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From Our Own Correspondent: Nigeria's cash crunch

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11/02/2023 GMT

Nigeria's cash crunch

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Nigeria's cash crunch

Tempers flare as Nigerians hunt new banknotes; plus tales from the USA, Myanmar and Italy

Tempers flare at banks, ATMs and tills in Nigeria, plus President Biden’s political smoke signals, the risks for reporters in Myanmar, and escaping a Mafia family in Italy.

Pascale Harter introduces reportage, analysis and wit from BBC correspondents and writers in Nigeria, the USA, Myanmar and Italy.

Nigeria’s Central Bank had a plan: to fight inflation, limit corruption and encourage e-commerce by bringing in brand new banknotes. But the handing of the changeover has caused chaos across the country – as Mayeni Jones explains from Lagos.

The US President’s State of the Union address is a regular ritual of the American political calendar – but who is the speech really directed to, and what sort of tactical signals get sent in this bit of Congressional theatre? After an unusually stormy SOTU in Washington DC this week, Anthony Zurcher travelled with President Biden to Florida, to weigh up what message he wants to get across to the American people. 

It’s been two years since the military takeover of Myanmar, and ever since the coup, the levels of violence and censorship inside the country have steadily ratcheted up. Many journalists have found they simply can’t do their jobs without risking arrest, intimidation or imprisonment. The BBC’s Asia editor Rebecca Henschke describes the dangers they must face to get news out of the country.

Escaping the Mafia is not easy. If you’ve been marked for death by an Italian organised crime syndicate, then changing your identity or a lifetime under armed escort might be the very minimum needed. But what if you’ve been born into a crime family – is there any chance of escape? In the foothills of the Italian Alps, Daniel Gordon recently met one man who’d managed to break away from the criminal career he’d been born into. 

Presenter: Pascale Harter
Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross

(Photo by PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images)

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