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Wall Street Journal
10 hours ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Trust in God, Check the Rest
Andy Kessler's excellent column 'Can You Trust Anybody?' (Inside View, June 9) reminds me of a maxim that an early and important mentor instilled in me: 'In God we trust, everyone else we check.' Ronald Reagan, I'm sure, would approve. Bill Heitz
Khaleej Times
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
'I just couldn't watch anymore': Former CNN anchor on the emotional cost of bearing witness
By the time Hala Gorani was ten, she had already delivered her first news report. But it wasn't on television or to an audience of millions. It was to her father, who was returning home after work, unaware that President Ronald Reagan had just survived an assassination attempt. Gorani, who had been glued to the special coverage on TV, relayed every detail she could remember. There were no phones then, no Internet. Just her childlike curiosity and the instinct to inform. 'I essentially reported it to him,' she recalls. 'And I was only ten.' That moment planted a seed. For Gorani, it was the start of a calling. One that would eventually span more than two decades at CNN, take her to the frontlines of conflict, and establish her as one of the most trusted faces in international news broadcasting. Today, Gorani is also a published author, with her recent memoir But You Don't Look Arab exploring identity, belonging, and the politics of perception through the lens of her own upbringing between Washington and Paris as a Syrian-American woman navigating the world. A childhood of contradictions Born to Syrian parents, Gorani grew up between Washington D.C. and Paris. Her childhood, like her identity, was a jigsaw of places, languages, and expectations. 'I have all these overlapping identities,' she says. 'And that made me, for a long time, feel out of place everywhere.' Her parents divorced early, splitting her upbringing across continents. Home was a fluid concept for Gorani, one not necessarily rooted in a postcode but in the rituals of constant movement and readjustment. 'My origin didn't match where I lived,' she adds. 'But now, more people than ever are in this situation. You're born in one country, raised in another, work in a third. So, where do you belong?' In cities like Dubai, where over 90 per cent of the population is non-Emirati, Gorani's sense of hybrid identity resonates deeply. 'You build your own definition of home,' she says. 'That's what I've learned to do.' Coming full circle Gorani's memoir isn't simply a personal reckoning but also a broader cultural reflection on what it means to live between identities, and how the label 'Arab' has been shaped, flattened, and misread by Western and even Middle Eastern societies alike. 'Even the title, 'But You Don't Look Arab', came from something I heard countless times,' she says. 'It speaks to the assumptions people make about how you're supposed to look, speak, or behave based on where you're from.' The book marks a new chapter in her career, but also reveals the same rigour that defined her journalism trajectory. She has previously covered the war in Iraq, the 2006 conflict in Lebanon, and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, among others, always gravitating towards stories that humanise those on the margins. However, in 2022, after years of anchoring at CNN, a role widely viewed as the summit of broadcast journalism, Gorani chose to walk away from it all. 'You become a journalist because you want this sense of purpose, of telling stories, being where things happen,' she reflects. 'Anchoring a show, while prestigious, became more and more removed from that. I wanted to reconnect with why I started this journey.' Writing the memoir offered her that reconnection. It was a way of tracing the line through generations of her family — of women who moved, fled, or were uprooted, often without choice. 'I realised one generation after another, for one reason or another, migrated or felt displaced,' she adds. 'From the fall of the Ottoman Empire to Syria to France to the US, my great-great-grandmother was forced to move to a place she'd never seen before. I'm just one more stop on that long journey.' The cost of bearing witness With such deep-rooted displacement comes an instinct to bear witness and Gorani has done that, often at great personal cost. During the early days of the Syrian revolution, she watched harrowing videos daily: graphic footage of violence against demonstrators, scenes she now associates with post-traumatic stress. 'I became incapable of watching such videos anymore,' she admits. 'I'd take my earpiece out when anchoring if I knew the story was too hard. I just didn't want to hear children crying.' Recognising those emotional boundaries was, she says, an act of strength. 'You're not supposed to be desensitised to people getting killed. It's not a weakness to say 'I can't'. It's strength.' And even now, she draws her limits. 