Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the lawyer Sara Segneri, an expert in sanctions law, war crimes and international financial crime. Israel with the support of the US, the UK and other Western governments acts with impunity as it prosecutes a genocide but as Segneri succinctly argues ignoring national and international law puts foreign investors in illegal settlements and in the broader Israeli economy at risk of bottom line losses to accompany the reputational damage they will inevitably incur.

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Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the security and energy analyst Francis Ghilès onto the podcast. With European states needing to escape their reliance on Russian gas they explore opportunities for the energy rich Maghreb countries of Libya and Algeria to meet Europe's requirements. In doing so a new relationship based on energy links could evolve but big obstacles remain on both sides of the Mediterranean.

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Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is the Kurdish American journalist Sirwan Kajjo. With the sudden defeat of the SDF the Kurds who had hoped for autonomy are seeing those hopes evaporate. At the same time the abandonment of ISIS prisons and camps in North East Syria and the presence of their supporters in the Syrian army resurrects the spectre of a jihadist war in Syria and Iraq and renewed terror attacks elsewhere in the world.

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Arab Digest editor William Law invites Sanam Vakil director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at London’s Chatham House onto the podcast to discuss the current situation in Iran. Yet again another uprising has been brutally suppressed but as its Arab neighbours breathe a sigh of relief that a war has been averted the regime itself, assailed from within and without, is severely weakened.

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This week's podcast looks at recent events in Yemen that have severely damaged the reputation of the UAE as a wily and pragmatic regional powerhouse. Joining Arab Digest editor William Law is the Yemen expert and author Helen Lackner. They explore the quick and humiliating defeat of the UAE-backed southern Yemen STC forces as Saudi Arabia delivered a powerful military punch that routed the secessionists.

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Aslı Aydıntaşbaş from Washington's Brookings Institute joins Arab Digest editor William Law for the first podcast of 2026. Barely a week in and with Donald Trump's seizure of the Venezuelan president and his wife it is already a year that has upended the old world order. Where that leaves the volatile and violent Middle East is a question their conversation grapples with.

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The editor's choice for 2025 is our 26 February podcast 'A small town in Lebanon' with George Kanaan. His book Beyond Lebanon's Peaks: An Odyssey is a fascinating memoir of a businessman and banker who though he has travelled the world in a storied career has never left behind Suq el-Gharb and his Levantine roots. In a wide ranging conversation he reflects on the book and on the current situation in Lebanon and what he calls Trump's 'cruel idea' for Gaza.

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Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes Tarek Megerisi and Annelle Sheline to this week's podcast. Their conversation reflects on the big stories of the year just passed - those that made the headlines and those that didn't - and looks ahead at what 2026 will bring to a region beset by terrible wars and facing great uncertainty in a world turned upside down by the antics and actions of Donald Trump and by a belligerent Israeli war machine.

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William Law's guest this week on the Arab Digest podcast is the European Council on Foreign Relations' Kelly Petillo. Their conversation focusses on three countries - Syria, Sudan and Palestine - and the challenges and obstacles they face both external and internal in managing the millions who have been displaced by years of wars. Petillo argues that Europe must step up and provide humane solutions.

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On 8 December last year the Syrian capital Damascus fell to rebel forces. Arab Digest editor William Law has invited Syrian analyst and writer Malik al-Abdeh on to this week's podcast to discuss how the country is faring under the leadership of its president Ahmed al-Sharaa and how outside forces remain significant players in shaping the direction Syria will take in 2026.

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