Our World - Season 16 / Year 2021

Our World tells the extraordinary story of the holidaymakers who found themselves trapped by an almighty wildfire at Mammoth Pools in California's Sierra National Forest. 

New Orleans was getting ready to celebrate Mardi Gras, but among the crowds was a virus that before long would stop the music and kill thousands in the state of Louisiana.

From civil war to the pandemic, 2020 was a deadly year for the Syrian province of Idlib. As doctors, Mohammed al-Sharif and Zeina Hallak were on the frontline of the humanitarian crisis, but as parents, they had to protect a growing family from the dual threat of war and disease. For nine months, BBC Our World followed the couple as coronavirus brought them face-to-face with life and death.

Jane Mugo is Kenya's most famous - and controversial - private investigator. She says she's solved hundreds of crimes, but some accuse her of playing by her own rules. Reporter Sharon Machira meets the woman they call Kenya's Spy Queen.

Human rights activist Azimjan Askarov was imprisoned in Kyrgyzstan in 2010 for a crime he says he did not commit. Ever since then, his wife Khadicha has campaigned tirelessly for his release. Now she sees one last chance for justice in an appeal hearing at the Supreme Court. But as she prepares for the verdict, coronavirus is spreading across Kyrgyzstan, stopping Khadicha's prison visits and putting 69-year-old Azimjan at risk. Our World follows an extraordinary story of love, courage - and never giving up.

Over the last few years, Moroccan migrants who are trying to reach the EU have become YouTube celebrities by blogging about the journey online. They are getting millions of views, but are their tales of adventure glamourising a route that is often really dangerous? BBC's Our World has travelled across Europe to meet these influencers and find out what's behind this latest trend. 

The Amazon is the largest tropical rainforest and one of the most biodiverse places on earth. But now, vast chunks of it are being sold off – on social media. Reporter João Fellet travels deep into the Amazon to investigate the murky online world where the rainforest is for sale. Who is out to profit from deforestation. And what can be done to stop it?

The Austrian resort of Ischgl has long been famous for its superb skiing and vibrant nightlife - some even called it 'Ibiza on Ice'. But in early 2020, skiers began to fall ill with coronavirus. The Austrian authorities were slow to react and then made a series of costly mistakes. Thousands of skiers flew home, inadvertently exporting the virus around the world. One year on, the resort is deserted, and some of the families of those who died are looking for justice. BBC Europe Editor Katya Adler explores what went so badly wrong in Ischgl and asks what the lessons learned for the next pandemic are.

In January this year, something very strange happened on the US stock market. The shares of GameStop, an unfashionable high street games store, suddenly went through the roof and kept rising. As a result, a group of hedge funds unexpectedly found themselves losing millions of dollars. The giant price spike turned out to be the work of a committed band of amateur online investors - many of whom were out to get their revenge on the titans of Wall Street for the financial crash. Mayhem on the markets ensued. So was this a David versus Goliath clash, as many claim? And if so, who really won? James Clayton meets the investors who made a fortune trading from their bedrooms, the tech supremos who were watching on astonished, and the hedge fund giants who are now nursing their losses. 

Late last year, a conflict that had lain almost dormant for more than 25 years flared up again. Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh, with Azerbaijan ultimately reclaiming much of the land they had lost in the conflict of the 1990s. More than 6000 people were killed, and thousands more were driven from their homes. So who really won? And what now for those whose lives were turned upside down during 44 days of fighting? With rare access inside Nagorno Karabakh, Jonah Fisher travels to both Azerbaijan and Armenia. He meets those who won their homes back and those who lost their loved ones - and discovers that a much bigger power is making a comeback.

Jimmy Lai is a billionaire newspaper proprietor and a self-proclaimed natural-born rebel. He owns Apple Daily, Hong Kong's last opposition newspaper and he is an outspoken critic of Beijing. As China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, that puts him in danger - in August he was arrested under the strict new national security law. Yet refusing to be intimidated, he continues to speak out. With remarkable access to Jimmy Lai, the BBC's Danny Vincent meets the man facing possible life in prison after being charged with violating Hong Kong's new law.

