Trump’s Alleged Would-Be Assassin and His Syrian Rebel Scheme for Ukraine
I got in touch with Ryan Routh through one of the posters he had spread around town in Kyiv. I was a reporter there and had noticed his posters and the Syrian flag and was curious what it was about. When we spoke on the phone, he did not beat around the bush. He claimed to have over 200 Syrian military men who were ready to go to Ukraine and fight the Russians. He just needed help bringing them to Ukraine.
French Polynesia’s Third-Gender Identities
Like several other Polynesian societies and many Indigenous communities around the world, French Polynesia maintains third-gender identities that have changed with historical contexts — the traditional identity of māhū, which means “in the middle,” and the more contemporary identity of raerae.
War Upends Southern Lebanon
Throughout southern Lebanon, yellow and green Hezbollah flags flutter from buildings, billboards show Hassan Nasrallah and posters of dead fighters line the streets. Our trip was accented by Israeli warplanes and drones, incoming and outgoing artillery, and funerals of Hezbollah soldiers — a normal week for the civilians living there.
Why Most Israelis Believe the Conflict Can Never Be Resolved
The events of Oct. 7 were both a military and a political failure, the culmination of Israel’s refusal over the previous two decades to engage meaningfully with the Palestinians. Since the Second Intifada, most Israelis have become convinced that the conflict can only be managed, not solved.
An Egyptian President Once Spoke to Nubians in Their Own Language
The question of whether Egypt’s first president delivered a speech in the threatened Nubian language of Kenzi is more than purely symbolic. It goes to the heart of questions of identity that have long plagued Nubia and its marginalized people, torn between their roots and the Egyptian nationalist project.