Nepal: Rescuers are trying to reach more than seven hundred trapped workers

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0:30Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesby. Rescue efforts to find survivors continue in Nepal after last week's devastating glacier collapse and massive flash flood. Emergency teams are focusing on a number of hydropower tunnels where it's thought as many as 700 people may be trapped. International teams from India and China are also helping. Heavy equipment has been brought in to try to move debris and there's also been controlled explosions today around the tunnels. While hope is fading to find survivors elsewhere in the flooded areas, experts say there could be air pockets inside the tunnels where people may still be alive.

1:13Our correspondent Azadeh Moshiri reports from the town of Dunchi in one of the worst affected areas. As we look over the Bote Kusi River, flowing from Tibet to Nepal, we see barren land. What was once a thriving trading town, Siabro Bisi has but a few buildings left. Roads tend to mud and debris, reveal the scale of last week's flood and the devastation left behind. Nearby is the Chilime hydropower tunnel. Multiple helicopters arrive with emergency teams attempting yet another rescue. For days they have tried to travel deeper into the mouth of the tunnel to save the six workers trapped inside.

1:50Kancha Babu Tamang has been coming to watch over the rescue every few days, hoping his colleagues are saved.

1:59The tunnel was the only safe place to go. When there is a flood or an earthquake, it's usually the only safe place to stay. But this time it wasn't safe. The rescuers told me it's full of debris inside. They had come two days ago as well. They were able to get 90 metres inside, but they said there was a lot of mud and it was impossible to go in any further. Hundreds of people are trapped in tunnels across the most affected areas. At the Tsui Shuli 3A site, emergency teams are pumping in air, have carried out a controlled blast and used excavators to clear the mud and debris. Here in the district of Rasua, everyone we meet tells us they have lost loved ones.

2:44Some of them were themselves caught in the floods. Still thousands have been rescued, including hundreds of foreign nationals. But for those waiting on news of the missing, Every day that passes is more difficult than the last. The BBC's Azadeh Mashiri there, reporting from Dunchi in Nepal. Well, over the days since the disaster, we've heard from many eyewitnesses on the ground who managed to escape the floodwaters as they raged down the valley, sweeping away buildings and bridges as if they were just matchsticks. Now we can hear from a man who witnessed the whole event as it happened from the air.

3:20Aman Budhatoki is a commercial helicopter pilot who just happened to be flying over the valley as the landslide started. As he watched, he could see the scale of the disaster unfolding. He radioed to alert the authorities that this was a major event, rapidly developing into a catastrophe. Aman Budhatoki has been telling me what he saw. The scale on which everything was unfolding, we never thought it would be this huge. It looked like a landslide in the beginning as there was debris all over and there was a thick cloud of dust all over the surface of the river. So we thought maybe there's a little landslide because even last year, the same area, there were some floods, like small floods there.

4:07So we thought, OK, something's happening. And then the next five to 10 seconds, we started seeing the whole scenario unfold. So on the first glance, we didn't even realise how huge things were taking place. And at what point did you realise how serious it was? I was flying with another captain. His name is Captain Subash. So he pointed out asking if it was a landslide. And I thought maybe, OK, it might be a small landslide. And then the next five to ten seconds, I started looking out of the cockpit. And then I saw dark debris water from the flood and the white water from the river, those things mixing together.

4:51And at that point, I realized, oh, it's not a landslide. It's a big, big flood. And did you see the sort of attempts of people trying to flee ahead of it? Because some of the footage that's come out from people's mobile phones and everything has been almost unbelievable. I mean, it looks like AI generated, you know, a movie scene or something, doesn't it? Yes, it does. It does. So as we were flying, we were, I think, 2 ,000 or 2 ,500 feet above the terrain. So from our perspective, what we could see was the infrastructures getting destroyed and the dust from those infrastructures rising up. And how did you feel at that moment to be safely in the air and seeing this unfold on the ground?

5:37As soon as we realized what was happening, what was unfolding there, I looked at the other captain and I said, what do we do now? That was our first reaction. What do we do now? We were flying alone in that area. There were no other aircrafts inside that valley. And then we started making circles, orbits around the villages that we knew. And as we were having this conversation, me and the other captain, like I asked him, the people down there, they might be hearing sound of our helicopter and they might have this little hope of us landing right now and then rescuing them. But unfortunately, with that dust cloud, as I said, it was impossible for us to go and land at that exact moment.

6:19So the only thing we could do was contact Kratpandu and then inform all the security personnels so that rescue can be initiated as soon as possible. It felt like a tsunami was unfolding. It felt like that firsthand. And so you've actually been involved, haven't you, in the rescue efforts over the days that have happened since then. Tell us about your role in that. Yeah, so after we transferred the whole information, how everything was unfolding in that valley, I came into land in Kathmandu and then I saw army helicopters taking off for the same area. And within the next hour, us, including other 15 to 20 other helicopters, we all took off from Kathmandu for rescue, search and rescue in those areas.

7:06Because of the flood, all the roads, all the infrastructures have been destroyed. So they've got no means of getting anything they want right at the moment. So helicopters right now are playing a very crucial part as the devastation is taking place. Well, they're the lifeline, aren't they, really? Because, as you say, access by road has been cut off. But in terms of the flying conditions, what have they been like? Because obviously you're landing in areas in a disaster zone where people are desperate. I mean, how difficult has it been technically for you? It's been very, very challenging right now.

7:40very very challenging. Nepal is notorious for its terrain and its weather. Previously we used to have proper helipads made there by the by the locals of course so that we could do commercial plights but due to the flood all those helipads are gone so we are landing in places that have been improvised as a helipad so I landed this morning in a small field where people used to grow spinach. It's as small as a small room, you know, so those places we go and land over those places, try to supply whatever possible, try to bring in police and army personnel who work on the field right there and then help the people out.

8:23And yeah, the whole situation, the whole scenario looks like a war zone right now. So helicopters are playing a really essential role. That's Aman Budutoki there, one of those involved in the rescue operations in Nepal. He's a commercial helicopter pilot and he was flying over the scene as that glacier collapsed last week. Well, over the border in Tibet, which is controlled by China, more than 500 people are reported to be still missing, but the official death toll is just 16. Search and rescue efforts are continuing, but it is quite difficult to get accurate reports from that area of China. And there's also been a crackdown on social media reports about the disaster.

9:05Kerry Allen is our China analyst at BBC Monitoring. I asked her what's actually been reported inside China about the disaster. Well, this has been a major story since this incident happened back on the 26th of August. But it doesn't feel as though much media has changed over the last few days. So what people have been seeing if they turn on Chinese broadcaster CCTV, which has been running quite a lot of coverage on this, They've been seeing lots of footage of relief workers going to trying to reach the rescue site. They've been trying to remove blocked roads and trying to get into the area that's affected.

9:45So this is what a lot of people have seen. They've seen lots of soldiers, armed police officers rushing to the scene. But things haven't really moved on from that. So that's that's very much what people have been seeing. They've been getting the impression that, yeah, there's a huge relief effort involved. But I mean, you know, looking at the Nepalese side and hearing about the hundreds of deaths and thousands of people reported missing, for people in China, it's quite unsettling that the death toll only stands at 16 comparatively when there are more than 500 people missing. Right. I was going to ask you about the updated casualty figures because that number does seem quite low.

10:25Where are we getting the information on what casualties there might be on that side of the border? Well, there are official press conferences that are taking place, and these normally take place every 24 hours. So people are seeing coverage of this via official media. So these are official statistics that are being released. But I would say just in general, it is very difficult to get information out of Tibet. There's a number of reasons for this. It's a region that's obviously got a lot of mountains. There are poor telecommunications networks there. So it is difficult to get information from the region as a whole.

11:02But also it's an area that the government doesn't, has censored long term. So just because on social media platforms, there has been a history of people talking about Tibet and wanting to talk about Tibetan protests, free Tibet campaigns, for example. So, I mean, when this story broke, one of the first things I did was I went on Sina Weibo, which is China's equivalent of a platform like X or Facebook, just typed in Tibet. And, you know, if you go on Facebook and type in Tibet, you'll get thousands of posts that will show up. But in China, you'll only see 100 since the beginning of time. And, you know, so there's definitely a sense that there's restricted commentary on social media platforms when it comes to Tibet.

11:49Well, on that, it's quite interesting. It seems there's been a number of fines and other sort of punishments dished out to people for allegedly fabricating fake disaster reports on social media. Can you tell us about that? Yes. So there's been there have been media reports circulating today saying that at least 10 people have been given administrative penalties. And what these normally are, they're not criminal charges. So people might be given small fines or they spend up to 10 days in prison. but yeah for posting what the government says are is fake news on social media so people suggesting that thousands of people have died in China as a result of this or posting videos that are misleading that are not from Tibet that are from other disasters happening elsewhere in the world so this this almost sends a message to people in China that if they're fake posting fake news about this that they could face punishment and there has been a warning that if people post content that seriously disrupts social order i mean bear in mind china has more than a billion people online so if if something's posted that really puts the frighters on criminal charges can be bought and people can face between three and seven years in prison that's the bbc's kerry allen there from bbc monitoring and earlier we were hearing about the hydroelectric power tunnels in nepal where it's hoped there could be survivors.

13:14There's some images of that on the BBC website, which are quite compelling as well, if you're interested in following that story visually there.

13:27Coming up later on the programme, the jury hears closing arguments in the trial of the man accused of killing the American rapper Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago will get an assessment of the trial so far. Are you sure you want me to answer that? Is it going to be graphic? No, I ain't going to raise the word in it, but you asked me a question. And what I explained to them, I don't want to send them to prison. Sure. Even though we don't like each other. Sure. I don't want to send you to prison. More on that story to come. Our headlines, as we've been hearing, rescue teams in Nepal are making progress in accessing tunnels where hundreds are believed to be trapped following last week's flash floods.

14:10Germany says it's troubled by the presence of Russian finance minister at the G20 meeting in the United States and Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from international football. We'll be coming back to that story later. This is Rebecca Kesby with NewsHour Live from the BBC in London. British fashion designer John Galliano has withdrawn from a planned exhibition of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Met had come in for severe criticism for hosting the exhibition. Galliano was arrested in Paris in 2011 for anti-Semitic insults and hateful remarks he made against Jews and Asian people at a bar near his home in the city.

14:55He was also caught on video at one point saying, I love Hitler, and was sacked from his job with Dior shortly afterwards, but many of his designs have been considered masterpieces and have been worn by the likes of Nicole Kidman, Princess Diana, Kate Blanchett as well. I've been speaking to Vanessa Friedman, who's covering this story for the New York Times. The pressure on the Met has been intense, I asked her. So did Galliano jump before he was pushed? The tension has really come to a head, you know, only in the last four days, I would say. The museum announced that it was having the show at the very end of July.

15:33And though there was some comment at the time, it was relatively quiet. I think behind the scenes, increasingly, people were expressing their discomfort with this idea, given Galliano's past history of anti-Semitic comments, you know, his efforts to atone for them afterwards. But, you know, the current tensions around those feelings in New York City, in the country, in the world, made it just seem like a very strange time to choose to have a show honoring a designer who would become only the third living designer ever to get a solo exhibition at the Met, which is truly a singular and historic honor.

