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Russians who sign up to fight in Ukraine earn big money in salaries and bonuses – and the Kremlin is even more generous to families of those killed in battle. Average compensation packages for a dead son or husband are worth about US$130,000. In less-wealthy Russian provinces, where most recruits are from, that’s enough to turn your life around. Reporter Arsenii Sokolov finds out how the relatives of the tens of thousands of men Russia has lost in the war are spending the money – and asks whether the pay-outs will help create a new “patriotic” middle class that supports Vladimir Putin.
He talks to a woman who’s used her “coffin money” to open a restaurant in memory of her dead son – and hears about a craze for ultra-expensive hair-dryers among wives and girlfriends of soldiers from Siberia.
Marrying soldiers has become so attractive that women on dating apps often search specifically for men in uniform.
But the compensation payouts are also fuelling furious court battles, when divorced or separated fathers who’ve played little role in child rearing suddenly reappear after their sons’ deaths and demand their share of the coffin money.
Besides the cash, there are many privileges offered to soldiers and their families, and to bereaved relatives of the fallen. Their children can go to university whatever their grades. And the Kremlin has started a programme called “Time of Heroes” that claims it will fast-track selected returning servicemen into elite positions in local politics and business. But can Putin’s attempt at social engineering really work? And will “deathonomics” – as one economist calls it – really boost the economy of the provinces that have suffered most from the huge death toll?
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With its dancing challenges and comedy sketches, it’s no surprise why Tiktok is popular with young Kenyans. It’s also a way for them to make money through the app’s gifting service. But there’s a darker side, where young women – and girls as young as 15 – are selling sexual content on livestreams, with some being recruited and exploited by “digital pimps”. Africa Eye’s Debula Kemoli investigates who is profiting. A spokesperson for Tiktok said in a statement that they have zero tolerance for exploitation. And they enforce strict safety policies, including robust live content rules and moderation in 70 languages, including Swahili. Producers: Nalini Sivathasan and Patrick ClahaneEditors: Pete Murimi and Rebecca Henschke Sound engineer: Neil Churchill
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Mark Burman follows artist Marcin Dudek as he works on his sound sculpture The Ground Harbours The Soul, which is made from the sounds of the crowd at Tottenham Hotspur stadium. Visitors get to experience all the highs and lows of fans watching a football game in real time.
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The Korean skincare industry is booming around the world, but some brands faced backlash because of the lack of products for people with darker skin tones. Korean journalist Soo Min Kim looked into how companies responded and spoke to the influencers driving this change. Plus, can radio help save a farmer's livelihood? Boyd Chibale from BBC Media Action in Zambia talks about the work they've done to help local communities cope with droughts and power cuts; and the art of balancing rocks, as filmed by video journalist Shardul Kadam who worked on this story for BBC Marathi.
Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.
(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
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A video of American R&B singer Ne-Yo kissing three of his girlfriends backstage has had loads of attention and highlighted the practice of polyamory. This is when people have several partners at once and are completely open about it. To find out more, we bring together four polyamorous men and women in the US and the UK to tell us what their lives are like. Apart from the positives, we also hear about the stigma and the jealousy that can arise from having more than one partner.
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In 2022 the kingdom of Bhutan ordained 144 women in an unprecedented ceremony. Among them was Emma Slade, also known as Lopen Ani Pema Deki, from Kent in the UK. She was the only Western woman to take part. Emma’s faith has been a part of her life since she was held at gunpoint and robbed in Indonesia in 1997. She studied in Bhutan and set up a charity that supports children with special needs in the country. She talks to Julia Paul about life as a bhikshuni in the UK and Bhutan, her memories of taking part in the historic mass ordination and what it means for Buddhist nuns in Bhutan and other countries.
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With their fearsome talons, acid poo and a penchant for rotting carcasses, the vulture has long been shouldered with associations of death, and dishonour. This taboo often puts them bottom of the list for conservation projects. Conservationist Sacha Dench visits three different vulture species, each with an extraordinary story of persecution and survival. In India, vulture populations collapsed by 99.9%, the sharpest decline of any animal ever recorded. Debbie Pain and Chris Bowden describe the urgent international collaborative effort that brought them back from the very brink of extinction. In South Africa, the White Backed Vulture has become collateral damage in the ongoing war between poachers and game-keepers. Finally, in Guinea-Bissau, vultures are the victim of cultural practices which see their bodies as having magical properties.
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Meta has decided to abandon the use of independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram in the United States, citing concerns that fact-checkers have become too politically biased. Instead, the company seems to be following X’s lead by shifting to a Community Notes-style system, where users rather than professional fact-checkers and experts correct inaccurate information. But will it lead to more free speech and fewer errors? Or does it open the door for misinformation to spread more easily? How well are social media users equipped to discern fact from fiction?
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On 15 Oct 2024, a 27-year-old cyclist was killed in a bike lane in Paris. His name was Paul Varry. He was run over by a car after an argument with a driver. What happened to Paul was extreme, but it resonated with many Parisians. For Paris is undergoing a cycling revolution. The city has created a vast network of bike lanes, introduced new restrictions for cars. The number of cyclists has soared. But there have also been conflicts, as cars, bikes and pedestrians try to navigate the new balance of power. So is Paris’s plan working? Is this transformation the future for other major cities? Anna Holligan goes to Paris for Assignment, to find out.
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Iranian-born artist and former Paralympian, Mohammad Barrangi, creates intricate, dreamlike worlds where myth and reality collide. His bold, layered works, murals, prints, and 3D sculptures, fuse Persian aesthetics, ancient symbols, and surreal hybrid creatures, often blending women and animals into fantastical forms. Born without the use of his left arm, Barrangi has developed a distinctive printmaking technique, working on the floor and stabilizing his materials with his feet. For his latest project, The Last Rain in Wonderland, Barrangi shifts his focus to the global climate crisis, weaving the stories of displaced communities and endangered animals in southern Iran into his visually striking work. Sahar Zand follows Barrangi’s journey as he prepares for a major exhibition at Nottingham Exchange. Through vivid imagery and intricate textures, his work becomes a reflection on migration, memory, and fragile landscapes.
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Russia’s land grab playbook aimed at erasing local identity and russifying “liberated” territories. Three years into the full scale invasion of Ukraine, we ask what life is like in areas under Russian control. We look at “ripe for russification” Crimea, which was annexed 11 years ago, Moscow’s subsequent efforts to assert itself in the separatist East, and the Kremlin’s challenges in subjugating parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. As time passes, the uncertainty over the future of what Ukraine calls “temporarily occupied territories” grows bigger.
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In December 2024, rebel forces took control in Syria, and former President Bashar al-Assad fled the country. What's happened since? Salma Khattab from BBC Arabic has just come back from Syria and she'll share what she's seen on the ground.
Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Alice Gioia, Caroline Ferguson and Hannah Dean.
(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
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The past week has seen talks between the United States and Russia – without Ukraine. This was followed by what seems to be a deepening rift between US President Trump and Ukrainian leader President Zelensky. Meanwhile, the war on the ground grinds on and Russia continues to bombard Ukraine with drones and missiles. We bring together three people who we first met on the programme shortly after the full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. We also hear from two women involved in a project to rebuild Ukraine to the sound of rave. Darka explains. “Instead of dancing to the music of the DJ, they’re actually building the house or clearing up the debris.”
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In 2019, performer and writer Rochi Rampal found herself attending 10 funerals in one year. To contend with this, she embarked on her own “crash course” to better deal with death, and felt she had found a new attitude to both grief and dying. But Rochi was then given a new diagnosis that forced her to face the threat to her life that she thought she was ready for and the composure she thought she had was shaken. So Rochi wants to begin again and turns to faith and spirituality for answers.
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Extraordinary stories from African-American history, told by the people who were there. We hear tales of bravery and survival against all odds, from the first African-American woman to lead a World War Two battalion, to a Black Panther Party leader in exile, to one man’s incredible escape from the Tulsa Race Massacre. This is a special collection of stories from Witness History, from the BBC World Service, to mark Black History Month in the United States.
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There’s a moral panic in Russia and several former Soviet states about a craze in which teenagers and children dress up as animals and walk on all fours like their favourite animals. In one TikTok video, a group of youngsters are seen scampering across Moscow’s Red Square wearing fox masks and tails. Politicians and religious leaders have warned the trend is a threat to civilised values and a cover for LGBT and western ideology. Legislation is now being considered to ban quadrobics and fine or arrest parents of enthusiasts. But quadrobics has a longer history as a form of exercise. We speak to the pioneering Japanese athlete who holds the world record for covering 100m on all fours in 15.7 seconds, which he set in 2015.
Audio for this episode was updated on 27th February 2025.
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In Germany some 300 villages have been destroyed since the Second World War because of the coal that lay beneath them. Villagers have grown up in the knowledge that one day their house will be torn down and generally they’ve accepted the deal on offer: the mine buys their house and they build a new one in a brand-new village. But the demands of climate change and the need to curb CO2 emissions has changed attitudes to fossil fuels. In one region west of Cologne all mining activity will cease by 2030, 15 years earlier than planned. Which means that villages designated for demolition are now going to survive. That news isn’t always welcome. Tim Mansel has visited one of them.
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Dublin-born Jennifer Walshe is one of the world’s most bold and imaginative contemporary classical composers, and holds the prestigious post of professor of composition at Oxford University. Whether it is Barbie dolls or recipe books, the mundane and strange materials of life are central to Walshe’s work. Now, for the Irish National Opera, she is developing a major new work set on Mars. Walshe’s opera will respond to astrophysics data, Martian meteorites, trashy sci-fi, eco-anxiety in young people, and tech billionaires’ obsession with conquering space. Broadcaster Katie Derham tracks Walshe as she launches into the project, with months of immersive intergalactic research.
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As the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches, we explore how the country will be rebuilt, who is coming up with the redesign of damaged cities, and what they might look like in the future. We hear from Lord Norman Foster, the famous British architect who is working on a masterplan for the city of Kharkiv and look at rebuilding projects in the towns near Kyiv. We also ask what lessons can be learnt from other post-war cities, such as Warsaw and Sarajevo.
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When the American troops withdrew from Afghanistan, they left behind $7bn of military supplies. Where are they now? Hafizullah Maroof from BBC Afghan will take us inside the Kabul flea market that sells second-hand military equipment to the Taliban. Plus: the origin story of capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian sport that blends dancing and martial arts, with Joao Fellet from BBC Brazil and Debula Kemoli from BBC Africa; and how the BBC's Pronunciation unit works with Language Service journalists to make sure we get international names right, with Martha Figueroa-Clark and Jo Kim.
Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Alice Gioia and Caroline Ferguson.
(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)
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