Belarus: Masking the virus

Belarus: Masking the virus

Belarus’s all-powerful President has focused global attention on his country by ostentatiously downplaying the coronavirus pandemic. Alexander Lukashenko has allowed shops, markets and restaurants and football stadiums to remain open and is encouraging people to go out to work. In early May he laid on a grand military spectacle celebrating victory in WW2, in defiance of social distancing advice. He told Belarussians they could stay healthy by drinking vodka and driving tractors in the fields and dismissed concerns over the virus as “psychosis.” But medics and bereaved families say otherwise. And with a doubling of infections every two or three days, there is not much to laugh about in Belarus. Medical staff have allegedly been sacked and even detained for speaking out about poor conditions in hospitals and the inaccurate death certificates.

Assignment explores what lies behind President Lukashenko’s position. We hear from community activists, war veterans, tech-wizards and many other diverse people in Belarus. Lucy Ash pieces it all together with reporting by Ilya Kuziatsou.

Produced by Monica Whitlock

(Image: Jana Shostak’s Angry Mask. Human Constanta, a Belarusian human rights organisation, asked eight artists to design facemasks focusing on the coronavirus pandemic. Credit: Jakub Jasiukiewicz)

Jaksot(2000)

Don't log off: Part one

Don't log off: Part one

Alan Dein connects with strangers across the world via social media, exploring the things that unite people across cultures and borders. He speaks to a young gay man in China troubled by homophobia, and an Egyptian woman determined to resist the religious extremism she witnesses in her small city. He also reaches out to an Iranian man struggling to pursue his passion for foreign languages against the odds, and a jobless Nigerian distressed by his inability to provide for his family.

19 Helmi 202027min

Crossing Divides: The exchange

Crossing Divides: The exchange

Casey Spradley is a beef rancher in New Mexico – and runs a sustainable business with a responsible approach to irrigating the land. Thousands of miles away in Free State South Africa, Tracy Khothule Marobobo is a beef farmer, on land redistributed as part of a post-apartheid settlement. She now faces the challenge of establishing a business in an increasingly difficult climate. Open minded and willing to share their knowledge, the pair begin a digital dialogue that spans continents. Two countries, two women, both with an eye on learning more about each other and their approach to farming land.

18 Helmi 202027min

Gospel meets hip-hop

Gospel meets hip-hop

Some of the biggest rappers in the world like Kanye West, Chance the Rapper and Stormzy are combining gospel and hip-hop in their music. It is bringing attention to ‘gospel hip-hop’. Gospel and hip-hop are closely related, but the relationship hasn’t always been an easy one. UK rapper Guvna B has been making faith-based hip-hop for the past 10 years and wants to find out what’s behind this shift. He travels to the USA to meet gospel legends Donald Lawrence and Kierra Sheard, Lecrae and Andy Mineo, Muyiwa Olarewuju and soul singer Samm Henshaw, whose single Church topped the UK charts.

16 Helmi 202050min

Reinventing Miss America

Reinventing Miss America

How can beauty pageants, a competition steeped in tradition, reinvent itself in the wake of a seismic shift in women’s rights? The #MeToo movement has rocked Hollywood in a way that could not have been imagined a decade ago. It resulted in a new all-female leadership team at Miss America who are busy trying to reform their organisation. But is there really a place for pageants in today’s society? Can a competition known for its glitz and glamour really reinvent its image?

15 Helmi 202050min

El Salvador: the story of Karla Turcios

El Salvador: the story of Karla Turcios

On 14th April 2018 El Salvadorean journalist Karla Turcios was brutally murdered. Twelve days later prosecutors pressed charges against her husband for aggravated femicide. Across the country, her murder triggered outrage and the President of El Salvador announced a national crisis. In El Salvador – which has the highest rate of femicide in Latin America - a woman is killed every 3 days. Six months after Karla’s death, Patricia Sulbaran travelled to El Salvador to tell her story and speak to her family. She also visited the country’s biggest prison to meet Karla’s husband, Mario Hueso. Ever since, Patricia has been following the criminal case against him. Can justice be served in a country where crimes for femicide so often go unpunished? Producer: Poppy Damon(Image: A photograph showing a drawing of Karla Turcios smiling. Credit: BBC/Patricia Sulbarán Lovera)

13 Helmi 202026min

Blasian love

Blasian love

Ithra and Tumelo have the world at their feet. Both 24, both in the last year of medical school, both from loving families, and in love. Ithra is Asian and Tumelo black, and both are born in post-apartheid South Africa (part of the Born Free generation). But is love enough to keep them together as they prepare to introduce their families to each other for the first time?

11 Helmi 202027min

Life on the line

Life on the line

Billions of people across the world live in an area that runs along a fault line, where everyday life is balanced with a constant risk of an earthquake rocking their community. Journalist Tabinda Kokab knows how this feels after the devastating 2005 Kashmir earthquake killed more than 70,000 people, including her brother. In this documentary she explores the emotional and psychological impact of living life on the line, discovering the risks and rewards for people who go about their daily lives with a quake in the back of their minds.

9 Helmi 202051min

Tony's Freehold Grill: Politics on the side

Tony's Freehold Grill: Politics on the side

The best place to hear about the twists and turns of the 2020 presidential election is over the countertop at an iconic New Jersey diner. Sandra Kanthal returns to Freehold to hear what the regulars at Tony’s Grill have to say about the presidential candidates, their campaigns and whatever else comes up for discussion regarding the state of politics in America. They have some astute observations and colourful tales to tell, though stories may be interrupted by important things like the arrival of coffee, ham and eggs or the daily special.

8 Helmi 202027min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

i-dont-like-mondays
kolme-kaannekohtaa
aikalisa
olipa-kerran-otsikko
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
sita
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
kaksi-aitia
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
murha-joka-tapahtui-2
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-murhan-anatomia
mamma-mia
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-haudattu
lahko
loukussa