16:16Yeah, it's a big deal, isn't it? I mean, we'll come on to his work in a moment. But I mean, I guess, I mean, there were a number of very big donors to the Met that had objections to this exhibition, I think. Was that what swung it in the end? Big donors, board members, city politicians who were willing to speak out. You know, first, the grumblings were kind of behind the scenes. And I think the Met felt that they could manage them. They were people writing their emails directly to Max Hollein, the director of the museum. And he would respond, you know. But as this became increasingly public, as Julie Menon, who is the Speaker of the City Council, as Brad Lander, who is a candidate for Congress, as Arnie Glimsher, who is one of the most powerful art world dealers in New York, were willing to essentially go on the record saying that they might rescind their gifts, that this was a serious mistake.

17:14I think it just became untenable for the museum to keep going. And in terms of his work, he is considered a great artist, isn't he? And I mentioned some of those names. And I mean, everybody would remember the dresses, the bright yellow one that Nicole Kidman wore, the one with all the hummingbirds, I think it was, or butterflies on the Cate Blanchett dress. Why was he considered or is he considered so good? I mean, he is, you know, unquestionably a very influential and very important designer. His imagination, his understanding of shape, you know, the way he uses bias cut and history and references is, you know, has influenced generations of other designers.

17:55One of the things that people talk about a lot when it comes to Galliano is this question of second chances. He was celebrated as the man who transformed Dior until 2011 when he was filmed in the middle of an anti-Semitic rant, convicted of a hate crime in Paris and fired from his job. He went through a period of rehab and atonement. he was rehired by Maison Margiela in 2014. And he went on to an equally celebrated career at that brand, which he left in 2024. No one is saying that he should not have had that second chance or he wasn't worthy of it, nor is anyone saying that the Met should not collect his work or include him in group shows or even have a retrospective once his career is over and can be really assessed historically.

18:42I think the question was really, why make him the third living designer to have this singular honour at a time of rising anti-Semitism when he could work for another 10 years? Vanessa Friedman there from the New York Times. Next, the World Nomad Games got underway in Kyrgyzstan today. They feature traditional sports played by nomadic cultures across Central Asia, lots of horseback riding challenges, but they have become increasingly popular all over the world, including in this country.

19:30That's the Iranian team arriving. Apparently, President Pazeshkian was there cheering them on. Well, Kian Lam is a travel writer and the founder of the website Where and Wander. He's at those games and spoke to us just after that opening ceremony. The ceremony is quite something, you know, it's pretty much like the Olympics. There's a country procession, you know, a lot of the heads of states were there. I think this year there's over 90 countries participating in the World Nomad Games. So, you know, I'm from the United States. They were there. There's countries from Asia, Vietnam. I saw South Korea, Philippines, everyone, Canada, Algeria, you know.

20:13Fantastic. Now, I mean, the sports are very interesting, aren't they? And there are the kind of classics like falconry, a bit of wrestling, that sort of thing. Archery is a big one. And then there's some other sports like I've got here. I don't think this is the exact name of the sport, but headless goat polo. What's that? Yeah, there's a game here called Kokporu. It's quite an interesting one. It's sort of like, imagine polo, but instead of a mallet and a ball, they're hanging on to a 30 kilo goat carcass and they're fighting their way across like a 200 meter field to try to throw it into a giant bowl called a kazan.

20:56And so you get the goalt in. That's one point. More points at the end of the three 20 minute period. And you're the winner. Goodness. And what other sort of slightly left field, shall we say, sports are there? So there's lots of horse games, as you can imagine, a lot of wrestling. So you combine the two and you have horse wrestling, which is basically it's a game called Error Niche, where two contestants are on horseback basically trying to just pull each other off. Okay, so they're... So quite brutal. So they're wrestling each other. The horses aren't wrestling each other. They're not involved.

21:36Okay, good. No, no, no. The horse are not wrestling each other. Okay, and then we've got the other one, I think, where there's horse riding and archery at the same time. That sounds very complicated. Yeah, I mean, it's impressive more than complicated. complicated these guys are you know you're thinking back to like sort of like Genghis Khan era right where the hordes are riding across the field and they're doing multiple you know multitasking so here uh the athletes are training to try to hit a target while moving horizontally across the field you know at full speed on a horse the horse you know full control using just their legs because you know their arms are preoccupied and you mentioned that there are so many teams represented from all over the world, including from America.

