Plus: London sword attack latest, and visit the Midwest's Middle East ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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| Hello. We start with new information about the death of a teenage girl during Iran's women's rights protests in 2022. A warning this story contains details of violence and sexual assault that you may find upsetting. Elsewhere Basillioh Rukanga is at the scene of devastating floods in Kenya and we're taking a look at how China is making big moves in mining to dominate the green economy. We also take a visit to the first Arab-majority city in the US, and there's a story featuring 60,000 little "monsters". | |
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TOP OF THE AGENDA | Iranian teen was killed by security forces | | Nika was just 16 when she disappeared during protests against Iran's strict dress code for women. Credit: Atash Shakarami. | As protests on the streets spread across Iran in the autumn of 2022, Nika Shakarami became a symbol of women’s fight for greater freedoms. The 16-year-old disappeared from an anti-regime protest and her body was found nine days later, with the government claiming she took her own life. Nika’s picture became synonymous with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and her name was shouted by crowds furious at the country's strict rules on the compulsory veil [hijab]. Nika’s disappearance and death were reported at the time. But in a report some may find distressing, BBC Eye reveals she was sexually assaulted and killed by three men working for Iran’s security forces. The investigation examined a leaked security forces document to piece together Nika’s last movements. After taking steps to distinguish the document from the numerous faked Iranian documents in circulation, they set out how she was identified, tracked and captured by people working for the Iranian government.
Sister arrested: Nika's sister Aida was arrested earlier this month for not covering her hair, her family says.
A simple guide: The 2022 Iran protests explained.
A cause across generations: The BBC’s Rana Rahimpour looks at footage from Iranian protests in 1979 and 2022, finding striking similarities. | |
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| Deluge exposes city's vulnerability | | Development of buildings has been blamed for overwhelming infrastructure and causing flooding. Credit: Getty Images. | Kenya's President William Ruto has called a cabinet meeting to discuss the country’s ongoing flooding crisis, which has left about 169 people dead and more than 130,000 people displaced. It has been extreme even by the standards of Nairobi, where flooding is not unusual. |
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| | Basillioh Rukanga, BBC News |
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| | It seems as if the rain has been falling without respite for six weeks, and the impact has been devastating. This is the wet season, but there has been far more rainfall than is normally expected, which has been put down to the El Niño weather phenomenon. Rivers and sewers have overflowed, roads have become waterways and homes have been destroyed. The sheer scale of this year's deluge has exposed longer-term problems with the way the city has developed. "You can't contain nature. It doesn't work like that," Prof Alfred Omenya, an urban planning and environment expert says. |
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BEYOND THE HEADLINES | China's global play for green tech |
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| | | Lithium is extracted in Chile's Atacama desert, located within the "lithium triangle". Credit: Getty Images. | China has taken big stakes in mines across the world extracting minerals including lithium, cobalt and nickel, all vital to the green economy. The BBC's Global China Unit has been investigating how it's affecting workers and locals at sites in Argentina, DR Congo and Indonesia. |
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SOMETHING DIFFERENT | The Midwest's Middle East | Dearborn is the first Arab-majority city in the US - and a Mecca for foodies. | |
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And finally... | When three-year-old Saylor began complaining of monsters in her bedroom at the family's farmhouse, her parents thought it was just her imagination. But it turned out to be the noise of around 60,000 honeybees, a protected species in the US. Take a look at the image from a beekeeper's thermal camera, which was used to scan inside the walls of the three-year-old's bedroom. | |
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