Beyond the Headlines

For the past two weeks, air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has been off the scale. A toxic mix of dust, soot from farmers burning paddy field stubble, car fumes and construction all combined into a murky grey film over the city. The pollution was so bad visibility was reduced and the government moved to close schools and advise people to stay in doors. This week, host James Haines Young...

On October 9 after months of warning, Turkey launched an offensive across their southeast border into Syria. The move came after US President Donald Trump pulled his forces back from the border, effectively green lighting the operation. The move abandoned America’s Kurdish and northern Syrian allies who had led much of the fighting in the long campaign against ISIS in Syria. This week host James H...

The Iraqi city of Mosul lays in ruins. A three year campaign by the Iraqi army and international forces managed to push ISIS out of the country they tried to take over in 2014. But it came at a huge cost. Thousands were killed, by some estimates 40 per cent of Iraqi’s famed Golden Division counter terrorism officers died as they fought street to street, house to house in Mosul. There is an estimat...

A Beyond the Headlines extra. The Lebanese people have joined together with a single message, to stand against the government that they see as corrupt, inept and self serving. The clashes gave way by day three to a more jubilant atmosphere. Multiple videos of people dancing together, singing and of large community clean ups occurring in the mornings after the protests have given the rallies a fest...

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Lebanon from the north to the south. The demonstrations have gone viral across social media platforms with videos of raves through the evenings and clean-up efforts the morning after. Host James Haines-Young takes a look at what sparked the protests, how the government is reacting and what options are available to Lebanon as they continu...

On October 1st, young Iraqis took to the streets in Iraq’s southern provinces to demand basic services like clean water and electricity, job creation and an end to widespread corruption. The government response to the protests was swift and brutal, killing over 100 people and leaving a further 6,000 wounded. Demonstrators said they were set upon by armed forces and attacked with rocket-propelled g...

On the afternoon of October 6, US President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the more than 8 year Syrian civil war. That one phone call upended nearly five years of US policy in Syria. Shortly afterwards, the White House released a statement announcing their withdrawal from the country and Erdogan's plans to launch an offensive across the Northern border.  Host Jam...

At 2.59pm UAE time on Thursday the 3rd of October 2019 Hazza Al Mansouri, the first Emirati in space touched down on Earth after spending 8 days at the international space station.   For the last eight days Al Mansouri was speeding around the earth at 7.66km/hour completing approximately 16 orbits a day. During his time there in zero gravity, Hazza conducted experiments relating to the perception...

On the 27th of September 2019, Hazza Al Mansouri became the first Emirati to go to space. He did it from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, from the same spot that Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, started his journey over 58 years ago.    Back then, in the early years of the space race, Cold War rivals The Soviet Union and the United States were in a technological battle to achieve spaceflight capability,...

The United Nations General Assembly is the pinnacle of global diplomacy. For one week every year more than 190 world leaders gather in New York City.   Some of the big news stories from the UN General Assembly so far have been the impassioned speech given by 16 year old Greta Thunberg and the much more listless speech from Donald Trump. Trump addressed his anti-globalist agenda and the US relation...

What does Israel’s second election in 2019 mean for Netanyahu, the Jewish population and the Arabs and Palestinians? Deputy foreign editor, Jack Moore, takes a look at the results of the vote and speaks to people in the region about the ramifications for the state and those living inside it. Can Israel’s titan, Benjamin Netanyahu, hold on to power and what does Benny Gantz offer as an alternative?...

US National Security Advisor John Bolton has been fired. Or perhaps he resigned. On Twitter Donald Trump says he fired him whilst Bolton claims he quit. The hawkish security advisor has been one of Iran’s most vocal critics so what does his departure mean for the Middle East? Host James Haines-Young speaks to Douglas Silliman, former US Ambassador to Iraq, and Joyce Karan, The National’s Washingto...

In the first 26 days of August alone, 1,114 square kilometres of Brazil's Amazon rainforest, an area equivalent to the size of Hong Kong was on fire.  Tens of thousands of fires, far more than last year, have broken out and nbunrned off hundred of kilometres of one of the world's most diverse and unique habitats. But this isn't a natural distaster.  James Haines-Young speaks to prominent climate s...

