Laleh Khalili
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lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili
@lalehkhalili.bsky.social
19K followers 880 following 1.6K posts

Politics, poetry, ports, pottymouth. She/her.

Typos and dropped words in every post, because sharing is caring.

Find me at l.khalili@exeter.ac.uk

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Laleh Khalili is an Iranian American Professor of Gulf Studies at University of Exeter.

Source: Wikipedia
Political science 58%
Sociology 34%
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lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · Oct 22
I have organised an amazing roster of *virtual* presentations for the Centre for Gulf Studies at Exeter. Check out these incredible superstars, and register for the events (Tuesdays 17-18.30 London time) here: www.exeter.ac.uk/research/cen...
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/centres/gulf/events/

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3h
The Swiss consider Palantir a security risk. In UK Mandelson takes Starmer to Palantir, and they hire MOD officials to hand over British intel over to the US.
p.s. Palantir sued the newspaper Republik for publishing this news.

www.republik.ch/2025/12/08/w...

www.opendemocracy.net/en/palantir-...
Überwachungstechnologie: Wie hartnäckig Palantir die Schweiz umwarb
Das umstrittene Tech-Unternehmen blitzte wieder und wieder ab. Teil 1 unserer Recherche.
www.republik.ch

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3h
Lol, Polymarket bets as OSINT source.

www.jpost.com/israel-news/...
Israeli reservist indicted for Polymarket gambling on IDF | The Jerusalem Post
The case follows reporting that Israeli authorities were examining whether insider information had been used to profit from prediction markets tied to Israeli operations in Iran in June 2025.
www.jpost.com

Reposted by Marc Lynch

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3h
Ethiopia has bases in which Abu Dhabi pays for RSF fighters (some Ethiopian) to train and to be shipped to Sudan to commit genocide.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Ethiopia Revokes Reuters Journalists’ Accreditation After Expose
Ethiopia has canceled accreditation for three Reuters journalists, days after the news agency reported that rebel fighters from neighboring Sudan were training at a secret military camp in the Horn of...
www.bloomberg.com

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3h
De-settlement.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Reposted by Laleh Khalili

lrb.co.uk
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 23h
‘Military service is one of the strongest predictors for becoming a mass shooter in the US.’

@lalehkhalili.bsky.social on the symbiosis of drugs and war.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Guns, Money and Opium
There is an undeniable symmetry between surges in drug use in the US and the country’s covert operations overseas. The...
www.lrb.co.uk

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 1d
She has made her fortune from US political economy

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 1d
Fucking BBC news reporters fudge Palestine, and meanwhile, settlers burst in and forcibly occupy Palesnians' houses in Al Khalil (Hebron), and take over land and monuments using the alibi of "preservation" of Jewish heritage (erasing when it is Palestinian history).

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 1d
Germany's tradition of exterminationism continues.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 1d
Man don't make excuses for people's cowardice.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 1d
Man, this craven capitulation by Yeoh is so sad. variety.com/2026/film/fe...
Michelle Yeoh Avoids Question About U.S. Politics in Berlin and Shifts Focus to Cinema: ‘Best Not to Talk About Something I Don’t Know About’
Michelle Yeoh declined to speak about U.S. politics at Berlin Film Festival, saying it's "best not to talk about something I don't know about."
variety.com

Reposted by Laleh Khalili

lrb.co.uk
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 1d
‘Soldiers at Fort Bragg and another special forces base, Fort Campbell, are more likely to die of drug overdoses than the average US citizen. Dependency on narcotics isn’t the only after-effect of war.’

@lalehkhalili.bsky.social on the symbiosis of drugs and war.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Guns, Money and Opium
There is an undeniable symmetry between surges in drug use in the US and the country’s covert operations overseas. The...
www.lrb.co.uk

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
Yes, two major pension funds were halting relations with DP World. that is why this happened.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
The man was in their service for 40 years and his father (who was a tax-collector) for many years before that… It is amazing how he is basically being rubbed out of the picture.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
Whoah hard to believe this, but after decades at the helm (and generations in service of Al Maktoum) Sulayem has left Dubai Ports World: www.ft.com/content/548f...
DP World boss leaves company after Epstein emails
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem transformed Dubai-based group into one of the world’s largest logistics operators
www.ft.com

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
Huw Lemmey in a blistering piece written last year: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
Fuck the Met Police. Truly.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
But fuck the government:

Reposted by American Library Association

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
AMAZING NEWS:

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
So deeply profoundly disappointed by Wenders.

Reposted by Peter Schöttler, Laleh Khalili, Ben Kaden

juergenzimmerer.bsky.social
Jürgen Zimmerer @juergenzimmerer.bsky.social · 2d
Really surprised how an entirely predictable question could sink the entire Berlinale jury.
"We have to stay out of politics" (Wim Wenders) could have been said in any authoritarian regime, where artists often are political. Here it was disgraceful.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
Berlinale Immediately Gets Heated at Jury Presser as President Wim Wenders Asserts “We Have to Stay Out of Politics”
"We are the counterweight of politics, the opposite of politics, we have to do the work of people — not the work of politicians," said the legendary filmmaker at the first Berlin Film Fest press confe...
www.hollywoodreporter.com

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
Thank you!

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 2d
A brilliant and deeply relevant analysis by Elian Weizman and Sai Englert of liberal zionists’ co-responsibility for the genocide in Gaza:

Open access and lucid.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....
The argument being made here is that although the internal conflict over the control of the Israeli state that many identify is very real, this conflict should not be understood as waged between two antithetical and irreconcilable factions, but between two complementary wings of the Zionist movement: Two wings that have always co-existed (in different configurations and under different balances of forces) in the history of the Zionist project, and which both play crucial roles for its success. The conflict is not over the settler-colonial project itself, but rather on how to best organise it.8 Accordingly, we argue that the conflict is generative for the development of the Israeli state’s colonial project and helps the settler colony develop its approach and policy towards the Indigenous population. Building on these insights, and on genocide studies literature, we point to liberal Zionist discourse and practice on the genocide in Gaza, as complementary to its illiberal counterpart. Right-wing and liberal Zionism not only collaborate but build on one another. In addition, liberal Zionists play an important role in generating acceptability internationally, both during and in the aftermath of genocide, in projecting ideas of ‘limits’ and ‘ethics’ despite their participation in the crimes committed – both through ideological justification and practically, with many taking an active role in its execution as reservists, military strategists, and state officials. We end with a reflection on the recent re-emergence of liberal Zionists, both in Israel and abroad, out of the killing frenzy, and their attempt at re-inserting Israel within the liberal western status quo. They have done so, however, without questioning the ‘military gains’ of the last twenty-one months. This, we argue, serves both as a way to attempt to improve their position in the internal balance of forces in Israel and re-stabilise the Zionist project internationally in the aftermath of genocide.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3d
Tommy Robinson "writing" an op-ed about focus on Epstein being antisemitic is so so much like Yasser Anu Shabab "writing" an op-ed for WSJ about how Israel cares for Palestinians.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3d
Thank you for reading it.

Reposted by Laleh Khalili

lrb.co.uk
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 3d
‘There is an undeniable symmetry between surges in drug use in the US and the country’s covert operations overseas. The wars in Indochina gave the US heroin epidemics; Latin America, a plague of powder and crack cocaine.’

@lalehkhalili.bsky.social:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Guns, Money and Opium
There is an undeniable symmetry between surges in drug use in the US and the country’s covert operations overseas. The...
www.lrb.co.uk

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3d
Thank you.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 3d
My review of Seth Harp’s The Fort Bragg Cartel, and thinking about the US special operators and their ties to drugs: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Guns, Money and Opium
There is an undeniable symmetry between surges in drug use in the US and the country’s covert operations overseas. The...
www.lrb.co.uk

Reposted by Laleh Khalili

lrb.co.uk
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 4d
Issue 48.03 is now online, featuring:

Seamus Perry on pluralism and poetry
James Wolcott on John Updike
@jamesmeek.bsky.social on the Romanian right
Claire Hall on Archimedes
John Gallagher on early modern news
@lalehkhalili.bsky.social on the US Special Forces

Read online at lrb.co.uk

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 4d
Hard to believe that at some stage people took her writing seriously.

lalehkhalili.bsky.social
Laleh Khalili @lalehkhalili.bsky.social · 4d
Why are you doing this to yourself?