Al Jazeera World

This is a story of a financial scandal, of fortunes won and lost and political collusion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that goes right to the heart of Emirati business and politics.

At the centre of it is a self-made Indian billionaire - Dr BR Shetty.

As founder of New Medical Centre Health (NMC), Shetty built relationships with the UAE's all-powerful sheikhs that appeared to open doors. Business was booming and, in 2012, NMC was the first Abu Dhabi company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) raised $186m and raised NMC's market value to more than $8bn.

The first rumblings of financial trouble, however, came in December 2019 when an American investment firm published a damning report on NMC's finances. NMC's shares plummeted by 48 percent, wiping $1.5bn off the Shetty family fortune.

In April 2020, NMC Health went into administration in the United Kingdom for insolvency. Later that month, the UAE Central Bank ordered the seizure of all of Shetty and his family's assets and Shetty left the country. He now sees himself as the victim, claiming alleged fraud and misconduct within NMC - and has promised to clear his name and restore his business reputation.

Sweden's unorthodox approach to handling the health crisis has made headlines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unlike most European Union members, the Swedes did not impose any strict lockdown measures.

While the relaxed strategy is expected to ease the impact on the economy, Sweden has the worst death toll by far in Scandinavia.

So what went wrong? And what should have been done differently?

Sweden's minister for health and social affairs, Lena Hallengren, talks to Al Jazeera.

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From Cairo's narrow downtown streets and alleys to the affluent residential areas in the outer reaches of the city, nothing escapes the attention of the ever-vigilant doormen.

Sitting at the entrances of apartment blocks in Cairo and Alexandria - and often mindful of the chance to make a quick buck - the "bawabs" have been an integral part of the social fabric of Egypt's big cities for decades.

This Al Jazeera World documentary celebrates the men, their history, their job and their influence.

Of course, the bawabs are often much more than doormen. They are the all-seeing eyes and ears of the buildings they live and work in, observers of residents' "moral practices", as well as plumbers, electricians, security guards and keepers of personal secrets.

But today's doormen are disappearing. As a new wave of construction takes place in Cairo, Egyptian society is undergoing profound change. Many of today's doormen have become security guards, with smart blue uniforms replacing traditional galabeyas in what many see as the sad loss of a unique social group from Egypt's 20th century.

From Cairo's narrow downtown streets and alleys to the affluent residential areas in the outer reaches of the city, nothing escapes the attention of the ever-vigilant doormen.

Sitting at the entrances of apartment blocks in Cairo and Alexandria - and often mindful of the chance to make a quick buck - the "bawabs" have been an integral part of the social fabric of Egypt's big cities for decades.

This Al Jazeera World documentary celebrates the men, their history, their job and their influence.

Of course, the bawabs are often much more than doormen. They are the all-seeing eyes and ears of the buildings they live and work in, observers of residents' "moral practices", as well as plumbers, electricians, security guards and keepers of personal secrets.

But today's doormen are disappearing. As a new wave of construction takes place in Cairo, Egyptian society is undergoing profound change. Many of today's doormen have become security guards, with smart blue uniforms replacing traditional galabeyas in what many see as the sad loss of a unique social group from Egypt's 20th century.

Luiz Inacio da Silva, also known as Lula, was president of Brazil from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2010.

The former labour union leader lifted millions of people out of poverty in one of the world's most unequal countries.

Lula was jailed in 2018 after the "car wash" investigation saw dozens of politicians imprisoned and accused of corruption. He was released after 580 days on grounds that he had been denied a due process.

The 74-year-old former president talks to Al Jazeera about current President Jair Bolsonaro's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the United States's involvement in Latin American affairs.

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John Bolton is one of the most divisive figures in American politics today.

To some, he is Washington's most famous warmonger. To others, a fearless defender of US interests.

From Iraq to Iran, Syria to North Korea, his decades of conservative foreign policy have influenced the position and actions of the US in conflicts worldwide.

Since first serving under President Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s, Bolton built a career as a solid, conservative Republican politician.

