In this special edition, The National's London correspondent Tim Marshall discusses The Year That Was.
US president Donald Trump of course dominated many 2017 headlines, from his failures and successes at home to his often-contentious relationships with North Korea and China. And from the rest of America there was the rippling effect of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement that sparked societal change that will continue into the next year. Hurricanes and mass shootings also dotted world news pages from America.
In the Middle East, ISIL lost significant ground and the region mostly rallied to oppose growing threats from Iran. Saudi Arabia promised huge changes ahead. And in Egypt religious terror struck both Muslims and Christians with scary frequency.
And in Europe, populism gained political ground, independence was on the ballot in Catalonia and Brexit still looms.
Watch the video for Marshall's commentary.
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Watch more:
Watch: The emergence and fall of leaders across the Arabian Peninsula
Watch: The Week That Was with Tim Marshall
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
The Written World: How Literature Shaped History
Martin Puchner
Granta
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)