The Documentary

For 100 days and counting protesters are calling for an end to the 26-year long rule of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. Poet Valzhyna Mort records first-hand stories from her friends who are out protesting week after week; ordinary people making extraordinary choices. Obsessively, she reads the social media posts flooding her phone. In her hands, these tiny messages are poetry themselves, the oral history of our time captured on thousands of phones

Since November 2000, humans have been living in space on the International Space Station (ISS). Although the ISS is a remarkable engineering achievement, human space exploration has proven dangerous and costly. There is no air, gravity or food, and water has to be recycled from sweat, stale breath and urine. As we return to the Moon and aim for Mars, some argue that space colonisation is also immoral, psychologically and socially damaging and unnecessarily expensive. Beatriz De La Pava talks to astronauts, anthropologists, scientists, doctors and philosophers to investigate if it is time to abandon the dream of human space travel and come back down to Earth.

Nuala McGovern talks to Kerry. She has muscular dystrophy and has been shielding, or isolating, at home in England since March. We also hear from Dr Joseph Varon, Chief of Critical Care at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He has been working without a break for 258 days. A photo of him cradling an elderly man on a Covid ward went viral this week. He explains the picture and shares his experiences of working non-stop due to the virus. Joe Biden has this week called on Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days as US president. Nuala also talks to two campaigners in the US who are sceptical of face coverings and other coronavirus restrictions.

Internet trolls are harassing and bullying people like never before. That’s according to research carried out in the UK which found abuse rising as the world spends more and more time online thanks to the Covid pandemic. But who are the people behind these often anonymous attacks? How do they get involved in persecuting people they don’t even know? And what can their victims do about it? British Journalist, Sali Hughes, has been a target herself. In this edition of Assignment, she sets out to discover how trolls justify their actions, and what motivates them. She speaks to other women who have suffered online abuse and hears about the devastating impact it can have. And, she goes face to face with one of her own former tormentors to make a sobering discovery: those provoking conflict in cyberspace include the most normal people in real life. Producer: Paul Grant(Image: Anonymous internet-user in a mask. Credit: Peter Dazeley/Getty)

Ahead of a crucial year in the battle to control climate change, presenter Lucy Hockings is joined by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He is warning that "our planet is broken". We'll hear a live discussion as he answers questions from activists around the world and talks solutions to the problems we face.

Alan Dein searches for the stories that connect us in a changed world. Inspiring and moving stories of how the pandemic has changed people's lives on every continent. Today, Liana in Armenia celebrates her 30th birthday as her country finds itself at war with Azerbaijan - as well as Covid-19. We also catch up with 25-year-old entrepreneur Fahad in Bangladesh, who Alan first spoke to in March when it looked like he might lose his hard-earned fortune. Plus, Ugandan midwife Marion faces the toughest year of her career and Fish in China describes how lockdown is affecting her fellow students’ mental health

Lucy Ash explores the world of the security forces that keep Lukashenko in power, peeling back the ubiquitous balaclavas to find the men and women beneath. Minsk, early December. A wall of masked men in black body armour, beating their truncheons on steel shields. In front of them stand women bundled in winter coats and teenagers wrapped in red and white flags. They are singing a protest song once heard in the revolutionary shipyards of Gdansk a generation before - an anthem for democracy and change.

Mary Ann Sieghart asks what it takes to be a powerful woman and what holds so many back. Sexism, appearance and encouraging fathers are all up for discussion as Mary Ann talks to former Prime Ministers Jadranka Kosor and Julia Gillard, former Chair of the US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen, architect Yasmeen Lari, author Bernardine Evaristo and many others.

The arrival of winter for many countries brings the threat of increased infections as people gather indoors to escape the cold. It’s also a time for celebrating religious festivals and holidays. Host Nuala McGovern shares conversations with an American family in Indiana about Thanksgiving, and two young women in Gaza relate their experiences of curfew during the pandemic. Plus, three people living in Japan discuss why they think cases are rising, the implications for Japanese New Year and whether the Olympics should still go ahead in 2021.

The Mapuche are Chile’s largest indigenous group – a population of more than 2 million people. And, they are fighting for their right to heal. They want Chileans to value their unique approach to healthcare and give them control of land and their own destiny. But, it’s a tough sell when there’s so much distrust and violence between the two communities. Jane Chambers travels to their homeland in the Araucania region in the south of Chile, where she’s given rare access to traditional healers and political leaders. Presenter / producer: Jane Chambers Producer in London: Linda Pressly Editor: Bridget Harney(Image: Machi Juana at her home by her sacred altar. Credit: Jane Chambers/BBC)

Throughout the pandemic Alan Dein has been hearing inspiring and moving accounts of how people’s lives have been transformed by the pandemic. Today, Alan connects with Sakie in Myanmar, who tells of a heroic 24-hour journey from his remote village in order to save his mother’s life. He also catches up with Maria Ester in Ecuador, who he first spoke to six months ago when it looked as if her family business was on the verge of collapse. Alan also connects with Mursalina in Afghanistan, Mohammed in Gaza and wildlife photographer Jahawi who describes the wonders of the underwater world.

