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Max Pearson presents reports from Yemen, Brazil, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni city of Taiz has suffered more than most in Yemen's brutal civil war. Situated in the southwest of the country and controlled by government forces, the city has been besieged for years by the Houthi forces who control most of north Yemen. In Taiz, Orla Guerin heard stories of great suffering and fear. But she also discovered a surprising source of solace for some in the city, a clinic offering Botox treatment. People want to feel they’re alive, the doctor who runs it told her.

There was no grand bargain at the regional summit in Brazil last week over the future of the Amazon – but there was a new focus on the people who depend on its rainforests. Katy Watson travelled through the Brazilian state of Pará where the summit was held - to hear from the people who live there the impact of deforestation on them.

As Zimbabwe prepares to hold parliamentary and presidential elections later this month, Charlotte Ashton found an atmosphere of fear and economic despair in the capital Harare - where many people juggle several jobs just to survive, and those that can talk of leaving.

It's two years since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, and freedoms for women and girls in the country have been severely curtailed. A journalist from the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Afghan Service recalls a chance encounter he had near the holy city of Mecca with a senior Taliban official - and the official's answer when he challenged him: when are you going to let Afghan girls go back to school?

Producer: Louise Hidalgo
Editor: Bridget Harney
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman

(Image: A man stands in the ruins of a building, looking out over Taiz. Credit: Goktay Koraltan/³ÉÈËÂÛ̳)