Glimpses of hope in Russia

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Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from Russia, Liberia and north-west India. When Steve Rosenberg penned an ode to one of his favourite Russian babushkas - an eternally optimistic newspaper vendor named Valentina - it set off a ripple effect he never anticipated. Set to music, the poem went viral, even on Russian media platforms where he was more used to being pilloried. He reflects on the gleams of hope to be gleaned in Moscow as it enters the third year of war with Ukraine. The 1990s were a decade of vicious civil war in Liberia - and Hilary Andersson met many of the conflict's most notorious war lords. Following the recent death of Prince Yormie Johnson, a brutal commander who was still revered by some Liberians and was even elected as a senator, she remembers their alarming encounters in Monrovia and Nigeria - and wonders what his life reveals about impunity under international law. Unlike some other big cat species, leopards don't only live in wild, remote areas. In Rajasthan, in northwestern India, they still inhabit a swathe of land increasingly full of villages, farms and human homes. A new project in the area hopes to reduce the conflict between people and leopards, and assure the animals a safe corridor to migrate and breed their next generation. Michelle Jana Chan went out to spot them. Producer: Polly Hope Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Co-Ordinator: Katie Morrison Image Credit: Steve Rosenberg, BBC