What in the World

Lebanon, Kenya and Jamaica are among the handful of countries that have gotten rid of the ‘period tax’ - the additional charge the government adds to the retail price of sanitary products like pads or tampons. Now, a new campaign has started to scrap the tax in Pakistan. According to UNICEF, the tax can add up to 40% to the retail price of sanitary pads in the country, making them out of reach for many women and girls, especially in impoverished communities.
Mahnoor Omer, the 25-year-old lawyer from Pakistan who has started a legal case to cut the tax, talks us through attitudes to periods in her home country and explains why this campaign is so important to her. And we hear from young women in Pakistan who tell us what they think of the tax.
Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld
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Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producer: Chelsea Coates and Julia Ross-Roy
Editor: Harriet Oliver

From boosting muscle mass to improving metabolism and skin, there’s now tonnes of claims about what peptides can do on social media. Peptides are short amino acids produced by our bodies naturally, and they aren’t a new concept, they’ve been used in medicine for centuries, Insulin, used to treat diabetes being the most common one.
But the peptide wellness shot craze has led to growing amount of people buying ‘research peptides’ which are unregulated and not approved for human use. BBC’s health and wellbeing reporter, Ruth Clegg tells us all about the grey market of research peptide drugs, the health risks of taking them and why people are opting to become peptide ‘lab-rats’ despite this.
Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6
Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: Emily Horler, Benita Barden and Mora Morrison
Editor: Verity Wilde

For the first time in more than 50 years, NASA is taking humanity back to the moon with its Artemis II mission. The crew is made up of four astronauts, including the first woman astronaut and the first black astronaut to travel to the moon. They will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in a spacecraft never used by humans before, and begin their journey to orbit around the moon.
The launch is expected to happen on 1 April - but NASA are keeping their options open, and have named six other potential dates. So - when will the launch take place? And once it does, how long will it take the mission to reach the Moon?
The BBC’s science correspondent Georgina Rannard unpacks it all for us — and tells us everything we need to know about this historic mission. And we hear from two members of the Cosmic Girls Foundation - Vanessa from Finland and Ximena from Venezuela - who share their reaction to the mission and their hopes for how it could push the boundaries of science.
Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6
Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: William Lee Adams and Chelsea Coates
Editor: Verity Wilde

Imagine being able to understand what animals are saying - and potentially even talking back. Animal-to-human communication is a subject which has garnered a lot of attention in recent years. And now artificial intelligence (AI) is turbo charging the conversation.
The BBC’s Caroline Steel chats us through the basics of animal communication, how technological advancements have helped humans understand them, and what the next phase of this could look like. David Gruber from Project CETI also shares his team’s pioneering efforts to understand sperm whales. Plus, vet Haehyun Shin shares how her work would be impacted if she could understand her pet patients.
Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6
Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: Mora Morrison and Chelsea Coates
Video producer: Tim Hodges
Editor: Verity Wilde

The United Nations has voted to recognise the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity”, after a proposal from Ghana. It comes after years of campaigning from African and Caribbean nations, calling for reparations for the largest long-distance forced movement of people in recorded history.
But not all governments supported the vote. The US, Israel and Argentina voted against it and 52 countries - mostly members of the EU - decided not to take part. The wording of the resolution has received criticism, with some arguing it implies that some crimes against humanity are worse than others.
So what does this vote mean - and how could it change the way we look at this chapter of history in the future?
BBC Africa reporter Daniel Dadzie joins us for this episode to explain it all - along with two students based in Accra, Malisecullen and Abena. We also hear from Meghan in the US, who shares her thoughts on her country rejecting the vote.
Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +44 330 12 33 22 6
Presenter: Iqra Farooq
Producers: Mora Morrison, William Lee Adams and Chelsea Coates
Editor: Verity Wilde