Xavan Lovic 🗿

The contemporary Left is being absorbed by a new wave of Third-Worldism that treats anti-Israel politics as the core axis of moral meaning. Gaza has become the central symbol because it fuses every theme the activist Left needs: victimhood, colonial injustice, racial hierarchy, and global resistance. This is why figures like Greta Thunberg shifted from climate justice to Gaza without hesitation. Climate politics offered urgency but not a revolutionary antagonist. Gaza provides both. open.substack.com/pub/zinebribou…

This original medieval-style dance piece is in G minor, with a chord progression that alternates between Gm and Cm, incorporating variations like Gm6 and Cm6 for that hypnotic flow.

Turkey as an Occupying Power: Building De Facto Turkish Territories in Syria and Iraq By: Ofer Binshtok Over the past decade, Turkey scrapped its vaunted “zero problems with neighbors” doctrine. It opted instead for direct military invasion and the creation of “security belts” that slice deep into foreign territory. As of April 2026, Turkey has discarded the mask of a guest military force in Syria and Iraq. It is an occupying power: political, economic, and administrative. It now dictates daily life across massive stretches of both countries. Turkey’s De Facto Annexation in Syria: From Military Control to Total Absorption The collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024 was a watershed moment. Damascus once labeled Turkey an occupier: today, Turkey is entrenched in the northwest. The new Syrian government under Ahmed al-Sharaa is a subordinate tool of Turkish power and pressure. It has no meaningful ability to resist. Civilian Absorption: In the regions of Idlib and Afrin, Turkish forces built a complete parallel administration. The Turkish lira is the dominant currency. School curricula and health systems are lashed to those in Turkey. Turkish companies seize all major infrastructure projects. This level of absorption is de facto annexation. Permanent Military Footprint: Turkey ignores formal nods to Syrian sovereignty. It maintains roughly 80 military bases across Syrian territory. Their purpose is clear: crush any resurgence of Kurdish militias linked to the PKK and secure “safe zones” to dump millions of Syrian refugees. No Exit Strategy: As of February 2026, Ankara stated it will not withdraw as long as security threats persist. It has effectively turned northern Syria into a permanent Turkish-controlled zone under occupation. Iraq: Consolidating a Military Stranglehold In northern Iraq, the Turkish model focuses on hunting the PKK. Its scale is unprecedented. Territorial Seizure: Turkish forces exert effective control over a strip exceeding 2,000 square kilometers inside Iraqi Kurdistan. To sustain that presence, Turkey built a network of 136 bases and outposts. These are linked by hundreds of kilometers of military roads built on Iraqi soil. Official Sanction: A 2024 memorandum of understanding with Baghdad gave Ankara a green light to expand operations. In October 2025, the Turkish parliament extended the mandate for military activity in Iraq through 2028. The Death of Sovereignty: The Iraqi government is no longer the authority in the northern highlands. Turkish troops control all movement and security in those districts. Outlook In 2026, Turkey successfully converted border threats into a strategic land grab. Ankara continues to pay lip service to the territorial integrity of Syria and Iraq: the facts on the ground tell a different story. These are irreversible realities established under occupation. This arrangement gives Turkey strategic depth and trade-route dominance. It secures a long-term role in reshaping the Middle East for decades. Scale of the Occupation in Perspective The Turkish-controlled area in Syria covers roughly 8,500 square kilometers: nearly the size of Lebanon. In Iraq, the occupied zone exceeds 2,000 square kilometers: larger than the entire country of Luxembourg. Taken together, Turkey now occupies some 11,000 square kilometers across the two states. This area is equivalent to the full territory of Lebanon.

He's very good at what he does.

EU court backs Belgium on detention of asylum applicants belganewsagency.eu/eu-court-backs…

Long unofficially banned from appearing on state TV, incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar appears on a channel to which he was previously not allowed only to announce an end of "North Korean" style Orban media monopoly.

Hezbollah official: “We are currently investing in protests and demonstrations in Western countries, especially among college students. We already have Muslim students agitating, but it’s the Western students themselves who will destroy their own countries.” This is the decade-old plan by Hezbollah and the Islamic Regime in Iran to destroy America and Europe.

A wise man once said to beat Real Madrid you don't need a good team you just need a fair referee.

