SATURDAY 05 DECEMBER 2020

SAT 00:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn62k4s)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 00:06 The Real Story (w3cszcny)
Is Biden facing a new Middle East?

The assassination of the Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh appears to have made life more difficult for President-elect Biden - yet another event to weigh up as he considers what to do about Donald Trump’s legacy across the Middle East. Over the last four years the Republican president withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran known as the JCPOA, shifted the US embassy to Jerusalem, withdrew almost all American troops from Syria and refused to support a bill that called for a ban on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia because of its role in the war in Yemen. Mr Trump’s 'maximum pressure' strategy did not prevent Iran from conducting nuclear enrichment and the country remains an influential player in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Meanwhile the Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE, plus Israel and Bahrain have not just normalised diplomatic relations, but also opened new commercial and economic channels between old foes. In an article this year Joe Biden wrote that his administration would stand up to authoritarianism and will place democracy back at the core of US foreign policy. But is that realistic in a region that has adapted to the policies promoted by Donald Trump? To what extent does the thaw in relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours impact America's influence in the region? How much Obama-era policy can or should the Biden administration bring back? Join Ritula Shah and guests as they discuss whether Joe Biden is facing a new Middle East.


SAT 01:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn62nwx)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 01:06 Business Matters (w172x193vmjvwzt)
Joe Biden wants agreement to help unemployed

US President-elect, Joe Biden, is calling for an urgent bipartisan agreement in Congress to help people who've lost their jobs because of the pandemic. The government of Denmark has pledged to give up its North Sea oil production by the year 2050 in order to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; we hear more from Steven Mufson at the Washington Post. Efforts in the US by the Trump administration to restrict the use of the H-1B professional visa were blocked this week by a court in California; the BBC's Mike Johnson reports. Warner Brothers has said all its films in 2021 will be streamed in the US as soon as they're released. So can the multiplex survive? We hear from Karen Krizanovich is a UK-based film critic and film industry expert. And we're joined throughout the programme by Will Murray, a reporter for Australia's Nine News. (Picture of Joe Biden by Alex Wong for Getty Images)


SAT 02:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn62sn1)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 02:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bjxkbnk25)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 02:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccss4xf)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 02:32 Stumped (w3cszhk6)
Thunder's glory and Jaffna's rise from the rubble

Sydney Thunder bowler Hannah Darlington on Big Bash glory, future Australia selection and barefoot circles.

Are England's coded messages from the dressing-room to the captain a vision of cricket's future or an underhand tactic that needs to be stamped out?

The northern city that bore the brunt of Sri Lanka's civil war sets out to discover its first international cricketer.

And reaction to Australia's comprehensive men's one-day series victory over India.

Photo: Sydney Thunder lift the WBBL Trophy (Getty Images)


SAT 03:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn62xd5)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 03:06 The Fifth Floor (w3cszjj2)
China’s provocative political artist

China and Australia are in a diplomatic fight, after the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman posted a fake image of an Australian soldier killing an Afghan child. The artist was Wuheqilin, a self-styled "Wolf Warrior" and "cyber-nationalist" based in Beijing. BBC Chinese editor Howard Zhang tells us more about the controversial artist fighting China's corner.

In praise of Mborokhé
Seydina Alioune Djigo, who’s based at BBC Dakar, has put his journalistic neutrality on the line to nominate his favourite food for a Nobel prize. He tells us why he believes Mborokhé deserves international recognition.

Vietnam and stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is relatively new in Vietnam and, in a country where public performances are monitored by the state, doesn’t touch on sensitive topics. So the success of Leo Nguyen, a Vietnamese comedian based in the US, talking about politics and abuses of power, caught the attention of BBC Vietnamese journalist Thu Bui.

Let’s speak Quechua
Quechua is the most widely spoken indigenous language in South America, having spread across the region in the time of the Inca Empire. Lucia Blasco of BBC Mundo has been tracing its influence on Spanish, which absorbed many Quechua words after the arrival of the conquerors from Spain.

Remembering Ilyas Dayee
Ilyas Dayee was a journalist in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He received many death threats for his work, and in November was killed by a car bomb outside his home. Former BBC Afghan journalist Auliya Atrafi grew up in the same village as Ilyas, and was taught English by his father. He shares his memories of Ilyas.


