badlands podcast by borzou daragahi

Friday, July 10, 2026, Istanbul Israel continues to occupy a huge swath of Lebanon, attacking Lebanese civilians in horrific atrocities taking place regularly. In the latest edition of the badlands podcast, Lebanon-based journalist Habib Battah, founder of the Beirut Report , joins in for a discussion about how the country has been further fragmented along both sectarian and class lines as Israel...

Thursday, July 9, 2026, Paris Overnight attacks between the US and Iran continued for a second day, with reports that Donald Trump pushed the envelope by hitting two railroad bridges in Iran’s north. That move could trigger Iranian retaliation against similar civilian infrastructure in the Arabian Peninsula states. The war pits the US against Iran, but the Persian Gulf has been the main battlegrou...

Wednesday, July 8, 2026, Paris The US and Iran traded major military strikes overnight in the most serious threat to the framework ceasefire deal signed last month so far. The attacks continued into the morning with attacks by both countries into the late morning. Donald Trump said at the NATO summit in Turkey that he’s sick of negotiating with the Iranians and considers the memorandum of understa...

Tuesday, July 7, 2026, Paris Is the oil shock finished? Not really. Energy analyst Robin Mills joins the latest edition of badlands for an interview on whether the tentative opening of the Strait of Hormuz will lead to a normalization of energy prices. Mills says energy is still below pre-war levels, in part because Gulf states are tentative about ramping up production. In today’s edition, I also...

Monday, July 6, 2026, Paris Millions of people are taking part in ceremonies marking the Feb. 28 death of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, a confounding historical figure who ruled Iran for 37 years. I wrote extensively about Khamenei in an article some years ago. But he remains something of an enigma. In this edition of badlands, I talk a bit about Khamenei and his legacy. In the end, h...

(Photo: AI-generated image posted online to intimidate Trita Parsi).) Tuesday, June 23, 2026, Istanbul Trita Parsi has been among the most measured and well-informed experts on Iran and the Middle East in the public eye. Yet for years, he’s been targeted by nefarious and well-funded forces seeking to paint him as an asset of the Islamic Republic, where he would be arrested on national security cha...

Thursday, July 2, 2026, Istanbul In an interview with Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire network, Vice President JD Vance strongly suggested that the US was playing Iran, replenishing world energy stockpiles ahead of a possible future kinetic action. Needless to say, such talk will not help ongoing negotiations, only feeding into Iranian suspicions that the memorandum of understanding the US signed was a ru...

Wednesday, July 1, 2026, Istanbul Israel recently began taking steps to recognize the Armenian Genocide, the horrific massacre of Armenian people at the hands of Ottoman Turks some 110 years ago. The move is meant in large part to provoke Israel rival Turkey. Problem is, even the Armenians are telling Israel to bugger off. On the latest edition of the badlands podcast, I explain how Israel’s ill-t...

Monday, June 29, 2026, Istanbul Iran was booted from the World Cup, failing to advance to the knockout round after a controversial referee call and a heartbreaking game for Iranian football fans. Meanwhile in Strait of Hormuz, Iran and the US traded strikes after Iran attacked ships that were using a path Tehran considers forbidden. Ambiguity and misunderstandings led to confusion in both cases. I...

The US managed to get Lebanon and Israel to sign on to a peace deal that key constituencies reject. The country’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri along with Hezbollah have rejected terms that seem to force the Lebanese Army and state to disarm Hezbollah without any guarantee that Israel will vacate Lebanese territory in now occupies. In the latest edition of the badlands podcast, Sciences Po sch...

Friday, June 26, 2026, Istanbul On Thursday, Iran attacked a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, violating a provision of the memorandum of understanding it signed with Iran. Meanwhile, Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon, killing more civilians, also in violation of the memorandum which requires the US to leash Benjamin Netanyahu. So many things could go wrong in the ongoing talks with Iran, and so...

Thursday, June 25, 2026, Istanbul Even as Marco Rubio attempts to keep America’s Gulf clients in line, some of them are already finding their own way. In today’s podcast I discuss the ongoing diplomatic intrigues involving the US, Gulf countries, and an emerging power bloc consisting of regional powers determined to avoid being dragged into another war. This bloc—I argue—seems at the very least am...

Wednesday, June 24, 2026, Istanbul Donald Trump keeps making claims about Iran’s agreement to compromise on its nuclear program that Iran keeps swatting down. To make matters worse, even war hawks and neocons in Washington keep noting that he has actually achieved little in negotiations. Making matters even worse is the possibility that Iran has abandoned any pretense of adhering to its nuclear ob...

Monday, June 22, 2026, Istanbul Iran and the US talks get underway in Switzerland, but almost immediately fall apart. The Iranian delegation stood up JD Vance just as he was waiting for his photo op! In today’s podcast I discuss why I believe the talks will continue in fits and starts over the coming weeks despite the initial hiccups. Plus, comedian Tim Dillon hilariously describes Iran as a poorl...

Thursday, June 18, 2026, Istanbul Next week we could be in a war again, with Donald Trump bombing the s**t out of Iran and Iran destroying the Gulf’s energy infrastructure. But this week, we are drinking neocon tears, as warmongers crash out over the memorandum of understanding signed between Iran and the US and upcoming negotiations to hammer out a durable deal. In today’s podcast, I savor some o...

Wednesday, June 10, 2026, Istanbul The 2026 World Cup gets underway this week in North America and already the pre-tournament shenanigans threaten to upstate the actual game-play. The US, under President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appear to have made it their mission to harass the teams, staff, and fans of countries they don’t like. That includes Iraq and Somalia, whose celeb...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit borzou.substack.com Tuesday, June 16, 2026, Istanbul A major new report by the Crisis Group details how the Israel has increasingly pushed the once-thriving economy of the West Bank to the brink of disaster. The increasing pauperization of Palestinian residents has major impacts for the viability of communities in what would be the bulk...

Monday, June 15, 2026 Istanbul A memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran has been agreed to, with a signing ceremony in Geneva expected on Friday. A lot could happen in the next few days, to derail or delay the finalization of the deal, supposedly extending the ongoing “truce” by 60 days while opening up the Persian Gulf to commercial traffic. More could happen in the coming two months...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit borzou.substack.com Friday, June 12, 2026, Istanbul It’s not just Iran. The US is kicking up chaos in a wide swath of the world, including in Latin America, where it has toppled the government in Venezuela, besieged the nation of Cuba, meddled in Columbian elections, and harassed the president of Mexico. Foreign policy analyst Dan DePet...

Thursday, June 11, 2026, Istanbul If you look at social media you might be forgiven for being confused. One day Donald Trump says the US is within days of a durable peace deal with Iran. The next moment he’s threatening to bomb the country. Then he declares the US controls the Strait of Hormuz. Then he demands that Iran open it up to traffic. He then threatens to “bomb the s**t” of Iran. And then...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit borzou.substack.com Tuesday, June 9, 2026, Istanbul Tiny Albania has upended Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s multi-billionaire scheme to use Gulf money to buy an island and an environmentally sensitive stretch of mainland for resort projects. For now it looks like EU-empowered anticorruption prosecutors, emboldened by continued mass pr...

Monday, June 8, 2026, Istanbul I’ve warned for weeks that neither side in the conflict is quite tired of war yet, and that only the fear of plunging the world into a global depression has kept the brakes on escalation in the Middle East. Over the weekend we got a lesson on just how easily the war may flare up again, especially when you have Israel, Iran, and the US all poking and prodding each oth...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit borzou.substack.com Friday, June 5, 2026, Istanbul US lawmakers finally stood up to the Trump administration this week, voting in a surprise move to call on President Donald Trump to halt the war in Iran or seek Congressional approval. Huge segments of official Washington are finally catching up with the overwhelming American public con...

Thursday, June 4, 2026, Istanbul Tiny Albania turned itself into a Balkan United Arab Emirates by cozying up to Israel and the administration of Donald Trump. It joined the Board of Peace, the sham organization used to deflect attention from the ongoing Israeli subjugation of Palestinians in Gaza. But it all blew up this week over plans to hand over precious coastal properties and an island to Jar...

Tuesday, June 2, 2026, Istanbul Axios reports on a testy exchange between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. Earlier on Monday, Iran announced that it was walking away from negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz and potentially rolling back its nuclear program because of Israel’s continued military actions in Lebanon, which now amount to an occupation...