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… read about the reactionary coalition swept into power in Israel.

When democracies die, they rarely do so all at once. Consolidating unbreakable power through repeat elections means shaping the electorate as much as it means clever coalitioning. When Israel’s elections in June 2021 produced the first non-Netanyahu-headed government since 2009, it looked as though there was a chance permanent rule by the hard right might be broken. The elections of November 2022 proved the caretaker to be a mirage, united in opposition to Netanyahu, but more for his corruption than for his actual policies. “But when it came to the occupation, the siege of Gaza and the refusal to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, it was not much different to the previous Netanyahu administration,” writes Yonatan Mendel [[link removed]] in New Left Review. “Israel’s Zionist straitjacket may allow some room for debate on internal issues, but its confines are clear.” Part of the long-term durability of Netanyahu’s coalition, triumphant again, has been to treat the Arab parties in Israeli politics as inherently suspect while offering to the religious parties that only zionists can protect Jewish identity in the country. Writes Mendel, “by coding the religious parties as right wing, and the Arab parties as terrorists, Netanyahu has rendered any joint coalition of Jews and Arabs unthinkable.”

wartime retrenchment

To exist in an invaded country is to live in crisis. Ukraine’s emergency, simmering since it was invaded in 2014, escalated to existential in February 2022 as Russian tanks poured over the border. The country has had tremendous success since then, halting and reversing Russian advances. At the same time, the rights of Ukrainians have been curtailed in the name of the war effort, from loss of labor protections to new threats to the free press in Ukraine.

In late November [[link removed]], Stephen R. Shalom warned about what might happen to the press if speech restriction laws were passed. New censorship laws proposed make it harder for the country to correct course after errors in war and imperil journalists and sources in the process.

“Even if wartime requires a restriction of rights, new Ukrainian abuses detract from rather than enhance the war effort,” said Shalom. “Independent media are a check against corruption and failed policies; further infringements on press freedom will also reduce international solidarity with Ukraine’s just struggle.”

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] reframed in translation

To understand the present, it helps to excavate tellings of discontent published in past golden ages. “ Woman Running in the Mountains [[link removed]],” a 1980 novel by late Japanese writer Yūko Tsushima, has been rereleased in translation this year by the New York Review of Books. At The New Inquiry [[link removed]], Gabriel Fine uses the novel to reflect broadly on Tsushima’s body of work, published during Japan’s long-running post-war economic miracle. Tsushima’s stories, especially “Woman Running,” center on new motherhood, at the margins of society, with absent fathers and a coherent world unwilling to accommodate nontraditional families.

“Yet, when one places the book in its time, a radical element also becomes clear: here is a novel about a woman and child on the margins (Akira’s family register, bearing the mark of his illegitimacy, will impact his future education and job prospects) searching for an alternative kind of self-sufficiency and community on those very margins,” writes Fine.

The novel is part of Tsushima’s lifelong work to put the margins in the center, from single mothers to the stories and lifeways of Japan’s suppressed Indigenous populations. Revisiting it in 2022, it’s a way to reflect on what change has been made and what constraints and social stigma still endure.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] DEEP DIVE Insult to Injury: Part II

World politics is a stage that comes with a backstage. For international leaders, the theatrics of performance before cameras and behind the podium is highly public and often tightly calibrated. But every summit and every meeting includes moments of less on-display activity. In these spaces, asymmetric rhetorical attacks, insults, jokes, and jibes can shape how negotiations play out.

In “ Backstage Mockery: Impoliteness and Asymmetry on the World Stage [[link removed]],” Eric Van Rythoven examines how insults play out in the informal settings behind highly formal events.

“For a higher-ranking party, impoliteness from a subordinate can be perceived as a denial of deference and esteem, and even a challenge to the hierarchy itself. For a lower-ranking party, acts of impoliteness from a superior can be perceived as an abuse of position, which foreshadows threats to their autonomy,” writes Van Rhythoven.

