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Beth Shakman Hurd

@bethhurd.bsky.social
346 followers 195 following 210 posts

Professor of Global Politics & Religion at Northwestern. New book: Heaven Has a Wall press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/c… Elizabethshakmanhurd.com

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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
M Gessen on NAZA.
nytimes.com
Opinion | There Is a Word So Powerful It Need Be Spoken Only Once
The film that makes a powerful statement without ever raising its voice.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Next time I teach a class this piece is going on the syllabus. “The process leaves a trace.”
nytimes.com
Opinion | A.I. Shortcuts Are Ruining How We Think
Anything worth remembering came from a person who did not know where she or he was going until arriving.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
25 years of GTMO: a recording of a live event featuring Lisa Hajjar and John Ryan discussing their last two decades of reporting, researching and writing from Guantánamo Bay.
merip.org
The MERIP Podcast Episode 29: 25 Years Since 9/11 And Still No Justice--Here's Why
Today on the MERIP Podcast we’re sharing a recording of a live event featuring Lisa Hajjar and John Ryan discussing their last two decades of reporting, researching and writing from Guantánamo Bay. Th...
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American Religion @amrel.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A friendly reminder that submissions to American Religion's annual dissertation prize are due in THREE days by Sunday August 30!! For further information see: www.american-religion.org/announcements
american-religion.org
Announcements — American Religion
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
👇
nytimes.com
Everyone’s Using This A.I. Dictation App That I Want to Murder With a Hammer
Wispr Flow is supposed to make writing effortless and magical. So I “wrote” this column with it.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
“At the end of the day it’s not radical to believe that people should be able to afford their groceries,” he told NBC’s Meet The Press. “It’s not radical to believe that you should have healthcare in this country.“
theguardian.com
Abdul El-Sayed embraces Trump claim he represents ‘very different’ America
Michigan nominee, who spoke to Obama after primary win, vows to fight inequality as president ‘makes billions off you’
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
What’s really going on in Ceuta? Read this.
africasacountry.com
A border spectacle
When thousands of young Moroccans stormed Ceuta last week, it was not an invasion, but the latest in a five-year pattern of coercive migration diplomacy on a border with five centuries of colonial his...
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
What can borders tell us about democracy? Alessandro Ferrari.
canopyforum.org
"From the Sacred Wall to the Rights-Permeated Border: Reading Heaven Has a Wall from Mediterranean Europe" by Alessandro Ferrari - Canopy Forum
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, visited the migrant hotspot in Lampedusam, Italy © European Union, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). I would like to read Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s Heaven Ha...
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Abduuuuuul! ❤️
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AAUP @aaup.org · 31/07/2026
🧵on the AAUP endorsement of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for U.S. Senate in the Michigan Democratic primary, the first-ever electoral endorsement in the organization's 110-year history. 1
"For the first political endorsement in AAUP's 110-year history, we are proud to endorse Dr. Abdul El-Sayed because he shares our vision of higher education as a public good. He will fight for tuition-free and debt-free higher education and a system that works for everyone-not just those who can afford it."
-TODD WOLFSON,
AAUP PRESIDENT
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The title says it all.
newyorker.com
The Men Who Made Theory French
French theory, as taught in American classrooms, has acquired a reputation of forbidding difficulty and hauteur. A new history seeks to surface its human side.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of Americans now hold a negative view of Israel, including majorities of adults under the age of 50 in both political parties. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, that number rises to 80%.
nytimes.com
Mamdani Calls Netanyahu a ‘War Criminal’ and Calls on U.S. to Arrest Him
Mayor Zohran Mamdani challenged the United States to execute an international arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, which New York itself cannot do.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
When I lecture about Hobby Lobby and the Museum of the Bible people are often puzzled by a story in which government, finance, and religion are so tightly interwoven. Reading Blanding’s book makes the combination of these elements in Hobby Lobby seem not just understandable but inevitable.
brentnongbri.com
Michael Blanding’s The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby
When I began this blog back in 2017, the mysteries surrounding Hobby Lobby and its biblical manuscripts were really driving some aspects of my research. Over the last decade, there has been thoroug…
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Senator Elissa Slotkin @slotkin.senate.gov · 20/07/2026
The estimated $200 billion we’ve spent on the war in Iran could have paid for everyone on Medicare to get free dental, vision, and hearing care for six years. It could have paid for a check to every American household for $1,500. It could do school lunches for all kids for 18 years.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Joan Scott on the dismal situation at Princeton.
academeblog.org
Academic Freedom and the Palestine Exception at Princeton
BY JOAN W. SCOTT Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber has carefully curated his public reputation as a defender of free speech and academic freedom against the wanton attacks by the…
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NPR @npr.org · 10/07/2026
When the U.S. brokered a ceasefire last year, Israel controlled half of Gaza. Now Israeli forces have pushed deeper, and Palestinians are paying a deadly price.
n.pr
9 months into a ceasefire, Israel now controls nearly 70% of Gaza
When the U.S. brokered a ceasefire last year, Israel controlled half of Gaza. Now Israeli forces have pushed deeper, and Palestinians are paying a deadly price.
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Muftah Magazine @muftah.org · 01/07/2026
Where Does America End? by @bethhurd.bsky.social
muftah.org
Where Does America End?
Although the United States does not claim sovereignty over Guantánamo, it does maintain “complete jurisdiction and total control” over the base. What does that mean? Where is the U.S.-Cuban border?
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
This Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza was proposed by American Academy of Religion members and then debated and adopted (98% vote in favor) during the Annual Business Meeting on June 23, 2026.
aarweb.org
Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza - AAR
The Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza was proposed by AAR members and then adopted during the Annual Business Meeting on June 23, 2026.
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Candace Lukasik @clukasik.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Many thanks to Amy Fallas for this generous and thorough review of “Martyrs and Migrants” for American Religion! muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/articl...
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Stephanie Saldaña reviews Heaven Has a Wall for The Christian Century.
christiancentury.org
The bipartisan religion of the US border
Borders are not only political spaces, argues Elizabeth Shakman Hurd. They are also sacred...
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
A different understanding of what it means to be American, from the left but for everyone.
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Left’s Reckoning on Gaza, Elites and American Power
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
“faculty criticized what they view as Columbia’s implication that all Jews identify with the state of Israel as “textbook antisemitism”, and argued that by repressing pro-Palestinian speech in the name of Jewish safety, the university turned Jews into “scapegoats”.
theguardian.com
‘We were attacked as bad Jews’: Columbia faculty who supported Gaza protests file claims with Trump’s antisemitism fund
Faculty who support Palestinian rights are applying for compensation, claiming they faced harassment as Jews for their positions
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Nick Spencer @nickebs.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
In our current @Theosthinktank Reading our Times series on the rise of religious nationalism, we come to one of the most difficult topics, in conversation with Hannah Strømmen, namely how the far right weaponises the Bible. Sober listening. tinyurl.com/2nr9893a
tinyurl.com
How does the Far Right weaponise the Bible? In conversation with Hannah Strømmen
Podcast Episode · Reading Our Times · 2 June · 42min
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
“Section 224 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation.“ AmericaIsrael.
responsiblestatecraft.org
Congress quietly moves to integrate US and Israeli militaries
In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House's 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries' armed forces together
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The voices of ordinary seafarers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz.
nytimes.com
Stranded in the Strait of Hormuz
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
NEW: Alex Pretti Student Support Fund Created in memory of alumnus Alex Pretti (BA '11), this fund will provide debt relief and emergency support for students in the Department of Geography, Environment & Society at the University of Minnesota.
makingagift.umn.edu
Donate to the University of Minnesota
There are many ways to give that not only help create excellence at the U, but also contribute to your own personal and financial goals.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Spread the word: Postdoc at the Institute for Religion, Culture & Public Life at Columbia. Preference to projects that seriously engage with the theme of religion and at least one of the other two dimensions. If I could go back in time…
ircpl.columbia.edu
Postdoctoral Research Scholar — Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life
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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
A forthcoming @dukepress.bsky.social book I will be reading. "According to Islamic tradition, God has at least ninety-nine names. In Ninety-Nine, Amira Mittermaier presents ninety-nine short chapters based on her fieldwork and interviews with over one hundred Egyptians about who God is to them."
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Good news. A three-judge panel from the US court of appeals for the DC circuit found that immigration laws give people the right to apply for asylum at the border, and the president cannot circumvent that.
theguardian.com
Court blocks Trump’s executive order suspending asylum access
Appellate panel finds president can’t circumvent laws that allow people to apply for asylum at the US-Mexico border
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Israel’s preference for military confrontation over diplomacy depends entirely on American support…and that patronage is now being tested as never before. @omerbartov.bosky.social interviewed on his new book.
theguardian.com
What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines ‘what Zionism became’
In his new book, Omer Bartov tracks how a liberatory strand of Zionism transformed into an extremist ideology that he sees as responsible for genocide in Gaza
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Watch the immigration bureaucracy: “earlier this year, an immigration judge in Boston found there were no grounds to deport Ms. Ozturk. The judge, Roopal Patel, was fired this month by the Trump administration.”
nytimes.com
Tufts Student Who Was Held in Immigration Detention Returns to Turkey
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Thank you @londonoe.bsky.social for covering my hometown with care and compassion for Minnesotans who’ve been besieged by our federal government…and for bringing us this glimmer of hope.
nytimes.com
ICE Agent Charged With Assault in Rare State Prosecution
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
babe, wake up, new form of mansplaining just dropped
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask about Pete Hegseth’s dominionist political theology, or: why we are at war with Iran.
theguardian.com
Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran
The Bible-thumping US defense secretary is overseeing another strategic disaster in the Middle East. Is this a war or a crusade?
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
I’ve been asked by journalists to explain and contextualize this administration’s action. I am done trying. This article explains why. We are living under a psychotic state.
nytimes.com
Opinion | The Trump Administration Is in a Psychotic State
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
As the Bundists knew, “it’s either solidarity across difference or savagery.” A must-read from @mollycrabapple.bsky.social
theguardian.com
‘For leftist Jews, the Bund is a model’: the radical history behind one of Europe’s biggest socialist movements
A new book by Molly Crabapple documents the rise and fall of a revolutionary Jewish party that fought against Zionism and for ‘solidarity across difference’
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Looking forward!
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Three decades after he first cast Iran as the engine behind anti-Israel sentiment, Netanyahu has gotten his war. Israel posits the war as defense against an existential threat but what is driving it is the impulse to suppress and displace the Palestine question. @jewishcurrents.bsky.social
jewishcurrents.org
The Iran War Is About Palestine
By helping Israel demolish what’s left of international legal constraint, the Iran war is hastening the dissolution of the Palestinian question.
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Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
‘Policing thought’: French bill to fight antisemitism accused of silencing Israel critics - www.middleeasteye.net/news/policing…
middleeasteye.net
‘Policing thought’: French bill to fight antisemitism accused of silencing Israel critics
Proposed law sanctions public statements ‘presenting acts of terrorism as legitimate resistance’ and creates a new offence punishing ‘incitement to the destruction or denial of a state’
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
This report is the first systematic empirical study of government investigations and private lawsuits against US colleges and universities alleging antisemitism under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
mesana.org
Middle East Studies Association
New report from MESA and AAUP: “Discriminating Against Dissent: The Weaponization of Civil Rights Law to Repress Campus Speech on Palestine,” which is the first systematic empirical study of governmen...
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
“we, as a collective, are worth fighting for.” @profirmf.bsky.social thank you.
religiondispatches.org
Flowing Against Fascism
I watched federal agents disappear three people last week. I watched federal agents abduct three of my neighbors last Wednesday in South Burlington, VT, while members of our community surrounded and s...
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George Pearkes @peark.es · 17/03/2026
National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned effective 15 minutes ago, citing the decision to attack Iran as the reason.
Director of National Intelligence
National Counterterrorism Center

