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.

 

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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.