A massive search and rescue operation continues in Texas with 11 children still missing after catastrophic flash floods.
One survivor tells us how her brother was killed as he saved the rest of his family from the rising waters.
Also on the programme: authorities in the Sudanese capital Khartoum say they've recovered nearly 4,000 bodies from the city since they took control in May; and the grizzly bear that's got one Canadian community wrapped around its paw.
(Photo: A girl speaks on the phone in an area where families were being reunited with campers after deadly flooding in Kerville, Texas, U.S., July 5, 2025. Credit: Reuters)
The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, says emergency workers will be relentless in their search for everyone missing after catastrophic flash floods. At least 27 girls from a Christian summer camp are unaccounted for. More than 50 people are known to have died. There is a lot of anger that, for some Texans, official flood warnings came too late.
Also in the programme: Israel and Hamas are due to begin indirect talks in Qatar on a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal; and billionaire Elon Musk gives a name to his new political party: "The America Party".
(Photo: Houses and cars are partially submerged in flood waters in an aerial view near Kerrville, Texas, US. July 4, 2025. Credit: US Coast Guard/Handout via Reuters)
The billionaire, Elon Musk, is launching a new political party after falling out with President Trump. Also: Israel is sending a delegation to Qatar for Gaza ceasefire talks, and swimming in the river Seine in Paris.
At least 27 people, including nine children, have died and dozens of people are missing amid flash floods in Texas on Independence Day, according to US authorities.
Also on the programme: The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting his security cabinet to discuss the response by Hamas to the latest US-backed proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza; and the River Seine in Paris has reopened publicly to swimmers for the first time after a century-long ban.
(Photo: A pickup truck sits damaged after deadly flooding in Kerrville, Texas, U.S., July 5, 2025. Credit: Reuters)
Search continues for missing girls at Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp by the Guadalupe River.
Also in the programme: on the eve of the Dalai Lama turning 90 we hear from the man believed by many Buddhists to be the reincarnation of his childhood tutor; and a preview of the very final performance of the metal group Black Sabbath.
(Photo: A drone view of vehicles partially submerged in flood water following torrential rains that unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in San Angelo, Texas, U.S., 4 June 2025, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Patrick Keely/via Reuters)
A surgeon who left his wedding to save a life says it's inspired him to help more people. Also: one man's adventures with a pet goose; a police officer reunited with a baby he rescued; and why we should eat more custard.
On this episode of ‘World Book Club’ Harriett Gilbert speaker with with Graeme Macrae Burnet about his riveting historical crime novel ‘His Bloody Project’
Set in a remote Scottish community in the 1800s, the story centres on a brutal triple murder and the person who admits guilt for the bloody deed - a 17 year old boy. This boy, Roderick Macrae, is shy, intelligent, and remarkably articulate. Could he really be responsible for such a grisly crime? Or was he out of his mind?
Told via a fascinating collection of memoir, police documents and trial transcripts, this novel explores the impact of an oppressive society on those who do not fit their assigned place, the boundaries of criminality and insanity, and has you questioning what the truth of the crime may be every time you turn a page.
Graham Macrae Burnet will be answering your questions, about the 19th century views of ‘the criminal class’, who, or what, was responsible for the murder at the heart of the novel, and why we continue, in the modern day, to be fascinated by murder...
Hamas says it has delivered a "positive response" to mediators on Gaza ceasefire proposal - but wants guarantee that Israel's bombardment will not resume. Also: President Trump signs flagship tax package into law.
Russian drones and missiles hit nearly every district of Kyiv overnight. A record 539 drone and 11 missiles strikes were recorded by Ukrainian authorities. Meanwhile, Dutch and German intelligence agencies have warned that Russia's use of chemical weapons in Ukraine is intensifying in both frequency and strength.
Also on the programme: Donald Trump is due to sign the "Big Beautiful Bill." And music's "bad-boy" brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher are onstage together for the first time in sixteen years as Oasis play their first reunion show in Cardiff.
(Picture: A drone explodes in the skies above Kyiv. Credit: Reuters)
Listener Dickson Mukisa from Uganda has been gazing up at the stars. But he’s not making wishes. He wants to know whether we can harness their energy, in the same way we do with our OWN star – the sun. After all, they may seem small and twinkly to us, but each one is a gigantic flaming ball of energy, with a power outputs averaging around 40 quadrillion kilowatt-hours per year – EACH! With somewhere between 100 and 400 BILLION stars in our own galaxy alone, that’s a lot of power! Can we get ‘solar power’ from stars that are such a long way away from earth? And what might we use it for?
Alex Lathbridge heads to the University College London Observatory, to peer through the eyepiece of an enormous telescope and see some stars for himself. Professor Steve Fossey explains just how much of the light energy of the stars reaches us on earth. In other words, how BRIGHT they are.
Once the starlight reaches earth of course, we have to capture it. Could traditional solar panels do the job? Alex meets Professor Henry Snaith from the University of Oxford, to find out about the future of photovoltaic technology, and why it could all be heading out to space.
Once in space, things start getting weird! What if we made an enormous fleet of solar panels, and put them all into orbit around a star, soaking up every last drop of that precious energy? That might sound like science fiction, but the idea has been around for decades. It’s called a Dyson Sphere, or Dyson Swarm. Swedish researcher at the Insitute for Future Studies, Anders Sandberg explains how we might be able to build one around a neighbouring star... in around 10,000 years or so.
But maybe it’s not all about light. Finally, Alex explores the mysterious, invisible energy of the ‘solar wind’, with Pekka Janhunen, Finnish physicist and inventor of the “E-Sail”, which might be able to harness the power of the stellar wind, too.
Presenter: Alex Lathbridge
Producer: Emily Knight
Series Producer: Ben Motley
(Image: Astronomer looking at the starry skies with a telescope. Credit: m-gucci via Getty Images)
