I woll and this is for my call up pride Beijing all pro police rally people who have slogans saying they're supporting the police there are many people joining this rally who are from the mainland they're coming carrying their banners and yes their message will be the police have done the right thing in cracking down on the protesters but there will be a very different message today at the pro democracy rally on the other side of the harbor the Russian military says it's making progress in its fight against the wildfires sweeping across vast areas of Siberia it says planes and helicopters dumping water over the past 2 days have slowed the advance of the flames in the it could get and cross new Jaska regions Steve Rosenberg is there so far this is been a summer of help for Siberia it suffered major flooding and forest fires a state of emergency has been declared in large parts of the region President Putin has sent in the army to help extinguish the blazes military planes can drop 40 tons of water in a single run many of the fires are in remote sparsely inhabited areas but clouds of smoke have spread to towns and cities environmental groups are warning that harmful emissions from burning Siberian forests could speed up global warming United States has confirmed new sanctions against Russia over the poisoning of the former double agents against group power and his daughter in Britain last year Washington said it would oppose any lending to Russia by the i.m.f. And the World Bank and put limits on u.s. Banks financing Russian sovereign debt you're listening to the world news from the b.b.c. . Negotiators from the United States and the Taliban and meeting for a new round of talks in Cata in a face being described as crucial for peace at the militant insistence the Afghan government is absent ahead of his 8 round the u.s. Envoys on my heels that tweeted that the Taliban was signaling they would like an agreement a new governor has been sworn into office in Puerto Rico despite concerns that his appointment may not be constitutional Pedro p.l.u. E.c. Is the hand-picked successor of Ricardo resale you will grant reports of the being sworn in Mr pm we see himself said that he must be confirmed by both Puerto Rico's House and Senate so far only the House has approved his nomination Meanwhile most Puerto Ricans are watching developments carefully and many are prepared to return to the streets if someone they consider to be compromised or unsuitable is imposed on them Mr Rosello was forced to announce his resignation last month following a scandal Eva leaked phone chats with his inner circle there was already deep seated anger at his administration Everett's corrupt and mismanaged handling of Hurricane Maria in 2017 engineers in northern England has spent the night pumping thousands of gallons of water from a reservoir which is threatening to burst through a dam and flood a town beneath it the water level needs to drop by meters so far only a fraction has been drained residents of the town Wally bridge she were moved out on Thursday being allowed back to their homes to retrieve essentials. The Argentina Captain Lion-El Messi has been banned from international football for 3 months after describing the Copa America ask corrupt the Barcelona forward was sent off in Argentina's 21 3rd place playoff win over Chile he later said that the cup was fixed for Brazil the 32 year old has also been fined $50000.00 b.b.c. News. Hello I'm Charles Havilland and welcome back to the world this week. That's the sound of a South Korean man standing on the roof of his car in a busy street angrily smashing the vehicles roof the car is Japanese made and he's venting frustration against Japan for its recent tightening of controls on what Japanese products South Korea can import on Friday this culminated in Japan saying it would remove South Korea from a list of trusted trade partners it'll not be much harder for South Korean people and businesses to get hold of key Japanese products and components Tokyo says the move to a purely bureaucratic but Seoul says the crisis has its roots more than a century ago as Laura Becker in the South Korean capital explained decades of distrust has kind of led to this moment so in 1900 Jack occupied Korea as it was at that time one country and it's attained it's never really be in forgotten and certainly not forgiven because they say he hadn't saved Korea that they were subject to a number of atrocities I've been to present where anyone who forced to stay and they were crushed they were put in prison in small rains hundreds of them and then when it came to both world wars there are a number of people tens of the people here who claim that they were forced to work for Japanese companies jury and the war was especially in World War 2 Of not tens of thousands of claimants have come forward to say they were forced labor movement in Japanese steel works in coal mines all these wars were supposed to be put aside after Japan and South Korea normalized relations in 1965 they signed a treaty but just last year still Supreme Court ruled that those who were forced into labor were Jew compensation a huge I. Cry from Japan followed the Japanese companies have said that they will not pay and certainly the claimants here say that they'll continue to fight this according to Seoul is the reason why and is currently retaliating with these trade carbs Japan denies this at they say that this is about an issue of national security that has nothing to do with historical differences but so definitely believes that this is in retaliation now here in South Korea it's got to be said always bubbling under the surface you know you can mention North Korea you can mention China but the one country they guarantees to get under a sales creates can is if you mention Japan you can see them bristle with rage because it's the one thing that really angers a safe created because they failed they were treated badly so we're seeing protests now spring up right across this country including what you've just heard a man destroying