World in Progress

Toxic Bananas in Ecuador -- Burying the unnamed dead of the Mediterranean -- Why it's so hard to reintegrate former Boko Haram terrorists into society in Chad -- West African migrants returning home from Libya

On this week's show, we visit the humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic, Comic relief in Lebanon, Eritrea's only brewery - and listen to Open Air opera on a truck

Bluegrass, a traditional form of American folk music is still alive in the Appalachia region, which also has a reputation as being America's poorhouse. Outsiders have labeled the people here 'hillbillies', stereotyping them as backwards. But there's more to the region and its bluegrass culture as reporter Andreas Horchler discovered.

The amazing history of the world's most famous diamond mirrors the history of South Asia. First discovered in medieval India, the diamond went on a chequered journey across countries and continents. It's a thrilling story of wars and wealth, treason and secrets - and about a curse. An in-depth documentary about the Koh-i-Noor in this special edition.

Topics: In Indonesia, millions don't have birth certificates, which leads to many problems -- Press Freedom and the situation of journalists in 2017 -- Disrupting the gangster pipeline in South Africa

How Brazil's black Quilombo communities try to counter racial discrimination / Why Bolivia plans to exploit its extensive Lithium resources / The threat of HIV/ AIDS in China's Yunnan province / How people in Kenya use and abuse the belief in witchcraft.

World in Progress is a 30-minute radio show that connects the dots in a globalized era.

This week on the show: as winter approaches, we take an in-depth look at the plight of asylum seekers in Greece's island camps. We'll also meet a group of German women trapped in Gaza, and visit India's "chess village."

This week, we explore borders and going beyond them. We visit Ai Wei Wei's Fences Exhibition in New York City and find out how the Malecon, the ocean boulevard in Cuba's capital Havana, symbolizes the hopes and dreams of Cubans, many of whom will never cross the ocean that surrounds their island.

Do you ever think about privacy? About the traces you leave in the on- and offline world? Sometimes that's a conscious decision, but more often than not we don't know how much data has been accumulated - and by whom. That's not so much of a mystery in China. The authorities there have rolled out a social credit system that they want to introduce all over the country by 2020.