Beyond the Headlines

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?

As coronavirus has spread across continents, our way of life has completely changed. Planes have ground to a halt, borders closed off and families separated. But now, as vaccination programmes surge ahead, the aviation industry is working with governments to try to secure safe and efficient ways to travel. A digital proof of one’s vaccination status, a vaccine passport, is being welcomed as the key to reigniting the travel sector - a way to ensure all those travelling can verify their Covid status and ensure a smooth process in airports around the world. But there are many opposed to such a system, citing concerns about data privacy and fears of it leading to an unequal world. On this week's Beyond The Headlines host Suhail Akram asks: are vaccine passports necessary or will they make travel discriminatory?

For 11 days rockets rained down on Gaza in the latest escalation of a conflict that has gone on for nearly three quarters of a century. More than 250 people were killed as homes were destroyed and livelihoods shattered. But the battle wasn’t only taking place over Gaza and Israel; online a separate but connected fight broke out freedom of expression. Palestinians turned to social media in the hope of bringing attention to the mounting death toll in Gaza. In East Jerusalem, families facing eviction from their homes to make way for Israeli settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood logged in to tell their stories. Others tried to post videos from Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and around the world supporters shared messaged of solidarity. But posts were disappearing, often without explanation. Accounts were suspended. Hashtags were blocked. Palestinians, already living within the walled confines of Gaza and the West Bank, said they found a wall of restrictions put up by the social media platforms they thought would empower them. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young asks, are social media companies censoring pro-Palestinian posts?

What started with a court hearing over the ownership of land on the outskirts of Jerusalem’s Old City has escalated into the bloodiest round of fighting between Hamas in Gaza and the Israeli military since 2014. The outbreak of fighting between the armed groups in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Israel killed hundreds, mostly Palestinians but also people in Israel. It came after months of simmering tensions, over the court cases to decide the fate of a dozen Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah area and elsewhere in occupied East Jerusalem. It also came against the backdrop of a surge in support for far-right nationalist groups, propelling them to electoral gains as Israel faces a major political crisis. In this week's Beyond the Headlines host James Haines Young speaks to The National's correspondents in Jerusalem and Gaza to understand the months of tensions that led to the outbreak of fighting.

On April 19, Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter lifted off from the surface of Mars in a history-making first flight. The small, drone-like rotorcraft, which arrived on the Red Planet attached to the Perseverance rover, climbed three metres into the thin air, hovering for 30 seconds before touching back down in the Jezero crater. It was the first controlled flight by a powered aircraft on another planet. Another groundbreaking first for science followed a day after. A gold device about the size of a car battery on Perseverance, called Moxie, created oxygen out of that same thin atmosphere. Previous missions have focused mainly on answering long-held questions about our mysterious celestial neighbour. Has it ever supported life? Can we find liquid water there? But this new generation of experimental technology has begun to pave the way for the eventual human exploration - and even colonisation - of Mars. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Arthur Scott-Geddes looks at the latest wave of pioneering science missions on Mars, which are helping to usher in a new era in the exploration of the solar system.

Within months of the emergence of coronavirus in late 2019 drug companies around the world were racing for a vaccine. Within a year, shots were being delivered into people’s arms. The speed at which the world developed not one but several different Covid-19 vaccines in seemingly record time has thrown into sharp relief other vaccine programmes that have toiled for years with no final breakthrough. HIV, the virus that causes Aids, kills nearly 700,000 every year, but has outwitted vaccine developers for more than three decades. Even regular influenzas can be deadly and our tools to stop it are very limited. But now, there is renewed hope that this could change – and that may be thanks to the work on Covid-19 vaccines. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young delves into how Covid-19 vaccines have already shaken up the drug industry and how what we are learning now could one day lead to tailor-made treatment for almost any ailment.

India hit what it thought was its peak of Covid-19 infections in September 2020 when the pandemic then started to ease. But the country now has the world’s second highest number of Covid-19 cases, surpassing Brazil, and is now only behind the United States. The new, deadly explosion has overwhelmed India’s hospitals, graveyards and crematoriums, particularly in its biggest cities of Delhi and Mumbai. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Suhail Akram speaks to those affected by the crisis to understand how India’s Covid-19 crisis got so out of hand.

Desalination used to be the preserve of money-rich but water-poor Middle Eastern countries. It was expensive and caused pollution but in the arid desert where rain is scarce, there was little choice. Without desalination, taps across the Gulf would run dry and farms would wither and die. Experts have issued warnings about the water wars of the future as one of the world’s most precious resources begins to dry up. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at how Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel and Gulf states led a water revolution and how desalination could quench the world’s water worries. c856e29038ff517b227136c93c96a2ec65582c96

On December 31, 2020, one year after coronavirus was first detected, the World Health Organisation gave the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine emergency validation, making it the first to be given such clearance. It was just seven months after the first trials began – a record breaking length of time. Other vaccines followed. AstraZeneca, Moderna, Sinopharm, Sputnik V and Johnson & Johnson are now common names for a range of jabs that are being deployed in different regions of the world. Hundreds of millions of doses have been administered worldwide. But with over seven and a half billion people on Earth and with most types requiring two doses, we still have a long way to go. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram looks at how we vaccinate the world.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was heralded as ‘the vaccine for the world’ when it was first approved for use in the UK on December 30. It is inexpensive and can be stored in normal fridges, unlike other vaccines. But its image has been marred by recent controversies. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram delves into the benefits and the risks of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

For nearly a week, the ultra-large Ever Given container ship was wedged across the Suez Canal, stopping dead all trade through one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes. With no way through, hundreds of ships queued up in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and waited. Within 48 hours of the Ever Given running aground on March 23, there was enough oil on tankers waiting at the entrance to the Suez to power the UK for a fortnight. Nearly $10 billion dollars worth of trade a day sat idle. This week on Beyond the Headlines, James Haines-Young talks about the week when global trade stopped because of a tanker.

Iraq is listed as the 20th most corrupt country in the world in the latest ranking by anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. Venality is rampant in a country still emerging from the shadows of multiple wars, terrorism and long-time sanctions. One aspect of this is the widespread practice of government jobs for bribes. Despite laws that criminalise both the briber and the bribe-taker, fresh graduates desperate for jobs say they have no other option. Since 2003, job creation has mainly been a government task. In this week's Beyond the Headlines host Ahmed Maher asks: is corruption in Iraq impossible to beat?

March 2013, Raqqa. The Syrian revolution is in full swing. A crowd gathers around a statue of Hafez Al Assad in the centre of the city. The statue is of President Bashar Al Assad’s father, and much like the Assad regime has looked over this part of Syria for five decades. Though not for much longer. Activists and members of the Free Syrian Army chant Allahu Akbar, and fire at the statue as it is pulled down. The relic lies on its side, they climb on top of it - Raqqa is now the first provincial capital to fall to the revolution. But this was only the beginning. Darker times lay ahead. This is the story of Raqqa’s revolution , why it failed, and what has become of the city after ten years of war and revolution in Syria. On this week's Beyond the headlines host Gareth Browne, just back from Raqqa, looks at 10 years of conflict in Syria.

It's hard to overstate just how significant Pope Francis's visit to Iraq really was. Nor how remarkable it is that it actually went ahead. Iraq, despite the best efforts of the security forces, is not stable. Just days before the Pope arrived on March 5, a US civilian contractor was killed in a rocket attack, probably the work of an Iran-backed militia. Pope Francis’s predecessor Benedict said days before the pontiff left the Vatican that the trip was dangerous. And yet, it went ahead. And it did so in the middle of a global pandemic. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at the highlights of the visit, hearing from The National’s own correspondents stationed across the country for the trip, and asks: what will be the legacy of these four historic days?

It was beyond our capacity of understanding ten years ago when a young man in Tunisia decided to take his own life by setting himself on fire. This act was enough to start large-scale protests in what became known as the Arab uprisings. Two months ago, in the impoverished city of Kasserine, a desperate and jobless man in his twenties set himself on fire in west-central Tunisia. He narrowly escaped death. Local media reported that he was in his twenties and was struggling through tough economic times. But the horrifying act almost went unnoticed in Tunisia. On this week's Beyond The Headlines, host Ahmed Maher looks at why Tunisian society is becoming numb to the increasing number of stories of self immolation.

