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Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal) profile picture

Max Nelson

@elusivecorporal

online editor @nybooks

 Brooklyn, NY
nybooks.com/online/
Joined July 2015
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Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)Photo by Max Nelson (@elusivecorporal)
Is the foreign policy establishment adopting MAGA’s worldview, or is Trump adopting the Blob’s? At CFR in March, Sebastian Gorka called a New York Times reporter "some piece of human filth." He told a Harvard Law lecturer asking about war powers, "Who's the commander in chief?" On blowback from Iran, he said you’d have to be smoking Hunter Biden’s crack pipe to worry. The moderator moved on each time. I wrote about Trump’s Blob for @nybooks:
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Kim Ghattas (@KimGhattas) profile picture
Kim Ghattas
@KimGhattasOct 26
This is a must read by Joelle Abi Rashed in @nybooks about Lebanese Jews taken hostage during Lebanon's civil war 1975-1990 and killed in captivity. Israel never negotiated for them at the time but is demanding their bodies now. ‘Natives of the Country’ nybooks.com/online/2026/10/2…
‘Natives of the Country’ | Joelle M. Abi-Rached

‘Natives of the Country’ | Joelle M. Abi-Rached

On March 29, 1985, Elie Hallak, a fifty-eight-year-old physician and the vice president of Lebanon’s Jewish Communal Council (Conseil communal israélite

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Dayna Tortorici (@dtortorici) profile picture
Dayna Tortorici@dtortoriciOct 1
Now would be a good time to reacquaint yourself with Elizabeth Schambelan's writing on fraternities, male bonding, gang rape, and the relationship between hazing and counterinsurgency 🧵:
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Financial Times (@FT) profile picture
Financial Times
@FTAug 12
An FT visual investigation found systematic destruction across Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon, crippling systems essential to civilian life, from water and energy infrastructure to medical care. Raya Jalabi reports on the scale of the devastation. ft.trib.al/atpwoGT
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For @nybooks, on the road to the NYC rent freeze and what else is possible for a tenant movement adjusting to formal power. Many thanks to @elusivecorporal for edits, and to @caaav, @TenantBloc, @CASAbronx for allowing me a peek into their organizing ❤️‍🔥 nybooks.com/online/2026/08/0…
The Road to the Rent Freeze | Tara Raghuveer

The Road to the Rent Freeze | Tara Raghuveer

On the evening of June 25, minutes after New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze the rent for a million rent-stabilized apartments across

nybooks.com
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Gavin Jacobson (@GavJacobson) profile picture
Gavin Jacobson@GavJacobsonAug 5
One of the most brilliant essays we’ve published. Magdi El-Gizouli’s singular and utterly unique analysis of the war in Sudan, blending revolutionary theory, sociology and frontline reporting. equator.org/articles/khartou…
Khartoum After the Storm • EQUATOR

Khartoum After the Storm • EQUATOR

How Sudan’s revolutionary generation was dragged into total war

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This is an astonishing feat of reporting by the legendary Marcela Turati and her team at Quinto Elemento Lab, who spent five years tracking down and interviewing men kidnapped by cartels and enslaved in mountain labour camps: equator.org/articles/we-were…
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Caitlin L. Chandler on a life derailed by the UN sanctions list go.nybooks.com/4yKnbTz
Life on the List | Caitlin L. Chandler

Life on the List | Caitlin L. Chandler

Late one night in May 2016, Naif al-Qaysi was riding shotgun in an old Landcruiser as it barreled down an empty highway through the desert connecting

nybooks.com
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Daniel Schlozman (@daschloz) profile picture
Daniel Schlozman@daschlozJul 20
I wrote about the DNC. nybooks.com/online/2026/07/2…
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Nabil Salih on three months of war and limbo in Baghdad go.nybooks.com/4h4FKeE
Baghdad: The Illusion of Peace | Nabil Salih

Baghdad: The Illusion of Peace | Nabil Salih

Close to midnight on Tuesday, April 7, a loud explosion rattled my family’s house in a suburb of Baghdad. A column of white smoke shadowed the alleys

nybooks.com
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Ada Ferrer (@Adita_Ferrer) profile picture
Ada Ferrer@Adita_FerrerJul 1
Trump’s Betrayal of Cuban Miami | Ada Ferrer Miriam Pensack | The New York Review of Books nybooks.com/articles/2026/07…
Broken Promises in Cuban Miami | Ada Ferrer, Miriam Pensack

Broken Promises in Cuban Miami | Ada Ferrer, Miriam Pensack

Donald Trump has reversed the government’s longstanding benevolence toward Cuban asylum seekers, even as his administration exacerbates the crisis they fled.

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Mary (@maryturfah) profile picture
Mary@maryturfahJun 24
I wrote about how Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon has reconfigured how children make sense of the world, for @nybooks nybooks.com/online/2026/06/2…
Safety Is When There’s No One Dying | Mary Turfah

Safety Is When There’s No One Dying | Mary Turfah

The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund is based in the Blue Building, a medical center across from the American University of Beirut, in the city’s Hamra

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Piper French (@PiperSFrench) profile picture
Piper French@PiperSFrenchJun 1
As Israeli war criminals parade in NYC alongside our public officials, the Gaza flotilla's participants are recovering from the extreme violence inflicted on them at sea. I wrote about the history of the flotilla movement's efforts to break the blockade: nybooks.com/online/2026/05/3…
To Break the Siege | Piper French

To Break the Siege | Piper French

When a ship sends out a Mayday signal, nearby vessels have a duty to come to its aid. This is a core tenet of maritime law. But on Monday, May 18, when a

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New @equatormag: Nasser Abu Srour’s unforgettable memoir of brutality and abuse inside Israel’s prisons after October 7
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I wrote about Hachette, Vincent Bolloré, and the crisis in French publishing for @nybooks : nybooks.com/online/2026/05/1…
Bolloré’s Way | Harrison Stetler

Bolloré’s Way | Harrison Stetler

Even in a country that has made a pastime of its declamatory public letters, this one seems to stand out. It’s not every day that a list of signatories

nybooks.com
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Nicholas Mulder (@njtmulder) profile picture
Nicholas Mulder
@njtmulderMay 14
Wrote on what the Hormuz War means for free seas and Eurasian globalization for @nybooks: nybooks.com/online/2026/05/1…
Empires of Flow Control | Nicholas Mulder

Empires of Flow Control | Nicholas Mulder

In September 1507 the Portuguese conquistador Afonso de Albuquerque sailed his small fleet to a point off the coast of Hormuz Island, in the narrow

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Last night, Israeli forces intercepted and boarded a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza in international waters off the coast of Greece — unlawfully detaining more than 175 people, including several New Yorkers. My team has been in direct contact with State and Federal partners as we work to confirm the whereabouts and conditions of these New Yorkers. This is a brazen violation of international law. Those detained must be released.
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Benjamin Kunkel (@kunktation) profile picture
Benjamin Kunkel@kunktationApr 7
By this point Trump (who yesterday described as “animals” people who today embody “a whole civilization”) probably can’t help himself. But no one around him is going to lift a finger to put a stop to this?
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“We stand against both the foreign invaders and the regime.... We are left doubly alone. We own this grief, mourning all by ourselves.” —an anonymous dispatch from Tehran go.nybooks.com/3NUjQ1w
From the Rooftops of Tehran | Anonymous

From the Rooftops of Tehran | Anonymous

We in Iran own our grief, mourning all by ourselves.

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