Middle East

Supreme Court kicks off new term with high-profile cases

A new term begins for the U.S. Supreme Court, with growing political pressure on the court. We’ll have a preview of what’s ahead and what it could mean for Texans.
As the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, the U.S. State Department is urging American citizens in Lebanon to stay informed about available assistance.
The one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel falls between two of Judaism’s holiest days. As fighting intensifies between Israelis, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran with growing numbers of civilians killed, a rabbi in Austin is trying to manage concerns and divides he’s encountered.

The religious backdrop surrounding debate over migrant aid

Looking for zingers in last night’s vice-presidential debate? You might come up short. What does it add up to just five weeks out from Election Day?
We’ll talk with a Texas-based political expert about what may be the last real faceoff between Republicans and Democrats before the presidential election.
A rocket attack on Israel and vows of retaliation against Iran. UT-Austin’s Jeremi Suri on a new chapter in a widening Mideast conflict.
Also, in our series on the nexus between politics and religion, how some in the Texas GOP, who often cite their own faith to push policies, have come after faith-based groups helping migrants.

What we learned from new Uvalde school shooting records

The city of Uvalde releases a trove of records from the Robb Elementary school shooting after pressure from the media. What are we learning?
As tensions escalate in the Middle East with Israel anticipating a strike from Iran or its proxies within days, how could this affect Texas, its role in oil exports and prices? Matt Smith, energy analyst at Kpler has more.
Across the Permian Basin, the discovery of plugged oil wells breaking down and leaking.
All aboard? Amtrak set to restore Gulf Coast train service.
Plus, 41 Texans have picked up medals in the Olympics and U.S. women’s soccer brings home the gold after beating Brazil.

Journalism and The Middle East

Join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy along with Lawrence Wright, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11,” and Jamal Khashoggi of The Washington Post, to talk about how identities, relationships, imaginations, and policies are shaped and understood through various media lenses, to illuminate what truths are hidden by the facts.

Special thanks for making this even possible go to The University of Texas Department of Middle Eastern Studies and Karin Wilkins.

V&B – Understanding Lebanon

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy is joined by four visiting Fulbright professors from Lebanon as well as Dr. Richard Flores, Dean of the Liberal Arts College, in a discussion about the rich history of a place once known as the “Switzerland of the East”. What can we learn from their complex political system? What is their relationship to their neighbors both to the East and to the South? And what makes this country a unique oasis in the middle east?

 

 

V&B – Understanding The Middle East Through Media

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy joins Egyptian-based photojournalist Tom Hartwell and Dr. Paula Newberg from the UT Dept. of Government, in a discussion about the process of covering conflict in the Middle East. How are images framed and selected for distribution? How do news stories highlight particular narratives, and at what cost? And what can we, in the US, do to better understand what’s going on in the Middle East?

V&B – ISIS in Context

In this episode of Views & Brews, KUT’s Rebecca McInroy is joined in discussion with Jeremi Suri from the LBJ school of Public Affairs, Middle East Historian Yoav Di-Capua, and Stephennie Mulder, Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture, to talk about the rhetoric, the iconography, the mythology, and the history around the development of Isis. Who are they? What do they want? And why should we care?

Texas Standard: March 4, 2016

In a messy political season a war of words dominates the front pages–as a war in real life simmers half a world away. The cost for Texas, today on the Texas Standard.

It’s being called a watershed moment in the American conservative movement—as a top gathering of conservatives embraces a gay rights group.

Crosses on cop cars in Texas: how does that square with, you know, the constitution?

Also, tips for Texas musicians, how do you get your music played on the radio, anyway?

Plus, the week in politics and much more – no matter where you are, it’s Texas Standard time.

V&B Extra: Lara Logan – Foreign Correspondence in The Middle East

In this special edition of Views & Brews, CBS & 60 Minutes reporter Lara Logan is joined by Director of the UT Center for Middle Eastern Studies Dr. Karin Wilkins, Assistant Director Chris Rose, and journalist Tracy Dahlby to discuss the current state of foreign correspondence in the Middle East, the Islamic State, modern reporting and its implications.

Israel and Palestine

In the first half of this edition of In Perspective host Rebecca McInroy of KUT Radio talks with: Dr. Amelia Weinreb, lecturer at the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas; Dr. Yoav Di-Capua, History Professor at UT and author of Arab Existentialism: A lost chapter in the intellectual history of decolonization; and Associate Professor in the Middle Eastern Studies Department UT and author of Place and Ideology In Contemporary Hebrew Literature, Dr. Karen Grumberg.

In the second half of the show McInroy turns to: Dr. Helga Tawil Souri, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University; Dr. Ussama Makdisi, Professor of History at Rice University and author of Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations, 1820-2001; and Dr. Samer Ali, Professor in The Middle Eastern Studies Department at The University of Texas at Austin.

 

Green Room: Pakistan, “The Warrior State”

Dallas and Houston are home to some of the biggest Pakistani-American communities in the U.S. They are doctors, I.T. professionals, entrepreneurs–people taking advantage of opportunities denied them in Pakistan. After more than a half-century of independence, what keeps Pakistan from moving forward? Award-winning scholar T.V. Paul offers a new explanation in his illuminating new book “The Warrior State.”