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Sounds, music radio podcasts.

1:25

Hello. Today, as Ukraine's Prime

1:27

Minister warns of Russian victory

1:30

could herald a third world

1:32

war, we hear how

1:34

the country has struggled amid waning

1:36

Western support. Immigration

1:38

is a hot-button issue in

1:40

general elections around the world this year.

1:43

We hear how it's playing out in

1:45

South Africa. In Portugal,

1:47

it's 50 years since the

1:50

Carnation Revolution. We

1:52

meet the former resistance fighters

1:54

who stood against the country's

1:56

former dictator, Antonio Salazar. And

1:59

for the first time in the world, from the

2:01

dense rainforests of Eastern Indonesia to

2:03

the soaring skyscrapers of Hong

2:05

Kong. We hear how

2:07

the yellow-crestered cockatoos have adapted to

2:10

life in the big city. But

2:13

first, across the Middle East and

2:15

beyond, people have been watching developments

2:18

between Iran and Israel. After

2:21

an attack on Iran's consulate in

2:23

Damascus, widely understood to have been

2:25

launched by Israel, last

2:27

weekend Iran launched its

2:29

first-ever direct attack on Israel.

2:33

Then came US reports of an attack

2:35

on the Iranian city of Isfahan. Both

2:38

Western and regional diplomats have

2:40

called for de-escalation. Liz

2:43

Dusette reflects on the rise to

2:45

power of the man who will

2:47

ultimately decide what Tehran might

2:49

do next. We

2:52

had to arrive by noon on June 6, 1989.

2:56

That was the deadline, to enter Iran

2:58

without a visa, to report

3:01

on the funeral of Iran's

3:03

revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini. We

3:06

made it, with minutes to spare, to

3:08

the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

3:10

And there we watched on state television,

3:13

the striking images from the

3:15

streets of the capital Tehran. A human

3:18

tide so frenzied, the

3:20

cleric's body fell out of his wooden

3:22

coffin, carried away momentarily

3:24

by the swell of the crowds.

3:27

It was feared his burial would be delayed

3:29

by days. What couldn't

3:32

wait was the choice of a new

3:34

leader to send a sign of a

3:36

smooth transition. Two days earlier,

3:38

that announcement had been made. And

3:41

it was only many years later that

3:43

a video emerged of what happened behind

3:45

the scenes. A 50-year-old

3:47

Shia cleric, not yet an

3:50

Ayatollah, but a middle-ranking Hozha'at-ul-Islam,

3:52

was seen protesting. I

3:54

truly don't deserve this position. But

3:58

Ali Khamenei was overruled. He would

4:00

accept for now a one-year

4:02

caretaker role as Iran's supreme

4:04

leader. On that

4:06

fateful day in 1989, Western

4:09

media reported how the once

4:11

hardline mullah seemed to have

4:14

become less radical, wanting to revive

4:16

Iran's ties with the West, wanting

4:19

to rebuild after the

4:21

painful eight-year-long war with Iraq which

4:23

ended the year before he was

4:25

pushed to the pinnacle of power.

4:28

That conflagration still casts a long

4:30

dark shadow in Iran and it's

4:32

said to still weigh on the

4:35

mind of the now ayatollah Khamenei.

4:38

He's still in power, said to be in

4:40

poor health, now seething with

4:42

venom against the West, most

4:44

of all the United States, and

4:46

lashing out against Israel, a state

4:49

he derides as the

4:51

usurper Zionist regime. His

4:53

supporters revere him. Among

4:56

his opponents, he's rebiled, including

4:58

a young generation bristling

5:00

against the strict limits on

5:02

their personal and political freedoms.

5:06

In 2009, the ayatollah's image

5:08

of a leader above the

5:10

political fray was shattered when

5:12

he took sides in disputed

5:14

presidential elections. We

5:16

saw firsthand how a sacred taboo

5:18

was broken. And

5:20

young protesters filled streets in

5:23

Tehran, shouting, death to the

5:25

dictator, even death to Khamenei.

5:28

Nearly two years ago, that red line

5:30

was crossed again. When

5:32

young schoolgirls smashed his photograph

5:34

framed in glass, his unprecedented

5:37

protests swept Iran, sparked

5:39

by the death in custody

5:42

of 22-year-old Massa Amini. That

5:44

unrest shook the Islamic order but

5:47

didn't break it. Red liners

5:49

buttressed their grip on power. So

5:52

too did the Islamic Revolutionary

5:54

Guard Corps, the IRGC, established

5:57

in 1979 to protect revolution

6:01

Ayatollah Khamenei is

6:03

their commander-in-chief. Over

6:05

the decades, the Corps' external wing,

6:07

the Quds Force, helped build a

6:09

network of armed allies across the

6:12

region, from Lebanon's Hezbollah

6:14

to militias in Iraq and Syria,

6:17

the Houthis of Yemen, and

6:19

in recent years Hamas in

6:21

the Gaza Strip. When the Israel-Gaza

6:23

war erupted six months ago, triggered

6:26

by Hamas's murderous rampage

6:28

in southern Israel, this

6:30

network was emboldened, empowered,

6:33

a so-called axis of resistance,

6:35

striking Israeli and American targets.

6:39

And Israel hit back, not just

6:41

targeting Iranian assets in the region,

6:43

but assassinating Iranian and

6:45

Hezbollah commanders. Iran held

6:48

back. April

6:50

1st changed that calculus. With

6:53

the attack on its diplomatic

6:55

compound in Damascus, Israel must

6:57

and should be punished, declared

6:59

the Ayatollah immediately. But

7:02

Iran watchers observed, avoiding

7:04

all-out war has been his legacy. It

7:06

was a choice of all choices, how

7:09

to placate the anger of his

7:11

radical revolutionary guards, how

7:13

to preserve Iran's perceived

7:15

prestige, how to do it in

7:17

such a way that Israel did not

7:19

strike back hard. On

7:22

April 14th, Iran made its move.

7:24

What it saw is a calibrated

7:26

strike it telegraphed 72 hours

7:29

before. By the time it was over, almost

7:32

all of the hundreds of drones,

7:34

crews, and ballistic missiles were

7:37

intercepted by Israel and its

7:39

allies. But Israel didn't

7:41

see it as a win. Its

7:44

first response came quickly but quietly

7:46

on Friday morning, a

7:48

handful of drone strikes which caused

7:50

little damage but sent a strong

7:53

signal. Israel didn't even say

7:55

officially this was its work,

7:58

an unintended gift. the

8:00

Ayatollah, who marked his 85th

8:02

birthday that day. He

8:04

could cast it as a slap so weak

8:06

it wasn't even clear who did it. He

8:09

could keep for now his calculus of

8:12

avoiding a catastrophic war in a

8:14

region where hostility still

8:16

seethes dangerously. Least

8:19

we're set. A missile attack

8:22

in the northern Ukrainian city of

8:24

Chenehiv earlier this week laid

8:26

bare the weakness of the country's air

8:28

defences. 18 people

8:31

were killed in the attack which

8:33

hit an eight-storey building in a

8:35

densely populated area. Depleted ammunition

8:38

supplies as well as a worsening

8:40

situation on the front line have

8:42

heightened fears that the tide

8:44

is continuing to turn against Ukraine

8:46

in its war with Russia. But

8:49

Ukrainian leaders have warned Western

8:51

governments that global security is

8:53

also at stake should Ukraine

8:55

be defeated. Sarah Rainsford

8:58

has been in Ukraine. Driving

9:01

towards the red and white chimneys of

9:03

Kharkiv power station number five I noticed

9:05

the women first with their brooms and

9:08

biscuits and paint brushes. Then

9:10

I saw the wreckage. The

9:13

power plant was hit by five Russian

9:15

missiles last month at the start of

9:17

a massive attack on Ukraine's energy system

9:19

that hasn't stopped. But

9:21

in front of the giant bomb site the

9:23

little group of women were sweeping the path

9:25

and painting the curbs. One

9:28

was even pulling up dandelions. They

9:31

told me they still like to keep

9:33

things neat and tidy. They thought it's

9:35

important to keep up morale. There

9:38

is now barely a power plant in Ukraine

9:40

that hasn't been badly damaged

9:42

or completely destroyed including

9:44

all three that supplied Kharkiv. Inside

9:47

what's left of plant number five an

9:49

engineer led me carefully to the edge

9:51

of a crater where one of

9:54

the missiles had smashed through the roof

9:56

mangling and burning everything in its path.

9:59

The repair teams had only And he'd just got

10:01

a section of the plant running after

10:03

a previous missile strike, when the Russians

10:05

hit it again, even harder. One

10:08

of the workers told me they could

10:10

fix it, perform miracles, as he put

10:12

it. But what's the point, he wondered,

10:15

if it's not protected? Ukraine's

10:18

air defences are being overwhelmed by the

10:20

sheer intensity of the Russian attacks. There

10:23

aren't enough units to protect everything, and

10:25

the military has to decide on its

10:27

priorities. A few days ago,

10:30

President Zelensky spelled out the problem.

10:33

Earlier this month, he said, Russia hurled

10:35

11 missiles at a power

10:37

station outside Kiev. Ukraine

10:39

shot down seven of them, and

10:42

then it ran out of missiles. The

10:44

plant was wiped out. Months

10:47

of pleading with Ukraine's allies to

10:49

help protect its skies have gone

10:52

largely unanswered, and recently the

10:54

frustration Ukrainians feel at that turned

10:56

to bewilderment and even anger. Because

10:59

when Iran attacked Israel last weekend,

11:02

the US and UK intervened directly

11:04

to help shoot down the missiles

11:06

and drones. Vladimir Zelensky

11:09

made speeches then highlighting the

11:11

common threat and the starkly

11:13

different response by Ukraine's allies.

11:16

His calls for more air defences,

11:18

more protection grew louder. If

11:21

you spend any time in Ukraine, you can see

11:23

where he's coming from. Whenever

11:25

the air raid sirens wail, people across

11:27

the country start scrolling through their

11:29

phones. There are apps that track the

11:32

drones and missiles as they come in. Ballistic

11:34

missile threat for Kiev, drones

11:36

over Harkis, cruise missile

11:39

threat to southern Ukraine. Based

11:42

on those details, you decide whether to

11:44

head to a shelter or perhaps crouch

11:46

in the bathroom, banking on the

11:48

protection of an extra wall. Sometimes

11:51

you just sleep on because living with

11:53

the missile threat can be

11:55

exhausting. The other

11:57

weekend Kiev, a cruise missile hit an arts college.

12:00

seconds after the phones went off, and

12:03

in Kharkiv, close to the Russian border, there

12:05

can be little or no time to react.

12:08

This week there was another reminder

12:10

of the terrible results. Eighteen

12:13

people were killed when Russian missiles

12:15

hit the centre of Chidnichyv. Seeing

12:18

the news slashes on my phone, my mind

12:20

raced back to my own visit there in

12:22

March. On the main boulevard

12:24

then, I'd met Sasha and her toddler Sonia,

12:27

who was giggling as she threw chestnuts for

12:29

their dog to chase. Sasha

12:31

explained that they had fled Chidnichyv for the

12:33

start of the war when it was under

12:36

siege and deadly dangerous, but

12:38

when the invading Russian forces were pushed

12:40

back, the young family came home. Sasha

12:43

worried all the way back that she'd made

12:45

the wrong decision. Then

12:48

you realise the missiles can strike anywhere, even

12:50

western Ukraine, she told me. She

12:53

was constantly nervous. I

12:56

keep wondering whether I'm a normal parent

12:58

to bring my child into this. Maybe

13:01

the chances of getting killed are quite

13:03

low, she reasoned, but there is

13:05

still a chance. And

13:07

now Chidnichyv has been hit, just

13:10

down the road from where I'd seen little

13:12

Sonia and her dog. When

13:14

I left Ukraine this week, I took

13:16

the train west to Warsaw. The

13:19

slow journey gives you time to release the

13:21

tension that you don't realise you feel until

13:23

it goes. As we

13:25

chugged through the Polish countryside, my phone

13:28

suddenly vibrated urgently on the table in front

13:30

of me. Then came

13:32

the siren. A girl opposite

13:34

jumped and I stumbled to switch it off.

13:37

Within seconds the same sound was howling from

13:39

phones all around me. The

13:41

carriage was full of Ukrainians. I

13:44

checked the app, air-raiding Kiev,

13:47

missile heading for the city. That's

13:50

life now, across Ukraine. Not

13:53

normal at all. Sarah

13:55

Rainsford. South Africa

13:57

is preparing to go to the polls in

13:59

May. where, for the first time

14:01

since the end of white minority rule, the

14:04

governing ANC party is predicted to get less

14:06

than 50% of the vote. Support

14:10

for President Cyril Raboposa and his

14:12

party has waned, as

14:15

high unemployment, crime, corruption and

14:17

persistent power cuts have left

14:20

South African voters disillusioned. crime

14:23

is also high on the list

14:26

of many voters' concerns and

14:28

could prove pivotal as they cast

14:30

their ballot. Jenny Hill

14:32

reports from the border with Zimbabwe.

14:36

It was the scar on her arm that

14:38

really shocked me. The men

14:40

who attacked Portia had used glass

14:42

bottles, she told me, gently

14:44

touching its jagged lumpy contours.

14:47

They'd raped her too, she said wearily. They

14:50

hadn't seemed to care that she was visibly

14:52

pregnant. I met Portia

14:54

as she recovered, her pregnancy now almost

14:56

full term, in the town of Musina

14:59

near South Africa's border with Zimbabwe. Above

15:02

us, a huge baobab tree spread

15:04

a soothing shade. Musina

15:06

is famous for these strange

15:08

and stately giants. The

15:11

town is also well known as a

15:13

place of refuge for migrants who, like

15:15

Portia, slip unnoticed across the border.

15:19

Portia is a place where people are driven here

15:21

from neighbouring countries by poverty and desperation, but

15:23

it's a notoriously dangerous journey.

15:26

The bush around Musina is

15:28

lawless territory, frequented by traffickers,

15:31

smugglers and thieves. Portia

15:33

gazed up at the leaves of the

15:35

baobab and told me she still can't

15:38

sleep, that she still suffers flashbacks. She

15:40

was targeted by what people here refer to,

15:43

fearfully, as the magoma goma,

15:46

criminals armed with guns who prey

15:48

on migrants. I'd heard

15:50

other stories too, robberies, beatings,

15:53

even killings. The

15:55

bush is very, very dangerous, as Zimbabwean

15:57

man called George told me. me, his

16:00

eyes wide at the memory of his

16:02

own journey. George said he'd

16:04

walked past bodies, human skeletons.

16:07

The Magoma Goma, he said, shaking

16:09

his head, will steal everything and

16:12

rape your wife. But the

16:14

migrants still come. It's a chance

16:16

at least, George told me, to get some

16:18

casual work, earn a little cash to send

16:20

back to his family at home. I thought

16:23

of those Beobabs. People

16:25

here call them upside-down trees

16:28

because their branches resemble roots.

16:31

Legend has it that God was angry with

16:33

the Beobab and threw it out of his

16:35

garden. Having landed upside-down in

16:37

the wilderness, the Beobab went

16:39

on to flourish. Upped, perhaps,

16:42

that it should grow so abundantly around

16:44

a border town where everyone has

16:46

a story of survival. We'd

16:49

come to Musina to see South

16:51

Africa's porous border for ourselves. There's

16:54

rising anger in this country about

16:56

illegal immigration and growing concern about

16:58

its vast land border, which is

17:00

nearly 5,000 kilometres long and shared

17:03

with six countries. A short

17:06

drive from the town, we bumped along a

17:08

rough track towards the bank of

17:10

the Limpopo River, which separates South

17:12

Africa from Zimbabwe. The Limpopo was

17:14

all but dried up, and as we

17:16

watched under a sweltering sun, a

17:19

woman, packages balanced high on her

17:21

head, hurried past. This was

17:23

supposed to be the border. We

17:25

weren't far from an official crossing point, but

17:28

here there were no guards, no barriers,

17:31

no checks, nothing to

17:33

stop people simply walking into

17:35

the country. The South African

17:37

authorities acknowledge they have a problem.

17:40

The governing party, the African National

17:42

Congress, or ANC, claims

17:44

it's securing the border. There's a

17:46

newly formed border force. It's sending

17:49

more officers to the area, but

17:51

senior managers openly admit it'll take

17:53

years to bring it under full control. And

17:56

the ANC may not have the luxury

17:58

of time. uninterrupted

18:00

years in power, it presides over

18:03

a chaotic country. Power cuts are

18:05

common, the water supply is failing,

18:07

and unemployment and violent crime are

18:10

at record levels. As

18:12

South Africa lurches towards the general election at

18:14

the end of May, many

18:16

blame foreigners for the country's woes.

18:19

The tone is increasingly xenophobic.

18:21

No one knows how many undocumented migrants

18:23

are coming into the country, how many

18:26

are here, and how many intend to

18:28

stay. But in Mussina, a

18:30

spokeswoman for one opposition party,

18:32

Action SA, warned that

18:34

their presence was overwhelming the area's

18:36

health and social systems. As

18:39

we drove home, away from the border, I

18:42

looked at the baobabs, tall against the

18:44

darkening sky. South Africa itself

18:46

feels like a bit of a wilderness

18:48

right now. Most of the South

18:50

Africans I speak to feel that while

18:52

this election will likely bruise the governing

18:55

party, it won't bring about

18:57

the kind of change many feel is needed

18:59

to transform the country's fortunes. And

19:02

I thought of Portia, George, the

19:04

other migrants I'd met in Mussina. For

19:06

them, South Africa represented a

19:08

salvation of sorts, but

19:11

in reality, for them, it's a

19:13

hostile country. Those baobab

19:15

trees live extraordinarily long

19:17

lives, sometimes thousands of

19:19

years, and they're

19:21

famed for their ability to

19:23

regenerate and thrive, symbolising perhaps

19:25

a hope this country needs.

19:29

Jenny Hill. Next

19:31

week, Portugal marks the 50th

19:33

anniversary of its transition to

19:35

democracy. While politics in

19:37

today's Portugal are defined by free

19:40

and fair elections, for decades it

19:42

was a very different place, an

19:45

isolationist, ultra- traditionalist

19:47

Catholic nation, strictly

19:49

controlled by dictator

19:51

Antonio Salazar. He

19:53

was finally overthrown in 1974 when

19:56

officers in the Portuguese army led a

19:58

coup against his regime. regime, Simon

20:01

Bush met some of the men

20:03

who joined the resistance against Salazar

20:05

to find out what they think

20:07

about politics in Portugal today. We

20:10

always choose a corner table, says Sal

20:12

Fernando Snunes, as we take a seat

20:15

at a restaurant in one of the

20:17

few quarters of Lisbon, seemingly not yet

20:19

colonised by digital nomads in Air BnBs.

20:22

Because of the spies, it makes it harder

20:24

for them to listen. Jocular

20:26

and bristle-mustached, at

20:28

90, Saul could be an advertisement for Youthful

20:30

Rebellion being good for your health. Saul's

20:33

choice of table location harks back

20:35

to his days of youthful militancy

20:37

against the right-wing nationalist regime of

20:40

Antonio Salazar. It was

20:42

Europe's longest dictatorship, which

20:44

alongside mass censorship, torture and

20:46

imprisonment of opponents, also

20:49

used a thousand-strong network of informants.

20:51

Joining us at the restaurant was

20:54

one of Saul's comrades from his

20:56

insurrectionary days, José Luis Faronia, gearing

20:58

up for the celebration a few days

21:00

since of the 50th anniversary of the

21:02

downfall of the Salazar regime. People

21:05

called it the Carnation Revolution, for the

21:07

flowers they stuck in soldiers' rifles. Given

21:10

the half-century milestone, the annual celebratory

21:13

marches with their shouts of, Fascist

21:15

mon un camáis, fascism

21:17

never again, promised to be especially

21:19

triumphant this year. Despite its longevity,

21:22

the 48-year dictatorship led for most

21:24

of its duration by Salazar, a

21:26

squeaky-voiced economist, never quite managed to

21:29

seal the lid on a largely

21:31

leftist insurgent soup simmering beneath it.

21:34

Resting on pillars of nationalism,

21:36

Catholicism and corporatism, Salazar's rule

21:38

seems to have been motivated

21:40

in part by nostalgia for

21:42

an imagined Portuguese rural ittle

21:45

and a hatred of modernity. Under

21:47

his one-party administration, Coca-Cola was banned.

21:49

Women required their husbands' permission to

21:51

open a bank account, and you

21:54

even needed a license for one

21:56

of those subversively newfangled things, a

21:58

cigarette lighter. Meanwhile, Salazar's

22:00

political police, the Pide, were kept

22:03

busy by the clandestine opposition groups

22:05

proliferating towards the end of Salazar's

22:07

rule. So busy that, as one

22:09

accounted the era relates, the Brazilian

22:12

ambassador's wife complained of the cries

22:14

of torture victims coming from the

22:16

Pide headquarters opposite, only to be

22:18

told that, no, they were the

22:21

screaming tram wheels. Back

22:23

at the restaurant, Saul unfolds before me a

22:25

family tree of the twenty or more underground

22:27

groupings spawned in Portugal from the 1960s on.

22:31

Saul and Jose Luis belonged to one

22:33

of them, called the Popular Action Front,

22:35

and were picked up by the Pide

22:37

for such heinous crimes as leafletting and

22:39

graffiti. Prison, they tell me,

22:42

was like a concentrated miniature of

22:44

Salazarian society. News was

22:46

scant, communication largely forbidden, and

22:48

the regime specialized in a

22:50

kind of bruiseless, ill treatment,

22:52

sleep deprivation. When

22:54

the prisoners went on hunger strike to demand

22:56

better conditions, they were force-fed. I never

22:59

eat between meals, Sal had quipped to

23:01

the guards, sealing his lips, no matter.

23:04

They forced a hose attached to a funnel down one

23:06

of his nostrils. Yet, compared

23:08

with its authoritarian counterparts in

23:10

Chile, Brazil, or Argentina, Salazar's

23:12

repression, Sal Muses, was rather

23:15

smooth. Fear, as

23:17

he puts it, was efficiently generalized.

23:20

The dictatorship was also singularly pragmatic,

23:22

cozying up to and then dropping

23:24

its fascist allies like Mussolini. This

23:27

pragmatism is what helped the regime

23:29

to last so long, says another

23:31

ex-subversive, Fernando Pereira Marques. Banged

23:33

up by the regime in 1968 after

23:36

an attempted town occupation, Professor Marques

23:38

later became an academic and socialist

23:40

party MP. A von

23:42

Kjelenau in his 70s, this militant turned

23:44

teacher, has a theory too about the

23:46

recent rebirth of the far right in

23:48

Portugal. A new party called Chega did

23:50

well in national elections last month when

23:53

it became the third largest force in

23:55

Portuguese politics. Its success is

23:57

born of a kind of mistrust of

23:59

the political centre. in Lisbon, Professor Marques

24:01

says, and of politicians in general. Perhaps

24:04

Professor Marques, along with Saul,

24:06

Jose Luiz and others soon

24:08

to celebrate the 50th anniversary

24:10

defeat of Europe's longest-running dictatorship,

24:13

will feel the need to shout, ìVashis mon

24:15

unkamais!î a little louder this time. Simon

24:19

Bush. And finally,

24:21

exotic birds have adapted to live

24:23

alongside humans in some of the

24:25

world's major cities. In

24:27

Hong Kong, itís yellow-crested cockatoos

24:29

that you might see swooping

24:32

through the skyline. Originating

24:35

from the jungles of Southeast

24:37

Asia, Hong Kongís cockatoos have

24:39

not always been welcomed, and

24:41

were once considered a pest. Today,

24:44

there are protected species. Stephen

24:47

Moss tells the story of why theyíre

24:49

now thriving in Hong Kong. A

24:52

busy city park surrounded by a

24:54

sea of steel, glass and concrete

24:57

is not where Iíd expect to find

24:59

one of the worldís rarest and most

25:01

endangered birds. But this location,

25:04

in the heart of Hong Kongís

25:06

central business district, is no ordinary

25:08

urban oasis. Itís

25:10

home to 200 or so

25:13

yellow-crested cockatoos. That doesnít sound

25:15

a lot, but itís roughly 10% of the entire

25:18

world population. And

25:20

early on a Sunday morning, as I

25:22

dodge hordes of joggers and weave my

25:24

way around the Tai Chi enthusiasts, Iím

25:26

hoping to see them. At

25:29

first all I can hear is

25:31

the chirping of tree sparrows and

25:33

the more tuneful calls of Hong

25:35

Kongís most ubiquitous bird, the red-whiskered

25:37

bauble. But then I

25:40

notice a distant screech, which has been

25:42

described as sounding like a cross between

25:44

a car alarm and a braying donkey.

