Attention to the Unseen

The Washington Post reports: In a single day this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi undid nearly seven decades of history. He altered India’s relationship with its only majority-Muslim region, revoking a measure of autonomy that had been in place since the 1950s and stripping Kashmir of its status as a state. His government instituted an unheard-of communications blackout in Kashmir, affecting millions of people. Modi, who recently won reelection in a landslide, has always cast himself as a bold…

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International journalists share their thoughts with The Observer: Liu Ye, editor of international affairs at Sanlian Life Week magazine in Beijing: For the past two or three decades, the US and Britain have been cultural symbols in Chinese people’s eyes: the US powerful, rich, enviable; the UK exquisite, elegant. Public intellectuals, especially liberals, talk about the British style of constitutionalism, comparing it to our Soviet-style totalitarian regime. Students know more about Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher than JFK or Bill…

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Angela Stuesse writes: On Wednesday people across the United States were shocked by the news that ICE raids at a handful of Mississippi chicken plants had resulted in the largest single-state immigration enforcement action in U.S. history, with nearly 700 people detained. As surprising as the news was, coming on the heels of a deadly mass shooting that targeted Latinos, perhaps just as surprising was the location of the raids in the deep, rural South. The prominence of Latinos in…

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This video is of Jimmy taken in Baghdad two weeks after his deportation. I’m sharing with permission from Jimmy’s lawyers. Jimmy has been in the US since he was 6mo old—he was born in a refugee camp in Greece to Iraqi Christian parents. RIP#JimmyAldaoud https://t.co/1182x6GRAY pic.twitter.com/KF8RUOtKiH — Mari Manoogian (@MariManoogian) August 8, 2019 Detroit Free Press reports: Forty years ago, Jimmy Al-Daoud, 41, came from Greece to the U.S. legally as a 6-month-old baby, along with his Iraqi Christian parents,…

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Dahlia Lithwick writes: It took a tiny baby to reveal how small Donald Trump really is. The president’s trip to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, this week, ostensibly undertaken to comfort the mourners and the injured in the wake of two horrifying mass murder sprees that left at least 31 people dead and many more injured, went terribly, terribly wrong. The Washington Post observed on Thursday that inside the White House, the trip was generally seen as “not ideal,”…

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Barbara McQuade writes: From my work as a former national-security prosecutor, I know that many individuals who engage in terrorism are alienated from society and are looking for something larger than themselves to find meaning in their lives. They have endured loss or unfulfilled expectations, and are looking for scapegoats. A powerful leader who speaks to their grievances can inspire them to act. For many radical Islamist terrorists, that leader was Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric who was born and lived…

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The Guardian reports: Ten years ago, the Department of Homeland Security sent American law enforcement agencies an intelligence briefing warning of a rising threat of domestic rightwing extremism, including white supremacist terrorism. The economic recession and the election of America’s first black president would create fertile ground for rightwing radicalization, the 2009 report concluded. Military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular, would be attractive targets for recruitment. Republican politicians and conservative pundits reacted with outrage and demanded a…

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