The unique properties of the Black Sea make it an archaeologist’s dream but an ecologist’s nightmare. Most of its water is almost devoid of life, so medieval shipwrecks are perfectly preserved. But wildlife is under threat. On his journey across the sea, presenter Tim Whewell dives under the waves to explore its layers of history – and layers of life and death. He joins marine archaeologists investigating the secrets of a prehistoric settlement and meets the biologists counting dolphins. They sa...
Jul 24, 2017•27 min
A voyage across a mysterious sea where empires have clashed for centuries and tensions are rising again. By ferry, rowing-boat, horse-drawn wagon, the BBC World Service travels over, around, and under the Black Sea, to discover its ancient and modern secrets. As Russia and Nato build up their naval power in the region, presenter Tim Whewell meets the Istanbul ship-spotter who helped alert the world to the scale of the Kremlin’s military involvement in Syria. Tim embarks on his journey over the s...
Jul 19, 2017•28 min
In Kuala Lumpur the regeneration of the city’s Klang River is seen as a key element in the modernisation of the whole country. The capital city is keen to attract talent workers and tourists from all over Asia and beyond. But the historic downtown heart of Kuala Lumpur has become run down, the home to migrant workers from Bangladesh and Myanmar, while the economic focus has moved to the ring of steel and glass skyscrapers on the outskirts. Regenerate the Klang, the thinking goes, and downtown wi...
Jul 05, 2017•27 min
In Los Angeles Susan Marling speaks to Frank Gehry. The famous architect has been charged with creating a master plan for the improvement of the Los Angeles River. It is a tough job. Since the 1930s when the river was straightened and lined with concrete to mitigate flooding, the waterway has been a hidden, polluted channel that many Angelenos did not even know existed. But now the money and the political will (we speak to mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti) are in place to ‘green’ the river, create par...
Jun 28, 2017•27 min
How do young people in Sierra Leone cope faced with staggering rates of youth unemployment of over 50%? Umaru Fofana talks to young people in the capital, Freetown, as they struggle to make a living. He meets the young men who look after graves in the hopes of getting a handout from grieving relatives, and a young woman who was asked for sexual favours in return for employment. And he asks whether the education system is really preparing his young fellow countrymen for the world of work. (Image:...
May 17, 2017•26 min
The struggle to get a good education, in an overpopulated school system. With a median age of under 16 years old, Uganda is one of the most youthful countries in the world, but the sheer number of young people means that many struggle to get a good education. A disturbing number are entirely unschooled, or have dropped out of class due to poverty or for other reasons. Others are impressive, with their determination to succeed, even in difficult circumstances. The BBC’s Alan Kasujja travels back ...
May 10, 2017•27 min
The future of employment is certain to change – and change fast – as robotics and artificial intelligence replace human workers. For many, it’s a future to be feared. But the global economy has continually been revolutionised by technological innovation; innovation which has led to disruption but also further economic progress. In this edition of Economic Tectonics, Andrew McAfee from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and a tech optimist – explores how he thinks technology could change...
Apr 06, 2017•27 min
Without the most basic resources – water, food and energy – the global economy could not function. Much of the world has grown used the ready supply of all three. But that might be changing. Demographics and climate change are likely to transform how we value and use essential resources. In this edition of Economic Tectonics, Joanna Haigh – a professor at London’s Grantham Institute at Imperial College – explores how, in her view, such changes could have profound consequences for the future econ...
Mar 29, 2017•27 min
Trillions of dollars flow through the global economic system every day and intermediaries in the finance sector take a cut on every dollar, euro and yen. But financial technology – “fintech” – is fast-changing how the system works. Philip Coggan of The Economist explores how the coming technical revolution in finance will create new winners and losers – and perhaps a rebalancing of global financial power. Producer: Ben Carter (Photo: Tech Globe on hand. Credit: Shutterstock)
Mar 23, 2017•27 min
Who we are, how many of us there are and where we live will change the economies of the future. Africa’s population will boom spectacularly, creating a huge new workforce in countries like Nigeria. That’s a great opportunity, but one with serious risks attached. Europe will shrink. Asia is ageing. In this edition of Economic Tectonics, Ruth Alexander looks at the near future – a future we can already see, thanks to accurate statistical modelling – to find out how economic power will shift as the...
Mar 16, 2017•27 min
Ten years ago a Harvard economist suggested that it might not be possible to combine democracy, national sovereignty and economic integration forever. Something would have to give. 2016 might just have proved him right. In this edition of Economic Tectonics, Martin Sandbu from The Financial Times explores how –in his view – today’s fractious politics might change the global economy of the future. Producer: Sandra Kanthal (Image: Child at Protest holding placard, Credit: Shutterstock)...
Mar 10, 2017•27 min
Shanghai aims to become a global capital of finance and technology by 2020, but it’s also becoming a city of culture - a cosmopolitan draw for young people seeking a lifestyle mixing the ideas of East and West. The newly-regenerated waterfront area is now lined with art galleries and boutique shops and Shanghai millennials hang out in the former colonial French Concession, which bustles with hip cocktail bars and fancy bakeries. Adrenalin sports such as ‘free jumping’ are among the global pursui...
Mar 02, 2017•27 min
Haining Liu explores the pressure on China's one-child generation to marry and start a family. At the ‘marriage market’ in central Shanghai she meets the anxious parents desperate to find a suitable match for their single offspring and drops in on a speed dating event in the city where young men and women are hoping to find a life partner. But young people are increasingly also choosing a career or the single life over the traditional family, and despite the stigma of being unmarried over 30, Ha...
Feb 23, 2017•27 min
Haining Liu visits Shanghai to discover its growing allure for young people. Home to over 25 million people Shanghai is China's most populous city. Haining Liu discovers what draws those in their 20s and 30s to live, work and study in the city, and asks whether the cosmopolitan lifestyle is enough to keep them here in the face of rising property prices. China’s leaders have big ambitions to make Shanghai a major global capital by 2020, hoping it will rival the likes of New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo...
Feb 16, 2017•27 min
Fi Glover, Martha Lane Fox and Henrietta Moore are on the hunt for solutions to the world’s problems. Their aim is to create the perfect country made up of the best global policies that actually work. In this episode, the panel hear the voices, opinions and criticisms of the World Service audience. Together, they debate how the perfect country is shaping up. The policies include: Bermuda’s water policy, Peru’s housing revolution, Japan’s gun control, Tunisian women’s rights, Shanghai’s numeracy ...
Feb 02, 2017•27 min
Today, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. It leads to around six million deaths per year, and trends show that will rise to more than eight million by 2030. Australians are ditching cigarettes at record levels, and it is down to the fact that they have some of the world’s toughest anti-smoking laws. Each year they clamp down further on smoking in public places. They now target the tiny corners that other nations might overlook – from playgrounds to railway platforms to taxi ranks...
Jan 26, 2017•27 min
In Shanghai, students are better at maths than anywhere else in the world. According to the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, Shanghai maths students are three years ahead of the PISA average. That means a 15-year-old in Shanghai is better at maths than most 18-year-olds in the UK. And, 55% of students are considered ‘top performers’. Behind these impressive results is the Shanghai ‘mastery’ approach to teaching maths, which assumes every pupil can be a maths master. There i...
Jan 19, 2017•27 min
Tunisia comes under the spotlight, because it is rewriting the rules about what women can and can’t do in an Islamic country. Should it be a role model for its Muslim neighbours? Women have more rights in Tunisia than in any other Islamic country. Since independence in 1956, the Code of Personal Status banned polygamy, gave women almost the same rights in law as men - the freedom to divorce them - and the right to be educated. Following this came the right to vote, stand for office, set up a bus...
Jan 12, 2017•27 min
Gun control is a policy that fiercely divides nations – on the one hand there are the countries that enshrine the use of guns - while a host of others seek to eliminate them from society. One country that has dramatically reduced gun violence is Japan. It has one of the world’s lowest homicide rates to the extent that shooting deaths per year are in the single digits. These are the results of a rigorous gun control policy. Citizens cannot even hold guns in their hands without meeting strict prot...
Jan 05, 2017•27 min
How has Peru cut its poverty rate in half in just ten years? Building on decades of economic growth, a policy of inclusive economics has meant many of the poorest in the country have shared in the prosperity created by the boom. Government schemes to extend basic services such as piped water, sanitation and electricity to slum areas, underpinned by social programmes for children, families and the over 65s, have helped to lift 7 million people out of poverty in the last five years alone. Low-inco...
