formats and shows in recent years have come from south korea. we'll find out why. let's start with ukraine's offensive into the russian region of kursk. this happened towards the beginning of august, and when it did, it was a surprise to many observers. and, of course, this has military objectives, but as well as that, it provides an opportunity for ukraine to change the narrative around the war. catherine philp is world affairs editor at the times. she's reported from war zones for decades, and recently accompanied ukrainian forces across the border into kursk. so, i was coming into ukraine for... i've been coming on and off since before the invasion, and this was a long—scheduled visit. itjust so happened that it came at a time when ukrainian forces had crossed the border into russia.

so, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. because they weren't just about the danger there. they were also these legal risks about... ..the legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. but you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. just to explain, then, who you did speak to and what the terms were. i suppose the question is, whether you were changing names to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to western journalists must be very hard? well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything

to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a foreign one. i gave them their choices. i used first names only. and, you know, gave them the choice. i also made... i made very sure to speak to them out of the earshot of ukrainian journalists as much... sorry. of soldiers as much as was possible. just because, you know, obviously, people may change what they say if someone's listening to them, not just what they might say because of any fears about how the russian authorities would react. but, i mean, i heard every different shade of view from them, from those who were horrified by the war in ukraine, to those who'd never given it a second thought and didn't care. and even, in one case, a woman who was very reluctant to accept that russia had, you know, invaded ukraine and had taken aggressive action there. and you attended something that sounded very fascinating, which was that ukraine's

civilian military liaison officers were showing films to local people about the invasion. and i wonder what the reaction was to the films as you were there? yeah, i mean, that was extraordinary, and one of the most extraordinary things to watch. there was a small audience of older people who were watching it. i spoke to one of them afterwards, nikolai, who, you know, ithink, had been horrified by what he saw. but this was new for everyone. theyjust haven't seen those kind of images of places like bucha and some of the atrocities that we're familiar with. one guy actually told me that he only knew that there was fighting going on in the donbas. the most resistant person to this was a village mayor, who kept interrupting the movie to say to the soldier, "well, you know, this has happened in russia. this has happened in belgorod. people have been shelled there." and then this image footage flashed up of a mass grave being disinterred in bucha, and i said to her, "do you have those in russia?"

and she conceded they did not. catherine, thank you very much indeed, for the moment. please stay with us. francis scarr is with us in the studio. he's a russia specialist at bbc monitoring, a regular contributor to the media show. francis, i'm sure what catherine has been describing doesn't match what people watching russian media are seeing and hearing. no, quite far- from it, of course. well, on the russian state media, which is of coursel very tightly controlled - by the kremlin, there have been efforts to downplay - the scale of what's happened. and so, we've seen them really not really going into detail, - in terms of having any. reporters on the ground. they're showing lots of footage from the defence ministry- of ukrainian tanks and armoured vehicles being destroyed, - and using these kind - of boilerplate statements about russian forces l repelling these forces. and putin himself is downplaying it. j he's using phrases such as i "circumstances" or "situation" to describe the events there,

rather than actually- referring to it as an i invasion, or incursion. that said, the russian state - media never miss an opportunity to reinforce their pre—existing narratives around the war - and around ukraine. and so, we have seen them trying to use it. to galvanise support. they're talking about the whole nation coming together- to support those who have been affected, and supplying - humanitarian aid, and offering homes and accommodation. . but i'm interested that they are talking about it, because, presumably, another option would be to ignore it. they are talking about it, | but it has definitely fallen off the agenda since it began almost a month ago. - now, of course, they. are talking much more about the increasing pace of the russian offensive i in eastern ukraine, - because they like to talk about their successes, i rather than their failures. i think the reason why they've mentioned it at all is that, - with certain stories, - like this, they are simply too big to ignore, and the kremlin

