Frederick Deknatel
@freddydeknatel
Journalist, fellow at Century International @tcfdotorg.bsky.social, editor of @Hidden-Cities.com Previously: Founding executive editor, Democracy in Exile @dawnmenaorg.bsky.social; managing editor @wpr.bsky.social; staff editor @foreignaffairs.com
Why is the national media so obsessed with turning primaries and party politics into Game of Thrones?
“The successful Trump policy is defined by American strength" — which has handed Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/u...
"Like many AI weirdos, Zuckerberg explains how AI has already changed his life by allowing him to automate many of the joyful tasks of parenting by outsourcing them to an agent." What Zuckerberg sees as dream tech lord parenting sounds like a Black Mirror episode. www.404media.co/mark-zuckerb...
New poetry in @hidden-cities.com, by Mohammed Abu Lebda in Gaza: www.hidden-cities.com/p/the-traged...
I’m sure this tidy two-week “go big” bombing campaign won’t last a day longer than that and will definitely turn the tide in the war.
The US can't force open the Strait of Hormuz militarily — a reality that not just Trump but a large contingent of US political elites can't or won't accept, even though it was Trump's blunder of a war that led to Iran closing it in the first place. www.ft.com/content/1cbe...
Trump's dystopian vision for Gaza cashes in on the "erasure of the Strip," turning it "into an international investment opportunity" — for Kushner, Witkoff and even Trump himself.
Hegseth, channeling Rumsfeld, dismissed that Kuwait attack as “tragic things happen.” And he’s doing the same with this Jordan attack now and others we’re barely hearing about. @newlinesmag.bsky.social newlinesmag.com/essays/the-u...
One major story of this war is how much the Trump administration is hiding its costs in American lives. Remember how it slow-rolled news of the first deaths of American soldiers in Kuwait in March, lying for days about the severity of that Iranian drone attack? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
By the “director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies,” which doesn’t sound crackpot at all. Also:
The Art of the Deal is a poorly worded clause that gave Iran maximum leverage over the Strait of Hormuz — and so, here we are. At this point, the best outcome is no nuclear talks at all between Iran and the US, since the Trump admin has no idea what it is negotiating. www.wsj.com/world/middle...
New in @hidden-cities.com: @qunfuz.bsky.social on returning to a Syria in ruins and what the rubble reveals — from his new book just published by @saqibooks.bsky.social “Someone had painted on an intact bit of wall the words Eid bil-eid n’amara min jadeed, or Hand in Hand We’ll Build It Anew.”
The JCPOA was 159 pages and took 20 months to negotiate. We still don’t know what this “MoU” even says or if it’s been DocuSigned.
The "peace deal" doesn't sound much like a peace deal, does it? As news outlets adjust to calling it a "framework" or "preliminary" agreement—after blaring news alerts and headlines about a "peace deal" yesterday—the details are all still whatever "Trump said," with no corroboration from Iran.
I have a hard time believing the US will actually agree to this deal. (Trump, no doubt, will agree to anything right now to get out of his disastrous war. But Republicans and right-wing media will revolt if this is really the deal, and if anything sways Trump, it's headlines.)
"The case for data centers in space," according to a startup that seriously calls itself "Icarus Robotics." Semafor's whole pitch—"Intelligence for the New World Economy"—is slick branding for rewriting press releases. www.semafor.com/article/06/1...
Mad king vibes, but I'm sure both the markets and Republicans in Congress will react accordingly. www.cnn.com/2026/06/11/w...
Feels like the dam is about to break on Breslow. Every Globe story now has sources saying how badly he has run things — and not just this season, for example this autopsy of the Devers trade. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/11/s...
Weiss and co imagine that 60 Minutes is broken, even "dying," and that they alone can revive it. Meanwhile, in the latest sign of their incompetence: They fired all the correspondents whose segments will air all summer as reruns but still need new intros to update anything that has become outdated.
lol this couldn’t be a worse sign for Breslow. When the paper has a big story out that the team is not considering firing you as GM, they are probably considering firing you as GM. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/08/s...
Israel is bombing Iran again. Trump started a war that he cannot control and cannot end. www.bbc.com/news/live/cl...
"The bigger problem, Lulu, frankly, is not any kind of political influence. The problem was the incompetence." Bari Weiss's tenure at CBS: www.nytimes.com/2026/06/07/m...
Bari Weiss learning in real time what real journalists think of her.
lol Bilton and Weiss tried to accuse Scott Pelley of “physically abusing” Bilton at that staff meeting, which was instantly leaked to the press and had dozens of attendees. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/07/m...
Great reporting detail about a right-wing Christian leader, his party descended from the militia that backed Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, now ensconced in his heavily guarded hilltop mansion and more critical of Iran than Israel, even as it occupies an ever-growing swath of south Lebanon.
Weiss: How dare you expose how I've injected political bias into 60 Minutes! This is about trust and mutual respect!