He was assistant secretary of state for international organisation affairs when President George HW Bush was in the White House, and was under-secretary of state for arms control and international security as well as ambassador to the UN for President George W Bush.

Most recently, he was national security adviser to President Donald Trump. But their working relationship ended in acrimony and accusations after 17 months.

Trump tweeted that Bolton's services were no longer needed in the White House, while Bolton insisted he had quit. His recent book - The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir - caused controversy as Bolton portrays a president driven only by his desire for re-election.

On this interview, we go beyond this latest well-covered controversy to explore what was the truth of his policy advice and positions and whether he has any regrets.

Did he really encourage the Trump administration to "take on the whole world at the same time", as President Trump stated? Or was he just misunderstood?

We find out as John Bolton talks to Al Jazeera.

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In July 1995, an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys - sons, husbands and brothers - were dragged away never to be seen again.

The Srebrenica massacre marks a particularly inhumane and brutal act within the tragedy and bloodshed of the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian War.

This film follows four survivors of the massacre as they look to the future despite the pain of their loss and the angst of trying to make sense of the past.

*This film, first broadcast in 2012, was updated in July 2020, 25 years after the Srebrenica genocide.

Stretching from Mozambique in south-east Africa to Syria in the Middle East, the Great Rift Valley is home to the world's lowest city, Jericho, which was established over 10,000 years ago.

Farmers and shepherds have tended flocks and lived off the land in the Jordan Valley for thousands of years. But Israel's continued occupation of the region since 1967 is threatening people's traditional way of life, restricting Palestinian development on the land - and Bedouin homes in the area have repeatedly been razed.

Some 56,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank, many of who are Bedouin living in temporary communities, always moving with the herds.

Their determination to remain on the land is becoming ever more difficult in the face of constant attempts by the Israeli military and settlers to drive them off their land.

With water resources and agricultural potential, the valley would be the breadbasket and water source of any future Palestinian state.

The Jordan Valley has some of the most fertile land in all of the occupied territories. Arable farming is a lifeline for many rural Palestinian communities, yet Israel controls most water resources in the area.

While making life difficult for local communities, Israel has also encouraged the spread of settlements - regarded illegal under international law - across the occupied West Bank for over five decades. The number of Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley has nearly doubled from 2011 to 2018.

Israeli settlers already use the vast majority of the area's water resources and an increased influx would further threaten the living conditions of Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley, limiting their opportunities for economic growth and pushing the people living there into greater poverty.

"The Israeli policy is to drive us away, not to aid our survival here," says Abu Saqr, one of the Jordan Valley residents struggling to stay on in the face of Israeli policies of home demolitions and arrest. His home has been destroyed three times.

Between 2011 and 2018, 458 housing units were demolished by the Israeli Army in the Jordan Valley districts of Tubas and Jericho.

During that same period, three of Abu Saqr's eight sons and Abu Saqr himself spent time in Israeli prisons. Since then, Israel's policy on settlements has also hardened and in 2018, it announced plans to expand 14 of the 20 existing illegal settlements and build three new ones, effectively doubling the Israeli settler population.

Local campaigners like Sirene Khudairi, have consistently protested against Israel's human rights violations in the Jordan Valley; and her activities led to her detention for nine months. "I get so upset when I see this well nearly empty and the settlement draining our water to turn their areas into a Garden of Eden," says Sirene, during one of her visits to Abu Saqr. Since this film was originally made in 2011, Sirene has got married and moved to Bethlehem to start a family.

Those like Abu Saqr and Sirene are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There's Israel on one hand, and the Palestinian Authority - whom they constantly have to pressure to support their cause – on the other.

The PA does its best to protect Palestinian farming communities in the valley and considers itself the last line of defence for any future, self-sufficient Palestinian state. But unfortunately, the Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C (under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords), which falls under full Israeli military control.

This film documents the struggle of Palestinian shepherds and farmers in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley as they try to cling on to an age-old way of life.

Stretching from Mozambique in south-east Africa to Syria in the Middle East, the Great Rift Valley is home to the world's lowest city, Jericho, which was established over 10,000 years ago.

