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Mpox causes a headache, fever and a blistering rash all over the body. There have been more than 1,200 cases in parts of Central and West Africa since the start of this year. The milder version is now circulating in other parts of the world but the much stronger, possibly deadlier strain, called Clade 1b is also on the rise. A few weeks ago, the World Health Organisation announced that mpox constituted a public health emergency of international concern after an upsurge of cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other countries in Africa. Host Luke Jones brings together survivors from the UK and Nigeria to share their experiences. “I thought that I was dying,” said Harun in London. “Nobody knew what it was and I was getting worse every day. I remember looking at a bottle of water and I started crying because I wasn’t able to drink.” We also hear from three doctors about some of the challenges they face - from a mistrust in medical professionals, to a belief that mpox is not caused by a virus and so doesn’t require hospital treatment. “An elderly man started developing symptoms but felt his symptoms were not due to any pathogen but due to a spiritual attack,” said Dr Dimie Ogoina, from the Niger Delta Teaching hospital. A co-production between Boffin Media and the BBC OS team. (Photo: Elisabeth Furaha applies medication on the skin of her child Sagesse Hakizimana who is under treatment for Mpox, near Goma in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo August 19, 2024. Credit: Arlette Bashizi/File Photo/Reuters)

The Israel Defence Forces say it is investigating after Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot at a protest in Beita. Also: Starliner capsule heads home to Earth without stranded astronauts.

US job growth was weaker than expected last month, with only 142,000 new jobs added. Is a recession imminent, and how might the Federal Reserve react? Also, Boeing’s Starliner space shuttle will return to Earth soon, but not with its intended passengers. What happened, and what does it mean for commercial space travel?Plus, the Biden Administration is tackling the issue of difficult subscription cancellations—what are their proposed solutions?

The number of inmates held in English and Welsh prisons has reached a new record for the second week running. It now stands at 88,521. The BBC spent time inside HMP Pentonville this week, witnessing the effects of overcrowding. The Prime Minister says he has no choice but to begin releasing prisoners early on Tuesday.Is a rebellion brewing against the government's plans to means test the Winter Fuel payment for pensioners? We speak to one MP urging Chancellor Rachel Reeves to row back from the changes.And fifty years after his death in obscurity, a new play celebrates the man behind the iconic map of the London Underground.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was allegedly shot by Israeli troops, according to local media reports and fellow activists, while taking part in a protest against Jewish settlement expansion in the town of Beita. The killing comes after Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin city at the end of a major nine-day operation. Also on the programme: an Mpox vaccination drive is launched in the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving hope to those at risk of contracting the virus; and as China announces it will end all international adoption from the country, we speak to a student adopted by American parents when she was a baby. (Picture taken from social media)

Writer: Sarah McDonald Hughes Director: Mel Ward Editor: Jeremy HoweRuth Archer…. Felicity Finch Pat Archer…. Patricia Gallimore Harrison Burns…. James Cartwright Neil Carter…. Brian Hewlett Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin Ian Craig…. Stephen Kennedy Ed Grundy…. Barry Farrimond Emma Grundy…. Emerald O’Hanrahan George Grundy…. Angus Stobie Mia Grundy…. Molly Pipe Will Grundy…. Philip Molloy Brad Horrobin…. Taylor Uttley Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye Adam Macy…. Andrew Wincott Lottie Summers…. Bonnie Baddoo

No time to read the news? Catherine Bohart does it for you in TL;DR. This week - Elon Musk thinks there should be regulation around AI. Is he right? Can AI really change the world, or are we just training our future robot overlords?Times journalist Hugo Rifkind navigates the ethical minefield of artificial intelligence, while Professor Gina Neff breaks down how AI is already reshaping our lives - and the risks that come with it.Meanwhile, in the TL;DR Sidebar, comedian Sunil Patel dives into the wild world of AI romance and discovers the perks and pitfalls of having an AI girlfriend. Will it be love at first byte?Written by Catherine Bohart, with Madeleine Brettingham, Sarah Campbell, and Pravanya PillayWith Ellen Patterson as FlobotProduced by Victoria LloydRecorded and Edited by David ThomasProduction Coordinator - Beverly TaggA Mighty Bunny production for BBC Radio 4

South Africa’s ruling ANC denies allegations of harassment and killing human rights activists in the country.The Grenfell Tower fire in London report is out after seven years. 72 people, including several from Africa, were killed. Were any lessons learnt?And why has Ethiopia suspended flights to Eritrea ?Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Sunita Nahar, Yvette Twagiramariya, Joseph Keen and Bella Hassan in London. Charles Gitonga in Nairobi. Technical Producers: Francesca Dunne and Nick Randell Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

We’ll be looking at the US economy following the release of closely watched jobs data.And, it's over 200 years old but it's on the brink of collapse: South Africa's postal office is looking to the government for a bail out. We speak to the man tasked with saving the institution. Plus, what does a Banksy artwork do to your house price? Our reporter speaks to home and business owners.

The Democratic Republic of Congo rolls out its mpox vaccine programme with 100,000 doses sent by the EU - but what logistical challenges do the medical teams face on the ground?Also on the programme: the UN says both sides in Sudan's civil conflict have committed atrocities that may constitute war crimes; and why China decided to abandon its foreign adoption programme. (Photo: A mum in the Democratic Republic of Congo applies medication on the skin of her child who is under treatment for mpox. Credit: Reuters)

China says it's ending overseas adoptions, creating uncertainty for those mid process. The growing cyber crime of sextortion. The US child deaths linked to declining bat population and the perils of sneezing.

The Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei has died, after being doused with petrol and set on fire. She is the third female athlete to be killed in Kenya in the past few years. To find out more about what's going on, Krupa Padhy is joined by the BBC's Deputy Africa Editor Anne Soy and Joan Chelimo, a fellow athlete of Rebecca's.Carol Klein is one of our best loved horticulturalists – most known for presenting shows like Gardener’s World. As well as gardening and her career on TV, she also trained as an artist and worked as a teacher. Now she’s written a memoir, Hortobiography, which looks at how her life is all connected through plants. She joins Krupa to tell us more about the book and why our relationship with nature is so important. Artist and disability activist Alison Lapper is exploring her life in a new BBC Three documentary, In My Own Words: Alison Lapper. It examines her life from childhood to becoming a mouth artist, as well as looking at how she processed her grief after losing her son, Parys. Krupa speaks to Alison about her art, her son and her life.Ellen Burstyn has been a star of American stage and screen for 70 years. This week she received the Liberatum Pioneer Award at the Venice Film Festival for her contribution to cinema and the industry, particularly in paving the way for women. She tells Krupa her stories from a lifetime on camera.The Maori of New Zealand have a new Queen - 27-year-old Ngā Wai hono i te pō. She is the only daughter of the former King, and was chosen to succeed him by the Maori chiefs. To find out what this means for Maori women, we hear from broadcaster and commentator Marni Dunlop.Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producer: Lottie Garton

Chief Constable hits back at Justice Dept in row over PM funding letter.

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has urged Haiti's interim government to set up an electoral council to organise presidential elections. Also: is there a link between noise and infertility?

Dr Aleksandra Janus is a Polish Cultural Anthropologist with a Jewish background from Warsaw, Poland. Living in the capital flattened by Nazi bombs and then recreated by Communism, her multi-layered identity has always conjured mixed feelings about former Jewish memory and cultural spaces. As President of the organisation, Zapomniane Foundation (which means forgotten in English), one of her jobs is to trace mass graves in forests, cityscapes and death camps across the country in cooperation with local villagers, WWII survivors and non-invasive scanning technologies. Alerted by her friend Karolina Jakoweńko, she's come across an interesting proposition – an historic synagogue in the area of Poland that belonged to Germany before WWII. Once owned by a thriving Jewish community who were exterminated by the Nazis, now decades later the synagogue is in the hands of a private owner and Jewish people no longer live in the village. Synagogues in Germany were at first destroyed by the Nazis but not this synagogue – it miraculously survived. So, she's trying to grapple with the idea - does she buy a synagogue back to revive it or leave it where it belongs - in the past. The BBC’s Amie Liebowitz travels across Poland to explore the daily life of Aleksandra and her quest to both bury the dead and re-sanctify spaces. Driving through cities, forests and villages in between, Amie and Aleksandra alongside her colleagues unpacks what this purchase could look like and what post-Jewish, post-German spaces represent in modern Poland. Presenter/ Reporter: Amie Liebowitz

The country is under a state of emergency as gangs try to expand their control over the capital, and other regions. We get the latest. As Elon Musk's X is banned in Brazil, rival BlueSky gains ground in the South American nation. We talk to its CEO, Jay Graber.And we get an insight on how airplane seats are made.

Thousands of prisoners will be released early from Tuesday to relieve over-crowding in Britain's prisons. Sima Kotecha gained access to HMP Pentonville to witness the toll the over-crowding is taking on prison guards and the prisoners themselves. A former prison officer who now helps inmates to find employment says he fears the early releases could ruin the chances of offenders rebuilding their lives.France has a new Prime Minister, and he'll be familiar to many Britons. Michel Barnier became the face of the EU during Brexit negotiations, he'll now have to navigate the intractable divisions in the French National Assembly.And English Teacher has won the Mercury Music Prize for their album This Could Be Texas.

The family of the Ugandan athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei, has accused Kenyan police of failing to respond to warnings that her life was in danger. The Ugandan marathon runner was doused with petrol and set on fire at her home in western Kenya - allegedly by her former boyfriend.Also in the programme: France goes from its youngest to its oldest prime minister, he's former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, but can he corral a divided parliament? And the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is in Haiti to urge a timetable for new elections.(Photo: Uganda's Rebecca Cheptegei in action during the women's marathon final August 2023. Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez)

A Chinese survey of diseased animals farmed for their fur – such as mink, foxes and raccoon dogs - has revealed high levels of concerning viruses, including coronaviruses and flu viruses, many of which appear to jump easily from species to species. John Pettersson of Uppsala University discusses the threat to us humans. We learnt early on in the Covid-19 pandemic how important the genetic details of the virus were in tracking the spread and spotting new variants. The vaccines were designed from gene sequences shared electronically long before any biological samples became available. Virologist Emma Hodcroft has teamed up with researchers around the world to develop a new virus database, Pathoplexus, to speed up the sharing of gene sequences. Mpox outbreaks are causing concerns in Central and West Africa - particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A smallpox vaccine has started arriving, giving some protection against mpox. But there’s good news this week in an experimental vaccine developed especially for mpox by Moderna – one of the companies that brought us the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Galit Alter, vice president of immunology research at Moderna, tells us animal tests show that it appears to be highly effective. And we discuss embryonic eavesdropping with Francisco Ruiz-Raya of Glasgow University. In the yellow-legged-gull, baby bird embryos that have chattier parents tend to come out chattier themselves – and likely receive better care because of their enhanced communication. Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Production Coordinator: Andrew Rhys Lewis (Image: Mink farm. Production of elite fur. Animal in a cage, in the hands of a man. Credit: Neznam via Getty Images)

George struggles to keep his head above water, and Neil attempts to do the right thing.