hello and a warm welcome. i'm glad to have you with us. it's unimaginable - the war in ukraine has been going on for 15 months. the russian invaders have most recently concentrated their attacks on cities in the east of the country. today, the city of bakhmut is almost nothing but rubble - destroyed by bombs and missiles. once inhabited by more than 70,000 people, bakhmut is now a ghost town after a long time of high-intensity fighting between russian and ukrainian forces.

the war's destruction is also visible in northern ukraine. in the village of lukashívka, where russian soldiers were repelled, a trail of wreckage has been left behind. the residents, however, are not letting their spirit, or their courage, falter. nadezdha ivánovna believes in the reconstruction of her village. and she's receiving support from young ukrainians who are. actually part of the techno scene in kyiv. but whenever they can spare it, they're channeling their time and creativity into a new project - of rebuilding. hey, good looking! this is nadezhda ivanovna's kingdom. the 64 -year-old has lived in the village of lukashivka in northern ukraine all her life. look at these beautiful eggs!

russian soldiers invaded the village at the beginning of march 2022. many people were killed. most buildings and cars were destroyed. as if by miracle, nadezhda ivanovna's home survived the attacks. only the shed was hit by a tank shell. but she can't forget. of course, i'm scared before i go to bed that i won't survive the night because something might come flying. she lives with her 96 -year-old aunt. don't forget to chew! today, they are expecting guests from the capital kyiv. come in, my dears, come in.

these young volunteers come almost every weekend to help with the reconstruction of the village. they sometimes bring food and drink with them too. evenings like this give nadezhda ivanovna hope. i wondered at first where these angels came from. there never used to be anything like this. nobody came to help us. volunteers are especially welcome in the village because the state is not able to start rebuilding private homes at this point. if we stop believing in good and don't try to help the people here after all the cruelty, then we will have lost. seriously.

the next day, they go off to the construction site. nadezhda ivanovna goes down to get more supplies from the cellar. during the russian occupation - that lasted three weeks - she hid her children and grandchildren here. but they were caught, she says. they were all kneeling here - on shards from the broken windows. my grandchildren, my children. the russians cut the face of my oldest grandson dima. and the next day they took him to the church to be shot. but she says they let him live because he was not yet 18. nadezhda ivanovna goes to church every saturday to pray

for her relatives. the church of the ascension was almost completely destroyed by the attacks. the explosions were so loud i thought a nuclear bomb had hit us. this is where the russian occupiers stored ammunition, interrogated prisoners, and shot people. the volunteers from kyiv know how tough it was and that's why they want to help. they've built six houses since august. the building material was donated by business partners and foundations. experts taught them how to do the work. they know that it could all be destroyed again if there were more attacks. we know that the war might last several more years.

but if we have to rebuild everything, we will. we have the experience now. it's time for the helpers to head back to kyiv, but not before babushka nadezhda gives them a massive jar of pickles for their hard work. may god protect you, my dears. have a good trip and call me as soon as you get to kyiv. it's a dirty business working with the lives of wild animals. again and again, protected and rare species, like this orangutan, are smuggled illegally into other countries - in suitcases, or in containers, in ships or in airplanes. many animals perish in misery during the trip, and only

a few are discovered by customs officials. in alicante, spain, those officers have to look especially close: spain has become a hotspot in europe for smuggled wildlife. the discoveries are often shocking. and the smugglers are usually one step ahead of the inspectors. her heart is still in the wild, but now kenya lives in an enclosure in a spanish animal shelter near alicante. the female clouded leopard is only 11 months old, but she has suffered greatly. caregiver beli day is nursing her back to health. she was confiscated from a private owner who had neglected her. she must have been poorly fed from the start and she's even gone blind. the private breeder now has to face the authorities for violating the convention on international trade in endangered species. the east asian clouded leopard is also an endangered species so

kenya is a rarity. it's so frustrating. normally, these animals have very good eyes. we had to specially equip the enclosure with ramps because otherwise she couldn't find the different levels. these leopards live in the trees, they need differences in height to develop properly. spain has become a gateway for illegally traded exotic species. the police often find them when inspecting ships arriving in alicante from the nearby continent of africa. maría pellicer works for a special environmental crime unit. in passenger luggage here and at the airport she's found birds, snakes and tortoises. it's so sad.

these ruthless people have no qualms about tearing these animals from their habitat and treating them like toys. - this police video from september 2021, shows the liberation of a female chimpanzee who had been alone in a cage for 5 years. illegal imports of protected animals are rising. in 2022, smuggling into spain increased by more than half compared to the previous year. organized criminals are often behind it. you need contacts in the country of origin to find the animals, and you need a network in europe to import them. this is a highly profitable business. a monkey, for example, might cost 5 or 6 euros in africa, and

here it can fetch 2 thousand euros or more. according to the world wildlife fund, this global business is worth billions. sílvia díaz says the illegal animal trade comes third after drugs and weapons. but its impact is underestimated. arms trafficking and drug smuggling are taken more seriously. more effort is put into enforcement. illegal animal trafficking is just as serious, but it isn't seen as such. it's not pursued and prosecuted as often. that makes these crimes even more lucrative. but authorities are often overwhelmed in the fight against the exotic animal trade. this macaque, for instance, was probably trafficked from morocco to spain. but the smugglers were able to cover their tracks.

the dealers are using new technologies, selling the animals on the internet. they avoid detection because they can hide behind anonymous networks. they even use the dark web. the authorities don't have enough specialists to investigate properly and animals are often rescued when it is too late, as with kenya the clouded leopard. she's too used to people, and she's blind. in the wild, she would never be able to deal with her own species. she was raised in captivity, so she's condemned to a life in captivity. this illegal trade makes kenya and many other wild animals like her into products, that lose their freedom forever.

sweden, despite its sparkling reputation abroad, can in fact be a dangerous place to live. the homicide rate has been rising for years, and there's hardly another country in europe where as many people die in shootings. that has a lot to do with gang-related crimes, some of which can be seen first-hand on the outskirts of stóckholm, in poorer residential areas such as rinkeby. this district is soon to be connected to neighboring ursvik by a bridge. and that's causing a stir. gang wars and shootings have kept sweden on tenterhooks for years - the situation is getting increasingly brutal. suburbs which are predominantly home to migrants are often in focus. suburbs like rinkeby, in the north of the capital - stockholm. stefan lindström has a plan for rinkeby: a bridge to better

integrate the residents there. the urban planner commissioned the structure. but the pedestrian and cycle bridge has divided opinion. on the one side is rinkeby. there are a lot of people there with migrant backgrounds, with low-income and a low level of education. and on the other side is ursvik, a well-educated middle-class neighborhood. the bridge was built to connect the two areas. businessman ali eren supports it. he thinks the bridge will help integrate his neighborhood rinkeby into the city. he worries about the growing violence and says the state must do more. bridges alone cannot resolve the situation. hardly any money is being invested in schools. instead, more and more are being privatized.

and the laws are too lax. young people know if they shoot someone before they're 18, the most they'll get is two or three years in prison. it's a catastrophe! a young man suddenly interrupts our conversation and threatens eren. but eren stands his ground. in rinkeby you have to earn your respect, he says. but he's naturally concerned about the increasing gun violence. in january, a boy was shot dead in this sushi bar in the south of stockholm. both shooter and victim were only 15. swedish police are alarmed by this development, and increasingly at a loss. we are dealing with younger and younger people. some are children as young as 13 or 14. we try to intervene by informing child welfare, contacting the parents, or making home visits.

but at some point, you can't reach these young people anymore. the far-right party, sweden democrats, is taking advantage of the violence by drumming up sentiment against sweden's migrant communities. stefan lindström's bridge is also in the firing line. the right-wingers want it torn down. they believe it will bring rinkeby's criminality to ursvik. we contacted the sd but the party declined to comment. demolishing the bridge would be completely pointless - it would cost the taxpayer the equivalent of 10 million euros. that's madness! in ursvik, there's little concern that youth violence could spill over to them via the new bridge. most people are fairly relaxed about the dispute.

the issue has been blown out of proportion by tabloids like expressen. here in this neighborhood, i haven't noticed much conflict at all. and before building the bridge, they set up a new police station in rinkeby. since then, it's been a lot quieter over there. stefan lindström is sure the bridge will have a positive effect. he hopes the uproar will die down once the bridge is finally finished. - it's just better for social cohesion if people from different backgrounds meet in everyday life, instead of having one district for the poor, one for the middle class and one for the rich. that doesn't help anyone. in a few weeks, the bridge will open to the public. then, many rinkeby and ursvik residents will meet for the first time - at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the bridge.

we'll now introduce you to silke kind from germany. she has parkinson's disease - an incurable neurological disorder. many people who receive this diagnosis withdraw and become lonely. silke has done the opposite, and and has even ventured into something new: table tennis, and she's so good she now plays in tournaments. when she's at the table she almost forgets she has parkinson's. and like the many other patients who train with her, silke is enjoying the healthiest form of competition. the ping pong parkinson meet-up in fulda in the west of germany. every week, 10 players with the disease meet here. - it's a ritual and a liberation from the daily parkinson's drudge, where you're constantly reminded that you have difficulty moving. you enter this completely new world where everything else

around you fades away. silke kind is 56 and has had parkinson's disease for 10 years. with parkinson's, the brain can no longer control the body's movements well. the body becomes slower, stiffer, and an involuntary tremor sets in. there is no known cure - but exercise can help. and taking dopamine is crucial - that's a messenger substance for signals between the nerve cells in the brain. parkinson's patients produce too little of it. - i take my dopamine every two hours. and that's very important, because otherwise my energy runs out. a car can't run without fuel! and i can't do anything without dopamine. silke kind volunteers for ping pong parkinson. she coordinates a huge network of training groups all around germany. it's a lot of work. more and more people are joining - including in fulda. volkmar prettin is here for the second time.

