What are some of the key news stories this week?

We review some of the key news stories this coming week and check if any iwonder documentaries can provide some additional context.

12 February 2021

Selected top stories from the Economist magazine this week:

 #Xinjiang  | #childpoverty  | #spaceexploration

“Genocide” is the wrong word for the horrors of Xinjiang

To confront evil, the first step is to describe it accurately

The Economist

The search for ET may soon yield an answer

Whether there is intelligence out there is a different matter

The Economist

Documentaries on iwonder

Providing some context behind the top news stories

#Xinjiang

Nowhere to call home

25 min • Society, Politics & World Affairs • 2019

Watch Nowhere to Call Home Streaming Online | iwonder

Amid mounting reports of human rights abuses against China’s Muslim population, 101 East profiles the Uighurs seeking refuge and speaking out in Turkey.

iwonder

Amid mounting reports of human rights abuses against China's Muslim population, 101 East profiles the Uighurs seeking refuge and speaking out in Turkey.

#poverty

The Bright Side of Poverty: What Poverty

2 min • Society, Politics & World Affairs • 2019

Watch The Bright Side: Poverty, What Poverty? Streaming Online | iwonder

It’s a scourge that keeps so much human potential in a cage of impossibility. But it’s worth remembering how much progress we’ve made - compared to not so long ago, most of us have actually escaped extreme poverty.

iwonder

#Space exploration

Beyond Earth

80 min • Health & Science, Business & Technology • 2016

Watch Beyond Earth Streaming Online | iwonder

Those around the world who saw Neil Armstrong take the first step on the moon were awed by this amazing leap for humankind. The accomplishment of leaving Earth and setting foot on another celestial body drew the world together like no event before, or since. Now a new breed of risk-takers are taki…

iwonder

Those around the world who saw Neil Armstrong take the first step on the moon were awed by this amazing leap for humankind.  The accomplishment of leaving Earth and setting foot on another celestial body drew the world together like no event before, or since.  

Now a new breed of risk-takers are taking over, astropreneurs willing to gamble everything -- promising to build rocket ships that launch daily, space hotels in orbit, lunar solar panels to end pollution, colonies on Mars and, eventually, to take us to the next solar system.

What will be the effect of space travel on us and our planet? It will change everything. Shot over eight years and with unprecedented access, Beyond Earth: The Beginning of NewSpace, is a journey into space exploration with the world's leading astropreneurs including:

• Elon Musk (SpaceX)
• Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic)
• Eric Anderson (Space Adventures)
• Robert Bigelow (Bigelow Aerospace)
• Jeff Greason (XCOR Aerospace)
• Chuck Lauer (Rocketplane Global)

and finally beyond Earth with Chris Hadfield singing David Bowie’s Space Oddity on the International Space Station.