Category: The Institute
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Iran’s Uprising Breaks the Activist–Media Narrative
As Iran’s streets erupt in what may be the most consequential uprising since the 1979 revolution, one question looms larger than the demonstrations themselves: where are the world’s human-rights activists now? Across all 31 provinces, Iranians are risking imprisonment, torture, and death to challenge a theocratic regime that has ruled for 45 years through fear,…
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Why the United States Really Acted on Venezuela
By Corey Ribotsky Most people are being told the same story: Nicolás Maduro is an illegitimate dictator, Venezuela became a narco-state, and the United States finally decided to act. That story is not wrong — but it is not the real reason. It is the version that fits into a headline. The real reason is…
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Saks’ Pending Bankruptcy Was Baked In the Moment It Tried to Save the Luxury Department Store Model
If reports are correct that Saks Fifth Avenue, through its parent structure, is preparing for a Chapter 11 filing after missing a massive interest payment tied to its acquisition financing, this should not be treated as a sudden deterioration or an unfortunate turn of events. It is the predictable outcome of trying to solve a…
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Fall Forward…
By: Skylar Ribotsky As we approach the final day of another year and look ahead to 2026, I find myself wanting to look backward—specifically, at everything 2025 taught me. 2025 was a big year for me personally. It’s the year I graduated from college. For a long time, it felt like this distant milestone—a moment…
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From New York to Sydney – The Quiet Normalization of Antisemitism
New York City has long been a place where Jewish life is visible, active, and publicly affirmed. For generations, Jews came to this city not because it was perfect, but because it was possible—to live openly, build institutions, argue loudly, disagree politically, and still expect basic physical safety and civic protection. That assumption is no…
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Oracle’s AI Wake-Up Call: The Bill Came Due Before the Revenue Arrived
Oracle’s sudden loss of market value did not happen because the company stumbled. It happened because Oracle did something most companies avoid: it revealed the true cost of artificial intelligence. For years, AI has been marketed as something almost weightless — software that lives in the cloud, scales effortlessly, and transforms everything it touches. What…
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Netflix’s Bid for Warner Isn’t Really About Warner — It’s About Blocking Paramount.
Netflix’s $72 billion bid for Warner Bros. and HBO has been treated as if it were a conventional mega-merger, but the more closely one examines the economics, the politics, and the legal framework surrounding the deal, the more one thing becomes clear: this may not be a merger attempt at all. It may be a…
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Mamdani Can’t Push “Affordability” While Approving a 16% Raise for Politicians
By Corey Ribotsky Before Zohran Mamdani has even taken the oath of office, the incoming Democratic Socialist mayor is about to confront a question that will define his administration: Does “affordability for all” include elected officials — or just everyone else? Because the City Council, packed with supporters of Mamdani’s agenda, is poised to hand…
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Crypto Didn’t Crash — It Finally Remembered What It Actually Is
Every few months, the world pretends to be shocked when cryptocurrency crashes. Headlines scream. Twitter melts down. Influencers suddenly go silent as if they’ve all been abducted by the same UFO. And then the cycle restarts. But this latest crash? Oh, this one was special. This wasn’t just a dip. This was crypto waking up,…
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The Day Mamdani Learned the Limits of Rhetoric
In the Oval Office, New York’s mayor-elect confronted the reality that passion and ideology ultimately yield to the practical demands of federal power. Zohran Mamdani entered the Oval Office on Thursday with the posture of a man navigating unfamiliar terrain. He had spent years denouncing Donald J. Trump’s politics, calling the former president’s agenda authoritarian…
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From Kennedy to Comfort: How a Generation Conditioned by Ease Elected Zohran Mamdani
When John F. Kennedy told Americans to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” he captured the spirit of a nation that believed duty came before comfort. Sixty-five years later, New York City has chosen a mayor who preaches the opposite. Zohran K. Mamdani’s campaign…