would be embarrassed if it- were to simply pretendl nothing was happening. i was going to ask you about that. to what degree does detail of what's happening start appearing on social media, whether the authorities like it or not? or are they able to control that, too? well, in recent weeks —| i don't know whether it's connected directly — - but the kremlin is apparently taking more and more i measures to gain control over social media. we've seen youtube on desktop devices in russia being slowed i down, and certain providers are actually trying _ to counteract that by - speeding it up themselves, for which they've - received warning from the state media censor. but there have been videos on social media of locals i complaining they haven't received the necessary . level of support from i the authorities, which, of course, goes against the narrative that we're seeing from putin himself. catherine philp from the times, you're still with us. one of the things that i picked up from your reporting was that you had a very strong impression that there

was a real sense of shock and betrayal that moscow's war in ukraine would directly impact their lives. yeah, absolutely. i mean, this was... you know, you've got to remember, it was sold to them not as a war, but a special military operation to sort of take care of a little local trouble in their neighbour, ukraine. i mean, these are... these are people who did watch russian tanks thunder over the border that morning in february 2022, when the invasion happened. but apart from that, they really haven't been affected. despite their extreme proximity to ukraine, the war over that border hasn't really impacted them the way it has in some other parts, like belgorod, where there's been sort of cross—border fire. so, the fact that the war had arrived on their doorstep was just astonishing to them. everyone was, you know, talked of being in shock. and this was a good two weeks after it happened — they were still in shock.

and i think, you know — as francis alluded to there — there were complaints about, and rumblings about things like the fact that they hadn't been prepared for it, that the authorities had upped and left before they did, and that those who evacuated did so mostly under their own steam, certainly from places like sudzha, and had no official help whatsoever. so, the people left behind were, you know, really, the benighted of this corner of russia, and really still disbelieving this had happened to them. and those films that they were being shown by the ukrainians, what was in them? so, it was actually... it was interesting because it wasn't actually terribly heavy—handed propaganda of the kind that you might use. it was pretty sort of light on atrocities. it was mostly people talking, people in ukraine talking about what they'd been through. so, interviews with people in places like bucha, irpin, and then some of the footage cut in. but, you know, ithought it was pretty lightly done.

one of the interesting things they focused on was getting russian speakers in this video. and then, as it was playing, the civilian military officer, he turned to them and said, "look, you've been told by vladimir putin that this operation was launched to protect russian speakers, and here are these russian speakers who've been affected by this and whose family members have been killed and houses destroyed." so, you know, they were trying to point out very... they were trying to very directly refute things that the russian state media narrative had, you know, had claimed to these people. were they also making efforts to convey the message that the occupation by ukraine was temporary? yes, they were. and, you know, they also set about very much sort of trying to provide goods to people and sort of step into that breach left by the russian authorities who had gone. so, there were a group

of people who'd taken shelter in a boarding school, on their own initiative. that wasn't where the ukrainians had told them to be or anything. but they were there, and they were providing them with food, water, medicines. there was a doctor there that people could go and see. and people were, you know, kind of appearing, who had taken refuge in their own basements, were sort of popping up aftertime, after a few days of hiding. and then, they were giving out supplies to them, too. so, it was kind of an effort to... and they said, quite explicitly, that, "we want to show them that we will behave differently in this situation than the russians did when they came into ukrainian territory. " and part of that was to say, "we are not going to be staying forever. this is a temporary measure." francis, let's bring you back in. because catherine was for a time with ukrainian troops — would the russian state consider doing something similar? would you get tv reporters

accompanying military operations in order to generate content for tv? definitely. in donbas, where russia's been advancing, most of the russian| state war correspondents - are embedded with troops there. i've even seen one loading an artillery shell, - which of course goes - against any notion of what journalists should be doing. joining in? joining in, exactly. and this is all about, sort of, turning the russian troops i into heroes in the idea... in the minds of the i russian population. and about promoting - what they're doing as a sort of defensive war for russian values against ukraine and, | the west more broadly. and to what degree is this kind of tv coverage simply sympathetic with the putin position or the russian state position, or to what degree is it actuallyjust one and the same, there's no dividing line between the tv news that's offered and what the government wants? i don't think there i is any dividing line. recently there was an interview

