Fifth Floor

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A tale of two protests: Chile and Lebanon Oct 25, 2019

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The governments of Chile and Lebanon are this week reeling under the impact of massive protests. Both were triggered by apparently small events, but tapped into long-standing public grievances. Fernanda Paul of BBC Mundo and Carine Torbey of BBC Arabic compare events in their countries.

Picture: Demonstrators in Santiago, Chile Credit: Claudio Santana/Getty Images

Kenya's camel-back clinic Oct 18, 2019

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Healthcare can be hard to come by for Kenya's Maasai, Samburu and Turkana nomadic peoples. So camels have been enlisted to bring a mobile clinic to them. BBC Africa’s Christine Njeri joined them.

Picture: Christine Njeri with resting camels. Credit: BBC

Exposing Iraq’s pleasure marriage clerics Oct 11, 2019

Show notes

BBC Arabic’s Nawal Al-Maghafi takes us undercover at two of Iraq’s holiest sites to reveal how some clerics are sexually exploiting children and young women. They’re using a controversial religious practice called 'pleasure marriage', illegal under Iraqi law, to supply women for sex.

Photo: BBC Arabic's Nawal Al-Maghafi in Baghdad Credit: BBC

Gandhi in London Oct 04, 2019

Show notes

As India marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the BBC’s Gaggan Saberwhal takes us to the places where he lived and stayed on two visits to London, first as a law student and later as a political leader.

Picture: Mahatma Gandhi outside 10 Downing Street in 1931 Credit: Getty Images Archival

Protests, shamans and beatboxing: welcome to BBC Russian Sep 27, 2019

Show notes

David Amanor visits BBC Russian in Moscow, where a team of journalists investigate, report, and entertain Russian-speaking audiences. Their stories take us from Siberia to the Caucasus, and from protests to 1990s poetry. David also gets a personal tour of Moscow and the places that mean most to Muscovites.

Picture: David Amanor and Oleg Boldyrev in Red Square Credit: BBC

Taken from their families: a colonial legacy Sep 20, 2019

Show notes

During Belgian colonial rule in what is today Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, about 20,000 mixed race children were removed from their families. Prudent Nsengiyumva of BBC Great Lakes went to Belgium to meet Luc Van Damme and Josline Droogmans, both separated from their mothers as children.

Image: Luc Van Damme (R) shows Prudent Nsengiyumva (L) childhood photos Credit: BBC

Idlib's “double tap” airstrike Sep 13, 2019

Show notes

BBC Arabic's investigations unit has pieced together the story of a so-called "double tap" airstrike on a market in Syria's Idlib province in which 39 people were killed. Nader Ibrahim explains how they put the story together, when it's too dangerous to go there, and Russian air force authorities deny it ever happened.

Picture: Emergency workers in rubble of bombed Maarat al-Nurman market, Idlib Province Credit: Hadi al-Abdallah/YouTube

Lessons for Hong Kong from Ukraine Sep 06, 2019

Show notes

Last week, protesters in Hong Kong organised screenings of a Netflix documentary about Ukraine's Maidan Square protests called ‘Winter on Fire’. Jeff Li and Fan Wang of BBC Chinese met some protesters moved to see their own situation mirrored in past events in Ukraine. And for Diana Kuryshko of BBC Ukrainian, events in Hong Kong brought back memories of 2014.

Image: Masked Hong Kong protester against backdrop teargas Credit: ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

Meeting Bobi Wine Aug 30, 2019

Show notes

Ugandan rap star turned politician, Bobi Wine, recently announced that he was officially going to run for the presidency. He is a source of controversy and admiration, and Catherine Byaruhanga of BBC Africa has been to meet him.

Image: Bobi Wine Credit: ISAAC KASAMANI/AFP/Getty Images

A celebration of peace Aug 23, 2019

Show notes

It's been a year since mediation began to end violent clashes in the Somali region of Ethiopia that pitted Oromo people against ethnic Somalis. Bashkas Jugsoda’ay of BBC Somali and Habtamu Tibebu of BBC Afaan Oromo have been to the regional capital Jijiga to speak to people affected by the fighting and witness a peace meeting between the two communities.

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