Hadil Ghoneim هديل غنيم

Writer and thing finder. newest: Arabic Folktales for Children, Timeless Stories to Share in English and Arabic (Tuttle, Fall 2025)

[Hadil Ghoneim هديل غنيم @hadilghoneim]

https://t.co/NZirgGqvRx
Happy to find 3 of my books in this selection of 100 books for children قصة الأختين هنا وشفا / ليالي شهرزيزي / هذه عدساتك يا عبلة
par le Comité de lecture Monde arabe, qui réunit des professionnels de (BnF, IMA, bibliothèques de la Ville de Paris)."

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

Did apartheid South Africa have a right to exist?

Did Rhodesia have a right to exist?

Did the Soviet Union have a right to exist?

Did Nazi Germany have a right to exist?

States don't have rights, Nick. People have rights.

And critically they have the same universal rights. Which is exactly why apartheid Israel has no right to exist.

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Why do people only ever ask 'Does Israel have the right to exist?' How about Lebanon? Does Lebanon have the right to exist? Syria? At the moment, parts of those countries are under occupation. Do journalists ask questions about those countries' rights to exist?

[The Exiled Writer @forexkeylevels]

This is the poem by Michael Rosen @MichaelRosenYes 'Don't mention the children' Someone was arrested in Scotland for reading it at a protest #poetry

[Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal]

Naftali Bennett has branded one of the most influential Haredi rabbis in Israel, Dov Lando, as “antisemitic”

What did Rabbi Lando say to earn this label?

Lando proclaimed: “It’s possible, without a state [of Israel], to live well with the Arabs… to live, to respect the Arabs. It was pretty good when the Arabs were in charge. It was the best situation.”

He added that the Zionists “made Arabs hate us.“

Lando went on to call for a peace deal with the Palestinians, and slammed Zionism for having “brought the physical disasters, not just the spiritual ones, to the Jewish people.”

For these clear-eyed statements, Lando has become a public enemy denounced by politicians across the Zionist spectrum. The lesson is clear: even a senior rabbi is one of The Antisemites if he refuses to bow before the state of Israel and its genocidal army.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

The most immoral army.
The army of the deranged ones. Committing the monstrosity of the century.
Every day, new brushes of horror.

[Hadil Ghoneim هديل غنيم @hadilghoneim]

@dieworkwear Muslim craftsman used to leave a small intentional error or flaw out of piety, because only the Creator is capable of perfection.

[Richard @ricwe123]

Now it is official.

"In relation to Israels military operations in Gaza, we conclude that Israeli authorities are responsible for war crimes. Including extermination, murder, using starvation as a method of war, forcible transfer"

(UN Human Rights Council)

[HatsOff @HatsOffff]

Historian Avi Shlaim: ‘Britain stole Palestine from the Palestinians and gave it to the Zionists’

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇪🇸 Instead of walking out with kids, Betis had a much better idea: bring 11 of its oldest members onto the pitch with the starting lineup.

All of them were over 80.

If you’ve supported a club that long, you’ve definitely earned the walkout.

I really hope more clubs copy this idea ❤️

Writer: Sol

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is pretty interesting: when we think about pirates we typically have in mind images of nasty bearded European men with eye patches and wooden legs but the most successful pirate of all times - by far - was actually a young Chinese woman: Zheng Yi Sao.

At her peak, in her late twenties and early 30s, Zheng Yi Sao commanded a fleet of over 400 warships and up to 70,000 pirates (https://t.co/2rS3LlgMgG) - the so-called "Guangdong Pirate Confederation" - probably more ships and men than every other pirate organization combined.

For comparison, "Blackbeard", undoubtedly the most famous English pirate of all time, had a fleet of four ships and a crew of about 400 men (https://t.co/oKyJKzBsK7)

Zheng Yi Sao - active in the beginning of the 19th century - controlled the entire South China Sea coast, charging a tax from every merchant vessel that sailed through it.

At some point she was fighting off the Qing imperial navy AND the Portuguese simultaneously (https://t.co/LJuYK3xsNn), and she lived to tell the tale because she died peacefully at the age of 69 years old, having retired as the owner of a very successful gambling house in Guangdong.

To be clear, she eventually had to surrender. Despite her might, she was no match for the combination of great powers arrayed against her.

But it's a testament of her power that she was allowed to negotiate directly with the Guangdong provincial government and ended up surrendering with full pardons and no punishment or reparations of any kind being imposed.

There is a great story about the surrender negotiations that shows just how charismatic she must have been.

The talks had stalled and she decided to make the extraordinary move of walking herself - carrying no weapon at all - into the office of Viceroy Bai Ling, the local Qing official in charge, with 17 pirate women and children, to negotiate with him directly (https://t.co/VE5yDyhVNE)

It's hard to overstate how courageous this move was: under Qing law, a captured pirate leader faced death by slow slicing (lingchi). She was walking into the office of the man whose job it was to destroy her, and putting herself entirely in his power.

