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narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ christian: hello, i'm christian fraser, and this is "the context." >> there has been a large increase in the number of people arriving by ship, by boat. that has created saturation on the island. >> we know that many of the people we are seeing today will probably in france in a week or month's time. i want a change in policy at the european level and also for our member governments to take responsibility. >> there was what was described as a flotilla of 120 migrant boats, hammer-crafted steel and

iron boats that in tunisia are called the death boats. christian: 7000 migrants in just three days landing on an island that is home to 6000 people. the italian prime minister said the pressure is intolerable and unsustainable. we will get the thoughts this evening. a breakthrough in the study of alzheimer's. scientists think they have pinpointed why the neurons in the brain are dying. and we will bring you the latest from libya, where the death toll is well over 11,000 people. good evening. not since the crisis in 2015 has europe seen images quite like this. the deputy prime minister describes it as an invasion.

>> it is i was the organized, financed, and prepared -- it is obviously organized, financed, and prepared. it is an act of war. it means collapse for italian society. i said at the beginning, what is happening is the death of europe. christian: 7000 migrants crossing the mediterranean in just three days to an island with space for just 400. the storm at the beginning of the week created a bottleneck on the north african beaches, but by wednesday conditions were calmer, with 200 boats crossing in just a few hours. there are thousands more who are still waiting to cross. from here in lampedusa, most of these migrants will be transferred to the italian mainland but the vast majority will disappear before those asylum claims are decided. they are heading north, and that is testing the european union. today one of the leaders of the french far right was in lampedusa to see it for herself. >> we know that many of the

people we are seeing today will probably be in france in a week or a month's time. i want to be here to call for a change in policy at the european level and also for our member governments to take responsibility and stop sending out signals of openness that are contributing to the humanitarian situation we are seeing today in lampedusa. christian: in response, the french have this week a double to their police presence on the border with italy. rome called on its neighbors to share the burden, and in response they are refusing to take back returns while italy's processing centers main full. we have heard similar discussions from germany, that they are also patrolling their borders. joining me from turin is a research fellow at iai, an italian relations think tank. his research focuses on eu and italian migration policies. we will get to that very shortly.

but what is at the root of this? 124,000 have landed in italy this year, up from 65,000 during the same period last year. why are we seeing so many people crossing all at once? >> well, there is no single cause for migration, honestly. the situation we are witnessing over the last 12 months has been an intensification of trends that started in 2020. spontaneous arrivals to italy and crossings of the central mediterranean sea have been increasing since 2020. but it's true that over the last 12 months the situation has worsened from this perspective, and also it has changed in terms of the composition of the flow. now we have more people from sub-saharan african countries trying to reach italy, and they are departing from tunisia. paradoxically, tunisian citizens are not the first represented in the flow towards italy anymore.

and probably one of the main causes is the internal situatio in tunisia where policies introduced by the government discriminating sub-saharan migrants have been pushing many people out of the country towards italian chores. christian: europe has tried and failed for many years to find a collective response to this. i've sat in on so many summits in brussels where these things have been discussed. but right now it seems to me that there is no appetite in europe to help italy. politically what are the risks of that if italy is left to deal with his alone?-- this alone? luca: actually, it is kind of paradoxical we are having this kind of discussion because just a few month ago, three months ago, the european union was witnessing what was defined as an historic agreement in the

counsel to review and reform the internal sound system. but we know the agreement is still on paper. politically there will be consequences, but at the same time i don't see we are going wards a rupture in relations between italy and the european union, because prime minister meloni has portrayed herself over the last year since she took office as a cooperative and reliable partner for the european union. the commission is actually aligned with her. now there is the possibility of her slip underlying being -- first lavonda lyon -- von der leyen being in lampedusa. i don't think we are going towards a clahs, but of course -- a clash, but of course in italy the tones and rhetoric are

