Beyond the Headlines

On August 4, 2020 the heart of Beirut was ripped apart by a huge explosion caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonating at the city’s port. The National’s Finbar Anderson was one of the thousands injured in the blast – hit by flying shards of glass in his own living room. In The Blast podcast he has traced the events of how that tragic day came to pass. In Episode 1 Finbar speaks to Boris Prokoshev, the captain of the ship that first brought the ammonium nitrate into Beirut port. Boris tells us his story of how he, The Rhosus and its cargo made the journey to Beirut and why they all got stuck there.

On August 4, 2020 the heart of Beirut was ripped apart by a huge explosion caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonating at the city’s port. The National’s Finbar Anderson was one of the thousands injured in the blast – hit by flying shards of glass in his own living room. In a four-part mini-series one year later, he has traced the events of how that tragic day came to pass. Beginning with how the ammonium nitrate ended up in Lebanon, Finbar speaks to the officials who knew it sat at the port for six years and to the victims and their families, whose lives changed forever on that summer’s day. And finally, we examine the fallout in the year since as people demand answers and await the official investigation. Join us from August 2 to August 5 at TheNationalNews.com or on your favourite podcast app. Subscribe to Beyond the Headlines to hear the full story.

An IT technician facing the sack for discussing voting habits at work or parents barred from home schooling their children.   It sounds pretty dystopian, but activists say a new French law may bring these restrictions into reality.     Supporters of the anti-separatism bill say it will reinforce France’s commitment to secularism.    But those opposing it say the legislation erodes civil liberties, religious freedoms and unfairly targets the Muslim community.    Last week the bill was passed into law.   On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Taylor Heyman asks: who’s right?

Every year in Saudi Arabia, as the time of the pilgrimage to Makkah nears, thousands of people from the city and around the country gather to volunteer for Hajj. Often these people will give up their daily lives and work to take time out to help those who visit the holy sites. As Muslims flock to the city to complete one of the essential requirements of their faith, a taskforce of thousands of Saudis is deployed to see to their needs.  On this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Ayesha Khan looks at the Saudis who put their lives on hold to volunteer at Hajj.

Iraq’s summer is crippling the country. People are having to seek refuge indoors to escape scorching temperatures that regularly reach 50°C. But indoors isn’t much better with regular power blackouts adding to people’s frustrations. So, aside from shade within the four walls of their houses, there is little else that Iraqis can do to cool themselves down. Electricity in the country is scant, and what little there is, is rationed into limited time slots each day. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram asks whether Iraq’s power problem has any end in sight.

On July 9, 2011, when South Sudan finally became independent after a 56-year struggle and a bitter secession from Sudan, it was a dream come true for many. Roughly the size of the United Kingdom and Germany combined, the new country had its own passport, as well as football and basketball teams singing a national anthem under their own flag. One of the most diverse nations in Africa, with more than 60 languages and dozens of ethnic groups, the creation of South Sudan was hailed as a way out of decades of strife. But 10 years after independence, visitors to the capital Juba will see a country suffering from underdevelopment and extreme poverty – the direct result of five years of civil war that stymied the transformation of the young country into a viable state. On this week's Beyond the Headlines Ahmed Maher travelled to South Sudan to see how the world's youngest country has fared during a decade of independence and investigate what the future holds for a nation brought to the brink by years of brutal conflict.

On June 28, Ethiopia’s federal government declared a ceasefire in Tigray. Mekelle, the capital of the restive region, sprang to life as thousands flooded the streets chanting and dancing, many draped in Tigrayan flags. The announcement was supposed to end eight months of war which has left at least 7,500 people dead. Hundreds of thousands more have been forced to flee their homes in the fighting between government troops, their allies and Tigrayan rebels.  But shortly after the ceasefire declaration, the Tigrayan rebels declared they would not stop fighting until all federal troops were removed from the region. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, Taylor Heyman looks at whether a lasting peace can be found in Tigray.

With one hundred days to go before Expo 2020 opens its gates, the grounds are buzzing. The site is bigger than 600 football fields. And there are twenty thousand workers busy building, welding and adding the final touches ahead of the grand opening on October 1. The event, running over six months, will be one of the most ambitious ever held. This week's host Nilanjana Gupta takes a look behind the scenes of Expo 2020 Dubai.

Like millions in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a football fan. Before he became the country’s leader, he was a semi-professional player. He publicly backs a small Istanbul team - which won the country’s super league in 2020 - and was the best man at the wedding of Mesut Özil, the German national team footballer who is of Turkish heritage. Mr Erdogan’s love of the game and his close ties to certain clubs and the national team is wrankling with some fans who say the president is politicising a once national-unifier. As the country competes in the delayed Euro 2020 finals, some are even saying the president has made them switch off completely. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young asks: is the Turkish President politicising football?

Over 13 years, the US spent at least $21.7 billion training and equipping the Iraqi army, police and counter-terror forces. Then, in the space of a few days in the summer of 2014. it all collapsed. As thousands of ISIS fighters poured over the border from Syria, as many as 90,000 soldiers and police deserted their posts. The terror group seized major cities in a matter of hours. Within days, they were charging towards the capital of Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish capital of Erbil. The borders between Iraq and Syria that had existed for 100 years disappeared overnight. With the Iraqi military in shambles, the government called for volunteers to defend  their homeland. In the holy city of Najef, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani – one of the most respected Shiite voices – urged all able-bodied Iraqis to enlist. Soon, neighbourhoods bristled with newly formed militias – manning  checkpoints and holding rallies to sign up more recruits. But, nearly seven years after the call went out, Iraq’s militias are still there and they’re more powerful than ever. Welcomed into the security establishment to stop the country falling to ISIS, these largely Shiite forces now run a nearly parallel state. But some of the groups stand accused of kidnapping, torturing and assassinating dozens of prominent Iraqi activists and protesters since late 2019, as thousands take to the streets demanding a new Iraq, one without corruption and nepotism, and where the state can provide education, jobs, power and water. There is very little the government can do. The country, today, faces a new battle – for an Iraq ruled by the militias or one ruled by an elected government where the rule of law is paramount. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host James Haines-Young looks at the man in the middle of these two, Iraq’s prime minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, and asks how can he rein in the militias?