In short
The episode is about the aftermath of catastrophic flash floods and landslides in Nepal and Tibet, with rising death tolls and nearly 2,000 people unaccounted for. Nepal officials report 579 confirmed deaths and nearly 2,000 missing, including 500+ foreign nationals; in Tibet, Chinese state media say five died and hundreds are missing. UN resident coordinator Lila Peters-Yahir describes survivors hearing people scream as a wave swept away a market area. BBC reporting from Trishuli highlights helicopters rescuing stranded people and families waiting at a wall listing recovered names. Key claims include: a glacier/ice mass near Langtang’s Lurung Peak collapsed, triggering a debris flow of water, rock, sediment; early warning systems existed but were destroyed before data could be transmitted.
Notable examples
rescues from tunnels; hydropower dams destroyed; temporary lakes forming and rescue pauses.
Guests
Tony Han (BBC Global China Unit, monitors Chinese sources), Dr Lauren Rawlins (Leeds glaciologist, Glacial Lake Observatory), Lila Peters-Yahir (UN resident coordinator), Azadeh Moshiri (South Asia correspondent), Manjit Dakal (Nepali UN climate delegate), Alka Shrestha (family member seeking missing father), plus Arna Lara Jansdottir and others appear in unrelated segments.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VONepal Floods Update
0:30 to 1:13
Overview of the current situation in Nepal regarding the floods and casualties.
“Hello, welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.”
On-the-Ground Reports from Nepal
1:13 to 4:49
Firsthand accounts of the devastation and rescue efforts from affected individuals.
“The United Nations resident coordinator in Nepal, Lila Peters-Yahir, has just come back from some of the worst affected areas and she told Newshour what she'd seen.”
Tibet Flooding Situation
4:49 to 7:57
Reporting on the flooding situation in Tibet and the challenges of information gathering.
“in terms of casualties, the picture is less clear.”
Understanding the Causes of the Disaster
7:57 to 13:13
Expert insights into the geological causes of the flooding in Nepal and Tibet.
“Tony Han of the BBC's Global China Unit.”
Iceland's EU Membership Vote Insights
14:01 to 19:02
Learn about Iceland's challenges and considerations regarding EU membership.
“And two reports have concluded that Denmark's historical forced contraception of Greenlandic women and girls violated their human rights, but did not amount to genocide.”
Lindsay Clancy Trial: The Case of a Mother's Tragedy
19:22 to 22:21
Explore the complexities of Lindsay Clancy's trial and the implications of postpartum psychosis.
“After five weeks of testimony, jurors will determine if Clancy is criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children in 2023.”
Life and Challenges in War-Torn Sudan
22:21 to 27:06
Hear firsthand accounts of survival and resilience in Sudan amidst ongoing conflict.
“Millions coast to coast are waiting and watching as this case will soon head to the jury.”
Escalating Violence in the West Bank
27:06 to 28:00
Understand the increasing violence by settlers in the occupied West Bank and its impact on Palestinians.
“That was Khalid Mohamed El Bagir talking to us from Khartoum.”
Violence Against Palestinians: Personal Stories
28:00 to 31:23
Learn about the ongoing violence against Palestinians through personal accounts and reports of settler attacks.
“but behind those lies a much wider campaign of violence against Palestinians.”
Denmark's Controversial History in Greenland
31:23 to 35:38
Explore Denmark's forced contraception campaign in Greenland and its implications for women's rights.
“has concluded that what was a breach of women's rights did not meet the legal definition of genocide.”
Show all 12 chapters
Nepal Floods: Current Situation and Response
35:38 to 42:00
Get insights into the devastating floods in Nepal and the challenges faced in rescue operations.
“I'm Paul Henley and you're listening to NewsHour, the BBC World Service's twice-daily round-up of global news and events.”
Challenges in Nepal Flood Response
42:00 to 43:16
Learn about the inadequacies in the Nepalese government's response to the floods.
“We don't think the government has all the equipment and as well as, you know, skills.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Sudanese businessman:This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
0:30Sudanese businessman:Hello, welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Henley. We're coming to you live from London. Officials in Nepal say the number of confirmed deaths in the huge floods and landslides that happened on Wednesday has now risen to 579. The authorities say the number of those unaccounted for has also increased to nearly 2 ,000. That figure includes more than 500 foreign nationals. And across the Chinese border in Tibet, state media say five people have died and hundreds are missing. In a few minutes, we're going to hear from a glaciologist who's been looking into the possible causes of what happened and what could be done to prevent another disaster on this scale.
1:12Sudanese businessman:First, we'll hear more about the aftermath of the floods. The United Nations resident coordinator in Nepal, Lila Peters-Yahir, has just come back from some of the worst affected areas and she told Newshour what she'd seen.
