Crossing Continents

That was Olga Ivshina, a senior journalist for the BBC's Russian service.

You heard at the start clips from the BBC's Crossing Continents program, which Olga appeared on in 2014.

As always, you can reach us here at The Global Story anytime with questions or story ideas.

Our email address is theglobalstory@bbc.com. A reminder, The Global Story is one story in depth every day where the world and America meet.

[Instrumental music] Hello, I'm Emily Wither.

Thank you for listening to Crossing Continents.

I've worked as a correspondent covering Turkey for years and live in Istanbul.

I've seen how the legal net is widening here.

But critics say President Erdogan is using the courtroom to silence dissent and tighten his grip after two decades in power.

I've been investigating how Turkey's justice system came to work this way and what's left of freedom of speech.

That's what this edition of Crossing Continents is about.

[Crowd chanting] Oh my goodness, I cannot believe how many police there is.

But those can be triggers.

I'll listen to a Radio 4 Crossing Continents documentary about famine in Bangladesh.

And then you've got hours, empty hours that follow without distraction besides staying upright on a bicycle or the fatigue of walking up a hill.

Yeah.

Plan your next detour at goturkiye.com today.

Thanks for downloading this Crossing Continents podcast.

I'm Tim Hewell, and I've taken my swimming trunks and a security advisor to the Ukrainian seaside to talk about language and identity.

Welcome to the beach in Odessa, the queen of Ukraine's resorts, the pearl, as it likes to call itself, of the Black Sea.

There's absolutely no problem here in Odessa with the Russian language.

But that's not quite true.

Even as it suffers constant bombardment, as you'll hear in this edition of Crossing Continents, the cities split over whether Ukraine is just fighting Russia or whether it should also be fighting Russian.

We see that Russian language is the weapon of Russia and we need to try to fix that.

Alexander doesn't even flinch.

Tim Huell, and you can hear more on that story on Radio 4's Crossing Continents this Tuesday night at nine.

In Kenya, online networks promoting hyper-masculinity are growing fast.

This emerging manosphere is a profit-driven formula, with social media posts delivering clicks and cash donations.

Founded in 2017, Flock has today become a byword among the American public for surveillance.

I'm Ellie House, and for Crossing Continents, I'm in Houston, Texas, looking at big surveillance in US cities.

My name is Christopher Rivera.

I work with the Texel Rights Project.

The distinctive black flock camera poles people see popping up in their neighbourhoods are a visual representation of the state of AI, of the influence tech has over their lives.

And while some see the value in these tools, others are emphatically saying no.

Crossing Continents was presented and produced by me, Ellie House.

The editor was Penny Murphy.

I just don't want help, because if I seek for help, I have to stop, right? How can I stop?

I'm Camila Mota, and in this edition of Crossing Continents, I'm finding out how gambling, which until quite recently was heavily restricted, is taking a huge toll on the lives of millions of Brazilians, and if enough is being done to help them.

John is trying to stop betting despite his protestations earlier.

He's about to take part in a Gamblers Anonymous meeting in a Sunday school classroom attached to a church in São Paulo's financial district.