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The looming risk of melting glaciers

Villages in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan prepare for disaster; migrant dreams in Morocco; Australia hardens on youth crime; the imperial history of Bad Ischl in Austria

Pascale Harter introduces correspondents' and writers' stories from the high mountains of Pakistan-administered Gilgit Baltistan, the Moroccan port city of Tangier, Australia's Northern Territory and the spa town of Bad Ischl in Austria.

Living in the shadow of melting mountain glaciers, villages in Pakistan-administered Gilgit Baltistan are facing the most acute effects of global climate change. Experts say some glaciers in this region could lose up to two-thirds of their volume by the end of the century - triggering huge and unpredictable landslides and floods. Caroline Davies has visited communities in the Hunza valley which saw homes destroyed by lake outbursts.

It's only 14 kilometres from the Moroccan city of Tangier across the sea to Spain. That closeness to Europe has made it a magnet for would-be migrants from sub-Saharan Africa - but many of them have got stuck in Morocco as their money or means to travel further ran out. Richard Hamilton met to two men who attempted to cross the Mediterranean and failed - but insist they would try again.

Public and media worry over youth crime in Australia has ramped up in recent years - and political parties have talked tough about it to win over voters. Still, many argue that racial and generational disadvantage have a lot to do with the problem. After the Northern Territory became the latest part of the country to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10-years-old, Katy Watson talked to people on all sides about how to get young offenders on the right path.

In Austria, the small spa town of Bad Ischl carries an outsize historical significance - it's where the last Habsburg Emperor, Franz Josef I, signed the declaration of war on Serbia in 1914 that triggered the First World War. Bad Ischl has increasingly traded on its history – with an annual festival to mark the birthday of the emperor. But as Gareth Jones discovered, in a new era of war in Europe, the question of what people choose to remember is acquiring a new urgency.

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Coordinator: Janet Staples

Photograph: The remains of a house on the edges of Hassanabad village, destroyed after a glacial lake outburst flood (c) Kamil Khan, Â鶹Éç

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23 minutes

Last on

Mon 25 Nov 2024 21:06GMT

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