Tributes pour in for Jesse Jackson

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. So, we can now listen to your podcast. He became involved in activism as a protege of Martin Luther King, later witnessing his mentor's assassination in Memphis in 1968. Jackson went on to enter mainstream politics using his skills as a Baptist minister to inspire large crowds through his passionate speeches. In 1988, he famously urged voters to keep hope alive. While he was unsuccessful in his attempts to become US president, he is credited with paving the way for African-American politicians such as Barack Obama, who has praised Jesse Jackson today as a true giant. We'll have a tribute in a few minutes from a man who called him friend and an inspiration for more than 60 years. Let's begin, though, with the voice of the man himself. Speaking to the BBC in 2009, he reflected on his experience of segregation at a young age, growing up in poverty in a profoundly racist South Carolina. I remember on one occasion, I was on the bus with my mom going downtown, and she paid both tokens. She went straight to the back, and I sat up front. And there were three white kids across from me playing. I can see them in my mind's eye now. And the bus driver said, I'm telling you, there's some order on that move on this bus. There must be some order on this bus. Well, really, he was talking about me sitting there. And my mother came and got me, and I didn't want to leave her. She pinched me. And I cried, and I felt humiliated. as I went to back the bus with her, one of my father's friends, Mr. Yates, said, she did it because she loves you. Ooh, I couldn't understand that. So that was a direct expression of living on the segregation and learning to adjust to it. Jackson's activism took root at college, so much so that six months before graduating, he quit to immerse himself fully in the civil rights movement. He'd already in his early 20s grown close to Martin Luther King, marching alongside his mentor, and as I mentioned, being with him in Memphis in 1968 when MLK was shot dead. In the 70s, Jesse Jackson set up his own organisation in Chicago, a coalition called Rainbow Push, which campaigned not just against racial prejudice, but class divides. As an avowedly left-wing candidate, he twice stood as a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in the 1980s. He garnered more votes than many thought possible for a black candidate at the time, and he electrified the Democratic Convention with his oratory. Wherever you are tonight, you can make it. Hold your head high. Stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don't you surrender. suffering breeds character character breeds faith in the end faith will not the support you must not surrender you may or may not get there but just know that you are qualified and you hold on and hold out we must never surrender America will get better and better keep hope alive keep hope alive keep hope alive on tomorrow night and beyond. Keep hope alive. I love you very much. I love you very much. Though Jesse Jackson never held elected office, the inroads he made laid the path for black American politicians who came after him. That reference to hope would form a central part of Barack Obama's presidential campaign two decades later. And Reverend Jackson was pictured in tears in the crowd in Chicago that had gathered for Obama's acceptance speech on the night of his victory in 2008. The following morning, Jesse Jackson spoke to CBS. People watching him in Appalachia, in the villages of Kenya and Haiti and Europe and the palaces of Europe. I mean, there he stood overcoming so much. And then I thought about those who suffered to make it possible, the marchers, the murdered, the martyrs, men of whom are nameless and faceless. But in some sense, their suffering was redeemed last night with that victory. Danny Davis is the man I mentioned earlier, that friend of Jesse Jackson. Mr. Davis is the long-serving U.S. Congressman for the 7th District of Illinois, which takes him part of Chicago. He spoke to me not just on the day that his friend had died, but also on the day that he was burying his brother, Willie. Danny Davis spoke to me from the church as people were gathering. You may just be able to hear at moments in the background those people there. I began by asking Jesse Jackson just how close in age he... Forgive me. I began by asking Danny Davis just how close in age he was to Jesse Jackson. I'm actually 12 days, I think, older than Jesse Jackson. So Jesse and I were essentially the same age. I met him, of course. I came to Chicago when I was 19 years old, fresh out of college. and I guess it took me three or four years before I got really involved in community action. I was a school teacher but interested, started going to the meetings and demonstrations and so I got to know Jesse Reverend Jackson in our early 20s. And in Chicago at that time, I mean, obviously it was not... Chicago and the north of the United States was not, this was not the place of Jim Crow. This was not the place where there were state laws enshrining segregation, but it was still a place where it was really tough for black people to have the same opportunities as white people, wasn't it? I mean, this was still a time of immense prejudice. It was home to the last great wave of migration from the rural, segregated, race-oriented, racist South. And these people had flocked to Chicago in great numbers. So although they thought they were going to get to heaven when they got here, they discovered that it was a different kind of hell. It wasn't as racist, but it was racist. It was