The World Unspun

This episode was brought to you by Big Solar Coop.Subscribe to New Internationalist and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.The Beirut-based journalist provides his analysis on why Israel is able to impose a one-way 'ceasefire', its broader war aims in South Lebanon, and the people caught in the middle.Further reading from this episode:Please note this episode was recorded prior to the extension of the 'ceasefire' announced on 23 April 2026.Gaza: Genocide and Resistance (New Internationalist, November/December 2025)Read all our Lebanon coverage on newint.orgMat Nashed is an award-nominated journalist who has covered the MENA region since the Arab Spring. He was previously the feature's print correspondent for Al Jazeera English and has written and reported for various other platforms, including Newlines Magazine, The New Humanitarian, The Committee to Protect Journalists, the Carnegie Endowment, and many others. He has extensively covered politics and conflict in the Nile Basin and the Levant.You can follow him at @matnashed on X and Instagram.

Subscribe to New Internationalist today to get our next issue on the centenary of the 1926 British General Strike! Use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.This episode was brought to you by Big Solar Coop.Molly Crabapple is an award-winning artist, writer and author whose work has appeared in past issues of New Internationalist including the cover of our 2015 issue Democracy in the digital era. Her forthcoming book, Here Where we Live is our Country, tells the little-known story of the revolutionary Jewish Labour Bund movement. The party aimed to build a socialist alternative to zionism while fighting violent anti-semitism in Eastern Europe in the early 20th century.Further reading from this episode:Singing in dark times: Cultural resistance in Palestine (Decca Muldowney in New Internationalist)Gaza: Genocide and Resistance (New Internationalist, Issue 558)Pre-order Here Where We Live is Our Country from BloomsburyNew Internationalist is an award-winning global justice magazine. Proudly reader-owned.

This episode is brought to you by Shared Interest.Addis is a city at a crossroads. A massive redevelopment project is reshaping Ethiopia’s capital into what Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has called the ‘Dubai of East Africa’. His vision of a glistening metropolis of skyscrapers, wide roads and bike lanes aims to draw in investors and tourists alike.So what does this transformation feel like from the inside? For the past year, journalist Maya Misikir has been trying to answer that question through her Letter from Addis Ababa series - one of New Internationalist’s longest running columns. Traditionally, these letters have been written by women based in the Global South, changing hands every year, and offering perspectives that rarely make the headlines.Subscribe to New Internationalist magazine to read the full archive of Letter From columns, dating back to 1973. Use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.Fertile Ground (Bethany Rielly, Maxine Betteridge-Moes and Maya Misikir in New Internationalist)Cover photograph by Amanuel Sileshi

This episode is sponsored by Path Financial.Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey.You may not have heard of it, but West Papua is an extraordinary place. It is home to one of the world’s most important rainforests – third only to the Amazon and Congo basins – teeming with species found nowhere else on the planet. Civilizations here stretch back tens of thousands of years.But it’s a region that is increasingly under threat from Indonesia’s military occupation. Rapid deforestation, resource extraction and deadly human rights crackdowns are on the rise.So who's behind the violent plunder – and who's profiting?Read all New Internationalist's coverage of West Papua and IndonesiaThe Interview: Lia Yewen (Maxine Betteridge-Moes, New Internationalist)Britain's complicity in the tragedy of West Papua (David Whyte, Samira Saunders, New Internationalist)West Papua: A Green State Vision (Danny Chivers, New Internationalist)'Every signature was an act of courage' (Danny Chivers, New Internationalist)The world's largest deforestation project (Douglas Gerrard, London Review of Books)Free West Papua CampaignGet 20% off a print and/or digital subscription to New Internationalist using the code THEWORLDUNSPUN and you'll receive digital access to our dedicated issues 'West Papua: Freedom in sight?' (2017) and 'West Papua: We will be free!' (2002).No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. To help us continue

This episode is sponsored by Path Financial.Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. Despite the latest ‘ceasefire’, Israel’s genocide and engineered famine continues to devastate Gaza. The latest issue of New Internationalist confronts the history of Israeli violence and the Palestinian resistance to war, displacement and annihilation, giving space to voices that are too often sidelined and allowing Palestinians to define their own struggle.The magazine was guest edited by Gaza-born historian and writer Ramzy Baroud, editor of the Palestine Chronicle. For Ramzy, compiling this issue was highly personal, having lost over 110 family members in Gaza, including his sister. For The World Unspun, Ramzy sits down with New Internationalist co-editor Decca Muldowney to discuss the process of creating the magazine and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the face of genocide.Read NI558: Gaza and ResistanceHost: Decca MuldowneyCredits: Decca Muldowney (Host) Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Digital Editor & Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Guest: Ramzy BaroudFurther Reading from this Episode:The Long War for Meaning (Ramzy Baround, New Internationalist)Palestine: From Accord to Apartheid (Zoe Homan, New Internationalist)Fiddling While Gaza Burns (Hamza Yusuf, New Internationalist)Singing in Dark Times: Cultural Resistance in Palestine (Decca Muldowney, New Internationalist)The Interview: Leila Khaled (Marta Vidal, New Internationalist)No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. To help us continueSubscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.

