@wlacher.bsky.social
Political scientist with a longstanding interest in violent conflict, Libya and the Sahel. Author, Libya's Fragmentation; co-editor, Violence and Social Transformation in Libya. Views my own. https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/researcher/wolfram-lacher
Multiple news outlets are reporting a US attack on an Iranian #desalination plant.
If verified, this violates international law protecting #water systems during wars, and it sets a dangerous precedent, given intense dependence of Gulf countries on desalination.
timesofoman.com/article/1691...
Photos of all the school children killed by a US strike in Minab, Ireland
The United States killed all these children last Saturday.
170 of them.
Every. Single. One.
"Und wenn diejenigen, für die Sie da oben das Plakat hochhalten, die Waffen niederlegen, dann ist der Konflikt innerhalb von 24 Stunden beendet. Da liegt die Ursache."
Was auf dem Plakat steht:
"Ja zum Völkerrecht
Nie wieder Staatsräson
Viva 🇵🇸"
www.instagram.com/reels/DVkT2z...
The asymmetry of the value placed on human life is so striking. Israel has a goal to recover 40-year-old remains; to do so, it invades a sovereign country, and the lives of 26 Lebanese are an afterthought. Their names not even worth printing in the New York Times.
07.03.2026 14:15 — 👍 5265 🔁 1797 💬 78 📌 63Three days ago, Israel ordered the south evacuated. Two days ago, they did the same to the southern suburbs. That’s more than one million people. Some, the most vulnerable, are sleeping rough by the sea or on sidewalks. Today, it is raining. War harms the poor the most.
07.03.2026 09:08 — 👍 255 🔁 117 💬 3 📌 1
This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...
Wieso tolerieren wir eigentlich die Macht von Milliardären? Fragt Adam Tooze @adamtooze.bsky.social
06.03.2026 11:19 — 👍 34 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 1
Am 12. Mai äußert Goiny „auch im Namen der Fraktion“ die „dringende Bitte“: „Bei Euch im Haus liegen noch von Joe bewilligte Projektanträge gegen Antisemitismus. Die sind alle geprüft, mit der Israelischen Botschaft verabredet und über unser Fraktionsticket finanziert.“
archive.ph/zjb0I
Wer auf Demos "From the River to the sea" ruft, wird polizeilich verfolgt. Wenn radikale Christen den Spruch verwenden und damit das Existenzrecht Palästinas verneinen, werden sie von Berlins Polizeipräsidentin Slowik Meisel beehrt taz.de/Polizeipraes...
04.03.2026 21:53 — 👍 143 🔁 49 💬 8 📌 8
US military investigators believe it is likely US forces were responsible for the Minab school attack.
"If a US role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of US conflicts in the Middle East." www.reuters.com/world/middle...
Israel has just issued a demand that all of Beirut’s southern suburbs, an area roughly the size of central Berlin or lower Manhattan, run for their lives. Tens of thousands are forced to flee- again. Real fears that they will level much of southern Beirut- an area where more than 500,000 live.
05.03.2026 21:07 — 👍 142 🔁 107 💬 2 📌 15
“The drones that hover over the skies of Lebanon…collect large swathes of data — Wi-Fi, IP addresses, phone signals — which are then organized by AI…in what some scholars and activists say amounts to a “digital occupation.” Fascinating by @justinsalhani.bsky.social
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
The piece @wlacher.bsky.social and I wrote for @dissentmag.bsky.social is now available in Arabic | The Demise of Conflict Studies
05.03.2026 14:23 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0A lot of people say AI isn't very good for the world and its outputs are routinely unreliable, but these haters fail to see how it's revolutionizing how we incinerate schoolchildren.
05.03.2026 04:43 — 👍 7334 🔁 2308 💬 182 📌 50
ترجمة عربية لمقالتنا عن أفول دراسات الصراع
قطاع كامل متخصص في دراسات الوساطة، وحفظ السلام، ونزع السلاح، والعدالة الانتقالية، قد أصبح إلى حدّ كبير منتهي الصلاحية. ويتساءل الباحثان فولفرام لاخر وإيفان غيشاوا في مراجعة نقدية: هل كانت دراسات النزاع، منذ بدايتها ربما، علماً إمبريالياً؟
Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran.
No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles.
Worth a watch.
(🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)
Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der das traditionell liberale Flaggschiff Deutschlands über den völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg eines antidemokratische Imperialisten, der sich einen Dreck um die Menschen im Iran schert, ein Pro und Contra macht.
04.03.2026 21:09 — 👍 364 🔁 81 💬 26 📌 25
The DFG (German Research Foundation) has a programme funding stays of up to three months at German academic institutions for researchers in early career phases and of all disciplines from MENA (www.dfg.de/en/news/news...) and Sub-Saharan Africa (www.dfg.de/en/news/news...).
05.03.2026 07:54 — 👍 9 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
A Russian LNG tanker has sunk in the Mediterranean between Libya and Malta after it was hit by explosions.
Russia accused Ukraine of targeting the Arctic Metagaz with "uncrewed sea drones" launched from the Libyan coast.
“Just another faceless three-digit number of Muslim children extinguished from existence and relegated to A11...” www.columnblog.com/p/corporate-...
05.03.2026 03:08 — 👍 26 🔁 14 💬 2 📌 0
Hat der Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien wirklich gerade die Empfehlung ausgesprochen, die nächsten Bücher
hier www.roter-buchladen.de
hier thegoldenshop.org
oder hier buchladen-weltkugel.de
zu bestellen? Respekt.
"Cancel your subscription. Using the free version? Delete the app, because your conversations still feed the machine. Then try an alternative, and tell at least one person why."
04.03.2026 09:06 — 👍 225 🔁 86 💬 8 📌 4It is a sign that the administration has a rock solid and very legitimate justification for attacking Iran that the justification changes on a daily basis.
04.03.2026 01:28 — 👍 148 🔁 56 💬 6 📌 0
Manche scheinen Fragen an die Trump-Administration zu haben, was die Gründe und Ziele des US & israelischen Angriffs auf den Iran betrifft. Vielleicht sollten sie diese Fragen einfach stattdessen an die deutsche Regierung richten, denn die sagt ja, dass sie diese Gründe und Ziele kennt und teilt.
04.03.2026 08:15 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
We are solidly back to the days of "WE are the civilized, makers and beneficiaries of the rules, and THEY are the uncivilized, entitled to no protections"
That mindset never really went away, some of just pretended it did. No denying it anymore
Russian-flagged sanctioned LNG tanker on fire off Libya, following suspected naval drone strike
04.03.2026 07:28 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 2
Die Visual Investigations Unit der New York Times hat das Material zum US-israelischen Angriff auf die Schule in Minab mit 150 toten Schulkindern ebenfalls ausgewertet und dargestellt. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/w...
03.03.2026 23:09 — 👍 20 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 1
Fotos von der Grabstätte für die 150 getöteten Schulkinder im südiranischen Minab (insgesamt 165 Tote). Das Massenbegräbnis hat heute stattgefunden.
03.03.2026 18:30 — 👍 36 🔁 22 💬 9 📌 2
#OtD 3 Mar 2000 former dictator Pinochet returned to Chile a free man after being released by Labour home secretary Jack Straw instead of being extradited to Spain on torture charges. He got a hero's welcome, while protesters were beaten by police stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1021...
03.03.2026 17:55 — 👍 64 🔁 44 💬 4 📌 5
“This is an illegal 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 war,” Kuwaiti scholar Bader Al-Saif said on Al Jazeera just now.
“The Iranians are following a scorched earth strategy trying to bring everyone down w/ them. But this is not our war.”
Iran’s bombing of Gulf states, he stressed, is “illegal on all counts”
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