Welcome to The National's weekly newsletter Beshara, where we share the most positive stories of the week
Happy Friday! The reason I like sending Beshara at the end of the week is I hope it catches you when you're looking forward to the weekend ahead.
But that's not to say I don't look forward to the working week on a Monday morning, because when you are building something you love, it doesn't feel all that much like labour. This week I was inspired by scientists at Northwestern University in the US, who are quite literally building our future with a "carbon-negative" alternative to sand. The idea is to "grow" sand-like material in seawater, which can hold more than half its weight in carbon dioxide and then be used in concrete and paint.
Whatever you were growing this week, well done. Reward yourself by reading on to discover the Sudanese football team providing hope in war, a teen's tech invention for cardiac patients and astronauts returning to Earth.
Have a fantastic weekend,
Taylor
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Splashdown from space
Regular readers of this newsletter will be familiar with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the astronauts who took what they thought would be an eight-day trip to the International Space Station and ended up staying for nine months. They made themselves useful after technical faults with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft lengthened their stay, conducting more than 900 hours of research.
On Tuesday the pair, accompanied by two other astronauts, returned to Earth after a SpaceX craft was sent to pick them up. They will spend time on a recovery ship after splashing down off the coast of Florida, then make their way to Houston, Texas, after which they will be reunited with their families.
QUOTED
“We do know that when we are playing, guns get put down, maybe even for a week or two”
– Sudan's football manager James Kwesi Appiah on the team's effect on the nation mired in war
A lot of heart
A teen inventor has brought home awards for his heart-monitoring tool that can deliver medication directly into cardiac muscle, monitor for irregularities and even act as a defibrillator.
Abderrahman Yalouh, 14, is an aspiring medical student, but he didn't want to wait until university to start work on his ideas. The Brighton College Abu Dhabi pupil was honoured with a gold award for innovation in health care and biotechnology at the Asian Youth International Awards at the Malaysia Technology Expo 2025 and is being backed by the University of Birmingham and the University of California to take his idea into the mainstream.
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SNAPSHOT
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