Nabil Salih
@nabilsalih.bsky.social
A writer and photographer from Baghdad: @lrb.co.uk, @nybooks.com, @jacobinmag.bsky.social, and elsewhere.
linktr.ee/NabilSalih
linktr.ee/NabilSalih
"The colours of these clothes – several greys and dark blues, a dash of turquoise green and a bright red – break the heart. They allude to a life outside of this nightmare."
On Titian, Abu Ghraib, and Gaza in the @equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/pit...
On Titian, Abu Ghraib, and Gaza in the @equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/pit...
Pity and Fear • EQUATOR
What images of cruelty reveal about the limits of power
www.equator.org
November 21, 2025 at 9:24 AM
"The colours of these clothes – several greys and dark blues, a dash of turquoise green and a bright red – break the heart. They allude to a life outside of this nightmare."
On Titian, Abu Ghraib, and Gaza in the @equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/pit...
On Titian, Abu Ghraib, and Gaza in the @equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/pit...
‘We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side’, he told a television audience, insisting that victory required spending ‘time in the shadows’.
'He dissimulated even when the truth would have served him. Disclosure invited scrutiny; scrutiny invited limits; limits imperilled the office.'
Grey Anderson on Dick Cheney (1941–2025):
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Grey Anderson on Dick Cheney (1941–2025):
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Grey Anderson, Iron-Ass — Sidecar
Dick Cheney (1941-2025).
newleftreview.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:26 PM
‘We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side’, he told a television audience, insisting that victory required spending ‘time in the shadows’.
Unbelievable. Iraq closer to the World Cup. 2-1 over the Emirates in Basra. Football, for once, triumphs for the poor. “This is how the besieged play,” goes a 1990s song. Behold.
November 18, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Unbelievable. Iraq closer to the World Cup. 2-1 over the Emirates in Basra. Football, for once, triumphs for the poor. “This is how the besieged play,” goes a 1990s song. Behold.
Reposted by Nabil Salih
For 50 years, the Nobel committee has rejected the candidacies of dissidents from the Western world. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have worked for peace in a different way from Machado. But they possess one flaw: they expose our own dirty secrets.
Give him a prize!
Open access // by Benoît Bréville (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, November 2025)
mondediplo.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
For 50 years, the Nobel committee has rejected the candidacies of dissidents from the Western world. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden have worked for peace in a different way from Machado. But they possess one flaw: they expose our own dirty secrets.
"It was on a visit home to Jerusalem in 1951 that Katy introduced Soraya, now studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, to the novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, who encouraged her to write."
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social in the @parisreview.bsky.social
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11...
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social in the @parisreview.bsky.social
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11...
Soraya Antonius’s Portrait of a Lost Palestine by Selma Dabbagh
November 14, 2025 – “With her pen, Antonius rebuilds villages and cities, replants crops, observes the weather, curates national festivals, and depicts both Palestinian and British high society.”
www.theparisreview.org
November 14, 2025 at 5:25 PM
"It was on a visit home to Jerusalem in 1951 that Katy introduced Soraya, now studying at the Slade School of Fine Art, to the novelist Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, who encouraged her to write."
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social in the @parisreview.bsky.social
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11...
@selmadabbagh.bsky.social in the @parisreview.bsky.social
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/11...
"The foot-tall apparitions leaped from one wall to the next, like ghosts insisting on telling their stories."
Beautiful in the @nybooks.com on the Bukhara Biennial, its relics of Soviet architecture, and Uzbek politics old and new.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Beautiful in the @nybooks.com on the Bukhara Biennial, its relics of Soviet architecture, and Uzbek politics old and new.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Mixed Blessings | Sophie Pinkham
Uzbekistan has a new biennial, but how many of its aesthetic possibilities are underwritten by authoritarianism?
www.nybooks.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:19 AM
"The foot-tall apparitions leaped from one wall to the next, like ghosts insisting on telling their stories."
Beautiful in the @nybooks.com on the Bukhara Biennial, its relics of Soviet architecture, and Uzbek politics old and new.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Beautiful in the @nybooks.com on the Bukhara Biennial, its relics of Soviet architecture, and Uzbek politics old and new.
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
If you can hear me there,
if this reaches you
@joriegraham.bsky.social, whose words I long to read, in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
if this reaches you
@joriegraham.bsky.social, whose words I long to read, in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Jorie Graham · Poem: ‘Demonstration’
www.lrb.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 10:24 PM
If you can hear me there,
if this reaches you
@joriegraham.bsky.social, whose words I long to read, in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
if this reaches you
@joriegraham.bsky.social, whose words I long to read, in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
"Bourguiba’s prediction proved eerily accurate. Gabes did become unrecognizable, though not in the way he had promised."
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/11/we-w...
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/11/we-w...
'We Want to Breathe'—Dispatch from Gabes, Tunisia
A few weeks into the 2025 school year, in a middle school in Chott Essalem, Tunisia, students began to feel dizzy and light-headed and their throats tightened. Within minutes, they began collapsing, o...
www.merip.org
November 13, 2025 at 9:58 PM
"Bourguiba’s prediction proved eerily accurate. Gabes did become unrecognizable, though not in the way he had promised."
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/11/we-w...
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/11/we-w...
Reposted by Nabil Salih
New: for @equatormag.bsky.social I spent months talking to BBC journalists, from front-line reporters to the former head of the World Service, about how the corporation came unstuck over Gaza. But as I was working on the story, it collided with something... bigger... www.equator.org/articles/ins...
Inside the BBC’s Gaza Fiasco • Articles • EQUATOR
How the world’s most trusted media organisation fell apart
www.equator.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:50 PM
New: for @equatormag.bsky.social I spent months talking to BBC journalists, from front-line reporters to the former head of the World Service, about how the corporation came unstuck over Gaza. But as I was working on the story, it collided with something... bigger... www.equator.org/articles/ins...
On Beirut in @artreview.bsky.social, a story similar to Baghdad's, where development hardly meets resistance, serving the butchers-cum-elites to enforce amnesia, exorcise the ghost Saddam Hussein, and erect a city over a city in their own name, murdering histories.
artreview.com/restorative-...
artreview.com/restorative-...
‘Restorative Justice’: Beirut’s Struggle with Truth
Heritage in Lebanon is not just about aesthetics; it is about truth
artreview.com
November 10, 2025 at 3:54 PM
On Beirut in @artreview.bsky.social, a story similar to Baghdad's, where development hardly meets resistance, serving the butchers-cum-elites to enforce amnesia, exorcise the ghost Saddam Hussein, and erect a city over a city in their own name, murdering histories.
artreview.com/restorative-...
artreview.com/restorative-...
Much is being written on Tuesday's elections in Iraq, most is lazy and flawed, failing to grasp the gravity of the situation. Some parachute from Doha and New York and readily volunteer as propagandists for al-Sudani and the state. Independents are unheard of; locals on mute. A stain on journalism.
November 7, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Much is being written on Tuesday's elections in Iraq, most is lazy and flawed, failing to grasp the gravity of the situation. Some parachute from Doha and New York and readily volunteer as propagandists for al-Sudani and the state. Independents are unheard of; locals on mute. A stain on journalism.
"Sooner or later he has to fall down to earth."
On Reichardt's 'The Mastermind' in @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
On Reichardt's 'The Mastermind' in @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
Making Up an Escape | Alex Ransom
Since her career began in the mid-1990s, Kelly Reichardt has directed nine feature films, all modest in scope and budget and often willfully disinterested
www.nybooks.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:04 PM
"Sooner or later he has to fall down to earth."
On Reichardt's 'The Mastermind' in @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
On Reichardt's 'The Mastermind' in @nybooks.com
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...
Yash Sheth's photographs in the current, monumental issue of @grantamag.bsky.social, beautifully introduced by Ruchir Joshi.
granta.com/come-rain-co...
granta.com/come-rain-co...
Come Rain, Come Down
‘It feels as though Bombay has invented rain for itself.’ Yash Sheth’s photography from Mumbais monsoon season, introduced by Ruchir Joshi.
granta.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Yash Sheth's photographs in the current, monumental issue of @grantamag.bsky.social, beautifully introduced by Ruchir Joshi.
granta.com/come-rain-co...
granta.com/come-rain-co...
On Cheney on his final descent to hell.
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
His Works Completed, Dick Cheney, Mass Murderer of Iraqis and American Democracy, Dies
As much as the Trumpists claim to disavow the War on Terror, they walk a path paved by the most powerful vice president in US history.
www.thenation.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:29 PM
On Cheney on his final descent to hell.
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
www.thenation.com/article/poli...
Long before occupying Baghdad, as defense secretary, Dick Cheney, now deceased former vice president, defended the bombing of al-Amiriyah Bomb Shelter, where my great aunt and her children were incinerated at dawn in 1991. If there is hell, that's where he is going tonight. Waiting for Bush!
November 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Long before occupying Baghdad, as defense secretary, Dick Cheney, now deceased former vice president, defended the bombing of al-Amiriyah Bomb Shelter, where my great aunt and her children were incinerated at dawn in 1991. If there is hell, that's where he is going tonight. Waiting for Bush!
Important from Mada Masr on Egypt's new museum.
www.madamasr.com/en/2025/11/0...
www.madamasr.com/en/2025/11/0...
Looking back to see the present through the Grand Egyptian Museum
In a recent interview broadcast on the Saudi Al-Arabiya channel, former Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, the former official of the ancient regime who barely makes it to the public sphere today, spoke a...
www.madamasr.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Important from Mada Masr on Egypt's new museum.
www.madamasr.com/en/2025/11/0...
www.madamasr.com/en/2025/11/0...
"Memories of life in Iraq remain foundational to Sami’s art. But with each measured allusion to Saddam-era tyranny or regime-change turmoil, we detect an anxious impulse to withhold, mask, or deflect."
