Oliver Conway
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Yusuf Kutair in northern Italy. Many partners love sharing their hobbies with each other, but would your relationship survive spending more than two days together with just a few minutes' sleep?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Well, earlier this year, Danny Shrewsbury and Bradley Shenton entered the gruelling Badlands Ultra cycle race through the mountains of northern Spain, completing the nearly 800km in 53.5 hours to win the Pairs title. And despite hallucinations and a crash, They say it's brought them closer together. They've been speaking to my colleague, Caroline Barker.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Danny Shrewsbury and Bradley Shenton talking to Caroline Barker for SportsHour. Ballet and opera are often seen as the domain of the wealthy or academic elites. But here in the UK, efforts are underway to try to make them more open and accessible, especially for children from all backgrounds.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
The Royal Ballet and Opera House is opening its doors to schoolchildren who wouldn't normally get the chance to experience these creative arts. The Happy Pod's Lul Hassan has been finding out more.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
That report by Lul Hassan. In the last episode, we asked for things that made you happiest or inspired you in 2024. One response really made us smile. An email from Roji in Sri Lanka saying how the happy pod had helped her through a tough year. She summed up exactly why we do what we do.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and in this edition, the cafe that's got a whole town moving.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Thanks, Roji. And we'd love to hear what made you happiest or inspired in 2024 from everyday family things to stories from around the world. Send us an email or voice note to globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. And that's all from The Happy Pod for now. This edition was mixed by Derek Clark and produced by Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bulkley. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
By offering free coffee to anyone who's dancing. A novel way to reuse discarded cigarette butts.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Olivia from the Coffee Milano Cafe talking to Stephanie Prentice. Around the world, more than a billion people smoke, and discarded cigarette ends are the most common type of litter on Earth. The filters are made from toxic plastic that takes a long time to break down. But an organisation in India has found a rather surprising way to recycle them and turn them into toys.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Code Effort says it's recycled around 5 million cigarette butts since 2019. It now pays 2,500 people to pick them up, and has installed 200,000 dedicated bins. Javi Sajidov went to their offices near Mumbai.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Making the ballet more accessible to children from all backgrounds. We start in the US state of Massachusetts, where staff at a coffee shop have been spreading happiness by getting their small town dancing. It all began with an offer of a free drink for anyone who came in doing their favourite moves.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
Javi Sajdov in India. And you can hear more on that story on People Fixing the World wherever you get your podcasts. At the end of the summer, the UK was hit by riots that were amplified by comments on social media. But the violence also brought communities together as people helped out with repairing the damage.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
On the Happy Pod back then, we heard about an amazing fundraising effort to restore a public library in Liverpool that had been set on fire. $320,000 was raised and this week Spello Library reopened. The night before, public libraries across England were illuminated to, quote, share the light and in Liverpool, children celebrated with a lantern parade. Katie Hazeldine went along.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
That report by Katie Hazeldine. Well, Alex McCormick, who we spoke to about her fundraising in August, said it was emotional to see the library reopen.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
And still to come on the Happy Podcast... Brad was calling out people that wasn't there.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
The ultimate relationship test, 53 hours of extreme cycling. In countries that celebrate Christmas, children are often told they must be good if they want to receive presents from Father Christmas, Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas. In some parts of Europe, there's even a folklore character who is said to punish those who misbehave, the Krampus.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
In the central and eastern Alps, the tradition is celebrated with the Krampus Run, when crowds gather to watch hundreds of people dressed in grotesque, demon-like costumes running through towns, scaring children. Yusuf Kutaya went along to one event in northern Italy.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: The cafe spreading the joy of dance
A video of the first day went viral and it started a movement across the whole town of Middleborough. Now the community has put on a day of dance with other businesses joining in. Stephanie Prentice spoke to Olivia from the Coffee Milano Cafe.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
We look back at the life of one of India's best-loved musicians. Bronze Age Britain was not thought to have been particularly violent, with no evidence that communities needed fortifications or weapons like swords to protect themselves. However, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a massacre that took place in southwest England about 4,000 years ago.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Analysis of bones found in a shaft at Charterhouse Warren suggests that at least 37 men, women and children were killed, dismembered and possibly cannibalised. Professor Rick Schulting is from Oxford University.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Going incredibly wrong. So what might have been the motives for this?
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Mayotte is poorer than any other region of France and questions are being asked about whether the French government could have done more to protect people there from extreme weather. Stephen Turton is a professor of environmental geography at Central Queensland University in Australia.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Yeah, I wonder if it was a one-off incident or we now need to rethink what we know about Bronze Age Britain.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Georgina Ranar there, our science reporter. EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss the political turmoil in Georgia today. The former Soviet republic has been in turmoil since the pro-Russia Georgian dream won disputed elections in October. Protests intensified last month when the government announced it was putting EU accession negotiations on hold.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
On Saturday, Parliament voted in the far-right candidate and former professional footballer Mikhail Kavalishvili as president. The BBC's Rob Young spoke to Nino Silosani, an MP for Georgian Dream.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Nino Silosani, an MP for Georgian Dream. South Korea's constitutional court has begun trial proceedings for the impeachment of President Yoon Sung-yeol. He has been suspended for declaring martial law earlier this month. MPs voted to impeach him on Saturday. Gene McKenzie is in the South Korean capital, Seoul.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Jean Mackenzie Insoul. Finally, one of India's best-loved musicians, Zakir Hussain, has died at the age of 73. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is credited with turning the tabla drums into an instrument loved around the world. He died in San Francisco, surrounded by close family. And Marisan Etirajan looks back at his life.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
After hitting Mayotte, Cyclone Chido made landfall in Mozambique. It has now weakened but could bring heavy rain to Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Our correspondent in Zimbabwe, Shingai Nyoka, is monitoring the situation on Mayotte.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
The drumming of Zakir Hussain, who's died at the age of 73. That report by Anbarasan Etirajan. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News Podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Vladimir Morzechka, the producer was Richard Hamilton, our editors Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
The three French ministers who flew in landed at an airport with a control tower damaged. It's taken them two days to get there. A sign of how difficult it will be to get supplies into Mayotte.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
And the government of Serbia is accused of spying on journalists and activists.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Yes, services which were not great at the best of times. I understand there were water shortages not too long ago.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Monday the 16th of December. Two days after a devastating cyclone, French ministers arrive in the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte. Western powers step up their engagement with the new rulers of Syria.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
And the wider region, the storm went on to hit Mozambique and now heading to where you are.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Shingai Nyoka in Harare. After 20 months of civil war, Sudan is suffering a humanitarian crisis. Nearly 12 million people have fled their homes. Famine is looming. And in October, a UN fact-finding mission said the scale of sexual violence there was staggering.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Now the campaign group Human Rights Watch is calling on the UN and African Union to step in to protect women and girls, accusing the paramilitary rapid support forces of widespread rapes. Here's spokeswoman Belkis Vile.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Belkis Vile from Human Rights Watch, Sudanese women's rights campaigner Hala Al-Kharib told us more about the problem.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Evidence of possible cannibalism in Bronze Age Britain. It has taken them two days to get there, but three ministers from France have now arrived in Mayotte, the French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean that was hit by Cyclone Chido on Saturday. Local officials say hundreds of people may be dead, possibly even a thousand or more.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Sudanese women's rights campaigner Hala al-Harib. A week on from the fall of President Assad, Western powers have been stepping up engagement with the new rulers of Syria, despite their jihadist origins. Officials from the US and Britain have made contact with the authorities in Damascus, while an EU envoy is also heading there.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Syria's neighbour Israel is more wary of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is now in charge. The Israelis have carried out hundreds of airstrikes on military targets across Syria in the past week, as we heard from our international editor, Jeremy Bowen.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Jeremy Bowen in Damascus. And shortly before we recorded this podcast, Bashar al-Assad broke his silence about the events of last weekend when he fled Syria and was given asylum in Russia. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg told us more.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
In the past couple of hours, a senator has told journalists that people are starting to die of thirst and hunger. Three quarters of people on the island live below the poverty line, at least a third in shanty towns where homes were flattened. The storm was the most destructive in Mayotte for 90 years, with winds of at least 225 kilometres an hour.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
And how does all this square with what we heard from the Russians as President Assad and his family went to Moscow?
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Steve Rosenberg in Moscow. The Serbian authorities have been using surveillance software to spy on journalists and activists. That is the accusation from pressure group Amnesty International, which says it's part of a wider repression in Serb society. I heard more from our Balkans correspondent, Guy De Launay.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
The deputy head of the Red Cross in the region, Eric Samvar, gave us an update on the devastation.
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
And have the Serbian authorities said anything about this?
Global News Podcast
French ministers arrive in Mayotte after devastating cyclone
Our Balkans correspondent, Guy Delaney. And still to come on the Global News Podcast.