1:26Nepalese climate envoy:We went down to the riverbank. We saw what was a market. The hardest part for me was when I heard the witness, you know, some people who survived. And they explained to me, they say, you know, we were on the other side of the riverbank and there were people on the market and we heard them screaming, you know, when the big wave came and took them away. So what you see is unreal, actually. The level of destruction is just unreal.
1:52Sudanese businessman:Our South Asia correspondent, Azadeh Moshiri, has this report from the town of Trishuli, one of the closest places to the disaster area where roads and bridges were entirely swept away.
2:06BBC China analyst:I've reached army barracks in Trishuli in northern Nepal, and every few minutes there are helicopters that are landing, dropping off people who have been stranded by the floods, survivors, people who are injured. and on the other side of the gate are just some of the people who are waiting for news of their loved ones. Families who are going up to a wall here with a list published of the names of people the army has recovered so far, people who have been found. One of the people here desperate for news is Sujata Joshi. She tells me four of her family members are missing.
2:46BBC China analyst:Who in your family is missing?
3:00BBC China analyst:Her brother Sumit is here as well, and he tells me when the flood hit his home, he ran with his wife and his child. He survived. They were washed away.
3:13Nepalese climate envoy:We were at home. When the flooding started, I rushed out. I asked my sister-in-law to hurry. but she was busy closing up our shop and got caught in the floods.
3:23BBC China analyst:One of the helicopters has just dropped off Balbir Bike, who was stranded while working at a tunnel in Trishuli.
3:32Nepalese climate envoy:We didn't know about the flood. We saw a huge cloud of brown dust from inside the tunnel. We felt a gust of cold air. We didn't know what was happening.
3:45BBC China analyst:One of the army's spokespeople here, Brigadier Rajarambasnet, explain how difficult it is to rescue people from tunnels here.
3:52Nepalese climate envoy:And even for the tunnels, the entry and exit point, they are closed and it's very difficult to find out the, you know, entry and exit point also. I haven't seen this kind of, you know, disaster in my life.
4:06BBC China analyst:The warnings have eased now and emergency officials are letting people leave and get closer to the river. We're right next to the river Trishuli now. and her helicopters are still flying up above as search and rescue operations continue. It just goes to show how worried people are. The number of casualties have continued to rise and there's an anxious wait for the hundreds who are still missing. We've also just heard the Prime Minister Balan Shah and his cabinet have decided to donate a month's wages to the government's relief fund, a little over six months in office, and Balan Shah is now responding to the worst disaster Nepal has seen in more than a decade.
4:46Sudanese businessman:Azadeh Moshiri reporting from Nepal. When it comes to ascertaining the facts from across the Chinese border in Tibet in terms of casualties, the picture is less clear. It is Tony Han's job to monitor and interpret Chinese news sources. He's from the BBC's Global China Unit, and he told me what he'd been able to find out about the disaster in Tibet.
5:08BBC China analyst:The latest information we have is that there are five deaths, 558 people missing. And among those are 260 foreign nationals. And it is important to stress that in trying to find out what's going on on the Tibetan side, we are very, very reliant on Chinese state media because it's extremely difficult to get information from that area in any other way. What we do know is that the rescue teams have now reached the border post, where the destruction was at its most serious. So it's possible we would see those figures rise quite significantly over the coming days.
5:47Sudanese businessman:And the concentration is on the rescue operation. What exactly are you hearing about that? Do teams have the advantage of state-of-the-art equipment, for example?
5:56BBC China analyst:The coverage does stress that the teams have access to equipment such as drones, which they're using to scout out the terrain. Apparently some teams are also using drones and various other bits of equipment to construct 3D models of important parts of the terrain so that they can assess risks in conducting their rescue operations.
6:17Sudanese businessman:Are you in any position to say what you think of criticism that China is more interested in optics at the moment rather than in the immediate welfare of the Tibetan people?
6:28BBC China analyst:I think in this case, what we're seeing in terms of the state media coverage is what we would typically see in such situations. Whenever there is a situation that is fast developing, that could get out of control in some way or another, that is unpredictable, the government tends to keep quite a tight grip on the information space. An observation, for instance, we've made is that original footage of the mudslide overwhelming the border crossing point doesn't really seem to appear on Red Note, a very prominent social media platform in China. That obviously is a video which provokes extreme emotion.
7:04BBC China analyst:Now whether they're actually conducting censorship, that's not something that we can tell by technical means, but it is a pattern that in such situations they tend to keep quite tight control of how narratives develop around these events.
