Beyond the Headlines

This week on Beyond the Headlines, we look into the growing number of European ISIS fighters captured in Syria and ask what should Europe do with them?  France has agreed to allow eleven ISIS fighters to be handed over to Iraq where the penalty for belonging to a terrorist group is death. France is opposed to the death penalty and has campaigned against the punishment globally.  Is there a growing...

After a photograph of a queue of climbers waiting to summit Mount Everest went viral, we explore what risks this poses for climbers and sherpas. Eleven deaths have been recorded on the mountain so far this year, more than double last year's count.  Some have attributed the deaths to overcrowding on the mountain.  This week on Beyond the Headlines, we’re joined by Lakpa Rita Sherpa, a seasoned sher...

The US has upped the pressure on Iran and since the start of May, tensions across the Middle East have risen. Officials on both sides are publically saying they don’t want a war but have released numerous statements warning of the devastating consequences if the other starts one. In recent weeks, there has been an uptick in rockets and weaponized drones launched towards Saudi Arabia from Iran-back...

Moored off Yemen’s Red Sea Coast is a rusting oil tanker, with a million barrels of crude aboard.  It has been described as a 'floating bomb'. After going without maintenance for the duration of Yemen’s four-year civil war, the UN says it is now at risk of exploding, potentially unleashing an environmental catastrophe on an historic scale. But, with 80 million dollars’ worth of oil involved, Houth...

For months, the headlines have revolved around the winding down of the Syrian war and what the next phase looks like.  In April, US backed and Kurdish led forces retook the once sprawling so called caliphate of ISIS in eastern Syria. Across much of the rest of the country, the regime was consolidating control.   But talking about the future has overlooked the fate of nearly 3 million civilians liv...

For three decades, Omar Al Bashir ruled over Sudan. But in April, in the face of growing protests, he was removed from office and the future of the country was suddenly up in the air. In this week's episode of Beyond the Headlines, we talk about the changes sweeping Sudan. Hamza Hendawi, The National’s Cairo correspondent, has been on the ground in Sudan this week. He tells foreign editor James Ha...

Suicide bombs, 359 dead and an ISIS claim of responsibility. On Sunday, Sri Lanka was hit by the single largest terror attack in its history. Hundreds attending Easter Sunday mass or at high-end Colombo hotels were killed and wounded in a coordinated wave of bombings. In the wake of the blasts, communities have undoubtedly rallied together. But the shared grief belies the underlying communal tensi...

The scale of India’s ongoing election is staggering – nearly 900 million people are registered to cast their ballots. And there are many issues at stake, with India's economy on pace to become of the world's five largest this year. While many have been concerned about the economy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s track record of reforms, national security, the rural economy and Hindi nationalism...

Benjamin Netanyahu has won a fifth term in office and looks set to be Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, after a campaign which saw him pledge to annex the occupied West Bank.

After weeks of mounting protest, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika has stepped down, ending 20 years as the country’s ruler.   While the moment is historic, protesters – many of whom won’t remember a time before Mr Bouteflika was their president – are not finished.  Fear that a younger, healthier version of the ailing 82-year old will step into his place or that the army may co-opt power, th...

The Untied Kingdom’s march towards Brexit has been postponed but questions about the fate of the country’s place in the world continue to swirl. Prime Minister Theresa May has been given extra few weeks to breath but the UK remains no closer to any solutions. On this week’s edition of Beyond the Headlines The National’s Editor-in-Chief Mina Al Oraibi sat down with former British Prime Minister Ton...

It's been one week since the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand. The mass shooting was the worst peacetime attack in New Zealand’s history, and has shaken the country to its core. In the week that followed the slaying of 50 people by a white supremacist gunman at two separate mosques, New Zealanders rallied around the victims, while grappling with shock, grief and anger. T...

Syrian Democratic Forces are slowly extinguishing what’s left of the Islamic State. The US-backed SDF has the grouped trapped in a tiny sliver of land along the Euphrates River. Baghouz, Syria, is a small farming village. Before it became home to the last pocket of ISIS, it was just a dot on the map that many Syrians hadn’t even heard of. Now it’s the centre of a months-long battle between the SDF...

Enric Sala has a plan to save the planet. National Geographic’s explorer-in-residence is in Abu Dhabi for the World Ocean Summit. His one message — that we need to protect 30 per cent of our planet’s land and oceans by 2030. But at a time when it feels overwhelmingly difficult to be positive about the Earth’s future, what can be done to save our habitats? “Being a conservationist, sometimes it is...

This week, The National spoke to Alistair Burt, the British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa. The chance to speak to the top British official was timely.  Shemima Begum, who fled the UK when she was 15 to join ISIS, was found in a Syrian refugee camp recently. Four years later, she’s now pleading to return home with her new-born. But what does that mean for the UK as Shemima...

The World Economic Forum says that the digital transformation of economies and businesses will displace 75 million jobs as the division of labour shifts between humans, machines and algorithms. However, 133 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to this technology-led future. The Abu Dhabi School of Government has partnered with Coursera, one of the world’s leading online learning plat...

Pope Francis's visit to the UAE was the first time a Catholic pontiff stepped foot in the Arabian Peninsula. During his Mass, he prayed for his devotees at Sports Zayed City Stadium and for everyone in the region. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Naser Al Wasmi talks to those who attended the Mass and discusses how the visit impacts the region.

The richest and most powerful people met at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.  The range of topics was as wide spanning as the challenges the world faces today.  Although this year’s forum wasn’t as well attended as previous iterations of the prestigious event, it still gathers important leaders from around the world.  But, with so many pertinent issues, such as climate change, the gender...

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are entering a new phase of co-operation. The two countries announced a seven-point co-operation plan this week on money management for children, natural crises emergency plans and, perhaps most interestingly, a joint cryptocurrency. The move is the latest sign of strengthening ties between the two, and should open the door for easier business relations. It also strengthen...

For thousands of years, the great Arab rivers sustained some of the world’s most important ancient civilizations. The Nile River fuelled the development of 10 thousand years of Pharaonic rule. The Tigris and Euphrates, home of Mesopotamia, were witness to some of the most important developments to mankind, including agriculture and the written word. The rivers helped spread Islam during Prophet Mo...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on an expansive tour of the Gulf and wider Middle East this week. His task is to clarify President Donald Trump's often-confusing interests in the region. We discuss in this week's Beyond the Headlines. Last month, President Trump tweeted that he would pull out of Syria within 30 days, sending shockwaves around not just the region, but in his own administration...

In the middle of Africa lies one of the world's most neglected crises. In the Central African Republic — an environmentally diverse but politically fraught state — the illegal hunting of endangered species is rampant.  How did the country become such a hotbed for poaching, and is there hope to rectify the situation? We look at the issue in this week's Beyond the Headlines podcast. Chinko is a wild...

The Middle East is not known for its good news, and 2018 was no exception. But in between the usual stories of war and political turmoil, The National's journalists found reasons for hope. We shine a light on the reasons for optimism in this week's episode of Beyond the Headlines. In Iraq, date farmers work toward a future where their country is a business hub. In the West Bank, Palestinians find...

The GCC has welcomed the rule book laid out as part of a COP24 deal struck in Poland, but scientists say the world is running out of time to avoid the catastrophic events brought about by unmitigated global warming. How can the region do more? Climate experts explain on this episode of Beyond the Headlines.  We hear from Dr Deepthi Mittal, a program leader of the World Wildlife Fund in the UAE. Sh...

Millions are on the brink of famine in Yemen. But for the first time in two years, the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels are negotiating a resolution. Last week, the UN Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, put forth a series of confidence-building measures. He says both sides need to adhere to a series of concessions to build any sort of chance at a settlement. So far, he’s succeeded in bringin...