Nepal and China try to reach flood survivors, and Norway has a new king | Global News Podcast

Hello, welcome to the global news. podcast from the BBC World Service. Hi, I'm Anker Desai and on Friday the 28th. [music] of August, these are our main. stories. The Chinese President Xiinping. has chaired an emergency meeting to. coordinate rescue efforts following the. deadly floods in Nepal and Tibet. Norway. mourns as King Harold V dies at the age. of 89. [music] Human rights groups warn. of increasing violence by Israeli. settlers in the occupied West Bank. And. Apple is set to release the first ever.

foldable iPhone. [music]. We start with the devastating landslides. and floods in Nepal and Tibet. More than. 500 people are now known to have died in. the disaster. Hundreds are still missing. and relief agencies are struggling to. help survivors. Rescue operations on the. Tibetan side had been suspended over the. threat of renewed flooding, but have now. resumed. Earlier, I spoke to our China. correspondent Steven McDonald. On the. Tibetan side of the border, the. situation has stabilized somewhat. The.

rescue and recovery effort has started. again and that's because fears of this. second round of flash flooding have. subsided somewhat. Uh they people are. not so concerned and I'll tell you why. It's because there was this artificial. lake if I could describe it as that. created when mud and debris, rocks, etc. had poured into a mountain valley and. this then filled up with water a huge.

volume of water. creating what they call a barrier lake. and the concern was that this would. burst leading to another huge gushing. amount of water pouring down that. valley. But government officials are. saying that the water level has subsided. quite a bit in that lake and so the. fears of it bursting or anything along. those lines because they've dropped.

they've decided to resume work that has. resumed the very difficult effort to try. to find people who might still be alive. [snorts] trapped underneath I I don't. know the remains of buildings or. something like that after that huge huge. wall of water and mud came crashing down. a couple of days ago. >> Stephen, Chinese president has made an. offer of help to Nepal. Is there much. crossber cooperation on this one? >> Yeah, I mean it's he said that Chinese. teams can be available. I mean a lot of.

other countries have also offered to. help Nepal, but at the moment the. Nepalese government seems to be saying. they don't need any help in terms of the. immediate rescue. They've got their own. military doing this. What the government. in Nepal has said is they might need. help with is the recovery later on. So. some sort of financial support to assist. those areas that have been devastated by. this terrible incident and maybe China. will be there to help with that. But you. know China does have a lot of resources.

especially when you compare the country. to Nepal. However, at the moment at. least we haven't seen any Chinese teams. operating on the other side of the. border. What do we make of the coverage. of this story so far based on what the. Chinese state media is saying and then. what a lot of people in China are seeing. on social media? Well, certain things. have happened here. For example, the. really shocking footage of that the. original, you know, just gargantuan amount of.

water pouring down, smashing. settlements, engulfing multi-story. buildings, and people running trying to. outrun this. Hasn't been shown on. television here, only stills. Now, in. one way, people might say that that's. the government censoring. this type of stuff, but there is an. extent to which it could be quite. disturbing for people who live in Tibet. I mean, imagine you've got friends and. relatives. You're essentially watching.

them die. And so, you can also. understand why there might have been a. decision not to run that footage. It is. highly controlled there, though. It's. the most controlled part of China. I. think it'd be fair to say that foreign. reporters, we can't go into the Tibet. Tibetan autonomous region ever without. permission from the government and so. that's why we're covering it from here. So it is also very hard to verify what's. really going on. >> I heard more about the situation in. Nepal from Sanjay Dakal of the BBC's.

Nepali service who is in Kathmandu. Most. of the areas dry in very remote part and. in in a high mountain area. So access is. very difficult and we have seen videos. of security personnel rescuing people. from muddy totally muddy places and uh. it looks like a very complicated. operation. Uh the road access by road is. very limited. um large stretch of.

highways have been washed washed away by. the flood uh and therefore the um most. of the job has to be done either through. aerial route uh and uh the people to to. access to the people in the most. difficult region is very difficult. >> in terms of the risk of further. flooding. Do we know if there is are. there are there any warnings which are. coming out about this? uh there were. lots of warning from the Chinese side. also and uh today this afternoon. Nepalese uh disaster response authority. also issued an alert asking people to be.

to remain on high alert because the the. water level was slightly rising in the. river area where the flood had occurred. uh but then there were also then reports. that uh the bridge that occurred today. has stopped uh such kind of reports came. from China Chinese side and so for for. the time being rescue and search and. rescue is ongoing but there's a big. worry that there could be another.