Image: Wuheqilin’s latest artwork
Credit: Wuheqilin


SAT 03:50 Witness History (w3cszmvy)
The V1 flying bomb

In 1944, Nazi Germany launched the V1s against the UK. The V1 was a pilotless, jet-propelled flying bomb - the first of its kind in the world and a precursor to the modern cruise missile. The V1 was also the first of Hitler's secret "revenge weapons" which he hoped would change the course of the Second World War. Some 10,000 V1s were fired at the UK. They killed more than 6,000 people and injured 20,000 more. Using archive recordings we hear from civilians who survived V1 attacks and from those tasked to stop the flying bombs.

Photo:A German V1 or 'Doodlebug' pilotless flying bomb in flight, circa 1944. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)


SAT 04:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn63149)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 04:06 The Reith Lectures (w3ct1cyl)
From moral to market sentiments

Dr Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, will chart how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and how we have gone from market economies to market societies. He argues that this has contributed to a trio of global crises: of credit, Covid and climate. And he outlines how we can turn this around.

In this first of four lectures, Mark Carney reflects that whenever he could step back from what felt like daily crisis management, the same deeper issues loomed. What is value? How does the way we assess value both shape our values and constrain our choices? How do the valuations of markets affect the values of our society? Carney argues that society has come to embody the Irish writer Oscar Wilde’s old aphorism: “Knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing.”

(Photo: Outgoing Bank of England governor Mark Carney makes a keynote address at the 2020 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Credit: Tolga Akmen/ Getty Images)


SAT 05:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn634wf)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 05:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bjxkbnx9k)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 05:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccssj4t)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 05:32 The Cultural Frontline (w3cszj99)
Songhoy Blues: Mali’s Musical Optimists

An audience with Mali’s messengers of hope; Aliou Touré, the lead singer of rock revolutionaries Songhoy Blues, tells Tina about their new album and why they believe optimism is the only way to challenge the ongoing civil unrest in their country.

He’s been described as perhaps the greatest writer of Arabic fiction alive, but as well as a being a celebrated writer, poet and filmmaker, Hassan Blasim is also a refugee. Hassan discusses his latest novel God 99 - a work that tells the tale of 99 refugees and the man, also called Hassan, travelling through Europe to share their stories.

Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik talks to reporter Lucy Ash about the nation’s pro-democracy protest movement. Andrei reveals how his latest production, Insulted Belarus(sia) reflects the legacy of President Alexander Lukashenko, the man often called Europe’s Last Dictator.

Plus has a film, a play or a book ever changed the way you see the world? The activist and photographer Sunil Gupta shares the story of his discovery of the work of the Canadian writer, Alice Munro.

Presented by Tina Daheley


(Photo: Songhoy Blues. Credit: Kiss Diouara, Millennium Communication, Bamako)


SAT 06:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn638mk)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 06:06 Weekend (w172x7d5t0k1mx8)
Tigray: Eyewitness says Ethiopian government forces attacked the town of Humera

Dr Tewedros Tefera is a medical doctor and general surgeon at the main hospital in the Tigrayan town of Humera and he describes when it was attacked by Ethiopian government forces on November 8th. He has fled across the border to Sudan. Also: despite allegations of fraud and a boycott of the vote by the opposition, we’ll look ahead to Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Venezuela; and US job growth slowed sharply in November, will Congress approve a $900 billion relief bill?

Joining Celia Hatton to discuss these and other issues are Lone Thiels, Danish crime novelist and journalist; and Andrea Sella a broadcaster and professor of chemistry at University College London.

(Picture: Ethiopians fleeing from the Tigray region arrive by boat to Sudan after crossing a river between the two countries. Credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner)


SAT 07:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn63dcp)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 07:06 Weekend (w172x7d5t0k1rnd)
A doctor who fled Tigray says government forces attacked his town

A rare eyewitness account from events in Tigray describes a town being attacked by government forces. Dr Tewedros Tefera, a medical doctor, says some of those he treated were civilians. Also: the UK became the first country in the world to approve a Covid-19 vaccine for use, through an internationally recognised process, is this a “game-changer” for international efforts to end the pandemic? And Denmark’s first female Muslim member of parliament discusses her new book based on her own experiences of prejudice.

Joining Celia Hatton to discuss these and other issues are Lone Thiels, Danish crime novelist and journalist; and Andrea Sella a broadcaster and professor of chemistry at University College London.

(Photo: Ethiopian refugees from Tigray region wait in line to receive aid at the Um Rakuba refugee camp Credit: EPA/ALA KHEIR)


SAT 08:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn63j3t)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 08:06 Weekend (w172x7d5t0k1wdj)
Russia begins vaccinating people against Covid-19

Russia has begun using its own vaccine known as Sputnik V to vaccinate against Covid-19. Developers say it’s up to ninety-five percent effective and causes no major side effects. Also; as Brexit trade talks begin to wind down there is still no deal and time is running out, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will have direct talks with EU president Ursula von der Leyen; and 25,000 jobs are at risk in the UK as two big British retailers face collapse, what does this mean for the future of the High Street?

Joining Celia Hatton to discuss these and other issues are Lone Thiels, Danish crime novelist and journalist; and Andrea Sella a broadcaster and professor of chemistry at University College London.

(Photo: A nurse shows Russia"s "Sputnik-V" vaccine. Credit: REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo)


SAT 08:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccsswd6)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 08:32 When Katty Met Carlos (w3ct1c4x)
Good cops, bad cops

One of the major stories of the past year was the death of George Floyd in May, following his arrest outside a store in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The whole world saw the video of police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck, pinning him to the ground for more than 8 minutes. Chauvin has now been charged with murder - one of only a few American police officers to be charged with murdering a civilian.

George Floyd’s death was the result of a standard encounter between police officers and a member of the public, which unnecessarily spiralled out of control - a tragically familiar tale when it to comes to the police and minority communities.

What can America do to better tackle the problem of police brutality, and why does it seem so hard to bring bad cops to account?

Guests:

Leon Ford, a social justice campaigner from Pittsburgh who was paralysed after being shot by police during a traffic stop in 2012

Chief Art Acevedo, City of Houston Police Department

Redditt Hudson, former St Louis police officer, and co-founder of the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice Reform and Accountability

Editor: Hugh Levinson
Production team: Luke Radcliff, Maeve McGoran, Iyore Odighizuwa, Jonelle Awomoyi, Pamela Lorence


SAT 09:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn63mvy)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 09:06 BBC OS Conversations (w3ct19yy)
Coronavirus: Vaccine approved

The UK has become the first country to approve the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine and is due to start a mass immunisation programme next week. Meanwhile, Russia is due to begin a vaccination programme with its Sputnik V vaccine this weekend. And China is promising countries millions of vaccines. A pathway to an end to the pandemic and a return to normality could be in sight.

Host 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. We hear them in conversation with a doctor in Toronto, who treats Covid patients.

Picture: Kerry Thompson (Credit: Kerry Thompson)


SAT 09:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccst04b)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 09:32 Girl Taken (w3ct0xwd)
Girl Taken

05/12/2020 GMT

Girl Taken is a two year investigation to find a little girl taken from her mother in Iran. In this 11 part series, recorded in real time, Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie slowly unravel the mystery of what happened to four year old Bru and set out to reunite mother and daughter after years of being apart.

The series starts when Sue Mitchell came into the story, as a reporter for the BBC covering the refugee crisis in Europe. The little girl had hit the media spotlight when her father, claiming to be a widow fleeing Afghanistan under threat of death from the Taliban, asked Rob Lawrie, a volunteer at the Calais camp, for help. He wanted Rob to smuggle Bru to the UK but this failed. Although the story was extensively covered no one knew Bru’s mother was alive and desperately searching for her.

Through the original BBC coverage the mother, Goli, makes contact with Sue and Rob, telling them her daughter was taken from the family home in Tehran without her knowledge or consent. She’d been to the police in Iran but was told they could not help. She then travelled thousands of miles at the hands of smugglers with Bru’s baby sister, Baran. Sickness forced her to stop in Denmark but authorities and refugee charities there could not find Bru. These recordings cover a series of dramatic turns in the search for the little girl.

