Category: World News

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Listen live: Israeli hostage describes 14 months of captivity in Gaza

Source: Radio New Zealand

Eli Sharabi was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 , 2023 and held captive for 491 days.

Eli Sharabi was taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 , 2023 and held captive for 491 days. Photo: Blake Ezra

On October 7th 2023, Eli Sharabi was kidnapped by Hamas and held for 491 days.

He and his wife and two daughters were in their home on a kibbutz in Southern Israel when the attack happened.

His next 14 months were spent mostly in tunnels under Gaza – with often cruel, but occasionally kind captors, little food, no sunlight – and most importantly no knowledge that his British wife and teenage daughters had been killed the day he was taken.

It was only after his release in February that he learned that terrible news, and that his brother had also died captive in Gaza.

Sharabi said it was a “devastating moment” when they weren’t there to greet him.

Despite his horrendous ordeal, Eli Sharabi regards himself as lucky and says he does not hate his captors.

“Even when they humiliate me, even they violate … against me from time to time you understand it’s necessary to have this relationship with them if you want to go back to your family.”

He is the first released Israeli hostage to write a book about his experience.

Sharabi shares his story with Nine to Noon’s Kathryn Ryan. Listen live at the top of this page, on the RNZ app or your local RNZ frequency.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Why we used to sleep in two segments

Source: Radio New Zealand

For most of human history, a continuous eight-hour snooze was not the norm.

Instead, people commonly slept in two shifts each night, often called a “first sleep” and “second sleep.” Each of these sleeps lasted several hours, separated by a gap of wakefulness for an hour or more in the middle of the night. Historical records from Europe, Africa, Asia and beyond describe how, after nightfall, families would go to bed early, then wake around midnight for a while before returning to sleep until dawn.

Breaking the night into two parts probably changed how time felt. The quiet interval gave nights a clear middle, which can make long winter evenings feel less continuous and easier to manage.

The midnight interval was not dead time; it was noticed time, which shapes how long nights are experienced. Some people would get up to tend to chores like stirring the fire or checking on animals. Others stayed in bed to pray or contemplate dreams they’d just had. Letters and diaries from pre-industrial times mention people using the quiet hours to read, write or even socialise quietly with family or neighbours. Many couples took advantage of this midnight wakefulness for intimacy.

Literature from as far back as ancient Greek poet Homer and Roman poet Virgil contains references to an “hour which terminates the first sleep,” indicating how commonplace the two-shift night was.

How we lost the ‘second sleep’

The disappearance of the second sleep happened over the past two centuries due to profound societal changes. Artificial lighting is one of them. In the 1700s and 1800s, first oil lamps, then gas lighting, and eventually electric light, began turning night into more usable waking time. Instead of going to bed shortly after sunset, people started staying up later into the evening under lamplight.

Biologically, bright light at night also shifted our internal clocks (our circadian rhythm) and made our bodies less inclined to wake after a few hours of sleep. Light timing matters. Ordinary “room” light before bedtime suppresses and delays melatonin, which pushes the onset of sleep later.

The Industrial Revolution transformed not just how people worked but how they slept. Factory schedules encouraged a single block of rest. By the early 20th century, the idea of eight uninterrupted hours had replaced the centuries-old rhythm of two sleeps.

In multi-week sleep studies that simulate long winter nights in darkness and remove clocks or evening light, people in lab studies often end up adopting two sleeps with a calm waking interval. A 2017 study of a Madagascan agricultural community without electricity found people still mostly slept in two segments, rising at about midnight.

Long, dark winters

Light sets our internal clock and influences how fast we feel time passing. When those cues fade, as in winter or under artificial lighting, we drift.

In winter, later and weaker morning light makes circadian alignment harder. Morning light is particularly important for regulating circadian rhythms because it contains a higher amount of blue light, which is the most effective wavelength for stimulating the body’s production of cortisol and suppressing melatonin.