7:18Sudanese businessman:There's been talk of the fear that there could be more flooding imminent, including on the Chinese side of the border. Are you seeing any reporting of that from Chinese media?
7:29BBC China analyst:So what we've seen is that the rescue operation was suspended for a period of time this morning because of fears that this temporary lake, which appears to have formed behind a massive debris, was about to fail and release this huge amount of water into the river valleys, which would cause another secondary catastrophe. As far as I understand, that risk has been assessed to be somewhat reduced so that the rescue efforts can continue.
7:59Sudanese businessman:Tony Han of the BBC's Global China Unit. There are various theories, some based on observation of drone footage, others not, on what exactly caused the catastrophic rush of water, rock and debris that hit the afflicted areas of Nepal and Tibet. Dr Lauren Rawlins is a glaciologist from Leeds University here in the UK. She works on a project called Glacial Lake Observatory, which maps and monitors glacial changes and flood risks, particularly in the Nepal high mountain area. I asked her if there was any further clarity on what had caused this disaster.
8:35BBC China analyst:Partially, yes. We know from satellite imagery that near Langtang's Lurung Peak there has been a large volume of ice, part of a glacier, perched on the mountainside that has given way, as well as potentially surrounding rock, bedrock, may have also collapsed as well into the valley below. at least down a kind of vertical kilometre, which is a large area to plunge. And then from this, we've had this forceful debris flow of water, rock, sediment downstream affecting that China-Nepal border area and downstream of Nepal having those devastating consequences. So partially, yes, the satellite images are giving some indications of what's happened.
9:15BBC China analyst:But in terms of the actual mechanisms as to why that happened, it's still not fully clear at this point. And that's definitely going to need some more looking into monitoring further satellite imagery and ground resources, I guess.
9:28Sudanese businessman:But give us an idea of the sheer force of that flow. It wasn't just a flood of water, was it?
9:34BBC China analyst:No, no. A complete catastrophic flooding event. These high mountain areas, they characteristically have steep slopes, large rocky outcrops, high mountain glaciers, and all this energy that has absolutely flowed through and transformed this landscape and also kind of the ultimate kind of wave height essentially that has gone through as well. It's utterly devastating.
10:01Sudanese businessman:And contained within it, there was rock from the mountainside and then of course there was human-related debris. This force tore through concrete buildings and took pieces with it, right?
10:13BBC China analyst:Yes, absolutely. Anything in its path essentially. So it's scoured valley sides. So, you know, you've got trees, vegetation. And then, yeah, further down, I mean, you've had hydropower dams and plants completely destroyed. So, you know, you've got concrete blocks being hurled through this as well. So a complete mix of accumulated not only water, but rocks, sediment, concrete, anything in its path.
10:38Sudanese businessman:A question that lots of people who don't know the region will be asking is why no early warning system?
10:45BBC China analyst:It's a very good question. This is an area that can be hard to monitor. It's very remote. You know, a lot of these high mountain communities are also very remote. This area has a single road up and down it, which has now ultimately been destroyed. so as i'm aware there were no sort of early warning systems in place um there were what we call hydrometric stations um that monitor kind of water levels and send kind of data to the appropriate organization but these stations essentially had no time to send the data because they were just immediately swept away so you know there just wasn't enough of time for this data to even have been sent and for anybody to do anything about it.
11:29Sudanese businessman:And I think you work with the authorities in this area and maybe you can tell us if it's possible to set something up in terms of a warning system in the future.
11:40BBC China analyst:Yeah so the work that we do at the Glacial Lake Observatory we have numerous kind of organisation partners in Nepal and you know we work with those and have conversations with those about things like glacial lakes and glacial hazards. Early warning systems they are been developed. So they have been developed recently within the Everest region. So where the Tamay Glacial Lake Outburst flood happened in 2024, there is now early warning systems that are there. So kind of, you know, sirens and monitors to monitor water levels of the lakes and the rivers upstream. But yes, they were not in place, as I'm aware, in the valley.
12:18Sudanese businessman:What's the reality of the immediate risk of more flooding now, do you think?
12:22BBC China analyst:I think it's probably quite high. You know, we're seeing two lakes currently forming. So two lakes have been confirmed now. We have the lower lake, which has been dammed by deposited sediment essentially from this event that's blocking a river. So, you know, water levels are rising here and there was a slight overtopping, I believe, this morning. But there is also a secondary lake that's forming just below the kind of impact zone of that collapse event, higher up valley. So that also requires monitoring as well. But, you know, it's also the monsoon season. There's rain accumulating. I know the weather's particularly poor there, which is also hampering the rescue effort too.
13:03BBC China analyst:So, yeah, it requires further close monitoring at this stage.
13:09Sudanese businessman:Glaciologist Dr Lauren Rawlins from Leeds University here in the UK. You're with the BBC World Service. We're live from London. This is NewsHour.
13:26Sudanese businessman:Coming up, we'll hear from Palestinians in the West Bank who've been affected by Jewish settler violence.
13:33Nepalese climate envoy:They want me to leave this place. It's not only me who's targeted. It's everyone. If I leave, they'll go after my neighbor down the road, then the next one, then the one after that,
Read the full transcript
13:45Sudanese businessman:until they remove everyone from these areas and replace them with Zionists. That's in about 25 minutes' time. The headlines for now, Nepal says nearly 2 ,000 people are missing after Wednesday's flash floods, while more than 500 are confirmed to have been killed. Hundreds also remain missing in Tibet. And two reports have concluded that Denmark's historical forced contraception of Greenlandic women and girls violated their human rights, but did not amount to genocide.
14:26Sudanese businessman:I'm Paul Henley with NewsHour, live from the BBC. Iceland, a nation of only around 400 ,000 people in the far northwest of Europe, tomorrow holds a vote on whether or not to join the European Union. A yes vote would kickstart negotiations with Brussels, although a second referendum would be needed to greenlight any membership deal. Opinion polls suggest the public at the moment is evenly split. I've been talking to someone heavily involved in the campaign to join the EU. She is Arna Lara Jonsdotir and she's a Social Democrat MP in Reykjavik. I asked her why she was supporting the Yes campaign.
15:05Nepalese climate envoy:Now it's a good time because what is happening in the world. So it's a good time for Iceland to check if we can get a good agreement. And also because we have the economic situation in Iceland is, you know, quite tough. We have high interest rates and we have inflation at 5.6%. So I think that's why a lot of Icelanders want to see how things can get better because Iceland is great. It's really nice to live in Iceland, but we could have it better.
15:41Sudanese businessman:And when you talk about the political situation, do you mean security? Do you mean the threat from Russia? I know Iceland doesn't have any armed forces. Neither actually does the EU.
15:53Nepalese climate envoy:No, but we are a part of NATO. But I think when Trump wanted to buy Greenland, it troubled Icelanders a lot because Greenland is our next neighbours and they are a friend of us. So I think we got really troubled when we heard President Trump wanting to buy Greenland.
16:14Sudanese businessman:Does Iceland feel vulnerable to Russian threats at the moment?
16:20Nepalese climate envoy:No, we don't think so. But we feel, of course, Ukraine, we stand with them. But we do not fear that Russia will come to Iceland because we are a part of NATO and we have agreement with states that they are going to secure us. So that's not an issue here in Iceland.
16:38Sudanese businessman:The trouble for you and your campaign is that half the country is against you. And even if you win, there's going to be a monumental split down the middle, isn't there?
16:48Nepalese climate envoy:Yeah, the latest poll has shown that the race is neck to neck. And there is a great deal of tension in the air. So I'm looking forward for tomorrow. And a lot of people are getting tired of the discussion. They just want this out of their mind because we have been having the EU discussion all summer and people want to get break from it.
17:09Sudanese businessman:Yeah, the trouble is the tension is not going to go away after the vote, is it? Whoever wins.
17:14Nepalese climate envoy:No, no, it's not going to go away. That's right. But the trouble is that there is a lot of confusion and misinformation circulating. So I think it will be good if we just go to the talks and see what kind of agreement we can get. Because people are speculating a lot. What is the agreement going to look like? Are we going to get agreement about the fisheries? How is the agriculture going to be? So there's a lot of what if.
17:42Sudanese businessman:One big reason why Norway went to and fro on this but didn't end up joining the European Union was to protect its fisheries. And I know you're chair of the Economic Affairs and Trade Committee in the Icelandic Parliament. You must be crucially interested in Iceland's fishing industry. Would that be protected? It doesn't look like it.
18:02Nepalese climate envoy:The Icelandic welfare stands on the fisheries. So that would be the first and most important issue to discuss with the EU.
18:09Sudanese businessman:Yes, they're not very flexible on that, historically speaking, are they?
18:13Nepalese climate envoy:Yeah, but we will have to see. But I think the EU, I think they will look at things a little bit different now. Now we don't have the UK in the EU, so it might be a little bit different now.
18:25Sudanese businessman:You could say that Iceland already has the advantages of the European Union. You're in the economic area. You're in the single market. You're in the Schengen border-free zone. You've got quite a good deal as things stand.
18:38Nepalese climate envoy:Yeah, we are almost in, but not all the way in. So we are having a lot of the EU legislation in Iceland, but we don't have the seat at the table. Being a full member, then we take part from first hand.
