US and Iran trade strikes for first time in weeks

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Ellie House and I'm in Houston, Texas looking at big surveillance in US cities. What kind of AI-powered tech is being used to monitor Americans and why are people cutting down cameras across the country? Listen, though, by searching for the documentary wherever you get to your BBC podcasts. Get more with BBC Podcasts wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your favourite shows, like Evil Genius, Good Bad Billionaire, and Your Dead To Me, with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. You can also enjoy a range of our podcasts ad-free with an Amazon Music subscription. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Monday, the 31st of August. US and Iranian forces attack each other for the first time in a month. One man has died and others are missing after a flash flood in the Grand Canyon. And Russia targets Ukraine's education system. Also in this podcast, the puddles are only in the pouch for about 60 days. After 60 days, it becomes too spiky and she needs to leave it in a nest. The rare egg-laying mammal being rid in a university. The war between the US and Iran has been relatively quiet for the past month, as the Americans switch from military to economic pressure to try to get the straight of Hormuz reopened. But on Sunday, fighting resumed as the US hit. What it described as Iranian mine launchers on Larak Island in the street. Iranian state media says two people were killed in response. Iran said it had launched attacks on US bases in Jordan and the UAE. We got the details from our Global Affairs reporter, Sebastian Asher. Larak Island is one of these small islands. Mosir Hormuz, Iran uses both to monitor and to threaten ships, but might still be using it. Downroots that Iran doesn't allow them to go. So that's why it's a target for the US again, specifically to do with the threat that it poses. The military threat. So rather than going for the economic aspect of it, as it might have done, it's going for one of these islands. And this is what we've seen time and time again. This is a resumption. We don't know if this will continue. Obviously, but we haven't had tipped attacks like this for around a month. I don't think this raises the temperature hugely, but it shows that obviously the military front is still very much latent despite this move by the US towards economic pressure on Iran. But at the same time, President Trump has posted an AI video, which he captioned, "Harg island being blown to smithereens." Now, he has threatened that island before. I mean, how much of an escalation would a US attack on that be? Well, I mean, first of all, it's nonsense to put our AI videos showing explosions, but don't exist. So that is hardly helpful. And as we've seen, I don't think it helps the US negotiation tactics with Iran. I mean, Iran is very much focused on the way that he moves back and forth between, you know, huge threats and then accommodation very quickly after that. So they've kind of got his measure as far as that's concerned. If Harg island was, I mean, there have been attacks on it before, but the oil structures that hasn't been attacked again, that would be a major escalation. But what has happened is Harg island, through which 90% of Iran's oil is exported, has to some extent been turned into something that doesn't have that capacity simply because the blockade by the US has been pretty intense that it's reimposed, as the sort of whom who wasn't fully reopened, as was meant to happen under the memorandum understanding. So it would be a major, major target if it were attacked. It would be a major escalation, but at the moment, it's function as the main export route is pretty much out of the question in any case because of a blockade. Who has the upper hand at the moment? There was some suggestion that President Trump wanted a deal because he wanted to get this done before the midterms doesn't look like that's going to happen, whose side is time on here? It depends if you're looking short or you're looking long term. Short term, it's in Iran's interests because of a political economic pressures on the US. Long term, Iran is in desperate economic situation, was before the war even more so the blockade is really telling. But what the US would like to achieve, what Mr. Trump would like to achieve, would be to have major importing countries like China to very much change where attitude towards Iran. That's unlikely. And what Iran is bargaining on is that the US doesn't want to open up a major rift with China over this. If it decided to act against Chinese banks, for example, even the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that that would be essentially almost economic armageddon after that. So that's what Iran is factoring in. In the long term, if the US were able to get there politically, economically, Iran is being weakened week after week, month after month, to such an extent that can't it withstand. And there are big elements within Iran, the President, for example, who do want to deal to be done. Sebastian Asher, the US said it attacked Larak island to stop Iran laying new mines. Last week, President Trump said the strait had been entirely cleared. Iran says this isn't true and an oil tanker had caught fire after hitting two mines that. So what's the reality? Montgomery is a retired US admiral. As hard for me to believe that the complete straital hormones is sanitized of mines. I participated in convoy operations and mine clearance operations in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The last time Iran plays mines and it takes months to even a year, not days or weeks, to totally clear a waterway of that size. So what I believe has happened is that there's a transit lane that's clear through the straital hormones and ships are told by American forces, by US central command what that transit lane is and then they choose whether they want to transit through that lane that the United States has said is clear. Retired US admiral Mark Montgomery. For six days, rescue teams have been searching for survivors from the devastating flash flood that swept through the Nepal Tibet border area, but hopes are fading. The Nepalese government says 4,000 people are still missing on their side of the border with 900 known to have died. In Tibet, which is controlled by China, more than 500 are reported missing. But the official death toll is just 16, and the communist authorities are cracking down on anyone saying the true number of dead is significantly higher. Search and rescue efforts are continuing, as I heard from our China correspondent Stephen McDonald. Well, on the Tibetan side of the border, there are teams. We're being told that are still looking for survivors, but really, you'd have to think it'd be an absolute miracle if they found anyone now. They haven't found any survivors since the end of last week. But it isn't stopping them trying, and there are these images of rescuers repelling with ropes down the sides of collapsed mountains crawling through mud, calling out names underneath what could be sort of covered areas. But like I say, it's to no avail. And what's happening now is that the police have announced that they are cracking down on social media posts, which are deemed to be too inflammatory, which are deemed to be overplaying the emergency, and especially saying that the death toll must be much higher. But the thing is, when you consider that there are nearly 550 people officially listed as missing, the real death toll absolutely has to be much higher than the official figures would reveal it. It can't be anything else, so it seems a bit much to be punishing people for speculating on that. Yeah, why would the authorities want to play down the number of dead when eventually it is going to come out? Well, it may not come out. I mean, who knows, like this is the thing, for example, if you're relying on finding the bodies of dead people to put them on the list, that they may never find so many of those people, if you've seen those images of that huge wall of powerful gushing water, obviously those people who died in that initial hit, they're never going to be found. But in terms of the authorities and they're cracking down on this, I mean, it is the sort of default reaction from the Chinese government to do anything they can to stop instability. And so even if it means pressuring people at a time like this, they're prepared to do it because they don't want, is this to sort of turn into something that could trigger anger or what have you, especially in Tibet, where even at the best of times it's one of the places that the party really cracks down on, as foreigners, for example, you can't go in there without special permission and foreign journalists, that's very rarely granted. And overall, do the Chinese people think the authorities are doing a good job here? Well, look at it's a really tough, tough task, even with all of the resources available to the People's Liberation Army. I mean, they're up there in this remote parts of the Himalayas. trying, so I think you can't fault the effort, but it's all going to be too late, though, unfortunately, because we're running out of time now. It really would take a miracle." Many of those still missing on the Nepal side of the border are believed to be hydroelectric workers trapped in tunnels, and efforts are underway to try to free them as Joe Inward reports. "High up in the hills, a group of soldiers gingerly make their way to a rough, human entrance in the rock face. Soon, torches are needed, as they approach what appears to be a collapsed wall. This is part of a hydro power plant, utterly destroyed by the floods. It's tunnels now thought to imprison hundreds of workers." Nepal's foreign secretary, Amrit Badu Arai, says getting them out is now top priority. "Our immediate national priority remains clear. To save lives, locate missing persons, rescue them, in coordination with the Nepali army, some tunnel rescue experts from India, China, and Republic of Korea have been also mobilized especially to rescue the persons trapped into the tunnels." Some of the workers have already been brought to safety, Gregdon carried through mud so thick it left rescuer indistinguishable from rescue. One of them as an engineer, it's a dam. Now safely back in the capital, Kathmandu, he knows many of his friends will not make it. "Friends who we worked with are missing. We've not been able to contact them, and I feel really bad for them." The rescue is still ongoing, oxygen is being pumped into the tunnels. Nepal is in desperate need of good news. Some came in the form of a head teacher who has said to have led hundreds of children to safety. "This is the sound of an entire school making their way up steep slopes, still in their uniforms. A man in a blue t-shirt hurries them along." Below them the sound of rushing water, as their entire community is destroyed. This was filmed on Wednesday morning by Yonisha Amatya, and shared with the BBC's Nepalist service. "My friends and I only made it by ten seconds. The floods came all of a sudden. I couldn't walk fast, and my friends helped me to climb uphill. Within no time, the bizarre swept away in front of my eyes." Leading them was their head teacher, Rajendra Dawari. He had received a call from a friend telling him the flood was coming and decided to evacuate the school. "It is emotional. I feel proud that we managed to save so many children. If we had waited ten minutes, all of us, including the students, wouldn't be here to speak to you today." Now save on higher ground, the children continued filming. Seemingly excited about the next part of their rescue. But this is a country currently digging mass graves and taking DNA samples from unidentified bodies. With heavy rain continuing and thousand still missing, for Nepal and Tibet, there is not yet light at the end of the tunnel. Our world affairs correspondent, Joe Inwood. After targeting energy sites and hitting residential areas, Russia has now got its sites on Ukraine's education system. It has recently launched a series of attacks on publishing houses and printing presses, destroying around twelve million books and leaving some schools short of textbooks for the new academic term. Russia has long been accused of targeting Ukraine's culture and heritage as part of President Putin's campaign to erase Ukraine's nationhood. Our key of correspondent Dan Johnson has visited some of the sites now being caught up in the war. On the edge of Ukraine's capital, the convoy publishing house bears the imprint of Russia's latest attacks. It's bombed out remains, testament to a dark new chapter of this war. The printing press has been almost completely destroyed, it's burned, the roof has collapsed here, you can still smell the aftermath and there are piles of charred books and then some others that have sort of survived but they've suffered water damage. These are actually English textbooks that should have been destined for schools, so I'm William and I'm from the UK. My dad is Ukrainian but my mom is British, my grandmother lives in Nottingham, it's a beautiful city. This means there's going to be a textbook shortage now for the start of the new term. The company's commercial director Victoria Hydeye tells me the strike came just as they were ramping up to print 1.3 million textbooks. I believe it's deliberate on the part of the Russian Federation. Over the past two months, some of the largest publishing houses have lost their warehouses where very large quantities of books were stored. The Russians are also destroying printing houses in an attempt to erase Ukraine as a nation but frankly they will not succeed. Kiev's Pochina secondhand book market was also hit, burning down hundreds of stalls and destroying countless treasured books. In the smoldering ruins, I met Lilia Velika, a book blogger determined to salvage something from the ashes. Books are saving us and losing this is like losing our hearts. It's not only books, museums, art galleries, opera houses and a film studio have been damaged. Symbols of collective identity, Ukrainians believe are being targeted to undermine their sense of national belonging. And a Russian drone hit the golden domes of Kiev Pachursk Lavra, a cultural and spiritual icon and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The decoration in here is incredibly ornate, there's gold leaf everywhere, it's seriously impressive with really detailed images and murals. There are fans running to try to dry this cathedral out because of the water damage and I can still smell the impact of the fire that tore through the roof. UNESCO Director General Khalid El Anani visited on the monastery's 975th anniversary. I was deeply saddened to see today the significant damage caused by June attacks. UNESCO firmly condams them and all attacks against cultural property protected under international law. Russia denied targeting the Pachursk Lavra and claimed to only attack sites with military links. Ukraine's culture minister Tatiana Barajna dismisses that. This is existential war so Russia wants to destroy us as a nation, to erase us as a nation like Ukrainians do not exist and have never existed. That's why Russia targets our cultural heritage, the symbols of our presence here for a lot of time they understand that it's very important for us because we protect our identity, protect our culture and Russia once to ruin everything that it cannot appropriate. She says digitization can protect arts and literature and ensure children can learn even without physical books. In the beginning was the word, the word is everything. It is our development, our culture and our historical heritage that has passed down from generation to generation. The word is born in a book and the book is born in a printing house. Vladimir Putin has denied the existence of a distinct Ukrainian culture but the site of burning books means his war is only hardening determination here to ensure it survives. I give correspondent Dan Johnson. Still to come in this podcast, I have to accept it and it explained why I kept losing things. I started laughing myself, the silly things that I do. The 85 year old actor with dementia now returning to the stage. I'm Ellie House and I'm in Houston, Texas looking at big surveillance in U.S. cities. Be the first to listen to your favourite shows like Evil Genius, Good Bad Billionaire and Your Dead To Me with a subscription to BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts. It was high tech and high stakes, and it was highly secretive until someone exposed it all. CyberHack Season 4, The Conti Files, all episodes available now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. Some weather has hit parts of the Southwestern United States, specifically the Grand Canyon. The US Park Service says one man has died in a flash flood there and 15 are missing. Nick Miles has been following this for us. The Grand Canyon is no stranger to really extreme weather conditions. It's a vast area, 20 kilometers across four or five deep, and on the northern part of the canyon, you have a kibab plateau where most of the rain falls, and it's that area that took many, many centimetres of rain over a few hours on Saturday afternoon. This water came cascading down these side canyons to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where the Colorado River lies, and what happened, this one particular side canyon, the Bright Angel Canyon, was hit particularly badly, a water of five metres deep, normally, so it's a really small crystal clear stream, and that washed away bridges and campgrounds right at the bottom. At one person we've been speaking to was camping at the bottom with a group, his name is David Gregory. We turned around behind us, and we saw dark clouds and it looked like to be a storm cell coming from the South Rim. The park ranger came by though and said, "Hey, there's a possibility we may have to evacuate, so just get your stuff ready, just in case." Not even 10 minutes later, she said, "All right, it's a mandatory evacuation. Grab your stuff, we gotta go." She was just one out of 50 or so people who were evacuated by helicopter. A lot of other people could have been in the campground, it has a capacity of about 300 people. We just don't know who is still there, because there's no radio communications out there. If you've got a satellite phone, you can get through to people, but no cell phone at all. There's no reason to think that other people have been swept away. One person, the body, one man, a 46 year old, was found further down the Colorado River. But at the moment, rescue teams are going down from the North Rim, which in itself has had difficulties following a big fire last year. So that exacerbated the amount of run-off that was coming down from that northern Rim. Nick Miles reporting. In Korea, the leader of the controversial Unification Church has been sentenced to two years in prison. Han Hakja was found guilty of bribing South Korea's former first lady, the wife of the now-austed Korean president Yoon Seung-yul, by giving her two Chanel bags and a diamond necklace worth nearly $60,000. Critics say the church, sometimes known as the moonies, is essentially a cult. It's best known for mass weddings of thousands of followers, conducted by Han, and her late husband, the church founder, Sun Myeong-moon. I spoke to our correspondent, Jake Kwon, in the South Korean capital, so. This case began really with the downfall of the last president, Yoon Seok-yul. His martial law attempt fails, and he's impeached, and the full probe into him and his wife began. In the course of that, the investigators have found evidence of the church's high official, a man giving stacks of cash to a lawmaker and a diamond necklace and Chanel bags to the former first lady. So the church tried to defend itself, and the leader saying it was an isolated case where the official did it all by himself. But the judge has found today that it was an organized and coordinated bribery operation directed by the leader herself. How deeply is the church, how deep is its involvement in South Korean politics? Well, the church has a long history of mixing with politics. Its founder, Sun Myeong-moon, has built a business empire and was long rumored to give, have given money to politicians. Well, the investigators have found $19 million worth of cash in the leader's personal safe, and said this is the first time they have confirmed the church's influence operation. The church's reach doesn't stop in South Korea, however. They have a long history of tapping into politics in Tokyo and Washington too. And they have shown it off many, many times. For example, in 2021, the church held an event where various leaders sent in video messages. And on that giant screen in the stadium, we saw US President Donald Trump congratulating Hanakcha as well as the ex-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe alongside the mayors of Seoul and Busan as well. And how is the church seen by people in Korea? Well, the church had great influence and big members. It has 1.2 million members in South Korea alone. But in the recent years, I think a lot of their influence, like the case we just saw today, coming to light. And a lot of people have really gotten this full picture of what the church has been doing. And in the recent years, especially, there has been accusations by both political parties of the aisle, accusing this church meddling in the politics, giving money to the politicians. And there has been a lot of call for the politics to really stave off this religious influence inside the politics. And what the judge said today, as well as the investigator, have said, is that this church is guilty of the crime of mixing the state as well as the church. And this goes against the ideal of democracy in South