Beyond the Headlines

2022 was a year of uncertainty on the global stage. Amid the lingering impact of Covid-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a fresh shock to the system and its reverberations were felt across the planet. The unnerving combination of a European land war and the inflation it helped to export worldwide wasn’t what anyone expected as life was just beginning to move forward from the pandemic. This week on Beyond the Headlines, as we turn the corner from 2022, host Jamie Goodwin speaks to The National’s correspondents as they look at this year’s pivotal moments and their lessons.

2022 was a year in the global spotlight for the Middle East. Mass protests in Iran after the death of a young woman in police custody brought about real hope of change, while in Israel, the re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu kick-started a journey towards what has been described as a fully right-wing government. The Middle East held its first World Cup and the region also returned to the forefront of the global drive for carbon neutrality when Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh hosted the UN’s climate change conference. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Jamie Goodwin speaks to The National’s regional correspondents as they go through the year’s biggest stories in the Middle East.

On December 17, 2010, Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Uprisings. Coinciding with the 12th anniversary of his death, Tunisians head to the polls on Saturday for the second time this year. Over those years, Tunisia has seen new constitutions, changing governments, different presidents and deadlocked parliaments. All played out against a backdrop of terrorist attacks and food shortages. While politicians promise people a better tomorrow, there have been calls for boycotts and demonstrations in the week leading up to the polls. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks at what’s next for Tunisia as it heads back to the ballot box.

A group of men in green uniforms and women in loose black chador head scarfs roaming the streets in a van is a familiar sight in Iran. This is a patrol by Iran’s so-called morality police Officially called the Guidance Patrol, officers have the power to arrest anyone deemed to be flouting the country’s strict rules on how men and women should dress and act in public. While officially they police everyone - men wearing shorts or showing visible tattoos can fall foul of officers - it is women who are overwhelmingly scrutinised. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at Iran’s religious rules and the force that upholds them.

The UAE is launching the Arab world's first mission to the Moon - a new milestone for a country that hasn’t looked back after sending the first Emirati astronaut into space in 2019. The Rashid rover is flying on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram looks at the build-up to the launch of the rover and the legacy it will leave behind for the UAE’s future space ambitions.

The world came together in Qatar when the FIFA World Cup kicked off for the first time in the Middle East and Arab world. But even before a ball had been kicked, there are many reasons why the Qatar tournament is unlike any other. It is the costliest World Cup to date and Qatar is also the smallest country to host the competition by land size and population. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Gully Burrows takes a look at the World Cup in Qatar to find out exactly what it’s like on the ground there.

For millions of Americans, it is an unwelcome blast from the past. For millions of others, it is a hope for a second chance to "drain the swamp" of American politics. Whatever your view on Donald Trump and his mission to make America great again, there is no doubt that the former president's recent announcement that he intends to make another run for the White House in 2024 is deeply divisive. True to form, Mr Trump heralded his possible campaign with a combination of rhetorical showmanship, bombast and mudslinging in the days leading up to the big announcement. He took a swipe at the newly re-elected Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, a one-time ally whose success and popularity with his constituents has cast him as a potential challenger to Mr Trump. Host Sulaiman Hakemy sits down with Hussain Ibish, The National’s US affairs columnist and senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, and The National's social media editor, Cody Combs, to talk about what is next for President Joe Biden, Mr Trump, Democrats and Republicans.

“Conflict, climate and the economic consequences of Covid-19 are feeding off each other in a vicious circle, with 54 conflicts, 100 million displaced people and 345 million people going to bed hungry every night.” This was the stark picture painted by President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband in this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines. The National's editor in chief Mina Al-Oraibi spoke to Mr Miliband during his visit to Abu Dhabi to discuss concerns about the lack of adequate funding to support the most vulnerable in the world, in addition to the impact that the Ukraine war will have not only on Ukrainians but people around the world directly and indirectly.

There is a debate raging internationally about climate change. As we’re greeted by dire headlines and alarm, the UN had a stark warning - the battle against carbon emissions isn’t going well. As the world gathers in Egypt for the Cop27 global climate forum, it can be hard to understand exactly where we stand, what’s being done and whether it's even still possible to stop climate change. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks at where the world is on climate action and asking what to expect from Cop27.

Britain has seen two monarchs and three prime ministers in the space of just two months. If a TV writers’ room pitched anything like the events of the last few months, they probably would have been told to dial back the drama and make the storyline more believable. So how did this all happen, and who is the man now in charge of the United Kingdom? This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Gully Burrows asks: can Rishi Sunak restore the public’s trust in government and pull the Conservative Party together?

Ten years ago, one family’s future was changed forever when a single bullet fired by a militant extremist shattered a 15 year old girl’s face in a small village in Pakistan. That was when the world learned who Malala Yousafzai is. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at how Malala’s story, advocacy and activism have inspired generations in her hometown of Swat in Pakistan and beyond.

Drawing a line on a map is never straightforward – there are many places around the world with no set boundaries. But now there is one less unmarked border as Lebanon and Israel have, after years of indirect talks, agreed on where the line lays. This is a remarkable feat for two countries still technically at war. It might appear just an administrative achievement, an event to be noted as a quirk of geography and diplomacy. But this agreement could already have averted a war and have major consequences for the two countries - getting it wrong could cost someone millions. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks at the significance of this week’s landmark agreement.

Microchips are integral to almost everything we do - they keep planes in the sky and cars on the roads, they are the brains of almost every modern device we use. It is microchips that mean we can walk around with smart watches more powerful than computers that took up whole rooms just a few decades ago. But what would happen if we suddenly couldn't get hold of new chips? This is a question that has worried experts and legislators around the world for a while. And it is no longer a hypothetical thought experiment. It’s now a real issue. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young delves into why the world could be running out of microchips – and what it means for us all.

In a video shared many times on social media, an Iranian woman climbs on top of a car in the conservative city of Mashhad. She takes off her headscarf and starts chanting “death to the dictator”. Young protesters nearby join in before the crowd build a fire and women start burning their headscarves and slicing off their hair. Such a direct challenge to the powerful religious authorities that run Iran would usually be unthinkable. But sustained protests have been taking place across the country, sweeping through hundreds of towns and cities there, as well as abroad. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Mina Aldroubi looks at how the death of a young Kurdish-Iranian woman from Iran’s north became the rallying cry for years of frustrations and anger at the country’s leaders.

After a two-year disruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly has returned to normal … more or less. While the UN has implemented a number of covid restrictions including limiting the size of the delegations attending, enforcing a mask mandate inside the building and requiring proof of vaccination, world leaders are back in New York, shaking hands, holding high-stakes bilateral negotiations and bringing the city to a grinding halt. The meeting has come at a crucial time – the war in Ukraine, rising energy prices, spiralling inflation, increasing food prices, climate change and global health are all high on the agenda. The National's Willy Lowry takes us Beyond the Headlines at the United Nations General Assembly to look at the key issues and hear what's on the agenda as world leaders all meet again in person for the first time since the pandemic.

Gaza has only one honey-producing season, which begins with the onset of the warmer weather in March and lasts until the first week of May. This usually sets up Gaza'a honey production for the year, with 200 tonnes produced. But this year the weather stayed cold with unexpected downpours until the second week of April, and then became unusually hot. The prolonged cold affected the blossoming of Gaza’s many citrus orchards and vegetable crops, leaving the bees with fewer flowers from which to collect nectar when the weather turned warmer and then too hot. These wild swings in the weather have cut honey production in the Gaza Strip by almost a third and are threatening the territory’s bee population. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Ahmed Maher looks at how the decline of the bee population is threatening food security and whether climate change is to blame.

On Monday August 29th, Iraq came closer to civil war than it has for year. The fears of many Iraqis that political tensions would spill out into violence were coming true. After 11 months of parliamentary elections, government formation is still help up by complete political gridlock. As violent clashes between the followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and members of militias affiliated with the Coordination Framework led by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki escalated, 30 Iraqis lost their life. However, by Tuesday afternoon, Al Sadr had called back his followers from the streets and restated his intention to “retire from politics”. Since then, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi has threatened to resign, which would add further chaos to Iraq’s political scene. In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, The National’s Editor in Chief Mina Al-Oraibi discusses these developments and what could come next, with guests Chairman of the Iraqi Advisory Council Farhad Alaadin and Senior Foreign Reporter Mina Al Droubi.

As much of the world’s focus remained firmly fixed on ending the coronavirus pandemic, another illness was quietly spreading in the background and has now emerged as a global health concern. A few months ago, monkeypox, an infectious viral disease, began cropping up in countries across Europe for the first time in years. The virus is spread from person to person through close contact. Historically, monkeypox has been largely confined to west and central Africa but had occasional and short-lived appearances elsewhere - such as in the US in 2003. Despite this, monkeypox was never really an international cause for concern, until this year. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Juman Jarallah delves into the global monkeypox outbreak and what this could mean for a world still tackling a pandemic.

On August 15, 1947, British Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten formally announced India's independence from British colonial rule. The Indian subcontinent was partitioned into two countries – India and Pakistan. The borders were drawn hastily along religious lines. Muslim-majority provinces became part of Pakistan, Hindu and Sikh majority areas remained in India. The borders cut through villages, rivers and homes, leading to one of the largest migrations in history. Unexpected and unprecedented violence followed, claiming more than a million lives. Fifteen million people left the land they had called home for generations - never to return. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, we hear the stories of those who lived through the trauma of seeing their land cleft asunder.

It’s amazing how the UAE’s home-grown produce has become so diversified. Over the years, farms have been modernised and new crops introduced. The supermarket aisles we browse in the UAE vividly illustrate the country’s progress. The UAE aims to be the most food-secure nation by 2051, according to the National Food Security Strategy. But will this ambition be realised and can local farms keep up with the demand? This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nilanjana Gupta explores the future of farming in the UAE.

This summer is breaking temperature records like never before. The rising mercury is a reminder of the impact of climate change. Unless drastic action is taken, the temperatures seen in recent weeks will become increasingly common. Failing to find sustainable ways to heat and cool our offices and homes when temperatures soar – or plummet in winter – could lead to more Co2 being produced as more people turn to AC units or turn up their thermostats. But experts say there’s another way. Rethink our built environment. Increasingly, architects are turning to passive cooling methods to keep the heat down in summer. Better insulation is offering more efficient heating in winter. But more is needed. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, first broadcast in 2019, we spoke to David Shipworth, Professor of Energy and the Built Environment at University College London. He told us about how we can rethink our urban environment to make extreme weather events more manageable without costing the Earth. We also spoke to Karim El Jisr, who established The Sustainable City Institute – a global platform for advancing knowledge in sustainability and the built environment.

For nearly three years, Lebanon has been steadily collapsing under the weight of a financial crisis that is one of the worst in the modern world. But what is life like for those who have to live through the situation on the ground? To be Lebanese is to navigate a slew of daily challenges caused by the economic rupture. So people have developed coping mechanisms. And they’re not always healthy. Experts say mental health is declining, and substance use is on the rise. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada Homsi takes a look at Lebanon’s hidden psychological crisis.

For more than a decade, Tunisia was seen as the poster child for democratic transition after the Arab Uprisings of 2011. By 2014 the country had had two free and fair elections and ratified a new constitution. But the consensus-building that went into drafting that new constitution soon dissolved, leaving behind partisan bickering and political deadlock. Successive governments and parliaments failed to deliver on the socioeconomic demands that had driven the revolution: jobs were still scarce, prices were rising, and the basic services you expect from your government — everything from rubbish collection to transportation — weren’t working. The economy tanked; inflation rose; tens of thousands of young Tunisians hopped on rickety boats, trying to get to Italy. People’s dissatisfaction with their government grew. Protests raged on the streets in the winter of 2020 and spring of 2021. They wanted change. Then, in July last year, President Kais Saied fired his government, shuttered parliament and essentially took full control of the country, saying it was the only way to stop the political deadlock. Now he’s asking Tunisians to vote in a referendum this Monday to ratify a new constitution — one it appears he’s written almost entirely himself. This week on Beyond the Headlines, Erin Clare Brown investigates Tunisia’s constitutional referendum — and explains what it means not just for the country but for the wider region.

Joe Biden has made his first visit to the Middle East as US president. He might be no stranger to the region, having visited dozens of times as vice president and senator for Delaware, but this is the first time since he was elected to America’s top office. And it comes at a time of uncertainty. Oil and food prices have surged since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and global inflationary pressures are pushing up prices across the board. Talks with Iran on reviving a nuclear accord to limit Tehran’s enrichment of uranium have stalled. A tentative ceasefire in Yemen is holding, but major challenges remain to end the more than five-year war. Energy and security might be top of his agenda but so is the fundamental question of America’s role in the Middle East. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young talks to The National's US correspondent Willy Lowry about President Biden’s visit to the Middle East, how it was received and how it will be remembered.

Five years have passed since Iraq liberated Mosul from ISIS in a bloody, street to street battle that left 11,000 civilians dead and much of the northern city in ruins. Millions fled the brutal three year rule of the terror group and hundreds of thousands more fled the deverstating fighting to recapture the city. But five years after victory, several neighbourhoods in Mosul still lie in ruins. On this week's episode, host Robert Tollast asks why is it taking so long to rebuild Mosul.

On June 29, world leaders gathered in Madrid to discuss the future direction of the The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. On this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Mina Aldroubi speaks to Michael Stephens, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, about the Nato summit’s biggest talking points.

Steve Jobs once said: "The most precious resource we all have is time." For most of history, the average human life expectancy has been about around 70 years. Although average life expectancy has been rising for years, this is because more of us make it that far and many beyond. Fewer of us are dying at birth, in childhood, in the midst of raging battle or being mauled to death by wild animals. Take out those threats and an average human is capable of a 70th birthday. And now, with breakthroughs in our understanding of genetics and billions of dollars being poured into life sciences research, we may find ways to extend our lives, maybe to even double that number, in the next few decades. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Kelsey Warner looks at the future of ageing and longevity.

When you hear of Arab cuisine, what imagery does it conjure up? Hummus, bulgur wheat, meat, chicken and spices like sumac, cumin and cinnamon. Lavish dinner parties with popular dishes like Egyptian koshary, Jordanian mansaf and Iraqi tashreeb. The bigger the dish, the more generous the host. That is a deeply rooted belief in Arab culture. Despite the Gulf countries being insulated from the rising costs of living, people in many places in the Middle East - and around the world - are struggling to regularly buy quality raw food ingredients as prices skyrocket. In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Ahmed Maher speaks to people from across the Middle East to see how rising prices are pushing some of them into food poverty.

On 14 May, a white gunman in body armour killed 10 black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ten days later, an attacker shot dead 19 students and their two teachers in their classrooms at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Then, on 1 June, another gunman killed two doctors and two others at an Oklahoma medical building in Tulsa. These are just some of the recent, chilling examples of how gun violence has traumatised America - they’re only the tip of the iceberg. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the US has suffered at least 246 mass shootings in 2022. Not all of them make the news, so frequent have mass shootings become there. Many Americans have long been calling for action on gun control. So why is it so difficult to bring in reform? On this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram looks at what can realistically be done to tackle US gun deaths.

The sky turns orange as a huge cloud of dust rolls toward you. Your vision is impaired and your chest feels tight as you struggle to draw breath. You grab a scarf and wrap it around your face as you hurry inside, but the coughing continues long after you reach safety. For those in refugee camps, even this escape is denied. Sand is buffeted against flimsy tents and belongings and residents become swiftly covered in a film of dust. You may think this is happening to a character in an apocalypse movie, but it's becoming a regular occurrence for people in many parts of the world, and especially the Middle East. In spring, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and parts of Israel and Egypt experience the most frequent dust storms. Moving into summer, Iran, Syria and the Gulf will be hit by the flurry of sand and minerals. Many of these countries are sources of the dust as well as feeling the impact of it. In this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Taylor Heyman looks at the impact of dust storms on the Middle East and asks what can be done to mitigate them.

The Berlin Wall fell more than three decades ago, precipitating a generational collapse of political and economic boundaries in Europe. Now, in 2022, conflict and confusion is on the continent's doorstep once again. Experts and leaders, including around 50 heads of state and government, have gathered in the Swiss resort of Davos this week for the World Economic Forum annual meeting, where they are considering whether history has reached another turning point? Mustafa Alrawi, The National’s Assistant Editor-in-Chief, and Mina Al-Oraibi, The National's Editor-in-Chief, are joined by CNN anchor Julia Chatterley in Davos to discuss the key takeaways from the WEF annual meeting.

People across Lebanon cast their votes last Sunday in an election that was meant to be different. So much has happened since the last poll, in 2018, when familiar faces were elected from parties largely made up of the same people who had fought the civil war decades earlier. First, the economy started to creak - and eventually collapsed. In 2019, hundreds of thousands of people across Lebanon rose up in a popular protest movement, apparently determined to change a political system that seemed to be pushing the country over a precipice. Then, in August of 2020, a devastating explosion at Beirut’s port killed hundreds, left hundreds of thousands homeless, and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage in a country that could ill afford to pay the bill. Many blamed the same culture of political mismanagement for the catastrophic explosion. In this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, Finbar Anderson asks: will the Lebanese election be seen as a turning point for an embattled country in desperate need of change? Or was it a sideshow designed to buy the ruling elite time and a false sense of legitimacy?

President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed died on May 13, 2022, at the age of 73. He was born in September 1948, before the UAE existed as a single nation and before the discovery of oil in the Emirates. In his lifetime he saw the rise of the nation from a collection of Bedouin and fishing villages to one of the leading and most competitive economies in the Middle East. As the eldest son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Founding Father of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa’s involvement in public life began at a very young age. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Faisal Salah looks back at the life of Sheikh Khalifa and hears from UAE cultural historian and columnist for The National Peter Hellyer about his legacy.

On May 16, the European Union will no longer require people to wear masks on planes. Many countries around the world have already started to relax Covid-19 restrictions. And some, like Greece, New Zealand and Japan, are preparing to drop all rules in time for summer. So is it finally time to get back to normal? At least to the way life was before the pandemic. Or is it time to simply embrace the ‘new normal'? This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram asks experts and health care professionals if the pandemic is truly over.

Late one Saturday night towards the end of April, a boat set off to sea from near Lebanon’s second city, Tripoli. It was an ageing craft, nearly 50 years old, built to comfortably hold maybe a dozen people, at a push. But on this voyage it was carrying perhaps 60, maybe as many as 80. Among those on board were Amid Dandachi, his wife and their three children. In all, around 22 members of the extended Dandachi family were on the boat. The family are from the suburb of Qibbe, one of Tripoli’s poorest neighbourhoods. And Tripoli is one of Lebanon’s poorest cities. With Lebanon's economic crisis ongoing they hoped heading west would offer them a better future But only an hour or two after they left land, the boat was intercepted. Lebanese naval forces demanded it turn back. The boat’s helmsman tried to make a break for it but the navy crashed into the overcrowded craft towards the bow, splitting the hull. At least six people died and approximately 30 are still missing. On this week's Beyond The Headlines, Finbar Anderson looks at the story of a tragic shipwreck off the coast of Tripoli, and how it’s an all too familiar fate for thousands of people trying to reach a better life in Europe.

Rescued from the choppy seas of the English Channel or landing on the windswept beaches of the east of England, over the last three years thousands of people in small inflatable dinghies have made the perilous crossing from France. As dozens died making the journey, the UK deployed the coast guard, the navy and the lifeboat service to try and rescue those attempting to make the journey. In 2021, an estimated 28,526 people crossed the channel in small boats. Data for the first half of 2022 showed over 8,000 had made the journey with tens of thousands more expected in the calmer, warmer summer months. The arrivals have sparked a heated debate. Some accuse the government of being soft on immigration, turning a blind eye to smugglers and not policing the country’s borders. Others accuse the government of a callous disregard for human life and failing to meet obligations to those fleeing for their lives. And now, the UK has said “enough”. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young delves into the UK Government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda and asks whether such proposals can even solve the issue.

Muslims around the world are marking the first Ramadan in three years to take place largely without Covid-19 restrictions. But now another crisis is casting a pall over the holy month. The war in Ukraine, a global economic downturn and a high oil price, among other factors, are driving food prices to an all-time high. Nations which import most of their food - including many in the Middle East such as Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen - are suffering the most. And the head of the World Bank has said the food crisis will last for months. On this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Taylor Heyman asks how Muslims are dealing with shortages and price hikes this holy month, and what governments are doing to help relieve the pressure.

Pakistan has a new prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif. The 70-year-old this week replaced Imran Khan, who failed to stop a no-confidence motion against him in what was a dramatic last-minute vote on the night of April 9. Sharif won with 174 votes, after more than 100 lawmakers from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf party resigned and walked out. Khan’s ousting and Sharif's win mean that no Pakistani prime minister since the country’s formation has been able to complete a full five-year parliamentary tenure. Imran Khan also became the first prime minister in the history of Pakistan to lose office through a parliamentary no-confidence vote. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram looks at Imran Khan’s fall from power and asks: will he return?

A group of Afghan refugees in Poland have rushed to support the millions of Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion. The painful memories of their own war are a shadow only too recent. One of the group, 27-year-old Sabur Dawod Zai, escaped the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. He, like so many others, embarked on an arduous journey to avoid the harsh rule of the Taliban and found himself in Poland. So when Sabur and his friends saw a newspaper photograph depicting four people, including two children, killed in the war, they could identify with the horror. Grateful for the warm welcome they received in Poland, they just wanted to pay it back. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Ahmed Maher explores how Afghans in Poland, themselves displaced, have mobilised to support Ukrainians fleeing the war.

