What in the World

Thousands of people - including politicians, students and journalists - are killed in drug cartel violence in Mexico every year. One of the biggest cartels is Sinaloa. Joaquín "El Chapo” Guzmán led the cartel until he was jailed in 2019. He’s currently serving a life sentence. His wife, Emma Coronel, has been released from a three year jail term after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges. B...

Niger and Gabon are the latest countries in Africa's Sahel to experience military coups. But that’s not the only issue that is facing the area. Beverly Ochieng from BBC Monitoring in Nairobi explains why several countries in the region are among the worst on the Global Terrorism Index from the Institute for Economics & Peace. And we look at which militant groups operate in the region, why Fran...

A decades-long territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has flared up. Now nearly the entire ethnic Armenian population living there has fled. The United Nations has sent its first mission to the territory in about 30 years to assess the humanitarian situation. Azerbaijan has been accused of ethnic cleansing - which it denies. Alex Rhodes, from the What...

A truckload of rubbish enters the ocean every minute. Boyan Slat is on a mission to remove it. He’s the founder of The Ocean Cleanup, one of the organisations ridding the oceans of plastic. But how does so much rubbish end up in the ocean to begin with? Boyan explains. One solution is to stop the flow from polluted rivers. You may have spotted clean-up videos on TikTok, especially in Bali. We spea...

Our phones are powered by teeny tiny semi conductors. Taiwan produces over 60% of them. Huawei recently unveiled a phone with a chip made in mainland China. Chris Miller is an expert on this subject. He tells us why the United States is wary of this move. We know our phones have a chip in them, but what’s it made of? And what else is in our phones? They’re built with metals and materials from some...

After nearly five months, Hollywood writers have ended their strike, which brought the American film and TV industry to a halt. The Writers Guild of America said in a statement that union leaders ‘voted unanimously’ in favour of a deal - which some writers have called ‘exceptional’. It’ll now be voted on by union members. Some of the main sticking points included payments for reruns (known as resi...

There are loads of videos on TikTok of people calling their 20s the loneliest decade. But are they? We speak to Foyin Ogunrombi (@FoyinOG), a content creator from South Africa, who’s been discussing this topic on her podcast. Dr Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist and author of ‘The Defining Decade’, explains what’s happens in our brains, and why we may feel a little haywire. Plus, Dr Laurie Santos f...

Talks about net zero have been getting heated in the UK. It’s after the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was still confident the country would hit net zero by 2050 — despite announcing changes to scale back some of the government’s key green policies. If you're confused about net zero and how to get on track to meet targets, Alex and Jordan Dunbar can help. Jordan is a presenter on The Climate Q...

What do Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, BTS and Olivia Rodrigo’s “world tours“ have in common? …None of them are going to Africa. And only two of them are going to Asia. Many international stars seem to skip huge parts of the world even though fans are desperate for them to come and perform. Why is this? Four BBC reporters join us to paint a picture of pop concerts around the world: Faith Oshoko from Niger...

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his government is investigating "credible" claims that Indian government agents may have been involved in the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar. It’s soured the relationship between the two countries. But how much do we really know about the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) - India’s version of the CIA? Rupsha Mukherjee, a senior report...

People seem to be turning to social media influencers for advice on what birth control method to use. Some influencers are suggesting that their followers stop taking hormonal contraception due to rumoured side effects. In Scotland, experts are worried that misinformation online may be contributing to record high abortion rates. Two BBC reporters talk us through attitudes towards hormonal contrace...

Palm oil is found in everything from chocolate to shampoo, pizza, toothpaste and deodorant. It’s hugely popular with food and cosmetics companies because it’s odourless, tasteless and colourless, and does not alter the smell, taste or look of products. But palm oil — 85% of which is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia — is also a major driver of deforestation, which threatens the habitat of endange...

A few days ago police in the United Arab Emirates intercepted a huge haul of illegal Captagon pills worth one billion dollars. It’s an addictive party drug that’s sweeping across the Middle East. A BBC investigation has found that most of the world’s supply of the drug is coming from Syria - and the trade has links to the highest levels of the Syrian government, something the Assad regime denies....

One year ago Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman from Iran, died in police custody. The country’s “morality police” had detained her for wearing her hijab too loosely. It sparked defiant protests across the country and calls for greater respect for women. Two Iranian reporters — Baran Abbasi from BBC Persian and Kian Sharifi from BBC Monitoring — explain what life is like for young women in Iran a ye...

Devastating flooding has washed away entire neighbourhoods, killing tens of thousands of people in Libya. In this episode, BBC Monitoring’s Amira Fathalla explains how the country’s history and unique political situation has made everything far more complicated. And Esme Stallard, a BBC climate reporter, examines the role climate change could have played in the storm’s severity. Email: whatinthewo...

The professional wrestling company WWE and the Mixed Martial Arts company UFC have merged in a giant deal that has created a new organisation called TKO Holdings. The WWE and UFC are quite different and fans of the brands aren’t sure what this deal will mean for them or the future of the sports. Alex from the What in the World team explains the differences between the UFC, which is a real combat s...

The new ruling legalises abortion across all 32 states. Mexico's Supreme Court said the denial of the possibility of a termination violated the human rights of women. BBC Mundo's Beatriz de la Pava talks us through what abortion laws are like across Latin America and explains how this rule-change might need a cultural shift for it to have significant impact. Also, the BBC's Mimi Swaby is with aid...

Rescue efforts are continuing in Morocco following a deadly earthquake. The worst affected areas are remote villages in the Atlas Mountains. Aid workers are struggling to reach survivors due to its poor infrastructure, rubble and boulders. Mimi Swaby, a BBC reporter, tells us about the ongoing rescue and relief efforts. Also on the pod - is 2023 India’s year of wins? They’ve just hosted the G20 su...

The number of climate cases being brought to court has doubled over the last five years (Source: UNEP). There are now over 2,000 cases being brought against states, governments and companies. Over 30 of these have been brought by and on behalf of people under 25. Are these an effective way to force governments and companies to reduce their emissions? BBC climate reporter Georgina Rannard joins Han...

The German politician Hubert Aiwanger has admitted to carrying an anti-Jewish pamphlet that mocked the Holocaust when he was a schoolboy. But despite Germany’s tough laws against antisemitism and glorifying Nazism, he’s been allowed to keep his job as deputy premier of Bavaria, the biggest state in the country. Now some worry Germany’s stance against antisemitism is weakening. BBC reporter Kristin...

Tens of thousands of teachers in South Korea have been striking to demand better protection. They say they are so scared of being called child abusers at work, they feel they can't discipline their students. The protests happened after the suicide of a young teacher. It later came out she had been dealing with severe complaints from parents. The BBC's Yuna Ku explains what it's like to be a teache...

Spain’s victory in the Women’s World Cup was overshadowed by Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish national football federation, kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent. But now the uproar has gone beyond football. Women across the country are sharing experiences of harassment in their workplace and other spaces under one hashtag: #SeAcabo, which means “it’s over”. In this ep...

Bali has a problem with badly behaved tourists. Influencers have been caught posing naked on top of sacred mountains, driving recklessly and interrupting religious ceremonies. More than 200 tourists have been kicked out of the Indonesian island this year alone. But local officials are hitting back. They’ve started a hotline for people to tell on misbehaving tourists and, when things get bad, are e...

For some countries in Africa ruling is very much a family business. Ali Bongo was president of Gabon for 14 years. But that’s nothing compared to his father, who ruled for 41 years. And Mr Bongo will not go on to beat his dad’s record. He’s the latest African leader to be deposed in a coup. There have now been eight in Central and West African states in the last three years. With growing disconten...

North Korea has carried out a record number of weapons tests this year. At the end of August it said it fired two short-range tactical ballistic missiles to simulate what a nuclear attack on South Korea would be like. We hear about missile tests from there regularly but what do we actually know about the country itself? It’s super secretive and it’s really difficult to actually know what’s going o...