From Our Own Correspondent

Kate Adie presents stories from Germany on the Alternative für Deutschland party's plans if it takes power in state elections; India's Cockroach party takes on a new fight; inside the factories of China's robotic revolution; how corned beef changed a Uruguayan town and the protesters of the peaceful anti-communist revolution in 1989 who've taken up a new cause.Jessica Parker has followed the campaign of AfD's state leader in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund, and heard more about the plans to reform the culture and education systems to make them more patriotic - and what locals are making of them.Geeta Pandy has visited rural schools in Faridabad - which are poorly staffed and in a dilapidated condition. It's a situation replicated across India and the subject of a new campaign by the Cockroach Janata Party, as she discovers.In China, Laura Bicker has visited factories in Chengdu, Hangzhou and Beijing - as well as the World Humanoid Olympics - to witness the robot revolution underway. More than two million robots work in the country's factories and she encounters the industrial robots working alongside humans - and the young people being encouraged to embrace the advances.Sara Wheeler has been in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos, and learns how corned beef along with other beef products once changed the fortunes of the region and the country.And Anne McElvoy reflects on her time as a student in communist East Germany, and then as a reporter of the anti-communist protests in 1989 - and finds some of those who took to the streets back then have redirected their sense of national pride to embrace a new cause: support for the AfD.Series Producer: Serena Tarling Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor: Justine Lang

Kate Adie introduces stories on the hidden networks providing vital lifelines to women and girls in Afghanistan, Gaza's tech entrepreneurs rebooting the digital economy, China's bogus dating agencies, and the hunt for a hard-to-find critter in the Australian bush. It's been five years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Lyse Doucet and Mahjooba Nowrouzi report on the severe restrictions placed on the freedoms and ambitions of women and girls, and the subsequent emergence of underground networks which are provide vital support - from education to legal advice for women seeking divorce. Since the ceasefire was announced last year, little progress has been made in Gaza in terms of reconstruction. But young tech-entrepreneurs are taking matters into their own hands, rebooting Gaza's fledgling digital economy and providing a much-needed source of income. Yolande Knell has been speaking to tech-savvy Palestinians. Matchmaking websites that help people find a soulmate can earn huge sums of money. Unfortunately it's an industry where fraudsters exploit lonely hearts looking for love. As Laura Bicker reports it is a serious problem in China, where some men have been cheated out of their life savings by bogus matchmakers. Australia is a country full of animals found nowhere else in the world, but many are under serious threat of extinction, with around four species disappearing every decade. But as Tiffanie Turnbull discovered, there is hope with some species bucking the trend - including the rare Australian marsupial, the numbat. Producers Polly Hope & Nick Holland Production coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor Richard Fenton-Smith

Kate Adie introduces stories from France, Ecuador, the occupied West Bank, the Thailand-Myamar border and South Korea. Firefighters across Europe have been battling wildfires this week and in the southwest of France, an area four times the size of Paris burnt outside Bordeaux. President Macron said it was the toughest situation the country had dealt with since the Second World War. Newyddion S4C's Gwyn Loader reports from the Gironde region.Despite President Daniel Noboa's tough policies promising to crack down hard on drug trafficking and gang violence in Ecuador, the country is still terrorised by cartels and corruption. BBC senior international correspondent Orla Guerin saw how rampant crime is fuelling a climate of fear.There has been an increase in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank in recent months. BBC Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson spent two weeks in the area around Nablus, speaking to Palestinian residents and a hardline Israeli settler about the violence. Since the military coup in Myanmar, the border city of Mae Sot in Thailand has become a haven for refugees, exiled civilians, politicians, and war-weary rebel fighters. BBC Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head sensed a mood of exhaustion in Myanmar's fractured opposition.The South Korean government has spent billions trying to get younger people coupled up, to combat the country's shrinking population - and they're not the only ones. BBC South Korea correspondent Jake Kwon travelled to a mountainside temple where Buddhist monks have been hosting special speed-dating weekends.Series Producer: Emma Close Production coordinators: Gemma Ashman & Sophie Hill Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

In this special edition of From Our Own Correspondent, we remember BBC Correspondent David Willey, who reported from around the world for more than half a century, and who died recently.David was a prolific contributor to this programme throughout his life and was still writing for the programme into his 93rd year.In an interview recorded last year for the ‘From Our Own Correspondent at 70’ programme, David tells Today presenter Anna Foster about his early travels reporting from around the world from Libya to China, as well as his long-time role as BBC Vatican Correspondent.This podcast also features some of his most memorable dispatches, including a report on troop morale in Vietnam in the 1970s, a lavish party thrown by Colonel Gadaffi in Libya in 2009 to mark his 40th year in power; insights from inside the Vatican amid the ‘Vatileaks’ scandal of 2012; and recollections from 2023 about when he first met Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi at his estate near Milan, where he got a private tour of the billionaire businessman’s private mausoleum.

Kate Adie introduces stories on Venezuela's earthquake recovery efforts, the rapid start of Hungary's new PM, a post-Soviet reunion at a border-town bazaar, and does the American Dream still hold up as America celebrates 250 years of independence.In Venezuela, family and friends have joined rescue workers in trying to find survivors after two earthquakes hit the country’s north last week. It was the country’s deadliest natural disaster in a century. Will Grant returned to his old neighbourhood in the capital Caracas, where he met locals still searching for news of their loved ones. Hungary's new Prime Minister Peter Magyar has been in office for less than 60 days, but has quickly set about rolling back laws and dismantling institutions built up by former strongman PM Viktor Orban, Such is this political whirlwind, it's become must-see TV. Nick Thorpe reports from Budapest. The break- up of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to the independence and redrawing of the borders of its fifteen republics, including central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Ibrat Safo, who grew up in Uzbekistan, tells the story of how his family became separated for decades - and how a new border-town bazaar became the scene of a poignant reunion. And it’s the 4th of July – which this year marks 250 years of American independence. This year’s anniversary has prompted much introspection about what the USA stands for as a nation, and recent surveys have found a shrinking number of Americans still believe in their country as the land of opportunity. Asma Khalid reflects on her own family’s pursuit of the American Dream.Series Producer: Serena Tarling Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Kate Adie introduces stories on Cuba's multiple crises from blackouts to food shortages, what it's like living under another war in Lebanon, how Persian new year festivities were muted this year, what China thinks about the war in the Middle East, and how an archaeological dig in Georgia led to a political purge.More than ten million people were left in the dark this week in Cuba, as the third major blackout in a month hit the island. The US fuel blockade is taking its toll, but locals are now finding the courage to publicly criticise the communist government, finds Will Grant in Havana.Lebanon was quickly drawn into another war following the US-Israel bombardment of Iran. For many Lebanese, much of their life has been spent living amid conflict or the aftermath of war. Carine Torbey reports from Beirut.The Spring equinox marked the Persian new year festival of Nowruz, though celebrations were muted this year with the country at war, and emotions still raw from the thousands of protesters killed in January. Leila Molana Allen is British-Iranian and reflects on how Iranians inside the country - and in the diaspora - have been trying to draw strength from this ancient tradition.China has so far kept its distance from the US-Israel war with Iran - a strategy designed, perhaps, with an eye on longer-term advantages over the United States. But it might not be quite so straight-forward says Laura Bicker in Beijing.And in the Southern Caucasus, archaeologists are once again digging for fossils in Georgia following a political purge of the country's museum sector. William Dunbar went to see what new discoveries are being made.Series Producer: Serena Tarling Production Coordinators: Katie Morrison and Sophie Hill Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith