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Nicholas Dawes

@nicdawes.bsky.social
2.4K followers 332 following 958 posts

New York. Trace amounts of past lives at THE CITY, Human Rights Watch, Mail & Guardian, and Hindustan Times may be present. Slight risk of bicycles and mountains.

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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The CEO of Sticker Mule is spending $4m of his own money to replace Elise Stefanik in NY-21. He's promising to redesign government websites, support data centers, make more healthcare remote, restrict mail voting and continue the war in Iran. Heck of a policy mix for rural America
northcountrypublicradio.org
NY-21: Republican Anthony Constantino on affordability and his business approach to politics
Constantino says he's focused on growing the economy, which will help everyone regardless of which side of the aisle they're on.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
If you are having a bad day, read this immaculate story.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Political (or commercial) meddling needn't rise to the level of killing stories outright. Raising the cost of doing real journalism, on disfavored topics is a time honored strategy. And using it on Lesley Stahl sends a clear message to those with less leverage
status.news
Bari’s Stahl Showdown
Two recent clashes over Israel coverage have roiled Bari Weiss' CBS News, Status has learned, with one confrontation even pushing legendary “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl to the brink of quit...
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Recent Western reporting on the West Bank is focused on dramatic incidents of settler violence. This work by Palestinian, US and European reporters, captures the banal, pervasive cruelty that costs hours relationships, and sometimes lives. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dZb...
youtube.com
How Checkpoints Are Suffocating Life in the West Bank
YouTube video by Evident
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
IDF checkpoints choke daily life in the West Bank, but no map of the barriers exists. A team of reporters from @LHreports, @WIRED, @ARIJNetwork, Evident and Palestine Reporting Lab built one from billions of gps pings, telegram messages, and on the ground research, and tried to count the daily cost.
wired.com
How Israeli Checkpoints Choke Palestinian Life in the Occupied West Bank
Lost time. Lost jobs. Lost friends. Lost family. Lost lives. Our joint investigation reveals the system that has divided the West Bank and measures what it cost people to move through it.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The European Commission is trying to keep the scale and impact of data center construction behind a veil of commercial confidentiality. Stonewalled repeatedly as it investigated, @lighthousereports.com is now suing for the truth, and their legal submission reads a lot like great journalism
lighthousereports.com
Data Centre Silence
How EU leaders sided with Big Tech over the public’s right to know about the true scale and environmental impact of the AI build-out, forcing a legal challenge to seek disclosure
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@ghoshworld @ghoshworld.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"A country that others around the world have encountered as a source of pleasure has a better chance of receiving a sympathetic hearing when it asks for support. K-pop gives [Seoul] an advantage over governments whose principal introduction to foreign publics is a dispute or a threat."
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
J.M. Coetzee and F.M. Siccardi, South African and Argentina, symmetries in the shadow of colonial genocide. Essential work @equatormag.bsky.social
equator.org
Dusklands • EQUATOR
Growing up in the shadow of genocide
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Cold comfort for South Africa, but it is hard to read this as anything but a sign of weakness. When you cannot bend Iran to your will, or Brazil, or Canada, why not flex demonstratively in the direction of South Africa.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Marco Rubio just announced visa restrictions on South Africans that are broadly drawn enough to affect government officials, judges, politicians and their families, as well as, conceivably, execs at companies that are compliant with Black Economic Empowerment rules - most of corporate South Africa.
state.gov
Announcement of New Visa Restriction Policy Targeting Foreign Nationals Involved in Race-Based Discrimination - United States Department of State
As stated in President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14204, “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa,” the United States remains gravely concerned about racially motivated crime an...
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Today in attack surfaces youtu.be/kX_-MFbJp_g?...
youtu.be
y̵̨̧̛̯̥̺͉̠͔͍̥̦̘̥͓̓͌̓̓͘ͅu̵̪̻͔̻͂͝c̷̨̧͈̯̘͇̎̐͜͠k̸̹͓̲̪̱̳̣͚̉̿̋̈͂͆̈́̀́̍̉͝ YOUR AI BILLBOARD
YouTube video by Blank Face
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Alastair Coote @alastair.is · 15/09/2026
On Apple’s refusal to consider installable web apps. Very relevant to the news industry: we at NYT can afford dev teams to make mobile apps but a lot of smaller news orgs can’t. And they’d really benefit from things like home screen icons, web push… if only Apple made the install path discoverable.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The withering of the foreign correspondent corps, and the ever more centripetal character of US political discourse, have meant far too little attention to this rapid and comprehensive takeover. If nothing else, may this piece catalyze attention to what is happening between Mar a Lago and Brazil
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This report has tons of evidence for you if you think its worth being seriously worried about accumulated bad things that don't quite rise to the level of x-risk, but it is far from geopolitically innocent.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Anthropic's latest report is going to prompt an avalanche of coverage about terrifying things attempted by Chinese, Russian, and Iranian actors. There is much much less about misuse in the US and allied nations. Not because it isn't happening, but because of how the hunt is executed and described.
anthropic.com
Countering misuse of AI: September 2026 / Anthropic
Case studies from threat actors disrupted between December 2025 and August 2026 across seven areas of harm, from cyber operations to biological misuse.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
If you think hedge funds are done gutting local journalism, think again.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
🙏🙏🙏🙏
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Open Society Foundations @open-society.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
In the latest edition of The Ideas Letter, William Shoki of @africasacountry.bsky.social, Brian Kagoro of Open Society, Panashe Chigumadzi, and @nicdawes.bsky.social discuss the dashed hopes of South Africa after apartheid amid stubborn inequality, high unemployment, and rising xenophobia.
theideasletter.org
South Africa Agonistes - The Ideas Letter
Thirty years ago, South Africa was heralded as a harbinger of a just and non-racial order. After decades of a criminal, repellent regime, Nelson Mandela’s ascension to the presidency and…
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Writing in reply, I revisit how the left-technocratic economic project of the early democratic period was sabotaged from within by corruption, and examine the role of elite and electoral contestation in South African political violence to argue that paths out of this moment still exist.
theideasletter.org
Not Yet Tomorrow
On June 30, as anti-immigrant marches began across Johannesburg, a few hundred men set out from a decaying compound in Diepkloof, Soweto, carrying sticks and knobkerries. At their head was…
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
In the new edition of the Ideas Letter, this bleak, powerful William Shoki essay argues that South Africa's anti-immigrant movement represents the end of the post-apartheid era, and the birth of a new mass politics, born of economic exclusion and the the ANC's deal with capital.
theideasletter.org
Post-Post-Apartheid
Anti-immigrant politics in South Africa has been dismissed as being manufactured, conspiratorial, or yet another eruption of the xenophobic violence the country has seen before—but, Shoki argues, thes...
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Feel like this was leaked by someone internal who supports targeting CAIR, as is worried that wildly broad and unconstitutional overreach will torpedo that slightly narrower unconstitutional goal.
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Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Imagine if American newspapers survived and made punditry a distributed network of major metro columnists. You would hear about the Republican Party from the state flagship college grad who makes $95k writing for the Kansas City Star or the Arizona Republic about the things Republicans actually do.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Give praise, for now, when you find yourself in a dumb argument about woke 1, the educational profile of the median El-Sayed voter, or the latest neighborhood baron offended by Zohran Mamdani, you can just stop, and hand your interlocutor a copy of this @polgreen.bsky.social masterpiece:
nytimes.com
Opinion | Democrats Have an Identity Politics Problem. Just Not the One You Think. (Gift Article)
Instead of rallying around their candidates, Democrats are falling out among themselves.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Penguin India has dropped titles under political pressure before, but backing away from a book this important, for such transparent reasons might actually prompt questions about the global brand.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Penguin Random House India was set to publish Sonia Gandhi's hugely anticipated memoir until they told her to cut passages critical of Narendra Modi, which she declined, obviously. They've been craven before, but this is a new low. www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/s...
hindustantimes.com
Exclusive: Penguin India sought cuts to Modi, RSS, China portions in Sonia Gandhi's memoir
Alfred A Knopf, an imprint of Penguin, is expected to release the memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, worldwide on November 10 | India News
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Doing this in defiance of voters and every single major elected official seems like a way to invite more thorough reform, and eventually to lose control of the discredited husk you are clinging to. But hey, that could take years, and you get to make a lot patronage appointments in the meanwhile.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The machine abides
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Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
good Monday morning
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I don't know if people understand how unusual, and important Stars and Stripes is. It is both an independent outlet covering the military for service members and their families, and a a resource for mainstream outlets, which tend to focus their beat reporters on the NatSec elite, not the troops.
apnews.com
Pentagon dismisses Stars and Stripes leadership after editor, reporter oppose military interference
The editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes says the Pentagon has fired him as well as its publisher and a reporter.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
First read the definitive account of her evolution www.thecityreporter.nyc/2022/07/01/r...
thecityreporter.nyc
Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn Railed Against Brooklyn’s Democratic Machine. Then She Became It.
The borough’s political players hoped the Assemblymember would unite the party. Instead, as Democrats head into a vulnerable midterm election, New York’s biggest local political organization is in fre...
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
To understand this last ditch attempt by the defeated Queen of the Brooklyn Machine nysfocus.com/2026/08/20/b...
nysfocus.com
Facing Ouster, Brooklyn Democratic Chair Tries to Rewrite Rules
Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn wants to expand who votes for party leader, and a reform group is threatening to sue.