The pairing of status and mockery is vital because it shows that the same styles of speech can have wildly different effects depending on who is using it and how. Van Rhythoven opens the paper by discussing a 2019 incident at the 70th anniversary of NATO. In a video of the incident, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte can be seen laughing. The audio cuts out, but several jokes about US President Donald Trump can still be heard. After the release of the video, Trump left the summit early, refusing to partake in further events with national leaders seen mocking him.

“Conversely, the same parties can use impoliteness as a kind of friendly teasing or ‘jocular humor,’ which strengthens solidarity and the bonds of amity,” writes Van Rhythoven.

NATO was likely never in danger of falling apart under the Trump administration. However, the leaders of states less powerful than the United States were still able to, through humor, reassure each other that the alliance was more durable than the fickle moods of one particular president.

When it comes to responding to powerful states, writes Van Rhythoven, “Any act of overt ridicule comes with the risk of political, economic, or — in extreme cases — military retaliation. Weaker actors, however, can avoid retaliation by employing strategies to evade attribution.”

This could include laughing as part of a crowd or tweeting an image with plausibly deniable content. Masking intent and identity are two ways to respond without drawing direct retaliation. Backstage mockery allows the weaker party to save face while still challenging behavior. It can build solidarity between other smaller powers. And, like the video at the NATO anniversary, the mockery can be known through unofficial channels.

“While the main audience in the backstage are the aggrieved, lower-status members, evidence of ridicule can spill over into a broader field of perception. Whether gleaned through diplomatic networks, savvy journalism, or intelligence services, reports of backstage mockery from subordinate powers can signal problems to transgressive governments—including pushback against their behavior,” writes Van Rhythoven.

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Manuel Rueda grazed [[link removed]] over new data suggesting the type of feed used in beef production can have an outsized effect on the climate impact of cattle raised for slaughter in Colombia. A deep-root grass called Koronivia used in San Jose Ranch in eastern Colombia, for example, stores 15% more carbon than grows in the region. It can reduce nitrous oxide emissions typically released by cow urination. “Thanks to its use of Koronivia — and other improvements like using cattle that are ready for slaughter in less time — the San Jose Ranch currently soaks up more greenhouse gasses than its cattle emit,” wrote Rueda.

Andrew Scruggs detailed [[link removed]] the current political situation in Haiti, which he argues is not the anarchy of collapse but the competition of managed and competing militias backed by elites. “The ‘gangs’ themselves, then, are more properly characterized as paramilitary forces [[link removed]] — mercenaries who provide [[link removed]] militaristic and violent services for the political and business elite who profit massively from the relationship,” he wrote. Effective intervention to reduce violence and paramilitary power in Haiti, then, requires sanctions that hit national elites as well as street-level muscle. “What incentives are at play in continuing the current status quo of chaos? There are huge amounts of money to be made in the current environment,” wrote Scruggs.

Caroyln Beeler waded [[link removed]] into post-flood Pakistan to see the harm remaining even as the water levels receded. With the retreating waters came the collapse of normal water systems, contaminating drinking water and leading to diarrheal disease. Malaria, which thrives in mosquito-friendly warm water and wetlands, took off, straining the health of people living in camps set up to manage the displaced. “In Pakistan, the floods have also destroyed health infrastructure and made it harder for people to access care,” wrote Beeler. “The August floods damaged 800 miles of roads and 38 health centers in the hard-hit Dadu district, where hundreds of thousands of people were still displaced this month.”

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] WELL PLAYED

How many utils are there in turning your home into a surveillance state [[link removed]]?

Eventually, desserts evolved a natural defense [[link removed]] against wayward tankards.

Need a post-Soviet treat with a poster’s spirit? Kazakhstan really steppe-d up [[link removed]].

In the grim darkness of the near future, there is only military bureaucratic infighting and the unblinking form of MechaKissinger [[link removed]].

Oh, you’re a Venture Capitalist? Name three of Marx’s volumes [[link removed]].

Macron commands the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal and somehow managed to be the least commanding presence [[link removed]] on Frenchman Street on a Thursday night.

Excited to see Greater Morocco [[link removed]] in the 2026 World Cup [[link removed]].

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Critical State is written by Kelsey D. Atherton with Inkstick Media.

The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news and insights from PRX and GBH.

With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”

Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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