Our World - Season 12 / Year 2017

In 2008 Barack Obama called slavery 'America's original sin'. But how much of a difference did his eight-year presidency make to the lives of African-Americans? And what does Donald Trump's election say about attitudes to race in the United States today? Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Louisiana.

Entire families of adult chimpanzees are being slaughtered by poachers in Africa in order to capture newborn chimps to sell as pets in the Middle East and Asia. During a year-long undercover investigation, BBC journalists posing as prospective buyers infiltrate a global baby chimpanzee trafficking ring and discover how criminals are flouting international law to trade in this endangered species.

India is that rare thing in animal conservation: a success story. Nowhere exemplifies that success more than Kaziranga National Park. But for many, the gains have come at a cost.

Our World has been to Kazakhstan to meet an extraordinary survivor, a celebrated artist and anti-nuclear campaigner.

Children in America are undergoing electric shock treatment in growing numbers. Now known as Electro Convulsive Therapy - or ECT- the controversial treatment is being used on severely autistic children who self-harm. The BBC has been given access to film a child being treated using ECT. Our World's Chris Rogers, meets parents who say the treatment is helping their children, and the critics who say it is barbaric. Viewers may find some of the content in this film upsetting.

For six years the Kenyan army has been fighting Islamist militants in Somalia known as Al Shabaab. As part of an exclusive investigation, the BBC has discovered that Kenyan women are being abducted and trafficked as sex slaves to Al Shabaab camps. Anne Soy meets women who've managed to escape from the camps, and an Al Shabaab insider who reveals, for the first time, how vulnerable women are captured and imprisoned.

Syria's National Football team has a real chance of qualifying for the World Cup. It's an astonishing achievement for a country entering its seventh year of a bloody civil war. The team can't play at home and many of its star players have left Syria. Other stars refuse to play because the team is funded by the Assad regime. Richard Conway has spent time with members of the squad in Damascus, and the whole team in Malaysia where they won a qualifying match against Uzbekistan. He discovers that, for some Syrians, the country's football team is a focus for national pride which appears to transcend the nation's deep and bloody divisions.

Hawaii's beaches have long been a draw for tourists, but many glittering hotel facades now sit alongside squalid camps because the state has the highest rate of homelessness in the US. Our World travels to Honolulu where camps have sprung up across the city, including in the prime tourist district of Waikiki beach. As numbers continue to rise the city is struggling to cope, and many local residents view the homeless as a menace.

Six months ago one of the most significant battles of the Syrian Civil War ended when the city of Aleppo finally fell to Syrian Government forces. In this remarkable film four citizen journalists, who are also activists opposed to President Assad, document their last days in East Aleppo. Under siege, trapped with two hundred thousand others, with limited food, water and medicine, they filmed with small cameras and mobile phones as the battle for the city raged. This programme contains content that some viewers may find disturbing.

A brilliant student, Mashal Khan, was brutally murdered by a mob on a university campus in Pakistan earlier this year after he was accused of blasphemy. The killing has caused widespread outrage in Pakistan andhas even led to calls to change the country's strict blasphemy laws. Who was Mashal Khan and why was he murdered? Secunder Kermani investigates. Contains some upsetting scenes which viewers may find disturbing.

Yalda Hakim reports from Sicily, which is on the frontline of Italy's escalating migrant crisis. More than 85 thousand people are believed to have crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy already thisyear; over two thousand are thought to have died in the attempt. Ships operated by charities are rescuing thousands but, as the numbers crossing grow, they face accusations that they're encouraging the migrant trade. Meanwhile, anti-immigrant groups are targeting Sicily, seeing an opportunity to build popular support.

In the Netherlands, and across Europe, thousands of Iranian refugees are converting to Christianity. For many, conversion offers a new start in Europe, and for Dutch churches it's a much needed boost todwindling congregations. But some say the refugees are only becoming Christians so they won't be sent back to Iran, where converting to Christianity can carry a heavy penalty. So are these converts 'born again Christians' or simply praying for asylum?

In the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group that calls itself 'Islamic State' is under siege. Its fighters are surrounded by a Kurdish led, US-backed coalition. It may be months before the city falls, but when itdoes it will mean - effectively - the end of the so called 'caliphate'. But what then? Gabriel Gatehouse reports.

In Venezuela daily protests against President Maduro's government have resulted in scores of deaths. Inflation, malnutrition and even starvation are on the rise. The BBC has spoken to activists who say thegovernment is using torture, and imprisonment without trial, against those who oppose it, a claim the government denies. This weekend massive protests are expected against a vote to elect an assembly to change the constitution, which opposition parties say could create a dictatorship. So who are the people hoping to overthrow President Maduro? For Our World, Vladimir Hernandez reports from Caracas.

At just three days old, Kati Pohler was left on a street in the Chinese city of Suzhou. At the time China's 'one-child policy' banned parents from having a second baby and many were abandoned. Kati's parentsleft a note with their daughter asking whoever raised her to bring her back to meet them at the 'Broken Bridge in Hangzhou' at a set date in the future. Kati was adopted by an American family and moved to the USA. Over twenty years later she is now returning to China to meet her birth parents, for the first time...