Argument
Uneasy Allies
The partnership between Turkey and the new Syrian leadership is long-standing and complex. It has evolved into an alliance defined not by subservience, but by mutual dependence, recurring friction and an increasingly assertive Damascus.
Agents of Recovery
As Syria emerges from prolonged conflict, its people have substantial and complex mental health needs. Building mental health services accessible to all Syrians — including former detainees, families of the missing, children, displaced people and those with addiction — will enable safety and dignity to take root.
Rafael Nadal as Primal Experience
Rafael Nadal’s energy and uncanny intensity made watching him play an ecstatic experience that transcended tennis. All kinds of people who don’t follow the sport responded to him on a visceral level. You don’t need to know anything about tennis to “get” Rafa and his aura.
How Halfaya and Idlib Replaced Qardaha at the Heart of Syrian Power
A year on from Assad's fall, the areas that formed the backbone of the armed revolution, above all Halfaya and rural Idlib, have become the primary recruiting ground for Syria's new ruling elite.
Inside Hezbollah’s Two-Decade Project To Shape the Houthis
In 2007, two operatives, one Iranian, one from Hezbollah, sat down to dinner at a restaurant outside Damascus and started discussing Yemen. What followed was nearly two decades of military assistance, mediation, media training and political network-weaving that turned a marginal movement into the most powerful actor in Yemen.
How Israel-Backed Sweida Became Syria’s Narcotics Capital
Since Druze militias took control of Syria's Sweida province in 2025, the region has become a Captagon hub run by former Assad officers and internationally sanctioned crime figures, and shielded by Israel.
UFOs Are Going Mainstream
Following the UAP story reveals more about human behaviors — and the inner workings of the U.S. government — than about anything that is potentially extraterrestrial. Grappling with the high strangeness that surrounds this topic, one comes to appreciate the need for humility.