Beyond the Headlines

For three decades, Omar Al Bashir ruled over Sudan. But in April, in the face of growing protests, he was removed from office and the future of the country was suddenly up in the air. In this week's episode of Beyond the Headlines, we talk about the changes sweeping Sudan. Hamza Hendawi, The National’s Cairo correspondent, has been on the ground in Sudan this week. He tells foreign editor James Haines-Young about the mood in the streets of Khartoum, where since December demonstrations have drawn millions and eventually helped lead to a dramatic end to the ruinous reign of Mr Al Bashir. Now, the military along with the main protest group – dubbed the Freedom and Change Forces – are working together to oversee the transition into Sudan's new future.

Suicide bombs, 359 dead and an ISIS claim of responsibility. On Sunday, Sri Lanka was hit by the single largest terror attack in its history. Hundreds attending Easter Sunday mass or at high-end Colombo hotels were killed and wounded in a coordinated wave of bombings. In the wake of the blasts, communities have undoubtedly rallied together. But the shared grief belies the underlying communal tensions that have existed for years. Amid the pain, there is also anger. It appears intelligence received by some government officials could have helped police prevent the attacks. But the documents were not shared with everyone. Jack Moore, Deputy Foreign Editor at The National, talks us through the last week in Sri Lanka where he has been reporting.

The scale of India’s ongoing election is staggering – nearly 900 million people are registered to cast their ballots. And there are many issues at stake, with India's economy on pace to become of the world's five largest this year. While many have been concerned about the economy and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s track record of reforms, national security, the rural economy and Hindi nationalism are all issues that have played a central role as Indians go to the polls. The National's Ramola Talwar Badam was in Uttar Pradesh, and she brings perspective and analysis with foreign editor James Haines-Young in this week's episode of Beyond the Headlines.

Benjamin Netanyahu has won a fifth term in office and looks set to be Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, after a campaign which saw him pledge to annex the occupied West Bank.

After weeks of mounting protest, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika has stepped down, ending 20 years as the country’s ruler.   While the moment is historic, protesters – many of whom won’t remember a time before Mr Bouteflika was their president – are not finished.  Fear that a younger, healthier version of the ailing 82-year old will step into his place or that the army may co-opt power, they say they will push on to ensure a real democratic transition.  After years of economic stagnation after oil revenue – the backbone of the economy – collapsed when oil prices fell in 2014, people are calling for a brighter future. Unemployment is high, costs are rising and many felt that there would be no future if Mr Bouteflika had won a fifth term in the election that was supposed to take place in April.  But now, they say they are turning a new page in their country’s history. In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, The National’s Foreign Editor James Haines-Young speaks to Chellali Khalil who has been part of the protests since the start, and Algerian researcher Tin Hinane El Kadi from the London School of Economics to ask how the country got here and what comes next.

The Untied Kingdom’s march towards Brexit has been postponed but questions about the fate of the country’s place in the world continue to swirl. Prime Minister Theresa May has been given extra few weeks to breath but the UK remains no closer to any solutions. On this week’s edition of Beyond the Headlines The National’s Editor-in-Chief Mina Al Oraibi sat down with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss how the divide nation can move forward.

It's been one week since the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch New Zealand. The mass shooting was the worst peacetime attack in New Zealand’s history, and has shaken the country to its core. In the week that followed the slaying of 50 people by a white supremacist gunman at two separate mosques, New Zealanders rallied around the victims, while grappling with shock, grief and anger. The government, meanwhile, has moved swiftly to announce stricter gun laws.  The National's journalists and expatriated New Zealanders, Ashleigh Stewart and Campbell MacDiarmid, discuss how their homeland is responding to the tragedy, and bring stories of some of the victim's families.

Syrian Democratic Forces are slowly extinguishing what’s left of the Islamic State. The US-backed SDF has the grouped trapped in a tiny sliver of land along the Euphrates River. Baghouz, Syria, is a small farming village. Before it became home to the last pocket of ISIS, it was just a dot on the map that many Syrians hadn’t even heard of. Now it’s the centre of a months-long battle between the SDF and what’s left of ISIS. Assistant Foreign Editor, Campbell MacDiarmid and Multimedia Producer Willy Lowry travelled to Baghouz to cover ISIS’s last stand. In this edition of Beyond the Headlines, we take you to the frontlines in the fight to end ISIS.

Enric Sala has a plan to save the planet. National Geographic’s explorer-in-residence is in Abu Dhabi for the World Ocean Summit. His one message — that we need to protect 30 per cent of our planet’s land and oceans by 2030. But at a time when it feels overwhelmingly difficult to be positive about the Earth’s future, what can be done to save our habitats? “Being a conservationist, sometimes it is hard to be optimistic,” he says. But despite the worrying headlines, the plastic in our oceans, the devastating deforestation, all is not yet lost, Sala claims. “I have seen with my own eyes how nature comes back when we give her some space, both in the oceans and on the land. Right now, we are at a tipping point so it's not too late.” Listen to the full interview with Mina Al Oraibi, editor-in-chief of The National on protecting the Earth and its species.

This week, The National spoke to Alistair Burt, the British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa. The chance to speak to the top British official was timely.  Shemima Begum, who fled the UK when she was 15 to join ISIS, was found in a Syrian refugee camp recently. Four years later, she’s now pleading to return home with her new-born. But what does that mean for the UK as Shemima might be just one of many cases where former ISIS members plead to return to their countries. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, Minister Burt breaks down the situation with Shemima and her child. He also discusses the crisis in the Syrian Rukban camp, where 50,000 refugees have been cut off from aid and left to starve.