When the world's at stake,
go beyond the headlines.

Welcome to Mid-Afternoon Map, our exclusive members-only newsletter that provides a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history from the Caucasus to the Carolinas. Subscribers can look forward to interesting takes on good maps and bad maps, beautiful maps and ugly ones — and bizarre maps whenever possible.***In recent weeks, student protests over the war in Gaza have generated an increasingly outraged debate, pitting people who are so outraged by the protestors’ rhetoric that they refuse to be outraged by the war against people who are so outraged by the war they refuse to be outraged by the protestors’ rhetoric. Much as voicing any criticism of Israel apparently makes you a Hamas supporter, suggesting that protests might be more effective with fewer actual Hamas supporters now makes you complicit in genocide.Walking by a pro-Palestine rally in Dupont Circle several months ago, the very first thing I heard was the chant “We don’t want no two-state / We want ’48.” As a historian, I’m always glad to hear people shouting about history. But as someone who still thinks that two states represent the least impossible of the good solutions to the current catastrophe, I was outraged to hear it rejected so emphatically for a more impossible, more problematic alternative.Feeling a bit like Hans Moleman, I announced to no one in particular that I wanted two states, then got distracted by a sign reading “Krispy Kreme Supports Genocide.” It turns out that after the owners of Krispy Kreme came clean about their ancestors’ Nazi ties, they tried to make amends by starting a charity in Israel. Now, because of the charity, they stand accused of supporting genocide in Gaza. The moral might be that no good deed goes unpunished. Or maybe it’s “Don’t be a Nazi.” Either way, if there’s one company that could openly rebrand as Genocide Donuts and