BBC

To Italians, bread is life. With 250 varieties across the country, it’s eaten with almost every meal. Its importance speaks to national values of community, tradition, quality and - above all - religion. In this edition of Heart and Soul, Australian-Japanese food writer Emiko Davies takes a tasty journey into the spiritual significance of bread in Italy, her adopted home.

Davies finds herself in the west of Sicily, where residents honour Saint Joseph by constructing intricate sculptural breads, adorning altars with baked symbols, and staging a ritualised feast attended by the entire community. And then the coast of Puglia, where locals queue to receive blessed loaves in celebration of Saint Anthony. Finally, with food historian Fabrizia Lanza, Davies reflects on the origins of religious superstitions surrounding bread, and what the nation's diverse culinary traditions tell us about faith in Italy today.

Presenter: Emiko Davies

Producer: Jude Shapiro

Executive Producer: Jack Howson

Production Coordinator: Ieva Sabaliauskaite

A Peanut & Crumb production for BBC World Service

Image: Bread display at an altar (Credit: Jude Shapiro)

The Italian designer Giorgio Armani - a master of style and elegance who reimagined fashion for a modern audience - has died at 91.

His company expanded from fashion into an empire spanning beauty, fragrance, music, sport and even luxury hotels, earning billions of dollars a year. Also: the elderly women who find happiness diving into a murky lake looking for trash, and the new research which suggests watching too much TikTok on the toilet is bad for the bowels.

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The US president's pick Stephen Miran is nominated to serve as governor of the central bank. Will he cut interest rates?

The Italian fashion designer and billionaire brand owner Giorgio Armani has died at the age of 91. We hear from his former employee.

Is it the end of the illegally streamed sport programmes? We look at the closure of Streameast - the world’s largest illegal sports streaming site.

You can contact us on WhatsApp or send us a voicenote: +44 330 678 3033.

The political future of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner hangs in the balance as Westminster awaits a report into her tax affairs by Keir Starmer’s independent adviser on ministerial standards. Rayner has admitted under-paying stamp duty on a second home in Hove, but says she was acting on incorrect legal advice.

Also on the programme: an icon of fashion, Italian designer Georgio Armani, has died at the age of 91; and we visit the modern-day almshouse shortlisted for the Stirling Prize for architecture.

Tributes have been paid to the legendary Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani. We speak to Lady Helen Taylor, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, who in the 1980s and 90s became something of a muse to the designer and a brand ambassador, wearing his clothes when she was on royal duties.

Also today: Some fiery exchanges in the US Congress as health secretary RFK Junior defends his ideas about vaccines; and the elderly women diving into murky lakes looking for trash.

(Photo: Armani reimagined and modernised women's and men's suits. Credit: Getty Images)

Despite the relatively low magnitude, earthquakes in Afghanistan this week have left more than1000 dead. Afghan researcher Zakeria Shnizai from the University of Oxford unpicks some of the main causes of the country’s vulnerability to earthquakes.

Also this week, we talk to the climate scientist who led a 400+ page rebuttal to the US Department of Energy’s report on climate change.

We hear about research which has mapped the activity of over 600,000 neurons in 279 regions of the mouse brain to learn more about how decisions are made.

And we get the latest updates on 3I/ATLAS, the latest interstellar comet streaking its way across our solar system, just before it disappears behind the sun.

Presenter: Roland Pease

Producer: Ella Hubber

Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth

(Image: Magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes eastern Afghanistan. Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images).

Zainab fears the worst and opportunity knocks for Stella.

The Indian government has announced massive tax cuts on items ranging from snacks and biscuits to electronic products and cars. But how will it affect the world's fastest growing major economy, and the businesses operating there?

In the wake of Giorgio Armani's death at 91, Hannah Mullane speaks to author and writer Pauline Brown about what this could mean for his business empire worth more than US$7billion.

Elsewhere, we discuss why Nigeria's banned the export of Shea butter nuts - which are used to make beauty products around the world - in a bid to make the trade more lucrative, while some exporters are worried it could have the opposite effect.

And does a 4am morning routine make you more successful?

The latest business and finance news from around the world, on the BBC.

After China's President Xi welcomed North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin to Beijing: we ask what do Western nations make of this show of strength?

In this special edition, Celia Hatton is joined by our correspondents across the globe to discuss the reaction to the military parade. China marked the anniversary of the end of World War Two by showing off its next generation of cutting edge weaponry.

We ask if the alliance between the three nuclear armed leaders poses a real threat to the West?

Why are fighters from Somalia's Jubaland region crossing the border into Kenya. Their presence is - causing fear and uncertainty

Burkina Faso's unelected transitional parliament bans homosexual acts

Plus how experts in Africa are tryings to close the AI language gap

Presenter: Audrey Brown

Producers: Priya Sippy, Alfonso Daniels, Sunita Nahar, Mark Wilberforce, and Nyasha Michelle in London. Jewel Kiriungi in Nairobi.

Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga

Technical Producer: Francesca Dunne

Editors: Maryam Abdalla, Andre Lombard, and Alice Muthengi