Closing a Game-Changing 2025 | PollyLabs Community update
In its year-end community update, PollyLabs reflects on what 2025 revealed about its core thesis: that proven technology, applied thoughtfully and with the right frontline partners, can generate outsized social impact. Early ventures spun out independently, unlocked critical funding, and translated research into practical tools already reaching families at scale—offering early proof of a system-focused approach to impact.
Looking ahead, PollyLabs positions 2026 as a year of scaling what has been built, taking on larger challenges, and inviting others to engage, while maintaining the rigor that made these outcomes possible. The update also recognizes the partners, donors, and team members whose support underpins a broader vision of technology used to reduce avoidable suffering and strengthen resilience.
Click here to read the full report: Polly Labs Community Update
William Ury: Making Peace "Possible"
William Ury is one of the world’s most respected voices in negotiation, mediation, and peacebuilding. A co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and author of the bestselling Getting to Yes, Ury has spent decades helping leaders, communities, and nations move beyond conflict toward constructive agreement. His work has ranged from advising on peace processes in Colombia to helping reduce nuclear tensions and teaching negotiation principles that apply anywhere—from the United Nations to everyday life. On Making Peace Visible, Ury shares ideas about how we can understand conflict more deeply and highlight efforts for peace more broadly.
Click here to listen to the podcast: https://www.makingpeacevisible.org/bill-ury
Our Annus Horribilis
In this year-end reflection, veteran foreign correspondent Mort Rosenblum looks back on a difficult and unsettling year in global and U.S. affairs. Drawing on decades of reporting experience, he considers how political choices, diplomatic breakdowns, and shifts in American leadership have affected both international stability and democratic norms at home. The essay situates recent events in a broader historical context, asking what responsibility the United States bears when its actions—and inaction—shape outcomes far beyond its borders.
Read article here: https://www.mortreport.org/reports/our-annus
Clarifying the Idea of the Balance of Power - Michael Poulshock
The idea of the balance of power is central to how scholars and policymakers think about international politics, but what does it really mean in practice? In this essay, Michael Poulshock argues that the conventional concept is vague and often conflates observation with prescription. He highlights three core issues: uncertainty about what actions actually constitute balancing, the lack of a clear definition of equilibrium in global politics, and the tendency of the literature to blur descriptive analysis with advice. By reframing the balance of power through a systematic framework grounded in power structure theory, this piece offers a fresh lens on how states form coalitions, deter dominance, and manage competition in the international system.
Click here for the full article: Michael Poulshock Substack
10 Conflicts to Watch in 2026 - Foreign Policy
War, instability, and political ruptures aren’t fading as the new year begins—they’re multiplying. In its annual forecast of global hotspots, Foreign Policy and the International Crisis Group highlight the conflicts most likely to shape geopolitics in 2026. From the grinding full-scale war in Ukraine and the fragile aftermath of the Gaza fighting to renewed tensions in Africa, the Middle East, and the Western Hemisphere, these are not distant troubles: they are flashpoints with worldwide implications, affecting diplomacy, humanitarian crises, and world order. If 2025 was defined by violent confrontation and shifting alliances, 2026 may prove even more consequential.
Read more on their website: Foreign Policy
Ward’s Manufacturing Wins Discover Rhode Island 2026 Preferred Business Award
Ward’s Manufacturing has just been honored with the Discover Rhode Island 2026 Preferred Business Award, a recognition that celebrates the strength of American-made metal fabrication and the leadership of a woman-owned manufacturing shop proudly serving customers across industries. From precision laser cutting to custom CNC bending and part design, Ward’s blends cutting-edge capability with small-business grit—earning praise not just from clients, but also from the Rhode Island business community.
Click here for the LinkedIn post!
Ward Manufacturing: https://www.wardsmanufacturing.com/
The Depraved New White House Website Isn’t Just a Lie: It’s an Invitation
Every authoritarian project depends on the same foundation: control over the story of the past. Not just selective memory or political spin, but the systematic replacement of shared reality with a manufactured one. When that happens, facts become tribal markers, violence becomes debatable, and democracy becomes optional.
The Trump administration’s newly launched White House website on January 6 is a textbook example of this strategy. Presented as an “official history,” it does not merely minimize the attack on the Capitol—it inverts it. Those who breached the building are reframed as victims. Law enforcement officers are recast as aggressors. The certification of a lawful election is portrayed as the true act of subversion.
This kind of revisionism is not aimed at persuading skeptics. Its purpose is normalization. By declaring the insurrection “peaceful” and its aftermath “persecution,” the site quietly lowers the threshold for what counts as acceptable political behavior in the future. If what happened that day was not violence, then violence no longer has a clear meaning.
Governments that pursue this path are not arguing about history; they are preparing the public for what comes next. They are teaching supporters which actions will be forgiven, which institutions will be abandoned, and which truths no longer apply.
What is being rolled out here is not an interpretation of January 6, but a signal about the kind of country its authors intend to build.
Forbes Honors Trebuchet’s Director Jennifer Selendy Among America’s Top Lawyers 2025
Forbes has named Jennifer Selendy, founding partner of Selendy Gay PLLC and one of Trebuchet’s two directors, to its prestigious list of America’s Top Lawyers for 2025. This recognition celebrates attorneys with exceptional legal records, reputations for excellence, and leadership in shaping the legal landscape.
Selendy was recognized for her role in high-stakes litigation. She currently represents Albertsons in a $6 billion merger dispute with Kroger and, in 2024, secured a $1.1 billion trial victory for Fortis Advisors in a landmark earnout case against Johnson & Johnson—the largest such damages award in Delaware history.
Beyond her courtroom achievements, Forbes also highlighted Selendy’s humanitarian leadership as co-founder of the 30 Birds Foundation, which has successfully relocated more than 500 Afghan girls and their families to safety in Canada.
Earlier in 2025, Forbes also recognized both Jennifer Selendy and founding partner Faith Gay among America’s Best-in-State Lawyers for their influence in the New York legal market.
Read more from Selendy Gay: Forbes Names Jennifer Selendy to 2025 List of America’s Top Lawyers
Full list on Forbes: America’s Top Lawyers 2025
AI Resistance Art & Symbols of Resistance: A Visual Archive
Boston Plaza Demonstration
More…
A Graphic composed by Mentor Ehren Brav
Leveraging the power of AI image generation... Feel free to distribute - I certainly will be.
Christina Goldbaum's latest: Syria, Lebanon, and more
Recent articles, videos and podcasts from on the ground in some of the most fragile places in the world by wonderful alum and Convisero mentor Christina Goldbaum, winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the New York Times.
To access the latest news from her: https://www.nytimes.com/by/christina-goldbaum#latest
Engineering Diplomacy Playbook
Turning a Handbook into a Living Reasoning System
Engineering Diplomacy transforms static handbooks into dynamic reasoning systems using AI tools like NotebookLM. Shafiqul Islam experimented by uploading chapters from the Open-Source Water Diplomacy Handbook, prompting the AI to create a "Crosswalk Index" linking challenges, tools, and real-world cases across scales like community and transnational levels. The AI excelled at structuring connections and staying grounded in sources, avoiding hallucinations, but fell short by mistaking chapter titles for actual challenges and drifting toward generic "best practices" without assessing conditions for success.
AI mirrors human thinking flaws, such as prioritizing categories over precise problem diagnosis, which is vital in complex fields like water governance where uncertainty and politics intersect. True engineering diplomacy demands "principled pragmatism"—evaluating tools like Joint Fact-Finding for contextual fit, scientific credibility, empathy, and political viability before application. Cases from AquaPedia serve as a "falsification engine," testing handbook principles against real outcomes to evolve the playbook iteratively.
For more info, see the full article here: https://engineeringdiplomacy.substack.com/p/engineering-diplomacy-playbook-deb
How You Can Help the Girls of ASYV Thrive
Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV) in Rwanda offers a year-end matching challenge up to $150,000 through December 31, 2025, doubling contributions to education, leadership training, and gender equity programs for vulnerable girls facing poverty or post-genocide challenges.
Two years into a holistic gender equity approach, ASYV shares its curriculum across Rwanda amid funding uncertainties, with results including stronger futures for students and generations ahead.
Support the village here!
When Witness Becomes Action: Building a Children’s Hospital in Gaza
Dear Sherman,
Yesterday, I was moved to my core as we gathered in shared witness: listening, reflecting, and holding what it means to respond to immense human need with compassion and responsibility.
We heard from Dr. David Hasan, a Palestinian-American neurosurgeon, Duke University professor, and the founder of the Gaza Children Village (GCV). Drawing on his frontline medical missions in Gaza, Dr. Hasan spoke about the collapse of critical systems and his decision to envision something more: a community-led model of care that protects children not only in moments of crisis, but also over the long term.
He also spoke of the urgent effort underway to convert an existing facility into what will become Gaza’s only tertiary children’s hospital, a lifeline for newborns, children with injuries, and families who have nowhere to turn.
Watch and share the recording of the talk: https://www.afcfp.org/past-events-data/for-gazas-children-repairing-lives-on-the-ground-with-dr-hasan
GCV has become a refuge for orphaned and highly vulnerable children across the Gaza Strip. Today, they serve more than 8,500 children, providing safe, structured daily environments where children can learn, heal, and grow, supported by education, nutrition, medical care, and psychosocial support.
As we close 2025, we invite you to join the work of repair in Gaza by supporting GCV directly. You can learn more about their mission and support their work here: https://www.thegazachildrenvillage.org/
Thank you for being a part of the collective movement of healing, humanity, and hope. Together, we can help build a future worthy of Gaza’s precious children.
Now is the time to act. Let's grow our movement.
Oxford Debate: Hillel Neuer Calls Out Iranian Opponent for Complicity with Crimes
Last month, the Oxford Union hosted a debate on a proposition that many found startling: "Israel is a greater threat to regional stability than the Islamic Republic of Iran." UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer took the opposition, presenting a detailed examination of regional dynamics, human rights records, and geopolitical realities.
In his prepared remarks, Neuer walked through the facts: Israel's network of peace treaties with Arab states versus Iran's destabilization efforts through proxies; Israel's protections for women and minorities versus Iran's systematic repression. He also directly challenged one of the debate's main proponents on his alleged complicity in regime crimes.
Read the full debate remarks at UN Watch:
Oxford Debate: Hillel Neuer Calls Out Iranian Opponent for Complicity with Crimes
Oleander Alumna Appears on Lebanese National TV and Rotarians in Hiroshima
The Oleander Initiative celebrates the remarkable impact of one Lebanese educator and her students who have extended the lessons of peace far beyond their Hiroshima experience.
During February 2025, Aline, a Lebanese high school teacher, and seven of her students participated in the Oleander Resilience, Rebuilding and Peace Program in Hiroshima. Upon their return to Lebanon, they didn't stop sharing what they learned—they amplified it. Through an origami peace club and school-wide presentations, they inspired hundreds of students and teachers at their school to embrace Hiroshima's peace culture.
Last month, Aline took this mission to a national stage, appearing on four Lebanese television programs—Al Jadeed, Morning Catchy Talk, Murr Television, and OTV Lebanon—bringing the stories and lessons of Hiroshima's resilience and peace to thousands of viewers across the country.
The Oleander Initiative also celebrated the success of its October 2025 Rotary Peace Study Tour, which brought eleven Rotarians from Canada, the United States, and Russia to Hiroshima. Participants studied the culture of peace that emerged from the city's post-war reconstruction, learning valuable lessons about resilience, pacifism, and optimism to incorporate into their service work.
For the full article, visit: Oleander Alumna Appears on Lebanese National TV and Rotarians in Hiroshima – Oleander Initiative
Christina Goldbaum Wins 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting
Christina Goldbaum, a young journalist at The New York Times and member of Convisero, has been awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting, alongside colleagues Azam Ahmed and Matthieu Aikins. The prize honors their remarkable work in the New York Times series titled “How the U.S. Lost Afghanistan.”
The award-winning reporting reveals how the United States, years before the fall of Kabul, laid the groundwork for the unraveling of its two-decade war in Afghanistan. Through in-depth investigations and frontline accounts, the series demonstrates the consequences of misaligned strategy, internal dysfunction, and long-ignored warnings.
Explore the full Pulitzer-winning series here:
How the U.S. Lost Afghanistan
Courtesy of The New York Times
In one of the centerpiece reports, Goldbaum and colleagues gained rare access to Sirajuddin Haqqani, one of the most powerful and controversial figures within the Taliban, offering a close view into the inner workings of the regime now governing Afghanistan.
Read the story: Sirajuddin Haqqani Is a Taliban Hard-Liner and Power Broker
A Voice for Critical Truths
Goldbaum’s recognition marks a significant moment not only for foreign reporting but for a new generation of journalists pushing boundaries in international investigative work. Her reporting has consistently centered the lived realities of those caught in conflict, while critically examining U.S. policy decisions with rigor and clarity.
Goldbaum has become known for her fieldwork in difficult and often dangerous conditions. Her work in Afghanistan stands as a testament to the power of explanatory journalism to illuminate complex geopolitical failures with humanity and urgency.
For more on Pulitzer Prize winners and featured stories, visit: Pulitzer.org
To explore more of Goldbaum’s international reporting, follow her work at The New York Times