18:52Sudanese businessman:That was Arna Lara Jansdott here, who's a Social Democrat MP in Iceland.
18:59BBC China analyst:Get more with BBC Podcasts, wherever you listen. Be the first to listen to your favourite shows like Evil Genius, Good Bad Billionaire and You're 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.
19:21Sudanese businessman:In the US, the high-profile murder trial of Lindsay Clancy is now in the hands of a jury in Massachusetts. After five weeks of testimony, jurors will determine if Clancy is criminally responsible for the deaths of her three children in 2023. The defence is arguing she suffered from postpartum psychosis, a severe mental health emergency that begins suddenly after childbirth. Shaima Khalil reports. We're going to take a break this time.
19:54BBC China analyst:Lindsay Clancy admits to killing her three young children, but listening to details of their death in court was at times too much for her to bear. Cora was five, Dawson three, and Callan was eight months old when they were strangled by their young mother. The question at the heart of this case is whether she was legally responsible.
20:15Nepalese climate envoy:She's living her own health. She knows what happened with those kids.
20:18BBC China analyst:In January 2023, Lindsay killed her children while her then-husband was out picking up dinner for the family. She then tried taking her own life. Patrick Clancy described finding his kids in the basement. And then I went to the other side of the basement and he was in my office.
20:35Nepalese climate envoy:And when you saw Dawson, what condition was he in?
20:40BBC China analyst:I knew he was gone. Lindsay's lawyers say she'd suffered postpartum psychosis after the birth of her youngest child, that she repeatedly sought help and warned she was thinking of harming her children.
20:52Nepalese climate envoy:When she told you that she was having intrusive thoughts, did you ask her what they were? Yeah. And what was her response? She described thoughts of hurting the kids.
21:05BBC China analyst:Shortly before the killings, she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital, but was discharged days after. Prosecutor Shannon Buckingham told the jury the mother was fully aware of her actions.
21:17Nepalese climate envoy:This was not a woman in the throes of psychosis on January 24, 2023. This was a woman who acted intentionally, rationally, and swiftly to accomplish a very specific goal, to kill.
21:32BBC China analyst:Clancy then attempted suicide, which left her paralyzed after she jumped out of a window.
21:41BBC China analyst:Beyond the courtroom this case has divided America, hundreds of women, many with their own experience of postpartum illness, have rallied in support of Clancy.
21:49Nepalese climate envoy:We all relate in one way or another, and that is definitely attracting each of us here to support her. So many women in the world go through this, and we really don't know much about psychosis, particularly with women who have given birth.
22:06BBC China analyst:But not everybody believes she deserves sympathy.
22:09Nepalese climate envoy:As far as I'm concerned, this whole situation is about those babies, okay? I think what she did was horrible.
22:15Sudanese businessman:I support mental health. However, in this case, three children were murdered.
22:21BBC China analyst:Millions coast to coast are waiting and watching as this case will soon head to the jury. A conviction would mean life in prison without parole. If she's found not criminally responsible, this could mean indefinite confinement in a secure psychiatric hospital. Whatever the verdict, nothing changes the terrible loss. Three young children dead and a family destroyed.
22:44Sudanese businessman:That was Shaima Khalil reporting.
23:14Sudanese businessman:elsewhere with mounting evidence that it's spilling across Sudanese borders. Khalid Mohamed El Bagheer is a businessman who spent much of the war helping run neighbourhood kitchens for thousands of people. I asked him first to tell me what life had been like under the state of emergency. It was really horrible during that days.
23:36Nepalese climate envoy:People, they don't have work, they don't have any resource of income. So they were faced like a lot of problems of hunger, needing medicine, etc.
23:49Sudanese businessman:You've been volunteering to run community kitchens so you know about the shortage of food. What was that like?
23:57Nepalese climate envoy:That was horrible at that days. The people don't have a source of income and even the food, the supply was few at that time. And people moved from them areas, them houses to the safe places and they don't have any support there. So we started with small kitchens. In Umdurman we had like 18 kitchens feeding more than 100 ,000 per day.
24:22Sudanese businessman:There are still security checkpoints. There's still an army presence in the capital, isn't there? It's more by the police, not by the army. Right, so what's changed? What's different?
24:33Nepalese climate envoy:Oh, it's a lot of differences. Now people feel more safe. They can move freely. The business can work till late night. There is so many impacts in different ways, like inner impact, the feeling of being safe, Khartoum, now people can move, they can cross the bridge, etc. Even for the business, it's good. So they can work till late time. Taxi drivers can work, small shops can work, any other businesses can work better.
25:06Sudanese businessman:Do you think all those people who fled the capital will now start to come home?
25:12Nepalese climate envoy:Yeah, most of them, except the people who don't have any funds to repair their houses, the destroyed houses. I think if the government work hard to make life more easier, I mean, the basics, electricity, water, etc., more people will come back to the capital.
25:33Sudanese businessman:What kind of economic price have you paid during this war? You run hotels in Khartoum, is that right? Yeah, exactly.
25:41Nepalese climate envoy:It was horrible. It was fully destroyed. They stole everything. The appliances, the computer system, even the security camps. And we had cash in the safe box here in the office. We lost everything, almost. The only thing left for me was my card. I sold it out, I put this money in the hotel, and now I'm running it. It started last week.
26:05Sudanese businessman:And are the basics for daily life returning? Is the power back on and reliable?
26:10Nepalese climate envoy:Yeah, but it's not stable. But it's better than before. Before, we don't have electricity at all for even more than a month. We don't have a supply of water in the houses. But now, no. In my house, there is electricity. Now I'm in the office with the AC working and the lights on and I have water. It's better.
26:33Sudanese businessman:You sound hopeful after a long time without hope.
26:37Nepalese climate envoy:Exactly, exactly. This is the exact feeling that we do have right now.
26:42Sudanese businessman:What are you hearing? What do you know about what's happening in the rest of Sudan? The war is not over, is it?
26:48Nepalese climate envoy:It's not over, but I think the military is doing good there. They're working hard, making the RSF in very tiny places in Sudan.
26:58Sudanese businessman:Do you think that the military government has a real chance of winning this war?
27:03Nepalese climate envoy:Only in one case. If the countries that are supporting the RSF stop.
27:09Sudanese businessman:That was Khalid Mohamed El Bagir talking to us from Khartoum.
27:18Sudanese businessman:Violence by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank is set to reach record levels this year, as human rights groups warn that the settlers are increasingly spreading into new areas. Attacks on Palestinians have risen under Israel's current government, alongside a rapid increase in the settlements, which are illegal under international law. Our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson has been looking at reports of settler violence across the West Bank in the course of just one week.
27:53BBC China analyst:A teenager shot dead, beatings, arson attacks, a donkey tortured. You might have seen the worst attacks by Jewish settlers here in the occupied West Bank, but behind those lies a much wider campaign of violence against Palestinians. We've counted more than 60 incidents here just in the past week, including daily incursions and intimidations that never make the news some of which aren't even reported by the victims at all. On Saturday amputee Saeed Al-Amour was beaten by a settler with an iron bar as he stooped to pick up one of his crutches. A shocking video recording the assault clearly shows his attacker who's now under arrest.
28:41BBC China analyst:Saeed, who lost his leg last year after being shot near his house by a settler security guard, says settlers are constantly harassing the family.
28:52Nepalese climate envoy:They want me to leave this place. It's not only me who's targeted, it's everyone.
28:57BBC China analyst:On Friday, a large group of Jewish settlers, some of them armed, walked through the Palestinian village of Saeed, near Hebron. past the house of 17-year-old Karim Shalalde. His father, Sanad, told us Karim was killed while filming the settlers. The second bullet struck my son. I ran to him before he fell and held him in my arms. I would rather die myself a thousand times than see it happen to my child. Israel's army said it had received reports of Palestinians throwing stones. Karim's mother, Saul, eight months pregnant, said she had lived each day in fear of losing her children.
29:42Nepalese climate envoy:I was not able to hold him or say goodbye.
29:48BBC China analyst:My heart breaks over Karim. Each reminder of the settler outpost nearby, now more painful for the family. Last night, they started flashing a spotlight at us, Karim's father told me, as if to say, we killed your son, and it doesn't matter. Jewish settlements here, illegal under international law, are expanding, and settler attacks are rising as well. The Israeli human rights organization, Yesh Din, says more than 90 % of police investigations into settler violence end without indictment. There is a problem of violence in the West Bank. Doran Spielman, a spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister's office, spoke to the BBC late last month.
30:33BBC China analyst:There are Jews who are a very small number of Jews. They are human beings. They have names. They're not just called settlers, who have, in fact, been prosecuted by the police by the vast, the largest estimate would be maybe 300 or 400 youth that are involved in this out of a population of 750 ,000. This week, Zvi Sukkot, a settler lawmaker in Israel's governing coalition, filmed himself destroying a village memorial in the West Bank because, he said, it honoured terrorists. It triggered a rebuke from Israel's foreign minister and from the office of the prime minister. Jewish settlers were also filmed torturing a donkey, tying it to their vehicle and dragging it along until it was dead.
