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The arrest of prominent dual American-Jordanian investigative journalist Ali Younes, orchestrated at the direction of Jordanian General Intelligence Department director Major General Ahmad Husni, has ignited international controversy over press freedom and strained Jordan’s long-standing financial and diplomatic ties with Washington, reporting from Middle East Eye confirms.

Younes, a veteran correspondent who has contributed to major global outlets including Drop Site News, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, CNN, Fox News and the BBC, was taken into custody by Jordanian intelligence officers on August 17 immediately upon his arrival at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman. Following hours of interrogation, authorities ordered him to appear before local prosecutors and imposed an exit bar that prevents him from leaving the country.

Local Jordanian outlet Ammon News, which multiple sources confirm maintains close ties to Jordanian intelligence services, was the first to publicly disclose details of the state’s actions against Younes last week. The outlet framed the arrest as a response to alleged offenses including “attacks on the Jordanian Armed Forces” and the distribution of what it called “misleading information originating from a Jewish source” — referring to Middle East analyst Aaron Magid, author of the article Younes is accused of reposting.

The core charges against the journalist center on a seemingly minor act: his reposting of Magid’s 2023 commentary published in *The American Conservative*, which questioned the justification for decades of large-scale U.S. economic and military aid to Jordan. Over the past 75 years, Jordan has received a total of $33.8 billion in U.S. assistance, with additional billions in scheduled funding locked in through ongoing bilateral agreements with Washington.

Younes’ U.S.-based legal team, led by attorney Abed Ayoub, has forcefully refuted all charges brought against their client. Ayoub emphasized that Younes never launched any attacks against the Jordanian Armed Forces, and has a long record of complying with local laws in every country where he has worked, including Jordan.

In a public statement, Ayoub called the charges “troubling as it is outrageous,” noting that the arrest of a journalist over a social media post shared outside Jordan’s borders raises urgent, serious questions about the state of press freedom in the kingdom. He added that the detention is inconsistent with the close, mutually respectful relationship between King Abdullah II — who is widely respected across U.S. political circles — and the United States.

The case has already stoked significant fears for Younes’ safety, particularly given Jordan’s recent history of violent targeting of journalists. In 2016, Jordanian journalist Nahed Hattar was assassinated by a gunman outside a courthouse shortly after he was detained for reposting a political cartoon that drew conservative backlash. Younes has also faced widespread online death threats and intimidation as part of a coordinated state-aligned media campaign against him.

Multiple U.S. figures have called for immediate action from the Trump administration and Congress to secure Younes’ release, warning that the case puts Jordan on a direct collision course with Washington. Magid, the analyst whose article is at the center of the case, described the detention as deeply disturbing, noting that Younes is a U.S. resident who merely shared an article from an American mainstream media outlet on the social platform X.

“It is imperative that the State Department ensure his safe return to the United States and press Jordan to rescind the exit ban against him,” Magid said, adding that the crackdown directly contradicts public promises King Abdullah has made to protect press freedom. He also criticized the lack of public response from U.S. officials, noting that if Younes is ultimately convicted for simply sharing an article, Washington should reevaluate its multibillion-dollar aid commitment to the Hashemite Kingdom.

Jason Jones, a prominent conservative Republican figure closely aligned with former President Trump and founder of the Vulnerable People Project, went further in his comments to Middle East Eye. Jones argued that the U.S. should issue an explicit ultimatum to Jordan: release Younes and drop all charges immediately, or forfeit U.S. funding.

“Jordan is risking its international standing and billions of dollars in U.S. funding in a grave international incident: the arrest and draconian prosecution of an American citizen,” Jones said. He also pointed to ongoing corruption allegations against Major General Husni, noting that it is surprising Jordan’s government has allowed the intelligence chief to pursue a case that threatens the kingdom’s core financial and diplomatic relationship with the U.S.

When Middle East Eye reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Amman for comment on the case, a spokesperson confirmed the embassy is aware of the detention but declined to share any further information. As of this report, the U.S. State Department has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Catastrophic flash flooding and subsequent mudslides along the Nepal-China border have left a devastating trail of destruction, with the confirmed death toll surpassing 950 and thousands more still unaccounted for. As of Monday, Nepalese rescue teams have launched an urgent race against the clock to reach hundreds of construction workers who remain trapped in flooded and mud-buried tunnels at a Himalayan hydropower project.

Disaster response experts emphasize that the first 72 hours after a disaster event are the most critical for saving lives, as survival prospects plummet rapidly without access to basic necessities like clean drinking water. Jennifer Horney, a disaster epidemiologist at the University of Delaware, explained that the outcome for trapped workers will largely depend on whether the hydropower site had pre-established emergency protocols for natural disasters or infrastructure outages.

“If emergency plans were in place, workers would likely have been trained to locate emergency exits, but the extreme force of this flood has packed solid mud across the site, which could block even marked escape routes and make executing pre-planned rescue strategies incredibly difficult,” Horney noted.

A core unanswered question remains: did the tunnels stock emergency supply caches that the trapped workers can access right now. Without clean, safe drinking water, even people with limited physical activity cannot survive longer than roughly three days, Horney added.

Alongside clean water, access to breathable oxygen is another foundational factor for survival. Six days after the flood hit, concerns about suffocation are growing by the hour, though early reports suggest some workers have secured limited oxygen supplies. Jakob Steiner, a Dhaka-based geoscientist from the University of Graz in Austria, pointed out that the tunnels themselves are large enough to accommodate large construction vehicles, which leaves open some air pocket space for trapped people.

“From what we have learned, rescuers have managed to route small amounts of oxygen to some groups of trapped workers, and active extraction efforts are ongoing,” Steiner said. “But this is still a race against time. Beyond oxygen, the trapped workers urgently need food and potable water to hold on.”

Disaster preparedness experts add that there are multiple other factors that will shape survival outcomes beyond access to basic supplies. Thomas Chandler, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, noted that the presence of serious injuries among trapped workers and the ability to deliver emergency supplies through temporary access routes are also critical variables. Chandler pointed to a 2023 Himalayan tunnel collapse triggered by a landslide, where 41 Indian workers were successfully rescued after 17 days trapped underground—an outcome made possible by pumping in consistent supplies of food, water and oxygen through narrow pipes during the rescue effort.

The internal climate of the tunnels also impacts how long workers can survive. If the tunnels are hot and humid, dehydration will set in far more quickly, even for people who are conserving energy. For those who are eventually pulled out alive, disaster experts note that comprehensive physical and mental supportive care will be essential, as the stress of prolonged isolation and harsh conditions takes a major toll on survivors.

This report was produced in collaboration with Associated Press journalists Shristi Kafle in Kathmandu and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok. The AP Health and Science Department receives funding support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and retains full editorial independence over all content.