Beyond the Headlines

When you think of the Middle East, you might imagine hot weather, date palms, camels, coffee and hummous - but would the Winter Olympics ever cross your mind? Twelve competitors from five countries in the Mena region are taking part in the winter games in Beijing. And they have some interesting stories to tell about how they came to be there. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Leila Gharagozlou asks what it takes to compete in the Winter Olympics, and how much more of a challenge it is when you’re from a hot, arid region.

The idea of a virtual world existing in parallel to the real one was once the stuff of science fiction. But today, millions of people are already spending hours a day in virtual spaces and spending billions of dollars on things that simply don’t exist in a physical environment. When Facebook changed its name to Meta last year and rebranded itself as a “metaverse company”, what was once a controversial idea among tech enthusiasts came crashing into the mainstream. Now, the company and others like it are betting big that we will all be spending more and more time in the metaverse - doing everything from socialising and playing games with friends, to exercising and working remotely.  On this week's Beyond The Headlines, host Arthur Scott-Geddes asks: what is the metaverse and is it really about to replace the real world?

The UAE is a country of cars and buses. The only way to travel between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the two major cities, is by road - a journey of at least 70 minutes. But soon, that’s going to change. Right now, the UAE’s railways only transport freight… but Etihad Rail is building a passenger service that will eventually connect all seven emirates. With trains racing at up to 200 kilometres per hour, travelling from Abu Dhabi to Dubai will then just take 50 minutes. Soon, the country will feel much smaller. The National was given rare access to the new rail service. On this week's Beyond the Headlines you can join host Nilanjana Gupta on a journey into the future of the UAE’s transport system.

Filipinos will go to the polls in May to elect a new president, marking the end of Rodrigo Duterte’s years in power. Presidential hopefuls will be using what Filipinos call political campaign jingles to attract voters, a tradition that has been going since 1953.  But did this ritual begin because of the secret pop aspirations of a CIA officer? The National has seen remarkable evidence that supports this suggestion.  On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Robert Tollast looks at the strange story of the CIA and political campaign pop songs in the Philippines.

In Israel in January 2021, then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised the people that if they turned out at vaccine centres then Israel would be the first country to see an end to the pandemic, leading the world and acting as a global model for handling Covid.  But that’s not quite how it’s worked out.  While the country had begun to open up and life had started to return to normal, Israel, like much of the world, has been hit hard by the Omicron variant.  On this week’s Beyond the Headlines host James Haines Young takes a look at the Covid situation in Israel - once the global leader for vaccinations and now suffering rising hospitalisations and a barrage of new cases more than six times their previously daily peak.

Talks in Vienna between Iran and the US have resumed in the hope of reviving the 2015 nuclear deal. It was then US President Donald Trump who, in 2018, decided to ignore foreign policy experts, and his own advisers, and pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. By many accounts Trump’s decision was underpinned by a belief that he could get better terms. But he did not get the outcome he wanted. In fact, after a year of continuing to be in compliance with the lapsed deal, Tehran quickly began enriching uranium again. With no guardrails on Iran, Trump’s decision had in effect created a possible nuclear crisis. On this week’s Beyond the Headlines host Leila Gharagozlou looks at what negotiators in Vienna must contend with to strike a new agreement.

This week, as we wrap up 2021, we’re looking at two conflicts that have defined not only the past year, but the past few decades. We’re talking about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the collapse of the government and the country’s future under the resurgent Taliban. Also, we talk about May’s war in Gaza, the legacy of 11 days of rockets and air strikes, and whether there is any hope for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Lockdowns may have given way to Covid vaccine drives in 2021 but as the year ends, the spread of Omicron has pushed millions back into some form of social restriction. From the fall of Afghanistan to the electoral defeat of Israel’s longest serving prime minister; from the billionaires’ space race to renewed global action on tackling climate change, 2021 has been a year of change, a year of firsts and lasts and, for many, a year of ups and downs. In the final two episodes of 2021, we wanted to reflect on the year that was, on the biggest events that we at The National believe will come to shape how we remember this year and may well define some of 2022’s biggest moments.

A new variant of coronavirus is spreading across the globe.  Named Omicron, after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, it has sparked travel bans around the world. In South Africa, where the variant was first identified, it has quickly become the dominant strain. And on Monday, UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced what is believed to be the first death caused by Omicron.  On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Cody Combs asks: how worried should we be about Covid’s new variant?

President Emmanuel Macron of France has been back in the Middle East. This time he was in Saudi Arabia, his first visit to the kingdom since 2017, before heading to the UAE. The French leader has made something of a name for himself in the region in recent years. He staked significant political capital on cajoling Lebanon’s leaders to pass reforms to solve their dire economic crisis. He hosted a political summit in Baghdad with officials from across the region – including Iran and the Gulf – that sought to build avenues for dialogue rather than conflict. He has visited holy sites in Jerusalem, cultural sites in the Emirates and met illusive musical icon Fairuz in Lebanon. He has cut deals on energy, defence, the environment, and culture. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at Macron in the Middle East: what came out of his recent visits, why he has been so engaged in the region and what that means for French diplomacy.