Khalil Bendib speaks with Samia Errazzouki about the rising tension between Spain and Morocco after thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into the North African enclave of Ceuta, considered Spanish territory. It is believed that Moroccan border guards eased the crossing of the migrants in response to Spain's hosting of Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front, which campaigns for the independence of Western Sahara.

Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, Cihan Tugal, examines this topic with VOMENA host Shahram Aghamir.

On August 10th 2021, Hamid Nouri, a former prosecutor in Iran, went on trial in Sweden for his alleged role in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in 1988. The historic trial against Nouri, will hear testimonies from dozens of witnesses and it will be the first time that one of the worst crimes of the past 40 years in Iran will be examined in a court of law.

In July 1988, the Islamic Republic of Iran agreed to bring an end to the brutal eight-year war with Iraq. Over the next two months, under the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini, political prisoners around the country were secretly brought before a tribunal panel that would later become known as the Death Commission. Thousands of men and women were condemned to death, and many buried in mass graves in Khavaran Cemetery in the vicinity of Tehran.

Through eyewitness accounts of survivors, research by scholars and memories of children and spouses of the deceased, Nasser Mohajer's new book "Voices of a Massacre," reconstructs the events of that bloody summer, which has still not officially acknowledged by the Iranian government.

VOMENA host Malihe Razazan spoke with Nasser Mohajer about The 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners, the significance of Hamid Nouri and the charges against him.

A year after the blast in the port of Beirut, Lebanon sinks into a severe economic crisis which the World Bank ranks in the top 10, and possibly top 3, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century. Electricity, gas and even medicine are in short supply in the country. Angry residents wait in line for hours to fill their car tanks while others lucky enough to be able to connect to the internet run online campaigns asking Lebanese expats visiting the country for the summer, to bring with them the much needed medicines for loved ones.

How did the blast from the Beirut port exacerbate the current economic and political crisis in the country and what's life like today for millions of Lebanese people and for the victims of the port blast and their families?

VOMENA Host Mira Nabulsi speaks with Lara Bitar, the editor in chief of The Public Source, a Beirut-based independent media organization dedicated to long-form and in-depth journalism in the public interest.