The recordings also touch on the plight of other women whose children have been taken from them by abusive husbands. It is still a rare thing to happen, but this investigation exposes shortcomings in the asylum process. Since the recordings aired, officials have discovered other cases where men have come into the United Kingdom with a child to help their asylum claims. These claims have not been fully investigated in the past and there are few safeguards to protect those who have suffered as a result.

The series raises the plight of children living in the Calais Jungle and other overcrowded and unsanitary camps. Through Goli’s story we learn more about the control others had in shaping her life. She’d had an arranged marriage to a cruel and controlling man and lived in a society where she had few rights. When she decided to flee Iran and search for Bru, she encountered many dangers, from smugglers to perilous sea crossings in the dead of night with Bru’s baby sister, Baran, in her arms.

The series gives voice to one woman’s story and in doing so raises issues affecting many others. Goli left the only culture she had known to search the world for her little girl and in doing so changed her outlook completely. On reaching the West she immersed herself in the education she had always wanted. As she began making her own choices she starts to experience possibilities and freedoms she had never before imagined. Goli is hopeful that her story could help other women to challenge the injustice and cruelty she has overcome.


SAT 09:50 Over to You (w3cszf5b)
The key events that propelled disability rights

Witness History has been looking at milestones in the history of disability rights around the world. Its editor Kirsty Reid explains how each case study was chosen to mark 25 years of the passing of the Disablity Discrimination Act in the UK.

Plus: the launch of the BBC’s 100 Women list 2020. We learn about its inspiring history.

Presenter Rajan Datar
Producer: Howard Shannon


SAT 10:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn63rm2)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 10:06 Sportshour (w172x3c4rrvmkds)
“At some point you start sinking like a rock” – Alenka Artnik

Slovenia’s Alenka Artnik joins us after she set a new world record in freediving by descending 374 feet below the surface of the Red Sea. Just off the coast of Egypt, she secured a four-pound weight around her neck and fastened herself to a thin line before holding her breath and going for the record. Artnik tells us about the pressures on her body, how a traumatic past led her to try freediving and how seeing a vision of her dead brother on a previous dive helped her come to terms with his passing.

USA striker Jessica McDonald tells us about the challenges she has faced in balancing her sporting career with motherhood as FIFA prepare to bring in new maternity cover regulations. McDonald was the only mother in the USA’s World Cup winning squad in 2019. The North Carolina Courage player tells us she’s had coaches in the past who have used her son as a reason to criticise her when she’s had a bad game and that she knows plenty of players who have given up on football in order to start a family.

The coach of the PNG Hunters – Matthew Church – explains how the coronavirus pandemic means they’re relocating from Papua New Guinea to Australia for the 2021 season. The Rugby League side play in the Queensland League and usually travel between Port Moresby and Australia for matches.

Chris Nikic became the first person with Down's syndrome to finish an Ironman event - swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running a 26.2-mile marathon in Florida last month. In Ironman's 42-year history, no athlete with Down's syndrome - a genetic condition that can cause varying degrees of learning disability and slower physical development – had ever attempted an event, let alone finished one. Chris and his father Nick reflect on the achievement and Chris says he's targeting Ironman Hawaii next.

In Sporting Witness – we tell the story of Learie Constantine, who became the first West Indian cricketer to sign a professional contract in England. Whilst being a star, Learie helped improve race relations in Britain and later became the first black person to be awarded a peerage.

And the BBC’s Juliette Ferrington joins us from Turf Moor ahead of the early kick-off in the Premier League between Burnley and Everton.

Photo: Alenka Artnik freediving


SAT 11:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn63wc6)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 11:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bjxkbpmsb)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 11:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccst7ml)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 11:32 The Documentary (w3ct1cx3)
Belarus across the barricades - part one

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. For more than one hundred days these versions of Belarus have advanced and retreated - and now they seem locked in impasse.

Despite sanctions, despite disapproval so loud that even foreign diplomats are demonstrating - the government of Alexander Lukashenko stands firm. Despite violence and intimidation, arrest and the prohibition on all independent reporting, the demonstrators keep coming, day after day, night after night.

Producer: Monica Whitlock

(Photo: Belarusian law enforcement officers block opposition supporters during their rally to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Credit: Reuters)


SAT 12:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn6403b)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 12:06 Music Life (w3csz6tw)
Coconut water and confidence with Kranium, Masego and Alicai Harley

Kranium is a singer and songwriter who blends dancehall and reggae. Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York, he’s worked with the likes of Ty Dolla $ign, Burna Boy, Mahalia and Ed Sheeran. He chats to Masego and Alicai Harley about working quickly in airports, what their best choruses are, how they use the sounds of what came before, and what it’s like working with the industry’s biggest names.