22:23But I mean, there must be countries that really do have a historical advantage in all of these sports. Oh, absolutely. I mean, the games originated in Kyrgyzstan. This is the sixth edition. You know, they passed it on to other countries. So Turkey hosted it a few years ago and two years ago was hosted in Kazakhstan. So as you can imagine, these are sort of the powerhouses. And especially in a game like Kokporu, You know, it'd be a surprise if a team other than Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan face each other in the finals. You know, the Olympics are the Olympics. You know, there's a lot of cool games there, but these are games that people don't see.

23:02And I think for a lot of people, they're like, hey, maybe I can do it too. That's travel writer Kian Lam there speaking to us from Kyrgyzstan. Those games are going on for the next six days. I'm told the US team is mostly made up of cowboys. and I suspect that they might actually do quite well.

23:51Welcome back to NewsHour. Two years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, an 85-year-old British actor will return to the London stage this week. Peter Marinka has had a long career working in theatre, radio and big-budget films such as Love Actually and Paddington in Peru. Now, though, he's taking on one of the toughest roles in British theatre. Our health reporter Jim Reid has been to meet him. Go on with this drivel in the morning or leave it at that. Leave it at that. Peter Marenka at dress rehearsals in London. Famine and feasting of the ages. The 85-year-old actor has spent a lifetime performing on stage.

24:38A few years ago, though, he says he found himself switching off at work. How did you find out about your diagnosis? Because my GP sent me for an MRI and they got it, yes. And what was your reaction when they told you? It's I've got Alzheimer's. I have to accept it. And it explained why I kept losing things and didn't, yeah, yes, that sort of thing. I started to laugh at myself. The silly things that I do, yes. Then this year, two years after his diagnosis, Peter was called up and offered one of the toughest roles in theatre, a single-act Samuel Beckett play. It was out of the blue. Dave said, would I like to do it?

25:26Would I like to do it? Yes, yes. Oh, yes, yes, yes. What's the fire in order, Marta? Ledger, Tins, tape recorder. In Crapp's last tape, a writer listens back to recordings of his younger self, remembering a lifetime of missed opportunities and regrets. I have to believe I was ever as bad as that. Thank God, that's all I've done with anyway. The spool will be in one of the boxes. To make it work, teleprompter screens will be dotted around the theatre and Peter will be wearing a tiny earpiece so he can be discreetly fed a line if he needs it. It is a play about memory. It's about imperfect memory.

26:10The director of the Cockpit Theatre, Dave Weibrow, came up with the idea for this project. We're not going to hide the idea that Peter might need a prompt or he might need a screen. This doesn't matter. That becomes part of it. So it's not a matter of covering up? No, no, no. Absolutely quite the reverse. This is about creative work being possible for people that have had an Alzheimer's diagnosis. All the profits from the four-day run will go to the Alzheimer's Society. OK, before we go any further, can we convene and have a chat about what we're going to do? This week, then, Peter Marenka will step back onto the stage to create a few more memories for his audience and perhaps break down a few barriers at the same time.

26:55That's it, Peter. Jim Reid, who was speaking there to Peter Marenka, who's taking to the boards again this week, aged 85 and after that diagnosis for Alzheimer's, but revisiting a very tough role in British theatre there.

27:21You're listening to NewsHour Live from the BBC. I'm Rebecca Kesby. The time has come, says Lionel Messi, as he announced his retirement from international football today. Argentina's star striker said he'd given everything to the national side, but now has nothing left to give. The news is not a complete surprise. Messi is nearly 40, and there were rumours he might retire after Argentina's defeat to Spain in the World Cup back in July. He was in floods of tears after that match. Perhaps he knew then that it was his last time in the national shirt. But what a career he's had. Well, Guillaume Balaguet is a Spanish football journalist and Messi's official biographer.