Japan is facing a unique demographic challenge. Not only does it have, along with a number of other developed countries, one of the lowest birth rates in the world. For reasons that remain intriguing to researchers in the field, Japanese people live ...

Numbering around 35 million, the Fulani, also known as Fula or Peul, are spread across 15 countries in the Sahel region stretching from the Atlantic seaboard in the West to the Red Sea in the East. Around a third of Fulani are pastoralists, making them ...

Banknotes are generally issued by governments or national banks and their imagery is intended to represent the reliability of these banks and of the economic and political system. Of course, their designs are also influenced by other countries' ...

When Covid struck, they found themselves on the frontline of the UK response. Three years on from the first lockdown, scientists and experts reflect on the highs and lows of the crisis - and reveal how they decompressed in quieter moments. For full ...

On 29th October 1923, a modern nation rose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first President of the Turkish republic, declared Turkey to be a secular republic based on the separation of the powers of state and ...

The Yanomami people are living through an unprecedented crisis due to the invasion of some 20,000 illegal gold miners who have descended on their lands which straddle the border between Brazil and Venezuela. Their predicament has been made worse by the ...

Since the financial crisis in the 1990s, many young women have left the Faroe Islands, a small nation in the North Atlantic Ocean which is nominally part of Denmark, but governs its own affairs. Most leave to study in Copenhagen or other European cities....

It's the most tranquil and magnificent backdrop to our planet's climate catastrophe, and the ramifications for Greenland, as well as its perspective on climate change, are as unique as its landscape. In contrast to elsewhere, Greenland officially ...

There is a tradition in Barentsburg. When you go to the mainland, you hug a tree because there are none here. The Russian enclave on Spitsbergen in the Arctic is so remote that you only reach it by helicopter, snowmobile, or ship. Because of the danger ...

With a population of just over 10,000, Poienile de sub Munte is the largest village in Romania, most of whose inhabitants are part of Romanias Ukrainian minority. Unlike the rest of the country, and especially rural areas which have seen a falling ...

The largest landlocked country on earth, Kazakhstan remains for most foreigners a vast, arid void, somewhere between Russia and China. A couple of films showing the exploits of Borat, a hapless Kazakh official travelling around America, have given the ...

The Alps, with their picturesque landscapes and diverse range of outdoor activities, are a major destination for tourists from all over the world. Each year around 120 million people visit the region to experience its natural beauty and participate in ...

'This morning a fine idea came to me.' 'Lets hear it.' 'I thought of making myself a beautiful wooden Marionette. It must be wonderful, one that will be able to dance, fence, and turn somersaults. With it I intend to go around the world, to earn my...

I arrived in Ukraine at the end of January 2022, nearly a month before the Russian soldiers arrived. The city lay under a blanket of snow, and it appeared peaceful, but there was something else in the air, too. The 'All for Victory tent' in the ...

In April 2019 the world looked on in horror as the roof of Notre Dame de Paris, one of the most famous churches in the world, went up in flames. It was a stark reminder that fires, which have plagued European cities throughout the ages, can still do ...

After almost a year of intense fighting following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, thousands of soldiers and other militia have been taken prisoner on both sides. Despite regular exchanges of Prisoners of War (POWs), thousands are being held in prison camps...