What in the World

By: BBC World Service
  • Summary

  • Helping you make sense of what’s happening in your world. Big stories, small stories and everything in between. Understand more, feel better. Five days a week, Monday to Friday.

    (C) BBC 2025
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Episodes
  • Fog harvesting: What is it?
    Feb 21 2025

    People should have access to around 50 to 100 litres of clean water per day, according to the UN. But this is not always the case, especially in countries with desert areas or affected by droughts.

    There’s a technique called fog catching that’s been used on a small scale for decades. Nets are used to trap fog and water is channelled into pipes and storage tanks. But now, in the Atacama Desert in Chile, researchers want to scale it up massively and meet the entire water demand of Alto Hospicio, which is in one of the world's driest regions.

    How much water can fog catching provide? And is it clean? The BBC’s Science Correspondent Victoria Gill runs us through how it all works. And we hear from two organisations working on improving access to water across Africa and Latin America.

    Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Nadia Gyane, Josh Jenkins and Maria Clara Montoya Editor: Emily Horler

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    12 mins
  • Why is space junk such a big problem?
    Feb 20 2025

    In December 2024, a huge, red-hot metal ring fell from the sky and landed in a small village in Kenya. It turned out to be a piece of space junk. There are millions of pieces of space debris and rubbish floating around in space.

    And we’re sending more and more stuff up there. Now it’s not just governments, but private companies like SpaceX and Amazon who are launching satellites. Some reports suggest that by 2030, we could have more than 60,000 active satellites in space. So what happens when they’re no longer needed?

    BBC Science reporter Caroline Steel explains why space junk is such a big issue, and how people are trying to get rid of it.

    And Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba, a Kenyan PHD student studying aerospace engineering, tells us about some of the potential solutions, like using nets or lasers.

    Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Mora Morrison and Julia Ross-Roy Video Journalist: Baldeep Chahal Editor: Verity Wilde

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    13 mins
  • What is South Africa’s controversial land law, and why is Trump involved?
    Feb 19 2025

    South Africa faced the wrath of US President Donald Trump recently when he incorrectly accused the country’s government of confiscating land from white people.

    Trump said South Africa was pursuing what he called "unjust and immoral practices" against the white minority Afrikaner community. As a result he’s frozen American foreign aid to the country and threatened to cut off all future funding, causing shockwaves across South Africa.

    So how did we get here? What exactly is South Africa's Expropriation Act? And what influence is one of President Trump’s closest allies, South African born Elon Musk, having on the decisions being made? The BBC's Karnie Sharp talks us through what we need to know.

    Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: whatintheworld@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Mora Morrison and Josh Jenkins Editor: Verity Wilde

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    14 mins

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