This is the story of Chido Govera aka The Mushroom Woman. It is a story about her home, Zimbabwe. And it is also a story about mushrooms. It never should have happened. Chido, an orphan, became the provider in her family aged seven. At 10 she was destined to marry a man 30 years older than her. But a chance encounter led her to discover the almost magical science of mushroom cultivation at a local university, and set her life on a very different course.

Women in Ecuador, Peru and Brazil reveal the frightening effect of the pandemic and lockdowns on women in Latin America. Many are living with their aggressors and are unable to escape to a safe place. Many countries are now dealing with a new rise in coronavirus cases. Host Nuala McGovern hears from medical professionals from Madrid, Paris and New York, as they share how the stress of dealing with patients is taking its toll on the mental health of doctors, nurses and paramedics. Plus, two Swedes offer different views on how the outbreak has been handled in their country.

“First we were enslaved. Then we were poisoned.” That’s how many on Martinique see the history of their French Caribbean island that, to tourists, means sun, rum, and palm-fringed beaches. Slavery was abolished in 1848. But today the islanders are victims again – of a toxic pesticide called chlordecone that’s poisoned the soil and water and been linked by scientists to unusually high rates of prostate cancer. For more than 10 years chlordecone was authorised for use in banana plantations – though its harmful effects were already known. Now, more than 90% of Martinicans have traces of it in their blood. The pollution means many can't grow vegetables in their gardens - and fish caught close to the shore are too dangerous to eat. French President Emmanuel Macron has called it an ‘environmental scandal’ and said the state ‘must take responsibility’. But some activists on the island want to raise wider questions about why the pesticide was used for so long – and on an island divided between a black majority and a

Philippa Thomas hears from voters across the United States on the agony and ecstasy of waiting for results of the unusually protracted presidential election.

Obesity is a growing problem in Thailand. As the country becomes more affluent, its citizens are working more and cooking less which means that they are buying more convenience foods containing high levels of fat and sugar. In the Thai population at large, one in three men is obese but the numbers are worse in Thai temples where one in two Buddhist monks is obese. They eat the same food as the Thai population and they only eat in the mornings so what is the problem? Sucheera Maguire has been to Bangkok to talk to those who give and receive alms and she takes a look at some of the ingenious solutions that Thai nutritionists have come up with to combat the obesity crisis in Thai temples.

At dusk on a warm evening in 2016, two men arrive, unexpectedly, at a remote South African farmhouse. The frenzy that follows will come to haunt a community, destroying families, turning neighbours into "traitors", prompting street protests and threats of violence, and dividing the small farming and tourist town of Parys along racial lines. Correspondent Andrew Harding has followed every twist of the police’s hunt for the killers, the betrayals that opened the door to an explosive trial, and the fortunes of all those involved – from the dead men’s families to the handful of men controversially selected for prosecution.

Joe Biden is the projected winner of the race to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump, however, refuses to concede the election and many of his supporters continue to believe that he will remain in power after the inauguration in January. Host Ben James shares conversations among Trump supporters in Georgia, Florida and Washington DC, who believe President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud. One of them changed from a Democrat because she felt Trump treated immigrants better. Plus women from both political sides come together to consider the impact of Kamala Harris as America’s first female Vice-President elect.

Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil, a product found in everything from shampoo to soup; in the last two decades vast areas of forests have been cleared to make way for plantations. The remote province of Papua, home to Asia’s largest remaining rainforests has escaped fairly untouched...until now. It's the new frontier for unfair palm oil expansion. In this remote region Rebecca Henschke and Ayomi Amindoni investigate allegations of unfair land deals, violations of indigenous rights and illegal burning. (Image: Tadius Butipo, 30 years old, with his son, in a oil palm plantation. Credit: Albertus Vembrianto/BBC)

In India, a child goes missing every eight minutes. BBC South Asia Correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan meets the family of one of those children and follows their attempts to trace their daughter. It’s a journey that takes us into the murky world of human trafficking, where children are bought and sold as commodities – forced to work long hours in factories, brothels or as domestic servants. And far from slowing the trade, the Coronavirus has fuelled demand for child labour and led to an increase in child trafficking as ‘middle-men’ target communities worst-hit by the pandemic.