given by one of the sort - of most prominent talk show hosts on russian tv, - and she spoke of her role - as a propagandist and was quite open about the fact that she was working for the kremlin| and that she didn't see - journalism as a sort of pursuit of the truth in the way that i realjournalists might see it, that herjob was merely- to work for her government and to work against governments in countries that are seen - as hostile to russia. francis, thank you. catherine, thank you. now, next on the media show, let's talk about korean television, because last week, bbc studios, which is the commercial arm of the bbc, signed a deal with a korean content agency, which could mean a lot more k—content, as it's sometimes called, heading in the direction of the uk. now, korean tv has been making a name for itself, not least with hits like squid game and the masked singer. he sings in korean

that's the korean version of the masked singer and a contestant from one of the first episodes before it became a global hit that's been sold to more than 50 countries. another is i can see your voice, where contestants have to tell the difference between good singers and bad singers without ever hearing them sing. and there's now huge amounts of investment heading south korea's way. last year, netflix pledged to spend $2.5 billion in the next four years. disney+ is planning to create more korean originals for 2024 and 2025. one senior executive has described it as "a gold rush for korean content". let's hear from someone who knows a lot about developing hit formats and then selling them around the world. insoon kim is head of content at a production company called something special, and she's been explaining to me why korean television is on such a run. the first reason would be korea is an extremely competitive society.

we've always been surrounded by big countries historically, so we had to survive creatively. our rapid economic growth was achieved within a half—century. k—pop industry is well—known for its competitive environment, which is not always a bright side. korean viewers are absolutely not easy to please. so korean tv... is that right? yeah, korean tv has to provide them new things all the time, so that could be one reason. another reason could be, i think korean creative talents are really good at hybridising genres. the funny thing is when the masked singer and i can see your voice came out in 2015, nobody actually thought that that was an actual format because it was so different from the traditional franchise format, like got talent, the voice. so people said, "why should we see a music game show mixed with a music competition show?" it should be either a game show or a talent competition show,

but now they call it a music guessing game show. so you've almost created a genre as well as creating certain formats. yes. i was interested just now, you said that korean audiences are very hard to please. they're very demanding. tell us more about that. what is it that they want? korean people barely watch returning seasons of the show unless it's tied with the huge celebrities. even the tv series, we don't... ..we barely do the returning seasons. let's say there's one terrestrial channel. they have to commission 40 — four—zero — different tv series per year. so korean people want to... ..always want to see new things, new celebrities, new faces, new ideas, rather than seeing old and watched formats. so... it sounds like an unforgiving audience, but it's evidently having a creative knock—on effect. i'm interested, though, in terms of

the formats themselves. originally, if we go back a few years, these were formats that were being created for the south korean market, which then became international hits. but now that it's been proven that korean tv producers can make international hits, is it more and more the case that when you're making programmes, actually you're thinking about the international market from the very beginning? sure. we do a lot of co—development with international partners so that that format could be created not only for the korean audience, but for the international audience from the very beginning. so we want to mix the dna of korean creative with the dna of the international market. for instance, a few years ago, we created a show called the beatbox, which was co—developed by the original creator of i can see your voice with fremantle netherlands.

and it's also a fun studio music game show where everyday items become music instruments. two teams of celebrities compete against each other in various music—related quiz games to obtain the sound of daily items. and... so they're using everyday items from maybe the kitchen or from other parts of our home to create music that we would know? exactly, exactly. after gaining the items... sounds good fun. ..they only have 24 hours to recreate a well— known song using the sounds of items. that sounds great. that's called beatbox. there's another format with "box" in the title — battle in the box — that some people listening may have seen. it's quite an unusual format, too. yes, we have a lot of boxes. laughter. it's a show where two celebrity teams are locked in the iconic box, divided by a moving wall for 20

hours, and compete against each other through numerous games and challenges to gain more spaces in the box. so it was remarkably remade into a uk version by interstellar and the uktv. i would love to be in all the conversations where you're imagining these ideas and thinking about which ones you want to make and which ones you don't. as you look at the industry you work in, can you see it being changed a great deal by the amount of interest from abroad? well, i started out this career as a researcher of the international tv format industry. at that time, korea was not even on any paper, any research papers, but now, it's totally changed. korea is having some portion in the industry, and i'm really proud of it. and i wasn't even expecting that i would see this

coming within my lifetime. and i would like to extend this phenomenon as long as possible by collaborating with international partners as well. well, that was insoon kim from something special. for the bigger picture, we spoke to lucas shaw from bloomberg. it is one of the most- popular genres, or i should say, kind of languages outside of english. - you know, film and television from the united states, - from the uk is still the mostl popular and is sent the most. most of the biggest services, from netflix to disney+ - on down, are american services. but when you look at| the different markets contributing the most popular shows, south korea is up- there with spain, it'si up there with the uk, it's up there with brazil, . it's up there with colombia among the biggest and has produced arguably the two| or three biggest hits. for any country outside of the us and uk.

and, ok, how much, then, have international streamers and broadcasters invested in that country, then, as a result of spotting this and realising that it's... ..you know, there's incredible popularity around the world? depends on the company. so i'd say in aggregate, - kind of global media companies have now spent billions of dollars on korean . film and television, i especially television. netflix is far and away| the biggest supporter. it identified korea as veryl important to its expansion across asia early on, | initially licensing a lot of existing shows and thenl subsequently also investing in original programming like squid game. - and so it's spent billions of. dollars alone in south korea. some of the other players, like disney and apple have| started to spend money, but doing so far- more judiciously. and what does that mean? what has it meant for the domestic market in south korea to suddenly have all this... ..these billions of dollars invested? well, initially-

it was a godsend. you know, you had a companyl in netflix coming and spending far more on individual projectsl than had been done previously. the average budget for- a scripted show went from sort of high six—figures, i low seven—figures to now several million dollars an episode. j if you were lucky enoughj to be a star on that show or a creator of one of those . shows, you were both getting paid more money and able to tell stories that - were generally less common on the korean broadcasters. | i think, over time, _ there's been some questions as to whether this has beenl all positive, both because of netflix's impact on some of the local broadcastersj who have struggled to retain some of their viewers, - and there's a feeling that - while some people have made a lot of money from these - shows, that the average worker maybe hasn't been paid as much as they would've liked. - ok, well, lucas shaw from bloomberg, thank you so much. and we're now going to focus in on korean drama in particular, which has, as we've been hearing, been finding international success. regina kim is a freelance entertainmentjournalist and forbes contributor.

regina, just how popular is korean drama becoming? how many big hits can you point us to? oh, wow. well, i mean, as lucas mentioned, it's super popular. it's actually been globally popular for a while now. it'sjust that i think a lot of mainstream audiences in the west haven't really been paying attention that much. but, like, korean dramas have been popular in many parts of the world like asia, africa, parts of the middle east and latin america since the 2000s, really. but, i mean, in recent years, obviously with the rise of netflix, if you look at, like, netflix's weekly global chart of, like, the top ten non—english language shows, it's very common to find, like, at least three or four k—dramas on that chart out of, like, you know, ten shows total. and so, you know, more recently we have, like, gyeongseong creature, which is... well, that was like, you know, last year, the second season of gyeongseong creature's coming out. obviously we have, like, squid game.

we also have, like, parasyte: the grey. but, like, outside of netflix, you know, we've also seen lovely runner, which is actually on this platform called viki. it's also on netflix in some markets, so... and then also we have marry my husband, which is on amazon prime video, which is, like, the number one k—drama on amazon prime video for... it was, like... it was the number one k—drama, but then it was also in the top ten on amazon for, like, six months. so there's so many hits that we can point to, and... regina, let mejust jump in there. lots of hits. i'm curious, though. is the type of drama that's being made in south korea changing as it finds a bigger and bigger international audience? well, i would say in recent years, again, like, thanks to the rise of streaming, we are seeing more and more k—dramas that have more graphic content. but i would say, you know, it's generally due to this diversification of genres that we've been seeing with the rise of streaming.