On February 21 about 120,000 Indian farmers gathered at a grain market in Punjab to protest against the government. The crowds of men and women arrived early, making their way to the market in tractors, buses, trailers and cars. They waved flags and vowed to head south to the capital of New Delhi to make their voices heard. Waiting for them in Delhi were tens of thousands more farmers who had been camping near the highways leading into the capital for months. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Taylor Heyman looks at why India’s farmers have been moved to launch these protests.

At the beginning of 2020 the UAE faced a conundrum. Abu Dhabi Ports was seeking to boost its cargo-handling capacity, which meant more construction above and below water. A new project with Etihad Rail was also planned to connect Khalifa Port with the proposed national railway that would run through the country. But the Abu Dhabi shoreline is home to the Ras Ghanada reef, consisting of 8 million corals, of which 500 would be under threat from the proposed works. In this week's Beyond the Headlines host Suhail Akram looks at how the UAE moved an entire coral reef.

On February 9, 2021, after seven months in space and six years since the mission's inception, a room full of Emirati engineers watched anxiously as their attempt to put a satellite into orbit around Mars reached its final destination. The UAE is just the fifth nation to send a spacecraft to the Red Planet. In this episode, we hear from Omar Adbelrahman Hussain, lead mission design and navigation engineer for the Emirates Mars mission, Hamad Alhazami, command controller of the Hope probe, and Mohsen Al Awahdi, mission systems engineer for the probe. We also talk to Sarwat Nasir, who watched the orbit attempt at a special event held in Dubai. Hosted by Suhail Akram.

During his 2015 presidential primary race, a day after the San Bernadino shootings in which a married Islamist couple shot and killed 14 people, Donald Trump said he wanted “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on”. In 2017, when Trump came to power, the so-called “Muslim Ban” was introduced. Trump signed an executive order banning the nationals of 7 predominantly Muslim countries from entering the USA for 90 day. All Syrian refugees were banned indefinitely and all other refugees were banned for 120 days. Although the ban hit some constitutional hurdles a slightly watered-down version came into effect in March of that year. When Biden became the Democratic nominee he pledged to repeal the ban on his very first day in office. And true to his word, on January 20 he did exactly that. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Cody Combs looks at how the repeal of the “Muslim Ban” will affect Muslim refugees.

In December 2019, two months after the start of the popular protests across Lebanon, Human Rights Watch warned of an impending health crisis in the country. The government was failing to fund public and private hospitals, and they in turn were struggling to pay staff and purchase medical equipment. This was before anyone in Lebanon had even heard of Covid-19. Since then the situation has been getting worse. The impact of Covid-19 has steadily been building - the economy shrank over 19% in 2020 and inflation continued to rise. When an explosion tore through Beirut in August, five nurses died, hospitals were damaged and the pressure on the healthcare system increased yet more. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Gareth Browne, takes a look at Lebanon’s failing health system and asks, can it survive the coronavirus pandemic?

On 20 January, 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. President Biden has come into power breaking records and making history. He received more votes than any other president in history, beating Barack Obama’s previous record. At 78, he is the oldest president to be sworn in, breaking Donald Trump’s record. And he is the first president to have a female vice president, Kamala Harris. At the same time, as Trump leaves the White House, he too departs having made history. Trump is the only president to have been impeached twice. We talk to Dr Lindsay Chervinsky, presidential historian and scholar at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies in New York state, and Bryant Harris, The National’s correspondent in Washington, about how unprecedented this presidential handover has been. Hosted by Cody Combs.