not as segregated, but it was the most segregated, became the most segregated big city in North America. And that's where Reverend Jackson started to make an additional mark. I mean, he had already made the mark with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But then a young fella organizing breadbasket and organizing push and becoming a mainstay in the effort towards political independence and liberation in Chicago. It was Jesse, the man. And after Martin Luther King's assassination, I think I'm right in saying it was at that point that he became much more of a national figure. And I realize I'm skating across history here, but he, you know, he wound up obviously in the in the 80s trying to get the Democratic nomination for the presidency, which I mean, thinking about doing such a thing from the 60s was an extraordinary, an extraordinary leap of imagination. What did you make of him as a galvanizing national figure? Well, one, his ability to communicate. Reverend Jackson had communication skills until, you know, young children, students, old folks started to use his analysis. You know, I am somebody. Who wouldn't want to be somebody? You know, I may be black, but I am somebody. I may be poor, but I am somebody. So this notion of self-actualization was something that Reverend Jackson promoted better than anybody I've ever been in contact with. And though you may have heard it a thousand times, you wanted to hear it again. You wanted to hear that I can overcome, that I can come from where I've been. And so without even trying or without saying that that was the motivation, Reverend Jackson was a great molder of thought and molder of ideas and of concepts. And he did it so well. And he never stopped. He was clearly, and you've expressed it beautifully, an inspiring figure. And he had the gift of oratory and tremendous energy. And he organised and he opened doors that would have remained shut in industries and in politics. He was also a flawed human being. I mean, he was a man who did make missteps. what he had to say during his first presidential bid about the Jewish influence on New York City, the fact that he had an affair with a member of staff and a child out of wedlock, what he said on an open mic that was disparaging about Barack Obama, all things that he apologised for. How far do you think that he was a sort of complex and flawed individual along with his greatness? Well, he was filled with complexity, but he also was a great thinker. And as he would articulate for example any of what one might call missteps He would say I am a public servant not a perfect servant. And he would say, find me perfection. And I thought that those were just excellent expressions of articulating that you might fall, but you can rise. And that falling a little bit didn't necessarily mean you were out. It's kind of like boxing. A guy might get knocked down, but didn't lose the fight. And so he just kept rising. There are those of us who feel that Barack Obama never would have become president of the United States of America had not it been for Jesse Jackson. I say to African-Americans especially, I don't know anybody other than Martin Luther King, who may have had as much impact on growth and development of African-Americans during this period of time than Jesse Lewis Jackson. Danny Davis, Congressman. And coming up on the programme, we'll have further reflections on Jesse Jackson's death today. We'll also be heading to Iran, which says it's reached an understanding with the US on the main guiding principle to resolve the dispute over Tehran's nuclear weapons programme. But in the Iranian capital, this woman tells Lisa Set she'll continue to fight for her rights regardless of what happens in Geneva. I want to live a free life, but I don't. I am fighting for this goal, for a free life. It's not like that I want to do whatever I wish. I only want to be able to walk in the street freely. I want to be able to hold my friend's hand freely. I want to be able to put my hand on my friend's shoulder freely. I want to be able to express what I think and what I believe in freely. You're with NewsHour, live from the BBC World Service. I'm Tim Franks. A BBC Eye investigation has revealed how two US agents from Homeland Security rescued a 12-year-old girl who had been sexually abused for six years after images of her were found on the dark web. The only information the agents had to go on was that the girl was located somewhere in the United States. Their job was to find her based on what they could see in the images her abuser was sharing, the girl's face in the interior of the room she was being abused in. How do you find someone whose abuser is determined to keep them hidden? BBC Eye's documentary maker Sam Perranti has this report. To look at her as a six-year-old little girl and to see her eyes and the light that is quite normal in a child that age And then to look at her in that 12-year-old range and just to see that start to dim, you see what looks like an old woman behind those eyes and to go, who has the right to extinguish that? Special agents Greg Squire and Pete Manning are part of a network of undercover investigators who track and catch pedophiles who operate on the dark web. This girl in very normal environments, surrounded by the things that she would have in everyday life, her favourite clothes, her bed, all these things that you'd normally see in just everybody's house was now, like, captured in these terrible moments that were surrounded by normal things. The abuser the agents are looking for has taken care to ensure there is nothing in the images he is sharing on the dark web which could reveal her location. So they look elsewhere. Clothing, bedding, furniture, just, you know, anything we saw, basically. They're tracking down every item they can see in the pictures, trying to trace all the people who have bought the item and if any of them have been flagged as child abusers. But then they have an idea. We looked at the bricks. One wall in the room in the images is made of exposed brick. The agents decide to take a photo of them and send it to the American Brick Industry Association. I think within just a few hours, we started getting responses. We started getting emails from people going, hey, my name is so-and-so. I work for this brick company. That brick is called yada, yada, yada. And I was like smiling so bad. I was like, I can't believe we found the experts at this. My name is John Harp, and I work for Acme Brick Company. for 43 years. I asked Greg Squire if they could enhance the photo inning and when I saw that I knew exactly what the brick was. Special agent Greg Squire was at home when he took the call from Acme brick salesman John Harp who told him that the specific brick had only been made at one plant. He goes if we sold an Alamo fire brick that brick didn't travel outside 100 miles of this plant right here and I was so happy when he said that I could barely like contain myself. That very next morning we took all of the data records we had and we took a map and drew ourselves a hundred mile radius and said she's inside this circle somewhere. The agents cross-referenced the sale records of the items and the images with the area they now knew she lives in. They find her within days. Her abuser was her mother's boyfriend but she is just one child there are thousands more whose images are being shared by pedophiles on the dark web this is a calling in a way just like a soldier has a calling and many professionals do you know you don't get asked a lot of second questions sometimes when you talk to people um and i get that you know we don't we don't i don't do the work because i need anything more than we're doing the best we can for the children and that was special agent Greg Squire ending that report by the BBC's Sam Perranti. You can read a much longer investigation on our website bbc.com forward slash news and listen to the full investigation, The Darkest Web, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. A major change in international sport to tell you about now and as often with these things, It's not so much about the sport as about the politics, because the big change is the decision by the International Paralympic Committee to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete under their national flags at next month's Winter Games. It would overturn the ban on sportsmen and women representing the two allies, which came in after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago. Katie Falkingham is a BBC Sports reporter who is at the Winter Olympics. We've been told that six Russian and four Belarusian athletes will be able to compete under their flags at the Winter Paralympics, which start next month. It's the first time that we'll have seen a Russian flag at the Paralympics since the Sochi 2014 Games, so well over a decade. How this has come about is basically the International Paralympic Committee lifted its ban on athletes from the two countries competing at the Games. at the end of last year. But actually, the governing bodies that govern the specific sports said, you know, we're not lifting the bounds, we're refusing to do that. In December, Russia and Belarus appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the decision made by the governing body for skiing and snowboarding. And they won that appeal, which meant that skiers and snowboarders from those two countries could start to compete and accumulate the ranking points that they would need for the Paralympic Games. What's happened now is that the two countries have been awarded what are called bipartite invitations to compete at the Games. These can be awarded for a number of reasons, but the one that's relevant in this case is that it allows athletes who haven't had the chance to qualify because of extraordinary circumstances. So Russia have been awarded six slots, Belarus have been awarded four slots, and it's important to know that these are given to the specific athletes, they're not given to the federations. So the IPC has invited these athletes to compete. So, Katie, the International Paralympic Committee has moved first, ahead of the International Olympic Committee. The IOC has said, as we so often hear from sports administrators, look, we want to keep politics out of sport and all the rest of it. But this has been an intensely political games already with the banning of that Ukrainian athlete, Vladislav Hereskevich, who had the pictures of dead soldiers on his helmet and he was banned from competition. What is your sense of the direction of travel for the International Olympic Committee and the banning of Russian and Belarusian athletes? Yeah, it's obviously been quite, as you say, a massive story here at the Olympics where Russian athletes are competing as neutral athletes. They're not competing under the flag. They can't wear the colours. it's also provoked quite an emotional response with the case of the Ukrainian skeleton rider. We saw the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, practically in tears when she spoke to the media about it last week. It does feel as if we are moving towards Russia and Belarus perhaps being reinstated. That could come as soon as the LA Games in two years' time, the summer