This episode is brought to you by Shared Interest.Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. Fascism in 2025 isn't just swastikas and flags.Joe Mulhall, the research director at the anti-fascist organization Hope Not Hate says we should be more worried about the erosion of liberal democracy and universal human rights.In this episode, co-editor Bethany Rielly speaks to Mulhall about why the far right is gaining ground around the world, where resistance can take root and what communities are doing to resist the UK’s own far right party, Reform.Host: Bethany RiellyCredits: Bethany Rielly (Co-Editor, Host), Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Digital Editor, Producer), Amy Hall, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Guest: Joe MulhallFurther reading from this episode:Read NI557: The Global Far RightA time of monsters (Bethany Rielly, New Internationalist)Shop Fair Trade at New Internationalist’s very own Ethical Shop, using the discount code ETHICAL for 10% off your orderNo billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. The French activist, author and film producer joins us to talk about the Together for Palestine concert in London as well as his other major projects in support of Palestinian liberation.Host: Maxine Betteridge-MoesCredits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Digital Editor, Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Guest: Frank BaratFurther Reading from this episode:Read more of Frank's writing for New InternationalistItalian dockworkers threaten to shut down Europe in solidarity with Global Sumud Flotilla (Tommaso Gori, New Internationalist)I oppose genocide. Is that ok? (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist)Poll: Nearly 80% of Israeli Jews 'not troubled' by Gaza starvation (The New Arab)South Africa: 30 Years Later (New Internationalist)Avoid Amazon by shopping at New Internationalist’s very own Ethical ShopNo billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

This episode is brought to you by Shared Interest.Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. In this episode we speak to Adele Zeynep Walton, a journalist, digital safety campaigner and author of the new book ‘Logging Off: The Human Cost of our Digital World’, about online harms, Big Tech accountability, and how to make the digital world safer.To send a GDPR objection email to Meta to exercise your rights against unwanted direct marketing and data misuse, visit; https://wwwdot.org/.Read NI552: DisinformationHost: Paula LaceyCredits: Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant, Producer), Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design), Thomas Barlow, Impress (Media Consultant)Guest: Adele WaltonFurther Reading from this Episode:Entering the matrix of misinformation with Nanjala Nyabola (The World Unspun Podcast)The issue with social media blocking apps? They’re now just as addictive (Adele Zeynep Walton, The Observer)‘Meta must be held liable for Facebook abuse that killed my father’ (Mukanzi Musanga, Open Democracy)How to Fix the Online Safety Act: A Rights First Approach (Open Rights Group)Disinformation and disorder: the limits of the Online Safety Act (Alexandros Antoniou, Lorna Woods and Maeve Walsh, Online Safety Act Network)No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. To help us continueSubscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.Sign up to Currents for dispatches from the frontlines of global progressive movements. 30 days FREE then £3/month. Learn more

