This week: an 18-year-old painter in Gaza, Zohran’s documentarian, anti-ICE art sleds in Minnesota, the brilliance of “Heated Rivalry,” hidden reggaetón history, and more.
Lakshmi Rivera Amin
January 29, 2026
— 5 min read
Marah Al-Za'anin, an 18-year-old Palestinian artist, has transformed a tent in Gaza City's Al-Rimal neighborhood into a studio. Al-Za'anin can't have been more than 15 or 16 years old when the genocide began, but she continues to pursue her passion for art and uses her brother's phone as a light source while she paints and draws late into the night. (photo by Saeed Jaras/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The New Yorker's Molly Fischer wrote about the filmmaker who began following Mamdani before his mayoral run and what compelled her to record his story:
“I kept asking him, ‘What’s going on? You’re working really hard. What are your ambitions?’ ” Bacha told me. “He kept saying, ‘No, there’s no ambition. This is just what we do for each other.’ ” Then, in September of 2024, he called her into his Astoria office to give her some news: he was planning to run for mayor.The 2016 documentary “Weiner” presents a strong argument against allowing documentarians behind the scenes of your unlikely campaign to become mayor of New York City. (Its filmmakers were on hand, cameras rolling, throughout the tabloid implosion of Anthony Weiner’s 2013 candidacy.) Mamdani, though, was undaunted. He and Bacha agreed that she would continue filming, and recorded a long interview in the weeks before he made his public announcement.
Archaeologists just discovered a basilica described in 2,000-year-old writings by Roman architect Vitruvius, Christian Thorsberg writes in Smithsonian magazine:
Archaeologists were thrilled when Vitruvius’ millennia-old designs, which detailed pilasters and corner supports, matched the newly discovered structure. Officials are confident that the basilica is indeed the work of Vitruvius, whose ideas on proportionality inspired Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.“We have [an] absolute match,” Andrea Pessina, the regional archaeological superintendent, told reporters, per Reuters. “There are few certainties in archaeology … but we were impressed by the precision.”
A photographer found undeveloped film capturing 70-year-old scenes of post-war Switzerland inside a second-hand camera, reports Pesala Bandara for Peta Pixel:
Inside the camera was a roll of Verichrome Pan 127 (VP) film from 1956, which had never been developed. Unsure whether the film could be saved, the photographer took it to camera specialist Ian Scott at Salisbury Photo Centre, a Fujifilm retailer, to see if anything could be recovered.Scott tells PetaPixel that the film was carefully developed using Rodinal developer at a ratio of 1 to 100 over 60 minutes with no agitation. The process revealed a series of 70-year-old photographs showing an unknown family and skiers in Switzerland, including images taken outside the Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz.
Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated a decade ago, and a new report shines light on a web of corporate and political actors who may have funded her killing. Pablo Meriguet explains in People's Dispatch:
In addition to reconfirming that Cáceres’ murder was not an accidental or spontaneous act, but rather premeditated through an organized criminal operation linked to the Agua Zarca project, the GIEI demonstrated through reports that included communications, money transfers, geolocators, and other evidence that the crime is directly related not only to the executives of the DESA company, but also to members of the Atala family.The GIEI also showed how the funds to guarantee the company’s “security” came from abroad, were then triangulated to offshore accounts, and later deposited into accounts in Honduras.
Discussing more recent political murders, Deborah Chasman of the Boston Review interviews scholar Robin D. G. Kelley about ICE's killing of Renee Good in the context of policing and mass incarceration in the United States:
As I document in my book, we can’t get accountability from the “regular” police, whatever that means: after decades, we haven’t been able to achieve something as basic as an honest civilian review board with subpoena powers and the ability to hire and fire officers! Since Trump’s second term, things have gotten even worse. Guided by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the Trump administration rescinded Biden-era police and criminal justice reforms; shuttered the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) created in 2023 to allow prospective employers to access the records of federal law enforcement officers in order to check their backgrounds for misconduct; halted all open federal investigations into law enforcement, notably in Jackson, Mississippi, and New York City; ended federal consent decrees mandating reforms of Louisville and Minneapolis police departments; made the extraordinary offer of free private-sector legal services for officers accused of misconduct.It is not enough to abolish ICE. We need to abolish the police and cages and build other institutions and relationships that can bring us genuine safety. Abolition is less an act of demolition than a construction project. It is creative creation, the boundless, boundary-less struggle to make our collective lives better, what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “life in rehearsal.”
The last thing we all need is Instagram, right? So argues Zoe Keziah Mendelson in a new Substack series, making the case for deleting the app we can't seem to quit:
I’m increasingly worried that one day Trump will ask Zuck for a list of “radical left terrorists” and Zuck will simply hand over all of our data without blinking. Meta has a long, storied history of turning activists over to authoritarian governments, censoring criticism, and willfully facilitating human rights violations all over the world.Meta is so evil it makes Spotify look wholesome. Using the platform makes it and MAGA Cop Zuckerberg richer.IG stratifies people politically rather than convincing anyone to change their views.IG desensitizes people to horror rather than calling them to action.Performative activism makes people think they’re off the hook after posting.
Phillip Maciak outlines the narrative arc of Heated Rivalry's first season and the emotional shift that has made it the show everyone's watching right now:
It’s easy to write off this show as prestige Skinemax or a guilty pleasure, but there’s nothing to feel guilty about when a show can hold onto its viewers’ feelings with this kind of patience and confidence. Its unrelenting focus on the chemistry between its two protagonists turns out to be a generative constraint. Over time, and thanks to incredibly self-assured performances from newcomers Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie—an heir to the steamy charismatic legacy of Friday Night Lights’ Tim Riggins—we learn to follow a story told mostly through the intimate physicality, bodily expressiveness, and wordless intuition that develops between them. It’s a spectacle, but it’s a complex one. This is, I might guess, what good hockey is like.
A neighborhood in Minneapolis held an anti-ICE art sled rally — yes, that is a thing — and the photos offer the glimmer of joy we need right now. Joe and Jen Photo share their images in Racket.
The Trump administration has turned its attention toward the separatist movement in Alberta, the latest in its aggression against Canadian sovereignty:
A peek into the life of one of reggaetón's most pervasive yet underappreciated voices:
@tstation_sb One of the most important female artists in the making of reggaeton. #reggaeton #glory #puertorico #oldschool #underground ♬ original sound - instagram: tstationsb
The photographer who updates images of Black culture and historical figures on Wikipedia:
@wikipedia Meet Gabe, who updates photos on Wikipedia with images that truly represent Black culture #Wikipedia25 ♬ Meet Gabe - Wikipedia
Call that a mourning routine:
@littledeserthouseThought I’d share if this can help anyone
♬ original sound - Kathryn @ littledeserthouse
Life imitates Shrek:
@amandajmaze Been on a social media break for a bit now… but I just couldn’t pass this up of butter.. made me laugh #minidonkeysoftiktok ♬ original sound - probs eating chips rn
