--:-- Janat Jalil: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janat Jalil, and in the early hours of Thursday, the 7th of August, these are our main stories.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Donald Trump hits India with an extra 25% tariff for its Russian oil purchases. But he also says he could be meeting President Putin soon to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Thousands of French firefighters are struggling to control the country's biggest wildfires in decades. Italy says it's going to build the world's longest suspension bridge linking the mainland to Sicily.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Also in this podcast, new research from Rwanda indicates friendships formed by female mountain guerrillas are far more important and enduring than previously understood.
--:-- Janat Jalil: They were really seeking out groups in which they knew females. And this really tells us that those female-female relationships, they can still continue to matter even after years apart.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Donald Trump has inflicted yet another hefty economic blow on India, announcing an additional 25% tariff on Indian imports because of India's continued purchases of Russian oil.
--:-- Janat Jalil: This comes on top of the 25% tariff announced last week, raising the total tariff on Indian imports to the US to 50%, one of the highest rates in the world.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The US president's executive order came despite his senior envoy, Steve Witkoff, holding talks in Moscow with President Putin, with the Kremlin describing them as productive and the US president saying great progress had been made.
--:-- Janat Jalil: So much so that Mr. Trump says he may soon hold a meeting with a Russian leader to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine.
--:-- Janat Jalil: We had some very good talks with President Putin today and there's a very good chance that we could be ending the round, ending the end of that road.
--:-- Janat Jalil: That road was long and continues to be long, but there's a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Mr. Trump has set a deadline for this Friday for Russia to reach a peace deal with Ukraine.
--:-- Janat Jalil: I asked our Washington correspondent, Nomiya Iqbal, why Mr. Trump had decided to impose these extra tariffs on India now when the US and Russia appear to be having constructive talks.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: He'd been threatening to do so since last week and now he's followed through issuing this executive order and it's among the highest on all of the US's long-standing allies and trading partners.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: I mean, 50% we're talking about here. And he's basically, I think we can read something into the fact that he's trying to get this ceasefire, which looks like it won't happen on Friday.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And he's punishing India for basically, in his words, fueling the Russia war machine by purchasing cheap oil and has been demanding that Prime Minister Modi pick a side.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And what should we make of the fact that this announcement was made by the White House shortly after Mr. Trump's envoy, Steve Wyckoff, met President Putin in Russia?
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Well, there's huge pressure on the US to deliver some sort of ceasefire or peace deal.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Donald Trump, remember, famously said that he would end the war in Ukraine on day one.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Steve Wyckoff, his envoy, the man who's been set out there to solve all the world's problems by the US.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: It's his fifth time in Russia. And it sounds like there won't be a ceasefire. There won't be a peace deal.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Certainly looking at Mr. Trump's social media post.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: I presume that these sanctions are secondary sanctions.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Russia's already heavily sanctioned to the point where it's questionable if further sanctions directly on the country would take effect.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: So I think Mr. Trump is thinking, let's go after the countries Russia does business with, such as India, to put pressure on them in that way.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Interestingly, he hasn't said much about China ramped up the rhetoric on China.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: China is a very important trading partner to Russia.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: But I think there is just big pressure on Mr. Trump generally to try and end the war as he promised he would.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And it's a bit surprising, isn't it, for some observers, because there had been this longtime friendship between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And yet India has been dealt two blows within a matter of days.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: 25 percent tariffs because they couldn't strike a trade deal.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And now this additional 25 percent.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Close allies or not.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And yes, both men did seem to get on very well.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: I mean, Prime Minister Modi was here in the US earlier in the year.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: I mean, he really does like to appeal to Donald Trump as much as possible, even saying make India great again, adopting Mr. Trump's slogan.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Interestingly, he was asked about tariffs during his conference with Mr. Trump earlier in the year.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: Mr. Trump didn't say anything.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: I don't think there was any expectation that he would hit India with tariffs.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: They were trying to come up with some sort of trade deal.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: But like I said, he wanted Mr. Modi to pick a side.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: But India has said, look, we're acting in our interests and justifies the purchase of Russian oil by saying that it began to do that after traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the war began.
--:-- Nomiya Iqbal: And India says it was a move that was actively encouraged by the US at the time.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency says at least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured when four lorries taking supplies into the territory overturned on Tuesday evening.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Medical officials have said they're struggling to deal with the casualties.
--:-- Janat Jalil: John Donison sent this report from Jerusalem.
--:-- John Donison: At the Al-Aqsa Martus Hospital in Dar al-Bala, grief as they brought the bodies in.
--:-- John Donison: Local journalists told the BBC crowds of desperate people rushed towards the lorries.
--:-- John Donison: Some climbed on top, causing the drivers to lose control.
--:-- John Donison: Four vehicles overturned.
--:-- John Donison: Dr Khalil al-Dakran is a spokesperson at the hospital.
--:-- Dr Khalil al-Dakran: There were more than 20 people killed and more than 100 injured.
--:-- Dr Khalil al-Dakran: This was due to the trucks overturning onto civilians, which happened because the occupation did not allow these trucks to enter through safe roads.
--:-- Dr Khalil al-Dakran: These were commercial lorries carrying goods for sale, not aid.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The private transport association now operating in Gaza said that 26 trucks entered the territory, six were looted and four of those overturned.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Separately, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, around 30 Jordanian trucks carrying aid to Gaza were again attacked by Jewish settlers, throwing stones and blocking the road.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Jordan accused Israel of not doing enough to protect the convoy.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And there's more on this on the BBC website.
--:-- Janat Jalil: But did this story of yet more deaths in Gaza, of civilians desperately trying to get aid, make it onto the Israeli media?
--:-- Janat Jalil: There is an emerging debate in Israel over the lack of reporting on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Rebecca Kesby spoke to an independent Israeli journalist, Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: This kind of story will have very little attention, also because today the prime minister is pushing for a full plan to occupy Gaza.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And so that is the discussion.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And this kind of story is getting very little, if not at all, attention.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And more generally about the humanitarian situation, I mean, it's on all the front pages of newspapers across the world.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: Lots of images coming through, even though reporters aren't allowed in to Gaza.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: Is much of that being reported on in Israel, the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza?
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: It is talked about, and for the last two weeks we also have been seeing in mainstream media the pictures of children and the hunger and the dire situation of Gaza.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: But it is quite a new development because it talked about The pictures the human pictures of the Gaza Strip have not been very shown broadly during the war
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: I have to say that the pictures of Eviatel David and Rombo Slavski the two hostages held by Hamas in Gaza that we seen very very skinny and suffering
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: That has been shocking to Israelis and that's the takeover of the conversation once again.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: You came to our attention because there was a little bit of confrontation in a broadcast interview you were part of recently where you clashed with other people on the program about how much should be shown from Gaza.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: Do you want to tell us what happened?
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: It's a TV show on one of the main channels in Israel, Channel 13, where I sit as a contributor every week.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And we were talking about the tolls of the war, the hostages still being held in the agony of the families.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And we were talking about the soldiers that are falling during the war in Gaza.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And then the discussion was kind of moving on.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And I thought it was also imperative that we talk about the Palestinian victims and we just acknowledge them at least.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And people around the table were not really interested in this talk.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And it was pretty much representative of the public opinion in Israel because we know from polls that only around 35% of the population would say that they are interested in the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: But I want to claim that 35% is not that little.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: It needs its voice on mainstream media.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And not to be ignored.
--:-- Janat Jalil: So they tried to shut you down, didn't they?
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And you persisted and came back and said, no, we need to talk about this.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And then that sparked a response and you got a lot of criticism from people, but also people contacted you to say thank you for speaking up on this issue.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: Yeah, actually, I did not get criticism.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: That was amazing.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: I got criticism during the show, but I got so many messages of support of people saying I wasn't sure my voice or my opinion was legitimate because I didn't see it on mainstream media.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: So thank you for that.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: Now, I want to say again, there is coverage of Gaza and there is a talk about Gaza from day one in Israel.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: But it's either in a Harris newspaper or on very specific shows.
--:-- Emmanuel Elbaz Phelps: And it's not across the board.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Syria's new Islamist rulers have signed a dozen multi-billion dollar investment deals which will include funding for a new airport and a metro system in the capital Damascus.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The agreements follow the recent lifting of sanctions.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Mike Thompson reports.
--:-- Mike Thompson: It's all a huge turnaround for a government that had links with al-Qaeda and was shunned by the West.
--:-- Mike Thompson: In addition to a new airport and metro system for Damascus, the $14 billion of investment, much of it from Qatar and Italy, could fund high-rise residential towers up to 45 floors tall for as many as 20,000 people.
--:-- Mike Thompson: Over recent months, Syria has also secured investment deals with Saudi Arabia, the US and Turkey.
--:-- Mike Thompson: The UN has put the cost of rebuilding the country at $400 billion.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Thousands of French firefighters are battling to contain the country's worst wildfires in nearly 80 years.
--:-- Janat Jalil: They've scorched an area in southern France that's larger than the size of Paris, consuming forests and homes and forcing many people to flee.
--:-- Janat Jalil: One woman has been killed and about a dozen others have been injured.
--:-- Janat Jalil: On a visit to the affected region of Aude, the French Prime Minister, François Bayrou, described the fires as a catastrophe on an unprecedented scale.
--:-- Janat Jalil: He said they were linked to global warming and drought.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Our Europe correspondent James Waterhouse reports.
--:-- James Waterhouse: When it comes to wildfires, the conditions in France's old region were described as ripe.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Soaring temperatures with little rainfall have allowed these flames to take a firm grip.
--:-- James Waterhouse: As emergency teams head in, you wonder where to start.
--:-- James Waterhouse: There are fires everywhere.
--:-- James Waterhouse: It's a disaster, says this firefighter.
--:-- James Waterhouse: All the vineyards are burning in the area.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Those vineyards usually act as natural barriers, but there are fewer of them now.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Crews do what they can, on the ground or in the sky.
--:-- James Waterhouse: But wildfires are not contained easily.
--:-- James Waterhouse: All possible resources are on the way, says President Macron, for an operation it's feared could take days.
--:-- James Waterhouse: Across Europe, the size of burnt areas is already twice the average, according to the EU.
--:-- James Waterhouse: These French fires gradually took a hold overnight, as people and professionals looked on helplessly.
--:-- James Waterhouse: I feel sad.
--:-- James Waterhouse: I find it tragic to see so many fires since the beginning of summer.
--:-- James Waterhouse: It's terrible for the wildlife, for the people who are losing everything.
--:-- James Waterhouse: It's, yeah, I find it really very sad.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Similar scenes in Tarifa, southern Spain, where a forest fire is ripping through the countryside.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Tourists are being evacuated.
--:-- Janat Jalil: 18,000 people live here.
--:-- Janat Jalil: It's extreme weather conditions that can cause such intense, devastating heat.
--:-- Janat Jalil: It's climate change that is making wildfires more common across Europe and beyond.
--:-- Janat Jalil: James Waterhouse.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Italy's government has approved plans to build the world's longest suspension bridge.
--:-- Janat Jalil: It would connect the island of Sicily to the mainland and stretch more than three kilometres.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The bridge is expected to cost around $15 billion.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Critics have voiced concerns about its feasibility and environmental impact.
--:-- Janat Jalil: But the government insists the project will accelerate development in Italy's less developed south.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Rachel Wright told us more about it.
--:-- Rachel Wright: Currently, if you want to travel between the Italian mainland and Sicily, which is the island off the toe of the boot of Italy, you have to take a ferry, which takes around 30 minutes.
--:-- Rachel Wright: Both Sicily and Calabria are very poor regions.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And there's been discussions for a long time, in fact, around 50 years, to build a bridge to bring an economic boost to the area.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And the Transport Minister, Matteo Salvini, who's a dominant member of the right-wing government of Giorgio Maloney, has announced the government will build what he called the Metro over the Strait.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And it's a huge project.
--:-- Rachel Wright: It will cost around $15 billion and take around 10 years.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And the consortium that's going to build it says it will create more than 100,000 jobs.
--:-- Rachel Wright: It'll be the longest suspension bridge in the world at around 3.3 kilometres and will include two railway lines in the middle and three lanes of traffic on either side.
--:-- Rachel Wright: So a very ambitious plan, but also a very controversial one.
--:-- Rachel Wright: There's been plans to build this bridge for many years, but it's been rejected before on the grounds of the enormous costs.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And because an estimated 4,000 people on either side of the strait will be forced to leave their homes, they will, of course, be compensated, but that hasn't been enough to stop frequent protests against the bridge's construction.
--:-- Rachel Wright: Environmental associations have already filed a complaint with the EU flagging serious risks for the local environment and Green MPs are also against it.
--:-- Rachel Wright: One more thing to consider is that the area has one of the highest seismic risks in Europe, meaning that it's prone to earthquakes.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And of course, there's always the issue of the mafia, who are still very active in Sicily, though Mr Salvini did say they would work very hard to stop any criminal infiltration of the project.
--:-- Rachel Wright: And there are also doubts about whether this very ambitious project would actually ever be completed.
--:-- Rachel Wright: The project has had several false starts already with the first plans drawn up more than 50 years ago.
--:-- Rachel Wright: Eurolink, which is a consortium led by the Italian group WeBuild, won the tender in 2006 to build the bridge but the government cancelled it after the Eurozone debt crisis.
--:-- Rachel Wright: Now, the consortium remains the contractor on the revived project.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And as Italy has agreed, along with other NATO allies, to massively increase its defence expenditure to 5% of GDP at the demand of US President Donald Trump, of this, 1.5% can be spent on defence-related areas such as cyber security and infrastructure and the Italian government is hoping the Messina Bridge will qualify, particularly as Sicily hosts a NATO base.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Still to come. The recipe on the Good Food platform describes the dish as a store-cobid favourite with four simple ingredients.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Why a popular British food website has cooked up a storm in Italy with its unorthodox ingredients for a famous pasta dish
--:-- Janat Jalil: Go on, get a little out there, into the big heart of Nevada, where you can go off-road and off the map, on two legs or on horseback.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Dip into hot springs and dive into deserts.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Climb a mountain or make your best effort.
--:-- Janat Jalil: See thousands of stars in some of the darkest skies.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Stake out haunted hotels.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Can you make it to sunrise?
--:-- Janat Jalil: There's always something new to see because we've got plenty of space to just be.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
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--:-- Janat Jalil: Will the New York Liberty defend their crown or will another team take the chip?
--:-- Janat Jalil: This is where champions rise and legacies are defined.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Watch the WNBA postseason currently underway on ABC and ESPN.
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--:-- Janat Jalil: According to a nationwide survey conducted by GeneSight, nearly 9 in 10 Americans who've been diagnosed with depression or anxiety believe that mental health medications are somewhat or very effective.
--:-- Janat Jalil: However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
--:-- Janat Jalil: That's why Dr. Whitney Brown, a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner based in Alabama, often recommends genetic testing to our patients as part of their treatment journey.
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--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
--:-- Janat Jalil: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help.
--:-- Janat Jalil: To learn more, visit genesight.com.
--:-- Janat Jalil: That's genesight.com.
--:-- Janat Jalil: You're listening to the Global News Podcast.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The army in India says it's using sniffer dogs, drones and heavy machinery to search for dozens of people still missing after flash flooding hit the northern state of Utrakan on Tuesday.
--:-- Janat Jalil: At least four people are confirmed to have died.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Many more are feared to be trapped under debris.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Residents have been warned to stay away from rivers as levels are still dangerously high and heavy rainfall, damaged roads and phone lines are hampering rescue efforts.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Nikki Schiller reports.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The moment a torrent of water and mud gush down the himalayan mountainside engulfing the remote village of dorale it's a tourist spot with hotels resorts and restaurants the sudden nature of the surge just didn't give people the chance to get away roads turned into rivers of mud buildings were swamped disaster response officials say the mud was 15 meters or 50 feet deep in places
--:-- Nikki Schiller: It's feared many people could be trapped under the debris.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The weather and remote location are a challenge for rescuers who provided first aid and helped get people to safety.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The state chief said teams were on a war footing.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The health department has deployed doctors and is ensuring the availability of medicine.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: Provisions for food and other arrangements are being made.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: And the district's administration's police department has deployed 160 police officers.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The disaster was a result of a cloudburst, an extreme sudden downpour of rain over a small area in a short period of time, which often leads to flash floods.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences posting on social media.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: I pray for the well-being of all the victims.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: Relief and rescue teams are engaged in every possible effort.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: No stone is being left unturned in providing assistance to the people.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: The sheer amount of sludge has blocked part of the region's main river, submerging land.
--:-- Nikki Schiller: Concern is growing that if the water is not drained out quickly, it could pose a serious threat to towns and villages downstream.
--:-- Janat Jalil: mRNA vaccines are credited with having saved millions of lives.
--:-- Janat Jalil: But the US Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time vaccine sceptic, has announced the Trump administration is to cancel $500 million in funding allocated to them.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Mr. Kennedy has cancelled 22 projects for tackling infections such as COVID and flu.
--:-- Janat Jalil: But health experts warn this is a dangerous step that could harm efforts to prepare for the next pandemic.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Here's our health and science correspondent, James Gallagher.
--:-- James Gallagher: Messenger RNA vaccines were heralded as a medical marvel that saved lives during the COVID pandemic.
--:-- James Gallagher: They used tiny snippets of genetic code to temporarily tell the body to make viral proteins.
--:-- James Gallagher: This trains the immune system to fight infection.
--:-- James Gallagher: Now, the US Health Secretary and arguably America's most famous vaccine sceptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is pulling the plug on half a billion dollars of funding.
--:-- James Gallagher: Let me be absolutely clear.
--:-- James Gallagher: HHS supports safe, effective vaccines for every American who wants them.
--:-- James Gallagher: That's why we're moving beyond the limitations of mRNA for respiratory viruses and investing in better solutions.
--:-- James Gallagher: He argues other vaccine technologies are safer, offer better protection against mutations, and that mRNA vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory tract infections like COVID and flu.
--:-- James Gallagher: That runs contrary to the scientific consensus.
--:-- James Gallagher: The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine is estimated to have saved nearly 6 million lives in its first year during the pandemic.
--:-- James Gallagher: There is a legitimate debate around which vaccine technology is best for which disease, but there are major concerns about funding being taken away from areas that mRNA is streets ahead of the competition, particularly when it comes to dealing with new infections and outbreaks.
--:-- James Gallagher: Dr Paul Offit, the Director of the Vaccine Education Centre at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is concerned.
--:-- Dr Paul Offit: So there's a concern that bird flu virus, so-called H5N1 virus, may become a pandemic.
--:-- Dr Paul Offit: It might not, but it might.
--:-- Dr Paul Offit: And if it does, you want to have a technology, in this case messenger RNA, that can respond quickly.
--:-- James Gallagher: The advantage of the mRNA vaccines is that the production cycle is only about three months.
--:-- James Gallagher: There are still many unanswered questions.
--:-- James Gallagher: Will the move lead the world more susceptible to the next pandemic?
--:-- James Gallagher: Will it prove to be an opportunity for other countries like the UK to take the lead on mRNA research?
--:-- James Gallagher: Or will the US's decision as one of the biggest markets for pharmaceuticals lead to vaccine research being focused elsewhere?
--:-- Janat Jalil: Just like us humans, mountain gorillas move in and out of different social groups throughout their lives.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And just like us, it seems they like to seek out a familiar face.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Researchers in Rwanda have found that even after many years apart, a female mountain gorilla entering a new group will seek out and join another female she already knows.
--:-- Janat Jalil: What you heard there were two gorillas, Tab and Rug, playing in Rwanda, giving each other what looks like a high five in the video footage.
--:-- Janat Jalil: This new research on social activity comes from the Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund, an organisation that's been observing gorillas in Rwanda for about 20 years.
--:-- Janat Jalil: For more on this, Krupa Paddy spoke to Victoire Martignac, a lead researcher from the University of Zurich in Switzerland.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: We wanted to focus on female gorillas dispersal.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And essentially this is because in gorillas both males and females disperse
--:-- Victoire Martignac: But males they usually become solitary and then they try to establish their own group by attracting females
--:-- Victoire Martignac: But females they go from one group to another
--:-- Victoire Martignac: So we wanted to better understand how they make these decisions
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And the results were very interesting because we found that females were avoiding groups that contained males they had grown up with.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And this, we think, might be due to some inbreeding avoidance strategy.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: So the rule being that if you grew up with a male, it's quite likely that you're related to him.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And so it would make sense to avoid, you know, being in a group with him and reproducing with him because this would have pretty negative consequences for your offspring.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And yet we find some very different results for the importance of females.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: So the females, they were very attracted to groups that contained familiar females.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And this was really unexpected.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And this was a pretty exciting discovery for us because we saw that they were really seeking out groups in which they knew females.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: And this really tells us that those female-female relationships, they can still continue to matter even after years apart.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: Long-term relationships might be very beneficial because they can actually help those females integrate better and also faster.
--:-- Victoire Martignac: It sounds like there's quite simply strength in the sisterhood.
--:-- Janat Jalil: I mean, the reason why it's so exciting for us is that, well, first, we don't really know a lot about those female-female relationships in gorillas.
--:-- Janat Jalil: When we look at behaviors in research, we always try to look at the cost of those behaviors, but also the benefits.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And investing in a social relationship, you know, it takes time, it takes energy.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And so it has often been assumed that females, gorillas, or just, you know, individuals that disperse multiple times, that they will not invest so much in those relationships.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Because why invest in a relationship if you or the other member might just immigrate at any time.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And here we're showing that dispersal does not have to be the end of the social relationships.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Actually, through dispersal, they can maintain old relationship as well as create new relationships.
--:-- Janat Jalil: I wonder if there's anything that we as humans can learn from these bonds that clearly stand the test of time between female gorillas.
--:-- Janat Jalil: I guess it's really interesting to see that, you know, they can keep in touch.
--:-- Janat Jalil: They don't need WhatsApp to do it.
--:-- Janat Jalil: They, I mean, they live in a very similar society as the one we live in.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And in terms of humans, we know that, you know, movement is such an important part of our lives.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And sometimes I guess we do it so easily that it's an ability that we take for granted.
--:-- Janat Jalil: But the fact that it's also there in gorillas, I guess, also shows us that it has like a very far evolutionary past.
--:-- Janat Jalil: And this is very interesting to see.
--:-- Janat Jalil: It's the kind of ability that does not fossilise.
--:-- Janat Jalil: So looking at it in our close evolutionary cousins can also tell us a lot about the context in which those movement decisions take place.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Victoire Martignac from the University of Zurich.
--:-- Janat Jalil: A popular recipe website in Britain has drawn the ire of Italians for listing unorthodox ingredients for a famous Roman pasta dish.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Its recipe for cacio e pepe told people to use parmesan when the cheese should have been, of course, pecorino, and to add butter when traditionally there isn't any.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Olivia Noon takes up the story.
--:-- Olivia Noon: The recipe on the Good Food platform describes the dish as a store cupboard favourite, with four simple ingredients.
--:-- Olivia Noon: But it's here it made the fatal mistake.
--:-- Olivia Noon: Italians say the real free ingredient recipe for cacio e pepe contains, like the name suggests, only cheese, more specifically pecorino, black pepper and, of course, pasta.
--:-- Olivia Noon: An Italian restaurant association said it had requested an immediate correction and it had even taken up the issue with the British Embassy in Rome.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The US Vice President J.D. Vance is said to be on his way to the UK for a family holiday.
--:-- Janat Jalil: The latest high-profile American to fall, it is reported for the charms of the Cotswolds area in southern England.
--:-- Janat Jalil: There are honey-coloured stone cottages, medieval churches and quaint villages all nestled amongst the rolling hills.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Many celebrities and business tycoons from around the world have been buying property there or simply heading to one of the several luxury country clubs located there.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Residents include the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, the model, Kate Moss, and the US television presenter, Ellen DeGeneres.
--:-- Janat Jalil: Paddy O'Connell went to hiking in the area.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: One of my favourite walks here is to Turville Church, which stands there with its saddleback tower and has so stood for more than 400 years.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: So people from all over the world and all over the UK and several names from the United States have left beautiful messages here.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Lovely, Scott and Susan from Austin in Texas.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: All over the Cotswolds, international attention has been spreading in recent years, partly due to a string of celebrities and TV shows, but also, bluntly, just the beauty and charm of the Cotswolds.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: I'm crossing from one churchyard to another to meet an American traveller, Lizzie de la Peña, who's chronicling her life in the Cotswolds to her followers online, having moved here from the US.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: It's organised, it's proper, people are respectful, and we don't have that in the United States.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: So you've lived across the United States, you've lived in Mexico City.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Do we have some of the nicest people in the world here in the Cotswolds?
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Absolutely.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Yes, hands down.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: I've made more friends here in two months than I have decades in both of those other countries.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: I'm by the River Windrush now in Whitley, one of the big towns.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Locals here remind me that Whitley is not the Cotswolds, but it's one of the big towns where people from the Cotswolds come shopping.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: The area has been famed for a long time, and it is coming alongside the interests of other Americans.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Katie Campbell runs her own property firm here, working as a house hunter.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: There's always been a strong percentage of clients looking to buy in the Cotswolds, coming from America, but it has increased year on year.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: They're looking for property that they can use as weekenders from London, the equivalent of what you would have in the Hamptons from New York, or they're looking to add to their portfolio globally.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: They're looking for the Cotswold dream, which is Cotswold stone properties, stone-tiled roofs, mullioned windows and views of the rolling landscape.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: And I went to chat to people at the bus stop.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: What do you think about the influx of American celebrities?
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: I just hope they don't get as far as Ensham.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Is that where you live?
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: It is.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Well, you've got the vice president coming soon, J.D. Vance.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: It's so right-wing, it's unbelievable.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Would you welcome Mr. Vance in your village?
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: No.
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: Is he coming here to live?
--:-- Paddy O'Connell: He's coming here for
