Beyond the Headlines

After more than three months of protests, Lebanon's politicians agreed on a new government. But this has done little to ease anger on the streets after three months of mass uprisings. Hassan Diab announced the formation of his 20-member government on Tuesday and vowed to get to work on fixing the country's mounting problems. Lebanon faces a huge economic crisis – debt has topped $85 billion, growth is flat, unemployment is rising and the currency has lost nearly 40 per cent of its value in the past three months. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, The National's Willy Lowry reported from the tear gas-filled streets of Beirut. He spoke to young people angry at what they've called Mr Diab's "one-colour" government. We also spoke to Nasser Saidi, a former Lebanese economy minister and former vice governor of the central bank of Lebanon. He laid out plainly the scale of the crisis and his recommendations of what the new government should do. Previous coverage of the Lebanon protests: https://www.thenational.ae/podcasts/beyond-the-headlines/beyond-the-headlines-politics-protests-and-partying-on-the-streets-of-lebanon-1.927718 Bonus Episode: https://www.thenational.ae/podcasts/beyond-the-headlines/beyond-the-headlines-the-musicians-contributing-to-the-lebanese-protests-1.928328

The first signs that something big was happening came a little after noon on Friday when the army and police deployed across Oman. The tensions between the United States and Iran lead many to assume the sudden deployment was related. When regular overnight programming stopped and the television stations started broadcasting excerpts from the Quran, it was obvious. Sultan Qaboos, the longest serving monarch in the Middle East, had passed away. Host James Haines-Young looks at the life of Sultan Qaboos and what’s next for Oman as it looks to the future.

The United States has killed Iran’s Qassim Suleimani sparking the most serious situation in the Middle East since ISIS took over huge areas of Iraq in 2014. The late head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard overseas Quds force has spent decades building up Tehran’s army of proxy militia and allies from Beirit to Sana’a. The response from Tehran came just four days later when they fired 22 rockets at US troop locations on Iraqi bases.  This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at how Iran and the US got here and will it escalate further or is that it? We also talk to Dr Aniseh Tabrizi, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London and Ahmad Qureshi, a senior research fellow from Project Pakistan 21 focused on Iran. We are also joined by Mina Al-Oraibi, editor-in-chief at The National.

The Arab uprisings, the brutal Syrian war, the rise of ISIS, the slide into chaos in Libya and Yemen, the counter revolutions, the crackdowns on protesters in Iraq and Iran, the displacement of millions of Syrians and Iraqis.  This week on Beyond the Headlines, were going to travel across the region, speaking to The National’s writers and reporters who have been covering the biggest stories in the Middle East and around the world this decade.

In March 2017 the ship Tamim Aldar found itself, along with its crew, abandoned at sea 25 nautical miles off the coast of the UAE. It was one of seven ships owned by Elite Way Marine Services, a company that was facing financial difficulties and found itself unable to pay crew salaries or maintenance for its fleet.  It has been over two and half years but four crew members, two from India and two from Eritrea, had been awaiting payment and to travel home. On December 19th, 33 months after they were first abandoned at sea, the four seafarers finalised an agreement with their employer for 80% of their owed wages. We hear from Vikas Mishra one of the seafarers who has spent over three years away from his family as well as Rev. Andy Bowerman from the Mission to Seafarers, a non profit that has been helping the crew. Senior Associate Shehab Mamdouh from the legal firm Fichte and Co. gives us an insight into maritime law.

ISIS has dominated headlines for nearly a decade. Even as the groups power has waned the fear it instils has remained. In 2019 ISIS saw its last pocket of territory wiped from the map, ripped from its dying hands by Kurdish forces in Eastern Syria.   In October, US special forces managed to chase down the group’s elusive leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi. He killed himself by detonating a suicide vest.   US president Donald Trump may have declared ISIS defeat. But are they are really? The National sent Journalists Willy Lowry and Jack Moore into Kurdish controlled Iraq to investigate the state of the world’s most feared terrorist organisation.

In the last century, the global population has exploded. Today, there are 7.7 billion people on the planet and that number is rising at the pace of another billion every 12 to 15 years. Scientists say this is simply unsustainable. In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, we’re asking, how many children is too many when it comes to climate change? We hear from Emma Lim, 18-year-old activist and creator of the No Future No Children pledge has vowed, along with over 5000 others, not to have children until governments around the world take substantive action on climate change. We’ll also hear from Professor Corey Bradshaw, fellow in Global Ecology at Flinders University in Australia, who has been modeling population growth and looking at what methods could cause the global population to decline. Robin Maynard, director of British-based campaign charity Population Matters, joins us to talk about why all this matters and whether he’s feeling optimistic about the future. If you missed last week’s episode, catch up below. https://audioboom.com/posts/7436709-a-look-at-national-service-on-national-day

Every year on December 2nd, millions across the seven emirates mark the day the UAE became a country. This week, we are doing something a bit different.  Regular listeners will know that on Beyond the Headlines, we try to break down some of the most pressing issues from across the region and beyond. In the last few months, we’ve discussed protests in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Hong Kong. We’ve tackled environmental issues from India’s choking smog to whether carbon capturing rocks in Oman can help avert climate change.  But today, we’ll hear a conversation between Faisal Salah and Daniel Lee, two men in their 20s from very different parts of the world - the UAE and South Korea - as they reflect on their time as a conscript, their fears, the lessons they learned and what they missed most while serving. 

The true extent of Iranian infiltration of Iraq has been revealed. 700 pages from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security were released to western outlets, The New York Times and The Intercept. They show interference at the highest level in Iraq’s political, military, and judicial system. Host Taylor Heyman, foreign editor from The National talks to Dr Zana Gulmohamad, from the University of Sheffield and Dr Michael Knights from The Washington Institute. We also talk to Iraqi member of parliament Sarkwat Al Shamsi.

For the past two weeks, air pollution in the Indian capital of Delhi has been off the scale. A toxic mix of dust, soot from farmers burning paddy field stubble, car fumes and construction all combined into a murky grey film over the city. The pollution was so bad visibility was reduced and the government moved to close schools and advise people to stay in doors. This week, host James Haines Young talks to Dr Vikas Maurya (Specialist Pulmonology at Fortis Hospital in Delhi) and Professor Guojun (Economics Department of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) about why so many cities are struggling to breath. James also talks to Tanya Dutta, a reporter with The National in Delhi.