games. The IPC have obviously moved first. So it'd be interesting to see whether that now piles pressure on the IOC going forward or whether the IPC will receive quite a lot of backlash for this. themselves. And it is just worth reflecting. I mean, you mentioned that this will be the first time that Russian athletes are competing under their flag at a major game since 2014. And that was they were banned back then, because of the state sponsored doping that came to light. You know, the Paralympics don't always get a huge amount of attention, at least compared to the Olympic Games or the Winter Games. But I mean, this will be a big moment, won't it? I think it will, yeah. This will draw the eyes onto the Paralympic Games for sure. I think we're two weeks out now until it starts and I think everyone will be certainly looking towards to see what happens, to see what the reaction is from athletes that will be competing against these Russian and Belarusian athletes, to see what happens if there are any medals won for those countries. certainly the dames that are doing the rounds of who the athletes could be they have Paralympic champions among them, world champions among them so the chances of seeing these athletes on the podium seems really quite high And that was the BBC's sports reporter Katie Falkingham speaking to me from the Winter Games This is News Air Starting a business can be overwhelming You're juggling multiple roles designer, marketer, logistics manager all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.nl. That's Shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. I understand that you want to listen to your podcast, so I will keep it short. Because if you think it's important to make a cost-effective choices, maybe ASR can help. I hear you think, how then? For example, when you're selling a cost-effective stuff that you love are at risk. Want to know more about the insurance where a cost-effective choice is? Go to asr.nl. This is ASR for you and a cost-effective community. ASR does it. So, we can listen to your podcast. Thank you helps millions of business sell online Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos inventory and shipping Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Welcome back to News Hour. It was one of the most famous chart battles of all time, at least in the UK. In 1995, the band Blur released their single Country House and on the same day, the rival band Oasis released Roll With It. It was a clash that was billed as North v South, working class v middle class. Now this head-to-head has been adapted into a play called The Battle and it's press night when reviewers come to watch is happening right now at the Birmingham Rep Theatre in the English Midlands. Our entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson spoke to the cast at one of the final rehearsals. 1995. Blur, the oasis for the number one single. So big that it made the main TV news bulletins. Two of Britain's most popular pop groups have begun the biggest chart war in 30 years. Now, more than 30 years later, and the events have been turned into a play called The Battle, with actors who weren't even born at the time. No, we're near. No, no. That's George Usher, who plays Liam Gallagher. I think the great thing about this play is that younger lads that maybe wouldn't come to the theatre in, like their Oasis gear coming to watch, which is such a special thing, because where I grew up, there wasn't much theatre culture. I hear you spelled out by then? I think so, yeah. Oscar Lloyd plays Blur's Damon Albarn. It's nuts because it's 30 years ago, but it kind of feels like a period piece. You know, we're doing a lot of these sort of party scenes. No one's got a phone and everyone's kind of locked into this shared atmosphere and maybe the hedonism of the time is maybe a little bit different where I feel like we're all quite censored, maybe a bit more nowadays, of what we say and what we do. What Blair did was a great gesture. And I want to go on record and say, it's also them against the world now. The battle has been written by John Niven, who in 1995 had just started to work for London Records. There's the man who discovered Mike Flowers Pops, who had the Christmas number two that year, with an easy-listening version of Wonderwall. That'd be the word on the screen That the fire in your heart is out I think no, probably quite a nice publishing check, that Christmas off the back of that. And Niven believes that the Blurvy Oasis battle is perfect material for the stage. It occurred to me that there might be a really funny play, like a sort of sub-David Mamet play, of men screaming at each other in hot rooms, It's something that when you pull the camera back is just ridiculous. Ultimately, who cares which one of these records is number one, really? But I thought if we could invest it with Cuban Missile Crisis stakes, then that's automatically going to be comedic. It's not two of the greatest songs, is it? There's that as a factor, but it's also, I think, in a bigger sense, this is what the play's about. Men, especially in their 20s, are all sharp teeth and claws and ambition and hustling and wanting to get where they want to be. And that results in things like this. There's no one daiming our friends now. I think as men get into the 40s and 50s, that all calms down a little, you know. And that report from Birmingham by our entertainment correspondent, Colin Paterson. This is the BBC World Service and you're listening to NewsHour live from London with me, Tim Frax. There's been a second round of talks today between Iran and the US aimed at resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, a dispute which has been played out against the threat of military action. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Basarik Chee, who's in Geneva for the indirect negotiations, was sounding upbeat in a briefing to reporters. He talked about the two countries reaching an understanding on a set of guiding principles. The interlocutor between the two countries, Oman, agreed that there had been, in their view, good progress, that the meetings were constructive and both sides had. They didn't quite put it this way, but both sides, we learned, have got very clear homework to do before the next meeting. Abbas Aragchi did, though, have this familiar charge against those who, he said, were approaching these talks not in good faith. The Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently affirmed that it neither seeks to manufacture nor to acquire nuclear weapons, which have no place whatsoever in Iran's national security doctrine. Despite Iran's demonstrated commitment to diplomacy and good faith engagement, the conduct of certain Western states, most notably the United States, has seriously undermined the credibility of the negotiating process. I mentioned the background of military threats, principally the major buildup of American forces in the Arabian Sea. Another backdrop to consider, though, has been the brutal repression of last month's anti-establishment protests inside Iran. Today was the 40th day after the 9th of January. That was one of the deadliest days during those demonstrations. And the significance of all this is that Iranians usually hold memorial services for their deceased on the 40th day after their death. Some of those ceremonies today, though, were in turn attacked by the Iranian security forces. The sound of a memorial service in Awardan, close to the border in Iraq, descending into chaos as it was interrupted by gunfire. gunfire from government forces. Our chief international correspondent, Lista Set, is in the capital, Tehran, from where she gave me a sense of what's been happening in the country today. Yes, our headlines, headlines of so many media are that the main story for Iran today is nuclear talks in Geneva with the United States. But for so many Iranians across this country, it is for them the story that has broken their hearts and still sees them overwhelmed by pain and anger and that is the 40th day of mourning in Shia tradition when you the mourning ends and then you gradually return to daily life but there's no returning to normalcy normalcy for so many Iranians who lost loved ones in that spiral of protests last month we there was many were asking yesterday well how would people mark this moment would they go out into the streets and let their emotions run and therefore risk possible confrontation again with the security forces? Would they mourn privately? And as the day went on, there seemed to be a sense that many were deciding to take a more cautious path to mourn inside their homes. Although, as you heard in that gunfire from Abadan, that's a largely Arab province close to the Iraqi border. There were some protests there. We hear, too, in other cities that some people did take to the streets. And we saw yesterday when we went around Tehran that the security had been tightened. We saw these Basici militia on their motorcycles gunning through the streets as if to send a warning signal that we're watching. We're going to keep an eye on you. What's your sense, Lise? You spend a bit of time now in the Iranian capital, Tehran. What is your sense of how or the range of feelings among people there? My overwhelming impression this time, Tim, is that Iran is a different country now. I've been, for some reason, I've been suddenly remembering my first trip to Iran, which was 1989, when they were burying the first revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. And so many Iranian friends said, we're a country of evolution, not revolution. We like to go slowly. We don't want our country to collapse into chaos. But this time I was so struck how many people said to me, we don't care about the negotiations. We want the United States to attack us. That is the only way that we can find a way out. The system isn't working. And I was really struck by how many people came up to us and said they wanted their voices to be heard. And this is what happened when we went out into the streets yesterday. All along these streets, the markets, some people selling notebooks, others a whole array of books that have been translated. Even the former first lady Michelle Obama's book Becoming has been translated into Farsi, Iran's main language. And let's just get a sense from people here about what they think about these talks. If there was a deal between the United States and Iran, would it help you in your life? Absolutely. Definitely it will get better, definitely. Because right now we're in a very terrible situation. As soon as we open our eyes in the morning and we see that we're alive, we say, oh, thank God, that's it. And do you have a shop here? This is your shop. This is your... Yes, yes, yes. And now the man, he's selling ceramic mugs. I have to say he's got Starbucks mugs, the American coffee chain, even though, of course, there's no Starbucks chain here. So what do you think is going to happen in Iran? President Trump says if there's no deal, he's going to attack Iran again. They must come to an agreement with the United States in order to prevent an attack. But so many people in Iran are suffering, and some want the United States to strike. I am telling you this truthfully. Did you not see how many people were killed in the protests? Did you take part in the protests? No. No. To tell you the truth, I did not participate. Because I am a pensioner, I have four children, and if I were arrested, what would happen to my wife and children? I have no other source of income. at the end of the month. I have to pay my rent. That's why I didn't participate in the protests. But I'm dissatisfied. I'm very dissatisfied. Tehran is also famous for its traffic. It's absolutely chock-a-block on these roads. And look at the sound of the motorcycles. We just saw roaring past us a whole procession of motorcycles with the people they call the basiji. They're the volunteer militia, the protectors of their Islamic revolution. I believe those in charge of these negotiations and agreements have done behind the curtain willings and dealings. I try not to get too caught up in this issue that what will happen in the future. I have to stand on my own feet. I have to get my own rights. My countrymen are whom I can rely on. I will support them to the end. I will pay whatever costs. Some of the voices from Tehran who've been speaking to our chief international correspondent Lise Doucette today. And I should just emphasize, as we do when we're hearing from Lise at the moment, that she's reporting from Iran on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian service. It's a restriction which applies to all international media organisations operating in Iran. We're going to take you now to a place we don't often talk about, at least these days, but lots of observers are extremely worried about. It the very north of Ethiopia the region of Tigray And the fears are that a major conflict could be about to break out The last time that happened was only a few years ago There was an absolutely ruinous two war Excuse me it thought hundreds of thousands may have died There was mass sexual violence, mass intentional starvation. Now once again there seems to be a huge build-up of rival forces from the federal government and from the Tigray region. Hietil Trunwell is a professor of peace and conflict studies at Oslo New University College and a specialist on the region. What's prompted this latest face-off? I think it is several reasons, but some of the key issues are that it is a conflict in the making between several actors. The main antagonist might be Eritrea and Ethiopia. Their relationship has been deteriorating since actually the peace agreement with the former war in Tigray in 2022. When they were allies in that war, they had now turned against each other. So that's the main confrontation. But Tigray forces, as you mentioned, they have aligned themselves, apparently, with Eritrea. So it is also a conflict brewing between Addis Abed-Bah, the federal government, and the regional authorities in Tigray. And what's the reason for the breakdown in relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea, who themselves fought an absolutely awful war getting on for 30 years ago? Well, it was 30 years ago, wasn't it? And then there was a peace agreement just before the turn of the millennium. What's prompted this breakdown in relations? Well, according to Ethiopian authorities, they are accusing Eritrea of being on their soil as an enemy force. Eritrean soldiers are in Ethiopia, they claim, in northern Ethiopia. They are accusing Eritrea of abiding and abetting Ethiopian insurgencies, particularly the Fano Amhara insurgency, but also the Oromo. We have seen over the last year and a half that Ethiopia has been ticking off all the boxes to portray Eritrea as an enemy hostile state due to their destabilizing activity and also encroachment on Ethiopian territory. And this is done in a way, both in formal letters to the UN Secretary General, but also direct responses to the Asmara government in order possibly to justify the right of self-defense against Eritrea. OK, so you're saying, look, the main source of tension, we should be looking at an international conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. But the chances are is that it could play out in the north, which obviously would make sense geographically because they share a northern border. But how far can you I mean, can you just explain what is going on with the Tigrayan regional forces themselves? What is the in a sense, the unfinished business between those Tigrayans and the and the government in Addis Ababa? Well, the Pretoria Secession of Hostilities Agreement, which was signed in November 2022, ending the war on Tigray, has not been fully implemented. There are key issues of return of internally displaced people. There are about one million Tigrayans not being displaced from their homes. And also return of control of territories. West Tigray and parts of southern Tigray are not under the administrative control of the Tigrayan authorities. And that was Kjetil Trunvold from Oslo New University College. This is News Air from the BBC. This is NewsHour, live from the BBC World Service. The US-Iran talks in Geneva that we heard about earlier, they're not the only major negotiations the Swiss city has been hosting today. Russian and Ukrainian officials have also been there, taking part in US-brokered talks. As has become routine, they were accompanied by another big overnight bombardment from Russia on Ukrainian energy facilities. Four years into this grinding war and aware of the impact it's having on Ukrainian families, let alone the tens of thousands of military casualties, Ukraine's government has started funding a program that allows soldiers to freeze their sperm. Our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford has this report from Kyiv. Hi, Maxim. I'm Sarah. Hello, my name is Max. The other day, I called Maxim on the front line somewhere in eastern Ukraine, because the soldier wanted to talk about his sperm. Can I ask you, Maxim, why you decided to freeze your sperm? Ukraine's gene pool is dying. Our men are dying. It's about the survival of our nation. Maxim is one of a growing number of Ukrainian soldiers who've been freezing their sperm samples for free before being deployed to fight. He told me it's because if he's killed, his wife could still have the child they both want. And if he does survive this war, he's worried about his future fertility. There's no guarantee you're safe, whether you're on the front line or even 80 kilometres back. Maxime means because of the Russian drones overhead, constantly hunting. That means stress, and that has an impact on a man's fertility. So we have to think about the future, and the future of our Ukrainian nation. Since Russia's full-scale invasion four years ago, Ukraine's birth rate has dropped dramatically. I met baby Bogdan when he was just a day old, his tiny face all wrinkled and pink. But Oksana, the director at the clinic in Kiev, tells me she now sees far fewer Bogdans, only half the number of pregnancies she saw before the war. That's partly because so many women fled as refugees, and those still here don't want to have so many babies in a land of missile strikes and air raids. But Oksana says it's also about fertility. She confirms that's badly affected by stress. So in the lab, her colleague pulls long glass tubes of frozen sperm from a bat to show me. The clinic now stores these samples for soldiers, frozen while everything's still strong and healthy, and then kept for the future just in case. that's how Natalia now has baby Yura scooting around her living room in a stroller he's such an interesting little guy and he looks so much like his father it's like a second Yuri was born Yuri's dad was killed fighting and Natalia conceived months later through IVF using her husband's stored sperm as they'd agreed, but as she'd hoped would never happen. He wanted a son so much. At first, the sperm storage program for soldiers was only to be used if they were injured and unable to have children. It was altered later so the samples could be used after a soldier's death because so many have been dying here. I will tell him everything when he is old enough to understand. I will tell him that his father is a Ukrainian hero. Oksana Dmitrieva is an MP who drafted Ukraine's law on sperm storage and is still ironing out some of the problems, like stopping a dead soldier's parents from claiming his frozen sperm if his widow doesn't want to get pregnant. The MP is also busy spreading the word among soldiers. I go to the front a lot and I talk to the soldiers there about freezing their sperm. At first they are really embarrassed, but I tell them about it and I tell them to tell others. No one knows what will happen in the future, so if they have this chance, why not? It doesn't hurt. The soldier I spoke to up on the front line really hopes others follow his lead. For him personally, he says, it's peace of mind, knowing that if all of this ever ends and he does make it home, he has more chance of having a child one day. That's one problem I don't need to worry about any longer, Maxime tells me. And when you're out here in the East, that's really important. The words of Maxime ending that report from Sarah Rainsford in Kiev. We're going to end this edition of NewsHour with a return to some of the reflections that have been today on the death of the Reverend Jesse Jackson. The civil rights leader, Reverend Al Sharpton, worked closely with Jackson over many years and he paid tribute to him at a news conference in New York. My whole life and the whole country and the world was changed. Don't forget he went and got hostages from Iraq, hostages from Syria that no one else could get for this country. Never got the credit he was due. But he said to me that those that need the credit don't deserve it and those that deserve the credit don't need it. Well, I'm going to make sure as long as I'm alive he gets the credit. Reverend Jesse Jackson. President Donald Trump described Jesse Jackson on his social media platform as a force of nature like few others before him. He said he was a good man with lots of personality, grit and street smarts. The former U.S. President Barack Obama paid tribute to saying that Reverend Jackson helped lead some of the most significant moments for change in human history. And we, he said, speaking of his wife and himself, we stood on his shoulders. We're going to leave the last word, though, of tribute to his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., who's just spoken to my colleague, James Kamara Sami, here at the BBC. In a way, we celebrate the life of Jesse Jackson because he represents hope. And in another sense, it's sad because hope expired this morning and dad really compelled each of us to be the very best that we could be to look at our neighbors differently. And I'm so proud. I am so proud that I had the privilege of living with him, of knowing him, of sharing his name with him, of observing him. and I've lost more than a father. I've lost a best friend, I've mentored someone that I held up as a hero with great respect for. Jesse Jackson Jr. speaking to the BBC about the death of his father at the age of 84 today. From all of us on NewsHour, from me, Tim Pranks and the rest of the team here in London, thanks for listening. Thank you. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side.