On a cold night in January 2024 a dog walker finds a baby in a bag - a foundling. She's named Elsa, after the Frozen character.Reporter Sanchia Berg begins to follow the case, gaining rare access to the Family Court and to the police investigation. DNA tests reveal Elsa is the sibling of two other babies found abandoned in the same area over recent years. What has happened to the mother?Produced by Lucy Proctor
Mixed by James Beard
Edited by Matt Willis
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28:10
NHS: Painful Decisions
The latest figures on NHS finances don't make pretty reading. NHS England alone faces a projected deficit of £6.6 billion for this financial year and the situation looks as bleak right across the NHS in Wales, Scotland and Northern IrelandThe NHS has always had to make tough choices about what to prioritise but this deficit is prompting health bosses to make decisions that were previously unthinkable to balance the books.New research shared exclusively with the BBC by the independent think tank The Kings Fund, surveyed Chief Executive and financial leaders across the NHS in England about the kind of difficult decisions they are having to make because of the huge deficitsBut faced with having to make efficiency savings, cutting staff numbers and rolling back on patient services, BBC Health correspondent Dominic Hughes learns how painful these decisions really are, from the people having to make them.Presenter: Dominic Hughes
Producer: Jay Unger
Editor: Richard McIlroy
Executive Editor: Pete Wilson
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28:29
The Big Mortgage Time Bomb
Vicky Spratt investigates how people have remained trapped in high interest mortgages since the financial crash of 2008.Some of these so-called ‘mortgage prisoners’ are homeowners who were formerly customers of Northern Rock, a bank which was famously nationalised by the UK Government.Since then, these customers have not been able to move out of their high interest mortgages and many are now living in poverty, and often suffering from poor mental and physical health.There are tens of thousands of ‘mortgage prisoners’ in the UK, and housing journalist Vicky travels to Hartlepool and Blackpool to speak with two of them. She wants to find out how the issue arose and what the Government can do to help.Presenter: Vicky Spratt
Producer: Emily Uchida Finch
Executive Producer: Rosamund Jones
Assistant Producer: Sam Stone
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4
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28:20
The Landscape Revolution
After Brexit, we left the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, the CAP. For many people - whatever they made of Brexit - this was a golden opportunity to come up with something better. A NEW farming policy, which would encourage efficient food production while rewarding farmers for environmental work.Nearly a decade later, where have we got to? This is a programme about agricultural policy, so if you're not a farmer you may not think it's for you. But farm policy is also environmental policy and food policy...so the seismic shift that farmers are going though right now will have an impact not just on their lives and businesses, but on the landscapes we see, the food on our plate and price we pay for both.Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons
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28:46
Russia's New War Elite
Russians who sign up to fight in Ukraine earn big money in salaries and bonuses – and the Kremlin is even more generous to families of those killed in battle. Average compensation packages for a dead son or husband are worth about £97,000. In less-wealthy Russian provinces, where most recruits are from, that’s enough to turn your life around. Reporter Arsenii Sokolov finds out how the relatives of the tens of thousands of men Russia has lost in the war are spending the money – and asks whether the pay-outs will help create a new “patriotic” middle class that supports Vladimir Putin.Besides the cash, there are many privileges offered to soldiers and their families, and to bereaved relatives of the fallen. Their children can go to university whatever their grades. And the Kremlin has started a programme called “Time of Heroes” that claims it will fast-track selected returning servicemen into elite positions in local politics and business. But can Putin’s attempt at social engineering really work? And will “deathonomics” – as one economist calls it – really boost the economy of the provinces that have suffered most from the huge death toll?Presenter: Arsenii Sokolov
Producer: Tim Whewell
Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Penny Murphy
UK