Idit Ohel: From a Hamas video I saw that my son was kidnapped and his friends were killed.
Idit Ohel, the mother of 23-year-old Alon, who was kidnapped from a music festival on October 7th by Hamas, tells in Labyrinth about the agony she has been living in for half a year since her son was held hostage. She says that she knows absolutely nothing about her son for half a year. Alon is a promising pianist and has dual Israeli and Serbian citizenship, and his mother says she contacted the Serbian government to help somehow. Idit tells about the terrible October 7th, about her son and the efforts of families to get their loved ones back.
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Mickoski takes the "helm" - What are the expectations from the new Government?
Analysis of the new government composition with Sasho Ordanoski
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Syria freed from dictator, but terrorism is still a threat
Interview with war reporter Bud Wichers
After 13 years of civil war, the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria has fallen almost without a fight. The rebel HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) has taken power and is trying to make a peaceful transition. In the meantime, the US, Israel and Turkey are bombing places that are strongholds of ISIS, the Kurdish party or places that are suspected of having remnants of chemical weapons used by Assad. In this episode, we talk to war reporter Bud Wichers from the Netherlands who has been reporting from Syria since the very beginning of the uprising in 2011. Wichers has extensive experience reporting from the Middle East, and in Syria he reported from the biggest hot spots and was in contact with almost all the factions fighting in Syria. He says it is good that the regime has finally fallen, but he is still suspicious of possible terrorist hot spots, that is, he suspects that HTS has severed all ties with its previous “umbrella” Al Nusra Front, which was practically the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda.
огранок на Ал Каеда. -
Analyses of conflict zones and experiences from war hotspots
A series of interviews about crisis areas and personal experiences of journalists and humanitarians - Sееma Jilani, Michael Bociurkiw, Adelin Pertisor and Giorgi Dolidze in this Labyrinth.
This week, Labyrinth in Tbilisi at one of the biggest journalism events - the ZEG Festival. We had the opportunity to talk to journalists from all over the world about the current situation in their countries. We present you a series of interviews about the countries that are currently in the global focus.
We spoke with one of the keynote speakers at the event, a doctor who has dedicated her life to treating children in the most vulnerable places in the world, Seema Jilani. We talked about the great humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before our eyes, the Gaza Strip, and how we can help people cut off from all help. Seema also shared her personal experience of what it feels like to treat her own child injured in an explosion in Beirut.
The war in Ukraine is still raging, and since the coming to power of US President Donald Trump, Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital seem to have increased. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Israel and Iran are fiercely attacking each other. We talk about the situation in Ukraine and the current hot spots in the Middle East with Atlantic Council analyst Michael Bociurkiw, who regularly analyzes for CNN and other global media.
At the event, we also had the opportunity to talk with our colleague Adelin Pertisor from the Romanian public service, who is one of the most experienced war reporters. He reported on wars in the Middle East, Africa, as well as the Balkan conflicts and had the opportunity to interview a large number of leaders, but also some notorious militants such as Željko Ražnjatović - Arkan. Of course, we also talked about the situation in Romania after the annulled elections when the Constitutional Court recognized Russian influence in the electoral process.
Since Georgia got a new pro-Russian President who imposed a series of undemocratic laws, Georgians have been protesting every day. Media freedom and civil society are under attack, and journalists and citizens are facing prison sentences. We talk to Georgian colleague Giorgi Dolidze about what is happening in his country.
Watch the full episode.