harsh ening, and you heard from solve any -- salvini, who has been silent but is speaking up again. christian: obviously there is an appetite within the commission to do something, but the french are increasing policing along their border, the germans doing the sam drones in the air. they said they are not going to take migrants from italy because italy is not taking migrants back the other way under the dublin scheme. there is no dublin scheme at the moment. you can see a scenario where in a natural fact of the italian authorities overwhelmed by this surely just let these migrants head off through northern europe. luca: yes, but it has been a consolidated issue over the last 10 years, i would say. france has always complained about the leniency of the italian authorities in dealing

with so-called secondary movements, the movement of those people entering europe through italy and then moving to other european countries like france. under the revelation there are requests for process in italy first. it is not a development and outcome of current news. this is something that has been going on for years, and in fact, no agreement has been possible in europe, a major agreement reforming the european system since the migration crisis in 2015. while what is happening today is a severe issue that will probably have some political consequences, it is nothing new in terms of relations between european union member states. france and germany have their own consolidated position and italy has its own and it has been like this for, i don't know, 10 years. christian: can we just talk about where this is coming from?

you spoke about tunisia and the deal that prime minister meloni is trying to put together with the tunis government. in years gone by they used to pay colonel gadhafi to patrol the beaches and break up the gangs. do they have a willing partner in tunis? according to the deputy prime minister, he says it is coordinator any cup that he says it is quite donated and he calls it a war -- he calls it coordinated and he calls it a war. luca: he has been very skilled on migration to extract concessions in the memorandum that was signed in july, in terms of money that by the west hasn't been dispersed yet -- christian: do you think he is letting them go through because the money has not arrived? luca: we don't have evidence of this kind of organized attempt by tunisia. but for sure, a government like the one -- is well aware of the

kind of leverage he has due to fears of migration in europe. but i don't have the elements right now to say that there is an organized attempt to force hands. for sure since the memorandum has been signed, there has been an increasing number of arrivals from tunisia. but i don't think -- again, i don't have the evidence to say this is an organized attempt. christian: ok, really good to talk to you. thank you for that. luca: thank you for having me. christian: the u.n. says the devastation caused by the floods in eastern libya with the collision between climate and the country's inability to handle it. at lea 11,000 people died when two dams burst during heavy storm, sending torrents of water through the coastal city of derna. the u.n.'s emergency relief coordinator said today he has redeployed a team that he

previously sent it to deal with the earthquake in morocco. our colleague quentin sommerville had sent this report. quentin: the roads became rivers and the rivers become a deluge, carrying everything with it bringing wave of death and destruction. this grainy security camera footage is from the moment when the floods hit and derna was changed forever. dams upstream meant to protect the city failed, sealing the fate of thousands. in derna, people began to pray for god's mercy. whe the torrentn past, some were able to escape. as rains continue to fall, they sought the safety of her pups. if you could imagine the skill the catastrophe. the force of the torrent swept much in its wake. those who could make their escape to higher ground. and now the aftermath. a turkish rescue team wades through pools of destruction in search of what remains. the mud and filth makes the work

slow and dangerous, and the risk of disease is growing. >> our feelings towards the city is very difficult to describe, to be honest with you. we've lost friends, relatives, and a big portion of derna's society. for the time being we appreciate how people stood with us. hopefully we will have a better future. quentin: they are working round-the-clock, and perhaps improbably, days into this disaster, survivors are being found. "speak to us so we can find where you are," rescue workers called out. people are returning to derna not to resume their lives, but to identify the dead. the bodies keep coming, laid out on city pavements in the hope that they will be claimed across this port city, the search continues, but it is far from easy.

>> this is the first time we have seen a true disaster happening. we are facing difficulties, as there is no visibility due to the land that was washed into the sea by the floods. quentin: for now, the trained dogs hunt for signs of life this belongs to a spanish rescue team, but soon it will be animals trained in finding corpses who will roam the ruins. after the nato-back removal of muammar gaddafi in 2011, libya fell into chaos. close revolution, western -- post-revolution, western support vanish. across eastern libya, needs have never been greater. this man says life as he knew it has ended. >> it came from here and completely washed away the valley. it hit the wall and destroyed everything around it. quentin: he is one of more than 30,000 people requiring shelter.

libya's eastern government failed to protect them from this disaster. now in their greatest ho of need, they are struggling to cope with the aftermath. quentin sommerville, bbc news. christian: as quentin was just telling you, not easy to get down that coastal road to derna, but our colleague anna foster has managed to reach derna and has sent us this report on what she has seen. anna: i want to show you as much as i possibly can on what derna looks like tonight. the first thing you notice is how incredibly dark it is. there is no electricity inhe city, and actually the workers -- you can see some of them over there who are using big diggers to search for bodies rather than survivors. you can see them trying to do their work in the darkness, even though it is late here, there are still people out. what you can't quite see but you can get a sense of is how much of the city is ripped away. this area behind me was i narrow channel that ran through the

center of derna, and now it is almost 100-meter sca on the landscaper where everything in the path of the water has been washed away. it came down towards the sea -- building people, cars, so much of it swept away. let's bring you down this side to give you a full view of what is going on. you can see the lights in the distance. that is people crossing this torn-away riverbed. there are cars there, limited numbers of rescue vehicles, very limited aid. all that we have seen on the way to derna has been local libyans, people in pickup trucks with mattresses in the back, people handing out water. when we came into the city, members of the libya national army were handing out masks for people to combat the desks in the dirt and the smell -- dust entered an smell in the -- dust and dirt and smell in the air there is one of the

vehicles for the libyan red crescent, and the landmark mosque in the background that was so important in the early days of the story, when people were trying to get a sense of how bad the damage was. the riverbank was not next to this mosque a week ago, and now the damage and destruction goes all the way up to i ts door. all around here you see things like a cars picked up and thrown into the front of the building with the force of the water. there are trees that have been uprooted and snapped. the survivors who are out in the elements tonight, we see them sitting around the buildings and sitting around the shells of them with no clean water, no electricity, no health care. they have an enormously difficult job on their hands. they have survived this flood and now they have to survive these elements. christian: such a difficult process for the relief teams that have managed to get to derna. thanks to anna foster, who is there.

around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's take a quick look at the other stories making news today f trained drivers can be as life union have announced for the strike dates in the long-running dispute about pay. it will walk out on the 30th of september and fourth of october, coinciding with the annual conservative party conference in manchester. spain's high court has imposed a restraining order on the former head of the country's football federation, luis rubiales. he's now not allowed within 200 meters of the stryker jenni rmoso after kissing her on the lips following the women's world cup final, she says was without her consent. the top spanish women players are continuing their boycott of the national team, demanding more changes in the sports leadership. tiktok has been fined almost 350 million euros by the eu for child data breaches. an investigation found that children's accounts were set to public by default. the social-media platform says

it disagrees with the decision and has since introduced privacy changes. you are live with bbc news. up half a billion pounds of british taxpayers' money will be invested in the steel plant in south wales. it is not clear -- >> we are seeing jobs which may have been lost without this investment, you probably would have seen the end of steelmaking certainly in this part of the country, possibly in the u.k. this is a transformation project. we are paying 500 billion pounds to transform portal bird into the green steelmaking industry, and that is something to be elevated. -- celebrated. christian: it is not clear how many of the 8000 jobs the money will save, but it will help the plant transition to greener future. the government money will be added to another 700 million pounds or so, which will replace the coal-fired blast furnaces with new electric arc furnace

is, which will slash its carbon footprint and make output more competitive. the trouble is so-called green steelmaking requires fewer workers and many as 3000 jobs may be lost. let's speak to peter hughes, the regional secretary for wales. he has been at the port today meeting with executives. she is looking at jobs and saved rather than job losses. surely this is a good news story if it is saving the bulk of the jobs? >> when you look at 3000 jobs potentially being made, we think it is very shortsighted and lacks ambition. tata asked for a lot more money to be invested they have put more money in themselves. the electric arc burners will

not be on site until 2027, 2028. that is five years. in that time there is technology, weelieve, that is a way to make a steal and make it greener and protect jobs at the same me. christian: there is a lot of can criticism about the transition they are funny because there are a range of other technologies they could use to make steel. an electric arc furnace is one way, but when he looked down the supply line, it won't provide steel for packaging for some bits of car manufacturing. do doeses -- does that mean we will still have to import steel? >> the technology in fort worth wife -- the technology in four or five years time will be producing steel for christ because everyone will be carbon neutral going into the future. it is investments in the electric arc furnace is, because if you buy a top of the range electric arc furnace and have

technology to go with it, you will produce steel that goes further down the line. we don't believe one is enough. when a government gives money to a company, especially 500 million, they have got to be guarantees that go along with that. our government gives companies that much money and makes three dozen people lose on the back of it. christian: do you think for that money the government should have more say in what sort of steel processing tata is involved in, whether that is a golden vote on the board or in equity share? what should they be getting for that amount of money? >> we bieve it should be taking maybe nationalizing part of it. ultimately we believe port talbot should be the main producer of steel in europe. there is going to be production there for offshore and title and

it will be a mass producer of steel, and we don't have enough electric arc furnaces in there. there will be a mass importer of steel. if it's gone you could--- uk-made, defense or energy, they have to use steel made in the u.k. that would guarantee jobs. we have the technology, we have the skills. why not reinvest in the people and the process that goes along with it? christian: we will get reaction to that later in the program. peter hughes, thank you very much indeed. scientists in the u.k. and belgium say they have worked out w brain cells or neurons die from alzheimer's disease. they say the neurons produce a molecule which leads to them being purged. they say inexperience they have

been able to block this molecule and prevent the c -- in experiments they've been able to block this molecule and prevent the cells from dying co. i'm joined by a communications manager from the alzheimer's society. this is exciting. what is the process that is happening inside the brain, and why are the neurons changing that chemistry in this wa y? >> in alzheimer's disease we have a complicated set of causes. there are proteins building up in the brain that are toxic and causing damage to the brain cells and causing the brain cells not to properly, and ultimately the brain cells die and it lds to t symptoms of dementia we see. what we have not understood for a long time is we know the processes are there causing all timers disease, but we have not known exactly how. there is research that showed 30 years ago that protein called amyloid builds up in the brain. we do not know how it causes disease. understanding how the brain

cells die is really important, and that is what you have just described. you have seen this research showing this new type of cell death implicated in all timers disease causing this damage in the brain and it is really something that researchers can explore further. christian: how important is that discovery for the drug companies who are researching the treatments for alzheimer's? sian: it's incredibly important because understanding what is going wrong in the brain and what exactly is happening is that the absolute foundation of dementia research and alzheimer's disease research. without knowing what is going on, we cannot know how to fix it. this is laying the foundation for what comes next. but the hope is we will take this research forward and identify new targets, new things to target with drugs that we can then develop new treatments for alzheimer's disease in the future. christian: and it woulde a different drug regime, because in recent months we have reported about new treatments coming online for alzheimer's.

but this would be targeting -- well, it would be a blocker, would it, for the chemicals killing the neurons? sian: potentially. we have seen great success in other conditions like cancer where you have combination treatments and combination therapies, and we think that is the way alzheimer's disease humans are going. there is a complicated set of causes, lots of things causing the disease to happen, and therefore we needed further treatment to target those different causes. this is adding to what we can target with future treatments as they are developed. christian: really good news. sian gregory, thank you very much for explaining that to us. plenty more on the bbc website if you would like to read more on that. we are going to take a quick break and, back with some sport and also concerns for the british car industry. you'll note that the u.s. car workers are on strike at the moment. the u.k. car workers might be affected by new tariffs the european union is imposing. we will discuss that and we will discuss self-driving car's.

are they the future, and are we doing enough to encourage investment? stay with us. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond jame financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned.