Frontlines and Backrooms

This week’s Brief looks at a world where power no longer bothers to hide behind rules.

From tensions inside NATO over Greenland, to the abduction of Venezuela’s president, to the open return of the Monroe Doctrine in the Americas, precedents are being set in real time — and without consequences.

As international law is applied selectively, the message is clear: rules still exist, but only for those without power.

We also examine mounting pressure on Iran, shifting dynamics across Latin America, and end with rare positive news from Africa — a continent too often remembered only in times of war.

This is not chaos.
It’s the system revealing how it actually works.

In this special New Year edition of the Frontlines & Backrooms Brief, we step back from the headlines to examine what 2025 really revealed — and what 2026 is likely to bring.

From a hard turn toward transactional power politics in the Americas, to Europe rearming in survival mode, a frozen war in Ukraine, Gaza metastasizing into a permanent exception, grey-zone warfare in the Pacific, and Africa becoming the frontline of a new multipolar scramble — this is not a news roundup, but a forensic diagnosis of a collapsing order.

We are not entering World War III.
We are entering an era of permanent, managed conflict — the forever brushfire.

Before the interviews, before the debates — this is the context.

In this interview of Frontlines & Backrooms, we speak with Dina Matar, Professor of Media and Communication at SOAS, University of London.

A conversation on how war is sustained not only through violence, but through language, media narratives, and the erosion of knowledge — from epistemic violence to the normalization of destruction.

🎙️ Echo Chamber: Media, Language, and the Gaza War

In the first part of Episode 2, journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous examines how media language and framing shape public perception of violence in Gaza.

From the selection of “experts” to the subtle wording of headlines, this conversation explores how context is removed, narratives are normalized, and double standards become invisible — allowing violence to appear acceptable or inevitable.

This episode focuses not on events alone, but on how language itself becomes a tool of power.

🎙️ Episode 2 — Part II, featuring Professor Dina Matar, continues the discussion on narrative power, dehumanization, and media responsibility, and will be released on December 29 at 8 PM GMT.

Frontlines & Backrooms.

A preview of Episode 2 — Echo Chamber: The Media and the Gaza War.
Two conversations on how media narratives are formed, repeated, and normalized.

🎙️ Full interviews released on December 28 & 29 at 8 PM GMT.

In this week’s Frontlines & Backrooms Brief, we examine a series of developments that signal a shifting global order.

We begin with an extraordinary moment in international politics, as the U.S. president signals new territorial ambitions — this time involving Greenland, a territory belonging to a NATO ally.

We then turn to Israel, where the national security minister claims that doctors are prepared to carry out executions if new death-penalty legislation is approved, alongside reports of worsening conditions in Israeli prisons holding Palestinian detainees.

From there, we examine Algeria’s decision to legally define French colonization as a crime, demanding apology and reparations — a move that turns historical memory into an active political weapon.

We also look at Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposes demilitarized zones and territorial concessions, raising difficult questions about pressure, containment, and the future of the war.

Commentary:
This week’s commentary focuses on a growing U.S. military buildup in Latin America and the Caribbean, officially framed as a renewed “War on Drugs,” but raising deeper questions about Venezuela, coercive power, and strategic ambiguity.

We close with a moment of light, as Christmas returns to Gaza and Bethlehem — celebrations not of normality, but of survival.

From the Frontlines & Backrooms.

This week’s Brief begins with a short analysis of the week’s key developments, before moving into a focused commentary on media framing and language — and how they shape whose deaths are mourned, explained, or erased.
From Bondi to Gaza, this episode examines how narratives construct moral hierarchy in coverage of violence.

In this bonus segment from Frontlines & Backrooms, historian Benny Morris addresses a fundamental question at the heart of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict:

When did Palestinians lose faith that Israel would ever allow a sovereign Palestinian state — and why?

Morris traces the historical moments, political decisions, and structural realities that led many Palestinians to conclude that the promise of a two-state solution was no longer viable.
This short segment focuses on the breaking point — when hope turned into deep skepticism, and negotiations into disbelief.

This bonus is part of Episode 1 of Frontlines & Backrooms.

In this short bonus segment, Nadina reflects on the realities of life in the West Bank — beyond headlines and official statements — addressing power, control, and how occupation is experienced on the ground.

Published in full, without cuts.

In this short bonus segment, historian Zachary Foster addresses why Western media outlets have been reluctant to use the term genocide when reporting on Gaza — and how legal definitions, political pressure, and media framing shape what audiences are allowed to hear.

This conversation is published in full, without cuts.