Yet, incredibly, she managed to negotiate - right there and then - terms that were almost absurdly favorable: all plundered wealth was kept, government funds to build a mansion on shore, a private fleet of 20–30 ships, a licence to trade salt and she herself was granted the title of "gaoming furen" - an imperially decreed noblewoman.

The official surrender ceremony occurred on 22 May 1810. At the time she formally gave up, as described in the Qing records, 226 ships, 1,315 cannons, and 2,798 weapons (https://t.co/ZDqAocbeDu鄭一嫂). She was 35 years old back then.

Her story is yet again a fantastic illustration of what a shame it is that our knowledge of history is so self-centered and parochial.

We spend our childhoods learning about Western history as though it were world history, and the result is that we end up with a picture of the past that misses out on some of history's most fascinating figures - one where Blackbeard and his 4 ships are legendary and a young woman who commanded 400 and fought off entire empires doesn't exist.

[Marwan @marwanbishara]

Wonderful

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

Monstrous even by the standards of the most murderous of all Israeli governments

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

C. S. Lewis, quit worrying and go do something real

[jezz @JezziiB]

I love that Giuliani told Mamdani it was inappropriate for him to show up at the 9/11 memorial.

And then, literally the next day, Mamdani released 170,000+ pages of documents about what NYC officials knew about the toxic air after 9/11...and what New Yorkers were told.

That might be the biggest pwn I’ve ever seen in political history. 😭

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

If you really want to understand where the world is at and where it's going, you probably cannot get anything more meaningful than the OECD's PISA study - a global test given every 3 years to an insane 760,000 15-year-olds across 91 countries.

No report globally, by any institution, better captures whether countries are building or squandering their future.

The latest PISA results just came out yesterday (https://t.co/FbHx266LH4) and the results are genuinely fascinating, and in some way pretty depressing.

Why depressing? Because, sadly, the numbers show that the world is getting dumber: as you can see on the first graph below 👇, since roughly 2012 scores in science, reading, and mathematics have been in continuous decline across OECD countries.

The reading score is particularly concerning: it literally cratered, dropping 28 points since 2015, the equivalent of almost 1.5 years of schooling lost according to the report.

To make matters even worse, the reading skill that's dropped the most across the board is precisely the one we most desperately need: the capacity to critically assess what you read, cross-reference sources, and tell signal from noise.

On average, sadly, 15-year-old kids globally are - more and more - incapable of slowing down and actually thinking about what they're reading.

Interestingly though, when you look into the details, this great "dumbing down" isn't across the board: it's overwhelmingly concentrated in wealthy Western countries, while many developing countries are actually getting significantly smarter.

For instance rich countries like Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway are in freefall, while countries like Cambodia, Türkiye, and the UAE are posting big gains.

To be clear, this doesn't mean that developing countries are now "smarter" than rich ones: save for one notable exception, that's still not the case. But they are catching up fast, both because rich countries are getting "dumber" and because they're themselves getting smarter.

The one exception is, as you'd expect, the "smartest" of them all, by a huge margin: China.

It is pretty much in a league of its own: just look at the ranking in the table (only kids in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang got tested - 4 regions covering 200 million people).

China's maths results are particularly insane: according to the report, the best level in maths - level 5, where "top performers" begins - starts at 607. The AVERAGE kid in China is 612: "normal" Chinese kids are at a level that is considered elite in the rest of the world.

In fact, and that's probably the funniest number in the entire report, look at the column called "Share of low performers in science, reading and mathematics": China is only at 1.8% 😅

Which means that only 1.8% of Chinese kids are rated as low performers in all 3 subjects, almost a rounding error. Even Singapore, the second best and generally considered best-in-class in education, is at 6.8% - almost 4 times worse. My country France, is at 21.3% - almost 12 times worse 😢

All of this - incidentally - dispels the common myth that there would be some kids who are just genetically beyond redemption and simply can't be taught: China proves that with the right system, virtually every child can reach proficiency.

So what does this all say about the world and where it's going, besides the fact that, if the future belongs to those who can think, China has never been better positioned to own it?

I think the more general picture is this: there is nothing inevitable about any country's trajectory.

Finland was the world's education darling fifteen years ago - now it's in complete freefall (see the last graph 👇). Cambodia was at the bottom of every table - now it's posting the biggest gains ever recorded in the study. What changed wasn't the children: it's still Finnish kids (Finland has one of the lowest levels of immigration in the West), and it's still Cambodian kids.

It also doesn't matter much - or at least it matters less - if a country is wealthy or not. For instance in Southeast Asia, both Malaysia and Indonesia - the 2 biggest ASEAN economies after Singapore - are faring very badly, while Thailand and Vietnam, both poorer, have better educated kids whose scores are continuing to improve.