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Steve Herman @newsguy.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Stars & Stripes publisher announces sudden retirement, telling staff his philosophy of leadership and “understanding of the value and mission" of the newspaper differ in “fundamental ways” from the direction DoD wants to go in. www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...
stripes.com
Stars and Stripes publisher announces retirement
Max D. Lederer Jr., the longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes, announced his retirement, ending a three-decade career at the organization.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
What stage are we at in the data center rebellion? Right about here, apparently. liquiddeath.com/pages/wewant...
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Of course this reflects the particular experiences - and failures - of South African journalism at the time, including our own, and a formal code isn't everything, but it was a commitment, on the record, that we could be held to.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This seems be a good time to reflect on the fact that journalism ethics tend to deal thinly with harm. Some years ago, the entire newsroom at the Mail & Guardian grappled with this question as we worked on a new code together. This is what we came up with. mg.co.za/news/south-afr…
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Ben Phillips @benphillips76.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Commentators are writing about this as a loss for Africa. This is another story about the decline of the US.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Possibly relevant: The Cyclones are now owned by a private equity company that has rolled up 45 other minor league teams, and concession workers have been on the receiving end this summer.
thecityreporter.nyc
Brooklyn Cyclones Withheld Tips From Concessions Workers, Records Show
Federal and state laws require that all tips go to workers, but for weeks this season, young fast food workers at Maimonides Park were only paid an hourly wage.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
South Africa's top court just ended Shell's bid to start oil and gas exploration along a sensitive coast. If you are experiencing US Supreme Court-related symptoms, reading this kind of jurisprudence, grounded in core constitutional rights and responsive to current context, may exacerbate them.
saflii.org
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Good @DefectorMedia piece on the great minor league roll up, the rule changes that enabled it, and the reasons investors might have been interested in an incredibly atmospheric ballpark in an iconic location
defector.com
Private Equity Now Owns More Than 40 Minor League Baseball Teams, And The Number Keeps Growing | Defector
Private equity is the steamroller that crushes all your favorite things. Journalism, for one, and also a once iconic toy store; even bowling these days. Now it has come for minor league baseball, wher...
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Brooklyn's beloved minor league team got rolled up by a private equity behemoth, and just like that, tips disappeared from worker's paychecks. @rosalindadams.bsky.social with a story that's about much more than Coney Island summers.
thecityreporter.nyc
Brooklyn Cyclones Withheld Tips From Concessions Workers, Records Show
Federal and state laws require that all tips go to workers, but for weeks this season, young fast food workers at Maimonides Park were only paid an hourly wage.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Read Dick's piece for more reasons to be skeptical
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
People are talking up the "special committee" that was supposed to guard editorial independence at the Wall Street Journal as a model for an Ellison-owned CNN. Propublica co-founder Dick Tofel looked at its history, and he's not impressed
dicktofel.substack.com
Here’s a Way Not to Protect CNN from the Ellisons
Beware allusions to the Dow Jones Special Committee
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
South African authorities allowed a suspected IS financier into the country, apparently to act as an informant, possibly at the behest of the US. Now, there is credible evidence that when he allegedly "went rogue", they killed him, and the detective who started investigating his death.
bbc.com
Evidence that South African special forces murdered top detective shared with BBC
Frans Mathipa was shot while driving - we got access to the prosecution case against eight accused men.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
At @thecityreporter.nyc we made a similar decision to devote a significant chunk of our (also much smaller) firepower to the networks around Eric Adams. A choice that took a long time to pay off. But it did. It always does. And you need agreement across the top of a newsroom of any size to make it.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
You don't have to like the headlines, the (often necessary) caveated language, or what goes on in some other parts of the paper, but the scale, seriousness and consistency of this effort is incredible.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Legalized sports betting and prediction markets were never going to be able to live together. Letitia James comes for Kalshi and the "you can just do things" model of regulation.
thecityreporter.nyc
New York Sues Prediction Market Firm Kalshi, Alleging ‘Illegal Gambling Operation'
The lawsuit comes amid disputes between the federal government and states over who has jurisdiction to regulate the rapidly growing prediction market industry.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
This absolutely tracks my experience as a publisher
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
The Lyme conspiracy to Covid conspiracy pipeline, and the associated political clustering effects, continue to be worthy of more study.
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@ghoshworld @ghoshworld.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
My latest, for @scroll.in Saffron shadows: Hockey India should have adopted the three-colour football kit of 1984 scroll.in/article/1094...
scroll.in
Saffron shadows: Hockey India should have adopted the three-colour football kit of 1984
Dressing the national team in the signature colour of the BJP-RSS cloaks the squads in a shade freighted with politics and sectarianism.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
This superbly reported story about the capitulation of Paul Weiss, and its transformation from a litigation powerhouse into an M&A dealmaker, but its real value is as a portrait of the political economy of American institutional collapse.
nytimes.com
How a Top Law Firm Went From Standing Up to Trump to Bending the Knee (Gift Article)
Paul Weiss was a progressive stalwart for decades and led the legal resistance against President Trump in his first term. Then it surrendered without a fight. This is the inside story of its transform...
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