Our Sunday Roundup: Pankaj Mishra on Israel, a Guantanamo Reboot, Musk the 'Dadfluencer,' and More
An exclusive interview, plus stories you may have missed this week, including from our newest contributor.
Dear Subscribers,
Happy Sunday – if we can even say that about Sundays. Before you head back into the work week, we wanted to share just a few of the great pieces and segments we published here at Zeteo this week that you may have missed (we’re all busy!), plus a brand-new one: an in-person interview with acclaimed author and essayist Pankaj Mishra.
Last week in London, Mehdi caught up with Pankaj to discuss a new book that’s been ruffling a lot of feathers. The World After Gaza: A History is a book Pankaj says he wrote as a response to the “vast panorama of violence, disorder and suffering that we’re seeing today” and the “rapacious imperialism” he’s seen from the West and Israel when it comes to Gaza. Strong words! Some of you may recall, last February, the Barbican Center in London canceled a lecture by Pankaj after it learned that he would be discussing Israel’s ongoing genocide in the strip.
In a first for Zeteo, Mehdi and Pankaj sit down and have a candid conversation about getting canceled over Gaza, the importance of writing about this subject, and even the parallels between Israel and his home country of India.
‘Palestine Is a Case of Criminally Postponed Decolonization’: Indian Author Pankaj Mishra on Gaza, Censorship, and India’s Parallels to Israel
“As citizens of democracies, we will be primarily concerned with situations where our own governments… our own political classes and our media classes are complicit. And that is what is going to outrage us long before we get outraged about what is happening in East Timor or Myanmar," Pankaj Mishra tells Mehdi.
Next on the list…
There was a time when it felt like there might have been enough political will to, once and for all, close down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (aka ‘Gitmo’). That will is not just far gone at this point, the Pentagon is now “urging civilian officers” to quickly come work at the notorious and now rapidly expanding prison. Prem Thakker’s latest column reveals that and more, based on an internal memo he was sent by a source.
The Pentagon's Rush to Staff Trump’s Guantanamo Migrant Prison Camp Should Terrify Us All
As intern-age DOGE engineers gut federal agencies, leading to mass firings and confusion, new job offers of a much higher degree of reckless bloat and excess are quietly cropping up elsewhere. One “opportunity,” as the Pentagon bills it, involves helping build up migrant prison camps at a detention facility synonymous with human rights abuses. An internal army bulletin was flagged to me earlier this week...
Zeteo recently announced a lineup of exciting new contributors to help us cover the the growing and varied threats to our freedoms and liberties from the Trump-Musk administration. One of them is renowned tech and culture journalist Taylor Lorenz. In her first piece for us, she dives into Elon Musk’s “dadfluencer” strategy and his “latest attempt to rebrand himself from a ruthless, calculating billionaire to a down-home family man… [using] tactics of parenting influencers.”
Elon Musk the Dadfluencer? The Billionaire Is Leveraging His Son to Rebrand Himself as a Father Figure
On Tuesday afternoon, as Elon Musk met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, his 4-year-old son, X Æ known as “X,” scrambled around at his knees. Trump introduced the child, saying, “This is X, and he’s a great guy. High IQ.” X proceeded to whisper inaudible phrases, pick his nose, and zone out. Shortly after the appearance, X's mother, Claire Elise Boucher, known as Grimes, responded in frustration. "He should not be in public like this," she tweeted. Despite Boucher's protests, the story was quickly packaged across social media as a heartfelt "father-son moment."
"Say what you like about Elon Musk but..
And if you’re keen on watching a political interview, Mehdi sat down with the South African Ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool to discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk (both of whom have been launching a dishonest campaign against South Africa and its new land ownership law), and yes, Gaza. It’s not only a fascinating conversation but it’s also critical that we hear from countries and people around the world who are being hurt by the new Trump administration.
‘Apartheid on Steroids’: South African Ambassador on Gaza, Musk, and Trump Cutting Off Aid
Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order freezing US aid to South Africa, saying that their new land ownership law – meant to address the legacy of apartheid – “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.” This came just days after Elon Musk railed against the law on Twitter, calling it “openly racist.” In this interview, Rasool sits down with Mehdi to discuss the new law, as well as Trump and Musk’s decision to “interfere” with South Africa’s internal politics.
That’s all for now, folks. Let us know if you liked this Sunday digest with a few hand-picked pieces from the previous week – and what more you’d like to see Zeteo doing. We try and read all the comments!