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relentless and all-consuming... ..every year, floods sweep across pakistan. every other year, the monsoon would become more and more aggressive. hundreds of people killed. tens of billions of dollars lost. pain and anger across the country. translation: those in charge in this area are useless. i’m also struggling to find the answer to that, so all i can say that it is because of misgovernance. once a village, now an island. you’ll see some of the wires have dropped very low - some of them are in the water now. the power, electricity, has been completely cut off to the neighbourhood.

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homes destroyed. untranslated when will they realise that our suffering is like a rent we are paying for their lifestyles? we travel through the mountains of the north and the plains of the south and discover a country that cannot afford to pay for the rest of the world’s decisions. commanding, perilous - pakistan administered gilgit-baltistan. climate change, as most people know it...

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..more than 7,000 glaciers in this part of the world. with global warming, they’re melting, forming glacial lakes which can eventually burst. but melting glaciers are just one danger. monsoon rains hit pakistan every summer... ..and this year’s floods started in the north. we followed the water and travelled across the country to witness how climate change hits every region. i would like to see... sherry rehman is chair of the senate climate committee. like others in pakistan, she feels the world doesn’t understand the gravity of what is happening. global warming is going up and warming means, for the front line countries,

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mostly south asia, right now we are facing now unpredictable, extremely volatile monsoons and other weather throughout. khyber-pakhtunkhwa in june, before monsoon season started. by mid-august, severe flooding grips the province. scientists link these intense monsoon rains to climate change. this is the impact on the ground - men from neighbouring villages rushed to an emergency in gudun. we arrive as rescue operations are under way. excavators they’re desperate for, trapped on flooded roads. there were several houses here earlier, but a flash flood has washed them away. now locals and rescuers alike are using their bare hands, as well as tools, to try and search for survivors under the rubble, and they’ve already found several bodies.

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translation: we need the right machine. we villagers are helping each other. nothing will happen until the machines arrive. one man urges others to be quiet. rescuers hope for sounds of a survivor. instead, they find more bodies - here, two children carried away. flash floods and landslides kill more than 500 people across northern pakistan. this is one of hundreds of homes crushed. before, a drier pakistan - drought across the country. flash forward, more rain over two decades - a recipe for floods. most at risk, the millions of people who live near riverbeds.

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homes and buildings are in these vulnerable areas. so it was really bad... we meet climate scientist fahad saeed in islamabad. he’s seen more illegal construction. look at that building - when it was built, you know, when it came up to this level after a year, a year and a half, then the authorities came to know it is on the riverbed. there is the river protection act - it’s meant to prohibit any construction within 200 feet from a river or its tributaries. so how does a building like that get built? because that law has been around for years. yeah, i’m also struggling to find the answer to that. so all i can say that it is because of misgovernance, you know, but it speaks for itself that we are in a capital, we are just a few kilometres from the parliament, and still such things happen in pakistan. what we invite now and should be inviting is an audit of, a climate audit of the country, just climate is a buzzword, but it’s a climate governance audit, which means the first thing you do is you don’t build on the flood plains.

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a week later, flash floods come to the most populous province of punjab. here, farmers grow the majority of the country’s wheat. it’s late august, and pakistan is hit hard in its breadbasket. this in a country that can’t always afford to import enough food. part of the reason this area, narowal, is so flooded is because it’s near the river ravi, which has swollen. add to that heavy rains this week. sialkot, one city nearby, has seen more rainfall in 24 hours than the record in the past 49 years. monsoon rains hit pakistan and its neighbour, india.

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rivers on both sides of the border swelled. india warned it would release water from the dams upstream. we travelled to ganda singh wala, a village near the border that was ordered to evacuate. residents here told us they already had to leave during the military conflict between pakistan and india in may. we are living here... nadeem has decided to send some of his family away while he stays to protect their belongings. this is now one evacuation too many. translation: our belongings would be stolen, our house emptied. how would we protect our cattle? we used to have so many trees over here, but people have cut so many down, so the river has taken over the land. are you not worried that this will keep happening? do you not think of moving to another area in pakistan?

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translation: the situation is different every day, the weather keeps changing, but we have our home here, we have to live here. further south, disaster teams blow up an embankment near jhang. water diverted, a city saved, but nearby farmland destroyed. the government said everyone was evacuated beforehand. these decisions flood crops across punjab. now, this may look like a river next to me, but this whole area was full of rice and sugar cane fields. the united nations has said that, once the floods subside, they’ll be able to assess the damage to people’s livelihoods. but all of this is a reminder of what people are telling us, that, even for those who survived the floods this year, many of them will be starting all over again. three rivers flooded at the same time, the first time ever.

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lahore, the capital of punjab. even here, floods reach parts of the city. chaos for the wealthy. crushing for the poorest. these homes in the gated community of parkview city, now empty. abdullah and his father, gulraiz, have seen their home flooded. so, if someone came to you now and said, “this looks like a luxurious area, “we’ve been promised beautiful homes,” would you tell them to move here? no problem. even though it’s flooded like this? there’s no problem here. aleem khan will do it. they say aleem khan will do it, convinced the neighbourhood’s property developer, also a federal minister, will have the water drained. wealthier residents know life will get back to normal soon.

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but in the poorer neighbourhood of theme park, they feel hopeless. translation: those in charge in this area are useless. wherever you go, theme park has a bad name. this man tries to get back to his home, desperate to recover whatever he can salvage. this neighbourhood in lahore has been completely inundated. beauty parlours, shops, entrances completely blocked off. you’ll see some of the wires have dropped very low. some of them are in the water now. the power, electricity, has been completely cut off to the neighbourhood. shelter for residents of theme park, a camp in punjab’s capital. sumera is weeks away from giving birth. translation: i’m worried about my pregnancy.

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we are in the hands of god. whatever is god’s will, i have no idea what the future will bring. my doctor has told me i need two blood transfusions this week. not everyone has a bed to sleep on. do you feel like you have enough resources? yes. i believe, personally, no need, no big issue of the resources. the government, public people, they are very generosity, attitude. and yet you just said people are sleeping on the floor. yes. one minute, that’s true. we can’t provide each and everything, like the home they are getting. but minimum they need shelter. it’s a makeshift arrangement. the challenge for pakistan is every year brings a different threat. every other year, the monsoon would become more and more aggressive. every year, there would be a new surprise for us. the reason is that climate change has always changed the pattern of flooding.

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we had urban flooding afterwards, we have flash flooding, and then we have riverine flooding. so all these three kind of flooding we witnessed within a single season. a five-hour drive to multan, southern punjab, in june before floods hit... ..now inundated. once a village, now an island. in september, news comes that dozens of villages in multan are now submerged. we board yet another rescue boat. we meet muhammad arif. his own village in malton, called jalalpur pirwala, is flooded. there’s so much water, he can’t find it. translation: people have been stuck for the past six days. there’s no food.

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he tries to gather information. but it’s these minarets that guide him home. once we arrive, many are desperate to leave. but there isn’t enough space for everyone. some choose to stay and protect their belongings. others are forced to leave family behind, overwhelming them. result - a humanitarian crisis. “give me,” this young girl begs, desperate for a loaf of bread. even a bottle of water is a prized commodity. more than 4,500 villages submerged across punjab.

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at least 3.5 million people displaced. more tents lining highways. but not everyone has one from the government. suresh has had to make her own. she’s been sleeping on the floor for days, with no milk for her child. a few steps away, this family have been living in a single tent. nadya and 11 other children have no mattress to sleep on. floods happen every year. this could happen to your village again next year, and the year after that, are you not worried that it isn’t safe? yes. yes. we will go back. i’m poor. it is very difficult for us. very difficult.

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last night, one of the children got a fever and a cold. he couldn’t sleep all night.

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pakistan has been here before. this is 2022, one of the worst monsoon seasons in decades. more than 1,700 people killed. the disaster cost the country more than $30 billion. this centre is at the heart of pakistan’s effort to become more resilient - with an upgraded early warning system. this is the disaster management authority’s operation centre.

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now, on this side of the room, they’ve got screens with forecasts around the world, and on this side they’re monitoring the response. but, despite this big room, despite all these screens, there’s still deep frustration in the country about both the monitoring, forecasting and response to these extreme weather events every year. this is the three-month early forecast that we will be issuing tomorrow. so what are the challenges? why is this early warning system not able to prevent that level of devastation? the early warning with regard to the flooding situation of pakistan was already developed by the national emergency operations centre in the month of june. when it happened, accordingly, it happened and... i’ve spoken to the chief meteorologist at pmd, pakistan meteorological department. he would have said the same. and he said the early warning system is not perfect, that money is being invested into improving it. they realise that there are problems, no system is perfect, and that they’re still trying to improve it. but it sounds like you’re saying

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all the information needed was given? one thing that we need to understand is that this year we already projected that the flows would be higher, but the intensity of these flows were unprecedented. the first un climate conference after the floods in 2022, an opportunity to remind the world pakistan contributes less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. sherry rehman led efforts to get funding to recover. what are the big historic emitters doing to flatten not just the emissions trajectory, but when will they realise that our suffering is like a rent we are paying for their lifestyles? a landmark moment, at 4:15 in the morning. i hear no objections. it’s so decided. after exhausting negotiations, the loss and damage deal

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was agreed to pay out countries most vulnerable to climate change. more than $11 billion was pledged by donors. much of it has not arrived yet. why is that? the transfers are not happening. people are getting derailed because they are finding better use for their funds at home because countries are beginning to experience climate stress, even in their own homes. i mean, this year saw europe start shutting down at 40 degrees in the summer, right? so they declare an emergency, even in london. here, we were merely trying to live with 53 degrees. so that’s interesting. so, when you see europe reacting the way it does, given what’s going on in pakistan, you had a bit of a smile there. so we feel that resilience is also treated differently. i mean, resilience of a lesser god? what is going on here? as of the last budget, there were more than 1,000 unfinished projects. so why should donors feel that the money will be well spent? because projects are not what donors should be focusing on.

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what should they be focusing on? they should be focusing on building three things. one is capacity in pakistan. and there should be... right now, obviously it’s humanitarian disaster. so that is the first step. and we’re still in that phase for 2025. in parts of pakistan, some are trying other solutions. a quarter of deaths this monsoon season were from houses collapsing. we visited one of the dozens of villages in sindh designed by yasmeen lari. intuitively, you see a building built out of bricks and cement, you think, “ok, that could withstand a lot of shock.” you see a home that is round and made out of mud and clay and natural materials, you think, that doesn’t seem as secure. so why am i wrong, according to you? what is important is how do you build safely and ecologically sustainably.

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so, with my bamboo structure, first of all, it’s anchored very safely into the foundation of lime concrete, not cement concrete. ok? no cement whatsoever. all these prefabricated panels are joined together, bolted together, so they move together. the thing is, you have to design it so that it doesn’t come apart. one of the houses that we visited, it was very high. it was the training centre in the village and it was built on large stilts. so the water flows under. so there are solutions that we can apply. but the question is, how expensive can that be? and what would you say to people who say, well, why don’t you build all those houses on stilts? because a lot of the other houses we saw, they’re going to be completely flooded. they may be easy to rebuild, but they will be flooded if the water reaches levels like 2022. well, of course, if it’s very high, we don’t know what will happen, but the houses will not collapse. that i can assure you. they’ll just be damaged. they will be damaged. they can be repaired. i think we should no longer think of just saving buildings. we need to be concentrating on saving lives of people.

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in the meantime, these solutions are little comfort to those who’ve lost so much. more than a month after we met residents of theme park, we find them in the same tents. assalaamu alaikum! hi. you’re still here? assalaamu alaikum, sumera. we see sumera, who is now days away from giving birth. she and her husband, wajid, are surviving on meal donations. the bit of money they have, they’re spending on soft food for ash. translation: i was in the hospital for four days, i was bleeding. i’m forced to live here in this tent. after delivery, where will we go? this is why their family is still living in a tent. theme park is still submerged.

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last time we were here, we couldn’t travel on these streets without a boat. so clearly a lot of water has drained. but people still can’t get to their homes or their businesses by foot or by car. and that’s why many of the shops are still closed here. weeks into the floods, life still isn’t back to normal. wajid and his neighbours told us to take a look at parkview city. once drenched, these luxury homes... ..are now dry. wajid was right. this wealthier part of lahore, parkview city, is clear of water, construction has started back up. and that’s very difficult for people on the other side of the city to stomach. the poorest in pakistan are not waiting for a better future. they’re resigned to seeing flood after flood, hoping they’ll survive.

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and all this through no fault of their own.

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live from singapore, this is bbc news. total devastation - the bbc goes inside gaza on a highly controlled visit with the israeli military. this turned’s limbo is the first achievement of donald trump? trump? please plan that there are are regular reminders of how fragile fragile it is. the us transport secretary warns hundreds of daily flights could be cancelled from friday if the government shutdown continues. typhoon kalmaegi kills at least 114 people in the philippines - as the powerful storm barrells towards vietnam. millions of voters head to the poll in the indian state of bihar in elections seen as a major test for prime minister narendra modi.

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and coming up on business today - the us supreme court grills

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