:00:18. > :00:25.Welcome to Reporters. I'm Phillipa Thomas here at the BBC headquarters
:00:26. > :00:29.in London. In this special edition of the programme, we're looking at
:00:30. > :00:31.some of the best reports of this year from our network of
:00:32. > :00:36.correspondents from around the world. Coming up:
:00:37. > :00:42.Stand-off in the skies above the South China Sea is. Rupert
:00:43. > :00:46.Wingfield-Hayes flies over one of the most contested areas in the
:00:47. > :00:51.world, incurring the wrath of the Chinese. Our captain is saying that
:00:52. > :00:55.we're a civilian aircraft, not a military aircraft, it didn't make
:00:56. > :01:00.any difference whatsoever, they just repeated the threat to leave the
:01:01. > :01:05.area over and over again. Tiny victims of Yemen's forgotten war. We
:01:06. > :01:11.find starving children in desperate need of aid. He just had fever and
:01:12. > :01:16.diarrhoea and because there was no medicine he passed away. We've just
:01:17. > :01:22.arrived in what is called the prong zone. Under fire on Ukraine's
:01:23. > :01:27.frontline. Tom Burridge and his team meet one of the conflict's most
:01:28. > :01:34.volatile hotspots where the fragile ceasefire has collapsed. You can't
:01:35. > :01:39.make no mistakes, it cost you your life, literally. Ian Pannell reports
:01:40. > :01:45.from Barack Obama's former hometown and finds gun crime is out of
:01:46. > :01:50.control. And battle of the sexes. We meet the Moroccan warrior women
:01:51. > :01:57.taking on and beating the men of North Africa at their own game.
:01:58. > :02:02.The BBC went to extraordinary lengths this year to get a rare
:02:03. > :02:06.glimpse of China's determined expansion in the South China Sea.
:02:07. > :02:12.One of the most contested areas anywhere in the world. Beijing is
:02:13. > :02:16.building huge artificial islands on the Spratly Islands chain, which the
:02:17. > :02:21.Americans and others insist are illegal. The area is difficult to
:02:22. > :02:26.get to, but Rupert Wingfield-Hayes flew in a small civilian aircraft
:02:27. > :02:30.into China's self-declared security zone 200 kilometres off the coast of
:02:31. > :02:34.the Philippines. This is what he found.
:02:35. > :02:46.It's just before dawn on the Philippine island. Even at this hour
:02:47. > :02:52.it is hot, but there's no sign here of the trouble brewing a few hundred
:02:53. > :02:59.miles out to sea. I'm about to take off on a trip the Chinese government
:03:00. > :03:08.has tried to stop. As we roll down the runway, we're all tense. No one
:03:09. > :03:11.has tried what we're about to do. We're now heading south-west to
:03:12. > :03:16.wards and number of Chinese controlled atolls. These are places
:03:17. > :03:19.where the Chinese have being doing massive land reclamation over the
:03:20. > :03:23.last year and a half. We really want to go for two reasons, one, to see
:03:24. > :03:27.exactly what the Chinese are doing, and two, to test to see if the
:03:28. > :03:31.Chinese would try to stop us because the whole of this area is, according
:03:32. > :03:35.to most countries, international airspace.
:03:36. > :03:43.Just 140 nautical miles from the Philippine coast we spot new land.
:03:44. > :03:47.This place is called Mischief Reached. Until a year ago there was
:03:48. > :03:53.nothing here, just a submerged at all. Now look at it. -- Reef.
:03:54. > :03:59.Millions of tons of material have been dredged up to build this huge
:04:00. > :04:16.new island. Then as we close to 12 nautical miles, this.
:04:17. > :04:26.Down below we can see a pair of Chinese navy ships. Our pilots are
:04:27. > :04:29.nervous. They want to turn away. We're a civilian aircraft flying
:04:30. > :04:39.over international waters and yet we're being repeatedly threatened.
:04:40. > :04:45.So what we're getting is the Chinese sending out that message, foreign
:04:46. > :04:51.military aircraft, and identified military aircraft, leave the area
:04:52. > :04:54.immediately, in Chinese and English, our captain replied saying we are a
:04:55. > :04:58.civilian aircraft, not a military aircraft, but it didn't make any
:04:59. > :05:00.difference, they repeated the threat to leave the area over and over
:05:01. > :05:08.again. As we fly on the full extent of the
:05:09. > :05:12.construction is revealed. The lagoon is teeming with ships. A cement
:05:13. > :05:17.plant is visible on the new land. Then for the first time a clear view
:05:18. > :05:22.of the new runway China is building here. A Chinese fighter taking off
:05:23. > :05:28.from here could reach the Philippine coast in nine minutes. In the last
:05:29. > :05:34.year, China has built at least seven new islands and three new runways in
:05:35. > :05:38.the South China Sea. One here at Mischief Reef, another at Subi Reef
:05:39. > :05:43.and the biggest of all at fiery cross. The aim is to reinforce
:05:44. > :05:52.China's claim to the whole of the South China Sea. America and its
:05:53. > :06:04.allies are now responding. And over the radio we now hear one of them.
:06:05. > :06:08.What we're hearing is an Australian military aircraft asserting freedom
:06:09. > :06:13.of passage. More than 40% of the world's trade
:06:14. > :06:21.passes through the waters below us. China is determined to assert its
:06:22. > :06:31.control. America and its allies say they
:06:32. > :06:36.won't let that happen. And as we have found out, it may already be
:06:37. > :06:40.too late. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC News, in the South China Sea.
:06:41. > :06:47.From the conflict in Syria to what's seen as the forgotten war in Yemen.
:06:48. > :06:51.The fighting there has pushed one of the poorest countries in the Middle
:06:52. > :06:55.East to the brink of famine, threatening the lives of millions of
:06:56. > :07:00.people. More than 7000 have been killed in the conflict between the
:07:01. > :07:04.country's who the rebels, who overthrew the government last year,
:07:05. > :07:08.and a Saudi led coalition backed by Britain and the US. -- to the
:07:09. > :07:17.rebels. This has left around 7 million people on the brink of
:07:18. > :07:20.famine, many of them children. And again a warm warning, this report
:07:21. > :07:24.contains some distressing images from the start. In the villages of
:07:25. > :07:35.the Yemen, it's the children who suffer most. Wherever you go you can
:07:36. > :07:40.see the human cost of this war. Seven-month-old Fatima is weak and
:07:41. > :07:47.severely malnourished. She's one of hundreds in this area alone. Her
:07:48. > :07:55.mother, Sara, tells me she won't stop crying. TRANSLATION: It breaks
:07:56. > :08:05.my heart. The only thing Sarah can offer her child is water. She is so
:08:06. > :08:09.malnourished herself she can barely best to macro speed. This doctor
:08:10. > :08:15.took me from village to village and each time we saw the same thing.
:08:16. > :08:19.Yemen has always been desperately poor but the war has made things
:08:20. > :08:24.worse. It's not just the villages that are struggling. This war has
:08:25. > :08:34.forced the 600 hospitals to close down and lack of supplies has pushed
:08:35. > :08:39.this central hospital to the brink. Children are the most affected by
:08:40. > :08:50.malnutrition. Here hunger has left 1.5 million children starving. This
:08:51. > :08:55.is four-year-old Chaim. His grandfather brought him here with
:08:56. > :08:59.fever and diarrhoea. Malnutrition has meant his immune system isn't
:09:00. > :09:07.able to fight a simple infection and severe shortage of medicine means
:09:08. > :09:10.that antibacterial needs aren't a available either. TRANSLATION: The
:09:11. > :09:15.antibiotics we have will not treat the type of bacteria he is suffering
:09:16. > :09:22.from. All we can do is provide healthcare with the supplies that we
:09:23. > :09:27.have. The hospital is overwhelmed with children, but in some cases
:09:28. > :09:39.malnutrition has turned into outright starvation. Selina is eight
:09:40. > :09:43.years old. Once able to play and talk with his brothers and sisters,
:09:44. > :09:51.his mother says although he's alive it's as if he's not here.
:09:52. > :09:55.TRANSLATION: I never imagined I would ever see a child like this in
:09:56. > :10:04.Yemen. This boy is starving. It scares me that it may be the
:10:05. > :10:08.beginning of a famine. Four-year-old Chaib's grandfather tells me the
:10:09. > :10:28.condition has taken a turn for the worst.
:10:29. > :10:46.He just had fever and diarrhoea and because he didn't have his medicine
:10:47. > :10:51.he passed away. Back in the village, Ashwaq has some good news. After six
:10:52. > :10:54.days point calls and negotiations, Ashwaq managed to import his
:10:55. > :10:59.life-saving milk. TRANSLATION: And you've made me so happy and build
:11:00. > :11:04.our home with happiness. I hope I can do the same for you. Poverty has
:11:05. > :11:06.always affected Yemen but now there's the risk of losing an entire
:11:07. > :11:17.generation. From Yemen's forgotten war to what's
:11:18. > :11:22.become known as Europe's forgotten conflict in Ukraine. Tensions
:11:23. > :11:26.escalated there this year as Europe struggled over whether to maintain
:11:27. > :11:30.sanctions on Russia following its military intervention in the region.
:11:31. > :11:34.At the height of the crisis, Tom Burridge and his team travelled with
:11:35. > :11:39.the Ukrainian military to one of the most volatile parts of the front
:11:40. > :11:45.line, on the edge of a town. He sent us this report and.