his own car with people rewarding you with here costs or there's one report saying that people are offering you free classic surgery if you cancel your holiday to Japan there are reports that beer sales are down 60 percent so the country the people of South Korea have decided to mobilize and boycott Japanese gets after these trade curbs and in practical terms what will removal from Japan's so-called white list mean in practice it does mean that for instance here in South Korea where 90 percent of all the trips all the safety conductors that go into your smartphones all the things that make up your display screens on your telly all of those things 90 percent of the kind of chemicals and components that they need here in South Korea for the tech industry comes from Japan so now they're going to have to wait an extra 90 days for each of these supplies because the going to have to apply. For them also what it means is that you can ace any certain time can say nope you're not having that certain substance that certain item because it's a threat to national security so it allowed used to control its exports to save Korea but the n pact globally could mean in certain late night American companies have written to sites command saying look please queue Easy's tension because there's worry that it could affect global tech supplies not just supplies here in South Korea can South Korea retaliate in any way tone or they have so Korea has stripped Japan from its white list and now they are reviewing kind of military information sharing agreement now this is the kind of security aspect of it remember we're here South Korea has on their doorstep North Korea and of course they do a lot of investigation into what might be happening in North Korea that information is shared with a number of countries within the is upset and also with the United States may soul is now reviewing whether an all out it will include Japan in this information sharing agreement that decision will be made within the next few weeks Laura because in Seoul as of Friday afternoon Syrian government Asterix came to a halt over the one remaining big holdout of rebel forces it live in the Northwest Damascus had announced a cease fire after 3 months ferociously bombarding the province with Russian support markets schools and clinics have been shelled water and electricity supplies decimated causing ever more death and displacement earlier in the week the UN's humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock spoke to the Security Council about satellite photos of one town in it live coverage. What you see is a level of destruction consistent with a bombing campaign aimed at a scorched earth policy almost every building destroyed in a 3 month period. Such satellite imagery has shown 17 entire villages almost completely destroyed and empty the government says the it live truce will continue if the rebels comply with an earlier deal to create a demilitarized buffer zone I asked our Arab affairs analyst Alan Johnston how it came to be in this desperate situation the big picture is the for quite a while now President Assad and the Syrian government have been winning the Syrian civil war we've watched the government forces overrun one rebel stronghold after another around the country and very often what would happen at the end of the great battle those most hardened committed opponents of the government would refuse to surrender but would be allowed to escape the battlefield and head north and they would always go to the province of Idlib in the north west at the same time huge numbers of civilians have been determined to live beyond the control of the government flee the government in many cases been going to to see you now have a situation where you have tens of thousands of fighters in among a population that swelled into the size of something around 3000000 and of those $3000000.00 perhaps a 3rd will be children or very young people and they are now in a very vulnerable situation indeed So who are fighting forces exactly there is the National Liberation Front or more moderate fighters perhaps and they're supported by Turkey which is always opposed the governments in Damascus through the war but more importantly more significantly about 80 percent of it live is run by the how the forces the Tarea faction includes fighters that used to be linked to al-Qaeda and there's not. The grid which is widely believed to be linked to al Qaeda now and as I say that you have these are the most important factor among the fighting groups they are of course confronting on the ground Syrian government forces and in the air you get a combination of the Syrian Air Force and the Russian air force and interesting Lee over the past more than 3 months now fighting the government's eyes actually made very little progress on the ground may in part be because in this particular fight they haven't been joined by forces backed by their Iranian allies forces like the Lebanese Hezbollah which has been very effective in other battles but they are confronting very determined fighters who are well armed those fighters need live have nowhere to run to this may very well be their last stand is the West holding back from getting involved partly because the dominant strain among the fighters are jihadi as well the likes of the British the French the Europeans the Americans would have absolutely no affection for the likes of those fighters the Jihadi is who have been linked to Al Qaida quite the opposite of course and the Russians would say that when they come under pressure to stop their assault on the jihad is they would say that the West is effectively backing these jihadi groups but at the same time as the West looks on there is genuine humanitarian concern for what's happening in his live reports are absolutely appalling these tens of thousands of Japanese are in among a vast civilian population which is extraordinarily vulnerable and in purely pragmatic terms at least the West doesn't want to see huge numbers of civilians pushed further north perhaps then. Crossing