¶ Intro / Opening
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¶ US-Iran Conflict Escalates
Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. I'm Tim Frank. We've got a big story out of the UK coming up. It broke shortly before we came on air. The resignation of the Defence Secretary, John Healy. He's accused the Prime Minister of failing to come good on promises to provide funding for more military spending. We'll have
More on that in just over fifteen minutes. Before that, we're beginning with a question that sounds like it belongs not on a news program, but maybe at a university or perhaps a comedy club. When is a ceasefire not a ceasefire? The very fact that it's being asked of the US and Iran shows how threadbare their pause in the war seems as they continue to trade fire. This was video released by US military central command of its latest assault on Iranian targets.
Sound of Tomahawk cruise missiles being launched on Wednesday, strikes which the Iranian Foreign Ministry today said have rendered their two-month ceasefire practically meaningless. Iran for its part has been retaliating by firing missiles at what uh it says are the US military targets across nearby Arab countries. And just as we were coming on air, President Trump posted on social media that he was ordering his military later today to hit i Iran again and very hard.
We can speak now to uh Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher, who's in the BBC's Jerusalem Bureau. Um Sebastian, what's your uh assessment of of where we are with this trade and fire and and with this Purported ceasefire.
I mean I think uh I mean it's difficult to answer your question in one way, but I I think it's a ceasefire just in terms that there are still limits. on how far either side is going in the way they're hitting each other. Uh there are certain things which are off limits at the moment, so it's not an all out conflict. And what we've been hearing
from various, you know, US officials about this is that uh the Washington President Trump is still trying to keep two separate tracks going. One still about negotiations potentially p you know a deal perhaps but at the same time now moving back to the military pressure, uh the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegsef said, you know, th i y essentially this is almost negotiating with bombs now and going on what President Trump has just issued, I mean it gives that sense of the strategy
is a s is is going up a dial each each day at the moment. So he've had two days of strikes. Now he's saying that it will be in in in capitals very hard tonight. So, you know, one would expect that it will be bigger, but it still won't as far as President Trump is concerned, be a declaration that the war is back on.
But at the same time, uh people and not just President Trump who's been saying we're terribly close to a uh deal ha you know, there are Apparently well briefed people who are saying uh the Qataris have managed to broker some sort of deal, the text is there and all the rest of it. Wha what do you make of those comments?
I mean we have we have been hearing that now of course Tim for for for a long time. I mean the Qataris have have said that before, the Pakistanis have said that but I mean those are the two main mediators And there were uh from all reports we've had, there were long negotiations that went on in Tehran between mediators and Iranians on all of that.
But you know, the main sticking points are still there and the Lebanon war, the Israeli war in Lebanon, we've seen in the past week has become one of those main sticking points and that certainly isn't stopping. So I don't think it's a huge amount of hope. It's just how much appetite both sides have for playing this game of brinkmanship now.
Sebastian Usher, our uh Middle East analyst in Jerusalem, thank you very much for joining us.
¶ Commercial Shipping Attacks & India's Economy
Now there are the direct strikes which the US military inflicting on Iran. There have also been a number of attacks on ships in the region, commercial ships, the latest, according to CENTCOM, a hint on an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman, which it accused of violating the US blockade. On Iran, that's the third commercial vessel to be struck by the US this week. Earlier India said that three of its nationals who'd been aboard a vessel hit by the American military on Wednesday have died.
Narendra Tanaja is a former national spokesman for India's governing BJP, but he's known in India now for being a leading commentator on energy issues. So what does he make of the recent incident?
First of all it's very shocking. I mean they know about the ships. It's not the American Navy uh doesn't know about the ships yet. They also know very well majority of these ships are manned by Indians, close to three hundred thousand Indians working on f Indian or foreign flag ships. These particular ships were also bringing oil to India. Why are they attacking civilians?
