Two years ago, Julia, a high school student from Ohio, received an email out of the blue that changed her life forever. Julia, who was conceived by sperm donor, discovered she had a half-sister. But that was only the beginning. In this remarkable film, Julia goes on a journey to explore what family means.
Rosewood is one of the most trafficked wild commodities on earth. When it's cut it bleeds a blood-red sap. Having exhausted stocks elsewhere, Chinese traders have turned to west Africa. We are in Senegal where it's illegal to fell or export a rosewood tree. And yet, we can reveal they are being logged and smuggled at an alarming rate - from Senegalese forests through to the port of neighbouring Gambia and all the way onto China. Umaru Fofana investigates trade in trafficked rosewood worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
London Lockdown portrays London's Arabic-speaking community during the coronavirus crisis. It follows six characters facing stark choices – whether they should put their lives on hold, or help those in need, by drawing on their personal experiences of crisis and conflict.
2020 was supposed to celebrate 50 years of the iconic 747 jumbo jet and mass air travel. Instead, Covid-19 brought catastrophe to the aviation industry. With fleets grounded and passenger numbers in free fall, the jumbo jet is now too big and costly to fly. From flagship to scrap - Mark Jordan joins airlines and crew now forced to fly their iconic 747s on a final journey to the desert breaker's yard.
Aleem Maqbool reports on the extraordinary events of the last few days.
In the first six months of 2021, there was a record spike in anti-Semitism. The Community Security Trust, the charity which monitors anti-Jewish incidents in the UK, now estimates that 2021 will likely be 'the worst year on record.' From controversy around the Middle East, to the resurgence of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the toxicity of social media - many Jewish people are questioning how safe it is to express who they are. Tom Brada, a BBC journalist who happens to be British and Jewish, investigates what's going on.
BBC News Arabic and BBC News Russian uncover evidence of war crimes carried out in Libya by mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian private military contractor. The film also reveals Wagner's access to sophisticated modern weapons that could only come from Russian military supplies. Wagner employees almost never speak publicly, but two former fighters discuss the types of people who are drawn to the organisation, their motivations, and Wagner's goals. The film reveals the contents of a tablet computer left behind by the Russian mercenaries when they were forced to retreat from the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in spring 2020. Its secrets include reconnaissance drone footage and manuals for anti-personnel mines and IEDs. Military maps of the frontline give an unprecedented insight into the group’s operations, as well as codenames of Wagner fighters which helped the BBC to identify some of them. The tablet also provides evidence of the Russian mercenaries’ involvement in
Stephanie Hegarty finds relief and heartbreak in equal measure at Ukraine's border as families, separated from the country and the people they love, start to come to terms with their new lives as refugees
Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham is the highest-grossing sports film to focus on football, telling the story of a British-Indian teenager who falls in love with the game, while exploring themes of immigration, race, religion and sexuality. Twenty years on from its release, BBC Sport's Miriam Walker-Khan looks at the impact the film had on audiences, its legacy in the world of sport and how its humour and characters still make it relatable today
In just over three years, Volodymyr Zelensky has gone from Ukraine's best-known comedian to one of the world's most recognisable leaders, rallying his country in its fight for survival against Russia. BBC former Ukraine correspondent Jonah Fisher followed Zelensky closely as he rose to power. In this in-depth film he analyses the development of one of the world's most incredible political journeys.
A BBC News investigation has exposed serious flaws in the Egyptian beauty industry that are endangering lives and leaving women scarred for life.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks to the BBC’s Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact of the war on Russia’s standing in the world. Now that Russian troops have focused on the east of Ukraine, what are Russia’s war aims, and how does the leadership in Moscow justify them?
The BBC explores the TikTok trend 'Turkey Teeth', in which young people are travelling to Turkey to get a brand new smile... by shaving down their natural teeth.
Molly Russell was just 14 when she took her own life. After she died her family found graphic posts about suicide and self-harm on her Instagram account. Her father Ian spoke out, making headlines around the world and forcing Instagram into a promise to remove the most harmful content. Almost five years ago, 14-year-old Molly Russell from north west London took her own life. Discovering that his daughter had been viewing thousands of images promoting suicide and self-harm, her father Ian Russell began a campaign: to remove that harmful content from social media. As the inquest into Molly's death concludes, Ian reflects on his journey for justice, and the influence of Molly's story.
BBC News investigates a new trend on TikTok – hundreds of families in refugee camps in Syria, begging for gifts on TikTok livestreams.
BBC News presenters look back and remember a century of the corporation's news coverage.
Dmytro Bahnenko, a journalist in Kherson, southern Ukraine, spent three months secretly recording his city's resistance to the Russian occupation. In an extraordinary film for BBC Eye, Dmytro chronicles the harsh reality of life under occupation, as food and medicines become scarce, people flee, and others begin to disappear. Dmytro and his wife Lidia struggle to shield their four-year-old daughter Ksusha from the war, and make the difficult decision to try to escape.
Children are being exploited on OnlyFans a US agent has told the BBC.The site says it's acted to tackle illegal content and it's impossible to verify claims without evidence. The British website has been credited with changing sex work forever. Now, we look inside its offices and meet its stars and bosses.
A year with people as they trial a new way to beat their drink and drug addictions.
For years, Israel and Iran have been involved in an escalating hidden war, a conflict played out in the shadows, on land, air and sea, with tit-for-tat attacks that avoided open clashes. But they are now becoming more conspicuous - with Iran's nuclear programme a major flashpoint. Iran's leaders say they have no plans to build nuclear weapons - but Israel claims otherwise. Numerous explosions in Iran's nuclear and missile facilities have been blamed by former Iranian officials on Israel's Foreign intelligence service, Mossad. The BBC's Jiyar Gol travels to Israel on the trail of half a ton of missing Iranian secret documents and investigates evidence suggesting they led to the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
Following the conviction of four men in a high-profile case connected to the storming of Capitol Hill, David Grossman assesses what the infamous Jan 6th date means for the US.
For more than three years, North Korea has sealed its borders. Three people have risked their lives to tell the BBC what is happening. What they reveal is shocking.
Over the last five years, the number of women seeking help for gambling addiction has more than doubled in the UK, according to the charity GambleAware. As many women grapple with the stigma of addiction, the BBC has been given exclusive access to the first women's residential treatment centre for gambling, based in central England. In this film, Rachel Stonehouse explores the issues around women and gambling addiction, both in the UK and around the world, and asks why it is a secret for so many.
How do we keep our brains healthy? And is there anything we can do to help strengthen crucial connections and keep our minds younger in the process? In this film, science journalist Melissa Hogenboom sets out to understand more about the brain's capacity to respond to change, helping us to learn and to heal. She looks at the most cutting-edge scientific research and has her own brain scanned and analysed, with intriguing results.
Money, art, politics: What we know about how the secret Banksy empire works.
Democrat Kamala Harris will face Donald Trump in November's US presidential election, but who is she and how did she rise to the top of her party?
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are the revolutionary technologies of our era. Intelligent machines are already reshaping our world; the speed of their improvement is accelerating, and every day there are more things they can do better than us. There are risks too, of course, but the opportunities for society are enormous.