Global News Podcast: More than 5,000 dead after floods in Libya

Hello, this is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service with reports and analysis

from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are

supported by advertising. The explanation from the BBC World Service takes a deep dive into

the big stories affecting our lives, giving you an unvarnished explanation of the world.

Search for the explanation wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Gareth Barlow and at 13 hours GMT on Wednesday the 13th of September. These are our main

stories. More than 5,000 people have died, with thousands more still missing after devastating

floods in the East Olivia. President Putin has promised help for North Korea's space program

during a meeting with Kim Jong-un at a Russian cosmodrome. And aid agencies are racing against

time to save earthquake survivors in remote regions of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.

Also in the podcast. Dear listener, I hope this email finds you well.

E-Research suggests four more email language may be close to extinction.

We begin the podcast in Libya where floods have devastated the eastern part of the country,

described by the United Nations as a calamity of epic proportions. At the time of recording this

podcast officials say more than 5,000 people have died, with thousands of others still missing.

The port city of Derna witnessed the worst destruction, heavy rains and the collapse of

two dams along with four bridges submerged much of the city. Our correspondent Joe Inwood reports.

Nothing could resist the waters. As the river Derna swelled, then broke its banks,

entire districts of the city were washed into the sea. Those caught in its path didn't stand a chance.

People were asleep and no one was ready. My whole family lived next door to each other.

We were all neighbors. We lost 30 people so far, 30 members of the same family.

We haven't found anyone. From above you can see the devastation done to this city.

More than 100,000 people used to live here. A storm Daniels swept across North Africa.

It dropped a huge amount of water onto the hills, swelling the river Derna and causing two dams to

burst. But why was it so powerful? Daniel is an example of a Mediterranean cyclone.

These are initiated by the jet stream which brings cold air high above the earth's surface.

That starts off these thunderstorms. Once that's formed an area of low pressure develops and that

feeds off the warm waters in the Mediterranean with the system taking on characteristics more

like a tropical storm. The damage to Libya's infrastructure is incalculable.

This hospital in Bida was submerged in the deluge. All the while the death toll mounts,

mass graves filling up, hospitals turning into morgues.

We've already had 1700 dead just in this section of the hospital.

We counted them as they were lying in the hallways. We buried anyone identified by their

family or friends. Things are very bad. The hospital is dilapidated.

Some aid is already on its way but with relief operations already stretched by the earthquake

in nearby Morocco, help will not come as fast as the needs here will grow.

And rescue efforts have been hampered with the country's split between rival governments with

Libya's fragile and complex political situation laid bare by this disaster.

Frank Gardner is our security correspondent.

Libya ought to be a real success story. It's got a small population, a hugely rich hydrocarbon

sector. It's on the shores of the Mediterranean. It ought to be a great success and yet it isn't

because for 42 years it was under the brutal repressive regime of Colonel Gaddafi which essentially

crushed or basically got rid of anything that resembled a government institution.

Libyans used to lecture me and say, you see Mr Gardner, we have no government here. We don't

need government. The people rule. No they didn't. Gaddafi and his close henchmen ruled that country

with an iron fist. When that was swept away by the Arab Spring of 2011, it left a vacuum and that

has been filled by competing warlords, tribal factions, Islamists and really it became the

rule of the gun. And what you've got now is two rival governments, one in Tripoli that is the

internationally recognized so-called government of national unity that's backed by most western

countries and then in the east you've got what's called the national parliament which

sounds very democratic but the ultimate power here is a warlord called Khalifa Haftar who is backed

by Russia, UAE, Egypt and others. What that means is that the normal business of maintaining storm

drains, the dam, safety systems, checks, surveillance of anything that could go wrong like this

simply just falls away. It takes second priority. The voice there of Frank Gardner.

After his mammoth two-day journey, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has finished his talks in

Russia with President Putin and is now on his way back home. There's precious little detail

about what the two men discussed. A Kremlin spokesperson said only that Russia would strengthen

cooperation with North Korea on all fronts and saw the prospect of working more closely together

in space. Mr Kim for his part told his host that the two countries had the shared aim of fighting

imperialism. Russia is now in the sacred fight against hegemonic forces in order to protect its

sovereignty and security interests. We have constantly expressed our full and unconditional

support for all the decisions taken by the president and the Russian leadership and I want to assure

you that we will always be together with Russia in the fight against imperialism.

For more on this I spoke to our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg.

