In late 2020, The National continued its ambitious global expansion by establishing a full news bureau in Washington, DC.
The newspaper already had two US correspondents but it was clear that building a physical presence in the US capital was vital.
Today, a fully fledged multimedia team comprising 12 journalists and many freelancers covers the Americas in detail, with a focus on US foreign policy, the top stories from across the hemisphere and showcasing Arab American voices.
Building a bureau from the ground up was no simple proposition during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Initial candidate interviews were done remotely from Abu Dhabi. Searching for a physical office space was complicated. And Covid restrictions meant several new colleagues were unable to meet in person until months after they joined.
Still, the team was up and running in time for the 2020 presidential election pitting then-president Donald Trump against Democrat Joe Biden.
In the weeks ahead of the crucial poll the US bureau’s senior correspondent, Willy Lowry, criss-crossed America and filed a six-part multimedia series focusing on the Arab American community, their views and hopes for the election.
His work is one example of the US bureau’s abiding commitment to giving a platform to Arab American and Muslim voices.
This focus helps The National set itself apart from other publications in America’s saturated media landscape.
The bureau has also sought to showcase its Middle East ties by interviewing high-profile diplomats and US officials with regional expertise.
What happened after the 2020 election took the world by surprise.
Trump, who had lost by some seven million votes to Biden, refused to concede. Not only that, he whipped up populist outrage by insisting, with no genuine evidence, that the election had been “stolen” through a shadowy Democrat conspiracy.
That anger erupted on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in a deadly attempt to upend American democracy and stop Mr Biden from becoming president.
Today, the US bureau overlooks the Capitol building, a Washington landmark that now serves as a permanent reminder of the precariousness of American democracy in the 21st century.
The team moved into its new office space in the middle of last year, sharing a fully refurbished suite with Sky News Arabia.
The US bureau now has three correspondents based in Washington: Lowry, Ellie Sennett and Jihan Abdalla. Lowry spends much of his time on the road, bringing The National’s readers exclusive insights from communities across the US, Mexico and Canada. Our UN correspondent, Adla Massoud, is based in New York.
Sennett and Abdalla focus on the White House, the Pentagon, the US Congress and the State Department. They chase stories that are directly relevant to the Middle East. For instance, Sennett has followed the Captagon drug crisis that is gripping the region and Congressional efforts to address the issue.
The team has two video journalists who produce short news pieces and longer-form films. Joshua Longmore, the senior video journalist, has travelled extensively and shot mini documentaries including from Elon Musk’s adopted hometown in Texas, a sinking island in the Chesapeake Bay and a hurricane in South Carolina.
Aside from the bureau chief, the US team also includes a deputy, two homepage editors, a sub-editor and a social media journalist. All do much more than their job titles suggest.
As the newspaper celebrates its 15th anniversary and the US bureau enters its third year, it is a good time to reflect not just on what was accomplished, but where the coming years will take us.
In Washington, the Biden administration ushered in a brief period of calm compared to the previous four years under Mr Trump, whose iconoclastic and bombastic leadership style ensured an unpredictable and tumultuous news cycle.
Two years on, he is resurgent, buoyed by the criminal charges he faces that supporters have written off as a partisan witch hunt.
America’s culture war expands to new fronts daily, with fresh battles emerging over any number of topics including whether books that teach America’s racist past should be banned and whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete.
The backdrop to it all is the routine carnage that now defines America. Daily mass shootings claim the lives of innocent children and grown-ups, yet any talk of firearms control is met with outrage from many quarters.
On the world stage, America’s role as global superpower is being challenged like never before by China and, to a lesser extent, Russia.
The 2024 presidential elections, combined with these other issues, mean the US will remain at the centre of the global news cycle for years to come.
The National’s US bureau looks forward to bringing you this information accurately, quickly and reliably.
