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Fifth Floor
Reporting the earthquake
Fifth Floor
Feb 10, 2023

We hear from some of the language service journalists reporting on the catastrophic earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday. Fundanur Öztürk from BBC Turkish travelled to Hatay, one of the worst hit cities, while BBC Arabic's Nisrine Hatoum was on holiday in Turkey at the time and quickly switched to reporting the disaster. Meanwhile her colleague Dina Waqqaf is Syrian, and plans to travel to the earthquake zone in northern Syria.

Fear, boredom or nostalgia? Why did so many older Brazilians take part in the January riot? The prevailing age group among the more than 1,000 people arrested for storming government buildings in Brasilia a month ago was between 50 and 59 years old. So why was it this age category specifically who felt motivated to act in this way? Paula Adamo Idoeta of BBC Brasil tells us about her investigation.

Not quite the world's tallest man 29-year-old Ghanaian Sulemana Abdul Samed was diagnosed with gigantism a few years ago. BBC Pidgin's Favour Nunoo met him to hear about the difficulties of living with this condition, and to help Sulemana find out exactly how tall he now is.

Making change in India BBC Marathi reporters Janhavee Moole, Mayuresh Konnur and Amruta Durve have travelled across the state of Maharashtra to tell the stories of people inspired by the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi to change lives around them. The resulting projects include a women-only bank in a rural town, and a school for city street children who beg at traffic lights.

(Photo: A man walks down the rubble of a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, close to the epicentre. Credit: ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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41min 01sec

Reporting the earthquake

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