So that's the final takeaway: the kids don't change, they all have potential, always, as China's 1.8% proved.

What does change is what adults decide to do with that potential. It's both hopeful - because it means any country can choose to turn things around at any time - and also sad given the results - because it means so many countries are choosing to fail their children.

[It's politics @uspolitics1111]

Great point here from Abdul 🔥 :

El-Sayed: I thought you were for the everyday man. If you're for billionaires, you and I disagree.

Watters: I just think I have the right to the fruits of my own labor

El-Sayed: Billionaires don't make their money off of their labor. They make their money off their money

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🇵🇸🗞️ The University of Minnesota will pay Israeli-American Holocaust and genocide scholar Raz Segal $250,000 after withdrawing an offer to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies following backlash over his description of Israel’s assault on Gaza as “a textbook case of genocide,” the Guardian reports.

🔸 Segal had been recommended nearly unanimously by the academic search committee. The Center for Constitutional Rights argued the public university violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against protected speech.

🔸 Emails obtained by Segal show donors, legislators and pro-Israel activists pressured the university, including warnings that donations could be withdrawn.

🔸 The settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing. The director position remains unfilled.

[Matt Stoller @matthewstoller]

1. After Abdul El-Sayed's win in Michigan, a DC-based advocacy group Third Way will now spend $15 million to attack 'the left.' They frame themselves as moderate Democrats. Why aren't they that spending money attacking the GOP?

The answer requires explaining who they are.

[Zachary Foster @_ZachFoster]

Eitan Newman, a 17-year-old Israeli, grills one of Apartheid Israel's most genocidal politicians, on an Israeli TV program called "First Vote" in an August 2, 2026 interview.

It's a rare moment in Hebrew media when a genocidal Israeli politician is forced to defend genocide on live TV. Here's a condensced transcript:

Newman: Call it what you want, ethnic cleansing, transfer, voluntary emigration, fine. So, I want to ask you, what will happen to the Gazan who doesn't want to emigrate? Will IDF soldiers pile him onto a truck and expel him? Where will they take him? What will you do to him?

Feiglin: First of all, the vast majority of them want to leave, okay?

Newman: I asked about those who don't want to leave.

Feiglin: We need to encourage them to leave, because whoever doesn't leave will murder you.

Newman: That's not what I asked. I asked, what will you do to someone you wanted to leave and doesn't leave.

Feiglin: You'll make him leave.

Newman: What does "make" mean?

Feiglin: Every way possible. We'll shut off his water pipes, for example. Just an example.

Newman: And whoever doesn't leave can die, as far as you're concerned?

Feiglin: Then he'll be thirsty. He'll have to leave to drink a cup of water. Just an example.

Newman: So, for example, kind of kill off everyone?

Silence

Newman: Yes? Like everyone should die? Either they go or they die? Are they not human?

Feiglin: It's pretty stunning, excuse me, that after October 7, you treat us like murderers and that Islamo-Nazi terror entity like it's under attack. Forgive me.

Newman: I'm asking about your policy. I'm trying to understand what will happen if you're elected to the Knesset.

Feiglin: You know, I have a grandson your age, okay? His brother lies right now beneath a grave marker because of such questions.

Newman: So, I'm like responsible for his killing? Is that what you're saying?

Feiglin: No, I'm saying that your twisted worldview, which pursues the human rights of that murderous entity, led in the end to that disaster.

Newman: So, everyone should die. Two million people will die. However many you say are there, they should die.

Feiglin: I'm suggesting to you that you also listen to the person you're asking, not only to yourself.

Source: https://t.co/cfE6kSHiA2

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

💢 Israel has bombed and devastated Gaza’s sewage and sanitation infrastructure, and now deliberately blocks Palestinians from the landfills, machinery and essential supplies needed to contain the resulting public health catastrophe.

One consequence is a massive rat and pest infestation, with Palestinians, including children, being bitten in their sleep.

Four in five sewage pumping stations are not functioning, with some 40,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage flowing each day. By July, 60% of Gaza’s population was living within 10 meters of sewage or human waste and more than 900,000 people were exposed to garbage accumulating in residential areas, according to UN OCHA.

Rodents or pests were reported at 81% of displacement sites surveyed in April, affecting roughly 1.45 million Palestinians.

Both of Gaza’s sanitary landfills lie beyond the Israeli-imposed “Yellow Line,” and the UN says access remains banned by Israel. Israel also requires approval and blocks entry of machinery and spare parts needed to remove garbage and rubble, while engine oils, pest-control chemicals and other essential supplies remain severely restricted.

Israel permitted 3 tonnes of rodenticide and 3,000 liters of pesticide into Gaza in May, but the UN said pest-control efforts remained limited and a full response requires sustained supplies, heavy equipment and access to the landfills Israel continues to block with Gaza’s sanitation system having completely collapsed.