From Our Own Correspondent

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The beginning of a new era in Japan May 04, 2019

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As Emperor Naruhito takes the throne in Japan, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes watches the crowds waving flags and wiping away tears. What will this new era hold for the country and its imperial family?

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories:

Katy Watson has the latest instalment in the drama that is gripping Brazil as rival factions vie for control under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.

Neil Kisserli reveals why protesters in Algeria are picking up the litter and taking pot plants with them as they demand change.

Zeinab Badawi returns to Sudan to meet the young architecture student leading the revolution.

And Dave Lee hears from tech workers in Silicon Valley who fear they’ve become the new bankers – seen as public figures to be reviled and blamed for the ills they have brought into society.

Sudanese street protests Apr 27, 2019

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: As street protests gain momentum in Sudan, Alastair Leithead asks if revolutionary change will be sustainable. Vicky Spratt visits a safe house in Nepal to find out how people traffickers are exploiting women online. In the Philippines, Howard Johnson discovers how some of the country's Christian faithful prove their devotion at Easter by nailing themselves to wooden crosses. Rahul Tandon finds out how Brexit's twists and turns are interpreted in India. And Lizzie Porter tours Saddam Hussein's once extravagant, now abandoned, palace in Iraq.

From Our Home Correspondent 21/04/2019 Apr 21, 2019

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In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers reflecting the range of contemporary life across the United Kingdom.

Shabnam Grewal grew up near Southall where, forty years ago, the New Zealand-born teacher, Blair Peach, was hit on the head by a police officer and later died. He was taking part in a protest against racism. The west London suburb had already witnessed the racially motivated murder of an Asian teenager. She remembers the tension and fears of the time and reflects on them in the company of her young son.

BBC News presenter, Tanya Beckett, has found herself part of a "Lady in the Van"-style drama - only in her case it's been a man in his fifties and a caravan. She muses on the unexpected connections she's forged with her unconventional neighbour amid the demands of contemporary living for them both.

Martin Bashir, the BBC's Religion Editor, asked about the meaning of Easter, has discovered that pondering a long-held guilty secret has helped him explain the most important festival in the Christian calendar.

Jane Labous in Dorset takes the plunge and goes mermaiding in Blandford Forum and finds out how the swimming craze that involves donning a fin and a tail is found empowering by women swimmers of different ages.

And Dan Whitworth, reporter for Radio 4's Money Box programme, prepares to return home to Sheriff Hutton in North Yorkshire and enjoy the spectacle of the flowers which are synonymous with spring and indicate the thriving nature of the village.

Producer: Simon Coates

Fictions and Factions Apr 20, 2019

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Volodymyr Zelensky played a President in more than 50 episodes of TV comedy - but does that mean he can do the job in real life? Jonah Fisher reflects from Kiev on a surreal election campaign - and catches up with a box set.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from correspondents and reporters around the world.

India's election, the largest in the world - and thus the largest ever held - is also under way. While covering this extraordinary exercise of democracy, Rajini Vaidyanathan met one man in the Himalayas who has an enduring faith in the electoral process. He's 102 years old and has voted in every Indian election since independence.

Jonathan Griffin loves the soul-shaking sound of South African choral music - and recently heard songs of freedom, defiance and rivalry during a political debate near Johannesburg, where the contingents competed with vocals as well as rhetoric.

There's not much arable soil in the United Arab Emirates - but plenty of sand and sunshine - so the government's keen to bolster food security by growing more and importing less. Georgia Tolley tastes the fruits of high-tech agriculture, coaxed from a desert greenhouse.

And Stephen McDonell reveals an unsuspected side of Beijing - beyond its vast official spaces and political power plays. The city is also home to a raucous, ramshackle, rebellious underground music scene. But in the face of rising rents and increasing red tape, how long can its live bands play on?

Netanyahu's Likely Victory Apr 13, 2019

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An election campaign in Israel but little mention of the peace process. Yolande Knell says voters there just want to live normal lives. They're picking up the pieces in Rio de Janeiro after the fire which destroyed the 200-year-old National Museum. Tim Whewell says they've lost artefacts that simply cannot be replaced. The Romanian government is not happy that the former head of its anti-corruption directorate is now in the running for the new post of Chief Prosecutor for the European Union. Tessa Dunlop says it's worried the former basketball player knows all their dirty secrets. Sarah Sands takes a trip up the Suez Canal, scene of Britain's humiliation in 1956, in a British destroyer. She ponders the importance of trade then and now. And in India law students are being taught Harry Potter. Rahul Tandon has taken a class.

Mosul in colour Apr 06, 2019

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What life after IS looks like for the residents of Iraq's second city - bright hijabs, bold makeup and striking works of art. "Colour has become their way of saying ‘we’ve taken our lives and our city back’" says Shaimaa Khalil.

Kate Adie introduces this and other stories from correspondents around the world:

Orla Guerin finds out what happened to the two sick children she met in Yemen last year. Six months on, were they able to leave the war-torn country to get the medical care they so desperately needed?

Amelia Martyn-Hemphill meets the mums in Madagascar trying to save others from a taboo condition and encourage them to seek treatment for obstetric fistula rather than suffer in silence.

John Murphy is in Germany where he meets a woman with clawed feet, horns and yellow eyes - he's at computer gaming exhibition in Leipzig.

And Stephanie Hegarty hears how the harsh climate of the Mongolian steppe is forcing more and more people to move to the overcrowded capital Ulaanbaatar – already one of the world’s most populated cities.

Marching bands in Myanmar Mar 30, 2019

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Marching bands in Myanmar as the army celebrates, but it's an army accused of genocide. Nick Beake arrives at the dead of night to witness the festivities. Jill McGivering reports from Kathmandu on a dark and disturbing side to western tourism in Nepal. In Kazakhstan the country's founding president has just stepped down. They've renamed the capital in his honour, but Rayhan Demytrie asks what his real legacy is. Rebecca Henschke has just left Jakarta after years as a correspondent there. She pays tribute to the women who enable her to juggle her dual roles of journalist and mother. And in Los Angeles, it doesn't rain but it pours. Dan Johnson reports from LA Torrential

From Our Home Correspondent 24/03/2019 Mar 24, 2019

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Mishal Husain presents the monthly collection of journalistic pieces reflecting life across the UK today. John Forsyth in Glasgow learns about the realities of rehabilitating convicted knife criminals on a visit to the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit which many experts regard as a model for other UK cities - notably London - to emulate in the fight against the explosion in incidents of violent street crime. Gabriel Gatehouse, recently on shared parental leave, attempts to understand the world through the eyes of his seven month-old daughter and ponders how this may affect his daily work as a correspondent. The BBC's Ireland Correspondent, Chris Page, considers Irish unity on the sporting field plus the contests with Britain - and especially England - and their likely implications politically and culturally on both sides of the border. Jordan Dunbar takes us to Co. Antrim's dark hedges as the final season of "Game of Thrones" is set to hit television screens worldwide and he reflects on the impact of the HBO series, many scenes of which have been shot in Northern Ireland, economically and socially. And Stephanie Power on Merseyside, a self-described "Catholic atheist", confronts her preconceptions and prejudices about evangelical builders as the major refurbishment of her south Liverpool home proceeds - and has a moment of revelation as she wonders why the firm doing the work is called JCIL.

Producer: Simon Coates

Hospitality in the Caucasus Mar 23, 2019

Show notes

Hospitality in the Caucasus with the families of Russians returning from IS duty in Syria. But do they regret joining up in the first place? Baalbek in Lebanon, the next best thing for those who miss travelling in Syria, and the hotel that's trying to recreate past glories; threshing hemp in Hungary for less than half the minimum wage to make socks for the Swiss; living with leprosy in a quiet corner of Romania; and the vicious flora of a former French penal colony in the South Pacific.

No Longer A Place Apart Mar 21, 2019

Show notes

The bullets that shattered the image that New Zealand is a place apart. Our correspondent returns to his childhood home in Christchurch to find a city bewildered and in mourning. We hear also from Tanzania, where the imminent construction of a hydroelectric dam is threatening one of Africa's largest game reserves, but almost no-one dares to speak out; from Bosnia, where a number of young men have died in mysterious circumstances and the authorities stand accused of sweeping the problem under the carpet; from Dieppe, just across the English Channel, where, as March the 29th creeps ever closer, they're preparing for the possibility of a No Deal Brexit; and from the far west of Canada, where carving totem poles is one way of marking the historic suffering of the indigenous population at the hands of white settlers.

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