BBC World Service

🇮🇳 This company in India is turning used cigarette butts into a clean, fluffy material used in children's toys. @myranubi explains how the recycling process works. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear more on People Fixing the World. #BBCWorldService #recycling #india

Meet the "freegans" who raid bins to eat for free and rescue food waste. "Dumpster diving is not as gross as people think. I've gone almost two years without paying for groceries," says Freddy, a food blogger and freegan. Up to one billion meals are wasted every day around the world, causing environmental harm and costing the global economy as much as $1 trillion every year. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear from more people fighting food waste. #bbcworldservice #food #foodwaste #environment

These are some of the new creatures and plants discovered in the Congo Basin. 🐍🌱🐸 Conservation charity WWF has revealed more than 700 new species of wildlife and plants have been found there in the past 10 years. Among the new findings are a deadly and sneaky viper (first slide), a slender-snouted crocodile (second slide), a tiny frog that gives clues to the health of its environment, a brightly coloured killifish and a new coffee plant. The WWF says this "highlights the remarkable biodiversity and the urgent conservation needs of one of the world's most vital ecosystems". Known as the "lungs of Africa", the Congo Basin is the world's second-largest rainforest, spanning six countries. "The Congo Basin is not that well-known itself and many people are not aware of its importance," says Jaap Van der Waarde, WWF’s Head of Conservation for the Congo Basin. Jaap says as well as hosting a lot of exclusive biodiversity, the Basin is the last of the world's big rainforest blocks still absorbing more carbon than it emits. "New species can only be defended if their existence is promoted. And let's not forget that the Congo Basin is badly needed for climate stabilisation.” 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear how Gabon has been saving its rainforest. #bbcworldservice #conservation #nature #africa #wildlife

In 1936, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was living in exile in Bath in the west of England. He went there when his country was invaded by Italian forces. He bought a property, Fairfield House, and moved his entire family and staff there. He quickly became the talk of the town as @anoushka_md has been finding out. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear more Witness History. #bbcworldservice #history #Ethiopia

Bob Beamon smashed the long jump world record in 1968 so hard, it was called the "leap of the century". But growing up in 1950s Queens, New York, Bob had faced a tough start. He was orphaned before he was one, spending time in children’s homes. He loved music and had a gift for drumming, but as a teenager got mixed up in gangs. At 13, he was kicked out of school and sent to a reform school. It was there his extraordinary athletic talent was spotted after he entered the long jump on a whim. “I'm watching these kids jump. And I said, you know, let me try this. And so when I tried the long jump, my first jump was 19 feet," Bob says. Bob began competing and quickly started winning. In 1968, he was chosen to represent the US at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. On 18 October 1968, Bob made history with a record-breaking jump known as “the leap of the century”. He jumped 8.9m that day - about as long as a three-storey building is high. He demolished the previous world record by more than 0.5m. Following the event, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary coined a new word in his honour: Beamonesque, meaning outstanding. But as Bob stood on the podium having reached the peak of athletic achievement at age 22, he wondered what to do next... It would be more than five decades before Bob found the answer to that question, with the revival of a childhood dream - drumming. Today, at 78 years old, he’s released his first album Olimpik Soul, alongside drummer and producer Stix Bones. His favourite song on the album? Leap. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear more about Bob’s story on Outlook. #bbcworldservice #sport #athletics #history

In May 1998, India, and then Pakistan, shocked the world by testing nuclear weapons. The Indian artist Nalini Malani saw the escalations as a betrayal. "I was disappointed and devastated because we had won our independence with non-violence, and that was the call that Gandhi had made." Nalini had lived through violence as a child when India had gained independence from Britain in 1947, and was partitioned into India and Pakistan. She was desperate to avoid more conflict. So after the nuclear tests in 1998, she displayed a video installation showing the horrors of nuclear war. It was shown in Mumbai for 10 days, generating heated debate. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to find out more about Nalini Malani's response to the nuclear tests. #nuclear #videoartist #indianartists

♖ Norwegian chess grandmaster @magnus_carlsen has been known as the "Mozart of chess" since childhood. His father started teaching him chess when he was just five years old. Gifted with an exceptional memory, he memorised an entire book of flags when he was six. Magnus was soon winning adult tournaments. Aged 13, he drew against perhaps the most famous chess player ever - Gary Kasparov. And he beat Anatoly Karpov - another former world champion. In the same year, he became a grandmaster - making him one of the best players on the planet. Magnus beat Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, India, becoming World Chess Champion in 2013. The following summer, he won the World Blitz and World Rapid Championships - two major chess titles. He retained his crown in the World Chess Championships in 2014, becoming the first player ever to win all three world chess titles in one year. "I remember just being very relieved that the match was over. It was not even joy, I think so much as just pure relief to be done," Magnus recalls. In 2014, Magnus achieved the highest official rating of any chess player in history. He's since won three more world chess championships. Today, he spends a lot of time playing professional poker. But he still loves chess and has launched an app he hopes will spread chess to new players. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear Magnus talk to @ben_henderson96 on Sporting Witness. #bbcworldservice #chess #sport #history #magnuscarlsen

Huynh Nguyen Thi is a 96-year-old Vietnamese grandmother who still loves exercising.💪 "I'm healthy, I don't feel tired," she says. Every morning at 5am, she goes to the gym or the park with her grandson to work out. Her perseverance is inspiring others in Vietnam where her videos have gone viral. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear more about exercising and old age. #bbcworldservice #vietnam #fitness #fitnessmotivation #health

Gargoyles, bells and the spire - take a look at how some of Notre Dame cathedral has been restored.⁣ ⁣ A huge fire damaged or destroyed much of the iconic building in April 2019.⁣ ⁣ Almost $1bn was pledged globally to help cover rebuilding it in just five years - a herculean task.⁣ ⁣ Restoring Notre Dame meant replacing the roof and spire, repairing sculptures and gargoyles, restoring its iconic bells, and mending the chapels around the nave.⁣ ⁣ Journalist Agnes Poirier has been behind the scenes, visiting the workshops where these pieces were carefully crafted.⁣ ⁣ 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear from some of the artisans who have been restoring the iconic cathedral on In The Studio.⁣ ⁣ #bbcworldservice #notredame #paris #religion

How confident do you feel at work? It's something that doesn’t always come easily but confidence could be the key to thriving in your career. Award-winning entrepreneur and writer @jowimblegroves shares her top three tips to help women succeed in the workplace. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear more from Jo, including her insights on achieving a healthy work-life balance, on The Conversation. This BBC World Service programme connects two women from different countries to share their personal stories and experiences. #bbcworldservice #work #tips #womeninbusiness

This is "Joy-Z" or "Grandma-ster Flash" aka Joy France. How did a retired teacher become a battle rapper? Growing up in 1960s Manchester in the UK, Joy was so shy she used to walk to school with her hands over her eyes to stop people talking to her. “I just wanted to be invisible,” Joy says. After leaving school, she became a teacher and got on with life, keeping her head down. “I always did what was expected of me... I wouldn't have dreamt of stepping out of the ordinary.” "I just hit a point when I was around 50 where I just thought, my life is so boring. I was a single parent by then, and it was so predictable. And it was like: ‘Is this it?’” To shake things up and try new things, Joy decided to “follow coincidences”. This led her to a poetry workshop and then, to performing on stage. After years of being the quiet one, she was finally finding her voice. As she approached her 60th birthday, she decided to try 60 new things before 60. When a teenager suggested she do a battle rap, she added it to the list. “I wanted to see whether I could step into that world and survive it.” At 61, she made her debut in the battle rapping scene of Northern England - and ended up winning. “I think the key thing for me was to stop worrying about what other people felt ... If it doesn’t do any harm, why not just do it?” Today, she continues to perform, do stand-up, and rap internationally, earning her the title the world’s oldest battle rapper. “I’ve been called Joy-Z, Grandma-ster Flash, I’ve got quite a few new nicknames!” 🎧 Click the link in bio to hear how retired teacher Joy became a battle rapper. #bbcworldservice #rap #battlerap

For more than 20 years, people living with HIV couldn't enter the US legally. And then, in 2009, President Barack Obama announced the travel ban would be lifted. To mark the change, the Dutch Aids Foundation ran a competition, offering a trip to New York. Clemens Ruland won it, flying to JFK airport in January 2010, just days after the travel ban was lifted. 🎧 Click the link in our bio to hear more on Witness History with @meganjonesjourno.