New Lines Magazine

Investigation Debunks Claims IRGC Bombed Iranian School I woke up on Saturday at 6 a.m. to a text message from a friend that read: “I’m thinking of you. I hope your friends and family in Iran are ok.” That’s how I learned that the United States and Israel had started their military operation. Immediately, I started scanning Telegram channels wher...

"Seeing images after the strike, such as a bloodstained backpack, a small hand in the rubble ... affirms that the most vulnerable are always casualties in war. On Saturday, the opening day of Operation Epic Fury, it was schoolchildren in Minab." | @ntabrizy.bsky.social 

Gaza and the Fall of Western Idealism Acclaimed writer and journalist Omar El Akkad joins Faisal Al Yafai for a frank, difficult and moving discussion about the personal impact and wider implications of the war in Gaza.

🎧 Listen to “Gaza and the Fall of Western Idealism” — acclaimed writer and journalist Omar El Akkad joins @faisalalyafai.bsky.social  for a frank and moving discussion about the implications of the war in Gaza. 

.🎉 We are thrilled to announce that @newlinesmag.bsky.social podcast The Lede has been nominated in the Best Interview category at the NYC Podcast Awards!

The Unresolved Contradictions Ali Khamenei Leaves Behind Iranians are left to reckon with the political order the supreme leader shaped, while the impending succession places the Islamic republic’s future in question

In one of our current top reads, Mehrzad Boroujerdi looks at how Ali Khamenei’s journey took him from literary modernism to revolutionary Islamism, and how the impending succession places the Islamic republic’s future in question.

"Everyone who's happy about the killing of the Supreme Leader is not necessarily welcoming the entirety of this foreign intervention... A lot of us have mixed feelings."
@negarmortazavi.bsky.social & @arashtehran.bsky.social w/ @faisalalyafai.bsky.social on The Lede. newlinesmag.com/podcast/in-t...

Iran Has Always Been More Than the Islamic Republic As Israel and the US go to war against his home country, an Iranian journalist reckons with perceptions of his country, its civilization and its diaspora

NEW: Israel and the U.S. are at war with Iran, a nation long presented through the prism of conflict and resistance. For @newlinesmag.bsky.social, Kourosh Ziabari, an Iranian journalist, asks: Where is the better version of Iran that was supposed to justify all this? newlinesmag.com/first-person...

US-Israeli Strikes Damage UNESCO Heritage Site in Iran On Monday afternoon, Iranian media reported that Golestan Palace, a 15th-century royal complex in Tehran, was substantially damaged in a U.S.-Israeli attack that targeted the city’s Arg Square. A form...

NEW: Golestan Palace, a 15th-century UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tehran (one of 29), has been badly damaged by recent U.S.-Israeli strikes. Trump has previously threatened Iran’s cultural heritage in the event of war, writes Kourosh Ziabari for newlinesmag.com/running-note...

Syrian Government Shakeup Expected To Diffuse Presidential Power and Integrate Minorities In Syria, a significant government reshuffle is anticipated in the coming weeks, primarily aimed at integrating minority groups and distributing the myriad roles currently held by President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The reshuffle is poised to be narrow in scope, affecting only a handful of key portfolios, be...

What might Syria’s anticipated government shakeup reveal about the regime’s efforts to diffuse presidential authority and broaden minority inclusion? In this Running Notes piece, @hhassan.bsky.social  parses the political calculus behind the expected reforms.

Mexico Convulses After the Death of Its Most Wanted Drug Lord On Sunday, Feb. 22, environmental activists from the group A Leap of Life Collective were doing field work in the Mexican state of Jalisco when several armed men stopped their vehicle. “We were forced out of our van, which they set on fire along with our cellphones and equipment,” read a stateme...

After the Mexican army killed “El Mencho,” leader of the CJNG cartel, violent roadblocks, attacks on businesses and assaults on journalists erupted across 20 states, leaving citizens fearful and revealing the cartel’s deep control over everyday life.