Undercover of Covid, the Amazon rainforest is under attack. Deforestation is at levels not seen for more than a decade. Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, talks of opening up the forest to development while the environmental policy is under attack from loggers. Our World obtained a recording of the Environment minister talking about using the cover of Covid to "change all the rules" in the Amazon. For Our World, Justin Rowlatt is on a mission to find out how a tribe he visited a decade ago is faring the face of this assault.

Dr. Amira Cerimagic is fighting for her right to a homebirth. In Bosnia Herzegovina, the healthcare system only allows giving birth in hospitals, and eight months pregnant, Amira is preparing to deliver her baby at home in secret. Having experienced previous birth trauma, she's one of the thousands of women in the Balkan region speaking out about the violence and mistreatment that they have endured in hospitals during pregnancy and childbirth. A mother, doctor, and activist, Amira is determined for the arrival of her fourth child to be a life-enhancing experience for her whole family. Our World follows Amira as she prepares for one of the most important moments of her life.

The Myanmar military has killed more than 700 people since they seized power in a coup three months ago. Mass protests demanding a return to democracy and the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi have been met with brutal force. Borders are closed, and the internet is effectively blocked. This is a story the military does not want the world to see. But some people are bravely resisting and are willing to tell their stories. Our World follows a brother and sister now fighting for their future. As their options narrow, can they - and others like them - win the fight?

Nigeria's pensions system is in a mess. It leaves some elderly people penniless after decades of hard work, but it grants some politicians generous retirement packages. Pension payments are held up by corruption and inefficiency, and it is the elderly who pay the price. Reporter Yemisi Adegoke meets the retired Nigerians struggling to survive and travels to Cross River State to meet the Ghost Pensioners, who the state declared dead and deprived of their pensions.

Afghanistan is in the grip of a new and sinister campaign of violence, in which young professionals - often women - are being deliberately singled out, targeted, and murdered. All the victims were working to build a country based on democratic values. The government blames the violence on insurgent groups like the Taliban, who have their own agenda ahead of the withdrawal of US troops later this year. Speaking to families who have lost loved ones, those who have chosen to leave, and those living in fear, Our World asks what impact this tactic will have on the future of Afghanistan.

Six years ago, Amsha escaped from captivity in Northern Iraq. Like many Yazidi women, she had been held by IS militants. Today she is risking her life to clear her homeland of unexploded mines. Our World follows her as she sets out to tackle the deadly legacy her captors left behind.

In 2019-20, Australia suffered its most intense bushfire season on record. Millions of hectares of land burned and up to three billion animals were killed or displaced. Eighteen months on, Nick Lazaredes travels to some of the areas hardest hit to discover how the wildlife is faring now and to meet the experts who are still assessing the scale of the damage.

How did the residents of one street make it through the last year? Oxford Gardens runs through the heart of Notting Hill in London. It's an unusual street - multi-millionaires living next door to housing association tenants - but they have one thing in common: all of them spent much of the last year at home. Filmed from the start of the first lockdown, this is an intimate and heartwarming portrait of how the residents of one street coped with the pandemic.

Kidnappers have seized more than a thousand students and staff from schools in a series of raids across northern Nigeria. The wave of abductions has devastating consequences for the country, which already has the highest number of children out of education anywhere in the world. Parents face extortionate demands in exchange for the freedom of their sons and daughters, and many families in Africa's most populous nation are now too afraid to send their children to class. Mayeni Jones travels across north-western Nigeria to meet those affected and find out what's fuelling Nigeria's kidnap crisis.

In March this year, Islamist militants attacked the busy town of Palma in the northern tip of Mozambique. In the hours and days that followed, chaos and bloodshed ensued. Many Mozambicans and overseas contractors tried to flee on foot and by boat, while others sought refuge in a hotel compound, awaiting rescue. With compelling eyewitness testimony and mobile phone footage, Catherine Byaruhanga tells the extraordinary stories of those caught up in the attack who were left fighting for survival as the insurgents closed in.

A storm is brewing in the South China Sea. China claims large swathes of it as its own, but President Biden has recently warned that it must be open for trade and navigation. Caught in the middle are Filipino fishermen, who increasingly find themselves shadowed by the Chinese coastguard and militia boats as they try to earn a living. Howard Johnson sails to Scarborough Shoal, a large coral reef 120 nautical miles off the coast of the Philippines, to discover how far China is prepared to go to assert its power and influence in the region.

