Al Jazeera People & Power

We investigate claims of corruption, harassment and xenophobia experienced by Russia's Central Asian migrant community.

Why the Mapuche of Argentina and Chile have been pushed to the brink of insurrection in defence of their ancient lands.

The remarkable story of two Syrian refugees and their journey to safety in Germany.

For democracies to flourish and succeed, voters need accurate information on which to base their decisions; to weigh up the relative merits of proposed policy A over proposed policy B, to judge whether this candidate is more trustworthy or reliable than that one, or that these promises are more likely to be kept than those. But recent elections, most notably that of Donald Trump as US president, have highlighted the dangers to this process posed by those using social media and the internet to spread malevolent propaganda and fake news. In the alternative cyber-reality they’ve constructed, fiction suddenly becomes fact, lies become accepted truths, partisanship is entrenched and consensus about the real size of the budget deficit or the number of immigrants coming into the country or even whether a foreign power is a dangerous threat, becomes almost impossible to achieve. So how and why have we arrived at this point How is it that platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have become, at the same time, so powerful and yet so apparently wide open to abuse and manipulation How, in other words, is social media being used to undermine the core principles of representative governance In a two-part People & Power special report, Bob Abeshouse investigates.

For democracies to flourish and succeed, voters need accurate information on which to base their decisions; to weigh up the relative merits of proposed policy A over proposed policy B, to judge whether this candidate is more trustworthy or reliable than that one, or that these promises are more likely to be kept than those. But recent elections, most notably that of Donald Trump as US president, have highlighted the dangers to this process posed by those using social media and the internet to spread malevolent propaganda and fake news. In the alternative cyber-reality they’ve constructed, fiction suddenly becomes fact, lies become accepted truths, partisanship is entrenched and consensus about the real size of the budget deficit or the number of immigrants coming into the country or even whether a foreign power is a dangerous threat, becomes almost impossible to achieve. So how and why have we arrived at this point How is it that platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have become, at the same time, so powerful and yet so apparently wide open to abuse and manipulation How, in other words, is social media being used to undermine the core principles of representative governance In a two-part People & Power special report, Bob Abeshouse investigates.

In August 2017, a devastating landslide in Sierra Leone, killed over a thousand people. It was a terrible blow to a country that still bears the scars of a brutal civil war that ended two decades ago and the more recent, but equally appalling, Ebola crisis, which stretched the nation's limited resources to breaking point. Initially freak rains brought on by climate change were thought to be the cause, but then then other stories emerged - of corruption, greed and environmental degradation, of disastrous urban expansion and unheeded laws. It became clear that the catastrophe may have been as least as much a consequence of local failings as the result of global weather events. What's more, there had been stark warnings of looming disaster for many years. Filmmaker Paul Glynn, who'd first heard these predictions while living in Sierra Leone a decade ago, went back to find out why they’d been so tragically ignored.

When the former British colony of Singapore became an independent nation in 1965, there were doubts about its survival. The tiny island state has no hinterland and few natural resources and few at the time thought it a candidate for any kind of success on the world stage. But today, it's one of Asia's richest cities, a truly modern metropolis that's frequently been described as an economic miracle. It's safe, courteous, orderly, and business friendly, its people are educated and cared for to an extent many of its neighbours can only dream of emulating. The principal architect of this remarkable achievement was Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, who served three decades as prime minister and even longer as leader of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP). On his death in 2015, over a million Singaporean residents turned out to honour his memory, his infamously tough pragmatism and his many accomplishments - not the least of was the creation of an effective and largely incorrupt government and civil service, which proved a huge magnet to foreign investors . But for many this respect was also undermined by disappointment that development was bought at the price of civil rights. Throughout his time in power LKY - as he was known - was often accused of stifling freedom of speech and suppressing political opposition. It is no accident, say critics, that he won election after election up until he stepped down as prime minister in 1990 (he continued as an MP to be an influential figure behind the scenes), because under his tenure his authoritarian government maintained such tight political control over every aspect of the city state that it became almost impossible for parties other than the PAP to gain a foothold. Now, almost three years after his death, there are signs of some very modest relaxation in that control, but it's by no means as much as some would like. Singaporeans still do not enjoy many of the liberties citizens in most fir

Launched in early 2014, the operation was initially thought to be routine - one of a number of similar ongoing probes that the Brazilian Federal Police had on their books. In this case, the targets were doleiros: black-market money dealers who used small businesses, such as petrol stations and car washes, to launder the profits of crime. But it soon evolved into one of the biggest and most complex corruption investigations in South American history. Four years on and Lava Jato - or Operation Car Wash, as it is now known in English - has left its mark on 11 countries, from Brazil to Peru. Business leaders, multinational corporations and leading politicians have been caught up in allegations ranging from bribery and money laundering to attempting to distort the democratic process, with more than 150 people arrested, prosecuted or facing criminal proceedings. So how and why did this extraordinary investigation become so far-reaching We sent filmmaker Luis del Valle and journalist Gustavo Goritti, from Peru's IDL Reporteros, to find out how prosecutors and police began to unravel a case that has sent shock waves across a continent - and still has some way to run.

