everything into education for her 10 children. she herself is illiterate, like men, older women in turkey. but honestly, embry knows that learning always pays off to focus on europe. next on d, w. ah, what secrets lie behind these walls? discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage sites. d w world heritage. 360. get the app now. mm hm. ah, hello. in a very warm welcome indeed to focus on europe and in this edition of the show,

we look back on some exciting a surprising and moving stories from the past year. above all, we want to revisit some of the people who made a special impression in 2021, such as young roma, women singing against child marriage and for equal rights, and animal rights activist who gives elderly cows a place to chew away their old age. and a mother of 10 who is only now learning to read and bright, and a policeman who literally conducts traffic as if it were a piece of music. but let's begin with a giant sea monster. and to do so, we'll take you on a journey to the caspian sea to a remote area near the city of dare bent. and here we find a huge metal construction that is quite literally beached and dead. eleger. j. abdullah lim off remembers how during the cold war, it was used in theory at least to scare off enemies of the soviet union.

ah, hello. so quit in dangerous. this monstrous vehicle, part ship, part airplane is on a beach by the caspian sea in the republic of douglas done. the chrono plan or screamed lighter was designed for military use, presumably against the west. ah alika g up to gleam off served as flight engineer on test flights for the wing ship are grown defect vehicle as they're generically known. colloquially, this one is called the caspian sea monster. what very good. i operated the propulsion units from here. it's great machine. just incredible. at the stop, the 1st wing ship was designed in the 1960 s. it was meant to guard russia's coast lanes and fight enemy ships, boasting undetected by radar, thanks to its lu flight. this uses the ground effect aerodynamic interaction with the surface beneath the wings creek, just enough lift to carry the 380 ton giant

a few meters above the water. ah, but it never saw genuine service. 14 years after the caspian sea monsters launch, the soviet union collapsed and test flights were ended. the nuclear though i'm out. oh, you good that. i hardly words thus thorough northstar ducky, we were so proud of our country at the time for developing such let's call them products. unlike what any other country in the world hunt new formula. what did susan at the natural? it wasn't a monster. those are part of the most of the decoy thought elephant plans to used a crana plan to carry passengers in the room because it didn't need long runways or airports policy or the roman abdul gleam of devoted 14 years of his life to the a chronic plan. he logged

a bit more than 500 hours of flight time, which he says is not much for a professional test pilot. but the flights were anything but easy. something always went wrong. the prototype had only been built for test flights. bri was nic bowen, jr. we had various fire fighting protocols and the event of an accident. george in hotel is not just meant to be honest. we never once had to use them. he rather get the nicholas chose to de the caspian sea monster stands near, bent a 2 hour drive from abdul gleam ubs home. no retired flight engineer is proud to be the only dagger stanny on the team of soviet researchers. hardly any photos remain from his time with them. after all, it was a top secret soviet military project near wil, purely, but thought it was the only non party member they took on miss, but in limbo, she would have gone the other coworkers were communists. williams, virginia,

when the head of her test pilots division found out about axel core. he was shocked to blow on that. how could a non party member have become a crew members? you'll get the miss, but generally, but bowl. we keep us today. party membership means nothing. the country eleger g a took him off was so proud of the soviet union is history. and the colossal wing ship is destined to serve as an attraction in patriot park. a to recite planned on the caspian sea coast. the will remove the much everything is ruined the old nor you the work of so many designers and engineers neural awfully were of us. but at least that still standing here the most that we were rather that i'm with all of the was talk about dismantling it. for scrap the news module for emerald, i hope it will help young people understand what fantastic technology we had and what a great country of what the what they had there were new naga and i hope that will

help them feel proud of this country. and it's people not on us, the old coil and so the caspian sea monster theses, a very different mission entities, russia to bear witness to the one time power and greatness of the former soviet union would have story now on a very different know these young women are currently enjoying a lot of success with their band called pretty loud, including being invited to play in london. but that success hasn't necessarily come easily after all. they come from the roemer people, europe's largest ethnic minority. the group is actually based in serbia, a country where many women and especially roma, women say their voices aren't properly heard. all the members are pretty loud, are certainly speaking up and speaking out.

oh, i was lucky summons in town. a members of the girl been pretty allowed, or young, proud and determined to take their futures into their own hands. they sing and rob about education equal rights and the practice of course marriages. they're all too familiar with auto, among anything well known that roman lead, very traditional lives, say not to talk with bill other than on at women aren't supposed to work or go to school and all that because they marry would stay at home for their clean and raise the children father, that's a talk with no job, me and what a lot, no education, that our daily da so but as a squalor ciocca seeks

a different life. she's 19 and a law student she and her sisters are inseparable when they experienced hardship early on and learn to support each other. their father lives in germany with his new family and their mother abandoned the girls. so they grew up with their grandparents who gave them the freedom to make their own life choices, agility, low, manosalvas, my grandparents mean everything to me. i loved them so much and i'm glad we live with them. he's missing, i call you again via and with pretty loud began in 2014 and serbia as a social project it's aim was to give young roma women the same rights and freedoms . as roman men have the women sing in 3 languages, romani, serbian,

and english. their biggest success so far was their appearance at the women of the world festival in london. i took with me singing in the band has helped the young women build up their confidence and they've found role models online. the roma people are europe's largest ethnic minority. their culture is being changed by social media. you know, even so nothing is more important to jessica than family. almost every day she takes her nieces and nephews out for walks. they to our growing up without to mother. this is a poor district a quarter, but she also says she likes it, the community is tightly net and people help one another, a little bit with their quarter. mahala place a big role in this video. it's easy for young people to lose their way here. roma

communities tend to live on the fringes of society and are at a big disadvantage. drug use is also rampant or is the recall other the probably what i wish for most, for my quarter way out of the finance or at least what i would change is to get rid of the drugs here. they're all gone. one evidence of sun summer. there are lots of kids here. they and just like their parents, i'm worried that they'll come in contact with the drug audit. they flush and say and ruin their lives and. and the joke on the phone you my the ornish this voice sheila, sheila, jessica, has done volunteer work for years for the same social project that launched pretty loud. she helps children with their homework to help them succeed and school the group has, there were her so space one floor up there working on a new song. anyone who wants to can join in it's about having fun. but joke has best friends. sylvia says, now there is also more at stake. there's even more wilma girls in this quarter look

up to us. that's a major responsibility and we have to take it on because we live here together. and we're a major role model that the large responsibility i'm avoiding was that i'm, we're fighting for a quality and against discrimination. nazi and we want the same rights as men. bravo. so it's a big challenge and i've got 2 jobs and i'm raising a child at the aqua. that's not easy. but if you really want something than any things possible, wash for someone, look at the white one i, that's the energy that pretty loud passes on to their fans. and who knows, maybe one day they will when you say something very special happening there. now why you wonder, did you know that her care was, can live to the ripe old age of 25. but in farming, as it is largely practice these days, that simply doesn't happen. milk cows lead a tough old life and they often end up emaciated, exhausted,

and down at the slaughter house. no one, heart warming exception is carrying books. farm on the german north coast here, animals, old and frail, can enjoy a place of peace or in fact, share a place of peace. oh, it's early morning, down at the farm. oh, fred, me. time to eat. torn, luke is not a farmer. she runs a retirement home for animals. frederick escaped from a livestock trailer. and rosa is from a fattening facility where she languished gravely ill. karen and her partner young goodess mainly tend to cannes who would normally have ended up at the slaughter house after years as agricultural livestock

at home put in the land. the animals can spend their toilets years in peace there. hm. yeah mm hm. for but we prepared, father for the old folks been in the nursing ward so to speak, the gas tank they are suffering from our throw says was and can no longer keep up with a herd and headed to love them. some local farmers think the retirement home for animals is a crazy idea. but the project now has so many supporters that it can take good care of the 38 cuddle from the donations. marie can needs a lot of love and care. she stood in the stable for 12 years. the technical term is tethering. during that time, she produced over 100000 liters of milk. carla and says that is cruel, that the dairy industry often treats animals like machines. she thinks consumers

don't know enough is give in the field a married so many fairy tales. for example, that house always produce mill garcia as mine. can you people know that cows need to give birth version m and in industrial farming. they are artificially inseminated his arm to correct us and then after they give birth, the cat has taken away so that we can drink her milk via mich, thinkin young goddess had taken over his parents farm. first, he carried out organic farming. but eventually he decided to abandon farming for good. some farmers have criticized his move, saying while they are hard at work, he is out collecting donations. but he disagrees. only a gossip fence on that very few farmers could manage without you. agricultural subsidies and mine dogs into semi subsidies are also donations made by the state of dom mustache. in fact, the taxpayers have to foot the bills gate,

whereas the donations we receive are all made voluntarily because under absolute hive an issue every day, the cattle, tuttle over hay at feeding time. karen anon say the animals can express a wide range of emotions. they formed family units argue and create friendships. ah, there are 20 hector's of pasture with the analyst can roam freely, carmen and young hope the project can help change people's minds. that unless our i'll say we're not pointing a finger at others in the song to dispose of, i do doesn't, but you're not saying you were evil because you were doing this and that would add us. we applaud, he could bid it else that we don't go around showing pictures taken at slaughterhouses or thus fear instead. thus, we're taking a more humorous approach. and for the policy we're trying to show cattle in

a positive light in vitaly show how beautiful they are. tunes easy and, and that you can experience funny things when you're around them. and like now no, my plan duncan karen feels especially close to allah, the ox, who was part of a wandering circus company as a calf, until the veterinary authorities intervened. all are ended appear instead of the arbiter now he is dotted on without having to perform tricks. now i'd like you to meet a very interesting and very brave woman. her name is osler, imre,

and she is learning to read and write. and she's doing so at the age where many others go into retirement. illiteracy is still wide spread among women in her country. that is turkey. as recently as 30 years ago, up to a 3rd of all women were effected as le grew up in poverty near the city of van. and she made a lot of sacrifices to ensure that her children got a good education. now she too wants to make up for missed time. in the course of her life as li emory has made more loaves of flat bread than she can count. she had to feed at 10 children. she had no time left over for learning. she never went to school from the social. i was married at age 15 and had my 1st child at 16. you know, it's always been about surviving and we only owned a single cow. you know. now with her granddaughter zane ips help,

she sits at the living room table every day to learn how to read and write a syllable by syllable word by word the 60 year old is exploring a new world of i'm sick of always asking other people how to get places when i can't read the signs for the buses, this will you never let the student general from gentle volleyball and then began. gramma came to us one day and said, now i want to learn to read, let him can understand. and i said, grandma, you can teach that to yourself, i'll help you. and so we got started, i did have it. the image of family lives at the east end of turkey on lake van, near the border to iran. and one of the country's poorest provinces. they're members of the kurdish minority asked me, embrace didn't learn to speak turkish until she was grown. her husband, sheila was rarely at home. he earned his money as a migrant construction worker. the son seemed destined for the same,

but the deeply religious as the innovative was determined to give their children a better life. if it hasn't been, we couldn't even afford curtains. yonder. this just hated under him. it was a lonely young. okay. but we wanted the children to go to school, even though we had to buy school uniforms and books for them to the didn't you the cheapest yellow. often we didn't even have the money for a basic notebook doesn't get it. they had to count every single lire, but they managed to put their children through school. 9 of the kids graduated from high school and went on to college. the youngest son is still in high school. now their mother wants to be able to read books too. and the strong mother of van province has been praised in the turkish media for her courage and determination. her husband is proud of their children success, fatherhood. though the villagers we talk behind our backs because we sent our

daughters to school. so we never paid any mind to that talk, love, love, talk to a brooke. our 5 daughters of all graduated from schools will not mother the 4 of them are features other than and one became a nurse it out. not all the tell us down sheeter as a youth, this on good can had to help at the construction site like his brothers to day. he's a cardiologist at the van city hospital. he put himself through medical school, working with his father during the vacations, with a single tweet about his mother's thirst for knowledge. he made his family an overnight sensation across turkey. miss was my mother's story reflects the social and economic reality in turkey. and that's probably why it drew so much attention or scottish many church see themselves on her concessions that many families have gone through much the same things we did in the office. they did me let some of them have had an even harder time popular although 3 decades ago,

one out of 3 women in turkey were illiterate. today the right has been cut to 6 percent most to can't breed and right. are older women in rural areas like us, the immigrant, the immigrant escaped poverty through education, to thank their mother. her sons have built her a modern house, but she still prefers to bake her bread in the to boone or clay oven in the courtyard. the way she used to in the village the children come to visit their parents as many weekends as they can. they say that from their mother, they learned discipline piety and decency, and pride in their origins. even if that wasn't always easy. still electrical hostile the for a school assembly for the national holiday. my son gurkin once said to me, please tell the teacher, i'm sick. she blaylock says the author on what the angel didn't want to go because he was ashamed that he didn't have a dress shirt. you don't forget things like that. when i toss it,

would you let it pretty, that will be our mother will write a book. i haven't yet, she has gone through so much and accomplished so much. shrink your heart. they were mostly hard times. but what value would memories have? what if they were only about happy days? if asleep emma had gone to school, she would have liked to have become a judge. now at least she plans to learn another language. for that she says it's not too late. definitely not. and we wish i say all the very best in her studies. now there are those who say that drivers in italy don't always respect the rules of the road and that things can get pretty chaotic. well, just try going to rome central piazza vanessia, and there's little sign of such chaos which might in large measure be down to this mountain, fabio agree low. he's dedicated himself to directing. or perhaps, i should say, conducting the traffic flow at this busy hub, with all the applause of a great maestro. time asleep,

directing traffic. aah! with white gloves. elegance, and at the concentrated gates. for almost 20 years now, piazza vanessia has been in the workplace. if that be okay, it isn't. yeah. but it's the most important thing is the precision of the movement, elegant, accurate, and decisive. this is the only way the driver understands my signal. i commit that i will, if i make a mistake, if anything can happen, it was, yes he goes, ah, do you to read works on the piazza drive as have had to do without fabiola conducting scales for almost a year. now the human traffic light is back on his usual podium. romans love that vigilant traffic officer. although the job in the center of the piazza is not suitable for every one new york. so you definitely need

a lot of enthusiasm to do this job. love you, donna, it's not just about traffic control, so these are the up either this podium and it's conductance. have even made it into italian film history program in 1000 all in their level. it's yeah, the film was shot here. you got a did you do with us offices in this piazza in a workplace? was a little doctor. it made us famous when you're all, as i'm with the last element, though bad, little too. at that time, only men filled the my strange position at the crossroads. but rome has since moved with the times. ellia noah ludovico. she has served here for 3 years. as a woman on the podium, she believes she even has an advantage over her male colleagues. for this one on february women, that may be because dr. as a more impressed by a woman, they show more respect. at least they follow my signals closely. and leonor

remembers all to oh, how during the knocked down no traffic directions when needed in the otherwise bustling am crowded pets of innate sia said i with the yarn all around in the vito rianna monuments to were hardly at because while at our company, i mean everything was empty to sign and it spoke to real. didn't even know you could even hear the bird singing grandfather, but i think there is no semblance of that now on the piazza. but the traffic offices, i'm glad to be back celestial, but i see this even though you're breathing in fumes on the podium, it's so nice to be up there will do that. i will. it's a symbol of every day life. i love you so that there she thought this city needs us up there because we are synonymous with life. death. i sit on him on the visa. as the podium rises, a little bit of normality returns as well as the old elegance of the room and

metropolis. well, i hope and i trust that i didn't promise you too much, some great people in those stories to day. lots of courage, lots of positive energy, and i do look forward to plenty more in the year to come. so stay safe and to join us on focus on europe in 2022. for now though, bye bye. when trucks ah ah ah, ah ah, ah ah, with

who ah, at this is injuries a city that never rest course between

wow and failed with ah, where people come together. they wouldn't normally talk to each other. the american colony hotel. 15 minutes on d, w. into the conflict. so with to sebastian at least $27.00 migrants perish in the english channel. will this now force europe to commit to say for migration policy? uber hofstadter in bradford member of the european parliament. i'm the former prime minister in belgium. one huffman for the news, much more value and what performs in india conflict. 90 minutes on d. w. o.

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you are connected to the old world. mood experience outstanding shopping and dining offers. enjoy alice services all be our guest at frankfurt. airport city, managed by frappe, bought ah ah, ah, ah, this is d w. news coming to live from berlin. covet 19 cases, surge to record hives around the globe. only prod is quickly becoming the dominant, very it while delta is still hitting hard, we get an.