31:19Sudanese businessman:That was the BBC's Lucy Williamson reporting. An inquiry into Denmark's campaign of forced contraception in Greenland has concluded that what was a breach of women's rights did not meet the legal definition of genocide. At least 4 ,000 Greenlandic women and girls, some as young as 12, had contraceptive coils inserted, often without their consent or even knowledge, between 1996 and 1991. Tilly Martínesen is a former Greenlandic MP, and she spelt out the facts of this story.
31:54Nepalese climate envoy:The backdrop of the story is that Denmark was the coloniser of Greenland and Greenland only took over healthcare services in 1992. So Denmark was in charge of the healthcare services until then. And the timing question you just mentioned, all women in Greenland were under sort of a programme made by the head doctor for Greenland, which was Danish, that wanted to make sure that women had a program for contraception, not getting too many births too early, etc. And it seems to be a part of a whole thing that Denmark wanted to do in Greenland to make sure that the families had enough food, they weren't poor, and that they got educated children.
32:41And the debate is now whether or not the Danish state is responsible for this.
32:49Nepalese climate envoy:They have taken responsibility for it. And there has come out two reports from an expert panel that was formed under the former Premier Mutti B. Egede. And our current Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen has then presented it today. What's your reaction to that? Well, I think everyone in Greenland feels very much with the women involved, and they are asking the press and everyone who's debating this issue to make sure that they're mindful that these are women who are living now and women who have been experiencing this with consent, some unknowingly having those IDUs put into them and some with consent.
33:32Nepalese climate envoy:And the stories of the women, of course, that has been violated, we have to be very sensitive about. And then it has also become sort of a debacle between pro-independence parties in Greenland, which is mostly in opposition right now. And then the government that wants to carve a way forward, but of course, also acknowledging this chapter into history. Denmark has officially apologized and the expert panel has actually broken out in two. So there's two reports coming out today because of the question of genocide. The first group, the remaining group, didn't want to say if it was or not genocide in the context of the colonization and everything.
34:13Nepalese climate envoy:And the breakout group said that it was decisively not. They do, however, agree that the UN Human Rights Convention, Chapter 3, might have been broken, which is the right to not be inhumanely, you know, handled by other people or treated by some authority in your country.
34:38Sudanese businessman:Briefly, Ms. Martíneson, how important do you think it is that Denmark acknowledges such dark chapters from its past?
34:47Nepalese climate envoy:I think it's very important. It's women that we know we're in families with, that we know from our society. You have to understand we're only 56 ,500 people in Greenland altogether. That's the whole country together. So, of course, everyone knows someone that has been subject to this. Roughly, I think, around a quarter of the women population between the ages of maybe 16 and 49 or something along those lines have been subjected to this in one form or another. So it's a very big part of the population and it's really important that Denmark said sorry. And I think most Greenlanders are very happy that finally we have gotten this discussed and they have said sorry.
35:32Sudanese businessman:Former Greenlandic MP Tilly Martinesson, you're listening to the BBC World Service. Live from London, it's NewsHour.
35:49Sudanese businessman:I'm Paul Henley and you're listening to NewsHour, the BBC World Service's twice-daily round-up of global news and events. We return to our main story now and the aftermath of disastrous flash flooding in the Himalayas, in Nepal and in Tibet, which has killed hundreds of people with more than 2 ,000 unaccounted for still. Manjit Dakal is a Nepali climate delegate and advisor to the least developed countries group at UN Climate Negotiations. He has visited the area hit by the flooding last week and is currently in the UK for climate talks in the run-up to COP31, the next UN climate change conference.
36:31Sudanese businessman:When I talked to him earlier, I asked him first for his reaction to the images of these floods that had been seen around the world.
36:38BBC China analyst:It was a devastating situation. And as you rightly mentioned, I was just there past weekend with my family. I have interacted with many of these people over there. I was also there to visit the country's largest solar plant of 25 megawatt, which now I see in the video has all been washed away. And the town that I stand by near the river Trishuli has also faced a heavy impact. So it's very emotional to process all of this when we see those pictures.
37:11Sudanese businessman:You are a climate delegate to the UN. is there any way you saw anything like this coming?
37:20BBC China analyst:I also write a paper, a scientific paper, and the recent one that has been published is about the climate attribution in the context of Nepal, which means when these events occur, what is the relation with the climate change? And either it's in the UN climate meeting or in the scientific seminar, these kind of events were predicted, The scientists have been warning because of the climate change, because of the global warming. The Himalayan region is facing the consequences. And the warming, the global level, is just higher in the mountainous region. So this was something that has been predicted.
38:03BBC China analyst:But the scale that we experienced this time, it's much beyond the imagination.
38:08Sudanese businessman:Is there any doubt in your mind that it was linked to climate change?
38:11BBC China analyst:The way it triggered with the snow avalanches, which has a very clear connection in terms of the temperature rise. So that already kind of indicates its very strong connection with the climate change. In a scientific world, we have to analyze the specific event to see its attribution to climate impacts, which the scientists have started working on it. I have also been engaged with many of the experts and we have started assembling the team. But what we can see very clear here is it was an snow avalanche and the snow melts with the rising of temperature, which is very clear. And these are the prediction that the scientific world has made in the past, the way that the warming was much higher in the mountainous region.
39:03Sudanese businessman:Local authorities will be looking into how they can be better prepared for, God forbid, a repeat of such an incident. What are the most immediate needs?
39:15BBC China analyst:When we talk about the preparedness, the first thing that comes in this context is the early warning, which means you get the prior information about such event. In the case of Nepal, there was an early warning system. There was a 10-minute automated system, which means it provides automated information every after 10 minutes in the river. So at 40 past 8 in the morning, the alert system was sent to the HydroMed office. and that was normal. 50 past 8, after 10 minutes, the information didn't come, which means the scale of the damage was so much that all these alert systems, all these hydrometrics stations were washed away.
39:57BBC China analyst:So this is something that has been beyond the imagination. This also shows that there are technologies that are available and these are some of the things that we discuss in the climate negotiation, in the multilateral process, the access to the world-class technology that the country needs to have in the global south and which just makes the case much stronger that that needs to be done in the future.
40:21Sudanese businessman:That was Nepali UN climate delegate Manji Dakal speaking to me from Oxford and we'll end the programme with a personal story from someone connected to that disaster. Alka Shrestha lives in the Nepali capital Kathmandu and is desperately trying to get news of her father who was working on a construction site for a customs house in the upper part of the valley affected. She's been speaking to my colleague, James Menendez. My father is a civil engineer and he was actually on a site visit, which is one of the under-construction custom office near the China border.
40:59Nepalese climate envoy:So it was the first point where the flood hit. So he was actually there with other 50, 60 staffs.
41:06Sudanese businessman:And as everybody knows now, because the footage has been circulated all over the world, I mean, that customs point was hit by a, well, I mean, it looked like a huge tidal wave. So what have you been able to, what have you been doing to try to find out whether he might be alive?
41:25Nepalese climate envoy:Yes, we have been reaching out to, you know, everyone we could. We have reached out to the army officials, hospitals, police, and also the government. So government is doing their part. But until now, I mean, no one has actually reached that place. So we feel like, you know, there might be still people waiting for rescue and help.
41:45Sudanese businessman:And we've heard about the government using helicopters to try to reach those areas worst effective. But from what you're saying, what, they haven't managed to get up there at all?
41:54Nepalese climate envoy:Yes, they might have been capturing the images. But in terms of rescue, We don't think the government has all the equipment and as well as, you know, skills. So as we've seen in the earthquake response 2025, you know, there were people coming from all over the world with all the equipment and skills for search and rescue, right? But till now, we have not seen anyone in the field doing that. We have just been able to, you know, rescue and, you know, taking the people from one place to another who are, you know, still reachable. But what about the people, those who might be still under the mud or near the, you know, scary area waiting for help?
42:32Sudanese businessman:And why is that, do you think? Is that because the government, the Nepalese government believes it has all it needs? But you're saying you think that, you know, they do need extra people and perhaps some specialist equipment?
42:44Nepalese climate envoy:Yes, I feel that because, I mean, as per my experience and also the news, I feel like the numbers that are being reported for now, Now the media is only mentioning about 200 people dying and also 1 ,500 or so people being missed. But we feel like there are many villages, those have been swept out. So the numbers might cross 50 ,000 for that sort of rescue. So we need more equipment, we need more people, we need more technicians from all over the world.
43:15Sudanese businessman:Alka Shrestha speaking to James Menendez about her father still missing following those flash floods in Nepal. That was NewsHour. Thank you very much for listening to this edition. Bye-bye for now.
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From the publisher
Officials in Nepal say the number of confirmed deaths in Wednesday's huge floods and landslides has now risen to 579, and the number of those unaccounted for has also increased to nearly 2,000. Chinese state media say five people have died and hundreds are missing in Tibet. We hear from a Nepalese climate envoy and a BBC China analyst.
Also on the programme: a Sudanese businessman tells us about life in Khartoum as a state of emergency is lifted; and a musical memorial to the father of modern computing, Alan Turing.
(Photo: People run during a rescue operation by a Nepal Army helicopter in the aftermath of flash floods, in Hatigauda village, Nuwakot district, Nepal, 28 August 2026. Credit: Narendra Shrestha, EPA/Shutterstock)