This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Tarek Megerisi, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. They talk about the ongoing conflict in Libya and the interests of international actors in the country. Tarek also discusses the recent flooding that devastated the city of Darna, and how the last decade of conflict contributed to t ... Show More
May 2025
Babel Special: Jon Alterman's Next Chapter
This week on a special edition of Babel, Will Todman speaks with Jon Alterman, the creator of Babel and the show’s host since it began in 2019. They discuss Jon’s reflections on 22 years directing the CSIS Middle East Program, his analysis of how the Middle East policy ecosystem ... Show More
34m 59s
May 2025
Mohanad Hage Ali: Hezbollah and the Captagon Trade
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director for research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Mohanad's latest paper for Carnegie investigates the rise of a new form of drug smuggling in Lebanon. Together, they discuss Hezbollah’s i ... Show More
50m 16s
May 2025
Analysis: Will Trump’s Houthi Deal Stick?
On Tuesday, May 6, President Trump declared that the United States would immediately halt its bombing of Houthi targets, bringing an end to months of intensified U.S. strikes across Yemen. The president linked the policy reversal to what he described as the Iran-backed Houthis’ c ... Show More
6m 13s
Sep 2023
How politics made Libya’s flood more deadly
The port city of Derna, Libya, has been devastated by flooding, with thousands of people killed. Mediterranean Storm Daniel brought torrential rain to the region last week, but it was the collapse of two dams that caused some of the worst damage, with entire sections of Derna was ... Show More
22m 41s
Sep 2023
‘Dam of death’: How a Libyan city was washed away
Rescuers are calling for more body bags to be sent to a Libyan city hit by catastrophic flooding - as fears of waterborne diseases grow.
More than 11,300 people are known to have died - and this could reach up to 20,000, with a further 10,100 missing.
Meanwhile, attempts to coord ... Show More
20m 23s
Sep 2023
How will Libya recover from catastrophic floods?
Last Sunday Storm Daniel hit Libya bringing heavy rain and catastrophic flooding. Derna, a city in the east, suffered the most. A tsunami-like river of water swept through its streets when two dams burst. More than 10,000 people are missing and almost 4,000 people have been confi ... Show More
18m 57s
Sep 2024
Banking on a New Authority: Power grabs at the Central Bank of Libya
This week on The New Arab Voice podcast we're looking at the recent troubles surrounding the Central Bank of Libya. In August, gunman surrounded the Central Bank in Tripoli, forcing the bank's governor, Sadiq al-Kabir, to flee the country, fearing for his safety. Prime Minister A ... Show More
29m 14s
May 2023
Libya: Political Gridlock, Regional Politics and Sudan’s War
<p>Last week, Libya’s parliament fired one of the country’s two prime ministers, Fathi Bashaga. Libya for years has been split between two rival governments. An internationally recognised prime minister, Abdelhamid Dabaiba, sits in the capital Tripoli and a rival government, unti ... Show More
45m 15s