Nepal flooding: Two workers rescued from tunnel

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0:30We do the things we do and how to make better choices to help avoid costly mistakes. Each episode covers the latest research in behavioral science and dives into themes like the power of self-control, shaping your mindset for success, navigating new beginnings and why starting over can feel so hard. Listen to choiceology at schwab.com slash podcast or wherever you listen.

1:00John Deere is putting in work and putting up highlights. Oh, man, look at those passes. Tillage, planting, harvesting. Three years in, and these pre-owned machines are still at the top of their game. We're talking reliability, performance, and long-term potential. And get this, these veteran machines can pick up the latest precision tech with ease. You know it, and fans ready to add John Deere-certified pre-owned equipment and more options to their lineup can shop at machinefinder.com. Booyah!

1:34You're listening to News Hour from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Gary O'Donoghue. Now, after nine days of devastating news from Nepal and Tibet, finally, some hope for those searching for survivors.

1:52That was the dramatic moment when the first of two workers were rescued from a hydropower tunnel more than a week after the flash flood that has killed more than 1 ,200 people, leaving thousands more still missing. In a video released by the Nepalese authorities, one of the men, Kabir Mahajan, was shown being hoisted from a hole in the ground as bystanders cheered, then lowered onto a stretcher. His colleague, Sanjay Shah, was brought out on a worker's back, his face still caked in mud, before army doctors fitted an oxygen mask and checked his vitals. A third man was also brought out, though he was already dead.

2:33Speaking outside the hospital, the wife of one of the rescued men described seeing him for the first time.

2:43He didn't even recognise me. He just said things like, what happened to me? And where am I? And he didn't say anything else. He's currently in the ICU. He asked for water, so I gave him some. Now he's recognised me again and nodded his head. He has an injury to his leg and hasn't been able to speak much. His body has turned yellowish because he wasn't getting enough oxygen. The two mechanical engineers were rescued from the tunnel at Trishali 3A hydropower project in Rasawa. Bahadur Sharman is a Nepalese journalist he's been at the army hospital in Kathmandu where the two survivors were taken More than 40 people were trapped there More than 40 people were trapped there and rescuers were doing their best to rescue the people alive from that point and finally the good news came today two mechanical engineers were rescued from that hydropower plant there are reports of a few more people being rescued there and a few dead bodies were also recovered there.

3:50This came when the entire country was in big shock after this catastrophic flood. This is like a kind of miracle and everyone's watching the rescue. It does sound like a miracle. Has the hospital said how the two men are, what their injuries are, how long they're likely to be in hospital? No, we are totally restricted from going inside. We are totally restricted from going inside. and I've spoken to a few family members. I spoke to the dad of Sanji Asaha. He told me that his wife is still not recovering from the pain. That's why she couldn't come to Kathmandu. I've also spoken to the relatives of the other guy and they were super, super happy just to hear the news that he's alive and brought to Kathmandu.

4:35So how were they transported to the army hospital? Did they have to be brought by helicopter? Soon after the reports of the rescue... Soon after the reports of the rescue, the army helicopters were sent there. There was a medical team, they briefly treated them, and then they were flown to Kathmandu. And what are the hopes for finding other people in that same tunnel alive? I mean, we've seen some reports that perhaps there are another 39 people still alive. Is that the same tunnel or the same area? There are several tunnels. There are several tunnels, and I've spoken to one of the tunnel engineers and also a lawmaker of the ruling party, and he said there was little chance of rescuing many people alive from there because the rescuers have entered through the tunnel and they saw everywhere, but they're not finding more people.

5:24It seems they were outside the tunnel and the flood swept them away from that point. And obviously the last nine days have been a terrible, devastating tragedy for the country, but has this news brought some hope for people in the country? I can see smiles on the faces of many people gathering outside this hospital. They are super, super happy. And we voiced over that interview with Badrashama because of the poor quality of the telephone line from Nepal. Well, earlier today, my colleague Anne Soy spoke to Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who is in Nepal.

6:05Now, this is absolutely squarely up the middle of Miracle Territory. I mean, we're big teams of people are working on this. We've got men with shovels and their hands digging underground in tunnels to people on computers comparing satellite imagery with what we're getting from helicopters and historical drawings. And in the end, a good dose of miracle. And that's what you're witnessing right now. And digging for tens of metres, I can see on the BBC website that they're estimating that they dug through around 50 to 60 metres of debris that had blocked the tunnel. Just how complicated is this rescue effort?