There are an estimated 250 000 unsolved murders in the US, and in many of them, the victims are yet to be identified. But now, recent breakthroughs in DNA technology and the growth of genealogy websites are beginning to unlock the secrets of cold case murder investigations. James Clayton travels to Missouri to discover how cutting-edge science has finally identified a woman killed 30 years ago and who was simply known as Grace Doe for decades. The technique has brought her family a form of closure, and it looks set to solve thousands more cases. But does it also come at a cost to our privacy?

Afghanistan is at a critical juncture in its history. As American and allied forces withdraw, the country is now at risk of falling to the Taliban. In episode one of this two-part series, Yalda Hakim returns to the country of her birth to meet people who have benefitted from the last twenty years and spends time with Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who says he would rather die than surrender to the Taliban. What does the future hold for the Afghan people?

In the second part of this two-part series, Yalda Hakim travels to the country of her birth, Afghanistan, where she gets unprecedented access to the Taliban. She meets with a frontline commander from Helmand Province as well as the Taliban leadership in Doha, learning about their plans for ruling the country after the Americans leave. They claim they have changed and want to work with the Government, but who are the Taliban in 2021, and are they planning a return to the brutal regime of the 90s?

This autumn Angela Merkel bows out after 16 years as German Chancellor. In that time, she has been a key player on the world stage, but how has she changed her own country? Jenny Hill travels across Germany - from school proms in Berlin to forests in the Harz Mountains - to discover how Angela Merkel has shaped it.

Nine-year-old Rodwell Nkomazana was attacked by a hyena earlier this year while sleeping outside his church in Zimbabwe. He suffered life-threatening injuries. Now, a team of volunteer doctors in South Africa is battling to help Rodwell by rebuilding his face. Our World follows their groundbreaking work and Rodwell's remarkable recovery.

Over 17000 migrants have arrived in the UK this year by crossing the English Channel in small boats - that is more than double last year's total. Both the UK and French authorities are talking tough, but the numbers keep rising. So why do two of the richest nations in the world find it so hard to control who crosses such a busy shipping lane? Lucy Williamson goes on patrol with the police tasked with turning the tide - and meets the migrants who are determined to outwit them.

Not for the first time in its troubled history, Lebanon finds itself facing a crisis. A collapsing currency, severe shortages of basic goods, and a fragmented political system have all led the Lebanese people down a dark and uncertain path. Nowhere are the day-to-day consequences of these challenges felt more acutely than in the nation's hospitals. Our World follows the director of Lebanon's largest public hospital as he tries to stave off disaster and a junior doctor forced to decide between her patients and her own future.

The number of murders in the US rose nearly 30 percent last year, the vast majority of them committed with guns. One company called ShotSpotter believes its technology can help tackle America's growing gun crime problem by alerting police the moment shots are fired, but it has become increasingly controversial. James Clayton goes behind the scenes at ShotSpotter and on patrol with Fresno police to see how it works - and meets the campaigners in Chicago who say the technology cannot be trusted.

This summer, Greece was ravaged by thousands of wildfires, fanned by the country's worst heatwave in decades. The hardest hit was Greece's second-largest island, Evia. The Greek government blamed climate change for the blazes, which destroyed huge swathes of forest. Bethany Bell, who reported on the fires this August, returns to Evia to see how people are dealing with the consequences of the catastrophe.

On 1st September 2021, New York City was hit by Hurricane Ida. In the devastating flooding that followed, 13 people died, most of them trapped in basement homes. With compelling eyewitness accounts and previously unseen footage, Our World tells the story of what happened that night - and asks what it means for New York City's future as climate change makes extreme weather events more likely.

In May this year, the unmarked graves of 215 children were found on the grounds of an old Indian residential school in Canada. More grave sites have been discovered across the country. It is thought more than 100,000 indigenous children suffered abuse in the government and church-run schools. With powerful interviews from survivors and lawyers trying to identify the missing children, Our World follows the story to discover who should be held accountable for the decades of institutional abuse.

As Barbados removes the Queen as its head of state and becomes the world's newest republic, British-Barbadian Daniel Henry returns to his ancestral home to determine what islanders make of the move. From the man in charge of rebuilding parliament to England's first black cricketer, Roland Butcher, Daniel asks - why now? And does what it mean for the island's future?