this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour straight after this programme. chanting say his name! dante wright! what's his name? dante wright! chanting you have to put yourself in difficult and dangerous situations. chanting and when most people would run away, you head towards trouble. footage from remote and hostile places can be our only window into events that are shaping our world.

these are some of the most powerful images of the year, all shot by freelance video journalists. sounds like you worked out that you had to do this to keep going. yeah. each year, we step behind the camera to speak to the men and women who capture and bring us some of the most important news stories of our times, often under extremely difficult circumstances and great personal strain. these freelance video journalists are honoured by the rory peck awards, named after a british freelancer who was killed in moscow covering the october coup in 1993. his memory lives on through the rory peck trust, which works with support freelance journalists and their families worldwide.

first up, the rory peck award for news, for films that capture the immediacy of a story. chanting say his name! dante wright! what's his name? dante wright! shortly before the trial of derek chauvin, the police officer accused of killing the unarmed black man george floyd, katie g nelson and ed ou were assigned by the new york times to cover protests in minnesota. how is it unlawful? it's not unlawful! you're unlawful! the demonstrators were calling for police accountability for dante wright, another unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a brooklyn center police officer during a routine traffic stop. people were really angry that this kept happening across our state and across our

nation, and so they gathered in front of the police station, first with signs and with songs and chanting, and then later in the evenings, things got more challenging, more violent. the police would come out and shoot tear gas into crowds, the crowds would sometimes throw items across the fences towards the police officers, and there was this tit—for—tat going on between the two for the days following daunte wright's death. nelson spent one evening with ebony mcmillan and her children as the mood turned violent outside their apartment. there were children there, trying to live a normal life, but unable to do so. they kept the children in a bedroom away from a lot of the yelling and the protests. there was a lot of concern about rubber bullets going into the windows and hitting a child. so both ed and i realised that this was a really unique story to tell and a really nuanced way to understand violence in america.

the judges said this was a very original and creative piece ofjournalism on a breaking news story. the filmmakers skilfully brought the exterior into the interior scenes, and the result was a unique piece of reporting. when i'm with my children and i'm just thinking about what's going on around us, i kind of feel like, was it selfish for me to bring them into the world that we're living? is this what they have to look forward to? on february! this year, myanmar�*s military seized power, ousting the civilian government and arresting its leader, aung san suu kyi. the footage, shot by this burmese freelance journalist

who wishes to remain anonymous, showed images of soldiers blocking the streets of the capital, naypyidaw. his footage was amongst one of the first international reports confirming a coup was under way. we asked the freelancer about his experience of making this film. he told us... translation: filming was very difficult and the protesters - were sprayed with water cannons to disperse them. our cameras were wet. there was also tear gas, and many of the protesters were running with their eyes closed. i managed to overcome all these obstacles to reach out to ordinary people to reveal the truth. during this early stage of the coup, security forces did not allowjournalists to film or upload their media. the freelancer told us... translation: as a journalist, i really wanted to film - what was happening. there is a need for freedom of the press in myanmar. nowadays, we are not allowed to report as we were before, but i can't give up.

international communities know about the situation in myanmar under the military hunter, and we as journalists want to tell the full story. the judges said these were historically important pictures of the early days of the coup in myanmar. the filmmaker took huge personal risks to report on what was happening. winner of the news awards, solan kolli, was part of the afp team, the first independent media to reach ethiopia's northern tigray region, after the national government launched a major military operation against dissident regional authorities. the government cracked down on foreign media, especially ethiopian journalists working for foreign outlets. as the media were kept away from the fighting during the conflict,

there was no coverage of the actual war. instead, kolli documented the aftermath, filming mass graves and interviewing victims, survivors and witnesses. and after the war, i saw many funerals in which they were firing rounds of bullets into the air and women crying out loud at the top of their lungs. i saw a lot of dead bodies scattered around, and also, we visited a mass grave where these dead bodies were buried, and it was a devastating experience. kolli's footage included the haunting story of a 23—year—old man who was attacked by his tigrayan neighbours. the assailants decapitated his friend with a machete.

