Abu Aardvark
@abuaardvark.bsky.social
Marc Lynch. GW Professor, POMEPS commander, Brewers fan. The one true Abu Aardvark. AMERICA’S MIDDLE EAST. Find me at https://abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io
New @bloomberglaw.com article by Olivia Carville - TikTok experimented on users, putting 10% (about 15M people) in a "filter bubble" exposing them to repetitive content that the algorithm thought they wanted, but was toxic. If you want to know why these cases are going to be massive...
“The Houthis said Wednesday that they had struck a Saudi oil tanker in the northern Red Sea, and they threatened to intensify attacks there in an effort to close “all access routes” to Saudi oil shipments.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/w...
Houthis Threaten to Expand Red Sea Attacks, and Claim Strike on Saudi Tanker (Gift Article)
Saudi Arabia has not commented on the claim by the Houthis, who are backed by Iran and have vowed to close “all access routes” to Saudi oil shipments.
nytimes.com
This is another fantastic outcome for Michigan progressives. Nice. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/u...
Shri Thanedar Is Ousted by a Democratic Socialist in a Michigan House Primary (Gift Article)
Representative Shri Thanedar is among a wave of Democratic incumbents in Congress whom primary voters have sent packing in a surge of anti-incumbent fervor this cycle.
nytimes.com
A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵
Knight Foundation-SSRS Poll: Americans Feel Free Expression is Eroding - Knight Foundation
For more than two decades, Knight Foundation has commissioned research to better understand Americans’ lived experience with the First Amendment and free expression. As the country marks its 250th ann...
knightfoundation.org
“the resilience of both the Islamic Republic and its partners despite years of apparent setbacks points to an underlying flaw in the thinking that led to the conflict…this increasingly sophisticated and flexible structure has allowed Iran’s allies to adapt” www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/how-axi...
How the Axis of Resistance Recovered
The Iranian-led network Is more dangerous than ever.
foreignaffairs.com
What is truly "shocking" about the polling miss in Michigan is that it is completely average for a primary "The expected error on the margin between two primary candidates in a race for governor or U.S. Senate is a whopping 13.0 points." blog.fiftyplusone.news/p/2026-texas...
Do we really know who's leading the Texas Senate races?
Primary polls have historically been rather unreliable, and a surge in new primary voters means turnout assumptions matter more than usual
blog.fiftyplusone.news
|horses|@chemotaxis.bsky.social · 6h agoPolling is like really fucked. Strikes me as a huge problem honestly.
The progressive beating the establishment AIPAC-funded candidate who spent over $70 million than him is the big election night they wanted
Politico@politico.com · 9h agoProgressives didn’t get the big election night they wanted
Randomly selected for additional TSA screening for the 13th time in last 15 flights
Abu Aardvark@abuaardvark.bsky.social · 4mo agoRandomly selected for additional TSA screening for the 8th time in a row I am on one heck of a lucky run
“Why is Sudan forgotten?” Is it really? Forgetting is unintentional, but neglect is a political choice. And neglect is what we see in #Sudan. Excellent opinion piece. We must do better: www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2026...
Three minutes on Sudan
Forgetting is unintentional, but neglect is a political choice. And neglect is what we see in Sudan.
thenewhumanitarian.org
Tried to pick something up in a DC CVS and good lord they really have made it impossible to shop there. Everything locked up, police strolling around the aisles, very few staff. It’s hard to fathom such an aggressively anti-customer retail outlet. Amazing.
Very proud of the work we are doing in the @brismes.bsky.social Committee on #AcademicFreedom. Drawing on 28 interventions between January 2025 & May 2026 the report documents attacks on academic freedom, freedom of expression and the right to education across the UK, Europe & the MENA.
BRISMES@brismes.bsky.social · 7h ago📢 BRISMES has published the first annual report of its Committee on #AcademicFreedom. Drawing on 28 interventions, it documents threats to academic freedom, freedom of expression and the right to education across the UK, Europe and the MENA. (1/8) 👉 shorturl.at/eKJku
Governments are weaponising travel bans to silence dissent. By restricting movement, they isolate journalists, silence critics and prevent abuses from reaching an audience. Our new report with the University of Essex examines this growing global threat: www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/07/how-...
How governments are weaponising travel bans to silence dissent - Index on Censorship
A major new report that looks at how dissidents are stopped from entering or leaving their countries
indexoncensorship.org
Teams of contractors now scour the internet using sophisticated surveillance tools to find commentary that the agency (DHS) regards as potentially dangerous. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics
The agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
“Soleimani’s killing in a January 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad was a game changer.The Axis lost the driving force behind the unity of the fronts plan, which began to drift, and 3 Hezbollah sources suggest this is what eventually prompted Hamas to take matters into its own hands on 7 October 2023”
Abu Aardvark@abuaardvark.bsky.social · 6h ago“This is the story of Hezbollah’s 2024 defeat to Israel, its surprising resurrection in a new war 15 months later, and the state of the party today as domestic and international enemies seek to defang it for ever.” www.middleeasteye.net/news/the-res...