President Trump,

After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today.

I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.

I support the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term. Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation.

In your first administration, you understood better than any modern President how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars. You demonstrated this by killing Qasam Solamani and by defeating ISIS.

Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to a swift victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women. We cannot make this mistake again.

As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.

I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and…
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Mr. Khalil cannot work a regular job. Few employers are willing to take the risk of drawing attention from the Trump administration. And he will not go out alone with his 11-month-old, Deen, for fear that he will be detained and that the baby, an American citizen, will be taken.
nytimes.com
A Year After His Arrest, Mahmoud Khalil Lives in Limbo and in Fear
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
“a politics of gangster imperialism…” Excellent piece, thank you @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social
lrb.co.uk
Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi | The dry and the wet burn together
The war launched against Iran by the United States and Israel is a war of choice and of hubris. There is scarcely even...
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
America, as an identity and a community, need not be confined to the zero-sum politics of nationalism and the nation-state system. A more powerful and capacious understanding of “American” identity emerges when we focus on the shared cultural and political possibilities of our hemispheric community.
hnn.us
The Bad Bunny Doctrine
The Superbowl LX halftime show tapped into a 200-year old tradition of elevating hemisphere over nation in the struggle against imperial rule.
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Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Important from Arne Duncan and David Pressman: "There is little effort among university leaders to coordinate a political response to attacks on academic independence by the administration. Appeasement is being coordinated while resistance is not." www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
washingtonpost.com
Opinion | Universities are sending Trump a dangerous message
Higher education is under attack. Drop the appeasement.
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Kevin M. Levin @civilwarmemory.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Not at all surprised to learn that Bad Bunny has a historical adviser. His halftime show was a reminder that our history and culture are deeply intertwined with the rest of the western hemisphere. We should think of his performance as part of #America250. #SuperBowl news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...
news.wisc.edu
Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one.
Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Want to support Minnesotans? Here’s how.
standwithminnesota.com
Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory
Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.
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Beth Shakman Hurd @bethhurd.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
In which the Daily Northwestern reporter describes my new book as a "novel." Love it. Almost, but not quite.
dailynorthwestern.com
Northwestern professor talks American border religion
Community members braved extreme weather conditions and ventured to Evanston Public Library on Saturday to attend political science Prof. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s lecture on “American Border Religion....
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
There we go: “It should no longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant fear… That is our new national reality. State terror has arrived.” Gift link:
nytimes.com
Opinion | State Terror Has Arrived
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