It is an unlikely migration trend: Westerners swapping their lives in Texas or London for Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin introduced the Russian Shared Values visa, sometimes called the 'anti-woke' visa, offering up to three years of residency to citizens of 47 so-called ‘unfriendly’ countries who say they align with Russia’s traditional spiritual and moral values. Applicants do not need to speak Russian or pass a history test to qualify. Instead, they must reject the social and cultural direction of their home country. We hear the stories of people making this move. What motivates them, and how do their expectations compare with the reality of life in Russia?

Presenter/producer: Dan Hardoon Editor: Mike Wendling Sound engineer: Richard Courtice A Story² Production for BBC World Service

(Photo: A composite image showing a woman packing a suitcase, alongside Russian passports and a stylised Russian flag, illustrating Westerners preparing to relocate to Russia. Credit: Getty Images)

The documentary tells the story of scientific hubris through the extraordinary life of one chimp, Sheba. Now 44, she lives in sanctuary at Chimp Haven in Louisiana. Born in a cage, raised in a zoo, she spent twenty-four years in a research laboratory. Her life mirrors our evolving relationship with the animal world.

Sheba is the daughter of Nim, a famous chimp who learned sign language. Like her father, she demonstrated remarkable intelligence, learning to add, subtract, and paint. Her story traces back to a bold 1970s idea: if chimps are so genetically and behaviourally close to humans, could they help us learn about ourselves? Many scientists, like Bob Ingersoll, pursued that question through a series of behavioural and social experiments. Others pursued it through invasive biomedical research.

But the deeper they went, the shakier the premise became. As Bob reflects, much of the research proved not only scientifically flawed, but ethically troubling, often meaningless and cruel. That realisation sparked a shift. By 2016, biomedical research on chimpanzees in the U.S. had come to an end. In the UK and European Union, biomedical research ended a few years earlier.

Through Sheba’s journey, we hear about that turning point.

Featuring interviews with those who knew and worked with her, the documentary also includes zoologist Charlotte Uhlenbroek, who, drawing on years of studying chimps in the wild, guides us inside the world of primate research. The documentary confronts a question that is still unresolved: we have the need to experiment, but do we have the right?

People who’ve had to abandon their homes because of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah explain what life is like in Lebanon. A social worker says she believes many people now keep a bag of essential belongings packed by the front door in case they need to leave at a moment’s notice. A mother describes rearranging her daughter’s fourth birthday party because of the threat of missile strikes. Israel’s military forces are currently in southern Lebanon. They say they are there for self-defence and to target Hezbollah’s military capabilities. About a million people are estimated to have left their homes as a result. It’s not clear when, or if, they will be able to return, or whether their homes will still be standing.

Presenter: Carine Torbey Producer: Nick Holland Sound: Rod Farquhar Production Coordinator: Janet Staples Editor Penny Murphy

(Image: Displaced Lebanese people. Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)