The Next Move’s 2025 In Review: June
Things heated up in the fight for democracy in America and around the world.
A note from The Next Move: Happy holidays! To celebrate the end of a successful first year on Substack, we’re giving away five chess boards signed by RDI’s Garry Kasparov. Anyone signed up as a premium subscriber by December 31, 2025 will be automatically eligible to win.1 Sign up for a premium subscription in the next two weeks, and you’ll also save 30% off of the regular rate!
Next stop in our look back at The Next Move’s first calendar year: June.
From a showdown between protesters and National Guard troops in Los Angeles to a contentious New York City election and a war between Israel and Iran, June was not a quiet month for news. And The Next Move was covering what it all meant for the future of freedom.
Garry Kasparov brings a dissident’s perspective to the Los Angeles protests: even when you’re facing down leaders who act in bad faith, discipline is a must, and that means keeping the peace.
When Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war, no one who supports freedom for the Iranian people was shedding any tears for the Islamic Republic regime—least of all Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was held hostage in Iran for over two years. But as Dr. Moore-Gilbert points out, Israeli and American indifference to Iranian civilian losses risked turning the people back into the arms of the dictatorship.
One of our most contentious arguments: Zohran Mamdani’s far-left politics are a losing bet for the pro-democracy camp. But when Mamdani won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, Garry Kasparov trained his ire on a complacent party that left the field wide open for a socialist upstart by putting forward “moderate” candidates ranging from mediocre to outright bad.
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