Iran and US agree deal to end war

16:37Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:The only way it's really going to affect my life is I lose my snap streaks. But no, I mean I agree with Isaac as well. I agree with what Keir Starmer said And while a lot of people will be upset about it, I think in the long run it will have a positive impact.

16:51Asako Yuzuki:Some young people reacting to the news in the UK today. France is also having a go at this question. The National Assembly has backed a bill that would ban social media access for under-15s. And it all follows Australia, which took the lead, introducing a ban on under-16s on social media last December. but six months after that ban came into force, these Australian teenagers said they weren't kicked off social media. I was not impacted by the social media ban,

17:21Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:so I still use Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat. Of my year group, which is there is about 170 to 180 girls, I know of exactly three who were impacted.

17:32Asako Yuzuki:I received notifications that there would be checks and that they would verify our age. However, I did not lose my account.

17:41Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:On TikTok, I just got a notification that said like the terms and conditions had changed. I just said like, click OK. And I clicked that and it was A-OK.

17:51Asako Yuzuki:So for more on that experience in Australia, I've been speaking to a father who happens to also be a secondary school teacher and to his 16-year-old daughter. George, not his real name, teaches 12 to 16-year-olds at a private school in Hobart, Tasmania. and his daughter is called Verity. And George First, has the ban affected his students?

18:12Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:Realistically, there's not been much change at all, it's sad to say. Initially, when it came in on the day that it was introduced last year, I remember chatting to a group of Year 7 students and about half of them had lost access to social media, whereas the other half hadn't. And I think now most students who are just under 16 and have got a bit of wherewithal have worked out how to actually circumvent the restrictions that have been introduced here.

18:45Asako Yuzuki:Right. So it's a case of people getting round the rules in place.

18:50Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:Yes, and I understand that date of births are being made up. Also, the technology that is used to recognise faces is not sophisticated enough to identify age accurately. I've got one mate who's got a 13-year-old child and the software has not identified them as being underage at all. And likewise, I know of instances where people have used their parents' faces to circumvent the facial technology.

19:18Asako Yuzuki:We've got your daughter Verity on the line as well. Verity, I think you're 16, aren't you? What's been your experience so far? The day it came in, I didn't notice anything different. No apps asked me to verify my age or anything. People I know who I'm friends with who are under 16, sometimes it just wouldn't ask them to verify their age and other times they could just get past it quite easily. And what would you say the attitude was among younger people about trying to ban social media? How has it sort of gone down with people? Well, I think some people were annoyed. They didn't want it to happen.

19:53Asako Yuzuki:But then the rest of us kind of just knew that it wouldn't work. I remember saying to quite a few of my friends, it's just not going to work. They're not going to be able to enforce it, which is exactly what's happened. In the UK, the plan is to allow younger people to use services like WhatsApp and Signal, messaging apps. But things like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, those sorts of things would be banned. But how do you think younger people are impacted by these social media platforms? And are there sort of harmful ways that teenagers or even younger children are being impacted by these things? Well, you can like talk to your friends and keep in touch with your friends.

20:35Asako Yuzuki:When it comes to like influences, there's some quite negative things. like you can see an influencer online and they show their perfect life they'll never show the negative sides of things which really enforces to especially younger people who don't know that there are bad parts in life and no one will have a perfect life it gets them striving for something that they'll never achieve in terms of what you do in life and your everyday day to day it'll just make you not feel as good because you see these people who are essentially living the dream life you only see the stuff they put online and it's nothing like how you live it can be demoralizing.

21:17Asako Yuzuki:Interesting and George as a teacher I mean have you seen over the years that you've been teaching a change or a shift in in how social media has affected younger people?

21:27Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:There's been numerous incidents over the years where things have been posted online particularly out of school hours and then they've been brought back into school the following day and incidents have happened as a result of that and likewise as well there's been incidents between our school and other schools that I've had to deal with.

21:45Asako Yuzuki:So bullying online effectively?

21:48Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:Yes certainly online bullying. Similarly as well we've got a policy within school where mobile phones are to be put away during the day and I know sort of when I've actually taken them off students that they've sat on my desk and on occasions a number of notifications that have been coming through they've been buzzing every couple of minutes and the ability for people to concentrate whilst that's happening would just be impossible because every couple of minutes the phone is buzzing or pinging and there's a notification and snapchat from my perspective has always been the worst one and that's the one that i think it causes most grief in terms of negative interactions as well

22:31Asako Yuzuki:Keir Starmer here in the UK said today that these things are designed to be addictive. It's harming children's happiness, he said, and mental health. And I guess you could extrapolate that and say it affects everybody's happiness and mental health, not just younger people. But why are younger people more vulnerable?