In time-isolation labs and cave studies, people have lived for weeks without natural light or clocks, or even lived in constant darkness. Many people in these studies miscounted the passing of days, showing how easily time slips without light cues.

Similar distortions occur in the polar winter, where the absence of sunrise and sunset can make time feel suspended. People native to high latitudes, and long-term residents with stable routines, often cope better with polar light cycles than short-term visitors, but this varies by population and context. Residents adapt better when their community shares a regular daily schedule, for instance. And a 1993 study of Icelandic populations and their descendants who emigrated to Canada found these people showed unusually low winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD) rates. The study suggested genetics may help this population cope with the long Arctic winter.

Research from the Environmental Temporal Cognition Lab at Keele University, where I am the director, shows how strong this link between light, mood and time perception is. In 360-degree virtual reality, we matched UK and Sweden scenes for setting, light level cues, and time of day. Participants viewed six clips of about two minutes. They judged the two minute intervals as lasting longer in evening or low-light scenes compared with daytime or brighter scenes. The effect was strongest in those participants who reported low mood.

A new perspective on insomnia

Sleep clinicians note that brief awakenings are normal, often appearing at stage transitions, including near REM sleep, which is associated with vivid dreaming. What matters is how we respond.

The brain’s sense of duration is elastic: anxiety, boredom, or low light tend to make time stretch, while engagement and calm can compress it. Without that interval where you got up and did something or chatted with your partner, waking at 3am often makes time feel slow. In this context, attention focuses on time and the minutes that pass may seem longer.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) advises people to leave bed after about 20 minutes awake, do a quiet activity in dim light such as reading, then return when sleepy.

Sleep experts also suggest covering the clock and letting go of time measurement when you’re struggling to sleep. A calm acceptance of wakefulness, paired with an understanding of how our minds perceive time, may be the surest way to rest again.

Darren Rhodes is a Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology and Environmental Temporal Cognition Lab Director, Keele University, Keele University.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Darfuri diaspora – grief and hope from afar

Source: Radio New Zealand

Displaced Sudanese who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on 28 October, 2025.

Displaced Sudanese who fled El-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan’s western Darfur region on 28 October, 2025. Photo: AFP

Kadambari Raghukumar produces and presents Here Now, RNZ’s weekly series on people from various global backgrounds living in Aotearoa. Her work in media has taken her from Kenya, to Sudan and across Asia.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a brutal civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

What began as a power struggle between two generals has devolved into a horrific humanitarian crisis.

More than 40,000 people have been killed and nearly 12 million people have been displaced.

In 2019 I spent time in Khartoum just days after President Omar Al Bashir’s 30 year authoritarian regime ended, and before the transitional government was put in place.

I distinctly recall a sense of optimism on the streets during the revolution and people saying how it felt like a “freedom festival”.

How did such a hopeful time, seemingly the start of a transition to democracy, turn into the unimaginable violence we are seeing now?

In this week’s episode of RNZ’s Here Now podcast, I speak to Darfuri Aucklanders Fathima Sanussi, Izzadine Abdallah, Hassaballah Hamid and Kaltam Hassan.

Hassaballah Hamid came to New Zealand a year ago through the UN refugee pathway. He’s from Darfur, where in the past few weeks, death and destruction is everywhere.

On Oct 26, the RSF took over Al-Fasher, the last major city of Darfur held by the Sudanese army.

The RSF have killed nearly 2000 people there, while tens of thousands are still stranded the city as the militia seize more territory from the army in the south-west and center.

“This is now beyond tribalism, this is a proxy war on Sudan,” Hamid said.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is widely accused of providing military support to the RSF, but UAE officials deny the allegations despite evidence presented in UN reports and international media investigations.

Famine has gripped the region, a once fertile part of the country known for growing food and pasture lands. While hospitals and schools have been destroyed across the Darfur region.

Over the weekend, Fathima Sanussi, an activist and former refugee from Sudan, organised a solidarity rally in Auckland, calling for an end to the violence.

“I’m from Darfur, it’s more of a reason why this work is so important to me,” she said.

“Right now, with everything that’s happening and being away from home, it allows us to kind of understand the functionality of the way the world works.

“My parents were forcibly displaced. More than ever now, as a Sudanese person and someone that’s particularly from Darfur, I want to be able to go back home one day.”

Darfur is a complex and diverse region where the Fur people, the Masalit and Arab Sudanese have lived for centuries – some semi-nomadic, pastoral communities, others, indigenous to those lands.

Ethnic tensions between what are called Arab and non-Arab groups have simmered for decades in these parts.

Kaltam Hassan and her son Izzadine are Masalit, from Al Genina in Darfur. It’s a region that is familiar with conflict.

In 2003, the Darfur Civil War brought extensive violence to the people of Al Genina, many of whom fled.

Sudan’s vast natural reserves – gold, copper, iron ore, while not the only reason, are said to be one of the major reasons this war has been prolonged and attracted support from external players.

Sudan is Africa’s 3rd largest gold producer and has reserves of iron, uranium ad copper across the country, particularly Darfur and Kordofan.

Fathima said: “It’s not fair that our people have to bear the burden of it all, meanwhile feeding the rest of the world and giving the world luxury goods at the expense of their death.

“The violence in Darfur is a modern-day colonial project. And I think once we start reframing the language of how we start speaking about Sudan is when we’re going to see effective conflict resolution.”

Kaltam Hassan recalls a peaceful childhood and past life in the region, until ethnic tensions spilled over and the Janjaweed militia (from whom the RSF were formed) unleashed violence.

But like others, she also sees external support to the RSF amplifiying the scale of this current conflict.

“What happened in the past, it’s already happened,” Kaltam said.

“But once those people stop funding the RSF, the Janjaweed, then we can figure out how to stop the fighting. But with other people from outside us funding them, giving them more power, it doesn’t matter how much our people are fighting, the problem won’t stop because it’s not just our problem anymore.”

Sudanese across the diaspora wait and watch for the viciousness of this war to end, continuing to wish for a return to how things used to be.

“People in Darfur are agricultural people. If the war stops, all the people even in the refugee camps, they will all go back to Darfur because there’s nowhere like home and they will start growing again.

“And that’s the one thing I want to see, our people going back home and building what’s already been broken down, growing our own food and just living the life that we used to live before all this started” Kaltam said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Are young people more narcissistic than ever?

Source: Radio New Zealand

The term ‘narcissism‘ comes from the Greek myth of Narcissus, the handsome young man who falls in love with his own reflection in a pool of water.

Are we in the middle of a narcissism epidemic in which people are caring more and more about themselves at the expense of others?

If so, who or what is to blame?

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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How Taiwan is leading the way in the fight against disinformation

Source: Radio New Zealand

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 24: Audrey Tang speaks onstage during the Clinton Global Initiative 2025 Annual Meeting at New York Hilton Midtown on September 24, 2025 in New York City. JP Yim/Getty Images for Clinton Global Initiative/AFP (Photo by JP Yim / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s first ever digital minister, told those attending the Munich Cyber Security Conference that Taiwan is using AI to fight disinformation. Photo: JP YIM

For Taiwan, the threat of Chinese military invasion is less pressing than an invasion many see as ongoing – an onslaught of disinformation.

As the world grapples with ways to tackle waves of disinformation and fake news, one country is taking the battle to every level of society, from temples and community halls to a dedicated government ministry.

In Taiwan where there are fears that the growing online onslaught could undermine the treasured democratic system, Taiwanese citizens are taking matters into their own hands.

“Taiwan has gone through so much change,” Mark Hanson said, a Taiwan-based New Zealand journalist.

“From a country that was under martial law right into the late 1980s, Taiwan has developed into a thriving economy, a leader and innovator in technology, an open democratic society, the first place in Asia with gay marriage.

“There have just been so many improvements made here and it’s scary that all of that could be washed away.

