How Joe Biden Handed the Presidency to Donald Trump | The New Yorker

Absolutely scathing reporting. Such a disastrous presidency in so many ways, and such a disastrous party leadership.

Adam Shatz | Remembering Hugh Roberts

On the great historian of Algeria Hugh Roberts, who recently passed away. I got to know him a little when we both lived in Cairo, and fondly remember our many arguments and conversations.

La stratégie séparatiste des Emirats arabes unis

Writing in Le Monde, Jean-Pierre Filiu outlines the separatist strategy of the UAE in Libya, Yemen and Sudan where it has backed violent factions with local agendas that undermine any possibility of national reconciliation and stability: Haftar and the east in Libya, southern separatists in Aden, and of course the genocidal Darfur militias (chiefly the RSF). Translation by AI (Claude):

The “Sparta of the Middle East,” as the United Arab Emirates has sometimes been described, has distinguished itself for more than a decade through a highly militarized and particularly aggressive foreign policy. Such a strategy bears the mark of Mohammed Bin Zayed, the current president of the federation of emirates, and is driven by an obsessive hostility toward the “Arab Spring,” that wave of popular protest that made the dictatorships of the region tremble in 2011.

While the strength of such a strategy may lie in its counter-revolutionary coherence, it leads the United Arab Emirates to support secessionist movements in numerous theaters, accentuating the fragmentation of the concerned states instead of guaranteeing some form of authoritarian restoration.

. . .

The Sudanese tragedy thus brings to a climax the disaster that the UAE’s separatist strategy represents in terms of mass suffering for the populations concerned and the disintegration of the regional order.

What Does Trump Want in the Middle East? | Foreign Affairs

Marc Lynch on Trump’s Gulf visit.

Trump Is Poised to Accept a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One - The New York Times

If the Qataris also intend to cover the costs of converting the plane to Air Force One specs, that is an even more massive amount of money. That Trump could then own it is absurd.

Hafiz Al-Assad signed Rolex Submariner up for sale. I guess some Syrian Air Force general needs cash.

A quick thought on the escalation between India and Pakistan: it might be a first test of what kind of a world we’re in - especially if U.S. gets less involved, China more, and other actors like Saudi or Qatar play a more significant role than they would have before.

BBC Two - Louis Theroux, The Settlers

Scathing new documentary on settler violence in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Theroux writes about the filming here for Deadline, ending with this:

One of my reasons for wanting to go back, apart from changes in the region itself, was the sense that increasingly the wider world was looking to what is happening in Israel and the occupied territories for clues as to what their own future might look like. Some global populist leaders view the ideology of the settler community as a prototype for a type of nationalism they would like to practise. They regard Israeli settlers as the tip of the spear of what they frame as a global war against Islam. The views expressed by some in the film are part of a much wider and increasingly powerful anti-democratic strain of thinking that is pushing back against notions of civil rights and the rule of law. And so there is renewed relevance to understanding what is happening in the West Bank.

Very proud to see my friend, the fantastic Magnum photographer Moises Saman, win a Pulitzer for his work for The New Yorker. The magazine got two more Pulitzers, including for the work of the Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha on Gaza.

This is a compelling argument for bureaucracy as a safeguard against populist authoritarianism: Bureaucracy Reconsidered - The Ideas Letter

Gazan photographer Samar Abu Elouf’s haunting picture of a nine-year old double-amputee wins, if that even is the right word, the World Press Photo of the Year award: Mahmoud Ajjour, Aged Nine | World Press Photo

Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX is frontrunner to build Trump’s Golden Dome missile shield | Reuters

Mike Stone and Marisa Taylor report:

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two partners have emerged as frontrunners to win a crucial part of President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, six people familiar with the matter said.

Musk’s rocket and satellite company is partnering with software maker Palantir (PLTR.O), opens new tab and drone builder Anduril on a bid to build key parts of Golden Dome, the sources said, which has drawn significant interest from the technology sector’s burgeoning base of defense startups.

And this is the icing on the cake for the defense tech bros who hate big government except when it gives them big contracts:

In an unusual twist, SpaceX has proposed setting up its role in Golden Dome as a “subscription service” in which the government would pay for access to the technology, rather than own the system outright.

Best antidote yet to Bill Maher’s (and many others') “why can’t we just get along” garbage, as if fear about Trump was the sign of some sort of liberal/leftist meltdown or inability to cope with a normal conservative president: Wall Street Journal

Semafor, Mohammed Sergie: Qatar joins Gulf peers in backing Egypt with potential $7.5B investment

Michael Wahid Hanna: As Other Partners Struggle with Trump, U.S. and Saudi Arabia Move toward Nuclear Cooperation | Crisis Group

Michael’s piece (although he does not put it in this way) is a reminder of how utterly pathetic the Biden administration’s policy on Saudi Arabia was, on multiple level.

Hossam el-Hamalawy interviews Robert Springborg: Sisi’s Weakness Makes Him More Brutal - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Jordan Says It Foiled a Plot Against the Kingdom - The New York Times:

The Jordanian authorities said the newer plot included plans to manufacture missiles locally as well as bring them in from abroad, and to obtain explosives and weapons. The plot also included “concealment of a ready-to-use missile, a project to manufacture drones, and the recruitment and training of individuals within the Kingdom and their subsequent training abroad,” the statement said.

A report by the Reuters news agency cited officials saying that the arrests on Tuesday were connected to the Palestinian militant group, Hamas. Since the war between Israel and Hamas began in Gaza, Jordan has countered Iranian efforts to smuggle weapons through the country to Palestinian militants across the border in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to regional and U.S. officials.

Phys.org: Iraq sandstorm leaves 1,800 people with respiratory problems: Health officials

Airports closed as people suffocate especially in southern areas; government warns similar storms to become more frequent in coming decades due to climate change.

See also NYT: Sandstorm Turns Iraq’s Skies Orange and Sends Thousands to Hospitals

Evgeny Morozov – The New Legislators of Silicon Valley - The Ideas Letter:

Oligarch-intellectuals have emerged a stable and coherent social entity as a byproduct of this battle for hegemony. And they certainly won’t be retiring even after quashing their woke and ESG-loving enemies. In Trump’s Washington, they arrive not as guests but as architects. Their reality-bending machinery—money hydraulics, platform dominance, bureaucracies kneeling to translate private fantasy into public policy—wields unprecedented force. Carnegie and Rockefeller commanded respect but lacked this lethal arsenal: social media thunderbox, celebrity aura, venture capital chainsaw, West Wing passkey. By rewriting regulations, channeling subsidies, and recalibrating public expectations, oligarch-intellectuals transmute fever dreams—blockchain fiefdoms, Martian homesteads—into seemingly plausible futures.

Jacob Dreyer on the Chinafication of America: The Industrial Party - The Ideas Letter

Major French journalist syndicates and leading publications sign open letter against Israel’s systematic murder of journalists in Gaza: « Nous, journalistes français, nous déclarons solidaires de nos collègues de Gaza »

UAE-backed RSF militia commits yet another war crime: Sudan Clinic Workers Killed in Zamzam Camp - The New York Times

Ben Hubbard in the the NYT, on Maaloula, the Christian-majority town near Damascus where one of the country’s most important monasteries is based: Ancient Syrian Town Seeks Interfaith Peace After Long War:

Would the Islamist rebels who ousted the strongman Bashar al-Assad in December ban pork and alcohol, impose modest dress on women or limit Christian worship? Would the new security forces protect Christians from attacks by Muslim extremists?

“Nothing has happened that makes you feel that things are better,” said Mirna Haddad, one of the churchgoers.

Elsewhere in the historic town of Maaloula, its Muslim minority had different concerns. Like their Christian neighbors, they had fled their homes here early in Syria’s 13-year civil war. But unlike the Christians, they had been barred from returning by the Assad regime and a Christian militia it supported.

“The problem is the majority,” meaning the town’s Christians, said Omar Ibrahim Omar, the leader of a new local security committee. He had come home to Maaloula only after Mr. al-Assad’s fall, after being kept out for more than a decade.

“We won’t let that happen again,” he said.

Evan S. Medeiros & Andrew Polk in The Washington Quarterly: China’s New Economic Weapons

From the latest issue of the excellent newsletter Syria in Transition, The New Umayyads, on Ahmed Sharaa’s vision of a kayan sunni or “sunni entity” as a governing principle:

There is one principal problem: the 25 per cent of Syria that is not Sunni (or Arab). Alawites, Kurds, Druze, Christians, Turkmans, Circassians and Ismailis would be unlikely to accept being bit-players in a state whose identity, strategic posture, and socio-economic interests ran counter to theirs. A solution, from Sharaa’s perspective, could be a form of soft federalism – a loosely decentralised arrangement that accommodated minority demands while allowing the Sunni core to assert political and ideological dominance.

While official talk of the kayan sunni remains muted due to its politically charged connotations, a more palatable alternative has been offered to the Syrian public: “Umayyadism.” Promoted by Sharaa’s close advisers and amplified by loyal social media influencers, this nostalgic concept draws on the legacy of the early Islamic Umayyad caliphate as a vision of national revival, prosperity, and restored grandeur. 

During its 89-year reign, the Umayyad dynasty ruled an empire stretching from North Africa to the Caucasus and Central Asia, with Damascus as its imperial capital. It later established itself in Spain where it ruled from Cordoba for 275 years. A worldly and pragmatic dynasty, the Umayyads adapted and refined Byzantine models of political administration and were generally tolerant of Jews and Christians. But the symbolism runs deeper: the Umayyads were historic adversaries of the Shia. Their second caliph was responsible for the killing of the Prophet’s grandson, Hussein, and their policies heavily discriminated against Persians. In resurrecting the Umayyads, Sharaa’s circle invokes not only imperial grandeur but also a pointed reminder of Sunni supremacy over Persia and Shia Islam. 

Pro-government media personality Musa al-Omar (685,000 followers on X) posted on his socials on 19 February a video of Sharaa riding a horse to a song whose opening line was: “The Umayyads are of golden lineage / their name sent fear in Persian kings / books cannot praise them enough.” 

When Sharaa visited King Abdullah II in Jordan on 26 February, “The Umayyads meet the Hashemites” was the main tag line of HTS-run social media accounts.