Omar Waraich
@omarwaraich.bsky.social
Senior Advisor, Open Society / formerly, Amnesty International and TIME / views, entirely mine
Reposted by Omar Waraich
After Martin Luther King’s family protested, OpenAI now restricts users’ ability to make fake videos of MLK. It’s just one way AI must be prevented from warping our sense of reality, writes @ethanz.bsky.social.
Chatbots and deepfakes are eroding our shared reality
With Trump et al using AI slop for political gain, fact-checking and civic journalism are more vital than ever
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 2:55 PM
After Martin Luther King’s family protested, OpenAI now restricts users’ ability to make fake videos of MLK. It’s just one way AI must be prevented from warping our sense of reality, writes @ethanz.bsky.social.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
A recent M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return.
The A.I.-Profits Drought and the Lessons of History
Like the steam engine, electricity, and computers, generative artificial intelligence could take longer than expected to transform the economy.
nyer.cm
November 3, 2025 at 11:38 PM
A recent M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
St. Augustine (yes, that one), the African. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
‘Insider and Outsider’ | Josephine Quinn
How did Saint Augustine’s African origins and his life among Christians there shape his theology?
www.nybooks.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:40 AM
St. Augustine (yes, that one), the African. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
“Tigray is broken. Its leaders divided, some aligning with Addis Ababa, others with Eritrea. Another war looms, one that could pit Tigrayans against each other. I fought once to defend my people; I will not fight again in a war that will destroy what remains.” continent.substack.com/p/the-exodus...
The exodus out of Tigray
Young people are leaving en masse – and don’t know if they’ll ever come back.
continent.substack.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:18 AM
“Tigray is broken. Its leaders divided, some aligning with Addis Ababa, others with Eritrea. Another war looms, one that could pit Tigrayans against each other. I fought once to defend my people; I will not fight again in a war that will destroy what remains.” continent.substack.com/p/the-exodus...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
‘Writers, for better or worse, need publishers (and vice versa), and their relationships, involving taste, friendship and money, can be as long-lasting, as complicated and as asymmetrical as any marriage.’
Online early: Julian Barnes on Flaubert and his publisher.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Online early: Julian Barnes on Flaubert and his publisher.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Julian Barnes · Ouvriers de luxe
Gustave Flaubert’s first three novels, Madame Bovary, Salammbô and L’Éducation sentimentale, were all published by...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 13, 2025 at 4:30 PM
‘Writers, for better or worse, need publishers (and vice versa), and their relationships, involving taste, friendship and money, can be as long-lasting, as complicated and as asymmetrical as any marriage.’
Online early: Julian Barnes on Flaubert and his publisher.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Online early: Julian Barnes on Flaubert and his publisher.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
While the war has been raging in Gaza, the right-wing Netanyahu government has been doing everything short of formal annexation to extend Israeli control over the West Bank—and it might well have done the formal annexation if Trump had not blocked it. wapo.st/3W5yhAx
Opinion | Why the Gaza ceasefire won’t lead to lasting peace
“A new Middle East” will require sacrifices that Israelis and Palestinians show no sign of making.
wapo.st
October 13, 2025 at 7:41 PM
While the war has been raging in Gaza, the right-wing Netanyahu government has been doing everything short of formal annexation to extend Israeli control over the West Bank—and it might well have done the formal annexation if Trump had not blocked it. wapo.st/3W5yhAx
Reposted by Omar Waraich
‘Like James Baldwin, she thought social revolution required a reckoning of all relationships, including the individual’s relationship to herself.’
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@keeanga.bsky.social) on Audre Lorde: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@keeanga.bsky.social) on Audre Lorde: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor · I do not have to be you: Audre Lorde’s Legacy
Lorde never had to persuade her comrades about a strategy, tactic or new idea, lose an argument in order to maintain a...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 11, 2025 at 8:55 AM
‘Like James Baldwin, she thought social revolution required a reckoning of all relationships, including the individual’s relationship to herself.’
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@keeanga.bsky.social) on Audre Lorde: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (@keeanga.bsky.social) on Audre Lorde: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
"Asked what freedom felt like, [Alaa] said: “It is overwhelming. It is also comfortable and natural, and I am immediately fitting in with them, including witnessing three family fights in two days. The usual stuff."
