Ukraine: a war of nerves
Ukrainians brace for further escalations after Kerch bridge attack; Iran’s protests echo in Iraqi Kurdistan; a coup in Burkina Faso; drugs, poverty and Thailand’s nursery massacre
Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from reporters in Ukraine, Iraqi Kurdistan, Burkina Faso and Thailand.
In Kyiv and in Zaporizhzhia, despite Russian bombing, Ukrainian morale started last week on a high following the attack on the Kerch bridge to Crimea. But soon these cities – and others – suffered Russian retaliatory strikes. Paul Adams describes the mood he’s felt and the damage he’s seen during his most recent time in Ukraine.
As protests against Iran’s government and its mandatory hijab rules continue, the demonstrators’ chants of “Woman, Life, Freedom” echo strongly across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan. But so do the threats from Iranian government and security agencies against those speaking out. Mahsa Amini, the young woman whose death in custody sparked the mass protests, was of Kurdish origin. Anna Foster spoke to some of Mahsa’s family in Sulaymaniyeh – and heard eyewitness accounts of the scenes unfolding inside Iran.
When is a coup not a coup? Henry Wilkins recently witnessed the swift installation of another military man as leader of Burkina Faso. But the soldiers who brought Captain Ibrahim Traore to power didn’t follow the usual coup playbook – and the army still has many grievances as it tries to fight back the insurgency threatening the country.
The shocking attack on a nursery in Thailand’s north-east by a former police officer, in which twenty-three young children and thirteen adults were killed, has raised troubling questions over why it happened, and whether it might have been stopped. ѿý South East Asia Correspondent Jonathan Head reports from the village of Uthai Sawan, where the victims were given a state-funded mass funeral, and reflects on the wider hardship of life in one of Thailand’s poorest regions.
Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Bridget Harney
Production Co-Ordinator: Iona Hammond
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