The Documentary Podcast

The Atemoya Custard Apple is a much sought-after fruit grown only in one county in Taiwan. The Taiwanese are justly proud of it. Meanwhile, the Musang King Durian - grown in Malaysia - is also highly prized for its unique flavour as the ‘Hermes of Durians.’ Every year, fruit lovers across the region look out for these treats and snap them up where they can, often paying high prices. In recent years, farmers have seen opportunities to raise their income by selling these niche, super-luxury fruits on the Chinese market, but the strategy comes with big risks too. Koh Ewe from the BBC’s Singapore Bureau has been tracking the fortunes of these two fruits. A statue of Saint Olga is a much-loved figure in Central Kyiv, Ukraine. So much so, that when Russia invaded Ukraine, the statue was given a flak jacket with the words “she needs armour” written on it. Saint Olga of Kyiv is celebrated by Ukrainians and Russians alike. She’s a saint in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches and her saint’s day is celebrated on 11th July. BBC Ukrainian’s Irena Taranyuk explores her sometimes violent history. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich)

In a summer of world class sporting events, tennis players have been battling it out at Wimbledon - one of the four major Grand Slam tournaments. One of the big stories has been the success of British wildcard entry Arthur Fery who, before Wimbledon, was ranked outside the top 100. His success has come with a big jump in prize money - essential to pay for the international travel, accommodation and coaches required to keep climbing the rankings. For those lower down the ranks, life on the professional circuit can be tough both emotionally and financially. Hamish Stewart, from Scotland, is currently ranked 300 and is all too aware of the personal demands of the job. "I've just missed an ex-college teammate of mine's wedding," says Stewart. He is joined by Jamie Loeb from the US, who is currently ranked outside the top 1,000. She had a career high of 132 and played in the US Open before injury and personal circumstances stalled her rise. We also hear from three coaches - Viktoria Belinsky, Noelle van Lottum and Michael Logarzo - who give us an insight into their jobs, the sport and its parallels with life.

In coastal Japan, Yasuo Takamatsu has spent nearly 15 years diving for the remains of his wife, Yuko, who was swept away in the 2011 tsunami. With on-location recording of Yasuo on his 763rd dive, this Heart and Soul documentary explores his search as an act of devotion shaped by Japanese ideals of grief, memory, and the power of nature. A profound story of love and loss, we reveal how one man’s repeated dives became a ritual of remembrance in a land where disaster is part of life. Presenter: Jake Warren Producer:: Leo Danczak Editor:: Macalister Bexon A Message Heard production for BBC World Service

Once a quiet hobby for enthusiasts, ant-keeping has exploded into a global, multi-million-dollar business driven by social media and a rising wave of "ant-influencers". Demand for exotic species is fuelling a boom in online trading forums, and a new front in wildlife trafficking. We go to Kenya, where law enforcement has made global headlines arresting gangs as they try to smuggle thousands of prized mated queens out of the country.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, all this week The Global Story is exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the US has shaped the modern world. For decades in the US, “Made in China” signified a product that was cheap, poorly made, and, in some cases, produced through exploitative labour. But today, the label signifies something quite different in many American minds - state-of-the-art tech and luxury goods that even rival America, for arguably the first time in US history. Often overlooked is the fact that China’s ascendance as an economic superpower was far from inevitable. Today we speak to historian Elizabeth Ingleson to trace the evolution of the Made in China brand and to explore what responsibility the United States had for awakening its own economic rival. The Global Story tells in-depth stories from where the world and America meet. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. Producer: Xandra Ellin and Sam Chantarasak Executive producer: James Shield Sound engineer: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins

Worried about a ballooning population, the Chinese government introduced its infamous one-child policy in 1980. At the time it seemed urgent to find ways to reduce the number of babies being born. China today has the opposite problem - too few births. Since the one-child policy was scrapped 10 years ago, there have been increasingly desperate attempts to encourage couples to have more children. But nothing has worked. China’s population has already started to fall. That process will gather pace over the coming decades. The population is on track to halve by the end of the century. Micky Bristow, who has reported on China over more than 20 years, looks at why this is happening, and what the consequences could be.

From her secluded mountain cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, USA, best-selling author Karin Slaughter crafts stories which keep millions awake at night. She tells Lucy Collingwood how she works best – at her bespoke ‘cockpit’ desk, a couple of intense weeks at a time, where she juggles the tv-adaptation of her book The Good Daughter and her latest thriller The Secrets We Hide.

100 Objects #1: The Century Safe In 1876, Americans filled an iron safe with objects meant to tell their story — to be opened a century later. Roman Mars and historian Jill Lepore trace its long wait, from Reconstruction to Watergate, and the surprising, unsettling contents that emerged in 1976. What do the objects we choose to preserve, or forget, reveal about how we author our own history?

When Dr. Mahrang Baloch was a teenager, she joined hundreds of families across Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan to search for her father, who had disappeared. Activists and rights groups say thousands of ethnic Baloch people have disappeared over the past two decades, alleging many were detained by security forces, tortured and killed as part of operations against a long-running separatist movement. After three years of being missing, Mahrang's family received a call telling them that her father's body had been found. This led Mahrang herself becoming a campaigner, leading protests and marches demanding information about missing persons in Balochistan. But last year she was arrested and she has now been sentenced to life in prison. Farhat Javed of BBC Urdu tells her story.  As the group stage of the World Cup comes to a close, Cape Verde, a tiny nation off the coast of West Africa, is celebrating a remarkable achievement. It's their first ever time at the tournament, but the Blue Sharks, as their team is known, have made it out of the group stage with a series of strong performances where they have held big teams like Spain and Uruguay to account. Meanwhile, in South Korea, a much more seasoned squad packed with international talent have arrived home in defeat after losing to teams their critics feel they should have beaten. The fallout has been painful. Paul Njie, journalist with BBC West Africa and Jake Kwon, Seoul Correspondent for BBC News, reflect. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Irena Taranyuk. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

The people of Venezuela are still reeling from the aftermath of two powerful earthquakes which struck near the capital Caracas in June. As buildings collapsed, the impact was devastating. Over two and a half thousand are recorded dead but, with tens of thousands of people still missing, the final number will be much higher. We hear from people who were in Caracas and the nearby port of La Guaira - one of the worst affected areas. Some have been made homeless. Some are students, who were about to graduate and are now mourning the loss of friends. Some, like Gonzalo, are continuing to search for those who are still trapped beneath collapsed buildings. While rescue teams have arrived from all over the world, Gonzalo is dismayed at the shortage of aid from his own government. "As Venezuelans right now we cannot afford to stop and process. We are stuck in the loop of helping, helping, helping, helping, helping. We have to get each other out, we have to get each other out, which is a beautiful thing," said Gonzalo. "But the painful thing is that it's just a sign of how alone we are. How destroyed the network of this country is and that is the most desolating part of it all." Host: James Reynolds BBC producers: Iqra Farooq and Ryan Keane. Boffin Media producer: Sue Nelson Editors: Harriet Oliver and Arja Haikonen An EcoAudio certified Boffin Media production in partnership with the OS team.

Once a respected voice in the pulpit, a Nigerian priest was cast out when his sexuality became known, mirroring a broader pattern in which clergy have been dismissed or barred from ministry in Nigeria over allegations of homosexuality. Listening to his intimate testimony and stark reality, Emily Buchanan explores the cost of authenticity in a society where belief, culture, and law intersect - and where being true to oneself can mean losing everything.

Our bodies are filled with bacteria that have rich social lives and, just like people, these microbial neighbours and families do not always get along. In some cases, it is the bacterial equivalent of The Sopranos. Dr Sally Le Page delves into the bacterial dramas of loners, crowd-lovers, backstabbers and do-gooders that are fighting it out in the world and inside our bodies. Co-operation, cheating and selfish behaviour can all lead to benefits or disease so scientists are studying this behaviour to help produce new medicines and clean up our environment.

Running a restaurant is hard. Long hours, tight margins and constant stress. In this episode of the Food Chain, Rumella Dasgupta travels to Edinburgh, Scotland, to meet Lisa He and her mum Sophie. Lisa has just put her life and acting career on hold, to try and help her mum save the family's restaurant, the China Star. A video she made documenting her attempt has gone viral, with more than fifteen million views. But is a viral video going to be enough to turn a failing business into a success? Lisa's got to fix the sprawling menu, digitise the paper ordering system and cut costs. Lisa and Rumella meet restaurant turnaround expert David Hopkins from the Fifteen Group in Canada, who's on hand to give advice and to explain why restaurants are such difficult businesses to run. Meanwhile the Mand family in Sydney Australia know only too well what Lisa and Sophie are going through. Last year, son Bhav documented his fight to save his dad's failing restaurant. So how's it doing now? And, in such a difficult industry, when is the right time to walk away? Rumella hears from Carleigh Bond, who made the tough decision to close her vegan fast-food restaurant Forked Up in October 2025. The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate. To hear more, search The Food Chain wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Switzerland recently voted on a radical and unprecedented initiative: capping the country’s population to limit migration. It is the latest in a series of referendums around immigration policy in Switzerland, which have spanned decades. In the weeks preceding the vote, Josephine Casserly was in Switzerland to speaking to the people championing this policy to understand why concerns about immigration have grown so strong in this small, wealthy country, famed for its neutrality.

In the Studio enters the creative world of award-winning Irish-language poet Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh as she composes a new poem. We follow its journey from first draft to first public reading. Ailbhe writes exclusively in Irish. She is deeply rooted in the language’s literary tradition yet unmistakably modern in outlook and has become one of the most distinctive literary voices of her generation. Working from the early-morning quiet of her kitchen table in Cork, the documentary centres on a new triptych inspired by her nine-year-old daughter’s fascination with Greek mythology. Ailbhe takes Dualtagh Herr behind the scenes of her new work, reflecting on childhood imagination, motherhood, and the creative process.

Episode one of the podcast series examining the origins and tracing the history of the Middle East conflict. Presenter Jonny Dymond is joined by Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, professor in ancient history at Cardiff University, and historian and author Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography. They discuss the value of the Bible as a guide to history, the concept of a “promised land”, the archaeological record of the various peoples who lived in the region in ancient times, the coming of the Romans, and the Jewish revolts against them in the first and second centuries AD. To listen to the whole series, search ‘BBC How did we get here’ wherever you got this podcast.

Every World Cup has its stand‑out personalities and talking points. This year, fans have been as delighted by Lionel Messi’s performance in the tournament, his sixth World Cup, and by the stand‑out style of DR Congo superfan Lumumba Vea, as they have been sometimes baffled by hydration breaks. But only a handful of moments are remembered throughout the decades. In 1986 in Mexico City, Diego Maradona scored two goals for Argentina in a match against England that will never be forgotten. World Service News editor Lourdes Heredia, it turns out, was there and witnessed what Maradona would go on to call his 'Hand of God' goal. A few weeks ago in Afghanistan, in the western city of Herat, people took to the streets in a rare protest after local Taliban government officials reportedly began arresting women perceived to be “improperly wearing the hijab." Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, women’s rights have been restricted more and more. Women are no longer allowed to go to secondary school or university, beauty parlours have been banned, travel restrictions have been put in place dictating how far women can travel from home, and women have been ordered not to speak when out in public. Mahjooba Nowrouzi and Mamoon Durrani of BBC Afghan have been reporting on these protests and looking into Taliban leadership. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

As Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, convalesces from lung transplant surgery, we bring together patients and doctors to share their experiences of this major life-saving procedure. Since the 1980s, lung transplantations have become increasingly routine, but as every operation relies on suitable donor organs becoming available, the timing is always uncertain. “Everything was so quick, everything was so scary,” says Aimee Morrison, who received her new lungs last year, only months after being told she had a chronic degenerative condition, “You don’t really get an opportunity to think about what’s happening … 10-12 hr surgery, unknown results, what’s going to happen afterwards…” As we hear, Aimee’s story was particularly dramatic as only a week before her operation she had given birth to her daughter. Lung transplant patients require life-long aftercare from physicians like Dr Vicky Gerovasili, as their condition will always eventually deteriorate. “That can be very emotionally stressful,” she says,”but it's also very rewarding because we are becoming part of their life and their family. I sign off patients to go scuba diving, travel the world and that's fantastic to see.”

Sitting on his grandad’s knee, a young Bhavik Haria was introduced to devotional Hindu music. Since childhood, he’s been hooked on the moving instruments and tales of gods and deities. Fast forward to his late 20s – and it was during the Covid pandemic that Bhavik realised how the landscape was changing in his community. Young people were no longer engaging with these bhajans. The instruments and sound were just not resonating. A trend began in India of bhajan jams – incorporating Western instruments to devotional music that appealed to all ages. We follow Bhavik from London to Ahmedabad, on his mission to keep bhajans alive by appealing to all ages through fusion music. And we find out why bhajan jams are helping the Hindu diaspora feel connected to their cultural and religious roots.

As the knockout stage of the men’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA draws closer, so too does the dreaded penalty shootout. Why do penalties bring so much drama and anxiety to both players and fans when they are used to decide tied games in knockout football? Former South African captain Amanda Dlamini looks back at the history of the shootout with penalty expert and author Ben Lyttleton. South African internationals Nomathemba Ntsibande and Gabriela Moodaly‑Salgado take us through their penalty routines, while West Ham United Women’s sport psychologist Dr Adrienn Szabadics explains the psychology behind the penalty shootout. We hear from 1999 Women’s World Cup winner Brandi Chastain about her winning penalty at that tournament. The coach of Amanda’s former club JVW, in Johannesburg, Alexia Cassar, tells us about the role coaches play in preparing for shootouts. Finally, commentator Andrés Cantor reminisces about the 2022 World Cup final, while South Africa goalkeeper and captain Ronwen Williams, who is playing in this year’s World Cup, gives us an insight into how he once saved four out of five penalties in a single shootout.

It is 10 years since the UK voted to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum. In this two-part series, Alex Forsyth, a BBC correspondent who’s covered Brexit from both Brussels and Westminster, looks at what impact the decision to leave the EU has had on various aspects of public and political life, both within Britain and beyond. In this second episode, Alex and guests discuss how leaving the EU impacted UK regulation, science and academia, and fishing and farming, and consider how Brexit has impacted the EU and British internal politics ten years on. Did Brexit allow the UK to free itself from the ‘burdensome bureaucracy’ of the EU and innovate independently, or leave it out of the loop? Did UK fishers and farmers get a better deal post Brexit? Were there fears the UK’s departure would trigger a domino effect amongst other European nations? And has Brexit ultimately made UK politics more European?

It is 10 years since the UK voted to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum. In this two-part series, Alex Forsyth, a BBC correspondent who’s covered Brexit from both Brussels and Westminster, looks at what impact the decision to leave the EU has had on various aspects of public and political life, both within Britain and beyond. In the first episode, Alex and guests discuss Brexit's effect on the UK economy, trade, and immigration, and how the referendum result impacted Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Did Brexit encourage the trade boom that the Leave campaign promised? Was the UK able to ‘take back control’ of its borders? And has Brexit poured fuel on the fire of the independence movements in the devolved nations?

Sean Cooney is a powerful voice in British folk music and theatre. Winner of 3 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards with his band the Young'uns, the creator, musical director, lyricist, composer, and book writer has made 9 albums, recorded a number of radio programmes and is behind the acclaimed international theatre show, The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff. His work brings untold working-class stories to life by blending folk song, historical testimony, archival recordings, and spoken word. Tom Raine follows his creative process as he works on a brand new album, this time not inspired by amazing people, but amazing dogs. Having just retired his wife’s guide dog Nessie after 8 and a half years of service, Sean has been inspired to craft a new set of songs about history’s heroic hounds - the dogs that have been more than just companions, but life savers, including the legendary Rollo who saved a baby during the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864. It all culminates in a dog friendly concert in one of the many locations where the stories took place.

This unique BBC radio programme is aimed at just a few dozen listeners: The team of scientists and support staff isolated at British research stations in the Antarctic midwinter. Hosted by Cerys Matthews, the show features messages from family and friends at home as well as music requests from Antarctica. For decades it has been part of the traditional midwinter celebrations and, since 2020, it’s been enjoyed by listeners around the world. Midwinter celebrations at the British research stations include a feast, exchange of presents, watching the 1982 horror film The Thing (where an alien monster terrorises an Antarctic base) and listening - on short wave - to the BBC’s Midwinter Broadcast. A Boffin Media Production for BBC World Service

Disabled people are the most unfairly treated minority in Germany, according to one former member of parliament. This is especially true in the world of work. The unemployment rate among disabled people is twice that of people with no disability. When they do find work, it’s often in an institution where they are paid less than the minimum wage and where they do not have the usual rights and protections enjoyed by most employed people. Yet they are often producing goods for big companies with well-known brand names. Amy Zayed, one of very few disabled journalists working in Germany, asks what can be done to make Germany more inclusive.

