Tag: middle east

• Beirut, at Sunset

  December 31, 2023

  On August 4, 2020 a massive explosion ripped through the beleaguered city’s port, killing 218 people and injuring 7,000. The explosion was not an act of terrorism or war but… more ›

• Britain’s Israel-Palestine Dilemma

  November 7, 2023

  In this episode, Tom and Helen discuss the history of Britain’s relationship with the Israel-Palestine question; from Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, to Starmer’s recent opposition to calls for ceasefire.… more ›

• MBS’s $500 Billion Desert Dream Just Keeps Getting Weirder

  July 16, 2022

  Neom, the Saudi crown prince’s urban megaproject, is supposed to have a ski resort, swim lanes for commuters, and “smart” everything. It’s going great—for the consultants. The chosen site in… more ›

• The “TikTok intifada”

  May 23, 2021

  Usually Palestinians and their allies struggle to have their narrative break through online. Not anymore. Israel unquestionably has the military advantage in its ongoing conflict with Hamas. But in the… more ›

• Designed in Minecraft, built IRL

  September 26, 2020

  In Gaza, citizens are imagining what public spaces could be, and then actually building them. Before 2018, Hamdan had certainly never played a video game. That year, she learned to… more ›

• She’s got game

  August 31, 2020

  As Saudi Arabia loosens gender restrictions on esports, the country’s female gamers are stepping up to meet the challenge. Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia’s gaming scene has dramatically evolved,… more ›

• Penetrating Every Stage of Afghan Opium Chain, Taliban Become a Cartel

  May 26, 2020

  ZARANJ, Afghanistan — Shortly after sunrise, an Afghan special operations helicopter descended on two vehicles racing through the empty deserts of southern Afghanistan, traversing what has become a superhighway for… more ›

• How the Taliban Outlasted a Superpower: Tenacity and Carnage

  May 26, 2020

  The Taliban stand on the brink of realizing their most fervent desire: U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan. They have given up little of their extremist ideology to do it. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/world/asia/taliban-afghanistan-war.html more ›

• Mohammed bin Zayed’s Dark Vision of the Middle East’s Future

  January 10, 2020

  Richard Clarke was in Abu Dhabi one morning in 2013 when his phone lit up. “You busy?” a familiar voice said. It was a rhetorical question. The caller was Mohammed… more ›

• The Shadow Commander

  January 7, 2020

  Last February, some of Iran’s most influential leaders gathered at the Amir al-Momenin Mosque, in northeast Tehran, inside a gated community reserved for officers of the Revolutionary Guard. They had… more ›