Vietnam War: Stopping nuclear disaster
In 1975, during the final days of the Vietnam War, most of the world was unaware that the North Vietnamese were advancing a new breed of nuclear reactor, gifted to the South by the United States government.Not only was it technology the North's Russian allies did not yet have, it was also a source of weapons-grade nuclear fuel.As a last resort, the US discussed bombing the facility, risking nuclear fallout, rather than risk the technology falling into Soviet hands.To avoid humanitarian and environmental disaster, a physicist from Idaho in the US, called Wally Hendrickson, volunteered to be dropped into the front line to remove the fuel rods from the reactor.He speaks to Ramita Navai. A Two Degrees West production for BBC World Service.(Photo: Dalat nuclear institute. Credit: Diane Selwyn)
25 Sep 202312min
The year of the vuvuzela
The vuvuzela was notorious during the 2010 football World Cup.It became the subject of debate when it was labelled as 'the world's most annoying instrument'. Freddie 'Saddam' Maake claims to have invented the horn.He became known as 'Mr Vuvuzela'. He tells Gill Kearsley his story.(Photo: Football fans play vuvuzelas during a World Cup match in 2010. Credit: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP via Getty Images)
22 Sep 202310min
Kenya: Nairobi shopping mall attack
In 2013, gunmen from a Somali Islamist group known as Al-Shabab attacked a shopping centre in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. They took hundreds of people hostage during the siege which lasted four days. More than 60 people were killed, with many more injured. In 2021, Rebecca Kesby spoke to Daniel Ouma who was a paramedic on duty at the time.(Photo: A Kenyan police officer deployed near the Westgate mall. Credit: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
21 Sep 20238min
The first person inside the 'Gates of Hell'
In November 2013 George Kourounis arrived in the Turkmenistan desert.He was determined to become the first person to enter the Darvaza Crater.The crater is a burning natural gas field that has been on fire for at least 50 years and has become known as the 'Gates of Hell.'On 6 November, George put on a giant silver aluminium suit and began his descent into the crater.He says he felt like a giant baked potato!George shares memories of the adventure with Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty.(Photo: George Kourounis in the Darvaza Crater. Credit: George Kourounis)
20 Sep 20239min
Fighting for legal abortion in Italy
In 1978, campaigners won their long fight to legalise abortion in Italy. Emma Bonino and other members of the Radical Party went on hunger strike and were even jailed, after helping women access illegal abortions across the country. But they faced fierce opposition in the Catholic country, as the church was heavily integrated into Italian politics.Emma Bonino was so passionate about the cause that it led her to become a politician. She speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about her role in the campaign. (Photo: Emma Bonino in 1976. Credit: Vittoriano Rastelli/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
19 Sep 20239min
Nazi eugenics
In July 1933, the new German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, passed 'The Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases'.It required the sterilisation of Germans with physical and mental disabilities. Helga Gross was one of those sterilised.Ben Henderson uncovers archive interviews from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, recorded in 2003.(Photo: Helga Gross as a child. Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
18 Sep 202310min
The Ramallah concert
In August 2005, an unusual orchestra performed an extraordinary concert in the city of Ramallah.The West-Eastern Divan orchestra was founded in 1999 by Israeli conductor, Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian literary critic and philosopher, Edward Said.Their belief was that music has the power to bring people together.Violinists, Tyme Khelefi and Daniel Cohen tell their stories to Gill Kearsley.(Photo: The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra perform in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Credit: Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)
15 Sep 202310min
The siege at the Church of the Nativity
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is on the site believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.But in 2002, it was at the centre of one of the most dramatic sieges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.For almost six weeks, Palestinian gunmen and civilians were holed up in the church.In 2015 Louise Hidalgo spoke to Father Amjad Sabbara, a Franciscan friar who lived in the compound, and to Carolyn Cole, an American photojournalist who managed to get inside the church in the last days of the siege.(Photo: Journalists stand behind barricades guarded by Israeli soldiers metres away from where Palestinians are holed up in the Church of the Nativity. Credit: Gali Tibbon/ AFP via Getty Images)
14 Sep 20239min