“The information war has already started, a long time ago,” Hanson’s friend Nelly said, who is an English teacher in Taichung.

“There’s some invisible threats everywhere, like the cyber attacks and [fake] news. It happens to us everywhere.”

In the final of three reports from Taiwan, The Detail looks at the claims that mainland China uses influencers, television stars, offshore “content farms” and generative artificial intelligence to swamp the island state with disinformation, and talks to two young people about their groundbreaking projects that others want to copy.

As China pursues sovereignty claims over Taiwan under the One China Principle, the online war is seen by many Taiwanese as a much greater threat than China’s military build up and trade sanctions.

‘They don’t hide any more’

Investigative journalist and podcaster Jason Liu is now dedicated to tackling disinformation at community level.

Jason Liu is an investigative journalist.

Jason Liu is an investigative journalist. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly

He’s spent five years across eight countries, including Ukraine, looking at how disinformation affects societies and has written about the so-called “content mill empire behind online disinformation”.

He said the Chinese propaganda messages were easy to spot and blatant, and sometimes came from within Taiwan.

“You have different ways to identify if they are pro-China or coordinated with pro-China actors. If they are repeating the propaganda from state-sponsored media from mainland China then they are part of the coordinated behaviour.

“Secondly, they don’t hide any more right now, they share the same picture, they use the state press release or they are making money out of this news cycle.”

Liu said people in the “online army” or public relations companies making money from Chinese state-sponsored propaganda have told him that AI had made it easy.

“Everyone can do it, everyone can repost hundreds of messages every day. If you want to earn some money from the Chinese government you just have to have the contacts to understand who would be willing to pay for it.

“It’s now easy to buy the applications to buy bots, to buy accounts to spread information.”

Liu said he had interviewed people in Mandarin-speaking countries like Malaysia and Singapore who made money from pushing disinformation into Taiwan.

His solution was simple, a programme that went into temples, schools and community halls, getting people offline and meeting face-to-face, where he talked about his international work, showed documentaries and talked about his articles.

“We are hosting more and more in-person events with children with students.

Billion Lee and Johnson Liang, co-founders of CoFact fact-checking collaboration

Billion Lee and Johnson Liang, co-founders of CoFact fact-checking collaboration Photo: Sharon Brettkelly

“That’s what people in my generation, the activists, media literacy petitioners, we are trying to bring people offline to meet each other. Then you don’t only read [about] Taiwan from the bots, from the fake accounts, from the social media.”

‘I believe in freedom, democracy’

Billion Lee took a different approach with a programme that had gained international attention.

She is the co-founder of CoFact, an NGO that built a chatbot to fact-check and fight disinformation, where the editorial team works with volunteers in verifying news or content.

The Detail met her off the plane from Portugal where she had attended a conference on fake information, before she headed to a hackathon weekend where like-minded engineers, designers and tech experts shared new ways of recognising and tackling disinformation.

The CoFact website also runs tutorials in several languages, explaining how users can filter news topics and sift out fake stories.

“What CoFact tries to do is provide strategies, provide solutions. We don’t want to just blame government or blame China. As individuals here we need to do something ourselves, be activists, rather than just being the taker and blaming it on everyone else,” she said.

Lee said she was not daunted by the scale of the problem.

“I am doing what I can do. That is the thing I believe in, freedom, democracy… that’s the value I want to leave for the future.”

The Detail emailed the Chinese Embassy in Wellington with questions but got no response.

The trip to Taiwan was hosted and funded by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Is it healthier to stop eating when you’re 80 percent full?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Hara hachi bu has been gaining attention recently as a strategy for weight loss.

But while the practice might emphasise eating in moderation, it shouldn’t really be seen as a method of dietary restriction.

Rather, it represents a way of eating that can help us learn to have awareness and gratitude while slowing down at mealtimes.

A bearded man in a white shirt smiles as he eats a burger.

Hara hachi bu might help you improve your relationship with eating and your body.

Unsplash+

What does the research say?

