Author: BBC World Service

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Focus on Africa - A multi-million dollar pledge for Ethiopia’s humanitarian crisis. Will it be enough?

The United Nations received financial pledges of just over six hundred million dollars to help with Ethiopia's humanitarian crisis. It fell short of the one billion dollars the UN was seeking. Around 15 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in the country. Is the amount pledged enough and how will the funds be distributed?

Also why is gambling on the rise on the continent, attracting young people?

And why is South Africa installing the continent's biggest battery and how will it work?

Presenter: Richard Kagoe Producers: Yvette Twagiramariya and Charles Gitonga Technical Producer: Chris Ablakwa Senior Producer: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

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Focus on Africa - Are pharmacies in Liberia selling stolen medicine?

The USAid Mission Director to Liberia Jim Wright has alleged that around 90% of pharmacies in the country are selling stolen medicine, donated by aid organisations. What's going on?

Cattle rustling and banditry in northern Kenya is on the increase. What can be done to prevent this from happening?

And a group of women accused of booing the Zimbabwean First Lady, Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa, have been freed. We hear from the lawyer who represented them in court.

Presenter:Richard Kagoe Producers: Yvette Twagiramariya, Daniel Dadzie, Bella Hassan, Nyasha Michelle and Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

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Focus on Africa - Chad elections: Will President Mahamat Idriss Deby keep to his promises?

Chad's interim President Mahamat Idriss Déby has begun campaigning ahead of the country's next presidential election, which is just three weeks away. He faces nine other candidates, including the junta-appointed Prime Minister Succès Masra. President Deby has pledged to strengthen security and guarantee Chad's peace and stability. Will he keep his promises?

Also a look at Russia's growing influence in the Sahel as Russian troops arrive in Niger.

And how African youth are thinking about future investments.

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Focus on Africa - France hosts an international conference on Sudan. Will it make a difference?

France is hosting an international conference on Sudan, one year after war broke out. It says, it's seeking much needed aid and attention. Observers say the Sudan crisis has been pushed out of the global conversation due to other ongoing conflicts. Will the conference make a difference?

Why has Mali banned political activity and curtailed media freedoms?

And cartoonist and satirist Jim Spire Ssentongo on the dangers and challenges of holding authority to account.

Presenter: Richard Kagoe Producers: Patricia Whitehorne, Yvette Twagiramariya, Bella Hassan and Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

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CrowdScience - How do my ears sense direction?

How do we know where a sound is coming from?

Another chance to hear this ear-opening episode, exploring a question from CrowdScience listener Chiletso. One day, he heard his son bounce a ball and instantly knew the direction it was travelling. How?

Anand Jagatia sets out to discover what makes left, right, up and down sound so different.

First, he gets blindfolded, so Alan Archer-Boyd, former auditory scientist and lead engineer at BBC R&D, can put his sound localisation skills to the test. It turns out that having two ears and pinnae, those flappy bits of cartilage on the side of your head, help a lot.

Professor Eric Knudsen shares how the barn owl’s asymmetrical ears allow it to hunt mice, even in complete darkness.

And Anand uncovers how far he can push his own spatial hearing. Blind activist and researcher Thomas Tajo teaches him how to echolocate like a bat, and Dr Lore Thaler explains what is going on in the brain of experienced echolocators.

This programme was originally broadcast in March 2023.

Presented by Anand Jagatia Produced by Florian Bohr for the BBC World Service

Image: Boy with hands at his ears Credit: Silke Woweries/Getty Images

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Unexpected Elements - Beyoncé, banjos and dancing chemistry

Beyonce's new album tops the charts with a reappraisal of who can do country music and the Unexpected Elements team has a hoedown. Panellist Christine Yohannes unearths new research that changes our understanding of the origins of cowboys. Chhavi Sachdev has a thing or two to teach Beyonce as she reveals why the banjo has it's characteristic twang and we meet a man with powerful chemistry - TikTok dance sensation Dr Andre Isaacs from the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts tells presenter Marnie Chesterton how dancing in his lab helps explain click chemistry.

We also hear how new species could be given names that refer to the locations they're found in, we discuss whether mining is causing the Earth to shrink and, of course, eclipses make an appearance. We shed some light on how an eclipse over 100 years ago helped prove Einstein's theory of relativity.

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Science In Action - Bird flu in Antarctica

The highly pathogenic strain of bird flu, H5N1, has arrived on the continent. Australian bird specialist Megan Dewar, from the Federation University of Australia, has led a mission aboard the research ship the Australis.

Science in Action remembers physicist Peter Higgs 60 years after his Nobel prize winning theory of the Higgs particle.

The unfolding scandal of manipulated data behind claims of incredible room-temperature superconductivity. Science writer Dan Garisto has seen the details in a Rochester University internal investigation.

And the alga – single-celled seaweed – with superpowers. As well as capturing carbon from CO2 in the atmosphere, like other plants, this one can directly capture nitrogen too, essential for life, but which few organisms can do for themselves. We hear from the marine scientist who has revealed this evolutionary trick.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: KAPPA-FLU team selecting skua carcasses for post-mortem examination. Credit: Ben Wallis)

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Focus on Africa - Jacob Zuma to run in South Africa’s general election

South Africa's electoral commission (IEC) has published final candidate lists for general elections. Former president Jacob Zuma is free to contest in May's poll. Should the governing ANC be worried?

We learn about the illicit organ trade in Western Kenya, with some young people selling their kidneys.

And why Ivory Coast has announced a ban on begging in the commercial capital Abidjan.

Presenter: Richard Kagoe Producers: Charles Gitonga, Yvette Twagiramariya, Victor Sylver and Paul Bakibinga Editor: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi