A recent investigation by RFE/RL’s Schemes unit revealed that a senior Russian commander shared a meme among fellow officers that read, “It’s not a war crime if it was fun.” The sentiment is shocking, but it is not surprising—particularly given the context in which it was shared: alongside messages documenting the mutilation of prisoners, the [...]
In December 2025, I (born in 2002) logged in from Iran to speak to students gathered in “Arts Tower LT5” at the University of Sheffield. The screen flickered; their winter coats rustled in a distant auditorium I could not see. I told them something that felt obvious and astonishing at once: look how close we [...]
Paramilitary forces in Sudan unleashed “a wave of intense violence…shocking in its scale and brutality” during their final offensive to seize the city of El Fasher last October, according to the UN human rights office. That clinical phrasing barely conveys what actually happened: a city starved, surrounded, and then assaulted in a way that left [...]
Several cities across the United States have begun to break new ground in recent years by legally recognizing polyamorous relationships. Somerville, Massachusetts, led the way in 2020, becoming the first city to pass a domestic partnership ordinance that includes relationships among more than two adults, granting them many of the same rights and privileges as [...]
I feel lost, as if I have misplaced myself somewhere between silence and clamor. The world withdrew the moment the internet was cut off, not merely into disconnection but into a condition of being unwitnessed. What disappeared was not information, but circulation, visibility, and political presence. In that imposed solitude, an old question returned with [...]
The war in Ukraine has entered a phase defined not by movement but by immovable political realities. Russia will not relinquish the Donbas or Crimea, territories it now treats as integral to its domestic narrative and strategic posture. Ukraine cannot accept any settlement that legitimizes territorial seizure by force without violating its constitution, undermining its [...]
A deal between the US and China on TikTok that was finalized on January 22 concludes a years-long saga that put in peril the social media platform’s ability to function in the United States. US officials had long argued that TikTok, previously owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, posed national security risks. In particular, US [...]
It has been a month since the internet was cut off in Iran. I know nothing—and it is precisely this not-knowing that allows me to think from multiple positions at once: from myself, from my brother, from my father, and from my mother. Each of us occupies a different role, a different exposure, a different [...]
The global security system is creaking under the weight of crises it can’t seem to manage. Wars grind on in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and elsewhere. The Security Council is paralyzed by veto politics. The Secretary‑General is criticized from all sides. And into this moment of institutional fatigue steps a new player: President Trump’s “Board of [...]
During the very week of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, the Israeli Knesset continues to debate a monstrous proposed bill to resurrect capital punishment in the ostensible Jewish state. Such a spectacle is nothing short of an abject desecration of that sacred day. Drawing directly on his Holocaust experience, Nobel Laureate and acclaimed [...]
