Fifth Floor

Denmark has some of the toughest immigration rules in Europe but the government has welcomed thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the Russian invasion. Hanan Razek of BBC Arabic has been to Denmark to investigate what looks like a mismatch between the treatment of Syrian refugees, who've been there since 2015, and the policy towards Ukrainians. The tree that becomes a spring A mulberry tree in Mo...

Narendra Modi’s BJP party won four out of five Indian states in recent elections, with polls reporting that more women than men voted for them. Geeta Panday of BBC News Delhi explains BJP’s appeal to women, from Prime Minister Modi’s strongman image, to the party's development schemes to improve women’s lives. Space Kebab A kebab shop owner in Adana, known in Turkey as the capital of kebabs, attem...

Wang Jixian is a computer programmer from Beijing who was relocated to Odessa shortly before the Russian invasion. He started sharing videos of war-torn Ukraine and ended up being labelled a traitor by Chinese nationalists. BBC Chinese editor Howard Zhang tells us more. Economising during Ramadan With rising food prices across the Arabic-speaking world, many families are having to scale down the R...

Since the invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has become a familiar face on the world stage speaking to parliaments and the UN, as well as a constant presence in the lives of his own people from front lines to his nightly broadcast. So how much of this sure-footed campaign is down to Zelensky himself, and how much to his advisors? BBC Monitoring journalist Vitaliy Shevchenko has been...

Last week the Taliban regime in Afghanistan reversed its promise to allow girls to return to secondary school after the ban 7 months ago. It's a story that has a particular resonance for BBC Afghan's Shazia Haya, who covered it for BBC Pashto. She was evacuated from Kabul last August and now works with the team in London. Ukraine seen from Hong Kong In Hong Kong's 2019 pro-democracy protests, mass...

How does it feel to report on the world's biggest story when it also happens to be about your home? We hear from BBC Ukrainian's Irena Taranyuk and BBC Monitoring's Vitaliy Shevchenko about the challenges of reporting and living the story, sifting truth from sophisticated misinformation, and the impact of protests and support from around the world. Sexism in Somalia BBC Africa Eye's recent film, '...

BBC Arabic: perspectives on the war in Ukraine from across the Middle East and North Africa. Dima Babilie of BBC Arabic is from Damascus in Syria. She compares the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the Russian intervention in the Syrian conflict, and tells us about the pro-Assad Syrians who want to fight alongside the Russian forces. Hanan Razek tells us about her investigation into Russia's recrui...

BBC Russian editor Famil Ismailov describes how his team has been covering the war, and the challenges they face from a regime which wants to stop them reporting and block their news. He tells us about the different ways that the news is still getting through to audiences inside Russia. Taraneh Stone of BBC Persian TV contrasts the official Iranian media's support for Russian actions, while social...

We look at how the BBC’s language services are reporting the war in Ukraine, and the impact in their countries and regions. Luis Fajardo of BBC Monitoring in Miami explains why there are fears in Colombia that the conflict with Venezuela could turn into a proxy war, and the impact it is having on Colombia's presidential election. Shekiba Habib of BBC Afghan tells us that the conflict has prompted...

As the Winter Olympics draw to a close, we take a closer look at two stars who have dominated the headlines. Zhijie Shao of BBC Chinese describes how China’s ‘frog princess’ Eileen Gu has captured the heart of the nation, and Elizaveta Fokht of BBC Russian charts the ups and downs of 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Icon, rebel and feminist: a tribute to Forugh Farokhzad It’s 55 years thi...

Afghanistan's Taliban Cabinet recently issued a statement that their fighters should not carry weapons while visiting amusement parks. It follows videos circulating online of fighters enjoying bumper car rides, as well as shooting for toys at the rifle range. BBC Afghan's Khalil Noori lived in Kabul until August last year when he was evacuated with his family. He shares his memories of days out in...

Pregnant students in Tanzania are no longer forced to drop out of school, after a ban endorsed by former President John Magufuli was overturned. Girls who had to drop out in previous years have also started to return to the classroom. Aboubakar Famau of BBC Swahili has been to meet a young mother who has returned to school and hopes to become a lawyer. Taiwan's burgeoning porn industry Over recent...

