Beyond the Headlines

Coronavirus: The race for a vaccine

The new coronavirus has spread far and wide - shutting schools, businesses and impacting international travel. The new coronavirus, COVID-19, has already spread to nearly 40 countries after it was first reported in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. Experts say the disease could be a potential pandemic if it’s not stopped. But there are many crucial pieces to this puzzle that need to be solved.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Suhail Akram, video journalist at The National talks to Dr Angela Rasmussen, virologist at Columbia University and Dr Kamran Khan, founder of Bluedot, about how close we are to a vaccine for the new coronavirus.

A year of protests in Algeria

Every Friday, tens of thousands of Algerians pour on to the streets of their hometowns to protest. They protest against the government, which they see as corrupt. They protest for their future, which they see as in peril. They protest a political system they say doesn’t represent them.

The scale and size of the protests vary from week to week, but without fail, they happen and they’ve been happening for exactly one year.

On this edition of Beyond the Headlines, host Willy Lowry delves into Algeria’s year of change. One in which the country’s longtime president, Abdulaziz Bouteflika was forced to resign and a leaderless protest movement morphed into a serious player in Algeria’s politics.

Beyond the Headlines Trailer

Will Hassan Diab fix Lebanon?

Black range rovers and luxury vehicles slowly navigated through Beirut’s protest filled streets. Angry mobs hurled rocks and other debris at the occupants and Lebanon’s political leaders trying to block them from entering the now heavily fortified parliament. On February 11, twelve weeks after Hassan Diab was tasked with forming a new government, MPs gave his administration the vote of confidence. For nearly five months, mass protests have paralysed the country as people demand a new type of government that can work to fix the worst economic crisis in Lebanon’s history.

Host Willy Lowry talks to The National’s Beirut correspondent Sunniva Rose and Ghassan Moukhaiber, a lawyer and former Member of Parliament about the protests and how the newly formed government can move forward. We also hear from Imad Salamey, a professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Lebanese American University and Sami Nadr, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs.

The coronavirus: Unnecessary panic or grave concern?

On December 31st, 2019 China reported 27 cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause in the city of Wuhan, in central China. The majority of people affected were workers from a local seafood and live animal market. As the virus spread and more cases were announced, talk of a deadly pandemic began circulating. 

This week's host Juman Jarallah, deputy national editor, talks to Dr. Amr Mahmoud El Naggar, Head of ER at Medcare Hospital Dubai and Tarik Jasarevic, spokesperson for the World Health Organisation about the Coronavirus and why we should we worried.

The Middle East peace plan. Explained

Two and a half years after US administration began drafting a plan for a lasting peace between Israel and Palestinians, it is finally here.

Long delayed and often described as dead on arrival, the proposal was roundly rejected by Palestinian officials even before it was released.

The announcement on January 28 was met with anger on the streets of the West Bank.

Countries around the world have reacted. While many have welcomed the effort to restart long dead talks the praise isn’t effusive. But what has Trump proposed, why has it been rejected and what happens now?

On this week's Beyond the Headlines host James Haines Young, The National’s foreign editor, is taking a loo at what does the Trump plan mean for the Palestine and Israel?

Tear gas, fireworks and a new government in Lebanon

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 

Sultan Qaboos: what comes next for Oman?

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.

Will Iran and America go to war?

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.

A decade in the Middle East, stories that changed the region

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.