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Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: Amazon Defenders

Remembering Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira; flying as a wheelchair user; Russia's liking for lie detectors; plus the silence of Japanese baseball, and a hundred years of Ulysses.

Brazilian police say a suspect has confessed to burying the bodies of missing British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who disappeared in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest on 5 June. Mr Phillips' wife said in a statement that 'today begins our quest for justice'. Andrew Downie remembers his friend.

Britain's Civil Aviation Authority has warned that the service wheelchair users get at airports has worsened: one man was recently left on a plane for two hours after everyone else had got off, and ended up calling the police for help - stories which are horribly familiar to Tom Shakespeare. His work has required him to fly around the globe, and it has certainly not been easy.

The reasons the Kremlin has given to justify Russia鈥檚 attack on Ukraine are many, varied, and sometimes contradictory. What they all have in common is that few people outside the country believe them. Anastasia Koro says that lying has become so common in Russia, that even the most ordinary interactions now have the shadow of mendacity hanging over them.

Crowds have now returned to sports stadiums in Japan, but Covid safety measures remain in place. This means that fans are required to keep their mouths shut, for fear that cheers and yelling might spread the coronavirus. So, it was a strange atmosphere that greeted Hannah Kilcoyne, as she turned up to see her first ever Japanese baseball game.

James Joyce's epic novel, Ulysses, has not always been well received: a 'colossal muck heap' said one critic, while another described it as 'an unspeakable heap of printed filth.' It is now a hundred years since Ulysses was published, and today the novel is regarded as a masterpiece, albeit a tough read. Chris Page says that its increasing popularity in Ireland reflects the country's changing social attitudes.

Producers: Paul Moss, Serena Tarling & Polly Hope
Production coordinator: Iona Hammond & Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Available now

28 minutes

Broadcast

  • Thu 16 Jun 2022 11:00