Although final numbers of the dead and missing have still not been tallied, the collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida may prove to be the most lethal building failure in American history. Although 37 survivors were pulled from the wreckage in the hours soon after the twelve-storey condominium tower fell, there have been very few rescues since. Now there are questions over whether warning signs of damaged concrete in the twelve-storey structure were taken seriously enough when they were reported – and how safe residents might be in other high-rise structures in Miami and beyond. Will Grant spoke to the families of some residents still unaccounted for.The results from France’s regional elections seemed to be pointing to many political currents at once. The sitting government was drubbed – some called it an “implosion” for Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s party La Republique en Marche. Traditional parties on the left and at the centre-right did unexpectedly well. The turnout was dismal – a record low of around 35% . But there was particular disappointment for the hard right Rassemblement National (formerly the Front National) which saw none of its predicted gains materialise in Provence and the south. Fleur McDonald is in one town near Avignon where the party of Marine Le Pen had expected to do well.Eastern Australia is still struggling to contain a cyclical natural plague… of mice. Apart from the danger to human health, the surge also means serious financial losses for Australian farmers - some properties still have thousands of rodents rampaging across their grain stores every night. But the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has just rejected an application from the government of New South Wales to allow the use of one of the most effective poisons available. Steve Evans reports from Canberra.From day to day, citizens of Lebanon watch how their crumbling pound is doing against the dollar, and fret over the cost of basic essentials like food and petrol. Many of them also wonder whether their leaders will manage to form a new Cabinet and a functioning government. Lebanon is now one of the world’s diaspora nations, with more citizens living outside the country than within it. Many of them were driven to distrac tion – and then driven out – by the frustration of having to deal with a dysfunctional state. Mo Chreif [went home to investigate the causes of the huge blast which rocked Beirut ten months ago, and uncovered even more than he’d suspected.And following the historic result of the England-Germany game at Wembley, might both countries start reinventing their stereotypes of each other? Damien McGuinness has been thinking it over in Berlin.Producer: Polly Hope
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From Our Own Correspondent Folgen
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world
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Folge vom 01.07.2021Risk of Collapse
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Folge vom 26.06.2021America's Border Camps for ChildrenOn the United States Mexico border, the dilemmas of how to treat migrant families arriving without papers are still acute. A BBC investigation has found hundreds of undocumented children were being detained in a camp in the Texan desert that's been ridden with disease, overcrowded, and plagued by a shortage of clean clothes and medical care. Hilary Andersson has been investigating the conditions inside Fort Bliss, El Paso.Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez took a momentous decision this week: to pardon nine Catalan pro-independence leaders who were jailed for their role in a bid to break away from Spain in 2017. The pardons are meant to soothe national tensions over the issue, but as Guy Hedgecoe reports from Madrid, the reactions to them reflected some deeply-held feelings across the country.As Afghanistan’s leaders met Joseph Biden at the White House on Friday the mood in Kabul was edgy. The Taliban are still extending their reach and hold on Afghan territory, gaining new ground each day. For the Afghan media it’s a particularly nervous time after a spate of targeted killings of journalists. During such dangerous days, a recent invitation to the corridors of power in Kabul got Karim Haidari thinking.In late December last year a black man was killed by police in Dublin. George Nkencho was followed home after he assaulted someone in a shop and pulled out a knife. He was shot near his front door. The Irish police are mostly unarmed, and this was the sixth fatal shooting by a member of the force in 22 years. But there are questions over whether race may have been a factor in the incident. Stephanie Hegarty met George Nkencho’s family as they were pushing for an independent inquiry into his death.Hasankeyf in southeastern Turkey is one of humanity's oldest urban settlements - inhabited for at least twelve thousand years. Or at least old Hasankeyf was - until it was flooded by the waters built up behind the controversial Ilisu Dam. Some original monuments – its bathhouse and remnants of a 14th-century mosque, as well as over 500 graves - were rescued, but many local people wonder whether too much of its special character has been lost forever. Michelle Jana Chan went to see what remains.Producer: Polly Hope
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Folge vom 24.06.2021Denmark’s deportation dilemmaThe government of Mette Frederiksen in Copenhagen is getting tough on migration - and has even started to rescind the residency status of some asylum-seekers where it deems the situation in their home countries 'safe' or at least improved. Adrienne Murray reflects on the signs of resistance she's seen on the streets, and the questions these moves raise about Danish policy.Amira Fathalla has spent the last decade monitoring every twist and turn of Libya's apparent disintegration - and reflects on whither this week's peace conference in Germany can really strengthen its current, fragile government of national unity. Is this a final moment of truth for the post-Gaddafi order and a chance to get free and fair elections organised before the end of the year?South America is currently the epicentre of the global Covid pandemic, with some of the world's highest death rates and infections with all variants spreading extremely quickly. Anxiety's particularly high in Argentina, where by some measures things are even worse than in Brazil at the moment. Natalio Cosoy reports from Buenos Aires on the consequences for sport, socialising and the country's self-image.Although NGOs often express concern about illegal logging, mining and poaching in Liberia, there are parts of the country which are still thickly forested and full of animals - some of them edible. Lucinda Rouse went into the woods with a couple of hunters who catch creatures for cash - or for their own tables. Sadly, one of the most sought-after meats is the sweet flesh of several endangered and threatened species of pangolin. And Hugh Schofield leaves us both shaken and stirred by his adventures through the pages of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels - which, as it turns out, are packed full of photographic detail about the authors' travels in France. Retracing the steps of the spy and his adversaries, he finds there is plenty which can still be recognised from the books Producer: Polly Hope
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Folge vom 19.06.2021News Management in BelarusThe crackdown on dissent and reporting in Belarus goes on, and its authorities are keen to present their version of events to the world. At a recent press conference in Minsk, Jonah Fisher was presented with a dilemma when detained blogger and protester Roman Protasevich was brought out to speak to assembled journalists and diplomats.High in the Himalayas, Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries, with a weak and under-funded health system, particularly in rural areas. Rajini Vaidyanathan travelled there to report on the impact the pandemic is having on families across the country.Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was one of the most infamous drug cartel heads in Mexico for years - though he's ended up jailed for life in a supermax prison in the USA. Tara McKelvey covered his trial in New York in 2019, where she saw one of his former mistresses give dramatic testimony - and met his wife in the courthouse cafeteria. Two years on, the two women's fortunes have very much reversed.Bukhara is one of the most renowned of the ancient cities along the ancient Silk Road linking China and the West - a storied place with millennia of artistic and intellectual history embedded in its mosques, madrasas and mausoleums. Sara Wheeler chose a more intimate kind of building to get a feel of its history.And Andrew Harding recalls moments on the road across Africa - from Libya to Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire to Zimbabwe - when it took a team to get the job done. While the joke goes that reporters get the credit and camera operators get the fun, what is the producer's lot? Some of them - like his colleague Becky Lipscombe, now leaving the BBC - really can make all the difference.Producer: Polly Hope