It's a year since Myanmar's military removed the democratically elected government from power. We share key moments in Myanmar's journey towards democracy from The Fifth Floor archive, with BBC Burmese editor Soe Win Than, former editor Tin Htar Swe and presenter Yee Yee Aung. And we hear how the service is marking the anniversary, with stories about the opposition-run 'zoom government' outside My...

Uttar Pradesh has a problem with cows. Cows are considered sacred by Hindus, and since the BJP state government banned illegal slaughterhouses five years ago, small farmers have had no way of legally disposing of unwanted cows. There are now nearly a million stray cows roaming around farmland, destroying crops, and causing injury and even death, as BBC Hindi's Nitin Srivastava reports. Brownie, Ch...

When the Taliban took over in Afghanistan five months ago, the BBC’s Shoaib Sharifi and his team had to decide how to adapt to the new reality. Shoaib is the country director of the BBC’s international charity, BBC Media Action. He tells us how they’re trying to meet the needs of audiences who face so many new challenges. Chinese eye row Chinese model Cai Niangniang recently found herself in the m...

An ancient clay tablet looted from Iraq in 1991 was recently returned to the country. The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet is part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the world’s oldest surviving works of literature. BBC Arabic’s Eli Melki trained as an archaeologist, and he explains what makes this tablet so remarkable. The magic of mahjong We revisit a story from BBC Chinese, about the enduring appeal of mah...

BBC Arabic journalist Murad Shishani spent several weeks this year reporting from Iraq. He visited Mosul, liberated four years ago from so-called Islamic State, to gauge the mood ahead of October's election. More recently, he covered the stories of migrants, from those repatriated from Belarus to those lost in the English Channel, and those still planning to make the hazardous journey. Benin's roy...

This month BBC Persian TV launched a new show. It’s called Update and aims to bring social media trends and online discussions around the news to TV audiences. One of its first stories was the social media campaigns around Isfahan's water protests. First time presenter Taraneh Stone tells us about their agenda, and about her own launch 'wobbles'. The tattooed women of Sindh The women of a Hindu co...

What’s it like to be named a ‘foreign agent’ by your own government? That’s what happened to BBC Russian journalist Andrei Zakharov in October. He’s worked in BBC Russian’s investigations unit for many years, and investigative journalists were some of the first on the list. We find out what becoming a ‘foreign agent’ has meant for him. Reporting from the volcano Mount Semeru in eastern Java erupte...

BBC Persian’s Soran Qurbani was recently in Calais to report on the tragic deaths of 27 people, who were attempting to cross the Channel to England when their small boat sank. He explains why their stories brought back memories of his own difficult journey to the UK 10 years ago. Story Story An imaginary market place in West Africa is the setting for the long-running radio drama Story Story, made...

The use of surveillance systems in China is not new, but a recent document published by local authorities in the province of Henan gave explicit details of a traffic light system, targeting international students and journalists, among others. Howard Zhang, from BBC Chinese tells us more. Siberian husky or Andean fox? A Peruvian family in Lima bought a puppy they believed was a Siberian Husky. But...

Many communities in India's northern Ladakh region are experiencing water shortages because of shrinking glaciers. BBC India team Aamir Peerzada and Neha Sharma went to report on how people in one village, Kumik, have ended up building a new settlement close to a river. It turned out to be an eventful trip. Bodybuilding in the Arab world Bodybuilding is a popular pastime for men throughout the Ara...

Soon after taking power, the Taliban replaced the Department for Women's Affairs with the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. It's a name many Afghans feared during the last Taliban era, as 'morality police' enforced their extreme interpretation of Islam. BBC Afghan's Shekiba Habib lived through that era, and reports on what we know about how the current ministry is operatin...

A group of women in central Myanmar have formed their own anti-junta militia, and are fighting alongside other armed groups. Armed resistance to the military regime has been increasing since the coup nine months ago. BBC Burmese editor Soe Win Than tells us more about the Myaung Women Warriors. My Home Town: Damascus A new episode of our series 'My Home Town', in which our language service journal...

As rebel TPLF forces advance towards the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, other armed groups say they are forming an alliance with them. These include the secretive Oromo Liberation Army, which first appeared in the 1970s. The BBC's Africa correspondent Catherine Byaruhanga was the first international journalist to meet them, at a desert training camp. The dispute over Scythian gold When Russian for...