Nassim Assefi

Pedro Sanchez continues his run as the only world leader convincingly acting like he cares to defend a rules based world order

Opinion | The Iranian Regime Has Committed a Massacre (Gift Article) We surveyed medical workers across 14 cities and 11 provinces in Iran about their experiences treating wounded protesters.

We are all watching/dreading unfolding Iran events. The people are trapped between a horrific regime and a terrible prospect of war. Meanwhile, see this chilling @nytimes.com reporting by @roxanasaberi.bsky.social + colleague on Iran's health providers' experiences: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

As the US intensifies the blockade on Cuba to include food, it is important to understand the link to Gaza.

Israel's forced starvation of Gaza served to destroy the norms & laws around collective punishment and normalize the punishment of civilians.

The US is now replicating this in Cuba.

US siege on Cuba, a 60 year embargo now blocking food + fuel, a war that has little of world's attention. I'm ashamed of the US (+ very worried what it will do to Iran): www.weareceda.org/en/us-cuba-n... Democracy + human rights were always just a ruse; Marco Rubio has wanted to do this for ages

no foreign foe has ever dreamed of being able to sack and pillaging this country the way Trump admin and its congressional and scotus enablers do every day.

I really feel like: Donald Trump is building a prison camp system on the scale of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao … would be a good and true headline to run every day. Advertisements across media. Speeches on the Senate. Everywhere.

A different way to measure success in health care | Andrew Bastawrous Podcast Episode · TED Talks Daily · 02/06/2026 · 34m

Inspiring short podcast. TEDFellow, global health eye surgeon and kind, evolved human Dr. Andrew Bastawrous talks about his vision (ha!) for outstanding health care at scale. With TED Fellow director Lily James Olds. Slow down and soak it in. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Donate to Help Afghan Students Have Access to Higher Education, organized by Fatima Daryabi The Afghan Student Alliance (ASA) at Columbia University is a stud… Fatima Daryabi needs your support for Help Afghan Students Have Access to Higher Education

Afghan women have so many barriers to education (secondary school and beyond currently banned in Afghanistan). This beautiful Go Fund Me helps them to apply to university in the US: www.gofundme.com/f/help-afgha...

New Mexico Senate approves bill to ban ICE detention centers The New Mexico Legislature approved the Immigration Safety Act. House bill 9 bars the state from allowing ICE detention centers.

This is another effort that has taken a HUGE amount of local activism, led by community folks who care.

It CAN be done. Get involved where you live and push back.

www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/i...

Appropriating the death count: Manufacturing consent for an attack on Iran Protest death toll speculations are used to rally support for an attack on Iran and downplay the genocide in Gaza.

The importance and difficulty of confirming the Iran death toll: www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

Yikes. Our crumbling geopolitical structure…people thought I was overreacting when I became a Trump refugee

It Could Be the Next Blockbuster Drug. There’s Just One Part No One Wants to Talk About. No one knows how psychedelics work. The answer may be strange.

Excellent article by @janehu.bsky.social of @slate.com, exploring the tricky terrain of double-blinded, placebo controlled randomized controlled trials of psychedelics. slate.com/technology/2... We in Western medicine undervalue the very real placebo effect (ask me about my NIH-funded RCT of Reiki).

100% this on false choices and imposed binaries benefitting those in power. There is another way for Iran if we are a bit slower and steadier in political and economic pressure. Another must read by SAIS’s @nargesbajoghli.bsky.social www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cp5...

You will love it! Miss you! You staying Istanbulda? Xo

Run to see Jafar Panahi's latest film "It was just an accident" or Simple Accident. Secretly filmed in Iran. Such poignant themes today about the human desire for revenge and reconciliation, the complexity of human emotions, the reverberations of torture/PTSD, and the resilience of ordinary people.

Everything is connected. From Gaza to MPLS. We are in the days of transnational empire--networked, distributed, enabled by big tech/corporations. Trenchant analysis by the ever wonderful Dr. Narges Bajoghli of SAIS: www.facebook.com/share/p/18H4...