It's well known that the United States exports billions of dollars' worth of arms and ammunition to its allies. What isn't as widely understood is that many of the guns it supplies to 'partner forces' fighting wars in the Middle East - particularly to rebels in Syria - are Soviet-style munitions such as RPGs and Kalashnikovs which are obtained from manufacturers in Bulgaria, Serbia and other Eastern European countries. There are many reasons for this, of which the most obvious are that fighters in the region have long been familiar with these types of weapons and would rather use them than anything else, and they are relatively easy to obtain. Another reason is that providing guns which can't easily be traced back to the US puts a politically convenient degree of separation between the US and those to whom the arms go - even when the supplies have been sanctioned at the highest level. Nevertheless, the process still necessarily involves complicated procurement and supply routes, and a less than diligent application of the 'rules' that are theoretically supposed to constrain the international sale and movement of guns into such a volatile environment - embargos, sanctions, 'end-user' certification and so on. It often requires officials to turn a blind eye to less than satisfactory paperwork, the use of private contractors to act as cut-outs and trainers, and middlemen and dead-of-night cargo flights to and from strange, out-of-the-way places. Meanwhile, a host of other players, from Russia, to Turkey, to Saudi Arabia and Iran are all doing variants of the same thing: providing deadly weapons to their own proxies, which in the Syrian conflict alone has contributed to a death toll of around 500,000, the vast majority of whom are civilians. It's also inevitable, in this murky world of shifting alliances and often hidden deals with irregular militias on an ever-fluctuating battleground, that some of these arms do not always end

The United states's constitutionally enshrined love-affair with firearms has given it the highest levels of private gun ownership in the world, a truly staggering rate of gun related deaths (from high profile 'mass killings' to more routine daily homicides) and a hugely powerful and wealthy arms industry dedicated to preserving the status quo. Following the latest appalling calamity last month, when 17 people were slaughtered at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the pro and anti-gun lobbies have been engaging in a now familiar debate about the extent to which US gun laws should be tightened up - with the notoriously pro-gun President Donald Trump pledging, somewhat unconvincingly, to stop such carnage happening in the future. But it isn't just the US that's felt the effects of this gun epidemic. South of the border in Mexico, American-sourced weapons have been playing a deadly role in that country's drug cartel wars for well over a decade. The violence and chaos fuelled by these smuggled firearms is so widespread and devastating that it's been a significant motivating factor in the desire of many in that country to flee to the north. Of course, it won't be lost on anyone with an appreciation of painful ironies that this kind of desperate migration is precisely why President Trump wants to build a wall along the frontier between the two nations. It seems that it's ok for deadly munitions to travel one way but not for the prospective victims of those munitions to go the other. So how exactly do these weapons get trafficked across the border and why is the US government doing so little to stop the flow For the second of our two special reports on America's guns, we sent correspondent Juliana Ruhfus and filmmaker Karim Shah to investigate.

Last month South African President Jacob Zuma was forced from office by his own party, the African National Congress, when almost a decade's worth of corruption, bribery and racketeering allegations finally became too great to ignore. It is possible that within weeks he could appear in court to face charges relating to at least one of the many financial intrigues from his years in power. As anyone following this story will know, his most infamous former associates, the billionaire Gupta brothers, are now fugitives from justice amid claims that during the Zuma years they systemically looted state assets on a truly astonishing scale - principally by using their friendship with the then-president to influence political appointments and win lucrative government contracts. They are believed to have fled the country and taken refuge in Dubai, where they own property. But the former president and his state-capturing confrères aren't the only ones under scrutiny in South Africa these days. We've been to examine the role allegedly played by major international companies in scandals so toxic and far reaching, they look set to haunt the country for years to come.