22:51Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:I suppose younger people are more vulnerable because they're just not as reflective enough. Also, these sort of things tend to matter to them. They need to have a social media presence. And I think as you get older, you're less worried about whether you're liked or not. But when you're a teenager, and it's probably one of the worst times of your life in terms of insecurities and the like, and you actually want to be liked, this is the sort of 21st century equivalent of going to the pub when you're 17. it just starts a lot earlier with these children and some of them less than 10 are probably still accessing social media as well there's no filters on that that school teacher george and his 16 year

23:30Asako Yuzuki:old daughter verity and i promise they really were speaking to us from australia uh tasmania in fact but their accent suggests they might have family this side of the world as well but anyway thank you very much to them for bringing us up to date on that ban there in australia

23:55Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:When you hear the phrase made in China, what do you think? I'm Tristan Redman.

24:00Asako Yuzuki:And I'm Asma Khalid. And together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And today on our show, we look at the origins and evolution of made in China, because it actually wasn't inevitable.

24:11Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:What we're talking about is the world's largest communist nation. is at the beating heart of the capitalist system. For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

24:46Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:Regulatory Affairs takes a non-partisan look at the stories that matter most 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.

25:20Asako Yuzuki:Welcome back to NewsHour. On Monday evening US time, Iran will play its first game at this World Cup against New Zealand. Because of the war, the team has consistently had to deal with questions over their participation, not least because they've had to move their base from Arizona to Mexico. So with those pressures, will the Persian leopards be able to concentrate on the match? The BBC's Isaac Fannin has been speaking to former Iranian coach Afshin Gotbi.

25:50Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:Everyone has sympathy for any athlete that has to be put under such a logistical and psychological challenge before maybe a dream tournament for most of these players as they were born to play the game and they'd live to be in the World Cup. And I think the fact that the camp has changed, the distances they have to travel, and all the psychological worries that they have based on are they going to get a visa. Once they get a visa, what is it going to be like coming through the border the day before the match? Even having the chance to train in the main stadium that they're going to play. So, yeah, I'm very sad for the situation for all the players involved.

26:33Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:What's it like to be the manager of Iran, especially right now when the world is watching? I think I can share with you personally, it was my life dream to manage the country of my birth and be at a World Cup or take the national team job. And the moment I got the job, I was wondering what I wished for, just because how political the position is, how political the game has become for the Iranian national team coach or the players. You grew up in Los Angeles and it was a luck of a draw, I guess, the fact that they were drawn here because there's such a massive, massive Iranian population here. I went to the US game and before that game I saw Iranian protesters there and we've seen videos of people calling the team traitors as they went into the Los Angeles stadium earlier on.

27:24Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:What type of atmosphere do you think the team will be walking into on Monday? To be honest, for the players, most of them, as any athlete, I think most athletes, when they play for their country, they're playing for their people. They're not playing for their political position or policies that their government hold. And I think for whatever reason, this team, these players have been polarised and most of the fans tie them to the regime. It must be very, very hard for them. I think when they walk into the stadium, there's going to be three groups. There's going to be the diaspora that are really against the regime and against the players and against the team.

28:02Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:That will be booing them. That will be harassing them, making a very difficult environment for them. You'll have the group that is either the supporters of the regime or connected to the regime that will be supporting the team. And then you have the group of people that just love football and they want to just support the players. and maybe they love their home country and they look at the Iranian national team as an extension of 2 ,500-year history of a nation, of a group. So it's very confusing for everyone, I think. There's really not a good moment to be an Iranian footballer or Iranian football fan.

28:36Asako Yuzuki:That's Afshin Gotby, their former coach for the Iranian team.

28:50Asako Yuzuki:You're listening to NewsHour Live from the BBC. I'm Rebecca Kesby. Next, we head to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, where an outbreak of the dangerous and often fatal Ebola virus has now reached 782 confirmed cases and 181 deaths. The outbreak has continued to expand into new areas, despite intensified surveillance and treatment efforts. And our Africa correspondent Anne Soy reports from one of the worst affected areas in the northeast of the country. I'm here in Bonia, the capital of Ituri province in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is busier than ever. If you came here without knowing that there's an outbreak of Ebola, you wouldn't have a clue because the markets are busy, the streets are busy.

