Podcasts about Jordanian

We're wrapping the year with someone we've been looking forward to speaking with since the very beginning of it. We're so honored to have shared a conversation with the inimitable and visionary Wafa Ghnaim—an art and dress historian, fashion researcher, embroiderer, curator, archivist, educator, and author specializing in Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Lebanese dress history, embroidery, and adornment. We met Wafa when she attended a talk we gave about nameplate jewelry the Brooklyn Museum in February, and were immediately captivated both by her presence and her incredible book “Tatreez & Tea.” Through writing, teaching, and the Tatreez Institute, which she founded in 2016, Wafa has made it her life's work to pay homage to and preserve Palestinian fashion history in particular—both its deep past and its continued innovation and evolution. We spoke with her about material culture and oral tradition, the intricacies of provenance and appropriation, and how people make critical meaning through the art of dress.

A Palestinian baby who was evacuated for medical treatment has returned to Gaza and is back in hospital. The BBC has discussed Siwar Ashour's case with the Jordanian and Israeli governments. Also: President Trump announces new US navy battleships named after himself; Nigeria designates kidnappers as terrorists; Call of Duty creator Vince Zampella dies; Amazon warns of North Korean agents applying for remote IT jobs; and a Spanish town turns its luck around with huge "El Gordo" lottery win. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

How Do You Really Make Friends in Jordan?In this episode of Tips for Learning Levantine Arabic, Jennifer sits down in Amman with Adriana to talk honestly about one of the most common—and intimidating—questions language learners ask: How do you actually build real relationships with local people in Arabic?Adriana shares her personal journey of forming deep friendships in Jordan, even in the early stages of learning Arabic. As a self-described introvert and perfectionist, she explains how intentionality, humility, listening, and overcoming fear mattered far more than fluency or extroversion. From volunteering and language exchange to long home visits, shared meals, and spontaneous encounters in parks, Adriana offers concrete, lived experience on how relationships can be formed between expats and locals in Jordanian.This episode explores:Making friends before you “speak well”Why fear—not grammar—is the biggest obstacleIntroversion, self-care, and emotional health in cross-cultural lifeCultural expectations around hospitality, visits, and timeThe values of presence, humility, and genuine listeningHow relationships accelerate language learning in powerful waysWhether you're newly arrived in Jordan, stuck in an expat bubble, or preparing to live in the Arab world, this conversation will challenge your assumptions and encourage you to approach Arabic—and people—with patience, courage, and love.If you want to move beyond textbooks and into real community, Adriana has some helpful advice for you.For more on our approach to learning the spoken Levantine Arabic dialect, check out our site here: http://shababeekcenter.com

