China's New Rules for Society
The Chinese government is, as ever, staying busy by devising new regulations. It's unleashed a raft of regulatory changes on everything from the limits on how much debt property developers are allowed to build up, to changes in the tax code and the breaking up of tech giants. But the Communist Party has also launched a series of rather paternalistic moves, reaching right into family homes, with measures designed to tackle perceived problems of laziness, or even what the state calls \u201cspiritual pollution.\u201d As Stephen McDonell reports from Beijing, it\u2019s as if there is nowhere that the Party doesn\u2019t know best - and no aspect of life where it\u2019s not prepared to take charge.
The French government has expressed its fury after the decision by Australia to scrap a contract to buy French submarines. Canberra chose instead to enter a nuclear security pact for the Indo-Pacific with the US and the UK. \u201cWe\u2019ve been stabbed in the back!\u201d is how the French foreign minister put it \u2013 and off the record you can imagine that the comments were even stronger. Hugh Schofield has been following the events and says there is nothing confected about French outrage.
When it was part of the Soviet Union, Lithuania played host to stocks of nuclear missiles \u2013 huge ICBMs, which could have destroyed cities around the world. Back then, Lithuania\u2019s geography gave it great strategic importance. When it became fully independent in 1991, it found itself a rather small nation, of about three and a half million people, and with of lesser international interest. And yet, Lithuania has been rather punching above its weight lately - particularly in recent disputes with China and Belarus. On a recent visit to a small Lithuanian village, Sadakat Kadri, found relics of the country\u2019s past, with important lessons for the present.
When the Spanish conquistadors first landed in the Americas they brought new and terrifying beasts with them \u2013 from ships\u2019 rats to warhorses \u2013 not to mention lethal human diseases. But there was one sort of creature the indigenous Americans DID recognise on the European ships: the dogs. Dogs had already been tamed and kept by humans all over the continent for thousands of years. And they\u2019re still there \u2013 maybe not the original breeds, but thriving wherever there are people. In fact, in Chile, Jane Chambers has found them hard to avoid\u2026
People who\u2019d love a career in the arts end up doing other things to earn a living \u2013 just think of all those aspiring actors waiting tables in restaurants or would-be novelists working away in offices. But some do manage to break through against the odds \u2013 and it helps to have a globe-trotting life story as well as a deep well of inspiration at home to draw from. The painter Kojo Marfo has rocketed to fame after years spent working away from his home town in Ghana. Andy Jones has been exploring his career - and how he went from butcher's assistant to art world sensation.