- IRAN UPDATE HRANA's latest numbers. The total number of fatalities - confirmed and under review - has now surpassed 23,000. Reminder: HRANA death confirmations take time, as they go through multiple layers of verification. Very limited internet access continues to make the collection and processing of data difficult. We still do not know the full extent of the Islamic Republic's carnage. Confirmed fatalities: 6,126 Protesters: 5,777 Children (under 18): 86 Forces affiliated with the regime: 214 Non-protesters: 49 Fatalities under investigation: 17,091 TOTAL: 23,217 Severely injured individuals: 11,009 Total arrests: 41,880 Broadcast of forced confessions: 245 Summoned to intelligence/security agencies: 11,024

Latest numbers out of Iran.

A Society Exhausted by Repetition • EQUATOR A young Iranian weighs the protests in his country, and traces the line between hope and despair, in an essay delivered through a frail WhatsApp connection

Incredibly powerful, beautiful, and heartbreaking letter from a young man in Iran in the midst of his military service writing about the days following the protests, the "suspended agency" quieter than despair. www.equator.org/articles/teh...

This is too good. Greenlanders talk about Trump deserving the Nobel Peace Prize...with a twist: www.facebook.com/share/p/1DQ5...

Disheartened by in-fighting (not new) in Iranian diaspora. Those on the "right" supporting Reza Pahlavi cyber-bully (+ much worse) those who don't agree with them. I've received online hate + kicked out of a supposedly apolitical med humanitarian group 4 questioning their support of foreign bombing.

The most helpful, concise analysis on the Iran-USA-Israel access and next steps I'm reading lately come from @citrinowicz.bsky.social on Twitter (lamentably). He's an Israeli, a political Iran, peace and security expert, and Atlantic Council Fellow. Balanced views. Follow him: x.com/citrinowicz

How Iran Crushed a Citizen Uprising With Lethal Force

Meticulously researched (including by friends of mine), horrific, brutal account by @nytimes.com about what happened in Iran: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/25/w...

This is cold-blooded state murder of an US citizen. Stephen Miller called Alex Pretti a "domestic terrorist" & claimed he was trying to "assassinate" federal officers. A total lie. Only a cretin would hurl this falsehood & stick with it. This a fascistic and reckless disregard of life & the truth.

WOW on Pretti's denial of medical treatment

"I informed the ICE agents that I am a physician, and I asked to
assess the victim.

At first, the ICE agents wouldn't let me through. ... But none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, ... None of the agents were helping him."

"I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting," writes a woman now in hiding from the federal government for witnessing a state-sanctioned street execution

Yashar Ali m @yashar x.com BREAKING - IRAN UPDATE HRANA's latest numbers. The total number of fatalities - confirmed and under review - has now surpassed 22,000. Reminder: HRANA death confirmations take time, as they go through multiple layers of verification. The spike in cases is due to the fact that some Iranians can now communicate via messaging apps. But full internet access is still not available, so we do not yet know the extent of the carnage at the hands of the Islamic Republic. Confirmed fatalities: 5,459 Protesters: 5,149 Children (under 18): 60 Government-affiliated forces: 208 Non-protesters/civilians: 42 Fatalities under investigation: 17,031 TOTAL: 22,490 Severely injured: 7,403 Total arrests: 40,887 Arrests of individuals under 18: 325 Broadcast forced confessions: 205 cases Summonses to security agencies: 11,023 cases

BREAKING - Iran update

As some Iranians have been able to use messaging apps, confirmed fatalities, arrests, etc have skyrocketed.

Currently 22,490 fatalities have been confirmed and are under investigation.

Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived

“There is a logic, and this logic has a name. It’s called state terror.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/o...

This is such an important point and here in Europe we should be building the skills and connections now to make sure that the truth continues to matter and powerful people can be held to account.
The alternative is going down and down the spiral of democratic disenchantment and erosion…