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The Dutch Golden Age saw map-making reach a fever pitch of creative and commercial ambition. This was the era of the first ever Atlases - elaborate, lavish and beautiful. This was the great age of discovery and marked an unprecedented opportunity for mapmakers who sought to record and categorise the newly acquired knowledge of the world. Rising above the many mapmakers in this period was Gerard Mercator, inventor of the Mercator projection, who changed mapmaking forever when he published his collection of world maps in 1598 and coined the term 'Atlas'. The programme looks at some of the largest and most elaborate maps ever produced, from the vast maps on the floor of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, to the 24 volume atlas covering just the Netherlands, to the largest Atlas in the world, The Klencke Atlas. It was made for Charles II to mark his restoration in 1660. But whilst being one of the British Libraries most important items, it is also one of its most fragile so hardly ever opened. This is a unique opportunity to see inside this enormous and lavish work, and see the world through the eyes of a King.

As the world enters a phase of aggressive competition over untapped ocean floor resources, countries are scrambling to stake their claims. The vast economic potential on offer has made the seabed the ultimate frontier in a new Age of Exploration. China's research vessels in particular have been active in waters right across the globe. Through our exhaustive analysis of huge volumes of Chinese ship tracking data, from sand dredgers to survey vessels, we piece together a puzzle that reveals a new hidden power struggle over increasingly critical submarine resources.

In 1982, the best of friends and still teenagers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley as Wham! set out to conquer the world. By June of 1986, they played their very last gig at Wembley Stadium having done exactly that. Now, for the very first time, told in their own words, comes the amazing story of how in four years they dominated the charts around the world with timeless and classic pop songs. Hit after hit ‘Club Tropicana,’ ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,’ ‘Freedom,’ ‘I'm Your Man’ and of course ‘Last Christmas.’
Their time in the spotlight was white-hot, and they became the very first Western pop act to play in China. It was a time that both encapsulated and epitomized not just their youth but also that of the many millions of fans that adored them.

For 45 years, America was locked in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and fear of global nuclear annihilation was constant. The end of the Cold War in 1991 was supposed to usher in a new era of peace and cooperation, but it didn’t last. Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have been simmering for years. And now, the conflict in Ukraine has pushed the relationship to the brink of full-blown crisis. VICE Founder Shane Smith met Kremlin officials and American leaders to figure out what’s really driving the new standoff between the powers, while correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reported from the front lines of the bloody war in Eastern Ukraine.

Odds are excellent that extraterrestrial life exists. So why haven’t we found aliens out in the galaxy? Are we looking in the wrong places? New research shows we should look closer to home, even inside our bodies. It turns out that a lot of our DNA is from a mysterious, nonhuman source. Theoretically, alien microbial life can make the journey to Earth from distant worlds, and scientists are finding some unearthly microbes in our upper atmosphere. Could it be from outer space? Could we be part alien? It’s even possible alien life is already here as digital life forms, hiding inside our technology.

Mid-1942, as Hitler’s forces are pushing into southern Russia to take the oilfields, he spies a city prized by his enemy Stalin – Stalingrad. If Hitler can capture this city, he can expand his empire all the way to the Urals. But what Hitler hasn’t counted on is the enormous resilience of the Soviet people; men and women willing to defend their Motherland at all costs.
What ensues at Stalingrad is one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare, with an estimated 2 million total casualties, and an event that turns the tide for the Germans.