Research on hara hachi bu is limited. Previous studies have evaluated the overall dietary patterns of those living in regions where this eating philosophy is more commonplace, not the “80 percent rule” in isolation.

However, the available evidence does suggest hara hachi bu can reduce total daily calorie intake. It’s also associated with lower long-term weight gain and lower average body mass index (BMI). The practice also aligns with healthier meal-pattern choices in men, with participants choosing to eat more vegetables at mealtimes and fewer grains when following hara hachi bu.

Hara hachi bu also shares many similar principles with the concepts of mindful eating or intuitive eating. These non-diet, awareness-based approaches encourage a stronger connection with internal hunger and satiety cues. Research shows both approaches can also help reduce emotional eating and enhance overall diet quality.

Hara hachi bu may also have many advantages that go beyond losing weight.

For instance, hara hachi bu‘s focus on awareness and eating intuitively may offer a gentle and sustainable way of supporting long-term health changes.

Sustainable health changes are far easier to maintain in the long term. This may improve health and prevent weight regain, which can be a risk for those who lose weight through traditional diet approaches.

The ethos of hara hachi bu also makes perfect sense in the context of modern life and may help us develop a better relationship with the food we eat.

Evidence suggests that about 70 percent of adults and children use digital devices while eating. This behaviour has been linked to higher calorie intake, lower fruit and vegetable intake and a greater incidence of disordered eating behaviours, including restriction, binge eating and overeating.

As a dietitian, I see it all the time. We put food on a pedestal, obsess over it, talk about it, post about it – but so often, we don’t actually enjoy it. We’ve lost that sense of connection and appreciation.

Being more aware of the food we eat and taking time to taste, enjoy and truly experience it, as hara hachi bu emphasises, can allow us to reconnect with our bodies, support digestion and make more nourishing food choices.

Trying hara hachi bu

For those who might want to give hara hachi bu or take a more mindful and intuitive approach to improve their relationship with food, here are a few tips to try:

1. Check in with your body before eating

Ask yourself: Am I truly hungry? And if so, what kind of hunger is it — physical, emotional, or just habitual? If you’re physically hungry, denying yourself may only lead to stronger cravings or overeating later. But if you’re feeling bored, tired, or stressed, take a moment to pause. Giving yourself space to reflect can help prevent food from becoming a default coping mechanism.

2. Eat without distractions

Step away from screens and give your meal your full attention. Screens often serve as a distraction from our fullness cues, which can contribute to overeating.

3. Slow down and savour each bite

Eating should be a sensory and satisfying experience. Slowing down allows us to know when we’re satiated and should stop eating.

4. Aim to feel comfortably full, not stuffed

If we think of being hungry as a one and being so full you need to lie down as a ten, then eating until you’re around “80% full” means you should feel comfortably satisfied rather than stuffed. Eating slowly and being attuned to your body’s signals will help you achieve this.

5. Share meals when you can

Connection and conversation are part of what makes food meaningful. Connection at meal times is uniquely human and a key to longevity.

6. Aim for nourishment

Ensure your meals are rich in vitamins, minerals, fibre and energy.

7. Practice self-compassion

There’s no need to eat “perfectly”. The point of hara hachi bu is about being aware of your body – not about feeling guilty over what you’re eating.

Read more: People in the world’s ‘blue zones’ live longer – their diet could hold the key to why

Importantly, hara hachi bu is not meant to be a restrictive eating approach. It promotes moderation and eating in tune with your body – not “eating less”.

When viewed as a means of losing weight, it risks triggering a harmful cycle of restriction, dysregulation and overeating – the very opposite of the balanced, intuitive ethos it’s meant to embody. Focusing solely on eating less also distracts from more important aspects of nutrition – such as dietary quality and eating essential nutrients.

This practice also may not suit everyone. Athletes, children, older adults and those living with illness often have higher or more specific nutritional needs, so this eating pattern may not be suitable for these groups.