25:47

And there, right above my head, I

25:50

see a score of these large white

25:52

birds heading towards a fruiting tree to

25:54

feed. As they land, I

25:57

catch a glimpse of the bright, sulphur-yellow

25:59

quid. that gives the species its

26:01

name. Yellow-crested cockatoos

26:04

are not native to Hong Kong. Their

26:06

original home is in the dense

26:09

rainforests of eastern Indonesia and neighbouring

26:11

Timor-Leste. There, they could

26:13

once be found in vast numbers. But

26:16

during the 1980s, nearly 100,000 of these handsome

26:20

birds were legally exported to be

26:22

sold as pets in the caged

26:24

bird trade, with countless more trapped

26:27

illegally. Today, fewer than

26:29

2,000 mature individuals remain in

26:31

the wild. That's

26:34

why the Global Conservation Organisation,

26:36

BirdLife International, has

26:38

classified the yellow-crested cockatoo

26:40

as critically endangered, just

26:43

one level above extinct in the

26:45

wild. So, what

26:47

are these exotic birds doing here, in

26:49

one of the world's busiest urban jungles? The

26:52

story takes us all the way

26:54

back to December 1941, when, following

26:57

the bombing of Pearl Harbour, Hong

26:59

Kong was about to fall to

27:01

the invading Japanese army. Faced

27:04

with inevitable defeat, the

27:06

British colonial governor decided to release

27:08

his entire bird collection, to save

27:11

them falling into enemy hands. It's

27:14

a convincing story, and while I heard

27:16

several times during my visit here, unfortunately

27:19

it also appears to be an

27:21

urban myth, with absolutely

27:23

no basis in the historical record.

27:26

These noisy flocks weren't actually seen here

27:28

until the late 1950s, long

27:31

after the end of the Second World War. But

27:35

however the cockatoos arrived, the

27:37

fact remains that, with their

27:39

Indonesian population plummeting towards oblivion,

27:41

Hong Kong, where numbers have quadrupled

27:43

since the 1970s, is a Noah's

27:45

Ark for this species. Dr

27:48

Astrid Anderson, a Swedish scientist based in

27:51

Hong Kong, who has studied them closely

27:53

in the urban parks, agrees.

27:56

These birds have found a safe haven here,

27:58

she tells me. It just shows

28:00

that humans and wildlife really can coexist

28:02

even in the middle of a city.

28:05

However, Dr Anderson, who has been dubbed

28:07

the Queen of the Cockatoos, believes that

28:10

they may still not be safe. Hong

28:13

Kong is a thoroughfare for the

28:15

legal wildlife trade, she explains, and

28:18

that provides a cover for the illegal

28:20

wildlife trade to operate in parallel. To

28:23

try to pinpoint their origin, Dr

28:26

Anderson has developed a test which,

28:28

by analysing the chemical composition of

28:30

the cockatoos' feathers, can reveal what

28:32

they've recently been eating. This

28:35

then enables her to discover if

28:37

an individual bird has been legally

28:39

bred in captivity, or was taken

28:41

illegally from the wild. As

28:44

with many endangered members of the Parrot

28:46

tribe, there's a paradox at the heart

28:48

of the yellow-crested cockatoos' plight. They

28:51

were initially driven to the edge of

28:53

extinction to meet the insatiable

28:55

demands of the caged bird trade. Yet,

28:58

ironically, the ultimate salvation of

29:00

the species lies in these

29:02

birds, whose ancestors were brought

29:04

here in cages, but

29:07

now fly free above my head

29:09

in this busy city park. Stephen

29:12

Moss. And that's all

29:14

for today. We'll be back again next

29:16

Saturday morning. Do join us. I'm

29:21

Kavita Puri, and in three million

29:23

from BBC Radio 4, I

29:26

hear extraordinary eyewitness accounts that tell

29:28

the story for the first time

29:30

of the Bengal famine which

29:32

happened in British India in the middle of

29:34

the Second World War. At

29:37

least three million people died. It's

29:40

one of the largest losses of civilian life

29:42

from the Allied side, and there isn't a

29:44

museum, a memorial, or

29:46

even a plaque to those who died. How

29:49

can the memory of three million people

29:51

just disappear? Eighty

29:56

years on, I tracked down

29:58

first-hand accounts. and make

30:01

new discoveries and hear

30:03

remarkable stories and explore why

30:05

remembrance is so complicated in

30:07

Britain, India and Bangladesh. Listen

30:10

to 3 million on BBC

30:12

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