From Our Own Correspondent

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Strike! Strike! Strike! Jun 02, 2016

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Correspondents look at some of the week's developments. In this edition, how the mounting industrial strife in France presents an increasingly serious challenge to President Hollande and his unpopular government. Illegal gold mining in Ghana - the authorities are worried about the amount of gold being smuggled out of the country and its effect on the nation's economy. Nature's taking over some of the Jewish cemeteries in Warsaw - we meet a group of volunteers trying to make some amends for the amnesia and oblivion about Jewish life in Poland before the war. The Swiss weren't just opening the world's longest rail tunnel this week, they were also using the occasion to try to re-negotiate their relations with the European Union. And we sail the south Atlantic on the Royal Mail ship St Helena - the scrapyard's beckoning and this is one of her final voyages

The Opium Field May 28, 2016

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People in the news. Today, how the policeman's helping the opium farmer in Afghanistan. The president’s critics say democracy's under assault, freedom of speech is being stifled - but amongst some in Turkey, President Erdogan is more popular than ever. Young women in Malawi explain how sanitary protection is not affordable -- and that means they miss school for several days every month. The corner of Venice where one of the world's most hateful words was coined -- today the place is among the city's more fashionable neighbourhoods. And the news media may love an anniversary, but some of its senior correspondents have dates they'd sooner forget ...

Death from Above May 26, 2016

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Insight, analysis, description and colour. Today, death on a dusty highway in Baluchistan and what that might mean for neighbouring Afghanistan; how the people of Hiroshima, where America set off an atomic bomb in 1945, feel about the imminent visit by President Obama; the Swiss have never joined the European Union so why are they so interested in the result of the in/out referendum in Britain next month? We hear how Turkey's Kurdish population fits into the President Erdogan's plan to continue being the dominant force in the country's politics and finally there's an account of a day delightfully wasted on a slow train journey across the south-eastern tip of Australia

The Kurdistan Tapes May 21, 2016

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People in the news: it's a hundred years since the signing of the secret Sykes-Picot agreement under which the British and French agreed to divide up the Middle East, and now the President of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, says it's time for outright independence for the Iraqi Kurds. Jim Muir considers the Kurds' flight from Saddam Hussein 25-years ago and what has happened to some of the people he encountered back then. Bethany Bell is in Austria where voting could result in the country getting Europe's first far right president. The French leader Francois Hollande's again said he wants the new nuclear plant in the English county of Somerset to go ahead. It's to be built by the French. David Shukman's been to a construction site in Finland where the French are building a similar reactor - amid some controversy. Have you had a 'camelccino' yet? Hannah McNeish in Kenya tells us camel milk could be the next big thing and that could mean huge benefits for the country's economy, and its camel herders. And vitriol from the presidential campaign might have given people reasons to be discouraged about America, but Robert Hodierne tells a story which he says illustrates the basic goodness of folks in that country

Murder in Bangladesh May 19, 2016

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Insight, colour and analysis. In this edition: the authorities deny IS or al-Qaeda is active in Bangladesh but others believe a spate of vicious killings there is the work of Islamist extremists; after Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook, American schools are now having to rehearse what they'll do if their place of learning comes under gun attack -- but the precautions aren't always a comfort to parents; there are now hundreds of thousands of Syrians taking shelter from the war in neighbouring Jordan - their presence is having a marked effect on the Jordanian economy and on its peoples' eating habits; we meet a man in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania who tells us how the country's new president is providing his country with inspirational leadership at last. And surely covering the Cannes Film Festival is a thoroughly pleasant experience? Only up to a point, apparently. We hear a story of status anxiety and snobbery, indignity and humiliation

A Complex Man May 14, 2016

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The newsmakers. In this edition: a foul-mouthed despot or a man to grapple with the problems of the Philippines? Jonathan Head considers the country's controversial choice for president. A mock funeral at a migrants' camp in Greece - Theopi Skarlatos finds patience with the governments of northern Europe wearing thin. They may have put the clocks forward recently, but Paul Moss reckons time in Venezuela is actually going backwards. Andrew Hosken is in the building in Tirana which was once the headquarters of the country's feared secret police while Sara Wheeler take a look at a way of life on the South Atlantic island of St Helena which many there fear will vanish forever once the long-awaited airport finally opens for business

What is Truth? What is Fantasy? May 07, 2016

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What's life like in North Korea? Our reporter Steve Evans gets rare access, but wonders if all is as it seems. Gabriel Gatehouse meets Hungarians once so keen to tear down barriers between them and their eastern European neighbours who now believe it's time to put up fences. Katy Watson witnesses poignant scenes on the US/Mexico border as families enjoy a brief reunion amid speculation about what a Trump presidency might mean for Mexicans. What's trash-talking got to do with playing chess? David Edmonds has been finding out on a visit to the American state of Missouri. And Emma Jane Kirby's in Istanbul learning why a gentle novel from the 1940s is striking a chord with today's young Turks

Peace for South Sudan? Apr 30, 2016

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It's been a momentous week in South Sudan, where a national unity government has been formed under President Salva Kiir as his old enemy, the rebel leader Riek Machar returned to the capital Juba for the first time since the civil war broke out in December 2013. Can these men now lead their country to a much longed-for peace? Imagine being fined four years' salary for having a second child. That's what used to happen in China. We meet a rare family in Beijing with two daughters. Cuba's Fidel Castro is celebrating his 90th birthday this year. Last week he effectively said goodbye to his key supporters, but there is no sign that his fellow revolutionaries, now well into their eighties, are going to retire any time soon. If you'd suffered the kind of radioactive contamination that came with the fallout of the accident at Chernobyl, would you risk building a nuclear power plant? Ukraine's neighbour Belarus is hoping that atomic lightning won't strike twice. And if you're going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in the French Pyrenees, you may find that a trip to a beauty spot in the nearby mountains can be as soothing, if not more, than a wander around town. Just don't try and catch a bus there, at least not until July.

On board Air Force One Apr 23, 2016

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The plane where even the paper napkins sport the presidential seal, and where exclusive little boxes of chocolate sweets feature a picture of Barack Obama: it's America's presidential Air Force One, and you're only allowed on board if you're in "the bubble". In the West Bank a roundabout encapsulates what's going on, and going wrong, in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Libya has seen much chaos and suffering in the last five years. But one family now wants to embrace the future optimistically again, despite losing several of their relatives in the fighting. The beautiful trekkers’ destination with tea houses and stunning mountain landscapes that was turned into a sea of rubble. For the survivors of the Nepalese village obliterated by the earthquake a year ago, the suffering is still raw. And on a trip to China to take tea in a picturesque garden and haggle with antiques dealers, our correspondent's local guide lets slip more than she had perhaps planned.

Drama for Dilma Apr 16, 2016

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Colouring in the spaces between the world headlines. In this edition, trouble for ladies who lead - with Brazil's President Dilma Roussef facing impeachment and a traditional chief in Malawi going into battle against child marriage. No ordinary kitchen-sink drama: we go inside the recording studio where they make a radio soap opera beamed into war-ravaged Syria. Has child protection in Norway become overzealous? And why's the subject hit a raw nerve in the former Communist countries of eastern Europe? And is it a case of wanderlust lost as Germans seemingly fall out of love with the foreign holiday?

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