ping pong parkinson was a tip from his neurologist. - i think that's what it's all about. that you don't think about the tremors anymore. sometimes i still shake, even playing just now, but after the second or third game it's gone. silke is convinced that table tennis can slow down the progression of parkinson's. but it hasn't been scientifically recognised yet that the game can help with the brain condition. - you're constantly deciding how to receive the ball, how to play it back, and where you want it to land. there are so many processes going on in the brain - lots of tiny thought processes. and i think that's good training, because it keeps the brain in constant motion. her weekly physiotherapy appointment is all about balance and posture. everything that gets tense, and hunched up in the day -

open it up! and up! and up! - movement is very important for parkinson's patients. they need several units of movement a week to keep the body stimulated - and to delay the physical degeneration as long as possible. even after 10 years with the disease, silke is constantly having to adapt to her parkinson's. small movements are difficult. - "i feel like a pilot in a plane, where the plane is constantly drifting down or maybe up again, and i keep having to regain balance and keep the plane on course. " silke got parkinson's at 46 - unusually early. for her, the diagnosis came out of the blue. - early on i had moments of sheer panic.

i would think about the stairs in our house that i wouldn't be able to climb, and that we had to prepare. those were the kind of panic attacks i had. silke's husband christoph usually keeps his calm when it comes to parkinson's. silke has been married to him for nearly 30 years. they have two grown-up children. - "everyone has limitations as they get older. i'm ten years older than her and i'm noticing that i can do less here and there. of course there might be a wheelchair at some point, but it might be me who needs a wheelchair, you never know. " “let's see who ends up pushing who. ” i was counting on my wife pushing me. get your bets in now! but first it's back to the ping pong table for silke.

this time at the tournament in weisswasser all the way in the east of germany. silke plays at every competition. it shows me time and again that despite the disease anything is possible and you can achieve top performances. of course everything has to be just right, and sometimes parkinson's gets in the way. but you have to learn to live with that, not get frustrated, and keep going in spite of it. a lot of the players bring their families along to the tournaments. here in the sport's hall, it's all about community. if i didn't have this disease, i wouldn't have experienced all of this, this sense of community and all these people. these are real everyday heroes, they can deal with their fate and still be happy. they're all role models for me. ping pong parkinson has given silke and many others here a new lease on life. a way to win the small battles in the war against

an incurable disease. imagine king charles and his wife camilla taking their cup of tea at home. now, the tea might come from anywhere, but the cups? they're most likely from hungary. the herend porcelain manufactory is a top european address for hand-painted tableware. royals, celebrities, and the rich and famous love these precious hungarian goods. and because they're so sought-after, the people at herend have their hands full. with a hand as steady as a heart surgeon's, every brush movement is a delicate masterstroke. marta bachstedt turns a white porcelain dish into a small work of art. one that is still in great demand among today's royalty.

queen victoria had a 260 -piece service with this pattern. prince william and kate received this service for their wedding. almost the entire village of herend in hungary works in the porcelain business: 16 thousand molds, 4 thousand patterns and 822 colors are produced following a secret formula. it's particularly rare because everything is still painted by hand. our local expertise is the key to our success. we have our own school where we train the next generation. they spent months painting this tea service for king charles iii. one cup cost 426 euros. i really like the pattern for king charles. if you can afford it, i'm sure it's wonderful to eat and drink with this tableware.

lady di liked the bird with the golden chain - the rothschild pattern. and apparently arnold schwarzenegger has this bunny. we also visited lobmeyr in vienna, one of europe's best known tableware stores. sets like these are popular wedding gifts for young people, say the manager. they too appreciate hand-painted wares. they just have a different radiance. and that's really highly cherished at the moment, because in this digitized world we also want something physical to hold. whether it's an everyday item for mere subjects or a tea service for a king, marta bachstedt's work is surely one of the most beautiful hungarian exports. i'll stick to cheap ceramic mugs, thank you, just in case i drop them! .that's it from focus on europe. thank you for watching, and on behalf of the whole team. see you again next week, take care, bye.

06/15/23 06/15/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the last 10 years, we have never seen such a high number of reported attacks on the health-care system as in 2022. the scale of it is just unimaginable. amy: sudan's healthcare system is on the verge of collapse two months after fighting broke out between rival military factions. we will look at the increasing targeting of hospitals in sudan