A lot of us dream about becoming a professional athlete and the ultimate athletes in sport are at the Olympic Games. But what does it take? The Olympics officially start on 26th July in Paris, France. 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries will take part in 32 sports including athletics, swimming, and gymnastics, as well as BMX, surfing and climbing.

Kishmala Talat (22), a shooter from Pakistan, and Zenéy Geldenhuys (24), a South African hurdler, are both competing at their first Olympics this year. They talk about how it feels to represent their country and what it takes to become an Olympian.

And two other Olympics athletes Tanisha Crasto (21), who plays badminton for India, and Rebecca Meder (21), a South African swimmer, answer some of your questions - like what have you sacrificed and what’s your morning routine?

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Email: [email protected] Presenter: Adam Chowdhury Producers: Julia Ross-Roy and William Lee Adams Editor: Verity Wilde

Since the start of the month, university students have been protesting across Bangladesh, asking for quotas in government jobs to be removed. 30% of roles are reserved for the children and grandchildren of people who fought for the country’s independence back in 1971.

The anti-quota protesters have clashed with members of a pro-government student group and police.

Things have escalated this week and at least ten people have been killed.

Akbar Hossein is from BBC Bangla in Dhaka - he explains what the quota system is and why students want to change it.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Emily Horler, Benita Barden and Kevyah Cardoso Editors: Verity Wilde

A new strain of the mpox virus is spreading quickly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and experts say it is the most dangerous variant they have seen.

We chat to Makuochi Okafor, a BBC Africa health reporter, who explains the symptoms of mpox, why scientists changed its name, and how people can protect themselves. He also describes what we know about the new variant.

In 2022, a global outbreak of the virus spread across the world. The World Health Organisation said more than 87,000 cases were recorded in 111 countries. We hear what it was like for some people who caught it.

And BBC Health reporter Philippa Roxby tells us how that outbreak was controlled, and the role public information and vaccines played. With not enough vaccines in Africa, can authorities stop the spread this time?

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Julia Ross-Roy, William Lee Adams and Mora Morrison Editor: Verity Wilde

This weekend, traffic in a key part of Mumbai came to a standstill to make way for a convoy of VIP guests attending one of the year’s most talked about events, the wedding ceremony of Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani. The couple tied the knot in a 4-day wedding extravaganza with the likes of Kim Kardashian, John Cena and India’s PM Narendra Modi in attendance. It was the glittering finale to 4 months of pre-wedding events which spread across continents and featured private concerts by Rihanna, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber. The spectacle of the whole wedding has divided opinions, with some enjoying the extravagance of it all and others uncomfortable with such a display of wealth in a country facing stark inequality between rich and poor. BBC Delhi reporter, Meryl Sebastian, gives us an overview of the event and wedding culture in India. Plus, BBC Business Correspondent, Nikhil Inamdar, tells us a bit about how the Ambani family made its fortune and the changing wealth landscape in India. And Alex tells all about a disaster at his own wedding! Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Alex Rhodes Producers: Emily Horler, Benita Barden and Kevyah Cardoso Editors: Rosanna La-Falce

On Saturday evening someone tried to kill Donald Trump. The former president was giving a speech at a political rally in Pennsylvania when a gunman took aim from a nearby rooftop. The bullet grazed Mr Trump’s right ear before he was rushed to safety.

Images of the defiant presidential candidate, moments after the incident, standing with his fist raised, lines of blood streaked across his face, could impact the election. We look at why. We also discuss security and how the gunman managed to get past US Secret Service agents.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Email: [email protected] Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: William Lee Adams and Mora Morrison Editor: Verity Wilde

JailTime is a record label that aims to get prisoners away from crime and into the music industry. It operates from a studio in New Bell prison, a high security jail in Douala, Cameroon. They say they’ve brought reoffending rates down significantly.

JailTime’s founders, Dione Roach and Steve Happi, tell us what they're trying to achieve and talk about one of their success stories; Moussinghi. Paul Njie, a BBC reporter in Cameroon, describes the conditions in prisons there - and explains why reoffending rates are so high.

On the other side of the world, the USA has one of the highest recorded reoffending rates in the world. Can arts programmes prevent offenders returning to crime? Maurice Chammah from the Marshall Project gives us his take. He also talks us through the history of music in prisons and describes how prisoners manage to record music from their cells unofficially. Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producer: Ez Roberts Editor: Verity Wilde

Over the last 18 months the world has gone pretty crazy about AI. Apple has been jumping into the space and Samsung is forecasting higher profits than ever from its advanced chips. Tech companies say it’s the future and may even put a lot of us out of a job. But a new report from one of the world’s top banks says that generative AI, things like ChatGPT or Gemini, might not prove to be the gamechanger that tech companies have been promising.

Generative AI also uses huge amounts of energy and water, behind the super smart tech are massive data centres that drive up greenhouse gas emissions. So we’re asking is AI really going to be worth the cost to our wallets and potentially our planet?

Imran Rahman Jones, a BBC Tech Reporter, tells us how the drive for AI has bumped up Google’s emissions by almost half and explains the ways tech companies are trying to compensate for the surges. Also Ed Zitron, who writes about tech and hosts the Better Offline podcast, tells us why he thinks the hype around generative AI is in danger of becoming overblown.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Alex Rhodes Producers: Benita Barden and Maria Clara Montoya Editors: Verity Wilde

After the Covid pandemic, global tourism numbers have been on the rise again, but so are concerns about the impact of tourism.

We will take you to Spain, Southern Africa and Hawaii to discuss the tension between the money that tourism brings in, and the price locals have to pay.

Protesters in Barcelona have been showing their discontent with tourists by spraying them with water pistols, trying to scatter visitors from popular areas like La Rambla. Demonstrations against tourism are happening more and more in different parts of Spain. Maria Clara Montoya from the What in the World team explains why the protests have been happening.

And James McCulloch in South Africa and Doctor Kiona in Hawaii talk us through how they set up travel companies with an ethical tourism approach to promote a more sustainable way of travelling.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Emily Horler, Kevyah Cardoso and Alex Rhodes Editor: Verity Wilde

There’s loads of misinformation online about vaccines. For years, there have been false claims about the tetanus jab causing infertility. One of our listeners, Henry, got in touch to ask us if they were true. Fauziyya Tukur, a BBC Disinformation journalist in Abuja, looks into the claims with us.

The BBC's medical editor, Fergus Walsh explains why vaccine hesitancy is on the rise around the world - and the impact vaccines have had on global health. And we hear from Sahar Baloch, a BBC journalist in Islamabad, who talks about efforts to eradicate polio in Pakistan, amid misinformation about the jab (fuelled in part by a CIA fake vaccine campaign to seek out Osama bin Laden!).

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Email: [email protected] Presenter: Alex Rhodes Producers: Julia Ross-Roy and Maria Clara Montoya Editors: Verity Wilde and Simon Peeks

On Sunday night, a surprising exit poll was announced for France’s parliamentary election. It showed that the New Popular Front was about to win the second round, in a result that no-one was expecting.

All previous predictions had suggested the far-right National Rally party would come out on top, but it came third.

The New Popular Front, a brand new left-wing coalition, was formed as part of a strategy to block seats from the National Rally. And even though the plan worked, the National Rally still got its best result in history. But now no party has a majority, meaning France will have a hung parliament.

BBC Journalist, Sara Menai, takes us through what happened and what it means for France.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Emily Horler, María Clara Montoya and Julia Ross-Roy Editor: Verity Wilde

Dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Match have changed the way many of us date, offering convenience, choice and connection at your finger tips. They have millions of users worldwide. As many as one in three adults in the U.S. has used them, according to Pew Research Centre. But now, ten years after their boom, there’s endless chatter about deleting them. And it’s not because people are finding their Mr or Mrs Right. Some people are opting for advice online and paid coaching programmes instead.

Özge Özdemir from BBC Turkish has looked at the research. She tells us how attitudes are changing about online dating. She’s spoken to psychologists, journalists and young daters about the cultural shift and gives us an overview.

Some app developers have been accused of deliberately making their apps addictive. Elias Aboujaoude a psychiatrist from Stanford University, in the US, explains how some people get hooked.

Also, we get some dating tips from Anwar White, an American dating and relationship coach who specialises in advice for professional women, and women of colour.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Hannah Gelbart Producers: Benita Barden, Emily Horler and Julia Ross-Roy Editor: Simon Peeks

On Tuesday 2nd July, over 120 people died in a crowd crush at a religious event in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. According to police reports, the crush happened after 200,000 people gathered in an area that only had capacity for 80,000. The BBC’s Jugal Purohit has been to the scene of the tragedy - he describes what we know about it so far and the ongoing investigations. On Thursday, police said they had arrested six people who were part of a committee that organised the event.

Sadly, people getting crushed in crowds isn’t that rare. In 2022, a Halloween crush killed 159 young people in Seoul. Yuna Ku, a BBC journalist in South Korea, tells us what happened.

Why do crowd crushes happen, how can they be prevented, and is there anything you can do if you get stuck in one? Kevyah Cardoso from the What in the World team explains.

Instagram: @bbcwhatintheworld Email: [email protected] WhatsApp: +44 0330 12 33 22 6 Presenter: Alex Rhodes Producers: Julia Ross-Roy and Kevyah Cardoso Editor: Emily Horler