'Virtual farewells' have become a trend on Russian social media. AI generated videos, depicting soldiers who have been killed in the war and paid for by their families, are being produced by AI artists. They show fantastical scenes of soldiers ascending to heaven; portrayals of their family members as guardian angels hovering over the front line; or sometimes little boys imagining a heroic future fighting in Putin's war in Ukraine. Liza Fokht of BBC Russian has been following the trend on social media/.
A documentary about deforestation in the West Papua region has attracted criticism from Indonesia's army. Some reports suggest the film Pesta Babi, or Pig Feast, has been banned, but the government insists that any cancelled screenings were the result of 'administrative procedures' and not an official ban. All the same, the controversy around the film seems to have made Indonesians more eager to find ways to watch it. BBC Indonesian's Lesthia Kertopati had a ticket for a screening this weekend.
Since the military coup in 2021, both international and domestic tourism in Myanmar has dwindled as insecurity and unpredictability in the country has put people off travelling. Incidents of robbery and kidnapping of tourists have been reported in the ancient city of Bagan, one of the most famous tourist hotspots. Soe Win Tan of BBC Burmese explains why this is happening.
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Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.
If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.
This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.