:11:46. > :11:50.Venture into this industrial area known as the prong zone on the edge
:11:51. > :11:58.of a small Ukrainian city and this is the reality almost every night.
:11:59. > :12:02.It's really close. Go to the wall. Go to the wall. We've literally just
:12:03. > :12:08.arrived in what's called the prong zone and you can tell why they call
:12:09. > :12:15.it hot, because it's really... This perpetual war zone has been largely
:12:16. > :12:19.forgotten. After two and a bit years and countless diplomatic meetings,
:12:20. > :12:25.Russia and the West have failed to deliver peace.
:12:26. > :12:34.Lethal warfare here sometimes feels mundane and monotonous. So five,
:12:35. > :12:41.maybe ten minutes after we arrived here in the so-called prong zone and
:12:42. > :12:47.sniper fire, the Krakow machine-guns, that the soldiers say
:12:48. > :12:52.are probably RPG is, rocket propelled grenades, essentially is
:12:53. > :12:56.welcome to the prong zone. So we're changing positions now. Our walk
:12:57. > :13:05.through the industrial zone feels like it will never end. He chooses
:13:06. > :13:11.to walk but I would prefer to run now, right here in the open. We made
:13:12. > :13:15.it! That was intense! We reach a building where we will spend the
:13:16. > :13:21.night. Fighting these Ukrainian troops is a militia which controls
:13:22. > :13:27.two tiny unrecognised Russian backed republics. 21-year-old Dima says he
:13:28. > :13:54.will dive for land which he says is part of Ukraine.
:13:55. > :14:02.The next day, on a hillside nearby, we are shown the Ukrainian military
:14:03. > :14:07.defences. This impressive network of trenches shows how Ukraine has been
:14:08. > :14:11.digging in for months. They have not lost territory to the rebels in well
:14:12. > :14:16.over a year. And for that, they can claim some success. But any success
:14:17. > :14:22.has come at a cost. The front line town held by Ukraine. We meet
:14:23. > :14:31.victor. His wife was killed and his grandson disabled, both by shelling.
:14:32. > :14:43.-- Viktor. Eastern Ukraine is a deprived region. You can see bitter
:14:44. > :14:49.divisions. The conflict has become one of attrition which world powers
:14:50. > :14:59.have been unable or unwilling to. Eastern Ukraine. Now to evidence of
:15:00. > :15:05.a startling rise in gun violence the US, including in Chicago, home to
:15:06. > :15:09.Barack Obama. Killings in the city have reached a 20 year high. A
:15:10. > :15:14.deadly summer of violence brought this year's death toll to 500. Most
:15:15. > :15:20.of the victims and their killers are young men. We spent a week in
:15:21. > :15:27.Chicago and found a world where guns rule. In my neighbourhood, they
:15:28. > :15:34.start young, men. That is the edge frame that they are dying from guns.
:15:35. > :15:39.Very young. We have to teach children how to defend themselves.
:15:40. > :15:46.It is like, what do you do? You would rather be caught with
:15:47. > :15:51.protection than without it. I have never seen so many guns. Like, we
:15:52. > :15:59.had so many guns. But I have never seen as many as now. This is a
:16:00. > :16:05.wrapper from the west side. Now, the most violent part of Chicago. He is
:16:06. > :16:09.a member of the Vice Lords Gang. He has been imprisoned. And even he is
:16:10. > :16:17.by what has happened. It is like somebody dropped off crazy amounts
:16:18. > :16:25.of guns in the neighbourhood. I think that many guys need to die to
:16:26. > :16:35.make it better. Some of these BLEEP need to be killed and knocked off to
:16:36. > :16:38.make it a better place. We have been standing here for five minutes and I
:16:39. > :16:42.have seen two police cars and one ambulance. It is not safe here at
:16:43. > :16:55.all. Suddenly we were told to leave the area as he and his gang sped
:16:56. > :17:05.off. PHONE CALL: what happened? Why did we have to leave?
:17:06. > :17:15.More people have been killed here since 2001 than US deaths in Iraq
:17:16. > :17:21.and Afghanistan combined. And yet, there is almost no outcry. Do you
:17:22. > :17:28.worry about your children? I do. Like, to be honest, I doubt they
:17:29. > :17:33.sign of seven and a daughter of four, and I have not taught them how
:17:34. > :17:41.to ride a bike because the environment they live in is just not
:17:42. > :17:50.safe. I love you. I love you, Dada. I am trying to change the cycle. It
:17:51. > :17:54.is hard when you don't really have help, you know what I'm sayin'? We
:17:55. > :18:13.have been put in a weird position, do you know what I am saying,
:18:14. > :18:30.because... Hold on. Cut. This stuff don't end. With so many guns and so
:18:31. > :18:37.little control, the murders will rise. Rarely solved, and barely
:18:38. > :18:41.noticed. This may sound like the stuff of science fiction movies, but
:18:42. > :18:46.American researches broke new ground this year by trying to grow human
:18:47. > :18:54.organs inside pigs. The research uses a pioneering technique cold
:18:55. > :19:01.gene engineering, which allows genes to be changed quickly. Some say this
:19:02. > :19:07.may end the organ crisis. But it also may raise ethical issues. You
:19:08. > :19:13.are watching two species being mixed. Humans themselves are being
:19:14. > :19:18.injected into a one-day-old pig embryo. You can see them travelling
:19:19. > :19:23.down the tube. This biologist in California is trying to grow a human
:19:24. > :19:30.pancreas inside a pig. Our hope is that this will develop normally. But
:19:31. > :19:35.the pancreas will be made up almost exclusively out of human cells so
:19:36. > :19:40.that then that pancreas will be compatible with the patient for
:19:41. > :19:47.transplantation. The technique is known as gene editing. It uses
:19:48. > :19:51.molecular scissors to delete the DNA instructions in the pig embryo to
:19:52. > :19:56.create a pancreas. The ambition is the human cells will fuel the void
:19:57. > :20:01.and grow a human pancreas instead -- fill. The same technique might
:20:02. > :20:10.enable other organs to be grown for transplant. The BBC's panorama
:20:11. > :20:14.matter was allowed to film the sows filled with human embryos known as
:20:15. > :20:21.chimera is. If you men stem cells are taken from a patient, they could
:20:22. > :20:25.be tissue match, reducing the risk of rejection. -- human. This
:20:26. > :20:30.research raises profound ethical concerns. Crucially, just how human
:20:31. > :20:36.and the piglets developing inside this sow? It is such a sensitive
:20:37. > :20:40.area that the chimeric embryos will not be permitted to go to term, but
:20:41. > :20:45.be removed for tissue analysis after 28 days because gestation when they
:20:46. > :20:51.are about a centimetre long. -- days'. They will crucially check
:20:52. > :20:55.whether the brain develops humanlike qualities. Another pioneer in this
:20:56. > :21:02.field told me this question has yet to be resolved. Whatever we tried to
:21:03. > :21:06.make, whether it is a kidney, liver, a lung, we will look at what is
:21:07. > :21:13.happening in the mind. And if we find it is to humanlike, it will be
:21:14. > :21:17.ended. Organisations campaigning for an end to factory farming are
:21:18. > :21:25.dismayed by the image of organ farming. I am nervous about opening
:21:26. > :21:34.up a new avenue of animal suffering. We could consider it, but the basis
:21:35. > :21:39.has to be that there is no overall increase of pigs being used for
:21:40. > :21:42.human services. 7000 people are on the transplant waiting list in the
:21:43. > :21:49.UK and hundreds die each year before a donor can be found. But patient
:21:50. > :21:59.trials involving gene edited pig organs are still a long way off.
:22:00. > :22:05.Bogus wars, BBC News. Finally, for centuries, the men have proven their
:22:06. > :22:09.worth in Fantasia, firing their rifles in unison. For the first
:22:10. > :22:15.time, female riders have been taking them on. We have been to meet the
:22:16. > :22:26.Moroccan women warriors beating the man at their own game. Fantasia, a
:22:27. > :22:31.centuries old Moroccan tradition, a way for men to show off their
:22:32. > :22:36.warfare and masculinity. But in recent years, more women riders are
:22:37. > :22:43.taking the reins. This is the leader of an all-female troop. And today,
:22:44. > :22:49.the only woman competing in this Fantasia. How different do you feel
:22:50. > :22:51.the image is to what people think a normal Arab or Moroccan girl should
:22:52. > :23:28.be? Did you not think maybe you cannot
:23:29. > :23:34.do it because no other girl has done it before? When you first started
:23:35. > :23:46.Fantasia how did men think of you? Now they respect us. Did they not
:23:47. > :23:55.respect you before? That sounds horrible. Did that ever put you off?
:23:56. > :24:18.How did you find the girls for your group?
:24:19. > :24:32.For good luck? Yeah, of course, for good luck. I am nervous and my heart
:24:33. > :24:40.is beating. The aim is for the teams to charge and shoot simultaneously.
:24:41. > :24:48.The winners are announced and the girls won! BBC News, Morocco. And
:24:49. > :24:55.that is all from this special edition of Reporters looking back at
:24:56. > :24:58.of the best reports from this year. -- at some of the. From me, Phillipa
:24:59. > :24:59.Thomas, goodbye for