This World

In the United States, child poverty has reached record levels, with over 16 million children now affected. Food banks are facing unprecedented demand, and homeless shelters now have long waiting lists, as families who have known a much better life sometimes have to leave their homes with just a few days notice. This World asks three children whose families are struggling to get by to explain what life in modern America really looks like through their eyes. Told from the point of view of the children themselves, this one-hour documentary offers a unique perspective on the nation's flagging economy and the impact of unemployment, foreclosure and financial distress as seen through the eyes of the children affected.

Dan Snow travels to Syria to see how the country's fascinating and tumultuous history is shaping the current civil war. For thousands of years, empires and despots have fought for control of the strategically vital region, leaving behind stunning temples, castles and mosques, as well as a diverse cultural heritage. Those conflicts - from the Roman conquests to the crusades, from the French colonial invasion to the military coups of the 1960s - loom large in today's conflict. For those confused by the seemingly random nature of the bloodshed and slaughter, Dan Snow unpicks the historic divisions between Sunnis and Alawites, Islamists and secularists, east and west.

Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, retired headteacher, Geoff Dunsmore, travels to Basra to follow in the footsteps of his son Chris, an RAF reservist who was killed there in 2007. Geoff has never believed for a second that Chris died in vain, saying that his son believed in what he was doing and believed in why he was going to Iraq. Now, Geoff is going to see exactly where his son was killed and find out the impact of the war and occupation on the lives of the ordinary people of Basra. Has the western involvement in Iraq improved things for ordinary Iraqi people? Accompanied by local guide, Mazin Altayar, Geoff hears firsthand what life was like for Iraqis under the dictator Saddam Hussein. He visits a rundown primary school that British troops tried to help during the occupation and hears from a man who claims 12 of his family were killed when American soldiers opened fire on his vehicles. For the most part, with the country still suffering from terrorist violence, the repercussions of the conflict have been devastating and long lasting. Yet on the streets of Basra Geoff also meets a group of young people who have grown up knowing nothing but war but believe that they can build a different future in Iraq today.

In August 2012, 34 miners were shot dead by police as they protested outside a mine in Marikana, just outside Johannesburg. Nearly 50 years after he left South Africa as a teenager, Peter Hain MP returns to ask how the country of his childhood, once such a beacon of hope, is now the scene of such tragedy. In this documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Hain speaks to the families of some of the men killed at Marikana and uncovers a day of shocking brutality with many disturbing allegations. With unprecedented access to Lonmin, the company at the centre of the tragedy, he visits the mine and talks to the CEO. But what led the South African ruling party, always the champions of black people and their rights, to turn their guns on some of the poorest of their own people with dreadful echo's of the apartheid era? Hain meets legends of the ANC struggle, talking to Ahmed Kathrada and Ronnie Kasrils about whether the moral legacy of Nelson Mandela has been betrayed. Finally Hain meets President Jacob Zuma to put to him the allegations of corruption, cronyism and brutality against their own people.

Italy's most powerful organised crime group is no longer Sicily's Cosa Nostra but the 'Ndrangheta', a shadowy Mafia from the southern region of Calabria. With unique access to the extraordinary underground bunkers the gangsters use for hiding out and to the hi-tech war being fought by the Italian authorities against this murderous criminal brotherhood, author and mafia historian John Dickie uncovers the truth about Europe's biggest cocaine traffickers. This is a world of special forces, spy planes and super grasses, as well as a culture of fear and silence where people simply do not trust the Italian state to defeat the Mafiosi.

Anita Rani travels to Mumbai to investigate the obesity epidemic engulfing India's growing middle class. She meets some of India's overweight teenagers who can't stop bingeing on western fast foods, including 13-year-old Kaleb who weighs more than 15 stone. She visits the clinics at the centre of a booming industry in weight loss surgery. Regulation of the fast food industry is much looser than in Western countries and wealthy Indians are susceptible to the lure of advertising and the promise of a western lifestyle. What is more, Indians are more genetically disposed to obesity and to the diabetes that all too often accompanies it. And now that the international fast-food chains and their Indian imitators are opening up branches beyond the big cities in India, the obesity problem is set to explode into a national pandemic

In November last year the American state of Colorado voted to legalise the recreational use of cannabis. It is the most radical experiment in drugs policy for generations and the world will be looking to see what happens, particularly to drug use amongst teenagers. In this hour long documentary for This World, clinical psychologist and addiction expert Professor John Marsden heads to Denver, the state capital, to assess the likely impact of legalisation on a country already suffering an epidemic of teenage marijuana use. At a local high school, John hears from A grade students who explain that getting stoned is now more socially acceptable than getting drunk. At an addiction clinic that treats children as young as 12, John hears how marijuana is already the number one reason for kids to enter residential programmes more than alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs combined. With rates of teenage cannabis use in the USA the highest that they have been in years, it is widely acknowledged the war on drugs has failed. However the question is, will full legalisation manage to take the selling of the drug out of the hands of the street dealers and into the hands of the legitimate business people and be the answer to stopping America's kids from getting stoned?

