Endless queues and empty bakery stalls. Earlier this week, around 200 Tunisian bakers staged a sit-in after a government decision to stop selling them subsidised flour, a move threatening the closure of hundreds of bakeries.
Five people, including a police officer have died in violent protests related to the taxi strike in Cape Town, South Africa. We'll hear a first hand account of what it's like to live through the Cape Town minibus taxi strike in South Africa.
And we'll also hear from the Nigerian hit singer Flavour who is back on tour in Europe after eight years away. He sheds positive light around crossing the boundaries of tribalism through music.
This week on the show that looks for the science behind the news, Marnie Chesterton investigates mystery after mystery. Where is Yevegeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, and could science help to trace him? Which animals would do best at a game of hide and seek? And we hear about the time when half the stuff in the universe went missing, and how cosmologists found it again.
We continue our endless quest to identify the Coolest Science in the World. This week’s contender studies the murky side of the genome – dark DNA. Plus the low-down on the indefinite doctor’s strike in Nigeria, we look behind the latest news about our warming oceans and have you ever felt someone else’s pain? You might be the 1 in 50 people known as mirror touch synaesthetes.
All that plus your emails, whatsapps and even more fruit chat.
Presented by Marnie Chesterton
Produced by Ben Motley, with Margaret Sessa Hawkins, Alex Mansfield, Sophie Ormiston, Katie Tomsett and Florence Thompson.
With the coup leaders in Niger refusing demands to hand power back to the elected government, the West African regional block ECOWAS is considering options including a military invasion of the country. ECOWAS is due to hold an extraordinary summit in Nigeria on Thursday to discuss its next move.
Plus, we speak to the reporter behind a new BBC investigation into the 'spiritual healers' sexually abusing women in Morocco and Sudan.
And we hear about what the African Development Bank is doing to improve access to clean water and sanitation on the continent.
Russia's Wagner mercenary group is "taking advantage" of instability in Niger, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told the BBC. What does this mean and what is next for Niger?
Surviving the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi's capital 25 years ago, a woman reveals her children face still stigma due to her injuries. More than 200 people died and thousands of others were injured in the 1998 al-Qaeda attacks.
Authorities in the South African province of Limpopo have introduced the ‘midnight alcohol law’, which bans the sale of liquor past midnight. The provincial government says the alcohol curfew will help tackle social issues like gender based violence. We’ll hear from the National Liquor Traders Council and from organisations raising awareness on the harm caused by alcohol.
BBC Africa Eye reveals abuse of elderly people at a care home in Kenya. Secret filming shows staff mistreating residents and leaving medical conditions untreated.
Plus, we look at the current intensification of fighting in Ethiopia's Amhara region.
And Nigeria lose to England at the Women’s World Cup, but will Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses maul France?
BBC Africa Eye reveals abuse of elderly people at a care home in Kenya. Secret filming shows staff mistreating residents and leaving medical conditions untreated.
Plus, we look at the current intensification of fighting in Ethiopia's Amhara region.
And Nigeria lose to England at the Women’s World Cup, but will Morocco’s Atlas Lionesses maul France?
Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March.
Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat.
The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really make to our health and happiness? That’s the question posed by this week’s CrowdScience listener Michael, who has noticed living in the rainy Australian city of Melbourne is taking its toll.
Many pensioners claim sunshine relieves achiness as well as conditions like arthritis but one of the biggest scientific studies found temperature has no real impact on reported pain levels, while factors like air pressure and humidity may play a role.
When it comes to our mood, it seems that spending time outside is more important than feeling the heat. The optimum temperature for wellbeing is around a cool 19 degrees centigrade, while excessive warm weather has been linked to an increase in violence and crime.
You can watch a visualisation of this episode on YouTube: Is the 'sunshine cure' a real thing? - CrowdScience, BBC World Service podcast - YouTube
Producer: Marijke Peters
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton
Editor: Richard Collings
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
Contributors:
Dr Anna Beukenhorst, University of Manchester
Professor Oscar Ybarra, University of Illinois
Professor Solomon Hsiang, University of California, Berkeley
Martin Andersen, artist
(Photo: Young woman enjoying sunset. Credit: Muriel De Seze/Getty Images)
We bring you reaction to the Senegalese authorities banning TikTok, which activists have been using to coordinate a string of recent protests. Tensions are high in the country, with repeated protests over legal cases against opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, whose PASTEF party was dissolved by the government this week.
Plus, ahead of Zimbabwe’s elections later this month, we speak to democracy activist Namatai Kwekweza about the state of politics in the country.
And we break down the story behind the viral video of the slow Somali runner competing in the 100m at the World University Games in China.
Imagine spending six months of every year living in total shade. That’s what life is like for residents of the Norwegian town of Rjukan, set so low in a valley that they see no direct sunshine at all from October to March. Marnie Chesterton heads there to hear about an ingenious solution: giant mirrors that beam rays down into the town square, where locals gather to feel the reflected heat. The man behind the project was motivated by a need for winter sun – but how much difference does it really make to our health and happiness? That’s the question posed by this week’s CrowdScience listener Michael, who has noticed living in the rainy Australian city of Melbourne is taking its toll. Many pensioners claim sunshine relieves achiness as well as conditions like arthritis but one of the biggest scientific studies found temperature actually has no impact on reported pain levels, while factors like air pressure and humidity may play a role. When it comes to our mood, it seems that spending time outside is more important than feeling the heat and the optimum temperature for wellbeing is around a cool 19 degrees centigrade, while excessive warm weather has been linked to an increase in violence and crime.
Contributors:
Dr Anna Beukenhorst, University of Manchester
Professor Oscar Ybarra, University of Illinois
Professor Solomon Hsiang, University of California, Berkeley
Martin Andersen, artist
(Image: Man with smoke coming out of ears. Credit: Getty Images)
Science in Action returns to H5N1, the fast spreading strain of bird flu which has caused devastation in the sky, sea, and land over the last few months, with no end in sight.
Roland visits Skomer Island and the coast of Wales where sea bird colonies are threatened and hundreds of guillemots have washed ashore dead, struck down by bird flu.
We also hear of outbreaks on Finnish fur farms where controversial plans are in progress for culls of wild birds, of mysterious infections of domestic cats in Poland, and bird flu causing brain swelling in grey seals.
Plus, we get an update on efforts to vaccinate condors in California against the disease.
