19/11/2016 Reporters

Now on BBC News, it s time for Reporters.

From here in the world's newsroom, we send out correspondents to bring

you the best stories from across the globe.

In this week's programme, democracy Chinese style.

John Sudworth in Beijing sees how the Communist Party silences

independent candidates in one of the world's

What we can see here, quite clearly, is the huge effort and expense that

China puts in to stopping people exercising their democratic right.

A rare look inside Myanmar's secret state where Jonah Fisher finds

international laws against the trade in endangered animals

This is one of the most secretive places on Earth.

It is easier to get permission to go to North Korea than

Total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering

Martin Bashir asks whether the divisions which emerged

during the election can ever be healed.

America's Muslims, including those here in Michigan,

must hope that the arc of Mr Trump's presidency will bend

towards reconciliation and away from the rhetoric that

Richard Galpin reports from the ruins of the ancient Iraqi

city of Nimrud, days after it was recaptured

In their ultra-extremist view, this was a place of false idols,

And one of the world's most recognisable faces.

Chris Buckler speaks to the Irish artist who has been commissioned

to paint a new portrait of Queen Elizabeth.

I cannot speak for what necessarily the motivation from the Palace

or the Queen's point of view was, but I think about the fact

After America, this week it was China's turn

The district elections are one of the world's biggest.

900 million people will vote in the next few weeks.

In theory, they are open to any candidate.

In reality, the Communist Party decides who is on the ballot.

The Chinese authorities have been highly critical of what they see

as the farce of American democracy, but as John Sudworth has been

finding out in Beijing, it is not so keen on scrutiny

We have turned up, as agreed, for an interview, but we find our

The person who lives here is doing something that is very brave

in China, trying to stand for election

We are hoping we can come in and talk to you.

Excuse me, I think we have permission to go in

It is my right to stand for election, she begins to tell me.

China often uses sinister, unidentified men to do its sensitive

police work, and there are few issues more sensitive

Every five years, hundreds of millions of Chinese people

The district elections are, in theory, open to any candidate.

In reality, the Communist Party decides who is on the ballot.

And the Communist-Party-run media has, this year,

The US election has been exploited to the full,

as proof of American weakness and division, and Chinese

But China, of course, has its share of discord and dissent.

China has made huge capital out of what it sees as the farce,

the circus, of the US election, the huge effort and expense that

What we can see here quite clearly is the huge effort and expense that

China puts into stopping people exercising their democratic rights.

All this for one independent, local election candidate.

But the heavy-handed control is as much a sign of insecurity

It is one of the most secretive places in the world.

The autonomous region of Wa State in eastern Myanmar was once famous

for the opium trade, now it is closed

It is also a place where international laws

Jonah Fisher managed to get permission to visit Wa State

and found that rather than drugs, there is now a thriving trade

The mountains of Wa State were once covered with poppies.

Opium grown here on the Burmese border with China was turned

into heroin, and smuggled around the world.

Now after years hiding from international view,

the Wa say they have cleaned up their act and invited

This is one of the most secretive places on Earth.

It is easier to get permission to go to North Korea

Though technically part of Myanmar, it is really a state within a state.

Back in 1989, the Wa signed a ceasefire with the Burmese

government, giving them full autonomy in return for peace.

Judging from what we see, the Wa have stopped growing opium,

but they have not kicked the drug habit.

This ceremony is to burn some of the two tonnes of methamphetamine

But plenty still reached Asian markets and many believe that Wa

leaders are directly involved in the billion-dollar business.

It is a view unsurprisingly rejected by the local police chief.

He accepts that meth is a big problem, but says foreigners

from China and Thailand bring the raw materials in and that the Wa

Late one night, we give our minders the slip and make

It is a supermarket selling endangered animal parts.

This is a pile of tiger bone bracelets, costing

These are tiger skulls, pangolins, elephant bones,

and this carved tusk is priced at about $18,000.

The women say they can arrange delivery to China.

We have counted at least six of this type of shop in this

It is clear that when it comes to producing drugs,

and dealing in animal parts, the Wa make up their own rules.

Meeting the Wa leadership to talk about the animal trade was not easy.

In the end, they agreed, rather strangely, to do it

from the presenter's chair of their own TV station.

In Wa State, we do not have places where wild animals live.

We cut down all the forests to plant rubber.

This is people trading freely, you buy from me, I sell to him.

Great efforts have been made to expand the regulations that

Enforcing them in a place like Wa State is almost impossible.

Jonah Fisher, BBC News, Pangkham, Wa State.

One of the challenges facing a Trump presidency will be healing

the divisions which emerged during the election campaign.

American Muslims are seeking reassurance following his call

for a ban on Muslims entering the US.

The state of Michigan voted for Mr Trump, but it is home

Martin Bashir has been to meet some of them to find out what they think

Prayers in North America's largest mosque, in a state that

His campaign has left its mark on Muslims.

The bigoted rhetoric, the hatred, the racism,

He has almost given a green light to individuals now that it is OK.

I was walking one way, he was walking the other way.

This 15-year-old experienced the Trump effect at school,

There was a boy who told me to take the towel off my head.

I told him to pull his pants up because he was wearing

He thought that since our new President-elect thought that

Muslims are terrorists, he can do the same.

What many in the Muslim community perceived as an attack on Islam,

culminated in the most dramatic proposal.

The name is there, it is radical Islamic terror, total and complete

shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

While Trump's rhetoric horrified Muslims in Dearborn,

it galvanised voters down the road in recently bankrupted Detroit.

They felt that globalisation and immigration had

The messaging was very effective with the white working class.

If you look at Macomb County, Monroe County, which are largely

made up of the white working class, they voted in numbers for Mr Trump.

Since winning in such unexpected fashion, Trump has made

little mention of Muslims, though his website still promotes

his proposal to ban them from entering the country.

Is it safe to be a Muslim in a country where Donald

We have great confidence in our country, and

We want success, we want America to be as good as it can be,

we want America to be great, in his vernacular.

Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President in January,

just four days after the annual public holiday honouring the life

of America's greatest civil rights leader,

America's Muslims, including those here in Michigan,

must hope that the arc of Mr Trump's presidency will bend

towards reconciliation and away from the rhetoric that

Martin Bashir, BBC News, in Dearborn, Michigan.

The full scale of the damage done by so-called Islamic State

to the historic Iraqi city of Nimrud is now becoming clear.

Less than a week after government forces recaptured the site,

recovery teams are assessing the devastation after the group's

two year occupation of the ancient city.

Richard Galpin was one of the first people to reach the city ruins

We joined an Iraqi army convoy on the road to Nimrud.

In parts of this district, troops are still battling militants

But today, the area of the prized archaeological site,

safe enough for a top general to see what IS has done

Everywhere here, wreckage of prized artefacts,

the ancient capital of the Assyrian Empire.

The intricate cuneiform writing carved into these

back thousands of years, but now just part of a pile of rubble.

For the Isis militants, the site was not something to be

cherished for its huge historical and archaeological significance.

Instead, in their ultra-extremist view, this was a place of false

idols, and therefore to be eradicated.

As part of their propaganda campaign, the militants posted

videos online of the systematic destruction of Nimrud,

The United Nations calls it a war crime.

Before the arrival of IS militants two years ago, Nimrud had been

The exquisite statues symbolising the power and culture

This man, who grew up in this area, tells me 95% of the site

I am very sad, he says, sometimes these ruins felt

more important to us than our own lives and souls.

And what ISIS has done here is just part of a pattern of cultural

destruction here in Iraq and in Syria.

To Kenya now where, if the Government gets its way,

the world's biggest refugee camp on the Somali border

It would mean the camp's 280,000 refugees will be forced to leave.

Many people living there are Somalis and some have already started

returning home to their nation's continuing instability and violence.

Alastair Leithead has travelled to the Dadabb and to southern

Somalia which is struggling to cope with the many

It's a sprawling hot and dusty testament to years of drought

Dadaab is the world's largest refugee camp.

And now Kenya wants to close it down.

Uncertainty gives way to anger and frustration at the gates

of the UN refugee agency in the camp.

Many were born here and have never left but Kenya threats and extra UN

But this woman doesn't want to go back.

Fighting forced her to flee Somalia six years ago.

She says it's still too violent and here there's food,

It's a directive coming from the Kenyan Government, she said.

My children are in school, I want them to continue their

She thinks the Kenyan Government will force them to leave.

That's what they hear on Kenyan radio but it's

The UN's been criticised for not telling people clearly enough

It's not UN, it's the position the refugees will reach

if and when they want to return and of course

in line with the position the Kenyan Government has now taken.

Thousands have been leaving since Kenya threatened to close the camp.

It's a dangerous drive through an area controlled by the

When they do return to Somalia they come to places like Kismayo

where there are already tens of thousands of people displaced

by years of fighting and there is even less for them here.

Little in terms of food or water and certainly no education.

This woman told us if she knew what it was going to be

like when she got here she wouldn't have left the camp.

She says there is no food here, nothing to give the children,

Some young returnees are given training.

These apprentice mechanics hope to get one of the few jobs.

TRANSLATION: It is very possible for young men to be

recruited by al-Shabab, if they don't have employment.

The state's own security force controls Kismayo but al-Shabab

rules the countryside, rebuilding a failed

Somalia isn't ready for a mass homecoming, whatever

Alastair Leithead, BBC News, Kismayo.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men.

The disease tends to affect men of a certain age, more

than half of those diagnosed are over 70 years old.

Black men are twice as likely to get it it but no one knows why.

Some believe the answer lies in west Africa.

Martin Patience has been to Nigeria to look at the search

But our story begins with John Maguire and a mechanic

in London's East End who's trying to make a difference.

Errol can change oil and fix fan belts and check tyres, he can also

save lives. Whilst undergoing treatment for prostate cancer

himself he made a spontaneous pledge to a customer, get tested and I'll

give you a discount. He had traces of cancer in his prostate. He said

to me, look, I want you to donate this money to the charity but, more

importantly, I need you to raise the awareness of this issue because I

would never have done this test had it not been for you. We both stood

there in tears because I thought, well, how frightening is this? The

PSA test isn't always reliable but Errol wants people to know more. He

gives out 100 leaflets a day. Even passing celebrity Mark Wright gets

collared and women who persuade male friends and family to take the test

also save on their garage bill. Black men are twice as likely to

have prostate cancer than white men At this clinic in London we meet

Nigel who was diagnosed 16 years ago. He recognises for many this is

a taboo subject. They seem to think it's something that as we say we

don't know if it's a lifestyle, but they're afraid to talk about it,

especially in the presence of women. This Professor's working to find out

why black men are a higher risk. Could a solution be found in west

Africa? Martin Patience, the BBC's Nigeria correspondent, takes up the

story. Both his parents are from here so

Frank's trip is personal as well as professional. As the most populous

nation in Africa, Nigeria is key to prostate cancer research. Frank's

part of an international team of doctors and scientists researching

the causes of the disease. We are looking for answers, it's best to

come to the source of black men and the slave trade, for example, from

the West Coast of Africa, many were Nigerians, and where they have ended

up, Brazil, the Caribbean, the UK and the USA, that's where you get

the highest rates of prostate cancer. He is visiting a lab where

research has been carried out on genetic samples provided by Nigerian

men. These scientists may one day revolutionise our understanding of

the disease. What we are trying to find out here is to look at and

compare genetic profiles of prostate cancer patients in Nigerian men and

those of other races to see if there are differences and if there are

comparisons. The findings of the research are not expected to be

published for two or three years. But any breakthrough in Nigeria is

likely to help men in Britain. In Nottingham, they're working hard

to raise awareness. Community radio stations help to get the message

across and at this drop-in clinic men come to be tested and share

their experiences. While scientists around the globe search for a cure,

others promote prevention or at least early intervention. Another

frontline in the battle against cancer.

Finally, she's one of the world's most famous faces which makes the

idea of painting a portrait of the Queen a daunting prospect. Colin

Davidson is the latest artist to be given the task and this week his

picture was unveiled by the Queen herself.

Chris Buckler has been to see it up close.

It is one of the most prized commissions. But for any artist

there are nerves in revealing their interpretation of one of the world's

most iconic images, a face known worldwide, but seen through the eyes

of one individual. I'm very aware of the gravity of an Irishman being

invited to paint the Queen. The monarch sits for relatively few

portraits and this painting was commissioned with the purpose. To

mark the Queen's part in advancing Anglo-Irish relationships. What I

personally brought to it was I think the fact that I have witnessed over

many years the Queen's actions in advancing healing. And that probably

makes one opinion of this portrait more important than any other. Her

Majesty's historic visit to Ireland... At an event in London

organised by Co-operation Ireland, which commissioned the painting, it

was unveiled by the Queen. APPLAUSE

Among those invited were guests who reflect all shades of political

opinion on the island of Ireland. And Colin Davidson's work has come

to be a glimpse of how things have changed. His portraits of Ian

Paisley and Martin McGuinness were painted to be shown together, a sign

of the divisions gone but pictures that also signify what went before.

I can't speak for what necessarily the motivation from the Palace or

from the Queen's point of view was to allow me to make this. But I

think about the fact that she did suffer personal loss through the

conflict. That makes this a painting of its time. A portrait of a Queen

defined by the landscape of a modern Ireland.

Chris Buckler, BBC News, Belfast. And that's all from Reporters for

this week. From me, goodbye for now.