World in Progress

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it's how quickly new diseases can spring up on us. Is the next zoonotic disease brewing in Kenya? And could a robot in India finally bring an end to the unhealthy and banned practice of cleaning blocked sewage pipes by hand? We also hear how how health workers from the Philippines are carving out a new life for themselves abroad.

Topics: Dangerous reporting: covering indigenous issues in Guatemala is difficult and comes with a high price -- Why care about neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)

This week on World in Progress: A Moroccan woman changing the game in the male-dominated world of fishing, a gym that uses energy from working out to power corn mills and oil presses, and how Russian video gaming professionals who have fled to Serbia are shaking things up.

The Canary Islands, located roughly 100 kilometers off the coast of Africa, have seen a large influx of refugees arriving by boat in recent years. On this week’s show, we hear from people who’ve made the harrowing journey, and those who are trying to help them start a new life.

This week on World in Progress: Affordable housing is hard to come by. The situation is particularly dire in some cities in Turkey where inflation is high, and apartments are few and far between. And some people in the Netherlands are building their own town from the ground up.

With energy prices skyrocketing in Europe, the demand for wood pellets is increasing. While many homeowners want an alternative to costly oil and gas heating, coal plants switching to burning wood chips make huge profits thanks to EU subsidies. But protected forest areas are destroyed at alarming rates, and critics demand a policy change and better forests protection.

Roughly half of all the people trafficked from Africa to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries ended up the Portuguese colonial empire of Brazil. This week we're revisiting the shocking history Rio de Janeiro's role as Brazil's gateway for slaves.

On this week’s show, we’re taking a look at some niche cultural trends in Asia, from a massive New Silk Road project in Uzbekistan, to an unusual Indian band called Womeniya, to a Cambodian circus helping people deal with trauma.

Extreme weather fueled by climate change such as droughts and floods displace some 20 million people every year. By some estimates, by 2050, there could be over one billion people who have to flee their homes due to the effects of climate change. DW checks in with people in Kenya, India and Australia who are already feeling the effects of climate change on their homes.

In Saudi Arabia, people can report anyone via a policing app – a woman was recently sentenced to prison for more than three decades over a tweet. And in Peru, people defend their age-old tradition of chewing coca leaves.

More and more people enjoy traveling the world while working remotely — as digital nomads. And an increasing number of them are now flocking to Bansko, a small town in the Bulgarian mountains.

On this week’s show, we look at how different groups around the globe are preserving their cultural heritage. Indigenous embroiderers in Mexico are fighting back against the fast fashion industry they say has stolen their designs. A 400-year-old Italian opera has captivated Morocco, and the language you’ve never heard of still spoken on the Spanish-French border.

The world's population is set to hit 8 billion on November 15. On this week's show, the UN's Sara Hertog helps us separate fact from the fiction when it comes to understanding exactly what that means for the planet. Plus, a story of death, an old recipe for sweets and the future of Japan. We'll also hear why Georgia's farmers, bakers and government officials are uniting around ancient grains.

A number of surprising initiatives across the globe are making the world a safer place for kids. We’ll hear more about those ideas. We’ll also hear from a girl who made her first foray into international policy as part of a children’s advisory team, and from Philip Jaffé of the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child about its working group on child participation.

The Brazilian Amazon has been destroyed at alarming rates in recent years, with huge areas being cut or burnt down to clear the land for cattle. It has become more and more dangerous for those trying to protect this globally important eco system, with indigenous peoples bearing the brunt.

This week we tag along with two reporters as they disembark on a one-of-a-kind cruise to the North Pole. Passengers on board are in it for a luxury cruise. Meanwhile, a group of scientists are enjoying a different luxury on board altogether: the chance to study the effects of climate change. As it turns out, they’re also grappling with the impact of the war in Ukraine on their work.

Protests in Iran have now entered a fourth week after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody. She had been detained by the so-called morality police for allegedly wearing her headscarf too loosely. Her death has triggered protests all over the country. And in Guatemala, indigenous women rise up against land grabbing – it's a dangerous battle.

When you think of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, what comes to your mind first? The carnival celebrations, the samba dances? Its famous beaches? Did you know that Rio was one of the biggest slave hubs in the world? Historians have unearthed some gruesome details.

Water shortages are on the rise as drought grips more and more countries across the globe. On this week’s show, we take a closer look at who has the right to water, where water is being weaponized and what governments can do to help people cope.

The warming climate melts the snow peak on Mount Kilimanjaro and increasingly impacts the lives of local people and their environment.

To expose corruption, discrimination and other crimes in Ghana, investigative journalists face personal threats and many challenges to improve their country. What drives them to do their job despite all odds and little pay?

All over the world, people are being pushed out from their homes. Some areas have become uninhabitable because they are running out of the very essentials, like water. Elsewhere, economic prospects are so bleak that people risk it all to start a better life. And war and conflict make it unsafe for people to stay.

Thousands of Cubans took to the streets over a year ago. These protests were the largest anti-government demonstrations in decades, a truly historic moment. More than 1400 people were detained in the aftermath of the protests. In recent months, hundreds of demonstrators have been sentenced to long prison terms, in some cases up to 25 years.

In this week's show, we hear about how different groups around the world are fighting back: Mexican women helping American women with their unwanted pregnancies; the trans community in Brazil fighting ostracization and oppression with sewing machines and the church; and how one Ugandan freedom fighter is using her privilege, and her internet connection, to stand up for those without it.

In Cameroon, global wheat woes are forcing the African nation to rethink the way it farms. Meanwhile in Argentina, a new genetically modified wheat variety claims to withstand climate extremes. And, in Ghana, farmers are ditching local seed breeds for foreign varieties — but why? Plus — how we can fight antimicrobial resistance.