Ibrahim Mohamed heard gunfire outside his house as bullets streaked over the skies of Khartoum, where, he said, he saw warring militias killing people and looting houses.

“I even saw many people who were shot by… the people who were fighting in the streets near our house,” he said. “It is not safe at all to be in Khartoum, so I had to flee.”

More than two months later, fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has descended into a brutal conflict, characterized by reports of sexual and genocidal violence and civilian casualties, and triggering an exodus of refugees.

As many as 3,000 people have been killed since the conflict started on April 15, Sudan’s minister of health, Haitham Ibrahim, told Saudi-owned al-Hadath News Television on June 17. Almost 2.5 million people have been displaced inside and outside the country, according to recent figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), amid ongoing hostilities against the civilian population that have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.

Many Sudanese have fled the fighting to neighboring countries like Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan. But some, Mohamed among them, found themselves trapped by a bureaucratic nightmare – and they say the United States is responsible.

They have been stranded in the country without their passports, some left to fend for themselves while their families found safer refuge. The passports, they say, were destroyed by the US embassy, where the documents were being held for visa processing when the fighting broke out.

This is not the first time passports have been destroyed by an evacuating American embassy. When Afghanistan’s civilian government fell to Taliban fighters in August 2021, American personnel destroyed the passports of some Afghans at the US embassy in Kabul in preparation for a full evacuation.

‘Standard operating procedure’

“It is standard operating procedure during a drawdown to take precautions to not leave behind any documents, materials, or information that could fall into the wrong hands and be misused,” the email said.

The embassy advised Sudanese visa applicants without passports to apply for a new passport with the Sudanese embassy in Cairo, despite Egyptian authorities issuing a raft of entry requirements for refugees from the country. Nearly 256,000 refugees, the majority from Sudan, have entered Egypt since the fighting started on April 15, according to recent figures from the UN’s refugee agency.

On June 10, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry changed the rules to require all Sudanese to obtain electronic visas for entry. Previously, only men between ages 18 and 49 required an entry visa, with exemptions for women, children and the elderly.

“As we receive new information, we will provide individuals, with whom we are in communication, information on how to obtain a new passport or travel documents,” the spokesperson said. “We recognize that the lack of travel documentation is a burden for those seeking to depart Sudan. We have and will continue to pursue diplomatic efforts with partner countries to identify a solution,” the statement added.

A bureaucratic logjam

Arwa Idris, 20, said her family escaped Khartoum several weeks into the conflict, embarking on a treacherous journey to Port Sudan on the Red Sea in the hope of reaching a safe neighboring country by air, as the land route towards Egypt is unsafe.

Before the violence broke out, Idris, a pharmacy student, applied for a visa to attend a UN youth conference in New York in April.

“(It) was the biggest opportunity I have (had) in my entire life,” she said.

Idris explained that her visa was approved, and she was due to collect her passport in mid-April. But the fighting uprooted her life in Sudan and shattered her hopes of traveling to the US or escaping the violence at home.

Instead, she says she was thrust into a bureaucratic logjam on June 8, when the US embassy confirmed her passport had been destroyed. She said she managed to manually renew her old passport on May 26 during a stopover in Wadi Halfa, in northern Sudan – a procedure the US embassy recommended to Sudanese visa applicants. But Idris claimed that days later, Egyptian authorities would not accept her travel documents.

Her family refuses to flee the country without her, leaving them stuck in the port city with no recourse.

Mohamed, the software developer, was scheduled to travel to the US in the spring after being accepted to a computer science master’s program at a university in Iowa.

Without any travel documentation, Mohamed was forced to stay back in Sudan while his family reluctantly left him to find refuge in Egypt in late April.

“They had to leave because it’s a life or death matter if they stayed (in Khartoum).”

On May 27, he says he left the capital via an indirect route to Port Sudan, in an attempt to avoid clashes between the RSF and the Sudanese army.

“You don’t know if you’re going to be shot or not,” he added. “Along the way inside Khartoum state, you can see dead bodies everywhere… I am grateful that I made it in one piece.”

After nearly three days Mohamed reached the coastal city, where he says he is now staying at a distant relative’s house with at least 25 other family members.

Alhaj Sharafeldin, a 25-year-old university graduate, was also due to travel to the US after he was offered a place in a computer science master’s program at a university in Iowa.

Sabah Ahmed, a 47-year-old stay-at-home mother, relocated her family from Khartoum to Wad Madani, southeast of the capital, a week after the conflict started.

Before the situation boiled over, Ahmed says she and her four young children had reached the final stages of applying for family reunification to join her husband and their daughter in Columbus, Ohio. The two were granted asylum by the US in 2018.

Ahmed said she feels “practically trapped.”

Fierce clashes between the Sudanese army and RSF paramilitary forces have persisted despite attempted negotiations and shaky ceasefires, leaving stranded civilians with a future colored by war.

Speaking about her passport, Idris said: “It’s the ticket to go, to run away from this tragedy, and now it’s destroyed.”

Desperately projecting that everything is as it was, the Kremlin is only emphasizing how much has changed.

These were 36 hours that provided a glimpse of the end of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Almost every action was improbable, at best a week ago – much was inconceivable, 17 months ago.

A loyal henchman slams the premise of the invasion, then claims an airstrike targeted his troops, before taking a major military town without clashes, Prigozhin said, and then marching to within a few hundred miles of Moscow. But suddenly he executes a baffling reversal, turning back to avoid bloodshed, as the Kremlin claims Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus whom Putin seems to treat with contempt, brokered a dramatic reprieve, in which the insurrectionist who has his armor bound for Moscow, now opts for exile in Minsk.

Even as the dust settles, it still makes little sense. It is important to remember we have yet to hear from Yevgeny Prigozhin that he has accepted exile in Belarus and see evidence his units have genuinely all stood down. He is an open proliferator of misinformation. We should be equally suspicious of the apparent bow with which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tried to tie this startling episode up with on Saturday night. Two hours earlier, Wagner were at the gates of the capital (almost), and then suddenly everything is forgiven.

There are large parts of this story missing. We may never learn what they are. Many emotions could have altered Prigozhin’s course. Was the advance north too easy? Did he accept entering the capital would leave his men vulnerable, even to a weak Russian military response? Were the regular military not joining him in large enough number? Did he believe a climbdown would only grow his support? While on the surface, Prigozhin’s climbdown makes him appear weak, even finished, he has been the decision-maker over the past 36 hours.

Putin has been left reacting. Silent initially, and then bombastically angry and confident, promising “inevitable punishment” for the “scum.” But hours later, this was all forgotten. Putin’s emotional state – were it known – is arguably less revealing than his actions. By letting Prigozhin go, and apparently sweeping the entire insurrection under the carpet, he’s appeared the weakest yet in 23 years.

It is possible his special services will now pursue Wagner and its supporters, slowly, away from the glare of the last two days. Yet the Kremlin’s solution to the problem was to climb down too. It’s a move so antipathetic to everything Putin stands for, it can only suggest he had no other choice: that he lacked the forces to be sure he could hold Prigozhin back.

That is perhaps the larger lesson of the so-called March of Justice. Not that a mercenary boss didn’t send a modest-sized force into Moscow to execute a coup, but that the Kremlin had to let him go.

Putin’s vulnerability is assured

Putin’s position was clearly weakening because of the war’s catastrophic mismanagement. But how he would be removed – what possible circumstances could permit that – was something that eluded officials and analysts. This was not a likely option.

But now it has happened, we have a glimpse behind the thickset curtain the Kremlin relies upon to hide its infighting, incompetence and frailty, allowing it to project an outsized confidence – a post-Soviet omnipotence. It’s pretty ugly in there it seems.

Now the rest of the world has seen this too – from Ukraine to NATO to Putin’s allies. Notably some friends were quiet: Kazakhstan and Iran – both of whom owe Russia a past debt – called this an “internal matter.” That is not unqualified support.

We can only guess whether the thought of Prigozhin in charge will cause such panic in the elite country houses of suburban Moscow that support for Putin sustains. Yet his vulnerability is now assured, for the first time in 23 years – two decades in which he has accrued plentiful enemies and debts. (It is ridiculous to maintain the last two days have been an elaborate charade designed to somehow improve Putin’s position or provide a pretext for escalation. This is an entirely internal affair, distracting from the urgent needs of the war. Making the Kremlin head seem this unequivocally weak can in no way strengthen his position).

So where does this leave Russia and its anxious adversaries? We can’t know what comes next, but it is likely to follow the explosively erratic pattern of the last two days. Prigozhin may vanish for a few months. Putin may make some changes in his military staff. Things may seem “normal.” But they have absolutely changed and a post-Putin world – and the dramatic force needed to impose it – has been glimpsed. It feels like the beginning of the end for him.

The most acute catalyst to any change will be the impact this bizarre drama has on the Ukraine frontlines. It is impossible to imagine that a series of fluctuations in Russia’s military presence has not weakened defensive positions in the south and east – the very places where Ukraine is pushing forwards. The most optimistic assessment you could make is that Russian military morale must have felt a hiccup while watching its commander-in-chief and most prominent military figure engage in a 24-hour game of chicken. Would you genuinely give your life on the Russian front lines this weekend, given the mess you observe in the higher command?

Ukraine claims to be already pushing forward. It is too early to know what impact the Justice March has had on the war. But the Kremlin must be acutely aware of the damage to both the positions of Putin and Prigozhin if this conflict – which Moscow has framed as an existential battle against NATO – is ultimately lost. Perhaps that stark recognition was quietly feeding the bizarre decisions and reversals as Wagner fighters made such easy progress on Saturday north on the M4 highway to Moscow.

Former NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett died Tuesday in an apparent drowning off a Florida Panhandle beach, a county sheriff’s office said, as rip currents have claimed at least 11 lives in two weeks along the Gulf Coast.

First responders were called to a beach in Destin around 2:12 p.m. amid reports people in the water were struggling to make it to shore, the Okaloosa County agency said in a news release.

Mallett went under the water and was not breathing when lifeguards pulled him out, the sheriff’s office said. He died at a hospital, it added.

He was 35.

Casualties this month tied to rip currents have been recorded between Fort Morgan, Alabama, and Panama City Beach, Florida – a zone that includes the beach where the former NFLer apparently drowned. While authorities didn’t cite the dangerous waves in Mallet’s death, they’ve been warning beachgoers of hazardous water conditions.

A rip currents is “a relatively small-scale surf-zone current” that forms as waves disperse across the beach, trapping water between the beach and a sandbar or other feature so it “converges into a narrow, river-like channel moving away from the shore at high speed,” according to the National Weather Service. While it won’t pull someone underwater, a rip current can pull even the strongest swimmer away from the beach beyond breaking waves.

The 10-year average for US rip current fatalities is 71, weather service data shows. They were the third-leading cause of weather fatalities from 2013 to 2023, data shows, killing on average more people than lightning, tornadoes or hurricanes.

‘We lost a great man’ in Mallett, Brady says

Mallett was a star with the Arkansas Razorbacks before being drafted in 2011 in the third round by the New England Patriots, the NFL said. He spent seven years in the NFL with the Patriots, Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens.

Mallett played in 21 games, went 3-5 as a starter, and compiled 1,835 passing yards, nine touchdown passes and 10 interceptions, the NFL said. His career ended in 2017.

“The New England Patriots are deeply saddened to learn of the sudden and unexpected passing of former quarterback Ryan Mallett,” the team said on Twitter. “Our thoughts are with the Mallett family, his former teammates and all who are mourning his loss.”

NFL star Tom Brady also took to social media to mourn his former teammate, sharing a photo of him and Mallett together on the field.

“We lost a great man. Thank you for everything Ryan,” Brady wrote on Instagram. “Praying for the Mallett family and all their loved ones tonight.”

Mallett was the head football coach for the White Hall High School Bulldogs in White Hall, Arkansas, where he also taught physical education and health, according to the district’s website.

“It is with great sadness that we share the loss of Coach Ryan Mallett,” the district said. “Coach Mallett was a beloved coach and educator. We ask that you remember his family, team, students, fellow coaches, and the White Hall School District staff in your prayers.”

Just Stop Oil protesters disrupted the first day of the second Ashes Test as one England cricketer carried an activist to the boundary.

Activists wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts ran toward the wicket at the center of the pitch, spilling orange powder onto the outfield at Lord’s Cricket Ground – one of the world’s most prestigious sporting venues – which is staging the Test match between England and Australia in west London.

The protesters had emerged from the Grand Stand and sprinted onto the pitch after just one over.

However, they fell short in their efforts to reach the wicket, with one of them stopped by the intervention of England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

The 33-year-old Bairstow picked up one of the protestors before carrying them back to the stands.

