Nepal death toll rises after floods on Tibet border, and AI assists brain surgery | BBC News

Welcome to the global news podcast from. the BBC world service. I'm Anka Desai. and on Thursday the 27th of August, these are our main stories. More than a. thousand people are still missing after. deadly flooding along the Nepal China. border. We get the latest from Katmandu. and find out how Chinese authorities in. Tibet are responding. Also in this. podcast, a world first as a man has a. brain tumor removed with AI assisted. surgery. And the 911 mastermind Khaled. Shik Muhammad is scheduled to stand.

trial. More than 1300 people missing, at least. 350 dead. Thousands of troops now. deployed to help in the search and. rescue attempts. The situation in Nepal. is by any reckoning desperate after. Wednesday's devastating flash floods and. landslides. Many of the dead were. tourists and pilgrims. Information on. what triggered the flooding has been. gradually emerging. Experts now believe. glacial collapse and debris flow was the.

cause rather than an earthquake. There. are now concerns about possible second. and third waves. Video footage shows. flood waters surging through populated. areas with people fleeing uphill in. terror. Entire villages, roads, bridges, and power stations have been swept away. Our South Asia correspondent Azde. Mashiri has arrived in Kathmandu and she. sent us this snapshot. This is some of the military support. that is arriving at the airport. All the.

efforts that are being made to find the. hundreds who are missing right now. And. over here there are families of those. who are missing who are gathering who've. been waiting for any information they. can find. We just spoke to one woman who. spoke to her husband at 8:30 in the. morning yesterday and hasn't heard from. him since. She's desperate to find. information. Right now, aid is pouring. in from around the world and that's. because there are also hundreds of. tourists who are missing. Tens of. thousands of tourists travel to that.

area every year. There are more than 150. Indian tourists who are missing. 33. people from the United Kingdom and. rescuers are struggling to reach some of. the hardest areas. It's a remote area. despite the fact that it's extremely. popular. Now, what experts believe is. that perhaps a glacier collapse and. debris triggered this flooding, but. right now they're still trying to. understand the sequence of events. And.

they also believe there could be a risk. of more flooding because of the debris. that has washed into the river systems. But there's also hope. The rescuers are. desperately trying to reach some of. these areas. Hydro power stations have. been damaged. There are fears for the. workers inside them who are still. missing. But some of them have been. saved. And so despite a lot of the fear. and the anxiety, there's still hope here. in Nepal. >> Over the border in Tibet, Chinese.

authorities have confirmed two deaths so. far. A correspondent in Beijing, Laura. Bicker, told us more about China's. response to the disaster. >> We cannot travel to Tibet. Um, foreigners are restricted from entry to. that region of China. This is one of the. most strictly controlled areas of China. So we are entirely reliant on. information from Chinese state media. What they tell us is that 558 people are. currently missing. They say that 260 of.

those are foreigners. They include. tourists who were trekking in the area. and those making that pilgrimage from. Nepal to Tibet to that sacred mountain. They also say that when it comes to the. death toll so far um only three people. have died and they've rescued two. But. there are major obstacles in the way of. Chinese rescuers. The first of which is. becoming urgent. They all day they have. been trying to assess the risk coming. from a so-called barrier lake. This is a. lake that has formed upstream from.

Girong port. That is the border area. that you may remember was swept away in. that dramatic footage in a wall and. torrent of water that swept away. buildings, lries and trucks and you see. people fleeing for their lives. That is. the central position uh for China's. disaster area right now. But upstream. they say a barrier lake is formed that. within the next 3 days there is a danger. of flooding. That means getting rescue. personnel into that area is becoming. dangerous. Now they do have about 140.

rescuers right now searching for. survivors. Helicopters have also been. launched across the area and the. People's Liberation Army are at the. border. They are trying very hard to get. as much heavy machinery into the site to. clear the road to clear the debris to. get to where any survivors might be, but. it is a very very difficult operation. for Chinese rescuers at this time. >> Our environment correspondent Naven. Singh Kadka who's from Nepal told my. colleague Lucy Hawkings that the sheer.

amount of mud and debris will make. recovery operations very difficult. When. I spoke to uh authorities yesterday, they were talking about the water level. that rose by 15 m. 15 m. >> the the the water level on the river 15. m and therefore they're calling it an. event of hundreds of years. Now the. water is gone but what remains this is. something that I have you know covered. in the past that debris that sludge is.

you know that remains there buried so. you'll see that four five three storied. houses are underneath you know that you. know that that valley that that that. waterway is kind of like full of that. full of that so that needs to be dug. that needs to be cleared the question is. can they will it happen every. everywhere. I don't think it's going to. happen everywhere, but they will try at. least. It's going to be a costly and a. very very timeconsuming effort.

>> And Nevin, what stories are you hearing. from on the ground about what people saw. and experienced? >> Well, it's it's harrowing experiences, you know, uh I mean, families. personal stories are very very strong. I. personally am very very disturbed when I. listen to people particularly when they. describe what was happening right in. front of their eyes. >> you know and they're helpless. particularly when they are seeing their. family members their friends literally.

you know and then people are now showing. me some of the pictures that this is. where my so and so is buried how. difficult is that. >> and what kind of infrastructure has been. washed away or damaged and I know know. we're talking about bridges and hydrop. power stations yesterday but as the the. scale and the sense of that emerging. too. So for example, look there's this. this very very important uh marketplace. which was a bustling marketplace joining. Kathmandu and uh Tibet or other parts of. the country. It's a vital uh highway.

that whole thing has gone you know the. the marketplace the road everything is. gone. The 9/11 attacks were the single. biggest terror incident ever to take. place on American soil. Now nearly a. quarter of a century later, one of the. main ring leaders, Khaled Shik Muhammad, has been scheduled to stand trial in. June 2028, he's accused of directing the plot to. crash hijacked airliners into the World. Trade Center, the Pentagon, and other. sites in 2001. Last year, a federal.

appeals court rejected an agreement that. would have allowed him to plead guilty. without receiving the death penalty. Our. reporter, Richard Hamilton, told me. more. We tend to think of Osama bin. Laden as being the mastermind behind the. 9/11 attacks, but actually in the final. report by the 911 commission in 2004, they named him as the principal. architect of the attacks. uh he was. before that the head of propaganda for. al-Qaeda and it's thought that he came.

up with this idea of training pilots to. fly into the buildings in Washington and. New York and take those plans to Assama. bin Laden and he's very much thought to. have been pro provided the operational. support selecting the targets arranging. travel for the hijackers he was um. captured in Pakistan back in 2003. imprisoned in some sort of secret. rendition site thought to be Jordan for.

three years and then he was eventually. transferred to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in. 2006 where he's been where he still. remains today and he actually said that. he planned the 9/11 operation from A to. Zed. >> Richard, we're on the eve of the 25th. anniversary of these attacks. Why has it. taken so long then to bring him to. trial? So he was first charged with war. crimes and murder back in 2008, but the. administration at the time of Barack.

Obama withdrew his case to change the. law to make the process more efficient. and less costly, which is quite ironic. because it must have cost millions of. dollars and taken, as you say, decades. to come to this point. And then the. trial was set for 2021, but was delayed. because of the pandemic. And then there. were plea negoti plea deal negotiations. So last year a federal appeals court. rejected an agreement that would have. allowed him to plead guilty without. receiving the death penalty. Uh so and.

it took two years to negotiate that. One. really interesting take is that the. defendants were kept in so-called black. sites and held out of the reach of the. courts in the belief at the time that. they could lead investigators to finding. bin Laden. And one expert said the CIA. was never interested in prosecuting. them. >> Still to come in this podcast, how bats. could hold the secret to treating cancer. in humans.

A man here in London has become the. first person in the world to have a. brain tumor removed via AI assisted. surgery. Without the operation, 48-year-old Reese Hibbit could have lost. his sight. The AI tool analyzed a video. feed of the operation as it happened and. advised surgeons on how to avoid crucial. but hidden vessels and nerves in the. brain. I spoke to one of the. neurosurgeons involved in the operation, Dr. Danielle Khan. >> The way it works is it's been trained on. hundreds of videos by a big team of.

surgeons and engineers. And what it's been trained to do is. recognize those life and sight. sustaining structures. So, as we're. operating, it sees what we see and. highlights on the operating screen where. these structures should or it thinks it. they um. uh they are located in. And so, ultimately, the goal of this is that it. assists surgeons in making this. operation safer uh and also improves.

training for those who are still. learning. So, we're very excited to. finally see it um hit the operating room. after almost 10 years in development. >> And how have you and the other doctors. been able to adapt to this technology in. order to help it assist you in your. work? >> Well, we had a a big leadup um up to. this trial. So, we had um you know years. of simulated studies uh surveys with. surgeons all around the country and the.

world. We worked with a team of. designers and engineers to make sure. that we get the information balanced. just right. As you can imagine, the. operating room is a stressful place with. a lot of things going on. And so you. have to be very careful when you add any. new tools that it's more um helpful and. and uh than it is could be harmful. So. we did a lot of careful design. We had a. lot of safeguards and handrails up for. these first few cases. uh and thankfully.

it went well. >> and in the future do you think that this. sort of technology AI specific. technology could help uh with more kinds. of surgery in the future? >> Absolutely. Um it's already being used. in some other fields. So general. surgeries for things like gallbladders. and I think even appendix and bowel. cancer. Um, so this is the first. application in brain surgery and I'm. sure many other surgical specialties. will follow suit. >> In just over a week's time in Germany, a.

political party that wants to cut public. funding for art at Caesar's anti-German. and teach children less about Hitler. could soon take power in an eastern. state. Regional governments hold. significant power in the country, including running their culture and. education systems. And by the 7th of. September, the state of Zakan Anhhat. could be under the control of the. far-right alternativa for Deutsland. Party. Our Berlin correspondent Jessica. Parker sent this report.

Germany is not known as a nation of flag. waivers. But this display at an. alternativa for Deutseland rally tells. you something. The black, red, and gold. of the German flag. But one of the. themes that the AFD is pushing at this. election is national pride. >> The party here claims that Germany's too. consumed by its Nazi past and that's. frayed the country's confidence.

>> The Second World War has nothing to do. with us anymore. That's gone. We have to. look out for ourselves, for our times, finally becoming the German people we. once were. the land of poets and. thinkers. >> Culture itself is in the party's sights. This local theater, like others, is. heavily statef funed and they feel under. threat as the AFD pledges to defund what. it calls anti-German art.

>> This is playing with with Nazi. propaganda. >> Really? >> Yes, I would say. Yes, definitely. It's. unbelievable that these phrases uh are. put again in the same stupid way as it. was before. >> The AFD are saying that German memory. culture, they think it's sort of turned. into a guilt complex. That's what they. say. >> You don't have to feel guilty, especially not born after the Second. World War. But you have to deal with all. of that to make it never happen again.

That's part of our uh DNA in Germany. German memory culture is a commitment to. face up to the Holocaust and horrors of. World War II. But in this region, the. AFD wants schools to focus less on that. era. >> What do you say to people who' say your. push for a more patriotic vision of. Germany in some cases amounts to. downplaying the Nazi past?

It's the most normal thing in the world, in almost every country of the world, that people are proud of their own. country, proud of their culture, their. heritage. In this country though, that's. unfortunately not the case anymore. And. we want to get that back. We have a. diverse history stretching back many. hundreds of years. And we want to teach. that history in its entirety with all. its highs and lows, but with pride and a. positive outlook. A party long accused of dangerous.

revisionism claims to champion a new. patriotism. And despite this being one. of the states where the AFD is classed. as right-wing extremist by domestic. intelligence, it's here they're closing. in on serious power for the very first. time. >> What if bats could help us fight cancer. and other diseases? Well, a group of. scientists in the US believe they could. Major study of a species of bat that can. live for decades has revealed some of.

the biological secrets behind its. longevity and resistance to disease. Experiments on tissue samples from. mouse-ired bats found that when their. cells were exposed to damage, the. animals displayed an ultraefficient. ability to either repair the affected. cells or destroy them altogether. Professor Kate Jones is a bat expert at. University College London. We think that. the ability to fly presents bats a. really big problem because it's really.

energetically expensive and it causes. lots and lots of damage to their cells. and lots of uh broken bits of DNA. We. think bats have evolved to repair DNA. quickly to suppress their immune systems. a little bit so that they don't have a. whole body reaction to having an. infection. they have these antivirals. which are immediately produced so that. we they can tackle diseases you know in.

their cells right there and then and. perhaps we could use some of that. information to develop new antivirals to. attack viruses for example and the same. mechanisms which repair DNA destroy. cells that are malfunctioning are the. same mechanisms that the bats are using. to repair DNA and to to clean out their. their cells. So understanding how they. do that better would be really amazing. way of thinking about tackling cancer. >> The avanguard artist Yayoi Kusama who.

became famous for her colorful polka dot. covered sculptures and installations has. died at the age of 97. She was one of. the most influential painters of the 80s. and '9s and later one of the bestselling. but her career was marked by constant. struggles with mental health which. informed her works. We heard more from. Shan Kaine, the deputy culture editor. for the Guardian Australia. >> A lot of her art was driven by um her. experience with hallucinations. She. experienced hallucinations when she was.

an incredibly small child. Um and so she. was often drawn to patterns and uh sort. of visual repetition in her work. And. while she found some success um in her. sort of 20s and 30s um it was sort of. nothing like compared to the success. that she would achieve in her 70s, 80s. and 90s which is you know called the. infinity mirror room u part of her. career where she'd build these really. intricate and amazing rooms filled with. mirrors and often lights and artworks.

and sculptures. Um and it was actually. something she first did back in the 60s. uh but it was something she revisited in. the 90s and it was something that really. took off uh I think with social media um. that people started seeking out her work. in galleries around the world um just. because they were so visually. overwhelming and uh certainly things. that would appeal to you could say art. lovers and also families and uh I guess. also people you know Instagrammers and. that sort of thing.

>> And that's all for this edition of the. Global News podcast. If you'd like to. get in touch our contact details are. below. I'm Ana Desai. Thanks for your. company and goodbye.