Korea. Jake Kwon and the South Korean capital soul. An 85-year-old actor diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease two years ago is returning to the stage this week. Peter Marinka has spent decades working in theatre, radio and films, including Love Actually. Now he's revisiting a role he first performed 40 years ago, and not just any role. It's considered one of British theatre's toughest. He's the only actor in a one-act Samuel Beckett play being staged in London. Our health reporter, Jim Reed, has been to meet him. "Go on with this drivel in the morning, or leave it at that. Leave it at that." Peter Marinka addressed rehearsals in London. The 85-year-old actor is spent a lifetime performing on stage. A few years ago, though, he says he found himself switching off at work. "How did you find out about your diagnosis?" "Because my GP sent me for an MRI, and they got it, yes." "And what was your reaction when they told you?" "It's I've got Alzheimer's. I have to accept it, and it explained why I kept losing things, that sort of thing. I started laughing myself, the silly things that I do, yes." Then this year, two years after his diagnosis, Peter was called up and offered one of the toughest roles in theatre, a single-act Samuel Beckett play. "That was out of the blue. Dave said, 'Would I like to do it?' 'Would I like to do it?' 'Oh, yes.' "Well, what's the thought of the motor?" "Legert, tin, paper, or game?" In Crapp's last tape, writer listens back to recordings of his younger self, remembering a lifetime of missed opportunities and regrets. "I have to believe I was ever as bad as that, and God, that's all done with it anyway." "Ball will be in one of the boxes." To make it work, teleprompter screens will be dotted around the theatre, and Peter will be wearing a tiny earpiece so he can be discreetly fed-aligned if he needs it. "It is a play about memory, and it's about imperfect memory." The director of the cockpit theatre, Dave Wybrow, came up with the idea for this project. "We're not going to hide the idea that Peter might need a prompt, or he might need a screen, or he might, this doesn't matter. That becomes part of it." "So it's not matter if covering up, or it's. " "No, no, no, absolutely not quite reverse. This is about creative work being possible for people that have had an Alzheimer's diagnosis." "All the profits from the four-day run will go to the Alzheimer's society." "Somebody with a diagnosis is still your colleague, your friend, your partner, loved one." Taya Bazaria, a support manager at The Charity, says projects like this can help break down stigma and change attitudes towards dementia. "Having somebody high-profile, like Peter, showcasing, you know, I am going to do this performance, sends out a message of hope to people affected by dementia that a diagnosis is not the end, and that many people can still continue to do the things that they really love and are passionate about." "Now the day is over, drawing by when I. " Does the play mean something different to you now that you've had the Alzheimer's diagnosis? "I'm in the early stage. I think I need to make the best of the early stage, and prepare as best I can for the middle stage, and then it'll be able to control, and I might live through it or I might drop. And it's a swan song." This week then, Peter Morenko will step back onto the stage to create a few more memories for his audience, and perhaps break down a few barriers at the same time, Jim Reid. "A kidnas are one of the world's very few mammals which lay eggs. And now, for the first time, a baby-a-kidna has been born and reared in a university in Australia. The scientists hope it will help them answer fundamental questions." about the evolution of pregnancy in mammals. Richard Hamilton has the story. Echidnas, known as spiny antiters, are one of the few mammals along with the platypus that lay eggs. As they evolved between 20 and 50 million years ago, research into their pregnancy helps scientists understand how reproduction, pregnancy and live births evolved in mammals like us and it gives us a rare glimpse into our egg-laying ancestors. This baby, known as a puggle, was born earlier this month and has now been removed from its mother's pouch for its first weigh-in. Dr Oliver Griffith is leading the research team at Macquarie University in Sydney. In the Kiddna, the embryo and egg stay inside the uterus for 21 days and then the egg is laid. The muddle somehow maneuvers that laid egg up into a pouch. The egg, once it's moved into the pouch, will incubate for 10 days. During that 10 days, the mother will move it all. The egg will hatch and the mud will spend the next 200 days with that puggle but only the puggles only in the pouch for about 60 days. The egg-layer has proved to be an extremely difficult species to breed in captivity and in spite of numerous attempts, a dedicated research colony has never been successfully established. They can live for more than 50 years in captivity and this one is unlikely ever to be released into the wild. So Dr Griffith says "the puggle may well outlive him." Richard Hamilton And that's all from us for now but you can watch our episodes in full by searching for the Global News Podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Holly Smith and produced by Richard Hamilton, our editor's Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. cities. Listen though by searching for the documentary wherever you get to your BBC podcasts.