Imagine going on a work or school trip for eight days, but ending up away from home for nine months. Now, imagine that journey was to space. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s spacecraft launched in June last year from Cape Canaveral in Florida. They were taking part in the first crewed test flight of the Starliner spacecraft, developed by Boeing. But there were some technical problems after launch and NASA decided it was too risky to use it to take the astronauts back to Earth. Instead, Suni and Butch would catch the next scheduled flight home, which ended up being nine months later.

Our Science Editor, Rebecca Morelle, explains what went wrong with the mission, if they were really stranded, and what daily life is actually like in space.

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On Sunday night, hundreds of people gathered at Pulse nightclub in Kocani, North Macedonia to watch the popular hip-hop duo DNK perform. It ended in tragedy. A fire ripped through the venue killing 59 people and leaving more than 150 others injured.

Reports say the fire was caused by sparks from pyrotechnic devices that hit the ceiling, which was made of highly flammable material. The incident has raised questions about how the venue was able to operate with inadequate safety measures, and if corruption has a role to play.

We speak to Saska Cvetkovska, an investigative journalist in Skopje, about what we know so far and how the country is coping with the aftermath of the tragedy.

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Taylor Swift fans were gathering in Vienna in August last year, when organisers announced her three-night run would be cancelled, due to a terror threat. Three teenagers were arrested, accused of plotting an attack which was allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group. Speaking at a news conference, an Austrian politician said that “a tragedy was prevented.”

This sits within a wider picture of people behind acts like this getting younger. Although the numbers aren’t huge, in Europe last year, 1 in 5 terror suspects were under the age of 18. In the UK, it was double that. This data comes from a report written by Thomas Morgan, from the Institute for Economics and Peace in Australia. He joins the podcast to talk about the rise in radicalisation amongst young people.

We are also joined by Julian, a counsellor who works with teenagers in Berlin who have been radicalised by far-right ideology. He tells us how sessions run by Violence Prevention Network aim to change attitudes and behaviours of radicalised young people.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has agreed to pay $3.5 billion to buy the gaming division of Niantic, the Pokémon Go publisher. It’s the latest in a string of entertainment and gaming investments by the PIF. BBC tech reporter Tom Gerken tells us why the Saudi government is spending billions on gaming and what the Kingdom stands to gain from it.

Plus: BBC Arabic’s Abdirahim Saaed explains where the PIF gets its money and why the gaming scene is so big in Saudi Arabia right now.

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An estimated 700 million people visit zoos every year. Some people see these facilities as a great way to teach people about nature and to save species from extinction. Others think they’re cruel and unnecessary. It’s a heated debate. And now, as more and more people are watching animal rescue videos on Instagram and TikTok, it feels like the debate is hotter than ever.

William Lee Adams from the What in the Word team talks us through the history of zoos, including how England's Queen Charlotte (who was featured in Netflix’s Bridgerton) came to have twenty kangaroos, and how zoos have evolved. We also discuss their pro and cons. We hear from Tonya Lander, a biology lecturer at the University of Oxford in the UK, 19 year old animal rights activist Nikita Dhawan, and Delcianna Winders, Director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School in the US.

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In November, fifteen people were killed at the Novi Sad railway station in Serbia when a concrete canopy collapsed. Students in the country have been protesting ever since, claiming that government corruption contributed to the tragedy. The protests have brought the country to a standstill, and on Monday students occupied the public TV station RTS. Slobodan Maričić from BBC Serbian tells us about the student protests, what he’s seen when out reporting and the criticism faced by President Aleksandar Vučić.

We also hear from several student protestors and Konstrakta, a popular singer. She explains why students have been so effective leading and organising the protests and how their movement has expanded to include people of all ages.

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Two weeks ago $1.5 billion vanished from a cryptocurrency platform - it’s thought to be the biggest crypto heist ever. They had fallen into the hands of some infamous hackers - the Lazarus Group. These hackers have alleged ties to the North Korean government and have managed to steal huge amounts of money from other crypto platforms before.

The BBC’s Cyber Correspondent, Joe Tidy, takes us through all the details and explains why North Korean hackers are so untouchable.

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Plastic pollution has been highlighted as an environmental issue for several years. But experts are now researching whether it poses a potential danger to our health. Microplastics specifically are found in our bodies - even in our brains.

The BBC health reporter Smitha Mundasad explains to us what they are and whether we should be worried. And 25-year-old microplastics researcher and influencer Dana Zhaxylykova shares her top tips on how to avoid plastics.

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Just like seemingly all aspects of life these days, AI is going to become more and more present in our dating apps. Match Group, the dating company that owns Tinder and Hinge and has a market value of over $10 billion, recently announced they would increase investment in AI. They’re hoping to use AI for a spoken interview with the user to work out what they want to get out of their dating experience, and also provide “effective coaching for struggling users”.

Some newer apps focus entirely on AI models and choose your matches for you. As annual downloads of some of the biggest dating apps are going down, could these AI elements improve things? Or will AI cause more concerns?

Tamzin Kraftman, a BBC journalist, downloaded one of these new apps, iris, to check it out.

We also hear from the app’s CEO - Igor Khalatian. He explains what it’s all about.

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Most people in the world speak more than one language and many countries have more than one official national language. But what is it like living as a polyglot? And what advantages can it bring to your health? Studies have shown that speakers of multiple languages get dementia later and even recover better after a stroke.

BBC journalist Victoria Uwonkunda describes what it was like growing up as a polyglot and how she deals with speaking multiple languages in her daily life. Turkish polyglot İclal Dağcı , who speaks nine languages, tells us how she uses music to learn languages she finds difficult.

Plus, Professor Frédérique Liégeois, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, explains the benefits speaking multiple languages has on your brain, and how it could help to maintain your brain health as you get older.

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