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The Fifth Floor

Factual: Life Stories

Global stories from the BBC’s 40 Language Services, with Faranak Amidi

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services.

Faranak Amidi presents global stories from the Fifth Floor, home to the BBC’s 40 Language Services

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The Fifth Floor: What now for Syria's Kurds?

Syria Kurds Conflict

01/03/2019 GMT

What now for Syria's Kurds?

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, What now for Syria's Kurds?

Can the Kurdish led Rojava revolution in northern Syria survive the end of the conflict?

Syria's Rojava revolution, Sao Paulo's commuters, BBC Russian tours the USA, linked destinies of three key Afghans, Uganda's boda bodas, My Home Town Ramallah.

The so-called Rojava revolution brought radical social change in the Kurdish regions of northern Syria: equality and representation regardless of religion, ethnicity or gender.  It was their armies which battled so-called Islamic State.  But with IS largely defeated, US forces poised to pull out of Syria, and Turkey opposed to this political entity, Roj Ranjbar of BBC Monitoring and Jiyar Gol of BBC Persian, Kurds from Iraq and Iran, discuss the future of the Rojava revolution.

Sao Paulo's super-commuters 
Many workers in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, endure marathon journeys across the city to reach their jobs.  BBC Brasil reporter Felipe Souza tells some of their stories, and his own.

The strange upside of Russian US political tensions 
Newspaper headlines talk about a new cold war between the USA and Russia, but BBC Russian journalist Sergei Goryashko found a lot of warmth towards Russians on a tour of the USA.

A tale of three Afghans
As talks continue between the US and the Taliban, we look at the shared past of three key players in Afghanistan's future.  US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, chief Taliban negotiator Sher Mohammed Abas Stanekzai and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani all grew up in the same peaceful era, before war scattered them in new directions, as Dawood Azami of BBC Afghan explains.

The boda bodas of Uganda 
By car a short journey across Kampala can take hours.  Step up the boda boda, a motorbike-taxi that can nip through traffic, if your nerves can stand it, as Ali Mutasa of BBC Swahili explains. 

My Home Town: Ramallah
Tala Halawa of BBC Monitoring takes us on a tour of her hometown, the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Image: Syria Kurdish woman in Rojava region of Northern Syria
Credit: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty

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