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. Corruption, pollution and child labour have long blighted the Democratic Republic of the Congo's cobalt industry. But is there any way of turning the country’s critical mineral wealth into a blessing rather than a burden?In the final episode of our mini series, Dig, Baby, Dig! we spoke to Alaka Lugonzo a senior civil society adviser at Global Witness and Jean Pierre Okenda, the executive director of Sentinel Natural Resources.Host: Maxine Betteridge-MoesGuests: Alaka Lugonzo and Jean Pierre OkendaCredits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Isabella Poderico (Editorial Intern) Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Read NI555: Dig, Baby, Dig! Can Critical Minerals Save the World?Further reading from this episode:Congo's cobalt curse (Cat Rainsford, New Internationalist - subscribe to read)Can mining save the world? (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist)Women’s agency in the DRC (Sophie Neiman, New Internationalist)It’s time to hold Big Tech accountable for violence in the DRC (Passy Mubalama, New Internationalist)Transition Minerals Tracker: 2025 Global Analysis (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre)In numbers: Critical mineral production, ownership and social unrest (Global Witness)Avoid Amazon by shopping at New Internationalist’s very own Ethical ShopNo billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. 'Why do we care about the climate crisis unless it is to save natural spaces that are exactly like the Jadar Valley?'The second episode in this mini series takes you to Serbia, where the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is trying to dig for lithium in the Jadar Valley in spite of widespread public protests.We speak to actor and activist Bojana Novakovic of Marš sa Drine about how people power has delayed the project by two years – and what other resistance movements can learn from Serbians.Host: Maxine Betteridge-MoesGuest: Bojana NovakovicCredits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Read NI555: Dig, Baby, Dig! Can Critical Minerals Save the World?0:28 Introduction to critical minerals2:45 Welcoming Bojana Novakovic4:04 What’s at stake in the Jadar Valley?6:01 Introducing Mars sa Drine7:00 The beginning of protests against lithium mining8:09 Why Serbia?10:13 Vucic’s re-election12:28 Student-led protests after deadly disaster14:20 Knock on effects for the rest of Europe15:43 Mass arrests and criminalisation17:13 Using direct action18:45 Can we afford collateral damage in the climate crisis?23:10 Has lithium had a capitalist glow up?Further reading from this episode:Can mining save the world? (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist - subscribe to read)White flamingos and lithium frenzy (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist - subscribe to read)Once upon a Rio Tinto mining project (Andrej Ivančić and Sergey Steblev, New Internationalist)Avoid Amazon by shopping at New Internationalist’s very own Ethical ShopSign up to Currents for dispatches from the frontlines of progressive movements. Sent straight to your inbox, twice a week.No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. Eighty percent of the world is still powered by fossil fuels, but critical minerals are on the up.What exactly are critical minerals - and why all the hype?To mark the launch of our latest magazine, we’re digging deep.The first episode in this mini series takes you to Peru, where the government is determined to inflict an unpopular copper mine on the people of the Tambo Valley. Contributing editor Vanessa Baird shares what she learned from campaigners and activists about their growing resistance.Host: Maxine Betteridge-MoesGuest: Vanessa BairdCredits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Read NI555: Dig, Baby, Dig! Can Critical Minerals Save the World?Further reading from this episode:Can mining save the world? (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist)Hall of Infamy: Dina Boluarte (New Internationalist)Killing of protesters sparks early elections in Peru (Vaness Baird, New Internationalist)Peru’s anti-forest law rewards crime and screws the planet (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist)Avoid Amazon by shopping at New Internationalist’s very own Ethical ShopSign up to Currents for dispatches from the frontlines of progressive movements. Sent straight to your inbox, twice a week.No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print and/or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. 2025 marks 50 years since Morocco invaded Western Sahara, forcibly displacing the Sahrawi people into neighbouring Algeria. Women’s rights and climate activist Najla Mohamed-Lamin joins us from the Sahrawi refugee camps to talk about the multigenerational impact of 50 years of forced exile, and the common struggles of Indigenous peoples around the world.Read NI554: Treaty / NI545: Decolonize now / NI540: Take back the landHost: Maxine Betteridge-MoesCredits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)Guest: Najla Mohammed-LamineFurther reading from this episode:With all eyes on Gaza, Morocco strengthens its hold on Western Sahara (Maxine Betteridge-Moes, New Internationalist)Love Locked Up (Maxine Betteridge-Moes, New Internationalist)Spotlight: Aziza Brahim (Graeme Green, New Internationalist)A new dawn? Western Sahara and the Arab Spring (Jeremy Corbyn & Stefan Simanowitz, New Internationalist)War and Peace in Western Sahara (New Internationalist Issue #297) Subscribe to read in our digital archive.How Sahrawis See the Western Sahara Conflict (Najla Mohamed-Lamin, The National Interest)Support the Almasar Library CentreNo billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media. Donate today: a.nin.tl/2BSubscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.

Share your thoughts on this series by filling out our listener survey. In the years since Syria’s civil war began in 2011, the country has been slowly drifting away from the mainstream media spotlight. But on 8 December, everything changed.Turkish-backed opposition forces declared Syria liberated from the 24-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad, capturing the capital Damascus in what seemed like the blink of an eye.So what does the future hold for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria? Will the Kurds realize their dream of self-governance under the defacto HTS authority? What remains of the country's political opposition and labour movements, and how can the international community support a fair and equal redistribution of power for Syrians?Matt Broomfield and Leila Al-Shami provide some answers.Guests: Leila Al-Shami and Matt BroomfieldHost: Maxine Betteridge-MoesCredits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial assistant), Samuel Raffnell-Williams (Theme music), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)0:32 The day everything changed3:02 Introducing Matt Broomfield4:36 The Kurdish forces and their role in defeating ISIS6:08 Turkey's attacks on Syria7:41 Trump’s impact on the region11:50 What cards can Turkey play?12:45 The relationship between the autonomous administration and the HTS14:03 Israel's expansion and occupation16:41 How can post-Assad Syria benefit from Kurdish input20:34 Introducing Leila Al-Shami26:34 Does a secular society best represent Syria's diverse social fabric?29:21 How can people on the left in Syria and beyond challenge neoliberal restructuring?31:33 Nothing can be worse than Assad33:52 Further readingFurther reading:The war isn't over (Matt Broomfield, in our forthcoming March/April 2025 issue - subscribe here)Where to now for Syria’s women? (Zaina Erhaim in New Internationalist)Riad al-Turk’s Lifelong Struggle for a Free and Democratic Syria (Leila Al-Shami in New Internationalist)Read NI 526 The Kurds: Betrayed again (New Internationalist, 2020)Start your 30 day FREE trial of Currents to receive bi-weekly dispatches from the frontlines of progressive movements.No billionaires. No media moguls. No corporate ads. Just truly independent, co-operative media.Subscribe today and use the code THEWORLDUNSPUN for 20% off your first year of a print or digital subscription.