Shadowing Practice: Another War is Starting in the Middle East - Learn English Speaking with Video
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There's a new war in the Middle East.
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Yes, that's right.
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Ladies and gents, in the year that just keeps on giving, we've got another one on our hands.
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This time, it's around Yemen, where the Houthi rebels have steadily been expanding their campaign against their arch nemesis to the north, Saudi Arabia.
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It started a little over a week ago, and back then it looked like it just might be another few tit for chat exchanges, but it has snowballed into something that we can no longer ignore.
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The Houthi rebels have declared a blockade of Saudi exports and followed it up with strikes on shipping and oil refineries alike, only to top things off the other day with the possibility
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of imposing tolls in a strait off their coast that's the third busiest on Earth.
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Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
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While this conflict is technically between the rebels in Friyad and not directly part of the Iran war,
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there's really no such thing as a self-contained war in this part of the world.
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And that suggests things might be about to get a whole lot worse.
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Thank you to Incogni for sponsoring this video, and now back to it.
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A new war Now, despite all the news that's been flowing out of the Middle East this year, there's one country that's been more or less absent from the headlines.
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Yemen.
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A fragile ceasefire was reached between the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which is based in the eastern city of Aden, and the Ansar al-A'ar Houthi rebels,
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who set up shop along the west coast back in 2022.
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To most international observers' surprise, it actually held.
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The two factions still hated each other, but for a country that had descended in the 2010s into a full-blown disaster of a civil war, it was welcome reprieve.
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So when the Iran war ignited back in February, there were concerns that it could spread to Yemen.
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The Houthi rebels were, after all, longtime allies of the Islamic Republic, so it wouldn't have been entirely surprising to see them join the fray on behalf of their buddies in Tehran.
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In the months that followed, they mostly stayed quiet, though.
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There were a few instances of them launching a ballistic missile here or a few drones there, usually directed at Israel, but let's be honest, with everything else that was flying across the Middle East skies at the time,
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this amounted to little more than a reminder that guys, we're still here.
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Hey!
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Lately though, it seems like the Houthis want the limelight back, starting their own military campaign.
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It all seems to trace back to early July, when the group defied Saudi-led restrictions by inviting an Iranian delegation
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to visit Sana'a in what was the first flight between in the two countries in more than a decade.
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Houthi delegations had made a few trips to Tehran for the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,
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with Iranian advisors traveling back the other way afterwards on the
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13th as an aircraft returning from tehran was on final approach
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to sana it was forced to divert after explosions destroyed a
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part of the airport yemen's internationally recognized government claimed responsibility for
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the strike defending the move as their attempt to prevent an
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unauthorized iranian flight from landing the houthis for their part pointed the finger at Saudi Arabia.
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That dispute still hasn't been settled, but what is clear is why the plane landing there would have been such a problem.
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According to a report from Reuters, citing sources in both Tehran and Aden, as many as 21 IRGC personnel have been on that plane, along with the returning Houthi delegation.
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It was ultimately able to land somewhere else in Yemen, but it was game on regardless.
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The Houthi rebels responded by launching a combination of missiles and drones at Abhar International Airport across the border.
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And while Saudi state media said it able to successfully intercept
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that volley it's hard to see how they can let such an attack stand whether
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or not all of this results in a return to war between riad
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and sanaa isn't certain but it is certainly leaning in
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that direction alison minor a middle east policy expert at the
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atlantic council went on record as saying quote i think we're
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very close to a resumption of all-out war i'm not seeing an off-ramp right now the interesting
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and perhaps alarming part of this is the role
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that the huthis play in the region back
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when the iran war began there was understandable worry
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that the houthis might leap in to defend their allies in tehran but
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that didn't come to pass unlike groups who did go down
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the self-sacrifice route for iran we're looking at you has bala
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the houthis have always operated far more independently friendly with iran yeah sure
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but ultimately unwilling to dive headfirst into a war
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that they aren't sure they can win
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that makes their entry now significantly more concerning
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because what they've done is watch iran hold humus hostage with a combination of missiles
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and drones and conclude we could do that too and
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that sucks for a world that is already dealing with the closure of humus
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because the houthis are not just sitting alongside any old waterway
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but one of the most important in the world one exit left
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when it comes to narrow choke points of water in the
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middle east the straight up humus is naturally what's going to come to mind before anything else
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and for good reason too iran's ability to hold washington
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and by extension the international community hostage over the issue has dominated headlines for months
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but for those wanting to get oil out of the middle
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east by boat hormuz is actually not the only option there are two others though they're smaller
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and not accessible to all of the gulf states both empty
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out from the arabian peninsula's west coast one being the suez canal to the north
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which leads into the mediterranean sea and the other is the bab el mandeb strait
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which gets you into the indian ocean by way of the
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gulf of aden suez is solely under control of the egyptian government
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which has no intention of shaking the status quo since it's
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a great little money spinner the bab el mandeb however is
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a narrow body of water between the coasts of jibouti
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and you guessed it houthi controlled yemen anyone who followed the
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gaza war will likely be able to guess where this one is headed
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because these guys ran a similar playbook three years ago starting
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in november 2023 the houthis began firing on commercial vessels they
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alleged were israeli linked in solidarity with the palestinian cause opening by boarding the carrier galaxy leader
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and eventually sinking four separate ships off their coast the us
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and the uk launched a joint operation aimed at stopping the attacks
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but only had limited success the rebels kept firing until a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas late last year.
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Traffic has not returned to where it was pre-2023.
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For all of the Iran war, though, Bab el-Mandeb has remained open for transit.
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This has been to the chagrin of Tehran, which has repeatedly threatened to have the Houthis close it in a Homoos-like fashion,
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only to have Sana'a be like, no, we're good, bro.
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Unfortunately, that now appears to be a thing of the past.
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Back on July the 20th, the Houthis announced that they would be implementing a blockade on on all shipping from Saudi Arabia, Israel,
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and the united states as part of the escalating war they
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made good on their threat within two days on july the
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22nd they hit the vessel nc off the southern saudi city
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of jizan as well as claiming to have struck the leila
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in a similar region at least one more saudi linked ship
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was struck over the following week the most recent at the
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time of recording being the ncc ghazal on july the 28th
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alongside the tankers the missiles started landing at saudi ports themselves
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u.s designed patriot interceptor batteries brought down at least two ballistic missiles aimed at the port city of yanvu
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while the refinery closer to the border with yemen at jazan took direct hits
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riad hasn't said what actually got through
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but whatever it was it did enough damage
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that they had to shut down the refinery entirely and pull 400 000 barrels of oil a day of production offline
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400,000 barrels is not a small amount, especially given the global energy crisis as a result of what's going on in Hormuz.
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But realistically, if Riyadh had to choose which one they'd rather lose, it'd be Jezanne any day.
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Yanbu is not an ordinary city for the kingdom.
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It's the endpoint of the 750-mile pipeline running clear across the country from the oil fields on the Gulf Coast, which is what lets them bypass Hormuz at all.
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They've been running the thing at absolute maximum capacity for months
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taking it from a pre-war baseline of roughly a million barrels
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of oil per day all the way to nearly five million data from kepler shows
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that yanbu accounted for 92 percent of all saudi seaborne crude exports as of june
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so when it comes to this city it is all
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or nothing at least at the time of recording there is still traffic flowing through the bab el-mandeb
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but it's already starting to show signs of strain according to
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a report in the wall street journal at least four tankers
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carrying saudi crude have turned around before reaching the strait
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and reversed course to head north to the suez canal where
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seaborne oil transit is running at its highest volume in years the route through suez can only alleviate
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so much though for starters sailing through suez is not guaranteed
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the houthis being able to hit the city of yambu itself
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would risk shutting down riad's export abilities at the source
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and even if patriot interceptors are able to keep the city safe there's still the pipeline
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that runs you know across the entire country that's just sitting there waiting for whatever Yemen might throw at it.
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Shooting aside for a moment though, the man-made Suez has physical limits that make it a poor substitute for natural bodies of water.
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It's too shallow to take on a fully loaded super tanker, so the industry built an entire class of ship which can fit through it carrying a million or so barrels,
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which they oh so creatively named the Suez Max.
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That's only half of what the regular tankers can carry
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so right off the bat there are going to be issues even
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if you could double down on suez maxing though it doesn't
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change the geography going on here ships take the babel mandeb to reach africa
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and asia which sits south
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and east of it suez sends them northwest a trip from yanbu to eastern asia
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that normally takes 16 days would now mean crossing the mediterranean
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and going the long long way around africa stretching the whole thing to around 50 days
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And that is the part that turns a Saudi problem into everyone's problem.
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And while Riyadh might not have imagined 2026 playing out like this, they recognize the threat this poses to them
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and are already taking measures to shore up a coalition to keep traffic flowing as best as possible.
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Saudi Arabia is hiring Now, the thing about all of this is that realistically speaking,
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Saudi Arabia would almost certainly rather be doing anything other than discussing their neighbor to the south again.
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They haven't exactly had a great relationship in years gone by.
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Even before the civil war broke out, they were well underway to building a giant wall to seal off the entirety of the Yemeni border.
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Build that wall.
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Blaster of the past.
