Beyond the Headlines

Follow the link to vote for Trending Middle East:  https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2025/[…]odcast Follow the link to vote for Beyond the Headlines: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/...

The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly marks a milestone for the region. After years of being the exceptions, several western countries have joined more than 140 others in recognising Palestine as a state. French President Emmanuel Macron made his country’s declaration on Monday at the French-Saudi summit at UNGA to revive the long defunct two-state solution. The same position was...

Dozens of boats carrying activists from about 44 countries have finally set sail for Gaza after much delay. The Global Sumud Flotilla is not the first humanitarian mission to attempt to break Israel’s sea blockade of the strip, but it is the largest to date. It follows unsuccessful attempts by individual boats earlier this year and countless others over the past almost 20 years. Activists say they...

In the past month, Israel has bombed Palestine, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, but its attack on Hamas officials in Qatar this week was most unexpected. And it hit a nerve. Arab leaders immediately expressed solidarity with their Gulf neighbour and condemned what they said was a breach of Qatar's sovereignty. In the coming days they will meet at an emergency regional summit to discuss the attack. But a...

Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday drew widespread condemnation from the international community. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani described it as “state terrorism”. It was the first time that Israel attacked a Gulf state, sending shock waves across the region. But the timing was also critical. Mediators had been in Doha to advance Gaza ceasefire talk...

The Israeli army's killing of several Houthi government officials, including the prime minister, marks another serious escalation in the region. Until now, the army had mostly attacked infrastructure in Yemen, hitting power plants and ports, but the latest strike was different. The Houthis have pledged to retaliate. The Iran-backed group has already fired back with missiles toward Israel. It has b...

US envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus were in Lebanon this week to restate a key demand: Hezbollah must disarm. The latest push from Washington came with economic incentives as Mr Barrack proposed the US becomes a “substitute” to Iranian influence. The Lebanese government agreed to disarm non-state groups this month but it wants guarantees that Israel will withdraw militarily from the country....

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert supported the war in Gaza when it began, but soon changed his mind. He advocated a limited military operation rather than a full-scale offensive. Now, he says it’s time to end the war. He strongly opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to reoccupy Gaza and is on a mission to topple him at next year’s legislative elections. Almost two years since...

Israel has imposed a strict blockade on Gaza since March leaving 2.2 million Palestinians in the strip with practically nothing. Food, medicine and water are extremely scarce with only trickles of aid entering every now and then. There’s barely anything to buy in the market.  But in the middle of all this, there’s another crisis: cash.  Banks have closed because of the war. ATMs have been destroye...

Four years after the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan remains in the shadow of that chaotic August day in 2021 when US troops finally withdrew, ending two decades of war. The images from Kabul’s airport are still etched in global memory, as crowds of desperate Afghans clung to departing planes as the US backed government collapsed and the Taliban took full control. Since then, the country is...

Nearly two decades after Israel withdrew from Gaza, dismantling settlements and military posts under Ariel Sharon’s leadership, the Israeli government has now approved a plan to take over the Palestinian enclave again, following 22 months of its war there. What began as speculation this week quickly became official policy after a 10-hour security cabinet meeting, where Prime Minister Benjamin Neta...

A growing number of countries in the West have said they could soon recognise Palestinian statehood as Israel becomes increasingly isolated over its war in Gaza. Fifteen countries issued a joint declaration during a UN conference this week led by France and Saudi Arabia, to push for a two-state solution. Nations including Canada and the UK are expected to make their endorsement official at the UN...

Five years have passed since the Beirut port explosion – and still the families of the more than 220 victims killed in the blast await justice. Mariana Foudalian is one of them. She lost her sister Gaia in the disaster but says she still has not had the chance to grieve as nobody has been held accountable even after all these years. The investigation into the blast has faced an uphill battle becau...

In the summer of 2020, Lebanon had already been experiencing some of its worst days, due to a deepening financial crisis and the global pandemic. On August 4, things took a much darker turn. Hundreds of tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonated at the Beirut port, ripping through the capital and wreaking havoc. More than 200 people were killed and thousands injured. It destroyed homes, overwhelmed the...

After the cargo was moved to a warehouse at the port, it sat there for years. This episode connects the dots to understand why the chemical, commonly used in fertilisers and explosives, was neglected for so long. We hear from officials and workers at the port, and we try to establish who knew about the ammonium nitrate all this time, and whose responsibility it was to make sure it was safe. This e...

Ghassan Hassrouty was working with his colleagues at the port’s grain silos. Sarah Copland, an Australian UN employee, was feeding her son Isaac, 2. And then, it’s zero hour, the moment the blast tore through the city on August 4, 2020. This episode is the third of a four-part investigation into the 2020 Beirut port explosion. It tells that story through witness accounts of people who were there....

In the aftermath of the blast, residents took to the streets to sweep the shards of glass and piles of rubble. Meanwhile, politicians bickered and resigned. Judges were appointed to investigate the blast but one year on, had yet to publish their case. In this series finale of our 2020 Beirut port blast investigation we hear how people feel about their politicians, their country and their lives a y...

Hunger has killed more than 110 people so far in Gaza over the past 20 months of war. And in the past week, the number of deaths has accelerated, causing alarm about a looming full-scale famine in the strip. More than 100 NGOs have warned of mass starvation, and a coalition of mostly European states issued strong words condemning Israel's aid policy. Israel insists there is no famine in Gaza, and...

The city of Sweida in southern Syria became a battleground this week after a series of retaliatory attacks between Druze militiamen and Bedouin tribes escalated. President Ahmad Al Shara's government deployed general security forces to the area, ostensibly to restore order. What followed were deadly confrontations and dozens of soldiers were killed. But residents of the Druze-majority city say the...

The toll of war is often measured in figures: the number of people killed, injured or displaced. But how do we calculate the cost of ending a war? In the case of Gaza, where Israel continues to pursue a 20-month military offensive, the sacrifices will be difficult to quantify. US President Donald Trump had been confident that a ceasefire would be reached this week as Israel and Hamas negotiate thr...

During a visit to the Gulf in May, US President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement that he would revoke sanctions on Syria. This week, he kept that promise. He signed an executive order on Monday to waive or review penalties, some of which have been in place for decades. The move comes as a relief for struggling Syrians after almost 14 years of a brutal civil war that has devastated their e...

After 12 days of war between Israel and Iran, a ceasefire has brought a sense of cautious relief to the region. Even after almost 21 months of war in Gaza and its spillover into neighbouring countries, the latest escalation set a dangerous precedent that could provoke more cycles of warfare and destabilise the Middle East. The question is how did we reach this boiling point? The answer goes back d...

Up until last week, it seemed unthinkable for a UN member state to strike a nuclear site. But Israel did just that when it launched its attack on Iran, hitting military and atomic sites, and killing key figures of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. It also seemed unthinkable for missiles to penetrate Israel’s Iron Dome and destroy infrastructure in cities such as Haifa and Tel Aviv. Yet again,...

Canada, urging de-escalation of the conflict between Iran and Israel, but US President Donald Trump has already left, having warned that residents of Tehran "should immediately evacuate". Iran's reaction is one of the key issues on the agenda today. In this special episode of Beyond the Headlines, Geo-Economics Editor Manus Cranny asks Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor-in-Chief, and Mohamad Ali Harisi, Forei...

In unusual public statement last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted “activating” Palestinian militias in Gaza. Acting on the advice of security officials, he said, it was a way to weaken Hamas and protect Israeli soldiers. The admission came after Israeli media reported that Mr Netanyahu had authorised the arming of a militia, known as the Abu Shabab Popular Forces, in the so...