Beyond the Headlines

From the sidelines to the front lines, women in Saudi Arabia are joining the military for the first time in recent history. In September, photos of these determined women in service uniforms made a splash in media outlets, in the latest display of just how far Saudi women have come since the ban on driving was lifted two years ago and the floodgates of opportunity opened. Announced in 2016, Vision 2030 aims to transform the kingdom’s social and economic model and open it up to the world. But it was really in 2019 that major and long-awaited changes to guardianship laws took place. Women were able to take more ownership of their careers, finances, education and marital status.Legal, social and economic reform overcame traditions that had resisted change for many years. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher marks Saudi National Day by speaking to the women who were once spectators but have become leaders and trailblazers of social change.

Every year, for millions of parents, pupils and teachers around the world, September means the summer holidays are coming to an end and it is time to go back to school.  But in Lebanon, the mix of fuel shortages, economic inflation, power cuts and the Covid-19 pandemic means the country's education system may not be able to handle the influx of pupils, potentially leaving thousands of children without proper schooling. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Finbar Anderson examines the effects of Lebanon’s crises on the country’s education system.

On September 11, 2001 New York's World Trade Centre towers were brought crashing down, forever changing the course of history.   Almost 3,000 lives were lost that day – as well as America’s innocence. With the country’s vulnerability to terrorism so cruelly exposed, the US instigated two foreign invasions whose consequences are still being felt today.   On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Leila Gharagozlou examines the legacy of 9/11 in America and Afghanistan.

America’s longest war is over after the dramatic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan ordered by President Joe Biden. The Taliban have taken Kabul. Barely a shot was fired. With the final evacuations planes now departed, many people vulnerable to Taliban revenge have been left behind, despite assurances from the US and other governments, and have been forced into hiding. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Gareth Browne looks at the inadequate evacuation of Afghanistan and speaks to those who have been abandoned to the most uncertain of fates.

In April 2021, customs officers in the Saudi city of Jeddah searched a shipment of Lebanese pomegranates. Hidden inside the fruit were more than five million circular, beige Captagon pills – illegal amphetamines. It was the latest in a long line of interceptions in recent years that have seen officers in the kingdom stop millions of pills and tonnes of drugs being smuggled in.  But for Saudi Arabia, it was the final straw. The kingdom announced a ban on imported fruits and vegetables from Lebanon, dealing a huge blow to farmers already suffering from the country’s economic collapse and sending a shockwave through the region. Over the last decade, Captagon has spread across the Middle East to become one of the most consumed narcotics.  It gained particular infamy in the early years of the Syrian war as the drug of choice for militants like ISIS. Fighters took the pills on the battlefield as it fuelled them to fight for days without sleep or food. In this week's Beyond the Headlines host James Haines Young introduces a major investigation by The National into the Middle East’s Captagon crisis. Hosted by James Haines-Young Produced by Arthur Scott-Geddes, Arthur Eddyson and Ayesha Khan

Afghanistan has seen war for decades, but none of them has involved so decisive a military takeover of the country as the latest. The speed with which the Taliban swept the country has shocked the world. Why did the Afghan army collapse? Did president Ashraf Ghani have to flee? Is this a betrayal by the US administration? And what about the safety of Afghans, particularly women, under Taliban rule? These are some of the many questions people in the country are asking, but there are no easy answers. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy examines what happened in the crucial hours before Kabul fell to the Taliban, and what’s next for the country.

On August 5th, Iran inaugurated a new president putting an end to the 8-year presidency of reformist  Hassan Rouhani and ushered in a new, hard-line government. The new president, Ebrahim Raisi is said to be handpicked by the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the man who controls Iran's religious ideology and political ideology. Mr Raisi is a hard-line cleric who won his election amid accusations of corruption and historically low voter turnout. The new president had vowed in his campaign to continue the nuclear talks in Vienna, in an effort to get US sanctions removed and help relieve some of Iran’s economic pain. He also tempered his usually hard-line rhetoric around Iran’s domestic policy. But, now, a week since President Raisi was inaugurated, Iranians are already seeing a change. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Leila Gharagozlou talks to an expert on Iran’s political space and an Iranian reporter about the future of one of the world’s most closed off countries, Iran.

In the final episode, we follow the volunteers who took to the shattered streets of Beirut in the hours and days after the explosion of August 4, 2020. Host Finbar Anderson delves into the ongoing investigation into the blast and asks: will it ever bring justice to the city’s people?

In Episode 3 of The Blast, The National’s Finbar Anderson recounts the day of the explosion. As The fire in Warehouse 12 grows in intensity, a fire crew arrives to try to tackle the blaze, but it’s like nothing they’ve ever seen before. They call for backup. Ghassan Hasrouty and his colleagues are still working in the silos next door, offloading grain from the ship that docked earlier in the day. They’re just metres from Warehouse 12, and the deadly stash of explosives inside it. Bystanders living in the neighbourhood around the port come to their windows and onto their balconies. They watch the blaze as it grows and grows. Others are completely unaware of what’s happening down at the port. Like Sarah Copland, an Australian UN employee who’s feeding her 2-year-old son Isaac his supper next to the big glass windows of the family’s dining room in a quiet Beirut neighbourhood less than a kilometre away from the fire. This is Zero Hour. It’s the story of what happens when a city blows up, told by the people who were there. This episode includes accounts that some listeners may find upsetting.

In Episode 2 of The Blast, The National’s Finbar Anderson and Sunniva Rose head down to the docks of Beirut port. They try to piece together what was happening in the six years the ammonium nitrate sat in a warehouse and how it led to the huge explosion.