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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: Visiting Russia’s Arctic military base

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Ariel photo of Russia's snowy Arctic military base on Franz Josef Land

04/06/2021 GMT

Visiting Russia’s Arctic military base

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Visiting Russia’s Arctic military base

How Russia is defending its interests in the Arctic

How Russia is defending its interests in the Arctic.

Russia's northernmost military base, in the remote archipelago of Franz Josef Land, demonstrates its ambitions for the Arctic, as melting ice opens up new opportunities. The BBC Moscow news team were given rare access to the base, and Liza Shuvalova tells us what she saw there. 

Venezuela and Trinidad 
Between the 1960s and 90s, many people from the island of Trinidad made the 11 kilometre sea crossing to Venezuela in search of better lives. Today, the migration has reversed, with Venezuelans heading to Trinidad and Tobago. BBC Mundo’s Norberto Paredes tells us more about long-standing bonds between these two countries. 

Saving Kenya's turtles 
Watamu, on the Kenyan coast, is famous for its wildlife, including four species of sea turtle. But turtle numbers have declined due to poaching and habitat loss. Njoroge Muigai of BBC Nairobi visited Watamu to meet the people working hard to save them. 

What two new buzzwords tell us about broken dreams in China  
Chinese internet users have been using two buzzwords – which translate as “lying flat” and “involution” – to express growing frustration with competitiveness and powerlessness.  Fan Wang of BBC Chinese explains the economic changes behind these terms.

My journey to journalism:  Shekiba Habib  
As part of our occasional series about our language service colleagues' routes into their jobs, we hear from Shekiba Habib of BBC Afghan.  She was studying in Kabul to be a doctor, the career she had always dreamed of, when the arrival of the Taliban changed everything.

Image: Russia's Arctic military base in the Franz Josef Land archipelago
Credit: BBC

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