Your curtains open on a timer. You rise with the sun shining - which it does most days of the year here - and a sensor detects when you’re standing under the shower, activating the water at your preferred temperature, no time or water to waste. Your refrigerator has the right ingredients to grab breakfast and pack a quick lunch; it automatically orders your groceries when you begin to run low. As you head for the door, the lights switch off, the climate control readjusts to account for an empty flat, and the lock engages automatically behind you. You hop on your bike and pedal to work - a flexible office space where you mingle with a few dozen other entrepreneurs, as well as some multinational corporations. The ride is ten minutes down the road, passing a few friends on the way. This is life in a 15-minute smart city. And this could one day be life at the Expo 2020 Dubai site, dubbed District 2020, a reimagined neighbourhood at the site of the most recent world’s fair that experts, visitors and the mega-event planners all say is a vision for the future. This week, as Expo draws to a close, we ask: what did we learn in the last six months about where we are heading and the choices we must make? And now, what comes next, for both the site itself and those who gathered there?

Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, millions of people have fled the country in search of safety elsewhere in Europe. Most are women and children, with men of fighting age required to stay and protect their homeland. So often the story of war is told through masculine eyes — soldiers fighting heroically on the front, typically male politicians battling for control of the narrative through speeches and summits — but as more and more women stream out of the country, it is falling to them to tell the world what is happening in Ukraine, and to highlight their role in forging the country’s future. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Erin Clare Brown travels to Romania and Moldova to hear first-hand from those who have fled the Russian campaign about what life was like inside a country under siege, and how it has changed for them since they left.

In the early hours of March 13, 2022, streaks of light punctuated the sky above the northern Iraqi city of Erbil as a barrage of rockets rained down on a building near the old town. The thud and blasts shook the city, orange flames rose up and thick black smoke stood out against the deep purple of the night. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at why Iran is raining rockets down on neighbouring Iraq.

A row has been brewing for months in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after dozens of Muslim students were barred by authorities from entering colleges because they were wearing the hijab. Widespread protests and counter protests by students attending local colleges and pre-universities have erupted across the southern coastal state, raising tensions in the communally sensitive region. Female Muslim students have lobbied for days outside the gates of their colleges, demanding the administration let them attend classes wearing the hijab. Their protests have been met by counter-demonstrations by students linked to right-wing Hindu groups. They wear saffron scarves - a colour used by hardline nationalists - and march in the streets chanting "Jai Shri Ram", a traditional Hindu salutation that has in recent years become a war cry. In this week's Beyond the Headlines, Nilanjana Gupta looks at why the hijab is the source of more division than ever in India.

More than a million people have now fled Ukraine. As Russia targets cities across the country, ordinary people have been faced with the unthinkable choice of staying put and facing bombardment - or leaving their homes, their communities, their lives. It is already the biggest European refugee crisis since the 1990s Balkan wars. The UN fears there could be 4 million people displaced in the coming weeks and months. If things continue to get worse it could be Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Leila Gharagozlou looks at the plight of the Ukrainians whose lives have been turned upside down.

On the morning of February 24, Katya Niporka was woken up by the sound of Russian artillery shaking Kyiv. Soon after, the rest of the world was waking up to the news that Russian President Vladimir Putin had declared war on Ukraine and that an invasion was underway. For weeks Ukrainians had been hoping for the best and planning for the worst as hundreds of thousands of troops massed on the border. Most expected that, if an invasion happened, it would be in the south-east of the country, where Ukraine has been fighting with Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Few expected attacks on the capital. In this special episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Erin Brown asks what it felt like to be in Kyiv and under siege from Russian forces, and what the future holds for Ukrainians like Katya, who are weighing up whether to stay and fight or try and flee to safety.

Last month, archaeologists working in Oman’s north found what they believed to be a 4,000 year old board game. The discovery sparked interest worldwide, giving us a peek into the leisure time of the Gulf’s ancient people. Unlike in other areas of the world, where archaeological marvels focus on kings, queens and grand temples, much of the heritage work going on in the Sultanate right now focuses on how ordinary people lived. The artefacts, often dating back millennia, are some of the most well preserved in the world. They are changing long-held beliefs about how the region was first settled. In this week's Beyond The Headlines, host Taylor Heyman looks at how discoveries from their country’s past are inspiring the next generation of Omanis and the world.

Last week, a team of scientists at the JET laboratory in England announced a major step towards making what some hope will be the energy source of the future. Nuclear fusion offers the hope of producing near-limitless supplies of safe, clean energy to power our homes, workplaces and cities. It is also one of the greatest engineering and scientific conundrums that humankind has ever grappled with. It took decades of research to get to a test that only lasted five seconds. There is still a long road ahead. But those leading the quest are hugely excited by what they saw. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young asks: will nuclear fusion save mankind?

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.