Welcome to The National's weekly newsletter Beshara, where we share the most positive stories of the week.
Hello,
This newsletter is coming to you from a rather overcast Abu Dhabi today, following a weekend of almost non-stop rain. Having moved here from a city where it almost always rains, it is never lost on me how much I now love these rare days of downpour.
That sense of a shift in perspective is something of a mood here in the UAE, as we take stock of the past few weeks.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to have looked up to the cloudy sky, sighed deeply and enjoyed the relative quiet as the ceasefire continues to hold.
The pause has given us time to reflect, reconnect and make sense of how we are collectively feeling.
Below you’ll find stories of people taking stock - literally, mentally, and physically. And among them, such a powerful story of resilience that I now have another team to cheer on at the upcoming World Cup.
Best wishes always,
Nicola Leech
Head of Audience Development & Engagement
PS. That rainy former abode is Manchester, UK, of course, which has been in my mind thanks to Thomas Harding’s report, here.
Processing what we're going through together
“We're living in a historical moment. The world is changing as we're living in it right here.”
Shatha Almutawa, an Emirati-Kuwaiti historian and founder of Kutubna Cultural Centre in Dubai, is urging the UAE public to make their voices heard for a community project chronicling life during the Iran war for future generations. She says historians want to know how people are feeling and about their everyday lives during times of crisis.
“I think it's important for everybody to be able to share their stories, to process what we're going through together. And to keep what we believe is important – our values, our culture, what we cherish,” she says. Find out more here.
I have heard this same sentiment so often in recent weeks.
From parents and academics finding silver linings in homeschooling to community groups who have banded together to reduce doomscrolling.
I have been speaking to several families and clinicians about how people with disability or neurodivergence are coping with the impact of the war in the UAE - from school closures to dealing with sudden sounds. What I learned from them is that the strength of human resilience and the capacity to care for others, no matter what, is what pulls us through.
Quoted
'We can’t go out much because of the bombings, even if that has stopped for now. But when I play this, all those feelings just slide away and I feel free'
- Nine-year-old Siyona Sengupta features in a video of young musicians playing the UAE national anthem on classical Indian instruments that has been widely shared across the country
The goal that healed a nation
The final goal of the entire global qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup was scored by a man who grew up in a world torn apart by terror and war. His father was murdered, his brother abducted and missing, his home bombed and destroyed. For him “football was not merely a career but a cathartic release from it all,” writes Mina Rzouki in her moving report on Aymen Hussein.
The Iraqi striker scored the goal that ended his nation’s 40-year wait for a spot in the tournament. It unleashed celebrations across a country that has spent much of the past two decades navigating war, displacement and political rupture.
As the countdown to football’s biggest event begins, read his story and you’ll no doubt be rooting for him too.
Snapshot
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Highlights
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