Fabien Goa

If you’re a media outlet / podcast and need an explainer on what’s going on I’m happy to do so.

Priority for independent media

Ayoub@thefirethesetimes.com

Signal @ Ayoub.02

It highlights the reality of the current political divide. The far-right are pitching not just toxic nostalgia, but an entirely imagined past. They could not achieve their political vision even if they had an actual time machine. All they have to offer is cruelty, violence, corruption and decay.

Manchester United fans unveiled a pro-immigration banner during Sunday’s fixture against Crystal Palace in response to comments from minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

More from @lauriewhitwell.bsky.social

www.nytimes.com/athletic/707...

The Fire These Times Masterclasses

Beware of Small States: Lebanon since 1975 In this 5-parts class, you will get an overview of Lebanese history and politics from 1975, with a focus on the so-called ‘postwar’ from 1990 onward. We will go beyond sensationalist headlines and shallow coverage, and beyond simplistic, top-down explanations for the country. Instead of a linear timeline of events, which you can get from Wikipedia anyway, you will get a messy one. After all, politics is not linear. Political actors evoke events from the recent or not-so-recent past as part of their politics in the present. I will also use personal stories as someone who grew up in Lebanon in a very conservative, at times even Far Right, Christian environment, to explain how my own personal journey away from right-wing and towards left-wing, quasi-anarchist, politics helped me understand Lebanon better. Classes are on average 2 hours long, once a week.

Over the last few years, places like Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon have dominated the headlines. But if you want to actually learn what these places are like, what animates the people who live there, and what the future might be for them, you need to sit down and take it slow and learn from an expert. Elia Ayoub is one such expert for Lebanon, and his course on modern Lebanon, Lebanese identity, sectarianization, and the struggle for a better future in Lebanon is so illuminating. If you want you expand your thinking and approach this country with a new frame of mind, you should take a course with Ayoub.

Registrations are now open for the March-April class on modern Lebanese history and politics. All the info you need is here: thefirethesetimes.com/lebanonclass/
(Link also includes free resources on Lebanon)

And here's a nice testimony by @diplomatofnight.com who attended the January-February class

The fact this is happening in Gaza is horrific enough. But this is also the stated vision of many neoreactionary right wingers (that’s how they define themselves) for the world at large.

Today, Gaza. Tomorrow everywhere else.

Ratcliffe clearly does not understand The United Way

Last year Ratcliffe threatened to walk away if he ever got the kind of hostility the Glazers get from United fans. Well, hopefully pedalling far right "great replacement" conspiracy theories is all the fuel we need to get this parasite out of our club and send him packing back to Monaco

Iranian protesters don't owe us an explanation Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics

My latest: Without anti-authoritarianism, 'anti-imperialism' is just conservatism with left-wing aesthetics

www.hauntologies.net/p/iranian-pr...

The Hunger Strikers

On the From The Periphery Podcast, we spoke about the prisoners on hunger strike in the UK whose lives are at risk. This is an extremely urgent situation.

With @aymanmak.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/7oIo...

More here: prisonersforpalestine.org

Police forces will make arrests over intifada chants The Metropolitan and Greater Manchester forces say they will make arrests over 'globalise the intifada' chants.

The UK is effectively criminalising a sentence because has an Arabic word.

Intifada just means uprising. The Warsaw Uprising, for example, is just ‘Intifadat Warsaw’ in Arabic.

Our very identities are being effectively criminalised.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

New Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

Margaret talks to Dana El Kurd about Diogenes, the founder of the Cynics, who was kind of an edgelord and lived in a jar.

@margaret.bsky.social @danaelkurd.bsky.social @whysophiewhy.bsky.social

www.iheart.com/podcast/1119...

🚨 FIFA just awarded its newly created “Peace Prize” to U.S. President Donald Trump, without any criteria or transparency on the selection process – and against a backdrop of escalating attacks on human rights and civil freedoms in the U.S.

Learn more: sportandrightsalliance.org/world-cup-20...

Abolish Fifa.

📣 As #FIFA prepares to award its first-ever “FIFA Peace Prize” at the #WorldCup draw in Washington, DC, a coalition of human rights organizations, unions, and fan groups is calling for real action to protect the people who make global football possible.
🔗 sportandrightsalliance.org/world-cup-20...

rapportlespolicesdespolices - FLAGRANT DENI POLICES DES POLICES EN FRANCE : POURQUOI IL FAUT TOUT CHANGER 2025 RAPPORT Flagrant déni publie un rapport accablant, qui expose les raisons pour lesquelles l’impunité policière s’accroît. Flagrant dé...

Polices des polices en France: Pourquoi il faut tout changer www.flagrant-deni.fr/rapportlespo...

The Mainstreaming of Nick Fuentes by the Coward Tucker Carlson

The mainstreaming of Nick Fuentes by the Coward Tucker Carlson.
'How Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes sparked infighting between the Heritage Foundation and Ben Shapiro, and the growing influence of America First branded antisemitism in the Republican Party'
pca.st/episode/3347...

Called it

France: Dysfunctional and discriminatory residence permit system violates racialized migrant workers’ rights New research from Amnesty International exposes how France’s residence permit system for migrant workers is trapping racialized people in administrative limbo and leaving them vulnerable to labour exp...

New research from Amnesty International documenting how France's dysfunctional and discriminatory residence permit system violates racialized migrant workers’ rights www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

France Info TV invite donc Michel Onfray, habitué des plateaux de CNews, et normalise le vocabulaire complotiste des médias Bolloré en utilisant l'expression "grand remplacement". S'il cherche à copier l'extrême droite médiatique, l'audiovisuel public aura à la fois la défaite et le déshonneur.

