Concrete Blocks and Opaque Glass

Available for over a year

Hong Kong's micro-flats, Portugal's deadly wildfires, and scenes straight out of Charles Darwin's travel journals. Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories. In Hong Kong, Gemma Newby finds a stifling lack of space; space to live, space to call home and space to think political thoughts. In the Philippines, we meet a rebel leader turned senator. In the 1980s, his attempted coups and failed rebellions led to hundreds of people being killed - Humphrey Hawksley asks why he did it. In Portugal, Margaret Bradley reflects on the wildfires that bring devastation to swathes of the country each year and explores how conspiracy theories take hold. In Uzbekistan, even the blurriest glimpse of what's really going on in the authoritarian state represents progress, says Peter Robertson. While President Karimov was a concrete block, President Mirzeyoyev has replaced that with opaque glass, he's told. And in Tierra del Fuego, Gideon Long finds scenes straight out of Charles Darwin's travel journals as he travel through the Beagle Channel. Producer: Joe Kent.