Kate Adie introduces stories from Gaza, France, the Thailand-Cambodia border, Iraq and Slovenia.Around a million Palestinians have been told to leave Gaza City ahead of a new Israeli offensive - though many are wary of leaving, saying there is nowhere to go. Lucy Williamson was granted rare access to Gaza by the Israeli army, and was taken to see its planned new aid distribution site.Days after French PM, François Bayrou, was ousted from office after losing a confidence vote, street protests took place across France as people voiced anger over proposals to remove two national holidays and impose a pensions freeze. Andrew Harding watched events unfold in Paris.Thailand also has a new prime minister – its third in just over a year - following a political crisis that ignited a short, sudden conflict with Cambodia. Our Southeast Asia Correspondent Jonathan Head has been looking into this catastrophic breakdown of relations.Ten years ago, 71 migrants from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan died in the back of a refrigerator truck abandoned on a motorway lay-by near the Austrian border with Hungary. Nick Thorpe travelled to northern Iraq to meet relatives of some of those who died - and interviewed the smugglers convicted for their role in their deaths.Slovenia has produced some of the best male cyclists in the world today - including Tadej Pogacar. Every year, the four-time Tour de France champ hosts a cycling festival in his home town of Komenda - and Guy De Launey went along for the ride.Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
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China eyes a new world order
Kate Adie introduces stories from China, Afghanistan, Spain, Armenia and Finland.In Beijing this week, President Xi Jinping declared his country to be ‘unstoppable’. Flanked by President Putin and North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un at a vast military parade, China put on a striking display of its growing military power. BBC China correspondent Laura Bicker was watching on in Beijing.Afghanistan was struck by an earthquake last Sunday, destroying homes and triggering landslides, killing around 1400 people. Yogita Limaye has been in Jalalabad where she saw the rescue effort first hand, amid the strict social rules imposed by the Taliban.Spain has been experiencing some of its worst wildfires in recent years and among the affected areas is Galicia - a region usually known for high rainfall and lush vegetation. It’s also where you can find Europe’s largest herd of wild horses - which are credited with helping to limit the spread of the fires. John Murphy went to find out more.Last month, leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan finalised a peace agreement aimed at ending a decades-old conflict between the two countries. Julia Paul travelled to Armenia to visit an innovative scheme using digital technology to preserve the country’s Christian heritage, lost or damaged during the war years.And Finland is celebrating 80 years of the Moomins! The family of gentle trolls and their friends have garnered fans around the world since the first book was published by author Tove Jansson in 1945. Heidi Fuller Love has been exploring how the characters have come to embody Finnish values.Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
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Ukraine and the battle for the Donbas
Kate Adie presents stories from Ukraine, Greenland, the US and Germany.Ukraine has this week come under its heaviest bombardment in weeks, with the UK and the EU summoning their Russian envoys after their offices in Kyiv were hit. Quentin Sommerville has been in Donetsk, the area Vladimir Putin wants to fully control in the resource rich region of the Donbas, as residents flee attacks and soldiers tell of the intensification of the battle there.Greenland’s status has been thrust into the spotlight after the US president has repeatedly said he wanted to annexe the semi-autonomous nation for its strategic position and mineral wealth. And despite having broad self-government since 1979, Greenland’s foreign and defence policy is made in Copenhagen. On an island of just over 55,000 people, where fishing is the primary source of income, independence for Greenland would mean either increasing tourism or allowing the mining of minerals like rare earth metals. Bob Howard has been to the capital Nuuk.In the US, a record number of people are being held in immigrant detention, following President Trump’s crackdown. One controversial site has become the subject of several lawsuits attempting to shut it down: Alligator Alcatraz in Florida. Josephine Casserly reports from the centre, which sits on an abandoned airstrip amid the marshes, forests, mangroves and estuaries and wildlife of the Everglades.James Naughtie has been in the German city of Weimar, at a cultural festival in the state of Thuringia in Eastern Germany – which reflects on the historical legacy of the Weimar Republic. Among the performances and installations, he found echoes of the past in the present.Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinator: Rosie Strawbridge
Editor: Richard Vadon
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Putin, Trump and the art of no deal (yet)
Kate Adie presents stories from Alaska, Washington, South Korea, Chile and France.From the military fly-past to the grandiose entrance on the red carpet, to the press conference, without any questions, the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin drew dismay from Western governments. Steve Rosenberg was in Alaska - and reflects on the aftermath.After the pomp and pageantry of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin, six European leaders rushed to Washington DC this week to meet with the US President in a show of solidarity with Volodymyr Zelensky. Tom Bateman followed the twists and turns and reflects on what was actually achieved at the White House.Vladimir Putin has come to rely on support from North Korea to bolster his troops in Ukraine. Pyongyang is now sending thousands of construction workers, to help fill a huge labour shortage created by the war. Jean Mackenzie has spoken to six workers who’ve managed to escape.In the hills of southern Chile and is an alluring tourist destination - a German-style village - but it was once home to a religious sect run by a manipulative and abusive leader. The Chilean government wants to expropriate some of its land to create a memorial for the people who were tortured and killed there during Pinochet’s regime. But Grace Livingstone finds, it's proving divisive.In the Loire valley the summer months bring both extended bank holiday weekends in France and the return in the last few decades of the 'Guinguettes', waterside outdoor bars and dance halls which were once popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Jamie Smith-Maillet went to soak up the atmosphereSeries Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Vadon
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Afghanistan’s hidden lives
Kate Adie presents stories from Afghanistan, China, Japan and Tajikistan.In Afghanistan's Ghor Province, Mahjooba Nowrouzi reports from a small maternity hospital where two female doctors serve thousands of patients. With limited resources and financial support, the odds are stacked against them - and against the women they tend to and treat.Last year, BBC Radio 4’s Crossing Continents aired the award-winning documentary ‘Our Whole Life is a Secret’, which charted the daily life of a young Afghan woman. In this dispatch, she provides an update on her life today, four years after the Taliban returned to power.In Beijing, pro-democracy campaigners regularly face surveillance and restrictions on their movement. Among them is human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was arrested in 2015 and imprisoned for 'subverting state power'. Danny Vincent heard about his life since his release.It's 80 years since Japan’s Emperor Hirohito surrendered to allied forces in World War II after the US dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing an end to the six-year-long conflict. Ellie House encountered a group of schoolchildren in Hiroshima's peace park - and learned more about how the war is remembered there.In the Tajikistan the endangered striped hyena is fighting for survival. Tajik conservationists have been working hard to save this elusive and much misunderstood animal. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent met them on a trek into the mountains.Series Producer: Serena Tarling
Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison & Sophie Hill
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
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