Story
Gishty is an editorial platform for curated, context-rich coverage of Asia, Africa, and the Americas, often referred to as the Global Majority, beyond Western journalistic defaults.
Born out of the long-running newsletter What Happened Last Week by journalist Sham Jaff, Gishty functions as its publishing home. Furthermore, it serves as an umbrella for additional newsletters and formats, allowing the platform to expand beyond a single voice, cadence, or editorial approach.
Why "Gishty"
Gishty exists because many audiences who already follow reporting on the Global Majority feel something is still missing. They want more context and fewer clichés. Others avoid global news altogether due to information overload, dense coverage, or a lack of clear entry points.
Gishty addresses these pitfalls by offering guided, editorially curated formats that prioritize clarity, context, and factual accuracy. The platform is designed to support understanding without requiring constant attention, prior specialization, or an academic background.
In the future, Gishty is poised to become a destination for guided (and non-colonial) discovery of the Global Majority.
The name Gishty comes from Sorani Kurdish and means “universal.”
Our Newsletters
What Happened Last Week
A weekly newsletter that curates and explains news and perspectives from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It focuses on perspectives and topics that are often missing or flattened in most Western coverage. Edited for context and relevance rather than speed. This is the founding newsletter and remains a standalone weekly format, written by journalist Sham Jaff since 2014.
The Goodies
A curated selection of good, surprising, or quietly exciting news from the Global Majority. The Goodies focuses on progress, creativity, and everyday wins that rarely make international headlines. Short, accessible, and intentionally not grim. This newsletter exists to counter the idea that global news is only crisis-driven. Every three months.
You Should Probably Read
Books explained like you’re new here. A guided reading newsletter focused on books on or from the Global Majority. Each issue follows a single non-fiction book and documents the reading process in real time. The focus is on making complex arguments legible without jargon, academic language, or assumed expertise. Every four months.
About Sham Jaff
Sham Jaff is an award-winning journalist based in Berlin, Germany. Born in Slemani, Kurdistan (Iraq), she moved to Germany at the age of nine. Her journalism centers underrepresented perspectives across borders.
She has hosted several podcasts on migration and racism in Germany and Europe, centering the voices of those most affected. Since 2014, Jaff has been writing What Happened Last Week, a weekly newsletter curating news and perspectives from Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Her work has appeared in The Guardian, ZDF, taz, Der Freitag, and Deutschlandfunk, among other outlets and podcasts. She has also worked as a mentor with the Journalism Innovators Program at the Hamburg Media School.
Jaff served on the board of the Bonn Institute for Journalism and Constructive Dialogue and worked there as Senior Advisor for Strategy. She previously worked on strategy and fundraising at Neue Deutsche Medienmacher*innen, a nonprofit advocating for greater diversity and inclusion in German media.
Press Kit
Download our official press kit for logos, photos, and brand assets. It includes high-resolution logos. Please limit the usage of these assets to articles or material that is describing Gishty or link back to it.