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Nato, Sweden, F16s, inflation and refugees. What do they all have in common? Erdogan and Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the run-off election on May 28, defeating Kemal Kilicdaroglu. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher unpacks everything that happened over the past few weeks and asks: what comes next?

On May 14, Cyclone Mocha unleashed its fury upon the port town of Sittwe in the Rakhine state. The devastation was catastrophic, particularly for the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority. Even a week after the disaster, the survivors are left with no shelter, food or clean water to drink. Human rights activists describe their suffering as an ongoing silent genocide by Myanmar’s military junta. This week on Beyond The Headlines, host Anjana Sankar looks at one of the most distressing stories of despair and survival coming out of Myanmar in the aftermath of the cyclone.

Hope, disappointment, joy and confusion are some of the emotions Turks felt after a rollercoaster election day.   In the vote on May 14, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan scored 49.51 per cent, just shy of the 50 per cent need for an outright victory, but 4.63 per cent ahead of his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.   Now they’re heading for a decisive run-off vote on May 28. This week on Beyond the Headlines, Nada AlTaher talks about what’s at stake.

Syria’s devastating civil war has raged for more than 12 years. In that time, Half a million people have been killed, by some estimates. Three million have been left with a disability. And half of the country have been forced from their homes, including many now living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries. The economy has collapsed and the infrastructure has been shattered - 70 per cent of the electricity system is damaged, one in three schools is in ruins and only half of hospitals are working fully. A decade of war has cost the country over a trillion dollars. Twelve years ago, the Arab League expelled Syria. President Bashar Al Assad was accused of starting the war with a bloody crackdown on opponents of his dynastic family rule. But now, the regional body has voted to allow Syria to return. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young hears from the head of the Arab League about the decision to allow Assad to return – and looks at what this means for the region and the conflict itself.

Millions of people in the UK and around the whole world are preparing for a rare weekend indeed, with a new king to be crowned. On May 6, the coronation of King Charles III will be held at Westminster Abbey, marking the high point of his accession to the throne. Huge crowds, parades and shows in the street are planned. From around the world, people are heading to London to get a live view of this historic moment.   The new King served the longest apprenticeship of anyone waiting in the wings to become British ruler.  At 74, King Charles III will embark on the new reign hoping to connect with people and provide a unifying force for the public after some bitter divisions that have rocked British politics.   In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Damien McElroy looks at the coronation of King Charles and what we should we expect from the event - and the king himself.

Life for many in Sudan has become intolerable. People have been trapped in their own homes by two weeks of fighting and failed ceasefires. Disruptions to power, the internet, water supplies and food have been widely reported.   Little wonder then that, since the violence broke out on April 15 between the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group and the army, many have chosen to flee. Some have been part of the mass evacuations of diplomats and foreigners. But many Sudanese have also fled their homes and escaped to neighbouring Chad and Egypt. The UN Refugee Agency expects the outflow to continue.   On this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher explores the refugee crisis created by the violence that has erupted in Sudan.

Khartoum has been hit by days of fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and a rival paramilitary force. As the death toll rises, people have been forced to shelter from the violence, and food, water and medicine supplies are running short. The US UK, EU, UAE and Saudi Arabia are among those who have called for calm.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher is joined by correspondent Hamza Hendawi to discuss what is happening in Sudan - and how the dire situation could resolve itself.

Can a handshake transform a region?   After long years of tension, Saudi Arabia and Iran decided in March to normalise diplomatic relations. Weeks later, the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers met face-to-face - and the handshake took place.   The landmark agreement entails patching up the rift by reviving a security cooperation pact, reopening embassies within two months and resuming trade, investment and cultural accords. The China-brokered deal could lead to a major realignment in the Middle East. And, while it is a coup for Beijing, it represents a geopolitical challenge for the United States.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Ismaeel Naar looks at how Saudi Arabia and Iran were able to finally reach the negotiating table - and asks what the thawing of ties means for the wider region.

Nothing says Ramadan more than joyous gatherings of family and friends, dining tables heaving with delicacies as the sun sets.   But this Ramadan, many people are struggling to make ends meet, with the cost of living having soared globally.   For months, The National has been tracking the prices of food staples in supermarkets across the Middle East and North Africa – and seen how shoppers have adopted new strategies, routinely searching for discounts and reining in other spending, as higher prices influence their purchasing patterns.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Enas Refaei takes us to Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt and Jordan - where our correspondents explore the new strategies of shopping.

On March 27, Israel ground to a halt in protest at a set of judicial reforms put forward by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right wing coalition.   Demonstrations had been rumbling for weeks against the proposals, but then on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu fired defense minister Yoav Gallant for speaking out against the bill. It was like he had lit a match. Within hours, one of the largest demonstrations in Israel’s history took place.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines Young looks at Mr Netanyahu’s controversial reforms and asks why they have provoked such anger.

