Siddhartha Mitter

A Symposium Critiques Germany – and the Feuilleton Rushes to Prove It Right Days after a conference in Zurich dissected Germany’s right-wing drift, the country’s newspapers performed outrage – delivering a real-time demonstration of exactly what the symposium had warned about

Latest on Substack: a few thoughts on last week’s conference in Zurich.
open.substack.com/pub/hannohau...

NY State Assembly member Amanda Septimo (whom many of us outside the Bronx met through Zohran’s great Spanish-language ad) is running against Ritchie Torres for Congress.

www.instagram.com/reel/DSH2Anv...

Les méthodes d’Israël pour imposer un régime de terreur inédit en Cisjordanie Tirs mortels de l’armée, tabassages par les colons, raids, arrestations arbitraires, tortures en prison : le niveau de violence infligé aux Palestiniens qui résident dans ce territoire n’a jamais été ...

www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

The grotesque.

The grotesque.

It worked for Enver Hoxha’s Albania… (for a while)

The grotesque.

For the NYC heads @michaellangenyc.bsky.social remains essential. Great story-telling and explanation of insider politics.

Tentative de coup d’État au Bénin: comment l’intervention de la Cédéao a été décidée Au Bénin, face aux putschistes, l'intervention militaire de la Communauté économique des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (Cédéao) a été rapide et efficace. Comment expliquer cette attitude ? Éléments de...

RFI has the best info on how the Bénin coup attempt failed. At Bénin government request, Côte d'Ivoire and Nigeria mobilized the multinational response under ECOWAS umbrella. Nigerian Air Force struck mutineer positions. France provided intelligence support.

www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/2...

The Defining Artworks of 2025 See the defining artworks of 2025, including pieces by Amy Sherald, Barbara Kruger, and more.

A nice list (of works on view in the US) from the ArtNews crew

www.artnews.com/list/art-new...

“Peace”

The grotesque.

Le grand invité Afrique - Gilles Yabi: «Ce n’est pas la Cédéao qui est en crise, c’est l’Afrique de l’Ouest» Au Bénin, les putschistes ont été mis en échec, hier, avec l'aide du Nigeria voisin, qui a mené des frappes aériennes contre le camp militaire de Cotonou où ils s'étaient retranchés. Et dimanche soir,...

Gilles Yabi on the Bénin coup attempt and the regional mobilization to foil it.

www.rfi.fr/fr/podcasts/...

Easy.

Lascaux!

A Greenlandic Photographer’s Tender Portraits of Daily Life Inuuteq Storch set out to rediscover Inuit culture that was suppressed by Danish colonizers, by finding its traces in the everyday.

Dawn Chan on Greenland's Inuuteq Storch, whose work is gathering notice—including Sharjah 2023, the Denmark Pavilion in the 2024 Venice Biennale, and now PS1.

"Now Storch is navigating the art world’s inclination to cast him as a cultural ambassador of some kind."

www.newyorker.com/culture/phot...

it's terrible ! so many totally unneeded changes

YouTube video by FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth FULL: Texas State Rep. Jasmine Crockett announces run for Texas Senate

Good energy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Pe...

The grotesque.

Good to see you (and these updates) here, Robbie

ECOWAS is giving its full support and sending troops to Benin.

Benin president says coup bid thwarted, vows retribution Benin President Patrice Talon said on Sunday that the West African nation's government and armed forces had thwarted a coup attempt by a group of soldiers and vowed to punish them.

Our latest on the Benin coup attempt:

- President Talon goes on state TV, says "last pockets of resistance" cleared and vows to punish perpetrators

- ECOWAS to deploy elements of standby force, including troops from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Ghana www.reuters.com/world/africa...

What’s the latest my oga - sounding like they got thwarted?

The grotesque.

Benin City’s $26mn Museum of West African Art — and why it was hit by protests What was meant to be a celebratory moment for Nigeria’s art scene has instead highlighted present tension and past trauma

Maya Jaggi on MOWAA and more in Benin City and Lagos

www.ft.com/content/c1f9...

What an interesting coincidence.

With AFCON and the World Cup in quick succession you'll want to be following @mahermezahi.bsky.social for your continental football commentary (great appearance on this pod!)

This commentary and more. There's so much to engage with and so few platforms and writers invited/admitted to them. Glad that Deji is doing his thing.

MOWAA’s Failure to Launch Was Rigged From the Start The protests that derailed the Museum of West African Art’s opening reveal that neocolonial donor money and weak local patronage made it unfit for purpose

Ayodeji Rotinwa on MOWAA

www.frieze.com/article/mowa...

The grotesque.