Beyond the Headlines

Every year, for millions of parents, pupils and teachers around the world, September means the summer holidays are coming to an end and it is time to go back to school. 

But in Lebanon, the mix of fuel shortages, economic inflation, power cuts and the Covid-19 pandemic means the country's education system may not be able to handle the influx of pupils, potentially leaving thousands of children without proper schooling.

On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Finbar Anderson examines the effects of Lebanon’s crises on the country’s education system.

America’s longest war is over after the dramatic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan ordered by President Joe Biden. The Taliban have taken Kabul. Barely a shot was fired.

With the final evacuations planes now departed, many people vulnerable to Taliban revenge have been left behind, despite assurances from the US and other governments, and have been forced into hiding.

On this week's Beyond the Headlines, host Gareth Browne looks at the inadequate evacuation of Afghanistan and speaks to those who have been abandoned to the most uncertain of fates.

In April 2021, customs officers in the Saudi city of Jeddah searched a shipment of Lebanese pomegranates. Hidden inside the fruit were more than five million circular, beige Captagon pills – illegal amphetamines.

Hosted by James Haines-Young

Afghanistan has seen war for decades, but none of them has involved so decisive a military takeover of the country as the latest. The speed with which the Taliban swept the country has shocked the world.

Why did the Afghan army collapse? Did president Ashraf Ghani have to flee? Is this a betrayal by the US administration? And what about the safety of Afghans, particularly women, under Taliban rule? These are some of the many questions people in the country are asking, but there are no easy answers.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy examines what happened in the crucial hours before Kabul fell to the Taliban, and what’s next for the country.

On August 5th, Iran inaugurated a new president putting an end to the 8-year presidency of reformist  Hassan Rouhani and ushered in a new, hard-line government.

The new president, Ebrahim Raisi is said to be handpicked by the supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the man who controls Iran's religious ideology and political ideology. Mr Raisi is a hard-line cleric who won his election amid accusations of corruption and historically low voter turnout.

The new president had vowed in his campaign to continue the nuclear talks in Vienna, in an effort to get US sanctions removed and help relieve some of Iran’s economic pain. He also tempered his usually hard-line rhetoric around Iran’s domestic policy. But, now, a week since President Raisi was inaugurated, Iranians are already seeing a change.

This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Leila Gharagozlou talks to an expert on Iran’s political space and an Iranian reporter about the future of one of the world’s most closed off countries, Iran.

In the final episode, we follow the volunteers who took to the shattered streets of Beirut in the hours and days after the explosion of August 4, 2020. Host Finbar Anderson delves into the ongoing investigation into the blast and asks: will it ever bring justice to the city’s people?

In Episode 3 of The Blast, The National’s Finbar Anderson recounts the day of the explosion. As The fire in Warehouse 12 grows in intensity, a fire crew arrives to try to tackle the blaze, but it’s like nothing they’ve ever seen before. They call for backup.

Bystanders living in the neighbourhood around the port come to their windows and onto their balconies. They watch the blaze as it grows and grows. Others are completely unaware of what’s happening down at the port. Like Sarah Copland, an Australian UN employee who’s feeding her 2-year-old son Isaac his supper next to the big glass windows of the family’s dining room in a quiet Beirut neighbourhood less than a kilometre away from the fire.

This is Zero Hour. It’s the story of what happens when a city blows up, told by the people who were there. This episode includes accounts that some listeners may find upsetting.

In Episode 2 of The Blast, The National’s Finbar Anderson and Sunniva Rose head down to the docks of Beirut port. They try to piece together what was happening in the six years the ammonium nitrate sat in a warehouse and how it led to the huge explosion.

On August 4, 2020 the heart of Beirut was ripped apart by a huge explosion caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonating at the city’s port.