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Once fighting did break out, they launched a military operation to restore the internationally recognized government to power across the entirety of Yemen,
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expecting it to last a matter of weeks as is pretty much the eternal case
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when it comes to the Middle East though you can fast forward by years
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and the fighting is still going on the Saudis were sincerely hoping
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that the 2022 peace deal would allow Riyadh to finally close the lid on
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that chapter of Middle East misadventures
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because they had quite an ambitious plan they were far interested in anyway vision 2030
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which mohammed bin salman announced back in 2016 was aimed at fundamentally transforming a kingdom
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that had long been an odd mix of extreme oil wealth
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and an underdeveloped ultra-conservative islamic society the idea was to spend the oil money to supercharge their economy into something
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that would no longer run on their liquid gold
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and ultimately usher in tourism stadiums overpaid comedians flying out to cash the biggest paycheck of their lifetimes
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and of course foreign investments none of this was ever going to get very far with houthi missiles
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and drones coming down on various infrastructure on even a semi-regular
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basis as they had been for years before the 2022 peace
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deal including a now infamous strike on an aramco fuel depot in the city of jeddah
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that went up in flames just one week before the ceasefire took hold
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that reluctance to return to all our war has not changed today but riad is increasingly finding itself with limited options.
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Because just when you thought this couldn't get any worse, Reuters reported this week
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that the Houthis are thinking about implementing their own transit fees on all commercial shipping moving through the Southern Red Sea.
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Well, all except for China, which asked for and repeatedly received a special carve-out.
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So that's nice for them.
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Those 20 or so Iranian advisors
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that the government in Aden is trying to stop from landing
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in sanar by the way weren't visiting there on holiday as
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beautiful as the yemeni coastline may be no according to the
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same reuters report they were actually in yemen to help the
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houthis get this toll booth set up in the first place
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keep in mind the islamic republic created what it calls the
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persian gulf strait authority back in may specifically to collect tolls
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for ships crossing hormuz they pitched the idea as them providing a service
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but given that what vessels are actually paying for is just assurance
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that iran won't fire on them it's more of a mob
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star shakedown isn't it nonetheless the hardliners in tehran have become
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the go-to guys on how to get such a wee started
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this may have been the tipping point for saudi arabia
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which the houthis can only push
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so far before they get some sort of response beyond a
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limited tit-for-tat airstrike on wednesday our monitor broke the exclusive story
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that riad had been assembling a massive international force designed to keep shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb open and free of tolls,
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fees, or services that the Houthis might be inclined to sell to you.
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There are at least 50 separate countries who have been invited, and at least at the time of recording, Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, and Djibouti, which sits just opposite Yemen on the waterway,
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have all signed on to the coalition.
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Pakistan and Turkey have both received invites as well, and are reportedly still mulling over whether to join.
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But given the already deepening relationship between the two and Saudi Arabia, we wouldn't be surprised to see them sign on too.
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Several European countries, meanwhile, including France and Italy, are reportedly waiting to see if the US enters the coalition before publicly announcing themselves.
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Washington is historically hesitant to join supranational coalitions where it would not be running the show.
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This would be one based out of Riyadh, so there's genuine uncertainty as to how all of that would work out.
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But given the way things are going in Hormuz, and reports coming in that the US Navy is stretched thin, this very well could be a moment where the White House says, you know what?
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You take this one.
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Where that ultimately goes is anybody's guess.
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But the way things are looking, there's likely going to be another conflict in the Middle East that we'll be keeping you updated on regularly.
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And combined with the issues in Hormuz, this one has the potential to wreak economic carnage across much of the world.
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Speaking Goals for This Clip
This video is perfect for practicing conversational fluency in discussing current events. You’ll learn to explain complex geopolitical situations with clarity, using natural transitions and emphasis. It’s also great for mastering the shadowing technique—repeating phrases immediately after the speaker to mimic rhythm and intonation. Whether you’re a beginner or intermediate learner, this clip helps you sound more confident when talking about real-world topics.
Phrase Bank
- "snowballed into something we can no longer ignore" – Use this to describe a small issue growing into a major problem.
- "fragile ceasefire" – A temporary peace that could break easily (common in news discussions).
- "descended into a full-blown disaster" – To explain a situation worsening dramatically.
- "amounted to little more than a reminder" – When an action has minimal impact but makes a point.
- "defied restrictions" – To openly challenge rules or limits.
Fix Your Weak Spots
The video’s conversational tone helps with stress and rhythm in English. Notice how the speaker emphasizes key words like "another," "steadily," and "ignite" to convey urgency. Practice shadowing these phrases to avoid flat delivery. Also, pay attention to pauses after commas and transitions like "so," "though," and "lately"—these help listeners follow your train of thought. For extra practice, use a shadowing site to record yourself and compare it to the original. Tools like shadowspeak or shadow speech can make this easier, letting you focus on matching the speaker’s pace and tone. Remember, learning English with YouTube isn’t just about listening—it’s about speaking back to build muscle memory and fluency.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | that's been flowing · They've been running |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has snowballed · have declared · Have you ever Googled |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was reached · was forced · been settled |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | government, which is · anyone who followed · Tehran, which has |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.