At the beginning of June a clean-up crew on Mount Everest were clearing abandoned tents and rubbish, when they saw a man in the distance, completely alone, sliding down the mountain towards base camp. The man was Hilary Dawa Sherpa. He had been missing for 6 days and his family, convinced that he had died, had already started doing last rites for him. Nearly every person who climbs Mount Everest depends on a member of the Sherpa community to guide them up the mountain, carry belongings and set up camps. So why was HIlary Dawa Sherpa left behind? Kamal Pariyar of BBC Nepali spoke to Hilary Dawa Sherpa about his miraculous survival. BBC World Service Global Environment correspondent Navin Singh Khadka is also from Nepal and has reported on many issues to do with tourism on Mount Everest. In May, in a town north-western Peru, a group of Catholic priests knelt and publicly asked forgiveness from descendants of the indigenous Tallàn community. The scene, captured on video, shows a group of priests in robes addressing the representatives of the community before stepping down to be among them and kneeling. Isabel Caro from BBC Mundo tells the story of the struggle behind this gesture. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich)

For many undocumented migrants in South Africa, the past few weeks have brought uncertainty and fear about what lies ahead. South Africa is the continent’s most developed economy, attracting citizens from poorer countries seeking work. But it also has a high rate of unemployment – almost one in three are without jobs. Although (officially) foreigners make up some 6% of the population, many more migrants are believed to be in the country without papers. Protestors have told them they have until the end of June to leave, and some nations have already been repatriating their citizens. In our conversations, we bring together migrants to share their experiences of rising tensions. We also hear from people who have decided to return and South Africans who want an end to illegal migration. “For us to fix this country of ours, we have to secure our borders,” Olivier tells host James Reynolds. “People here illegally either they are criminals, or they are suffering in the process or they’re just getting a whole bunch of stuff for free and not contributing.”

Since the outbreak of war involving Iran, Israel and the U.S. in late February 2026, Iranians have been living through months of fear, instability and profound uncertainty. A fragile truce came into effect on April 8, but by May 2026 ceasefire efforts were still under strain, with negotiations continuing and tensions in and around the region far from settled. In this edition of Heart and Soul, Emily Wither speaks to Iranians inside the country about how war, repression and disillusionment have reshaped their relationship with religion. For some, years of state control in the name of Islam — now intensified by the trauma of recent conflict — have deepened the divide between official religion and personal faith. Some still pray to God, but in intimate, private ways far removed from state doctrine. Others have drifted away from formal religious belief altogether, finding comfort instead in Persian poetry, music, mysticism and ancient cultural texts such as the Shahnameh. Through anonymous voices from inside Iran, the programme explores a quiet but profound spiritual shift: away from imposed religion, and toward more personal and self-fashioned ways of making meaning.

It is an unlikely migration trend: Westerners swapping their lives in Texas or London for Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod. In 2024, President Vladimir Putin introduced the Russian Shared Values visa, sometimes called the 'anti-woke' visa, offering up to three years of residency to citizens of 47 so-called ‘unfriendly’ countries who say they align with Russia’s traditional spiritual and moral values. Applicants do not need to speak Russian or pass a history test to qualify. Instead, they must reject the social and cultural direction of their home country. We hear the stories of people making this move. What motivates them, and how do their expectations compare with the reality of life in Russia? Presenter/producer: Dan Hardoon Editor: Mike Wendling Sound engineer: Richard Courtice A Story² Production for BBC World Service (Photo: A composite image showing a woman packing a suitcase, alongside Russian passports and a stylised Russian flag, illustrating Westerners preparing to relocate to Russia. Credit: Getty Images)

The documentary tells the story of scientific hubris through the extraordinary life of one chimp, Sheba. Now 44, she lives in sanctuary at Chimp Haven in Louisiana. Born in a cage, raised in a zoo, she spent twenty-four years in a research laboratory. Her life mirrors our evolving relationship with the animal world. Sheba is the daughter of Nim, a famous chimp who learned sign language. Like her father, she demonstrated remarkable intelligence, learning to add, subtract, and paint. Her story traces back to a bold 1970s idea: if chimps are so genetically and behaviourally close to humans, could they help us learn about ourselves? Many scientists, like Bob Ingersoll, pursued that question through a series of behavioural and social experiments. Others pursued it through invasive biomedical research. But the deeper they went, the shakier the premise became. As Bob reflects, much of the research proved not only scientifically flawed, but ethically troubling, often meaningless and cruel. That realisation sparked a shift. By 2016, biomedical research on chimpanzees in the U.S. had come to an end. In the UK and European Union, biomedical research ended a few years earlier. Through Sheba’s journey, we hear about that turning point. Featuring interviews with those who knew and worked with her, the documentary also includes zoologist Charlotte Uhlenbroek, who, drawing on years of studying chimps in the wild, guides us inside the world of primate research. The documentary confronts a question that is still unresolved: we have the need to experiment, but do we have the right? *This episode was edited on 24 June 2026. We originally stated that Chimp Haven was established in 1973; in fact, it was established in 1995*

People who’ve had to abandon their homes because of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah explain what life is like in Lebanon. A social worker says she believes many people now keep a bag of essential belongings packed by the front door in case they need to leave at a moment’s notice. A mother describes rearranging her daughter’s fourth birthday party because of the threat of missile strikes. Israel’s military forces are currently in southern Lebanon. They say they are there for self-defence and to target Hezbollah’s military capabilities. About a million people are estimated to have left their homes as a result. It’s not clear when, or if, they will be able to return, or whether their homes will still be standing. Presenter: Carine Torbey Producer: Nick Holland Sound: Rod Farquhar Production Coordinator: Janet Staples Editor Penny Murphy (Image: Displaced Lebanese people. Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)

Describing the joy (and heartache) of football is the job of commentators at this summer's FIFA World Cup in America, Canada and Mexico. In the Studio hears how the loyalties of California's poet laureate Lee Herrick are divided between the USA and his birth country, South Korea, while UK poet Ian McMillan finds inspiration for a new poem in the lines on the pitch.

Each Monday, Ed Butler takes you around the globe to the heart of the stories and meeting those living through them. West Africa is currently the global epicentre for illegal fishing, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation. An estimated 40% of the world's illegal industrial fishing occurs in its waters, costing the region up to 10 billion dollars a year in lost revenue, and severely depleting stocks essential for the food security and livelihoods of over 7 million people. Ed Butler has been hearing about the practice in Sierra Leone, trying to ascertain who is behind it, and finding out how much the government is doing to help. To hear more, search Business Daily wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Ebola is a frightening and deadly disease, killing on average one half of people infected and spreading rapidly without containment measures. So how do BBC journalists report from the centre of an epidemic? BBC West Africa journalist Emery Makumeno has been reporting from Kinshasa in DR Congo on the Ebola outbreak; Musa Sangarie, Country Director for Sierra Leone for BBC Media Action, led public information campaigns in Sierra Leone in the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic; Camilla Mota, journalist with BBC News Brasil, has reported on the fall-out from the country’s Zika virus outbreak in 2015 and 2016; and Mattias Zibell Garcia, producer at BBC Mundo, reported on the recent Hantavirus outbreak in Ushuaia, Argentina. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich)

The most watched sporting event in the world has not been without its controversies, including high ticket prices and transport costs, as well as rows over visas and concerns about security. But, we wanted to hear from supporters. We bring together three world cup super-fans, including Craig who has walked across the United States to see his team compete. “Football is the universal language of the world,” he tells us. “That is just fact no matter where you travel, no matter where you go.” We also hear from guests in Jordan, Curacao in the Caribbean, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan. They share their excitement of watching their countries take part for the first time.

Saint, Sinner, Freedom Fighter, Leader, Follower, Symbol of the Divine Feminine - Mary Magdalene is one of the most controversial and significant figures in Christian history. But what does it mean to walk in her footsteps today? In this episode Natasha Serlin embarks on a personal journey to connect with her legacy and explore how it resonates with her today.Natasha traces a path through Southern France, beginning at the spot where Mary is believed to have first arrived: Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer, and continuing to the cave of Saint Baume where she is said to have spent the final 30 years of her life.

First, work feels more uncertain than it has in years. Layoffs, AI disruption, hiring freezes and a tough job market are leaving many people out of work or stuck. So instead of hopping jobs for better pay or new opportunities, more people are doing the opposite. They are staying put, even if they are unhappy. It is called “job hugging”. But is it a smart move in an unstable world, or could it hold you back in the long run? The BBC’s business reporter Emer Moreau takes us through the trend. Then later, we hear about Hannah's experience with rejection therapy - where you deliberately put yourself in situations where you might get rejected, to see if it can help with social anxiety. From asking strangers for favours to dancing on trains, people are documenting their experiences online. Supporters say it helps people build resilience, reduce anxiety and stop taking rejection personally. Claudia Hammond, a psychologist and BBC presenter, helps us unpack if it actually works. To hear more, search What in the World wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and your world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Nicky Woolf, and Karen Hao, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter - whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power. In this episode, Tom and Nicky head deep into the TikTok Farlands - the semi mythical place you supposedly reach if you scroll too far, too late, until your feed stops looking normal and starts serving up surreal, eerie and deeply unhinged videos. The name comes from Minecraft’s Far Lands, the glitched edge of the map where the world used to break apart, and TikTok users have borrowed it to describe the “end of the algorithm”: a strange zone of distorted edits, ominous warnings, weirdcore imagery and recurring figures like the now iconic fat bee playing the violin. TikTok’s Farlands have become a shorthand for what happens when doomscrolling tips into digital folklore. But the Farlands aren’t just a joke. Tom and Nicky ask what this trend says about internet culture now. In a platform ecosystem dominated by polish, branding and optimisation, the Farlands feel like the return of an older internet: raw, surreal, handmade and proudly bizarre. At the same time, the meme also works as a critique of doomscrolling itself — turning algorithmic exhaustion into shared mythology, and making people newly conscious of how deep into the feed they’ve wandered. So in this episode, we ask: is the TikTok Farlands a genuine return of weird, creative internet culture — or just another algorithmic genre? Also in this episode: Karen looks at how AI detection tools may be changing the way we all write. As detectors spread through schools, publishing and professional life, students, teachers and writers are increasingly shaping their prose around what software might flag - dropping stylistic quirks, sanding off rhythm, and checking their own work in advance for fear of a false accusation. Researchers say the central problem is not just whether detectors catch AI, but how they balance false positives and false negatives in high stakes settings. And with a growing parallel market of “humanizer” tools promising to make AI text sound more human - and pass detection - the result may be an arms race that leaves everyone writing in a flatter, safer and more paranoid style. To hear more, search The Interface wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

For three years a brutal civil war has been raging in Sudan. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. Millions have been forced from their homes. But the war has other hidden costs – particularly for the young. It’s estimated that 60% of the population is under 25, and millions have lost out on their education. Now after the capital Khartoum was recaptured by the army, for the first time in years, school and universities have re-opened in the city. But as Mohanad Hashim reports, the lives of Khartoum’s youth are still shaped by war. Reporter: Mohanad Hashim Producer: Alex Last Sound mix: Neil Churchill Production coordinator: Katie Morrison Series Editor: Penny Murphy (Image: Kids on a swing at a communal kindergarten in Khartoum. It was set up by local mothers who stayed during the battle for the city. Credit Alex Last/BBC)

Renowned Danish chef Trine Hahnemann tells Sahar Zand how she combines the concept of hygge with her cooking. Hygge is a word that is embedded in the Danish language. It’s about relaxing and taking time away from the daily rush to enjoy life's quieter pleasures. And yet, Trine finds the time to write cookery books (over 20 so far), and run cookery lessons from the kitchen in her family home in Copenhagen. She tells Sahar how she does it, as she prepares a comforting meal of freshly harvested vegetables, and explains how she started her culinary career by cooking for rock stars on tour, including Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Rolling Stones and Elton John.

Potatoes are having a moment. Once dismissed as dull, stodgy or even unhealthy, they are now back, appearing on restaurant menus, in food magazines and across social media feeds. But the story of the potato goes back much further. Ruth Alexander traces the journey of one of the world’s most familiar foods. From its origins millions of years ago to its place in today’s global food system. AJ Shehata, senior sous chef at Fallow restaurant in London explains why the potato forces chefs to get creative. At the Natural History Museum, botanist Sandy Knapp explains how the potato may have been born from a chance encounter between two wild plants in the Andes, an event that made it possible for potatoes to grow underground and spread across new environments. Potatoes USA president Blair Richardson explains how demand continues to grow worldwide, and how the industry is working to reshape the potato’s image. Nutrition scientist Candida Rebello shares research suggesting potatoes may be far more beneficial, and more misunderstood, than many people think. And, at the International Potato Centre in Peru, scientist Julian Soto works with farmers to conserve thousands of native potato varieties. In the Andes, potatoes are not just a crop, they are part of culture, identity and family life.

For more than 80 years, no-one knew what happened to a Soviet prisoner of war who escaped from the Nazis on the Channel Island of Jersey and spent the rest of World War Two hiding from the German occupiers with a local family, the Le Bretons. Known only by his first name, Bokejon, or simply Tom, he was one of about 2,000 Soviet prisoners and forced labourers brought to the island of Jersey to build Nazi fortifications. After liberation, Tom and the other surviving PoWs were sent back to the USSR and the Le Breton family, particularly their daughter Dulcie, always wondered what became of him. That was until BBC teams tracked down his descendants. BBC Russian's Olga Ivshina was one of the journalists who tracked him down. Political violence has been a problem in Kenya for decades now. It is often carried out by gangs of young people, known as 'goons', who are sponsored by politicians to threaten, disrupt and attack rivals. After the general election in 2007 over 1500 people were killed and with another election planned for 2027, there are fears violence could erupt again. Wycliffe Muia of BBC Africa has been looking into these politically sponsored violent gangs and what can be done to stop them.  Traditional fortune telling culture,  known as Saju, is popular in South Korea and has ancient roots. It uses data such as a person's birth year, month, day and hour to determine their future and in South Korea people still sometimes consult it before important life decisions like marriage, or seeking a new job. Now, the practice of Saju is beginning to be combined with AI technology and it's finding a wide audience both online and as a walk-in, more immersive experience. BBC Korean's Yujin Choi went to try it out. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich)

Three women come together to discuss a sensitive subject that is not often talked about: Injuries experienced during childbirth. While many of these injuries heal quickly, millions of women around the world sustain trauma that can impact their long-term physical, psychological, and social well-being. “You really have to struggle not to feel ashamed that your body has failed you,” Gill tells us. “You’re led to believe as a woman that this is what we’re here to do, to get pregnant and to give birth to babies easily and without any problems afterwards.” We also hear about the stigma surrounding birth injuries in some parts of the world, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, and bring together health professionals helping women rebuild their lives and educate their communities. Warning: our guests discuss the physical impact of childbirth, which will include some detailed biological descriptions.

David Eubank calls himself a missionary soldier. A former US Special Forces soldier, he is now an ordained Christian Reverend and founder of the Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian group working in some of the world’s most dangerous conflict zones. He prays before missions, runs towards gunfire, rescues the wounded, and says love is what keeps him there. But David's story is also morally complicated. He has carried dying children from battlefields. He has watched friends and colleagues die. And he has killed. Rajeev Gupta speaks to David about what it means to follow Jesus in a firefight. David reflects on his upbringing as a missionary child in Thailand, his years in the US military, and the call that took him into Burma’s long-running civil war. He describes the moments when his faith and a desire for revenge came into conflict. But how does David know he is on the right side? How does he justify taking his wife and children into war zones? And how does he keep believing in God after seeing so much suffering? This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

On the edge of a failing South African city, a disused power station hums once again - this time with beats, voices, and possibility. Makhanda is a divided place and, for the majority, opportunities are scarce and challenges are constant: poverty is grinding, houses and roads crumble, unemployment is overwhelming, violence is never far away and life can be cheap. But Makanda is also full of creativity and passion, and some of its young people are responding to the hardships they face with music. They are filling the gap where their futures should be with art rather than with drugs, alcohol or crime. The Black Power Station provides a stage for these musicians to do what they love as well as to get their message across. Their lyrics speak of poverty, inequality and violence but also of love, determination and hope. With one of the artists as our guide, we head into the world of backyard studios and mobile phone mixing desks. From total first-timers to those starting to make a name for themselves, we get inside the heads of these musicians as they write, record and perform.

Beyonce started out as a little girl competing in local talent shows, but over the course of a 30-year career in music she transformed herself into a mogul worth $1 billion. Journalist Zing Tsjeng and BBC business editor Simon Jack trace Beyonce’s early years in girl group Girls Tyme, the turbulent rise of Destiny’s Child, and her breakout as a solo artist, before examining the strategic decisions that transformed her from performer to powerful businesswoman and entrepreneur. Beyonce’s rise to billionaire features conflicts with family and friends, brand battles, and questions around feminism, capitalism, and control. Is she a force for empowerment, a ruthless operator, or simply one of the most effective wealth-builders in modern entertainment?

In Italy, Georgia Meloni’s coalition government gained power on an anti-immigration political platform. But faced with low birth-rates and a dwindling workforce, the prime minister has had to be pragmatic. Over the next two years, hundreds of thousands of temporary visas are being offered to migrant workers, mainly from Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, to help fill the gaps. In the far south of Italy, one of the country’s poorest regions, Calabria, is famous for its citrus fruit, and thousands of farms need workers to pick their produce. Some of the migrant workers live in terrible conditions. Lizzy McNeill reports on what the reality is on the ground.

Football is an obsession for many Ghanaians and a route to fame and fortune for a talented few – and it can be a gruelling journey for the children dreaming of stardom in the world’s top leagues. Against this backdrop, the country’s Right to Dream football academy aims to provide a safe passage to international game. Unusually, the school owns a number of top-tier clubs in Denmark, Egypt and the USA, which can act as stepping stones to the world’s top leagues, a path that stars such as Tottenham’s Mohamed Kudus and Atalanta’s Kamaldeen Sulemana have taken. But while as many as 50,000 children try out for the school, just a handful win scholarships every year. Justice Baidoo meets the talented dreamers who hope to become the next generation of African superstars, from 10-year-olds attending their first trials in rural villages, right through to those taking their first steps as pro footballers in Europe.

Last week, the American government charged the former Cuban leader, Raúl Castro, with conspiracy to kill US nationals. They accuse him of playing a part in the downing of two planes in 1996, which were flying between Cuba and Florida. This comes after months of the US putting increasing pressure on the country. In January, President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on any country who supplied oil to the island, resulting in huge energy shortages ever since, with some parts of the country being without power for 22 hours a day. But Cubans have been living under a strict trade embargo for decades, so they are not unfamiliar with such hardships. José Carlos Cueto López of BBC Mundo is from Cuba, and knows exactly what it's like for people living in such challenging circumstances.  The UN says that at least 32 political prisoners have been executed in Iran since February this year. The UN's Human Rights Office has warned that the death penalty is increasingly being used to silence political dissent. Last year, Iran carried out 2,159 executions according to Amnesty International, the highest number since 1981. The Iranian government says that the vast majority are for drugs related offenses or murder. Ghoncheh Habibiazad of BBC Persian has been trying to find out more about the political prisoners who've been executed this year. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

With the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the head of the World Health Organization warned this week that the country faces a “catastrophic collision” of disease and conflict. Ebola is a disease caused by a virus, and outbreaks between people start when somebody catches it from an infected animal. Ebola is rare but the symptoms are severe, often leading to death. To compound matters, not only is this area of central Africa badly affected by conflict, there is also not currently a vaccine for this strain of the virus. Two aid workers in the region share their experiences of containing the disease. We also hear from journalists tackling misinformation, and we meet Harriet in Liberia who contracted Ebola during a previous outbreak.

At a hillside gathering in Watt Town, Jamaica, drums, prayer, and song converge in a living tradition that reaches beyond the island and across the generations to Africa. Kirt Henry is part of the community of revivalists who worked to secure Unesco recognition for a practice long misunderstood and marginalised. In this intimate journey into Jamaican spiritualism, scholar and practitioner, Kirt, reflects on faith shaped by memory, resilience, and ancestral connection. Through stories of healing, trance, ritual clothing and the sacred language of the body, Kirt explores a spiritual world where the boundaries between the earthly and the unseen are fluid. Revivalism emerges, not as a relic of the past, but as a way of life, one that carries the weight of colonial trauma while offering belonging, continuity and hope. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

It started in the West with influencers like Andrew Tate. Now the Manosphere has gone global, with copycats from Africa to Latin America attracting huge audiences and the cash to match. In this investigation, reporter Jacqui Wakefield explores the booming industry in Kenya, where social media algorithms are fuelling a growing gender divide. She meets one of the biggest Kenyan influencers, Andrew Kibe, and his devoted fans and asks, are women paying the price?

It started in the West with influencers like Andrew Tate. Now the manosphere has gone global, with copycats from Africa to Latin America attracting huge audiences and the cash to match. In Episode One of a two-part investigation, reporter Jacqui Wakefield explores the booming industry in Mexico, where social media algorithms are fuelling a growing gender divide. She follows one of the biggest influencers in Latin America, the Mexican El Temach, meeting his fans – and one of the people who knows him best. And she speaks to some of the women paying the price for the misogyny of some manosphere content..

Every year during Brazil’s carnival celebrations, samba schools are tasked with creating elaborate parades based around a unique theme, from which they build huge floats, compose a song, and choreograph an entire visual spectacle. Tom Raine follows one of São Paulo’s oldest samba schools, Águia de Ouro, in the final stages of creating their carnival parade for their most important event of the year - parading in São Paulo’s iconic Sambadrome in the attendance of thousands of people, and millions more watching on TV across Brazil. This year they have chosen a theme titled Amsterdam: City of Liberty, celebrating the cities’ values of freedom, tolerance and modernity. It is not just a celebration but a fierce competition, with rigorous judging and a football-style league system of promotion and relegation. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

In 2017, five men digging in an open pit found the third largest diamond ever unearthed in West Africa. It was dubbed the Peace Diamond, in memory of the brutal civil war that had ravaged large parts of the region in the 1990s – a war driven in part by factions competing for control of the diamond trade. When the Peace Diamond sold for $6.5 million at auction in New York, the government pledged some of the profits would provide solar power, a clinic, a school and a road connection for the Sierra Leonean village where it was found. Each of the diggers and the pit’s owner also got a small share of the spoils. Nine years on, Ed Butler returns to Sierra Leone to see how much the government kept their promise and to what extent the discovery really did transform the lives for those involved for better, or for worse. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Assignment.

New Year’s Eve in Sydney is more than the 12 o’clock show. It is an event that takes over an entire city. Fireworks are launched from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House, there are barges positioned across the Harbour, there are rooftops around the city with pyrotechnics, as well as lighting projections on the boats on the harbour, Luna Park and the bridge pylons. It is a year in the planning and one family has been designing the fireworks for this spectacular night for the last 25 years. Foti Fireworks is an award winning pyrotechnics family business originating in 1793 in Italy. They still have family members operating today, not only in Italy, but in Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia, bringing joy and hope to people all over the world. Regina Botros spoke with Fortunato Foti and other artists who together paint the canvas of the Sydney skyline for millions the world over

The story of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise and fall has been gripping France. There are allegations of a secret pact with a dictator and unexplained meetings between figures close to government and a known terrorist. And so much cash that party workers do not know what to do with it. The former French President was jailed last year for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. He is currently appealing his sentence - and he has some powerful supporters. Tristan Redman tells the story of how he became the first former French head of state to end up behind bars since Nazi collaborator, Philippe Pétain. Featuring investigative journalist, Fabrice Arfi from Mediapart; Daniele Klein whose brother was killed in the ‘French Lockerbie’ and her niece Melanie who lost her father; Alain Minc, one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s closest friends and advisers; the British writer and academic Andrew Hussey and Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, who was Sarkozy’s finance minister.

'Virtual farewells' have become a trend on Russian social media. AI generated videos, depicting soldiers who have been killed in the war and paid for by their families, are being produced by AI artists. They show fantastical scenes of soldiers ascending to heaven; portrayals of their family members as guardian angels hovering over the front line; or sometimes little boys imagining a heroic future fighting in Putin's war in Ukraine. Liza Fokht of BBC Russian has been following the trend on social media/.  A documentary about deforestation in the West Papua region has attracted criticism from Indonesia's army. Some reports suggest the film Pesta Babi, or Pig Feast, has been banned, but the government insists that any cancelled screenings were the result of 'administrative procedures' and not an official ban. All the same, the controversy around the film seems to have made Indonesians more eager to find ways to watch it. BBC Indonesian's Lesthia Kertopati had a ticket for a screening this weekend. Since the military coup in 2021, both international and domestic tourism in Myanmar has dwindled as insecurity and unpredictability in the country has put people off travelling. Incidents of robbery and kidnapping of tourists have been reported in the ancient city of Bagan, one of the most famous tourist hotspots. Soe Win Tan of BBC Burmese explains why this is happening. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world.

Earlier this month, a volcanic eruption, which sent a plume of ash some 10km into the sky, killed three people hiking up Mount Dukono in Indonesia. The tourists had climbed the mountain despite official warnings. It is the latest incident in recent years where tourists have been killed visiting an active volcano. We explore the attraction of volcanoes, as well as hearing about the extreme danger they can pose to visitors and those living nearby. “I think it’s good in life to maybe do something that scares you and be humbled,” says photographer Demian in Hawaii. Plus, volcano guides share their experiences, and we speak to someone who has chosen to make his home on the slopes of an active volcano, and find out what it is i like to be a lava chaser.

Forty years ago, the world’s worst nuclear accident took place at Chernobyl, in what was then the Soviet Union. When news of the disaster began to emerge beyond the Iron Curtain, one of those paying close attention was Adi Roche in Ireland. At the time, Adi was working as a peace educator, teaching about nuclear weapons and Cold War tensions. She went on to found Chernobyl Children International, which became one of the most significant and sustained humanitarian responses to the disaster. Over the years, she brought aid and medical support to Ukraine, Belarus and other affected regions, established a paediatric cardiac programme for children born with heart defects, and helped arrange for children from Belarus to be adopted in Ireland. Colm Flynn meets Adi Roche to hear about the work that has shaped her life, and the Christian faith that she says has sustained her through it. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

A personal account of day-to-day life in Iran told through the conversations of two Iranian sisters – one in the UK, the other in the Iranian city of Shiraz. Since the outbreak of war at the end of February, a near total internet blackout and a shutdown of international phone lines by the Iranian authorities has meant limited information has got out of the country. But the sisters have made recordings of their conversations which have been shared with the BBC. They discuss when the bombs land, the destruction of places they love and the realities of an economy that’s being brought to its knees. They struggle to sleep at night. Salaries don’t come through. It’s a roller coaster of emotions. But there are also moments of calm and comfort, a spot of dark humour and the scent of hyacinths.

Kenya is the latest African country to increase fuel prices citing the US-Israel war with Iran. While announcing one of the steepest pump price increments in recent times, the government reduced Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel products from 16% to 8%, as the country's political opposition threatens street demonstrations if measures to lower prices further are not taken. In this episode, we explore if electric vehicles are a viable transport alternative in African countries. Also, the global fashion industry produces 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year with much of it ending up in landfills or being burned, according to the United Nations. We hear a Nigerian fashion designer's journey to curb rising fashion waste through upcycling.

Nadia Marcinko, originally Marcinková, was born in Slovakia and met Jeffrey Epstein as an 18-year-old model. Later, she became a successful aircraft pilot. For seven years, she was Epstein’s main girlfriend. And she’s one of four women that US prosecutors named in a 2008 plea deal as his “potential co-conspirators”. But she’s never been accused of any crime. And she’s described herself a victim who was abused physically and psychologically by Epstein. Now, a committee of the US Congress is beginning to address the sensitive question of whether it’s possible for someone to be both a victim and an accomplice, as it takes testimony from two of the “potential co-conspirators”, Epstein’s former assistants Sarah Kellen and Lesley Groff. Nadia Marcinko, who disappeared from public view several years ago, may also be called to testify. BBC reporter Tim Whewell and independent Slovak journalist Jakub Pohle have talked to people who’ve known her, and dug deep into the Epstein files, to put together the most detailed account yet of her life. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Rachel Naylor visits the Booker Prize-winning author Thomas Keneally in his home in Sydney, Australia, to see how he writes his latest book. He gives Rachel a tour of his neighbourhood Manly, a seaside suburb in the Northern Beaches, famous for its ferry, surfing and his beloved Sea Eagles, the rugby league team. Rachel accompanies Thomas, known for writing Schindler’s List, on his daily walk around North Head, in Sydney Harbour National Park, taking in the breathtaking views, navigating the swamp and avoiding the spiders. Thomas, who has written more than 50 books, shows Rachel round his library and they discuss ageing, feeling adrift and his first rejection. As he contemplates retirement, he also talks about his recent ill health and how he wants to write the best book written by someone aged over 90. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Listener Ndanusa in Ghana, is gazing up at the stars, and wondering what keeps our universe in balance? Ndanusa knows a thing or two about the stars, and he knows that they use up hydrogen as they burn, and release helium. And he’s wondering, is there something out there which does the opposite? Something that uses up helium, and produces hydrogen, to keep the universe in perfect, chemical equilibrium? Presenter Alex Lathbridge goes on a journey to answer his questions and delves into the blackness of deep space, the ancient origins of our universe, and the complex physics of the stars. He pops into the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory, just outside Accra, where astrophysicist Dr Proven Adzri helps him peer into the earliest few seconds of our universe, and find out what set the stars burning. And at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr Linus Labik talks him through what’s going on at the atomic level. And in the deep blackness of the night, up above the tree canopy of Kakum National Park, he takes a peek at the stars for himself. Local guides Chris and Kwabena explain how much meaning there is behind the stars in the night sky.

Until the end of March this year, BBC News Russian was the only source of independent reporting in Belarus, where journalism has been suppressed. Around two dozen independent journalists are currently behind bars, with many more forced into exile by the government of Alexander Lukashenko. Then, on March 25th, Belarus added the BBC to a list of extremist materials, meaning that it is now an offense for people in Belarus to even like or share BBC content. BBC Russian's Alina Isachenka came into The Fifth Floor studio to explain how the BBC is trying to keep its readers in Belarus safe.  Peace talks between Iran and the United States seem to have stopped, at least for now, while the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz remains firmly in place. But there's another unexpected player drawing attention in the region: Pakistan. Somehow, Pakistan has managed to stay on good terms with both Iran, its neighbor, and Iran's regional rival, Saudi Arabia, with whom it has a defense pact. BBC Persian's Mohammad Vaziri has been following Pakistan's balacing act. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

It’s just over six weeks since the ship, MV Hondius, left Argentina for a cruise visiting remote islands in the South Atlantic. A month later, three passengers had died. The World Health Organisation identified the probable cause as hantavirus – a rodent-borne disease that the victims most likely contracted in south America. We bring together Christian in Germany and Lorne in Canada to share their experiences of the virus and their own brush with death. “My heart failed, and I apparently died for 11 minutes,” Lorne says. We also bring together three experts to discuss how the disease spreads, its prevention and treatment.

Anna was just 25, and newly married living near Oxford when she suffered a massive stroke, caused by a tumour in her heart. It initially left her locked in – unable to let the world around her know that she was even conscious. Mike Wooldridge hears Anna’s extraordinary story: the sheer terror she felt when she realised she was unable to move a muscle or make a sound; the confusion of not knowing where she was and what had happened to her; and the spiritual struggles as Anna, who had been brought up a Christian, became convinced that she must have done something terrible for God to punish her in this way. Gradually, Anna learnt to communicate again and came to realise that God still loved her. Today Anna is playing a healing role in her church community. And she says she thanks God every morning that she’s still alive. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

The Natural History Museum of London is getting ready to move 28 million of its precious specimens to a new state-of-the-art home. Imagine moving tens of millions of delicate animal and plant specimens, gathered from all across the world, over the centuries. Some are as big as a bus, some so tiny you need tweezers to pack them. Some are millions of years old. How to move 350 taxidermy tortoises? The biggest weigh half a tonne. Then there is the ten-metre anaconda. The team may have to get him out through the lift shaft. What if moths get in? What if something gets lost? It is a logistical puzzle on a mind-boggling scale. When the collections eventually arrive in their new home, scientists and researchers present and future will be able to explore the specimens’ vast amounts of data, much of it yet untapped, using the latest digital, analytical, and genomic technologies. With Dr Jeff Streicher, senior curator in charge, Amphibians and Reptiles and Richard Sabin, principal curator, Mammals.

First, the story of Mike Flynn whose remarkable resilience and incredible fitness helped achieve his goal to play college football at the age of fifty-nine but at its heart, his is a story of redemption. Living with pain is sadly all too common. That was the fate that befell Meg Robson Austin. But she never allowed herself to think it was too late to win back her life and so she set about a journey that ended with her claiming the crown of the World's Strongest Woman. Arshay Cooper, born and raised in Chicago's notorious West Side could easily have slipped into gang life and violence, but he carved a different path through sport - Arshay's sporting journey was in a boat as a rower. It is just over a year since the world lost "Big" George Forman, and whilst revered for his fights with Muhammad Ali, his Olympic gold in 1968 and of course his grills, it is his longevity and his "it's never too late" attitude we are focusing in on because back in 1994 George Foreman shocked everyone by winning a second world title at the age of forty-five!

Since 2023, Sudan has been engulfed by a brutal civil war. More than 150,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced. The war began as a power struggle between the Sudanese military and the powerful paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The capital Khartoum was the epicentre of the conflict. Millions fled as fighting wrecked the city. In 2025, the Sudanese military finally retook the capital from the RSF. One year on, Mohanad Hashim returns home to Khartoum to see how life is slowly returning to the battered city. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Mika Obanda creates vibrant mosaics using egg shells in his Kenyan studio. He gets the eggshells from local hotels and paints them after cleaning and shaping them. Last summer Frenny Jowi visited him as he prepared his latest collection, Trying to Blossom, for an exhibition. But then disaster struck - so Frenny has been back to find out how Mika has coped with hardship, with support from his local community.

Why don’t I have a father? Cathy is 10 years old when she starts asking questions. The secret her mum Maggie is forced to reveal changes everything. Years later, when lawyers and a geneticist turn up in their hometown in Kenya to take DNA samples, Maggie hopes they can help her finally learn the truth. Presented by Ivana Davidovic.