Well I th I think their argument is that th these are ships that are flouting the blockade. I mean that's their point. They're saying these are ships which they have I mean, in in particular with the one where the three Indian sailors died, I mean they CENTCOM, the US Central Military Command, said that the crew repeatedly failed to comply with directions from American forces.
No, the question is they can say whatever. The you all we also have to hear what the captain has to say, number one. Number two is President Trump himself, just twenty four hours ago he said that millions of barrels have passed through the state of Hormuz in the night.
So they can do it. But other ships can't do that. That's the question. Now the thing is that, you know, there are civilians. They're not military people. They're civilian tankers. They're bringing energy. Countries like India, we have suffered a lot.
That's why the our government has made it repeatedly clear and said it again yesterday and this morning again that, you know, s sit across the negotiating table. We have close ties with the United States. We have a strategic great ties with the United States of America. You know, we are close friends. If that is the kind of they are attacking our people, knowing very well the crew is Indian and it's not the only one ship. They have attacked three different ships.
Give me some sort of idea how far India is is suffering from this blockade on the Strait of Hormuz because I know that India is I mean it's it's one of the world's biggest oil importers. It's one of the world's biggest importers of liquefied n natural gas. There was a waiver for a time on India being allowed to buy Iranian oil. I think that has now expired. How much Strain is that putting on the Indian economy?
We consume uh roughly five point eight million barrels of o uh oil every day. That makes us the third largest consumer of oil on planet Earth. And out of which uh we import roughly five point two million barrels of oil every day. And bulk of this oil before the war used to come from the region, Persian Gulf region.
And now thanks to President Trump's war, now we're not able to import b uh most of it. We are importing from other geographies now at a very, very high cost. So in terms of the overall cost to our economy and to the consumer, It's massive. It's actually not only India and the economy is a majority of countries in our part of the world are very badly hit.
Narendra Modi is due to see Donald Trump on the margins of the G seven summit in France in the next few days. What what do you think he can say to mister Trump to persuade him to cut a deal?
Does President Trump listen to anybody? Does he? He should know that people are suffering around the world. You know, there are four billion energy poor on the planet. And majority of them are suffering. They may be in Africa, Latin America and all that. It's not only about the supply of oil. It's the cost, is the price, economics of oil.
Even in America the poor people are suffering because oil prices have gone up by sixty five percent and Europe prices have gone up. If you also have your own poor, they're also suffering. Now they should know it's not that President Trump doesn't know all these facts, but he thinks that he can defeat Iran. But that's not going to happen.
The Indian energy analyst Narendra Tanasha
¶ Strait of Hormuz: Blockades & Global Impact
Clearly, were there to be an agreement of any sort between Iran and the US, even an interim deal not covering all the big issues, the number one priority for much of the world has to be the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, that critical waterway for international trade.
Iran says the latest escalation in strike and counter strike between it and the US means that their closure of the strait will be even more tightly enforced. Donald Trump has been saying that the US military have managed to spirit out millions of barrels of non Iranian oil. So what is going on? Becker Wasser is head of defence analysis at Bloomberg Economics.
Well, I don't have a good sense of how much traffic is actually going in and out, but one thing remains very clear. There are two dueling blockades occurring in the Street of Hormuz. Iran is demonstrating over and over again that it has leverage over not only the Strait of Hormuz. but also the global economy. And they are very uh reticent to let any of that go, which is why we've seen a reiteration of their threats and a reiteration of their control.
Um for the United States, there's been this quiet effort to try and guide ship. through the Strait of Hormuz using this southern route, while the US provides not only guidance and basic communication, but also armed overwatch with drones, helicopters, and air. And so there have been some ships that have managed to get through. How much exactly, we still don't know.
Um, but you know, one could imagine that it's only occurred, you know, a few ships at a time in order to avoid Iran being able to see them. That being said. We do have evidence that Iran is well aware of this effort and has been firing drones at some of the commercial tankers trying to get out of.
And in terms of um this southern route that you talk about, which is hug close to the coastline of Oman. Oman is seen as a sort of interlocutor between the US and Iran. Is your understanding that this is being done in cooperation with the Amani government? Is it I mean is it awkward for the Amanis? What's their role in all this?
It's always awkward for Oman as they try and play all sides and, you know, not upset the Apple cart at all with anyone. But like many of the Gulf states, they are very keen to have some commercial traffic get through.
I know you said that you're r reluctant to sort of pass judgment on exactly how much is getting through, both in terms of number of ships and and of course the quantity of of oil that Donald Trump has been um saying has been getting through. How far can you put this in the sort of context of the normal traffic that would be going through the Strait of Hormuz? How far do you think potentially this could offset what everybody is saying is the sort of huge energy crunch that is coming?
Listen, the Strait of Hormuz remains ostensibly shut. You know, you can have a few tankers that get through. You can have some commercial shipping that moves, but at the end of the day, this doesn't even compare.
to the type of traffic that we saw prior to the war starting. Additionally, I think it's really hard to measure at this point in time not only how much has gotten through, but the impact that it has. We also have the United States and other governments drawing on essentially their reserves in order to offset some of the broader impact to their populations and to you know around the globe.
And it's o of course not just about the threat that the Iranians have um issued against ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. It's also the American military what they're doing to try and enforce their blockade of Iranian linked shipping. A third vessel has been attacked. Um today uh we've just heard from a
very angry Indian analyst who who says that it's insupportable um that three Indian seafarers have have died. Your head of defence analysis at Bloomberg, I mean how How much of a of a problem do you think this is for the US in terms of them trying to enforce their blockade?
The United States right now is playing a really tricky game where they are trying to coerce Iran by bombs, but at the end of the day, Iran has withstood 39 days of intense bombardment.
And that was uh Becca Wasser, head of defence analysis at Bloomberg Economics. You're listening to News hour.
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¶ Belfast Anti-Immigrant Riots
This is News Ad, live from the BBC and uh as promised we'll have that big breaking story, the resignation of the British Defence Secretary in just a moment. But before that, we're gonna head elsewhere in the UK. The sound of emergency services in Northern Ireland's biggest city, Belfast, responding to another night of mobs on the rampage. For a second evening, groups of masked youths were targeting the homes of immigrants.
After a knife attack on Monday, a thirty year old Sudanese man has been detained and charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie. Last night terrified families could be seen running out of their homes as fire Spread along their streets with the police uh ushering them into the backs of their armoured vans. Our correspondent Dan Johnson was at the scene.
Officers have been under sustained assault. The demonstrators are throwing bricks and stones and bottles and using bits of wood torn from people's fences to make burning barricades. The officers have been using water cannon to spray those demonstrators to force them back. There have been moments where they've had to step back and retreat and then bring in more reinforcements to move forward again and contain these demonstrators. I think it was a show of force.
From the police service of Northern Ireland to say that they would not tolerate the scenes of damage, destruction and violence from the night before. And they have largely contained this. It's been localized here. But still these demonstrators have been able to attack.
🔊 Police car (siren)
Which we believe is an abandoned home.
¶ Belfast Refugees Share Experiences
Dan Johnson in Belfast. Tausil Mohammed is a refugee from Sudan who lives in the city. She's lived in Belfast for ten years. She's now an organizer with a Northern Ireland based human rights group. What have the last two nights been like for her?
و از هال کمیونیتی از ان شپ uh Sudanese community are thinking of Stephen and hoping for uh his speedy recovery and we are thinking of his family and we are here to help and support if anyone needs anything from us. We have also been extremely worried because of the racist attack. that happened after the attack on Tuesday night. So many families were burnt out of their houses, people from different nationalities, mainly uh black, black and brown.
um migrants from Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Eritrea. We have had to evacuate uh families with young child children from their houses. People are terrified. and worried. We have been caving our kids at home, not sending them to school.
Is that something that you directly have experienced?
Yeah, I have two kids. I haven't sent them to school since it happened.
And how old are you, children?
17 and 14. Other families have kids who are still doing GCSE exams or A levels. And some of them couldn't make it. Some of the families who uh had to leave their homes are um housed in other cities, not Belfast and they couldn't make it to exams. We asked people to give leads. to kids to go to school, but some of them couldn't make it to exams. Unfortunately we have been calling on education authority to postpone the exam or close schools or provide some help but but nothing so far.
I mean for you to have to keep your kids off school because presumably what you're you're concerned about their journey to and from school. I mean that that's terrible. Tell me about th the families that you you say that you a and others have been helping to host.
So far, we have managed to secure accommodation for around 200 families and individuals. So these are churches, community centers. Some smaller families and individuals are hosted by people from the community. The response from the community has been amazing. We get offered places to host people all the time. we got offered lifts for people to go to their commutation. It's an amazing community response, but it should have come from the Department for Communities or the Housing Executive.
They haven't provided any places, any support.
You're talking about Northern Ireland's devolved government. You're saying that they haven't really been able to help you? Yeah.
Yeah, the authorities they haven't provided any support so far. Now we have uh started a fundraiser and it's doing well so far. Uh it's at uh one hundred fifty K or something, but it's still limited. If this uh goes on for longer.
Would you say that despite the actions of this very, very ugly minority, that most people do support you and and and you have felt welcome in the past?
Yeah, most people in Belfast are welcoming, they're kind and nice. I have been here for 10 years. and most of my experience has been really, really good. But this has changed since twenty twenty four when the first riots happened in summer. I love Belfast but I don't want to see Ze this in Belfast. I don't want to have uh to to to live again or move from Belfast. I really want to stay here and help uh other people build this community.
Tawasul Mohammed, a refugee from Sudan now living in Belfast.
¶ UK Defence Secretary Resignation Crisis
Now that story I was uh mentioning, Britain's defence secretary uh has resigned. He's accused the Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to deliver on commitments to boost military spending. Uh UK political correspondent Rob Watson. Uh Rob, uh that's the headline. What lies behind this?
Uh I think the first thing to say is that it's a massive story, uh both d dom d domestically and internationally. Internationally because It has huge implications for how the UK is seen Tim uh around the world by allies and enemies alike as it seems like it can't fix it its defence.
And of all the crises that Sakir Starmer has faced in his two years as Prime Minister, this really does look like the most serious. What is behind it? I mean, essentially the British government has been debating over how much it should spend on increasing its defence capacity. After an incredibly important strategic defence review this time last year said, Hey look, Britain really needs to modernise, it needs to wake up, the world is changing.
i the government was about to announce uh how much extra spending it was prepared to to lay out and clearly the defence secretary in honestly one of the most damning uh resignation letters I've seen in four decades of covering this stuff, Tim, is saying essentially the Prime Minister is not prepared to pay enough and made the most serious challenge of all against any Prime Minister that he is putting the country's security at risk. And the troops. I mean it's that bad.
Yeah. And uh defence and foreign policy was supposed to be one of Kirstama's stronger areas. Um This this big announcement on uh a modernisation of British defence, I I mean it's uh as you mentioned, it's been delayed and delayed and delayed. When are we expecting it to come?
Well, we were expecting it several weeks ago, Tim. I mean we now know why that wasn't happening because there was an almighty row going on between the d the Treasury, the Department of Finance and Downing Street and the Department of Defence. So we were expecting it possibly uh Friday. Uh we were expecting it maybe next week ahead of a NATO summit. But I mean clearly this this has plunged the entire De Venice Defence Investment Plan as it's known.
into chaos. I mean, can Secure Starmer find a defence secretary who would be willing to take over the departments with not enough uh funding? I mean it is a profound short term and longer term crisis.
And uh clearly um as far as the rest of the world is concerned, I mean maybe the state of British military is the more important issue, but there's also the issue of Keir Starmer's survival. Um he's got a potential Challenger returning to uh Parliament. Next week should Andy Burnham uh win the by election, the special election that's happening in the north of England. How much does this weaken Keir Starmer's position?
Uh uh it weakens him massively both internationally a and domestically because it looks like he's going to go to a NATO summit. with questions about an ability to modernise Britain's armed forces in doubt and he looks like he could if c if Andy Burnham wins, he could be facing a challenge to his leadership uh within days, within weeks.
Rob Watson, uh UK political correspondent, thank you very much as ever. Um much more about this, of course, on our website, bbc.com forward slash news. And if we have uh further development on this breaking story, we will of course bring them to you before the end of the programme. This is News Hour.
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¶ World Cup 2026: FIFA Controversy
This is News Air, it's live from the BBC with me Tim Franks, and it is time almost For the talking to stop and for the game to begin. In just over five hours time, the first group match in the Men's Football World Cup will kick off with one of the three host nations, Mexico playing South Africa in the magnificent Ag Azteca. Stadium in Mexico City. I say it's almost time for the talking to stop, but on uh Wednesday we had that rarest of things.
Janny Infantino, the boss of World Football's governing body FIFA, deigning to hold a news conference, his first in three years, and he had this piece of behavioural advice to those who might have been concerned about the US's strict immigration rulings, which had seen, for example, one of the world's top referees from Somalia refused entry to the tournament, to which Janny Infantino had this response.
Chill. Relax. We work on everything. We try to solve everything. And when I say to chill I don't mean to chill and do nothing. I mean to trust us, that we are working behind the scenes, we are trying to understand, and there are things we can know, things we cannot know, things we are told, things we are not told. And we always try to make the situation as positive as possible and to find a
¶ Mexico City World Cup Protests
So what can we look forward to at this huge three and a half weeks sporting jamboree across Mexico, Canada and the US? Let's begin in Mexico City at the site of today's game with our correspondent Will Grant.
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing fans with tickets to the opening match will be simply getting there. Mexico City's traffic is notoriously bad, and in the current climate of anti-World Cup protests, some are worried they might not get in. Outside the Azteca stadium, a group demonstrating over the disappearance of more than a hundred and thirty thousand people in Mexico's drug war.
Played a game of street football under a bridge. They'd spray painted the words Mexico, world champions in disappearances on the road, while others painted over World Cup billboards, calling for a boycott of the tournament. The idea is to continue with these protests throughout the World Cup, said one of the organizers, Mar Guerrero, for maximum visibility while the eyes of the world are on this stadium.
Once inside the stadium though, the focus turns to football. So there we have it, into the stadium.
Thank you.
The iconic Azteca Stadium has undergone a major renovation over the past two years, with the Mexican bank having acquired the naming rights with a loan of around$100 million. I was taken on a tour with the Aztecers director, Felix Aguirre, who led us into the belly of the stadium.
What we are seeing
here and what we are going to walk around is a player's path.
He explained that the player's tunnel is adorned with a mural by Mexican artist Jose No Esuaro. Capturing some of the Azteca's most historic footballing moments. On the other side, a glass fronted hospitality area, so fans who can afford it can watch the players as they move between the pitch and the changing room. So inside the Mexico Changing Room, it is all branded with the Mexican flag um and FIFA World Cup twenty twenty-six. Feels quite a privilege to be here with Joseph.
quite frankly hours to go until the team come in. FIFA don't have anything considered away or home changing rooms. There are basically two that are identical. But of course this one is Mexico's It is beautifully done actually. Leather seats in each place. And within a matter of hours the players will be in here. Getting themselves ready for in some of their cases the biggest match of their lives.
Wow!
Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi và hẹn gặp lại.
Well I've just walked up the steps out into the stadium and it is breathtaking. Genuinely one of the finest stadiums in the Americas, no doubt about it, one of the finest stadiums in the world. This of course was the site of the Analytics, the hand of God, in that incredible goal that Maradona scored against England shortly thereafter.
