Required Readings:

• Why Trump’s Republican Party Is Embracing Russia by Peter Beinart (The Atlantic)
• Putin, Trump, and the West’s new ideological alliance by Ishaan Tharoor (Washington Post)
• What Is America Without Influence? Trump Will Find Out. by Antony J. Blinken (New York Times)
• Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy? by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (New York Times)
• Trump’s coming war against Islam by Jackson Diehl (Washington Post)
• Aleppo’s Destroyers: Assad, Putin, Iran by The Editorial Board (New York Times)

On Syria:

• How Can I Help People In Aleppo? 10 Charities Working To Provide Food, Shelter, Medicine And  Education To Syrians by Sarah Ann Harris (Huffington Post UK)
• Syria’s Assad says Trump’s campaign rhetoric was ‘positive’ by Ishaan Tharoor (New York Times)
• Analysis: The Fall of Rebel-Held Aleppo Is a Warning Sign to Others Who Oppose Assad by Annia Ciezadlo (News Deeply)
• Assad’s Choice: Fight Rebels but Give Way to ISIS by Yaroslav Trofimov (Wall Street Journal)

On Islam in the West:

• Why it could be incredibly difficult to be Muslim and political in the age of Donald Trump by Rashid Dar (Washington Post)
• Why Islam Gets Second-Class Status in Germany by Alexander Gorlach (New York Times)
• Americans Think There Are 54 Million Muslims In America. There Are Only 3 Million. by Christopher Mathias (Huffington Post)

On Global Student Activism:

• American Universities in a Gulf of Hypocrisy by Kristina Bogos (New York Times)
• Student Leaders Spark Hope for Change on Iran’s National Student Day by Hamid Yazdan Panah (Global Voices)

On media engagement, propaganda, and conspiracy theories:

• There Are No Child Sex Slaves at My Local Pizza Parlor by Alexandra Zapruder (New York Times)
• Journalists and Trump voters live in separate online bubbles, MIT analysis shows by Alex Thompson
• Don’t call it post-truth. There’s a simpler word: Lies by Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian)
• These 6 Easy Steps Will Help You Spot Fake News Every Time by Craig Silverman (Buzzfeed)
• Donald Trump’s War on Science by Lawrence M. Krauss (The New Yorker)

Other Middle East:

• U.S. Blocks Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia Amid Concerns Over Yemen War by Helene Cooper (The New York Times)
• Trump Taps David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel by Haaretz (Haaretz)

-Asad