From Our Own Correspondent

Jacob Zuma, the former South African president, has been in the spotlight all week – live on television responding to questions at a judicial inquiry investigating corruption at the highest level. Andrew Harding reflects on truth in the age of brandished kippers. The town of Kirkenes in northern Norway is a stone’s throw from the border with Russia. It’s now become the focus for a major spy scandal, as Sarah Rainsford has been finding out. Martin Patience was recently part of a BBC team that received a rare invitation to visit Iran, at a time when relations with Britain are strained. He says he was warmly received, although filming at a pop concert provided a moment of uncertainty. There’s been a long-running conflict in California over access to the beaches. On one side, the surfers, who need to be able to get to the ocean; on the other the tech millionaires, who’ve been putting up fences to keep people out. Sally Howard says the very soul of the Golden State is at stake. And Petroc Trelawny has been aboard

Algerians have been celebrating the fact that their football team has made it to the final of the African Cup of Nations. But in Algeria, football is more than a sport. It was in the country’s stadiums that the desire for political change emerged. The nation’s autocratic leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted earlier this year and since then people have been getting to grips with new levels of freedom of expresssion, as Neil Kisserli has found. In the United States President Trump’s tweets about four non-white members of congress have caused uproar among his opponents. Mike Wendling has been to a pro-Trump gathering in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he encountered some unusual supporters of the president: “monarchists”. Chile is home to one of South America’s fastest growing economies. The agricultural sector plays a significant role, and exports include fruit, wine and fish. Salmon farming has become a big industry, but it can also sometimes be a dangerous one for those who work in it, as Grace Livingstone

The President of El Salvador is calling on young men to leave the country’s criminal gangs, or perish with them. He said the gangs have terrorised the country for decades, and would be dismantled. Orla Guerin has been to the capital, San Salvador, to see how the gangs menace the city. Greece has a new Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the centre-right party New Democracy, defeating the socialist Alexis Tsipras. Mark Lowen was based in Athens at the height of the financial crisis, which led to Greece experiencing one of the worst peace-time depressions of the last hundred years. He returned to watch the old conservative party being brought back to power. Five years ago, Russian-backed forces seized control of the Crimean peninsula. Ash Bhardwaj gained permission to enter Crimea, to find out what’s changed in five year’s of Russian rule. A hundred years ago, the passing of the Addison Act spurred a huge expansion in council housing across the UK. Austria too has been remembering when it began building soci

There was an international outcry following the murder of journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year. Saudi officials blamed rogue agents sent to persuade him to return to the kingdom. Frank Gardner reflects on his encounters with Jamal Khashoggi and the questions that still need answering. Germany has pledged to more than halve its greenhouse emissions by 2030, compared with 1990 levels. But the country still relies on coal to provide 40 percent of its electricity. Tim Mansel visits a village in Rhineland that is being eaten up by a coal mine and encounters some activists at the forefront of the climate change debate. More than 25 years on from the Oslo Peace accords, close friendships between Palestinians and Israelis are still rare. Charlie Faulkner attends a Shabbat meal in Jerusalem where an Israeli woman invites a former Palestinian prisoner to her home. Maternal mortality rates in Ethiopia have been hugely reduced thanks to an innovative programme of medical training. Rut

A visit to an IS women and children's camp in northern Syria where the residents face an uncertain future. Anna Foster visits the Al Hawl camp to talk to those who are trying to salvage some form of life beyond the caliphate The rape and murder of an eight-year old girl last year in Indian-administered Kashmir had reverberations across India. As they awaited the verdict of the trial of the eight accused, Divya Arya went to speak to the nomadic Muslim community trying to come to terms with their loss. The rate of destruction in the Amazon rainforest has increased by 60 percent in the last two months, and the impact of deforestation is being heavily felt by Brazil's indigenous people. David Shukman, the BBC's Science editor, went to visit the Uru-eu-wau-wau people and learned how they were trying to balance their traditional way of life with the pace of change and development in the region. A local village mayor in south-West France has launched a campaign for rural noises, such as the sound of cicadas and roos

European leaders have finally decided who should fill the top jobs in EU organisations. They have nominated German defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, as the new President of the European Commission. She must now be approved by MEPs in Strasbourg, which has meant some serious train travel for Adam Fleming. The shocking picture of a father and his daughter lying dead in the Rio Grande recently highlighted the risks for migrants trying to cross illegally into the United States. As Chris Buckler found, others stranded on the border have a long wait. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women often have to queue for hours for water. But a new high-tech scheme in one village in Tanzania is transforming access to clean water. Chloe Farand went to see the project. Tarkhan Batirashvili grew up in Georgia’s Caucasus mountains. He became one of the most notorious terrorists in the world, ruling northern Syria for Islamic State until his death in 2016. Tarkhan’s cousin Temuri wants to combat the radicalisation that set Tarkhan on

After his party lost the Istanbul mayoral election where does Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, go from here? Mark Lowen considers whether this could be the start of his political decline. Katie Arnold reports from Kyrgyzstan where hot dry summers in the former Soviet republic are leading to drought and cross- border tension over water supplies. Alastair Leithead, the BBC's Africa correspondent, is leaving the continent 17 years after he filed his first piece for From Our Own Correspondent. How much has his role changed since then? In the United States where fourteen parents have pleaded guilty to fraudulently getting their children into top universities, Laura Trevelyan considers the lengths some parents will go to help their offspring get into their preferred college. And as much of Europe swelters under a heat wave James Reynolds takes the temperature in Rome and finds out what hot weather means to its citizens.

After an aborted missile strike, Washington insiders are scratching their heads over the President's modus operandi on Iran. Barbara Plett Usher looks at the new normal of the Trump administration. Vladimir Putin has cancelled Russian flights to Georgia after anti-Russian protests in Tbilisi, a move which will heavily impact the country's tourism industry. Rayhan Demytrie assesses the impact of President Putin's warnings on Russians holidaying there. The Armenian community was once a thriving hub in India's Chennai, running trading companies, shipping lines, coal mines and real estate developments, but their numbers have dwindled since then. Andrew Whitehead attends a service in the eighteenth-century Armenian church in the city attended by those that remain. Rocket attacks on foreign oil companies' compounds in southern Iraq may have grabbed headlines, but the citizen's of Basra are more concerned about power cuts, rubbish strewn streets and job shortages. Years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Lizzie Porte

In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country. Alison Holt considers with a Somerset family why adult social care is the policy reform no UK government does anything about. In the week of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, Martin Smith asks how far the Welsh heritage in singing is endangered and whether it might yet be part of Wales' economic future. With the time-worn quips over an Essex town ringing in her ears, Jo Glanville discovers that established notions of Southend as a seaside resort with its best days behind it are out-of-date. Andrew Green looks at the idea of the bird celebrated in the most popular piece of classical music in Britain and the reality of its existence today on the Chilterns. And Dan Johnson contemplates the personal and social links between a stately pile near Barnsley and those who live in the communities close to it.Producer: Simon Co

The death of Mohammed Morsi throws into sharp relief the challenges facing modern day Egypt, and the bigger struggle to embrace democracy. Kevin Connolly reflects back on the defining moments of his presidency.Colin Freeman visits a town in the heart of Boko Haram territory in Nigeria's north-east, and learns about a new faction which has formally declared allegiance to so-called Islamic State - and adopted a new strategy.20 years after Nato peacekeepers entered Kosovo, James Coomarasamy meets the war widows who are challenging local norms by working for a successful pickling company.Germany is grappling with the possibility a man with far-right extremist links was responsible for the shooting of one of Angela's Merkel's pro-refugee allies. Reha Kansara meets a woman who spends hours each day tackling online hate speech in the country.The warm-blooded manatee makes its way each winter to the USA's Sunshine State, but its steadily rising population was recently blighted by one of the worst cases of Red Tide -

