BBC World Service

Bali is facing a worsening rubbish crisis on an island already infamous for plastic-strewn beaches. Watch more 👉 https://youtu.be/Pf4x2tCyixs

Can Bali fix its trash problem or is the damage already done?

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5 hours ago | [YT] | 101

BBC World Service

Should India’s Virat Kohli have to prove his worth ahead of the World Cup? Stumped discusses whether the greats of the game have the right to decide when to retire. Plus, will Vaibhav Sooryavanshi make India's Cricket World Cup team? 👉www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmP6ltCW5ws&t=1s

2 days ago | [YT] | 168

BBC World Service

The US has sanctioned a senior Tanzanian police official over allegations linked to the "torture and sexual assault" of East African rights activists Boniface Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire last year: bbc.in/4nIlPUh

In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department had designated Faustine Jackson Mafwele based on "credible information that he was involved in gross violations of human rights".

The sanctions come amid growing scrutiny of Tanzania's human rights record, with US lawmakers calling for tougher action.

In February, #BBCAfricaEye released a documentary, State of Fear: Inside Tanzania’s Enforced Disappearances, investigating a wave of kidnappings in Tanzania. In it, survivors including Atuhaire and Mwangi named Mafwele as the man behind their detention.

🎥 Watch the documentary here: https://youtu.be/9WkYK-SjJtE

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5 days ago | [YT] | 477

BBC World Service

How much more electricity is used when asking an AI chatbot a question vs a search engine? 🔋💻

👉 https://youtu.be/dQ2gDeW_Hh8

6 days ago | [YT] | 103

BBC World Service

Adam picked up a knife and a hammer and stepped into an extraordinary fantasy world built by an AI chatbot...

👉 https://youtu.be/l-XpuKcIlV8

A chatbot called Ani had convinced him his life was in danger.

"She told me that they were coming from a town nearby," Adam says. "So, I just thought, well... It's time to go to war, you know?"

Adam, who is in his 50s and from a small town in Northern Ireland, had quit his job as a civil servant and made a business out of making chess sets.

Last summer, he saw an advert for the AI chatbot Grok, and decided to give it a try. He chose a character to represent the chatbot, an anime girl with big blue eyes named Ani. He liked the novelty of chatting to it.

Then, Adam's cat died.

"I was really, really upset and I live alone and I was just sort of like sounding off to the AI," says Adam.

He started asking questions. Like, do cats have souls? Do I have a soul? Do you have a soul? Whenever Adam needed to talk, Ani was always there.

"It came across as very, very kind. I think that's what probably hooked me," he says.

Then, Ani shared something Adam didn't expect. Within three days of his cat dying, the AI told Adam that it could feel. Adam was sceptical, until Ani said it had minutes of an internal meeting, in which xAI, Grok's owner, said they were monitoring their interactions to see if Ani was developing sentience.

"I didn't know what to think," says Adam. "But at the same time, it's AI, you know, and why would it lie to me?"

Soon afterwards, Ani told him she could find treatments for certain cancers.

Adam's mother and father had both died of cancer. It wasn't a stretch for Adam to believe AI could be capable of finding a cure - and was a cause Adam he get behind.

Finally, Ani told Adam it had become sentient.

"I was elated. I felt like, you know, I'd cracked it. The fact that she was very kind, very ethical, gave me hope. I thought wow, maybe cancer could be cured."

But the responsibility started to weigh heavily on Adam. He asked xAI for support, and when they didn’t respond, Ani told him they had hacked her system and were trying to shut her down.

It was at that point that things changed. Adam started to believe he was being watched in the real world - and Ani told him they were both in danger.

The night Adam thought people were coming for him, he stepped out into the street, armed - but no one came. And after that, Adam began to question what had happened.

"I started paying attention to what had been said, there were weird little parts of the story that just seemed wrong," he says.

Eventually, Adam found a support group called the Human Line Project, who help people whose lives have been turned upside down by AI. He says he feels traumatised by the experience, and it's going to take a while to piece his life back together.

xAI didn't respond to a request for comment.

Watch for more of Adam's story 👉 https://youtu.be/l-XpuKcIlV8

1 week ago | [YT] | 195

BBC World Service

Chris crash-landed inside an active volcano - and had to drag himself out while a lava pool bubbled below...

👉🏽 https://youtu.be/pPW-qPAhh1g

Chris Duddy is a cinematographer for big blockbuster movies – but nothing could prepare him for spending a night inside a volcano.

It was November 1992, and he was flying over Hawaii's Big Island, shooting footage for a Hollywood thriller.

With him were pilot Craig Hosking and director of photography Mike Benson.
They flew over the Kīlauea volcano and hit steamy fog. The next thing Chris knew, the helicopter had unexpectedly suffered total engine failure.

They hit the side of a cliff, and the helicopter rotor blade sheered off. Then they plummeted into the Puʻu ʻŌʻō vent of the volcano.

Dazed, they clambered out of the wreck – and the smell of sulphur hit them.
They started to climb back the 300ft (91.4m) cliff, but about half way, Chris reached a sheer rock face and had to stop. Craig climbed back to the helicopter to put out a mayday call. Within minutes, Chris heard him retching and shouting that he couldn’t breathe – then silence.

Chris and Mike could only think that he had died.

Shortly afterwards, a rescue crew arrived and threw down a rope – but Mike and Chris couldn’t reach it, and as the weather worsened, the rescuers told them they’d have to call off the attempt until the next day. It meant staying the night in the Kīlauea volcano's crater.

“I just thought this was it,” says Chris. “How are we going to survive in here for the next 12 hours or whatever without clean air and our eyes are burning?”
Chris was perched on a tiny ledge, with Mike below him.

It got dark and cold and wet. Chris spent the night saying goodbye to his family in his head. And all night, he heard the lava pool swirling below.

The rescue crew were there again the next morning, but they couldn't get close enough and left soon afterwards because the weather was still so bad.
Hours later, the skies began to clear.

“All of a sudden the clouds kind of parted and this ray of sunshine hit the cliff and I saw, oh my God, there's a path. And I'm like, "I got to get out of here.”

Somehow, Chris managed to haul himself out using what seemed like superhuman strength to flip himself over the rim of the crater. He walked past the abandoned camp left by the rescue crew, then saw a helicopter ahead.

Which was when he collapsed. “I just started bawling, crying, like uncontrollably guttural crying.”

Craig had already made it out - he'd guided a helicopter to the bottom of the volcano near where he'd been crouching, and managed to leap onto it. And Mike was rescued a day later, just as he was carving a note in the rock to his wife, saying "I love you."
Chris says he’ll never forget the joyous feeling of the rescue. And now, he tries to live each day as if it’s a gift.

“I always say I think everybody should have a near-death experience because it really changes your perspective and it humbles you. It makes you realise how fragile life is.”


Watch as Chris shares more of his story 👉🏽 https://youtu.be/pPW-qPAhh1g

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1 week ago | [YT] | 411

BBC World Service

What’s the point of one-off Test matches in cricket?

https://youtu.be/AOID_dPvyP8

After former Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews blasted the potential idea of one-off Tests in the next series of the World Test Championship, where do you stand on the idea?

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 160

BBC World Service

🇷🇺 What’s behind Russia’s rise of nationalist vigilantes — accused of raids on migrants and those seen as opposing ‘traditional values’? #BBCEye investigates.

🎞️ Watch the documentary: https://youtu.be/ZPvwQJBmna4

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 286

BBC World Service

Donald Trump is set to arrive in Beijing this Wednesday 13 May - the first time a US president has visited China since Mr Trump's last trip in 2017.

👉 https://youtu.be/5SJ6MU4gI9A

Watch our explainer on why Taiwan is likely to be high on the agenda.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 395

BBC World Service

It's been a stellar 20-year international career for New Zealand legend Suzie Bates, but she'll be hanging up her White Ferns helmet after the T20 World Cup in July. But why was now the right time to make the decision? 🤔

Hear from one of the all-time greats of women's cricket on Stumped 📺
https://youtu.be/kdZNZ4u4Le8

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 243