BBC News Briefing

30 April, 2024

Stuart Duggan

Hello. We start with new information about the death of a teenage girl during Iran's women's rights protests in 2022. A warning this story contains details of violence and sexual assault that you may find upsetting. Elsewhere Basillioh Rukanga is at the scene of devastating floods in Kenya and we're taking a look at how China is making big moves in mining to dominate the green economy. We also take a visit to the first Arab-majority city in the US, and there's a story featuring 60,000 little "monsters".

TOP OF THE AGENDA

Iranian teen was killed by security forces

A family picture of Nika Shakarami. She has black hair with dyed blonde tips and is wearing a black top and silver necklaces, while looking directly into the camera.

Nika was just 16 when she disappeared during protests against Iran's strict dress code for women. Credit: Atash Shakarami.

As protests on the streets spread across Iran in the autumn of 2022, Nika Shakarami became a symbol of women’s fight for greater freedoms. The 16-year-old disappeared from an anti-regime protest and her body was found nine days later, with the government claiming she took her own life. Nika’s picture became synonymous with the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and her name was shouted by crowds furious at the country's strict rules on the compulsory veil [hijab]. Nika’s disappearance and death were reported at the time. But in a report some may find distressing, BBC Eye reveals she was sexually assaulted and killed by three men working for Iran’s security forces. The investigation examined a leaked security forces document to piece together Nika’s last movements. After taking steps to distinguish the document from the numerous faked Iranian documents in circulation, they set out how she was identified, tracked and captured by people working for the Iranian government.

‌

Sister arrested: Nika's sister Aida was arrested earlier this month for not covering her hair, her family says.

‌

A simple guide: The 2022 Iran protests explained.

‌

A cause across generations: The BBC’s Rana Rahimpour looks at footage from Iranian protests in 1979 and 2022, finding striking similarities.

WORLD HEADLINES

US campus protests: Pro-Palestinian activists have barricaded themselves into a building at Columbia University, defying a college deadline to disperse.

Charlotte shooting: Four law enforcement officers have been shot dead while serving a warrant in North Carolina, during a standoff that lasted three hours.

Sword attack: Five people have been injured in east London, after a man attacked members of the public and two police officers.

Philippines drought: The ruins of a 300-year-old town have resurfaced as high temperatures dried up a major dam.

British royal in Ukraine: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, has become the first member of the Royal Family to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

AT THE SCENE

Nairobi, Kenya

Deluge exposes city's vulnerability

A woman wearing a pink hoodie stands in a flooded street. She is wading through the water along with other people.

Development of buildings has been blamed for overwhelming infrastructure and causing flooding. Credit: Getty Images.

Kenya's President William Ruto has called a cabinet meeting to discuss the country’s ongoing flooding crisis, which has left about 169 people dead and more than 130,000 people displaced. It has been extreme even by the standards of Nairobi, where flooding is not unusual.

Basillioh Rukanga, BBC News

It seems as if the rain has been falling without respite for six weeks, and the impact has been devastating. This is the wet season, but there has been far more rainfall than is normally expected, which has been put down to the El Niño weather phenomenon. Rivers and sewers have overflowed, roads have become waterways and homes have been destroyed. The sheer scale of this year's deluge has exposed longer-term problems with the way the city has developed. "You can't contain nature. It doesn't work like that," Prof Alfred Omenya, an urban planning and environment expert says.

‘Not the moment for blame game’: President William Ruto defends his government‘s flood response, in a BBC interview.

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

China's global play for green tech

A mechanical digger is seen extracting lithium in a brine pond, a large salty area, in the Atacama Desert, Calama, Chile.

Lithium is extracted in Chile's Atacama desert, located within the "lithium triangle". Credit: Getty Images.

China has taken big stakes in mines across the world extracting minerals including lithium, cobalt and nickel, all vital to the green economy. The BBC's Global China Unit has been investigating how it's affecting workers and locals at sites in Argentina, DR Congo and Indonesia.

Get the full story

A large ornate building is seen with golden domes, towers and the USA flag.

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

The Midwest's Middle East

Dearborn is the first Arab-majority city in the US - and a Mecca for foodies.

Here's a taster

And finally...

When three-year-old Saylor began complaining of monsters in her bedroom at the family's farmhouse, her parents thought it was just her imagination. But it turned out to be the noise of around 60,000 honeybees, a protected species in the US. Take a look at the image from a beekeeper's thermal camera, which was used to scan inside the walls of the three-year-old's bedroom.

The Essential List newsletter

The week's best stories, handpicked by BBC editors, in your inbox twice a week.

Subscribe here

MORE BBC NEWSLETTERS

In History: The past comes to life through the BBC's unique audio, video and written archive, each Thursday. Subscribe.

US Election Unspun: Cut through the noise in the race for the White House, every Wednesday. Subscribe.

Football Extra: Latest news, insights and gossip from the Premier League, weekdays. Subscribe.

Thank you, as ever, for reading. Send us suggestions for topics or areas of the world to cover in this newsletter. Tell your friends and family about it! They can sign up here. You can take a look at all our newsletters here.

By the way, you can add newsbriefing@email.bbc.com to your contacts list and, if you're on Gmail, pop the email into your “Primary” tab for uninterrupted service. Thanks for reading!

– Stuart

You've received this email because you've signed up to the BBC News Briefing newsletter.

Click here to unsubscribe

To find out how we use your data, see the BBC Privacy Policy.

BBC Studios Distribution Limited.

Registered Number: 01420028 England

Registered office: 1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London, W12 7FA, United Kingdom