Can Mozambique’s newly sworn in President Daniel Chapo and the main opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, put their differences aside for the benefit of the country’s future?
The United Nations estimates that more than 50m children globally do not have birth certificates – and most of those children live in Africa. Why does having a birth certificate matter?
And a special memorial has been unveiled in South Africa to remember the black soldiers who took part in the first World War.
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Alfonso Daniels, Nyasha Michelle and Victor Sylver in London. Frenny Jowi was in Nairobi
Senior Producer: Patricia Whitehorne
Technical Producer: Chris Kouzaris
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
Nigeria approves Shell's watershed exit from oil-rich Niger Delta-but activists are not pleased.
Tanzania's Samia Suluhu Hassan receives an early nomination for being the ruling party's presidential candidate.
And why are some African countries moving towards banning wigs in court?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Bella Hassan and Sunita Nahar in London, Charles Gitonga in Nairobi and Blessing Aderogba in Lagos
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Technical Producer: Francesca Dunne
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
We find out about the extreme weather events that are happening around the world. We speak to experts from the weather, climate, tech, and disinformation teams to ask how we can better predict and possibly prevent them.
Image: A table and chair burns as a home catches fire from the Palisades wildfire in Pacific Palisades, California, USA, 7 January 2025 (Credit: Alison Dinner/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
We assess President Trump's promises on his first day back in office and what it means for the rest of the world. Also: who will govern Gaza after ceasefire and first study into how weight loss drugs affect the body.
Why has the case against the Kenyan police officers allegedly involved in the death of six-month old Samantha Pendo been delayed yet again? Seven years on, her parents are still seeking justice after a court hearing into the case was adjourned for the third time.
What happens to stolen funds and assets when they are recovered and repatriated to the country where they were taken from?
And as President Trump begins his second term in office, will he make it a mission to end wars in Africa?
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Stephania Okereke, Nyasha Michelle and Kaine Pieri in London. Charles Gitonga was in Nairobi
Senior Producer: Patricia Whitehorne
Technical Producer: Francesca Dunne
Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
Carbon footprints are a measure of how much we each contribute to the greenhouse gases that warm the Earth’s atmosphere. The global average of carbon dioxide emissions is nearly 5 tonnes per person per year, although it can be triple that in certain countries.
But one CrowdScience listener in Ghana is wondering about the bigger picture. After all, humans aren’t the only species on this planet. So which other animal has the biggest carbon footprint?
CrowdScience presenters Caroline Steel and Marnie Chesterton are on the case, examining and arguing over the animal that deserves the top spot for this title.
Caroline, a vegan, points to the cow as the top contender, since the livestock sector produces 14.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and cows, whether as meat or dairy animals, are responsible for the majority of that. The team look at initiatives around the world to be more efficient with each animal out there. But maybe it’s time to put another sector in the spotlight? Pets. We love our dogs and cats but do their meat-based diets win them a place on the podium?
From most loved to most detested, we look at the role that key pests play in upsetting the carbon budget. Could a small beetle with a large appetite for greenery be an unusual winner, thanks to the trees these pests destroy over their lifetimes?
Is the biggest offender a carbon footprint, hoofprint, pawprint, or clawprint?
Presenters: Caroline Steel and Marnie Chesterton
Producer: Marnie Chesterton
Editor: Cathy Edwards
Production co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano
Technical producers: Sarah Hockley and Donald MacDonald
Canadian mining giant Barrick halted its operations in Mali after the government seized gold stocks worth $245 million.
What's the story behind the Nigerian words added to the Oxford English dictionary ?
And what the death of the warlord turned politician Prince Yormie Johnson means for Liberia.
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Frenny Jowi in Nairobi with Victor Sylver, Blessing Aderogba, Rob Wilson, and Nyasha Michelle in London.
Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga
Technical Producer:Craig Kingham
Editors : Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
After the comic malfunctions of a self-driving car, which drove its passenger/prisoner in endless circles, Unexpected Elements rounds its attention on the humble circle.
Explore how one man calculated the circumference of the Earth 2,000 years before GPS was invented, then be spellbound by the Magic Circle and the mysterious woman who broke into it. And as we hit the five-year anniversary of the Covid pandemic, we take a look at the cycle of infection and mutation, before asking, 'why don’t we have one antiviral pill that kills them all?'
We’re joined by evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar, who calculated Dunbar’s number; that is, the maximum number of folks you can hold onto in your circle of friends... five? 500? 5,000? Robin reveals how many REAL friends science says you can have.
Presenters: Marnie Chesterton, with Camilla Mota and Phillys Mwatee
Producers: Harrison Lewis, with Alice Lipscombe-Southwell and William Hornbrook
New types of snake-bite anti-venoms are designed by AI. Also, how much meat did human ancestors eat? How the Baltic Nord Stream gas pipeline rupture of 2022 was the biggest single release of methane ever caused by humans, and that Pluto met Charon, not with a bang, but more of a kiss.
Using a high precision technique for spotting different isotopes of Nitrogen, Tina Lüdecke of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry has concluded that a group of early hominin Australopithecus living in South Africa were predominantly vegetarian, putting the date that human ancestors started eating meat (and thence growing bigger brains) to more recently. The technique, she thinks, can enlighten prehistoric food webs and ecologies from millions of years ago.
Last year’s Nobel prizes showed the potential new techniques of AI to design synthetic proteins. Timothy P Jenkins and colleagues decided to try designing treatments for snakebite venoms, with remarkable apparent success. It could save many thousands of lives a year.
Since the September 2022 explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic sea, many different analyses of how much methane was released have provided a variety of estimates. This week, scientists at the UNEP International Methane emissions observatory – including Stephen Harris - published a study estimating it to be a little under half a million tonnes, making it by far the single biggest human caused release of this most dangerous greenhouse gas. Yet, they say, even that is a tiny fraction of what is released overall around the world every year.
And Finally, a new analysis of the original formation of the Pluto-Charon binary Dwarf Planetary system suggests they – and possibly many other Kuiper belt pairing – were born of a gentle astronomical dance and a peck on the cheek, rather than the catastrophic collision we associate with the earth-moon’s fiery first date. And it may have lasted just a matter of days, according to author Adeene Denton of the University of Arizona.
Presenter: Roland Pease
Producer: Alex Mansfield
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth