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger Picture The [CB] is losing control of the economy, they wanted a crash instead Trump has turned it around and the economy is growing very quickly. The D’s are trying to convince the people that the economy is worse than what Trump is letting on, this will fail.Watch gold, silver and Bitcoin. The [DS] tried to gain control the military by having the seditious 6 tell the military not to obey, Trump gives them a dividend check to show he cares about them. The Epstein files were released, it all points to the Clinton’s and the D’s. The entire plan backfired on the [DS], boomerang. Every step of the way they are feeling the pain. The [DS] wants war and Trump is fighting against those countries who are suppose to be our allies. He will get peace in the end. Economy (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent BODIES Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren with a Devastating Reminder After She Claims Trump is Setting the Stage for the Next Economic Crash  Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (D-MA) made a poor decision trying to school Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier this week, and it spectacularly backfired. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/2000915011154112623?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2000915011154112623%7Ctwgr%5E4c8d9bec902c32b0cd01ee05619255f6315a3493%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Ftreasury-secretary-scott-bessent-bodies-elizabeth-pocahontas-warren%2F  substantial increase in private credit which is outside of the regulated banking system — that tells me that the regulated system is too constrained.” https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/2001375798947885283?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2001375798947885283%7Ctwgr%5E4c8d9bec902c32b0cd01ee05619255f6315a3493%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Ftreasury-secretary-scott-bessent-bodies-elizabeth-pocahontas-warren%2F https://twitter.com/SecScottBessent/status/2002138930410324028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002138930410324028%7Ctwgr%5E4c8d9bec902c32b0cd01ee05619255f6315a3493%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Ftreasury-secretary-scott-bessent-bodies-elizabeth-pocahontas-warren%2F  Administration. Over-regulation is not the solution to what ails the American banking system. Rigorous, responsible supervision is. The initial report on the 2023 debacle by former Vice Chairman for Supervision, Michael Barr, was an exercise in obfuscation and sophistry. The American people deserve supervisors who are not asleep at the wheel, and the incoming Chairman of the Federal Reserve should undertake a thorough investigation of the systemic and oversight failures that led to that disaster. Source: thegaetwaypundit.com Trump announces that they've sold $1.3 BILLION worth of Gold Cards within Days Political/Rights https://twitter.com/RepJamesComer/status/2002011743254380602?s=20 More than a dozen politically exposed people and government officials’ names appear in the hundreds of thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein files made public Friday, sources said. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the DOJ discovered more than 1,200 victims and their families during the exhaustive review, explaining the process behind determining which files could be released in a letter to Congress exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. https://twitter.com/Badhombre/status/2002388917618610413?s=20   home in New York to solicit money for her campaign and the DCCC. FBI was warned that Jeffrey Epstein was into child porn — but ignored it for 10 years, docs show   A former employee of late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein alerted the FBI that he was interested in “child pornography” and that he threatened to “burn her house down” decades before Epstein became an international fixation — but feds apparently did nothing. Source: nypost.com   If there was every anything about Trump, it would have been released before he reached the bottom of the escalator in 2015, the Comey FBI would have leaked it, and the Dems would have brought it up at some point while Biden was in office. But none of that happened. Why? Because Epstein leads to the Dems, and people like myself have been trying to warn the world about it for 10+ years.  https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2002408563193368834?s=20  and it worked brilliantly. Could you imagine if in Trump's first term he released all this stuff about Epstein? The public would not have believed it, and the Dems/MSM would have claimed it was all politically motivated and fabricated by Trump. The only way this Epstein disclosure was going to work, was to get the public to beg for it. So that's what Trump did. https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/2002450017647301084?s=20 https://twitter.com/WarClandestine/status/2002530633394934144?s=20   partner with Wolfe via the TerraMar project, which is also connected to the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation. What is Nathan Wolfe known for? Searching for bat coronaviruses in Ukraine via USAID Project PREDICT, via his biolab company, Metabiota, which was funded via Rosemont Seneca, which is partially owned by Hunter Biden. Russia accused Wolfe and his biolab company of creating genome-specific biological weapons in Ukraine. This situation has been addressed by RFK Jr. and Tulsi multiple times, and has been a major topic at the UN for over 3 years now. So Epstein had an interest in eugenics and he had financial/social connections to virologists who were making genome-specific biological weapons via USAID grants in Ukraine. Nathan Wolfe even directly thanked Epstein in his 2011 book “The Viral Storm: The Dawn of the New Pandemic Age” where Wolfe predicted the COVID pandemic 8 years before it happened… So what am I getting at? I think Epstein had plans to engage in ethnic cleansing/population control/genocide via biological weapon, and I think he had something to do with Covid. Epstein is at the epicenter of the Deep State empire. He was essentially a real life James Bond villain. The timing could not be worse. He and Hillary are in the middle of trying to fight subpoenas to testify in person to the House Oversight Committee on the Epstein matter and what they might know. They want to submit sworn statements. Republican Committee Chair James Comer (KY-1) wants to be able to question and cross-examine them in person.  DOGE Geopolitical U.S. Snatches Venezuela Oil Tanker in Dark‑Hour Strike on Narco‑Terror Funding In a stealth operation carried out before dawn on Dec. 20, the U.S. Coast Guard—working alongside the Department of War—seized an oil tanker last seen in the terrorist state of Venezuela. The United States accused the ship's operators of moving sanctioned crude to fuel narco‑terror activity. Officials issued a stark warning to traffickers: “We will find you, and we will stop you. https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/2002481990755627050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002481990755627050%7Ctwgr%5E0acb5b51ea0ddfb03f7a0e25a375c9245159ce68%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Ft%2Fassets%2Fhtml%2Ftweet-5.html2002481990755627050 https://twitter.com/PeteHegseth/status/2002504193924342003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002504193924342003%7Ctwgr%5E1410e2476c70f24b31810862ee2f8e034c77bc3e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Ft%2Fassets%2Fhtml%2Ftweet-5.html2002504193924342003  conduct maritime interdiction operations — through OPERATION SOUTHERN SPEAR — to dismantle illicit criminal networks. Violence, drugs, and chaos will not control the Western Hemisphere. Source: breitbart.com U.S. imposes sanctions on family and associates of Venezuela’s Maduro and his wife The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on family members and associates of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as Washington ratchets up pressure on the Venezuelan president. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that it had imposed sanctions on seven people it said were tied to Maduro and his wife. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused them of “propping up Nicolás Maduro’s rogue narcostate.” “ Source: cbc.ca War/Peace Zelenskyy Announces Eastern Ukraine Citizens Will Not Be Allowed to Vote in Elections Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to hold elections if there is a ceasefire.  However, eastern Ukraine citizens, those currently living in the Donbas region, who are supportive of Russia, will not be permitted to vote. This creates a rather bizarre official hypocrisy within the Zelenskyy regime.  The official position of Zelenskyy is that Eastern Ukraine will never be accepted as a part of the Russian federation. Zelenskyy has recently noted, with EU leadership support, that his government will never recognize Eastern Ukraine as part of the Russian federation.  However, this same region, approximately 20% of Ukraine, will not be permitted to participate in his controlled election. Essentially, any Ukraine resident who does not support Zelenskyy will not be permitted to vote in any election, if any election is ever permitted.  Additionally, Zelenskyy notes that “there is the practice of voting abroad,” however, any region not controlled by Zelenskyy cannot submit votes. Source: zerohedge.com A Lie And Propaganda’: Gabbard Fact-Checks Reuters’ Russia Scaremongering In Real Time    Reuters posted an anonymously-sourced story pushing the idea that Russia is bent on reconstituting the Soviet Union. Before the metaphorical ink had dried, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard pounced, condemning the story as “a lie and propaganda” on behalf of “warmongers” seeking to derail President Trump’s drive to end the long and bloody Ukraine war.   Reuters vaguely attributed the purported US intelligence conclusions about Russia to “six sources familiar with US intelligence.”    https://twitter.com/DNIGabbard/status/2002484806978834862?s=20  narrative to block President Trump's peace effort, and fomenting hysteria and fear among the people to get them to support the escalation of war, which is what NATO and the EU really want in order to pull the United States military directly into war with Russia. The truth is the US intelligence community has briefed policymakers, including the Democrat HPSCI member quoted by Reuters, that US Intelligence assesses that Russia seeks to avoid a larger war with NATO. It also assesses that, as the last few years have shown, Russia's battlefield performance indicates it does not currently have the capability to conquer and occupy all of Ukraine, let alone Europe. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/2002503405156151648?s=20   invade/conquer Europe (in order to gin up support for their pro-war policies). The truth is that ‘US intelligence' assesses that Russia does not even have the capability to conquer and occupy Ukraine, what to speak of ‘invading and occupying' Europe.   Source: zerohedge.com WATCH: US CENTCOM Releases Footage from Operation Hawkeye Strikes Against 70+ ISIS Targets  US Central Command released footage from Operation Hawkeye strikes against ISIS militants and facilities on Friday night. “Tonight, U.S. and Jordanian forces struck 70+ ISIS targets in Syria with 100+ precision munitions. Peace through strength,” CENTCOM said on X. This is one of 10 operations conducted in Syria and Iraq since the December 13 ambush in Syria, which left multiple American service members injured and two soldiers and a civilian interpreter killed. Twenty-three terrorist operatives have been killed or detained, according to CENTCOM. “We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to harm Americans and our partners across the region,” CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper said. TAMPA, Fla.- Following the attack on U.S. and partner forces last Saturday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commenced Operation Hawkeye Strike at 4 pm ET against ISIS in Syria, Dec. 19, at the Commander in Chief's direction. Source: thegatewaypundit.com   of Syria, led by a man who is working very hard to bring Greatness back to Syria, and is fully in support. All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned — YOU WILL BE HIT HARDER THAN YOU HAVE EVER BEEN HIT BEFORE IF YOU, IN ANY WAY, ATTACK OR THREATEN THE U.S.A. DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Medical/False Flags [DS] Agenda https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2002717078722052256?s=20  reclassify serious crimes as less severe “intermediate offenses” that are not publicly reported. https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/2002421989886075083?s=20 BREAKING: HUD Sec. Scott Turner CONFIRMS major investigation into Boston for anti-white public housing discrimination“They were using discriminatory housing policies in their city! We found a quote on their website that said they will integrate ‘racial equity at every level of city government.'”“They put race above reality. They put race above merit and need. Our job at HUD is to enforce and uphold the fair housing – and they were evading and encouraging landlords and property owners to evade the Fair Housing Act!”“They have been put on NOTICE. We uphold and enforce this law.” https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2002091915819253766?s=20  weaponized against Minnesota!” GOOD. IT’S CALLED ACCOUNTABILITY, TIM. “They’re threatening us with this. And this is what happens when you have a floundering presidency, and it is about those ballrooms and everything else. Now we’re back on transgender folks. And these are healthcare providers providing the best guidance to parents and children to get their care.” “It’s on every front! It’s CDLs, it’s transportation money, it’s money across the board that they have weaponized!” He should be worried. https://twitter.com/AAGDhillon/status/2002596210620969230?s=20 https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/2002531244131991931?s=20 https://twitter.com/cb_doge/status/2001646253655097726?s=20 https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2002203857955549464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2002203857955549464%7Ctwgr%5E7d1378774cdcbdfe43552d1c5b5ef213bd4f721f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Ft%2Fassets%2Fhtml%2Ftweet-5.html2002203857955549464 President Trump's Plan Democrats Have Devised a Plan to Compete With Turning Point USA for Young Voters and it's Going to be a Disaster Democrats have decided that they need to have their own version of Turning Point USA in order to appeal to young voters and what they have come up with is the most Democrat thing ever. It's going to be a total disaster. It's called the ‘DNC National Youth Coordinated Table'. It's not a grassroots group, it's completely fabricated. And you can just imagine how meetings of this group are going to go, with mini-groups within the group fighting for dominance and power. Newsweek reported on this: Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/CynicalPublius/status/2002577300802711720?s=20 DOJ Appeals Controversial Ruling That Disqualified Trump-Appointed U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, Resulting in the Dismissal of Charges Against Letitia James and James Comey The Department of Justice has formally appealed a controversial ruling that disqualified Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, a decision that directly led to the dismissal of federal charges against James Comey and Letitia James. According to a Notice of Appeal filed on December 19, the Trump-led DOJ is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to overturn a lower-court ruling that declared Halligan's appointment unconstitutional and voided every prosecutorial action she took while in office. Source: thegatewaypundit.com JUST IN: DOJ Wins Motion to Unseal Documents on Investigation into Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks The Department of Justice announced that it successfully moved to unseal documents related to the investigation into would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks.  “The Department of Justice received court approval to disclose to Congress documents gathered as part of the FBI's investigation of Thomas Crooks and his attempt to assassinate President Trump,” the Western District of Pennsylvania announced on X. A copy of the motion and order can be found here. Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/AAGDhillon/status/2002596363138445539?s=20 Justice Department Sues Four States Including Georgia After Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Sides With Democrats in Failure to Produce Voter Rolls https://twitter.com/AAGDhillon/status/2001775020566286614?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2001775020566286614%7Ctwgr%5Ee92dad24c2453e3b35c6a465ec1523cafbc35499%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2025%2F12%2Fjustice-department-sues-four-states-including-georgia-after%2F Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2001992915850260516?s=20 https://twitter.com/MarkPaoletta/status/2002483634251461079?s=20   memorial to President John F. Kennedy and now additionally honors President Donald J. Trump, who has brought America back and saved the Trump-Kennedy Center. The Board's action is permissible under the statute and no legislation is necessary. The Board’s action does nothing to change the statutory title. Instead, the Board has–in line with longstanding Executive Branch practice–designated a new name. For example, The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer, within the Office of Management & Budget, is designated by statute as the “Office of Electronic Government.” But it's long gone by the name “Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer” in official, public, and internal communications. Similarly, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is designated by statute as the “Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.” But since the beginning, the agency has long gone by the name Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or CFPB in all official communications, correspondence with the Hill, titles and signage on its buildings. The “United States Institute of Peace” was established by statute but was renamed by the Department of State as the “Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.” The Department of War was established as the “Department of Defense” by statute in 1947. Earlier this year, President Trump authorized the use of the name “Department of War” and the name is now etched on the Pentagon's building and in official correspondence and public communications. It is entirely fitting for the Board of Trustees to vote to add President Trump to the title so that this Center is now named The Donald J. Trump And The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. President Trump has provided superb leadership at every level to save the Kennedy Center from financial ruin and wokeness, and to bring our national treasure to new heights! Thank you, @kencen Board of Trustees for honoring President Trump. I have been going to the Kennedy Center for decades and have never seen such energy and excitement as I did at the Christmas tree lighting and Noel performance. The Golden Age is here!   AND ORDER. As your next Governor, Bruce will continue to fight hard to Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes, and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Champion American Energy DOMINANCE, Strengthen our Military/Veterans, Advance Election Integrity, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment!   Bruce Blakeman is a FANTASTIC guy, will win the big November Election and, without hesitation, has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Governor of the ONCE GREAT STATE OF NEW YORK (IT CAN BE GREAT AGAIN!). BRUCE BLAKEMAN WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!  (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");

The world is entering a new era of conflict: more violent, more fragmented, and with more civilians caught in the crossfire than at any time since World War II. But the consequences of war may extend far beyond the battlefield. Rana Dajani, Jordanian molecular biologist and long-time member of the Tällberg network, is part of a research team uncovering how traumatic violence might alter gene expression and affect not only survivors but also their children and grandchildren. In this episode, she explains the emerging science behind intergenerational trauma and explores what these findings could mean for societies living through—and after—conflict.

Dr. Shireen Abu-Khader and Ethan Gans-Morse of Anima Mundi join the Exchange to discuss "Music of the Middle East" and a film produced specifically for the concert at SOU on Dec 7.

Israel Reclaims Its Birthright: Ending a 70-Year Land Ban as Violence Spreads From DC to Judea Listen to a powerful, eye-opening episode where we reveal the stories the mainstream media is not covering. This week, Ari Abramowitz, Jeremy Gimpel and The Israel Guys, break down Israel's historic move to overturn a 70-year-old Jordanian-era law, finally allowing Jews and those eligible under the Law of Return to purchase land in Judea and Samaria. We also examine shocking parallels between the recent National Guard shootings in Washington D.C. and violent assaults in Judea, where rioters attacked Jewish shepherds, injuring Israelis and stealing part of their flock. In addition, we question the credibility of the Palestinian Authority in light of ongoing foreign policy debates, including former President Trump's intentions to put them in charge of Gaza. This episode highlights the growing disconnect between media narratives and the realities on the ground in Israel. We close with insights from this week's Torah portion, reminding listeners to stay rooted in truth, faith, and the land of Israel. Tune in, stay informed, and stand with Israel.

Join The Israel Guys member program: https://israelguys.link/TIGmember This week on The Israel Guys, the team breaks down several major stories that have not been told in mainstream English media. Interestingly, the two National Guardsmen shot in Washington D.C. have a correlation to a similar violent assault in Judea, where hundreds of Arab rioters attacked Jewish shepherds, injuring multiple Israelis and stealing part of their flock of sheep. They also highlight a historic policy shift in Jerusalem: Israel is moving to overturn a 70-year-old Jordanian-era law that banned Jews from purchasing land in Judea and Samaria—opening the door for Israelis and those eligible under the Law of Return to own property in the region without legal loopholes. Today's episode also questions the Palestinian Authority's credibility, especially given Trump's desire to put them in charge of Gaza. Today's hosts underscore the growing disconnect between realities on the ground and foreign policy narratives. They close with insights from this week's Torah portion and a reminder to look past propaganda and stay connected to what's really happening in Israel. Follow The Israel Guys on Telegram: https://t.me/theisraelguys  Follow Us On X: https://x.com/theisraelguys  Follow Us On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theisraelguys Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theisraelguys Source Links:  https://x.com/MOSSADil/status/1993388312342470965?s=20 https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-876356 https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/skhomqmu1l#google_vignette https://www.jns.org/palestinian-authority-cant-govern-gaza-as-us-plans-for-it-to-danon-says/ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0l6k9sb  

"All That's Left Of You" is a drama film produced, written, and directed by Cherien Dabis, who also stars alongside Saleh Bakri, Mohammad Bakri, Adam Bakri, Maria Zreik, Muhammad Abed Elrahman, Sanad Alkabareti, and Salah El Din. It follows a Palestinian family across three generations during the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and later screened at the Telluride Film Festival, receiving positive reviews for its storytelling and performances. It has been selected as the Jordanian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Filmmaker and star Dabis was kind enough to spend some time speaking with us about her work and experience making the film, which you can listen to below. Please be sure to check out the film, which is set to open January 9th in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, followed by a Nationwide rollout from Watermelon Pictures and Visibility Films. Thank you, and enjoy! Check out more on NextBestPicture.com Please subscribe on... Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/negs-best-film-podcast/id1087678387?mt=2 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7IMIzpYehTqeUa1d9EC4jT YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWA7KiotcWmHiYYy6wJqwOw And be sure to help support us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month at https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture and listen to this podcast ad-free Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kaya and Faisal break down the rise of a Muslim founder whose AI company is now valued at $3B—from coding in a Jordanian internet café and getting rejected by YC four times… to building a browser-based IDE in 2016, then pivoting into agentic AI that codes, debugs, and deploys while you sleep. We pull out the real lessons: grit over hype, "die on the path," and why building within halal limits brings barakah (with cautionary stories about riba). We also spotlight MENSPIRE, a global barbershop chain built on Muslim values (no music, no gossip, family-safe) that still scaled—proof you can build infrastructure for the community without compromising. Plus: dopamine from doing (not doom-scrolling), showing up daily, and being agile like water when markets shift.

The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan (Universal Publishers, 2025) is the first comprehensive biography on Jordan's King Abdullah. Drawing on interviews with over 100 individuals, including Abdullah's classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and CIA directors, The Most American King offers a thorough account of this key Arab leader. Aaron Magid, a former Amman-based journalist, charts Abdullah's path to power from a Massachusetts prep school to a British military academy to the throne. This book examines how Abdullah has remained in power for over a quarter century, surrounded by wars and refugee crises. While leaders nearby were ousted during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Abdullah survived the wave of discontent. The Most American King details Abdullah's efforts to cement an alliance with Washington. Despite leading a small desert country, the Jordanian king was the first Arab leader to meet US Presidents Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama. The kingdom has received billions in US assistance, and Abdullah's intelligence services helped the CIA foil Al-Qaeda terror plots against American targets. Abdullah's personal ties to the United States have strengthened this relationship. Abdullah trained with the US Army in Kentucky, appeared on a Star Trek episode, and interviewed with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. While the Hashemite ruler has frequently been lauded in the West, The Most American King discusses how some of Abdullah's decisions provoked controversy inside the Hashemite Kingdom. Abdullah approved a $15 billion gas deal with Israel in 2014, but thousands of Jordanians protested the Hashemite Kingdom's largest-ever deal with the Jewish state. Over a decade earlier, Abdullah agreed to host US troops in Jordan and provide Washington with overflight rights ahead of the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood denounced such military cooperation with the United States as it prepared to topple the government of its neighbor. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Jordanian politics. Roberto Mazza is currently a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He is the host of the Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast and to discuss and propose a book for interview can be reached at robbymazza@gmail.com. Blusky and IG: @robbyref Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan (Universal Publishers, 2025) is the first comprehensive biography on Jordan's King Abdullah. Drawing on interviews with over 100 individuals, including Abdullah's classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and CIA directors, The Most American King offers a thorough account of this key Arab leader. Aaron Magid, a former Amman-based journalist, charts Abdullah's path to power from a Massachusetts prep school to a British military academy to the throne. This book examines how Abdullah has remained in power for over a quarter century, surrounded by wars and refugee crises. While leaders nearby were ousted during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Abdullah survived the wave of discontent. The Most American King details Abdullah's efforts to cement an alliance with Washington. Despite leading a small desert country, the Jordanian king was the first Arab leader to meet US Presidents Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama. The kingdom has received billions in US assistance, and Abdullah's intelligence services helped the CIA foil Al-Qaeda terror plots against American targets. Abdullah's personal ties to the United States have strengthened this relationship. Abdullah trained with the US Army in Kentucky, appeared on a Star Trek episode, and interviewed with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. While the Hashemite ruler has frequently been lauded in the West, The Most American King discusses how some of Abdullah's decisions provoked controversy inside the Hashemite Kingdom. Abdullah approved a $15 billion gas deal with Israel in 2014, but thousands of Jordanians protested the Hashemite Kingdom's largest-ever deal with the Jewish state. Over a decade earlier, Abdullah agreed to host US troops in Jordan and provide Washington with overflight rights ahead of the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood denounced such military cooperation with the United States as it prepared to topple the government of its neighbor. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Jordanian politics. Roberto Mazza is currently a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He is the host of the Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast and to discuss and propose a book for interview can be reached at robbymazza@gmail.com. Blusky and IG: @robbyref Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan (Universal Publishers, 2025) is the first comprehensive biography on Jordan's King Abdullah. Drawing on interviews with over 100 individuals, including Abdullah's classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and CIA directors, The Most American King offers a thorough account of this key Arab leader. Aaron Magid, a former Amman-based journalist, charts Abdullah's path to power from a Massachusetts prep school to a British military academy to the throne. This book examines how Abdullah has remained in power for over a quarter century, surrounded by wars and refugee crises. While leaders nearby were ousted during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Abdullah survived the wave of discontent. The Most American King details Abdullah's efforts to cement an alliance with Washington. Despite leading a small desert country, the Jordanian king was the first Arab leader to meet US Presidents Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama. The kingdom has received billions in US assistance, and Abdullah's intelligence services helped the CIA foil Al-Qaeda terror plots against American targets. Abdullah's personal ties to the United States have strengthened this relationship. Abdullah trained with the US Army in Kentucky, appeared on a Star Trek episode, and interviewed with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. While the Hashemite ruler has frequently been lauded in the West, The Most American King discusses how some of Abdullah's decisions provoked controversy inside the Hashemite Kingdom. Abdullah approved a $15 billion gas deal with Israel in 2014, but thousands of Jordanians protested the Hashemite Kingdom's largest-ever deal with the Jewish state. Over a decade earlier, Abdullah agreed to host US troops in Jordan and provide Washington with overflight rights ahead of the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood denounced such military cooperation with the United States as it prepared to topple the government of its neighbor. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Jordanian politics. Roberto Mazza is currently a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He is the host of the Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast and to discuss and propose a book for interview can be reached at robbymazza@gmail.com. Blusky and IG: @robbyref Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan (Universal Publishers, 2025) is the first comprehensive biography on Jordan's King Abdullah. Drawing on interviews with over 100 individuals, including Abdullah's classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and CIA directors, The Most American King offers a thorough account of this key Arab leader. Aaron Magid, a former Amman-based journalist, charts Abdullah's path to power from a Massachusetts prep school to a British military academy to the throne. This book examines how Abdullah has remained in power for over a quarter century, surrounded by wars and refugee crises. While leaders nearby were ousted during the 2011 Arab Spring protests, Abdullah survived the wave of discontent. The Most American King details Abdullah's efforts to cement an alliance with Washington. Despite leading a small desert country, the Jordanian king was the first Arab leader to meet US Presidents Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama. The kingdom has received billions in US assistance, and Abdullah's intelligence services helped the CIA foil Al-Qaeda terror plots against American targets. Abdullah's personal ties to the United States have strengthened this relationship. Abdullah trained with the US Army in Kentucky, appeared on a Star Trek episode, and interviewed with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart. While the Hashemite ruler has frequently been lauded in the West, The Most American King discusses how some of Abdullah's decisions provoked controversy inside the Hashemite Kingdom. Abdullah approved a $15 billion gas deal with Israel in 2014, but thousands of Jordanians protested the Hashemite Kingdom's largest-ever deal with the Jewish state. Over a decade earlier, Abdullah agreed to host US troops in Jordan and provide Washington with overflight rights ahead of the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. The Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood denounced such military cooperation with the United States as it prepared to topple the government of its neighbor. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Jordanian politics. Roberto Mazza is currently a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He is the host of the Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast and to discuss and propose a book for interview can be reached at robbymazza@gmail.com. Blusky and IG: @robbyref Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2531 - Against a volatile Jordanian government, the brothers plod the Israelite's path into Canaan. In Jericho, evangelist Israel Hanna joins to discuss Joshua's famous battle. At Beit Shean, they analyze the Egyptian Empire's past occupation of the Land.

Analyst Abdullah Hayek joins the podcast to discuss the motivations for the Jordanian government's crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood. Hayek discusses whether the Islamic Action Front will be allowed to run in future elections and whether foreign nations influenced Amman in its ban. Finally, Hayek addresses how the Jordanian public perceived the restrictions against the Muslim Brotherhood.

In this week's episode, we sit down with Coach Roy Rana — one of the most globally experienced minds in the game — to explore what it truly means to design a program. From his time with Egypt's National Team and the Kyoto Hannaryz to stints in the NBA, Rana shares how he builds culture through intentional design, clear communication, and relentless attention to detail.We dive into:Turning every meeting into a designed experience that reflects your values.Profiling teams and identifying the quickest ways to impact performance.Using visuals, environment, and tone to communicate across cultures.Teaching spacing through tactile learning and progressive complexity.Redefining “roles” with aspiration, not limitation.Treating Baseline Out of Bounds as soccer-style set pieces with multi-layer reads.A masterclass in leadership and intentional coaching, Rana challenges us to start designing experiences that inspire trust, clarity, and growth.To join coaches and championship winning staffs from the NBA to High School from over 60 different countries taking advantage of an SG Plus membership, visit HERE!

How did the Israeli economy react to the war against Hamas?  Hear from a major player on the ground – Dr. Eugene Kandel, former economic adviser and Chairman of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, discusses Israel's financial resilience after the war against Hamas. Having made aliyah from the Soviet Union in 1977 with his family, Dr. Kandel covers the stock market rebound, missed economic opportunities with Jordan and Egypt, and the success of the Abraham Accords.  *The views and opinions expressed by guests do not necessarily reflect the views or position of AJC. Take Action: Elected Leaders: Demand Hamas Release the Hostages  Key Resources: AJC's Efforts to Support the Hostages Listen – AJC Podcasts: Architects of Peace The Forgotten Exodus People of the Pod Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript of the Interview: Manya Brachear Pashman:   Professor Eugene Kandel served as economic adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel from 2009 to 2015, and with Ron Sor is a co-founder of Israel's Strategic Futures Institute. He is also chairman of the Tel Aviv stock exchange, the only public stock exchange in Israel, known locally as the Bursa. He is with us now to talk about the impact of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza on Israel's economy, the potential and impact so far of the Abraham Accords, and how history could one day view October 7 as a turning point for Israel's democracy.  Dr. Kandel, welcome to People of the Pod. Eugene Kandel:   Thank you. Thank you for having me.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   Before we begin, your family came to Israel in 1977. Can you share your family's Aliyah story? Eugene Kandel:   Yeah, when I was 14, my family was living very comfortably in the Soviet Union. My father was a quite known writer, playwright, a script writer. And around him was a group of Jewish people of culture that were quite known in their domains, mostly Jewish. And so at some point in 67 he sort of had this vision and started studying Hebrew. But 1970 and then by ‘73 when I was 14 years old, he came to me and said, Look, your mom and I decided to immigrate to Israel. What do you think about it, and I said, I don't know what I think about it. Okay, you know, if we want to immigrate, let's immigrate. I never felt too much belonging there. So unfortunately, Soviet authorities had other ideas about that. So we spent four years as refuseniks. My father, together with Benjamin Fine, were the editors of the underground publication called Tarbut. And for people who did not live there, they put their names on it. So this was, these were typewritten copies of Jewish culture monthly. And there were two names on it. You could go to jail for this. My father was always pretty brave man for his petite size, because during the Second World War, he was very, very hungry, to say the least. So he didn't really grow very much. But he's very big inside.  And so the following four years were pretty tough on them, because he couldn't work anywhere. Just like in McCarty years in this country, people would give work to their friends and then publish it under their own name. That's what he did for his friends, and they would share the money with him, or give him most of the money. There were very, very brave people. And then, you know, there was an incident where they wanted to send a message to my father to be a little less publicly outspoken. And so two KGB agents beat me up.  And that started a whole interesting set of events, because there was an organization in Chicago called Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry. Pamela Cohen. And I actually met Pamela when I was studying at the University of Chicago. And thanked her. So they took upon themselves to harass Soviet cinema and theater and culture officials. And so they were so successful that at some point, the writers league from Hollywood said that nobody will go to Moscow Film Festival unless they release us because they do not want to associate with people who beat up children. I wasn't a child, I was 17 years old, but still. And that sort of helped. At least, that's how we think about it.  So it's worthwhile being beaten up once in a while, because if it lets you out, I would take it another time. And then we came to Israel in a very interesting time. We came to Israel four hours after Anwar Sadat left. So we came to a different Israel. On the brink of a peace agreement with Egypt. And so that was it.  We came to Mevaseret Zion, which was an absorption center. A small absorption center. Today I actually live probably 500 yards from where we stayed. Sort of full circle.  And today, it's a significant, it's about 25,000 people town. And that's the story, you know, in the middle, in between then and now, I served in the military, did two degrees at Hebrew University, did two degrees at the University of Chicago, served as professor at the University of Rochester, and then for 28 years, served as professor of economics and finance at the Hebrew University. So I keep doing these circles to places where I started. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You say you arrived four hours after Sadat's visit to Israel on the brink of a peace agreement with Egypt. Did that peace agreement live up to expectations? Eugene Kandel:   Well, it depends what are your expectations. If your expectation will continue in the war, it definitely did, because, you know, for the last, you know, whatever, 48 years, we didn't have any military activity between Israel and Egypt. And we even have security collaboration to some extent. But if you're thinking about real peace, that would translate into people to people peace, business to business peace, it did not generate that at all. Because there was a very, very strong opposition on the street level and on the intellectuals level.  It actually started to break a little bit, because today you can find analysts on Egyptian television that are saying that we are, we are stupid because we don't collaborate with Israel. It is allowed today, It's allowed to be said in, you know, 20-30, years [ago], that person would have been ostracized and would never be allowed to speak.  So there is some progress, but unfortunately, it's a huge loss for the Egyptian economy. For Israeli economy, it is probably also a loss, but Israeli economy has a lot of alternatives in other countries. But Egyptians don't seem to be able to implement all the things that Israelis implemented a long time ago. You know, whether it's water technologies, whether it's energy technologies. Lots of lots of stuff, and it's really, really unfortunate that we could have helped Egyptian people, the same people who rejected any relations with us. And that's a pity. Manya Brachear Pashman:   The next peace agreement that came was with Jordan in 1994, quite some time later. Did that peace agreement live up to expectations, and where were you in 1994? Eugene Kandel:   1994, I was a professor at the University of Rochester, so I wasn't involved at all. But again, it was a very, very similar story. It was the peace that was sort of forced from above. It was clearly imposed on the people despite their objections, and you saw demonstrations, and you still see. But it was clear to the leadership of Jordan that Israel is, in their case, is absolutely essential for the survival of the Hashemite Dynasty. In the end the Israeli intelligence saved that dynasty, many, many times.  But again, it wasn't translated into anything economic, almost anything economic, until in the early 2000s there were some plants in Jordan by Israeli businessmen that were providing jobs, etc. But I was privileged to be the first to go to Jordan together with American officials and negotiate the beginning of the gas agreement.  We were selling gas to Jordan, because Jordan was basically going bankrupt because of the high energy costs. Jordan doesn't have its own energy, apart from oil shale. Sorry, shale oil. And for some reason they weren't able to develop that. But Israeli gas that we are selling to them as a result of what we started in 2012 I believe. Actually very important for the Jordanian economy. And if we can continue that, then maybe connect our electrical grid, which is now in the works, between the water-energy system.  And now maybe there is a possibility to connect the Syrian grid. If we have an agreement with Syria, it will help tremendously these countries to get economic development much faster. And it will help Israel as well, to balance its energy needs and to maybe get energy, provide energy, you know, get electricity, provide gas. You know, there's all these things where we can do a lot of things together. If there is a will on the other side. There's definitely will on the Israeli side. Manya Brachear Pashman:   In addition to gas, there's also water desalination agreements, as well, right? Eugene Kandel:   Yeah, there was a Red to Dead project, which was to pump the water all the way from the Red Sea along the Arava Valley. And then there is a 400 meter, 500 meter drop. And so to generate electricity through that desalinate that water that you pump, and then send that water to Egypt, send the electricity that was generated and not needed to Israel and then dump this salt stuff into the Dead Sea. Frankly, I don't know where this project is. Nobody talks about it for the last seven, eight years. I haven't heard.  Now there are different projects where you would get energy generated in Jordan and sold to Israel in Eilat, for example, because it's difficult for us to bring electricity all the way South. And so if the Jordanians have large fields of photovoltaic energy they can sell, they can satisfy the needs of a lot, and then in return, we can desalinate water and send it to them. So there's all kinds of projects that are being discussed. Manya Brachear Pashman:   But Israel does provide water to Jordan, correct? Eugene Kandel:   There are two agreements. One agreement, according to our peace agreement, we are supposed to provide them with a certain amount of water. I don't remember the exact amount. But that's not enough, and so we also sell them water. So think about it. There is a sweet water reservoir called Tiberius, Kinneret, in the north, and we sending water from there into two directions according to the agreement. We're sending it to Amman, pumping it up to the mountains, and then we're sending it throughout the Jordan Valley, all the way along the Jordan River, to the Jordanian side. So it's quite striking when I used to go between Jerusalem and Amman, it's actually an hour and a half drive. That's it. You go down, you go up, and you're there.  And so when you're passing the Israeli side, you see the plantations of date palms that are irrigated with drip irrigation. So very, very economically, using the brackish salt water that is pumped out of the ground there. You cross two miles further, you see banana plantations that are flood irrigated at 50-centigrade weather, and the water that comes from them comes on an open canal. So basically, 50% of the water that we send this way evaporates. Growing bananas in that climate and using so much water, it's probably, if you take into account the true cost of water, it's probably money losing proposition, but they're getting the water. The people that are the settlements on that Bank of Jordan River, are getting it for free. They don't care. And if somebody would just internalize that, and instead of sending the water down in an open canal, would send the whole water up to Amman, where there is a shortage of water, enormous shortage of water. And then you would take the gravity and use that water to generate electricity, to clean that water, the sewage, clean it and drip irrigate plantations, everybody would make enormous amounts of money. Literally enormous amounts of money. And everybody's lives would be better, okay? And I'm not talking about Israelis. It's within Jordan. And you can't say that there's no technology for that, because the technology is two miles away. You can see it.  And it just puzzles me. Why wouldn't that be done by some entrepreneurs, Jordanian entrepreneurs. We could really help with that. We could even help by buying the water from them back. The water that we give them, we can buy it back. Because in Israel, the water is very expensive. So we could finance that whole thing just by sending the water back, but that would be probably politically unacceptable, I don't know. But it's really, really . . . for an economist, it's just a sad story. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Missed opportunities. Well, let's go back. I introduced you as the chair of the Tel Aviv stock exchange, the Bursa. And I am curious. Let's talk about the economy. Does Israel treat its stock market the same way we do? In other words, are there opening and closing bells at the beginning and end of every day? How does the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange work compared to the United States? Eugene Kandel:   Well, we do have the opening bell, but it's usually reserved for some events. We don't have the events every day. Usually, if there's a new listing, or there's somebody celebrating, like, 20 years of listing, we have all kinds. Recently, we had Mr. Bill Ackman came and gave a speech and opened the trading together with us.  There are events around Jeffries Conference. But it's much more, you know, ceremony, I mean, it's not really connected to anything. Trading starts whether you press the button or don't. But Israeli stock exchange is unique in the following sense: it is an open limit book. What means that there is, you know, buyers meet sellers directly, and it works like that, not only in stocks, which is similar to what it is everywhere, but it's also in bonds, government bonds, corporate bonds, and in derivatives.  So in that sense, we do have our ceremonies, but the interesting thing is, what is happening with the exchange in the last two years. Accidentally, I joined two years ago as the chairman, and over the last two years, the stock exchange, the indices of Israeli Stock Exchange were the best performing out of all developed countries, by far. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Did that have something to do with the war? Eugene Kandel:   Well, it should have been, you know, in the opposite direction, but, the war is, not this length of war, not this intensity of war . . . but if you look back over at least 25 years, the Israeli economy responds very robustly to military conflict. Usually they're much shorter. If you look at even quarterly returns of the stock exchange, you would not know that there was a war in the middle, definitely not annual. If you look over the last 25 years, and you look at this stock, annual returns of the indices, you would not know that there was anything wrong, apart from our 2003 crisis, and Corona. Even the great financial crisis, you would not see it. I mean it was basically past us, because we didn't have a financial crisis in Israel. We had repercussions from, you know, the rest of the world's financial crisis, but we didn't get our own. And so we do have resilience built in, because we're just so used to it. However, having said that, it's the first time that we have such a long and intensive war on seven, whatever fronts. So it is quite surprising that just like any other time, it took about three months for the stock market to rebound after October 8. It was a big question whether to open the market on October 8. We struggled with it, and we decided that we do not want to give anybody the right to disrupt the Israeli economy.  I mean, it was a really tough decision, because there was certain people were saying, Well, how can you do that? It's a national tragedy. And of course, it was a national tragedy. But closing the market would have meant two things.  First of all, it would have shown the world that our economy can be interrupted. It would have given the benefit to those people that did these atrocities, that they managed to do more damage than they already did. And we didn't want to do that. And it didn't collapse. It went down, of course, but it rebounded within less than three months. By the end of that year, it was back on the same level. And then it did this comeback, which was quite phenomenal. And it's an interesting question, how come? Because during that time, we had some cases where Israel was boycotted by investors, very few, by the way, but we also saw many, many new investors coming in.  You could look at the war from the negative side. Of course, huge costs. But with all that, it was about 10% of annual GDP, because we are, you know, we're a big economy, and we borrowed that very easily because we had a very strong macro position before that. So we now 76% debt to GDP ratio. It's much lower than majority of developed countries. But we still had to borrow that. It was a lot of money, and then the defense budget is going to go up. So there is this cost.  But vis a vis that, A, Israeli technology has been proven to be unmatched, apart from maybe us technology in certain cases, but in some cases, even there, we have something to share. And so we have huge amounts of back orders for our defense industries. During the war, and they were going up when some of the countries that are making these purchases were criticizing us. They were learning from what we did, and buying, buying our equipment and software, etc.  And the second thing, we removed the huge security threat. If you look before October 7, we were quite concerned about 150,000 missiles, some of them precise missiles in Hezbollah's hands, an uninterrupted path from Iran through Syria to Hezbollah, constantly replenishing. We would bomb them sometimes in Syria, but we didn't catch all of them. We had Hamas, we had Hezbollah, we had Syrians, we had Iranians. We had, you know, not, you know, Iraqi militia. So, Hezbollah doesn't exist. Well, it exists, but it's nowhere near where it where was at. And the Lebanese Government is seriously attempting to disarm it. Syria, we all know what happened in Syria. We didn't lift a finger to do that. But indirectly, from what happened in Hezbollah, the rebels in Syria became emboldened and did what they did. We know what happened with Hamas. We know what happened with Iran. Okay, Iran, even Europeans reimposed the sanctions. So that's the side effect.  So if you look at the Israeli geopolitical and security situation, it's much, much better. And in that situation, once the war is over and the hostages are returned, and hopefully, we will not let this happen again, ever, to work hard so we remember that and not become complacent. It's an enormous, enormous boost to Israeli economy, because this security premium was quite big.  So that is on the positive side, and if we play smart, and we play strategically, and we regain sort of good relations with some of the countries which are currently very critical of us, and somehow make them immune to this anti Israeli antisemitism propaganda, we can really get going. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You mentioned investors. There were more investors after the war. Where were those investors coming from, internally or from other countries?  Eugene Kandel:   It's interesting that you asked this question, because in 2020, early 2024 a lot of Israeli institutions and individuals moved to S&P 500, and they got really hammered. Twice. Because A, S&P 500 was lagging behind the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. So there was some other players coming in, because otherwise, when you move money, usually, you should see a drop, but you saw an increase. That meant that there are others came in. But the more interesting thing is that shekel was very weak when they bought dollars, and now shekel is about 15% stronger, so they lost 15% just on the exchange rate. And so a lot of money that went to S&P came back in the last six, eight months. So the internal money came back.  But on top of internal money, we looked at the behavior of foreign investors right after October 7. They didn't flee the country. Some of them sold stocks, bought bonds. And then so Israeli institutions made money on that, because Israeli institutions bought stocks from them at about 10%, 15% discount, and then when it rebounded, they made money. But that money didn't leave, it stayed in Israel, and it was very costly to repatriate it, because the shekel was very weak. And so buying dollars back was expensive. And the money slowly went into stocks. And then people made quite a lot of money on this. Manya Brachear Pashman:   The last topic I want to cover with you is external relations. You mentioned Syria, the potential of collaborating with Syria for water, gas. Eugene Kandel:   Electricity. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Electricity. And I presume that you're referring to the possibility of Syria being one of the next members to join the Abraham Accords. That has been mentioned as a possibility. Eugene Kandel:   Maybe. But we can, we can do something much less. Manya Brachear Pashman: Outside of the Accords. Eugene Kandel:   Outside of the Accords, or pre-Accord, or we can, we can just create some kind of collaboration, just we had, like as we had with UAE for for 15 years before the Accord was signed. Was a clear understanding.  Maybe. But we can, we can do something much less outside of the Accord, or pre-Accord, or we can, we can just create some kind of collaboration, just we had, like as we had with UAE for for 15 years before the Accord was signed. Was a clear understanding.  You know, I was in UAE, in Dubai on the day of signing of the Accord. I landed in Dubai when they were signing on the on the green loan, on the White House lawn. And we landed. It was amazing. It was the degree of warmth that we received from everybody, from ministers in the economy to ministers that came to speak to us, by the dozen to people in the hotel that were just meeting us. They issued, for example, before signing the Accord, there was a regulation passed by by UAE that every hotel has to have kosher food. We don't have that in Israel. I mean, hotels mostly have kosher food, but not all of them, and, and it's not by law.  This was, like, clear, we want these people to feel comfortable. It was truly amazing. I've never, I could never imagine that I would come to a country where we didn't have any relations until today, and suddenly feel very, very welcome. On every level, on the street, in restaurants. And that was quite amazing, and that was the result of us collaborating below the surface for many, many years. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Parity of esteem, yes? Suddenly. Eugene Kandel:   Yeah, they didn't feel they did exactly the important part when the UAE businessman or or Ambassador order you feel completely no chip on the shoulder whatsoever. They feel very proud of their heritage. They feel very proud of their achievements. They feel and you feel at the same level. They feel at the same level, just like you would with the Europeans. We always felt that there was something like when, when, Arab delegations, always tension. I don't know whether it was superiority or inferiority. I don't know. It doesn't matter, but it was always tension in here. I didn't feel any tension. Was like, want to do business, we want to learn from you, and you'll to learn from us. And it was just wow. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Same in Bahrain and Morocco? Eugene Kandel:   I haven't been to Bahrain and Morocco. I think Bahrain wants to do business. They were very even, sort of some of, we sent the delegation to Bahrain to talk about sort of Israeli technology and how to build an ecosystem in the same with Morocco. I think it's a bit different. I think it's a bit different because we didn't see much going on from from these two countries. Although Morocco is more advancing much faster than Bahrain. There are a lot of interesting proposals coming out of it.  There's a genuine desire there. In the last two years, of course, it was difficult for for anybody to do anything in those but interestingly, when almost no European airlines or American airlines were flying to us, Etihad and Emirates were flying to Israel. They were flying. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Past two years? Eugene Kandel:   Yeah, they would not stop. And you're just like, wow. Manya Brachear Pashman:   So would you say the Abraham Accords have had a significant impact on Israel's economy at all? Eugene Kandel:   I do not know. I mean, I don't have data on that by the sheer number. I mean, the the number of Israeli tourists Sue UAE, it's probably 10 or 20 to one to the vice versa. So we've been Israelis flooding UAE. In terms of investments, there are some technology investments. There's some, some more infrastructural investors, like they bought 20% of our gas field. There are collaborations between universities and research centers. So it's hard to measure, but you have to remember that there was a huge amount of trade and collaboration under the surface. So it surfaced. But that doesn't mean that there was an effect on the economy, just people suddenly saw it. So you don't know what the Delta was. If the same amount of business was suddenly coming out of Jordan, we would have seen, you know, big surge. So I'm not sure how much . . . I don't mean to say that there was no impact. I'm just saying that the impact was much more gradual, because there was so much already, right? But I'm sure that it is continuing, and the fact that these airlines were continuing to fly, indicates that there is a demand, and there's a business. Initially a lot of Israelis thought that there was, this was a money bag, and they would go there and try to raise money and not understanding culture, not understanding. That period is over. I mean, the Emiratis conveyed pretty clearly that they not. They're very sophisticated investors. They know how to evaluate so they do when they make investments, these investments make sense, rather than just because you wanted to get some money from somebody. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Well, thank you so much.  Eugene Kandel:   Thank you.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   If you missed our last episode, be sure to tune in for my conversation with AJC's Director of Congressional Affairs Jessica Bernton. We spoke shortly after receiving the news that a deal had been reached and the hostages from the October 7 Hamas terror attack might finally come home after two years in captivity. That dream was partially realized last week when all the living hostages returned and the wait began for those who were murdered.  

In this episode of The Winston Marshall Show, I sit down with Colonel John Spencer, one of the world's leading experts on urban warfare, to break down the brutal realities of the Israel–Hamas war.Spencer explains how the October 7 invasion was more than a terror attack – it was a coordinated military operation, backed by Iran and linked to Hezbollah. He describes in detail how Hamas used tunnel networks, IEDs, and human shields to wage war inside Gaza, deliberately drawing civilians into the battlefield to create global outrage against Israel.We discuss the IDF's strategy, from their full-scale ground invasion on October 27 to the unprecedented measures taken to warn and evacuate civilians – even at the cost of prolonging the war. Spencer also reveals why Gaza has become the first modern “tunnel war”, why snipers and booby-trapped homes shaped the conflict, and how Israel managed to hold off threats across multiple fronts, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Iran itself.This is a rare, insider military analysis of the Gaza war – exposing the tactics, strategies, and propaganda battles that most of the media ignore.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------To see more exclusive content and interviews consider subscribing to my substack here: https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:Substack: https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/X: https://twitter.com/mrwinmarshallInsta: https://www.instagram.com/winstonmarshallLinktree: https://linktr.ee/winstonmarshall----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapters 0:00 Introduction 4:27 Coordination of the October 7 Invasion 8:17 Hezbollah's Role and Hamas' Strategy 21:08 Hamas' Military Capabilities and Tactics35:14 IDF's Response and Strategic Decisions56:56 The Evolution of the Conflict and Hamas' Survival1:05:01 The Impact of Foreign Military Aid 1:11:52 The Role of Egypt and Humanitarian Considerations1:15:25 Vaccination Campaigns and Perceptions in Gaza1:25:19 Humanitarian Aid and Hamas' Control1:41:56 Jordanian and Egyptian Aid Efforts1:45:47 Resistance Within Gaza1:54:20 The Trump Peace Plan 1:59:49 Hamas' Incentives and Challenges 2:10:08 Netanyahu's Leadership During the War2:13:09 Final Thoughts and Future Outlook Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Your daily news in under three minutes. At Al Jazeera Podcasts, we want to hear from you, our listeners. So, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com/survey and tell us your thoughts about this show and other Al Jazeera podcasts. It only takes a few minutes! Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

This is an episode recorded this week with Tara Alami to talk about a piece she wrote about Jordan for Vox Ummah last Spring. The essay's title is “The Price of Peace” and it delves into Jordan's role within the US-Imperialist led world system. And Alami discusses the history of the Hashemite monarchy, and the political legacy of Jordanian rulers with respect to Palestinians, Zionist colonizers, and western imperialism. This discussion gets into many of the contradictions of the history of Jordan, Tara's own family history as Palestinians living in Jordan, as well as her personal history as a student there. And she talks about the ideology promoted by the state, the enticement to maintain fealty to the monarchy, and the role Jordan plays as a buffer state in the region.   Tara Alami is a Palestinian writer & researcher from occupied Jerusalem and occupied Yafa. Check out Tara's substack as well. A reminder that on October 1st we launch our study group on Dr. Ali Kadri's The Accumulation of Waste: A Political Economy of Systemic Destruction. It's available to everyone who supports the show. There are only about 25 spots left in the group as we publish this, so if you want to join us, make sure you do so ASAP to reserve your space.  As always if you like the work that we do, the best way to support the show is through either to be come a patron of the show at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism or through either an ongoing pledge or one time donation through BuyMeACoffee

After splashy announcements from our European, Australian, and Canadian allies, later this month, the UN will vote to “recognize a Palestinian State”. While theatrical and without legal import, the vote can only be understood as a reward for terrorism and October 7th. Hamas and too many Palestinians have no interest in state building, institutions, democratic elections, or taking part in the “two state solution” and never have. And yet, while Hamas is still holding hostages and blocking humanitarian aid, the UN is displaying its bias against Israel. Will a “state” ever satisfy Palestinian nationalism? Are European leaders just making a play for domestic favor? Will the Jordanian option ever see the sun? And if we wanted to, how would we return to status quo ante October 7?Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chairman of the Tikvah Fund, and the Chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition. He previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in Donald Trump's first administration.Read the transcript here.Subscribe to our Substack here.

Judea, Samaria, West Bank: A Land of Many NamesIn this episode of Orientalistics, we journey through the deep history of the land once called Judea and Samaria—today widely known as the West Bank. From Neanderthals and Canaanites to Israelites, Babylonians, Romans, Ottomans, and modern powers, this land has been a crossroads of civilizations. We explore how names like “Judea and Samaria” arose from ancient kingdoms, how the Romans renamed it “Syria Palaestina,” and how in the 20th century the geopolitical term “West Bank” emerged under Jordanian rule. We also discuss Israel's reintroduction of the biblical names after 1967 and how each term reflects political, cultural, and historical identities. The episode highlights not just the shifting borders and rulers, but the layers of human life and meaning that give this land its unique resonanceKeywords#JudeaAndSamaria; #WestBank; #HistoryOfPalestine; #BiblicalHistory; #Canaanites; #Israelites; #AncientNearEast; #BabylonianExile; #AssyrianEmpire; #RomanEmpire; #SyriaPalaestina; #OttomanEmpire; #BritishMandate; #JordanAnnexation; #SixDayWar; #OsloAccords; #MiddleEastHistory; #OrientalisticsPodcast; #IdentityAndNaming; #Archaeology

Reveal to everyone who your Mole is, because we are back for our seventh season of new/old Wie is de Mol episodes - and we're going all the way back to 2009's offering in Northern Ireland & Jordan! Over these nine weeks, three guys who have a big brass mug full of vodka waiting for you - Logan, Michael & Bindles - are recapping and looking back at all that happened on a titanic season that people have been asking us to do for years, continuing with the eighth episode and elimination of Dennis. In this episode - it's a very Canadian-centric day, we get topical, Vivienne wins a Pieter Jan-ker's Gamble, we have even less to say about Rick than before, the Jordanian drinking laws are lax, this episode is dated, Logan spots a clue, Bindles learns about Toy Story 3, there is some more disgusting accommodation to discuss, Dennis has a haircut, Jon uses his theatre voice, we question why they had to pick a number, a boulder costs Dennis his chance at an exemption, Pieter Jan complains about a sandstorm, we check up on Dennis and Logan locks in his final set of suspicions. Thank you for listening - we will see you next week for the final two episodes and our last podcast of the year! Please note: This season is intended on being spoiler-free, so please watch the episodes along with us. As with our coverage of Seasons 11, 14, 16 & 17, there are no spoilers due to Logan not having seen the season before. However, any season we have already covered (WIDM 10-11, 14, 16-25 and Renaissance; België 4-13) is fair game though. This episode is supported by our friends over at Zencastr. Create your podcast today! Social Media: Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Bluesky Threads Patreon

Karen Pratt is a fearless world traveler with a taste for adventure (and good food). She is also one of Kath's oldest pals and she was kind enough to Zoom with us and regale us with tales of food experiences in foreign lands. Recalling early travel and food experiences as a child, she has now experienced all sorts of gastronomic delights, from Jordanian bread slapped on the side of a hot metal dome to Israeli salads to Norwegian eels to fenugreek cake: she has tasted it all. A true culinary journey that made us both want to simultaneously book tickets and eat something. Listen in!

Iraq has dismissed two senior commanders of the paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces over a deadly attack on a government building last month. The National has boarded a Jordanian aid flight to Gaza. Hundreds were arrested in London for marching in support of the banned Palestine Action group. On this morning's episode of Trending Middle East: Iraq dismisses two senior PMF commanders over attack on government building Hundreds arrested in London for supporting Palestine Action This episode features Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Jordan correspondent. Editor's note: We want to hear from you! Help us improve our podcasts by taking our 2-minute listener survey. Click here.

For months, getting aid into Gaza has been near impossible. This week, Canada made its first humanitarian airdrop during a multinational mission led by Jordan. CBC's international correspondent, Susan Ormiston, was on board the Jordanian plane. She brings us that story and explains how these aid drops compare to the real need on the ground in Gaza.

In this powerful episode, author and elite mountaineer Dianette Wells shares her extraordinary journey from Malibu mom to taking on some of the world's most extreme endurance challenges, including summiting Everest, racing through the Jordanian desert, and competing in Eco-Challenge Borneo. But behind the physical feats is a story of deep transformation. We talk about what it means to find your own "Mt. Everest," how to face the impossible when life falls apart, and how Dianette turned unimaginable loss, including the death of her son Johnny, into a life of purpose, adventure, and resilience. Whether you're standing at the base of your own mountain or in the middle of a major life transition, this conversation offers powerful insight into healing, reinvention, and moving forward when the path feels impossible. Kari, Brooke, David, Kaime, and Elora host Fresh Living on KUTV, which airs on CBS Channel 2 every weekday at 1 pm in Utah. You can follow Fresh Living on all social media platforms @kutvfreshliving and watch our show on YouTube.

For the first time, just hours before this episode, Canadian Armed Forces made a humanitarian airdrop over Gaza using a CC-130J Hercules aircraft that departed from a Jordanian airbase, delivering 9,800 kilograms of aid to Palestinians. This, as P.M. Mark Carney announces Canada will recognize Palestine as a state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.  2:45 | Sharan Kaur explains why both "Canadian" developments are significant, as Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu eyes full occupation of Gaza. We find out why Quebec's controversial Bill 21 has flared up again in the news (18:00). Sharan shares her thoughts on fallout from the Hockey Canada verdict (29:45), Trump cranking up tariffs on Canadian exports yet again (40:00), and Elections Canada decision to move to a write-in ballot for the August 18 by-election in Battle River--Crowfoot (44:00).  50:00 | Jespo and Johnny debrief after August Long Weekend, and read powerful responses from Real Talkers Mel and Marc following our July 31 episode on the Hockey Canada trial.  WATCH THAT EPISODE: https://rtrj.info/073125HockeyCanada 1:42:45 | Real Talker Jenny C. caught our July 30 episode with historian Craig Baird about The Epic Story of the Trans-Canada Highway WHILE she was travelling that exact route, and shares a Positive Reflection from the road. Positive Reflections is presented weekly on Real Talk by Solar by Kuby. WATCH THAT EPISODE: https://rtrj.info/073025Hwy1 SHARE YOUR POSITIVE REFLECTION: talk@ryanjespersen.com  GET A FREE SOLAR QUOTE TODAY: https://kuby.ca/ FOLLOW US ON TIKTOK, X, INSTAGRAM, and LINKEDIN: @realtalkrj & @ryanjespersen  JOIN US ON FACEBOOK: @ryanjespersen  REAL TALK MERCH: https://ryanjespersen.com/merch RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE PERKS - BECOME A REAL TALK PATRON: patreon.com/ryanjespersen THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! https://ryanjespersen.com/sponsors The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Relay Communications Group Inc. or any affiliates.

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports on a lethal Russian attack on Ukraine's capital; the trial of a Swedish man allegedly involved in the killing of a Jordanian pilot 10 years ago; and the weakening of a tsunami following a strong earthquake off Russia's Far East coast on Wednesday.

In tonight's dead letter listener Henry, a marine, recounts his experiences on guard duty in Iraq, where his platoon was stationed at an abandoned hotel near the Jordanian border. During a late-night watch, he and another marine hear footsteps in the stairwell, but a search of the building yields nothing but an unsettling encounter with glowing eyes in the boiler room. The mystery deepens when a fellow marine suggests the presence of a skinwalker, leaving the group to ponder the true nature of what they encountered in the desolate hotel. Navajo Culture https://discovernavajo.com/navajo-culture/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo Skinwalkers (In the Context of Navajo Culture) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker https://nativeappropriations.com/2016/03/magic-in-north-america-part-1-ugh.html The Monroe Institute https://www.monroeinstitute.org/ Jim Harold's Campfire https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jim-harolds-campfire/id310656913 Trebil, Iraq https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebil https://web.archive.org/web/20050716034614/https://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2088 The Monte Vista Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona https://hotelmontevista.com/

For the first time, two leading Israeli human rights organisations, B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have accused their own country of committing genocide in Gaza. In reports published on Monday, they said “Israel is taking co-ordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip" and that it is “systematic” in its targeting of Gaza's healthcare infrastructure. Israel has denied the allegation and has called the case "wholly unfounded" and based on "biased and false claims". Also: The BBC's International Editor Jeremy Bowen views Gaza from above in one of the Jordanian planes delivering aid from the sky, the investigation into a deadly mass shooting in Ecuador, and why Catholic influencers are gathering in Rome.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk

Crowds of Palestinians have been collecting food from lorries, in parts of Gaza where Israel has paused its military operations. Emirati and Jordanian planes have dropped pallets of aid from the air. Also: President Trump and the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, are holding crucial talks at his Ayrshire golf resort, to try to strike a trade deal. Also: England are taking on Spain in the Women's Euros 2025 in Switzerland.

What if our society's deepest prejudices weren't about race, gender, or sexuality—but height? In his groundbreaking allegorical novel, acclaimed Jordanian author and activist Fadi Zaghmout imagines just such a world, crafting a powerful meditation on discrimination and desire that speaks directly to our contemporary debates about identity and inclusion. The Man of Middling Height (Syracuse University Press, 2025) follows a short dressmaker whose life is upended when she meets Tallan, a man whose middle height places him outside the rigid tall/short binary that governs their society. As their forbidden romance blossoms, they must navigate a world where height determines everything from social status to romantic possibilities. Through their story and those of surrounding characters—including a short person in a polyamorous relationship with two tall partners, and a tall activist who scandalously loves another tall person—Zaghmout deftly reframes contemporary discussions about gender identity and sexuality through the lens of height discrimination. Fadi Zaghmout is a Jordanian author and sexual freedoms and body rights advocate. He has published five novels, including The Bride of Amman, Heaven on Earth, Laila, and Hope on Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

What if our society's deepest prejudices weren't about race, gender, or sexuality—but height? In his groundbreaking allegorical novel, acclaimed Jordanian author and activist Fadi Zaghmout imagines just such a world, crafting a powerful meditation on discrimination and desire that speaks directly to our contemporary debates about identity and inclusion. The Man of Middling Height (Syracuse University Press, 2025) follows a short dressmaker whose life is upended when she meets Tallan, a man whose middle height places him outside the rigid tall/short binary that governs their society. As their forbidden romance blossoms, they must navigate a world where height determines everything from social status to romantic possibilities. Through their story and those of surrounding characters—including a short person in a polyamorous relationship with two tall partners, and a tall activist who scandalously loves another tall person—Zaghmout deftly reframes contemporary discussions about gender identity and sexuality through the lens of height discrimination. Fadi Zaghmout is a Jordanian author and sexual freedoms and body rights advocate. He has published five novels, including The Bride of Amman, Heaven on Earth, Laila, and Hope on Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

What if our society's deepest prejudices weren't about race, gender, or sexuality—but height? In his groundbreaking allegorical novel, acclaimed Jordanian author and activist Fadi Zaghmout imagines just such a world, crafting a powerful meditation on discrimination and desire that speaks directly to our contemporary debates about identity and inclusion. The Man of Middling Height (Syracuse University Press, 2025) follows a short dressmaker whose life is upended when she meets Tallan, a man whose middle height places him outside the rigid tall/short binary that governs their society. As their forbidden romance blossoms, they must navigate a world where height determines everything from social status to romantic possibilities. Through their story and those of surrounding characters—including a short person in a polyamorous relationship with two tall partners, and a tall activist who scandalously loves another tall person—Zaghmout deftly reframes contemporary discussions about gender identity and sexuality through the lens of height discrimination. Fadi Zaghmout is a Jordanian author and sexual freedoms and body rights advocate. He has published five novels, including The Bride of Amman, Heaven on Earth, Laila, and Hope on Earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get more content! Get our "Welcome to the Crusades" miniseries! Derek welcomes back to the show Dalia Hatuqa, a journalist specializing in Israeli/Palestinian affairs and regional Middle East issues, to talk about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. They recap what has been happening to Palestinians in Gaza while the world was distracted by Israel's war with Iran, discuss the lost generations of Gazan children, the massacres at “aid distribution centers,” increased home demolitions and settler violence in the West Bank, the current relationships of the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian government with Israel, the regional dynamics after the recent war with Iran, and what Netanyahu's next move might be. Read Dalia's piece from March in The Guardian, “For Palestinians, this was never a ceasefire.”       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek welcomes back to the show Dalia Hatuqa, a journalist specializing in Israeli/Palestinian affairs and regional Middle East issues, to talk about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. They recap what has been happening to Palestinians in Gaza while the world was distracted by Israel's war with Iran, discuss the lost generations of Gazan children, the massacres at “aid distribution centers,” increased home demolitions and settler violence in the West Bank, the current relationships of the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian government with Israel, the regional dynamics after the recent war with Iran, and what Netanyahu's next move might be.Read Dalia's piece from March in The Guardian, “For Palestinians, this was never a ceasefire.” Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

HEADLINES:♦ Jeff Bezos Marries Lauren Sánchez in $56M Venice Wedding with Jordanian Royalty♦ Tesla Makes Saudi Debut with First Riyadh Centre Opened; Jeddah to Get One by Year-End♦ Israel's 12-Day War with Iran Estimated to Cost $6 Billion, Central Bank Warns♦ UK Billionaire John Fredriksen Moves $10B Empire to Dubai Amid Tax Policy Shifts Newsletter: https://aug.us/4fZIDusWhatsApp: https://aug.us/40FdYLUInstagram: https://aug.us/4ihltzQSmashi Business Show (Mon-Friday): https://aug.us/3BTU2MY

https://youtu.be/-pW6CRWCt00 Audio: Play the audio class Download: Download this MP3 Topics: Morning Prayers Follow-Along Text: תָּנוּ רַבָּנָן, פִּטּוּם הַקְּטֹֽרֶת כֵּיצַד:שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת וְשִׁשִּׁים וּשְׁמוֹנָה מָנִים הָיוּ בָהּ. שְׁלֹשׁ מֵאוֹת וְשִׁשִּׁים וַחֲמִשָּׁה כְּמִנְיַן יְמוֹת הַחַמָּה, מָנֶה לְכָל יוֹם פְּרַס בְּשַׁחֲרִית וּפְרַס בֵּין הָעַרְבָּֽיִם,וּשְׁלֹשָׁה מָנִים יְתֵרִים, שֶׁמֵּהֶם מַכְנִיס כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל מְלֹא חָפְנָיו בְּיוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִים,וּמַחֲזִירָן לְמַכְתֶּֽשֶׁת בְּעֶֽרֶב יוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִים, וְשׁוֹחֲקָן יָפָה יָפָה כְּדֵי שֶׁתְּהֵא דַקָּה מִן הַדַּקָּה.וְאַחַד עָשָׂר סַמְּמָנִים הָיוּ בָהּ. וְאֵֽלּוּ הֵן:6) וּקְצִיעָה 7) שִׁבֹּֽלֶת נֵרְדְּ 8) וְכַרְכֹּם מִשְׁקַל שִׁשָּׁה עָשָׂר שִׁשָּׁה עָשָׂר מָנֶה, 9) הַקֹּשְׁטְ שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר, 10) קִלּוּפָה שְׁלֹשָׁה, 11) קִנָּמוֹן תִּשְׁעָה.בֹּרִית כַּרְשִׁינָה תִּשְׁעָה קַבִּין, יֵין קַפְרִיסִין סְאִין תְּלָתָא וְקַבִּין תְּלָתָא,וְאִם אֵין לוֹ יֵין קַפְרִיסִין מֵבִיא חֲמַר חִוַּרְיָן עַתִּיק. מֶֽלַח סְדוֹמִית רֽוֹבַע, מַעֲלֶה עָשָׁן כָּל שֶׁהוּא.רַבִּי נָתָן הַבַּבְלִי אוֹמֵר: אַף כִּפַּת הַיַּרְדֵּן כָּל שֶׁהִיא,וְאִם נָתַן בָּהּ דְּבַשׁ פְּסָלָהּ, וְאִם חִסַּר אֶחָד מִכָּל סַמְּמָנֶֽיהָ חַיָּב מִיתָה:Our Sages taught:It contained 368 maneh — 365 for each of the days of the year, a maneh for each day, half to be offered in the morning and half toward evening.Of the remaining three maneh, the High Priest would bring two cupped handfuls into [the Holy of Holies] on Yom Kippur.These [three maneh] had been returned to the mortar on the day before Yom Kippur and were ground very thoroughly so that they would be exceedingly fine.[The incense-offering] comprised eleven kinds of fragrant spices:1) balm; 2) onycha; 3) galbanum; 4) frankincense — each component weighing seventy maneh; 5) musk;6) cassia; 7) spikenard; 8) saffron — each component weighing sixteen maneh; 9) costus, twelve [maneh]; 10) aromatic bark, three [maneh]; and 11) cinnamon, nine [maneh].[The following were also included:] Carshina lye, nine kabin; and wine from Cyprus, three se'ah and three kabin.If there was no wine from Cyprus, they would use aged white wine. [Also included were] a quarter [of a kav] of salt from Sodom, and a minute amount of a smoke-raising herb.Rabbi Nassan the Babylonian says: A minute amount of Jordanian amber [was also added].If honey was added, [the offering] was invalidated, and if one omitted any of its spices, he was liable to the death penalty [at the hands of Heaven]. PreviousClass 062: morning prayers: Ketoret part 2 NextClass 064: morning prayers: Ketoret part 4 More in this section Class 064: morning prayers: Ketoret part 4 Class 062: morning prayers: Ketoret part 2 Class 061: morning prayers: Ketoret part 1 Class 060: morning prayers: Karban Tamid part 2

