The People

The closer we get to our rendezvous point, the less what we see around looks like the Japan we think we know – the most technologically advanced nation with a space exploration program and the world’s fastest experimental magnetic levitation trains capable of travelling up to 370 mph; a country that has developed robots to assist the elderly and to work on radioactively contaminated sites. Japanese corporations are among the leaders on the global scene. We all know that Japanese cars, watches, cameras and musical instruments are of top quality. Japan is a leader in terms of life expectancy that exceeds 84 years. It is the third-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP even though the country has next to no mineral resources and a tiny territory, and only 30% of it is habitable. So how come that this advanced nation is also home to some very serious organized crime? Leaving the ultramodern neon-lit streets behind us, we are entering Eastern Tokyo and getting close to an area calle

On February 6th, at 4 a.m. this area in south-eastern Türkiye was hit by a series of earthquakes. The most powerful one was a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that is now confirmed to be the deadliest quake of all time to ever hit the country. It took thousands of lives in a matter of seconds, leaving tens of thousands shelterless. This is Alexandra Sabynina for The People project reporting from Türkiye.

This is Lyadov and today in my travel vlog I`m in Ethiopia! I`m traveling to a very remote town called Jinka with a population of 30 000 people. So it’s basically a big village in Africa without tourists. And to get an idea of where I'm going to, just imagine that if you leave your iPhone charger behind, it’s going to be quite a problem getting a replacement there. People here lead a very different kind of African life. Let`s have a glimpse at the tribal life of wild Ethiopia. You will also see perhaps probably the most extreme sport in the modern world - the Donga stick fighting. It`s like MMA in USA but more brutal and scary in close combat. Hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you want more. Enjoy!

This is Lyadov. Today, I’m in Cuba, an island that has become somewhat iconic for its prolonged fight for freedom. This country never ceases to amaze you: an average salary on island is about 30 USD, while a restaurant bill for a party of two will cost you 60 USD or more. Several decades ago, it was here that the events that went down in history as the Caribbean Crisis took place. Watch this video to know why this happened!

This is Anton. Today, I’m in Cuba, an island that has become somewhat iconic for its prolonged fight for freedom. This country never ceases to amaze you: an average salary on island is about 30 USD, while a restaurant bill for a party of two will cost you 60 USD or more. Several decades ago, it was here that the events that went down in history as the Caribbean Missile Crisis took place. Watch this video to know why this happened!

This is Anton Lyadov, and today I am reporting from London! Today I will show you how I managed to get to the coronation and see King Charles III! Charles will be the 40th monarch crowned at Westminster Abbey, and this will be the first coronation of a British sovereign in 70 years. Prince Charles beat two records when he became king in 2022 – as Britain’s oldest heir apparent and longest serving heir-apparent to-date. His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II is also a record-setter. She became the longest reigning British monarch, having ruled for 70 years 214 days, beating the record of 63 years and 216 days of her great-great-mother Queen Victoria. Queen Elizabeth II was also the longest-lived British monarch, having lived 96 years 140 days.

This is Anton, and today we’re in Afghanistan. In this episode I will show you how people live in Afghanistan just a few months after the country was retaken by the Taliban movement, considered a terrorist organization by many nations. People tried to flee the country in most unimaginable ways: they even attempted to ride the plane on the outside in the hope to get out. Today, I’ll talk to an official working in the new government, and he’ll tell us why people can’t get their pay for months and have to queue for many hours or even spend a night queueing for their turn to use an ATM – sometimes, with their families. We also have a special guest in this episode - journalist and expert in Asian and Islamic studies Alexandra Kovalskaya will go on a reporting mission through the country shaken by the recent Taliban offensive.

This is Lyadov and today, I will show you how people live in Kirkuk, one of Iraq’s most troubled cities that was built over a large oil field, a target of a protracted and bloody war lasting for many years. Here, I’m having a, well, a security detail following me, two real bodyguards. The reason for this is that although it’s been relatively quiet in Kirkuk for the past few years and it’s considered generally a safe city, the truth is that all these ‘relatively’ and ‘generally’ remain a pretty ‘iffy’ affair, because Kirkuk is right in the middle of the territory where multiple terrorist sleeper cells are known to be, continuously hunted down by Iraq’s special services and popular mobilization forces that keep looking for the insurgency groups trying to continue the war, and so you never really know what might happen to you here. In order to understand what’s special about Kirkuk, you need to know two things about it. Firstly, it’s home to one of the world’s largest oil and gas deposit

I am in this scary as hell place that had served as the testing ground for the most devastating weapons of mass destruction humanity has ever invented - nuclear bombs - for 40 years in a row. A total of almost half a thousand nuclear bombs had been tested here between 1949 and 1989. The USSR’s top scientists and researchers were studying the effect of nuclear weapons on urban settlements. They had been building mock towns with real buildings and even metro stations to be able to see and access the impact. The researchers identified the areas where people would die right away, where people could survive but go blind, or where they’d survive just fine and but their progeny would develop mutations for many years into the future. They ran experiments, analyzed the results, and then, judging by the way it looks today, the entire project was abandoned like no one ever gave a rat’s ass about it. But today I will take you to the people who will never forget a single thing about those times. [

My dear people, today, I’m going to get inside the Soviet easternmost top-secret nuclear military base. It was a secret to everyone, and in complete secrecy, tens of thousands troops and loads of heavy machinery and equipment had been moved here to build and man silos for ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Unofficially, this project was dubbed “the invasion army.” Back in the days of the Soviet Union, this used to be one of the areas of extreme tension on the political map. Why? Because only 50 miles separate this coast and the American soil. That’s the reason the Soviets invested crazy loads of money and stuff into this place, and moved here lots of manpower. They built here all the infrastructure and moved here entire garrisons, or rather entire military bases. This is Lyadov reporting today from a former top-secret restricted-access military settlement located very close to the border separating Russia and the United States.

This is Lyadov, and today, I’ll tell you about the worst disaster, that humanity could ever imagine. It’s very hard to understand, but 37 years after it occurred, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster is still shrouded in mystery. All sorts of conspiracy theories, such as that an earthquake occurred at the time, or that the accident was caused by saboteurs at the plant are still out there, although they have all been refuted by professionals and experts. A number of contemporary documents were declassified recently by the KGB, and they are a very interesting read. To be honest, in order to get to the core of why this explosion really occurred one has to go really deep into the science of nuclear physics, but just this one document that lists all the information that was classified at the time is actually enough to understand that back in the day when it happened, people were simply lied to. Real radiation numbers were classified. Radiation levels were off the charts, but they were never discl

People, today, we’re reporting from Israel that has seen, over the past few days, an unprecedented and most violent escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict for the past few decades. Hamas attacked Israel, Israel is bombing Gaza, and both sides have declared it a war. Israel has formed a cabinet to manage the war of a scale and brutality unseen for at least 50 years, ever since the 1973 October War. Each war has two sides, and the focus of our reports is always on the people on both sides, so we’re going to speak to the people who have suffered due to recent events both in Israel and in Gaza. The People project’s reporter has already landed in Israel, and we’re going to continue our reports. Subscribe to our channel to see all the new videos and photos we post there.

People, today, I will tell you how people were running for their lives from the Hamas attack on the Supernova music festival that was taking place half a mile from the Gaza-Israel border and I will show you how people of Israel are trying to recover from the most horrible experience of their lives. My team is also working right now on a report from the Gaza Strip. Civilians in Gaza Strip have no access to provisions and are on the verge of survival because of Israel’s crackdown, which is why we’re going to cover Gaza too, including in this report.

People, today I will show you how people live on the border where they even have buildings that are part in the United States, part in Canada. I’ll show you where you can cross the US border without even a passport, and where you’ll have to undergo a very thorough border check. Today I will show you how people live in one of the most unusual spots on our planet, on the border of the United States of America. Right now, I’m on the Canadian soil, and across the water that island over there is the American soil. It’s very close, for example. I feel the rain drizzling now and over there, you can see it pouring from the cloud real hard, I can even hear the thunder. This area is fitted with a mind-blowing number of surveillance devices, and border agencies patrol the area all the time and generally keep watching each other very closely despite the fact that they don’t really have a physical border between the countries. This is Lyadov reporting to you on how people live on the border betwee

People, today, we will show you active gun-making factories in Pakistan. We will go to the tribal areas that are out of reach of the official government. This tribal area is also called ‘trouble area’. The official laws of Pakistan don’t work here. It harbors a marketplace where you can buy anything normally never sold at any other regular market of the world… although at a first glance it looks pretty regular too. We spot some creepy hearse vans at the entrance, then see a number of guys selling veggies off their trucks. All seems pretty ordinary until, behind the peas, cucumbers and old scales, we see a wall with a banner, Asia Arms Store, complete with phone numbers and a contact in WhatsApp. As soon as we entered the market we were followed and five minutes later, we were stopped by two big guys in black. Today, we have with us Alex Pototsky, a friend of mine and a fantastic reporter who’s been all over the world. This is Lyadov and The people project from the border between Pa

People, today we're in Pakistan, in the valley of Swat. It was a holy place of worship. There were thousands of Buddhist temples, stupas, monasteries and statues. But then everything changed. In 2007, the Pakistani Taliban took control over Swat and the first thing they did was to try and destroy this amazing Buddha carving. They used dynamite sticks to blow it up, but luckily not all them worked. The Pakistani Taliban – not to be confused with the Taliban in Afghanistan – took this area under control in 2007. They went on to destroy everything and everyone who did not fit their profile of ‘true believers’. I went to Pakistan to find out, if it is safe or not. And in the valley of Swat we met a man who was accompanied by two armed soldiers.

People, today, I’m in Argentina. Well, friends, we’re now again in Latin America on our way to check out some slums. This neighborhood is called Villa-31. Villa is the Argentinian name for the kind of slums they call favelas in Brazil, or barrios in Venezuela. And here, they call them villas. People in Argentina love their freedom so much here that they have an entire neighborhood where people don’t pay for anything at all, like electricity or water, and where they don’t have any official title to their property, but nonetheless, they keep building one hut on top of another, which is how this huge favela district has come to be. And also I visited the neighborhood which is called Constitución and is located near the train station. So let’s see it. Yeah, all the stuff you like to hear about, I know. This is Lyadov and my report on how people live in Argentina.

People, have you ever seen a city that two countries call their own capital? It’s Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities on our planet that has what we know as irreconcilable enemies living in it next to each other. Is it really true? Is it possible for irreconcilable enemies to live for centuries next door to each other? Or are there perhaps more colors in this palette than just black and white? Jerusalem’s total population is about one million people. There is West Jerusalem, the part that is under Israeli control. Then, there is East Jerusalem, and there are Palestinian neighborhoods that are home to 370 thousand people, and there are Israeli neighborhoods that are home to some 200 thousand people, and there are disputed areas. The international status of East Jerusalem remains uncertain till these days. Now, with the unprecedented escalation of the armed conflict, most likely any stranger in East Jerusalem will raise suspicions at the very least... And that’s exactly where our reporte