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Hello, this is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news, seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising.
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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
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I'm Jacqui Lannert, and at 14 hours GMT on Tuesday, the 2nd of February, these are our main stories. More than 200 protesters have been arrested in Moscow as a court decides whether the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny should serve a prison sentence. Myanmar's military rulers have begun releasing some of the politicians who were detained during the coup on Monday. And the United Nations says cases of child trafficking have tripled in the past 15 years. Also in this podcast, the former CIA officer who believes he was attacked with a secret microwave weapon in Russia.
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I woke up to extraordinary vertigo. My ears were ringing. My head was spinning. I felt like I was going to vomit. I couldn't stand up. I was falling over.
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It was terrifying and how to get the best from working at home. It is officially a court case about embezzlement and the question whether a suspended sentence should become a custodial one, but with a massive deployment of riot police, the court appearance by the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, seems to be rather more important than that. He was detained on his arrival back in Moscow from Berlin, where he'd been treated after being the victim of a nerve agent attack.
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An incident in which the Kremlin has denied any involvement in mass protests followed his arrest.
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This supporter, Andrei, joined the small crowd, gathered outside the court and informed the spiritual justice against all this is total lawlessness, lawless actions of the authorities. The problem is, even such a high profile person could be arrested in a live television broadcast without a reason. It means that people like you and I are unknown people. They can do whatever they want to us. This is the problem.
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One of the big problems as we record this podcast, the hearing is in recess, as our correspondent Sarah Rainsford explained.
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Well, there's a break just been called in the proceedings inside the courthouse where Aksenov, while there's been a hearing in a glass cage nicknamed an aquarium here, he was brought in in handcuffs. You know, the court proceedings have been underway for a while. And basically the prison service has been arguing that he violated the terms of his probation, his suspended sentence, because he hadn't been checking in with the prison service as he was supposed to. Now, Mr Navalny and his lawyers have been saying, are you aware that I was actually in a coma?
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So there's no way for me to check in. He also, Mr Navalny was telling the court that Vladimir Putin knew exactly where he was because it was Mr Putin who gave the approval for him to be medevacked out to Germany when he was in a coma after his poisoning. So he said, how come the prison authorities didn't know where I was if President Putin knew? So pretty vigorous defense being mounted by Mr Navalny and his defense team, his lawyers.
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But the prison authorities insisting that they want his three and a half year suspended sentence, converted into a custodial sentence. They want him sent to jail generally.
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How much support has he got and how worried are the authorities about him? Well, we've seen some of the support for Mr Navalny over the past two weeks, haven't we? We've seen big crowds, big protests right across the country, unprecedented in terms of their spread. You know, dozens and dozens of towns and cities are normally politically passive parts of Russia where people were taking to the streets and calling for Mr Navalny release. Now, that doesn't mean that the whole country supports them, of course, and it doesn't mean that plenty of people don't support Vladimir Putin.
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But Alexei Navalny has made a big impact, particularly via YouTube and social media over the past few years. He's also got a network of offices right across the country, has activists, young people working for him in all sorts of places. So he is an influential character, even within the unfree political society that Russia is. On the other hand, you know, look at the reaction of the Kremlin. Look at where he is today. This is a case this, you know, argument is about a court case which the European court said was manifestly unreasonable and was an arbitrary sentence against him in the first place.
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And now the attempt is having him served a suspended sentence. They're trying to send him to jail. So if the Kremlin is not worried about them, why am I looking at dozens and dozens and dozens of riot police? And why is Mr. vilely up in court?
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Again, Sarah Rainsford in Moscow. To Myanmar now, where after Monday's coup, the army, which is now running the country, appears to have shut the airspace. Local reports say international flights have been banned until at least May. Yesterday's military takeover upended the rule of law in Myanmar and brought the country's fledgling democratic system to a juddering halt. This campaigner, who didn't want to be identified, spoke of a darkness descending over the country.
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The people are very worried for the future of the country and how this military coup will descend into the darkness in many years to come. And that is still worrying our faces of the people on the street and on the teashop. And people are discussing about this. Yeah, the military also attacking the security around the city of Rangoon.
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Some of the politicians who were detained yesterday are being released. Despite increased security. Life has returned to some degree of normality. Banks have reopened and communications have been re-established, although the streets are much quieter. So what is happening to the de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues? Now a question for our South East Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head.
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Well, we've been told nothing specific. I'm sure she's OK. One report that suggests I think it's quite likely that she's being held in her house in Naypyidaw. She has a home there. The other members of her party, particularly legislators, are being held in a complex of government buildings, which some of them are described as being a bit like an open detention center, people who would have been sitting in parliament to inaugurate her second term of office this week.
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There's a lot of people still being held by the military. Some a few have been released, I would expect at some. The stage over the next few days, they will release them, but big questions hanging over what happens to Aung San Suu Kyi. I have no doubt she'll be absolutely furious about what the military has done. And she remains enormously popular. She has a very strong electoral mandate from last November's election. The military contests that election, but her party won 80 percent of the seats in parliament.
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It was a resounding victory. So I can't imagine that she's willing at this stage to cooperate much with the military. And I don't think they'll be very keen for her to go out and start giving messages of defiance to her supporters. For the moment, there's been relatively little response inside Myanmar to the coup. Most people, I think, are still in a state of shock.
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So what are you actually hearing about how much normal life is continuing and about communications and security and so on?
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Most of communications have been restored. There's a lot of military visible in Naypyidaw. That is the crucial city. That's where all the politicians are being held and where the military has its strongest base as well. Politics has been completely frozen. A parliament session that was supposed to happen won't. The military is talking about changing the election commission, which had refused to recognize its complaints about irregularities. In terms of politics, everything has changed. But in terms of normal life in the commercial capital, Yangon, it's pretty much back to normal now.
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I think people are simply sitting and waiting to see what impact this change is going to have. I'm sure a lot of people are angry. I mean, people came out to cast their votes in very large numbers, mostly for Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party last November. But I don't think we're seeing much more response than that at the moment. And remember, people have got a lot of other things on their minds to the covid pandemic has hit Myanmar hard.
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The economy is really suffering. There are other things that people need to think about.
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There's been an awful lot of international condemnation. We've heard the threat of sanctions from the U.S. The UN Security Council is going to be talking about what's been going on in Myanmar later today.
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How much pressure do you think the military leadership will be feeling from all of this?
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Not much. I mean, it's not the first time they've faced sanctions and the last time there were significant sanctions. More than two decades ago when the military ran the country, they proved to be largely counterproductive. They hurt the ordinary economy, but the military, with their privileged companies, mostly doing business with China, were fine. I think any talk about sanctions at this stage is is largely talk, mostly the US, if it does apply, sanctions would try to apply targeted sanctions, sanctions that target top military officers involved in the coup and their businesses.
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But they're already doing that over the atrocities against the Rangers. The man who led the coup, General Minh Online, is an international pariah. He's a man who's been accused by the UN of genocide and has been heavily sanctioned by the US. So what we don't know is, is there anything more the US can do against these senior military figures that they haven't done already? And apart from that, I think for all the talk of sanctions, nobody really believes that's going to make a great deal of difference to the generals on the ground.
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Jonathan, had the United Nations says the rate of child trafficking has tripled over the past 15 years. A report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna says 50000 cases were reported in 2018 in 148 countries. Our reporter Bethany Bell told us more from Vienna.
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Well, this report says criminals are trafficking children from very, very poor households, from dysfunctional families and those who've been abandoned. It says around half of the detective victims are being trafficked for sexual exploitation and around 38 percent for forced labor, and about six percent have been forced into criminal activities in terms of child labor. It says that this is a problem that's very much seen more in low income countries. And in sub-Saharan African, for example, children are being trafficked to work on plantations, in mines and quarries and also as vendors in market and and in South Asia, their children as young as 12 who have been forced to work in the garment industry.
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So this is something that they say is a worldwide pattern in wealthier countries. You're more likely to see children being trafficked for sexual exploitation.
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And how big is the impact of coronavirus restrictions? Well, there are a lot of fears about this. I mean, this is a report with data dating back to 2018. But in the introduction to the report, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said they were very concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic with millions of people out of work with children not in school, that this could have a very, very significant impact and raise the risk of child trafficking all the more.
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And they called on governments to really try and have targeted action against traffic. Kim, that was Bethany Bell in Vienna. They call it Havana Syndrome, a mysterious illness which affected American diplomats in Cuba. They suffered from pressure in the head and nausea, followed by symptoms that persisted for years. It might sound like science fiction, but there are claims that this was caused by the Russians using a type of microwave weapon. Now, a former senior CIA officer has told the BBC that he believes he was targeted in the same way.
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But in Moscow, our security correspondent Gordon Corera reports.
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It was in December of 2017 at a five star hotel near the U.S. embassy. It really changed my life.
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Mark Polymeric police arrived in Moscow in December 2017 as a senior officer in the CIA, recently tasked with being part of a pushback against Russia's activities across Europe. He was not there undercover, but instead to meet with his opposite numbers in Russian intelligence. But during that visit, things took a turn for the worse.
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I woke up to extraordinary vertigo, something that I'd never experienced in my entire life. My ears were ringing. My head was spinning. I felt like I was going to vomit. I couldn't stand up. I was falling over. It was terrifying, to put it in context. I had spent years in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan. I have been shot at with all sincerity. This was the most terrifying experience of my life.
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A few days later, polymer propolis returned to the US. The extreme vertigo disappeared, but not the other symptoms.
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Still to this day. You know, I've had a migraine headache for three straight years. It has never gone away since that night. It's never going away. Never gone away. I can have this interview with you and I'll be tired the rest of the day after that. But I was never able to work again.
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Polymer propolis made the link to reports that something strange had just started happening to US diplomats in Cuba. It became known as Havana Syndrome. People hearing a strange sound from a particular direction or feeling extreme pressure in their head or sometimes vertigo. What was the cause? There had been speculation of poisoning or even a psychological illness.
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But an independent committee from the US National Academy of Sciences issued a report in December which concluded it was most likely some kind of directed pulsed high energy radio frequency or microwave polymer. Propolis came into conflict with the CIA's medical staff, who said his symptoms were not an exact match for those in Havana. But he began the long fight for better treatment, which led him to speak out.
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And I retired in 2019. But earlier in nineteen, it started happening to other agency officials who had very similar experiences. And so that's when I think a lot of people started thinking, well, hold on a second. You know, we know what happened in Cuba. We know what happened to me. Now it's happening to several other senior agency officials. And then I think I mean, I know the thinking started changing lives within the operational side of of CIA that perhaps the Russians were involved in this because all of the officers who have been subsequently affected were involved in some way, this pushback against the Russians.
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One possibility is that the harm is a byproduct of a technique designed to collect electronic intelligence. Russia has historically bombarded the US embassy in Moscow with microwave's former CIA officials say, with some wondering if Russia simply didn't care about the consequences. Polymer propolis, though, believes the intention was to cause harm and points to press reports suggesting it's been used in multiple countries.
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The agency and the intelligence community was able to using unclassified techniques to track the movement of Russian intelligence officers from Russia to locations where their officers later were hit by this per those press reports. That's a circumstantial case that that certainly warrants additional attention.
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In response, the Russian foreign ministry referred to comments in the wake of the National Academies report where it said it did not have information about such microwave weapons and provocative, baseless speculation could not be considered a serious matter for comment. There remains some mystery about incidents in other countries, one of which occurred when a visiting American official in a London hotel room felt symptoms. British officials are aware of that case, but unsure of what occurred. And there have been no reported cases among UK personnel.
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The US government has yet to make a formal conclusion, but the Biden administration has promised more transparency. A finding that Russia was responsible would have serious consequences, but may be hard to prove definitively. So far, Mark Polyamorous lists the journey not just to recover, but to understand what happened looks far from easy. That was Gordon Corera.
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Still to come in this podcast, the difficulties in Nigeria of trying to ensure equal inheritance rights for women.
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The men take it, told us how I put it together and take it all. And they kind of give to the women whatever they wish. State media in China say police have arrested more than 80 people who were making fake coronavirus vaccines in raids in Beijing and across eastern China. The scam is thought to have begun last September. Robin Brandt in Shanghai has the details.
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Dozens of people were arrested in multiple sites across eastern China and more than 3000 doses of fake vaccine was recovered, according to the state news agency Xinhua. The police said the operation had been running since last September and the fake doses were made by injecting a saline solution into syringes. China was aiming to vaccinate 50 million of its people before the annual New Year. Festivities and travel exodus begins at the end of this month. It suffered numerous public health scandals in the past, including scams involving the illegal distribution of expired vaccinations.
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Robin Brandt in Shanghai. The high profile murder in Pakistan in 2002 of the American journalist Daniel Pearl sparked international condemnation. Now the country's Supreme Court has ordered four men acquitted of the attack to be moved from jail to a government rest house. The U.S. government had reacted angrily to the court's decision last week to overturn the men's original conviction. Secunda Kamani reports from Islamabad.
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Pakistani officials have been racing to try and keep these four men in detention of some sort of the other, the alleged ringleader of the plot to abduct Daniel Pearl. Omar Sheikh, a British Pakistani man and three alleged accomplices, were all cleared of any wrongdoing last week by Pakistan's highest court. They had originally been convicted back in 2002. The men will now be held at a government guest house where they will be kept under tight security, but their families will be able to visit them.
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Pakistani authorities are attempting to have the verdict acquitting them overturned. Last week, the United States said it was outraged by the court's decision.
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That was Secunda Kamani. To Nigeria now, where despite a Supreme Court ruling that female children have just as much right to inherit their father's estate as their brothers, sex discrimination continues to split communities when it comes to who gets what. Some families in the south east of the country, backed by tribal leaders, say they are above the court's ruling and insist women and girls should not be allowed to inherit land or the family home. Olivia and ABC reports.
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Evelyn Kinchela sits outside a grey duplex in Nigeria's southeastern city of Obaidullah. She grew up here with a four younger siblings. But when their father died without a will, the house, along with his other properties, went to her brother, the youngest and only son. Evelyn is the only unmarried sibling and now needs her brother's permission to live here. She and her sisters received nothing of their father's wealth.
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I need a room of my own to stay for him and thanked me later for marriage. I just need but got nothing.
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Her brother Nonsuch says she needs to get married soon and believes women shouldn't inherit from both their parents and husband.
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The men take it all. That's how I put it together and take it all. And they kind of give to the women whatever they wish.
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You know, women do this fighting for rights. Inheritance in your father's house is just like fighting for oppression. That's how I see it. Because when you get from your father's house, definitely you are going to get from your husband's house that's set in Yugoslavia.
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Sonnen negroland, your son was inherit and that's your men like Monceau are protected by a culture around the country, especially here in eastern Nigeria, that bequeaths land and property to male heirs alone when their father dies without a will. Issues of inheritance is usually first raised at community level, the identical to the equally traditional rulers who have administrative authority. His royal grace. Aggregately, the echo of a community in eastern Nigeria in the state has been king since 1993 and has faced many challenges trying to ensure an inclusive space for women in his community.
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We believe that God created man and woman Ilkka, and to deny them certain things is wrong that some areas the same Antonette.
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The challenges that to change is set in months is very difficult, and many people who are benefiting from that will be the first people to challenge you.
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But even with the most progressive traditional rulers, there is an agreement that some parts of her late father's estate. Like the family home are completely forbidden for women to inherit, many disinherited women do not want to go to court believing family matters do not belong there. But others have begun taking male relatives to court to contest their inheritance and organization in any court. The women, its collective, is helping with conflict resolution for the former and legal representation for the latter.
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Equality. It is communications officer the challenges.
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Most importantly is that women are not occupying positions in the decision making processes, especially at the community level where these norms of customs are being generated from. So it's very difficult for change to happen in such a setting. As long as men are dominating those politicos face, many challenges stand in the way of the laws implementation.
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Women fearful of being blamed for breaking family units apart and centuries long traditions that elevates one gender above the other Olivia.
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And we see now in our continuing quest to keep you hopeful during the coronavirus pandemic, we have some tips on how best to survive if you're working from home. Apparently, the biggest headline here is that you need to maximize what you've got here to thought. Alexandra Osela of Quartz magazine has been talking to psychologists and designers for little tricks to make a happier working home. She gave my colleague Lawrence Poulard the benefit of her recently acquired wisdom.
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A lot of studies have associated a good amount of natural light with general mood, positivity and and feeling good in a space. A couple of other interesting things that I didn't necessarily expect are visible would great. Like if your flaws are your furniture can see the green and the word psychologists don't really know why, but that makes us feel good connected to nature, the artificial lighting in your space. So eventually the sun does go down. It can signal to you sort of subconsciously how you should be feeling or moving in a space.
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So overhead light is going to make you feel productive and focused and sort of eye-level light will make you feel cozy, like in your living room, something like that. And then what color definitely came up. So one of the sources spoke with said that whenever she meets someone, you know, just out in public what we used to do, that they would always ask her what color they should paint their home office like every time. And her answer is always the same, that a light green color is best because green has been associated with creative thinking and the non saturated hues make a space feel bigger.
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So if you know you were working in a converted ballroom, a problem that so many of us have more saturated color would make it feel a little more cozy, although at a certain point you would need to kind of put up screens to make the space feel a little more intimate.
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Now I am faster. I have never heard Green and I've never heard wood. Now, I'll tell you what. When I work from home, I have an old desk that used to belong to my dad, which has got wood green, and I disappear into the wood grain. And it had never occurred to me until talking to you that the wood grain is one of the most important things that I like about where I live.
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Isn't that. Oh, that's so cool.
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That's amazing. How do you maximize or how do you get round the inevitable problems that people will have the noise from your kids? How do you deal with that?
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Yeah, I think there are a few different approaches. So one of the things that the researchers mentioned was something called visual complexity. So what to the rest of this means clutter. Right? Right.
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And so the example that she used is that we were when we were evolving as humans, we were on the savanna and we were constantly surveying our surroundings. And, you know, if there's too much to see, it can stress us out. So hiding a few of the things from view, you know, putting them in a closet, putting them in some sort of furniture out of sight can make you actually feel more relaxed. But then again, you don't want to go too far in the other direction, have it feel to Stark.
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So the example she gave was if you have 20 picture frames on a surface, maybe just leave five of them and then you can rotate them out. You don't have to get rid of them in terms of using the space. Well, I mean, I would recommend noise canceling headphones just going to save that. And one of the things that came up repeatedly in my interviews was that it's so important for people to have a little bit of space just for them.
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Alexandra, Osela of Quartz magazine, and that's it from us for now. But there will be an updated version of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this podcast, all the topics covered in it, do please send us an email. The address is Global Podcast BBC, dot com dot UK. This podcast was mixed. I love the producer was Farhana Dharwad, our editor, who probably does work from a converted ballroom is Karen Martin.
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I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye.