Arabic news during the winter holidays

I've been watching the BBC Arabic on and off.

The biggest stories have been shelling in Syria, lots of killing in Daesh-stan, and other harsh happenings.

On Christmas Day, the celebrations in Bethlehem were the fourth or fifth headline, and they showed the Christian leaders looking very happy and kissing the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Today, they had a re-broadcast of a call-in show. It was Iraqis who had fled Mosul and surrounding areas because of Da-esh (ISIS). One man was explaining how he hadn't been able to back to his home in Mosul. The BBC Arabic moderator asked him: do you want to go abroad?

No, no, said the man. We want to go back to our homes.

The last caller was a man saying that: Da-esh killed all my sisters!

But the BBC Arabic moderator was not impressed. "Thank you, thank you," he said. "Program's over, we're going to have to leave it here."

After that program, for the first time I can remember, they had a hijabed woman giving the news. Usually, the BBC Arabic women given the news are not hijabed, and but I guess they are all on break this week.

I remember this lady because she was in charge of giving the Olympic updates during the 2012 London Olympics.

She's great, they should have her on even when the office is not empty.