6:50So, I mean, I've been doing this all my life. There has never been a more complex series of rescues than this. And they're all really hard. So what we're dealing with here is a unique, never done before rescue. In the history of the planet, we've never pulled this off before because the explosive power of what came down that valley mixed huge boulders with mud. And so we didn't even know where the power stations were on day one. So when the government reached out, my first task was to try and help figure out where they even were because they were gone. Because it had been covered. Yeah, and blown away.

7:36So all the surface structures had been blown up. So they were gone. And then on top of that, tens of – well, I haven't measured it exactly, but a huge amount of material on top of that. So the entrance to the tunnel that your listeners or viewers can see where we're looking down into the tunnel where these men are calling up through the mud, that was on the side of a hill. That wasn't underground. That tunnel, that entrance was up a hill. And so on the vision, on the CCTV, as the tsunami thing was coming down the valley, we see people running up the hill and seeking refuge in that tunnel with it being above them.

8:24And now, with so much of that avalanche material, we're having to drill down below. That's the scale of this. This is extraordinarily difficult. The army have just done the most incredible job on the ground to be delivering this. You're having to drill down, but also blast. How delicate is that? Well, I mean, we never do blasting normally when we're doing a human rescue because you end up blowing people up. And yet we're doing blasting here because we've got no option because we're confronted with rocks bigger than cars in our way. And so the only way we can get through is to blow them up. And so they've shown incredible restraint and engineering competence to be able to blow them up without blowing up the people we're trying to rescue.

9:17And also blowing them up in a way that doesn't destroy the structure that at the moment is giving us protection. As they're crawling just the crown of the tunnel towards the powerhouse. Just extraordinarily complex. Obviously, families are very hopeful right now after the rescue of these two hydropower workers. But realistically, what can you say about the prospects of finding other survivors? Absolutely. Up until just a few minutes ago, we were dealing with computation theory, our best professional judgment, and just good old-fashioned hard work. Now we've got two people out, we've got the first ever proof that this technique can work and it's going to spur us on to try even harder.

10:06This is the best news, absolutely the best news that we could have at the moment. Other agencies had said we were moving into a recovery mode. We resisted that and actually said for us underground, this is not recovery mode. We're in rescue mode and we're in turbo rescue mode now. And that was Arnold Dix. Well, voters are heading for the polls in a regional election in Saxony-Anhalt in Germany this weekend, with all eyes on whether the far-right alternative for Germany, or AFD, can translate a substantial poll lead into an electoral breakthrough. Recent surveys put the party above 40%, well ahead of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU, EU, taking a clear favourite lead in the election.

10:56If the AFD does come out victorious, it will mark another major breakthrough. Nevertheless, that may not be enough for it to translate into a win, which it can then turn into a governing coalition because of the firewall that the other parties maintain around doing business with the AFD. Well, joining me on the line now is Anna Silvina Shassani, the Financial Times Berlin bureau chief. She's in Magdeburg in Saxony. So there's a pretty commanding lead at the moment for the AFD. Yes, absolutely. Over 40%, as you said. And if some of the smaller parties do not make the 5 % threshold for representation in parliament, It may be enough for them, or it's actually within striking distance of them to secure an absolute majority of seats in Parliament.

11:55Now, they have won state elections before, but not been able to form administrations. Does this feel different this time? it does feel different because you know winning a state elections with 30 percent so become you know coming first with 30 percent as you know they did about two years ago is different from coming first with 45 percent or nearly 50 i mean they are now really aiming for absolute majorities in regional elections that's a big big change and yes indeed for many years they have been excluded from coalitions and the chancellor has decided to ostracize them. But that hasn't worked.

12:40And so we can see that in those smaller regions, smaller states, they are managing to mobilize voters, non-voters, previously non-voters, voters from all established parties to really get near a majority, an absolute majority. What are the chances of the CDU? I mean, Friedrich Merce is not very popular. What are the chances of him, if you could tell us, of forming some kind of coalition if the AFD doesn't get an outright majority? So that's the interesting thing is that if the AFD falls short of the majority, in a way it places the CDU, Merce's CDU, in a very difficult position because if it wants to retain power while ostracizing the AFD, so maintaining the firewall, it would have to probably talk to the anti-capitalist left, the linker, which is the successor to the Communist Party under the, you know, the former East Germany.

13:43So, and for the CDU, for a lot of CDU members and officials, it is quite, well, it's really, you know, it's not something that bit like at all. So it could create a lot of frictions. And just very, very briefly, more state elections coming up, more tests. Absolutely. Two more after this one on Sunday, one in the city-state of Berlin, where the CDU is actually now ruling, you know, the state, but is going to lose power probably. And the AFT is also pulling strongly, as well as the radical left. And also in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg for Parliament at the end of the month. Anna Sylvainer Shasani from the Financial Times, thank you very much.

14:26Now, there's news of what appears to be a significant medical breakthrough that could raise hopes for people waiting for kidney transplants. Doctors in the United States say a genetically modified pig kidney functioned inside 66-year-old Tim Andrews for almost nine months, the longest period of time on record. The kidney was used as a temporary bridge while the patient waited for a human donor organ, allowing him to avoid dialysis going to hospital every week. It could mean that animal-to-human transplants could help tackle the global shortages of donor organs. Earlier, I spoke to Dr Leonardo Riella, who's the medical director of kidney transplantations at Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the team.

15:21I began by asking him how big a breakthrough this latest finding is. We passed through a major milestone for two reasons. I think number one, we had a pig kidney working and performing all the expected kidney functions for more than nine months, allowing our patient to be off dialysis. And second, we were able to transition this patient from a pig kidney to a human kidney. So those are two very important milestones that we're able to pass. And this is no ordinary pig kidney. You had to sort of do some genetic modifications to the pigs themselves to begin with, correct? Correct. These are very unique pigs.

16:02They are cloned and they have genetic edits to improve the compatibility between the pig kidney and humans. Now, this is a kind of bridge technique, as I understand it, while you wait for a human kidney to be available, a donor kidney. What problems did you encounter after you'd implanted this kidney? Because it did eventually fail, didn't it? Correct. Yes. The immune system of humans do recognize certain things in the pig that's slightly different than a traditional human transplant. So I think they're learning, you know, in terms of trying to understand what are some of the differences between a human and a pig kidney and how the immune system recognizes that.

16:46And second, how can we tweak, how can we change slightly our anti-rejection meds in order to be able to control that in the long term? So I think we're sort of, you know, getting in the right direction. And we have another patient who just passed the nine-month mark with the pig kidney. So these are very exciting findings so far. And for those who don't know, give us an idea of what this means in terms of the patient's quality of life for that period of time while they're waiting for a donor kidney. So the biggest issue that we have currently in transplantation is the organ shortage. It's a crisis because we know that with patients with kidney failure, the best treatment option for the majority of patients is to get a transplant.

17:38And unfortunately, the majority of our patients do not have access to organs in a timely manner, so they have to remain on dialysis. And dialysis is an incredible technology and innovation that keeps patients alive. But unfortunately, it is a treatment that cannot reproduce the function of a true kidney. So you go to a dialysis center, you filter your blood three times a week for three or four hours. And the consequences of that is that many of these patients that stay on dialysis, they start developing cardiovascular disease and worse outcomes. and unfortunately many die or even become too sick to become a kidney transplant while they're waiting for their promised kidney.

18:22Do you now feel that this is something that can be scaled, that this is something that will be suitable for a lot of patients in this position? This is what we hope in the long term, that we are able to provide xenotransplantation as an alternative treatment for these patients with kidney failure. Our ambition is that with a pig kidney, we may be able to do additional genetic edits to potentially create an invisible organ once transplanted. And this would overcome the second biggest challenge in transplantation is that patients require to take anti-rejection meds for the rest of their lives in order to prevent rejection.

19:03But now imagine that by doing these edits and creating these organs that could be invisible to the immune system, these patients will not require to take anti-rejection meds in the long term. So this will be really game changer. That was Dr Leonardo Riella. Now in Britain, the right-wing populist party Reform UK gathers in the English city of Birmingham today for its annual conference. It should have been something of a showcase for a party that's transformed itself from insurgent outsider into a serious contender for power. But the conference opens under something of a cloud after undercover television documentary makers raised questions about the party's handling of financial donations and prompted the resignations of two senior advisers pending an internal inquiry.

19:52Our correspondent Rob Watson is at the conference, and I think the leader now, Nigel Farage, is speaking now, Rob. He is, and he's describing what happened as a little local difficulty, Gary, which is clearly trying to rather minimize it because, to cut a very long story short, essentially a commercial television company here had a 30-minute investigation, and what it suggested, whether it's undercover reporting, was that there were two very senior reform officials who seemingly were trying to break election law by allowing foreign money into the country towards reform, and that is very much not against the law.

20:30But Nigel Farage has just been saying local, local difficulty. Gary, and that it was all caught up by far-left activists, although he did say that the two people who've now been suspended were injudicious at best. Yeah, I saw one other member of the party describing it as a hit job as well. So are they acknowledging something went wrong here or not acknowledging that something went wrong? Both. So, I mean, firstly, they're trying to deflect it by saying, look, you know, they were out to get us, they were left-wing activists, they've done the same thing in the United States and been condemned by the US Congress for that.

21:06But, I mean, clearly, Nigel Farage saying that these two senior aides to him had acted injudiciously, and the fact that they have been suspended does suggest that reform accept that if you look at this film, and anyone who does, Gary, will be, well, certainly if they're reform supporters, will be kind of wincing at the way in which these two officials seem very keen to hoover up money from a rich person, what they thought was a rich person in the United States. Is there any evidence that some of the sort of policy announcements that reform have been announcing recently, welfare cut, severe, significant cuts to welfare, that they're sort of cutting through, that they're shoring up its support?

21:43Because it does have significant support. Oh, very much. I mean, to put this into context, I mean, look, this wasn't ideal for reform. Some months ago, they were leading in the polls. They had lots of momentum. And then these questions about the party's finances, about Nigel Farage's finances have dented their poll lead. They are now no longer in the lead and have slowed their momentum. But that shouldn't let people not forget that there is a reason why they're the populist party of the right. And that is that they focus very much on the issue of immigration. They focus on the issue of the idea of welfare needing to be cut.

22:19on a very important cultural issue, which we also heard the guest speaker from the National Rally in France, Bardello, say, and that is the sort of sense amongst many voters in this country that we're always doing our country down, that we're not proud of our history, that we're ashamed of who we are. So that stuff cuts through. But, I mean, the problem with questions about finances, Gary, is that it does have an awful lot of people in the electorate saying, oh, my goodness, all the politicians are the same. They're all in it for themselves, all got their finger in the till. So that's the way in which these stories are rather damaging for a party that wants to be insurgent and different.

22:54Yeah, if you're the outsider, you want to seem different to the rest, don't you? You bet. OK, Rob Watson there at the Reform UK conference in Birmingham. Thank you very much. You're listening to the BBC World Service. This is News Hour with me, Gary O'Donoghue.

23:27John Deere is putting in work and putting up highlights. Oh man, look at those passes. Tillage, planting, harvesting. Three years in and these pre-owned machines are still at the top of their game. We're talking reliability, performance and long-term potential. And get this, these veteran machines can pick up the latest precision tech with ease. You know it. And fans ready to add John Deere certified pre-owned equipment and more options to their lineup can shop at machinefinder.com. Booyah!

24:17Welcome back to NewsHour. In a moment, we'll hear from the US State Department on why the recent oil deal signed with Venezuela is a good deal for Venezuelans and for America. We'll also hear what ordinary Venezuelans make of it. But first, as mass protests continue across Spain, the enclave of Suta is grappling with a rise in the numbers of sexual assaults. Authorities there say 23 such cases have been recorded since the mass influx of migrants. But the figures could be much higher, according to Suta's chief prosecutor. Shereen Alakrass reports.

24:55In a shelter in Ceuta, women and children sit under covers trying to shield from the hot sun. There are some of the thousands who crossed into Ceuta at the end of July. Most of them told the BBC that they left their homes in search of work in Europe. But for some, reaching Ceuta took a darker turn. Sarah, not her real name, was sexually assaulted while sleeping in the forest. We've changed her name to protect her identity. A married man was next to me and touched me in inappropriate places. I tried to defend myself in that situation, moved away and made sure not to go near him again. I didn't want any trouble, as there were drones overhead and soldiers nearby.

25:34I was afraid that if I tried to flee the area, the soldiers would arrest me. I was caught in a difficult dilemma. I was forced to stay there until morning and I managed to escape. There are concerns that the number of sexual assaults in the city could be higher. Souta's chief prosecutor says many victims have not filed a report, either out of fear or because of their current status in Souta. Hello. Hello. Thank you for your time. Dr. Susanna Ascaso has treated several victims. The youngest, she says, was just 10 years old. It's surprising for us. We are not used to that things. It's horrible. Beyond the emergency room, Dr.

26:14Escaso is concerned, like many others in Ceuta, about how the small Spanish enclave will cope with those migrants who remain. They are sleeping at the mountains and the beach and doing everything they want without any law, under any law. So I think they have to take care of them and get it to the border again, to Morocco. Others, like Sabah, have stepped into hell. She's opened her home to feed migrants. We met her as she prepared food.

26:45We want to help, but the conditions are dire. You see girls going through rape, sleeping in the forest. Any one of them could be my daughter, my granddaughter, or a member of my own family. It's thought that there could be more than 5 ,000 migrants still in Sauta. Around 1 ,500 of them are unaccompanied minors. Many are being housed in shelters, but some are still sleeping outside. In recent days, there's been growing tensions between migrants and locals, and the government is under growing pressure to resolve the crisis. But for now, the migrants left in the city are waiting to find out what happens next.

27:28And that was Shereen Al-Akras reporting there from the Spanish enclave of Suta.