US accused of hitting a wedding in Iran

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. to investors, including policy initiatives for retirement savings, taxes and trade, inflation concerns, the Federal Reserve, and how regulatory developments can affect companies, sectors, and even the entire market. Mike and his guests offer their perspective on how policy changes could affect what you do with your portfolio. Download the latest episode and follow at schwab.com slash Washington Wise, or wherever you listen. If you are currently overpaying on software to run your business, remember this number, 10,000. That's the number of new businesses that join Odoo per month. Join Odoo today at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Mars, and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 2nd of September, these are our main stories. Iran says US forces have hit a wedding in the south, killing four people and injuring dozens more. As the aerial campaign ramps up again following a month-long lull. 5,000 US servicemen will shortly step on land for the first time in nine months as their aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, docks in Thailand. Our climate editor on how many saw the early signs leading to Nepal's devastating floods. Also in this podcast, President Putin accuses Germany of planting evidence to blame Russia for the nuclear war. Russia has accused Germany of planting evidence to blame Russia for the nuclear war. long series of attempts at destabilisation, threats, sabotage and aggression towards Europe. With the attempted attack on Leipzig, the Russian leadership has in fact made a deliberate decision to cause further significant damage to our already severely strained bilateral relationship. He also announced tighter entry controls for Russian nationals and vowed to increase pressure on Moscow's shadow fleet. Those are old tankers used by Russia to circumvent Western sanctions, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. President Putin has called the German sanctions against Russia a new error. Arkady Ostrovsky is the Russia and Eastern Europe editor of The Economist. I think everybody has no illusions about what's going on here and Russia is now targeting military factories and will probably also target logistic hubs that supply Ukraine with weapons. It's not a surprise, really. Because the Russians see that Europe is a side in the conflict. It's not an observant. It's not just financing the war. It's actually supplying Ukraine with weapons. Some of the drones and missiles are made in Europe. And if those drones are hitting Russian cities and obviously Germany is not at war and Europe is not at war with Russia, it's a legitimate target. I don't think it's a huge surprise. And it kind of shows how meek the German reaction is going to be in kind of diplomatic terms. Nobody wants an open confrontation. But this exchange, this escalation was expected. Putin is doing it. I think what's happening is that Putin has been in this situation of kind of a stalemate for months and you could argue for years now on the battlefield, losing tens of thousands of men without actually making much progress. Now, that is not cost free. He feels probably it's draining economic and political resources. He's losing. That kind of silent ascent, if you like, to war. The elites are grumbling. And I think he feels that he needs to escalate because the settlement, the peace deal, he can't accept because, you know, he thinks that would be weak on this term. So I think what we had, the inertia scenario, is just not going to continue. I think there is going to be a step up both in attacks on Ukraine and in attacks in Europe. I'll carry Ostrovsky there. In this podcast, we often hear of drones being used in modern warfare for surveillance and, to be frank, killing people. But now a new initiative in Australia is using them to try to save people. Stephanie Prentice is following this and she told me more. So, Nick, the Australian state of New South Wales, it's been rolling out this $85 million strategy to try and stop shark attacks. In its latest plans, it's going to massively expand drone surveillance of beaches. They're calling it a dawn to dusk operation. It's all been triggered by a series of serious shark attacks, including one at Coogee Beach, where someone called Leah Stewart, she was a regular swimmer following safety precautions, and she fought off a four metre long great white shark. Eventually, people were able to drag her to shore on a surfboard, and she told local media about how she survived, including Channel 9. It was huge. And it's teeth. It's black little beady eyes. We were looking face to face, and it got to the point where it was about 30 centimetres from my face. Like, I've got to try and punch it. And in that moment, I thought, well, which limb am I willing to lose? I'm right handed. So I decided let's do a left hook. So after that left hook, she did lose that arm. And those graphic accounts of what happened, they really fuelled this sense of public outrage across New South Wales. So if you remember, there was a series of incidents back in January, and we saw four attacks in 48 hours, including the death of a 12-year-old boy. It's all led to basically a more strategic approach now from authorities. So we've got 97 beaches being tightly monitored. We've