because previously, you know, most k—dramas were shown... ..were, like, made by local broadcasters and cable tv channels. and in korea, there are certain, you know, general guidelines around what can and cannot be shown on korean tv. but with international streaming platforms like netflix or disney+, there really are no, like, local restrictions on the type of content that can or cannot be shown. and so that has led to, you know, more k—dramas that are, like, for example, horror, like what we saw with all of us are dead or kingdom. you know, those are a great examples of k—dramas that feature zombies. we obviously have thrillers like squid game, a bloody lucky day, which is on paramount+. it's also, like, one of the most violent shows i've seen ever. and we also have, like, superhero shows now. for example, disney+�*s moving, which had like, you know, people with superpowers, which you just never saw in k—dramas before.

and so you're really seeing a wider variety of k—dramas in terms of genre thanks to streaming. well, that's almost it for this week's media show, but, ros, i do want to ask you before you go — come on, which of those formats, if you had to go on a south korean tv show, what would it be? so i quite like this one where you take everyday items and try and create pop songs within 24 hours. ican imagine... i thought you were going to do that. might even go home and try that... well, not for the viewers' benefit, just for mine... with a bit of drum and bass? maybe with a bit of drum and bass thrown in as well. you never know. can't wait to hear it. that's a lie, by the way. laughter. but i'm afraid that is all we've got time for, so goodbye from us. bye. and if you'd like to hear a longer version of today's show, search "bbc the media show" wherever you get your bbc podcasts. hello there. well, it's been mild, relatively speaking, despite all of that rain in the south, and very warm,

in fact, out towards the far north and west — but some changes for the next couple of days. autumn is biting back, temperature—wise at least. it's going to turn colder by day and by night, with the chance of a frost for some, especially on thursday night. it will be windy, a brisk north westerly wind, sunny spells, but also some blustery showers. and those changes have already started. a deep area of low pressure sweeping across the northern isles, it's sending this cold front sweeping southwards and eastwards across the uk. so you see that milder air being pushed away, marked in orange, blues, and yellows, the colder air takes over through the middle part of the week and it will feel bitingly cold, i think, in exposure to that northwesterly wind. and here's the cold front for the rest of tuesday. it sinks southwards and eastwards, a narrow band of rain for most. there will be some cloud ahead of the front, but sunshine developing behind, blustery showers, very heavy rain across the northern isles, could lead to some localised flooding and it's windy wherever you are across the uk, but particularly so for the northern isles. gusts of wind here of up

to 60—65 miles an hour. and here are the temperatures, ranging between 11—18 degrees. we keep that mild air towards the south, but the rain could pep up here, perhaps, as we head through tuesday evening before it clears overnight. it's going to feel cold on tuesday night. some of our temperatures could drop back to mid—single figures. i think you'll really notice the chill on wednesday morning. still some blustery showers out towards the north and the west, but we will see some more clearer skies, especially the further south and east you are. and then on wednesday, it's a typical day when we see a northwesterly wind this time of year. sunny spells and showers, most of the showers towards the north and the west, some of them heavy and possibly thundery. it will feel cold and exposure, so that's still brisk northwesterly wind and temperatures are now below the seasonal average across the board. but it's still september, so in the spells of sunshine and sheltered from the wind, then it won't feel too bad. again, more sunny spells and showers, perhaps, on thursday, and then high pressure starts to build in from the southwest.

that's going to have the effect of lightning the wind, so there could be a bit of frost, particularly for northern england, parts of scotland into friday morning, and some mist and fog developing as well. but mostly dry on friday, temperatures recover on friday, and through the weekend. bye— bye.

live from washington, this is bbc news. gaza's civil defence agency says dozens have been killed in israeli air strikes on a designated humanitarian zone in southern gaza. kamala harris and donald trump prepare for theirfirst presidential debate

in less than 24 hours. when i left you, i was but the learner. now, i am the master. and the voice behind the mask: james earljones, the american actor who voiced darth vader and mufasa, has died at the age of 93. hello. i'm caitriona perry. you're very welcome. gaza's civil defence agency says at least 40 people have been killed and more than 60 injured in israeli air strikes on a designated humanitarian zone in southern gaza. local residents told the bbc that three israeli strikes destroyed more than 20 tents housing displaced palestinians in the al mawasi area. many more are reported to be buried. the israeli military said it had targeted a hamas command centre. a volunteer for a local charity who lives near the site said

the attacks left craters several metres deep.