The White House, Gaza, and the NSC’s Lies with Akbar Shahid Ahmed
On this special episode of American Prestige, a discussion of the post-Gaza plans of a Biden official to rebuild the Palestinian territory through a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

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Recorded Monday, January 15, 2024:
Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior foreign affairs reporter at HuffPost, returns to the American Prestige podcast to discuss his recent pieces covering the post-Gaza plans of top White House official Brett McGurk and the imminent departure of the White House’s special Middle East envoy on humanitarian issues.
Then, for American Prestige subscribers, the group gets into the NSC’s attempts to discredit Akbar’s reporting, the media backlash, how this compares to treatment of reporters under Trump, and more.
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Brett McGurk, US National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, and Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Saudi ambassador to the US, look on during an investment agreement signing ceremony between the US and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah on July 16, 2022.
(Amer Hilabi / AFP via Getty Images)On this episode of American Prestige, Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior foreign affairs reporter at HuffPost, returns to the podcast to discuss his recent pieces covering the post-Gaza plans of top White House official Brett McGurk and the imminent departure of the White House’s special Middle East envoy on humanitarian issues.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
Producer Jake regrettably had his pet rat confiscated after an ill-fated cruise. In this week’s news: Iran considers a U.S. peace proposal (1:37), Project Freedom fails in the Strait of Hormuz (7:45), and new details emerge about damage by Iranian strikes on U.S. military sites (11:25); Israel kills civilians in Lebanon (14:53) and targets Gaza police (16:24); U.S.-China tensions rise before Trump’s summit (18:10); Sudan accuses Ethiopia of drone strikes while Ethiopia accuses Sudan of arming Tigray rebels (23:19), plus Tigray’s ruling party reinstates the regional legislature (25:39); the United States prepares to lift sanctions on Eritrea (27:08); JNIM besieges Bamako, Mali as Mali’s junta leader appoints himself defense minister (28:41); Trump pulls U.S. soldiers from Germany (30:24); Russia and Ukraine reject rival ceasefires (31:38); Trump expands sanctions on Cuba (33:53); and the White House broadens its counterterrorism strategy (35:29).
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