For over 40 days, the regime’s mouthpieces and their apologists have been screaming "war crime," desperate to convince the world that a girls' school in Minab was targeted by us and Israel. They want you to picture shattered classrooms. They want you to see them as victims. Now look at the actual footage. A citizen from the occupied coast of Minab just clawed through forty six days of an absolute internet blackout to smuggle this out. Look at what is looming right over the courtyard of the Shajareh Tayyebeh school. That is a military guard tower. That is an IRGC Navy installation built directly into the perimeter of a playground. These cowards did not build a school. They built a military garrison and wrapped it in the flesh of our daughters. They planted their armed watchtowers directly over the heads of innocent girls, intentionally turning children into human shields to protect their occupying syndicate. You want to talk about war crimes? The true crime is an occupying army hiding its weapons behind the bodies of little girls because they are terrified of the fire they started. They can cry to the international cameras all they want. We see exactly what they are doing. We know exactly what they are hiding behind, and we are going to tear it down to the dirt.

‼️🇪🇺 The EU's new Age Verification app was hacked with little to no effort. When you set it up, the app asks you to create a PIN. But that PIN isn't actually tied to the identity data it's supposed to protect. An attacker can delete a couple of entries from a file on the phone, restart the app, pick a new PIN, and the app happily hands over the original user's verified identity credentials as if nothing happened. It gets worse. The app's "too many attempts" lockout is just a counter in a text file. Reset it to 0 and keep guessing. The biometric check (face/fingerprint) is a simple on/off switch in the same file. Flip it to off and the app skips it entirely.

Did the presence of a camera change the outcome of an execution? Barbara Matejčić revisits the only known photograph of a Bosnian war crime, probing whether journalists merely witnessed the violence — or were part of its choreography. newlinesmag.com/reportage/they…

Much of the American and Israeli media portrays the operation in Iran as aimless adventurism. In doing so, they advance the very arguments that serve America's enemies, undermining the credibility of a successful deterrent action and weakening the case for strong, burden-sharing alliances in the 21st century. In @tabletmag, @Doranimated breaks down 7 myths about the Iran war. A thread 🧵

Een rapport dat jarenlang werd verborgen, en duidt op miljarden euros teveel betaalde uitkeringen voor langdurig zieken: komt er een parlementair onderzoek? De volgende begrotingsronde kan hier eens induiken, in plaats van nog eens een rondje belastingen. hln.be/binnenland/exc…

"The new order is going to be defined by self-control, with a new elite selected for their ability to withstand the power of screen addiction, just as they withstand the country’s glut of drugs, gambling and poisonous junk food." edwest.co.uk/p/the-city-of-…

As expected, Kremlin's bootlickers still try to connect president Zelenskyy to late Jeffrey Epstein. This time they generated AI slop of the two meeting. At the time of this tweet, the post had almost 300k impressions and 11k likes. And no community note.

Pogacar c est le plus fort Van Der Poel le plus flandrien Remco le plus puissant Mais Van Aert c est le coureur du peuple, et personne pourra lui enlever. Il a le cœur de tout le monde Merci @sporza pr la video

@Eurosport_IT Prachtig om zien dat ook jullie in Italië ontroerd waren door de overwinning van @WoutvanAert gisteren 🥹🥲🙏

C’è un po’ di comcam in queste lacrime ❤️‍🩹🥹 Grazie anche ai nostri telecronisti per le emozioni che ci hanno dato in questa Parigi-Roubaix 2026 📹🎙️

De westerse berichtgeving (ook die in Nederland) over Operatie Epic Fury speelt zich vrijwel volledig af vanuit het perspectief van Iran zelf. Het dominante standpunt in westerse commentaren is dat van de Islamitische Republiek als de benadeelde partij. De discussie in de reguliere media en op sociale media is grotendeels georganiseerd rond wat Iran beweert, wat Iran doorstaat en waarmee Iran durft te dreigen. Het is in de kern anti-Trump en anti-Israël retoriek en geeft een volledig fout beeld van Iran en het Midden-Oosten. De Arabische wereld heeft een totaal andere visie op Iran en de oorlog in het MO. Lees @zriboua voor een gedetailleerde analyse van de situatie inclusief 2 interviews met belanghebbenden in het MO. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/zinebribou…

Iconisch fragment van Sonja Barend met Pim Fortuyn: een scherpe confrontatie, maar wel doorspekt met humor. De spanning spat ervan af, maar je ziet ook dat ze aan elkaar gewaagd zijn. Een verademing vergeleken met de soms saaie talkshows van nu.