The Rival Princes of the Gulf

Weekly current affairs show

For three decades now, Qatar, this small desert kingdom, has not stopped being talked about; because of its financial power and the secrecy that surrounds it, the royal family that runs it fascinates as much as it frightens.

Since the 1990s, total insect biomass has declined by 75 percent. The rapid decline affects all food chains: fish and birds can no longer find enough to eat and are becoming fewer and fewer. Studies show that neonicotinoids used in pesticides aren't just destroying the insect popualtion, but also affect human health.

In 2019, Lebanon suffered an unprecedented economic crisis which pushed most of the population into poverty. How could a small ruling elite become so rich and powerful while everyone else loses their life savings? This is the story of Lebanon’s slide into a kleptocracy.

As discreet as he is ambitious, Mohammed Ben Zayed - known as MBZ - is the new strongman of the Persian Gulf. As head of the United Arab Emirates, he is at the heart of every conflict in the region: coup d'état in Egypt, war in Yemen, counter-revolution in Sudan. Thanks to the unlimited financial power of its hydrocarbon resources, the palace of MBZ is the new center of gravity in the Middle East. Its latest geopolitical coup has been the recognition of Israel, which gives it access to cutting-edge military technologies to better combat Iranian influence in the region and monitor its opponents.

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched massive strikes on Iran, claiming an imminent nuclear threat. This film traces how the world reached this point after more than three decades of shadow war over “the bomb”. Israel has tried to block Tehran’s nuclear drive with sabotage, assassinations and cyberwar – from the Stuxnet virus wrecking Natanz centrifuges to the AI-assisted killing of nuclear programme “father” Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, and a commando raid stealing 1.5 tonnes of secret nuclear archive files. Iran insists uranium enrichment is its sovereign right and key to national identity and regional power. As Israel pounded Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 and systematically weakened its allies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, nuclear talks continued in Geneva. Iran was edging towards diluting weapons-grade uranium – but Israel wasn’t prepared to wait, and pulled Washington into open war whose global consequences are only now beginning to unfold.