United States
Slopaganda Comes of Age
As we enter the realm of “slopaganda,” the use of AI-generated content for political propaganda, Trump’s base is now taking his memes both literally and seriously.
The Taste of Pakistan
As young chefs and entrepreneurs embrace their Pakistani identity openly, a small but growing Pakistani-American food scene is emerging beyond traditional immigrant enclaves, with supper clubs and cookbooks expanding its boundaries — and pushing back against decades of being flattened into “Indian” food.
The Last Temptation of Trump at the End of a Failed War
Trump has backed himself into a corner with Iran. Any deal risks appearing, in his eyes, like a humiliating failure, one his opponents will mock. He knows this. His opponents know this. The weight of that constraint presents a dangerous equation as the president threatens escalation.
The Iran War Is What ‘America First’ Actually Looks Like
Segments of the MAGA base, the Western left, Global South solidarity networks and the Iranian regime itself have converged, improbably, on the same talking point: This is not America First. They are all wrong. The Iran war is actually the purest expression of America First, its direct consequence.
The Academic Justification for Male Supremacy
Jeffrey Epstein funded academic research to the tune of around $20 million per year. As the names of academics started appearing in news headlines, I checked the Epstein files myself, which revealed the names of old associates and painted a picture of a cozy circle of mutually supporting elites.
The Uncanny Echoes of Iraq in Trump’s War With Iran
There are uncanny similarities in how Bush spun and justified the Iraq War and how Trump is spinning and justifying the war in Iran. Yet Trump administration officials are trying to combat the perception that the two wars are at all similar, no doubt to avoid any association with a generational U.S. foreign policy failure.
The Questions Facing Kristi Noem and ICE
Kristi Noem’s firing as secretary of homeland security came partly because her department bypassed competitive bidding for contracts. An ongoing joint investigation between the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ) and New Lines looks at how, under the Trump administration, ICE has used an “urgency stipulation” to privilege favored contractors.