Beyond the Headlines

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.