While often reduced to a simple “80 percent full” guideline, hara hachi bu reflects a much broader principle of mindful moderation. At its core, it’s about tuning into the body, honouring hunger without overindulgence and appreciating food as fuel — a timeless habit worth adopting.

Aisling Pigott is a Lecturer in Dietetics at Cardiff Metropolitan University. and a Non-Executive Director of the British Dietetic Association, the professional body and trade union representing dietitians in the UK. She receives funding from the Research Capacity Building Collaborative (RCBC) and Health and Care Research Wales.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Taylor Swift sings about ‘eldest daughter syndrome’, but is it real?

Source: Radio New Zealand

When Jess King heard the term “eldest daughter syndrome”, she immediately felt “seen”.

“I first heard about it on TikTok … I just fit that mould to a tee,” says the curve model and influencer from Melbourne/Naarm.

“I’m high-achieving, a perfectionist.

Jess King says eldest daughter syndrome has validated her experience of being the firstborn child.

Jess King says eldest daughter syndrome has validated her experience of being the firstborn child.

Jess King/ABC supplied

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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‘It’s just a misunderstanding’ – How the war in Gaza is crushing Jordan’s tourism economy

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two horses carry tourists over the desert landscape of Jordan

The war in Gaza has severely impacted Jordan’s tourism industry. Pietra Brettkelly

Jordan doesn’t have the oil that’s made its neighbours wealthy, and the tourism industry propping up its economy is under immense pressure

In the ancient city of Petra, in Jordan, archaeologists are measuring and moving 2000-year-old blocks of carved stone.

Towering over them are the intricate facades carved into sandstone cliffs in the once-thriving Nabatean civilisation.

The workers seem oblivious to the tourists peering at them as they toil in the blazing sun uncovering more of this UNESCO site.

The famous treasury Al-Khazneh, a is one of the most elaborate rock-cut tombs in Petra.

The famous treasury Al-Khazneh, a is one of the most elaborate rock-cut tombs in Petra. Sharon Brettkelly

It is peak tourist season here but visitor numbers are very weak, hurting everyone from Bedouin guides to the horse and donkey owners whose livelihoods are in ruins.

Today The Detail looks at how this peaceful country, that depends heavily on tourism, is struggling with the fallout from the two-year-old Gaza war, and a shaky peace deal.

“The tourist, he’s not coming to Jordan here,” says horse owner Omar Al-Hlalat. “He’s scared of Jordan, but Jordan is very safe.”

The father of four says he had three customers a day before the war. Now it’s one every two weeks.

“I only have this horse for my business,” he says.

Bedouin tour guide Hamad Hamad al Manajih serving tea.

Bedouin tour guide Hamad Hamad al Manajih serving tea. Sharon Brettkelly

Tourism took off in Petra when it was declared one of the seven new wonders of the world in 2007 but growth was strained by nearly two decades of conflicts, followed by Covid.

Just as it was finally starting to recover, the Gaza war put off visitors to the extent that at least 35 hotels in nearby Wadi Musa closed last year.

Freelance guide Hashem Nawafleh tells The Detail that 90 percent of the area’s income is from tourism and there are no other options for small operators like horse owner Al-Hlalat. They’ve taken out bank loans to get them through the downtime but now they are struggling to repay them, he says.

Many visitors came to Jordan on packaged tours that included Israel and Egypt.

“Visitors from Europe, US, all over the world cancelled their trips to Jordan thinking that Jordan is not safe because the war is right next to us.

Sharon Brettkelly (far left) interviewing horse owner Omar Al-Hlalat as his horses stand by.

Sharon Brettkelly (far left) interviewing horse owner Omar Al-Hlalat as his horses stand by. Pietra Brettkelly

“It’s just a misunderstanding that people have. When they watch the news they see people fighting in Gaza or Israel, they think that all the region is the same.”

Twenty-six year old Nawafleh proudly guides visitors through his home town of Petra. He says his country of 11 million – including up to four million refugees, mainly from Palestine and Syria – needs overseas visitors because it is not oil-rich like its neighbours.

Bedouin guide Hamad Hamad al Manajih lives a traditional nomadic life with his wife and three children, far from the conflict – but he is not untouched by it.

His flock of sheep and seven camels are his main income source and prices for livestock have plummeted as tourism-related demand for meat has dropped.

“People, hotels, shops are not buying as much as they used to,” Nawafleh says, translating for al Manajih.

“His annual income before the war used to be around 6000 Jordanian dinars a year (NZ$15,000). After the war it’s not more than 3000 JDs.

Dan Nawafleh serving up Jordanian sweets at mealtime.

Dan Nawafleh serving up Jordanian sweets at mealtime. Sharon Brettkelly

“It’s affecting everything in his life, his family. Things like clothes and equipment for school.”

Nawafleh says the government responded to an appeal for help from the tourism industry by reintroducing a subsidy launched in Covid for locals called ‘Our Jordan is Heaven’, cutting costs of tours to 20 percent of usual prices.

“Actually this won’t be enough especially for people who are mainly working in tourism but it could help a little bit,” he says.

Despite the struggle, Nawafleh is still chasing his dream of opening his own travel agency.

“A small company that offers real local experiences in Jordan. I wish to show people the beauty of my country, not only Petra but also the desert, mountains and the Bedouin culture. I want people to see the real Jordan and the way we live it ourselves.”

Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.

You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Booker Prize 2025: Six shortlisted books, reviewed by experts

Source: Radio New Zealand

Which novel will win the coveted 2025 Booker Prize?

From 150 titles to a longlist of 13, six books have been shortlisted.

Before the winner is announced on 10 November, academics review the finalists.

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits - book and author photo

Faber/Kat-Green

Middle-aged Tom waits 12 years to keep his promise to leave his unfaithful wife when their youngest child starts college, then embarks on a road trip across an American landscape both vivid and commonplace.

Tom recounts the journey and his memories, his voice fluctuating between disclosure and holding back. The reader is the silent party, compelled to reflect: do you resemble the wife craving emotional impact, the son constructing amicable distance, the daughter thrust into change, the ex-partner successful but unsatisfied, or Tom himself? There is nothing really extraordinary, and yet the story is captivating.

Despite one significant obstacle, Tom never expresses regret for risks not taken. He has unanticipated glimpses of alternative paths, and learns the joys of routine, a steady career and ordinary family life. A film adaptation is inevitable; its challenge will be to capture the gentle, melancholic tension of this thoughtful novel.

Jenni Ramone is an associate professor of postcolonial and global literatures at Nottingham Trent University.

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

An atmospheric domestic drama set during 1963’s “Big Freeze”, The Land In Winter follows the lives of two married couples – Eric and Irene, Bill and Rita – in the south-west of England over a few bitter winter months. Due to the intensity of events taking place over a short period of time with just a few characters, the novel feels claustrophobic, almost soap opera-like.

The wives are both pregnant, and they bond, albeit tentatively, over impending motherhood. Despite being The Land In Winter’sprotagonists, Rita and Irene feel like characters who have things done to them, rather than having their own agency.

Their pregnancies compound this, presented as inescapable obligations as opposed to happy, wanted circumstances. In a novel thick with metaphor and symbolism (the women’s friendship begins when Rita gifts Irene freshly laid eggs), it is perhaps unsurprising that a third pregnancy, that of a cow on Bill and Rita’s farm, foreshadows the trauma and tragedy experienced by the novel’s end.

Stevie Marsden is a lecturer in publishing studies at Edinburgh Napier University.

Related: Listen to Andrew Miller talking about his 2011 Booker Prize finalist Snowdrops

Flashlight by Susan Choi

Flashlight by Susan Choi - cover and author photo

Jonathan Cape/Laura Bianchi

Susan Choi’s Flashlight opens with a disorienting event. Ten-year-old Louisa and her father Serk walk along a seaside breakwater at dusk, a flashlight in hand. By morning, Louisa is found barely alive. Serk is missing and presumed drowned. Instead of offering immediate answers, the novel follows three intertwined lives – Serk, Louisa, and Anne – across continents and decades.

What begins as a mystery expands into an intimate family drama that takes in broader historical shifts, spanning across the Pacific and from the 1970s onwards. Serk, an ethnic Korean born in Japan, emigrates to the US and navigates a life shaped by statelessness and historical upheaval. Anne, Louisa’s American mother, embodies another thread of rupture and inheritance. Together, their stories form a constellation of absence and unresolved loss.

Choi illuminates the hidden currents of identity, migration and disappearance with remarkable skill. Flashlight is an ambitious, emotionally resonant work that rewards close reading.

Sojin Lim is a reader in Asia Pacific studies at the University of Lancashire.

Book review: Flashlight by Susan Choi

Nine To Noon

Flesh by David Szalay

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller - book and author photo

Hodder & Stoughton/Rob Macdougall

The titles of Szalay’s two Booker-nominated novels, this year’s Flesh and 2016’s All That Man Is, could be interchangeable. Both explore contemporary European masculinity, but where All That Man Is did this through nine short stories, Flesh is a novel about the eventful life of one Hungarian, István, from age 15 to mid-life.

Here is sex, infidelity, murder, war. But the novel is spare rather than voluptuous, trimmed to the bone rather than fleshy. István’s thoughts and tragedies are often absent from the writing. We don’t hear about his time in a young offenders’ institution or anything at all about his father, for example. We learn that he is physically brave and attractive to women. “Flesh” then refers to the way he is seen, as only a body, a member of the new working classes whose lives are defined by precarity.

Kept outside, overhearing only his bare responses – “Okay” – readers become complicit in this failure to consider all that man is. And it is precisely this innovatively spare narration which makes the novel so deeply affecting.

Tory Young is an associate professor of literature at Anglia Ruskin University.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai - cover and author photo.

Hamish Hamilton/ M Sharkey

At 35, Kiran Desai became the youngest female author to be awarded the Booker prize when her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, won in 2006. The follow-up, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, has been twenty years in the making.

Set between the 1990s and early 2000s, Desai’s elaborately structured novel deftly traverses the US, India, Italy and Mexico as it spins the tale of two Indian-born migrants: aspiring novelist Sonia Shah studying in Vermont and struggling journalist Sunny Bhati in New York. Their thwarted romance is instigated by their respective meddling north Indian grandparents, who reside in mouldering mansions symbolic of their declining fortunes and a decaying colonialism, making this 667-page love story an epic, multi-generational family saga.

It dramatises how nation, class, gender, race and history shape its large cast of characters, each explored in detailed vignettes. Desai shows formidable insight as she ponders the cultural values of the US and India, the nature of loneliness, ruthless liberal individualism, postcolonial disintegration and violence, but also creativity.

Ruvani Ranasinha is a professor of global literature at King’s College London.

Book review: The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Nine To Noon

Audition by Katie Kitamura

Audition by Katie Kitamura - book and cover photo.

Fern Press/David Surowiecki

Katie Kitamura’s Auditionconsists of two seemingly contradictory parts. In the first, a stage and screen actress in her late 40s meets a much younger man in a Manhattan restaurant. He has asked for the meeting because he suspects he may be her secret son, given up for adoption as a baby. She reveals that this cannot be: she had an abortion.

In the second part, the young man is the woman’s son and has grown up with her and her husband, although he has, as an adult, argued with them and left home. Now he wants to return with his girlfriend.

These two seemingly contradictory scenarios are balanced, played against one another, and the tension between these “sliding doors” variant realities throws into relief the uncertainties, intermittencies and variabilities of existence. A pared-down novella, directly written and intriguingly characterised, this is a memorably ambiguous meditation on parenthood, performance, relationship and commitment.

Adam Roberts is a professor of 19th-century literature at Royal Holloway.

Book review: Audition by Katie Kitamura

Nine To Noon

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand