SATURDAY 31 OCTOBER 2020

SAT 00:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m5t3l)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 00:06 The Real Story (w3cszcns)
US v China: A new Cold War?

The central committee of China’s ruling Communist Party has been meeting this week in Beijing to map out its priorities for the next five years. While Americans decide whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden will set the direction of US foreign policy going forward, there is little doubt that Chinese President Xi Jinping will remain in his post for the foreseeable future - party leaders have already abolished his term limits. Whoever wins on 3 Nov, Beijing is likely to continue advancing its interests across the Asia-Pacific region and globally, often at odds with US goals. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned more must be done to avoid ‘a new Cold War’, adding: "our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a great fracture - each with its own trade and financial rules and internet and artificial intelligence capacities.” But as the Communist Party continues to successfully grow the Chinese economy and its influence overseas - while at the same time refusing to give ground on human rights or democratic reforms - is such a split inevitable? China’s military is expanding and the number of countries relying on investment from Beijing is growing too. As the country becomes more technologically and economically self-sufficient, are the chances of avoiding a global schism decreasing? Are we about to witness a new Cold War? Ritula Shah is joined by a panel of experts.


SAT 01:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m5xvq)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 01:06 Business Matters (w172x19218yz4ym)
Global market nerves

Global stock markets fall amidst election and pandemic nerves. The worst week and month on US financial markets since March comes as the Eurozone economies experience strong quarterly growth, but that is not enough to reverse the declines in the first half of 2020 due to the pandemic. And fears grow of rich world economies going back into hibernation because of the second wave hitting Europe. Chris Low of FHN financial breaks down the data causing the market jitters. Kai Ryssdal of our sister station Marketplace checks in to talk about a Pennsylvania businessman who is anxious about what the US election will mean for his company. Also in the programme, we ask what if you've been stranded at sea since the start of the pandemic - and can't get home. An estimated 400,000 seafarers, are in that position. Plus, India has applied for Geographical Indication status for Basmati rice, which would prohibit Pakistan from exporting it to the EU.

All through the show we'll be joined by Colin Peacock of Radio New Zealand.

(Picture: a man wearing a face mask in front of the Euro currency symbol. Credit: AFP.)


SAT 02:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m61lv)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 02:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bh36rrt0z)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 02:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16wdw7)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 02:32 Stumped (w3cszhk1)
Can cricket be a leading sport in the USA?

We discuss the latest in the Men’s IPL and also preview the Women’s IPL challenge with former India bowler, Snehal Pradhan, and look at the clash in scheduling with the Women’s Big Bash. Plus, we speak to the Chief Executive of US Cricket, Iain Higgins, on their bid for ICC full member status by 2030. And with the whole of the South African cricket board resigning, we speak to Mo Allie live from Cape Town about what is next for South Africa cricket.

Photo: USA team photo (Credit: Getty images)


SAT 03:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m65bz)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 03:06 The Fifth Floor (w3cszjhx)
Inside the schools that chain boys

A BBC Arabic investigation has uncovered systemic child abuse inside Islamic schools in Sudan, known as khalwas. It found that boys are routinely chained, shackled and beaten; in some khalwas there was evidence of sexual abuse. The BBC’s Mamdouh Akbiek worked with a local investigative journalist on the story.

Boston's Brazilian party-goers
Boston’s large Brazilian community has stirred up controversy by holding huge outdoor parties despite Covid-19 restrictions, as BBC Brasil’s Ricardo Senra explains.

Somali storm in a teacup
A social media star was deported from the self-declared republic of Somaliland because of a cup of tea. Bilal Bulshawi is from Somalia, and posted a picture of himself drinking tea decorated with the Somalia flag, whilst in Somaliland. BBC Somali’s Bidhaan Dahir tells us about the online storm which followed.

Chile's referendum
Constanza Hola explains how a 30 pesos price rise for metro tickets last October led to the overwhelming referendum result this week to rewrite Chile's constitution.

Opening up about mental health in Pakistan
World mental health day is 10th October. To mark the date BBC Urdu’s Saher Baloch decided to speak up about a topic very close to her heart, living with someone with a mental health condition.

Image: Sudanese schoolboy chained
Credit: BBC


SAT 03:50 Witness History (w3cszmvs)
With the president on 9/11

On September 11 2001, President George W. Bush was visiting an elementary school in Florida as two planes hit the World Trade Center. In an image that would become iconic, the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, broke the news to the president by whispering in his ear as he listened to schoolchildren practising their reading. In interviews from 2011, Andrew Card recalls the moment that transformed President Bush’s presidency and the course of recent history.

PHOTO: President George W. Bush shortly after learning of the 9/11 attacks (AFP/Getty Images)


SAT 04:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m6933)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 04:06 The Real Story (w3cszcns)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:06 today]


SAT 05:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m6dv7)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 05:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bh36rs58c)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 05:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16ws3m)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 05:32 Comedians Vs. The News (w3ct0x3j)
Dr Jason Leong and Evelyn Mok

Malaysian comedian Dr Jason Leong and Swedish comic Evelyn Mok join Jess Salomon and Eman El-Husseini to tackle the international headlines. This week, why is Malaysia facing a political crisis? And has the Swedish Prime Minister really banned trick or treating at Halloween?
Get involved and tell us about the funny stories where you are.
#comediansvsthenews


SAT 06:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m6jlc)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 06:06 Weekend (w172x7d3znz4ww2)
Deaths and floods as quake hits Turkey and Greece

Rescuers have spent the night searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings in the Turkish city of Izmir, looking for survivors of Fridays’s powerful earthquake. Twenty people have been confirmed dead and at least seven-hundred were injured. The quake struck the Greek island of Samos too, where two teenagers were killed.

Also in the programme: A crackdown on political dissent in Cambodia; and why tourism bosses in Kazakhstan are now embracing the iconic film character, Borat!

Joining Julian Worricker to discuss these and other issues: Azadeh Moaveni, Iranian author and Crisis Group's Gender Project Director, and James Rodgers, writer and lecturer in international journalism.

(Photo:Rescuers and local residents are frantically searching for survivors in Izmir. Credit: Reuters)


SAT 07:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m6nbh)
News bulletin

The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 07:06 Weekend (w172x7d3znz50m6)
US Election 2020: Trump and Biden battle for swing states

In a final burst of campaigning, US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden have criss-crossed Midwestern states that may hold the keys to the White House. More than 85 million people have voted early, 55 million of them by post, setting the US on course for its biggest voter turnout in over a century. James Coomarasamy reports from Michigan.

Also in the programme: Anger in France and in a number of Muslim-majority countries after the killings in Nice; and the impact of conflict on women around the world.

Joining Julian Worricker to discuss these and other issues: Azadeh Moaveni, Iranian author and Crisis Group's Gender Project Director, and James Rodgers, writer and lecturer in international journalism.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)


SAT 08:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m6s2m)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 08:06 Weekend (w172x7d3znz54cb)
Covid-19 rise in Europe and US

The United States has again broken its daily coronavirus record with ninety four thousand new reported infections and nearly one thousand deaths. The number of people who have now tested positive in the US has passed nine million. Belgium has become the latest European country to announce a return to national lockdown for at least a month.

Also in the programme: The search for earthquake survivors continues in Turkey, victims of falling buildings and rising seas; and Biden and Trump battle for swing states.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)


SAT 08:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16x4c0)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 08:32 The Documentary (w3csz4pv)
The Superlinguists

How to learn a language

Simon Calder asks how to go about acquiring a new tongue. He gets tips from those who know - innovative teachers and polyglots. The answers are surprising. At school, it is repetitive drills, shouted out loud by the whole class, that seem to lodge the grammar and pronunciation in the pupils’ brains. But if you are an adult learning by yourself, then, on the contrary, don’t stress about grammar and pronunciation, there are better, and more fun things to focus on. Simon has a go at learning Slovenian, can he order coffee and cake after just one lesson?

(Photo: Olly Richards and Katie Harris, with kind permission from both)


SAT 09:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m6wtr)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 09:06 BBC OS Conversations (w3ct19ys)
US Election: Race and policing

As the presidential election campaign nears its conclusion, another American city witnesses protests for racial justice after police officers shoot dead a black man on the streets of Philadelphia.

Host Nuala McGovern shares several conversations on the prominence of race in this election campaign including two police officers from New York and Missouri and several Black Lives Matter protesters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

After the presidential debates promoted controversy around white supremacy groups, we also hear the individual stories of a man and woman who joined Neo Nazi groups in the US and their fears for post-election America.

Picture: Joseph Imperatrice


SAT 09:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16x834)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 09:32 Girl Taken (w3ct0xw7)
Girl Taken

31/10/2020 GMT

Girl Taken is a two year investigation to find a little girl taken from her mother in Iran. In this 11 part series, recorded in real time, Sue Mitchell and Rob Lawrie slowly unravel the mystery of what happened to four year old Bru and set out to reunite mother and daughter after years of being apart.

The series starts when Sue Mitchell came into the story, as a reporter for the BBC covering the refugee crisis in Europe. The little girl had hit the media spotlight when her father, claiming to be a widow fleeing Afghanistan under threat of death from the Taliban, asked Rob Lawrie, a volunteer at the Calais camp, for help. He wanted Rob to smuggle Bru to the UK but this failed. Although the story was extensively covered no one knew Bru’s mother was alive and desperately searching for her.

Through the original BBC coverage the mother, Goli, makes contact with Sue and Rob, telling them her daughter was taken from the family home in Tehran without her knowledge or consent. She’d been to the police in Iran but was told they could not help. She then travelled thousands of miles at the hands of smugglers with Bru’s baby sister, Baran. Sickness forced her to stop in Denmark but authorities and refugee charities there could not find Bru. These recordings cover a series of dramatic turns in the search for the little girl.

The recordings also touch on the plight of other women whose children have been taken from them by abusive husbands. It is still a rare thing to happen, but this investigation exposes shortcomings in the asylum process. Since the recordings aired, officials have discovered other cases where men have come into the United Kingdom with a child to help their asylum claims. These claims have not been fully investigated in the past and there are few safeguards to protect those who have suffered as a result.

The series raises the plight of children living in the Calais Jungle and other overcrowded and unsanitary camps. Through Goli’s story we learn more about the control others had in shaping her life. She’d had an arranged marriage to a cruel and controlling man and lived in a society where she had few rights. When she decided to flee Iran and search for Bru, she encountered many dangers, from smugglers to perilous sea crossings in the dead of night with Bru’s baby sister, Baran, in her arms.

The series gives voice to one woman’s story and in doing so raises issues affecting many others. Goli left the only culture she had known to search the world for her little girl and in doing so changed her outlook completely. On reaching the West she immersed herself in the education she had always wanted. As she began making her own choices she starts to experience possibilities and freedoms she had never before imagined. Goli is hopeful that her story could help other women to challenge the injustice and cruelty she has overcome.


SAT 09:50 Over to You (w3cszf55)
TikTok’s influence on the US election

Listeners react to the documentary The TikTok Election - how enlightening was the investigation? And ahead of next week’s US presidential vote, we reveal details of an OTY special on your views on what you’ve heard about the whole campaign across the BBC WS.

Plus the digital doctor is back to solve your online digital dilemmas - including news of the BBC’s Sounds app ... and there’s another chance to get to know about two listeners' everyday habits in "How I Hear".

Presenter: Rajan Datar
Producer: Howard Shannon.


SAT 10:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m70kw)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 10:06 Sportshour (w172x3c2yf8qtcl)
'There are a lot of moments where this is still terrifying' – Danell Leyva

Former three-time Olympic gymnastics medallist - Danell Leyva - revealed his sexuality on National Coming Out Day in the United States earlier this month. The 29-year-old tells us his mum is the only member of his family he is out to and he feels he is “almost cheating” by talking to us, because most of his family can’t speak English. He recalls things family members have said, not knowing his sexuality, that have had an impact on him. He also tells us people have reached out to him on social media to tell him that his story has helped them. Leyva – who represented Team USA during his athletic career – has now moved into acting. He’s not keen to put a label on his sexuality and adds he would like to create a television show where a bisexual male is the main character as he feels historically bisexuals have not been taken seriously.

One year on from South Africa’s men winning the Rugby World Cup we speak to Nolusindiso Booi, who is captain of the women’s team. She reflects on the men’s achievement and tells us about her involvement in a campaign to raise the profile of the women’s game. Booi wants girls to take up the sport in primary school and says it would be a dream to see a women’s professional league in the country. Booi is targeting playing in a third World Cup in 2021 and says the whole of South Africa will be screaming if they can emulate the men’s achievement in New Zealand.

Staying with rugby union and Murray Kinsella from the 42.ie gives us his thoughts and explains the permutations ahead of Super Saturday in the men’s Six Nations.

Photographer Kelly Gavin joins us to reflect on covering baseball’s World Series. The LA Dodgers ended a 32-year wait for the title and Gavin was there to capture the historic moment, which she describes as “nerve wracking” but also a dream come true. One of her images was used for the front cover of Sports Illustrated. Gavin also describes the moment she was hit on the skull by a ball travelling 96 miles an hour in 2016. She now wears a helmet when covering baseball.

Natasha Jonas tells us all about a week that saw her and her brother provide free boxing lessons and food parcels to children in need over the October school holidays in England. Jonas – who boxed at an Olympic Games and is chasing a world title in the professional ranks – says she relied on things like free school meals when she was growing up in Liverpool.

In Sporting Witness we tell the story of the Polish table-tennis player Natalia Partyka, who in Sydney 20 years ago became the youngest athlete in the history of the Paralympics when she competed at just 11 years of age.

And – the football journalist and broadcaster Vaishali Bhardwaj joins us to look ahead to Manchester City’s game at Sheffield United in the Premier League.

(Photo: Silver medalist Danell Leyva of the United States celebrates at the medal ceremony for the Horizontal Bar, Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in Brazil. Credit: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)


SAT 11:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m74b0)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 11:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bh36rswr4)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 11:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16xhld)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 11:32 The Documentary (w3ct1642)
China's rocket man

Qian Xuesen is widely celebrated in China as the father of the country’s rocket programme, and the man who kick-started its exploration of space. China is now second only to the US in terms of its dominance among the stars. But Qian also had an important part to play in the early scientific advances, before World War Two,that would eventually take the US to the moon. However, he is almost entirely forgotten by the country that nurtured his talent for decades, before anti-communist persecution sent him back to China, the land of his birth. Kavita Puri traces the rise and fall - and rise again - of an extraordinary life.

This is also a story about national myth-making and geopolitics. Qian’s fortunes and misfortunes mirror Sino-American relations down the decades. And it is about the lies and betrayals that happen when individuals are caught up in the twists of history. There are important questions, too, about whom history remembers and whom it forgets, and whether Qian’s deportation in 1955 was the biggest blunder the US ever made. This is also a tale that does not end with Qian’s death in 2009. At a time when relations between America and China are again at a nadir, his story still has powerful resonances today.

Presenter: Kavita Puri

(Photo: Qian Xuesen)


SAT 12:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m7824)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 12:06 Music Life (w3csz6tq)
The ‘Lost Beats’ folder with Felicia Douglass and Tiana Major9

Songwriter, keyboardist, percussionist and Dirty Projector Felicia Douglass chats to Sly5thAve, Leon Michels, and Tiana Major9 about their desires to become musicians, skills and hobbies they’ve acquired during quarantine that have fed into their work, and how they start a new piece of music.

Tiana Major9 is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who has been praised as a “singular voice in British Black soul”. Her music combines thoughtful soul, jazz, and R&B, and she features on Stormzy’s Mercury-nominated album Heavy Is the Head. Leon Michels is an American producer and musician. As well as co-founding the labels Truth & Soul Records and Big Crown Records, he’s also credited on Adele’s Grammy-nominated album 19, and has worked with the likes of Lana Del Rey, Dr John and the Black Keys. And finally, Sylvester Onyejiaka, aka Sly5thAve, is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger whose compositions are shaped by his faith in hip-hop and a deep understanding of soul, R&B, jazz, and West African music. He has performed alongside Prince, and worked with Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monáe and Quantic. In 2017 he released an orchestral album in tribute to Dr Dre, who congratulated his arrangement live on stage.


SAT 13:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m7ct8)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 13:06 Newshour (w172x2z0kv3xkfv)
Turkey-Greece quake: Search for survivors under rubble

Rescue teams in the Turkish port city of Izmir are hunting through the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors of Friday's powerful earthquake.

Also in the programme, James Bond actor Sean Connery dies aged 90; and mounting speculation in England about a new lockdown is under way.

(Photo: A woman reacts next to debris during rescue operations after an earthquake struck the Aegean Sea, in the coastal province of Izmir. Credit: Reuters)


SAT 14:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m7hkd)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 14:06 Sportsworld (w172x3lgxzpy16q)
Live Sporting Action

Sportsworld brings you live Premier League commentary as Burnley take on Chelsea at Turf Moor.

Lee James is joined by former Manchester City and Everton defender Sylvain Distin, ex-Australia international Alicia Ferguson and former Wolves and Nigeria goalkeeper Carl Ikeme to discuss all the big talking points.

We'll also bring you the latest from the IPL, qualifying for Formula One's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, rugby's Six Nations and the netball Test series between England and New Zealand.

Photo: Chelsea and Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy (Getty Images)


SAT 18:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m7zjx)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 18:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bh36rtqz1)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 18:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16ybt9)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 18:32 Trending (w3cszvsm)
Sex, monks and video fakes

Luon Sovath is a softly spoken Buddhist monk who has long been a thorn in the side of the Cambodian government. And now, he’s been targeted by a state-sponsored disinformation campaign.

Earlier this year, a series of mysterious videos appeared on Facebook, accusing him of having affairs with four women from the same family.

Soon after he was defrocked and charged with raping another woman, one who didn’t feature in the videos.

Luon Sovath denies all the allegations, and fled the country to go into exile in Switzerland. He and his supporters say he was the victim of an obvious smear campaign. Human rights organisations say the people responsible didn’t cover their tracks very well – and that officials operate with impunity in Cambodia.

Should Facebook have moved quicker to disrupt an online plot to destroy a powerful voice for the powerless?

Presenter: Reha Kansara
Reporter: Ed Main

Photo: Luon Sovath in the Swiss countryside
Photo credit: Luon Sovath


SAT 18:50 More or Less (w3ct0py6)
Asymptomatic Covid-19 cases

A headline in a British tabloid newspaper claimed that ‘Staggering 86% who tested Covid positive in lockdown had NONE of the official symptoms’ but what does this mean and is it true?


SAT 19:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m8391)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 19:06 The Evidence (w3ct0xk3)
Coronavirus: The Evidence

Are national lockdowns evidence of policy failure?

As a surge of cases risks overwhelming health services in parts of Europe, Claudia Hammond and experts from around the world examine the evidence behind using lockdowns to supress the virus.

Lockdowns describe a huge range of actions that many governments took in the first wave of the pandemic when so little was known about where the virus was circulating. But full lockdowns are seen as very blunt tools, a last resort because they can have enormous social and economic consequences.

Instead a more targeted, localised, smarter response to slow down transmission is recommended, where data about virus circulation informs focussed interventions.

Also in the programme, The Great Barrington Declaration earlier this month called for an end to current lockdown policies and appealed for the vulnerable to receive “focussed protection” while everybody else “should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal”. The goal, the group of scientists said, should be to minimise deaths and social harm, until herd immunity, or population immunity, is reached.

The World Health Organisation has described such a strategy as dangerous and counterproductive. Claudia’s guests discuss the scientific and ethical issues raised and consider the scale of global exposure to this novel virus. So far only around 10% of the world’s population have been infected so what would a policy of herd immunity in the absence of a vaccine mean for the remaining 90%?

Listeners put their questions about coronavirus and the pandemic directly to Claudia and her panel of specialists, which this month includes Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead for the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Response; Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist and Chair of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee for Covid-19; Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and one of the signatories to the John Snow Memorandum; epidemiologist Tove Fall, Professor at Uppsala University in Sweden running the Covid-19 symptom app and virologist Professor Steven Van Gucht, from Sciensano, the Belgian national institute for public and animal health.

The Evidence is produced in association with Wellcome Collection.
Production team: Fiona Hill and Maria Simons
Studio engineer: Jackie Margerum
Editor: Deborah Cohen

Photo: Customers standing on markers, Credit: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images


SAT 20:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m8715)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 20:06 The Arts Hour (w3cszk3p)
Singer Mariah Carey

Superstar diva Mariah Carey talks about struggling with her mixed-race identity.

Hollywood star Nicole Kidman tells us about her latest TV thriller The Undoing, and how director Susanne Bier made her sing its theme tune.

Husband and wife actors Samuel L Jackson and Latanya Richardson Jackson give us an insight into their 40-year marriage.

The Korean band Leenalchi sing their pop-meets-pansori hit Tiger is Coming.

RZA, one of the founding members of the legendary hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, talks about his latest film set in New Orleans.

The experimental composer Jennifer Walshe dissects Irish culture in her latest work Ireland: A Dataset.

And the Zambian singer, songwriter and producer Roberto tells us why he wrote his anthem to African women.

Joining Nikki Bedi in the studio to discuss the week’s cultural highlights and to talk about her latest film Luxor is filmmaker Zeina Durra, and journalist and broadcaster William Lee Adams.

(Photo: Mariah Carey. Credit: Samir Hussein/Getty Images)


SAT 21:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m8bs9)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 21:06 Newshour (w172x2z0kv3yjdw)
Turkey-Greece quake: rescuers continue to find people alive

Rescuers in the Turkish city of Izmir are continuing to pull survivors from the rubble of collapsed buildings, after an earthquake on Friday brought down a number of apartment blocks. The city’s mayor Tunc Soyer says 38 people have died.

Also on the programme; the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, announces plans for a second lockdown in England; and we’ll hear about the blue moon that can be seen across the world tonight.

(Picture: Rescue operations in Izmir, Credit: EPA)


SAT 22:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m8gjf)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 22:06 The Newsroom (w172x7bh36rv6yk)
The world's Newsroom brings you global events as they happen


SAT 22:30 BBC News Summary (w172x5pyk16ytst)
The latest two minute news summary from BBC World Service.


SAT 22:32 Heart and Soul (w3ct17xj)
The living water

Elizabeth Alker loves to feel the cold water as she slides into it from the river bank or steps nervously from the lake side. She is a Christian, used to the euphoric feeling that worship also brings her, and swimming in the open gives her a similar, immersive sensation - as soon as she leaves the water she immediately craves it again.

She sets outs to find out why so many people have that same craving, discovering tranquility and spirituality in the icy water. From there she moves on to consider the spiritual nature of water itself.

Right across the world’s faiths water represents life, fertility, healing and purity. It has been used in rituals for thousands of years, rivers are sacred, baptisms with water symbolises the introduction of children to their faith

Elizabeth explores why water is so important in the lives of believers, wild swimmers and the millions around the world whose spiritual thirst is quenched by its power.

She goes swimming with Helen Pidd of The Guardian newspaper who first introduced her to swimming outdoors, and Scottish singer Julie Fowlis who explains how the stories and myths surrounding water make their way into Gaelic music.

Professor Bron Taylor, author of ‘Dark Green Religion’ discusses the place of water in organised religion - as well as his own connection with the ocean having speak years as a coast guard.

Izumi Hasegawa describes the place of water in Shinto, and Ruth Fitzmaurice, author of ‘I Found My Tribe’, describes how swimming in the ocean helped her profoundly through the illness and death of her beloved husband Simon.

Why is water so important in the lives of believers, wild swimmers and the millions around the world whose spiritual thirst is quenched by its power.

Producer: Geoff Bird
Presenter: Elizabeth Alker

(Photo: Two people watch someone swimming in the water. Credit: Richard Lautens/Toronto Star/Getty Images)


SAT 23:00 BBC News (w172x5p439m8l8k)
The latest five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service.


SAT 23:06 Business Weekly (w3ct0spf)
Japan: Carbon neutral by 2050?

The new Japanese prime minister has pledged to make his country carbon neutral by 2050. On this edition of Business Weekly we’ll ask how is he planning to do it? We’ll also be taking a closer look at nuclear energy to find out whether mass production of smaller reactors could be the way forward for the industry.
We’ll find out what can be done to get more medical grade oxygen to countries in need. Plus, as the pandemic forces Hollywood to delay the release of big budget movies - how are cinemas affected?

Business Weekly is produced by Matthew Davies and presented by Lucy Burton