13/08/2026 20:06 GMT

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The U.S. has long been suspected of trying to sway elections in other countries. But is something more brazen going on these days? I'm Asma Khalid, and I'm one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Brazil has accused the U.S. of meddling in its upcoming vote. The U.S. has dismissed the allegation. But how do these claims fit into the long legacy of American electoral interventions? Check out The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:59few people in Russia still openly criticising President Putin. The journalist and Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov, who tells us there can be no chance of victory for Russia in Ukraine. Understand this. There will never be victory. Because what has been going on for almost five years, no matter how it ends, can no longer be considered a victory. It can't be a victory when two Slavic nations have ripped a million people to shreds. He's been talking to our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg. You can hear that interview also in the second half of the programme. But we are going to begin today in Colombia, still reeling from the powerful earthquake that struck the west of the country in the early hours of Monday morning local time.

1:49That is more than 72 hours ago, the time period that rescuers always say is the critical period for finding people alive. While they are still finding survivors in the rubble of the thousands of homes damaged in the quake, among them 10-year-old Martin, whose home on the third floor of an eight-storey apartment block in Cali was crushed when the building collapsed. Rescuers are trying to get him out right now. His mother Alejandra and grandmother Amparo were there too and are still missing. Well, through a translator, I've been speaking to Martin's cousin, Johanna Jiménez, and she's been telling me what happened.

2:31The building Ana Pilar in Cali collapsed with the earthquake. There have been some signs of life and they have managed to locate Martin, who is in this collapsed building. At the moment, it's still under a rescue operation. And how is he at the moment? Do you know?

2:55An hour ago, they confirmed that there were signs of life in the building. But as you can imagine, it's very slow, the whole process. And it's slow because of the amount of time it has gone past. And we're just finding out, you know, we're just having to wait. Yeah, of course. Have they given you any indication of how long this might take? I mean, is it going to be hours before they manage to get Martín out? we don't know because the process is very slow we all want people to pray we all want people to pray for martin vivas jimenez for his mother alejandra and for my aunt yes please tell us about uh about them uh have there been any signs from them that they are alive what what can you tell us?

3:52So in the early hours, we found out that they said that there were some people who were alive and that they had heard signs of life. At the moment, I'm just, we're just hoping that the government and everybody listens to us, that they continue the rescue operation, because there's clearly some people who are alive. And I'm begging and I'm hoping that people bear in mind, you know, my cousin Alejandra and my aunt Amparo, and for the rescue operation to continue and for them not to stop. Are you able to describe that rescue operation for us? I mean, do they have the equipment now that they need to move the rubble away?

4:37There's lots of coverage in the sense that there's lots of donations, the doctors, the specialists there, the machines are there, it's all covered, it's all working. And we've received a lot of help. But we just hope that they just continue working in this building. Because I hope that, you know, there are signs of life. And I hope that there are signs of life of my aunt Amparo and my cousin Alejandra. And we're praying that they can, you know, take Martin out of the rubble. May I ask you, I mean, how are you coping? It must be desperately difficult not knowing fully what is going on. The waiting for news about Martin, I mean, how is it?

5:24It's been very hard and very hurtful in a way. It's tough because we're a very close family. We're a close-knit family. And Martin is a lovely boy. He's a very happy boy. And so is my cousin Alejandra and my aunt. And we've been feeling this deep love everybody's been giving us. And we believe that God will make this miracle happen. And ever since we saw that the building had collapsed, we've been here and we've been really positive about the outcome of being able to find them. And just finally, I mean, how would you describe the impact more widely on your community where you are of this earthquake?

6:08I mean, it has been devastating, I imagine. so it's been hard and long and so many people have been affected so many houses are just uninhabitable or they look like they might collapse so the city Cali is paralyzed and the parts that haven't been so badly affected people from those parts have come to our aid not just nationally nationally people have come internationally people have come to the aid and the thing is we're going to have to start from zero because our homes are uninhabitable and what about your home is your home okay no no my home is not habitable i was my building was seven floors and if three of them collapsed it collapsed to the fourth floor so we were evacuated and you know thank god we're alive and we have to just say you know it's great you know bear in mind that life is very important and we're just praying and hoping that my relatives martin amparo and alejandra will be found that was johanna ximena speaking to me a little earlier about her cousin martin rescuers still trying to get him out of the rubble of that building if we get any news we will of course let you know well staying in the city of cali in the hours after the quake struck hospitals there were overwhelmed by the number of people injured and by the fact that at least one major hospital had suffered its own serious damage with the partial collapse of one wing of the building.