29:40Asako Yuzuki:There's a lot of human traffic, motorbikes carrying even up to four pillions. and the people here are aware about Ebola but they say that they need to balance that with also making a living. They still need to feed their families but they're taking precaution. There's a lot of washing of hands. When you enter a building, sometimes they spray the sauce of your shoes in case you are carrying anything that is contaminated. Now, I have been to the three epicenters of this outbreak here in this province over the past week. Every person I met told me that they knew somebody or many people who had died, they just shake their heads and say, yes, we know them.

30:18Asako Yuzuki:I went to Mungwalu, about 90 kilometers from the capital of Ituri here in Bunia. The road there is in a terrible state. It is bumpy. It is also insecure. So it takes hours to cover the 90 kilometers. And usually even the locals themselves wait for each other to build up a convoy to travel together. And most of them use lorries because of how bumpy the road is. So we flew there in a helicopter with a World Food Programme. And amid all the reports of death and desperation, we met the second person in that mining town to recover from Ebola. And there was much celebration as healthcare workers escorted the 49-year-old Daniel Kitambala from the Ebola Treatment Centre.

31:01Asako Yuzuki:He was carrying a black plastic bag with his belongings, all of them disinfected because he came in with Ebola, leaving without it, he'd been tested twice. and he raised his hands in Thanksgiving, thanking the health care workers. And I asked him how that moment was for him.

31:22Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:This disease is serious. It makes the body very weak. I was infected with the disease when we were being laid hands on our heads by our pastor when praying. And that's how we got infected. I first treated for diarrhea. The disease is dangerous. I was in a very bad state and shape when I came. With God's strength, I have recovered. I am grateful to God. Praise God.

31:49Asako Yuzuki:That's a survivor, Daniel Kitambala, leaving the Ebola treatment unit beaming with joy and grateful to have survived. Now, some of the most affected people are healthcare workers who, because of the nature of their jobs, interact closely with patients. And another group that's also at risk is women, because they are the natural caregivers at home when people fall ill. You know, think of mothers, sisters. I spoke to a medic who's also a mother, who's at the Ebola treatment centre in Rompara, the second epicentre, with her 11-month-old baby. I started by asking Mireille Gahindo how she and the child were doing.

32:30Asako Yuzuki:When I got sick, my child was first to be infected. The fever was high, experienced diarrhea. After two weeks, my baby was treated, but didn't get better. They did some blood tests, and that is when they brought us here. Since then, we've been here. I had a lot of fear.

32:49Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:The epidemic has killed many people.

32:51Asako Yuzuki:The volunteers helped bring us here. We were hoping to survive. The pressure was too much for us. When you see your child bleeding, body temperature is not okay, you're worried, but now I pray to God, that will leave recovered. My baby is feeling better. No more fever, no more diarrhea, no more bleeding. Better now. We're even looking forward to going home with a lot of happiness and we will celebrate together. That's Mirel Gahindo there, a medic and mother. Now infections are now reported across multiple areas here in Ituri province as well as to the south of North Kivu province and South Kivu province.

33:31Asako Yuzuki:These are vast areas. The Democratic Republic of Congo is roughly the size of Western Europe and the east is rich with minerals, gold, coltan used for making batteries for mobile phones and electric vehicles. So very valuable minerals. And the outbreak has continued to expand into new areas despite intensified surveillance and treatment efforts. And at one One of the treatment centres in Ruampara, one of the epicenters, I met Eli Asimwe, who'd come to visit his sister and brother at the clinic, and he told me that he's already lost his mother and sister-in-law, and that has been a lot of mourning for the family.

34:13Asako Yuzuki:They don't want to mourn anymore.

34:19Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:I have come to take care of my sister. She contracted Ebola. My family members and friends keep calling me regarding her. I am coordinating everything and providing them with updates. No one is allowed to come here and some family members live far away. So I have become the main point of contact. The only thing we have is faith in God. People have been encouraging us. We believe that God will help us and that everything will go well.

34:47Asako Yuzuki:What about the people who are in contact with your sister? Have they been tested for Ebola? what precautionary measures have they taken?

34:56Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:Some people have been tested to determine whether they contracted the disease. Others who were in contact with her say they are fine and have not developed any symptoms. Other people we don't know of their whereabouts. However, we have been urging them to get checked. Doctors have advised that anyone who starts feeling unwell, they should immediately visit a health facility.

35:19Asako Yuzuki:And what measures have your family members taken to protect themselves against the disease?

35:26Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:We are being very careful. We advise everyone who feels sick, weak, has a headache, a cough or a fever to seek medical attention immediately. We also tell people to avoid unnecessary contact with others, wash their hands regularly and report to a healthcare provider whenever they feel unwell. We are all very careful after this incident.

35:52Asako Yuzuki:What are your family's hopes at this moment?

35:57Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:I arrived here at around 6 p.m. My sister was in a very bad condition. She was restless and struggling to breathe. She had chest pains. The whole family came together to pray because we believe that God is the one who heals. We have faith that all will be well. Some family members have continued praying without losing hope. Now that I am here, I feel encouraged. We have received some good news. Her fever had gone down and we could see signs that her health is slowly improving.

36:30Asako Yuzuki:And at the community level, have people been informed about Ebola? Is there any sensitization that's taking place in market areas and places of worship?

36:43Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:We also lost our mother. She had been missing for about two weeks. We did not know where she was after she was taken to the hospital. We were informed that she was sick and that people had been helping to take care of her. Sadly, she later succumbed to Ebola. In the past, people did not know much about diseases like Ebola, so they naturally helped and cared for sick relatives. We eventually left Nyakuda because there were many challenges. One of the difficulties we faced was being told that once someone contracts Ebola, family members should not have direct contact with the patient. We asked the health authorities to provide someone who could help care for the patient, but we were told that no one was available.

37:29Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:We also had another elderly mother who had been helping with cooking and other household duties. the situation became very difficult and eventually we decided to leave and return home. That has been one of our biggest challenges.

37:46Asako Yuzuki:I'm so sorry for your loss. It's heartbreaking to hear that you've lost your loved ones and I hope you find support during this challenging season.

37:56Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:May God help us. We do not want to continue mourning. We have cried a lot already. Several members of our family have died. Even today, a child is being buried. Others have also passed away. People are dying and we just want to leave this place and return home. We want to go back, thank God, and continue moving forward with our lives.

38:18Asako Yuzuki:Eli Asimwe there, very hopeful for the recovery of his sister and brother. Now, many families have been affected here. And like Eli, they come to the Ebola treatment units. Some of them, like the one in Rampara, where Eli was, have specialized cubicles where families can see their patients through a glass screen. And that's how I was able to even speak to Mireille Gahindo. There's a thick glass. Think about the kind of glass that tellers have at the bank. And then so you're up close with the patient, but it is safe for everyone. relatives can come three times a day and that makes a huge difference because they are able to see their patients frequently yet safely previously it was very difficult to do that because of safety concerns and if the patients did not make it they also could not see them after they had died and that was very difficult for the families but because of the previous outbreaks the technology has been changing and now more and more patients are being humanized That's our correspondent Anne Soy there, reporting from Bunia in Eturu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, hit by that Ebola outbreak.

39:41Asako Yuzuki:Returning to our top story briefly, the framework deal struck between the US and Iran. It's been welcomed by Gulf states and European nations. Britain, France, Germany and Italy have issued a joint statement saying the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is essential. On the news of the deal, oil prices have dropped by 5%. Stocks have surged in Asia. But with the deal excluding key players like Israel and Hezbollah, some reaction has been more cautious and international shipping is going to continue to be affected. The Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, has told the BBC that the removal of mines from the Strait of Hormuz is a vital first step to returning maritime traffic to pre-war levels.

40:28Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:We still have over 500 vessels stranded in the Strait and are normally around 11 ,000 seafarers that will regularly be transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. And this is one of the first steps that we're taking in coordinating with the relevant parties for a very organised resume of operations in the region. We'll be working with the countries in the region, particularly Oman and Iran, as well as the coastal states, in order to make sure that there are no hazards in the Strait of Hormuz when the ship starts to transit in the normal levels and volumes that we used to have prior to the conflict.

41:03Planning and Development Minister of Pakistan:At the same time, we have shared information in relation to the vessels that exist there, in order to have an organised approach, and of course, avoid other incidents such as collisions.

41:14Asako Yuzuki:Arsenio Dominguez there from the International Maritime Organisation. There is a live page on this story on the BBC website as the details come in and reaction as well. There's been a new post from President Trump saying he believes ships are beginning to move through the Strait of Hormuz. We're going to try and verify exactly what's happening there. So do stay tuned to the BBC. And as I mentioned, that live page with all the updates there going on as well.

41:49Asako Yuzuki:This is Rebecca Kesby with NewsHour live from the BBC. Next, a real treat for fans of literature because I've been speaking to one of the biggest names in Japanese fiction and a rising star on the international stage, Asako Yuzuki. Many of you may be familiar with her best-selling novel Butter which explored the relationship between a journalist and a gourmet cook slash serial killer dubbed a feminist thriller and social commentary on modern sexism and female friendship in Japan. But Asako Yuzuki's latest publication, translated into English, is called Hooked. It also looks at a fairly intense relationship between two women, one a single career woman, Irico, the other a married lifestyle blogger, Shoko.