In December 2011 in Cairo, during a protest in Tahrir Square, a woman was captured on video being dragged along the ground. During the attack, her abaya, the name for the long, loose cloak worn by women in many Arab and Muslim countries, came undone, exposing her midriff and her blue bra. This moment became the catalyst for a growing women's movement in Egypt. Host Ayesha Khan talks to Ragia Omran, a lawyer from Egypt who has been a human and women’s rights activist since the mid ’90s, and Engy Ghozlan, a social activist from Egypt, about the movement. We also hear from Nadine Abdel Hamid, a 22-year-old woman who exposed Ahmed Bassem Zaki, a sexual predator who preyed on a shocking number of women and underage girls.

2020 ended with some relief that we now have vaccines for Covid-19. But the pandemic is not over yet and new strains of coronavirus have spread. Now we have to work out how to distribute the vaccines globally. And anyway, just how effective are they? Which is the best? How long will it take for them to reach us? On this week's Beyond the Headlines, Suhail Akram looks at the next front in the battle against Covid-19.

As we look back on the year 2020 it is undeniable that there is one story that has defined the year. But beyond the coronavirus, what have been the defining stories from The National’s newsroom? Iraq had a tumultuous year as it slid into economic despair after a year of anti-establishment protests. Lebanon sank deeper into economic crisis only to be hit with a blast that left a quarter of a million people homeless, two hundred dead and more than 6,000 injured. Ethiopia nearly came to blows over the Great Nile Dam, while fighting in the country’s Tigray region pushed the country to the brink of civil war. A brutal conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh killed more than 5,000 soldiers and 144 civilians on both sides. And then there was the simmering tension between Iran and the US, as well as, what was described as the most crucial election in America’s history. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Suhail Akram brings you the stories from some of our correspondents around the world about the defining moments of 2020.

On December 10, Azerbaijan held a triumphant military parade in its capital, Baku. Two-and-a-half months after the start of a conflict over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in the west of the country, Azerbaijan had won a victory against the local ethnic Armenian forces, and their supporters in Yerevan. The Azerbaijan flag hung from balconies and shop windows, alongside that of the country’s principal ally, Turkey. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, Finbar Anderson looks at Azerbaijan’s apparently decisive victory In Nagorno-Karabakh, and the prospect for peace in a region that has seen decades of conflict.

It is three years since then Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared the gruelling battle against the most feared terror group in history was over. ISIS had been defeated. The conflict itself took three long years. The legacy left behind in the rubble of Mosul, the mass graves across Sinjar and the divided parliament in Baghdad will last a generation. In this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks back at the time when the black flag of ISIS hung like a pall over Iraq and how its former rule has left a seemingly indelible mark on the country.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit - global trade ground to a halt. Around the world people were scrambling to buy essentials as supermarket shelves emptied. But the UAE, a country that relies on imports for more than 90% of its food supermarkets, appeared to have more than enough. The government repeatedly assured people there would be no shortages. This week, we hear from Maximo Torero Cullen, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organisation at the UN, and Kyle Wagner, Head of Operations at Madar Farms, about how the UAE began preparing for a food crisis over a decade ago. We also hear from Nicole Rogers, founder and CEO of Agripocity, a UAE-based company that connects farmers directly to the international marketplace.

On August 7, Habib Daoud, a Lebanese professor of history in Iran, was gunned down on a street in northern Tehran. Killed alongside him was his 27-year-old daughter Maryam. The assassin was riding a motorbike, and escaped without being identified. Reports suggest that Daoud’s killing was carried out by Israeli spies. It fits the profile of those carried out by Israeli agents in Iran in previous years. Past targets, however, were mainly Iranian nuclear scientists. Daoud was a different kind of enemy to Israel. He was said to be affiliated with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran. At least, that was the story reported by the Iranian press. Thre months later, news reports in the United States and Saudi Arabia told a different story, in which the man Iranian authorities identified as Habib Daoud never actually existed. While the assassins were still likely to be Israeli agents, Daoud’s identity was a cover. There is a strong likelihood, rather, that the man assassinated in Tehran that day was a senior operative in one of the world’s most notorious terrorist organisations – one that has long claimed to be an enemy of Iran’s government. The man has been identified by US and Israeli officials as Abu Muhammad Al Masri, second-in-command of Al Qaeda. On this week's Beyond the Headlines host Sulaiman Hakemy looks at Iran’s covert and counterintuitive relationship with Al Qaeda.

In 2019, Abiy Ahmed was riding high. For a year he had been Ethiopia’s prime minister, having emerged from byzantine internal jockeying at a time of deep unease and anger. He had ushered in a series of swift democratic reforms, seemingly bringing an end to decades of repression as he opened up the press and released political prisoners. Then, the charismatic 43-year-old blew on to the international scene winning the Nobel Prize for reaching out to end the decades-long stalemate conflict with neighbouring Eritrea. He had solved an intractable situation once dubbed “No war, No peace.” But less than a year later, on November 17, the same people that awarded his peacemaking efforts with a Nobel prize released a statement expressing deep concern. The reason? Abiy was now at war at home against the province of Tigray, in Ethiopia’s north, sandwiched below Eritrea and next to Sudan. This week on Beyond the Headlines host James Haines Young looks at how Abiy Ahmed went from Nobel Peace Prize winner to the brink of civil war in Ethiopia.

For nearly four years, US President Donald Trump has torn up America’s foreign policy handbook. The implications, both at home and abroad, have been significant. Most recently, Trump’s administration was lauded for facilitating the Abraham Accord, the normalisation of relations between the UAE and Bahrain, and Israel. In exchange, Israel’s government has agreed to halt its proposed annexation of parts of the West Bank. But Trump’s days in the White House are now numbered. By the end of January 2021, a new administration will have taken the reins of American foreign policy. This week on Beyond the Headlines, we hear from Sanam Vakil, Deputy Director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, and Dr Nasser Saidi, Lebanon’s former Minister of Economy and former vice governor of the Lebanese central bank, about what will change for the Middle East and what will remain the same when Joe Biden takes his seat in the Oval Office. Hosted by Sulaiman Hakemy

The Philippines is no stranger to storms. The country's group of islands weather around 20 storms and typhoons a year. But when news of supertyphoon Goni was announced, it took action, preparing itself as best it could under the restrictions of Covid-19. 390,000 people were evacuated from their homes as 2020’s strongest storm hit the archipelago on the November 1. The storm was the most powerful typhoon to make landfall on the islands since 2013, when Typhoon Haiyan killed at least 6,000 people. As Goni left a trail of devastation in the Philippines, another storm was brewing on the other side of the world. Hurricane Eta bore down on Nicaragua, damaging homes, tearing down power lines and causing flash flooding. 2020 has seen more storms from the Atlantic ocean than ever in recorded history. On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy looks at why climate change means superstorms are the new normal.

In this special edition of Beyond the Headlines, Michael Goldfarb, author, journalist and host of the FRDH podcast based in the UK, talks to Joyce Karam, The National's correspondent in Washington, and James Reinl, The National's correspondent in New York, about what has happened so far in the US elections leading up to November 3. They examine the logistics of an election of this size in a pandemic, mass protests, mail-in ballots and what exactly Americans are voting on.

Arab-Americans make up a tiny fraction of America’s 300 plus million people. But in three key swing states: Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania they are a significant enough voting block that they could help determine the outcome of the November 3rd Presidential election. Willy Lowry and Sophie Tremblay takes us through the heart of Arab America to look at the issues important to the growing community and which way they’ll vote.

The fires didn’t start the revolution, but you could say it was the kindling. The country suffers fires every year, but these were different. In this week's Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young, looks back at a turbulent year in Lebanon from fires, to revolution to a massive explosion.

News update: Since publishing this podcast China announced on October 9 that it has joined Covax, the global scheme for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine backed by the World Health Organisation. There are currently more than 150 Covid-19 vaccines in development. Billions of dollars are being pumped into research in the hope that a viable drug can reach the market in record time and ease the effects of the pandemic on individuals, societies and the global economy. This week we talk about the challenges in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine. We hear from Dr Jeremy Rossman, a virologist at the University of Kent, and Daniel Bardsley, who writes about the coronavirus for The National. Hosted by Suhail Akram.

On October the 1st 2019, protestors took to the streets of Iraq demonstrating against unemployment, government corruption and poor public services, such as electricity and clean water. As Iraqis mark the one year anniversary of the October protests, demonstrators have vowed to keep the protests going unless their demands of a peaceful and prosperous homeland are met. Renad Mansour, senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, and Inas Jabbar, human rights activist from Baghdad, tells us what has changed since the October protests started and whether protesting is achieving anything. Hosted by Suhail Akram.

Nadia Abdulwahab, Lecturer in English Literature at Umm Al Qura University, and Marcel Kupershoek, author and senior humanities research fellow at NYU Abu Dhabi takes us through the evolution of Saudi Arabia and its people, since the founding of the kingdom. We also hear from Ahmed Al Saleh, a 25-year old Saudi student, and Salma Ibrahim, a 27-year old electrical engineer, about the changes they see in the kingdom and their excitement for the future of Saudi. Hosted by Balquees Basalom.

On the 15th of September, the UAE signed the historic Abraham Accord with Israel at a ceremony in Washington DC, in the first such agreement between an Arab country and Israel in over a quarter of a century. We hear from Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, UAE’s permanent representative to the United Nations, and Omar Ghobash, UAE's assistant minister for cultural affairs and public diplomacy, about the UAE’s groundbreaking decision. Ambassador Dennis Ross, who served under President Barack Obama, President Clinton and President George H. W. Bush, and Ambassador Barbara Leaf, former US Ambassador to the UAE, give their takes on the agreement and what it means for the region. Hosted by Willy Lowry.

Free speech is part of the US bill of rights, which was ratified in 1791. It grants the freedom to express any opinion, without any restrictions or penalty from the government. However, there are restrictions to this right, in law. These include speech that incites violence, is part of criminal conduct or commercial advertising. As social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter don't have to enforce freedom of speech, many feel they should. This week, we hear from Mathew Ingram, chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review, and Dr. Peter Yacobucci, an associate professor of political science at Buffalo State University. With the US presidential election fast approaching, they tell us how social media giants are grappling with freedom of speech. Hosted by Cody Combs.

News update. Since publishing this podcast Greece and Turkey have agreed to talks to avoid military escalation and accidents in the Eastern Mediterranean, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on September 3. On the 14th of August 2020, Greek and Turkish warships in the eastern Mediterranean collided. What was deemed a minor incident, prompted a virtual meeting of all 27 EU member states, and a statement was issued hinting at the possibility of sanctions in the future if Turkey failed to de-escalate. Turkey’s foreign minister responded by saying, "Instead of indulging Greece and giving unconditional support, the EU should invite Athens to act with reason." As Turkey announced maritime training exercises in the Mediterreanean, viewed in Europe as an aggressive move, France and Italy said they would also be heading into the waters for joint naval exercises with Greece and Cyprus. On the 2nd of September, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo called for all parties involved to reduce tensions in the easter mediterranean. In this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy, takes a look at the rising tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, we ask Athina Tzemprin from Moonshot CVE, an organisation that works to prevent radicalisation of people online, and Jesse Morton a former recruiter for Al Qaeda, who now works for Parallel Networks Inc, how people get radicalised on the internet. We also hear from Chelsea Daymon, a terrorism researcher and PhD candidate at the American University in Washington DC about her research which involved joining ISIS groups on social media platforms to learn more about them. Hosted by Taylor Heyman.

‘Long haulers’ or ‘Long-termers’ are people who have recovered from the coronavirus but weeks or even months later, are still experiencing symptoms. Diana Berrent, founder of Survivor Corps - a Facebook group with 90,000 members who discuss Covid-19 and its symptoms and seek each other's help, tells us about her experience with long-term symptoms from Covid-19. Dr. Natalie Lambert, associate research professor of medicine at Indiana University, partnered with Survivor Corps to research about these long-haul cases. She explains why we need to take cues from patient experiences and carefully understand what they need to recover. We also hear from Marcus Tomoff, a member of Survivor Corps, who contracted the virus and later on became a long-hauler. He describes how his life changed ever since he got a false negative. This podcast is hosted by Suhail Akram.

In this episode, we talk to Bassam ZaaZaa, a reporter with The National, and Zina Malas, a student at the American University of Beirut about their experience of the explosion. We also talk to Marianne Samaha, programme director for aid agency Plan International, who tells us who is most affected by the explosion. Hosted by James Haines Young SFX provided by: Ramston: https://freesound.org/people/Ramston/sounds/262254/ https://freesound.org/people/Ramston/sounds/262231/#

James Haines Young pieces together the explosion and the immediate aftermath. He talks to The National’s Sunniva Rose and Lina Mokadden, a resident in Lebanon, who explain what the explosion felt like and the aftermath. We also hear from Najat Aoun Saliba, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the American University of Beirut, and Professor Andrew Tyas, an academic at the University of Sheffield specialising in blast and impact engineering, about the effects of the explosion. Mona Harb, a Professor of Urban Studies, tells us why Beirut didn't just lose lives, but also it's heritage. To watch the explosion, click here.

In this episode, we talk to Mohammed Mushfiq Uddin, a lead guide and scholar for a UK Hajj and Umrah operator, and Balquees Basalom, a social media journalist at The National, who is in Makkah about Hajj and how it will be different this year. We also speak to Dr. Adnan Al-Shareef, Professor of History and Islamic civilization at Umm Al Qurua University in Makkah. Also, Faridah Bint Bakti Yahra, tells us about how she was granted permission to perform Hajj. Dr Yusra Abdullah who volunteers every year during the Hajj explains her pain in missing a special moment. This podcast is hosted by Suhail Akram.

This week, we talk to Vince Beiser, author of the book The World in a Grain of Sand and Arora Torres, fellow at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) & Michigan State University about the global sand trade and shortage. Hosted by James Haines Young.

In July 2020, UAE’s Hope Probe will blast off from Japan to study Mars. This week, Mohsen Al Alwahdi, the Mission Systems Engineer at Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre tells host Suhail Rather what it took to get to this point and explains the journey the probe will take to the Red Planet. Historian Simon Ings and Sarwat Nasir, a senior reporter at The National, explain the significance of such a mission.

The United States of America is setting grim records. The number of daily cases of the coronavirus in the US are ahead of every other country in the world. It took the US over 3 months to reach 1 million Covid-19 cases on April 28, another 44 days until June 11 to reach to 2 million. Just 26 days after that, to pass 3 million on July 8. We talk to Amish Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center, and Ethan Fosse, an assistant professor in Sociology at The University of Toronto about why the US became the world’s epicentre of the coronavirus. Hosted by James Haines Young

The Nile is Egypt and Egypt, for many, is the Nile. For over 8,000 years, this historic River has nurtured civilization. But now, Cairo says that’s under threat. Hundreds of kilometres upstream, Ethiopia has built a mega dam. It stands over 155 metres tall and nearly 1800 meters long. Host James Haines-Young talks to Hamza Hendawi, The National’s Cairo correspondent, and William Davison, a senior analyst based in Ethiopia for Crisis Group. We also speak to Hafsa Halawa, a non resident scholar at the Middle East Institute about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. SFX Provided by: MarcMatthewsMusic (https://freesound.org/people/MarcMatthewsMusic/sounds/420554/) ES335-001 (https://freesound.org/people/ES335-001/sounds/442725/) wjoojoo (https://freesound.org/people/wjoojoo/sounds/472818/) gerainsan (https://freesound.org/people/gerainsan/sounds/345926/)

On the 1st of October 2019 mass protests spread through Iraq. People demanded an end to widespread corruption and access to basic services, like water and electricity and access to jobs. Within days hundreds of protesters were injured and there were dozens of fatalities… Then the information halted - the Iraqi government had imposed a near blackout of the internet. Iraq is not alone. Some 33 countries have tried to shut down or throttle the internet in 2019 alone. India was a leader in the practice with 121 shutdowns that year. With a global pandemic raging, limiting access to the internet can have real health consequences. Should access to the internet be a human right? This week we speak to Berhan Taye, senior policy analyst at Access Now and Dr Merten Reglitz, lecturer in global ethics at Birmingham University. This podcast is hosted by Taylor Heyman.