7:42A red alert was declared. Some patients had to be transferred to temporary clinics set up in car parks. Well, I've been speaking to the city's health secretary, Dr. Germán Escobar. He's the administrator in charge of all of the city's hospitals. I asked him, first of all, what capacity in terms of health care they'd lost in the earthquake. We lose approximately 5 % of the total capacity of the city because we have the close of four major hospitals. And the main hospital, the main public hospital is in trouble. It has a lot of damages too. So it's operating, but it's operating with restrictions.

8:24I mean, do you expect to get people coming in from other parts of other places in Colombia perhaps? I mean, Cali is a big city, isn't it? But I mean, I'm thinking about other places that were badly hit by the earthquake that perhaps don't have the facilities that Kali has. Yes, yes, you're right. For example, the Department of Choco, that was very, very affected and it didn't have the sufficient capacities for attention. But as Cali is affected to, the Ministry of Health and the national government has started to redirect those patients to Bogota, the capital, and to Medellin that is less affected.

9:05So they are aware of the reality of Cali right now. And we are not expecting a massive reference of patients from other cities because the coordination of the response is aware that we are affected too. And are you getting what you need from central government? Yes, yes. We have the support of the new government, as you may know. And the president was here in the first 12 hours after the disaster. And right now we are ending, but not ended, a work of rescue. So the first capacities that we needed were the capacities for rescue. And we received during the first day, during the first 24 hours, rescue teams from other parts of Colombia.

10:01And right now, we are getting more international support also. We will need funding, as you are saying, for reconstruction. We will need new capacities in the healthcare network. And we believe that we account with the political will of the central government. Yeah, the government has accepted help from other countries, but only a limited number of countries. Is that a wise idea, do you think? From the technical point of view, what we have coordinating is that we prefer and we need capacities well trained, well equipped. And those are the capacities that we are accepting. I prefer the technical point of view, not the political or the other.

10:57And the limitation of the entrance of, for example, teams that are not well trained or are not well equipped is because sometimes those other teams that they don't have enough capacities may not work well, may not help to the situation. That's the rationale for the decision. Right. I mean, it looked like the rationale for the decision was that it was friends of the government. I mean, places like El Salvador and Ecuador. But I mean, you seem to be saying that the decision was made on the basis of need rather than political preference. Is that right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I must say, because I'm working as Secretary of Health with the rescue organisms, I must say that the decision started from the rescue teams here in Terrain.

11:54They presented us, the authorities, their technical necessity. Can I just ask you one final question? Are you able to tell us anything about the way that people in Kali have responded in terms of things like blood donations and so on? Well, I'm really touched by the absolute solidarity of the people of Kali and in Colombia in general. We have a lot of donations. We have blood donations. We have donations of food and a lot of things. And right now, actually, we are trying to classify those donations. We are trying to get donations to the sites of the tragedy. But what I think that will be most important is the days coming, because the help that the donation, and the help that we needed during the first 48 hours is totally different than the necessities that we are going to need in the next days.

12:58From tomorrow and the next days, months and years probably, we are studying the process of reconstruction. And that was Dr Germán Escobar, who's Health Secretary for the city of Cali, one of the places worst impacted by that earthquake. He was speaking to me a little earlier. You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

13:37And coming up later, for the past few years, the cinema box office has been rather in the doldrums, not anymore.

13:48after years of war.

13:58No one could stand between my men

14:05and home. Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey from Universal Pictures, which has grossed more than a billion dollars in just four weeks. Spider-Man brand new day may well equal that well many industry people think it's thanks to Gen Z rediscovering the joys of the cinema we'll hear why that is in about 30 minutes

14:37This is James Menendez with News Out Live from the BBC now there are growing concerns about conditions on board one of the US Navy's aircraft carriers, the USS Abraham Lincoln, and about the welfare of the sailors on board. The ship's been at sea without a stop for more than 250 days. It had initially been deployed to the Pacific before being redirected to the Middle East to support America's war against Iran. Well, Democrats in the US Senate are demanding answers from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. He said today that reports about deteriorating conditions were, quote, completely misrepresented.

15:13Well, Alison Bath covers the Navy for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. What's she been hearing about conditions on board from sailors? They have been telling me about how they have experienced food shortages, water shortages. They have had weeks where they have not been able to take a hot shower, and they have also not been able to do their laundry. They've said that many of those problems have resolved themselves in recent weeks, but they're exhausted and they need a break. They've also been concerned about their mental health and even some reports of sailors trying to take their own lives.

15:53Is that right? Yes. I learned from two sailors aboard the ship, a couple of sailors, that there was an incident where one sailor had attempted to jump off the ship. And that sailor was kept from doing that by watchstanders who were nearby. Right, which is shocking. I mean, has the Navy had anything to say about that incident? The Navy says that it is devoting resources to the ship. It has mental health counsellors there, it has doctors, it has chaplains. In a meeting that the Navy had with family members and spouses, of sailors aboard Lincoln, officials had spoken about sending more resources, more of those type of resources to the ship.

16:46There seems to be another concern amongst those on board, and one can understand why, and it's about problems with the mail deliveries. What can you tell us about that? What I've learned about that is that the mail delivery was disrupted, incredibly disrupted early in their deployment, but it has gradually improved. And the Navy said that it had prioritized, you know, getting food to the sailors first, and then personal items, that type of stuff, and then mail. I've learned that that mail service has increased and that they are getting their packages. But I think it's important to remember how much mail is important to service members, particularly when they're deployed in isolated places or overseas.

17:34It is a connection to them with their families. It's a connection to them with the outside world. And it's very important that they get it. Yeah, of course. Why hasn't the Abraham Lincoln called into port at all? The Navy has kept it busy with other, you know, with obligations. It's been at sea for 250 plus days. They have completed 40 days of sustained combat operations. There just has not been the opportunity for them to do that. They did have a port call in Guam early in their deployment, just not too soon after they left San Diego in November. And then they had another port call in Oman at the beginning of last month.

18:21Both of those calls were incredibly short and a large number of sailors were not able to get off. All right. And just very, very briefly, I mean, is there any prospect of an end to the deployment? You know, the sailors tell me that they want to go home and that they don't care about other port calls at this point if it means that they can get home sooner. It's not, the Navy has not released any details on when they may be relieved saying, And they've cited operational security in that. And that is often a concern because the Navy does not like to give away the locations and the movements of its ships.

19:04And that's understandable. Alison Bath of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

19:15disabled australians and their carers have accused the federal government of undermining what was once seen as a world-leading scheme aimed at supporting those with permanent and lifelong disabilities critics say the ndis as it's called has been a victim of its own success with rapid growth and ballooning costs however disabled australians say the changes the government's suggesting and could vote on in a matter of days are certain to cause harm. From Sydney, Australia correspondent Katie Watson sent us this report. Yes, good work. Okay, we're going to change legs. Let's change. It's Thursday afternoon and time for PhysioSize.

19:52Support worker Callie is helping her client Fran flex those muscles. Yeah, it is hard work. It's supposed to be. PhysioSize is just one of several activities Fran does each week. She's 39 and has Down syndrome, a genetic condition that causes physical and intellectual disabilities. Fran's a participant of the NDIS, a scheme aimed at supporting Australians with lifelong and significant disabilities. When it was first introduced more than a decade ago, it ushered in a very different approach to disability support, making sure people were at the centre of decision-making rather than having to beg for welfare.

20:28But the scheme's success has also been it's undoing, it's grown too fast and it's costing the government too much. Health Minister Mark Butler explained the reasons why the government's planning to reform the system that now costs more than twice what it was meant to when it was first introduced. The philosophical underpinnings for a lifelong scheme of support are necessarily different. I think what I've tried to outline today is the need to get back to those basic design pillars of a well-functioning social programme that's working for participants but also is effective for taxpayers. But changes could have a big impact on Fran, according to her mum, Tracy Lee.

21:06People will not get the supports that they need to live a good life. It's something we all deserve, it's a human right. It'll push people with disability back into those sort of ghetto areas to save cost. Having seen how wonderful community participation is for Franny to continue to learn things and to continue to be part of her community is a game changer for all of us. This amendment is, in my opinion, reckless, ill thought out and entirely devoid of any shred of understanding of what living a disabled life is actually like for both the person themselves and their support network. A recent Senate inquiry heard concerns from thousands in the disability community.

21:47Hannah Diveny, who has cerebral palsy, was one advocate who gave evidence. such was the scrutiny over the proposals the bill's progress was paused until mid-august anytime i leave the house if i'm not with a friend or a parent it costs something freedom ambition career the social life all of the things other people in this room take as a given or as a right even has a price tag for someone like me one of the criticisms of the ndis has been that providers have gamed the system offering unnecessary and expensive services bill Shorten helped set up the NDIS back in 2012 and then oversaw cuts to the scheme two years ago after he returned as NDIS minister.

22:28He's since left politics and is vice chancellor at the University of Canberra. Many are good providers but some were bad you know that's the nature of a government scheme. People will try and slice off amounts for themselves so that was a problem. But even so tackling fraud say experts won't solve the problem. Hannah Auburn is senior associate at the Grattan Institute and author of a report saving the NDIS. The government absolutely needs to tackle fraud because they're rotting people with disability and taxpayers. However, the savings from fraud that is evident even in the government's numbers is really small compared to the other reforms that they've put forward.

23:05With legislation expected to pass in the coming days, that will impact the more than 700 ,000 Australians on the NDIS. That was our Australia correspondent Katie Watson reporting there from Sydney. You're listening to NewsHour. Do stay with us. We've got lots more coming up in the second half of the programme.

23:39The US has long been suspected of trying to sway elections in other countries, but is something more brazen going on these days? I'm Asma Khalid, and I'm one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Brazil has accused the US of meddling in its upcoming vote. The US has dismissed the allegation. But how do these claims fit into the long legacy of American electoral interventions? Check out the Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

24:11welcome back to news hour parts of europe is sweltering today in yet another heat wave prompting concerns about the threat to health the risk of wildfires and the huge economic impact they're having our europe correspondent nick beake is in brussels monitoring the situation it's really france though parts of france spain italy that have been copying the very high temperatures. For example, down in Bordeaux, it's nearing 40 degrees Celsius. Of course, added concern there after the wildfires just a few weeks ago. And of course, with the increased temperatures, the increased risk of wildfires starting and then spreading very quickly, we haven't seen that.

24:50But certainly lots of parts of the continent concerned on many different levels. Let's talk about the impact on health. Is evidence coming through that these successive heat waves have been having a serious impact on people's health and indeed you know the number of excess deaths well it has actually because we've had a statistic from germany the government they're saying that so far this year 12 500 heat related deaths have been recorded that is a significant figure because it surpasses previous hot years notably 2018 2019 by quite a few thousand worth saying that different countries across Europe record heat-related deaths in different ways.

25:33And what about the economic impact? Are people starting to put numbers on what this is costing the continent? Yes, the French have been the latest, the Environment Minister there, saying that it's looking like potentially 10 billion euros worth of direct and indirect costs, that was the phrase, maybe reaching up to 15 billion euros. And more broadly, you've got some warnings, there was one Dutch bank saying that the extreme heat and all the consequences of that could basically wipe out projected growth for the EU this year. So potentially a really big impact because of the heat this summer that we've seen.

26:12Of course, five heat waves now. Presumably people are worried about the agricultural sector as well, which is so important to many countries in Western Europe, isn't it? It is. I mean, one example is Italy, where the biggest body that represents farmers there is talking about 3 billion euros worth of damage and lost product and all the rest of it as a result of the drought the wildfires but also very unpredictable weather so they think they've got over the worst of it then there's a bit of rain but then these hailstorms come and the remaining crops are completely decimated by that so that is a worry and also with the drought what we've seen at these record low in some places water levels i'm thinking about the rhine and the danube really important waterways for transporting lots of goods across Europe.

26:57Big problems there. And also water being used as a way of cooling down power plants. We saw in Romania today, the only nuclear power plant that they've got there, they had to shut down the second reactor. They did the first one last month. But this is a place that normally would be generating about 20 % of Romania's electricity. So that is something they're having to deal with. They're bringing in electricity from elsewhere, looking to other means of generation. And actually, you had the director of the place telling the AFP news agency that it won't be 10 days, maybe, before they're up and running again.