Perspective

World AIDS Day is dedicated to raising awareness and remembering those who lost their lives to the illness. Although the world has come a long way in terms of both destigmatising and treating HIV/AIDS, much remains to be done. The United Nations says different forms of inequality are still preventing progress in ending the epidemic. For more, Nathan Lachowsky, assistant public health professor at the University of Victoria, joined us for Perspective.

Human history is a long arc of progress. Thanks to technological innovation, we've never lived longer or healthier. But the distribution of that progress is uneven. According to the World Bank, global inequality is rising for the first time in decades, while even within developed nations, gaps between the rich and poor are expanding. So what drives progress and its unequal distribution? Economist Oded Galor's book "The Journey of Humanity" explores these questions. He joined us for Perspective.

Sporadic protests, arson attacks on enlistment offices and an open letter signed by dozens of local officials calling for Vladimir Putin's resignation: these are just some of the ways ordinary Russians are resisting the war in Ukraine. Despite these small-scale examples of resistance, there have been little signs of mass protest. For more on how the invasion has affected Russian civil society, Dmitry Petrov joined us for Perspective. He's the former deputy chair of a local council in Moscow.

Brazilian surfer Maya Gabeira spends much of her life in the ocean. She's seen and felt it changing over the past 20 years: from acidity levels to fewer fish to encountering plastic pollution everywhere she goes. She compares the task of protecting it to navigating a massive wave, both topics she knows a lot about as a record-holding big wave surfer and as UNESCO Champion of the Ocean and Youth. Curretly in Paris for UNESCO's "Université de la Terre", Gabeira joined us to talk about her love of the ocean, climate change, carving out her place in a male-dominated sport and using her platform for good.

In 2009 the archipelago of Mayotte, nestled in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and the African coast, voted in a referendum to become France's newest overseas department. Many hoped the change would help the territory avoid the violence that plagued the nearby Comoros Islands, which opted for independence in the 1970s. But 13 years on, violence in the overseas department is worse than ever. Mayotte lawmaker Estelle Youssouffa, who warns that the islands even risk descending into civil war, joined us for Perspective.

New York City's Harlem neighbourhood became the center of Black American culture in the 1920s, and another "Harlem Renaissance" has been taking place in more recent years, this one driven by immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. The new book "Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story" shines light on the African cultural influence shaping the neighbourhood. Author Boukary Sawadogo, associate professor of cinema studies at the City University of New York, explains that three quarters of African arrivals to the US came after the year 2000, many of them economic migrants from French-speaking countries like Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso. Sawadogo joined us to chat about the African affinity for Harlem, the relationship between Africans and African-Americans, and the power of seeing Black heroes on screen in films like "Wakanda Forever" and "The Woman King".

When nine-year-old Naza Alakija left Iran with her mother, they were stopped by morality police because she was not wearing a hijab. The experience made her aware of her body at a young age. As an adult, Alakija founded the SAGE foundation, an NGO dedicated to education, women's empowerment and the environment. She joined us for Perspective to discuss the challenge of reconciling religion and feminism, as well as the global outcry over attacks on women's rights from Iran to Afghanistan to the United States.

US photographer Scott Langley began documenting the death penalty more than 20 years ago, after he was moved by an experience he had standing outside a prison "death house" in his native Texas. His photos are currently on display at the 8th World Congress Against the Death Penalty, which is taking place this week in Berlin. They aim to expose the "inhumanity" of capital punishment by allowing people to imagine the executions, which take place behind closed doors, often in the dead of night. Langley joined us for Perspective to discuss why the United States remains an outlier when it comes to the death penalty, and what he would say to the families of victims who wish to see perpetrators executed.

There's no official family photo on the schedule for this year's G20 summit, an indication of just how much the war in Ukraine has complicated global cooperation efforts. Without directly naming Russia, China's President Xi Jinping said the threat of nuclear weapons was unacceptable. Similarly subtle, Indian PM Narendra Modi called for a ceasefire. In a more open condemnation, Western leaders blamed Russia alone for the war. For more on the summit, geopolitics professor Yves Doutriaux joined us for Perspective.

"The world is on a highway to climate hell" and has the choice between "a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact". With each passing climate summit, the words of the UN Secretary General grow increasingly alarming. Although COP27 in Egypt has seen the usual speeches with lofty goals, there's been little substantive progress so far. German youth climate activist Luisa Neubauer, one of the main representatives of the Fridays For Future movement in Germany, joined us for Perspective to give us her take.