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Beyond the Headlines
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Dive deeper into the week's biggest stories from the Middle East and around the world with The National's foreign desk. Nuances are often missed in day-to-day headlines. We go Beyond the Headlines by bringing together the voices of experts and those living the news to provide a clearer picture of the region's shifting political and social landscape.
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Ramadan is typically a time of spiritual reflection, self-discipline and community bonding for Muslims around the world. But for millions of people in the Arab region, Ramadan this year is defined by violence and uncertainty.
On top of that, the Middle East is amidst one of its worst food crises in recent years, according to the UN’s World Food Programme. About 40 million of the region’s 400 million people now face acute food insecurity, with 11 million unable to find enough food for their families each day.
But this does not stop some families from coming together to break their fast, revive the Ramadan spirit, and share whatever they have with one another.
In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Thoraya Abdullahi takes a look at how Muslims observe Ramadan amid security threats, and delves into the different experiences in conflict zones, featuring voices from Sudan, Syria and Lebanon.
Ramadan this year will be different for the people of Gaza with Israel continuing an air and ground assault that has gone on for five months now. The threat of famine looms due to the limited supply of food and the disrupted process of getting aid in.
In most Muslim households across the world, families would usually stock up on ingredients and food supplies to accommodate the month of fasting from sunrise to sunset for almost 30 days. But traditional Ramadan customs and rituals in Gaza are now overshadowed by the struggle for survival.
In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, days before Ramadan begins, host Nada AlTaher speaks to Gazans who will observe the month of fasting in makeshifttents, and Steve Sosebee, founder of HEAL Palestine, discusses the humanitarian crisis and the lack of access to food and shelter there.
Egypt is the only country other than Israel with a border with Gaza, which means the area between the city of Al Arish and the Palestinian territory bears witness to what is unfolding in Rafah.
Tensions are high as Israeli officials say they will launch a ground offensive before Ramadan if the hostages held by Hamas aren’t released. This means the lives of half of Gaza's 2.3 million residents, seeking refuge now in Rafah, close to the border, hang in the balance. The US and many leading nations have warned Israel against the offensive, fearing that a deepening humanitarian catastrophe that would follow could exacerbate Gaza’s death toll.
But now, every action from Israel in Rafah will reverberate across borders. Especially in Egypt. The country’s foremost concern revolves around the possibility of Palestinians being forced under Israeli assault to attempt to breach the border with Northern Sinai. This would present broader complications for Egypt's security and regional stability.
On this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Enas Refaei looks at how Egypt navigates a complex landscape, balancing humanitarian concerns with geopolitical realities.
Tens of thousands of lives have been lost among Ukrainians and Russians, countless buildings are in ruin, the landscape of eastern Ukraine has been ravaged by destruction and there is no end in sight.
Two years after the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, it has become certain that the impact of this conflict extends far beyond its borders. The shockwaves of the war have been felt in many countries, not just in Europe. It has also disrupted global trade, particularly in energy and food markets, affecting prices and supply chains worldwide.
In this week’s Beyond The Headlines, host Damien McElroy delves deeper into the geopolitical and the military implications of this crisis. On the sidelines of Munich Security Conference, he sat down with Ambassador Kurt Volker, who was a special US representative for Ukraine and former ambassador to Nato, and Gallup’s Ilana Ron-Levey, who talked about global public opinion of the war.
A series of protests escalated into a full-blown revolution in Iran and became a turning point in the history of the Middle East. On February 11, 1979, the rule of the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ended, the Iranian monarchy was overthrown, and the country has since been referred to as the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In the decades since, Iran has become a major player in the region, either through direct involvement in conflicts or through supporting or forging alliances with militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and other countries.
And to this day, Iran-linked or supported groups remain influential players – in the Israel-Gaza war, for example, helping to widen the conflict to other Arab countries.
In this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, on the 45th anniversary of those seismic events, host Nada AlTaher reflects on the 1979 Iranian Revolution, exploring the complex legacy it left, and looking at its influence on today’s geopolitical tensions.
The US has stepped up its involvement in the Middle East conflict with a barrage of strikes against Iran-allied targets in various locations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
The strikes are in response to a deadly drone attack on American troops at a base in Jordan on January 28.