This week, we ask if Israel is stepping up its campaign against Iran and will it spark a war with Hezbollah. We talk to Sunniva Rose, the National's Beirut correspondent and Joseph Haboush, the national editor of The Daily Star, Lebanon's only english language newspaper.  The National's deputy foreign editor, Jack Moore, joins James to talk about why this is all happening and how it's being seen f...

On this week's episode, we catch up with The National’s Hamza Hendawi to talk about the historic move to democracy in Sudan and what he sees as the challenges ahead. We also speak to Sara Abduljaleel, a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the leading umbrella groups that organised the protests. Catch up on our episode when Hamza was in Sudan after Omar Al Bashir was forc...

Hong Kong is facing one of the biggest crisis since Britain handed the city back to China in 1997.  For 10 weeks, protesters have shut down the city, stormed the legislature, and even shut down the airport.  Dozens have been arrested, scores of police and protesters have been wounded in clashes. In this week's Beyond the Headlines we’re asking why thousands of residents of Hong Kong taking to the...

On this week's episode we talk to Aya Al-Umari, the sister of Hussein Al-Umari, one of the victims who was gunned down in the Christchurch massacre earlier this year.  King Salman of Saudi Arabia has invited her amongst two hundred relatives and survivors of the shooting to perform Hajj. The Hajj is an essential part of Islam and undertaking the pilgrimage can be a difficult though rewarding task....

This summer has beaten temperature records. Throughout July, Europe sweltered in baking heat. Paris hit 42 degrees centigrade, Berlin 40 and London 39. It is projected that at current rates of climate change many cities across the world will be uninhabitable by 2070 due to the heat.  Such extremes will become increasingly common until it’s the norm not the exception. So what can we do in the face...

Around the world, many governments are starting to take action about carbon emissions, looking at ways to cut greenhouse gases produced each year that are warming up our planet. But action is slow, the choices we face are stark and time is limited. Green and renewable energies are increasing and people today are more aware of the need to reuse, reduce and recycle. But to truly make an impact exper...

At around 2 am on July 4, the Panamanian flagged Iranian tanker Grace 1 was boarded by British Royal Marines off the coast of Gibraltar at the mouth of the Mediterranean. The Marines from 42 Commando division stormed the vessel. some descended onto the ship’s deck by ropes from a Wildcat helicopter. The rest approached the side via speedboat. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host James Hai...

In Northern Syria tens of thousands of women and children are now living in squalid, overcrowded camps. Thousands more military aged men have been corralled into Kurdish jails. Hundreds of them had left their homes in Europe and America to join the militants.  Publicly, United States President Donald Trump has called for countries to take responsibility for their nationals who joined ISIS in Iraq...

The first written records of locust swarms are over 3 millennia old. Today, international organisations work to prevent the formation of these swarms that devour their own body weight in food every day. A swarm of desert locusts can build into tens of millions of insects, wreaking havoc on farmland, and are a serious threat to human food security. In 2019 swarms have hit Sardinia, Saudi Arabia, Ir...

Hundreds of protesters converged on the streets of the southern Iraqi city of Basra last week. Demonstrators across the province are calling for structural change to fix rampant corruption, a stagnant economy, high unemployment and underfunded public utilities. Protests in Iraq are common, but last summer's demonstrations saw an escalation into violence. Hundreds were wounded and killed, and many...

On June 13th, two more tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman, just over a month after four vessels off the coast of the Emirate port at Fujairah. The USA blames Iran for the attacks and has sent one thousand troops to the region to deter any further attacks. Host, James Haines-Young looks at the strategic relevance of the Strait of Hormuz where the attacks happened and what the political motiv...

On October 7, 2001 US forces invaded Afghanistan in response to the devastating 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda from bases in the Afghan mountains. Although this drove the Taliban from power in a matter of days, 18 years later the bloody conflict is ongoing.    It is by far the longest US war and the most expensive. We speak to Stefanie Glinski in Kabul who has been reporting from across Afghanistan for...