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How do African athletes train for the Winter Olympics without ice?
What in the World
Jan 26, 2024

Nigeria’s youth curling team, the Broomzillas, are Africa’s first curling team to reach a Winter Youth Olympics. Their journey to the 2024 Gangwon Games in South Korea hasn’t been easy. They’ve struggled with funding and of course, as Nigeria doesn’t have freezing weather, access to ice to train is incredibly difficult.

We speak to two of the team - Tomi and Fatiu. So how do they get ready for the competition?

Also, BBC Africa sports reporter, Isaiah Akinremi, takes us through the wider picture across the African continent and the challenge athletes face to break into winter sports.

Plus, Ghana is getting back some of its most treasured artefacts… but only on loan. They were looted from the Asante royal court by the British one hundred and fifty years ago. They ended up in a London museum which has now agreed to lend them back for three years. The BBC’s Ghana correspondent, Thomas Naadi, tells us that many want the move to be permanent.

Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Emily Horler, Alex Rhodes and Baldeep Chahal Editors: Verity Wilde and Simon Peeks

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USAID: Can the world live without it?

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is under fire. It is the world’s biggest donor and spends billions of dollars a year, funding programmes around the world, like fighting malaria in Bangladesh, clearing unexploded landmines in Cambodia and Laos and providing medical supplies in Sudan.

But President Trump says it is run by “radical lunatics” and he and billionaire Elon Musk, who’s got the job of trying to slash American government spending, want to shut it down. They have paused almost all international spending for 90 days and issued “stop work” orders to their staff. BBC journalist Nathalia Jimenez tells us what USAID does - and why the Trump administration wants to close it.

A large proportion of USAID funding goes towards healthcare and HIV medication in sub-Saharan Africa. Makuochi Okafor, the BBC’s Africa Health correspondent tells us what impact closing USAID could have in this region.

Anselm Gibbs, a BBC reporter based in Trinidad and Tobago, tells us about programmes USAID funds in the Caribbean. And Hilde Deman from Search for Common Ground, an international NGO that uses USAID funding in countries affected by violent conflict, talks about the impact to their work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: William Lee Adams Producers: Benita Barden and Julia Ross-Roy Editor: Rosanna La Falce


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How do African athletes train for the Winter Olympics without ice?

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