seen drone operators getting to beaches really early as the sun comes up, sweeping the waters before the morning swimmers arrive. And it's kind of a more advanced version of a community system we've seen online. The most famous in Australia is called Drain. In fact, let's quickly listen to that team at work. Massive. Whoa. Hey, guys, we've got a big great white out there. We recommend you get out ASAP. There's a big great white shark out there. Boy, don't go out. No, don't go out. He was just about to jump out on top of it. Oh, my goodness. So yeah, literally someone was about to jump on this huge great white shark that was passing by. And they managed to speak to him using a megaphone. Yeah. So they're basically, it's a community service. They're just shouting at people to get out the water, to get away from sharks. The new government system and drones, it's more advanced. So these drones can hover over swimmers. They can emit alarms that they can give verbal instructions. And we'll also see them in beaches where drones weren't allowed before. And there's also going to be more listening stations around Sydney Harbour. So they alert people when tag sharks like great whites, bull sharks, tiger sharks pass by. And the government are also trailing more techie schemes. So there's an AI component to identify sharks faster. Eventually, a plan to have autonomous drones. So basically, we're seeing a pretty fast implementation of a multi-laid approach to what seems to be a growing problem for Australia's swimmers and surfers. Stephanie Prentice. Still to come in this podcast, in Austria, a law banning headscarves in schools for girls under 14 has come into effect. The headscarf is. It's not just a harmless piece of fabric. A headscarf worn by a girl, an eight-year-old girl, for instance, is a symbol of oppression. Self-directed investing, trading, full-service wealth management, automated investing, financial planning, thematic investing, retirement planning. Phew. And to think, that's just a small taste of what Schwab offers. Because Schwab knows that when it comes to your finances, choice matters. No matter your goals, investing style, life stage, or experience, Schwab has everything you need, all in one place, so you can invest your way. Visit schwab.com to learn more. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon Music subscription. With the new Schwab Teen Investor Account, teens can gain hands-on investing experience and build positive money habits. It's an account co-owned by you and your teen, so you can monitor and engage with the account while your teen learns how to invest and manage money. Learn more at schwab.com. This is the Global News Podcast. More than 1,000 people are now confirmed to have died in the flash floods in Nepal and Tibet, and nearly 4,000 people remain unaccounted for. People were caught unawares by the sudden floods, but scientists investigating the incident say there were signs of growing instability on the mountainside that collapsed in the days before the disaster. They say better warning systems could have saved lives further downstream. Our climate editor, Justin Rowlett, has this assessment. Satellite images suggest the surface of the glacier involved in the avalanche in Nepal had begun to move more quickly in the days before the disaster. The rapid assessment by an international team of scientists says there were other signs that the mountainside was becoming unstable. The meltwater turned brown and a crack developed in the surrounding rock. The scientists say these clues were identified in hindsight and don't mean the avalanche could necessarily have been predicted, but the report author Jacob Steiner says the monitoring of glaciers can be effective. This is the case in Switzerland, where a sensor constantly monitors the velocity of a glacier, and if it suddenly speeds up, it sends a warning to an expert who then has to look at those images and has to judge whether there is an imminent threat and whether down the road below that glacier needs to be blocked or not. There was no such warning system at the site in Nepal. The scientists say the avalanche moved far too fast to warn those closest to it, but further downstream, the flood took 10 minutes or more to arrive. They say a comprehensive early warning system could have used that window and potentially saved a significant number of lives. Justin Rowlatt. To Austria now, where a new law that bans girls under the age of 14 from wearing an Islamic headscarf in schools has just come into force. In 2020, a similar headscarf ban for girls under 10 was struck down by the Constitutional Court because it specifically targeted Muslims. If a student violates the ban, they must have a series of discussions with school authorities and their legal guardians. If there are repeated violations, the Child and Youth Welfare Agency must be notified. And as a last resort, families or guardians could be fined. The Austrian government argues that the ban empowers young girls. Claudia Bauer is Minister for Europe, Integration and Family in the Austrian government. She spoke to Rajini Vajanathan about about why this ban is being implemented. The headscarf is not just a harmless piece of fabric, a headscarf worn by a girl, an eight-year-old girl, for instance, is a symbol of oppression. Women are veiled wherever extreme Islam is on the rise and therefore Austria has passed the ban. Minister, that is a huge generalisation. There are many young Muslim women around the world who choose to wear the headscarf and are not in any way associated with extremism. For us it is important to protect children, especially young girls. Schools should be a safe space where values such as equality, individual freedom and also social integration are taught. Where is your evidence that young girls are being made to wear headscarves? I think it is important that schools stay a safe place. How is wearing a headscarf not safe for a young girl who chooses to wear one? We talk to a lot of psychologists, for instance, and they see that when girls begin wearing a headscarf in a phase where the body is developing, the personality is developing at the beginning of puberty, for instance, then they begin to stand in the second row. As well in classroom, we want to live in a country where girls and men and boys are able to grow up freely. We want to give them time to decide on their own how they want to live. They handle the headscarf and they shall decide at the age of religious maturity, which is in Austria at the age of 14. You talk about empowerment and choice. A survey that I've seen suggests that 93% of Muslim women actually oppose this legislation. Well, I can understand that, but I think it is important that we stand for European values, for equality. Is that a code word for un-Islamic values? That's what some would argue, because this is targeting Muslims. That's what opponents of this say. No, definitely not. It is important that we stand for European values. And one of them is the equal treatment of girls and boys, of men and women. And I think that starts at a very early age. And I think no eight-year-old girl belongs under a headscarf. Critics of the ban argue that it fuels anti-Muslim sentiment and marginalises children. Carla Amina supervises and organises Islamic education in public and private schools in Austria. She gave us her reaction to the ban. As many Muslims in Austria, I feel very concerned, especially as we have seen so many headscarf debates before, and try to be very patient and dialogue-oriented to clear up as many misunderstandings as possible. If somebody has a certain view on a religious practice, a negative view, to take this as a kind of explanation and excuse to say no to it, to forbid it officially. It's not possible. Parents are very concerned and disappointed because they feel patronised rather than empowered. If we want empowerment, it can't work by forcing something. We have reports that the children even show signs of feeling not well, anxieties. We have reports of parents who say, I try to convince my daughter to put off the headscarf and to tell her, well, don't feel yourself embarrassed and no need for religious worries. It's under force and don't worry. But nevertheless, the children don't want to be embarrassed. And in the end, the law punishes the parents. The children feel that their parents are under this pressure. And we have parents who say, we want to guarantee a kind of bringing up where there is no pressure. And now I'm forced to pressure my child. That was Carla Amina Bagajati. In the United States, jurors in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the woman accused of murdering her three-year-old daughter, were charged with murdering her three-year-old children in 2023, have been sent back to deliberate. That's after they told the judge they were deadlocked and unable to come up with a unanimous verdict. Her lawyer argues she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and therefore could not distinguish right from wrong. The prosecution argues she made a calculated intentional decision to kill them. The judge has ordered the jury to keep trying. I brought you back out because I know that this was a long trial. All right. I know there were over 80 witnesses. There were over 300 exhibits. And but because of that, I'm going to ask you to go back out, keeping in mind all the instructions that I gave you to go out and to continue your deliberations at this time. Jeremy Siegel is a presenter at WGBH News. That's a public broadcaster in Boston. He's been following the case and gave us this update. I think the fact that they haven't been able to come to a decision and told the judge that they're deadlocked is indicative of just how difficult this decision will be for jurors. They've been hearing testimony for weeks. And as you mentioned, the prosecution says that Lindsey Clancy, the mother who's on trial here, should have criminal responsibility for killing her three children. The interesting feature of this trial here is that neither the prosecution nor the defense have been able to come to a decision. Say that Clancy did not kill her children. They're both in agreement here. But where they differ is on her state of mind at the time of the killing. So jurors have heard from prosecutors and their witnesses time and time again that while Clancy may have suffered from mental illness and been severely depressed in the postpartum state after having her child, that she was in a clear state of mind where she was able to calculate and commit these murders. Where the defense differs is that they agree that she did kill the children, but that she was in the throes of postpartum psychosis, which is a rare and somewhat unknown in medical fields diagnosis that is very dangerous and carries a significant risk of both infanticide and suicide. It involves hallucinations, lots of confusion. And it's not a technical diagnosis in the medical books that psychiatrists use, but it's well accepted within the psychiatrist community that it is a diagnosis. So the prosecution says that she may have been mentally ill, but she wasn't in the throes of psychosis. The defense says that she should not be considered criminally liable because she was in the throes of psychosis and is using an insanity defense, as it's called here. Jeremy Siegel. The American company Tesla was an early world leader in the electric vehicle market, but the country that's currently making the running in that sector is China. It's become the world's biggest exporter of EVs, despite being largely shut out of the US market. Nearly a fifth of all EVs sold in Britain are Chinese. So what's the secret of this success? And why are Chinese electric vehicles so cheap? The BBC's Felicity Hanna has been investigating. Here we are. Here's a little tune every time you get in. It's very cheery. Very cheery. It's a little welcome to your car. This is Emma, and she's a doctor. She's not the only driver who wanted an electric vehicle and opted for a Chinese model. So I chose an EV primarily for the sustainability, but also, to be honest, for the fact that they are just so cheap. 18% of electric vehicles, or EVs, sold in the UK are manufactured in China. In Western Europe, it's also hitting a record high. Chinese vehicles are competing on technology, size and availability. But perhaps more than anything else, they're competing on price. Andy Palmer has been described as the godfather of EVs for his work at Nissan on the LEAF. And he now runs the consultancy Palmer Automotive. They've got this advantage in battery technology, and they've got this advantage in software technology. The interesting thing is about 91% of the materials that go into batteries are refined in China. So they really have the supply chain sewn up. It means it's relatively easy to manufacture there as well. If you look at the supply chain, it's relatively easy to manufacture there as well. If you look at making an EV, and you exclude the battery, and let's exclude the fuel tank, just to be fair, on an internal combustion engine, the cost of manufacturing an EV is lower, except for the battery. The battery technology is key. So they're cheap, they're innovative, but are they ethical? A frequent criticism of Chinese car manufacturers is that the quality, innovation and price competitiveness has only been possible because of the support provided by Beijing. Some argue that China is effectively doing, dumping state-subsidized vehicles in the EU and the UK in order to gain market share, and that these prices would not be sustainable. While that is an accusation, however, that has been strongly disputed by the car makers themselves, Dr. Brian Gu is co-president of the Chinese EV maker Xpeng. I don't think the Chinese government is supporting every player. In fact, there are probably more competitors in China than outside of China. I would say the Chinese company's success is because they came out of the most competitive market - I would say the fittest gym, using that analogy - and bring that technology that efficiency and the cost competitiveness to markets outside of China. So do you think that those accusations that Chinese EV makers are dumping vehicles are genuine concerns from those governments? We don't agree with the assessment that China is producing excess capacity. In fact, we don't have enough capacity in China to produce and satisfy our demands. Chinese models are not just disrupting markets, they're also creating demand in new markets. Here's Professor Alex Close of EuroEV, a European importer and distributor of Chinese electric vehicles. They have picked up all the markets that the Americans and the Europeans have left. I used to work for Ford. Ford had a real big plant in Brazil. Now suddenly Ford wasn't that successful profitability-wise in Brazil anymore, so they decided to leave. And what happened? BYD picked it up. And now BYD, is the battery electric vehicle of Brazil. We are seeing governments respond to this. So, for example, there are tariffs on Chinese EVs coming into Europe, which make them seem more expensive. Do you think that's fair to consumers? The European car industry, I think, shouldn't vanish, but it needs to transform. It is unfair, but at times it might be necessary to help an industry over a time of change. But what's really important is to make the change happen. European governments are understandably anxious about their homegrown car makers and their workforces. It's a concern shared by the US, which has levelled tariffs of 100% on Chinese-made vehicles. The question is whether drivers will share those concerns, or if they simply want to get behind the wheel of a much cheaper car. Felicity Hanna. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod. And don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in-depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of The Global News Podcast was mixed by Nicky Brough. The producer was Alice Adderley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles, and until next time, goodbye.