10/12/2016 Reporters

From here we send out correspondents to

bring you the best stories across the globe.

In this week's programme, the shocking human cost

Fergal Keane reports on one of the Arab world's

poorest countries where 7 million people are facing famine.

There are several causes of this war.

But there's only one consequence - death and

Coming home to Aleppo as Syrian Government

forces retake parts of the

city our correspondent meets families loyal

to President Assad who are now

Even though this war seems to be coming

to an end, in some places Syrians know just how hard it will be to

so-called Islamic State out of Mosul by any means necessary.

Our reporter reports from Rome on political and economic

turmoil following the Prime Minister's referendum defeat.

John Maguire catches up on the first woman to cross the English Channel

Once the cliffs get bigger it was just easy.

We start with powerful new evidence of the

suffering in Yemen one of the Arab world poorest countries where a

civil war is having devastating human consequences.

More than 7000 people have been killed in fighting,

the majority in air strikes by Saudi-led forces.

According to the UN an estimated 14 million

are at risk of hunger, half

Our reporting team has travelled to one of the worst affected areas.

The report contains distressing images.

Along roads where death can descend at any time,

This is the story of a journey into a

It will reveal images of child suffering that are

not easy to look at, but without which we cannot

comprehend the cost of

She has been fighting to survive since the day she was born.

10,000 children have died from preventable diseases.

Half a million are severely malnourished.

This is one of the few who make it to

Half the health facilities no longer function.

limits the services we can provide, the doctor tells me.

We hope we get support from international aid to

Child malnutrition has jumped 200% in two

Before the war Yemen imported 90% of staple food.

God will punish the bombers, this man says.

The bridge was hit just two weeks ago.

Civilians and food trucks use the same roads as soldiers.

In the rural areas, farthest from aid,

In this village medics from save the children battle to help.

In another, people brought their sick infants to

The old man and his hungry grandchildren.

This child is nine months old, sick from liver problems

He died of malnutrition five months ago.

Their mother has no money for medicine.

What do you want to happen for this child,

It was becoming a journey deeper into crisis.

3 million people have been displaced.

In this camp, 17,000 people endure the waterless plain.

We were approached by pleading voices again.

This man brought his malnourished disabled

You walked up to us too show the child, why did you come to

There is no money to get him to hospital.

What the war takes away nobody can give

This child aged three and a half was the only survivor of an air

strike that killed his parents and 24 members

This person who had already fled came

Coalition bombing and import restrictions

The rebels frequently delaye aid getting

through because they seek to control distribution.

Just half the international funding promised has

This is a crisis that we just don't recognise and it

will come back to haunt us because the consequences of our

indifference, the consequences of what we are not doing here, will

At the same time we cannot deal with what is going on

because the numbers are so massive, resources are so little, the

It all leads back inevitably to this.

His twin brother died soon after he was born.

He seems impossibly fragile but fights

There are several causes of this war.

Battle between regional powers, fighting between local

factions, but there's only one consequence.

Death and the destruction of people's livelihood.

And an image like that of this baby, no matter how many wars you've

With energy only for that most universal of

This is what it means to be forgotten by the world.

Pressure is also growing at the UN for a new

ceasefire in Syria to help the tens of thousands trapped by the conflict

Fighting intensified this week in Eastern Aleppo as government

forces retook the historic old city from the rebels.

As more districts are being seized, families loyal to

President Assad are returning to their homes after years of war.

Our reporter has been to meet some of them.

One week ago these neighbourhoods were seized back from

For this family it is a victory parade.

I kiss your soil, Syria, I kneel before you,

they are loyal to their president, now they feel they owe him

Soldiers joined the celebration at their front door.

Our kitchen was amazing, she tells me.

It was the envy of the neighbourhood.

I was born here, raised here, but now we are back,

Her father tells me they had felt threatened here.

Most people supported the rebels then.

Just across the way we meet a family who

chose to stay when the rebels took over four years ago.

We have a saying here, if a man uproots himself, he is nothing.

The idea of leaving and being a refugee in my

We had no electricity, she says, no water, no bread.

These teenagers show me their vegetable patch.

It helped them through an army siege and rebel hoarding.

It wasn't much but better than nothing.

When the army moved in everyone was taken

This is what happened to their home when they

They can't say for sure who or what caused it.

A cruel blow after surviving four years of war.

And that war goes on in neighbouring districts.

The stories we heard here in this one

neighbourhood are stories you hear across Syria.

People returning to their homes to their old lives and

But even though this war seems to be coming to an end, in

some places, Syrians know just how hard it will be to live together

Around the area, street after street of utter ruin, proof of

the ferocity of the battle that has been, of how much is now gone.

The battle to drive so-called Islamic

State from the Iraqi city of Mosul is now in its sixth week.

As fighting continues concerns have been raised that involvement of Shia

militias - they have been accused of sectarian killings in the past.

The Iraqi parliament recently voted to legalise them, heightening fears

amongst minorities of revenge attacks.

Paramilitaries have been fighting West of the city of Mosul.

Our reporter joined them on the front line.

It is not the Iraqi flag planted here but the banner of a

coalition of mostly Shia paramilitaries backed by Iran.

This is the terrain of the popular mobilisation units.

Newly integrated into Iraq's official armed forces in

spite of serious human rights concerns.

They have been taking territory West of Mosul.

Cutting off escape routes for the Sunni

This road is or was a key route for Islamic State.

If we go over here the road leads to the Syrian

border and all the way to

the city of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of IS.

Fighters and weapons have been able to go in both

This route is now under the control of Shia

They have been doing battle outside urban areas.

The Iraqi Government has promised he won't enter Mosul, a mainly

Sunni city, where some feared them more than IS.

Human rights groups accuse them of abducting and killing

Sunni civilians during previous campaigns against the militants.

Let us talk about big armies in the world, the great

If there is someone who did a mistake,

they will face the judge and he will go to jail.

Sunni civilians may not be very reassured by that as the

We watched them closing in on IS targets in

A few hours into the attack, a pause for prayer.

By noon the enemy have already dispatched

On the high ground the commander called for an all

Human rights groups and the US and British governments will

be watching carefully to see where the Shia militias direct their

If the battle against IS is tinged with

sectarian hatred and revenge it will threaten the future of Iraq.

David Cameron could have told Italy's

to stake your career on the

result of a referendum but Matteo Renzi handed

Italians rejected his plans for constitutional reform.

Voters across Europe including Austria has shaken

up the system this year sending politicians a message.

As our correspondent reports, the referendum result has sent Italy

The reaction was instinctive if not entirely tuneful.

As soon as they knew they had won last night

victorious no voters demanded the resignation

The first Italian premier, he claims, to take political

I lost and I say loud and clear I was not

Long live Italy and good luck to all of us.

This evening Matteo Renzi drove to meet Italy's

He'll stay on for at least a week until the annual budget is passed

Cabinet members seemed a little dazed by it all.

TRANSLATION: How could we stay with this government in this format?

It is an inelegant end to a premiership

that began with such promise and so many promises.

Renzi, the self-styled reformer, claimed to change

Italy, its sluggish economy and chaotic politics.

Last month he was invited by President Obama to be

I think Matteo embodies a new generation of leadership not just

In fact hobnobbing with the great and

the privileged abroad helped cement opposition to Mr Renzi at home

amongst hard up Italians unhappy with their lot.

When we took to the streets of Rome referendum no voters

told us they had rejected their Prime Minister, not just his

Music to the ears of Mr Renzi's political rivals, the

popular and populist Five Star movement.

Now we are asking for the election as soon as possible.

Is this the beginning of a new era in

All this political turmoil, front-page

But here in Bella Roma, Italy's beating

political heart, it is business as usual,

that is because Italians are

They have had 63 of them since the end of the Second World War.

That is four times as many as we have had in

So Italy is used to muddling through.

But of course this country does not exist in a vacuum.

It is a key EU player and the third largest

So whatever is happening here has a big

And a crisis is looming in Italy's banks, especially

Bank failures would hit hard here and abroad.

In Italy, looking good on the outside is

But scratch the beautiful surface and you will see problems

weighing down Italians and worrying their European neighbours.

One woman, 7000 kilometres, all by paramotor.

Quite a journey for this conservationist.

She has become the first woman to complete the epic journey. It is all

part of her journey to track the migration of swans from Russia to

England. Our correspondent caught up with her.

The human sworn, crossing the English Channel will mean her

expedition is over, but this is her most challenging site. For the last

three months her expedition has followed the migratory route of the

swans from their bleeding ground in Russia to the River Severn -- from

their breeding ground. Her mission is to persuade people not to hunt

the birds. Now her consideration is to get safely

from Calais to Dover. It might be different there. We will not know

exactly what conditions are like until we get there. The exhibition

has not been without its setbacks. She injured her knee and had to

adapt her paramotor. After 7000 kilometres, several weeks

flying all the way down from northern Russia, this is the very

last bit, the last obstacle, perhaps the biggest, crossing the Channel, a

huge expanse of water, the biggest shipping lanes in the world. Perhaps

the final challenge this expedition. We are going to fly alongside her.

This pilot explains fight this leg of the journey, although just 20

miles long, is so risky. All pilots have a fear of going across a long

bit of water because in December you would not have long to be rescued

because you would suffer from hypothermia very quickly. The

conditions are ideal. We leave the safety of France, the solid ground,

and head out over the water. As we climb above 2500 feet, the white

cliffs, tinted schools by the early morning sun, seem enticingly close,

that they are along way off. After 40 minutes the cliffs are no longer

ahead, they are below, and she has made it, the first woman to cross

the Channel in a paramotor. She is back home. It was nice.

Nerve-wracking in the middle bit where water is the only option for

landing, but, yes, once the cliffs gets bigger, it was easy sailing

from there. The number of swans making this perilous annual odyssey

has fallen from 29,000 to around 18,000 in recent years. The

achievement has been made possible because of all the professionalism,

teamwork and modern technology. The swans just have instinct to rely on.

To be able to add the first person, or first sworn, view of the

migration, makes a difference. Tracking this ones with radio

collars and flying as they do the expedition has already learned so

much about the threats face. This human sworn has done her bits to

protect her feathered friends. That is all for this week. From B

and the entire team, goodbye. -- from me and the entire team.