGPT with a quickly dashed-off prompt (right). Looking forward to hearing from you in the days and weeks ahead!

we lost a queen 👑

Newsom threatens to cut state funding to universities that sign Trump’s political compact The White House asked nine major universities, including USC, to commit to President Trump’s political priorities in exchange for more favorable access to federal money. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Califor...

CA Governor Newsom: “California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom.” www.latimes.com/california/s...

"We live in a world of compromises.” GL

YouTube video by NewsActive3 American Masters: Edward R. Murrow

For more on the history of CBS News, here's a doc on Edward R Murrow's reporting and commentary on Joseph McCarthy www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLBg...

From Walter Cronkite to this…

Judge Young's opinion is resonating with a lot of people. A student wrote to me: "Every once in a while, you read an opinion that gives you heart and reaffirms your faith in the law and in the profession of lawyering and, for me, this is one of those cases." knightcolumbia.org/documents/ah...

Jane Goodall's work insisting, with evidence from her brilliant and tenacious fieldwork, that we were not so separate from animals, and they were much more like us than the Eurocentric theorists asserted, was so important.

Yes, the university's acting president did say that, but it's not correct. Here's @knightcolumbia.org's analysis of the Columbia settlement. knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

Stand corrected 🤣

Friend who’s an okra expert pointed out that frozen okra is excellent for stews. Freezing helps curb slime factor.

Sure he did war crimes, but he helped promote my book. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Egypt Pardons Most Prominent Political Prisoner

Alaa is pardoned!!! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/w...

The Legendary Children's Librarian of Harlem - JSTOR Daily Raised in a family of storytellers, Augusta Baker continued that tradition, imparting a love of books to readers of all ages.

The Legendary Children’s Librarian of Harlem

Raised in a family of storytellers, Augusta Baker continued that tradition, imparting a love of books to readers of all ages.
daily.jstor.org/legendary-ch...

Grateful for the life Robert Redford shared with us. Now more than ever, we need to remember the enduring impact one person can make. May he rest in power.

Robert Redford in Three Days of Condor

close up of Redford in Three Days of Condor

Among the last films I saw in Iran was Three Days of Condor. With revolution unfolding around me, I was transfixed. I was 14; nuances escaped me. Still I was struck by the power of cinema to teach us about the world we live in, how we can overcome fear & try to create alternative futures.

Georgia ICE Raid Netted Workers With Short-Term Business Visas

Today with @haleaziz.bsky.social :
Most of the Korean workers detained during an ICE raid on a Ga. battery plant last week were on short-term businesses visas. In at least one case, ICE acknowledged a worker hadn't violated his visa, and forced him to deport anyway. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/b...

Prominent Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah is reported to be on a list of prisoners...

"How Are the Very Rich Feeling About New York’s Next Mayor?"

A Dramatic Reading of The Recent New York Times Dispatch from the Hamptons.

Presented by The Gilded Age's Morgan Spector.

"Imagine trying to evacuate from one place to another under endless bombardment while also trying to feed your family. The situation is beyond description." - reporting from Hind Khoudary

Egyptian activist and blogger
Alaa Abdel Fattah resumed a full hunger strike on September 1 following unfulfilled promises made to him by national security officers that he would be released within days after his removal from the terrorist list. He is only drinking water.

#FreeAlaa

Every time I get exhausted by elderly care, I think of what Palestinian elders are enduring. And I remember what a gift it is to care for our elders.

“A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the Constitution when it froze more than $2.7 billion in research funding to Harvard, striking down the freeze in its entirety and delivering the University a major legal victory.”

Argentine Couple Placed on House Arrest in Nazi-Looted Art Probe Police raided the home of Patricia Kadgien after an 18th-century painting plundered from a Dutch-Jewish art collector was spotted in a real estate listing.

The daughter of a former Nazi official and her spouse are under house arrest after a painting seized by the Nazis during World War II inexplicably disappeared from their living room wall.

The deadly toll on journalists in the Gaza war With foreign media barred, Palestinians have reported alone, facing the ‘most deliberate effort to kill and silence’ them ever

The Guardian has today printed the names, and where possible, images, of all the media workers killed in Gaza, as part of an international day of action involving more than 150 media organisations.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

This should be the lead story in all major national news outlets. Public health people prefer to stay out of the limelight unless there is no other choice. I can’t overstate how bad things have to be for 9 former CDC directors to band together and pen an op-ed in the NYT warning the entire country.

GOP widens UC antisemitism investigations, hitting UCLA, UC San Francisco medical schools A Republican-led congressional education committee gave UCLA and UC San Francisco two weeks to produce documents covering antisemitism complaints at medical schools.

The UCLA and UCSF medical schools have been given 2 weeks to submit years of internal documents to a GOP-led congressional committee about alleged antisemitism and how schools responded, widening the government’s investigations into the University of California: www.latimes.com/california/s...

Now this is a journalist who deserves respect.

Homeland Security V @DHSgov X.com Today, @Sec_Noem announced that ICE arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He will be processed for removal to Uganda. , Sanctuary politicians and the FAKE news won't tell you the truth about Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, wife beater, child predator and criminal illegal alien. We will. 9:19 AM • 8/25/25 • 3.6K Views

JUST IN: On X, DHS says that Kilmar Abrego Garcia “will be processed for removal to Uganda.”