Farmers and shepherds have tended flocks and lived off the land in the Jordan Valley for thousands of years. But Israel's continued occupation of the region since 1967 is threatening people's traditional way of life, restricting Palestinian development on the land - and Bedouin homes in the area have repeatedly been razed.

Some 56,000 Palestinians live in the part of the valley that lies in the West Bank, many of who are Bedouin living in temporary communities, always moving with the herds.

Their determination to remain on the land is becoming ever more difficult in the face of constant attempts by the Israeli military and settlers to drive them off their land.

With water resources and agricultural potential, the valley would be the breadbasket and water source of any future Palestinian state.

The Jordan Valley has some of the most fertile land in all of the occupied territories. Arable farming is a lifeline for many rural Palestinian communities, yet Israel controls most water resources in the area.

While making life difficult for local communities, Israel has also encouraged the spread of settlements - regarded illegal under international law - across the occupied West Bank for over five decades. The number of Jewish settlers in the Jordan Valley has nearly doubled from 2011 to 2018.

Israeli settlers already use the vast majority of the area's water resources and an increased influx would further threaten the living conditions of Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley, limiting their opportunities for economic growth and pushing the people living there into greater poverty.

"The Israeli policy is to drive us away, not to aid our survival here," says Abu Saqr, one of the Jordan Valley residents struggling to stay on in the face of Israeli policies of home demolitions and arrest. His home has been destroyed three times.

Between 2011 and 2018, 458 housing units were demolished by the Israeli Army in the Jordan Valley districts of Tubas and Jericho.

During that same period, three of Abu Saqr's eight sons and Abu Saqr himself spent time in Israeli prisons. Since then, Israel's policy on settlements has also hardened and in 2018, it announced plans to expand 14 of the 20 existing illegal settlements and build three new ones, effectively doubling the Israeli settler population.

Local campaigners like Sirene Khudairi, have consistently protested against Israel's human rights violations in the Jordan Valley; and her activities led to her detention for nine months. "I get so upset when I see this well nearly empty and the settlement draining our water to turn their areas into a Garden of Eden," says Sirene, during one of her visits to Abu Saqr. Since this film was originally made in 2011, Sirene has got married and moved to Bethlehem to start a family.

Those like Abu Saqr and Sirene are stuck between a rock and a hard place. There's Israel on one hand, and the Palestinian Authority - whom they constantly have to pressure to support their cause – on the other.

The PA does its best to protect Palestinian farming communities in the valley and considers itself the last line of defence for any future, self-sufficient Palestinian state. But unfortunately, the Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C (under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords), which falls under full Israeli military control.

This film documents the struggle of Palestinian shepherds and farmers in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley as they try to cling on to an age-old way of life.

On December 24, 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan.

Leaders of the Soviet Union said they had been invited by Afghanistan's communist leader Babrak Karmal. But the invasion set Afghanistan on a path of decades of conflict - from the Soviet-Afghan War to Moscow's complete withdrawal in the late 1980s, and the eventual collapse of the communist government.

Civil war followed, eventually leading to the Taliban's rise to power.

Once backed by the United States's CIA, the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan until 2001, when the US-led coalition invaded after the 9/11 attacks, and the group's leadership fled Kabul.

After that, general elections were held in 2004, then 2005, 2009, then 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Afghan politicians squabbled for power and struggled to control large swathes of their own territory. But the Taliban did not recognise the authority of any of the elected governments.

Nearly 20 years later, US forces signed an agreement to withdraw from Afghanistan - on condition that the Taliban will not harbour hardline groups or attack the US and its allies.

The agreement came after nearly seven years of efforts to facilitate political reconciliation between the Taliban, the Afghan government, the US, and other countries after Qatar agreed to open an office for the Taliban where Afghan leaders and western governments could negotiate face-to-face.

But as attacks continue, efforts to arrange intra-Afghan talks have been delayed yet again.

So, what will it take to achieve lasting peace in Afghanistan?

We find out as Khairullah Khairkhwa, a member of the Taliban's political office in Qatar, talks to Al Jazeera.

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