Taha Syed

field producer, news & music videographer, social verification reporter. eyes on international affairs, civil rights, American movements. prev: NBC News

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

New ad with $600k behind it is out, backing @DarializaforNY.

It features Noor Khalil, Mahmoud Khalil's wife, talking about how Adriano Espaillat abandoned them when Mahmoud was snatched. Constituent service matters! This is from the anti-AIPAC super PAC

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

⚡️New from @DropSiteNews: How Secret Pro-Israel Money Flooded the Labour Party and Ended with a Ban of Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur

Story by Paul Holden

https://t.co/RlQiewbMvJ

[moe tkacik @moetkacik]

This coverup struck me as the most succinct distillation of the breathtaking hypocrisy demonstrated every fucking day by America's genocidal class of self-appointed respectability gatekeepers https://t.co/5CsQCY24ge

[moe tkacik @moetkacik]

wrote about the time the New York Times killed a story about a girl impregnated by the Meir Kahane, the terrorist idol & spiritual leader of Smotrich, Ben-Gvir & modern Israel

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

The NYT is so filled with fear and hatred I almost feel bad for them

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

New statement from Scott Pelley:

There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.

The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

The waste is heartbreaking.

Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.

For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.

Scott Pelley

[Tommy Vietor @TVietor08]

BRUTAL indictment of @bariweiss by Scott Pelley:
"For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified." Then it gets worse...

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Hamawy has won — meaning a doctor who treated the victims of the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza is headed to Congress.

He refused to leave his rotation, even as Israel surrounded the hospital and cut off the water supply, until a new rotation of doctors was allowed in

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Drop Site News was scheduled to host a panel discussion at SXSW London on June 3. We have informed the organizers we will not be moving forward with the event following SXSW’s refusal to condemn the British Home Office’s state censorship of our colleagues Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, who were also scheduled to speak at SXSW. The banning of our colleagues is part of an intensifying campaign by the UK government to stifle criticism of Israel and criminalize pro-Palestine activism at a time when the genocide in Gaza is continuing.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Just kind of left speechless at an invading army whining to the United Nations that the people they are invading — and killing their civilians by the thousands — are fighting back. This is a mystifying level of lack of self awareness

[Séamus Malekafzali @Seamus_Malek]

Oh yeah man, the Israeli consulate didn’t know he was coming. They didn’t know he was coming so much they announced it on their website and then it was reported in the Israeli media days before.

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

AI data center critics beware: law enforcement is watching.

Full document 👇
https://t.co/51QrEvlCSb

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

New Intel Bureau Eyes AI Data Center Critics

Read the intel report obtained under FOIA by @DRBoguslaw 👇
https://t.co/51QrEvlCSb

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

An invading army telling people to leave their homes at 4 am or be killed

[Julian Andreone @JulianAndreone]

I traveled to Nebraska to learn how the Iran War is affecting farmers ahead of the 2026 midterms, which will pit independent candidate Dan Osborn against incumbent Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts.

From @ryangrim & me:
https://t.co/LzYCm0AFhI

[Prem Thakker @prem_thakker]

New: Flotilla organizers say "The Torture Boat" (where many of IDF soldiers' most severe abuses against humanitarians allegedly took place) was *US-built & funded ship.*

Alleged abuses include beatings, sexual assault, tasing.

Stun grenades & projectiles also allegedly US-made.

[AFP News Agency @AFP]

🇸🇦 🕋 🌡️ Pilgrims pray on Mount Arafat as hajj reaches peak

Muslims pray on Mount Arafat near Mecca at the climax of the hajj pilgrimage, as punishing desert sun sent temperatures soaring towards 40 degrees Celsius. The 70-metre high rocky hill is where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his last sermon

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🚨Two more first responders were killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon, reporter Courtney Bonneau confirms from southern Lebanon, bringing the total number of paramedics killed since March 2 to over 120.

[Hamid Bendaas 🇩🇿🇵🇸 @HBendaas]

This photo from @ForensicArchi showing Israel building a new military base over the ruins of Khan Younis is like nothing I’ve ever seen

[courtneybonneauimages @cbonneauimages]

🔴Israeli bombs continue to rain down on Lebanon with no end in sight.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health: 3,213 civilians killed and 9,737 wounded in Israeli attacks since March 2nd.