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Stories from a pandemic

Bats, shrines and luxury flights: global stories of Covid-19 from the language services.

Stories from the Fifth Floor following the evolving Covid-19 pandemic, from bats in China, to global social media fake news. As told by Howard Zhang of BBC Chinese, Giang Nguyen of BBC Vietnamese, BBC Persian's Siavash Ardalan, Sunyoung Jeong of BBC Korean and BBC Africa's Bara'atu Ibrahim.

My home town: Ejigbo, Lagos
Sarah Tiamiyu from BBC Pidgin welcomes us to hometown Ejigbo in Lagos, Nigeria.

Matronymics – a new Russian revolution?
The patronymic is set in stone when it comes to naming Russian children. First name first, then patronymic, which is your father's name, then surname. But as Olga Robinson of BBC Monitoring explains, dramatic changes are afoot, with some mothers putting their own name in the middle - a so-called matronymic.

Interviewing Asia Bibi
Aliya Nazki of BBC Urdu tells us about meeting Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian who spent years in solitary confinement after being sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Kabul's female street-food vendors
Zuhal Azad of BBC Afghan recently reported on the trail-blazing female street-food vendors of Kabul.

Picture: Coronavirus structure (illustration)
Credit: Science Photo Library

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Sat 14 Mar 202004:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 13 Mar 202012:06GMT
  • Fri 13 Mar 202016:06GMT
  • Fri 13 Mar 202018:06GMT
  • Fri 13 Mar 202021:06GMT
  • Fri 13 Mar 202023:06GMT
  • Sat 14 Mar 202003:06GMT
  • Sat 14 Mar 202004:06GMT