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Fifth Floor
Reporting the global heatwave
Fifth Floor
Aug 11, 2023

July 2023 was world’s hottest month on record, with extreme temperatures and weather patterns making global headlines. We asked colleagues from the language services how they had been covering the story. BBC Arabic's North Africa correspondent Bassam Bounenni reported on the heatwave in Tunisia, and the wildfires that spilled over from Algeria. BBC Korean's Damin Jung shares the stories of South Korea's extreme heat and torrential rains, which led to several deaths and severely disrupted the international Scout Jamboree. And Haider Ahmed reported from Iraq for BBC Arabic about the life of a Baghdad baker, working with temperatures hitting 50C outside and 60C inside.

Miami Vice and jai alai Jai alai is the world’s fastest ball game. It originated in the Basque region of Spain, and became synonymous with the ‘Miami vice’ era of drug violence and excess of 1970s and 80s, with packed stadiums hosting millionaires, celebrities, and mobsters. BBC Mundo's Atahualpa Amerise charts the changing fortunes of the game.

Sexism and misogyny in Pakistan Sexist attitudes in Pakistan have been in the spotlight after a senior minister called female leaders of the opposition PTI party “trash and leftovers”. For BBC Urdu, Saher Baloch has been reporting on the fierce backlash that followed.

Kyiv statue makeover Kyiv’s towering Soviet-era Motherland Monument shows a woman raising a sword in her right hand and a shield in her left. The hammer and sickle emblem that used to be on the shield is being replaced with a tryzub, the three-pronged emblem of Ukraine. BBC Ukrainian’s Irena Taranyuk explains the significance of the tryzub and why this change matters.

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(Photo: Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Credit: Getty)


40min 56sec

Mar 22, 2024
Women's radio in Afghanistan

As a new school year starts in Afghanistan, 330,000 more girls will be excluded from secondary education, one of the ways in which women and girls are increasingly confined to their homes under the Taliban regime. In light of this, BBC Media Action is running the Women’s Voice radio project, training women to make programmes for other women on vital topics like health, work and education. Getti Sediqi is one of the trainers in Kabul.

Isabel, the giant armadillo The giant armadillo, found only in Latin America, has been called a "ghost species" because it's so rarely seen. But thanks to one particular armadillo in Brazil, called Isabel by researchers, many discoveries have now been made, as BBC Brasil’s Giulia Granchi reports.

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The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia's money glitch Ethiopia's largest commercial bank is trying to recoup millions of dollars' worth of currency after a 'system problem' allowed customers to withdraw unlimited funds. It's been reported that a large portion of the cash was withdrawn by students as news of the banking glitch spread around universities. Kaleb Moges tells us about developments.

(Photo: Nadia Shekib, journalist, producer and news editor at Radio TV Oboor. Credit: BBC Media Action)


41min 01sec

Reporting the global heatwave

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