THE WORLD WE LIVE IN

The Documentary Podcast

Stories from the New Silk Road: Norway (Tue, 05 Dec 2023)
The Norwegian town of Kirkenes set on the coast and inside the Arctic Circle, is on the edge of what the Chinese refer to as the Polar Silk Road. The Northern Sea Route or Northeast Passage is an increasingly valuable shipping route for both Russia and China, hugging the Russian coastline to eastern Siberia. In 2010 a ship departed from Kirkenes bound for China with 41,500 tons of iron ore concentrate, arriving 22 days later. Via the Suez canal, the same journey would have taken over 40 days. It was the first time that a non-Russian ship had been along the Northern Sea Route, showing that this was possible and paving the way for China’s Arctic policy. Anna Holligan shines a light on China’s wider ambitions in the Arctic.
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Filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk: Animating Ukraine’s War (Mon, 04 Dec 2023)
Iryna Tsilyk is one of Ukraine’s best known young documentary makers. She made her name following the lives of soldiers, female paramedics and families living on the frontline in East Ukraine after the region was taken over by Moscow-backed separatists. However after Russia’s full-scale invasion brought the war to Iryna’s home city of Kyiv, she decided she could no longer stay behind the camera. So, in her current project, The Red Zone, Iryna is turning the lens on herself and her family. Iryna’s husband, Artem Chekh, is a well-known novelist and journalist. He volunteered to join the army and found himself in Bakhmut, scene of some of the bloodiest fighting. For five days Iryna did not know if he was alive or dead. She is focusing on the anguish she felt over this period and using a series of flashbacks to illustrate their past lives in peacetime. Iryna tells Lucy Ash that to give herself more artistic freedom she has decided on a radical new tool for her work: this film will be an animation. Making films in wartime is a challenge and animation is expensive but Iryna has foreign backers and is determined to tell her own story in her own way.
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BBC News - Science & Environment

COP28: Is the world about to promise to ditch fossil fuels? (Wed, 06 Dec 2023)
COP28 host country the United Arab Emirates is "cautiously optimistic" on a deal to at least reduce them.
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COP28: Record number of fossil fuel delegates at climate talks (Tue, 05 Dec 2023)
Over 2,400 participants are linked to coal, oil and gas, four times more than attended last year's gathering.
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Air pollution: map shows 'concrete jungles' more polluted (Tue, 05 Dec 2023)
A Sheffield school is fighting dirty air with trees as new data links their absence to pollution.
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BBC News - Entertainment & Arts

Taylor Swift named Time Magazine's person of the year (Wed, 06 Dec 2023)
The singer told the magazine that she is "the proudest and happiest I've ever felt".
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Wes Anderson and other TikTok trends that defined 2023 (Wed, 06 Dec 2023)
Users of the app also ran wild with discussion of the Roman Empire, yearbook filters and "girl dinner".
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Samir Shah: TV executive is government's choice for new BBC chairman (Wed, 06 Dec 2023)
Shah, a former BBC journalist, is the government's preferred candidate to replace Richard Sharp.
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