England captain Ben Stokes also joined teammate Bairstow in halting the progress of the protestors as they tried to deposit orange powder.

“MCC condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s pitch incursion and with the behaviour of the protestors involved,” said the Marylebone Cricket Club’s (MCC) CEO Guy Lavender. The MCC is the owner of Lord’s.

“Their actions not only endanger themselves and those who work at the ground, but they have consistently shown complete disregard for the people who pay to attend events, not just here at Lord’s but around the country at other sporting venues,” added Lavender.

London’s Metropolitan Police said three people had been arrested and taken into custody.

“Cricket is an important part of our national heritage, but how can we enjoy England vs Australia when much of the cricketing world is becoming unfit for humans to live in?,” said Just Stop Oil in a statement.

“We can no longer afford to distract ourselves when the sports we play, the food we eat, and the culture we cherish is at risk.

“It’s time for cricket lovers and all those who understand the severity of this situation, to get onto the streets and demand action from this illegitimate, criminal government. When our children ask us ‘what did we do’ to avert this crisis, we better have a good answer.”

Earlier this year, a Just Stop Oil protester interrupted the World Snooker Championships by climbing onto the table and throwing a bag of orange powder paint over the playing surface.

Australia won the first of the five-Test series at Edgbaston in Birmingham last week.

On June 6, a shocking announcement was made by the PGA Tour sending reverberations around the golf world.

The organization, along with Saudi’s Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and the DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour), had signed an agreement to combine PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights – including the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series – with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity.

The document was sent to Congress on Monday, according to a source with knowledge of the framework agreement.

The framework agreement states the three groups will establish a for-profit Limited Liability Company (LLC), referenced in the agreement as “NewCo.”

The document says the PGA Tour and DP World Tour will each “contribute commercial businesses/rights,” while the PIF “will contribute their golf-related investments and assets, including LIV, to NewCo along with a cash investment, in exchange for the issuance to PIF of an equity ownership interest in NewCo to a fair value mutually agreed by the parties.”

PIF is Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it has splashed billions of dollars on investments at home and overseas.

The three golf tours will continue to co-exist, according to the agreement, while “NewCo will undertake a full and objective empirical data-driven evaluation of LIV and its prospects and potential and will make a good faith assessment of the benefits of team golf in general and PIF, the PGA TOUR and the DP World Tour will work together in an effort to determine how best to integrate team golf into PGA TOUR and DP World Tour events going forward.”

The agreement also references the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), which currently doesn’t award rankings points for LIV Golf events. The agreement states that the parties “will cooperate in good faith and use best efforts to secure OWGR recognition for LIV events and players under OWGR’s criterial for considering LIV’s pending application.”

“Following the recent resolution of litigation, we’re working towards a definitive agreement. Any potential agreement resulting from these negotiations will have to be approved by the full board of the PGA TOUR, including our player directors.”

The framework agreement document is five pages long and is dated May 30, a week before the deal was announced publicly, and was signed by PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and DP World Tour CEO Keith Pelley.

Reaction to the June 6 announcement was swift, including from the US government.

The US Department of Justice is to investigate the planned partnership between the PGA Tour and the PIF over antitrust concerns, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

Additionally, the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations announced last week that it will hold a hearing on July 11 to examine the partnership. Lawmakers are inviting Monahan, Al-Rumayyan and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman to testify at the hearing.

The PGA Tour has reassured its players that they will have a voice in the new partnership with LIV Golf, a statement issued by the policy board confirmed Tuesday.

The statement comes after the board, which includes players Patrick Cantlay, Rory McIlroy, Charley Hoffman, Peter Malnati and Webb Simpson, met Tuesday ahead of the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.

“Entering the Framework Agreement put an end to costly litigation. Management, with input from our Player Directors, has now begun a new phase of negotiations to determine if the TOUR can reach a definitive agreement that is in the best interests of our players, fans, sponsors, partners, and the game overall,” the statement said.

“That was the focus of our productive Policy Board meeting this afternoon, with valuable and crucial input and perspective from the membership through our Player Directors.

“If future negotiations lead to a proposed agreement, it would need approval by the TOUR’s Policy Board, which includes Player Directors. In the meantime, we are all committed to the safeguards in the Framework Agreement that ensure the PGA TOUR would lead and maintain control of this potential new commercial entity. We are confident that the TOUR’s mission will continue to focus on showcasing the game of golf while serving local communities.”

Visitors to a beach resort city in southwest Japan got a shock on Tuesday when they woke to discover the usually crystal-clear sea had turned an ominous shade of red – after a local brewery sprung a leak.

Photos and videos shared online showed blood-red water flowing through the rivers and port areas of Nago city, on the island of Okinawa, a destination better known for emerald waters and sandy beaches.

But a local brewery urged people not to worry, saying there had been a leak at one of its plants and that the discolored water posed no danger to humans or marine life.

“We believe it was caused by the leakage of propylene glycol – a food additive listed in enforcement regulations of the Food Sanitation Act – contained in cooling water used to cool our factory facilities. We believe the leaked cooling water flowed into a river through a rain gutter, causing the sea to turn red,” Orion Breweries said.

Propylene glycol is commonly used in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies it as “generally recognized as safe” for use in food.

Orion Breweries also apologized for causing “inconvenience and enormous trouble and worry” and said it had launched an investigation and was working with authorities to take “counter measures.”

Roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) southwest of mainland Japan, Okinawa is Japan’s fifth largest island and has been a strategic location for US armed forces since the 1945 Battle of Okinawa in World War II.

The island is today a popular tourist destination for international travelers.

News of the red seawater amused some social media users but left others questioning if the water was safe.

One Twitter user said crowds of people had gathered to look at the red sea. “What is this? Is our ocean OK? The seawater is so red,” he tweeted.

If you’ve ever thought that having an empty seat beside you on a flight is the ultimate travel goal, try this for size: an entire plane to yourself.

That was the dream scenario for Phil Stringer, who was flying from Oklahoma to North Carolina on Sunday at 6.30 a.m.

Or, at least, that was the flight he booked. But by the time his American Airlines plane from Oklahoma City to Charlotte took off, it was Monday morning. He was also on, effectively, a private jet.

Stringer – a realtor from Greensboro – saw his morning flight delayed because of the storms that saw more than 9,000 US flights canceled or delayed over the weekend.

As the delay got longer and longer – Stringer says departure was pushed back no fewer than seven times – other passengers due to travel either rebooked their flights or gave up entirely, but he kept waiting.

By the time the plane finally took off at 12 minutes past midnight, he was the only one to board.

He filmed the process and posted a video to Tiktok, showing the experience.

“I’m the only person on the plane and they have an entire flight crew, they don’t want to do this flight,” he laughed into the camera. “They pulled them from the hotel to come do this flight for just one person.”

No sleep

He filmed a baggage handler confirming he’d only loaded a single bag onto the flight, a giggling gate agent announcing boarding to rows of empty seats, and a jaunty personal safety demonstration from the flight attendants, who didn’t seem as angry about being called to work at midnight as they might.

“I felt so bad [for the crew],” he added. “They were at their hotel, they were going to go to bed. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, they literally had to come here for me.’”

Perhaps as penance, they joked that he’d be getting no peanuts or pretzels.

But Stringer says the group had a whale of a time and were still in touch the following day.

A private plane ride doesn’t stop other travel glitches, however – and with lost bag rates up nearly 75%, the luggage curse struck him. Stringer says his bag was “misplaced” for about 45 minutes on arrival.

The new travel dream? A personal plane and a luggage tracker.

Daria Kasatkina, the highest-ranked Russian tennis player on the WTA Tour, revealed her fear for friends and loved ones after a military base near their homes was captured during the attempted Wagner mutiny on Saturday.

The Wagner group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, took control of the military facilities in Voronezh as part of the short-lived insurrection against the Kremlin on Saturday. Voronezh lies halfway between Moscow and Rostov-on-Don.

Asked about her contact with people back in Russia, Kasatkina told reporters: “My family, my parents are still in Russia. Well, as you can see, the last few days it’s been a big mess also there.

“Of course I’m worried. I’m worried for my friends, because my best friends, they actually live in Voronezh.

“I was pretty worried about that, because they were very scared. So was I, because I couldn’t do anything except to offer them to go to my city, because it’s more far so was not involved in the situation.”

The world No.11 was speaking after defeating Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina at the Eastbourne Invitational in England on Monday, a grass-court event ahead of Wimbledon.

Kasatkina has been one of the more outspoken Russian athletes with regard to the invasion of Ukraine, and has been praised for her stance by Ukrainian players on tour, such as Elina Svitolina.

The 26-year-old Russian acknowledged that her situation and experience is different to that of Ukrainian players, saying Ukrainians “are experiencing a way worse situation, but also, I mean, I can feel the same. I’m very worried for the people I love.”

“Feels s***, honestly,” Kasatkina said. “I’m not gonna hide it. It’s tough to, you know, to face the circumstances for such a long time already. Unfortunately, as we see, particularly me or tennis players, [there’s] nothing we can do about it, so we have to just follow what’s going on.”

Kasatkina said that tennis helps her to avoid thinking too much about the conflict.

“So far, thank God, when I’m on the court, I’m not thinking about it,” she added.

“When I’m on the court, I am, you know, in a different state of mind, which actually helps me to turn off from all this. Because since the beginning of the war, I was actually following everything every day. It’s a lot.

“I’m trying to turn off my head at least on the tennis court. It helps me a lot.”

Kasatkina next plays on Wednesday against the Czech Republic’s Karolína Plíšková.

VIPs can quaff champagne to their hearts’ delight while watching the Paris Olympics but the average fan will have to make do with soft drinks and water after organizers decided not to seek an exemption to a law prohibiting the sale of alcohol in stadiums.

Under Evin’s Law, which has been in place since 1991, alcohol is banned from sale to the general public inside stadiums in France, and Games organizers had not sought an exemption, a Paris 2024 spokesperson told Reuters.

The law allows for an exemption for 10 events per organizer per year per municipality.

“Paris 2024 will be organizing more than 700 competition sessions over 15 days of competition,” the spokesperson said.

Such an exemption would have required a change in the law for an event the size of the Games.

“It is the strict application of French law that allows catering services that include the provision of alcohol to operate in hospitality areas as they are governed by a separate law on catering,” the spokesperson added.

Alcohol was also banned from stadiums at the Covid-delayed Summer Olympics in Tokyo but events were eventually held without spectators due to the pandemic. Beer and wine were available at the 2012 and 2016 Games in London and Rio de Janeiro.

There is better news for fans traveling to France for this year’s Rugby World Cup, however, as organizers have negotiated an exemption for the tournament, which will be staged in September and October.

Arak might just be one of the most interesting spirits you’ve never heard of – and the Middle Eastern drink is having a revival across the globe.

The anise-flavored liquor is one of the oldest spirits in the world. But a new generation of boutique distilleries is hoping to bring the classic Levantine drink to fresh audiences and to celebrate arak’s heritage with World Arak Day, which is being celebrated this Tuesday, June 27, for the first time ever.

The day was conceived during a conversation between Jason Bajalia, the owner and founder of Terra Sancta Trading, which imports arak and other Middle Eastern alcohols into the US, and several arak producers.

“It is a holiday that embraces the rich history of Arak, as well as Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan’s shared culinary heritage, drinking culture, and Levantine identity,” wrote Terra Sancta in a Facebook post

The secondary goal, according to Bajalia, is to promote more integration of arak in the restaurant world. He noted that it’s still common for Middle Eastern restaurants to stock European wines rather than traditional spirits like arak.

Bajalia added that he started importing arak from the Palestinian territories after civil war “dried up” the supply from Syria, which used to be a top producer.

The revival of the spirit has been mostly led by small boutique producers led by young distillers working to reclaim part of their heritage, he said.

“They’re people that see this history, this tradition, that sort of got shunted over the years and put aside and they’re like, ‘No, this is our thing, and we’re gonna do it, but we’re gonna do it better than they used to do,’” he said.

A spirit with ancient roots

Historians trace the development of alcohol distillation to several different times and places. In the Middle East, the invention of arak is often attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan, considered the father of Arab chemistry. The 8th century scientist is credited with the invention of the alembic, which allowed for the distillation of alcohol from wine and beer.

He wasn’t trying to make alcohol, as the story has it. He was experimenting to refine the production of al-kohl, a traditional form of eyeliner, according to Arak Muaddi, a Palestinian craft distillery. He distilled wine and ended up producing a strong clear spirit – an early form of arak.

Arak – sometimes spelled araq in English – is made from a combination of grapes and anise seeds that give it a distinctive slightly liquorice-y scent and a flavor comparable to absinthe.

You can find similar drinks across the Mediterranean, like Turkey’s raki or Greece’s tsikoudia.

The spirit has to be distilled three times. Nader Muaddi, the founder of Arak Muaddi, explained that producing arak starts with creating wine. The first distillation concentrates the spirit, resulting in a much higher alcohol content. The second distillation purifies the spirit, getting rid of volatile compounds that result from the fermenting process. The final distillation adds in the anise seeds.

The labor-intensive process requires “our senses of taste, touch and smell,” Muaddi said. “That’s the craft part of it.”

The resulting spirit is clear and typically 53% alcohol, says Muaddi, who added that his arak is then aged for a year before being bottled and sold.

Preserving a cultural heritage

Unlike other spirits like bourbon or cognac, arak has no protected designation of origin to regulate its production. Muaddi says economic pressures in the Middle East have helped create knockoff versions of arak made by mixing industrial alcohol with anise oil.

Arak “took on this stigma of being the poor man’s drink,” he said.

His distillery is part of a wider mission to restore arak’s reputation. The drink is a crucial part of Levantine cuisine, he explained, often serving as a palate cleanser between many differently flavored mezze dishes. The powerful spirit is typically diluted with water and ice in a process called “breaking” the arak.

The Middle East has “a very rich history of making wine and spirits, and it’s about time that we share it with the world,” Muaddi went on.

Creating arak in the Palestinian territories is particularly poignant for Muaddi, a Palestinian-American who grew up in Pennsylvania. He sources his ingredients from local farmers who “are all at risk of forcible displacement,” he said.

In recent years, at least three of the towns that provide the distillery with ingredients have suffered attacks on their crops by Israeli settlers. In one instance, in 2018, Israeli settlers claimed that Palestinians also destroyed their crops in reprisal, according to the Times of Israel.

“If I can provide them with a financial incentive to remain steadfast and resilient on their land, and to continue to cultivate it – that’s awesome,” he said.

Arak serves as an important cultural motif for many Arabs living abroad. For Lebanese-American wine educator May Matta-Aliah, arak’s distinctive scent immediately brings her back to her childhood in Lebanon.

As a child, her parents would rub arak on her gums when she had a toothache, she said. And Sunday gatherings in Lebanon were never complete without arak on the table.

But she said she’s seen a new interest in the nostalgic spirit. Arak is “starting to have more of a trendy moment,” she said. “I think it’s kind of tying into a whole kind of culture now where people just want to experiment.”

Arak’s unique visual appearance also makes it particularly suited for the social media age, according to Matta-Aliah. The spirit is clear at first, but “louches” when added to water, turning milky white. “It’s sort of magical,” she said – and makes for great photos and videos.

A new generation of arak

Based in Lebanon, artisinal distiller Arak Farid, has experimented with adding different flavors such as cinnamon and lavender to its small-batch arak.

“We wanted to revive arak a bit and change the perspective,” said Jess Abi Khalil, who founded the brand alongside her partner Frederick.

Arak is “our original drink,” she said. “But it’s such an underrated drink – it’s not as famous as wine.” It “was more consumed by the older generation, and the young generation are a bit hesitant of arak.

“We wanted to reinvent the concept without touching the roots.”

The company exports its arak flavors to France, Germany, and Austria, where it says it’s found a market among both Arabs living abroad and others who are simply interested in trying a new spirit.

For Amman Saqqaf, a consumer experience executive at Jordan-based wine retailer FYXX, an improvement in the quality of arak has been an essential component to renewed interest in the spirit.

“High quality arak offers a superior drinking experience, and has elevated the overall perception and reputation of the beverage compared to commercial arak, which often focuses on mass production and standardized flavors,” she explained.

The detail-oriented methods used at small distilleries “result in a more refined and complex flavor profile, providing a truly enjoyable and authentic drinking experience.”

And consumers are more and more interested in products with a specific history and heritage, she added.

Likewise, Muaddi said that a younger generation interested in authenticity has helped drive interest in traditional arak.

“This new generation is really obsessed with tradition and authenticity,” he said. “I’ve been able to cultivate a new generation of drinkers that are really, really proud of it, and celebrate arak and understand how it fits in our cuisine.”

Ultimately, Muaddi hopes the World Arak Day celebration helps “put arak on the map,” he said. “I just want it to be recognized and respected.”

“And I think it could be a gateway for people to better understand this region of the world.”