M. Haytham Matthews

Always seeking terra firma & a path toward the good.

Fidelitas ad Veritatis

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

It's hard for me to think of January 6th in any other way than a contemptible rape and despoiling of our nation's seat of government.

It's hard for me to fathom how anyone of any party affiliation can belittle its significance?

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

@NYCMayor @NidaKhanNY Tax the rich (more):
Reason 1: Today's extreme wealth inequality fosters corruption and, in other ways too, is corrosive to democracy
2: Not sufficiently taxing the rich denies govt the $ it needs to create the conditions req'd to grow a healthy and competitive labor force
......

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

#FreeSamaSafi before it's too late!

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🇺🇸 🇵🇸 Sama Safi, a 20-year-old American citizen and honors psychology student at Birzeit University, remains in Israeli detention after soldiers seized her from her family’s home near Ramallah at 3 a.m. on June 2, with lawmakers warning her life is at risk.

Safi, whose family lives in Florida, was taken without charge and transferred to Ofer prison, then to the Moscovia interrogation center in Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society. Her family says she has a chronic condition that causes fevers up to 105°F and requires daily medication and a quarterly injection she travels abroad to receive.

She was one of five Palestinian women detained that week, including two members of the Palestinian women’s national football team. The Israeli military said the women were suspected of “promoting terrorist activities.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Sen. Chris Van Hollen have both demanded her release. “I am really sick and tired of the Israeli government taking American taxpayer dollars and then mistreating Americans,” Van Hollen said. Israel has not told her family or the U.S. embassy where she is being held. Rep. Tlaib said, “Her life is at risk—our government must free her now!”

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

@SenWarren @DLRogKingston Caveat to taxing AI, courtesy of Brookings:
"Smart AI taxation requires distinguishing final services from productive [B2B] capital investments."
https://t.co/j6f4HwJmLO

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

“Dear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.

“You are not numbers or case files.

“You are people — with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.” — Pope Leo XIV

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

@kiraincongress @NEWSMAX Maybe Putin & Co. will find new willingness to negotiate in good faith after Ukraine (with a little help from its friends) takes back Crimea from its occupiers...

[Kira Rudik @kiraincongress]

I cringe every time I hear "Ukraine and russia exchanged attacks overnight."

Ukraine strikes military targets. russia strikes apartment buildings, hospitals, and civilians.

These are not equivalent actions. And they should not be reported as if they are.

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

Inconvenient truth:
The criticality of the Strait of Hormuz to global oil and fertilizer supply endows Iran with hard-to-negate escalation dominance.

[Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش @citrinowicz]

The growing rapprochement between the UAE and Iran undermines a key assumption that has shaped much of the Israeli debate over the past year, namely, that Gulf states would move closer to Israel, expand the Abraham Accords, or even support a more confrontational regional posture toward Tehran in the wake of the war.

In reality, many Gulf states are deeply frustrated with Israel. From their perspective, they were drawn into a regional crisis that imposed significant economic and security costs on them. Since the strikes on Qatar, many in the Gulf increasingly view Israel not as a source of stability, but as a potential driver of regional escalation.

As a result, there is little prospect of major new normalization steps with Israel absent dramatic progress on the Palestinian issue. Gulf leaders understand that the Iranian regime is not going anywhere, and they see no strategic benefit in trying to isolate Tehran or push it into a corner.

This does not mean that Gulf states have become naïve about Iran. They remain deeply aware of the challenges and threats posed by Tehran. However, their preferred strategy is de-escalation and coexistence rather than confrontation. From their perspective, maintaining channels of communication with Iran is a necessity, not a choice.

#IranWar‌

[Kira Rudik @kiraincongress]

putin is openly saying: NATO started the war. It wasn't russia who started the special military operation.

Important to remember: we are fighting people who genuinely believe these lies.

[Ziad Daoud @ZiadMDaoud]

Since the April 16 ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon look to have gone up, not down

Chart source: https://t.co/tnEsEGmmLC

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

Net-beneficial data center design, location, operation, and construction CAN be achieved... with the right guardrails and the will to make that happen.
3/
https://t.co/TxMiTHO2JH

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

Proposal:

Every new data center should be required to detail plans to ensure trivial or no impact on public water, sewage, electricity, air quality, and water quality.
#EnvironmentalImpact
#EnergyImpact
#ClimateImpact
1/

[Extinction Rebellion Global @ExtinctionR]

A record-shattering drought has racked much of the USA, yet new water hungry AI datacenters are planned to be built in drought-ridden locations.
1/2
https://t.co/FEyKtcWLjM

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

Solutions CAN be found, e.g.
* require net-0 energy impact via investment in renewable energy infrastructure
* self-sufficient water infrastructure, especially using tech like that described in this article:
2/
https://t.co/kyPA1G9At7

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

I fault President Xi for misplaced assignment of responsibility for China's problems, but credit him for "acknowledging that rapid economic growth had created quality-of-life concerns such as income inequality [&] environmental degradation."

[Foreign Affairs @ForeignAffairs]

“When Beijing casts structural problems as technical hurdles or pressures from abroad, it limits the reforms it is willing to pursue while offloading responsibility,” writes Francesca Ghiretti.
https://t.co/uRNbUP4vFJ

[Yashar Ali 🐘 @yashar]

People keep saying that Nithya Raman was a loser, that no one wanted her, and that no one was talking about her before the election, as some sort of evidence of voter fraud.

The biggest final poll had her in second place.

Los Angeles Times (May 19–24, 2026; 1,351 likely voters, ±3% MoE):

Bass 26%,
Raman 25%,
Pratt 22%,
Rae Huang 9%,
Adam Miller 5%,
undecided/other ~13%

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

I don't know about you, but I'm with Kristen Welker.

Is Trump "crooked" or "stupid" when he calls U.S. elections — like the two that got him into the White House — "crooked."

Besides being thin-skinned and rude, he "doth protest too much."

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Trump quits his interview: "You're either crooked or you're stupid…Your elections are crooked. You're crooked. Meet The Press is crooked. And so is ABC, and CBS, and CNN…Alright, let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time."

[Elisa Mosini 🇪🇺🇮🇹 @MosiniElisa]

Pope Leo XIV in Madrid: “I encourage you to nurture the process of European Union, which is not merely a counterweight to other powers, but a gift to humanity.”

Wonderful.
A powerful reminder of how beautiful and hopeful the European project truly is.

🇪🇺🇪🇸

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

@VanberghenEU IMHO, the most important bit is to "overcome sterile simplifications" and (paraphrasing and extrapolating) relentlessly seek truth in all its complexity.

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

https://t.co/FeyMoTnKud

[Olga Nesterova @onestpress]

MUST READ: The U.S. Is Pulling 900 Sensors Out of the Ocean. The Consequences Will Last Decades.

https://t.co/UKlGu5plrL

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

"The Trump administration has quietly removed an array of floating ocean observatories from waters off the WA and OR coasts...

Their removal is part of a national dismantling of a network of sophisticated data buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans."

#DumbingDown

[Rep. Pramila Jayapal @RepJayapal]

Ocean observatories are a critical resource for studying climate change and detecting disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.

Trump is erasing years of innovation and advancement.

https://t.co/AmARpnY38j

[M. Haytham Matthews @HaythamMatthews]

"[O]lder.. trees often serve as central 'hubs' or 'mother trees,' supporting younger saplings by redistributing vital resources & helping the.. ecosystem remain resilient.

When [they] are removed, the underground [fungal] network weakens, & the health of the.. forest declines."

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

In the 1990s, Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard made a groundbreaking discovery that challenged everything we thought we knew about how forests work. While studying managed forests in British Columbia, she noticed something puzzling: when birch trees were removed to promote the growth of valuable Douglas firs, the firs did not flourish as expected, they actually struggled and grew more slowly.

Determined to understand why, Simard traced the movement of nutrients using radioactive carbon isotopes. What she found was astonishing. Trees were actively sharing resources through vast underground fungal networks known as mycorrhizae. These delicate, thread-like fungi connect the roots of different trees across the forest floor, forming a complex web that allows the exchange of carbon, water, nutrients, and even chemical signals, sometimes between entirely different species.

She discovered that older, larger trees often serve as central "hubs" or "mother trees," supporting younger saplings by redistributing vital resources and helping the entire ecosystem remain resilient. When these key trees are removed, the underground network weakens, and the health of the remaining forest declines.

Simard’s research overturned the traditional Darwinian view of forests as battlegrounds of ruthless competition. Instead, she revealed a far more sophisticated reality: forests operate as highly cooperative systems where trees communicate, support one another, and even warn neighboring trees about threats like drought, disease, or insect attacks.

What appears to the human eye as a silent, still forest is, in truth, a vibrant, interconnected living network, built not on isolation and rivalry, but on deep connection and mutual aid.