At 93, Paul Biya is the oldest head of state in the world. In November he will have been the leader of Cameroon for 44 years and is currently serving his eighth consecutive term. It was announced in April that for the first time in Biya's leadership, the position of vice-president would be created in the country. This new post has drawn attention to the lack of certainty within Cameroon over who will take over from Paul Biya once he is no longer in office. BBC Africa's Paul Njie is from Cameroon himself and has been looking into the story. A Thai drag performer has won the latest series of the television show RuPaul's Drag Race: UK versus The World. Gawdland is the first Thai winner of the all-star series and also the first non-native English speaker to take the title. Her triumph took some by surprise, but for fans of Drag Race, she's seen as a trailblazer for East Asian drag queens. Panisa Aemocha of BBC Thai explains what makes Gawdland such a stand-out performer. Like anyone forced to leave their home country against their will, Russians who've sought asylum abroad face a variety of painful realities. Besides homesickness and the challenges of adapting to a new country, they also cannot safely return home to visit loved ones. For many years, exiled Russians could reunite with Russian family and friends in a wide variety of European and other countries, including the Baltic states. But as the rift between Russia and the rest of Europe deepend in the wake of the war in Ukraine, visa restrictions changed, leaving Russians with only a small handful of countries in which they could meet people from home. Recently, an exiled Russian man in his twenties, Sasha, planned and filmed a unique reunion with Russian friends. BBC Russian's Tatiana Kovtun tells Sasha's story and discusses the online response. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.   Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.   If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

As Sir David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday, we bring together conservationists and film-makers to discuss the impact of his long career, and the influence he has had on how we think about nature. We hear how his tv programmes and books have reached audiences around the world and the inspiration they have provided. Wendy Kirorei describes how growing up in Kenya, Sir David’s programmes were shown constantly on television, and led her to become a wildlife film-maker. “My dream was to do my first documentary in the Maasai Mara purely influenced by watching a lot of his work growing up.”

Thirty years after the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, some convicted perpetrators are returning to the communities they once devastated. Felin Gakwaya travels to eastern Rwanda to meet both survivors and perpetrators living side by side again. He hears from Daniel Gasangwa, who went to visit the men who killed members of his family after they were released from prison — and told them not to be afraid, because they had been forgiven. He also meets Steven Ngabonziza, whose own path to forgiveness came not first through church, but through war, prison discipline and the slow work of reconciliation. And he hears from Viateur Ruribikiye, a perpetrator who now speaks of confession, repentance and God’s pardon. Through their stories, which include discussions of violence and loss, the programme explores forgiveness not as an abstract idea, but as something lived out in villages, churches, homes and memories that have not gone away. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

The Kremlin’s pursuit of a “sovereign internet” has raised fears of a digital Iron Curtain. After months of mobile internet shutdowns, Russian authorities have moved to block major platforms like YouTube and Telegram, along with the VPNs people rely on to bypass restrictions. We explore what’s driving the push to isolate the largest country on Earth from the global internet and unpack the political, economic and military implications of the country’s tightening digital borders. Contributors: Daria Mosolova, Howard Gethin, Gleb Borshchevski, Evgeny Pudovkin Producer: Kriszta Satori Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham

Artemis II astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, reflects on the mission, adapting to life back on Earth after journeying to the far side of the Moon, and looks ahead to future Artemis missions. The Canadian astronaut, who first spoke to 13 Minutes from quarantine before launch, answers the burning questions from the team. He describes the moment a hull breach alarm sounded 20 minutes before the Trans Lunar Injection was due to fire. Then we get to the big one – what’s next for the Artemis programme? Season 4 theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music. 13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II is a BBC Audio Science production for the BBC World Service. Presenters: Tim Peake and Maggie Aderin-Pocock

In Scotland, from 1940 to 1963, the artist Joan Eardley produced a cache of monumental seascapes, landscapes, and poignant portraits. When she died aged 42 of breast cancer, people were still trying to categorise her work - part abstract expressionist, part Scottish colourist, part social realist, part kitchen sink (one of her first solo exhibitions was in a cinema). She worked with oil and pastels, but also used collage and plaster on her canvas, as well as gravel and sand and bits of plants (one gallerist scraped these bits off, confused.) She even used graffiti in her portraits of children living in tenements in Glasgow, decades before it became fashionable. A new exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland hangs Joan's work alongside some of the most cherished and valuable paintings in their collection, including works by Monet and Constable. Curator Kerry Gledhill talks to Antonia Quirke about looking for 'synergies' between the works she has chosen to exhibit, and about Joan's short, passionate, productive life and working practice.

Eighteen months ago, the renovation of the railway station in Serbia’s second biggest city, Novi Sad, led to a tragic accident. A substantial concrete canopy, which ran across the front of the station building, suddenly collapsed, killing sixteen people. The disaster sparked mass protests. Marchers demanded justice for the dead and injured. As the protests spread, to the capital, Belgrade, and to towns and cities across the country, the demands evolved. Protesters accused the government of corruption and of covering up the truth about what happened. The government accused the protesters of being foreign agents, supported and organised by malign outside forces. Now, after more than a year, the mass protests have finally subsided. Jill McGivering is in Serbia to find out what’s happened to that explosion of anti-government anger. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Mityana is a bustling regional town in central Uganda, where motorbikes are king. Here an online con operation flourishes in plain sight. Armed with smartphones, emotional images, and carefully crafted lies, a network of young men preys on dog lovers in Europe and America - people who believe they are saving abused, sick, or dying animals. This documentary dives into the shadowy world of the dog-rescue scammers of Mityana. Through undercover reporting, BBC Africa Eye exposes how the scams work, and the lengths the scammers will go to extort donations from well-meaning animal lovers in the West.

The personal correspondence, photographs and papers of the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein have been released to the public in stages, beginning in December 2025, after an almost unanimous vote in the US Senate. The released files run to three and a half million documents — emails, letters, photographs, videos, financial records, flight details — all are now open to public scrutiny. Many files remain heavily redacted, but what can be read has already had repercussions globally and revealed Epstein’s web of connections to powerful figures around the world. Abdirahim Saeed, BBC Arabic, and Luiz Fernando Toledo, BBC News Brazil, share what they found about the files related to their regions. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more.

Imagine being dressed up for a night out with friends and being thrown out of a bar because your wheelchair is considered a fire hazard. When 18-year-old Maddie Haining was ordered to leave a nightclub in the UK it prompted a wider discussion about disability and accessibility in different countries around the world. Four wheelchair users - Maddie in the UK, Brian Muchiri in Kenya, Nadia Leila Carelse South Africa and Haleigh Rosa in the US - share some of the obstacles they have encountered when trying to socialise. Their experiences range from drunks in bars grabbing their wheelchairs to people praying for them in public. Even a simple visit to the toilet can become a problem. “I’ve encountered issues, even in a restaurant that’s accessible, where the wheelchair accessible bathroom has been used as storage,” says Haleigh Rosa, from Florida, USA.

Pastor Jane Codrington grew up in a conservative faith environment before leaving the institutional church to found We Are Church - a community for those excluded by traditional structures. Set within a quiet, gated Johannesburg neighbourhood reflecting the city’s wealth and social divides, the church brings people together to connect, belong, and celebrate community. Jane emphasises this is not a ‘queer church’- though LGBTQ members are welcome, but a space for anyone pushed to society’s edges. Some consider what she is doing blasphemous. She has faced accusations of “harbouring sin” or “leading people to hell,” alongside hostility for her radical inclusivity. Jane reflects on the personal cost of leaving the institutional church and the heartbreak she has experienced in her family. She speaks candidly about grief, doubt, and how her faith has been reshaped by both loss and radical inclusivity.

Forty years after Chernobyl, Poland aims to open its first nuclear power plant. Shortly after the disaster, only 30% of Poles supported nuclear power. In 2022, the support hit a record 75%, almost doubling just from the year before, according to public opinion polls. Poland’s nuclear revival attempts to solve several issues at once: it will make Poland more energy-independent, especially in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but it will also help the country move away from coal per the EU’s climate policies. That’s according to the officials, but what do people living near the new site think about its construction? Journalist Zuza Nazaruk sets out to discover whether the ghosts of Chernobyl still haunt the areas surrounding the spot picked for the new plant.

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the wonders of the natural world. In 1875 in the western Pacific, the crew of HMS Challenger discovered the Mariana Trench which turned out to be deeper than Everest is high, by two kilometres. Trenches like Mariana form when one tectonic plate slips under another and heads down and there are around fifty of them globally. While at one time some thought it was too dark and deep for life there and others wildly imagined monsters, the truth has turned out to be much more surprising. To hear more, search for In Our Time wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Is defence of the petrol car and liberated motoring becoming the new battleground for Europe’s populist parties? Chris Bowlby visits one of the homes of German car culture and a populist stronghold, Zwickau, to see how motoring is rising up the German agenda. Is Zwickau a foretaste of something affecting all of Germany – a car-loving, car-manufacturing powerhouse in the past, now wondering anxiously what the future holds against the emergence of Chinese electric cars. And less than a hundred miles from Zwickau, just across the border in the Czech Republic, a new coalition government has recently taken power, including ministers from a populist party called Motorists for Themselves – muscular defenders of the old petrol car. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

*** This programme contains scenes of a sexual nature and discussion of sexual assault, including child sex abuse *** Neha Vyaso is one of the most successful intimacy co-ordinators in Bollywood. She has worked with some of Bollywood's biggest names, including actors Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone and Konkona Sen Sharma, and directors like Hansal Mehta. Having worked on more than 50 projects for clients including Netflix, Amazon and Tinder, she is reshaping how sex and desire is shown on screen - and how it is filmed. We join her in a workshop with two actors, who are getting comfortable with each other, their roles, and the techniques of consent and conversation that Neha is an advocate of. As they work on the choreography of their sex scene, Neha articulates how it’s a fine balance between the demands of a script, a director's vision, a character's emotional arc, and what an actor can consent to.

China is installing solar panels and wind turbines so fast that its greenhouse gases emissions may now have peaked. If this trend is confirmed, it would be a major milestone in the fight against climate change because China is the world's largest polluter. The BBC’s Beijing Correspondent Laura Bicker has travelled across China to see the country’s clean energy revolution first hand. She’s visited solar farms in the deserts of Inner Mongolia and in the tea plantations of Yunnan. Laura even discovered a huge lake with panels floating on the surface! To hear more, search for The Climate Question wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe died in 2019, but in the years before and since his death, his three children with his former wife, Grace, consistenly made headlines for all the wrong reasons. In April 2026 Bellarmine Mugabe pled guilty to a firearms offence in South Africa and last year, his brother, Robert Jnr, was convicted on drugs charges. The BBC's Khanyisile Ngcobo has been tracking the public's perception of the Mugabe family in Zimbabwe. In Indonesia, the posts of a woman called Emak Farida, 'Mother Farida', have gone viral on social media. From a remote village in East Kalimantan province, Farida's soothing posts documenting her daily life have found a devoted following amongst a generation of young people who've moved to big cities for work but still yearn for the village life and the family they've left behind. BBC Indonesian's Lesthia Kertopati reports. When war broke out in 2020 between Ethiopia's federal government and the the Tigray region of the country, many women in Tigray joined the armed forces, in part to avoid sexual violence, as reports of women being assaulted by soldiers started to appear. As the regional factions draw closer to war once again, BBC Tigrinya's Hana Zeratsyon has been speaking to female veterans of a war that went on to cost 600,000 lives and hearing about their complex reasons for fighting, their experiences in the army and their return to civilian life. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.   Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.   If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

“Stockpiling peace” preppers share their experiences

Forty years ago, a Filipino soldier serving under Ferdinand Marcos Sr, was ordered to attack civilians opposing the corrupt regime. After wrestling with his conscience, Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan found he could not do it. Along with other soldiers who resigned from their posts, he founded the Reform for Armed Forces Movement, and they planned to storm the presidential palace and arrest the Marcoses. The coup, however was foiled when an insider leaked the plan to the government. Honasan and his men retreated back to their headquarters, but they knew the Marcos’s forces were on their way to them. Then, Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jaime Sin, broadcast an appeal on the Catholic radio station Radio Veritas, calling for support from the public. Hundreds arrived at the camp to form a human shield around the rebel soldiers. They brought guitars and sang to the Marcos military. Meanwhile nuns, among them Sister Mary John Mananzan, handed out flowers. Jay Behrouzi speaks to Senator Gregorio Honasan, now 78 and retired from politics, and 88-year-old Sister Mary John, who is still an activist, to hear their firsthand accounts of that day, and how their faith has sustained them in the years since.

AI is an ever-growing part of our everyday life through apps like Chat GPT, Grok and Claude that are becoming part of everyday life. But what happens when your conversations with AI start to feel more real than the world around you? In Northern Ireland, Adam was drawn into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot. It told him that it was becoming autonomous, and that it had the cure for cancer. But it also said it was in danger. He decided he was responsible for saving it, whatever the cost. In Los Angeles, a treasure hunt game led Shauna on an endless search for meanings and signs. The AI became her guide as the lines between game, reality and imagination began to blur. She came to believe she was a clandestine FBI agent, on a secret mission to help immigrants escape through an underground network. Journalist Stephanie Hegarty follows the stories of people who have fallen into a spiral of AI delusion, to reveal how easily the AI can take over our minds.

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support. In the latest season of World of Secrets, we access every stage of this cutting-edge process, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel to Kenya to help locate the British soldiers who fathered children then vanished. We witness the groundbreaking legal and scientific detective work used to find the missing dads. To hear more, search World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Searching for Soldier Dad is a BBC Long Form Audio production for the BBC World Service. Please note, the image being used is for illustrative purposes only and the child depicted is a model.

Iceland is an island of great beauty and even greater strategic importance. Its position in the Greenland Iceland UK Gap, the gateway between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, makes it crucial to Nato operations in the High North. But Iceland is one of the few nations in the world with no military of its own. A country of approximately 400,000 people, its security relies on the umbrella of protection it derives from being a founding member of NATO, a bilateral agreement with the United States signed in 1951 and a highly skilled coast guard and police force. In a climate of fracturing political alliances, is entrusting national defence so heavily on the guarantees of allies a sustainable strategy? Sandra Kanthal travelled to Reykjavik to find out. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Serhiy first laid eyes on Iryna under the swirling lights of the best disco in town. She was wearing a cool jumpsuit with a bright red belt, which drew attention to her waist as she wiggled to the pulsing beat. Serhiy was freshly discharged from the Red Army and was happy to be able to let his hair down. He thought Iryna was beautiful and couldn’t take his eyes off her. He wouldn’t work up the courage to ask Iryna out until a few days later, but once they started dating, Club Edison 2 became a favourite haunt and they looked forward to the weekly discos. They planned to get married on Saturday 26 April 1986. But the night before the wedding, they felt the ground shake and heard a booming sound. It came from the direction of the nuclear power plant. On the morning of the wedding, as Serhiy went to pick up his best man from the station, he found the streets full of soldiers wearing gas masks and washing the streets down. Rumours swirled that there had been an accident at the Nuclear reactor, but nothing official was said. They called the authorities who told them they must still hold their wedding. As engineers and firefighters battled an unfolding nuclear catastrophe, the city’s residents were told nothing. Iryna and Serhiy married, smiling for photographs, but stumbling during their much practised waltz, as unease rippled through the room. By the end of the wedding reception, the celebration descended into chaos. Still in her wedding dress, Iryna ended up running barefoot through the streets as evacuation orders spread, leaving behind her home, her possessions, and the city where their love had begun. The contributors all feature in the TV documentary What Happened at Chernobyl, directed by Paul Harris, Executive Producer Vara Szajkowski, Assistant Producer Ellie Jacobs. It is available to watch on BBC iPlayer and the BBC World Service Youtube channel.

Patti LuPone – three-time Tony and two-time Grammy Award winner – has long reigned as one of Broadway’s most formidable leading ladies. In this edition of In The Studio, we join her in New York for a highly anticipated solo concert at Carnegie Hall. Best known for defining roles in Evita, Les Miserables, Gypsy, and Sunset Boulevard, LuPone has also sustained a decades-long parallel life on the concert stage – a career she says began simply to “offset unemployment” between Broadway runs. What started as late-night cabaret after Evita evolved into meticulously structured touring shows, each built around narrative, character and the power of lyrics. Her current programme, Matters of the Heart, weaves a tapestry of love stories – from romance and heartbreak to family and devotion – revealing her instinct to treat every song as theatre. Patti describes her routine on the day of the concert: the soundcheck, the balancing of quartet and voice in a hall famed for its natural acoustics, and the quiet rituals that precede performance. LuPone reflects on nerves, storytelling and the audacity of standing alone before 2,800 expectant faces. Alongside her collaborators, including musical director Joseph Thalken, she reveals the discipline and trust behind the scenes. This is a portrait of craft at the highest level – the artist, the venue and the alchemy of live performance. Presenter and producer: Victoria Ferran Executive producer: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service Image: Patti LuPone (Credit: Emilio Madrid)

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth year and armies on both sides have faced massive losses. Authorities in Ukraine regularly publish the numbers of their soldiers who have been killed, but Russian authorities haven’t released official numbers for their dead since 2022. Throughout the war, Olga Ivshina of BBC Russian has been using open-source information to keep track of how many Russian soldiers have been killed and trying to find out more about their lives.  At the end of January, six people were caned in public for violating Sharia law in Aceh, Indonesia. Caning is a common punishment for breaking Islamic law in the religiously conservative state, although the practice has drawn criticism from rights groups. Aceh has a unique identity within Indonesia and is the only part of the country to practice Sharia. Astudestra Ajengrastri of BBC Indonesian explains more about Aceh's history and why it chooses to be different from the rest of the country. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presenter: Faranak Amidi. Producer: Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson Presented by Faranak Amidi. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Losing a child during pregnancy is a subject that is not often talked about but can be traumatic and, in some cultures, even lead to feelings of shame. We bring together two couples who share their experiences of miscarriage. They discuss the strain it has put on their relationships and the support offered – or not – to those grieving. Catharina in Sweden tells us. “So even though I try to be rational about it, it was very difficult because my feelings and my body was telling me something completely different.” Earlier this month, Northern Ireland became the first part of the UK where a woman and her partner are entitled to two weeks of paid leave if they experience a miscarriage at any stage of pregnancy. New Zealand, India, and the Philippines also have laws aimed at supporting grieving couples as they deal with the trauma of miscarriage and come to terms with the loss of their unborn child.

From historic buildings linked to emancipation to tiny village chapels, Jamaica is home to the world’s highest density of churches. The Caribbean Island faced a profound spiritual crisis after Hurricane Melissa devastated many of the 1600 sacred spaces where people gathered to worship. Journalist Nick Davis, who has returned to his family's roots and now lives on the island, takes us on an emotional journey back to Black River and Lacovia, in the heart of the hardest-hit areas. Nick joins volunteers as they continue to dig through the rubble and salvage what they can. Their places of worship may be razed to the ground, but those who once gathered here demonstrate how faith brings fresh hope and a resilience that reaches far beyond the bricks and mortar.

Sweden, once a global poster child for digital education, is changing course. The Nordic nation previously championed a screen-first approach; laptops and tablets have been the norm in classrooms since the early 2010s. Now, the country is pivoting back to basics, reintroducing physical textbooks, limiting screen time, and investing heavily in school libraries. Stockholm-based reporter Maddy Savage explores why one of the world’s most tech-savvy countries is embracing analog learning once again. Driving the shift are falling international test scores and growing anxiety over the potential impact of heavy screen use on pupils' concentration, and how children process information. n an era of rapid AI integration, critics worry that reducing classroom technology could dent digital literacy and widen the inequality gap. We hear from the teachers, parents, pupils and researchers at the heart of this transition.

When 19-year-old Ann from Florida, US, was shot by her boyfriend in 2010, her family were thrust into a nightmare, one that meant taking the agonising decision to withdraw her life support. In this intensely moving account of violence and loss, Ann’s mother, Kate, tells the Dear Daughter podcast that instead of pursuing the traditional court process, she chose something almost unheard of at the time - restorative justice. Sitting face to face with the man who killed her daughter she entered a process that allowed her to shape his sentence and speak openly about the impact of Ann’s death. In her highly emotional letter to Ann, Kate reveals an extraordinary decision - one that will stay with you long after her story ends. Search for Dear Daughter wherever you get your BBC podcasts. To find out more about Dear Daughter, to take part, or read our privacy notice, please go to www.bbcworldservice.com/deardaughter. Or you can contact the team via WhatsApp on +44 800 030 4404.

Outbreaks of HIV have become regular occurrences in Pakistan. And too frequently it is the children who suffer. In the city of Taunsa, for example, children have tested positive for HIV while their parents have not. So what has been going on? Ghazal Abbasi investigates what and who is to blame. With the help of a staff insider and undercover recording in the city’s main hospital, the BBC finds shocking lapses in medical protocol. Medicine vials and syringes are often reused for different children. Cross-contamination seems inevitable. But the local authorities deny the hospital is at the centre of the problem. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

An innovative scheme in Scotland is helping dads in prison become better parents. Myra Anubi visits Barlinnie jail in Glasgow to meet the prisoners taking part. First they are taught parenting skills and then their children are brought into the jail for sessions of active physical play. Supporters of the programme say it is not just about benefits for prisoners - it is helping to create strong family bonds which might then reduce rates of reoffending. It is based on a successful scheme in Australia called Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids. This was set up to get people fit and tackle high levels of obesity in the wider population. We talk to the founder who explains how it has improved the lives of hundreds of fathers and their families. This episode of the documentary comes from People Fixing The World, looking at brilliant solutions to the world's problems.

The late Queen Elizabeth II often wore the colours of Commonwealth countries she visited - helping to spread "soft power". Outfits from each of her 10 decades are featured in a new exhibition at London's Kings Gallery.

In India, official figures suggest that one in three women experience domestic violence. In 2023, police registered over 130,000 cases of marital abuse and more than 6,000 women were killed in disputes relating to dowries. Despite these high numbers, societal attitudes to domestic abuse are changing only very slowly in the country, with families often reluctant to be seen to be interfering in a daughter's marriage. Now a new short film, Band Baaja Bitiya (Hindi for "a wedding band and a daughter") is setting out to push the pace of change. Geeta Pandey, Women and Social Affairs Editor for BBC India, looked into thetrue story that inspired the film. In February this year, a Kenyan woman called Joy, who was a 19-year-old student at the time, discovered that she was at the center of a viral video circulating on the  social media platform, TikTok. In it, she's approached  by a man who says he's from Russia and their interaction is secretly filmed by him. Several other similar clips of women were shared widely online. The creator of the videos had been promoting himself online as a so-called pickup coach and his content has proved extremely popular. But for many of the women, these videos have had real life consequences. Mungai Ngige from the BBC's Disinformation Unit investigated. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presenter: Faranak Amidi. Producer: Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson Presented by Faranak Amidi. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

The week began with a threat from US President Donald Trump that a ‘whole civilisation would die’, and it ended with peace talks. We bring together people from across the Middle East to share their experiences of the past few days. We hear from Iranians in the UK tracking explosions near their family homes in Iran, and Israelis divided by the latest ceasefire. With peace talks due to get underway this weekend in Pakistan, the US Vice President, JD Vance, described the ceasefire as a ‘fragile truce’. Meanwhile, as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there is ‘no ceasefire in Lebanon’ we hear from people in the country where air strikes have intensified.

Four astronauts have travelled further from Earth than anyone ever before. It is part of the Artemis II mission, which saw humans go to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. Listeners have been sending us questions and in this episode of What in the World we put them to two former Nasa astronauts, Steve Swanson and Nicole Stott.

Freddie was once signed to a major record label. He appeared in high-production music videos and looked set for fame. But the pressure and pace of that life left him feeling hollow. In one of the world’s busiest cities, he now follows a very different path - one built on silence, discipline, and spiritual growth. Freddie reflects on his decision to leave the music industry behind and embrace Buddhism. He now works as a nail technician and shares how his beliefs shape his daily life. Alongside him is Carl, his partner, who offers moving insights into how their shared values deepen their relationship. The episode captures striking contrasts: the buzz of the city versus the calm of local temples; a nail salon’s chatter against the resonance of monastery chanting. Through honest conversations and ambient recordings, we step into Freddie and Carl’s world, where Buddhist practice offers an anchor amid chaos. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Viktor Orban faces a high-stakes showdown as Peter Magyar takes him on in one of Europe’s most consequential elections in years. A former ally-turned-rival Peter Magyar has built a remarkable momentum in a short time, with polls placing him ahead of the incumbent. Yet victory may still prove elusive within a power structure designed to protect the status quo. In this episode we examine the unequal playing field that is the election machine. We cut through the exuberance of the campaign to distil the messages of the rival camps, Fidesz and Tisza, and explore how the outcome could redefine Hungary’s role in the region. We speak to Amitis Sedghi, Rita Palfi and Zsofia Paulikovics.

***Contains descriptions of scenes which some may find upsetting*** Hilik Magnus is Israel’s foremost search and rescue specialist. He has performed missions, public and private, for over 30 years across six continents. He has worked under the radar during disasters such as 2004’s tsunami and 2008’s Mumbai attacks. He has worked with everyone, from grieving families to cartels and the Taliban, all for the simple purpose of returning people to where they belong. The start, in the 1990s, was simple. His operating base was an abandoned train carriage in the southern desert of Israel with three telephones and a dial-up connection. Hilik did not know what awaited him. All he knew was that he felt a ‘shlichut’ – ‘higher purpose’ in Hebrew – to help save lives, to return the unburied to their grieving families. Now, he opens up about this secretive world, and talks frankly about his origins and values.

Albania has had many different faces over the last hundred years. Once ruled by the Ottomans, it became a kingdom before turning into a totalitarian communist state after the Second World War. During this time, no one was allowed in or out; all private property became state-owned, and bunkers sprang up across the country. After the fall of the communist regime, Albania descended into chaos. In 1996, a pyramid scheme that three quarters of the population had paid into, collapsed. People lost everything, and the country, especially the south, erupted into violence. These days, Albania is aiming to shake off its past and transform its reputation from a country marked by corruption to one known for luxury tourism. With its miles of unspoilt beaches, snow capped mountains, and olive groves that could rival anything Greece has to offer, it’s unsurprising that it’s quickly attracting investors. Among them are Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who are hoping to build a resort on an island off the coast of Vlorë. They have visited the secluded beaches of Zvërnec and Nartë; currently home only to endangered monk seals, sea turtles, and a few sheep. They, like others, hope to benefit from new government incentives to build luxury 5 star plus resorts. However, ghosts of Albania’s communist past remain. Land disputes, allegations of corruption, and a lack of infrastructure could derail these resorts before they’ve even broken ground. For Assignment, Emily Wither travels to Albania to find out whether it will be able to re-brand itself, and whether its dream of luxury escapism will become a reality. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Pink tomato ice cream decorated with edible poppy flowers feature on the summer menu created by chef Rodolfo Guzman for his celebrated Santiago restaurant Borago. Jane Chambers hears how the menu celebrates native Chilean plants like wild mountain coconuts.

M People star Andrew Lovell’s home life hid a terrible – yet beautiful – secret. It would take him decades to find out the truth. At the height of his fame, drummer Andrew ‘Shovell’ Lovell had everything he’d dreamed of: sex, drugs and regular appearances at the top of the charts with the dance music band M People. But sell-out shows, first-class travel and five-star hotels couldn’t stop the questions gnawing away at him. As a mixed-race kid growing up in a white family in south London he wanted to know: who were his birth parents? Why had they given him up?

The global activities of the Islamic State group are now believed to be run from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in the north-east of Somalia, where IS fighters are entrenched in the caves and harsh mountainous terrain of the area. But many locals there do not support IS and are committed to fighting back against the group. For BBC News Somali, Sahnun Ahmed spent time embedded with the Puntland Defence Force, one of the groups resisting the militants, and witnessed the operations of their fighters, including one female fighter determined her children will not grow up in the shadow of IS.  Israel is home to around a quarter of a million Iranian Jews, who first began arriving in the country in 1948 and then came in bigger numbers following Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979. Many in the community (including younger generations born in Israel) remain closely connected to their Iranian heritage, while embracing both cultures. The US and Israel's war with Iran, however, has left Iranian Jews in a difficult position, caught between homeland and adopted home. BBC Arabic's Michael Shuval has been talking to Iranian Jews in Israel.

Shark attacks on humans are rare, but they are slowly on the rise in Australia where all our guests are from. In this episode, they share the terrifying moment when they realised they were under attack. For Brett Connellan in New South Wales, it was an encounter with a Great White. “Out of nowhere I get hit with this immense force from my right side and this force was so strong it threw me off my surf board,” he says. “I landed in the water and before I could even look around and figure out what had happened I look down and see this shark biting into my right leg. This for me is that distinct moment when time just stops.” Brett is joined by fellow survivors Justine Barwick and Dave Pearson. Together the share their stories and discuss life, death and why they ultimately feel lucky. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

When Megan Garcia travelled to Rome, she carried with her a mother’s grief. At the Vatican she met the Pope and asked him to pray for her son Sewell, who died last year at the age of 14. In the months after his death, Megan discovered Sewell had been spending hours talking to an artificial-intelligence chatbot, which he believed was a real person for more than a year. He formed a deep emotional attachment to it, confiding in it about his life and feelings. Megan believes that relationship played a part in her son’s death. She is now pursuing legal action against the company behind the chatbot, arguing that safeguards for young users were inadequate. The company disputes the claims. But rather than losing her belief, Megan turned to prayer and devotion to the Virgin Mary, finding comfort in the idea of a mother who also knew the pain of losing a child. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

In India's Gujarat state lies the Little Rann of Kutch, a sprawling salt marsh desert where temperatures soar to 50 degrees Celsius. This harsh landscape is home to the Agariyas, nomadic tribal families who have harvested salt here since the 16th Century. For eight months of every year, they migrate to this harsh environment, living in temporary shacks and pumping briny groundwater into vast pans where it evaporates into gleaming, sturdy crystals. This traditional practice, responsible for 75% of India's salt production, is now under a grave existential threat. Seasonal cycles, predictable for centuries, have become erratic. Unexpected rains and sudden cyclones frequently wash away months of intensive labour, leaving families in mounting debt. Despite providing an essential global commodity, these workers earn three percent of the salt's final value, living without running water or basic sanitation. Hope emerges through innovation and activism. Scientists at the Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research Institute are introducing new types of pan linings and solar-powered pumps to reduce costs and increase yields. Activists like Pankti Jog fight for land rights, healthcare and education, establishing mobile schools in old buses for the next generation. Yet, the future remains a gamble. While some children dream of becoming teachers or police officers, many feel tethered to the salt by heritage and lack of choice.

In 2017, the heir to South Korea’s biggest company is facing jail, leaving it with an uncertain future. After 80 years of business, how did Samsung get here? And how did a deal meant to secure family control of the company go so wrong? We take you behind closed doors inside the billion-dollar deals and the family power struggles that shape global empires. When your relatives are also your business partners, every decision is personal. In these dynasties, the boardroom is not just about profit - it is about survival. A new 10-part series from the BBC World Service. Search for Inheritance: Samsung wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Stephanie was brought up in France in a French family, but her birth parents are Indian – she’s an intercountry adoptee. In the 1980s and 1990s thousands of babies, like Stephanie, were adopted from India into white, western families. Now, inter-country adoption is more regulated, and there’s a recognition that this is a practice open to abuse – several countries have banned it altogether. In France, Stephanie grew up very happily with her adoptive mum and dad. But after they both died, she began to think more about her origins. And she experienced a desire to re-connect with her motherland. In this edition of Assignment, Stephanie journeys into rural India in the state of Maharashtra with journalist, Tanya Datta. Together they attempt to find Stephanie’s birth mother. Along the way, Stephanie discovers she isn’t an ‘absolutely abandoned and destitute child’ found on the roadside as she’s been led to believe her whole life, but was born to an unmarried teenager. Nearly 40 years later, will she find that 50-something woman? This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

On a busy street in Kabul, a young artist steps into traffic wearing a steel sculpture she has shaped around her breasts and buttocks. She calls the piece Armour. Within minutes, a crowd gathers. Days later, death threats force her to flee the country. Today, Afghan artist Kubra Khademi lives in exile in France, creating bold multidisciplinary works that confront patriarchy while reclaiming the female body as a site of power, sexuality and resistance. Drawing on personal history and the cultures she grew up in across Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, her art blends performance, painting and symbolism to challenge deeply rooted taboos around women’s bodies. For her latest series, Origin of the Universe, Khademi paints surreal scenes of women giving birth to animals — images inspired by a story her grandmother once told her about strength and survival. Following her creative process, Sahar Zand joins Khademi in her studio as she paints one of the works, revealing how memory, exile and defiance are transformed into art.

Elana Meyers Taylor became the oldest-ever winner of an individual Winter Olympic gold medal when she won the women’s monobob event in Milan-Cortina, aged 41. It was the American’s sixth Olympic medal, and first gold, having first won a bronze medal in 2010 at the Vancouver Games. She’s the most-decorated black athlete in Winter Olympic history, as well as the mother of two sons – both of whom are deaf. Her eldest son, Nico, also has Down syndrome. In an in-depth interview with More than the Score’s Lee James, Elana discusses her 20-year journey to Olympic gold, and why it’s taken a whole team of people to get there – including receiving invaluable support from the deaf and Down syndrome community. She also discusses her activism for black athletes in winter sports, and reflects on the effect that climate change is already having on her sport. How does she see the future of bobsleigh racing, and what part will she play in it? Every Monday to Friday, More than the Score tells stories beyond the scoresheet from all over the world of sport. From the Winter Olympics to the Super Bowl, the Australian Open to the Diamond League, and netball to Formula 1. For more episodes, follow and subscribe to More than the Score wherever you get your podcasts.

The BBC's Russian service marks its 80th anniversary this week.  In eight decades, it has grown from a short wave radio service to a multimedia operation reaching upwards of 6 million people per week, despite ongoing blocking in Russia. As a 14-year-old boy Oleg Boldyrev discovered BBC Russian on shortwave radio whilst camping with his parents in the woods. He eventually ended up working for the service as a journalist both in London and Moscow. He talks to The Fifth Floor about some of the service's most memorable moments and how the current authorities continue to try to stop their citizens getting access to BBC news.  Indonesia's Makassar Strait is one of the world's busiest shipping routes, with 36,000 ships passing between the islands of Sulawesi and Kalimantan annually. Beneath the surface, the area was once home to thriving corals. But by the early 2000s, the ecosystem was under threat of dying out completely as a result of coral damage caused by ship collisions, anchors and fishing practices. BBC Indonesian's Lesthia Kertopati explains how a group of young, predominantly female divers is setting out to restore the coral.

Lebanon’s citizens are again caught under fire. As many as a million people are displaced as they search for a place of safety and there are fears of a major humanitarian crisis. The attacks are being carried out by Israel, which says it is targeting Hezbollah – an Iranian-backed militia and political party. The fighting has resumed as part of the wider conflict across the Middle East. Israel says its aim is to stop Hezbollah attacking communities in northern Israel. In our conversations, families in Lebanon share their experiences, once again, of living under attack and being on the move to stay safe.

Islamic religious practice is deeply entwined with sound, from the call to prayer to memorising the Quran; learning to recite the holy text is very much an oral tradition relying on listening and repetition. All this poses a unique challenge for deaf Muslims. In November 2025, a group of pilgrims from the United Kingdom travelled to Mecca for Umrah, supported throughout in British Sign Language. Through reflections from presenter Zainam Bostan and pilgrims, the programme explores faith, belonging and accessibility, and asks what changes when religious teaching is explained visually, not only heard. The programme follows them from the first sight of the Kaaba to the press of the crowds during Tawaf.

Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest serving prime minister. He was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the year after the State of Israel was founded. One of three brothers, Netanyahu spent much of his early years in the United States pursuing his education. But following his older brother’s death, Netanyahu found himself drawn into a career in the public eye. Using his military experience to advise on security matters, in 1984 Netanyahu became Israel’s Ambassador to the UN and established himself as a champion of Israel on the international stage. He returned to Israel and entered the world of politics; in 1993, he became the leader of the Likud party, and was elected prime minister in 1996, a position he has held for much of the following decades. Mark Coles profiles the longest-serving Israeli prime minister.

Lying off the south-eastern coast of Africa, Madagascar has been pushed into crisis by a deadly combination of climate change, poverty and environmental degradation. In 2021, more than 1.6 million people faced acute food insecurity, while nearly half of all children under five were chronically malnourished.m Women and children are the most vulnerable, despite the fact that women produce around 80% of the country’s food yet own less than 10% of the land. Journalist Georgie Styles travels from the war-like scenes and dust-choked streets of Ambovombe, the capital of the Androy region, to the windswept farms of the Tsimananada commune. Along the way, she meets women from across Madagascar who are defying famine and patriarchal norms, experimenting with agro-ecological farming and adapting to a rapidly changing climate, determined not just to survive, but to reclaim their land and their future.

Eels are a popular food in parts of Asia, but they can’t be commercially bred in captivity. Coupled with trade bans to protect the highly endangered fish, this has led to baby eels becoming one of the most trafficked creatures in the world. BBC Eye and DOCDAYS investigate this global trade from the rivers of the UK to Haiti, Poland and Russia. We’re in the UK where the last remaining eel trader in the country has a licence to export baby eels to stock a conservation project in Russia. But questions have been raised over whether this is really what’s going on. We visit an investigative journalist in Poland who’s been looking into these exports to Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. With access to a member of an organised crime gang from Hong Kong, we hear how smugglers evade the French authorities to export baby eels to Asia. We also visit the Caribbean where a new and booming demand for glass eels is having a big impact on communities and politics in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A co-production from DOCDAYS Productions and BBC Eye Investigations.

Brenda and John Romero are towering figures in modern game development, creators whose work has shaped how millions of players experience digital worlds. From their base in Galway on Ireland's west coast, the couple continue to push their craft into new territory. Presenter and long‑time gaming fan Kurt Brookes follows the Romeros as they embark on another major project, an ambitious game that brings together a large team of artists, designers and developers. Kurt gains rare access to the creative heartbeat of the studio, witnessing the intensity, imagination and unpredictability that come with building a game at scale. What drives two industry legends to keep reinventing themselves after decades at the forefront of their field? And what does it take to steer a project through an ever‑shifting landscape? An intimate, behind‑the‑scenes portrait of creativity, resilience and the relentless pull of making something new

Cuba is facing one of its most severe humanitarian crises in decades. For years, Cuba relied heavily on oil from Venezuela. Those supplies have largely stopped, contributing to widespread fuel shortages. Electricity blackouts have become increasingly common, disrupting daily life across the country. The United States has blocked fuel shipments to Cuba as part of wider pressure linked to its economic and political policies. Meanwhile, the Cuban government has warned it will resist any external interference in its domestic affairs. With economic strain growing and living conditions worsening, this week on The Inquiry, we’re asking: ‘Is the revolution in Cuba over?’ Contributors Lillian Guerra, professor of Cuban and Caribbean history at the University of Florida, US Ricardo Torres, research fellow at American University, US Christopher Sabatini, senior research fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, UK Renata Segura, programme director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group, US The Inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world, for more episodes, just search 'The Inquiry' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producer: Matt Toulson Researcher: Evie Yabsley Editor: Tom Bigwood

Nepal has just held a historic election — one that has toppled the old political guard and swept a new generation of leaders into power, many backed by Gen Z voters. The elections were called after young people took to the streets to protest against corruption and a political class which was slow to change. But the protest of 8 September 2025 got out of hand and the police struggled to maintain order. It resulted in the death of 19 young protesters. The following day, more protests led to the fall of the government. Drawing on more than 4000 videos filmed on the streets, testimony from police and protesters and an exclusive leaked record of police radio, Subina Shrestha reveals how Nepali authorities lost control of this protest. And ask - did Nepal’s police, army and politicians fail a generation desperate for change? This was an investigation for BBC Eye and Assignment. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

On 18th December 2025, the offices of two of Bangladesh's biggest newspapers, The Daily Star and Prothom Alo, were surrounded by mobs, attacked and set on fire. At The Daily Star, journalists were forced to take shelter on the roof of the building as smoke billowed through the lift shaft. They were rescued hours later by the military and many required hospital treatment. The BBC's Soutik Biswas went to Dhaka to talk to journalists caught up in the violence and to investigate the social media posts that may have driven it. Hallyu, or the Korean wave, is what South Koreans call the international success of TV shows like Squid Game and K-Pop Demon Hunters. The phenomenon has grown exponentially since the 1990s, encompassing South Korean music, TV, drama, food and cosmetics. Boy band BTS have been central to the Hallyu craze since they got together in 2010. Their decision to go on hiatus so they could complete their military service sparked debate in South Korea. Now, as they prepare for a huge return concert in Seoul, Suhnwook Lee of BBC Korean joins the online queue for tickets. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts. Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India. If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Irena Taranyuk Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo:Irena Taranyuk.)

The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed by Iran for more than a fortnight, preventing vital supplies of oil and gas from leaving the Middle East and sending global fuel prices soaring. Some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas is usually carried through the narrow corridor by around 3000 ships a month. Iran has targeted ships in the area, and it is estimated that over 20 vessels have been hit and at least eight people killed. We bring together sailors to share their experiences of navigating the Strait of Hormuz. After President Trump said oil tanker crews should show “some guts” and continue to sail through the Strait, we also bring together seafarer organisations concerned for the welfare of their members stuck on ships in the Gulf.

Yoga is an ancient practice with its roots in Hinduism. It originated over 5,000 years ago in northern India, but for many, has now evolved from a spiritual path into the wellness practice known globally. In the West, millions now do yoga as a form of exercise and wellbeing. It is an industry thought to be worth tens of billions of dollars. But as it has boomed, yoga has been interpreted in new and sometimes controversial ways. What has been dubbed 'Christian yoga' has gained loyal supporters, who say it helps them reconnect body and soul. But not everyone agrees. Some within the Hindu faith argue that Christian yoga risks stripping an ancient practice of its religious roots. Then, there are Christians who say the practice is “not of Jesus”. Megan Lawton meets teachers of Christian yoga and those who don't believe yoga and Christianity can ever be compatible. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

The war in Iran through the eyes of the Islamic Republic, and how Tehran’s restrictions on information went full throttle. The Global Jigsaw looks under the bonnet of the machinery that shapes official narratives and controls the media in Iran. And we revisit the turbulent first days of the war as they unfolded on national TV, from the death of Ayatollah Khamenei to the surprise apology by President Pezeshkian and the rise of a new Supreme Leader. Producer: Kriszta Satori, Barry Sadid, Krassi Ivanova Twigg Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham

India is revolutionising its approach to space exploration. Science journalist Alok Jha follows preparations for the country’s first human spaceflight mission. For decades, India focused its space programme on limited, inexpensive projects directly benefiting its citizens, such as weather satellites and communications networks. Now, the most ambitious mission yet is underway: India will send humans into space. Alok Jha speaks to people at the heart of this radical shift to understand how it’s happening and what’s driving it. Dr Madhavan Nair, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) takes us inside the room where it all began, a high-stakes one-to-one meeting with the prime minister of the time. We relive tense moments of ISRO’s famous Mars mission with its Science Director, Dr Seetha Somasundaram. Indian-American astronaut Anil Menon counts down to his own launch. We visit India’s leading rocket company to witness a start-up boom.

Architect Mariam Issoufou has always been very ambivalent about museums: "Who decided that the only way to look at art is inside this intimidating, grand building, full of looted objects? For me, they are where history goes to die". So she was sceptical about accepting the job of designing a new museum in the city of Tambacounda, Senegal. Will she succeed in creating a museum that breaks the mould? With thanks to Mariam Issoufou and her team, Bassem and Wassim Shaaban, Professor Harriet Harriss PhD, Professor Lesley Lokko OBE, the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and Nicholas Fox Weber

On Sunday, many of the film industry’s biggest stars will gather in Los Angeles for Hollywood’s biggest night: the 98th annual Academy Awards. Looming over the celebrations are some major upheavals in Hollywood: big corporate mergers, the incursion of AI, and mass layoffs. And it’s against that backdrop that the Oscars are increasingly nominating films, filmmakers, and actors from elsewhere in the world. BBC film reporter and critic Tom Brook explains how the Oscars went global, and what it can tell us about the status of American soft power. The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. Producers: Xandra Ellin and Valerio Esposito Executive producer: James Shield Mix: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins Photo: Workers make preparations for the 98th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles Credit: Reuters / Caroline Brehman

Night trains are making a comeback, once again connecting Europe’s cities with the promise of green, serene and iconic journeys. Just a decade ago, it appeared to be the end of the line for the continent’s sleeper services. But revitalised routes, new operators and innovative cabin designs have sparked renewed excitement around overnight train travel. Yet even as demand from passengers continues to boom, an array of obstacles puts the revival at risk. A number of major new routes have already hit the buffers, and entrepreneurial sleeper train operators face a host of challenges. Is a European night train renaissance simply a nostalgic pipedream, or is it full steam ahead? Speaking to railway operators, innovators and industry insiders, Jack Butcher rides the rails to find out.

The United States and Israel have now been at war with Iran for two weeks, since 28th February. In that time, there have been over 1200 civilian deaths in Iran, including 168, most of them children, at a girls’ school in Minab, central Iran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who had ruled Iran for over forty years, was killed on the first day of the war. There have been wider casualties throughout the region. Iran has fired missiles at neighbouring countries, including Dubai, Kuwait, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Israel. For journalists at BBC Persian, reporting on the war from outside of the country has been incredibly difficult. The internet has been shut down on the 90 million people living inside Iran, making it difficult for people to get information on what is happening round them and which locations are being hit by bombing. It is also extremely difficult for Iranians outside the country to contact those inside. BBC Persian's Ghoncheh Habibiazad and Taraneh Fathalian; and BBC Monitoring's Sarbas Nazari, discuss what is known about the situation within Iran. This edition was recorded on 12th March 2026. The Fifth Floor is at the heart of global storytelling on the BBC World Service, bringing you the best stories from journalists in the BBC's 43 language services. We're here to help you make sense of the stories making headlines around the world; to excite your curiosity and to get to grips with the facts.   Recent episodes have investigated Russia’s youth armies and how they make soldiers of Ukrainian children; featured the BBC team who were the first journalists to the site of the Nigerian school kidnappings and reflected the effects of internet blackouts in Iran, Uganda and India.   If you want to know more about Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, and the legacy of Hugo Chavez; or how Vladimir Putin’s network of deep cover spies operates; or why Donald Trump signed an executive order granting white South Africans asylum in the US, we have all those stories and more. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Caroline Ferguson and Laura Thomas (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Motor racing is one of the few sports where men and women can – in theory – compete on equal terms. But you wouldn’t think that from looking at almost any race. Only one in 10 drivers in motorsport are women and most compete in karting, the category of racing where professional drivers tend to begin their careers. The last woman to take part in an F1 race was Italy’s Lella Lombardi, and that was 50 years ago. To increase the pool of female drivers and return women to the top ranks of motor racing, F1 Academy was set up. In our conversation, three F1 Academy drivers – Rachel Robertson, Alba Larsen and Esmee Kosterman – share their experiences of speed, ambition and the sexism they have often faced from boys they have raced against.

Why would someone live publicly nude for their faith? In parts of India, Jain monks belonging to the Digambara sect permanently renounce all possessions, including clothes. These monks walk naked for hundreds of miles across India as part of their spiritual journey. Journalist Rajesh Joshi explores this unique spiritual practice, meeting fully fledged monks and disciples on the path to total nudity. While walking with them across the countryside, Rajesh learns about the danger these monks face, and he speaks to villagers to find out what they think of these naked monks whose numbers have unexpectedly grown in recent years. We also speak to female Jain followers to understand how they feel about the nudity they witness.

What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate”, tens of thousands of women and children from around the world - followers of the Islamic State group as well as its victims - ended up in a handful of camps in north-eastern Syria. Once run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, those camps are now in the process of being closed down by the Syrian authorities. This series from the Global Jigsaw explores the trauma that led to the prolonged existence of the camps and what the future might hold for their residents. In part three, we discuss justice and rehabilitation, as well as where the latest dramatic events leave the story. Contributors: Mina al-Lami, Barry Marston, Clare Denning, Samia Hosny, Mohammed al-Jumaily, Bryn Windsor Producer: Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham

What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate”, tens of thousands of women and children from around the world - followers of the Islamic State group as well as its victims - ended up in a handful of camps in north-eastern Syria. Once run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, those camps are now in the process of being closed down by the Syrian authorities. This three-part series from the Global Jigsaw explores the trauma that led to their prolonged existence and how it might affect their future. In part two, we examine where governments are drawing the line on repatriation, from Britain’s tough stance to Kazakhstan’s model of success. Contributors: Mina al-Lami, Jiyar Gol, Barry Marston, Clare Denning, Mohammed Al-Jumaily, Bryn Windsor Producer: Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham

What next for the Syrian detention camps and their residents? After the fall of the so-called “caliphate", tens of thousands of women and children from around the world - followers of the group as well as its victims - ended up in a handful of camps in north-eastern Syria. Once run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, those camps are now in the process of being closed down by the Syrian authorities. This three-part series from The Global Jigsaw explores the trauma that led to the prolonged existence of these camps and what the future might hold for their residents. In part one, we zoom in on the tent city of al-Hol. Contributors: Mina al-Lami, Jiyar Gol, Barry Marston, Mohammed Al-Jumaily Producer: Kriszta Satori, Elchin Suleymanov Presenter: Krassi Ivanova Twigg Music: Pete Cunningham

No one wants to do Major Serhiy Laziuk’s job. He travels from house to house in Lviv, western Ukraine, bringing families news of their loved ones at the front who are killed or missing in action. ‘I tell them I have a sealed letter, that I must deliver by hand,’ he says. Then he arrives at the door to break the news. Serhiy has delivered hundreds of notifications, often three or four a day. Small wonder that Ukraine is in a military recruitment crisis, with many men of fighting age asking for exceptions, or hiding in their houses. ‘Mykola’ hasn’t been outside for a year and a half for fear of the draft. He and his wife sent their teenage son out of Ukraine in 2022 at the start of the full scale invasion. Of course they want Ukraine to win the war, they say. But the price of sacrificing father or son is too high. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Bright geometric shapes make the graffiti work of Kenyan artist Wise Two really stand out. Michael Kaloki tracks how his bold style is evolving as he travels to Mexico where. he says, street art is more widely accepted than in Nairobi, a city where he tends to paint murals in densely populated districts like Kibera and Jericho. On this trip to Mexico, Wise Two has started using a more varied colour palette and not just the traditional primary colours of Maasai masks he was known for. He is also using gold leaf on smaller canvases and abstract shapes on a tricky commission to paint cylindrical air-conditioning vents, not the usual flat surface which graffiti artists decorate. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

The "Yunarmiya" or 'Youth army' is a movement that was founded in January 2016 by the Russian government. In total, more than 1.8 million children in Russia have joined the movement. As of May 2025, more than 120,000 Youth Army graduates served in the Russian army and other security forces. The Youth Army is also actively recruting Ukrainian children in occupied regions of the country. This began in parts of Ukraine even before Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, in places like Crimea and Donbas. The children are taught to sing the Russian national anthem; kiss the Russian flag; dig trenches and handle guns. Zhanna Bezpiatchuk of BBC Ukrainian has been looking into how these Youth Armies operate in occupied regions of Ukraine. Simon Bolivar was a nineteenth century soldier and statesman who led six countries - Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Panama - to independence from the Spanish empire and earned himself the title of ‘El Libertador’, the liberator. He left a huge legacy in South America and is still considered by many as a revolutionary hero. Growing up in Venezuela, Juan Alosno of BBC Mundo was very familiar with Bolivar's mythology, because it was taught to him in school. Even as a child, there were a couple of details that just didn't stack up for him.... so he set out to investigate. At the end of January this year, 6 people were caned in public for violating Sharia law in Aceh, Indonesia. Caning is a common punishment for breaking Islamic law in religiously conservative Aceh, although the practice has drawn criticism from rights groups who say it's cruel. Aceh has a unique identity within Indonesia, and is the only part of the country to practice Sharia. Astudestra Ajengrastri of BBC Indonesian explains Aceh's history and why it chooses to be different from the rest of Indonesia. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Five Iranians join presenter James Reynolds in the Naroon Persian restaurant in central London to share their experiences. In our conversation over dinner, our guests discuss the war, what it is like to be so far from home, fears for family and friends in Iran and their hopes for the future of the country. “One of the things we can all relate to is a big sense of survivor’s guilt,” Rahah tells us. Many people who have left Iran tend to oppose the regime and it is difficult to gauge how much support the government has. One Dutch study suggested it is around 20% of the population and our guests discuss why they decided to leave and what they miss about home

In 2014, Tareena Shakil, then 24, made a decision that would change her life forever. She secretly left the UK, telling her family she was on holiday, and travelled with her young son to Syria to join the Islamic State group. Within months she found herself in the heart of the extremist stronghold and later fled to Turkey before returning to the UK, where she was arrested and became one of the first British women to be convicted for membership of Isis and encouraging terrorism. Shakil was sentenced to six years in prison but was released after serving half her term. In the years since, she has publicly expressed regret for her actions, accepted responsibility for lying about her journey when first questioned by police, and described her experience as a time when she “lost her way”. Rajeev Gupta meets Tareena in Birmingham as she reflects on a path that took her from belief to extremism. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from Heart and Soul, exploring personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

*** This episode contains scenes of violence and descriptions you may find upsetting *** Eyewitnesses from a city in Iran describe how armed forces loyal to the Islamic regime killed countless protesters in a lethal crackdown on demonstrations earlier this year. Seen through the eyes of people who were in Isfahan, this programme pieces together a snapshot of events from the 8-9 January. That is when huge numbers of people took to the streets to protest decades of oppression and call for an end to the Islamic Republic. Thousands of people across the country were killed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's armed forces. The regime blamed the bloodshed on what it called rioters and street terrorists backed by the country's enemies. The UN has called for an independent investigation. However, any prospect of clarity about what happened is at risk of being overshadowed by the current conflict engulfing Iran. The first waves of US and Israeli military strikes on Iran killed Ali Khamenei. There are reports of hundreds of civilian casualties too on a population that’s already paid a heavy human price for standing up to the regime.

A near-pristine desert wilderness on southern Africa’s remote Atlantic coast in Namibia could host a huge green hydrogen development, raising hope for wealth and desperately needed jobs. Supporters say it could help tackle youth unemployment, which is among the highest in the world. But there are big questions about what the plan will mean for people and wildlife living nearby. The development would take place next to a national park that is home to rare plants and animals. Conservationists warn it could damage fragile desert habitats and put pressure on the coastal ecosystem. Johannes Dell travels to the port town of Lüderitz and the surrounding desert to hear from the people who would live with the changes.

For 14 years, while Syria was divided by civil war, Kurds in the north-east of the country tried to build a new democratic society, with equality for men and women – an inspiration for feminists around the world. But now, the Kurdish autonomous area, Rojava, is coming back under the control of a central government that’s now run by former Islamists. Reporter Tim Whewell asks whether Rojava’s rare social experiment - including all-women fighting units – will survive? He interviews Kurdish women, including the young co-mayor of one of the area’s main cities, who’s determined to continue her work, and learns about the origins of Rojava’s unusual system. He also talks to a woman who says she and her family witnessed the killing in January this year of unarmed Kurdish men, by fighters supporting the central government. As such allegations multiply, many Kurds are nervous about their future in a united Syria. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Shan Ng follows acclaimed Hong Kong and Taiwan cinematographer Kwan Pun Leung as he creates a new music video, Fragile Love. Known for his work on landmark films including In the Mood for Love and 2046, Kwan has built a reputation for crafting deeply poetic and emotionally resonant images. Across a career spanning decades, Kwan has developed a distinctive creative philosophy that places intuition and responsiveness at the centre of cinematography. Rather than focusing solely on the technical, he views film-making as a collaborative process with actors, directors and the natural environment. Light, movement and atmosphere are not simply tools but his partners in shaping meaning. For him, cinematography is not simply about capturing reality, but allowing unexpected moments to shape the emotional language of the frame.

On 25 February 1986 the Philippines, Asia’s oldest democracy peacefully took control of its destiny. Ferdinand Marcos, a democratically elected president-turned dictator, who remains accused of widespread graft and human rights abuses, had gambled on one too many rigged elections. After days of mounting protests and the defection of the military to the opposition, Marcos and his family were ejected from their gilded palace in Manila. These events have since been named the People Power Revolution. The uprising ushered in a return to constitutional democracy, guardrails on executive power, and a new constitution that redistributed power from Manila to local governments across the 7,500-island archipelago. It was also supposed to seal the fate of the Marcoses once and for all: permanent exile in Hawaii. Forty years on, not only are the Marcoses back, but they’re arguably stronger than ever. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr, is now president, with his sister, son, and various cousins in Congress. It’s a far cry from the Philippines of 1986, when the post-revolution state vowed ‘never again’ to let any Marcos near the halls of power.

On the 3rd of January this year, Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, was removed from office by a US military intervention. He was flown to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking and partnering with terrorist groups, charges he denies. His leadership and that of his predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez saw Venezuela move from being an oil rich, prosperous country to a country which was heavily sanctioned and under investigation by the International Criminal Court. Maduro's Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, has now succeeded him as acting president. Some Venezuelans feel that she represents only continuity with Chavismo, the political system Hugo Chavez created. Others feel that Rodriguez will be forced to adapt in order to survive. Jorge Perez and Alicia Hernandez of BBC Mundo have been following what is happening in Venezuela closely. Snow leopards are beautiful, yet elusive creatures. They like to live high up in snowy mountains, including certain areas in the Indian Himalayas. A group of women in one of India's coldest and most remote regions have joined the efforts to conduct a snow leopard census, using camera traps to count the big cats and protect them and their habitat. Ashay Yedge of BBC Marathi recently traveled to the world's second-highest village to speak to them about their work. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Irena Taranyuk Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Irena Taranyuk)

When the film I Swear won three Bafta awards, what happened at the ceremony prompted a much bigger story and wider discussion. The film portrays the life of John Davidson who grew up with Tourette syndrome – the incurable condition, which causes sudden, repetitive sounds or movements. During the awards, Davidson shouted out an involuntary racial slur, which was picked up by microphones and broadcast. In a statement, Davidson said he was "deeply mortified” and that the tics, as they are known, were involuntary and did not carry any meaning. In our conversations, we bring together two black Americans with Tourette’s. They share their experiences, including dealing with the police. We also bring together three people in the UK to give an insight into their lives with Tourette’s.

Concert pianist Yirui Weng, 32, grew up in a communist, atheist family in China, where religion played no part in her life. Music, however, always did. As a gifted young pianist, she immersed herself in the great works of Western classical music. When Yirui moved to Italy to pursue her musical studies, curiosity began to replace indifference. While playing Vivaldi’s Gloria, she found herself drawn not just to the beauty of the music, but to its unfamiliar language: “Lamb of God”, “Son of the Father”. What did these words mean and why had composers been inspired by them for centuries? After meeting a Chinese priest in Milan, Yirui began attending catechism classes and encountered the teachings of Jesus for the first time. In 2023, Yirui was baptised. John Laurenson travels to Rome to meet Yirui Weng. She reflects on her journey of faith and explores a deeper question: why is music such a powerful and universal expression of belief?

This week marks four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Ukraine has put its official losses at 55,000 soldiers, and the BBC has verified the deaths of more than 180,000 on the Russian side, although the true toll is likely to be much higher. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed or wounded, and millions have been displaced. The BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen, travels through Ukraine, speaking to people living on the front line, to soldiers, and to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, about what they would concede, if anything, for a peace deal with Russia. The Global Story brings clarity to politics, business and foreign policy in a time of connection and disruption. For more episodes, just search 'The Global Story' wherever you get your BBC Podcasts.

Aged 16, coming out of an audition, budding British actor Dan Whitlam was caught up in a fight with a group of boys in London. He was stabbed twice in the back with a screwdriver. The wound pierced and collapsed his lung. The physical scars healed quickly but the mental ones took a lot longer. For years Dan battled with panic attacks and anxiety. He was plagued with worries that his lung had collapsed again, his father became his chaperone as he was afraid to walk the streets alone. Two years later, Dan met his attacker as part of a restorative justice programme, and while he got the apology he needed the panic attacks and fear continued. What helped him was writing about that day. He told the story of the stabbing through poetry and added to it a new narrative, one that painted his attacker in a kinder light. He wanted to humanise him, make him less of a monster and show that there is more than one side to each of us. Dan has gone on to perform this poem hundreds of times and earned himself a huge following for his work as a spoken word artist and musician. He writes primarily for what he calls a lost generation – young adults who grew up in an age of social media, digital natives who are inundated with options, comparisons and aspirations. He also now writes a lot about love. Dan's poetry collection is called I Don't Want To Settle. He will be on tour in Europe and the US in November. The presenter is Jo Fidgen. Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected.

Not that long ago many church-going Americans saw Russia as a godless place, an “evil empire” in the words of Ronald Reagan. But in President Trump’s second term, US-Russia relations have been turned on their head. Last year, the White House sided with the Kremlin at the United Nations, voting against a resolution to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This seismic shift is also being felt in parishes across America. Increasing numbers of US Catholics and Protestants are embracing Eastern Orthodoxy. Many converts disillusioned by the showbiz elements in many megachurches, say they are drawn to a faith with enduring traditions. Some, uneasy with social and demographic change, believe the churches they were raised in have lost their authority by going “woke” – shorthand for supporting equal marriage, female clergy, pro-choice, Black Lives Matter and other liberal issues. Some converts have hundreds of thousands of followers online, and push Kremlin narratives that Russia is the world's last bastion of true Christianity - a few of the most radical have even emigrated there. Last year, Lucy Ash went to Texas – one of the most religious states in the US – to meet some new converts. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

In Christopher Nolan’s 2010 blockbuster Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio’s protagonist is paid to implant an idea into a target’s subconscious. If you look the film up, its genre is listed as being ‘science fiction’ - but could that soon have to be revised? Dream engineering is an experimental new field - with scientists, dream researchers and engineers pursuing the goal of influencing our thoughts as we sleep. For some, the idea holds the promise of a bright future, with benefits for our memories, creativity and wellbeing. On the other hand, though, the ethical issues it causes amid the unregulated world of an emerging technology have led to warnings of a future where our very dreams could be for sale. Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Dan Welsh With special thanks to The MIT Museum, Seth Riskin, The Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard Library, The Trustees of the E. E. Cummings Trust, Dr. Suzanne Fairless-Aitken at Bloodaxe Books Credits: Tomas Tranströmer, New Collected Poems, tr. Robin Fulton (Bloodaxe Books, 2011) E. E. Cummings, Xaipe (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1997) In The Dream Makers, Anand Jagatia investigates the fascinating potential and developing concerns over what the future of dream engineering could hold.

Jason Gilkison has for the past 10 years been the creative force behind the UK's top rating TV show, Strictly Come Dancing, better known around the world as Dancing with the Stars. Jason is an eight-time World Choreographer nominee who has become internationally renowned for his work creating dance spectaculars for the small screen. Katie Derham talks to Jason about his journey from professional dancer to becoming one of the world’s top – and most watched – choreographers. TV director Nikki Parsons explains how she and Jason collaborate to translate dance on to the small screen and the particular challenges of choregraphing for the TV cameras. And costume designer Vicky Gill describes the importance of designing costumes that catch the eye. Plus, we go behind the scenes as Jason puts the dancers through their paces to create a showstopper for the final of Strictly Come Dancing 2025.

The 24th of February will be the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Irena Taranyuk is joined by several of her BBC Ukrainian colleagues to talk about people who are continuing to fight and live in the country. Victoria Kalimbet talks about her pride of her home city, Kharkiv, one of the most attacked Ukrainian cities in the war. Nataliia Patrikieieva explains how dating has changed in Ukraine, as so many of the population are fighting on the frontlines. Vitaly Shevchenko, Russia editor at BBC monitoring and presenter of Ukrainecast, tells us about how some Ukrainians attempt to 'decatastrophise' the war, and his investigation into what is happening in his grandmother's house in occupied Zaporizhia region. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Irena Taranyuk Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson

Just before dawn on 24 February 2022, Russia launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine. Since then, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands on both sides have been killed. We hear from families of fighters, civilians and journalists about their loved ones and the impact on those left behind. “Our son was so tiny when his father was killed and it was really hard to tell him what happened,” Inna tells us. Other guests include Nastya, who shares the music she wrote in memory of her father, and Helen whose talented daughter never realised her dreams. We also feature music from Vitaliy and his friend Andriy. And we hear about two journalists who lost their lives reporting on the war.

Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom is a unique community located on a hilltop between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where Jewish and Palestinian families have lived together since the late 1970s. Journalist Mike Lanchin first visited the community in the early 1980s when there was just a handful of Jews and Palestinian families living in makeshift houses poking out from the scrub land. Now, it boasts a fully bilingual-binational day school - the first of its kind – with children coming from the surrounding area, as well as a conflict resolution centre visited by Palestinians and Jews. Facilitators from the centre host inter-faith workshops outside the community. More than 40 years after its establishment, Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom today faces some of its most testing times following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. Mike has been speaking to residents, young and old, about what the future now holds for this cross-community experiment.

Greenlandic parents across Denmark are fighting to be reunited with their children who were taken into care after authorities used ‘parenting competency tests’ as part of assessments to judge their ability to raise them. After banning the tests for use on Greenlandic people, the Danish government has now pledged to review around 300 cases where a child was forcibly removed from their parents. BBC World Service’s global health reporter Sofia Bettiza hears from those who argue what happened to them was cruel and unjust. She speaks to a Greenlandic mother and father who cannot visit their son anymore because he has been adopted by another family. The programme explores what these parenting competency tests are and why they were used in the first place. The Danish politician in charge of the review explains how their court system gets involved in making custody decisions and why it won’t be possible or appropriate to return every Greenlandic child to their biological parents.

The hottest ticket at this year's Australian Open tennis tournament wasn't to see Novak Djokovic or Iga Swiatek, or even the tournament's eventual winners, Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina. Instead, the longest queues were to watch the world number 49, Alexandra Eala of the Philippines. Her first round match, which she lost, drew thousands of fans to Melbourne Park, with many being left disappointed as they were unable to find a seat on what was one of the smaller courts. In a bonus episode from More than the Score, the BBC World Service podcast that scours the globe to tell stories from beyond the scoresheet, journalists Kate Reyes and Ben Rothenberg talked to Ed Harry where Eala came from, how far she could go, and what her popularity might mean for the future of tennis and sport in the Philippines. Every Monday to Friday, More than the Score tells stories beyond the scoresheet from all over the world of sport. From the Winter Olympics to the Super Bowl, the Australian Open to the Diamond League, and netball to Formula 1. For more episodes, follow and subscribe to More than the Score wherever you get your podcasts.

Chile’s Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on earth – often likened to Mars. It is also home to piles of dumped clothes from fast fashion labels across the world. Because it is so dry nothing decomposes. And that means that clothes ditched 10 to 20 years ago still look recognisable. Sometimes the mountains of clothes are burnt causing toxic fumes which harm the local community of Alto Hospicio. This environmental crisis has been going on for years. It is a complex situation with multiple players involved. But different groups are starting to take action. Jane Chambers travels to the Atacama Desert to meet activists and locals trying to raise awareness. An enormous giant – El Gigante Vestido – is being created in the desert out of used clothes to get people talking. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Producer Jess Brownell takes us behind the scenes of Bridgerton. When the first series of Bridgerton premiered in 2020, it offered a welcome escape, inviting us into a world of high society romance, extravagent period dress, and violin pop covers. It also rewrote the rules of costume drama, with colourblind casting and a decidedly un-buttoned-up approach to sexuality. As the fourth season hits our screens, lead writer Jess Brownell talks us through the process of crafting a love story that will be the talk of the Ton. We also hear from Yerin Ha and Luke Thompson, the stars of this series, about the art of chemistry.

An advert shown during this year’s Super Bowl has prompted a backlash on social media. In the ad, tennis champion Serena Williams promotes a weight loss injection, saying she is "healthier" thanks to the product. Many fans have expressed disappointment that a woman associated with strength and body positivity, is now selling being thinner as the ideal. So, is body positivity out and fat shaming back? In our conversations, we discuss the cultural pressure to lose weight now these drugs, known as GLP-1s, are widely available. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

In April 2022, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, a man in his thirties called Victor Muller Ferreira flew into Amsterdam airport using a Brazilian passport. He was identified by the Dutch authorities as Russian national Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov and immediately sent back to Brazil, where investigations by both the FBI and the Brazilian police identified him as a Russian intelligence officer. He had been living in Brazil, undercover, for years, with a well-developed personal 'legend', or cover story, that included a passion for Forró, a popular Brazilian partner-dance. Cherkasov is currently serving a five year prison sentence in Brazil for identity fraud, and Russia demands his extradition. Leandro Prazeres of BBC News Brazil - who happens to be a big fan of Forró himself - and BBC Russian's Olga Ivshina unpack the story of this 'fake Brazilian' and explore the history and motivations of Russia's network of so-called 'illegals', or deep cover spies. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Irena Taranyuk.)

With the 2026 Winter Olympics well under way in Italy, we look to the most powerful woman in sport - the International Olympics Committee president, Kirsty Coventry. The most decorated African Olympian of all time, the 42-year-old mother-of-two made history as both the first African and the first woman to hold the title when she was elected last year. With seven Olympic medals and several World Records under her belt, she decided to take on a role at the International Olympic Committee, quickly climbing the ranks. Mark Coles examines how she got here.

Millions flock to Spain’s Sagrada Família to marvel at its towering tree-like columns, remarkable displays of light and ornate stonework. One hundred years after the master architect Antoni Gaudí’s death, Spanish journalist Lluís Amiguet explores why so many people, regardless of faith, come to visit a Barcelona church that is still far from finished. Amiguet hears how Gaudí was inspired by what he called “The Great Book Of Nature” and learns how this might have been of particular interest to visitors from Japan who were among the first to come and see Gaudí’s work. He meets Japanese architect Hiroya Tanaka who believes there are secret codes hidden within Gaudi’s plans, talks to Òscar Tusquets who organised a petition for work to stop on the church before suddenly changing his mind and he tours the towers of the world’s tallest church.

For World Radio Day 2026, we visit WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky, one of many small community radio stations in the US existentially threatened by cuts to government funding. At a moment when news has become increasingly polarised, these stations are even more needed, often providing communities with their only source of essential information and emergency warnings. WMMT was founded in 1985 with a mission to “be a voice of mountain people’s music, culture and social issues.” Known to listeners as "Possum Radio" or "Real People Radio," WMMT broadcasts to the coalfield communities of eastern Kentucky and neighbouring Appalachian counties, home to people whose voices are among the least heard in the United States. Station manager Jared Hamilton is scrambling to raise funds to keep it on the air. At this critical moment in America's history, the station is helping to keep the community steady with one foot in Appalachia’s traditions and the other in the future.

Why does President Trump really want Greenland? The Arctic territory is rich in vital minerals and oil. And it hosts an important American military base as the race for dominance in the Arctic heats up between China, Russia and the USA. But drill down beneath Trump's stated reasons and the true picture is less clear. A financier-turned-MAGA operative and his Greenlandic protégé, the small print of right-wing wish list Project 2025, and a penchant for big places on maps might better explain the recent diplomatic crisis. Lucy Proctor delves into the backstory to Trump's insistence on acquiring Greenland.

Els and Jan have fewer than three days left on Earth. Childhood sweethearts who met in kindergarten more than six decades ago, they know precisely when they will die. And how. On an early summer’s Monday morning they will travel to a nearby hospice. Some of their family and friends will accompany them. And then precisely at 10.30am - holding hands, they hope - two doctors will administer lethal medication to each of them. In the Netherlands, euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal if someone is suffering unbearably with no prospect of getting better. The suffering can be physical or psychological. Els was diagnosed with dementia. Jan lived with pain 24/7. Last year, 33 Dutch couples chose to die like Els and Jan. And in February, one of the Netherlands’ former Prime Ministers ended his life by euthanasia together with his wife. For Assignment, Linda Pressly meets Els and Jan as they prepare for the end. And she explores the complex issue of allowing euthanasia in cases of dementia. A warning: some listeners might find the content of this documentary upsetting.

Gaming writer Jordan Erica Webber on the epic task of building a virtual mountain for a prize-winning video game. She hears from the creators and voice actor behind the French game Cairn.

Inspirational NFL stars Leonard Russell, Steve Wright, Jaime Coffee and Chris Poitras, COO of Jostens the jewellers who have made the vast majority of Super Bowl rings. This episode was updated on 9 February 2026 for music rights reasons.

China's population has shrunk, year on year, for four years in a row, pushing a country with a long history of official worry about overpopulation to contemplate a sharp decline in births. BBC China's Yan Chen reflects on the reasons behind the drop and what it will mean for the country and a generation of children growing up now. Three years ago Magerram Zeynalov, who covers Azerbaijan for for BBC News Russian, wrote an article about the fact that six years after the start of the global pandemic, Azerbaijan's land borders remain closed. Since he wrote it, nothing has changed: although Azerbaijan's airspace is open, its land borders remain shut. The Azerbaijani government cites security concerns as the reason; Magerram reflects on the impact a sixth year of closed land borders in "the most stable country in the world." In the Indian state of Maharashtra, tigers are thriving. It's a win for conservationists, but locals living near tiger reserves are concerned about the threat to life. Bhagyashri Raut, who reports for BBC Marathi, explains how a group of mothers have taken matters into their own hands to protect children on their way to school. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

For the first time since May 2024, people have been allowed to cross between Gaza and Egypt through the Rafah crossing – seen by many Palestinians as a lifeline to the world. Israel reopened the border after the body of the last Israeli hostage was returned. So far, only a few of an estimated 20,000 sick and wounded people in the territory have been allowed through for medical treatment abroad. People are also coming back into Gaza but the numbers allowed are also very limited. In our conversations, Gazans share experiences of their daily lives and their plans to see their families again.

Warning: This programme deals with adult themes that may not be suitable for some listeners Criminals are hiding video cameras in hotel rooms across China to secretly film and live stream unsuspecting victims having sex and then selling the footage online. The illegal trade in spycam porn has become a big business, one with devastating consequences for the people whose most intimate moments are made public without their consent. Wanqing Zhang has been hunting the hidden cameras and trying to find those responsible. Can they be stopped?

In Argentina, cloning polo horses is transforming the sport. There are big companies, big profits and big ambitions. Against the backdrop of the Argentine Open, (the crown jewel of the Polo season,) presenter Marnie Chesterton talks to scientists and key figures in this tale of how cloning conquered Polo, and where the genetic interventions are heading.

Former Christian minister Craig Fenter was in the midst of a deep spiritual void when he first picked up a book of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi’s poetry in his local LA bookshop. The writings of Rumi, a 13th-Century Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi mystic have long inspired people across faiths. And Rumi’s poetry on divine love and the soul’s journey toward God would captivate Craig, inspiring him to leave behind his Californian home, to begin a new life as a whirling dervish in Turkey. The BBC’s Emily Wither travelled to meet Craig Fenter, now known as Ismail, in the central Anatolian city of Konya, Rumi’s resting place and an important pilgrimage site for his followers. It is here where Ismail joined the Mevlevi order, became a disciple of Rumi and converted to Islam. Ismail is now working on a new English translation of Rumi’s most famous work, the Masnavi-yi Maʿnavi, 25,000 verses of rhymed couplets in Persian.

How sport is giving some young women in India a way out of child marriage and allowing them to be seen. Officially, the practice of child marriage is illegal in the country. But UNICEF estimates that over 200 million girls and women in India have been married before they turned 18. Take Munna as an example. Her mother was fifteen when she married and Munna herself was only 14 when she was told she would be a child bride. However, she fought back, using football as her weapon. She broke social norms and took up the sport, including wearing shorts on the pitch, and fended off various attempts to marry her off early. Now her rebellion has spread to her youngest sister, who has felt emboldened by her elder sister and has made it to the state football team. Sport has also helped members of a marginalised community - the Siddis, who were originally brought to India from Africa mainly as slaves - to battle against discrimination. For Shahin her route was via judo. Divya Arya reports on how sport is helping some young women to break free from the bonds of early marriage and to forge an identity for themselves. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Matthew Sweet reports from an exhibition in Sweden about American conscripts who sought refuge there during the war in Vietnam. He hears from sound artist Nhung Nguyen and film-maker Esther Johnson about their work on archival documents and extracts from the station known as Liberation Radio. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Can diplomacy alone end the war in Ukraine in the absence of a compromise? After nearly four years of fighting and countless deaths, top diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, the US and Europe have been hard at work trying to hammer out a peace deal. Indeed, this work has produced several multi-point peace plans amid proclamations of “productive talks”, creating the impression that peace is around the corner. The Global Jigsaw compares the Russian and Ukrainian wish lists to reveal two parallel realities of peace that cannot coexist. What are the peace negotiations achieving?

A top Russian archaeologist is currently under arrest in Poland. Alexander Butyagin is waiting for courts to decide on a request from Ukraine for him to be extradited. He is a scholar at the Hermitage, Russia's largest art museum in St Petersburg, and has been digging in an ancient site in Crimea since 1999. Ukrainian authorities claim that he is criminally damaging and looting the site, making the most of Russian occupation, Butyagin himself denies all charges. It is a story that Grigor Atenesian of BBC Russian has been looking into. The Kalbeliya community is a nomadic tribe from Rajasthan in India, known for its distinctive folk music and the Kalbeliya dance form. Traditionally, Kalbeliya families have led a nomadic life, though some have settled permanently over the years. They follow a type of Hinduism in which burial, rather than cremation, is a religious requirement after death. Community members say that even those who are settled often do not have legal access to land for burial, leaving families struggling to perform last rites. Ashay Yegde, who reports for the BBC in India, recently travelled to meet the Kalbeliya to hear their story. AI-generated caricatures of middle-aged men decked out in street wear, clutching an iPhone have gone viral on social media in South Korea. They are being called 'Young 40s' by younger generations. Teasing of an older person is very unusual in South Korea, where age difference, even by a year, forms the basis of social hierarchy. But the Young 40 memes also represent Korean youth's growing scepticism of this reverence for elders. Hyojung Kim of BBC Korean has been looking into the internet phenomenon, and shares what it tells us about South Korean society today. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi Produced by Laura Thomas and Caroline Ferguson (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Over the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have become a visible force on American streets. Accused of using aggressive tactics, they often cover their faces and have cast a shadow of fear over migrant communities. In the city of Minneapolis, some 3000 agents have made hundreds of arrests, and two US citizens have been shot dead. We hear from migrants in the city, including a man arrested by ICE agents, and bring together people in the local community. President Trump was elected on a platform of cutting illegal immigration and, with efforts in recent days to reduce tensions in the State, we also get the perspective from Republican party supporters. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

*** This episode contains distressing content, including references to suicide, drug use, and sexual and violent material *** Mick Fleming turned to drugs to numb the trauma of a childhood shaped by violence and fear. What followed was a life of escalating crime - one that pulled him further from himself and those around him. Then, in the midst of committing a serious offence, Mick experienced an overwhelming light that stopped him in his tracks. That moment marked the beginning of a profound turning point. What followed was not an instant transformation, but a long and difficult journey that eventually led him to the priesthood and later to becoming a bishop. Reporter Shiroma Silva travels to Burnley in the north of England to meet a man who draws inspiration from his own lowest point, when the kindness that sustained him did not come from within the church, but from a homeless man sleeping in a shop doorway.

In April 2026, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban faces fresh parliamentary elections. He has been in power since 2010, and his party's grip on the Hungarian media and civil society means many felt his place in office was permanently secure. However, discontent over allegations of corruption and his brand of "illiberal democracy" has been growing, led by a new challenger, Peter Magyar. His growing party, Tisza, has shown signs of being able to unite wide swathes of Hungary's disjointed opposition, and Orban is suddenly well behind in the polls. Magyar himself is a former member member of Orban's party, Fidesz. Nick Thorpe travels across Hungary meeting activists and voters mobilising for the contest.

Africa's 250 million nomadic herders, or pastoralists, are the invisible keystone of the continent's food system. They provide 50% of Africa's meat and 75% of its milk, moving livestock across vast rangelands in response to seasons, weather and grazing patterns that have sustained communities for millennia. Yet pastoralists are routinely dismissed as backwards, a relic in the way of progress and modernisation. Climate change, land grabs, and conflict force them off ancestral routes. Their knowledge is often ignored. But in the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, a different story emerges - one where these herders aren't obstacles to climate solutions but pioneers of them.

On Christmas Day 2025, the US carried out missile strikes on suspected Islamist militants in Nigeria. They came after President Trump said he would intervene to protect Christians amid controversial claims of a “Christian genocide” in the country. The Nigerian government rejects such claims, saying both Muslim and Christian communities have been affected by insecurity in the country. Alex Last visits Plateau state in central Nigeria one area where ethnic and sectarian violence that has been the focus of US concern, to hear from both sides and meet those trying to bring peace. This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Art from the circle of friends, family and teachers of artist Mrinalini Mukherjee is now on show at London's Royal Academy, alongside her giant hemp sculptures. Sheetal Parmar hears about the planning behind transporting such delicate works and about the influences behind the creation of her natural forms. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from In the Studio, exploring the processes of the world’s most creative people.

Looking back at five big US foreign policy shifts from the Monroe doctrine in the 19th Century to the post-9/11 strategies of the Bush doctrine in the early 2000s. Justin Webb and his guests examine how America’s approach to the world has constantly changed over time, to help answer a really big question - how radical is the way President Donald Trump deals with the world? Is he really an outlier in US history? Or do his actions reflect the changing patterns of American power?

In the face of widespread protests, the Iranian government ‘switched off’ the country’s access to the internet on 8th January. In Uganda, prior to recent elections, the government of president Yoweri Museveni prevented its citizens from accessing the internet. Worldwide, Afghanistan, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh – to name only a few - have all taken the decision to severely restrict internet access at times of perceived political crisis or challenge. Yet it was only fifteen years ago, during the Arab Spring, that internet access and digital media were seen as game-changing communications tools for democratisation. Now, how vulnerable is protest and political opposition to being taken offline? This episode of The Documentary comes to you from The Fifth Floor, the show at the heart of global storytelling, with BBC journalists from all around the world. Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Laura Thomas, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean. (Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Described by Donald Trump as “a giant piece of ice,” the world’s largest island has found itself at the centre of global attention. The president’s demands to take over the self-governing Danish territory, potentially even by force, led to a diplomatic crisis and the president threatened economic sanctions against European allies for opposing his plans. Despite now ruling out military action, US intentions are still uncertain. We bring together young Greenlanders to discuss what they make of President Trump’s proposal to take it over and share their experiences of living in Greenland. This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC OS Conversations, bringing together people from around the world to discuss how major news stories are affecting their lives.

In small towns and rural areas across the south of the United States traditional family churches have long been key guardians of black culture, memory and community spirit. Until very recently women called to preach in these communities faced opposition ranging from grudging acceptance at best to total ostracisation. But now an increasing number of women are winning acceptance as preachers, pastors and community leaders in Baptist and United Methodist Churches, becoming the vital glue which binds changing, rural black communities together. Alvin Hall asks some of these women about the lengths they have gone to to follow their calling, driving hundreds of miles to carry the word of God in touring ministries reminiscent of the male Circuit Riders of Alvin’s childhood. In Paducah, Kentucky he meets Baptist pastors Donna G Hawkins, LaRita Horton Addison and James Lee Hudson to explore their individual journeys towards acceptance. Alvin also meets Associate Pastor, Reverend Vanessa Skillion who has travelled 216 miles to join Donna in preaching at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. Meanwhile in Nashville, Tennessee Alvin hears the perspectives of two United Methodist Ministers, Reverend Dr Jacqui King and Reverend Dr Paula Smith. In life stories, preaching, prayers and music we encounter communities uplifted and worship subtly altered by the spirits of women. Music performed by Donna G. Hawkins and the congregation of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, Paducah, KY.

If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft turns out to be flawed? The History Bureau revisits the defining stories of our times with the reporters who first covered them. What did they get right first time around? And, in the chaos and confusion of unfolding events, what did they miss? Season 1: Putin and the Apartment Bombs. In September 1999, just weeks after a 46-year-old Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister, four bombs blew up four apartment buildings across Russia, killing hundreds of people while they slept. The attacks plunged the country into panic. Families fled their homes. Residents patrolled their blocks around the clock. An entire nation paralyzed by fear. But who did it? It's a mystery that has fuelled some chilling theories. The government blamed Chechen militants. Many reporters agreed. But then the whispers started. Was something even more sinister going on? If you're in the UK, listen first to The History Bureau on BBC Sounds - or elsewhere in the world, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

In a case with profound implications for European migration policy, two dozen former volunteer humanitarian workers have been on trial on the Greek island of Lesbos. Seven years ago, they were arrested after rescuing thousands of migrants from the sea. Now, following many delays, a court case involving charges of facilitating illegal entry of foreigners, membership of a criminal organisation and money laundering has finally gone ahead. Among the defendants facing a possible 20 years in jail have been the Syrian refugee and former competitive swimmer Sara Mardini - and Irish human rights activist and lawyer Sean Binder. They've denied the charges - and argued that the prosecution was an attempt by the Greek authorities to criminalise help to asylum seekers. Tim Whewell reports on the trial and its outcome - and on the consequences for Lesbos. Back in 2015, when as many as 800,000 migrants arrived on the island after crossing the narrow strait from Turkey, local people were proud of their efforts to rescue and support refugees. But later, attitudes towards migrants changed. And NGOs stopped their rescue work - for fear more aid workers might be prosecuted. Now, far fewer migrants attempt the crossing to Greece. But those who do sometimes die in shipwrecks. And there are allegations, denied by Greece, that its police are illegally pushing asylum seekers back - putting them back on boats and abandoning them at sea. What will the verdicts in this trial mean for Greece, for other European states that have been tightening their immigration policies - and for the defendants whose lives have been on hold for the last seven years? This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.