In episode 52 of Tahrir Podcast, Aaron Magid tuned in to discuss his book, The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan (Universal Publishers, 2025)⁠, as well as commentate on Jordanian politics. Drawing on interviews with over 100 people—including King Abdullah's classmates, former Jordanian ministers, and even CIA directors—Aaron offers a deeply reported portrait of one of the Middle East's most enduring leaders. The first comprehensive biography on Jordans King Abdullah, the book traces his rise from a Massachusetts prep school and British military training to the Jordanian throne, and explores how he's managed to stay in power for over 25 years amidst regional wars, economic pressures, and mass protests. It also examines his strategic alliance with Washington, his cooperation with the CIA, and the domestic controversies that have shaped his reign—from a $15 billion gas deal with Israel to Jordan's quiet role in the 2003 Iraq War. Aaron Magid is an analyst and former Amman-based journalist. His analysis on the Hashemite Kingdom has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, the Atlantic Council, France 24, Al-Jazeera, and the Middle East Institute. He hosts the podcast On Jordan. Episode on YouTube: youtu.be/jRz_yPBQ9IUStreaming everywhere! ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/TahrirPodcast⁠⁠⁠Reach out! TahrirPodcast@gmail.comSupport us on Patreon for as low as $2 per month ($20 per year)!https://www.patreon.com/TahrirPodcast

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Jordanian state media says the country's Air Force is intercepting missiles and drones in its air space.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military reporter Emanuel Fabian joins host Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode. On this 600th day since the Hamas onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, we do a zoomed-out update on all seven fronts of the war and where they stand today. Fabian begins the program by updating us on new humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip and chaos on Tuesday as Gazans temporarily overtook a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation disbursement center near Rafah. We turn to the West Bank where Israeli forces raided foreign exchange stores in Ramallah and Nablus on Tuesday, accusing their parent company of “connections with terrorist organizations,” according to an army closure notice. Fabian delves into other -- as yet -- unrealized fears regarding the West Bank. We reported this morning that Israel and Syria are in direct contact and have, in recent weeks, held face-to-face meetings aimed at calming tensions and preventing conflict in the border region between the two longtime foes. Fabian weighs in on the evolution of the over 19 months of war there. Although there were early drones and missiles coming from Iran-backed militias in Iraq, recent news indicates negotiations to release Elizabeth Tsurkov, the Israeli-Russian researcher who was taken hostage in Iraq two years ago, are at advanced stages. For the past six months, the militias have not targeted Israel, explains Fabian. However, even as we were recording today's episode, the Israel Air Force retaliated against the Iran-backed Houthis' relentless ballistic missiles and struck the Houthi-held Sanaa airport. Again. Since November 27, 2024, there has been a negotiated ceasefire with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist army. But all is not quiet and, as Fabian explains, Israel will likely remain in fighting form along the border -- permanently. And finally, the great unknown: reports from The New York Times indicate that US officials are worried that Israel could decide to carry out strikes on Iran’s nuclear program without much warning. Fabian reviews what we know. Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: Gazans overrun Strip’s new aid center; operator says distribution has resumed Israel launches anti-terror raids on West Bank money changers Israel and Syria holding face-to-face meetings at border to calm tensions Reports claim deal in works to free Israeli-Russian held hostage by Iraqi militia Security cabinet approves plan for high-tech security barrier along Jordanian border US officials concerned Israel may strike Iran nuke sites without much warning – NYT Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves and video edited by Thomas Girsch. Illustrative: Fighters from the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah train in southern Lebanon, May 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 5 AM hour, Larry O’Connor and Julie Gunlock discussed: Photo of Larry’s daughter getting married Trump announces NFL draft coming to nation's capital in 2027 Defense chief Hegseth orders 20% cut in top military leadership positions ICE asks public for help locating illegal Jordanian migrant accused of trying to ‘breach’ Quantico — and let go by Biden Where to find more about WMAL's morning show: Follow podcasts on Apple, Audible and Spotify Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor, @JGunlock, @PatricePinkfile, and @HeatherHunterDC Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Website: wmal.com/oconnor-company Episode: Tuesday, May 6, 2025 / 5 AM HourSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the show this time, it's the Jordanian Habibi-Disco of crooner Ziyad Al-Samman. Ziyad Al-Samman is a Jordanian singer, based in London. He makes danceable pop music that combines myriad influences including disco, psych-rock, 50’s rock n roll, and the sounds of the Middle East. He’s not afraid to get romantic with it, inviting us all to dance and flirt, maybe even get a little naughty. For this performance he and his band played songs from his latest EP “Pleasure Complex” available from French label Yotanka. Recorded December 3, 2024 Bang Ya Habibi What You Gonna Do? I Can't Behave My Sweet This Love Space Watch the full Live on KEXP session on YouTube.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the show this time, it's the Jordanian Habibi-Disco of crooner Ziyad Al-Samman. Ziyad Al-Samman is a Jordanian singer, based in London. He makes danceable pop music that combines myriad influences including disco, psych-rock, 50’s rock n roll, and the sounds of the Middle East. He’s not afraid to get romantic with it, inviting us all to dance and flirt, maybe even get a little naughty. For this performance he and his band played songs from his latest EP “Pleasure Complex” available from French label Yotanka. Recorded December 3, 2024 Bang Ya Habibi What You Gonna Do? I Can't Behave My Sweet This Love Space Watch the full Live on KEXP session on YouTube.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

//The Wire//2100Z April 25, 2025////ROUTINE////BLUF: INDIA-PAKISTAN TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH. POSSIBLE IED DISCOVERED AT FORT BRAGG GATE. TWO JUDGES ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF HARBORING ILLEGALS.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE----- -International Events-India/Pakistan: Overnight the situation deteriorated significantly as both sides escalate the situation as expected. So far, no military unit appears to have crossed the Line of Control (LoC) yet, save for one lone Indian soldier who was captured by Pakistani border guards yesterday. This morning an Indian Air Force aircraft jettisoned a fuel tank while over one of their own towns in Shivpuri district, which landed on a house and killed one civilian.Russia/Ukraine: Tensions have briefly escalated amid peace talks. Two days ago, Russia launched a missile strike on Kiev, striking the Antonov aircraft factory in the industrial sector of the city. This morning, Russian Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik was assassinated via an explosive device that was planted in a parked vehicle near his home in a suburb of Moscow. When the General walked past, the device was detonated.AC: Even without any evidence indicating blame whatsoever, the overall context strongly indicates that the assassination of a high-ranking Russian General was almost certainly retaliation for the strike at the Antonov factory in Kiev. The attack method was identical to that which killed another Russian General, Igor Kirillov, who was assassinated in the same area (the eastern suburbs of Moscow) back in December of last year. -HomeFront-North Carolina: Last night one of the entrances to Fort Bragg was briefly locked down due to a possible explosive device being detected at the All American Gate. Details are very unconfirmed and highly speculative at the moment, but most local media is stating that a Jordanian national was stopped after he attempted to smuggled an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) through the gate. No official confirmation of exactly what happened has been released by base personnel.Wisconsin: This morning county Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by the FBI on obstruction of justice charges for allegedly harboring an illegal alien at her courthouse. In a statement provided by the U.S. Marshalls Service, Judge Dugan aided and abetted an illegal immigrant to evade capture by using off-limits passageways in the courthouse to escape. Judge Dugan also directly lied to federal officials about the illegal's whereabouts when presented with a lawful court order for his detention.New Mexico: Judge Cano, the infamous Judge who openly admitted to harboring an illegal alien and TdA member in the guesthouse at his home, was also arrested yesterday afternoon along with his wife.AC: This somewhat surprising arrest appears to have been conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, which could indicate that the immigration status of the immigrant he was harboring was the lesser concern, in favor of the individual actually being a TdA member. Even for New Mexico, where various cartels have a huge influence over the justice system, that TdA label was probably a bridge too far for this Judge to be able to quietly retire and forget about the whole affair (as he tried to do a few days ago).-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: Some reports have emerged that claim hostilities have already commenced throughout the northern border districts of Kashmir, however at the moment it's not clear if these are legitimate military advances, or just border guards shooting at each other as usual. Reports of heavy artillery being used are more concerning, however at the moment it appears that translation errors could be in play with some of these reports in Indian media. What locals are describing as "heavy artillery" in their native language seems to in actuality be mortar fire, which affects the seriousness of the situation. Cr

Jordanian helicopters begin flying in aid to Gaza. Also: UN says hospitals in Goma in eastern Congo are struggling to cope after advance by M23 rebels, and 40 years on the computer game Tetris is still going strong.