refuses to be driven out of donbas by putin's troops. the farmer has built a new life for himself in a small village. the front line is drawing closer with each passing day. many residents in ivanopillya have had their livelihoods completely wiped out. still these ukrainians refuse to give up. reporter: an idyllic scene if it weren't for the frontline not far from here. serhiy svyrydenko came to the village of ivanopillya eight years ago. the entrepreneur fled donetsk, where he ran a retail business. >> what else can you do in a village? i couldn't do nothing. i'm not used to working for others. i'm an entrepreneur. reporter: it wasn't love of nature that drove serhiy's move back to the land. in donetsk, he was known as a ukrainian activist. when pro-russian separatists took power, he had to flee behind ukrainian lines. he learned how to run a farm from the internet. now, the brutality of war has caught up with him again. recently, a bomb landed only a couple hundred meters from his house. >> soldiers were quartered here for a while. they moved in here, then they were attacked. i think there were some nice neighbors who told the enemy about them. reporter: serhiy suspects that some people here secret sympathize with russia. for his part, he makes no secret of his dislike of ukraine's neighbor. he himself spent two years fighting on the front lines, just 15 kilometers from here. in recent years, the situation had remained tense but stable. now, the fear and violence are back. serhiy has already evacuated his wife to western ukraine. >> just imagine this scenario: a shell hits the farm here. i'd have to see to my own safety and that of the animals d then my wife on top of that. you have to understand, it's much less worry this way. it's much easier to take responsibility for yourself than for others. reporter: 15 kilometers away, on the front line, sporadic shooting has been going on here for years. now, shells rain down every day. welcome to new york, population 8000. ethnic german settlers gave it that name in the 19th century. stalin renamed it novgorodskoye, but since last year it's officially called new york again. poet boris bocharov had hoped the name change would bring new energy to the aging industrial town. >> there's no production here anymore. we thought the new name would attract investors to help us. this building was renovated with aid money. there used to be forums and cultural events held there. reporter: now, the cultural center is surrounded by craters. numerous shells have struck the neighborhood. >> the windows are shattered. my roof came off. i sat in the cellar while it happened. reporter: instead of giving readings of his work, bocharov now volunteers to care for the remaining residents, checking in on them and organizing aid. >> every day i'm in the cellar. in fact we've been in our cellars for eight years. reporter: countless houses in town have been destroyed. three quarters of the population have fled. boris bocharov sent his wife to stay with his daughter in western ukraine. >> you see what's happening. reporter: he himself won't consider leaving. >> as they say, hope is the last to die. i'm on the side of ukraine. i believe the news, and i was born here in this town. i hope nothing comes down here. that whistling. otherwise we'll have to hit the ground. reporter: on the farm, serhiy svyrydenko carries on as best he can. he used to send his goat's cheese from the frontline all across the country. but since the fighting increased, mail services have shut down. >> our revenues have dropped by 60%. but the costs have barely changed. reporter: but at least he's been spared the very worst. he has eight employees who show up regularly for work. and the war hasn't stopped the nanny goats from having kids. >> if i were a pessimist, i wouldn't have started a business in a place like this. i won't stay if it gets occupied. but that won't happen. reporter: and if it comes to that, his uniform is still hanging in the closet. lara: not far from ukraine is georgia. the war is weighing on people's minds there too, but in the village of kvashta, residents are also concerned about making ends meet. their incomes rely on a small, delicate plant that is endangered in some other parts of the world. snowdrops grow in abundance in georgia and are among the country's top exports. but who is really profiting from the demand? reporter: delicate signs of spring. snowdrops are among the first flowers signaling the end of a long winter in the caucasus mountains. for many georgians, they're more than just a lovely flower. like many others here, khatuna yakeli makes a living from the bulbs of these early bloomers. >> my job is physically demanding. i wouldn't say that i'm ruining my own health, but i do get tired and my back aches. all day i'm hunched over working with a hoe. but it's something i gladly do for the sake of my two children. reporter: the lesser caucasus is a beautiful, but poor region. the bulbs of the local snowdrop flowers are a welcome source of income for people here. and demand remains high. each year, about 22 million georgian snowdrop bulbs are imported by the netherlands alone, one of the world's largest flower suppliers. elsewhere in europe, the plant is listed as a threatened species. so for georgians it's a balancing act: protecting the largest snowdrop population in the world, while continuing to make a living from it. >> this beautiful flower has been bringing us joy for centuries. our main goal is to preserve and spread its population. one of the most efficient ways is to study and expand the areas where it blooms. that way, we harvest the smallest possible number of bulbs in any given area. this strategy aims at meeting market demand while preserving the flower from extinction. that's very important to us. reporter: mamuli surmanidze is one of only three entrepreneurs in georgia licensed to export snowdrop bulbs to europe. in a warehouse, the bulbs are cleaned and sorted, with the boss himself getting involved. just under a third of the 13 million bulbs he exports each year are wild, coming from the mountains. the rest he sources from local growers. the spring flower business is important to western georgia. unemployment here in the countryside is estimated to be as high as 40%. for many, spring is the only time of year when there's work. >> 20 employees work at the factory. when we're preparing our product for export, we hire them on a temporary basis. we also use the land of several local families, which are usually quite large in this area. and we hire more than five hundred locals to help pick the bulbs. georgia's spring flowers are big business in europe. it's not just the dutch who are crazy about them. in britain, there are flower expos and themed travel packages. 10 years ago, a single plant fetched 860 euros at auction. that's an unimaginable price tag for georgian snowdrop picker khatuna yakeli. in the small village of kvashta, she shares a house with her husband, two daughters and a few other relatives. georgia, a former soviet republic, has been independent since 1991. still, prosperity has eluded most people here. in the mountains, life is modest. to the locals, peace is what matters most. but since the beginning of the russian invasion of ukraine, khatuna fears the worst. >> everything i do, i do for my children. i hope they can get a good education. my husband and i will support them along the way. i want them to live in a prosperous and united georgia. we see what's happening in ukraine. i feel so sorry for all the innocent people being killed and the parents who have lost their children. our children should never have to experience that. sometimes i wonder what will happen if war breaks out in our country as well. what will we do? i pray that we can all continue to live in peace. reporter: at the end of an eight-hour workday on the slopes of the lesser caucasus, khatuna and her family drink to peace and prosperity. the region's small, tender flowers are playing their part in making that wish come true. lara: turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan. those who air their grievances about him in public may find themselves behind bars. that's thanks to an article in turkey's penal code, which criminalizes insulting the president. in practice, it's been wielded against dissidents such as people who criticize the country's political corruption, crackdowns on the free press, or police violence. it's a charge he has been faced with. rapper orkun dk describes his lyrics as funny and satirical. but for the turkish president, orkun's music is no laughing matter. reporter: in his home studio in istanbul rapper orkun dk is recording new songs. despite being in trouble for old ones. >> i enjoy making music. and, yes, in my lyrics i also criticize what i think's going wrong. reporter: this is one of the videos for which the turkish president's lawyers have pressed criminal charges against orkun. to a distorted photo of rece tayyip erdogan he raps, "send me money." there's also some swearing. that's why orkun had to go to court. he was handed down a 14 month suspended jail sentence for insulting the president. "i criticize erdogan by putting words in his mouth. i let him say things that he does. that's criticism, not an insult. and above all, it's funny. but here in turkey everything's now a problem, as though everyone's paranoid. anyone who hears a swear word immediately senses a crime. people should relax, not just the president, but everyone. reporter: orkun is 28 years old. he earns money with his rap songs. orkun isn't a celebrity although he is sometimes recognized on the street. but you don't have to be a celebrity to be accused of insulting the president in turkey. tens of thousands have been hit with the charge in recent years. teenagers and teachers, lawyers and members of the opposition. recently, the arrest of prominent journalist sedef kabash caused public outcry. she had quoted an old proverb on tv. "when an ox enters the palace, he does not become a king. but the palace becomes a barn." the sentence: more than 2 years in jail, suspended. the law criminalizing insulting the president existed long before erdogan. but it was rarely used until he took office. between 2014 and 2020, turkish authorities have investigated more than 160,000 cases. nearly a quarter of them ended up in court. >> the law has definitely been abused. it's been used, you know, it's clear that erdogan's lawyers are combing social media for any mention of the president and, you know, totally arbitrarily opening endless legal proceedings. it's sending a message to the society that you know you will not criticize. this has a chilling effect on everyone. reporter: the president's fellow party members reject the accusation. adem yildirim is deputy head of erdogan's ruling akp in istanbul. he believes the number of insults has increased so much because more and more people are using social media and that the president doesn't have to put up with everything. >> the way we look at our political leaders may be different than elsewhere in europe. we don't disrespect our heads of state. after all, they're elected by the people. you can criticize the president as much as you want, but you cannot insult him. that won't be tolerated. reporter: rapper orkun dk sometimes spends more time with his lawyer than in his music studio. theyave appealed against the prison sentence. >> they couldn't even tell us which part of orkun's songs they considered insulting. we told them to show us, but the prosecutor just replied: the insult is in the lyrics. it's just inappropriate to put anyone in prison because of a song nowadays. reporter: orkun says he doesn't want to be intimidated. >> many young people here in turkey no longer dare to say or write anything critical. they're afraid. but not everyone is. i'm not. i'll continue. but the pressure is increasing, everyone here feels it. reporter: whatever the eventual outcome of his case, orkun will probably rap about it someday. lara: it's hard to believe that this was once so valuable, it could create and destroy empires. in ancient rome, it's said that soldiers were sometimes paid not with coins, but with salt. extracting the high-quality mineral is still back-breaking work in our modern world. but now the island has become -- the profession was at risk of dying out. but now the island has become fertile ground for aspiring salt farmers. reporter: laurent miccoli doesn't get sore muscles anymore. he extracts kilo after kilo of salt out of ponds full of seawater. with his four-meter-long wooden rake, he goes back and forth all day long. >> i'd never done this before. i'd never done manual labor. i have a lot of experience as a researcher. but that's not very physical work. it's nothing like as hard as this. reporter: laurent has traded his desk job in paris for salt-harvesting . a trained biochemist conducting research for the nuclear industry. now, he only works barefoot. i love how everything is constantly changing. even though we keep doing the same thing. but nature is amazing; every day is different. the colors are always changing. reporter: the idea of becoming a salt farmer came to him during the covid lockdown. he set about learning the 800-year-old technique. hugues leprince helps train the next generation of salt farmers for the cooperative. most salt farmers on the island sell their harvest together, through the cooperative. they also conduct training together. hugues currently has two trainees. >> not like that. that's no good. look. it has to be uniform. we train somewhat older people who already have some work experience. i think having experience in other areas helps, because we salt farmers are all our own bosses. isle de re is known for its salt farms. the craft had been at risk of disappearing. but today, there are once again more than a hundred salt farmers on the island. >> we want to pass on our skills, so that the craft lives on. it's pretty easy to get started here. you just have to work hard; but that's obvious. reporter: herv rault was born here and grew up around the salt ponds. for the 39-year-old, the job runs in his blood. his father and grandfather were also salt farmers. >> i personally feel like things are changing with time. there's more precipitation, and the seasons aren't as distinct as they used to be. reporter: herv worries about the future. the salt evaporation ponds are below sea level. if the sea level rises, it will flood not only the ponds, but whole parts of the island. he works part-time for the local government, maintaining dykes. he inspects them all twice a year. i'm protecting the cornerstone of my work, what's important to me. reporter: today, he's out on the eastern side of the island. >> everything's in good shape here. reporter: this dyke was rebuilt just four years ago; much higher than it was before. herv's boss joins him for the inspection. >> we can't leave it like that. reporter: during cyclone xynthia in 2010, everything here flooded. now, the dykes are being raised one by one, to protect the island. >> it was a response to climate change, to protect the next couple of generations until they can rethink things. reporter: the dykes will be done in about six years. laurent is raking his last salt before the sun goes down. that's when his day finishes. >> i'm looking forward to tending my own salt ponds. as a real salt farmer, not just a trainee. reporter: with the progress he's making, that day won't be far away. lara: naples is a city of contrasts, where dilapidated apartment blocks and modern structures stand alongside historic buildings. naples is known for it's bright and dark sides. and that's especially true underground. below the vibrant streets of naples lies a secret world where death is helping to breathe life into a struggling community. reporter: above ground, naples' sanita neighborhood is buzzing with life. but another world opens up to tourists who venture below. these are the catacombs of san gaudioso and san gennaro, a burial place dating back to the 2nd century. miryam cuomo of the la paranza cooperative is a tour guide in this neapolitan underworld. it was only in 2008 that young people like her began clearing the catacombs of garbage and rubble. today, more than one hundred thousand visitors are enchanted by them each year. >> people don't expect this. they think it will be a much more cramped space. but this is a triumph of tufa limestone, a thing of beauty. reporter: underneath the skulls in the walls, the deceased are depicted in artful frescos. the catacombs of san gaudioso were a burial place for the clergy and upper classes in the 17th century. soal status is revealed through garments and tools. the catacombs are an asset to those living above. this part of the old town used to be one of naples' poorest areas suffering from crime, unemployment and the mafia. but tourists have brought change. >> they come for pizza, coffee or something sweet. they're saying good things about our neighborhood now. >> lots of tourists stop to look at all the beautiful things they see walking about. reporter: the catacombs have brought the co-op members work, and a future in their own neighborhood. >> i went back to school, got my degree and learned languages, things i had given up on a long time ago. reporter: to preserve the delicate early christian frescos of san gennaro, they're only illuminated briefly when tourists visit. miriam hopes sanita can be an example for other places. >> we want to export this model and get others excited by the idea. we can create big change from the bottom up. reporter: the sanita neighborhood is proving that drawing on the past can bring positive change for those living in the present. lara: and we'll be turning of the lights here in the studio in a short while, too. that's all from us this week at focus on europe. bye for now. 06/23/22 06/23/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: fronew york, this is democracy now! >> it was midnight when the quake struck. we screamed. one of our rooms was destroyed. our neighbors screamed and we saw everyone's rooms. amy: a massive earthquake hits afghistan, kling morehan 1000eople wi the death tl expected to