Clean Up Your Act

Published: Aug. 18, 2018, 11 a.m.

Greece is poised to exit the terms of its third EU bailout as of August 20th. The Tsipras government has claimed this signals "the end of the drama" and greater freedom for Greeks to decide on their own fate and their own economy. Theopi Skarlatos talks to the Finance Ministry cleaners who became a symbol of the country's economic pain when they protested to keep their jobs - and hears what they make of the situation today. Meanwhile Dublin is preparing for its first papal visit since John Paul II told a crowd of millions "young people of Ireland, I love you!" in 1979. Vincent Woods considers what message today's Irish Catholics would most like to hear from Pope Francis, as the Church reels from a string of scandals and faces some existential threats. BBC Africa Editor Mary Harper pays tribute to a young Somali friend with a profusion of fresh ideas about how to make daily life in Mogadishu cleaner - and more colourful. Mohamed Mahamoud Sheikh Ali spotted a huge gap in the dry-cleaning market, ran a florist's, and mentored a whole new school of young entrepreneurs. As the Trump Administration pushes a policy of "Hire American, Buy American", and steps up immigration enforcement measures, Hugo Bachega visits a mid-American town feeling the effects of recent raids to find and deport undocumented workers. And fifty years on from the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, Alexa Dvorson hears from three men who vividly remember the Praque Spring and its aftermath as turning points in their own lives, as well as in their country's history.