These attacks have increased the tensions between the US and Iran-backed militias that started in October 2023 when Tehran-linked groups in Iraq launched drone attacks on a US base there. These militias and others like them have been responsible for at least 180 attacks on US targets since October 18.
In this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at the recent US air strikes, the impact of this intervention, and where this is all this heading.
The Israel-Gaza conflict is evolving into a complex web, transcending the borders of the region to the international community. The week started with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, making a historic ruling, ordering Israel to take all measures to prevent genocide against Gazans and allow vital aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Meanwhile, another UN organisation took a hit, with the largest humanitarian entity operating in Gaza, UNRWA, seeing nine countries either withdrawing or planning on withdrawing their funding. This is expected to affect two million Palestinians who rely on the organisation for assistance.
Things further escalated when three US soldiers at a small military base on the Jordan-Syrian borders were killed in a drone strike that US President Joe Biden blamed on Iran-backed militants. A day later, the Syrian defence ministry said several Iranian advisers were killed in Damascus by Israel.
In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at how all these issues tie in together, what each means for the region and the world, and what are their implications.
This week saw the biggest single loss of life for Israel in Gaza since the war began with 24 soldiers killed on January 22 in two separate attacks, bringing its total military deaths to more than 200 since October 7.
Israel has called up about 360,000 reservists and tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent to fight inside Gaza, where more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in three months.
Israel says that the city of Gaza is now completely encircled, with many Gaza residents now living in tents near the Rafah border.
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher analyses Israel’s military moves.
Every year, political and business leaders from around the world come together in the quaint ski resort of Davos nestled in the Swiss Alps for dialogue on the pressing global issues, including not just economic challenges, but environmental concerns and political roadmaps.
The 54th edition of the World Economic Forum took place while many countries in the Middle East are grappling with geopolitical tensions, from the Israel and Gaza conflict to Sudan. The annual meeting is also happening while the world is still adapting to the rapid advancements in generative AI.
So, as Davos closes, what happened there this year and - what does it tell us about the direction the world is heading?
In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Enas Refaei in Davos dissects the annual event with The National’s Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi and CNN’s Richard Quest.
Experts have long warned the violence in the Gaza Strip could spill over into a wider conflict. And those warnings have become more relevant and real today.
The US and Britain launched overnight strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, these attacks being carried out from the air and sea in response to the Iran-backed militia's attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, affecting commercial shipping.
The mission was a response to the rebel group’s nearly 30 attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea since November.
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at how the Red Sea has become a battlefield and what impact that has had on global trade.
Gaza has borne the brunt of three months of war between Israel and Hamas.
Mosques and churches have been destroyed. More than 200 out of Gaza’s 325 heritage sites, many of them centuries old, are gone. Israel’s weapons have killed, injured and maimed tens of thousands. Many of the wounded are being left to bleed while others are arrested, stripped and blindfolded.
For Israel, the shocking and unprecedented attacks of October 7 stung hard – and the response has been constant with no sign of slowing down.
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada Al Taher looks at the future of Israel’s war on Gaza.
2024 will be a big year in global politics. A slew of important general elections will be held across the developing world – in India, Pakistan and Indonesia, to name but three.
Wars may continue to rage in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere, driving millions of people deeper into poverty and displacement. Though there is some hope that in at least some of these conflicts, there remains space in which to find political solutions.
But 2024 is set to be a year of high stakes in the West, too. Next summer will see parliamentary elections in the EU, and by the year’s end the US presidential election and a British general election. In fact, it could be the first time in more than 30 years that citizens of the English-speaking world’s two nuclear powers – Britain and America – pick their leaders in the same calendar year.
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy discusses what elections and war will mean for the western world’s political outlook in 2024.
For the past 11 weeks, life has been brutally disrupted in Gaza. 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children, and over 50,000 wounded.
The ongoing humanitarian crisis has left more than a quarter of the population starving, according to the UN. The flow of aid into Gaza is far from sufficient, and the distribution process poses its own set of challenges, leaving those in need struggling for survival.
In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks into the complexities of aid delivery in Gaza, and the obstacles faced in getting essential aid from trucks into the hands of those who need it the most, speaking to representatives of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and the Norwegian Refugee Council, whose teams are on the ground in the strip.
The global stocktake, or what is now known as the UAE Consensus, is the first-ever climate deal to transition away from fossil fuel - and it has been unanimously approved by almost 200 nations in Dubai. This is significant, as no previous Cop text has mentioned moving away from oil and gas.
It took over two weeks of negotiations that intensified in the last days of the summit as several key players and countries were pushing for tougher language in the Cop28 agreement, to “phase-out” fossil fuels, not just transition away or phase down, as a choice of words.
Countries were locked in a series of meetings to break the deadlock on the issue of fossil fuels, and the heated negotiations pushed the summit to extend for one more day until all countries could agree on the language used in the agreement.
In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Sarah Forster unpacks the key outcomes of the conference and examines the areas where the international community agreed or disagreed.
It has been a week of big announcements at the Cop28 in Dubai – from action on the loss and damage fund to pledges to reduce methane gas emissions.
But as the UN climate summit in Dubai enters in final days, much work is still to be done to help keep global temperature rises to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Heads of state and government, ministers, captains of industry, decision makers, experts, and advocates from more than 190 countries make up some of the 90,000 participants at Expo City Dubai.
Every corner of the site is full of energy, discussions and panels on diverse topics, from policy commitments and climate finance to innovations and global.
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Sarah Forster delves into the latest developments in climate action and global initiatives at Cop28.
The UAE’s 52nd Union Day, which falls on the 2nd of December, is special this year. It coincides with Cop28, the international climate summit taking place at Expo City in Dubai.
2023 is also the UAE’s Year of Sustainability – demonstrating the country’s commitment to support action and innovation in the field. This year has witnessed many initiatives, activities, collective action and events that drew upon the UAE's deep-rooted values of sustainability.
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram reflects on a special Union Day, the Cop28 conference – and the future of sustainability in the UAE.
For decades, the relationship between the United States and Arab countries has been complex and multifaceted, and defined by a combination of geopolitical interests, economic ties and regional conflicts.
This often-fraught relationship has been affected by many factors, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, regional power dynamics and US military interventions.
With the current war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, US President Joe Biden faces domestic and global calls to pressure one of its most important allies to agree to a ceasefire with the militant group. Mr Biden's administration has not been open to the option - despite the growing civilian death toll - something governments in the Middle East have repeatedly called for.
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Ismaeel Naar is joined by Brian Katulis, vice president of policy at the Middle East Institute, to explain how Israel’s war on Gaza affected the US’s position in the region.
We’re almost six weeks into the Israel-Gaza war and few believe it will end any time soon. Calls for ceasefires from the international community have fallen on deaf ears and hostage release negotiations are proving fruitless. But end at some point, it must.
And when it does, what will peace look like – for Gaza, for Hamas, for Israel?
This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher is joined by Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute and a US affairs columnist for The National, to talk about the current conflict - and what lies ahead.
The US is feeling the pressure of the war in Gaza because of the way President Joe Biden is deemed to be handling the conflict.
In the days after the October 7 Hamas attacks, Mr Biden visited Israel and expressed his staunch support for the country.
But as civilian casualties rise in Gaza, the Biden administration has begun to call for temporary pauses in hostilities and for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the enclave, although it has, so far, rejected calls for a ceasefire.
Thousands of protesters held a rally in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza earlier this week amid a background of rising public anger towards policymakers.
In this episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Thomas Watkins, The National’s Washington bureau chief, examines the Gaza conflict from the US perspective.
A month ago, the military wing of Hamas attacked the Israeli border on October 7th, killing more than 1,400 Israelis and igniting a brutal war.
Israel retaliated through a relentless bombing of Gaza and its people, saying Hamas militants were its only targets. However, the civilian death toll has passed 10,000.
A mass attack by Israeli armoured divisions was predicted as a response. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government appears to be preparing for a long war. Officials say it could last from four to six months, but analysts say it could stretch for a year.
On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Thomas Harding looks at how effective the Israeli offensive has been against Hamas so far.