Going to the Peacehaven Mosque Some reflections following the 4 October terrorist attack

I added some thoughts on the Peacehaven mosque attack here www.hauntologies.net/p/going-to-t...

Peacehaven: Fire at East Sussex mosque probed as 'hate crime' Video appears to show two people in balaclavas at the mosque before a large blaze spreads.

Two people in balaclavas torched a mosque in Peacehaven, East Sussex. This is not far from where I live.

Fascists are in an open war with Muslims and people of colour in the UK.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

The only ideology they have is infinite consumption, and he has affected that, so now they are upset. What they wanted, by the same token, was not free speech but infinite speech - to say what they liked without backlash. And that deserved backlash is upsetting them too. That's basically it.

Any credible future history of the rise of the early c21st UK far right will include a chapter on the crucial process of mainstreaming, in which Goodwin and the rest of the "legitimate concerns" gang will feature prominently. His later journey will be a footnote.

If anything, Goodwin was far more useful to the far right back then than he is now. Wittingly or unwittingly, he acted as a plausibly authoritative outrider, mainstreaming their "concerns" and undermining the norms that had kept them marginalised until then.

To what extent is it radicalisation and to what extent is it his real self being revealed? I suspect it's both. Ten years ago he was whitewashing racism as the legitimate concerns of the downtrodden and deriding anti-racists as a cosmopolitan elite. These were not exactly small red flags.

If you think this isn't connected to the political discourse on immigration you are wrong.

One my favourite thinkers, who also happens to be one of my favourite human beings, and whose writing, podcasting and documentary-making never fails to inspire and energize.

Your department, your project, your crew would undoubtably benefit from having Elia onboard!

Eric Cantona shares jersey of refugee camp team to benefit Palestine French football legend wears jersey of Lajee Celtic Club in Israeli-occupied West Bank - Anadolu Ajansı

Palestine 🇵🇸

Eric Cantona voiced support for Palestinian refugees by backing Lajee Celtic Club from Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp. He appeared on Instagram wearing the club’s shirt, endorsing a Celtic fan campaign in Scotland raising funds for the team.

Opinion | The Right Didn’t Catch Cancel Culture From the Left

"For the right, this crackdown wasn’t a sign of the excesses of the Cold War but rather the proper role of government: to police public life to make sure it conformed to conservative values"
The Right Didn’t Catch Cancel Culture From the Left @pastpunditry.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...

The Continent 27 SEPTEMBER 2025 | ISSUE 215 15 INVESTIGATION The Djiboutian massacre Ethiopia won’t acknowledge Djibouti drones killed eight people on the other side of its border with Ethiopia. Djibouti claimed they were terrorists. Ethiopia said nothing. This investigation found that some of the dead were Ethiopians, revealing another episode in Addis’s tendency to let its neighbours kill its citizens with impunity. Crossing the line: Djibouti’s bombs landed inside Ethiopia, killing civilians – not armed fighters. zecharias zelalem On 30 January this year, a drone manned from Djibouti dropped a bomb on a funeral gathering in Siyaru, a remote, semi-arid village near the Ethiopia Djibouti border. As rescuers rushed in, a second bomb dropped. And then a third. At least eight people were killed, including three children. Several others were injured. Given the village’s remoteness, the incident might have gone unreported if graphic images of the dead hadn’t spread across Ethiopian social media. A statement from the Djibouti’s defence ministry said the drone struck rebel fighters from the Front for the

Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Frud), a Djiboutian political party with a military wing. It has been fighting for Afar interests in Djibouti since the 1990s. The Afar are a community split by the colonial border separating Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. “Eight terrorists were neutralised on site,” said a Djibouti military statement. “Unfortunately, collateral damage among Djiboutian civilians in the area has been documented.” International media, including Voice of America, Agence France Presse, and Radio France Internationale reported this version of events. Now, new findings from an open In recovery: Mariam Mohammed Abdullah was injured in the drone strike. source investigation by The Continent reveal a different reality. The bombs landed inside Ethiopia, not in Djibouti, and civilians – not armed fighters – were killed. That distinction matters. It shows Ethiopia is once again tolerating a foreign military targeting its own citizens, as it did with Eritrea during the Tigray conflict. A transparent lie Even before the ink could dry on the Djiboutian military’s statement, The Addis Standard and human rights groups in Djibouti were emphatic that the strike had actually occurred inside Ethiopia’s Afar region. But Alexis Mohamed, an adviser to Djiboutian President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, rubbished these reports in now-deleted social media posts. The Continent got to work to figure out what really happened. Over the course of eight months, we collected eyewitness testimonies, interviewed human rights activists in Ethiopia and Djibouti, and examined images and footage from the strike. Our findings align with those of Djiboutian activists, who pinpointed Siyaru in Ethiopia’s Afar region as the site of the strike. The ammunition residue found on the night of the strike confirms the bomb was manufactured by Roketsan, a state run weapons manufacturer in Türkiye. Former US army explosives expert Trevor Ball identified t…

THREAD: this investigation took up over half my year, but it's here in @thecontinent.org:
A Djiboutian drone strike in January was depicted as a army operation targeting rebels. It was actually a massacre of civilians. The bloodshed & coverup implicating Ethiopia, Djibouti, France & Turkiye.
#OSINT