Episodes

  • Yemen: the Huthis and Al Qaeda

    Yemen: the Huthis and Al Qaeda
    Jan 29 2025
    Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the jihadist extremism expert Dr Elisabeth Kendall. Their conversation focuses on Yemen's Huthis and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP.) Both have benefitted from the Gaza war in terms of popular support and propaganda messaging while a peace deal to end the nearly ten years of civil war slips further and further away. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    31 mins
  • A ceasefire and the gap between hope and reality

    A ceasefire and the gap between hope and reality
    Jan 22 2025
    Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes analyst and author Andreas Krieg back on the podcast to discuss the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Both sides claim a victory but unless the ceasefire holds and until it moves into the second phase and beyond that into its third phase of full withdrawal of the IDF and the beginning of reconstruction of war-destroyed Gaza fear and anxiety will continue to stalk a fragile hope for peace. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    33 mins
  • Israel, war crimes and a case to answer

    Israel, war crimes and a case to answer
    Jan 15 2025
    Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the director of Airwars Emily Tripp. Airwars has methodically detailed the civilian casualties caused by the thousands of air strikes carried out by Israel on Gaza in its prosecution of the war against Hamas. The body of evidence assembled tells a story unprecedented in the annals of contemporary warfare with the killing of civilians becoming an accepted new normal. The evidence is there to bring about accountability, the challenge is to use it. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    33 mins
  • Syria: caught between Türkiye and Israel

    Syria: caught between Türkiye and Israel
    Jan 8 2025
    Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Turkish writer and analyst Aslı Aydıntaşbaş. With the victory of the Salafist HTS in Syria both Türkiye and Israel see opportunities to accelerate their regional ambitions but the two may be heading toward an intense new rivalry as Netanyahu woos the Kurds of Northeast Syria and Erdoğan weighs up whether to offer them the hand of peace or to unleash the hounds of war. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    30 mins
  • Editor's choice: Amal Ghandour

    Editor's choice: Amal Ghandour
    Jan 1 2025
    The editor's choice for 2024 is our 18 September podcast Palestine and a new awakening with the writer and commentator Amal Ghandour. When we spoke with her then 41000 Palestinians had been killed and 96000 wounded. As Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people continues that number has now reached more than 45000 killed and 107000 wounded. The podcast aired before the assassination of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Israel's invasion of Lebanon where more than 4000 have been killed. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    35 mins
  • The Arab Digest 2024 yearender

    The Arab Digest 2024 yearender
    Dec 23 2024
    Arab Digest editor William Law's guest is the analyst and commentator Sami Hamdi. In a rapid fire run through the Middle East headlines of 2024 they cover a lot of ground from an ISIS massacre to the Sudan war, from the ICJ decision on Israel's seizure of Palestinian land to the triumph of Trump and the fall of Assad with several stops in between and a forecast from Sami about what 2025 may bring. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    36 mins
  • Oil, OPEC and the outlook for 2025

    Oil, OPEC and the outlook for 2025
    Dec 19 2024
    William Law's guest this week is Arab Digest's resident energy analyst Alastair Newton. In a tumultuous and violent year in the Middle East and elsewhere OPEC has seen its market relevance continue to decline raising concerns for Saudi Arabia as its bid to diversify away from hydrocarbons falters. Questions too about whether the cartel itself will survive. And from the analyst who called it spot on in 2024 an informed prediction about where the price of oil will be in December 2025. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    32 mins
  • Syria has a new strongman

    Syria has a new strongman
    Dec 11 2024
    With the stunning success of HTS and its leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani in bringing down the Assad regime Syria enters a new era. How al-Jolani chooses to structure the country and how Syria's neighbours in the Middle East respond will determine whether instability and new war fronts emerge or whether the Syrian people finally secure lasting peace and a government answerable to them. As the aftershocks of an Islamist victory in the Levant continue to reverberate Arab Digest editor William Law is in conversation with the Syrian analyst Malik al-Abdeh. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    32 mins