On February 21 Tunisia’s president Kais Saied declared that “a criminal plan has been set up since the beginning of this century to alter the demographic structure of Tunisia”.   Civil rights groups and activists considered the statement dangerous and warned that it could encourage hate crimes against the sub-Saharan minority, who already face tough conditions.    The Tunisian president's comments coincided with an unprecedented crackdown targeting hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans. Lawyers Without Borders said they estimate around 300 people have been detained and placed in an irregular migrant detention facility in just one wave of arrests. Tunisia's ministry of interior said they were only applying the law and the migrants being detained were in the country illegally.   In this week’s Beyond the Headlines, host Ghaya Ben Mbarek looks at the plight of migrants and black people in an increasingly unwelcoming Tunisia.

Thousands died and millions were displaced in a matter of moments following the violent earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey. While survivors are now trying to rebuild their lives, there is one group for whom recovering from the earthquake is an even harder challenge: the children who lost their parents.   Some have lost their parents and even a month on at least 160 infants and children remain unidentified. Horror, devastation and heartbreak is what the majority of children in Syria and Turkey have endured as a result of the disaster that violently shook the region in the early hours of February 6.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Mina Aldroubi looks at the child survivors of the February 6 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, what happened to them after they were found under the rubble and how humanitarian agencies have protected them.

First they were forced to flee their homes in Myanmar after the military regime launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against them. Then they faced more horrors in the Bangladeshi refugee camps where they had sought sanctuary. Now, Anjana Sankar reports on the perilous sea crossings many Rohingya are embarking on – in another desperate attempt finally to find a safe home.

Since the start of the Russia- Ukraine war, more than 12 million people have fled their homes. Military casualties on both sides are believed to have topped 200,000 while civilian casualties in Ukraine are at nearly 7000, according to the latest UN figures.   A year on, and there are still no signs of returning to a normal way of life.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Enas Refaei looks at the human toll of the war and the lives that were changed in the blink of an eye. She also talks to people caught in the crossfire who tell us how they find small ways to cope with the suffering.

The UN says that 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since systematic records began in 2005. Israeli security forces killed 151 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank territories and east Jerusalem last year, while 24 Israelis were killed by Palestinians.   This year there is no sign of a decline in the volume of violence. Tensions are high in Israel and the occupied territories after a spate of attacks against Israeli citizens, raids on Palestinian communities by the Israeli military and a return to power of longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this time leading the most right-wing government in the country’s history. The situation looks dire, UN and international officials are calling for urgent action to ease anger, calm tensions and stop the rumbling violence.   This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young focuses on Israel and Palestine to understand what’s driving the latest rounds of violence and ask if we’re heading towards a new intifada.

Most people were tucked up in bed when the first quake hit. The ground shook violently as a fault roughly 200 km long and 25km wide slipped, causing a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The force of the quake in the early hours of February 6 caused death and destruction across hundreds of kilometres of eastern Turkey and northern Syria. The UN estimated that 23 million people were affected; the death toll jumped by hundreds, hour after hour.   But as a number of experts told us in the wake of the tragedy, it’s not earthquakes that kill – it’s collapsing buildings. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young takes a closer look at the catastrophe and asks: could more have been done to make the buildings quake-proof?

We all know exactly what happened three years ago. The winter we didn’t expect was coming, and it stayed with us for years. This time of the year now comes with memories of the world’s first Covid lockdown in China, and later when almost 3.9 billion people around the world followed suit. But still, more than 6 million people lost their lives due to coronavirus. So what have we learnt from the pandemic? On this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Enas Refaei takes a look at the legacy of Covid-19 and our preparedness for another pandemic.

It took months of wrangling and it nearly didn’t happen - but Ukraine will soon get some of the most formidable tanks ever built. At the start of the war in February 2022, Western aid focused on sending either equipment the Ukrainian military already used, or items like night-vision and body-armour that could quickly be assimilated. And for a long time there were still no tanks. But then that changed. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young takes a closer look at how and why the West suddenly agreed to send its best battle tanks to Ukraine and what this means for the war as it approaches its one year anniversary.

Thousands of business leaders, policy makers, experts, heads of government and state have gathered once again in a snowy Swiss mountain resort in January. There are crises affecting different parts of the world; the war in Ukraine, mitigating the impact of climate change and weakening global economic outlook. But other regions, like the Middle East, are looking at the opportunities from a world in transition. In this special episode of Beyond the Headlines at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, host Mustafa Alrawi is highlighting the main discussions of the forum with The National’s editor in chief Mina Al-Oraibi and CNN’s international correspondent and anchor Richard Quest.

Since Covid-19 first emerged in Wuhan province in late 2019, China has pursued an aggressive containment policy. In October, 28 cities across China were in some form of lockdown impacting 207 million people. By comparison, much of the world had got rid of lockdowns, international travel had resumed, and life was returning to normal. But the government still maintained that Zero Covid was the most cost effective policy. People across China started to protest – lift the restrictions. Then the infections spread. In the first 20 days of December 2022, China may have had 250 million Covid infections alone – that’s according to a leaked memo from top health officials. Reports from hospitals show overwhelmed wards, but officials in Beijing insist that everything is under control This is Beyond the Headlines, host James Haines-Young looks at how many cases there are in China, how the numbers exploded so fast and what this means for the rest of the world.