The Taliban's Opium War - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Kate Adie introduces stories from Afghanistan, Nigeria, India, Ukraine and Panama.

Opium poppies from Afghanistan have provided the raw materials for the world's heroin trade for decades, with successive governments failing to curtail this illicit crop. Now back in power, the Taliban have decreed a new ban on opium cultivation, sending patrols to destroy crops across the country - often leaving poor farmers with no other means of income. Yogita Limaye joined a patrol in Nangahar province.

When Nigeria's new President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was sworn in at the end of May, he called the occasion 'a sublime moment'. Few people expected any revelations or surprises in his inaugural speech - but when he went off-script, there was a scramble for petrol across the country. Mayeni Jones weighs up the mood as Mr Tinubu took power.

The scale of the recent rail disaster in Orissa state in India was shocking: nearly three hundred people died and more than a thousand more were injured. Amid the chaos of the aftermath, Archana Shukla reported on the human losses, and spoke to many families desperate for news of relatives who'd been travelling that day.

The forcible removal of children from Ukraine to Russia, or Russian-controlled territory, has been a sinister element of Moscow's tactics during the invasion and occupation of the country. Sarah Rainsford has spent months tracing what really happened to these children - and met Ukrainian mothers and grandmothers who ventured into Russian territory to get them back.

One swallow doesn't make a summer - but how many swifts make a spring? Stephen Moss is a passionate naturalist who's travelled around the world to spot some of its most threatened species. On a recent visit to Panama, he was worried to hear that climate change is now affecting the timing of huge seasonal bird and wildlife migrations.

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross

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