Ishaan Tharoor

Column | A veteran of Middle East peace talks reflects on a history of failure Robert Malley, a key diplomat in the Clinton administration, talks Oct. 7, ending the war in Gaza and the collapse of the two-state solution.

@ishaantharoor.bsky.social spoke with Rob Malley, co-author of "Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine," for his column.

@imes-gw.bsky.social was pleased to host Rob Malley yesterday (9/30) for a discussion with @abuaardvark.bsky.social.

wapo.st/46LcR0f

Again, the man with the single greatest access to real and true information in the history of the world

The U.S. and Israel are increasingly isolated on the world stage as more Western countries recognize Palestinian statehood, says @washingtonpost.com global affairs columnist @ishaantharoor.bsky.social.

Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization Section 1.  Antifa as a Terrorist Threat.  Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States

Designating Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” is legally meaningless.

But ominous.

Designating narcos as “terrorists organizations” didn’t authorize use of force, but nonetheless paved the way for lethal strikes in the Caribbean on “terrorists.”

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Column | As the world frets over Palestine’s status, Israel flattens Gaza At the United Nations, Palestine is top of the agenda. But maneuverings at the U.N. are unlikely to change the brutal reality on the ground in Gaza.

The latest international affairs commentary by @ishaantharoor.bsky.social

wapo.st/4punw8l

There’s a simpler way to describe anti-anti-fascism.

Figure 1.7 illustrates the extent to which countries that spend more on health have better health outcomes. There is a clear positive association between health spending per capita and life expectancy at birth (Figure 1.7). Among the 38 OECD countries, 18 spend more and have higher life expectancy than the OECD average (top right quadrant). A further 11 countries spend less and have lower life expectancy than the OECD average (bottom left quadrant). Of particular interest are countries that deviate from this basic relationship. Eight countries spend less than the OECD average but achieve higher life expectancy overall (top left quadrant). This may indicate relatively good value for money of health systems, notwithstanding the fact that many other factors also have an impact on health outcomes. These eight countries are Korea, Spain, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Chile, Costa Rica and Slovenia. The only country in the bottom right quadrant is the United States, with much higher spending than all other OECD countries but lower life expectancy than the OECD average.

Check out this scatterplot of health spending per capita (x axis) & life expectancy (y axis) in OECD countries (lines = averages).

The United States sits alone in the bottom right area due to its very high spending rate and below-average life expectancy.

More www.oecd.org/en/publicati... 🧪

In a different era, the answer to a lot of stupid conversations on Twitter would be to have some wise, overly-engaged take about those stupid conversations. Now, the obvious thing is not to engage those conversations at all.

Column | Nepal’s uprising was a generation in the making A young Nepali who witnessed both the 2006 uprising and this week’s upheavals says “it’s the uncertainty that lies ahead that now scares me.”

Most interesting commentary on events in Nepal I’ve seen so far, by the consistently worth reading @ishaantharoor.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Column | Israel says it’s bombing its way to peace. The region fears more chaos. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike on Doha could “open the door to an end of the war.” Nobody in the region is buying it.

The latest analysis by @ishaantharoor.bsky.social follows. It makes me wonder: Has a Major Non-NATO Ally ever bombed the capital of another Major Non-NATO Ally before?

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

My latest
In Sudan and Afghanistan, disaster upon disaster
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The laws have not changed, the precedent has not changed.

What has changed is that you have a President who says "I have an Article 2 where I have the right to do whatever I want as president' and a Supreme Court who agrees.

Column | Thanks to Trump, China claims mantle of the post-World War II order Trump has plunged the world into an uncertain era of economic coercion and combat — one where many countries may see the merits in taking China’s side.

"Trump has plunged the world into an uncertain era of economic coercion and combat, one where many countries might see the merits in taking China’s side," writes @ishaantharoor.bsky.social in this must-read:

My latest, on how China seizing the mantle of the post-war era, for all its opportunism and cynicism, is more plausible than it would have been a year ago.

Read more sans paywall here: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Columnist @ishaantharoor.bsky.social reiterates Joseph Nye’s point: “If Trump thinks he can compete with China while weakening trust among American allies, asserting imperial aspirations, destroying USAID, silencing Voice of America,” … “he is likely to fail.”

Column | Thanks to Trump, China claims mantle of the post-World War II order Trump has plunged the world into an uncertain era of economic coercion and combat — one where many countries may see the merits in taking China’s side.

"Thanks to Trump, China claims mantle of the post-World War II order: Trump has plunged the world into an uncertain era of economic coercion and combat — one where many countries may see the merits in taking China’s side," @ishaantharoor.bsky.social
wapo.st/47lqYvm

Taking the competitive out of competitive authoritarianism

Returning from vacation I had a dream last night in which my daughter (I do not have a daughter) was in an apartment as ICE moved in. She escaped to the daycare across the street, where she was taking refuge in a piece of lu...

Some kids see their parents snatched away by unidentified immigration officials. My kids got a toy Border Patrol badge. www.pbump.net/o/returning-...

Not even in the lowest depths of Arsenal’s banter era did it ever get this bad. The indignity of being a Man Utd fan, my word.

My latest, after a vacation hiatus

On Israel's unprecedented slaughter of journalists
Non-paywalled link: wapo.st/4oSWffh

My latest, after a vacation hiatus

On Israel's unprecedented slaughter of journalists
Non-paywalled link: wapo.st/4oSWffh

So Putin gets a red carpet welcome, a ride in the presidential limo, speaks first at the presser, frames the meeting as a successful talk among equals, while making absolutely no concession on the conduct or outcome of the war.

US says it destroyed 500 metric tons of expired food aid but it won't affect future distribution The State Department says its destruction of 500 metric tons of emergency food aid that was stored in a warehouse in the Middle East was required because it had expired.

Thanks for reporting on this. More Sudanese will suffer and starve to death and yet could be saved had USAID continued operating.

Trump and Musk withdrew funding and destroyed 500 metric tons of food aid. Bastards!
apnews.com/article/emer...!

Africans in Early Medieval England A New Archeological Discovery Provides More Evidence for a Permeable Medieval Europe

new newsletter from me & @lollardfish.bsky.social on the news making the rounds - new DNA evidence of connections between West Africa (sub-Saharan) and early medieval England.

free to read #medievalsky

Column | Sudan’s calamity and ‘the end of the liberal world order’ Sudan suffers from a neglect and indifference that seems to reflect the new shape of global politics.

My latest

At least 63 people, mostly women and children, starved to death in the besieged city of El Fasher this past week. That number only includes those who arrived at medical facilities.

Sudan’s calamity and ‘the end of the liberal world order’

Free to read.
wapo.st/47taKjM

Column | Sudan’s calamity and ‘the end of the liberal world order’ Sudan suffers from a neglect and indifference that seems to reflect the new shape of global politics.

Sudan suffers from a neglect and indifference that seems to reflect the new shape of global politics, @ishaantharoor.bsky.social writes www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

There are very few genuinely fascist intellectuals, in large part because fascism is not really a substantive ideology. Figures like Vermeule seem dangerous because they are among the few scholars able to justify fascism with some minimal eloquence. But in the end, they are tertiary.

My former colleague, now independent, uses the word “genocide” without the caveats and the quotation marks

Benny Johnson has a long history of bending the truth or flat-out lying to fit a narrative.

I had the bad luck of working with him for two years. He’s a bad person with no moral compass.

A truly stupid state of affairs