a distraught woman described how herfamily had been celebrating with guests when troops dragged the men outside and shot them. the stories that i was hearing from the survivors were horrific and difficult to process. they were telling us how they were being raped, how their loved ones were killed and how their property was looted. that was very extremely disturbing. thejudges said this

was a powerful and sober approach to what was happening in tigray. it was bold and brave with understated interviews, which put this very hard—to—reach conflict in the spotlight. next, the rory peck awards for news features, for films that look beyond the immediacy of the news story. mount everest is the ultimate mountaineering challenge for climbers from around the globe. but for those helping them scale the world's highest peak, it can be deadly work. sherpa men die in disproportionate numbers, leaving behind widows who struggle to survive. this intimate film by rojita adhikari and sreya banerjee

finds out how the sherpa widows are defying tradition to become bread winners and to conquer the world's highest mountain. she knows the pain and suffering that everest can inflict. her husband died in a climbing accident in 2007. after years of financial struggles, she's decided to follow in his footsteps. mountaineering is very much still a male domain. generations of sherpa men have been climbing and leading expeditions and have become world renowned in theirfield, but women have rarely been encouraged to take up this activity. in fact, women stay at home to take care of their homes, their children while the men are away, and as for widows, it's doubly difficult because on the one hand there's the stigma of their situation, and on the other hand, they have added responsibilities. but a new generation of women is trying to change that.

i would like to think that our film will bring about some change in the community, but in reality, i think it won't be immediate, it'll be something gradual, and it'll be the women themselves driving this change, and because they are the ones who want a different future for themselves. the judges said, "we've seen many films about everest, "the people who've conquered it and those who've died on it, "but we've never seen a film about the sherpa widows. "this film tells their stories compellingly with mount everest "and the himalayas as their backdrop." after the military coup

in myanmar in february this year, some pro—democracy activists headed to the remote jungle regions to seek support from armed ethnic organisations, which had been waging their own on—off war with the country's military leaders for decades. freelancers tuja kareng, hkun li and edward win gained exclusive access to a military training camp. over three weeks, they filmed interviews and recorded the events, which tell the powerful story of the young peoples' personal motivations and the high stakes of their journey to the borderlands.

it is a very difficult journey to come here, but they are dedicated, they are committed to do some effective movement to change the situation in burma. indigenous karen freelancer win travelled into an air strike zone to document the most intense assault that had ever happened in his lifetime. they have to leave their home, have to stay in an unsafe base with great fear. i saw that many kids are afraid, they are worried that air planes are coming and will attack them again. they cannot go to school because their school was destroyed.

the judges said this film documents an astonishing alliance between student protesters in myanmar and battle—hardened rebel fighters deep in the jungle. a wholly new view of myanmar�*s struggle that suggests the fight is far from over and there may be surprises ahead. the suppression of the uyghur people doesn't stop at china's border. mohammed umer is a uyghur activist who operates an underground railroad in pakistan, smuggling persecuted muslims into other countries. his work is becoming more difficult as china invests billions of dollars into the china—pakistan

economic corridor, or cpec, a series of infrastructure projects that connect the two countries. winner of the news features award, brent huffman, spent over four years and made five separate trips to produce this exclusive report on the underground railroad run by mohammed umer. so, ifirst met umer back in 2015, and umer is — or at that time, was a schoolteacher, he was running a nonprofit sort of covering uyghur language and uyghur culture, and then seeing, you know, the tragedy happening to the uyghur people within china, he was incredibly motivated to do something to help. so he began what's essentially this underground railroad where he's smuggling threatened uyghurs out of china,

bringing them into pakistan and then trying to find a safe location that they can emigrate to. for all the promises of cpec to transform pakistan's economy, some groups see these developments as a threat and have mounted a violent campaign of resistance, including the balochistan liberation army, whose commander spoke exclusively to huffman. china dismisses these claims and has accused the bla of being a terrorist organisation. as these cpec projects develop, the situation for uyghurs gets worse and worse, and the way china sees it is that they want to silence the uyghur community, they want to sort of clamp down so that they are essentially

not causing problems for the cpec projects. the judges said this was a brilliantly structured and told film, solid journalism with a beating heart, the clearest telling of a complex story, which is inspiring, but also heartbreaking. and finally, the sony impact award for current affairs for films that really examine and issue and have an impact. this entry is the unique work of three freelance eritreans who risked their lives to film inside a prison and to smuggle the footage outside. they wanted the world to witness the truth about the oppressive government of their country in a plea for greater understanding and, ultimately, help.

we cannot reveal the freelancers' names for their own security, but evan williams, the director of the film, spoke to us on their behalf. this film really began with one simple question — why is it so many eritreans, particularly young eritreans, risk their lives crossing the deserts and the oceans to try and reach sanctuary in europe and, particularly, the united kingdom? and the more we researched this, the more we discovered that the people were fleeing because of a system of mandatory national service where, when you turn 18, you go into the military, you're then designated a job by the government. many of these positions are in the army and you're there pretty much for the rest of your working life without any choice at all. those who try and flee their position or try and flee the country to escape this are then jailed, and many of them are tortured and beaten for information about who helped them get out.

there is no free press or freedom of speech in eritrea, and criticising the government can lead to lengthyjail terms. there is no constitution or independentjudiciary. secretly filming inside a prison can lead to torture and execution. we work with a small team of eritreans who develop a way to get into the prisons, we develop cameras to take into prisons and then we worked with them very closely to train them up and to get the verifiable information and the video that we required. it took courage, it took commitment, it took stamina, it took an extraordinary amount of professionalism on their part, and this is really an eritrean film about eritrea. they wanted to get this information out. the judges said the bravery of these freelancers is what rory peck is all about. the degree of difficulty of the film is like walking a high wire, with some beautifully shot sequences

and undercover filming challenges. this year—long investigation by njeri mwangi and judith kanaitha for bbc africa eye uncovered damning evidence of a thriving underground network in stolen children in kenya. this secretive and highly lucrative trade preys in the country's most vulnerable, stealing children from homeless women and even from the maternity ward of a major government hospital in the heart of nairobi. the women in the streets are very desperate, and for many reasons, poverty being one of them. they're told, they're convinced that they can make some money, so they sell their children.

it's also a desperate situation for them because they can't take care of those children, and somebody is giving them a sort of way out for them to consider. sadly, it's taking advantage of the situation. mwangi and kanaitha cultivated a network of whistleblowers in order to infiltrate and secretly record several active child trafficking networks that targeted kenya's poorest women. the film sent shockwaves throughout the country, and kenyan police ordered a full investigation into hospitals, as well as children's homes in nairobi. since the story was aired, the cases have reduced, we now get, like, one or two cases per week, and previous, we used to get, like, four to five cases in a week. but now, we can say

we are a bit happy because the cases have reduced to a very low number. the judges said this was a brave, impactful, relevant film with an incredibly important story to tell. to produce such a complex investigation with a local team undercover is an extraordinary feat. finding people who can operate in this environment, running such risks, takes years. winner of the sony impact award, joshua baker's film tells the extraordinary story of one family'sjourney from a small town in america to the height of isis in syria. are you happy for me to start? filmed over four years, baker investigated the story of sam sally. after arriving in syria, sam's husband

became an isis sniper, and her young son, matthew, was forced to take part in an infamous propaganda video. by the will of allah, we will have victory. so get ready for the fighting hasjust begun. it was moussa and his brother that were forcing the kids to do this. crazy intense video of this american kid with his yazidi friends. this would be a great propaganda. sam claimed that moussa had tricked her into going to syria and that she had no prior knowledge of her husband's interest in extreme ideology. sam is a complex person. she can be both the manipulator and the manipulated, and you often never really know where you stand with sam. and as a journalist, she's a real challenge to tell the story of, because she is an unreliable narrator. she is also not the sort of stereotypical person you expect to end up with isis.

this is somebody from middle america who has no history of extremist views, yet she ends up at the heart of the isis caliphate, so she's a real enigma. shortly after the propaganda video was filmed, moussa was killed in a suspected drone strike, and sam paid people smugglers to get herself and her children out of isis territory. now, safely back in the us and living with his father, matthew opened up to baker about the propaganda video. did you want to do it? no, ijust wanted to go on with my life. chuckles just wanted to get back home, do my thing. it sounds like you worked out that you had to do this to...to keep going. yeah. so, matthew is an extremely smart kid. he's one of the most emotionally intelligent people i've ever met, and he found himself in a situation where he was being forced to do these things. he was being deprived of food.

he was genuinely at risk if he didn't do what he was being forced to do. isis had taken this boy's identity. they'd forced him to do these things, they'd put him out into the world, and one of the reasons his father, his family and he actually wanted to speak to us was sort of to reclaim that narrative, to say, "hold on, this isn't something i did by choice. "i had no choice." the judges said this film was well shot, structured and researched and an extraordinary piece of work to get on air. the commitment to the story and investment in the journalism was remarkable. as an issue, it's of huge relevance to society as we try to understand why someone from a western country would join isis, and the sociology behind it. and what would you want people to understand about what you lived through? that you can pull through. that's really it.

like, no matter how bad the situation is, you always get through it. that's it from this year's edition of the firing line, an extraordinary year where the global pandemic continued to impact all of our lives. nevertheless, freelance journalists still brought us important stories from around the world for the 2021 rory peck awards. goodbye. hello. some pretty lively weather conditions on the way to us later in the week and into the start of the weekend, we could see some severe gales develop quite widely, particularly through friday into saturday. and to go with it, a realfeel

of winter in the air — much, much colder with more of you seeing a little bit of sleet or even snow. that colder air pushing southwards overnight into the start of thursday, and that really makes for the chill for the first of the commutes of the day, temperatures widely at or just above freezing. so, frost in places, maybe just frost—free in the south—east corner where the overnight cloud and patchy drizzle just about to clear, and in the far north of scotland overnight, heavy showers continuing with sleet and snow, even down to sea level. they'll continue throughout the day, a few showers down across eastern coastal counties of england, one or two to the west of wales, cornwall and across northern ireland. but for most of you, thursday is one of those crisp, clear days, good visibility, but a chilly feel in the breeze, temperatures around 5 to 8 degrees. now, as we go into thursday night, temperatures actually lift a little bit. outbreaks of rain spreading their way in from the north and the west, but strengthening winds across the board. that will stop temperatures from falling to freezing here, but there could be a frost to start friday, east anglia and the south—east in particular. but even here, we'll see rain push through on friday. this is an area of low pressure

that's going to cause us all sorts of problems. the exact track will dictate who sees the strongest of the winds and who will see a bit of snow. to begin friday, it's outbreaks of rain spreading southwards and eastwards. the strongest of the winds to the north and the west of the country could touch damaging 70, maybe 80mph for one or two later in the day, and blizzard conditions developing across parts of higher ground of scotland. and this is where we'll see the strongest of the winds really late friday and into friday night, pushing down the western side of this area of low pressure. cold air with it, so a mixture of rain, sleet and snow not just to the hills, one or two to lower levels, but it's going to be a difficult mix to get exactly right. keep checking the forecast. but it could be a night of disruption into the start of saturday with strong winds. more wintry showers around on saturday, an icy wind and an added wind chill too. so, whilst temperatures on the thermometers saturday afternoon say 4 to 7 degrees, already lower than normally expected at this stage of november, it will feel closer to freezing, if not below for many of you. things will turn quieter, though, through saturday night into sunday. widespread frost to begin the day, but for most, it'll be a dry day with some spells

of hazy sunshine. keep up to date with the latest forecast details here on bbc news.

welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: tragedy in the english channel as 27 people drown trying to reach the uk. it's the worst incident of its kind, since the migrant crisis began. the british prime minster calls forjoint patrols with france to stop the crossings — as four suspected traffickers are arrested. the migrant who have been coming from their country spending months and months to come to hear and they are so close to their dream. with such a rough sea, they are martyrs. guilty. whoo! ajury in the us finds all three defendants guilty of murdering ahmaud arbery, a black man out