Don't miss this Guardian interview: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Don't miss this Guardian interview: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
‘I deserve to heal’: freed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah on his prison ordeal and next steps
The campaigner, who spent more than a decade in an Egyptian ‘vortex of incarceration’, wants to join his son in the UK while he reflects on the fight for freedom
www.theguardian.com
October 11, 2025 at 10:59 AM
"Asked what freedom felt like, [Alaa] said: “It is overwhelming. It is also comfortable and natural, and I am immediately fitting in with them, including witnessing three family fights in two days. The usual stuff."
Don't miss this Guardian interview: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Don't miss this Guardian interview: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
John Milton's Areopagitica, one of the most important and influential tracts on free speech ever written, is basically 100 pages of "belittling conservative ideas." Glad Milton got that one published before Marc Rowan came along.
Quite a feat to go from this to "and therefore universities must ban faculty and students from belittling conservative ideas"
October 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
John Milton's Areopagitica, one of the most important and influential tracts on free speech ever written, is basically 100 pages of "belittling conservative ideas." Glad Milton got that one published before Marc Rowan came along.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
A labour government wants to make amendments to our laws to bring in conditions, and possible outright ban on protests in the UK because the Palestine movement got too big for them to continue to ignore.
A Labour government. Not Tory, not reform, but Labour.
A Labour government. Not Tory, not reform, but Labour.
October 5, 2025 at 8:28 AM
A labour government wants to make amendments to our laws to bring in conditions, and possible outright ban on protests in the UK because the Palestine movement got too big for them to continue to ignore.
A Labour government. Not Tory, not reform, but Labour.
A Labour government. Not Tory, not reform, but Labour.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
‘Chinese Gen Z-ers don’t want their parents or colleagues to know what they say, watch or read in the virtual world. Plus, cyber violence is rife: who wants to be doxxed over a silly comment?’
Yun Sheng: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Yun Sheng: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Yun Sheng · Short Cuts: China’s Gen Z
A passive-aggressive ‘lying flat’ attitude is easily dismissed as laziness, but Gen Z-ers have developed a...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 5, 2025 at 8:36 AM
‘Chinese Gen Z-ers don’t want their parents or colleagues to know what they say, watch or read in the virtual world. Plus, cyber violence is rife: who wants to be doxxed over a silly comment?’
Yun Sheng: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Yun Sheng: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
Foreign staff have ‘changed our lives’: Scottish farmers fear for future after changes to skilled workers visas
Foreign staff have ‘changed our lives’: Scottish farmers fear for future after changes to skilled workers visas
Locals say staff from the Philippines and elsewhere have made life better, and plan to take their case to a government body
www.theguardian.com
October 5, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Foreign staff have ‘changed our lives’: Scottish farmers fear for future after changes to skilled workers visas
Reposted by Omar Waraich
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
regrettably if you try to point this out online you'll get yelled out by 79208 journalists going OH SO YOU WANT JOURNALISTS TO STARVE??? even if you're, say, a journalist yourself, and point out that while there are clearly no easy answers, the status quo isn't exactly working for society
September 29, 2025 at 1:19 PM
This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
Since 2021, an estimated 18 per cent of Cubans—as many as two million residents—have left. Many of these migrants once regarded the U.S. as a haven. Not anymore.
Have Cubans Fled One Authoritarian State for Another?
In the past few years, as many as two million people have escaped the island’s repressive regime and collapsing economy. Those who’ve made it to the U.S. face a new reckoning.
www.newyorker.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Since 2021, an estimated 18 per cent of Cubans—as many as two million residents—have left. Many of these migrants once regarded the U.S. as a haven. Not anymore.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
Reposted by Omar Waraich
Once again tapping the sign of Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
August 18, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Once again tapping the sign of Article 55 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
Spoke to @nbcnews.com about why travel influencers visiting Afghanistan do so from a place of privilege. Their experiences do not reflect reality for most Afghans, especially women & girls facing harsh restrictions on daily life & bearing the brunt of Taliban rule. www.nbcnews.com/now/video/tr...