the Turkish border the Turks are very opposed to that happening but if there was a great exodus of civilians from adlib you may well see many more Syrians trying to reach Europe and of course the Europeans don't want much of that Alan Johnston. Soldiers fired their Kalashnikovs they beat people to the ground with batons and fires blaze as rioters flee the advancing tanks with muti handheld camera work and menacing music this is the slick propaganda video that was put out on Thursday by the Hong Kong garrison of the Chinese army the army hasn't been deployed yet but the video appears to be a harsh warning to the Hong Kong protest movement which for weeks has been staging marches against a controversial extradition Bill these have evolved into full blown marches for democracy the b.b.c. Celia Hatton is in Beijing the video definitely shows a change in tone from previous videos that have been put out by the same garrison in Hong Kong so earlier videos would show soldiers smiling and being patted on the back by Hong Kong residences and basically the message in the past has always been hey we're here but we come in peace we're just here just to look out for any kind of foreign threats threatening Hong Kong this is a very different in tone it's quite aggressive It shows troops in combat it shows troops setting off explosives at certain points you can see soldiers leading away individuals who have obviously been arrested so really I think essentially it's meant to say threaten protestors in Hong Kong and to show that the gloves are are basically ready to come off at any time while the protests in recent days have appeared to be getting a. It's more violent than past protests is there a fear that things could spiral there's been a fear for quite some time I mean this fear erupted back in 2014 during comparatively peaceful approach of ocracy protests the so-called umbrella protest back in 2014 so this is something that has long been feared you know every time the garrison expands its territory in Hong Kong this fear is voice but I think what's a fuelling these fears is the fact that the government in Beijing is refusing to directly call them concerns that the military could sweep in so twice in the past week the government has faced direct questions 1st at the Ministry of Defense press conference and then again at a very unusual press conference held by the Hong Kong affairs office in Beijing both times they were directly asked will the government use force to stop the protests and both times they gave a very vague answer saying just look up the relevant law well the relevant law is Article 14 of the Hong Kong basic law which says that yes the Chinese military can go in to support it says the Hong Kong police in times of natural disaster or social or unrest and clearly we're getting towards a period of repeated social unrest every weekend depending on how you define it and so the fact that the government is refusing to directly rule out military intervention and on top of that now we have the military itself releasing quite aggressive dramatic videos showing troops preparing for combat the message I think that they really want to say even though they're not saying it directly is that yes they're ready and willing if need be silly happen in Beijing you're listening to the world this week the program that tells you what happened in the past 7 days and why it counts coming up why Ethiopia is on a mind boggling drive to plant trees is it realistic. This is our city had a chance of defiance last weekend from Russians at a mass protest demanding free and fair elections the crowds were forcibly dispersed by police who detained hundreds but the Moscow demonstrations got no mention a toll on state television that night it concentrated instead on President Putin in a full man of action mode traveling to the bottom of the sea with a look at another week of almost surreal contrasts in Russia here's our Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg before I talk about the we can Russia I'd like to tell you about my favorite Salvi at film it's a comedy about a man who goes abroad on a cruise but breaks his arm and returns with stolen diamonds hidden by Jewel thieves in his plaster cast back home the administrator of his apartment block instructs the traveler to give a lecture to local residents about his trip the subject I want you to speak on she says is this New York is a city of contrasts but I didn't go to New York he replies I went to Istanbul Oh right then she says is Stamboul is a city of contrasts recent events in Russia have reminded me of this iconic movie catchphrase about contrasts I think that if I was giving a lecture this week the title I choose would be Russia is a country of contrasts that's because this week we saw 2 very different rushes there was the Russia portrayed on Russian state television the superpower Russia led by its action man President last Saturday t.v. News bulletins here lead with images of the Kremlin's answer to Indiana Jones l'Avenir Putin climbing into a submersible and diving to the bottom of the Baltic Sea to inspect a sunken subnets submarine. And then there was another Russia one not featured back night on state t.v. a Russia riven by domestic conflict and confrontation the same day that President Putin dived to the bottom of the sea back in Moscow white police were busy breaking up a pro-democracy demonstration they detained more than 1300 protesters who taken to the streets to demand honest elections to voice their anger that several opposition candidates have been excluded from September's Moscow's city elections next day President Putin was t.v. Top story once again this time he was inside Petersburg observing the annual Navy Day Parade on the knee of a river as warships and submarines sailed past the message was clear Russia is a strong powerful confidence country in Moscow though rather different events were unfolding though not on state television the country's most prominent opposition activist Alex aim the Viney who's currently serving a 30 day sentence for calling protesters onto the streets was rushed from jail to hospital after suffering an acute allergic reaction but toward his medical team fears that Mr Vine they may have been poisoned there's been no confirmation that he was and within a day his condition had improved and he was sent back to jail still the question of what it cost his face to swell and the rashes on his body that remains a mystery I often see 2 different rushes when I read the newspapers here not so long ago the Russian government paper trumpeted that Russia's military would soon be receiving a whacking one and a half trillion rubles to spend on new weapons. The same day other Russian papers reporting that wages are falling taxes are rising and the price of sausage is about to jump by 30 percent. You know in recent years Russia has gained the reputation of a global player with great power and influence a country that feels confident enough to meddle in u.s. Elections to launch cyberattacks an information war against the West to intervene militarily in neighboring states like Ukraine and yet the detention of protesters in Moscow the recent wave of police searches and the arrest of opposition figures all of that suggests weakness fear on the part of those in power in Russia today a sense of vulnerability Russia a country of contrasts which brings me back to my favorite Soviet film about the travel and the hidden diamonds are 2 things to add about the movie not only was it hilarious but you just knew there was going to be a happy end and so there was the police caught the jewel thieves and everyone else lived happily ever after. Sadly the real world can be very different from the world of cinema and in today's Russia there is no guarantee of a happy end Steve Rosenberg in Moscow now you can't accuse him of lacking ambition be Ahmed the still relatively new prime minister of one of Africa's poorest and most populous countries Ethiopia says he wants the nation to plant an almost unbelievable 4000000000 trees by October to help combat climate change and deforestation Mr Robbie rarely misses a chance to roll up his sleeves and get planting himself last Monday was devoted to an especially big push in the evening the innovation minister to eat is that more than 350000000 trees have been planted that day alone I asked our Africa analyst Will Ross how plausible this claim was well it certainly sounds like an extraordinary claim that so many trees have been planted in a single day it's clearly something that the Orthorexic is have been working on for some time and rolling it out across the regions getting all kinds of organizations involved telling people this is how many trees we want you to plant but since Monday I think more and more people are starting to look at that figure and say Is that really feasible and I've also heard from a member of an organization who told me that they simply were told you just text your number back to the central office of how many you've planted and they simply doubled the number to try and keep the author orators happy plenty of room for skepticism over the figures then but looking more positively does this not show that Abbie Ahmed is a prime minister who wants to walk the talk and has a vision and is perhaps different from some of his neighbors Well certainly this goal of greening the country is a very positive one and one which is badly needed you know you look at what's going on in Ethiopia and. Decades increasingly severe droughts and when you look at the forest cover that has been lost I mean the figures vary hugely but certainly the u.n. Has said that over the last century or so it's gone from roughly 35 percent of the country being covered in forest or trees to just over 4 percent So an alarming change there and in a country with such a massive population $100000000.00 people growing so fast there is always this pressure on the land not only from farmers but when there is rain and the trees are gone you know you're going to get more soil erosion you're going to get more flooding etc So it's definitely something that's needed and I think the prime minister in this case you know people will say yes he's promised to do something and he's gone for it rather than making a promise or moving on another election comes in a lot along and you make another promise there are others on the other hand who say look the country is at such a critical point now there's been this dynamic change on the political scene with the whole political landscape changing under this prime minister and that has exposed some of the ethnic tensions because it was really under lockdown under a one party state as it were before now the ethnic divisions of come up he's got some huge problems to deal with in terms of these ethnic riffs and displacement and clashes between people so it's quite convenient to focus on a very positive program like this because you come out of it you know with a badge next to your name as it were will Russ and that's it for the world this week for now if you've got any thoughts on what we've done or on what you'd like us to do please contact us at b.b.c. World service via Facebook or Twitter and don't forget to join Sean Les at the same time next week for a look back at what's happened in the next 7 days. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the United States is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio contact. Creating meaningful experiences and fostering conversations. American Public Media with support from home advisors helping homeowners find local pros for their home projects homeowners can get matched pros read reviews and check cost guide at Home Advisor dot com. This week sculptural front 9 What role do the arts play in hometowns protest movements do you hear people sing from Les Miserables has pretty much become the protos anthem and if in music that is giving them a way to release the emotion it's also a way for shifting the solos reacting fear to direct a belief so I on all its on the Hong Kong protests on this week's cultural front line after the latest b.b.c. Nice. B.b.c. News with Debbie rests 2 rival demonstrations are getting underway in Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are preparing for another mass rally despite warnings from the Chinese government against an rest Meanwhile attending a rally in support of the tariff freeze police force which has been accused of brutality in handling the demonstrations. The Russian authorities say they've succeeded in slowing the wildfires raging in Siberia almost 40000 square kilometers have been affected and smoke from the blazes has drifted to Alaska and Canada environmentalist say the situation is an ecological catastrophe and could speed up global warming Russian opposition activists are planning to hold another demonstration in Moscow to protest against the exclusion of candidates from local elections and we get more than a 1000 people were arrested at a similar rally Sudan's military rule isn't the main opposition group have agreed a deal that should open the way for civilian government the constitutional declaration follows lengthy talks no details have been made public but the announcement in the early hours of Saturday swapped of celebrations in the capital Khartoum Washington has confirmed new sanctions against Russia over the poisoning last year of a former double agent and his daughter in Britain Moscow says it wasn't responsible for the nerve gas attack on Sergei and Juliet script pile talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban are taking place in Cata the u.s. Envoy at the talks has suggested the militants may be ready to sign a peace deal but they're refusing to talk to the Afghan government. What is underway in Britain to stop a reservoir dam bursting and flooding the town of Wally bridge huge quantities of water have been pumped out of the reservoir hot water levels have dropped only by a fraction of what's needed the town was evacuated on Thursday and as the latest world news from the b.b.c. . Thousands marching on the streets of violent clashes between protesters and police sit in the tear ports and shutdowns of train stations. These are just some of the events that have taken place in home calm over the past 2 months as it's become consumed by pro-democracy protests me I'm seeing a daily am delisting to the program that explores the world we live in through the work and the voices of artists Welcome to the cultural front line now to date we ask how the art shape protests and how protests can shape beyond it's in Sudan the filmmaker had huge Kuka tells the stories of the murals that have become part of the iconography of a nation cooling for democracy there is a gallery that started happening throughout the city and the gallery it reminded me we are the talks about a restoration are that shows us our martyrs in our year. We explore arts at a time of protest on this week's cultural from. 5 years ago as pro-democracy protests took over central Hong Kong the simple image of an umbrella came to symbolize a generation of Hong Kong is confident enough to challenge their government and cool for greater democracy then it was called the umbrella movement well this summer have returned to the streets of Hong Kong in their thousands as protesters have marched in opposition to a controversial government bill that proposed to make it easier to extradite people from Hong Kong to China. At present whilst Hong Kong is part of China it does have some autonomy and in particular its own distinct legal system under the One Country 2 Systems. Style of government that was agreed at the end of British rule in 1997 China has condemned the protests say may cause serious damage to the rule of law and the protesters have continued to call for the withdrawal of the extradition bill and the resignation of the politician responsible for its home Congress leader Kerry Lamb It's a protest that's not just express 3 marching on the streets but to see public areas adorned with colorful art filled Lennon walls named after tributes to the famous musician we wanted to find out what influence the arts are having on this protest movement so I spoke to the actor and theater director Billy side the Lennon war actually started back in 2014 when the umbrella movement started since the protests in June the land war started again it's been spreading all around or districts in Hong Kong these Lenin walls Yes what do they look like describe them where are they outside the government central office is very colorful I think everyone will know what post it looks like so it's a very colorful highlight of Kerry highlighted color and I think yellow is just like a big car larch of artwork if you look closely you can see so many different individual messages to give positive encouragement to the people in Hong Kong the very striking to look at yes they are and are more they covering these posted nights what sort of spaces is been spreading around or districts in Hong Kong there are areas that used to be just a tunnel a subway for pedestrian 2 to walk through the street but then it has become the Lenin tunnel if you're standing in the tunnel you can see 2 sighs full of color highlighted post it's you know and then there are words and they're very colorful and also some drawings. Occasionally and a lot of time you would see the slogan that's been created throughout the process one of the drawings and one of the some of the slogans the most common one is. That means Hong Kong at oil at oil is a homegrown English expression that could roughly translated at fiu up or keep going really working yes is the mood been amongst Hong Kong's producers and directors while all of this has been going on like this summer is very hard very difficult all these shows that are happening in Hong Kong or just finished in Hong Kong was not intended to response to what happening in Hong Kong in an immediate way I know that plays like comedies are very hot and either the people who are in the play it's very difficult for them to do some to perform and also a lot of shows are not selling well we understand because it's very saddening what's happening in Hong Kong is very saddening However I think art is just a medium for people to reflect and there's always space for people to process about humanity and the beauty and hope of life there are quite a few shows that actually echoes on what's happening on quite well one of them is the maid May 35 by as the storm May 35 is a play and it is a story of a woman who wants to hold a vigil for his son killed by the People's Liberation Army trooper in tandem and square during the student led protests in 1989 but instead of focusing on the incident can do is concentrate the place on the families of the victims who suffers continuously to this day why was it called my 35 because you cannot say the 4th of June expression in China in social media. It would be censored so we use May $35.00 as a way to refer to that date plex the date of what happened in Tiananmen Square Yes the 4th of June yes the 1st round was actually in June I personally know the actors who act in there and I also know Candice and the feedback I got from them is fascinating in a way that in the 1st run a lot of people thought that it was just a memorial but in July when they do it they see a much wider Backstrom of what this play could tell the you know long protests which happened on the 21st of July where Morse and Fox beat up people in the train station in your long with no police around was just 2 days before they move into theater even the you're in a show you just cannot keep your minds are away from all these incidents you just spend all the time keep looking at the news so they have a very complex emotions and feelings and also on 27th of July it was the last performance of May 35 that's where the tear gas happened in Show one and at the same time there was an order violence incident between the police and the citizens so while this violence yet taking place outside the protests were going on yes this play was still taking place against the formed inside yes at the same time I've been communicating very closely to the people who are in the show they sat that no matter they as actor acting on stage or the audience seeing it was very different this time around in July they so actually saw the audience participation in the show because the show focus on family and very often when people look at the tenement incident they thought about the event itself by the usually. Nor the period of time that happened before the massacre which was a student that protest and there were standing ovations and there were people shout Hong-Kong at oil so they could feel that the standing ovation and everything and all the applause was more than just about the show is about the current situation in Hong Kong we are speaking ahead of the protests in the 1st weekend of August yet how protesters expressing themselves artistically and culturally there are already organizations and groups into theatre industry saying that they might use performance of ways to express themselves in public spaces so far yes what songs of They've been singing the images are they using do you hear people saying they're from the miserables has pretty much become the protests and. I think it's the lyrics that really resonate of people's heart and also Les Miserables as it is a really famous musical and a lot of people would know that song and I think music has got this powerful influence on people's is giving them a way to release the emotion it is also a way for soothing their souls What role do you think arts comply in home come during this time of political instability I think theater Xscape So if you like or a safe space for people to sit in and process and digest and to SUV the so and to reflect upon themselves and what's happening in the society because it's been a very long battle a lot of people are very bottom up with a lot of frustrations and anger and thoughts we only space to digest and to fit in the access and theater director Billy said I Well. Processes staged a sit in at Sudan's military headquarters in Khartoum earlier this year iconic images and brightly colored murals began to appear all over the city they became the visual backdrop to historic protests inspiring a movement that would continue for 50 days and lead to the ousting of Saddam's then all floors hereon leader President Bashir. But you know early June the city in was forcibly dismantled and deadly clashes with the military led to a massacre of protestors and the eradication of the art 2 artists that witnessed those moments with the Sudanese activist and filmmaker juge Kuka who you may remember spoke to the cultural front line from the city in back in May and it may have some he painted some of the murals that run display in Khartoum they share their memories of what happened 1st to juge when the massacre happened I was in this event and I was caught by the rappers once horses and basically I was surrounded by 30 of them I have long dreads and my foot was broken so I was in a cast so they were just screaming and ended up beating me up and what's he done and blood flow throughout all of my head fell on the ground and at that moment they start my by and they were actually initially off let me go and when I moved they just let me go but it wasn't even easy after that it was a long adventure Jackie to get out of the sit in and eventually find a hospital to get stitched up on June 3rd the day of the massacre that tacking forces one of the things they did was actually burn the tents and some of them removed it anything that resembles that we were there so part of that moving was they had some paint so they actually ate it over some of the paintings and in the beginning it was very specific to the area they were. Close to their headquarters are we surprised by the area and we still notice that others if you there are some areas that are not painted over there are some walls that were part of the heart on university and those still exist but they have today they are painting a word another $11.00 of the things we really want is to be able to go back to that