@artforum.com
www.artforum.com/events/moham...
@artforum.com
www.artforum.com/events/moham...
Mohammed Sami
Declan Long covers Mohammed Sami’s “To Whom it May Concern” at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, where the Iraqi artist’s work depicts communication methods in a state of limbo.
www.artforum.com
November 1, 2025 at 10:57 AM
"Memories of life in Iraq remain foundational to Sami’s art. But with each measured allusion to Saddam-era tyranny or regime-change turmoil, we detect an anxious impulse to withhold, mask, or deflect."
@artforum.com
www.artforum.com/events/moham...
@artforum.com
www.artforum.com/events/moham...
Reposted by Nabil Salih
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have used their wealth and influence to tilt the football world in their favour, but now, for the first time, they have tilted the playing field too.
Story on how opaque rule changes that paved Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s path to 2026 World Cup
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/w...
Story on how opaque rule changes that paved Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s path to 2026 World Cup
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/w...
How Saudi Arabia and Qatar Benefited From Rule Changes to Reach the World Cup
www.nytimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have used their wealth and influence to tilt the football world in their favour, but now, for the first time, they have tilted the playing field too.
Story on how opaque rule changes that paved Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s path to 2026 World Cup
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/w...
Story on how opaque rule changes that paved Saudi Arabia and Qatar’s path to 2026 World Cup
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/w...
"When the Soviet Union disintegrated, Bout reinvented himself as an arms dealer, selling weapons to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and running guns for rebel groups in Africa. Eventually, he bought a mansion on the water in the United Arab Emirates."
@equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/kin...
@equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/kin...
King of the Aral Sea • Articles • EQUATOR
A Central Asian travelogue, translated from Chinese by Dylan Levi King
www.equator.org
October 31, 2025 at 10:46 PM
"When the Soviet Union disintegrated, Bout reinvented himself as an arms dealer, selling weapons to Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and running guns for rebel groups in Africa. Eventually, he bought a mansion on the water in the United Arab Emirates."
@equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/kin...
@equatormag.bsky.social
www.equator.org/articles/kin...
‘the mummies of the long-buried and forgotten aborigines rose to the surface’ in ‘a sitting posture, facing the sea’. It seemed ‘to our excited imagination’, he went on, ‘as if the day of judgment had come’.
Matthew Carr in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Matthew Carr in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Matthew Carr · In Arica: The Chinchorro Mummies
The Chinchorro, who inhabited a 400-mile stretch of the Pacific coast of Chile from around 7000 BCE, lived in small,...
www.lrb.co.uk
October 31, 2025 at 10:25 PM
‘the mummies of the long-buried and forgotten aborigines rose to the surface’ in ‘a sitting posture, facing the sea’. It seemed ‘to our excited imagination’, he went on, ‘as if the day of judgment had come’.
Matthew Carr in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Matthew Carr in the @lrb.co.uk
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Nabil Salih
In Tunisia’s coastal city of Gabès, residents live in the shadow of the phosphate industry. As pollution deepens and repression returns, a new generation revives the struggle for life itself. africasacountry.com/2025/10/the-...
The people want to breathe
In Tunisia’s coastal city of Gabès, residents live in the shadow of the phosphate industry. As pollution deepens and repression returns, a new generation revives the struggle for life itself.
africasacountry.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:12 PM
In Tunisia’s coastal city of Gabès, residents live in the shadow of the phosphate industry. As pollution deepens and repression returns, a new generation revives the struggle for life itself. africasacountry.com/2025/10/the-...
‘We have humiliated them too much … the situation in Russia is very dangerous … one day there will be a … nationalist backlash.’
@mondediplo.com
mondediplo.com/2025/11/06nato
@mondediplo.com
mondediplo.com/2025/11/06nato
An alternative history of NATO expansion
Subscribers // by Hélène Richard (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, November 2025)
mondediplo.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:22 PM
‘We have humiliated them too much … the situation in Russia is very dangerous … one day there will be a … nationalist backlash.’
@mondediplo.com
mondediplo.com/2025/11/06nato
@mondediplo.com
mondediplo.com/2025/11/06nato
"The UAE is ripping a page out of the playbook of nineteenth century imperialism, as it deliberately under-develops and exploits Africa and Africans and empowers authoritarian regimes in the region that enable its worldwide profiteering."
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/10/the-...
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/10/the-...
The Abraham Accords and Sudan’s Global Counterrevolution
On October 23, 2020, Sudan became the third Arab-majority country to normalize relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords.
The deal between Israel and the civilian-military Sudanese Transitional...
www.merip.org
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 PM
"The UAE is ripping a page out of the playbook of nineteenth century imperialism, as it deliberately under-develops and exploits Africa and Africans and empowers authoritarian regimes in the region that enable its worldwide profiteering."
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/10/the-...
@merip.bsky.social
www.merip.org/2025/10/the-...