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“Without Gaza there could never be any viable form of Palestinian sovereignty.” —an interview with Sara Roy
01/09/2026

“Without Gaza there could never be any viable form of Palestinian sovereignty.” —an interview with Sara Roy

On November 14 the Guardian reported, on the basis of internal military documents, that the United States was “planning for the long-term division of

In Uganda, “missing records” from Idi Amin’s regime “must have been carefully removed, not by Amin or his brutal henchme...
01/09/2026

In Uganda, “missing records” from Idi Amin’s regime “must have been carefully removed, not by Amin or his brutal henchmen but by ordinary people employed by the regime as photographers, report writers, and clerks.” —Helen Epstein

Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni both confronted, in different brutal ways, the challenges of governing a postcolonial nation.

Anne Enright on Zohran Mamdani’s digital campaign
01/08/2026

Anne Enright on Zohran Mamdani’s digital campaign

In early October Sinn Féin, one of the parties supporting Catherine Connolly's bid for the presidency of Ireland, posted a clip of her playing ball in the

“The line reduced complex equations…into an elemental divide between slavery and freedom, confounding Latrobe’s hope tha...
01/08/2026

“The line reduced complex equations…into an elemental divide between slavery and freedom, confounding Latrobe’s hope that Mason and Dixon’s true achievement…might still hold the nation together.” —Nicholas Guyatt

How did the Mason–Dixon Line--meant to resolve a longstanding colonial border dispute--come to represent the US's foundational divide between slavery and freedom?

“If what [Trump] is doing to Maduro is lawful, it would be just as lawful for another nation to capture Trump and put hi...
01/08/2026

“If what [Trump] is doing to Maduro is lawful, it would be just as lawful for another nation to capture Trump and put him on trial in their own courts.” —David Cole

“It was a brilliant operation, actually.” So claimed Donald Trump early this morning in a phone call with The New York Times about the US military's

Mamdani has promised to deliver “comprehensive planning,” “an alluring and longstanding—if Rorschachian—goal in New York...
01/08/2026

Mamdani has promised to deliver “comprehensive planning,” “an alluring and longstanding—if Rorschachian—goal in New York City politics,” Samuel Stein writes.

In an age when all of planning discourse has been reduced to a choice between YIMBY (“yes in my backyard”) and NIMBY (“not in my backyard”), Zohran

“Having infrequently if ever been asked what they want, [immigrants] are now primed to push the city’s political machine...
01/08/2026

“Having infrequently if ever been asked what they want, [immigrants] are now primed to push the city’s political machinery...toward governance that acknowledges their needs.”—Tanvi Misra

Come January, New York City will be led by an immigrant--and, in a series of firsts, by a Muslim Indian American from Uganda. This kind of representation

“On balance, the engaged and engaging Mamdani does share with La Guardia that special, almost incandescent quality which...
01/08/2026

“On balance, the engaged and engaging Mamdani does share with La Guardia that special, almost incandescent quality which brings hope to a city mired in disillusion, ineptitude, and despair.”—Brenda Wineapple

In his victory speech, Zohran Mamdani vowed to put forward “the most ambitious agenda” New York City had seen since the administration of Fiorello La

Underneath Maria Bamford’s “defiant oddness lies a classic American striver…. When she mocks confident, put-together typ...
01/08/2026

Underneath Maria Bamford’s “defiant oddness lies a classic American striver…. When she mocks confident, put-together types, she may really be making fun of herself.” —Andrew Katzenstein

Maria Bamford's wild and constantly inventive stand-up style relies on her never flinching from the most difficult realities.

Nikil Saval on how the inspiration from New York is taking different forms in cities across the country
01/07/2026

Nikil Saval on how the inspiration from New York is taking different forms in cities across the country

The night Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, I was at a dinner gathering of fair housing and tenants' rights advocates in

Fitz-James O’Brien “deserves serious attention, if only for establishing…some of science fiction’s most familiar tropes:...
01/07/2026

Fitz-James O’Brien “deserves serious attention, if only for establishing…some of science fiction’s most familiar tropes: microcosmic worlds, invisible monsters, time slips, robots.” —Michael Dirda

Little known today, Fitz-James O'Brien deserves serious attention for developing some of science fiction's most familiar tropes--among them microcosmic worlds, invisible monsters, time slips, and robots.

“When Mamdani declares, ‘This new age will be one of relentless improvement,’ he echoes [FDR’s] claim, amid the desolati...
01/07/2026

“When Mamdani declares, ‘This new age will be one of relentless improvement,’ he echoes [FDR’s] claim, amid the desolation of the Depression, that ‘the country demands bold, persistent experimentation.’”—Corey Robin

Zohran Mamdani has introduced several changes to American politics--joining ideological maximalism to policy minimalism, crafting a winning political

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