Afghanistan: The General Last year, US President Donald Trump announced a 'new' strategy for his country's forces in Afghanistan. The plan involved reversing his predecessor's phased withdrawal, bumping up the number of US troops to as many as 15,000, and giving new authority to US commanders to strike the Taliban in an effort to force the group to eventually negotiate a truce with the Afghan government. But almost 17 years since the original US-led invasion, there are no signs that this approach is proving any more successful than those that have gone before it. Indeed, a string of brutal attacks over the past few months, killing and injuring hundreds of innocent Afghans, have shown the stark reality of the fragile and worsening state of security in Afghanistan. It's made even worse by the increasingly bloody contribution of Daesh (or ISIS-K as it's known locally) to the fray. General John Nicholson is the man charged with implementing Trump's strategy. He is the 'Four Star' controlling Resolute Support and counter-terrorism in the region, and after his appeals to the US Senate for more troops, fresh boots on the ground began arriving in 2017. But under his watch the general has also seen an emboldened insurgency take control of large parts of the country and launch attacks seemingly at will. People & Power sent correspondent Sue Turton to meet the general now in overall charge of foreign forces in Afghanistan to ask whether and how this bloody and interminable conflict can ever be brought to an end.

People & Power investigates disturbing claims that New Zealand’s rivers and lakes are among the most polluted in the developed world

For over three years, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) controlled and terrorised large swaths of northern Iraq. Then, after it was militarily defeated and largely driven out by the Iraqi army and international forces in late 2017, local militias took over short term responsibility for law and order in some of the areas ISIL had relinquished. They began searching for fugitives, meting out an uncompromising form of justice on captured enemy fighters and their alleged civilian collaborators who came into their hands. One of the most reputedly vengeful of those militias operated in the strategically important Shirqat district, which lies between the cities of Tikrit and Mosul. Unusually, its commander was a 40-year-old woman, Wahida Mohamed al-Jumaily, who's also known as Um Hanadi. She and her 80-man force had played a key role in driving ISIL out of the area and had since shown their utter determination to keep it that way. Both intrigued and disturbed by some of the stories about Wahida's ferocity that were circulating on the internet, Dutch journalist Tom Kleijn went to meet her.

More than 600,000 migrants have arrived by boat in southern Italy over the past four years - seeking sanctuary from war, persecution and extreme poverty across the Mediterranean.

Desperate for a better life, be it relief from war and persecution or simply an escape from grinding poverty and lack of opportunity, huge numbers of people from the Middle East and Africa have sought refuge in Europe in recent years - around 1.8 million of them since 2014. Sometimes their dreams of sanctuary and welcome are realised; they make it to the continent, are granted leave to stay and, with help, begin the slow and difficult process of establishing a place for themselves. And sometimes it all goes terribly wrong; the dangers, setbacks and obstacles on the journey are simply too great to overcome and they are forced to give up or turn back, or the reception they get on arrival is so hostile and unforgiving that eventually they are deported or disenchantment drives them home. In the first of two consecutive episodes exploring these contrasting experiences, People & Power has been to the small affluent city of Detmold, in north western Germany, the European country which under the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, has taken in more refugees and migrants than any other and which, through generous state-funded welfare provision and language and job training, has sought to make a success of integration. Although this process is by no means universally popular across Germany - anti-migrant sentiment found in other parts of Europe is increasingly being echoed here too - in Detmold, at least, where the openheartedness of the local population is making a crucial difference, it appears to be working.

Prior to his election as Prime Minister of Pakistan in July 2018, Imran Khan was accused by his rivals of being strong on rhetoric and short on genuine policies or answers to the country’s many problems. His response was to promise that in its first three months in power his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) would be transformational. It would take steps to clean up the police and judiciary, end political corruption and ensure fairness and justice for all. It would reverse the fiscal mismanagement of previous administrations, bring inflation under control and revitalise the ailing Pakistani economy with a job creation scheme designed to provide new employment for 10 million people. At the same time a bold programme to build five million new homes would also get underway. Pakistan would also reset troubled relations with India and the US, embellish friendships with China and Saudi Arabia and, crucially, break its addiction to hand-outs from the West. No longer would this proud nation have to go begging to the IMF for funds; instead Khan’s government would recoup billions of dollars hidden from the taxman abroad… There was much else besides and his supporters lapped it all up, but in reality, as the former cricketing superstar turned politician surely knew, delivering on such ambitious campaign pledges once in office was always going to be harder than it looked. Many complex fault lines run through Pakistani society and it would be challenging dealing with the dynastic political and military elites who have long kept a stranglehold on the country’s affairs. So what progress is he making We asked Pakistani journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi to weigh up the successes and failures of Imran Khan’s first 100 days in office.