Middle East

World News

Middle East Correspondent: Jordan 'Still Stable' Following High-Profile Arrests

5:18pm April 04, 2021

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Los Angeles Times correspondent Nabih Bulos in Amman, Jordan, about the authorities' claim of a plot to destabilize the kingdom.

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World News

High-Level Arrests Roil Jordan

8:56am April 04, 2021

Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to Rana Sweis, a journalist and writer based in Amman, about developments involving King Abudllah II's half brother, who says he's been placed under house arrest.

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Rana Sulaiman Halo, 22, founded and leads the Ashti choir with support from the AMAR Foundation, a British charity. She has lived in the camp since 2014.

'We Will Never Break': In Iraq, A Yazidi Women's Choir Keeps Ancient Music Alive

8:56am April 04, 2021

by Alice Fordham

Women from Iraq's Yazidi minority get together to perform centuries-old sacred songs. They've survived captivity by ISIS and loved ones' deaths. "They are trying to heal," says a Yazidi politician.

World News

'The Beautiful Dreams That Are Burnt': Portraits From Iran Under Sanctions

7:01am April 04, 2021

Here is a look inside the lives of Iranians from different walks of life — including a fitness trainer, butcher and carpet seller — and how they're coping with an economy battered by U.S. sanctions.

Traffic through the Suez Canal has returned to normal, the canal authority says. Here, the Huahine is seen crossing the canal on March 30 in Ismailia, Egypt.

World News

Suez Canal Traffic Backlog Finally Cleared Following The Ever Given Saga

1:28pm April 03, 2021

by Matthew S. Schwartz

Five days after a massive container vessel was freed from the Suez Canal, ship traffic there has returned to normal, the canal authority says.

European Mediators Aim To Get The U.S. And Iran To Re-Enter The 2015 Nuclear Deal

4:11pm April 02, 2021

by Michele Kelemen

European mediators aim to hold talks next week to get the U.S. and Iran to re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal that the Trump administration broke.

Christian worshippers carry a wooden cross on Friday along the path where tradition says Jesus took his final steps before his crucifixion in Jerusalem's Old City.

Jerusalem's Old City Comes Alive With Religious Festivals As Vaccination Rate Rises

1:05pm April 02, 2021

by Daniel Estrin

The city is seeing Christian and Jewish religious gatherings this week after the same events were canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Marine biology student Ranim Tahhan, 21, pictured left, and another volunteer work to clean Tyre beach from the pollution caused by an oil spill in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Amid Myriad Crises, Lebanon Now Confronts An Ecological Disaster On Its Shores

2:43pm March 28, 2021

by Ruth Sherlock

Some of the country's last beaches spared from development are now carpeted in globs of tar from an oil spill in the Mediterranean, damaging beaches that are nesting grounds for endangered turtles.

Egyptian activist Nawal El Saadawi received an honorary doctorate from the National Autonomus University of Mexico in 2010. The second of nine children born in a village just outside of Cairo, El Saadawi rejected patriarchy at a young age, stamping her fe

Health & Safety

The 'Godmother' Of Egyptian Feminism Has Died: Remembering Nawal El Saadawi

9:41am March 28, 2021

by Rosemary Misdary

Nawal El Saadawi — unwilling to be married off at an early age and, in her words, "not really fit for the role of a wife" — coalesced an activist movement that inspired generations of Egyptians.

High-resolution satellite imagery shows the Suez Canal and the container ship Ever Given that remains stuck north of the city of Suez, Egypt.

Here's How A Long Shutdown Of The Suez Canal Might Roil The Global Economy

5:09pm March 26, 2021

With one of the world's largest container ships solidly lodged in the Suez Canal, blocking billions of dollars' worth of commerce each day, NPR takes a look at the worldwide implications.