Belated Antiquity

UPDATE: Letters from Leo can now independently confirm that the meeting took place — and that the Vatican was so alarmed by the Pentagon’s tactics that Pope Leo XIV shelved plans to visit the United States later this year. Many in the Vatican saw the Pentagon’s reference to an Avignon papacy as a threat to use military force against the Holy See.

In 1871-72, a British officer named J.C. Fife-Cookson visited Delhi during a hunting trip & described how ice was made there traditionally during winter:

The BBC claims to have found an Iranian inside Tehran to whom it attributes the following statement: “About them using an atomic bomb or levelling Iran… I’m OK with all of these.”

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم ملت عزیز و سربلند ایران! الشعوب المسلمة وأحرار العالم: «بنده‌ی خدا، به خدا پیوست.» لقد لحق عبدٌ من عباد الله بربّه شهيدًا.

While my Iranian/Iranist colleagues fight for the use of the term Persian in English, some of my Turkish compatriots push for the use of “Türkiye” in all languages. We should leave the languages alone. I’m for Persian and Turkey.

Extraordinary email from Paul Bremer, the US bureaucrat who ran Iraq from 2003-4, to his wife.

I'd like to answer questions about our work with the DoW and our thinking over the past few days. Please AMA.

Clashes erupted between Shiite protesters and Bahraini security forces after a demonstration condemning the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader was dispersed, with Molotov cocktails reportedly thrown during the unrest.

NEW: Trump told The Atlantic in a phone call Sunday morning that he plans new talks with the Iranian regime: “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.”