Answering those questions is Masego, a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and rapper based in LA. The video of him recording and live-looping his hit single Tadow with producer FKJ has been viewed over 240 million times. They're joined by an artist blowing up in London right now, Alicai Harley. She’s a singer, songwriter, and rapper known for her freestyles, whose sound fuses elements of dancehall, R&B, pop and UK grime.


SAT 13:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn643vg)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 13:06 Newshour (w172x2z2d5pt9h1)
London: Brexit talks over trade deal

Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen will hold direct talks later to try to secure a post-Brexit agreement between Britain and the EU.

A mass coronavirus immunisation campaign has begun in Moscow, using Russia's own Sputnik vaccine.

And China builds a quantum computer that can perform a calculation that would take a modern day supercomputer billions of years to complete.

(Photo credit: EPA/Reuters)


SAT 14:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn647ll)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 14:06 Sportsworld (w172x3ljrb8ts7x)
Live Sporting Action

Lee James presents live commentary on Manchester City against Fulham from the English Premier League. Plus highlights of Burnley v Everton and a look ahead to West Ham versus Manchester United and Chelsea against Leeds. Today in the Premier League will have reaction from the day’s top stories at 1630 GMT

On this Sportsworld Team this week as we build up to kick-off we’re joined by the former Arsenal and England international Rachel Yankey, the former West Bromwich Albion and Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie and Spurs and Dutch goalkeeper Michel Vorm.

Also this week, the latest from the Rugby Championship, Formula One. Test cricket between New Zealand and West Indies and an interview with the new MOTO GP World Champion, Joan Mir.

Photo: Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City looks on during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Burnley (Credit: Michael Regan/Getty Images)


SAT 18:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn64ql3)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 18:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bjxkbqh07)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 18:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccsv2vh)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 18:32 Mayday (w3ct1cx8)
On 11 November 2019 James Le Mesurier was found dead in a street in Istanbul. He was the latest casualty in a very unusual war – one fought not on the battlefield, but online.

Le Mesurier was a mysterious figure with a taste for the finer things who served in the British Army in several of the world’s hotspots before focusing his energies on war-ravaged Syria from 2014. He co-founded the White Helmets, a Syrian civil defence force who filmed themselves pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble of bombed out buildings.

Soon, the White Helmets - and Le Mesurier - found themselves at the centre of a global race to control the narrative in the Syrian War. In this investigative series Mayday, presenter Chloe Hadjimatheou talks to the people who knew James, including his widow Emma, his ex-wife and former army colleagues, as well as those on the ground in Syria still working as White Helmets today in an effort to piece together James’ story and that of the White Helmets. She speaks to some of the White Helmet’s detractors and follows up accusations about the organisation to try and understand the truth surrounding them.

Chloe Hadjimatheou says: “Making this series has been an extraordinary experience, as listeners will discover. It started out being an investigation into the story of a man with an astonishing life and a mysterious death but it ended up taking me on a bizarre journey down rabbit holes of misinformation. Ultimately this is a story about how truth functions in modern warfare.”


SAT 18:50 More or Less (w3ct0pyc)
Vaccines: How safe and who gets it?

The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the use of a vaccine for Covid 19. But some people are worried that the decision was taken too quickly - can we really know it’s safe yet? Tim Harford tackles these safety concerns.

Plus, what is the best way to distribute the vaccine? How do you maximise the benefit of the first round of vaccines? Stuart McDonald, a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK works out what groups would benefit most.


Presenter: Tim Harford
Producer: Charlotte McDonald


(A nurse vaccinates seniors against influenza to avoid cross-infection with coronavirus. Credit: Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)


SAT 19:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn64vb7)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 19:06 The Documentary (w3ct17xk)
Back down to Earth

Since November 2000 there have always been humans living in space on the International Space Station (ISS). But when was the last time we stopped to ask why we’re so eager to leave the Earth?
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’s time to abandon the dream of human space travel and come back down to Earth. Featuring a near-mutiny in space, genetically modified astronauts, sentient robots and the challenges of haircuts on Mars, Beatriz questions whether we are cut-out for life beyond our beautiful home world.

(Photo: An astronaut hovers above the Earth. Credit: Nasa)


SAT 20:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn64z2c)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 20:06 The Arts Hour (w3cszk3v)
Actor Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen tells us about his new movie Falling, in which he acts, directs and has also written

Hollywood star Amy Adams talks about her role in Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy

Dolly Parton on losing a Dolly Parton lookalike contest and the woman who inspired her hit song Jolene

The reigning queen of performance art Marina Abramović talks about subverting the TV experience

We have music from Madagascar’s Modeste Hugues

And we hear from this year’s Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart and former US President Barack Obama shares his thoughts on the power of books

Joining Nikki Bedi in the studio is film critic Guy Lodge and on the line from Essex is Abi Daré, who’ll also be telling us about her novel The Girl with the Louding Voice, about a young house girl in Lagos, Nigeria.


(Photo: Viggo Mortensen. Credit: Rich Polk via Getty Images)


SAT 21:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn652th)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 21:06 Newshour (w172x2z2d5pv8g2)
President Trump campaigns for Georgia Senators

Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail. He's in Georgia to give his support to Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are facing January runoffs. Also in the programme: Covid in South Dakota, Brexit deadline looms, and Argentina taxes the rich.

(Photo: Republican US Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler at a Senate runoff election campaign rally in Canton, Georgia, 20 November 2020. Credit: EPA/TAMI CHAPPELL)


SAT 22:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn656km)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 22:06 The Newsroom (w172x79qgtr1nkg)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 22:20 Sports News (w172x3fm2ynqyj9)
BBC Sport brings you all the latest stories and results from around the world.


SAT 22:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5q0ccsvkv0)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 22:32 Heart and Soul (w3ct1csk)
Jonestown: From socialism to slaughter - Part one

In 1978, over 900 US citizens died at Jonestown, a remote settlement in Guyana. The vast majority were members of a community run by the charismatic Rev Jim Jones, taking their own lives under armed guard on his orders. But how did a church known for racial integration and practical help for the poor come to such a destructive end? How could one man’s increasing paranoia have driven so many people, who had built a mission community from nothing in four years, into a seemingly pointless sacrifice?

In these programmes, Erin Martin – who herself grew up in a religious group that exercised strong control over its members – hears from survivors of what’s become known as the Jonestown Massacre, an event that captivated and horrified the US and international media.

Contributors include Stephan Jones, son of the Rev Jim Jones; Vera Washington, for whom Peoples Temple was “a wonderful, warm family” before it all went wrong; Jordan Vilchez, who at 16 already belonged to Jones’ inner circle; John Cobb, Leslie Wagner-Wilson, Tim Carter and Mike Cartmell, who each lost several family members in Jonestown; and Fielding M McGehee III, Temple archivist and Research Director at the Alternative Considerations of Jonestown website.

Between them, they reflect on the attraction of Peoples Temple, trace the road that ended with the destruction of the Jonestown community, and explain how they escaped with their lives. And they try to answer one crucial question: what could have led an idealistic group of community-minded people to such destruction?

Producer: Paul Arnold

(Photo:The local tourist office has placed signs to mark the site of Jonestown, Guyana. Credit: Getty Images)


SAT 23:00 BBC News (w172x5p5xn65b9r)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 23:06 Business Weekly (w3ct0spl)
Shell accused in court over fossil fuel phaseout

On this edition of Business Weekly, we analyse the court battle between Shell and the environmental groups who claim the oil giant remains too focused on fossil fuels. We look at a different approach to tackle deforestation and hear how an economic argument could help the Amazon rainforest. We also get an expert view on floundering UK clothing stores, doubly hit by the pandemic and our changing shopping habits. Could in-store cafes and leisure concessions be just the therapy the retail industry needs? We head to central London to hear the tales of a tailor - a master craftsman who is cutting his cloth to suit the future of high-end business wear. And we’ve a lesson in why ‘email etiquette’ needs to be applied to even the shortest message. Business Weekly is presented by Sasha Twining and produced by Matthew Davies.

(Image: Shell petrol station in Hong Kong, Getty Images)