"The idea that US-led international institutions make it cheaper to exert influence is not lost on critics of American power. Institutions and spheres, then, may be less alternatives than connected choices that structure competition rather than escape it."
A surge of regional violence, shifting great‑power alignments, and growing doubts about Washington’s reliability have pushed Qatar and Saudi Arabia into the most consequential reassessment of their security strategies in decades, according to a new report.
inkstickmedia.com/deep-dive-ar...
"These agreements effectively deputize local police departments and sheriff’s offices, allowing them to work hand-in-glove with ICE for the arrest and detention of immigrants."
In a new @inkstickmedia.com story, I talked to a man that DHS has relentlessly depicted as a gang member. (A claim he vehemently denies.) Here’s what the agency said about the apparent evidence linking him to a gang. More soon.
“All that’s happened is the Trump administration has brought what was before in the shadows of the border into the glaring light of a major American city," says @reecejones.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/how-trumps-d...
"This plan, which seems to be driven more by a desire for jobs at SRS than suitability for the task, will expand the production and transportation zone for nuclear weapons dramatically."
As Trump's DHS fights to pull local police onto its side, an immigrant’s safety largely depends on how much their community stands up for them.
By: @tylerfromtexas.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/how-trumps-d...
"Few betrayals rival [Kissinger's] in terms of human cost, but for Kurds there is a through-line from that point to Washington’s refusal to back the 2017 independence referendum in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, greenlighting Turkish interventions in Syria … and the recent collapse of Rojava."
Critical State: A War of 'Armageddon' in Iran?
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"I didn’t think that the book would come out during such massive protests in Iran, and this kind of slaughter of people inside the country … But again, the questions remain the same, about intervention, the American role, Israel’s role in instrumentalizing protests in Iran.”
In her forthcoming book, @mollycrabapple.bsky.social "writes to make you fall in love with the Bundists — with their charm, their surety, their steadfastness, their loquaciousness — but more so to make you fall in love with their ideas."
A new review by @moiralavelle.bsky.social
"Now, Syrian Kurds will try to pick up the shattered pieces of Rojava and find a way forward with Damascus, while Iraqi Kurds will wonder what is in store for them under Tom Barrack’s new broom."
"Heartache has become part and parcel of daily life in Gaza. Hospitals have seen a surge in unusually alarming pediatric cases linked to the extreme cold and inhumane living conditions — how can you mind your health, after all, when you live in fragile nylon tents on a beach in the dead of winter?"
"Killing, wounding, threatening, or investigating observers are just some of the violent immigration tactics in the era of Donald Trump."
"What I understand and feel is [that] if Rojava fails, then Iraqi Kurdistan fails too. I have never had a good feeling about the US. History told us this. The US is always leaving you when they don’t need you or not their priority.”
NEW from me in @inkstickmedia.com: During the January offensive against NE Syria, Tom Barrack became a household name across Kurdistan as the latest face of US betrayal. While ordinary Kurds voice their feelings openly, their leaders must act pragmatically.
inkstickmedia.com/for-kurds-to...
"On the battlefield, Russia’s incremental advances underscore the grinding nature of the conflict. According to CSIS, Russian forces have been on the offensive in most sectors since early 2024 but have moved at historically slow rates."
The Latest at Inkstick: Immigration Industrial Complex, Israel in Somaliland, and More
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"In recent months, Tom Barrack has become a household name across Kurdistan, entering an infamous pantheon of American officials accused of turning their back on the Kurds at life-or-death moments."
By: @wrodgers2.bsky.social
inkstickmedia.com/for-kurds-to...
"We were promised equipment and prefabricated caravans — the war destroyed more than 90% of the homes in Gaza — that have not arrived. Even the winter is a weapon aimed at us, the rain and winds as harsh as the war itself."
"As the US pushes toend protected status for more than 350,000 Haitians on its own soil, one man does not hide his admiration for ICE’s raids: Santiago Riverón. He is the mayor of Dajabón, a municipality located on the Dominican Republic's border with Haiti."
"For Trump, all of this is a spectacle," says a former Iranian political prisoner and sociologist named Behrooz Ghamari, author of the new book 'The Long War on Iran.'
He adds, "The interventionist policy only creates disasters."
"In central Gaza, our situation was no safer. In the neighborhood where I live, we woke on a recent morning to tragedy: a five-story residential building, home to the Shanna family, had collapsed. The building had survived Israeli shelling, but the fierce winds proved too much."
"As it turns out, many of the companies now securing these lucrative [immigrant detention] contracts were some of the largest donors to Trump’s election campaign and lobbied Congress to triple ICE’s budget."
"When newspapers took note of Addie Barlow Frazier, some made a spectacle of the upcoming KKK rally and the woman at the center of it, printing profiles of the 'Klan granny' who insisted she would lead the white supremacist group’s North Texas comeback."
"Although immigrants have won 36% of the country’s Nobel Prizes in science over the past 125 years, the White House has now restricted H-1B visas for skilled immigrants and imposed a nearly 20% cut in foreign graduate students at US universities."
Eighty years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world needs to end the next nuclear arms race before it starts.
"When family members of the disappeared immigrants arrived, there was no sign of their loved ones. What they found instead were customized ace of spades playing cards that read 'ICE Denver Field Office.'"
inkstickmedia.com/how-trump-is...
