Focus on Africa - Rwanda asks UK to extradite genocide suspects

More than 30 years after the genocide in Rwanda, the country has asked Britain to extradite six suspects on UK soil. Can the suspects face trial in UK for the alleged crimes?

As Gabon seeks to transition to a democratic system, could the coup’s mastermind General Brice Oligui Nguema win a presidential election?

And why migratory birds that flock to Uganda maybe endangered.

Presenter : Audrey Brown Producers : Charles Gitonga and Frenny Jowi in Nairobi with Victor Sylver and Tom Kavanagh in London Technical Producer: Pat Sissons Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Unexpected Elements - Navigating northward

The Aurora Borealis – also known as the Northern Lights – won’t be at their peak activity much longer, and the Unexpected Elements team dreams of going north to see them. And that has got us looking at the science of navigating our way north!

We hear about how humans have been using the sky to navigate for millennia, and we learn about how relying on GPS may be impacting our memory ability.

And while humans use maps to get around, how do animals know where to go on their long migrations? To find the answer, we speak to Dr Kayla Goforth at Texas A&M University who studies exactly how sea turtles and monarch butterflies innately know how to navigate the world around them.

We also learn why polar bears keep themselves ice-free, and we hear old records of the first men to reach the North Pole.

All that, plus many more Unexpected Elements.

Presenter: Caroline Steel, with Andrada Fiscutean and Phillys Mwatee Producer: Imaan Moin, with Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, Noa Dowling and William Hornbrook

Science In Action - Researching pain, painlessly

Pain, particularly chronic pain, is hard to research. New therapeutics are hard to screen for. Patients are not all the same. Sergui Pascu and colleagues at Stanford university have been growing brain samples from stem cells. Then they began connecting different samples, specialised to represent different brain regions. This week they announce their most complex “assembloid” yet, one that even reacts to hot chilli, passing a signal from the sensory neurons through to the thinking bits. The hope is that it can provide insights on how pain, and potential painkillers, work.

Human brains are notoriously large, particularly infants. Whilst for primates the human pelvis is quite narrow, to allow us to walk and run on two legs. This notoriously makes childbirth, well, not as straightforward as most other species. This evolutionary “obstetric dilemma” has been debated for decades. Marianne Brasil, of Western Washington University, and colleagues, have published this week a huge study of contemporary human genes and anatomies available from the UK Biobank to shed some more light on this ongoing compromise.

Malta is an island in the Mediterranean no less than 80km from land. So how come Eleanor Scerri and colleagues have discovered archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherers living there from 8,500 years ago? And they didn’t just visit and leave. They stayed for perhaps a millennium before farming arrived. Maybe a rethink of what nautical capabilities our ancestors had in the deep past is needed?

A year ago, Science in Action gate-crashed a conference looking at plans for meeting the forthcoming arrival of asteroid Apophis in 2029. This year the meeting is in Tokyo, and Richard Binzel, emeritus professor of Astronomy at MIT, gives us an update on how the space agencies are hoping to collaborate to maximise the scientific value from what will be a global, visible, phenomenon in just 4 years. Is there enough time to get our collective wits together?

(Image: 3D illustration of Interconnected neurons with electrical pulses. Credit: Getty Images)

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield Production co-ordinator: Josie Hardy

Focus on Africa - Former Gambian soldier trialled in the US

A former Gambian soldier, Michael Sang Correa, is standing trial in a US federal court in Denver, Colorado. Correa faces charges of torture and conspiracy to commit torture. Who is he and why is he being trialled in a US court?

Also, what to do about the widespread use of artificial intelligence among university students in South Africa?

And as Ghana's Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey steps into her role as Commonwealth Secretary-General, we explore the legacy of the past leader and the role of the organisation

Presenter: Audrey Brown Technical Producer: Francesca Dunne Producers: Tom Kavanagh, Bella Hassan, Daniel Dadzie and Patricia Whitehorne Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp

Focus on Africa - Can Tanzania benefit from US-China tariff wars ?

With US-China tariff wars escalating- how could Tanzania benefit?

Is South Sudan on the verge of a return to civil war?

And why a TV dating show in Ethiopia is causing controversy.

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers:  Frenny Jowi in Nairobi, Tom Kavanagh, Nyasha Michelle and Patricia Whitehorne in London and Blessing Aderogba in Lagos. Technical Producer: Pat Sissons Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi