Ruth Michaelson
@ruthmichaelson.com
Observer Middle East correspondent based in Turkey.
Bylines @theobserveruk.bsky.social & seen in @theguardian.com, sometimes others.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.ruthmichaelson.com
Bylines @theobserveruk.bsky.social & seen in @theguardian.com, sometimes others.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.ruthmichaelson.com
“Like, for example, I would never resuscitate a baby. That’s cuckoo bananas to me.”
Haunting reporting on a pseudo-cult preaching the idea of pregnancy and birth without medicine - but where this advice comes at considerable financial and personal cost.
Haunting reporting on a pseudo-cult preaching the idea of pregnancy and birth without medicine - but where this advice comes at considerable financial and personal cost.
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:06 AM
“Like, for example, I would never resuscitate a baby. That’s cuckoo bananas to me.”
Haunting reporting on a pseudo-cult preaching the idea of pregnancy and birth without medicine - but where this advice comes at considerable financial and personal cost.
Haunting reporting on a pseudo-cult preaching the idea of pregnancy and birth without medicine - but where this advice comes at considerable financial and personal cost.
MBS's physical reaction here is...quite something to see.
Trump suggests Khashoggi had it coming: "You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen. But he knew nothing about it. You don't have to embarrass our guest."
November 18, 2025 at 6:36 PM
MBS's physical reaction here is...quite something to see.
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 8:47 AM
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
"But a covert proxy war between Ethiopia, Eritrea and their allies has, in effect, already begun. It needs worryingly little to explode into the open."
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
Ethiopia is perilously close to another war
Conflict in Tigray could balloon into a regional conflagration
www.economist.com
November 13, 2025 at 5:45 PM
"But a covert proxy war between Ethiopia, Eritrea and their allies has, in effect, already begun. It needs worryingly little to explode into the open."
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
“”If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll have to ration water. And if it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate Tehran,” President Masoud Pezeshkian was cited as saying on Thursday by the SNN.ir semi-official news agency.”
apnews.com/article/iran...
apnews.com/article/iran...
Iranian capital faces water rationing and evacuations if it doesn't rain soon, president warns
Iran’s capital is facing an unprecedented water and energy crisis as reservoirs supplying the city plunge to historic lows, threatening supplies of drinking water and electricity generation.
apnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:07 PM
“”If it doesn’t rain in Tehran by late November, we’ll have to ration water. And if it still doesn’t rain, we’ll have to evacuate Tehran,” President Masoud Pezeshkian was cited as saying on Thursday by the SNN.ir semi-official news agency.”
apnews.com/article/iran...
apnews.com/article/iran...
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
November 6, 2025 at 5:49 PM
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
An essential piece of reporting from @skynewsrss.bsky.social on something any user of X can feel to be true: How the site boosts far right content to users and makes it unavoidable, even those looking to escape it.
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:10 AM
An essential piece of reporting from @skynewsrss.bsky.social on something any user of X can feel to be true: How the site boosts far right content to users and makes it unavoidable, even those looking to escape it.
The best thing I've read so far on Mamdani's win– and no shying away from the Islamophobia he faced.
"At a time when leading figures in the Democratic Party seem practically complicit in the abuses and outrages of the Trump era, Mamdani offered his supporters an unsullied message of hope."
"At a time when leading figures in the Democratic Party seem practically complicit in the abuses and outrages of the Trump era, Mamdani offered his supporters an unsullied message of hope."
In the end, Andrew Cuomo’s long record was a gift to Zohran Mamdani. “What I don’t have in experience, I make up for in integrity—and what you don’t have in integrity, you could never make up for in experience,” Mamdani told Cuomo in a debate.
The Mamdani Era Begins
His opponents tried to smear him for his youth, inexperience, and leftist politics. But New Yorkers didn’t want a hardened political insider to be mayor—they wanted Zohran Mamdani.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
November 5, 2025 at 5:44 PM
The best thing I've read so far on Mamdani's win– and no shying away from the Islamophobia he faced.
"At a time when leading figures in the Democratic Party seem practically complicit in the abuses and outrages of the Trump era, Mamdani offered his supporters an unsullied message of hope."
"At a time when leading figures in the Democratic Party seem practically complicit in the abuses and outrages of the Trump era, Mamdani offered his supporters an unsullied message of hope."
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
We've covered how Meta Ray-Bans could have been worn by CBP during ICE raids, how it's being modded for facial recognition, and how it's being used as a spy tool.
Every time Meta argues: What is the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and an iPhone?
SO yeah—here's a guide for Meta's PR team:
Every time Meta argues: What is the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and an iPhone?
SO yeah—here's a guide for Meta's PR team:
What’s the Difference Between AI Glasses and an iPhone? A Helpful Guide for Meta PR
Meta thinks its camera glasses, which are often used for harassment, are no different than any other camera.
www.404media.co
November 5, 2025 at 4:29 PM
We've covered how Meta Ray-Bans could have been worn by CBP during ICE raids, how it's being modded for facial recognition, and how it's being used as a spy tool.
Every time Meta argues: What is the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and an iPhone?
SO yeah—here's a guide for Meta's PR team:
Every time Meta argues: What is the difference between Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and an iPhone?
SO yeah—here's a guide for Meta's PR team:
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
Literal insanity that a company that made a product that saved millions of lives just a few years ago could go out of business www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/m...
November 4, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Literal insanity that a company that made a product that saved millions of lives just a few years ago could go out of business www.statnews.com/2025/10/30/m...
"More seriously, the stunning unity of the papers in their opposition to the possibility that Mamdani may represent something positive is indicative of what all these publications have in common." - @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social on why legacy media has keenly ignored why voters like Mamdani.
Legacy papers have been weird and hostile toward Zohran Mamdani.
The New York City mayoral candidate promises radical change that editorial boards don’t want, even if voters do.
www.cjr.org
November 4, 2025 at 8:37 PM
"More seriously, the stunning unity of the papers in their opposition to the possibility that Mamdani may represent something positive is indicative of what all these publications have in common." - @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social on why legacy media has keenly ignored why voters like Mamdani.
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
October 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.
A cautionary tale for all journalists blood-curdling enough to fit with Halloween: “I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor,” DeBlasio told Semafor Wednesday evening. “So I just gave him my opinion.”
Exclusive: British newspaper spoke to the wrong de Blasio, not an ‘imposter’
How a Long Island vintner, with the help of ChatGPT, prompted a transatlantic journalistic debacle.
www.semafor.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:24 PM
A cautionary tale for all journalists blood-curdling enough to fit with Halloween: “I never once said I was the mayor. He never addressed me as the mayor,” DeBlasio told Semafor Wednesday evening. “So I just gave him my opinion.”
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
Knowing how often face recognition and other AI-based recognition and decision making tech gets things wrong--to take its decision as unimpeachable even if a person can *prove* they're a US citizen is unspeakably bad.
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
October 29, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Knowing how often face recognition and other AI-based recognition and decision making tech gets things wrong--to take its decision as unimpeachable even if a person can *prove* they're a US citizen is unspeakably bad.
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
Equator is live today. Read about our mission and our first pieces, which include works of reportage, essays, memoirs, poetry, and fiction from around the world: www.equator.org
EQUATOR
Equator is a magazine of politics, culture and art.
www.equator.org
October 29, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Equator is live today. Read about our mission and our first pieces, which include works of reportage, essays, memoirs, poetry, and fiction from around the world: www.equator.org
As Trump administration officials talk of "durable peace," in Gaza, there is no ceasefire in the West Bank. In one WB town where 85 percent are US citizens, settler attacks are happening daily. US officials visited the settlement where the attackers live.
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
While the ceasefire in Gaza holds, violence surges in the...
Violent settler attacks continue daily and thousands of Palestinian-Americans in Turmus Ayya are frightened they have been abandoned by the US government
observer.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 7:24 PM
As Trump administration officials talk of "durable peace," in Gaza, there is no ceasefire in the West Bank. In one WB town where 85 percent are US citizens, settler attacks are happening daily. US officials visited the settlement where the attackers live.
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
You know things are utterly FUBAR in the US when @bellingcat.com is doing satellite imagery analysis of the White House.
New satellite images show the scale of demolition that has occurred on the East Wing of the White House in less than a month.
October 23, 2025 at 7:07 PM
You know things are utterly FUBAR in the US when @bellingcat.com is doing satellite imagery analysis of the White House.
The far right agitator Tommy Robinson got a warm welcome last night in Tel Aviv, railing against the British government and the Board of Deputies of British Jews– to applause. The government minister who invited him hailed him as a great "friend of Israel."
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
Tommy Robinson receives warm reception in Tel Aviv
The British far-right activist was invited to Israel by a government minister
observer.co.uk
October 19, 2025 at 10:11 AM
The far right agitator Tommy Robinson got a warm welcome last night in Tel Aviv, railing against the British government and the Board of Deputies of British Jews– to applause. The government minister who invited him hailed him as a great "friend of Israel."
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
For two years there has been an expectation that an end to Israel's longest war meant a reckoning for Netanyahu. But now even the idea that the war is over is a matter of political perspective, with everything in place for Netanyahu to glide to reelection.
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
Netanyahu to escape a reckoning for 7 October failures
The end of the war was expected to bring a reckoning for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Instead, he could emerge emboldened – and win another e...
observer.co.uk
October 18, 2025 at 11:40 AM
For two years there has been an expectation that an end to Israel's longest war meant a reckoning for Netanyahu. But now even the idea that the war is over is a matter of political perspective, with everything in place for Netanyahu to glide to reelection.
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
My piece for @theobserveruk.bsky.social
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
With the fighting at an end, Hamas’s leaders outside the territory will have to sell the peace deal to the Palestinians inside it
Read @ruthmichaelson.com on the Gaza ceasefire
https://bit.ly/3W0s8FI
Read @ruthmichaelson.com on the Gaza ceasefire
https://bit.ly/3W0s8FI
Gaza ceasefire brings hope, but deep-rooted challenges re...
With the fighting at an end, Hamas’s leaders outside the territory will have to sell the peace deal to the Palestinians inside it
bit.ly
October 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
With the fighting at an end, Hamas’s leaders outside the territory will have to sell the peace deal to the Palestinians inside it
Read @ruthmichaelson.com on the Gaza ceasefire
https://bit.ly/3W0s8FI
Read @ruthmichaelson.com on the Gaza ceasefire
https://bit.ly/3W0s8FI
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
A CNN review has found two dozen incidents of people posing as ICE officers in 2025 – more incidents than during the prior four presidential terms combined.
ICE impersonator incidents rise during Trump’s second term | CNN
A CNN review has found two dozen incidents of people posing as ICE officers in 2025 – more incidents than during the prior four presidential terms combined.
www.cnn.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:41 AM
A CNN review has found two dozen incidents of people posing as ICE officers in 2025 – more incidents than during the prior four presidential terms combined.
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...
ICE Wants to Build Out a 24/7 Social Media Surveillance Team
Documents show ICE plans to hire dozens of contractors to scan X, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms to target people for deportation.
www.wired.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:22 PM
NEW: ICE is planning to hire a team of nearly 30 people to surveil social media 24/7, build dossiers on people, and flag them for arrest and deportation. @dell.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/ice-so...
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
“This case is chilling for us all,” said Free Press’ senior counsel Benavidez. “And that’s the point — the administration will stop at nothing, not even the First Amendment, to bully people into silence.”
cpj.org/2025/10/jour...
cpj.org/2025/10/jour...
Journalist Mario Guevara to be deported from US in unprecedented case - Committee to Protect Journalists
Washington, D.C., October 2, 2025—In response to news that journalist Mario Guevara will be deported on Friday from the United States back to his native El Salvador, the Committee to Protect Journalis...
cpj.org
October 2, 2025 at 11:24 PM
“This case is chilling for us all,” said Free Press’ senior counsel Benavidez. “And that’s the point — the administration will stop at nothing, not even the First Amendment, to bully people into silence.”
cpj.org/2025/10/jour...
cpj.org/2025/10/jour...
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
Absolutely awful to have to re-circulate @onthemedia.bsky.social's Breaking News Consumer's Handbook on Yom Kippur, but here we are. Stay safe, everyone.
October 2, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Absolutely awful to have to re-circulate @onthemedia.bsky.social's Breaking News Consumer's Handbook on Yom Kippur, but here we are. Stay safe, everyone.
Reposted by Ruth Michaelson
"The protests, which began Saturday with demands for better education and healthcare, have been organized online by a loosely formed, anonymous youth group calling itself “GenZ 212.” The group has used platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and the gaming app Discord to mobilize support"
menasky
menasky
Morocco youth protests spread and turn deadly, two killed
Two people were killed and others injured in Lqliaa, near Agadir, when security forces used firearms to prevent a group of individuals from stealing their weapons on Wednesday night, local authorities said, in an incident that marks a deadly turn in anti-government protests that initially rallied for social justice reforms.
www.reuters.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:40 AM
"The protests, which began Saturday with demands for better education and healthcare, have been organized online by a loosely formed, anonymous youth group calling itself “GenZ 212.” The group has used platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and the gaming app Discord to mobilize support"
menasky
menasky