'I've never watched an ISIS execution video. I don't care who's in it. The thought is enough.' Gorani is also acutely aware of journalism's precarious future. 'The media industry is in flux. Legacy platforms are shrinking. Local papers are shutting. Social media has taken over but it doesn't pay journalists for their work,' she adds. 'I spent three and a half weeks fact-checking a story on Syria. That's what people don't see. Journalism takes time, and that's what makes it journalism.' Still, she understands why Gen-Z might hesitate to enter the field. 'You're competing not just with other networks now, but with TikTok, YouTube, everyone.' What keeps us from breaking? Her memoir contains a powerful line: 'As a journalist, I record the time, the place and the facts. As a human being, I want to know why some people don't break'. She pauses when asked where that resilience comes from. 'I don't know. I'm still observing,' she says. 'Some people are just born with more resilience. I've interviewed journalists in Gaza recently. Some are cracking, others are joking and smiling. Is it upbringing? Is it temperament? Maybe both.' And as for her? 'Oh, I break all the time,' she says, candidly. 'I'm emotionally porous. I cry often, just not on TV. I'd be worried if I didn't feel anything. That would mean something's wrong.' The introspection that shaped her memoir has also helped her make peace with belonging, she admits. Not by finding a single place to call home, but by returning to her purpose. 'For me, fieldwork is a higher calling. It takes me out of my own head,' she says. 'Some people find it through parenting, others through service. For me, it's this.' And in journeying back to the roots of her purpose, not a place, Gorani reminds us that belonging isn't always tied to geography. Sometimes, it's about doing the thing that anchors you, even when the ground beneath you keeps shifting.
Economist
a day ago
- Politics
- Economist
For Trump, both action and inaction in Iran have consequences, says Karim Sadjadpour
IRAN HAS an uncanny way of hijacking American presidencies. The 1979 Iranian revolution and subsequent hostage crisis ended Jimmy Carter's presidency. The Iran-contra affair tainted Ronald Reagan's presidency. Iranian machinations in post-war Iraq corroded George W. Bush's presidency. The October 7th attacks on Israel by Hamas, a member of Iran's axis of resistance, triggered a brutal war that subsumed Joe Biden's presidency. Donald Trump may have envisioned a second term spent striking deals to resolve wars, but the Iran-Israel war could suck him in, too.
Economist
2 days ago
- Politics
- Economist
Trump's Iran strategy has been transformed by Israeli persistence and Iranian defiance, says Karim Sadjadpour
IRAN HAS an uncanny way of hijacking American presidencies. The 1979 Iranian revolution and subsequent hostage crisis ended Jimmy Carter's presidency. The Iran-contra affair tainted Ronald Reagan's presidency. Iranian machinations in post-war Iraq corroded George W. Bush's presidency. The October 7th attacks on Israel by Hamas, a member of Iran's axis of resistance, triggered a brutal war that subsumed Joe Biden's presidency. Donald Trump may have envisioned a second term spent striking deals to resolve wars, but the Iran-Israel war could suck him in, too.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
June 18, 1985, Forty Years Ago: US Assures India
The United States government has assured India that it will take every step to see that Pakistan does not produce a nuclear weapon. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said the assurance came during his talks with US President Ronald Reagan and other leaders on Pakistan's plan to produce a nuclear weapon. Regarding Afghanistan, the PM said India favoured the United Nations initiative to solve the problem and referred to the 'proximity talks' between Afghanistan and Pakistan due to be held in Geneva later this week. All hostages aboard a hijacked US airliner were removed from the plane to an undisclosed location outside Beirut airport for security reasons, Shiite militia commander and Justice Minister Nabih Berri told a news conference. The evacuation occurred after midnight when there were fears of a rescue operation by foreign troops, he said. The 'United' Akali Dal dropped president Harchand Singh Longowal and SGPC chief G S Tohra from the ad hoc committee announced by Joginder Singh on May 1. A decision to this effect was taken at a joint meeting of the advisory and ad hoc committees of the party under the chairmanship of Singh. No other leaders have yet been nominated in their place. The Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF) of Sri Lanka, in a statement, have set five pre-conditions for cessation of hostilities. Cooperation will be extended if the Sri Lankan government lifts the prohibition and surveillance zones and other regulations prohibiting the movement of people in affected areas. The Sri Lankan armed forces should be completely withdrawn from Tamil areas.