Is It the End of Mo Salah’s Reign? The English Premier League is approaching the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, with the title race heating up between Arsenal and perennial champions Manchester City. The race is likely to go down to the wire, undecided until the final few match days in May. Missing from the conversation are the reigning champions Liverpool, who sealed […]

“As an Egyptian, it’s hard to watch Mo Salah’s poor form.” | @kshaheen.bsky.social  asks if it’s the end of the football star’s reign.

Hezbollah’s Latest Attack on Israel May Have Sealed the Party’s Demise in Lebanon We finally have it, the answer to a question many pundits and analysts (myself included) have been raising for decades: Is Hezbollah Iran’s proxy or junior ally? A proxy is an extension of its patron,...

NEW: Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel to avenge Khamenei, and Lebanon woke up to bombs over Beirut. It has now doomed itself militarily and lost the rest of the country, writes Nassim Badani for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/running-note...

"Many ordinary people have a joke view of the world in which Trump comes in, takes out Khamenei - and whatever they want will occur." @arashtehran.bsky.social speaks to me and Negar Mortazavi about the aftermath of the #IranWar | Full ep @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/podcast/in-t...

Running Notes Archive

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We recently added a new way for you to engage with the stories that matter from the Middle East and beyond — a shorter, easier to digest format that’ll let us respond to developments without delay.
Read Running Notes now:

Iran's Supreme Leader Is Dead, but Its People Remain in Peril As questions persist about the fate of the regime, the country braces for what's next, grappling with a reality that has no precedent.

"The murderer of our dreams died." Iran is at a crossroads as it grapples with the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. @ntabrizy.bsky.social  

The Unresolved Contradictions Ali Khamenei Leaves Behind Iranians are left to reckon with the political order the supreme leader shaped, while the impending succession places the Islamic republic’s future in question

"The removal of a “supreme” leader who monopolized ultimate authority inevitably creates a vacuum, and politics abhors such vacuums. The pressing question is not whether someone will attempt to fill it, but who."

Brilliant piece by the Iran scholar Mehrzad Boroujerdi on the unresolved contradictions that Khamenei leaves behind, his intellectual journey and ideological battles—did you know he translated Kahlil Gibran and Sayyid Qutb into Persian?—and what's at stake in the impending succession. A must read! ⤵️

The Unresolved Contradictions Ali Khamenei Leaves Behind Iranians are left to reckon with the political order the supreme leader shaped, while the impending succession places the Islamic republic’s future in question

One of the most interesting profiles I've read on Ali Khamenei, tracing his intellectual/ideological journey while untangling the succession dilemmas he leaves behind.

By scholar of Iranian intellectual history Mehrzad Boroujerdi for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

The Bombing of an Iranian School I woke up on Saturday at 6 a.m. to a text message from a friend that read: “I’m thinking of you. I hope your friends and family in Iran are ok.” That’s how I learned that the United States and Israel ...

Grateful to @ntabrizy.bsky.social for mentioning me in this @newlinesmag.bsky.social piece, which underscores how collaborative open-source investigation is, and why researchers working together matters now more than ever.

How Iran’s Missile Strategy Has Rewritten the Rules of Middle Eastern Wars Tehran has built an extraordinary military alliance, stretching from Lebanon to Gaza to Yemen that, missile by missile, has changed the rules of war in the Middle East

From the @newlinesmag.bsky.social  archives:
Missile by missile, Tehran has built an alliance from Lebanon and Gaza to Yemen — and changed the rules of war in the Middle East. 

The US-Israel Attack on Iran Is a Wake-Up Call for the Gulf The retaliatory Iranian strikes on the Gulf after the joint U.S.-Israeli bombardment are surreal to behold, though not unprecedented, following the few limited attacks in response to the Israeli campaign against Iran and its leadership last year. The bewilderment of residents of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain as missiles sailed overhead or landed […]

Read “The US-Israel Attack on Iran Is a Wake-Up Call for the Gulf” by @kshaheen.bsky.social  in full here:

The security architecture America built up in the Gulf was meant to protect the countries there from Iran. Now they’re being hit by Iranian missiles because ... The US-Israel Attack on Iran Is a Wake-Up Call for the Gulf

📽️America’s Gulf security system, designed to shield states from Iran, is now drawing Iranian missiles. In this video, @erinclarebrown.bsky.social  breaks down @kshaheen.bsky.social ’s recent piece on how this shakes the Gulf’s image as a stable region.

Where on Earth Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? The once fiery Iranian president, who built his reputation on anti-Israel vitriol, has been quiet despite the countries’ recent war — and his discreet trips abroad are attracting questions

Current top read: 
Once a firebrand who called for Israel’s elimination, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been silent since the Israel-Iran war. What explains the former president’s retreat? Kourosh Ziabari reports.

In the Shadow of the Ayatollah’s Death, War Comes to Iran Journalist Negar Mortazavi and historian Arash Azizi join Faisal Al Yafai to discuss the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the future of the Islamic republ...

NEW:
"No to the Islamic republic, no to Israel and no to the United States" — many Iranians are weighing contradictory truths as war hits their country. @negarmortazavi.bsky.social and
@arashtehran.bsky.social join @faisalalyafai.bsky.social on The Lede. newlinesmag.com/podcast/in-t...

Mexico Convulses After the Death of Its Most Wanted Drug Lord On Sunday, Feb. 22, environmental activists from the group A Leap of Life Collective were doing field work in the Mexican state of Jalisco when several armed men stopped their vehicle. “We were forced...

NEW: After the Mexican army killed “El Mencho,” leader of the powerful CJNG cartel, crime groups blocked roads and attacked businesses across the country, leaving millions uncertain about what comes next, reports Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul, for @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/running-note...

Is It the End of Mo Salah’s Reign? The English Premier League is approaching the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, with the title race heating up between Arsenal and perennial champions Manchester City. The race is likely to go down to...

NEW: The greatest Egyptian footballer ever deserves a proper send-off. Mo Salah carried Liverpool to the title last season with a record 47 goal involvements. This season? Four goals. Whatever comes next, what a run it's been, writes @kshaheen.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/running-note...

Beirut’s History Is Being Repaved Developers have dismantled part of the ancient Roman walls in the city center to make way for a parking lot

This piece traces the erasure of the Roman city wall beneath a new parking lot in Beirut, exposing how private capital and complicit officials conspire to sever the city’s living residents from the archaeology underfoot.

By Madeline Edwards in @newlinesmag.bsky.social

The Unresolved Contradictions Ali Khamenei Leaves Behind Iranians are left to reckon with the political order the supreme leader shaped, while the impending succession places the Islamic republic’s future in question

NEW: With the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iranians are left to reckon with the political order he shaped and the unresolved contradictions he leaves behind, writes Mehrzad Boroujerdi for @newlinesmag.bsky.social . newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

The Jewish Woman Who Was the Love of Palestine’s Most Famous Poet Died This Week “Rita is an erotic poem. … Rita in all my poems is a Jewish woman.” – Mahmoud Darwish, in a 1996 interview with Israeli literary critic Helit Yeshurun. On Feb. 24, Tamar Ben-Ami, a Jewish-Israeli woman who inspired some of Mahmoud Darwish’s most famous poems, died at 79. She was an acclaim...

Tamar Ben-Ami, the Jewish-Israeli woman who inspired some of Mahmoud Darwish’s poems, recently passed. @lisang.bsky.social  reflects on their brief romantic relationship and Ben-Ami’s life as a symbol of the intersections between Israelis and Palestinians.

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The Jewish Woman Who Was the Love of Palestine’s Most Famous Poet Died This Week “Rita is an erotic poem. … Rita in all my poems is a Jewish woman.” – Mahmoud Darwish, in a 1996 interview with Israeli literary critic Helit Yeshurun. On Feb. 24, Tamar Ben-Ami, a Jewish-Israeli woman who inspired some of Mahmoud Darwish’s most famous poems, died at 79. She was an acclaimed choreographer but would […]

🧵The Jewish Israeli woman who loved and was loved by Palestine’s most famous poet died this week. Their romance couldn’t survive politics, but the poetry it inspired is loved by millions