Episodes

  • The Arab Digest 2024 yearender

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

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

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

    A good year for MbS
    Dec 3 2024
    William Law's guest this week on the Arab Digest podcast is the Gulf expert Kristian Coates Ulrichsen. They look back at the year that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has had, one where he has strengthened his diplomatic ties with Iran, holds the upper hand in the normalisation with Israel game and looks set to gain essential time on delivering Vision 2030 with the looming announcement that the Fifa World Cup will come to the kingdom in 2034. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    33 mins
  • The silence of Sisi

    The silence of Sisi
    Nov 27 2024
    Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Egyptian analyst and author Maged Mandour. They explore the reasons behind President Sisi's virtual silence as the IDF conducts its genocide in Gaza while increasing land seizures in the Occupied West Bank and enlarging the war into Lebanon. Maged Mandour reveals that economic and ideological factors are behind Egypt's abandonment of Palestine and the Palestinians. The podcast was recorded before the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was announced. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    29 mins
  • Macron in Morocco

    Macron in Morocco
    Nov 20 2024
    When the French president recognised Morocco's claim to the disputed territory of Western Sahara he sought to burnish his tarnished reputation in North Africa. Francis Ghilès joins Arab Digest editor Wiliam Law to discuss why Macron's efforts are likely to produce few if any positive results and he argues that the situation won't change unless France - and Europe - see North Africa through a different set of lenses. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    27 mins
  • Libya: cooperation with devils

    Libya: cooperation with devils
    Nov 13 2024
    Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes back the Libyan analyst Tarek Megerisi for a wide ranging conversation about the criminal activities of the two families that rule in a divided Libya squandering the country's wealth while playing Europe and the EU for patsies in the lucrative, ever growing and utterly ruthless industry of human trafficking. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    34 mins
  • What Trump 2.0 means for the Middle East

    What Trump 2.0 means for the Middle East
    Nov 7 2024
    Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Jon Hoffman a research fellow in defence and foreign policy at Washington's Cato Institute with a particular specialism in US policy in the Middle East. Donald Trump's emphatic victory in this week's presidential election comes at a time when the MENA region is convulsed by war. In his triumphal victory speech Trump promised peace but will his erratic and transactional approach drive the region ever closer to all out war? Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.
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    27 mins