An accident in the historic centre of Marseille in the south of France has sent shock waves through the city. Two apartment blocks collapsed late last year with the loss of eight lives. Lucy Ash asks who is to blame - slum landlords, corrupt politicians or a combination of the two? There's growing evidence of China's attempts to control its Muslim minorities and suppress their beliefs. John Sudworth was given rare access to some of the secure facilities where hundreds of thousands of Muslims are being held in the western region of Xinjiang, even though they've committed no crime nor faced trial. In Addis Ababa, Theo Leggett hears from the boss of Ethiopian Airlines who's fighting to defend the company's reputation - he says the fatal crash of one of its Boeing 737 Max aircraft in March was not the fault of his pilots. What's it like to return to a South African township school where you taught twenty seven years earlier? James Helm makes a very personal journey. And Sonia Faleiro observes the life-changing na

Ebola has spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Uganda as the authorities struggle to control it. Olivia Acland visits an Ebola zone in the DRC. Russian journalist, Ivan Golunov, this week was let off drug dealing charges after a public outcry. Steve Rosenberg looks at why the case has been so embarrassing for the Russian authorities. The protests in Hong Kong this week have seen some unlikely allies - and foes. Gabriel Gatehouse witnesses a rare stand off between a Hong Kong legislator and the police. Italy's Prime Minister is arguably less well known than his deputies. James Reynolds unpicks a complicated web of Italian politics. Whether you are visiting New Zealand's volcanoes or its spectacular fjords, getting around without a car in the country can be difficult. Christine Finn finds out why hitchhiking is popular for tourists.

This week has seen the biggest protests on the streets of Hong Kong since Britain handed the former colony back to China in 1997. Demonstrators are angry at a proposed new law which would allow extradition to mainland China for trial. As Danny Vincent reports it's considered by many in Hong Kong to be the latest example of the erosion of freedoms that Hong Kong was guaranteed during the handover. As Pride events take place all over the world this month to recognise the impact of LGBT communities and to highlight on going campaigns for equal rights, Yolande Knell reports on Pride in Israel. There are demonstrations in the heart of Europe too. Rob Cameron reports from the streets of the Czech capital, Prague where there have been protests against the prime minister. What should happen to the Chagos Islands and its former citizens now Britain has been told by the UN to hand the territory back to Mauritius? Rosie Blunt has been talking to members of the Chagossian community living in the UK. And Monica Whitlock m

Mexico takes a tougher approach to migrants as it comes under pressure from the US. Will Grant returns to Chiapas in Southern Mexico, where he travelled with the migrant caravan last year, and finds it a very different place.Sudan has been heavily criticised for the crackdown by its military on protestors in Khartoum this week, killing dozens of people. Fergal Keane, the BBC’s Africa editor looks at how far the country has changed over the years.Kevin Connolly, the BBC’s Europe editor looks back at Poland’s first big step towards democracy in the late 1980s and why it went largely unnoticed.Amy Guttman meets the female chefs in Japan who are blazing a trail for Prime Minister Abe’s plans to get more women in the workplace.Monkey puzzle trees are an endangered species in Chile, but Sarah Wheeler finds they still have special significance for the Mapuche people.

Austria has sworn in its first female chancellor but Brigitte Bierlein is unlikely to be there for long. She heads a caretaker government appointed because the previous Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz lost a confidence vote after his far- right coalition partner was caught in a video sting scandal. Bethany Bell reports from Vienna on the current political turmoil. As fighting continues in Syria's Idlib province, author Diana Darke who knows Syria well, has been to the Korean Peninsular and discovers how close the ties are between President Bashar al_Assad and North Korea's Kim Jong-un . Chris Haslam meets the Nicaraguan university rector with a price on his head - but it's not enough for his would-be assassin. Sarah Raynsford sees both sides of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan when the football fans were in town. And in Ireland thousands of visitors flock to towns and villages every summer as the music festival season gets underway. Kieran Cooke goes along too and reflects on how the country has held onto its tradi

