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AgricultureCultureDocumentary filmsFilmForced labourGlobal developmentHuman rightsScienceSouth and Central AsiaUzbekistanWorld news

Cotton100% review – how forced labour paid the price of Uzbekistan’s ‘white gold’

Two brave women stand up for human rights as hordes of Uzbeks are dragged from their workplaces to pick state cotton, in this compelling documentary exposing farming practices only just outlawedAs a child growing up in Uzbekistan, film-maker Michael Bo…

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BangladeshFoodGlobal developmentGlobal healthHealthInfectious diseasesMedical researchScienceSocietySouth and Central AsiaTeaWomenWorld news

‘It’s spreading faster than we’ve ever seen’: the mission to halt leprosy in Bangladesh’s tea gardens

Despite the WHO declaring it eliminated in 1998, thousands of tea pickers have caught the diseaseAloka Gonju didn’t take much notice of the discoloured patch of skin on her left hand until her fingers began to stiffen and hurt. It became a struggle to …

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BiologyCoronavirusCultureDrama filmsFilmIndiaInfectious diseasesMedical researchMicrobiologyScienceSocietySouth and Central AsiaWorld news

Bheed review – lockdown thriller cuts across India’s class conflict

A tense, state-of-the-nation drama set in Covid-era India successfully exposes how the caste system underpins much of the country’s division and strife ‘No one ever plans for the poor,” says a young police officer in this tense, painful pandemic drama …

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Asia PacificChinaCoronavirusInfectious diseasesOmicron variantScienceSocietyWorld newsXi Jinping

‘It was all for nothing’: Chinese count cost of Xi’s snap decision to let Covid rip

After three years of lockdowns, the country was ill prepared for its abrupt ‘freedom’. Now, with some estimating 1m deaths, public anger is growingWhen Sunny* thinks back to March last year, she laughs ruefully at the ordeal. The 19-year-old Shanghai s…

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