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2 months ago | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
The most striking sight at the Panama Canal are the many monstrous gates—seven feet thick and more than a hundred feet wide—that slowly swing open, like French doors. They shimmer with dark-green algae. Iron rivets dot the gates like jewels. There are multiple gates in each of the three sets of locks that elevate ships from sea level on the Atlantic, up eighty-five feet into Gatun Lake, then back down to sea level on the Pacific.
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Jan 21, 2025 | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
In today’s newsletter, D.C.’s newest animal power players. And breaking down Trump’s Day One. Plus:• The TV spectacle of the inauguration• What to see at Under the Radar festivalRobin WrightReporting from the other side of Washington, D.C.Across town from the inaugural speeches and Presidential pardons, high-fashion billionaire balls and limousine motorcades, some traumatized inhabitants of Washington, D.C., were pinning their hopes on two panda cubs at the National Zoo.
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Dec 19, 2024 | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
In 2004, I interviewed King Abdullah II, the Sunni leader of Jordan’s Hashemite dynasty, who warned about an emerging “crescent” of Shiite powers that began in Iran and extended through Iraq, into Syria, and ended in Lebanon. The Middle East—dominated for centuries by Sunni monarchies, tribal sheikdoms, and autocracies—was being transformed by this Shiite arc, he told me.
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Dec 14, 2024 | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
Now the scramble is on to define the future of Syria, quickly, to prevent ethnic, political, and sectarian rivalries from triggering a war even more divisive than the conflict that has riven the nation for thirteen years. Syria’s twenty-three million people include multiple Muslim sects, Christians, Druze, and Kurds. Both Ramadan and Easter are legally celebrated. Its history after declaring independence from a French mandate in 1946 was volatile.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
Almost two decades ago, a classified analysis by the Defense Intelligence Agency warned that global terrorist attacks masterminded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, would continue—even if he were captured or killed. “Network has proven adaptability and resiliency,” the D.I.A. reported in its outlook for 2005.
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Sep 28, 2024 | 
rsn.org | Robin Wright
The death of Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah for more than three decades, will be a political earthquake for the movement. Hassan Nasrallah, the iconic leader of Hezbollah who captivated many in the Arab world with his charismatic oratory, was killed on Friday in an Israeli attack on Beirut. At the apex of his career, the cleric was so popular that shops sold DVDs of his speeches, and many Lebanese used lines from them as ringtones.
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Sep 28, 2024 | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
Hassan Nasrallah, the iconic leader of Hezbollah who captivated many in the Arab world with his charismatic oratory, was killed on Friday in an Israeli attack on Beirut. At the apex of his career, the cleric was so popular that shops sold DVDs of his speeches, and many Lebanese used lines from them as ringtones. But he was also loathed or feared by rivals for the formidable power he wielded, both politically and militarily, well beyond Lebanon’s borders.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
newyorker.com | Robin Wright
Masoud Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon who emerged from political backwoods this summer to beat a slew of hard-liners and become President of Iran, walked into the ornate ballroom of a New York hotel this week to meet the press. It was his American début. He was wearing a crisp white shirt under a dark suit. No tie. After the 1979 Revolution, the young theocracy banned neckties as a symbol of Western, notably U.S., influence.
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Sep 17, 2024 | 
digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu | Robin Wright |Thais F. Bartelli |Seyda Baydogan |James White
INTRODUCTION: The tumor microbiome (TM) has been linked to pancreatic cancer prognosis. Specific microbes can confer tumor resistance to therapies. Early knowledge of the TM at time of diagnosis would be clinically relevant for precision therapy based on microbial composition. However, it is difficult to define the TM prior to surgical resection. METHODS: In this pilot feasibility study, patients underwent Endoscopic Ultrasound-Fine Needle Aspiration (EUS-FNA) biopsy of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
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Jul 9, 2024 | 
usip.org | Robin Wright
The election of reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian as Iran’s new president dealt a “stunning blow in many ways to the hardliners,” says USIP’s Robin Wright. However, “the hardliners still have control of the legislature and the judiciary, and they can create havoc for the new president” and his agenda. U.S. Institute of Peace experts discuss the latest foreign policy issues from around the world in On Peace, a brief weekly collaboration with SiriusXM's POTUS Channel 124.
