300 episodes

Series focusing on foreign affairs issues

Crossing Continents BBC Radio 4

    • Personal Journals

Series focusing on foreign affairs issues

    American Mercenaries: Killing in Yemen

    American Mercenaries: Killing in Yemen

    While recent attention has focused on the Houthi rebel movement in Yemen, BBC correspondent Nawal Al-Maghafi investigates a different, hidden aspect of the country’s long civil war.
    The conflict in Yemen began in 2014. It has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In 2015, a coalition formed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen. Its stated aim was to return the elected government to power, and to fight terrorism.
    However, Nawal Al-Maghafi , from BBC Arabic Investigations has found evidence that the UAE has been funding a method of covert warfare in southern Yemen – assassinating those who have spoken out against the UAE’s operations in the country. Assassinations were initially carried out by a band of former American Special Forces operatives turned mercenaries, who were paid by the UAE. These extra-judicial killings, conducted in the name of counterterrorism, continue to this day. The UAE denies the allegations.
    Reporter: Nawal Al-Maghafi
    Producer: Alex Last
    Sound mix: Rod Farquhar
    Series Editor: Penny Murphy
    Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Executive Producer for BBC News Arabic: Monica Gansey

    • 28 min
    Bulgaria: the people smugglers

    Bulgaria: the people smugglers

    Migration is high on the political agenda in countries across Europe, as the number of asylum seekers rises once more. As well as those who risk life and limb on flimsy boats in the Mediterranean, thousands more come via the Balkans, many of them through Turkey and across the border into Bulgaria. They don’t stay there long. Their preferred destinations are further west, Germany perhaps or Britain. And while the migrants’ stories have become well-known in recent years, we hear relatively little from the people who enable their journeys, the people smugglers.
    For Crossing Continents, Nick Thorpe has been to the north-west of Bulgaria, where it meets Serbia to the west and Romania across the Danube to the north. There he meets two men who worked as drivers for a smuggling organisation, shuttling migrants from Sofia, the capital, to the border.
    Presented by Nick Thorpe
    Produced by Tim Mansel

    • 28 min
    The Struggle for Barbuda's Future

    The Struggle for Barbuda's Future

    Campaigners on the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda are locked in a battle over its development by foreign investors who are building exclusive resorts for wealthy clients. The development of Barbuda into a high-end tourist destination is supported by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, who say it’s essential to create jobs and for the economic future of the island. But others argue that it will fundamentally change the island’s ecology and unique way of life. Caroline Bayley travels to Barbuda for Crossing Continents to speak to both sides in the heated debate over the island’s future.
    Photo: The pristine coastline on Barbuda's south coast, which has become the main focus for new luxury developments (BBC).
    Reporter: Caroline Bayley
    Producer: Alex Last
    Sound mix by Rod Farquhar
    Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Series Editor: Penny Murphy

    • 29 min
    Bones that speak

    Bones that speak

    In 2016, the Philippines’ newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte declared there was one, common enemy: the drugs trade. What followed was a bloodbath. Addicts, alleged traffickers – and so many who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – were gunned down in the streets by the security services. Often, the police claimed there had been a shoot-out and they had shot back in self-defence. The government put the number of people killed in the ‘war on drugs’ at 6,252 – that figure doesn’t include the thousands killed by unknown assailants.

    Now some of those victims are speaking from beyond the grave. Many were poor, and their families couldn’t afford a permanent resting place in a cemetery. Instead, they rented a burial spot. And, as those short leases have come up for eviction, a Catholic priest, Father Flavie Villanueva, offers families help to exhume and cremate the bodies. But before cremation, the remains are examined by one of only two forensic pathologists in the Philippines, Dr Raquel Fortun.

    Dr Fortun has assessed the skeletal remains of dozens of victims of the ‘war on drugs’. Her findings often contradict police narratives. For Crossing Continents, Linda Pressly reports on these efforts to uncover the truth of what happened under President Duterte. But she also hears how, under a new president since 2022 - Ferdinand Marcos Jr - the killings on the streets have continued.

    Producer: Tim Mansel
    Presenter: Linda Pressly
    Studio mix by James Beard
    Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Editor: Penny Murphy

    • 29 min
    Bolivia’s giant fish intruder

    Bolivia’s giant fish intruder

    Some people said it was created by Peruvian scientists, that it gorged on the blood of farm animals, that it was a monster. Many myths have grown up in Bolivia around the Paiche, one of the world’s largest scaled freshwater fish which is native to Amazonian rivers of Brazil and Peru and can grow up to four metres long. But after young fish were accidentally released from a Peruvian fish farm, the Paiche has arrived big time in Bolivian rivers.
    Every year, it reaches another 40 km of river and is eating all before it, especially smaller native fish stocks including even the deadly piranha. At the same time, the Paiche is proving a boon to many local fisherman who sell it to families and restaurants who are acquiring a taste for it in a land-locked country where meat has always been the favourite form of protein. This gives scientists and the authorities a dilemma. Do they try and control or even eradicate the Paiche from rivers famed for their biodiversity where new species are being identified all the time? Or let its spread continue unabated and provide a useful livelihood for fishermen and a healthy addition to the Bolivian diet? For Crossing Continents, Jane Chambers takes to the rivers of Bolivia
    Produced by Bob Howard
    Mixed by Rod Farquhar
    Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Series editor: Penny Murphy

    • 28 min
    Ukraine: Building back better

    Ukraine: Building back better

    Rebuilding Ukraine after the destruction inflicted by Russia will be a gigantic task. Foreign donors have pledged billions of dollars. But they want reassurances that the money will be properly spent, in a country which still has high levels of corruption. For Crossing Continents Tim Whewell visits Bucha, near the capital Kyiv, site of some of the worst Russian atrocities, to see the beginning of reconstruction. A series of shocking reports by Ukrainian journalists into alleged misuse of rebuilding funds have forced local authorities in the area to explain themselves. But a new state reconstruction agency committed to transparency has now also started work in Bucha. And anti-corruption campaigners believe a new digital accounting and monitoring system they are developing in collaboration with the authorities will help turn Ukraine into a world beacon of openness. The government's slogan is "build back better." But what exactly does that mean? And can it be achieved?
    Produced and presented by Tim Whewell
    Studio Mix: Neil Churchill
    Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
    Editor: Penny Murphy

    • 28 min

Top Podcasts In @@categoryName@@

Money Moves with Toni Tone
BBC Radio 1Xtra
Brown Girls Do It Too
BBC Sounds
Global News Podcast
BBC World Service
In Our Time
BBC Radio 4
The Bomb
BBC World Service
In Our Time: Culture
BBC Radio 4

You Might Also Like

From Our Own Correspondent
BBC Radio 4
Seriously...
BBC Radio 4
File on 4
BBC Radio 4
Analysis
BBC Radio 4
A Point of View
BBC Radio 4
Great Lives
BBC Radio 4