flooding u know whether through the. bridge of that uh lake uh and so there's. that big worry. >> king Hawk on the 8th has ascended to the. throne in Norway after the death of his. father, Harold V. Harold died earlier on. Friday morning at the age of 89. Large. crowds gathered to watch the new. monarch's arrival at the royal palace in. Oslo where he's been meeting government. ministers. Mourners have been gathering. to pay tributes to the late king. >> He was just a really nice king.

and I feel like he was the whole. country's grandfather. >> I've been sailing in the king's regata. So I met him a couple of times drinking. small beers with him. He always had a. great humor. >> The king's final months though were. overshadowed by turmoil in the royal. family. His daughter-in-law, Crown. Princess Metamarit, underwent a lung. transplant and a son, Marius Borg Hoy, was jailed for four years after being. convicted of two rapes. Meta Maritt also.

apologized for her past friendship with. Jeffrey Epstein. A global affairs. reporter Mimi Swaybe told me more about. his life and drain. He took throne in. 1991 and oversaw so many changes. worldwide let alone in his country. Norway. But he was seen despite having. no political uh power or form of. political power as very much a symbol. and a status of comfort and stability. for many Norwegians. He would often go. to disasters uh address victims of.

attacks and really was seen as a king of. the people. And that is something I've. heard from mourners across yesterday. when people started preparing for this. event, going to the palace and also. laying down flowers, lighting candles, holding vigil for him until this morning. again when we heard the news from the. royal court, confirming that the late. King Harold had passed away peacefully, they said, at Oslo University Hospital. after suffering with an a blood. infection which he was being treated for.

there. But he was very much seen as a. king of the people, a very modest king. He was a unifying uh symbol, unifying. figure. That is something that many. people have been saying that they will. remember him as his grandfather figure. for the country and was hugely loved. despite all these scandals that the. wider royal family have been played with. in recent years. >> Mimi, do we know what happens next? So. when the successor will be sworn in for. example, >> so King Hawin is now the new king. It is. automatic when the previous monarch.

passes away, the next in line, his son. automat automatically assumes that. title. So he's now officially the new. king. He hasn't been sworn in yet. He. will take an oath at a later time, but. at the moment we're seeing mourers uh. pay their respects. There is an. extraordinary council of state happening. right now and that is basically a. meeting of a full cabinet meeting of. Norway's parliament with the new. monarch. They're signing a book of. condolences. We can then expect a um an.

in-person kind of appearance in the. palace uh square by ministers as well as. the new king and then a sequence of. eulogies then going on to uh officially. being sworn in. And this is a kind of. sequence of events, a timetable which is. full of tradition and ceremony, but it. is important to say it is also in. keeping with the nation's more low-key. royal family than their approach to kind. of reigning over Norway.

>> Still to come in this podcast, reports. [music] say the Trump administration. wants an ownership stake in Venezuela's. oil resources. [music]. Violence by Jewish settlers in the. occupied West Bank is set to reach. record levels this year as human rights. groups warned that they are increasingly. spreading into new areas of the. territory. Attacks on Palestinians have. risen under Israel's current government. alongside a rapid increase in Israeli. settlements. Our Middle East. correspondent Lucy Williamson has been. looking at reports of settler violence.

across the West Bank in the course of. one week. A teenager shot dead, beating, 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, ampute. Sad Alamore was beaten by a settler with. an iron bar. as he stooped to pick up one of his. crutches. This shocking video clearly. showing his attacker now under arrest. Say, who lost his leg last year after. being shot near his house by a settler. security guard, says settlers are. constantly harassing them.

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, until they. remove everyone from these areas and. replace them with Zionists. On Friday, a large group of Jewish. settlers, some of them armed, walked. through the Palestinian village of Sire,

past the house of 17-year-old Karim. Shalalde. >> His father said Kareem was killed while. filming the settlers from beside this. pole after someone in the group fired. two bullets towards him. Israel's army. said it had received reports of. Palestinians throwing stones. I was not able to hold him or say. goodbye. My heart breaks over Karim. I. wish I could have just one more day with.

him. >> Each reminder of settler outpost nearby. now more painful for the family. >> Last night they started flashing a. spotlight at us, Kareem's father told. me, as if to say, we killed your son and. it doesn't matter. Israeli settlements. in the West Bank, illegal under. international law, are expanding and. settler attacks arising as well, but few. are ever prosecuted. >> There are Jews 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, one of the settlers in. Israel's governing coalition filmed. himself destroying a village memorial in. the West Bank because he said it honored. terrorists. And Jewish settlers were filmed. torturing a donkey, tying it to their.

vehicle, and dragging it along until it. was dead. A sadistic act of aggression. that shocked Israelis, but left many. Palestinians here unsurprised. US media is reporting that the Trump. administration is in talks with. Venezuela's interim government about. Washington taking an ownership stake in. its huge oil resources. The BBC's. Newsday program heard more from our. business reporter Endoquay. >> According to those reports, um the. details are still being ironed out, but.

the discussions are said to involve more. than a dozen productive oil fields which. have 90 billion barrels of proven. reserves. Now bear in mind, Venezuela. has 300 billion barrels of proven. reserves. So this is nearly a third of. that. Now some of these oil fields used. to be controlled by former Venezuelan. insiders, you know, people with close. ties to the the former um. administration, including some who've. now been indicted. And even some of. those fields were controlled by China.

Um, so we're not entirely sure how. what's going to happen with the. ownership of some of these these oil. fields if this deal was to p was to pan. out. Um, apparently in return for a US. ownership stake, private companies, including American firms, would develop. the oil fields and return more oil. revenue to to Venezuela. Apple is. planning to shake up the tech industry. again as it prepares to enter the. foldable smartphone market with its.

first foldable iPhone. expected to be. unveiled next month. Huawei and Samsung. currently dominate the market, accounting for 36 and 34% of global. foldable shipments, respectively last. year. Apple's entry could significantly. reshape the market, and the launch will. also mark the first major product. unveiling under new CEO John Turnis. So, why is Apple waited so long to enter the. foldable market? My colleague Vander. Naban spoke to Brian Mah, a technology. industry analyst with IDC. It's not. entirely out of character for Apple to.

kind of sit it out for a while, let the. technology mature a bit before they get. into it. But you're right, on paper, right, Samsung's eight generations into. this product already. They've obviously. gone through a lot of growing pains, learning how to get the hinge to work, the waterproofing to work, all that kind. of stuff. So, it does look like Apple's. coming in later. However, I think, you. know, to my earlier point, they wanted. to make sure the experience was going to. be good for a consumer, the opening and. closing, whether there's much of a. crease in the in the in the fold area, whether the hinge works out well. So,

um, we're very eager to see what they do. finally, assuming that they do unveil. something, uh, you know, at their launch. next month. Uh, and so it'll be nice to. see, um, you know, how they've made that. experience polished. Do you see Apple's. user base actually excited for this? I. mean, when we look at foldables, we see. a lot of them here in Asia, especially. in China as well, but will America. really lap it up? >> Yes, I do think so. But again, it's it's. more so not a function of geography as. it is really the type of user, right?

This is going to be a very premium. product. We think this is going to be. well over $2,000. So, clearly that's not. quite a mainstream product yet. It will. be the early adopters. Um, but it is. something where, you know, you you. anecdotally hear people who, let's say. they see someone carrying a Samsung. Galaxy Fold and they're like, when is. Apple gonna have one of those, you know, and I've, you know, I've had this. question come to me many times over the. past few years as well, too. So, I think. there's folks that are looking at it and. that, you know, assuming that Apple. really delivers on a decent experience,

this is something that is going to be in. good demand, but again, that price point. means that it will prohibit that from. becoming a mainstream thing for at least. the time being. >> Yeah. What features are you hoping to. see here when they do unveil this uh to. really be comp a competition for the. likes of Samsung? >> Yeah, so one of the challenges is that. in order to get it so thin, they had to. step back on a few things that they. normally put into iPhones like Face ID, like a zoom lens. So the rumors are at. least that Apple had to give up on some.

of those in order to make this work. Um. so this first generation of product may. be a bit of a compromise for folks. Um, but eventually the hope is that as Apple. comes out with future generations of the. product, let's hope they do build in. that zoom lens and that sort of thing. And so eventually we may get there. Um, but yeah, in the meantime, you to your. point, Samsung's got a nice zoom. They've got a great camera on the on the. Galaxy Flip and Fold. So yeah, and. that's all for now for this edition of. the Global News [music] podcast. If. you'd like to get in touch, our contact.

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