Jan 03, 2017•27 min
The solution to the world’s water scarcity problem could lie in the tiny, remote island of Bermuda. The island has battled water saving problems since its colonisation as it has no natural water resources – and therefore no natural pure water. It relies on one source alone – rain water. That limited availability has created a nation of pioneering inventors who produced the Bermudian Roof. It catches every drop of rain, purifies it and stores it for daily use. As each Bermudian citizen is in char...
Dec 22, 2016•27 min
Presenter Safa al Ahmad is joined by a panel of experts to reflect on the issues raised in her documentary series 'Islam People and Power'. Her guests in the studio are: Dr Maha Azzam, former Associate Fellow of Chatham House, now Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council. Dr Hazem Kandil, Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and author of Inside The Brotherhood. Hassan Hassan, Fellow of The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. Editor: In...
Dec 09, 2016•27 min
Within Shi’ism there is a high level disagreement about the role of Islam in government. Shia-dominated Iran is an Islamic republic, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a senior Islamic cleric. But the Iranian model of government - a theocratic state - is not supported by Shi’ism’s most senior Islamic cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who is based in the Iraqi city of Najaf. “Khamenei is the head of Iranian army. Sistani is not the head of Iraqi army,” explains Iraqi politician Walid al-Hilli. B...
Dec 08, 2016•27 min
What should the relationship be between Islam and the state? This is the question which dominates political debate in the Arab world. Many traditional Islamic scholars believe in the separation of religion and politics. For the Muslim Brotherhood though – the Arab world’s foremost social and political movement - the goal is to create an Islamic state. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was elected to power after the Arab uprisings. But its plans quickly ended in failure. After just a year in offic...
Dec 01, 2016•27 min
Wahhabism is the most misunderstood brand of Islam. It is more correctly called Salafism and is a fundamentalist interpretation of the faith, often associated with Saudi Arabia. The salafis have long been split between jihadists who justify violently overthrowing their rulers and quietists who believe that even oppressive governments should be obeyed. Since the Arab uprisings, two new groups – salafi democrats and salafi revolutionaries – have come to the fore too. Presenter Safa Al Ahmad talks ...
Nov 24, 2016•27 min
The anti-government protests that began in the Arab world in 2010 triggered division between the religious scholars of Islam’s largest branch – the traditional Sunnis. Some of the most senior Sunni scholars in the world held fast to the idea that revolution, and even simple protest, was forbidden in Islam. Others decided to back armed groups in Syria, though not the global jihadists of al-Qaeda and ISIS. Presenter Safa Al Ahmad travels to Egypt to meet Dr Abbas Shouman, one of the most senior sc...
Nov 17, 2016•26 min
Russia’s actions in the Crimea and Ukraine, and the modernising of its armed forces at home, are causing anxiety in the High North. Current tensions in East-West relations threaten to jeopardise the fragile stability of the region. In Oslo, defence has been high on the government’s agenda with increased spending on the Norwegian Armed Forces proposed for 2017-2020. Are we entering a new Cold War? It is a vexed question, as defence expert Mats Berdal discovers when he canvasses opinions in Oslo, ...
Nov 10, 2016•27 min
Russia’s actions in the Crimea and Ukraine, and the modernising of its armed forces at home, are causing anxiety in the High North. Here Norwegian (as well as broader Western) security and economic interests converge with those of Russia, and can conflict. Will the High North be the next flashpoint in a new Cold War? Norway is adept at walking the tightrope between co-operation and self-protection in its relations with the former Soviet Union. A founding member of Nato, this tiny oil-rich state ...
Nov 03, 2016•27 min
What will the United Kingdom vote to leave the EU mean for Northern Ireland – and the rest of Ireland? BBC correspondent Edward Stourton revisits the city of Londonderry - or Derry - an area where people voted strongly to remain in the European Union, against the tide of the rest of the UK. There he discovers how locals fear that a border across the island of Ireland, between the Irish Republic which is still an EU member, and a post-Brexit Northern Ireland outside the EU, will disrupt their liv...
Oct 20, 2016•27 min
The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes returns to Stirling in central Scotland, where she grew up and went to school. In an area where people voted strongly to remain in the European Union, against the tide of the rest of the United Kingdom, what effect has this had on how people feel about their relationship with their biggest neighbour - England. She hears how the Brexit vote has caused divisions within families and from people who are now concerned that leaving the EU could be the lever that takes Scotland...
Oct 13, 2016•23 min
