Rania Khalek Dispatches

Rania Khalek was joined by Daniel Bessner, associate professor of international studies at the University of Washington and co-host of the podcast American Prestige, to talk about US foreign policy under Biden. What’s changed? What hasn’t changed? Is the US empire collapsing? And what should a progressive foreign policy look like?

Rania Khalek was joined by Jordan Chariton, journalist and co-founder of Status Coup, to discuss the massive cover-up of the toxic water scandal in Flint, the ongoing eviction crisis in spite of the moratorium, corporate Democrats tanking Nina Turner’s campaign, and the crisis in left media, where censorship and underhanded algorithms suppress content that challenges the corporate media line as the left media ecosystem has descended into a bickering match between personalities. 

It's been one year since the Beirut port exploded, killing over 200 people and wounding thousands. And it's been almost two years since Lebanon's Ponzi scheme economy started crashing.The West often blames the devastation that has befallen Lebanon on government mismanagement, sectarianism, bureaucratic incompetence, internal corruption, and their favorite boogeyman, Hezbollah. But you can't speak honestly about Lebanon's problems without mentioning the constant US, Saudi, and Israeli meddling, western imperialism, the neoliberal dystopia that was imposed on Lebanon, and US sanctions. And you can't isolate Lebanon from destructive US policies in the countries surrounding it, from Syria and Iraq to Iran and Palestine. To discuss how Lebanon got to where it is, Rania Khalek was joined by Jamal Ghosn, a columnist at the leftist Lebanese newspaper, Al Akhbar. Follow Jamal Ghosn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jamalghosn 

The situation in Ethiopia has continued to escalate, with accusations of genocide, warnings of famine, and threats of sanctions. What began as a war between the TPLF in Tigray and the Ethiopian government is spilling into neighboring areas as the TPLF appears to launch more offensives in the Afar and Amhara regions. The growing violence threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country, and the greater Horn region should it continue unabated. To help us understand what's happening inside the country and to address the one-sided Western media coverage that places all the blame on the Ethiopian government, Rania Khalek was joined by Brook Abdu, an Ethiopian journalist and senior editor of The Reporter, an Ethiopian news outlet. 

Tunisia is where the Arab uprisings erupted in December 2010, spreading east and ushering in 10 years of change, chaos, and wars. It’s also the only “Arab Spring” country that could claim some success in transitioning to democracy. That’s why many were shocked to see Tunisia’s President Kais Saied oust the government and freeze parliament, using the army. Some Tunisians are celebrating what has been denounced as a coup by the ruling parties, and there are allegations of Emirati assistance. Is this a minor constitutional crisis, an economic uprising, or a coup against a Muslim Brotherhood government just like Morsi’s in Egypt in 2013? To answer these questions and more, Rania Khalek was joined by Fadil Aliriza, a Tunisia-based researcher and journalist. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Meshkal, an independent Tunisian media outlet.

July 9th marked the 10th anniversary of the creation of South Sudan. The US State Department lamented that the young country has “seen much suffering” and “the promise of peace and prosperity that independence represented remains unfulfilled.”To help us understand why the optimism of the West and South Sudanese in 2011 remains unfulfilled, Rania Khalek was joined by Joshua Craze, an anthropologist who spent many years researching in South Sudan and has taught in various universities. He's also a research fellow at the London School of Economics.

Ethiopia has been in the headlines in recent months as the TPLF, a Tigrayan rebel group that ruled the country for three decades, violently seized the northern Ethiopian state of Tigray from the government. As of this recording, the Ethiopian government had declared a ceasefire. However, the TPLF has continued fighting to expand its control over Tigray's border areas and threatening to push the war into neighboring countries. The Western media has largely cheered on the TPLF and demonized the Ethiopian government and its allies, with allegations of ethnic cleansing, intentional famine and even genocide. The US has gone so far as to place sanctions on the Ethiopian government, a longtime US ally. But, as is usually the case with most wars in geostrategic areas of the world, there's far more to the story than is being told and a whole lot of misleading information from the mainstream press. To help us make sense of what's happening and how we got here, Rania Khalek was joined by Eugene Puryear, a journalist for Breakthrough News and host of The Punch Out.

After seemingly forgetting Afghanistan for years, Western media has rediscovered it in time to provide panicked and hand-wringing coverage of the US-led coalition's withdrawal, as well as the apparent rapid gains made by the Taliban. Is the country on the verge of collapse? What will happen and what do Afghanistan’s people want? To help make sense of this, Rania Khalek is joined by Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan and Kardan on peace and conflict resolution-related subjects. He is also an expert on negotiations with the Taliban and a prolific writer.

US officials and their corporate media mouthpieces were elated at the sight of protests in Cuba in recent days against deteriorating living conditions that are a direct result of the US blockade, which Trump increased and Biden has maintained during the pandemic to deliberately heighten suffering at a time when Cuba was sending doctors around the world to fight the disease.As is often the case when an adversary country experiences protests of any kind, it was immediately weaponized to push for a regime change narrative against Cuba. There's so much to unpack, from the protest double standards, to the blatant efforts at meddling and sabotage, to the pure hypocrisy from those in power. To help make sense of it all, Rania Khalek was joined by Manolo De Los Santos, founder & co-director of The People's Forum in New York City and a researcher with Tricontinental who spent six years living in Cuba. 

Assal Rad, a Senior Research Fellow at NIAC (the National Iranian American Council) joins Rania Khalek Dispatches to discuss the ongoing suffering of Iranians from US sanctions, the return to the Iran nuclear deal, and how little has actually changed under Biden as his team seems to escalate.