“This is the story of Hezbollah’s 2024 defeat to Israel, its surprising resurrection in a new war 15 months later, and the state of the party today as domestic and international enemies seek to defang it for ever.” www.middleeasteye.net/news/the-res...
The resurrection of Hezbollah
The Lebanese party has been defeated, degraded and written off. Yet it has managed to resuscitate itself despite pressure from enemies all around. This is the inside story of how it happened
middleeasteye.net
I’m sure it’s happened before but I can’t recall a candidate winning a statewide nomination while being outspent ~9:1
#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 10h agoUnfathomable
Thrilled that AES won but man those polls really were way off, huh? Going to be a long, nail biting general election everywhere.
"In Gaza, beneath the scorching plastic of displacement tents, surrounded by air thick with toxic dust from relentless bombardment, carrying new life has transformed into a quiet, agonizing battle between the female body & an unyielding reality." Weam Abu Daqqa libertiesjournal.com/online-artic...
Gaza's Miscarried Future
In Gaza, the womb has ceased to be a sanctuary. Beneath the scorching plastic of displacement tents, surrounded by air thick with toxic dust from relentless bombardment, carrying new life has transfor...
libertiesjournal.com
Lebanon signed away its right to pursue legal action against Israel for its war crimes in southern Lebanon. Lebanon's deputy prime minister now says individual Lebanese citizens still have the right to bring cases against Israel before European courts. What a pathetic and weak government.
Lebanon outlines legal path to prosecute Israeli war crimes
As Israeli strikes and home demolitions continue in southern Lebanon, a government official outlined the country’s options for legally pursuing Israel.
newarab.com
I have one comment but I’ll preface it with a few other ones. I haven’t read the whole book. Just the intro for now. I also don’t know that I’ll try to read the historical sections, and if I do I certainly won’t have anything to comment about them. 1/6
Abu Aardvark@abuaardvark.bsky.social · yesterday“Weizman shows how Israel’s invasion of Gaza included an intentional, systematic plan of destroying the conditions for Palestinian life and rebuilding the land into something available for Israeli resettlement.” I review Eyal Weizman’s new book @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/04/g...
“unequivocally and forcefully signaled Israel's implicit refusal to halt its strikes in Gaza as a condition for launching the framework (…). It also made clear that Israel refuses to withdraw from the current "yellow line" – meaning it would not pull back from more than 60 % of the Gaza Strip”.
Rima I Anabtawi@rimaanabtawi.bsky.social · 9h agoHow Netanyahu convinced Trump's Board of Peace to rewrite its deal with Hamas www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
The @financialtimes.com is doing a five part series on the United Arab Emirates—two articles published so far, both excellent. • UAE and Iran, by Andrew England and Nicolas Parasie: www.ft.com/content/6d2d... • UAE and Africa, by William Wallis and Peter Andringa: www.ft.com/content/a4c6...
The UAE’s bold gambit on Iran
It has quietly rebuilt economic and diplomatic ties while also deepening defence links to Israel and the US
ft.com
The haters said that Trump couldn’t get a Gaza deal to work. Honestly, great call by the haters.
The Associated Press@apnews.com · 22h agoIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed.
“Weizman shows how Israel’s invasion of Gaza included an intentional, systematic plan of destroying the conditions for Palestinian life and rebuilding the land into something available for Israeli resettlement.” I review Eyal Weizman’s new book @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/04/g...
The Architecture of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
A new book describes the destruction of Palestinian life street by street.
foreignpolicy.com
Iran has now gobbled up nearly all U.S. ATACMS and PrSM ballistic missiles, plus half of Tomahawk cruise missiles and a very considerable share of the THAAD and Patriot interceptors, sources tell @reuters.com’s Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay, and Michael Stone. www.reuters.com/world/us-has...
EXCLUSIVE: US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say
The U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to three people familiar with the data, raising concerns about the...
reuters.com
While AIPAC is centrally focussed on Israel, of the 109 TV and digital ads it funded in US elections between April 2022 and the end of last month, only 6 mentioned Israel - a clear recognition Israel is now a losing issue in American elections. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Inside the Spending of AIPAC, One of the U.S.'s Largest Super PACs
The lobbying group has more than doubled its spending on political campaigns, while rarely mentioning Israel. It has placed a large financial bet on today’s Michigan Senate primary.
nytimes.com
“Weizman shows how Israel’s invasion of Gaza included an intentional, systematic plan of destroying the conditions for Palestinian life and rebuilding the land into something available for Israeli resettlement.” I review Eyal Weizman’s new book @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2026/08/04/g...
The Architecture of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
A new book describes the destruction of Palestinian life street by street.
foreignpolicy.com
