Perspective

As the desperate search for survivors continues after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the WHO warns that up to 23 million people could be affected across the region. Our Perspective guest is Louise Bichet, Middle East Manager at Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), which has been working in the region for many years. She tells us more about the humanitarian response to the disaster, particularly in Syria. "There is a need for much wider humanitarian access so that we are able to reach those who are most in need, without any consideration of political agenda or military agenda," she said.

From withholding nearly $40 million in tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority, to pledges to expand West Bank settlements and the Israeli security minister's controversial visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the first months of Israel's most far-right government in history presage a bleak outlook for peaceful relations between Israelis and Palestinians. So what might the near future hold for both sides? Israeli activist Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of Breaking the Silence, joined us for Perspective.

After 20 years working for a big IT firm and spending his vacations connecting with the natural world, Gautum Shah decided to quit his job and use his skills to do something he truly cared about: preserving wildlife. His production company Internet of Elephants makes games using real conservation data. The idea is to boost preservation efforts by helping people feel closer to wild animals. After projects based on research into apes, leopards and other creatures, an upcoming game, "Fathomverse", will allow players to look through and label real images from ocean rovers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Shah joined us for Perspective.

It's sometimes said that art records what the history books cannot, giving us a sense of how it may have felt to live through a particular moment in time. It also allows us to question the official narrative of events. "Hairline Crack [a dialogue]" by visual artist Niamh McCann is on display at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris. It explores people's relationship to the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, just over a century after the island's partition. The artist joined us for Perspective.

An eminent scientist is calling for urgent new work to protect and even enhance underground fungal networks that could provide part of the solution to climate change. Toby Kiers is an evolutionary biologist known for her pioneering research on the flows and architecture of plant fungal networks that store huge amounts of carbon. She says more work must be done to protect existing networks, with the potential to artificially create new ways of sucking up carbon, which could help in the fight against climate change. She joined us for Perspective.

Africa's Lake Victoria is a source of joy and livelihood for those living along its shores, but the waterway is being overrun by pollution. Kenya's Rahmina Paullete is not just tackling the scourge, but transforming waste particles into furniture, coasters and bags. She's the founder of the "Let Lake Victoria Breathe Again" campaign. The young activist joined us for Perspective.

As a child of Holocaust survivors, singer and writer Judith Mok grew up without grandparents, aunts, or other extended family. But that painful past was always present through her parents' silences and whispers, and when her elder half-sister revealed that she witnessed their grandparents' arrest, Mok decided to finally bring her family's history into the light. The result is her memoir "The State of Dark", a moving commemoration of her relatives' passionate lives and the pain of their absence.

In November of 1995, a Jewish extremist murdered Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, marking a turning point in the country's history. For some, Rabin's assassination partially catalysed the death of a certain path towards peace with Palestinians and a sense of unity among Israelis. Nearly three decades later, Israel has sworn in a coalition of ultra-nationalist and religious parties, its most extreme government ever. But what connections can be made between these events? Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the US, joined us on Perspective.

Developing nations bear the brunt of the climate crisis, even though they have the world's smallest carbon footprints. This is all the more consequential for indigenous populations, which often have more direct reliance on the natural environment. But are global leaders doing enough to alleviate the effects of climate change? A member of Chad's Mbororo pastoralist community, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim advocates for the inclusion of indigenous groups in climate change discussions. She joined us for Perspective.

The war in Ukraine, climate change and food insecurity are three issues blighting the world. Africa, though, is perhaps the continent set to be hardest hit by all of them. France’s development agency AFD is publishing a report on the African economy, which aims to provide an overview of the continent’s major economic and social problems. In Perspective, we spoke to Thomas Melonio, the AFD's Executive Director of Innovation, Strategy and Research.