A new cohort of MEPS are given the lowdown on local apartments and Belgian tax returns. Adam Fleming visits the Brussels Welcome Village.Yvonne Murray visits Hebei province in China where Maoist era loudspeaker systems are being reconnected. 30 years on from the pro-democracy student protests, is the Chinese government resorting to its old propaganda tactics?Mathew Charles visits a rehabilitation programme in one of El Salvador's prisons that hopes to reform ex-gangsters by teaching them skills and converting them to Christianity.Wolf howling is used in Romania as a way to track their numbers in the Carpathian mountains. Nick Thorpe looks at how animal conservationists are trying to protect Europe’s population of wolves and bears.In United Arab Emirates, what’s thought to be the world’s first all women car club is taking the region by storm. Vivienne Nunis went to a racetrack to watch them in action.

India has a huge unemployment problem. Anu Anand takes a look at some of the jobs - such as ear-cleaning, pushing buttons in lifts and road sweeping with brooms - people do to make a living. Following the EU elections which saw an increase in the number of nationalist MEP across the continent, John Kampfner visits Aachen, a town at the historical centre of a unified Europe... under Charlemagne. In South Africa, the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood of Cape Town, with its cobbled streets and colourful houses, has become one of the country's must-see tourist destinations - and property there has become pricey. Ione Wells looks at the downside of gentrification. Only about 75,000 people in Estonia still speak the Voro language. Simon Broughton meets some of those trying to ensure it has a universal and lasting appeal. And Christine Finn finds herself, unexpectedly, on a mini-break: but not where she intended. What is it like to spend almost a week in Singapore's Changi Airport?Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Caroline Bayle

Anonymous contacts. Secret meetings. Men in raincoats. Gabriel Gatehouse reveals what it can take to bring a story on collusion to light. In Bulgaria, Colin Freeman assesses the economic importance of the Kalashnikov AK47 assault rifle. More than 150 years after slavery officially ended in the US, Juliet Rix has a chance encounter in South Carolina that suggests the past is remarkably present. In the wetlands of southern Iraq Leon McCarron meets some of the people known as the Marsh Arabs. In the 1980s their homeland was a frontline in the Iran-Iraq war; in the 1990s Saddam Hussein unleashed fighter jets to destroy their settlements. Now they face another threat - there's still not enough clean water. And in Italy, Dany Mitzman tries to make the best of a dreaded family day out...at a football match.

As states restrict abortion rights and hundreds of pro-choice protests take place across the US, Laura Trevelyan assesses the country's widening cultural divisions and asks what might happen next. In the Lebanese city of Tripoli, where there have been community divisions for a generation, Bob Howard visits a neighbourhood café with reconciliation on the menu. In Peru illegal gold mining has become big business. Laurence Blair reports on the lawless camps that have emerged and asks what can be done to stop the environmental damage being done to the Amazonian jungle. Amelia Martyn-Hemphill meets Mechai Viravaidya also known as "the Condom King" in Bangkok's red light district. He's using coloured balloons and jokey humour to limit the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in Thailand. And in Ghana Emma Thomson enjoys a royal spectacle as the King and the history of Asante people are celebrated.

In the latest programme of the monthly series, Mishal Husain introduces dispatches from journalists and writers around the United Kingdom that reflect the range of contemporary life in the country. Martin Vennard in Saltburn reveals how surfing has improbably helped revive the fortunes of the once-proud Victorian resort on Tees-side; while Travis Elborough taps a surf music beat in Worthing where a 50 year-old musical phenomenon is garnering new fans. Baby boomer Martin Gurdon, recently bereaved in late middle-age, explains how saying his final goodbye to an elderly parent was both something greater longevity had prepared him for and yet - at least initially - still left him disoriented. Emma Levine in Barnsley reports on how a strange football match saw differing contemporary Yorkshire identities on display off the pitch. And Athar Ahmad prepares to go on a solitary spiritual quest in the final days of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Producer: Simon Coates