16/04/2016 Reporters

Welcome to Reporters. From here in the world's newsroom we sent out

correspondence to bring you the best news stories from across the globe.

In this programme, China's abandoned children. John sat with me to the

young people left behind, their parents working in the cities. The

numbers involved are staggering. Some 16 million children affected

nationwide, left behind in villages like this one. Two years after

hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls are kidnapped by Islamist militants, we

report on the thousands of other women and girls also missing. And we

hear the tragic stories of those who have escaped. When you are living

under them, they beat you. If there is a child on your back, they even

beat the child. At night they try to rate you. Inside the Olympic Park as

Brazil braces to get ready for the summer games, and we get a rare look

at how the preparations are going. Alan Ghosh investigates an ambitious

new project to send a spacecraft to another sub system trillions of

miles away, backed by Stephen Hawking. If we are to survive as a

species, we must ultimately spread to the stars. And capturing the cool

of Miles Davis. We catch up with Hollywood actor Don Cheadle as he

takes up the trumpet to play the jazz genius. Miles was fun and

hip-hop and bebop and pop and swing and jazz and soul and R He

touched at all. They are known as China's left

behind children, a mass of young people abandoned by their parents as

they go in search of work in the cities. It is thought tens of

millions of children are involved. Sometimes left under the care of

relatives, often unsupervised. China's residency laws mean migrant

workers are banned from taking their children with them. The authorities

have launched a national census to try to provide an accurate measure

of the exact scale of the problem. Johnson's wife has been to two of

the worst affected provinces, and reports on one of China's most

pressing social challenges. This 14-year-old girl is helping her

younger brother with his homework. She is the only one who can. The

children live alone. In their remote village, they grow their own

vegetables and cook their own meals. Their parents work more than 1000

miles away. And they come back to visit just once a year. When you are

sad or upset about something at school, it must be very hard not

being able to talk to your money or your daddy about it. TRANSLATION: I

cannot tell them. Mum and dad live a hard life outside. I don't want them

to worry about me. Alongside the responsibilities of an adult, she

carries the vulnerability of a child. In some schools, opted 80% of

the pupils are growing up without their mums and dads. China's modern

economy may have been built on the hard graft of its internal migrants,

but it has taken a heavy toll on the children as well. The numbers

involved are staggering, some 16 million children affected

nationwide, left behind in villages like this one while their parents

work elsewhere. It is arguably one of the most pressing social issues

of our time, and despite much hand-wringing, it is an issue the

Communist Party has so far done very little about. Most left behind

children are not alone but kept under the watchful eye of a

grandparent. Many still struggle, like 11-year-old Tang Yuan.

TRANSLATION: My parents do not live here, they work in another city cold

Chengdu. They work in a factory making clothes. I know it is hard

for mum and dad to make money, but I miss them so much, it is very

painful. This is where his dad works. This boat years of service

and these production lines, it is still most impossible for Mr Tang to

lose his official migrant status. Meaning that like millions of others

his children are not allowed to attend local schools. In restaurant

close to the factory, we show the parents of Tang Yuwen the interview

we recorded with their son. They have not seen him for five months.

TRANSLATION: I am so worried because I am not with him. I worry about his

safety. If there were no legal barriers we would bring him with us.

The Chinese government admits the problem is urgent. But until their

parents are given full citizenship rights, the true cost of every made

in China product will be measured not just in price but in the

terrible burden it places on these children. From China's left behind

children to the children of Nigeria in the hundreds of schoolgirls

kidnapped by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram two years ago. Back

then a campaign united the world in condemnation and calls for action,

but no more than 200 of them are still missing. And their case is not

unusual. It is thought thousands of other women and girls are missing.

We have been talking to one girl who managed to escape her captors. You

may find her story distressing. This is our. She was not one of the

school girls come about as one of the thousands of others taken by

Boko Haram. No home, her story is the story of how they are caring

communities apart. She explained how she was kidnapped by Boko Haram and

taken to the notorious forest. TRANSLATION: They give us a choice,

to be married to be a slave. I decided to marry. What did getting

married involve? We lived together. I became pregnant from my husband

and gave birth to a boy. She was rescued before her son was born and

kept in touch with her husband by phone before the army took it from

her. It was the last time she spoke to him. Do you love your husband?

Yes. Her family is half Muslim, half Christian. They had a vote to decide

whether she should have an abortion. By a narrow majority she was allowed

to board the baby, -- alo to keep the baby, but it right shame. People

cold her a Boko Haram wife, and the criminal, they did not want her near

or alike. How did they treat your child? They hated my child. He fell

sick and the body kit for him. Nobody liked him. The boy, nine

months old, was bitten by a snake. He died. Half the family celebrated

what they called God's will. TRANSLATION: Some were happy that he

died. They were happy the blood of alcohol and had gone. She is sad,

she is angry, she is confused. She is 17. She talks of going to school

and becoming a doctor. She talks of going back to the forest. She talks

of becoming a suicide bomber. Not far from her home are many other

woman with similar and terrible stories of life under Boko Haram.

Stories of beatings, forced marriages, suffering, and now,

stigma. TRANSLATION: When you are living under them, they beat you. If

there is a child on your back, they even beat the child. At night they

try to rate you. You have to fight them off. This is another town where

Boko Haram came and killed, and took at least 300 children from the

school. One of these men has lost his wife. The other a seven-year-old

boy with the Islamist group. What are they fighting for? It is not

religion. TRANSLATION: It is all there talking about, nobody talks

about how our children were kidnapped. The crisis here in

north-eastern Nigeria is about more than the Chibock girls. Thousands

have been forced to live under Boko Haram. It is not just the trauma of

that the sexual abuse, it is when they come back to their communities

people reject them. That is the real tragedy. So many girls like Zara

have been abducted. So many others are still being held. There is

torment for those who wait, and there is pain for those who survive.

The so-called panama papers have put the tiny territory of the British

Virgin Islands under pressure. The islands, which were the top tax

haven identified in the leaked documents, now say they will share

information with the British government about who owns offshore

companies registered on their territory. More than half the

offshore firms set up by the Panamanian law firm at the centre of

the scandal are registered there. Our correspondent has been to the

British Virgin Islands to investigate. The British Virgin

Islands, where the union Jack still flies, and symbols of the Queen are

everywhere. This tropical paradise is an unlikely engine room of global

finance. There are around 500 thousand active offshore companies

in a territory is population is just 20 8000. And with so many firms

mentioned in the panama papers mentioned here, the British Virgin

Islands' reputation has been called into question. At the heart of it is

one law firm. I have just run the buzzer of the British Virgins office

of Mossack Fonseca. There are people in there, but the moment they caught

sight of Camara the disappeared. I'm still waiting to see that anyone

will speak to us. The doors remained closed to us. Mossack Fonseca denies

any wrongdoing. In his first interview since the leak, the

premiere of the British Virgin Islands told me an investigation had

been launched. How do we know that Mossack Fonseca is one bad apple and

there are not many more out there was Mike in any kind of business

there will be a few, what you call that apples. This happens, and that

is why laws and regulations which allow them to be investigated and

action to be taken. And then this. The premier seemingly implied that

those who leaked the data were at fault. The information was hacked.

Information which to a large extent had not shown any wrongdoing. The

British Virgin Islands has made a fortune through the business of

setting up shell companies with the owner's identity is not known. There

are 18 companies for every individual man, woman and child on

this island. These mailboxes may look anonymous, but in some cases

they are the headquarters for businesses that have been registered

here. Martin Kenny is a fraud investigator. He explains that while

the culture in the industry is changing, some prefer secrecy. In

1970s and 1980s nobody knew anything about offshore companies. That was

the whole point. But since then a bargain has been made. Here is your

license to foreign companies, Mossack Fonseca, you get to have

this license on the condition that you know who your customers are, and

if you are dodgy you dump them and report the suspicious activity to

the police. That is the bargain, it seems that we have been let down in

part by some of their activities. There is pressure building to

reform. Here on these pristine islands, a haven for more than just

tourists. It is just four months to go until Rio hosts the Summer

Olympics, and the races on get the city ready in time. Brazil has had

to cope with some serious problems in the run-up to the games, the

latest the huge public protests over allegations of government

corruption. And as we report, ticket sales have been badly affected. Rio

is still in a race to be ready for the Olympics. Transport links to the

venues are way behind schedule, ticket sales have been poor. What

the organisers do want to show off is the Olympic Park. In a rare look

inside, it is clear the buildings do not have the wow factor of previous

events, but they do look like they should be delivered on time. Some of

the venues have been completed, on the outside at least. This is the

aquatic centre, and it looks great. This country is facing huge crises

right now, and it has led to concerns about how they will impact

the games. A fierce political storm is raging in Brazil. No one even

knows if the current president will be forced from office before she

gets to open the Rio games. Among recent political resignations has

been the government's head of Olympic security. No other country

in Olympic history has lived through such difficult times so close to the

games. We basically rebuild the games every second. That does not

mean it is a negative impact or that we will compromise the games. It has

an effect because it has to have an effect. We are part of Brazil, we

are partners with the government at three levels. We work with these

guys every single day. There has also been a dramatic collapse of the

Brazilian economy. Well over 1 million jobs have been lost. And

Olympic projects have been affected, among them a plan to clean waterways

like the bay where Olympic sailing events will happen. Raw sewage still

flows into it every day. And of course, Brazil has been hit by

another major crisis. They are spreading to kill mosquitoes because

many hundreds of thousands here now thought to have contracted the Zika

virus. Pregnant women have been warned to stay away. As a schoolgirl

you played volleyball here? Fabiano won gold medals in Beijing and

London. She hoped when the games came to her home city that would be

huge excitement. But I know people have other concerns. TRANSLATION: I

am sad because right now everyone is not focused on the games and making

them a success. I am sad because my country is going through a difficult

time. But I hope these games will show the fighting spirit of my

people. It may well be after the final frantic preparations Brazil

does put on a great games. The point of hosting the Olympics was to

showcase all the positives the country had to offer. But the games

instead may just have drawn the eyes of the world even more to Brazil's

current turmoil. Neither something completely different. A plan from

leading scientists including Professor Stephen Hawking to send a

spacecraft to another solar system. It is as ambitious as it sounds. The

ship would need to travel trillions, or thousands of billions of

kilometres, much further than any craft before. And the plan is to

develop a craft about the size of a microchip that could travel at

exceptional speed. We have been looking at whether such an

exceptional sounding mission could be possible. For thousands of years

people have dreamt of one day travelling to distant stars. The

world's most famous scientist, Stephen Hocking, thinks that the day

will come very soon. Astronomers believe there is a reasonable chance

of an earthlike planet orbiting one of the stars in the other

centre-right system, but we will know more in the next few decades

from ground-based and space-based telescopes, technological

development in the last two decades and in the future make it in

principle possible within a generation. Already a probe has been

sent to Pluto. But a 7.5 billion miles away. And Voyager one has

reached the edge of our solar system. That is 18 billion miles

away. The plan is to send a spacecraft to star in another solar

system. That is a staggering 25 trillion miles away. Using current

technology, it would take a spacecraft 30,000 years to get our

courses start. But by making them smaller it could take just 30. They

used to be the size of trucks and large cars. Over the years the size

of spacecraft have shrunk dramatically. In the 1980s this

microsatellite was used for Earth observation. In the 1990s this nano

satellite was launched for communications. The ultimate aim of

the new research programme is to make an even smaller, to cram

cameras and instruments you have in these onto a single chip. The idea

is to launch these mini spacecraft into the earth's orbit. Each would

have a solar sail. A giant laser on earth would give each one a powerful

push, sending it on its way, reaching a speed of 100 million

miles per second. There are no greater heights to aspire to ban the

stars. To keep all our eggs in one fragile basket. Are pieces threats

from events like asteroids or supernovas, and other dangers from

ourselves. If we are not as alive as a species, we must ultimately spread

to the stars. Here in Surrey where they pioneered the development of

many satellites 30 years ago, scientists believe it will be

possible. A lot of what we did back in the 1980s was considered very

wacky. And no small satellites are considered all the fashion. This is

a wacky sounding idea, but technology has moved on and now it

is not wacky, it is just difficult. There are still a lot of work needed

to develop the technology, but scientists believe although it will

be difficult, it will not be impossible. What was once a distant

dream could very soon become reality. He was a musical innovator

who revolutionised the world of jazz. Now it life and career of

Miles Davis is being celebrated in a new film directed by and starring

Don Cheadle. Mark Savage took the director record shop in London to

find out how Davis's creative genius had inspired the film.

The film is, for me, something that felt like you're walking around

inside Miles' brain, not do something that felt like a cookie

cutter, do something that was innovative and impressionistic and

felt like cinematic jazz. If you're going to tell a story, come at it

with some attitude. Miles Davis, I'm from Rolling Stone magazine. I here

to do your comeback story. OK, move back. It is not a sympathetic

portrait. Did the family ever object. It must've wanted to portray

the showcases genius rather that dark Project. That is the genius of

Miles, that he was persevered and was constantly creative. Do not send

people to my house. My material, my session date. You are under

contract, we own that tape. How much money have you got on you? You are

about $19,000 light, but it is a start. If you had on the coast

today, he might be diagnosed as bipolar or something of that nature,

but it is also the spring from whence all this incredible work

comes. Here is the section. A little

section. What would be the one you choose? It is a daunting task to get

into Miles Davis, would you begin? This one, purportedly by most people

the classic jazz album. Miles themselves said that he kind of

missed, which is called interesting, it's so heralded, but in his opinion

it was not what the destination was. Pitches brew, that is not a good

place to start for a beginner. Charities. There are people who had

never heard of miles before this. Their entry point to Miles was rock.

It just depends on what you want to hear. Because Miles as funk and

hip-hop and bebop and pulp and swing and jazz and soul and R She

touched at all. The last scene of the stage, you're playing on stage

with Herbie Hancock. It was really fun to stop musicians of that

calibre, they just pull you in. They did not want to leave. We wrapped

and hung around backstage for an hour afterwards, with them saying, I

can we do this again? Can reach this band? I was saying, yes, please!

Those guys are way too busy. I will try to put together. The idea behind

Mickey and Minnie was to be part of something that is going on, not just

have the movie be some finite thing. To have it bring miles back. You're

looking at him. Don't call it jazz, that is a made up word. It is social

music. Don Cheadle capturing the cool of Miles Davis. And that is it

from Reporters this week. Goodbye for now.