Inside Butcher leaves him for dead, outside Fenneck leaves him for dead and puts the ball away. why Maradon is the greatest player in the world.
The stadium's director, Félix Aguirre, said with hours to go until kickoff, his overriding sensation is one of pride.
It's the pride of being a very small part of a very big team that will deliver one of the biggest spectacles in the history of the world.
Felix Aguire, the man in charge of the Aztecas Stadium, ending that report by Will Grant in Mexico City.
¶ Mexico Prepares for World Cup
Rodrigo Lara, lucky man, is going to be at the opening game, albeit working hard, given that he's a Mexican sports journalist. Um Rodrigo, very good to have you on the line. Thank you for joining us uh early in the morning. Um What's to look forward to as as far as you're concerned about this tournament?
Hello, good morning. First of all, we are here seven forty one AM Mexico local time and the people, the fans, the staff arriving very early. here into the stadium and you can start feeling the vibe, the atmosphere, the people walking with flags, uh chanting with colors, with big sombreros, with a mask. The the weather is absolutely Uh beautiful twenty.
At the moment it's gonna start to build up uh and get warmer uh as the goes uh as the day goes on. So the day is expecting for me uh to be a beautiful day, beautiful experience. And today the Azeka Stadium. become the most important stadium in the world in the World Cups. Three times The opening ceremony, we saw the King Pelé lifting the World Cup here in 1970, and then we saw also Diego Armando Maradona in 1996 becoming one of the football legends.
So we are expecting today a great party, great atmosphere, and an up the for the fans in Mexico and
Well I can I can hear the excitement in your voice even through the slightly scratchy line, Rodrigo. And you're right, I mean Mexico has a unique place. No country has hosted the World Cup uh three times. It it is co hosting though. And I just wonder if that means that there's a little bit less excitement, a little bit less pride because you haven't got
You know, you've got only a minority of the matches and there's also been all this controversy over high ticket prices and and all the rest of it. Do do you think that that is dimming the light a little bit?
I mean, yes, I mean... World Cup final, Europe journalists around the world. Everybody was like a pretty much disappointed. Not to the World Cup final. Stadium and more games. But I think the the fans here in Mexico, in Mexico City, in the capital of the country, are just taking the advantage just just today, just to enjoy. even if it's just uh today or five games for the next uh couple of weeks, uh everybody is going to be excited, everybody's gonna be celebrating uh fool.
Okay. Rodrigo, listen, uh we we can hear we can hear your excitement. Um we wish you well. Hope it's a very enjoyable tournament. The uh I do apologise for the quality of the line, but I think Rodrigo's Uh uh delight about what is about to kick off uh was quite plain.
¶ South Africa's World Cup Dream
Now, being an organization committed to impartiality, we thought it would also be good to hear from Mexico's opponents today. The South African captain and goalkeeper is Ron Wen Williams and he's been talking about his immense pride and excitement to my BBC colleague Isaac Fanny.
I won't even say this is what dreams are made of'cause this wasn't a dream. You know, it was far, you know, to reach for us. But while I was growing up, we were part of the two thousand and two World Cup and I can remember watching that game and then obviously twenty ten and you know this was my brother's dream for me and I lost him in 2010 he had so much high hopes for me and
Just to see or to know that I'll be leading out my team in the opening game for my country. I don't know. You know, I I can't put it into words. Just amazing. It gives me chills. Um sometimes find myself just laying at night thinking about it. It's just amazing.
Yeah, I mean sor sorry for your loss and
Yeah.
You know I was reading a little bit about your family and your mum, I think she said that her dad, your granddad, said that he thought that you would lead South Africa one day. Like your family must be so proud of the fact that you are the South African captain and this moment is gonna be being around the world and it and it will be you. What does your family feel about watching you lead South Africa?
her out. They're so proud, you know, they're happy. They know where the struggles And we have what I had to go through to make it. So it means much more to them. And I can remember when Coach Hugo announced me as captain, the family they had a gathering and just to see what it meant to them that their son, their cousin
friend is leading the national team. And I'm sure that joy and pride and happiness has probably doubled of if not tripled now that I'm going into a World Cup and going to be leading my country this. So I think they're just immensely proud.
There's like a poetry in football that we all love and You know, that two thousand and ten World Cup, I remember it pretty well. South Africa playing Mexico in the opening game, the goal by Shavallella, I remember the commentary, that unbelievable goal and it The roles have reversed now and it will be you guys going into Mexico's home for them opening a World Cup.
Just...
Talk me through the preparations for getting ready to go into what will be a bear pit at the Azteca Stadium, ninety thousand fans.
You know, that's the beauty of sport, of football, to see us now playing that opening day. I mean I always say the the two most important games at the World Cup is the opening and the final. And Bafana Bafana is gonna be part of one. So amazing, you know, but we know it's gonna be difficult. We know the the pressure is gonna be extremely high. They're not gonna make it easy for us. They're gonna intimidate us.
They're gonna have the whole country behind them and you can feel it.'Cause I know and I can remember twenty ten, the atmosphere for that opening game it was electrifying. Everyone behind the country and that's exactly what we can expect. We just have to prepare well. We just have to be ready, make sure that we are ready for everything that they're gonna throw at us. And it's gonna be a wonderful experience. And you know, this is like I said, what dreams are made of.
I wanna talk about the African teams at this competition. Uh there's ten Africa teams at this World Cup for the first time. It's gonna be a real great showcase for African football.
Amazing. Fully deserved as well. When you see the playoffs that the R Congo had to go through and they went all the way. So it showed that they have the quality. It's just a wonderful moment for African football. It's amazing, you know, and I just wish them all, you know, the best at the tournament.
Ron Wan Williams, the captain of South Africa, preparing for that game against Mexico. It's uh coming up in just a few hours. He was speaking to my BBC colleague Isaac Fanet.
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¶ Pope Leo on European Migration
This is Newshour, live from the BBC. I'm Tim Franks. Pope Leo is in the Canary Islands today, the Spanish territory off the northwest coast of Africa, where he's meeting migrants who have made the dangerous sea crossing from West Africa in recent years. The pontiff is also due to remember the many thousands of others who've died trying to reach the Spanish coast. Pope Leo has spoken strongly about the issue in the past. He's described mass deportations from the USA as inhuman.
And he's been uh calling on European leaders to take a more humane approach to migration. But his visit comes as the European Union has started implementing a new pact aimed at making it harder than ever to enter Europe. Sarah Rainsford has this report from the Canary Islands.
In a classroom in Tenerife, a teacher points to parts of her body and students call out the names in Spanish. They're in their late teens, young men from West Africa who have risked their lives to reach this southern tip of Europe, paying smugglers to squeeze them into flimsy wooden boats. And then send them on the long and dangerous trip across the Atlantic. They're now being helped by a church charity here to learn Spanish and find flats and work.
It is the stories of men like these that Pope Leo wants to bring into focus by coming here to the Canary Islands, a clear and deliberate counterpoint to all the talk elsewhere of a migration crisis or an ideological invasion.
I decided to go whether I survive or I die. But what I want, I want my family to be in a good condition tomorrow.
Bakari is one of many who'll meet Pope Leo. Late last year the teenager boarded a boat and for seven scary days he saw nothing all around but sea. By the time he spotted land, all his supplies had run out. Pope Leo has been on the Spanish mainland for several days. In Madrid he got a standing ovation. For an address to Parliament that included a call for safe pathways for migrants to Europe and for a humane approach.
Right now, Spain is bucking the populist anti-migration trend across Europe by allowing hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants to get residency and work permits.
La mafia de Sánchez está directamente implicada.
The far right here aren't happy. They use that invasion word again and claim the policy will bring more migrants here to collapse the welfare system. We just come down from the quayside into a big car workshop. There are people here painting and repairing vehicles. Quite a few of the young men working here arrived in the Canary Islands from West Africa. And this is a company that's now employing them to do work that Spanish people here on the islands.
Just don't want to do any more. This week Europe is set to tighten its borders further. A new EU pact kicks in that will make it easier and quicker to detain and deport those with no right to asylum.
Europa es un continente tremendamente envejecido.
But on the Canary Islands the Deputy Welfare Minister argues that the focus is wrong.
We have no one to work in the hotels, drive our buses, or work in construction. What we need is a real migration policy that means people from African countries don't have to risk their lives, but can come to Europe and have options for work.
Instead he says Europe is trying to build more walls and to keep on building them even higher.
And there was Sarah Rainsford reporting from the Canary Islands.
¶ Discovering Denmark's Butterflies
Publishers are always looking for the next best seller and sometimes they can come from an unlikely place. In Denmark, last year, it was a book about butterflies which became The number one smash hit, and now the butterfly season, as it's entitled, by the Danish journalist Leia Korskor, has been published.
In English. It documents Leah's plan to set out and see all of Denmark's sixty four species of butterfly across one summer. Leia, uh who insists that up to the point she'd cooked up this idea, she knew next to nothing about butterflies. So, given that she has a busy day job as the founder and editor of a news website and a busy life as a parent of three young kids, the first obvious question is why?
I couldn't tell why, when the idea started simmering in the back of my head. Just kept popping off. a voice within me saying you should go see all the Danish butterfly species within a single year, even though you don't know nothing about butterflies. So it became a quest to find out what is it that is calling the
The book makes the point that butterflies had meant something to you beforehand, that butterflies had sort of appeared at important moments in your life.
I think that I'm on sort of an intuitive level understood that the butterfly has told humans a very specific story throughout time. A story about transformation, the hope for rebirth, the hope for light to conquer darkness, right? That's really the story of the butterfly. That's sort of the cultural history of of the butterfly throughout times.
My mom feels a specific relationship to a butterfly. She feels that her mom comes back whenever she sees um a small tortoise shell. It's almost like a human mythology around
The thing about a hunt for sixty four species of butterflies, you're looking for something very concrete, right?
Yeah, it was very specific, tangible. But what started out as a like an exercise in discovery really turned out to become a reckoning with all these Big, big questions that you can't help but ask yourself when you're in a meadow or in a deep forest, you know.
You might sort of strike out into a lovely flowery meadow and think, Well I'll probably see some butterflies here, but you must have had more of a plan.
and had some kind of order and structure, but I very soon found out that if you go to for instance the northern part of Denmark, North Jutland, to see North Jutlantic butterflies. they will not appear just because the you are there. You have to be w way more specific and disciplined than that.
But once I learned that and I learned it from just excellent experts that I had to call and ask them for sound advice, then the project really evolved into these like phenomenal experiences of whoa, this is all right here in my own country.
Did you have to learn how to look?
Yeah, I'm a fast walker. So I really had to learn to walk extremely slowly like a cat.
I'm not going to say exactly how many species you did end up being able to see, but there was one that you decided not to see, I think, in the end. Why was that?
Yeah, in the very end, on my way home from another journey to the northern part of the country, I could just I thought, make it and see the crystal skipper.
The grizzled skipper.
Bristle skipper, yeah. But then I decided, nah, I shouldn't. I don't wanna see it. I don't want this adventurous scavenger hunt to end. I just want to let it be unseen by me until maybe I am one hundred years old. Also because in the end, this was not about me getting check marks on all my pieces. It was in the end a project about understanding what we're part of and also understanding that it is in a sense holy what we're part of. And it so the crystal skippers should stay a mystery for me.
And I was Leia Korskor, the author of the Butterfly Season. That's it from this edition of News Add. From me, Tim Franks, and the team here in London, thanks for your company.
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