As It Happens

According to the Taliban, Manizha Bakhtari no longer represents Afghanistan abroad. But that hasn't stopped the country's one-time top diplomat in Austria from keeping the doors of its embassy in Vienna open and now her efforts are the subject of the new documentary, The Last Ambassador. Nil Köksal sits down with Bakhtari and director Natalie Halla on the eve of three Canadian screenings.

Plus: After scientists created "olo" -- a colour they say no one else can see, artist Stuart Semple created "yolo". And he says it can be yours for a small price. 

Also: We remember tireless B.C. drug and addiction advocate Trey Helton. 

Plus: Nil reaches Nardwuar the Human Serviette, who’s snagged more interviews with Canadian political leaders during this campaign than anyone. 

Also: Up until 2015, academics at Oxford drank wine out of a chalice made from the human skull -- likely that of an enslaved woman. Archeologist Dan Hicks uncovered that history and says it's now his goal to make sure this woman is given back her dignity and humanity.

Plus: How getting stuck in quicksand led to a rom-com worthy love story for a Michigan couple. 

Also: Canadian author Robin Stevenson’s book Pride Puppy is at the centre of a Supreme Court decision on 2SLGTBQ+ books in schools. She says she was shocked to hear a Justice repeat the false claim that her alphabet book -- about a puppy at a Pride parade -- included a mention of bondage.

Plus: Did the search for extraterrestrial life just take a huge leap? We reach Cambridge University’s Nikku Madhusudhan to explore the possibility. 

Also: As spring struggles to break through, we bring you the late, great Fireside Al Maitland’s reading of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant. 

Plus: Game, Set and Match medieval style. We hear about Australian efforts to revive Real Tennis, a move to bring the sport back to it’s Henry VIII roots.

Also: A special edition of As It Happened, diving into the archives for some “new discoveries”.

Plus: At the San Diego zoo, elephants go viral when video captures their touching and fascinating reaction to an earthquake. 

Also: Filmmaker Sepideh Farsi on the death of her new documentary’s subject: 25 year old Gazan photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Plus: A Michigan bookstore gets a lot of unexpected help moving its entire inventory. 

Also: Ahead of the inaugural game of the new Northern Super League, founder and soccer star Diana Matheson tells Nil it's been years in the making to get to the first professional women's soccer game ever played on Canadian soil. But now that we're here, she knows Canada is ready.

Plus: Boston Globe reporter Billy Baker investigates a shockingly violent woodpecker terrorizing Rockport, Mass.

Also: It was no surprise that Paige Beuckers was picked first overall at last night's WNBA draft -- least of all to Gary Knox, a dad who just happened to be at the right place at the right time and predict her stardom way back in 2013, when she was in the sixth grade.

Plus: CBC's Kate McKenna tells us about stumbling onto a story of campaign “dirty tricks” in an Ottawa bar.

Also: Speaking of watering holes, An Edinburgh man embarks on an ambitious project: creating miniature versions of some 300 pubs across the city. And he says attention to detail is the key to his success.