area to be able to hang out again and to be able to we capture our sense of being and the thing that still is remaining the only thing that's remaining are the murals and there's already talk about turning that area into an artistic revolutionary memorial's space where people can go periods than yours that are left but also have more and give the artists come back and revive but it's a lot of people think that the best moments of Sudan and they were the mission where the 50 something they are the city the visual art in Khartoum started right before this it did it well it's the artist's writings and whatnot things that don't take time to create a quake because you're scared national security forces will catch you and then in the citizen suddenly all these artists came professional artists a lot of them didn't have a chance to be public because they be visual artists of Sudan you don't really have a lot of you don't have a museum you have spaces people don't go to galleries and suddenly they started drawing and then we suddenly seeing all this amazing art on the walls art ranging from very specific murals that talk about the revolution to our the distance about freedom to abstract art there was a gallery that started happening throughout the city and the gallery was inspired call of us it reminded us being feet are the talks about the them about women's rights about sexual right are the talks about a restoration. Our that shows us our martyrs in our year when I think about visual art from fiction the one that comes to my mind 1st and the one that stayed with me the most with this wind next to a place called the tree by many where the. Visual artist stayed and it said. Which is the extend of freedom it was this abstract piece that had vivid colors that blended with the walls and it had this way that I can feel and it was this huge mural reminder of. The reminder of it all the time and just having a smile every time it feels right inside was also the hospital makeshift clinics that were just outraged when the sit in what man told it was an image that we kept seeing when people were taken inside there was like a place of extreme freedom but it was also too full. My name is my husband who met us man. Our teacher in Khartoum I think art has played a huge role the most important role in this revolution the art I used to express myself is the mural paintings painting on the walls the graffiti drawing the conductors the conductor by the way is the Sudanese Queen it's the I can off one of the revolution now the art has inspired this revolution it has played a huge role in spreading it by the big murals that you see in the streets of Khartoum we were visited by ambassadors from different countries it became like a tourist attraction they come to Sudan of the moment they go to the come to hospital and they go to the sitting area and they watch the painters paint and they are questions and now they take pictures of the murals and it's all over the world I saw it now I think it was this great somewhere. Or in France Egypt many places it's not only in Sudan now picture tells a story it's like telling a story of this historical event. That I have was a picture of a woman and a man raising their hands with the fine and it also heard in the background from that shows that we are writing and it had the words freedom peace and the. Find the. Patterns and different patterns from different parts of Sudan. People came together in this revolution those who can paint tried to buy the paint and the brushes and common help and people got together we got artists and so that is a very small community and we all know each other but we got to know people who are an artist they all came together and I think this revolution has brought everybody together not only the artists but everybody within the city and we became a family. The filmmaker and the painter. And you're listening to the cultural frontline on the b.b.c. . The outside. Just in. A country between. Independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 their government wants to form stronger ties with the e.u. With recent process in the capital Tbilisi demonstrating the strength of. Feeling. People there took to the streets after the Russian m.p. Surrogate gavel office appearance in the Georgian parliament where he sat in the Speaker's chair and spoken Russian as he addressed an assembly of M.P.'s demonstrations followed with. Protesters storming parliament buildings and she wanted people what hurt the art so is Nikki Beatty wanted to find out what the protesters will cooling for and how the creative community are responding to what's happening she was joined on stage even Tbilisi by the leading jewel should create including right a dive it could be many hey he was among those protesting it's a huge Russian history but the main thing was that Russian member of parliament there's this outrage this protest started because of that so the protesters people in the street they asked to punish the people who made it possible and some of them were punished like removed from their positions and then what they're protesting against now is that how violently the police and special forces dealt with the protesters and there were people who lost their lives and there were people beaten and and am I right that the records for the interior minister yes yes because he's behind bars Let's talk about the Soviet legacy then and not forgetting that there was a Rousseau Georgian war is recently as exactly 1008 artist in curator Mary I'm not really your interested in using derelict Soviet buildings in your work what's that about like from a childhood or the 1st one of the 1st memories that come to my mind are these buildings that are abandoned or not finished buildings so when we started to work on text based art we started to do it in public spaces in without any permission and we started to choose to find these places like it was mostly the places which don't have the function anymore because after ninety's a lot of factories dormitories and a lot of places were left