heatmaps from the report showing tracking
BREAKING: You checked the weather this morning.
And you just told a surveillance company where you sleep.
Meet #Webloc, used by ICE, cops & foreign govs to track 500m+ phones.
No warrant required.
Our @citizenlab.ca investigation + how to protect yourself 🧵/1
citizenlab.ca/research/ana...
Hey, @merip.bsky.social is on the left and free to all consumers! And we do it on a microscopic budget compared to the right wingfluencers.
You can help us keep it that way with a $10 donation today!
www.delcogives.org/organization...
Before heading to bed, my 16 year old asked me “just a quick question - was there almost nuclear war today?” We cannot normalize this.
For @thenation.com I look at why the Saudis are telling Trump to escalate from the sidelines, and what it says about the US-led security architecture in the Persian Gulf. With gratitude for insights from @andrewleber.bsky.social and @philbrickyadav.bsky.social.
www.thenation.com/article/worl...
bring back consequences and shame
Teaching a class on IHL in the fall [insert morbid joke if you must] and I'm looking for a good, recent case-study type monograph. What have you read recently that you can't forget? Will have plenty of articles etc. on the syllabus, but nothing beats a good book.
These grad students appeared to have done more reading than others, but (of course, unsurprisingly) had a shallow understanding, missed key points, and struggled to make use of the material on their own. From my perspective, it was a failed performance. So who was it really for? Other students.
Yes, I think this is right, too.
A young Fred Korematsu
A photo of Fred Korematsu in his later years
"It may take time to prove you're right, but you have to stick to it."
- Fred Korematsu
Jailed for refusing to abide by FDR's Exec Order 9066, he took his case against internment all the way to the Supreme Court - and lost. Remember him on Korematsu Day, January 30th. 1/
Abolish ICE is not enough.
It's not about training -- Ross who killed Renee Good was a TRAINER. It's not about body cams -- we saw Alex Pretti killed with our own eyes.
We have to abolish the idea that violence ever made us safer, before it's too late.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Thanks to @mesa1966.bsky.social Committee on Academic Freedom for this letter, detailing how the Israeli military "destroyed the university’s main gates and raided the campus during formal hours of instruction while more than 8,000 students were present..." and then "opened fire indiscriminately."
I was in Doha on Jan 6, eating lunch with a group of researchers from across the region. My attention was on news coming out of Yemen, not on Birzeit. But one of my colleagues was from Birzeit, and he must have wondered why we weren't talking about his campus. Or maybe he didn't wonder. 2/n
The quiet grief and shame enabled by our curated feeds. My feed talks to me about Yemen and I get angry when few of my friends and colleagues seem to know or care about what's happening. Then I "catch up" after the fact about outrages elsewhere, and I feel shame at what I didn't know. 1/n
Pizza deliveries - often sent from abroad - are being sent to the adult children of judges who rule against the Trump administration, *dozens* in the name of one who was murdered in 2020.
This year has made clear, however, that TPS is a crude instrument - it provides blanket relief in times of crisis, but also produces blanket vulnerability when categorically withdrawn. Individuals are owed individual consideration of their circumstances, as a central feature of due process.
For those who are unaware, TPS is scheduled to expire in March for Yemenis who have had legal status in the US since 2015, though Yemen's conflict remains a risk to most, if not all. A decision on whether to extend it is expected in early January. Read more here: wcys.org/protect-yeme...
Took my family to the RPO Holiday Pops concert at the Eastman School to officially close out the semester and kick off the break. Best part? When my youngest realized that Jeff Tyzik - yup, that one - is also known as “Mimi’s dog dad” from the dog park.
In proof that I have lived my life wrong, it's 2:50 a.m., I'm still trying to finish my fall term grading, and I just found a student's hallucinated footnote to a putative book of mine that I never wrote.
And then I was reading today's new collection from @pomeps.bsky.social marking one year since the fall of Assad in Syria and saw @hyyppati.bsky.social's essay on decentralization, and how exciting to see the connection to Thaler's work there, too!
“My dog” has an Instagram account that follows (a) my HS daughter, (b) two clubs she runs, (c) the pet of one academic colleague, and (d) Zohran Mamdani. That’s it. This has given me an unintended glimpse at algorithmically driven college recruitment, and it’s pretty interesting, actually. I’d go.
Disturbing, and I can’t shake comparisons to @abuaarvark’s description of the role of similar digital polarization in amplifying support for Tamarod —> total military takeover in Egypt. Honestly, thinking about that makes this is one of the darker bits I’ve read today.
The main case studies are from Nicaragua, Liberia, and Uganda, and my seminar has been discussing whether the argument could (or should) extend to cases like Houthi-held areas of Yemen or Somaliland. Rich fuel for discussion.
If you're thinking of a Spring 2026 syllabus, consider @kaimthaler.bsky.social's "Why Rebels Win." He was gracious enough to let my students take a sneak peak this term and as I work my way through their papers, I can tell you that students will read this book and take it in some great directions.
Notably coinciding with the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, happening right across town at the same time. And evidently drawing on the collective knowledge of its membership not a bit. This tracks entirely.
Our new round of billboards are up, with a clear message: a murder that the president orders is still a murder.
NotWhatISignedUpFor.org can connect servicemembers with resources to help them understand their choices in the face of patently illegal orders.
I'm totally kidding. It's because I read too quickly and there was a definite article in the original text that I missed. It said "run by *the* US-designated terrorist group" but I have been reading all day and I read too fast. Language. It means stuff.
Maybe it's because the WSJ's Africa editor and MENA editor didn't check with each other? 4/
Maybe the difference is because there's an internationally-recognized GoY that has been displaced but still has access to means of self-representation and can challenge the Houthis' ability to self-present as being in control of "Yemen" as a whole. 3/
Is it because the Houthis only control part of the country? (When AQAP had de facto territorial control in Hadramawt for a year in 2015-2016 it attracted less attention, I think, than either of these cases, but I could be wrong.) 2/
