Dubbed "Mongolian Bling", the new 90-minute documentary by Australian Benj Binks showcases how hip-hop has become a popular vehicle of expression for the stresses of increasingly urbanized life among Mongolia's youth.
France’s coal mining days might be over but for many others the carbon revolution is just gearing up. This week on Environment the France24 team explores whether coal is a symbol of the past or a compromise of the future.
The 15th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China sparks more demonstrations than celebrations. Next, Mongolia is famous for it’s incredible mineral resources and Mongolians want to be sure that they will reap the benefits of those riches. Finally, is it art - or is it just another industry? We take a look at the Chinese boom, as seen from the art world.
Douglas Herbert meets Jane Burbank, Professor of history and specialist in Russian studies at New York University. She has co-written a book entitled "Empires in World history". Be it the Mongols, Napoleon, Charlemagne, Imperial Russia, Jules Cesar or China, all of these states dreamed of being or have been empires. She tells us more.
Pomp, splendour and a bonanza of business deals mark Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to France. Billions of dollars worth of contracts are signed but not a single press conference is held. China is conducting the world's largest census. But will Chinese parents who have defied the one-child policy officially declare their hidden children? Once viewed as remote backwater, Mongolia today is seeing an economic boom. But will it benefit ordinary Mongolians?
Talks between the Afghan authorities and the Taliban have many fearing peace could come at too high a price - NATO says it will support a political deal only if it respects women's rights. Mixed signals from the Burmese Junta leave the outside world convinced that the upcoming poll will only put a civilian mask on military rule. And anti-Chinese sentiment fuels the rise of neo-Nazi groups in Mongolia.
“Babies” simultaneously follows four babies around the world, from birth to first steps. Drifting from the naturally grandiose vistas of Mongolia and Namibia to the urban enclaves of San Francisco and Tokyo, Balmes’s cameras reveal the universal curiosity that all young children share. A beautiful film that recalls, if it weren’t already obvious, that all babies look alike.
In this edition: the most dangerous assignment on Earth - we meet the journalists risking their lives to document what's going on in Afghanistan; Japan gets its fifth prime minister in four years - we ask if Naoto Kan will be able to stay the course, and Mongolia's worst winter in decades - millions of livestock perish leaving herders on the brink of starvation.
In this edition: five years on, survivors of a deadly earthquake in Pakistan are still living in squalor; freezing temperatures in Mongolia have killed hundreds of thousands of livestock, pushing many people to the brink of starvation; and it's been a turbulent few weeks for the world's biggest carmaker, nowhere more keenly felt than in Toyota city.