Travel influencers face criticism from Afghanistan community over viral videos
A growing number of travel influencers are visiting Afghanistan where they are creating TikTok's describing their experiences, while the country's residents are painting a different picture on everyda...
www.nbcnews.com
August 18, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Spoke to @nbcnews.com about why travel influencers visiting Afghanistan do so from a place of privilege. Their experiences do not reflect reality for most Afghans, especially women & girls facing harsh restrictions on daily life & bearing the brunt of Taliban rule. www.nbcnews.com/now/video/tr...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
“Palestinians are being intentionally starved to death. Although signs of the coming horrors were clear within months of the war’s onset, many governments averted their eyes. Now, they are failing in their duty to prevent and stop a genocide.”
Starvation in Gaza and Our Global Shame
Binaifer Nowrojee sees ample evidence that the country is committing the most serious of crimes in Gaza.
www.project-syndicate.org
August 18, 2025 at 7:06 PM
“Palestinians are being intentionally starved to death. Although signs of the coming horrors were clear within months of the war’s onset, many governments averted their eyes. Now, they are failing in their duty to prevent and stop a genocide.”
Reposted by Omar Waraich
A reminder that #SouthAsia is at the frontline of #ClimateChange thoughts and prayers www.theguardian.com/world/video/...
Rescue efforts continue in Pakistan as flash floods kill more than 320 people – video report
The death toll from heavy monsoon rains that have triggered flash floods across northern Pakistan has risen to at least 321 people
www.theguardian.com
August 18, 2025 at 7:12 AM
A reminder that #SouthAsia is at the frontline of #ClimateChange thoughts and prayers www.theguardian.com/world/video/...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
USAID funded roughly half the world’s supply of ready-to-use therapeutic food. The dismantling of the agency has disrupted the global supply chain that provides the packets, leaving thousands of malnourished children at risk of dying.
A $45 Treatment Can Save a Starving Child. US Aid Cuts Have Frozen the Supply
www.nytimes.com
August 17, 2025 at 9:53 PM
USAID funded roughly half the world’s supply of ready-to-use therapeutic food. The dismantling of the agency has disrupted the global supply chain that provides the packets, leaving thousands of malnourished children at risk of dying.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“Gaza represents not some distant and inevitable tragedy, but our own moral and practical failing,” our columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. “We have blood on our hands.”
“Gaza represents not some distant and inevitable tragedy, but our own moral and practical failing,” our columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. “We have blood on our hands.”
Opinion | Answering My Critics About the War in Gaza
Why I believe American support for Israel in this conflict is a moral and practical failure.
nyti.ms
August 16, 2025 at 11:11 PM
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“Gaza represents not some distant and inevitable tragedy, but our own moral and practical failing,” our columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. “We have blood on our hands.”
“Gaza represents not some distant and inevitable tragedy, but our own moral and practical failing,” our columnist Nicholas Kristof writes. “We have blood on our hands.”
Reposted by Omar Waraich
At a time when many funders are retreating from Africa, we are reaffirming our commitment. As I write in an essay for The Mail & Guardian, this work is African-led and born of African realities: mg.co.za/article/2025...
Africa’s youth driving a transformative future
Young people on the continent are taking up new initiatives focusing on democracy, resource management and peacebuilding to shift power to people
mg.co.za
August 14, 2025 at 11:35 PM
At a time when many funders are retreating from Africa, we are reaffirming our commitment. As I write in an essay for The Mail & Guardian, this work is African-led and born of African realities: mg.co.za/article/2025...
Reposted by Omar Waraich
Investigators say the former president and first lady exerted undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate during a 2022 election.
Wife of South Korea's jailed ex-President Yoon arrested over corruption allegations
Investigators say the former president and first lady exerted undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate during a 2022 election.
n.pr
August 13, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Investigators say the former president and first lady exerted undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate during a 2022 election.
Reposted by Omar Waraich
The defense of “we could have killed more people more quickly” is not particularly compelling.
www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-if...
www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-if...
Netanyahu: ‘If we wanted to commit genocide, it would have taken exactly one afternoon’
PM falsely claims that Israel never halted entry of aid into Gaza, a policy his office announced in March and reversed 11 weeks later
www.timesofisrael.com
August 13, 2025 at 1:59 PM
The defense of “we could have killed more people more quickly” is not particularly compelling.
www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-if...
www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-if...