Beyond the Headlines

“Conflict, climate and the economic consequences of Covid-19 are feeding off each other in a vicious circle, with 54 conflicts, 100 million displaced people and 345 million people going to bed hungry every night.” This was the stark picture painted by President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband in this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines. The National's editor in chief Mina Al-Oraibi spoke to Mr Miliband during his visit to Abu Dhabi to discuss concerns about the lack of adequate funding to support the most vulnerable in the world, in addition to the impact that the Ukraine war will have not only on Ukrainians but people around the world directly and indirectly.

There is a debate raging internationally about climate change. As we’re greeted by dire headlines and alarm, the UN had a stark warning - the battle against carbon emissions isn’t going well. As the world gathers in Egypt for the Cop27 global climate forum, it can be hard to understand exactly where we stand, what’s being done and whether it's even still possible to stop climate change. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks at where the world is on climate action and asking what to expect from Cop27.

Britain has seen two monarchs and three prime ministers in the space of just two months. If a TV writers’ room pitched anything like the events of the last few months, they probably would have been told to dial back the drama and make the storyline more believable. So how did this all happen, and who is the man now in charge of the United Kingdom? This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Gully Burrows asks: can Rishi Sunak restore the public’s trust in government and pull the Conservative Party together?

Ten years ago, one family’s future was changed forever when a single bullet fired by a militant extremist shattered a 15 year old girl’s face in a small village in Pakistan. That was when the world learned who Malala Yousafzai is. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at how Malala’s story, advocacy and activism have inspired generations in her hometown of Swat in Pakistan and beyond.

Drawing a line on a map is never straightforward – there are many places around the world with no set boundaries. But now there is one less unmarked border as Lebanon and Israel have, after years of indirect talks, agreed on where the line lays. This is a remarkable feat for two countries still technically at war. It might appear just an administrative achievement, an event to be noted as a quirk of geography and diplomacy. But this agreement could already have averted a war and have major consequences for the two countries - getting it wrong could cost someone millions. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks at the significance of this week’s landmark agreement.

Microchips are integral to almost everything we do - they keep planes in the sky and cars on the roads, they are the brains of almost every modern device we use. It is microchips that mean we can walk around with smart watches more powerful than computers that took up whole rooms just a few decades ago. But what would happen if we suddenly couldn't get hold of new chips? This is a question that has worried experts and legislators around the world for a while. And it is no longer a hypothetical thought experiment. It’s now a real issue. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young delves into why the world could be running out of microchips – and what it means for us all.  

In a video shared many times on social media, an Iranian woman climbs on top of a car in the conservative city of Mashhad. She takes off her headscarf and starts chanting “death to the dictator”. Young protesters nearby join in before the crowd build a fire and women start burning their headscarves and slicing off their hair. Such a direct challenge to the powerful religious authorities that run Iran would usually be unthinkable. But sustained protests have been taking place across the country, sweeping through hundreds of towns and cities there, as well as abroad. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Mina Aldroubi looks at how the death of a young Kurdish-Iranian woman from Iran’s north became the rallying cry for years of frustrations and anger at the country’s leaders.

After a two-year disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly has returned to normal … more or less. While the UN has implemented a number of covid restrictions including limiting the size of the delegations attending, enforcing a mask mandate inside the building and requiring proof of vaccination, world leaders are back in New York, shaking hands, holding high-stakes bilateral negotiations and bringing the city to a grinding halt. The meeting has come at a crucial time – the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices, spiralling inflation, increasing food prices, climate change and global health are all high on the agenda. The National's Willy Lowry takes us Beyond the Headlines at the United Nations General Assembly to look at the key issues and hear what's on the agenda as world leaders all meet again in person for the first time since the pandemic.

Gaza has only one honey-producing season, which begins with the onset of the warmer weather in March and lasts until the first week of May. This usually sets up Gaza'a honey production for the year, with 200 tonnes produced. But this year the weather stayed cold with unexpected downpours until the second week of April, and then became unusually hot.   The prolonged cold affected the blossoming of Gaza’s many citrus orchards and vegetable crops, leaving the bees with fewer flowers from which to collect nectar when the weather turned warmer and then too hot. These wild swings in the weather have cut honey production in the Gaza Strip by almost a third and are threatening the territory’s bee population.    On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Ahmed Maher looks at how the decline of the bee population is threatening food security and whether climate change is to blame.

On Monday August 29th, Iraq came closer to civil war than it has for year. The fears of many Iraqis that political tensions would spill out into violence were coming true. After 11 months of parliamentary elections, government formation is still help up by complete political gridlock. As violent clashes between the followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and members of militias affiliated with the Coordination Framework led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki escalated, 30 Iraqis lost their life. However, by Tuesday afternoon, Al Sadr had called back his followers from the streets and restated his intention to “retire from politics”. Since then, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi has threatened to resign, which would add further chaos to Iraq’s political scene. In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, The National’s Editor in Chief Mina Al-Oraibi discusses these developments and what could come next, with guests Chairman of the Iraqi Advisory Council Farhad Alaadin and Senior Foreign Reporter Mina Al Droubi.