42:37Asako Yuzuki:Both characters struggle, though, with social conformity, sexist stereotypes. But what's interesting is that Asako actually wrote Hooked before Butter, With the help of a translator, she's been telling me more about the book and why she's fascinated with feminism, misogyny and fatphobia.

43:01Asako Yuzuki:I've been enjoying walking around London while I've been here and you may disagree, but I found that there are very few adverts around London for beauty treatments. Now if you are interested in Japan and you happen to come to Japan, you will notice that there are a lot of adverts for beauty treatments, plastic surgery and weight loss.

43:33Asako Yuzuki:But at the same time, Tokyo has a big food culture and you can get good food, tasty food, and Japan as a whole is full of delicious things, convenient things, small and cute things. And you have this sense of ambivalence, this contradiction between the pressure on women to be good women and beautiful, And on the other hand, this sense of expected to remain a child and small and cute.

44:10Asako Yuzuki:So if you come to Tokyo, you might afford to experiencing a city that reminds you of Blade Runner. And in a sense, maybe it is a kind of dystopia. I don't set out to write dystopian fiction. For me, this is reality. and even if Tokyo when you visit seems unrealistic and seems bizarre I hope that you will understand what I read as something real and something that you can empathise with. So I mean feminism sexism is a really live topic in Japan at the moment a lot of women are sort of bringing it up to the fore. Do you as a writer feel a responsibility because of that? Does it shape the way that you write your characters?

45:01Asako Yuzuki:And is that a help? Or actually, does it make it more difficult as a writer because of that pressure? Do you feel it?

45:11Asako Yuzuki:I feel a lot of pressure. I write feminist novels, but within Japan, I am in a position of advantage. I have a voice. If there is an issue with feminism in Japan, it's that the Japanese media seem to want that feminism to be something useful to society, something that fits in with a capitalist society. I, as a writer, I get to talk to a lot of publishers, and I'm always aware of the risk of this feminism turning into something that only benefits the women who are already in that kind of advantaged position. Yeah, it's really interesting because your characters tend to feel a little bit restricted by the rigid social conformity, I guess.

46:00Asako Yuzuki:And the stories are about them struggling with that or battling against it and coming to sort of liberation within themselves, I guess. But there's always this pressure of how the women are perceived by others, particularly men or the male patriarchy, I guess you could say. But from what you're saying, it sounds almost as if feminism itself is also having to be seen through this lens of conformity. And you're sort of trying to get beyond that.

46:34Asako Yuzuki:I'm glad if that's the way you've understood what I've said. because feminism itself, I think, is something that should belong to those who don't have access to education, to those who don't fit into this capitalist society, to those who don't have a voice. I have a voice. And the risk is that feminism turns into something for the strong women, for women like me in this unequal society where working hours are very long and even having time to read literature means that you're already in a position of advantage. And that is something that I want to try and overcome. As you say, you are doing really well in your career now.

47:21Asako Yuzuki:You're very popular, certainly in Japan and now internationally as well. Who do you think your audience is? Because people are focusing on the women that are reading your books. But a lot of men are also reading your books, possibly to get an insight into how women feel. And how conscious of the audience are you? Or do you try not to write your books for an audience? You're writing them as a writer, a creator yourself.

47:50Asako Yuzuki:When I wrote these books 15 or so years ago, a lot of the readers were female. But I think now that they've been translated, there are a lot more male readers. And I hear from people who are reading it with their daughter or with their partner. And funnily enough, I've heard of couples who have been matched on dating apps because they were both fans of my books. Excellent. That's lovely. And Japan does have a relatively new prime minister who's a woman. Are people seeing there is a shift and a change in terms of the power in Japan now? More equality?

48:33Asako Yuzuki:I think you could say that society is becoming more conservative. As I said before, I am always aware of the risk of feminism becoming something only for strong women, healthy, strong, cisgender women. And the prime minister says that for women to succeed, they must work, work, work. She likes that phrase. and she also at the same time as being prime minister talks about how she does the housework and it's almost like that is what a Japanese woman has to do in order to survive in this male society you have to work really hard and you still have to do the housework and it's almost as though she is a model Japanese woman now And that was Asako Yuzuki their Japanese author and our grateful thanks to translator Bethan Jones as well for that interview Asako's latest book Hooked is out Butter is also a good one to read there as well that brings us to the end of this edition of News Hour from me and the whole team here in London thank you very much for joining us wherever you are