Australia's beauty - and its terrors

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Australians are used to taking the power of nature seriously - as the environment and the creatures within it can be so dangerous. 2020 began in flames, as bush fires tore through the landscape, and ended in floods, as cyclones flattened and drenched much of the more populated parts of the coastline. And with memories of those disasters still fresh, the country is now having to deal with a far tinier (but still lethal) menace: coronavirus. Phil Mercer reflects from Sydney on resilience and robustness in the face of all these threats. Pascale Harter introduces this and other dispatches from BBC correspondents, reporters and writers around the world. Indonesia's geography also offers plenty of challenges for people who need to get around this vast archipelago quickly and safely. Over the past few decades, the explosive growth of a middle class who can afford to take domestic flights has fuelled a boom in small airlines - but have the airport infrastructure and safety oversight been good enough to keep up with passenger numbers? After the recent Sriwijaya crash, in which 62 people were killed, Rebecca Henschke remembers covering far too many similar incidents. Chris Page talks to one of the survivors of Ireland's now-notorious system of mother and baby homes. For decades, these institutions took in unmarried mothers, promising to care for them during and after their pregnancies and find good adoptive or foster homes for their children. But conditions inside the homes were harsh and there were many cases of abuse, neglect and disease within them. Growing public concern about this history led to an official enquiry - and now official apologies from the Irish government and the country's Catholic Church for what went on inside. And Mary Harper reveals some new developments from Somalia after her most recent visit there. While foreign news often concentrates on the country's al-Shabaab jihadist group, the regular suicide bombings and its food insecurity, there are other visible trends. These days, some militiamen are turning to extortion rackets. There's a boom in the construction sector. And everywhere there are people with ingenious and innovative ideas, just looking for ways to make life better. (Image: People paddle along a flooded street in Tumbulgum, New South Wales, Australia, 15 December 2020. EPA/Jason O'Brien)