abandoned all these buildings are kind of the stories for me like the stories that tell of so the past and present of Georgia. Filmmaker was a dental cornea you briefly lived and the Soviet government what are your feelings about that era this was a very evil country it was absolutely you don't have the freedom you don't have any way to express yourself I remember my grandmother who was Deal afraid to make political jokes because every time we were doing some kind of political jokes she wanted to close the windows because she was afraid that something was wrong could happen do you think that was the vets that your needs to be remembered artistically and confronted or should an artist just completely move on I think we really need to remember this and we really need to rethink it because other ways there is no way forward George and filmmaker who sit down to Konya artists Mariamne Ashutosh Billy and writer dive it could be a you can find the entire edition of the Arts our own taught him to see at b.b.c. World Service dot com slash arts hour in the late 1990 s. The Balkans after a decade of conflict was at a crossroads at the University of novice side in Serbia a group of university students came together to start a cultural protest movement with the aim of building a new future one of the group's early cultural events aim to rally the youth vote and get them to the polls so they could break through then President Slobodan Milosevic's grip on power the Vestals name and slogan was exit out of 10 years of madness which was later shortened to exegete nearly 20 years later x. It is now one of the biggest festivals in the world with Sister events across the region in Croatia remain here and Montenegro I spoke to one of their founders discern cover Chave it about exits political past and future. Vend horse and breakup of Yugoslavia Keppen during the ninety's b r fell into all these elation it was a huge poverty and hyperinflation and basically visa was unnecessary to travel anywhere and the young people didn't have money to travel anyway it was a very bad time for the whole original former Yugoslavia What are your personal memories of that time with the conflicts Oh it was a teenager that beginning of the ninety's I already was engaged in to brought this against Milosevic it started in early ninety's when I in the old university in a $96.00 immediately became part of the organizing group of the student brought us the against the regime so we use the music to or manifest the belly on what made you decide to set up the 1st makes it festival storm motivate young people to get activated in the democratic process against the regime of North and also to participate in the elections which was organized on 24th of September of 2000 that takes the oars organize the University Park lasted almost under days and it was consisted of music concerts parties also plays political debates and at 1st it was a more steely culturally oriented toward track down people and also not to be banned by police from the start and then how the summer event dawned and elections were closer we introduced more and more political messages What was that political message at the time that nobody will do it instead of us and that we need to get their self organized to drop their regime and that was it and then that the most efficient way to do it was on elections why was it called Exit festival so basically it was the exit out of facilities. And out of the wars and sanctions and oppression How did it feel when President Milosevic left power so it was one of the best moments of my life that time and my generation Weaver and the krises on their divorce it felt incredible that things will start to get better I remember we were all on the 5th October and the downfall finally happened we were all in front of the National Assembly in Belgrade Actually it was one of the biggest parties that Belgrade ever seen because there were speakers on trucks everywhere it was something economic music playing you could see young people jumping together viewed older person it was evident that he was a farmer from one of the small small Serbian village in big mustaches and he was jumping with sort of being flag together with young people and they acknowledge that he's probably 1st time cord in his life because it was incredible you know the General Assembly was on fire people were raving basically mean lots of its was on the refuge but not the new way for he still has control over the army and police and the firemen and police feel turned down on the people and fight the people and it was their own path of the 1000000 people in front of the assembly and nobody voices were going from there because it was important to stay together if he'd attack the people in the army or police after the loss of its downfall we were thinking what was the next step that they have to do so is it our mission finished coming in mind the very end of ninety's and I call it the lost decade for my generation back then I figured out that we should continue on working and that we should set out the international music festival and international music stars and the try to somehow make up these last decade to. Our generation not just in Serbia but for the whole Balkans do some kind of one of the founders of exit festival that's it for this week's program Remember you can catch up on any episodes you may have missed by going online to b.b.c. Doco to ek slash World Service Radio and searching for us will be a same time next week with more stories of artists changing the world on the way we see it until then good bye. You're listening to Capital Public Radio 90.9. 913 Stockton the best 090.5. And 81 k. Q. And see what's. This is a listener supported public radio station and that's important come in a variety of ways including your old car truck motorcycle boat or s.u.v. Part of the Capital Public Radio vehicle donation program those cars and trucks will be turned into more of your favorite public radio programs and their tax benefits as well. When you visit cap radio dot org slash cars.