It was interesting when Kim and Putin actually sat down to begin their talks and we heard their

public comments to camera. Vladimir Putin said we're going to talk about economic cooperation,

we're going to talk about humanitarian issues but he just given his guest a guided tour of Russia's

most modern cosmodrome, modern spaceport showing Kim Jong-un launch pads and Russian rockets so

it would be logical to assume wouldn't it that on the agenda too would be cooperation in space and

we know that that's something which is of major interest to Kim who has tried twice and failed

twice to launch his own military spy satellite but also at those talks the Russian defense minister

Sergei Shoigu who was in Pyongyang a couple of months ago looking at North Korean weaponry so

again that brings us back to America's suspicion that Russia and North Korea are close to or perhaps

have already agreed we don't know some kind of arms deal that would provide Russia with a large

amount of munitions possibly ammunition possibly artillery shells to help Russia's war in Ukraine

in return for something going to North Korea whether that's something be humanitarian aid or

cash or advanced military technologies we don't know and we possibly won't know we won't be told

there's going to be no press conference there'll be no signing of documents no big ceremony a lot

of what's agreed at this meeting I think will remain rather secret they are both without

doubt pretty savvy operators it strikes me that like you say Pyongyang will have its wish list too

but the president Putin will be at pains to ensure that he doesn't send any tech to Pyongyang

that might further make his near neighbor more dangerous or potentially destabilize it that's

right and also you know China probably won't appreciate too much going to North Korea well

we have to keep that in mind but I think you know they say that location is everything don't they

Gareth and I think that the fact that this is happening at the Cosmodrome right at Russia's

most modern space center the fact that Kim took two days in a train to get there I think that's

significant I think what Vladimir Putin is doing is sending a signal to Washington actually that

you know look with me I've got my guest Kim who's rather keen on getting his hands on advanced

military technology to help develop his space program to help develop perhaps his missile

program too just the kind of advanced technology that the Kremlin happens to have hint hint it

doesn't mean that Putin is going to reach for his briefcase and pull out big folders with all

this technology and hand it all over to Kim and that's not going to happen but I think the message

is the signal is to the West you know I could do this if I so want to so be careful but of course

if Russia really really does want an arms deal with North Korea if it is desperate and we don't

know how desperate it is to secure supplies of extra munitions from Pyongyang then it's quite

possible that Russia will hand something over whether it's going to be help in launching a

North Korean military satellite we don't know and as I say we're unlikely to hear openly today from

Russian officials what they've agreed Steve Rosenberg so then can North Korea offer the

munitions that Russia is looking for in exchange for military technology the former British ambassador

to North Korea John Everett says the partnership might struggle to take off I think we have to

recognize that there are real constraints on this relationship what does North Korea give Russia

other than munitions now Russia is desperately munitions certainly but there are real quality

problems with North Korean munitions they have a high fail rate the ones in storage have not been

looked after properly the fuses in the shells are not in a good condition you have an awful lot

of duds which the Russians must surely know and after they fired off a few salvos of cells that

simply failed to explode how many more are they going to be prepared to buy from North Korea

the relationship isn't actually that well founded and I suspect that after a certain amount of

razzmatazz it might run into the sand sooner than either leader would really like well there's

plenty more insight and analysis on the story on our website at bbc.com slash news new research

suggests formal phrases in emails like to whom it may concern or your sincerely could become

extinct in the next decade that says new generations move away from the traditional

letter writing style and adopt a more personable tone Harry Bly reports dear listener I hope this

email finds you well traditionally you start a workplace email with dear sir slash madam

or perhaps the person's title then for a sign off there are the classic best wishes or kind regards

sometimes kindest regards but why do we use this style of language which we wouldn't do in normal

speech that kind of phrase is the sort of thing that we've adopted in place of the very formal

yours faithfully but also not just like bye see you soon Laura Bailey is a senior lecturer

in English language and linguistics at the University of Kent so kind regards is specific

to emails it's clearly a sign of lots of people use that for their signature but I've got to say

some people use that for when they want to send an email that really conveys quite how annoyed they

are but this professional language is slowly disappearing that's according to research commissioned

by Barclay's bank now younger people especially are starting emails with hi hello even hey

addressing recipients by their first name not their title and signing off with thanks or even

tar the study predicts that phrases like yours truly yours sincerely and to whom it may concern

may not be used at all in 10 years time so why is this formal language being phased out Laura

Bailey again I do think that it's probably to do with how we relate to each other on an interpersonal

level there's less of the strict hierarchy in workplaces these days bosses often want to be

seen as approachable and friendly so you're much less likely to have to call your boss Mr so and so

and we're consequently being more informal in our communications with each other as well

the survey found that many believed social media to be an influence too as well as young people

wanting to sound more personable with 40% of Gen Z participants saying they felt it a struggle

to demonstrate their personality through email that report by Harry Bly still to come

the new look at the life story of rock legend David Bowie

unexpected elements is all about finding the surprising science angles to everyday news

I love that this show has the scope to discuss both emergent AI nuclear in Ghana and also what

those stringy bits are on a banana and joining the dots between their global connections nature

does pack a lot surprises for us an invisibility cloak in the acoustic domain so called that's

unexpected elements from the BBC world service find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts

now on the global news podcast the death toll from last Friday's earthquake in Morocco has

risen to around 3000 as the authorities continue their efforts to reach remote areas of the Atlas

Mountains close to the epicenter and it's not just the state providing aid large numbers of ordering

Moroccans are buying food and supplies and heading into the mountains to give it to those who've

been affected by the quake the BBC's James Coppnell joined one group setting off from the nearby city

of Marrakesh a gym in Morocco waits clattering to the floor loud music on the stereo and as you come

towards the front of this building well it's been transformed in something of a makeshift

storeroom bottles of water sanitary products mattresses even toys for children group of young

Moroccans are using this gym as a base to transport products up to those affected villages in the

mountains I'm Amina TV now we have these people who can afford to buy these things that are in

desperate need for it so we decided to get literally everything that they would need that they

require and we had people giving donations from all around the country and then we're just going

and distributing all of that I mean I'm content creator and this is our gym actually we've seen

everyone is helping no matter how but we've seen people with the one bike with one half bag of

sugar helping we've seen people sending full trucks and what we're witnessing is real unity and

it's it's really good and filling our heart to know that we're Moroccan that makes us really proud

we've been on the road for quite some time now a convoy of 10 or so vehicles we've been heading

out on a good tarmac road past historic old castles and brand new farms the landscape is pretty

parched but ahead of us I can see the Atlas mountains that's our destination those villages

that have been so badly affected by this earthquake well things haven't gone quite according to plan

in fact it doesn't seem to have been that much of a plan we've gone from one place to the other

we haven't yet found a village to hand out these provisions we are on a very narrow mountain

road in this little village and we're stuck there's a sort of traffic jam vehicles coming in both

directions people are trying to help here but it's all quite chaotic

well we've ended up in a village high up on the hillside called Agro-Gore

no one here lost their life in the earthquake fortunately though many have lost their homes

down the hill there were a couple of deaths in a nearby village it's here that Amin and Amina and

all their team are handing out some toys to what look like some very very excited kids

here it's well organized as you can see like this person is in charge of giving the list of

babies per age so we can give them the diapers the good size and this person she's not from your

group she's someone you found here in this village she's in the village actually she's a volunteer

and this is I guess quite a quite a small village just up in the mountains it took us a while to

get here we're just trying to get to the most remote villages because as you can see when you go to

main roads we already can see a lot of military a lot of dance it's overwhelming there's so many

kids in this village and we're just distributing toys to them that's all they care about that's

all they want and it just makes us so happy to see smiles on their faces it's amazing

you seem quite emotional I am I am I have two kids they have everything and then when you see

kids like that who have nothing it's just pretty sad pretty sad standing nearby I found a resident

Eunice I wondered how he felt about his fellow citizens bringing some help for his village

it's it's good it's nice this is this is Morocco this is Morocco this is Morocco people helping

each other yes one people all that is one people that report there by James Coppinal

China has sentenced the former head of the nation's largest life insurer to life in prison

as President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption in the financial industry continues

one being was chairman of china life and found guilty of taking more than 45 million dollars in

bribes the details from our asia business reporter nick marsh one being was actually technically

sentenced to death but it's suspended for two years after which he'll go to jail he'll serve life

the court documents show that he'll be given no parole in terms of what he's actually been found

guilty of as you said these are corruption charges and also he was concealing certain

overseas securities and these payments were apparently for securing for friends and relatives

things like personal loans green lighting certain projects and he was a member of the communist party

like many before him he's not the certainly the only top executive he's been found guilty of these

corruption charges there was the former chairman of the china development bank he was sentenced to

life in jail recently lai xiao ming who was a big asset management chief was actually executed

on corruption charges back in 2021 and i think it shows firstly president Xi Jinping who made

his name as a big anti-corruption guy early in his tenure he really shows no intent on slowing down

on this crackdown and it also shows whose boss doesn't matter how much money you have if you're

in finance or whatever industry ultimately you answer to the party and they'll be the ones you

decide that was nick marsh now to britain where public debate is raging after the home secretary the

interior minister said the government was considering banning the excel bully a dog breed weighing

over 50 kilos which is a muscular mix of people and staff at your terrier it comes after one of

them attacked an 11 year old girl in birmingham over the weekend the excel bully which originates

from america is already illegal in france turkey and the ua e and it's claimed to have killed 10

people in the uk last year so just how dangerous is the breed the uk veterinary surgeon amy stamp

spoke to the bbc's justin web these are really big powerful dogs often upward of 50 kilos and if

they're in a situation where they feel threatened and they're presenting aggressive tendencies

then the damage from a dog of that size is is going to be far worse than the damage caused by a

smaller breed how is it for for you and other vets dealing with them how difficult it can be really

really challenging for us to do the job that we want to do and it ultimately begins to affect

these dogs and their welfare as well so for reasons such as they only may not present them to the

practice anyway if they know they're going to struggle to handle them when they're there but

sometimes we'll see them for a medical problem but we're unable to examine them what why do people

have them i mean the people who presumably you're if you're bringing a dog like this into a vet you

care about it it's costing you a fair bit of money to deal with when you talk to them about

wider issues of pet ownership what do they say when we're seeing large breeds like this then quite

often they are seen as a status symbol you know they are dogs that are bred to be intimidating to

look at but and we'll say this is not all XL bullies and there are very many of them

that are really lovely sweet dogs and are that that's interesting because i mean i had thought

that they were bred that they were simply in their nature to be hugely aggressive in certain

situations so are you saying some aren't this is definitely not all XL bullies and like with any

dog breed there are inherent traits in that you'll always see a collie wanting to herd and even if

they're not trained to do that so yes there will be a tendency that maybe they will climb that what

we call the ladder of aggression they will climb that a lot quicker but the responsibility lies

with the owners to be able to train these dogs to manage those traits appropriately yeah meanwhile

for vets around the country not just in your practice this must be tricky sometimes to deal

with them and you wonder if it might even put some people off becoming vets in the first place

it definitely can be scary when you're seeing a dog at this size like say they're upwards of

50 kilos like any any large dog like that then if you're faced in a situation where they're

opposite you and especially if you're not 100 sure of how the owner is handling their dog

if they're an inexperienced owner then it's a recipe for disaster would you ban them Amy

i think banning the breed is not the answer here it's not going to solve the problem there's

huge inherent risks with that because they're not recognised as a breed they're a crossbreed

and they're a really wide variety of XL bullies so you'd then be banning a breed based on how it

looks the veterinary surgeon Amy stamp we're in this podcast with David Bowie who during his lifetime

spoke to the BBC more than any other broadcaster and now a new book brings together dozens of

those interviews from BBC TV and radio including one which is now thought to have been his last

that transcripts effectively tell his life story in his own words and have been compiled

by the BBC journalist and Bowie expert Tom Higgler a 17 year old David Jones has just

founded the society for the prevention of cruelty to long-haired men now exactly who's

being cruel to you well i think we're all fairly tolerant but for the last two years we've had

comments like darling and can i carry a handbag thrown at us i think it's just have to stop now

David's first appearance on the BBC was back in 1964 and he was there as the founder of the society

to prevent cruelty to long-haired gentlemen now this sounds like a spoof and clearly a publicity

stunt but there's also an element of seriousness to this because Bowie had long hair at the time

and as did his friends they couldn't get served in bars and just walking down the street this

person came up to and he said and then this big herbert just punch me and knock me to the ground

then you go forward almost 10 years and he appears on top of the pops with star man

and if you like that's the moment that Bowie is introduced as Ziggy Stardust to the nation 17 to

20 million people are looking at him and suddenly here is this extra terrestrial landing on

terrestrial tv and parents are not going who is that but what is that

one funny and interesting interview i think is one he did with Valerie singleton in the late

70s it's almost slightly disdainful of him what about all those incredible that that period when

you wall is outrageous feminine clothes and the makeup well they were i mean i thought

david bowie and i immediately associated with that did that carry over into real life i only

used to wear that kind of stuff when i was about 17 or 18 by the time i reached the

rival age of 2021 i got into high heel shoes and things they came about through japanese

theater more than anything else i tried to put together kabuki and pantomime we always saw his

last interview on radio anyway at least was with mark riley just before his assack but it came

across his interview from 2005 with Courtney pine on radio two great to have you on the show david

now you're keeping man thanks very much for asking Courtney yeah i'm doing fine i've been working

out a lot this last year and uh i'm back on call something good it's the only interview that david

bowie gave after his heart attacks about 14 months afterwards this is david bowie and i'd like to

introduce this wonderful track hot calling blues from the album oh yeah by charlie mingis this is

the second book i've written on him so it's always fascinating to hear him because he's one of the

most interesting voices in rock music i can only really think of john lennon being his

equal in terms of just humor and breadth of knowledge and intelligence and what really struck me

as just how courageous he was that he performed through a heart attack on stage to the audience

not once but twice and that is a whole different level of bravery to what was a very brave career i

mean here's somebody who was openly bisexual he wore dresses he shaved his eyebrows he looked

like an alien at the time when you said you were gay you could be beaten up on the street so there's

an awful lot of homophobia and yet this is a i think just a new level a new type of courageousness

the music there of david bowie and that report by tom haigler

that's all from us for now but there will be a new edition of the global news podcast a little later

if you want to come into this one or anything we've talked about in it do send us an email the address

is globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk you can find us on x also known as twitter at global news pod this

edition was mixed by pat sissons the producer alfie haverson the editor caro martin i'm garros

barlow and until next time goodbye

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.