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Outlook: The selfie that changed my life twice

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Syrian refugee Anas Modamani and German Chancellor Angela Merkel

30/07/2019 GMT

The selfie that changed my life twice

BBC World Service - Outlook, The selfie that changed my life twice

How a selfie with Chancellor Angela Merkel revolutionised a Syrian refugee’s life

In 2015 Syrian refugee Anas Modamani took a selfie with Chancellor Angela Merkel. He never thought it would have such a dramatic impact on his life.

Anas Modamani is a Syrian refugee obsessed with selfies. In 2015 he fled his hometown for Europe, and all along the difficult route he would send photographs of himself to his family back home in Syria. When he finally reached Germany he had a chance encounter with the country's leader Angela Merkel. He didn't really know who she was at the time but he took a selfie with her. That selfie changed his life - for better and for worse.

The definition of the idiom 'skating on thin ice' is to be doing something that is dangerous or involves risks. But what is it like to literally skate on thin ice? That's exactly what Swedish mathematician Mårten Ajne does. When autumn comes around and lakes and rivers start to freeze, he specialises in skating on ice, sometimes just 28 millimetres thick. He told Outlook's Saskia Edwards what it sounds like.

Ukrainian engineer Oleksiy Breus was working at Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the morning of 26 April 1986, when reactor No. 4 exploded. While everyone else left the area, Oleksiy stayed behind, working for 14 hours in the reactor. 


(Image: Syrian refugee Anas Modamani and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  Photo courtesy of Anas Modamani.)

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