elia ayoub
banner
ayoub.bsky.social
elia ayoub
@ayoub.bsky.social
Writer, Journalist, Historian, Podcaster. Authoritarianism, hauntology, alternative futures. Eng/Fr/Esp/It/ع

In Brighton, from Lebanon.

@thefirethesetimes.com / @thestartrekpod.bsky.social / https://hauntologies.net / @972mag.com / https://shado-mag.com
Pinned
Hey y'all, will soon start an online class on Lebanese history and politics.

If you're interested, send me an email or Signal. Please say why you're messaging.

I'll send an email/text (no more) with more details soon.

Email: ayoub@thefirethesetimes.com
Signal: @ ayoub.02
Hard to imagine this not causing a backlash. Regardless of Maduro himself, this also tells heads of states that no one is safe.
Trump posts photo of Nicolás Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima.
January 3, 2026 at 5:27 PM
We are having our first monthly Patreon hangout at 4pm UK time today. I’m guessing the topic of conversation will be Venezuela.

fromtheperiphery.com/hangout/
The Monthly Hangout
The Monthly Hangout Where “doom scrolling” meets “take a deep breath” Join Here ✓ The first Saturday of every month, on Zoom ✓ 16:00 UK Time (Online Converter) ✓ Get a +1 wi…
fromtheperiphery.com
January 3, 2026 at 2:28 PM
I worry about people in Venezuela, and about what it means for all of us for the world’s largest military power to go fully rogue
January 3, 2026 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
Spain's RTVE has live coverage from Venezuela (Spanish only).

Currently Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has no information on the whereabouts of Maduro.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku09...
🔴 CANAL 24 HORAS DIRECTO | TRUMP ANUNCIA LA CAPTURA DE MADURO EN LOS ATAQUES A VENEZUELA | RTVE
YouTube video by RTVE Noticias
www.youtube.com
January 3, 2026 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by elia ayoub
Sky News quotes sources within the Venezuelan opposition claiming that Maduro's capture was a "negotiated exit"

news.sky.com/story/venezu...
Venezuela latest: Venezuelan president Maduro captured after US strikes on country
Explosions have been heard in Venezuela's capital of Caracas. It comes after repeated threats of land operations by Donald Trump amid ‍efforts to pressure President Nicolas Maduro to leave office. We'...
news.sky.com
January 3, 2026 at 10:00 AM
It’s a calculation that comes from genocide and it makes complete sense from the point of view of the genocidaires. Complete control over who gets to live and who gets to die is the point.
Denying medical assistance is unacceptable in any circumstances.

Israel’s threat to withhold registration from MSF & other INGOs is a cynical and calculated attempt to prevent organizations from providing services in #Gaza and the #WestBank, #Palestine.

https://ow.ly/XQwE50XR5OE
January 2, 2026 at 4:52 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
Born in Trinidad, Dr. John Alcindor earned his MD in Scotland in 1899 & was a physician, political activist, & senior district medical officer in London. He was awarded a Red Cross medal for his work treating the wounded in WWI. His great-nephew is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
January 2, 2026 at 4:01 PM
it’s cool how predictable enshittification is
January 2, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
It's worth reading the whole interview in full. It basically verifies that the NYT has spent the past decade-plus doubling down on top-down narratives for coverage, getting more intense over time.

Sulzberg personally picked & chose whom the news apparatus would target and whom it would kiss up to.
In this in-depth interview Billie Jean Sweeney — a former editor at The New York Times — details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, why this was directed from the very top, how some staff pushed back and the immense damage done by the NYT legitimizing bigotry.
'A directive from above': Former NYT editor lays out how the paper pushes anti-trans bigotry
In this in-depth interview, former New York Times editor Billie Jean Sweeney details how the paper shifted towards openly promoting anti-trans hatred, how some staff tried to stop it, how it's directe...
transnews.network
January 1, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Excellent talk by Cory Doctorrow on the post-American and enshittification-resistant internet

archive.org/details/doct...
A post-American, enshittification-resistant internet : Cory Doctorow : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Trump has staged an unscheduled, midair rapid disassembly of the global system of trade. Ironically, it is this system that prevented all of America's...
archive.org
January 2, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
A young woman leads a group of protesters into chants of "don't be afraid, we're all together" in Tehran's Grand Bazaar.

Location: maps.app.goo.gl/sDDP83mJR1GH...
December 31, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
A group of protesters in the small city of Azna, in the western porvince of Lorestan, set fire to the local police station on 1 January, the fifth day of protests in Iran.

Location: maps.app.goo.gl/FvzkwLsChdLT...
January 1, 2026 at 11:33 PM
Unrelated to anything but I spent years writing about the ideological similarities between the authoritarianism of Netanyahu-style Zionism and Assadism

www.hauntologies.net/p/notes-on-a...

Video is on the fascist website x.com/clashreport/...
January 1, 2026 at 11:12 AM
Reposted by elia ayoub
THREAD: Verified videos of anti-establishment protests currently unfolding in Iran

Protesters push back police and security forces on Tehran's Jomhouri Street.

Location: maps.app.goo.gl/LKZH6YbnT2WE...

@geoconfirmed.org
December 31, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Happy new year from Brighton folks
December 31, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
This is the impact of networked incitement. And now every other “citizen journalist” wannabe Nick Shirley is on the ground in Washington, Ohio, and I assume elsewhere trying to break/make the next viral story. There’s potential for this to spin further out of control, hoping it doesn’t
Somali-run day care in Minneapolis broken into, vandalized
www.fox9.com
December 31, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Anyone who knew anything knew that Starmer’s strategy of courting the Right and abandoning Labour’s own base was going to be disastrous, but that didn’t stop highly paid ‘strategists’ from f-ing everything up
Mind bogglingly low.
December 31, 2025 at 1:50 PM
December 31, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Just watched Hadestown, my first musical in a while. Just brilliant through and through. Was already in love with the original album, and I’m in awe of what Anais Mitchell created. While watching it I also felt utterly certain that AI can never replace such life-affirming creations
December 28, 2025 at 6:39 PM
I’m reading LotR for the first time in a long time. I was wondering how long, until I remembered that I had made a note the last time I read it! It’s been almost exactly 21 years since I actually finished it (I read passages every now and then) but I intend on doing it now
December 27, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Alaa is here! Wonderful Christmas news
December 27, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by elia ayoub
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software.

Just fuck you. Fuck you all.

I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
December 25, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Through the German police and its obsessive brutality, the German state routinely violates the European convention of human rights.

www.theleftberlin.com/brutal-polic...
Freedom of Brutality by the German State.
When it comes to Palestine demos, the German police are out of control
www.theleftberlin.com
December 26, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by elia ayoub
Not just ignoring, enabling.
I think it’s not an exaggeration to conclude that the NYT is directly responsible with denying some of the worst genocides to have happened since the Holocaust, especially when the US is complicit in them

jewishcurrents.org/the-genocide...
The Genocides The New York Times Forgot
The paper’s Gaza coverage continues its pattern of downplaying US-backed atrocities in Bangladesh, East Timor, and Guatemala.
jewishcurrents.org
December 26, 2025 at 5:24 PM