British survivors of January 2013's terrorist attack on a gas plant in Algeria tell their dramatic and harrowing stories. Thirty nine people died and dozens of foreign workers were taken hostage after al Qaeda terrorists stormed the sprawling facility in the Sahara desert and the Algerian army responded with overwhelming force. For the first time survivors tell the inside story of their miraculous escape playing cat and mouse with their captors, being forced to wear a necklace of explosives and coming under fire from Algerian army helicopter gunships. BBC2's award winning This World strand asks why it was seemingly so easy for the terrorists to enter the plant and why the Algerians reacted in the way they did.

Dan Snow goes on an adventure across one of the wildest countries in the world. He reveals how its history of slavery, colonialism, corruption and war has turned what should be one of the richest countries in the world into one of the poorest. He discovers how the country’s natural resources helped make Britain rich through the centuries and win two world wars and also takes us on a trip to a gold mine in eastern Congo.

In a world where people panic about the rising global population, Japan is facing a very different future which could see their population shrink by a third in just 40 years. One reason is that the Japanese are not having enough babies and the causes of that form the basis of Anita Rani's intriguing journey. Part of a season of programmes on population for This World, No Sex Please, We're Japanese explores Otaku culture - the world of nerds and geeks obsessed with computer games and Manga cartoons - which has led to a withdrawal of many Japanese men from the whole dating game. Anita meets two men in their late thirties who have in depth relationships with virtual teenage girlfriends as part of a role playing game: 'I think twice about going out with a 3D woman', says one. The Japanese have far less sex than other nations and Anita also meets the women who struggle to work and have children in a society still dominated by traditional gender roles. Added to this, Japan also has the oldest population in the world, 25% are over 65 and 50,000 over a hundred years old. Anita visits a group of pensioners cheerleaders and a prison with a wing especially designed for pensioners. Too few young people to pay tax, too many old people needing support - it has all led to a debt problem worse than that of Greece and an uncertain future for a country that still is the third largest economy in the world.

The head nurse in Manila's busiest maternity ward estimates that she has delivered 200,000 babies during her career. On a busy day, a hundred babies are born at the Jose Fabella hospital and women in labour lie four or five to a bed. Anita Rani travels to the crazy crowded capital of the Philippines, to see how the countries of the developing world are facing a future with a rapidly growing population by following the lives of three different women. Rosalyn, whose seventh child will have to survive on less than a pound a day; Rose, a middle-class mum who can afford the best care in the world; and Junalyn, on a journey out of the slums to a better life. Amid the drama of new life Anita finds a story of economic growth and hope in Manila. Across the developing world birth rates have plummeted, life expectancy has increased and young vibrant workforces are beginning to compete with the established economies of the West.

Using state-of-the-art 3D graphics and the timing of a stand-up comedian, world-famous statistician Professor Hans Rosling presents a spectacular portrait of our rapidly changing world. With seven billion people already on our planet, we often look to the future with dread, but Rosling's message is surprisingly upbeat. Almost unnoticed, we have actually begun to conquer the problems of rapid population growth and extreme poverty. Across the world, even in countries like Bangladesh, families of just two children are now the norm - meaning that within a few generations, the population explosion will be over. A smaller proportion of people now live in extreme poverty than ever before in human history and the United Nations has set a target of eradicating it altogether within a few decades. In this as-live studio event, Rosling presents a statistical tour-de-force, including his 'ignorance survey', which demonstrates how British university graduates would be outperformed by chimpanzees in a test of knowledge about developing countries.

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution. Two years ago Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world has begun rolling back the state on an unprecedented scale. Simon Reeve meets ordinary Cubans whose lives are being transformed, from the owners of fledgling businesses to the newly rich estate agents selling properties worth up to 750,000 pounds. In this hour-long documentary for the BBC's award-winning This World strand, Simon gets under the skin of a colourful and vibrant country famous for its hospitality and humour and asks if this new economic openness could lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?