A video of an Iranian student in her underwear at a university campus in Tehran has gone global. It shows Ahoo Daryaei walking around grey concrete buildings in a purple bra and knickers before being forcibly detained. Authorities were quick to claim that she was suffering from poor mental health, but many have seen it as an act of defiance against the hijab. Faranak Amidi, a BBC journalist and presenter, tells us what life is like for women in Iran right now, and how they are bravely...

You might have seen the viral video of 22-year-old MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke doing the haka in the middle of New Zealand’s parliament last Thursday. It was a protest aimed at disrupting the debate in parliament about a bill which, if it became law (which is unlikely), would transform the way the indigenous Māori population are treated by changing the nation’s 184-year-old treaty. Then, on Tuesday, a nine-day march to New Zealand’s parliament building in the capital city Wellington came to...

Elon Musk — the world’s richest man — has built several companies, including PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX. He’s also built a close relationship with Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States. America’s next leader has appointed Musk to run the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which is meant to slash government waste. Nathalie Jimenez, a BBC reporter in New York, explains how Musk built his business empire and why he may have aligned with the Trump administration. She...

Can you imagine sitting all of the most important exams of your life on one day? That’s the reality for Korean students, whose university-entrance exam, the Suneung, sees students sit an eight-hour marathon of exams, all on one day. Juna Moon, our reporter in Seoul, tells us why a record number of students are resitting the brutal exam this year. Plus Koh Ewe, a BBC journalist in Singapore, tells us which K-pop earworm students are trying to avoid to stop it from distracting them. Julie...

CBD products are everywhere. You can get the cannabis extract in oils, vapes, skincare products, even gummy bears, coffee and fizzy drinks. Videos recommending it are all over TikTok, and it’s so popular Kim Kardashian even had a CBD-themed baby shower. Fans and influencers say it can help improve your mood, help you sleep, get rid of anxiety and chronic pain. But are these claims true? BBC reporter Annabel Rackham explains what CBD is, where it’s legal and whether it can be addictive or...

Disputes over the South China Sea are back in the news, with China and the Philippines both marking out areas they say are theirs. China has previously been accused of hitting Philippine boats with water cannon and both sides say the other have rammed boats into each other. Benny Lu from the BBC’s Chinese service in Hong Kong takes us through the background of it all and explains how the US’s relationship with China fits into it, especially with Donald Trump’s re-election. It’s not just...

Hundreds of sex tapes featuring Baltazar Ebang Engonga, the nephew of Equatorial Guinea’s president, have flooded social media. Many of the women seen in the tapes are the wives and relatives of people close to the centre of power. The scandal has shone an unflattering spotlight on the central African country, which is sometimes called “The North Korea of Africa”. Its President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has been in power for more than four decades and controls the majority of the...

The World Health Organisation now officially recognises gaming disorder as a mental health condition - when someone’s gaming behaviour becomes so severe that it takes precedence over other interests. Symptoms include losing control over the amount of time playing, prioritising gaming over other interests and responsibilities and continuing to game despite negative consequences. But how do you know when you’re addicted to gaming? And how can you overcome it? The Director of the National Centre...

According to the United Nations, Africa’s urban population is projected to triple by 2050, with over 60% of 2.5 billion people living in cities. This rapid urbanisation and population growth is driving demand for properties across the continent. Nigerian and Ghanaian cities are some of the fastest-growing globally, but with inflation and the rising cost of living, prices are going up and people are finding it harder to save - making property and land acquisition a real challenge. BBC...

$20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s how much a Russian court has fined Google for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube. That’s two undecillion roubles - and far greater than the world’s total GDP, which is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to be $110 trillion. Jen Monaghan, from BBC Monitoring, talks us through why Google has been hit with such a massive fine, and how it’s impossible to pay. And the BBC’s Anastasia Golubeva shares how the internet...

Donald Trump will return to the White House in January 2025, after defeating Democrat rival Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. The win comes just four years after he lost re-election to Joe Biden — and just weeks before his sentencing in his New York criminal trial. We explain the factors behind his historic win and hear from political analysts about how issues like the economy and immigration influenced voters in the crucial swing states that decided the election. One of...

Floods have swept through Valencia on Spain’s eastern coast, causing death and destruction in their wake. It’s the worst flooding in Europe this century. More than 200 people have died and many are still missing - it is the country’s deadliest natural disaster in recent memory. There is widespread anger over the government’s response, and when Spain’s king and queen visited the town of Paiporta, they were met with protesters and even had mud thrown at them. We speak to BBC journalist Iqra...

COP 16 — the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity — recently concluded in Colombia. One of the major issues was "biopiracy". That’s when companies take out patents to own the rights to living organisms, like plants — despite the fact many local and indigenous communities may have been using these plants and other biological material for centuries. BBC science and climate reporter Georgina Rannard explains the idea of biopiracy...

Gaming is growing in Africa. As the continent’s booming youthful population get better access to smart phones and internet connectivity improves, so does its gaming scene. Esports events are gaining traction too, with South Africa, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria all hosting large tournaments showcasing Africa’s best gaming talent. We chat to Brian Khisa, a BBC reporter based in Nairobi, about why the scene is taking off, and how representative it is. We’re also joined by Megan van der...

The practice of sending money to family in other countries - known as remittances - is widespread. The World Bank estimates that over $650 billion was sent to low- and middle-income countries in 2023. When it comes to the flow of money from the U.S. to African nations, some people use the term ”black tax.” As costs are rising around the world, some people are saying it's becoming harder to afford to send money. And recently Kenyan influencer and comedian Elsa Majimbo reignited the...

Chris Brown is performing in South Africa for the first time since 2015 this December. Tickets for his concerts sold out Johannesburg's FNB Stadium in just a few hours. But not everyone is happy about it. Campaigners have highlighted that the concert is scheduled just days after the global commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. So, a petition has been started to block his shows. The petition calls them an ‘insult to the millions of women and girls affected by...

Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, abortion remains a central issue in U.S. politics. The backlash from the ruling that allows states to ban abortion shook up the 2022 midterms, and since then, voters have consistently backed abortion rights in ballot measures—even in traditionally conservative states like Ohio, Kentucky, and Kansas. Now, with Election Day approaching, 10 states are set to vote on how abortion should be regulated. The result could overturn existing bans,...

A growing number of young people born in France are choosing to leave the country. Many of them are moving to their parents’ countries of origin in Africa. We chat with BBC reporter and producer Nathalie Jimenez about “The Homecoming”, a documentary from BBC Africa Eye. It explores the “silent exodus” of French Africans with an emphasis on those re-locating to Senegal, a former French colony. Among other things, Nathalie explains how racism and the rise of the far right are driving people...

More than 100 professional women's footballers have signed an open letter urging Fifa to drop the Saudi oil giant Aramco as a sponsor over humanitarian and environmental concerns. It follows Fifa’s announcement - earlier this year - of a partnership with the firm that will run until 2027, giving the company sponsorship rights to the men’s World Cup in 2026 and the Women’s World Cup the following year. The words ‘Saudi Arabia’ and ‘football’ are increasingly used in the same sentence, and the...

A quick warning before listening: in this episode we’re talking about female g******s, in quite a lot of detail. Brazil has the highest number of plastic surgery operations in the world and it’s where the BBL, Brazilian Butt Lift, comes from. It’s also seeing a spike in demand for another procedure: labiaplasty; where the labia minora (the folds of skin either side of the vulva) are reduced in size. There’s been a 15% rise in this kind of surgery in the last 4 years, according to the...

Ten years ago, in 2014, militants belonging to the Islamic State group in Iraq killed and captured thousands of Yazidi people in what would later be called a genocide. It’s understood that hundreds of women are still missing, and are being held as sex and domestic slaves across the Middle East. One was recently found in Gaza. Since then there have only been a handful of court cases - mostly in European courts - but survivors are still fighting for justice. Caroline Hawley, a BBC diplomatic...

The Ivorian government has announced the dissolution of all student unions following the killing of two students, a crime attributed to the powerful Student and School Federation (Fesci). The group has long been accused of terrorising university campuses across the country, operating a cartel-like system and charging extortionate rents to over 5,000 unregistered students for university accommodation. During their investigation, authorities claim to have uncovered an underground tunnel used...

India’s caste system, one of the world’s oldest social hierarchies, has shaped lives for centuries, granting privileges to some while oppressing others. Although caste based discrimination was banned in 1948, its influence hasn’t gone away and is now spilling into our social media feeds, with some young women asserting pride in their caste identities. We’re joined by correspondents from Delhi, Umang Poddar and Divya Arya, who explain the complexities of caste and unravel this new trend on...

The death of One Direction star Liam Payne has shocked the world, and there’s been a huge outpouring of grief. Many details about the British singer's death still remain unclear, but information from emergency services and other authorities has started to build a picture of the events. We know that he was in Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and died after falling from a hotel balcony. Liam rose to fame after competing in the singing competition the X Factor. It was here that he first met fellow...