07/03/2026 13:06 GMT

Hello and welcome to news out from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London.

I'm James Kamarassami.

The sound there of an explosion at Dubai International Airport earlier today accompanied by the commentary

of a bystander watching a projectile of some description approaching.

Or despite that, flights have resumed there and the authorities in the UAE have posted

about what they called a minor incident resulting from the fall of debris after an interception

and interception of exactly what they have not said.

Well in the week since Israel and the United States launched their joint operation against

Iran, killing its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hamane in a raft of top officials.

The Iranians have been firing missiles and drones at their neighbours in the Gulf.

They've been attacking not just US military bases and embassies, but key sources of energy

in the region targeting a pressure point, a key pressure point in the global economy,

the apparent aim of pressurising the US and Israel to end their military campaign.

Today though, the Iranian President Masood Psezhkian said sorry.

I must apologise on my own behalf and on behalf of Iran to the neighbouring countries that

were attacked by Iran.

Yesterday the interim leadership council agreed that no more attacks will be made on neighbouring

countries and that no missiles will be fired unless an attack on Iran originates from

those countries.

Well that is elicited a dismissive response from President Trump in the past couple of

hours.

It was reported on social media that Iran had apologised and surrendered to its mid-least

neighbours and he's promised that Iran would be hit very hard today.

While Tehran was certainly hit hard overnight and on Friday, the BBC's Joe Inwood reports.

May you suffer in pain, may your soul burn in hell, Hamane says the woman.

This huge explosions briefly illuminate Tehran's skyline.

Clouds of black dust and debris can be seen rising into the night, some small, others

seeming the size of skyscrapers.

All week the BBC's Persian service has been receiving messages from people inside the

country.

They increasingly reflect the reality of US and Israeli intervention from above.

The house was shaking for five minutes straight, last night was the worst night.

No, I'm not okay, I barely slipped last night because of the constant explosions.

It was terrible, they were hitting so hard that all the windows were shaking.

I woke up at around 4 a.m. from the noise.

I could hear the flights jets early in the morning.

The targets of those jets, for the most part, seem to have been raging military sites.

That was the sound of an airbase being hit.

The person dives behind a breeze block wall for safety.

Another man filming the same air strike sticks his car into a verse to escape the chaos

of the blast.

But it seems destruction from above is not enough to weaken the grip of a well-manned

and often brutal security apparatus.

This was their message delivered on State TV.

He warns parents that if their children are heard sharing the views of the enemy, they

will be shot.

Joe, inward reporting, well, let's take the temperature one week into this war.

We join now by our chief international correspondent, Lise Deset, who was reporting for us from

Iran not so long ago.

Lise, let's start with this message from the President.

What did you make of it?

The President is known for trying to strike conciliatory tones.

You may remember that during the major protests, which were put down with lethal force, he

apologized for the government's shortcomings, at least an economic matter, not in political

ones.

And here he is again, now today offering a conciliatory tone apologizing to neighboring

states, particularly in the Gulf, which have been coming under attack by Iranian forces.

But he made it clear that this was not just his gesture.

He said that a decision had been made by Iran's current leadership.

There's a three-man interim leadership council, and they had decided that they would make

this clear to neighboring states.

And he had this interesting explanation.

We heard of it earlier from the foreign minister, Abasad Akchi, when he was embarrassed

that Oman, which is a key mediator for a long time, had also been hit by Iranian strikes.

And he said that the command had been decentralized.

So again, Peshashkhan said that our army officers, he said, had been firing at will in the

absence of a top command.

So why don't you suggest that they're going to try to make their decisions a bit more

consolidated, if they can?

But there was still the caveat that if attacked by the US or Israel, originate in countries

with military bases, they would still be a target.

So it's not that what impact it will have.

And it's been brushed off by President Trump.

Yes.

And I should say that his, the decision of the leadership and his apology is in response

to the fury among Arab leaders.

I spoke to a senior official in the Gulf yesterday.

And he said they were absolutely shocked by Iran's strikes and said it would take decades

for this rupture to be healed.

It was that there was no going back.

And he said, after this, he said, if we ever sit down for negotiations, ballistic missiles

will have to be on them because they are clearly a threat.

And yes, to President Trump, of course, how swiftly he responded in the middle of the

night in the United States.

And he says, I'll read a little bit of it, Iran, which is beat to hell, hell in capital

letters has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors and promised that

it will not shoot at them anymore.

And then he goes on to the say he calls it that Iran has been, he says Iran is along

with a bully of the Middle East and then a capital letters.

They are the loser of the Middle East.

It's such a harsh tone.

And he said that they will, he's going to be that they're going to be hit very hard.

And sadly, it has an echo of some of those petulant messages he has sent before.

And it's hard to remember that about a year ago, he said he wanted to be remembered as

the president of peace and a unifier in the world.

Yes, I mean, every major military operation like this brings new phrases, doesn't

it?

We remember shock and awe from the war in Iraq.

I mean, now there is talk of regime alteration and this in the wake of what's happened in

Venezuela, of course.

And I guess the, I mean, Donald Trump has been talking about, you know, he personally

being involved in who will be the next leader in Iran and finding another del-sea Rodriguez,

the equivalent of the Venezuelan sort of deputy who is sort of stepped up now to become

an American ally in the wake of Maduro being taken into prison.

I think President Trump is realizing that his second job as commander in chief gives

him this extraordinary sway.

And he has such powerful military weapons, the strongest stuff in the world.

And therefore, he can lose them at will.

He calls Venezuela the perfect scenario, but it simply wouldn't work in Iran to take

the leader off and then work with the administration that's left.

Lease many thanks.

Lease do set there.

Well, Lease, as I mentioned, was recently in Iran, but at the moment the BBC like much

of the international media is unable to report from their communications with people inside

Iran remains difficult, but it is though not impossible.

On Friday's news out, James Menendez managed to get through to one of the few international

journalists who is reporting from Tehran.

Catalina Gomez has lived in the Iranian capital for the best part of 20 years.

He works for the French news channel France 24 and for Spain's Lavanguardia newspaper.

And she began by telling James about the attacks there earlier in the day.

It was basically around 5, 5, 10 in the morning that several explosions came, like they were

dropping the bomb's very consecutive.

And it lasts for five minutes.

It was very strong.

Everything was shaking.

You can't feel the sound of the plane on the earth.

Immediately, all these pictures from Tehran started going out in the social media.

And they were very strong.

You could see this huge attack in the city.

And it continues during the day, in different parts, is the West.

And in the afternoon came back to the centre very strongly.

And those ones early in the morning at dawn.

I mean, how close to you were they, do you think?

They were very close.

Actually, they were in the centre of the city.

I'm located in the very centre close to the compound of the supreme leader that was

actually attacking the first moment of the Israel and American attack.

I feel it like it was like two streets from my house.

And more generally, I mean, you able to find out what is being hit in this campaign.

Tehran is a very, very secure city with a lot of checkpoints of different militia groups

like the Basis Gs or the special forces or the special police.

Then there are some areas that is very difficult to transit around.

But what people are saying at this was related with some military academies, but also related

with some areas with this compound of the supreme leader talking about the bunkers and tunnels

around.

But it's just speculations because we don't really have the opportunity to get to this part.

And especially to this special part, this is the most secure area of the city.

It's interesting you talk about the checkpoints and the presence of the militias and so on.

That suggests that much of the regime's military apparatus and personnel, I mean, that they're

all still in place.

It's not like people have been deserting their posts, is it?

I mean, what we know, and we would see in the streets, they are not the certain.

They are really much there.

I know that they have been attacking bases of militias, but we can see in the streets

is that they are so much presence.

But I also have to point something interesting.

Two days ago, I was in the north of the city close to a very famous place in Tehran, Tajiris.

It's usually very crowded.

Of course, this day is not crowded because we are in a holiday because they declare seven

days of mourning.

But some people close to the system were there with flags and chanting slogans, remembering

supreme leader, but also against America and Israel.

And it was full of checkpoints that day, very difficult and very dangerous because they

were showing their guns very openly.

But today, I was there and it was very, very quiet.

It's Friday.

People should be out.

And also, there were almost no checkpoints that really chose something because very empty.

I never seen my life Tehran as empty.

So people clearly staying at home, and are you able to speak to people at all in the

city and find out what they think about what's going on?

I mean, clearly, people are worried, but I just wonder whether people welcome what's happening.

I mean, what are their thoughts about what the days and weeks to come might hold?

People are worried, but people have different approach depending on where they are.

I mean, people who support the system and is mourning the supreme leader, they are very

much requesting for revenge.

And they are really against America and Israel, but they believe that Iran has to go until

the end.

And you have other people who are really, really worried because even if they are against Islamic

Republic, they are worried what is happening with the country and what is going to happen.

After that, they are also very worried of being a big team of these attacks of the Israelis

of America.

And also, they are very afraid of these militias and these checkpoints in the streets that

something will happen to them.

That's why people are trying to be very careful being in their house or out of the city.

That was Catalina Gomez, journalist in Tehran, speaking to NewsHours James Menendez.

Well listening to the BBC World Service, and this is NewsHours, coming to you live from

London with James Kamara Sami.

And coming up later on in the program, how sea grass on the US East Coast is adapting

to a warming world.

When we're talking about genomic change, we're asking, have there been changes to that DNA

sequence?

Does that change enable me to be taller, live longer, be more heat resistant?

So when I go out and sample sea grasses, I sequence to genome, and I will find change

has occurred in a gene that regulates heat shock.

The headlines of this hour, President Trump has dismissed an offer by Iran's president

to stop attacking neighboring Arab states as a surrender in response to relentless U.S.

and Israeli attacks.

He has also threatened to further expand the bombing campaign.

And Lebanon's health ministry says more than 40 people have been killed during an Israeli

commando raid on the Bekhar Valley, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

You're listening to the BBC World Service.

This is NewsHours, coming to you live from London with James Kamara Sami.

Before the Trump administration launched the latest U.S. war in the Middle East, it had

explicitly stated that the focus of its foreign policy would be on its own backyard, restoring

American preeminence in the Western hemisphere.

That was the focal part of the new U.S. national security strategy that was published at the

end of last year.

And it is in that context that President Trump is hosting Latin American leaders at one

of his golf courses in Florida later today for a summit called The Shield of the Americas.

One of those who will be attending the gathering is President Daniel Neboa of Ecuador in the

past week.

His country has launched a joint military operation with the U.S. aimed at fighting drunk

gangs.

For more on the significance of that operation and today's meeting, we're joined from

the capital of Ecuador, Kito, by Sergio Ruiz, a Latin American political risk and governance

advisor.

Welcome to NewsHours.

Hi, welcome, man.

Hi, from Ecuador here.

Excellent.

Well, thanks for joining us.

First of all, can we start with this joint U.S. Ecuadorian military operation?

What is the background to that and how is it going?

Well, actually, Ecuadorian special forces carried out raids in multiple provinces, I guess,

drug trafficking fatalities.

The U.S. forces provided advisory intelligence and operational planning.

But there was no U.S.

or your deployment underground.

However, I believe it is important to understand that this is not an action-led action because

since 2024, we have been seeing progress escalation on this cooperation with military

agreements and the visits from two secretariat states, and most recently, with the South

con commander visit in Ecuador just day before the operation.

So it has been a two-year process that was building a step-by-step, and the recent events

was the start of the ground operations, but the architecture was already in place.

And the reason for this joint cooperation is the problem, isn't it?

I mean, last year was particularly violent in Ecuador.

Of course, safety has been the number one concern for Ecuadorians for at least, let's say,

four years.

Ecuador just had the highest number of violent deaths in its history in 2025.

So maybe there are two possible readings.

First, Ecuador has a genuine need.

The cooperation was requested by Keto, not imposed.

And the U.S. logistical support is understood as both a political genuine and technically necessary.

However, you can also state a second more carriers approach when Ecuadorians rejected 40

military bases by 60% just for months ago.

So the government has announced some curfews and let's see how it goes in the future,

but actually, yes, that's a problem.

Well, let's look at the broader regional context and the summit that's taking place in Miami.

I mean, it is specifically looking at narcoterrorism.

Is what's happening in Ecuador then being seen as something of a model for the region,

this kind of cooperation with America?

They absolutely.

To date, Trump has seen the shield of America summit with 12 presidents from the region.

And it's worth noting, actually, that the biggest countries in America, Mexico, Brazil,

and Colombia, are not part of it.

So he's essentially gathered more conservative allies and the timing of Ecuador operation

just day before design suggests that they wanted to arrive with concrete results

to show the other countries what U.S. cooperation can deliver.

So Ecuador right now consolidates its delta to U.S. most aligned alliance of America in

security matters.

And what do you think might come out of it?

What would the Ecuadorian side come out of this meeting?

Well, for Ecuadorians, it's going to be a challenge because Ecuador sits between Ecuador

and Peru, which we know is the 70% of the worst-looking producer.

But there are local issues also that have to be tackle the institutional weakness, corruption,

and other things.

However, Ecuador has been trying to deal with this for four or five years with the same

military approach, and the results have not been enough.

So the real challenge is now to produce the most different outcomes that support the

government in these actions.

Sergio Ruiz, a journalist live from Quito, the capital of Ecuador.

Thanks very much.

Now, seagrass meadows are among the world's most valuable underwater habitats, as well

as providing food and shelter to thousands of species.

The plants play a vital role in tackling climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide.

But seagrass is also under threat from global warming, with most species unable to tolerate

temperatures of more than 25 degrees Celsius.

Although scientists have now discovered that some plants are evolving to survive at higher

temperatures.

Ben Wyatt reports from the east coast of the United States.

Given the recent snowstorms, it's an icy path that leads to the Paul Sabain's Coast

to Ecology Centre in the Acetic National Park of Maryland.

Hey, Stephen?

Stephen.

Yeah, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

How's it going?

Yeah, good.

The team here are preparing to take me across the lagoon of the Cinepuxen Bay, so we

can get out close to the seagrass meadows they've been working so hard to restore.

While the boat thores outside in the midday sun, I sit down with the leader of the seagrass

project, Professor Stephen J. Tomacetti, of the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore,

to learn more about its focus.

We're as a team working on eelgrass.

It's the foundational seagrass species of the U.S. East Coast, essentially.

We can find it anywhere from North Carolina up to Canada.

But here in Maryland, we're near to the southern edge of its range.

They're not the flashy coral reefs, but they serve a lot of the same function.

This is Katie Tanna, a PhD student working

on the project under Stephen's guidance.

These vegetative ecosystems provide the physical structure for a lot of biodiversity.

We have seahorses.

I've seen sharks out in the eelgrass meadows.

It's a lot of shellfish, but also a lot of culturally important fish species.

All in all, it's a very useful plan to have around only its fast disappearing.

Stephen's team turned to genetic science for help.

My name is Stephanie Kamel, and I'm a professor in the Department of Biology and Reem Biology

at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and I'm the genomics lead on this project.

So in some meadows challenged by higher temperatures,

a small number of plants have been mutating or changing genomically.

When we're talking about genomic change at the very basic level,

we're asking, have there been changes to that DNA sequence?

Does that change enable me to be taller, live longer, be more heat resistance?

So when I go out and sample sea grasses, I sequence the genome,

and I will find change has occurred in a gene that regulates heat shock.

By comparing the DNA of the variants with that of normal eelgrass,

Stephanie is able to isolate the exact genes associated with heat resistance.

The team using Stephanie's data can now focus their attention

on harvesting just the seeds that contain heat resistant genes

before replanting them in dying meadows.

It was this technique that Katie used to seed her new eelgrass meadows last year.

Around March, when all the pollination has occurred and seeds are developing,

we then go out and we pluck these reproductive shoots.

They kind of look like green beans, and then hold on to them

until they're ready to germinate, to grow.

Then it's just a matter of moving them to where they need to be.

So our hand in the genetics is very low tech.

It's really just moving seeds around at the right time.

And to find out how those meadows were coming along,

it was time to put on some weeds.

It's coming up to my hips,

and this water is at zero degrees Celsius,

so just praying there are no leaks in the weeds.

The eelgrass, what kind of depth does that normally grow in?

Anywhere from like a couple inches to six feet maybe.

The water today is too murky to see the sprouts in grass,

but Katie hopes the meadow will not only have regrown,

but will then also flourish in the hot temperatures of the summer.

If it does the team of that bit closer,

to securing the future of eelgrass meadows in Maryland.

The effort here is costing $300,000 over five years,

but for Stephanie, it's tax pay or money well spent.

We need to take a much more active role in managing our ecosystems.

We're really not sitting back.

We're like, okay, we're going to try these things

because the absence of that is we're just going to what,

just let seagrass loss continue.

I mean, we can't let that happen.

Professor Stephanie Camel ending that report

from Ben Wyatt in Maryland.

You're listening to the BBC World Service,

and this is News Hour.

Welcome back to News Hour.

Now for an extraordinary rescue tale.

Last weekend, a hot air balloon got entangled

in a communications tower in East Texas,

leaving two aeronauts dangling in midair.

And it was one of those cell phone towers

that a few stories high, but a 300 meter tool one.

Now, there was a happy ending.

You may have seen the video,

but it was an extraordinary challenging operation

for the rescue teams.

Cliff Patrick is a firefighter with Longview Fire Department.

He's been speaking to my colleague, James Menendez.

The text came across to our one of our group chats

for our technical rescue team.

And this tower is one of the tallest in our area.

The estimations were from 100 to 300 feet at that time.

I wasn't necessarily able to grasp the full magnitude

of it until I got closer to the scene.

And what had happened?

I mean, the balloon had simply just drifted by accident

into the tower and got tangled up.

That's basically what had happened.

There was a wind shift.

And the pilot obviously had a miscalculation

and thought he could climb over the tower

and he was banging up on it.

So how long does it take to get up to 900 feet?

The first climber that started climbing,

it took him an hour and 10 minutes to make the climb.

He had more rope and a little bit more gear.

I got to climb a little bit more streamlined.

Yeah, I'm what sort of state

with a couple of them when you got up there?

I mean, they must have been pretty scared.

They were very scared.

The gentleman was standing open

to secure the basket

and the female was seated in the basket.

As she was talking on the phone,

we'd dedicated one of our members

just the talk to them for the entirety of the climb.

How stable was the basket

and what was left of the balloon at this stage?

I mean, was there a risk that it could fall?

There absolutely was.

That was probably the most stressful part

of the operation was making the climb

and you're trying to climb as fast as you can

because we don't know what state the balloon is in,

how it's hanging.

I was up there and I saw it wrapped around the guide wire

and hanging on the power itself,

but I'm not sure how it managed

to stay secured to that guide wire.

It was really just, I think,

providential Lord's hand watching over him.

Yeah, so how did you get them from the basket to the tower

and into your clutches as it were?

Once we made contact,

the first climber was about five minutes ahead of me

and he was able to throw a rope over to them.

They secured the basket.

He then secured it to the tower.

When I got there, we slid over two victim harnesses

and we instructed them how to put a harness on

and then secure them to the tail of the rope

that we had sent over.

Once we had them in harnesses and tied to our rope,

still in the basket, then I upclimbed about 30 more feet

above the basket into the canopy,

lowered a line down to them.

Then we were able to tension that

and then swing them over,

pendulum them over to the tower

and secure them to the tower.

When I've watched the videos of the hairs

on the back of my neck stand up on end,

I mean, when you see the landscape below

and just how far there is to full.

Yeah, there were different comfort levels

of all the rescuers up on the tower

and I was climbing with Lieutenant Steven Wenzhel

and he let me know about 500 feet up

that the heights weren't his favorite thing

and it made for a good moment of levity

for the situation and drive us to climbing faster

but he pushed through that,

knowing that we just had to do what was necessary

and focus on the task at hand

rather than focusing on the fear of what we're doing.

Cliff Patrick from the Longview Fire Department

speaking to my colleague, James Menendez there.

You're listening to the BBC World Service.

This is NewsHour coming to you live from London

with James Kamar Asami.

Early in the program,

we heard about the latest message coming

from Iran's president and about the latest

on the conflict in Iran.

Let's turn now to what's increasingly

become the other main front in this war in the Middle East

and that's Lebanon in another sign

of the global implications of the fighting.

The government in Ghana has demanded an investigation

after an attack in the south of the country late on Friday

left three of its UN peacekeepers injured one of them critically.

The United Nations has not yet determined who was responsible

but the Lebanese president Joseph Ayun has blamed Israel.

Meanwhile, according to the authorities in Beirut,

the number of casualties from an Israeli

commando operation the Becar Valley in the east of the country is rising.

Let's get the latest from the BBC's Lena Sinjab

who is in the Lebanese capital.

Lena, first of all, what do we know about

what's happened in the Becar Valley?

Well, apparently overnight there was an Israeli commando operation

accompanied with airstrikes in an area and as we understand

that the Israelis were trying to look for remnants of a soldier

and an Air Force soldier who was missing in the 80s.

But through that operation, there were many killed,

at least 40 people killed and another 40 injured

and the Lebanese armies could just issue the statement saying

that three Lebanese forces soldiers were also killed

in this operation as there were clashes between the Israelis

on the ground offensive with some of the locals as well

and the Lebanese army got caught into this fire.

And this airstrike on the UN peacekeepers in the south of the country last night again

no independent confirmation about who was responsible for it

but the Lebanese authorities seem pretty sure.

Yeah, the Lebanese president clearly accused Israel defense force for the attack

but just like a reminder, in 2024 the war on Lebanon and

and Hezbollah, there were several attacks also by the Israeli defense force

on UN peacekeeping missions in the south on their base

and several of their peacekeeping soldiers were injured.

So although the statement of yesterday's attack,

the statement by UNIFEL and the Gannon forces,

they did not specify who are the attackers but they've condemned

such attacks while they're stressed that they are there to keep their security

job to keep this buffer zone secured.

And as for Israel, has it been clear on what its objectives are,

how long this operation is scheduled to continue?

Well, Israel's main objective is to

cripple Hezbollah to end its military power to stop any

attacks hitting Israel, especially the northern of Israel.

And that's what they've been doing in 2024 with a three-month-long

you know war that you know assassinated top commanders including

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah.

That's what they are trying to do at this time.

They even put the name of the new leader,

Naim Qasim, as on the target list for assassination.

But the Hezbollah at the same time is, you know,

is the one that prompted this war.

They've started launching attacks in solidarity with the killing

of the Iran's supreme leader and that dragged the country into war.

And they continue to fire rockets into Israel,

which seems to get this conflict, you know, up and ended.

The government is trying to de-escalate its band,

the Hezbollah's activity, military and security ones,

but Hezbollah is not responding.

So as far as, you know, Hezbollah, we continue to attack Israel.

This war is not going to stop.

Lena, many thanks.

Maybe she's Lena Sinjab there in Beirut.

And just seeing the Lebanese authorities of now saying that the Israeli

attacks have killed nearly 300 people since Monday.

Well, our correspondent, Wira Davis, is also in the Lebanese capital as well as

people being killed by these attacks.

Many have been displaced and he's been speaking to some of them.

We've now come down to Beirut's famous Cornish, the waterfront.

Along the Cornish are several families who've been displaced

have decided to camp here, including this family of 12 people.

They've got a couple of tents, a couple of chairs.

Akih, Khatar, agree.

It was very dangerous.

12 of us came in small cars that can't even fit eight people.

We arrived at Don while we were fasting.

We came in our pajamas.

We slept on the ground here.

Every shelter we go to tells us there are no spots left.

No space.

They tell us to wait until new places open up.

Or try another city.

But there's no safety anywhere.

Israel hasn't left any space safe.

What sort of welcome if you had it?

Many people here in Beirut, they blame the resistance.

They blame Hasbullah for what is happening now.

Allah ad-Nez, we've looked.

Hasbullah.

Everyone is blaming Hasbullah.

But no one was blaming Israel when they brought the ceasefire

for a year and a half.

The world is blaming the victim and not the killer.

It was clear, even here as we're speaking to some of these internally displaced people,

the retention is in Lebanon.

A man has just come up and is debating, disputing,

what Adel is saying, blaming Israel for everything he says.

And it shows just some of the tensions that still remain in Lebanon's society.

There are dozens of families, people of all ages,

who've been evacuated from Dahia, from southern Beirut.

What you find is that the older people are still loyal to Hasbullah,

they blame the Israelis, they blame the Americans for everything.

But younger people, including one 14-year-old girl we've been speaking to,

is perhaps more pragmatic.

I'm Dunya Hasbullah, I'm 14 and I'm from Hadas.

Lebanon is honestly such a beautiful place,

so it's really sad to see this happening.

When did you leave Dahia?

And what has it been like trying to find somewhere to get shelter and food?

Well, we left Dahia yesterday at like 3 p.m.

Like right when they sounded like a lot,

they don't tell them, they send us notifications

to evacuate the area immediately.

So where did you sleep last night?

We didn't sleep last night, we couldn't sleep out of fear.

We were just seeing the news just to check on our homes.

And who do you and your family blame for all of this?

Some people are blaming the resistance, some people are blaming Israel.

Who do you blame for all of this?

We think that Hasbullah, it's way too early for another war.

Since last year we've had a war, I think it's way too early for Lebanon right now

to have another war and we're not ready enough.

So I feel like them acting on Israel is kind of their problem as well.

Oh, we just had another big earthquake right in front of us.

It's right in the heart of Sudden Bay Route.

The entire area, of course, is now under an Israeli evacuation order.

And you can clearly see why.

There have been estrikes throughout the day and throughout the night.

Thousands of people have already left and with bombing in the south and in eastern Bekavali.

It's impossible to describe anywhere in Lebanon really as completely safe.

We're a Davis reporting there.

Well, let's turn out to one particular aspect of this conflict.

The use of cyber warfare.

Earlier in the week, the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said American cyber

and Space Forces had jammed Iranian communications during its initial attack.

It's also been reported that information gathered from hacked traffic-like cameras in Tehran

was an important element of the plot to kill the Ayatollah.

So what do we know about the scale of the US and Israeli cyber campaign?

And indeed of Iran's cyber capabilities, both offensive and defensive.

Lauren Williams has worked on these issues in the Pentagon and the White House.

She's now Deputy Director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic

and International Studies and joins us live from Washington, D.C. Welcome to News Out.

Thank you for having me.

And can we start with the lead up to this war, this attack?

What do we know about the role of cyber warfare?

Well, just as you noted, we know that in the preceding weeks and months,

there was certainly cyber-intrusions that were used to gain information,

likely on both sides, but certainly those news cameras or rather those

traffic lights that you mentioned were compromised.

We're able to gain information that was useful for both the US and Israel in launching that

operation. And then, of course, shortly following the beginning of the conflict,

we know that there was an alleged Israeli cyber attack that compromised a prayer app widely used

across Iran. In the digital space further, we know that Iranians are experiencing continuing

to experience an internet blackout as well.

Yes, tell us a bit more about that prayer app that's fascinating.

Yes, so it's a great example of the increasing blurring of lines between what we look at as

traditional cyber operations and influence operations. And it's a good example because we know

that this app was likely targeted because it's a widely used religious calendar application widely

downloaded with any run. And it also would likely have been able to reach the target audience of

the hackers, which would be highly religious, senior members of the Iranian regime, and the

influence operations, influence operations element. Yeah, just briefly. What was what message

then was being sent through this app? The messages were sent to stoke anti-regime sentiments.

So there were lines such as the Iranian regime would pay for their cruel and merciless actions

against the people of Iran. Another message said anyone who joins in defending and protecting

the Iranian nation will be granted amnesty and forgiveness. So certainly anti-government messaging.

And now we are into what sort of military plan is called a kinetic part of the operation,

missiles going in both directions. What sort of role is the cyber program playing? I mean,

perhaps what's it playing from the Iranian side? Certainly. So Iran for many years has had a

sophisticated cyber program. And so there are multiple elements, ways to think about this.

Iran's regime, the IRGC, has certainly leveraged both its own capabilities as well as those

of hacktivist proxy groups over years to further its aims and cyber space. So as we are seeing

the Iranian regime's kinetic response capabilities be degraded by further and further

missile strikes from the US and Israel, we might expect them to leverage cyber space

more in the time going forward. And briefly, there's been quite a bit of focus on the role of AI

in this campaign. I mean, briefly, can you sort of summarize what we know about how it's being used?

Certainly. We have seen reports and we can say that reportedly, in Thropic, the US AI firm,

powerful cloud tool has been was used in order to shape the targeting decisions of the US

military. We've seen that report going forward that was certainly similar to headlines coming out

of the US braid on Venezuela a couple of months ago that these powerful AI tools are being used

to help shape decisions that would have traditionally been made by humans in the past.

Lauren Williams used to work on cyber issues at the Pentagon and the White House now at the

Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. Thanks very much for joining us.

You're listening to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

You're listening to the BBC World Service. This is NewsHour coming to you live from London with

James Kamara Salmi. The Winter Paralympics in Italy are underway, medals being awarded today in the

Alpine downhill skiing events. We've got the start of the snowboarding and ice hockey tournaments.

It comes after Friday's opening ceremony was boycotted by several teams, including Ukraine.

That's in protest at athletes from Russia and Belarus being allowed to compete in the games under

their own flags rather than as neutrals. Well, the BBC's Katie Falkingham is watching the action

for us in Cortina and joins us now. Katie, let's start with that opening ceremony. What was it like?

Hi, James. It was a great show. It was obviously taking place at the Roman amphitheater in

Rome, so it was a real spectacle, but it did feel somewhat overshadowed, I guess, by all the news

leading up to the games of the country's boycott in that almost felt like the elephant in the room.

We learned yesterday that afternoon that Russia and Belarus would be sending athletes to the

opening ceremony. Only half of the countries did, about 28 of them, so I think all eyes were trained

on those athletes when they came out to see what kind of reaction, what reception they got.

In the end, it was pretty bland. There wasn't really any reaction to them either, positive or

negative, but perhaps more telling, I guess, was when the Ukrainians walked in. They got the

biggest cheer of the night, apart from the Italians, so a great reception for them.

And the sport has started, and well, I think the Russians have already got a couple of medals,

haven't they? They have, yeah, so they've had two bronzes so far in the standing downhill events

in Cortina at the Alpine skin. So we have seen the Russian flag on the medal table flying above

the podium for the first time in more than a decade. The gold medals in those events, they went

to Sweden's Ebert Ars Joe and Switzerland's Robin Kush. Elsewhere, Ukraine, they're already top

of the medal table. They've won three golds across the Biasone events. And also in Biasone,

we've seen Oxana Masters, the American great. She's won her sixth Winter Paralympic gold.

Here at the Alpine, we've also seen double gold for the same family, a brother and sister from

Austria, Veronica and Johannes Eitner. They've both won golds in the visually impaired downhill.

So yeah, medals everywhere.

What the Norwegian sort of rather dominated didn't they at the Winter Olympics? So how are they

doing so far? Like I said, it's the Ukraine's and the Chinese actually that are

dominating so far. Norway are on the table. They've got one gold so far again in the Paralympine

skin. That went to Jesper Pederson in the downhill sitting event. But yeah, they've got a way

to go so far. And team events are getting underway as well.

That's right. Yeah. So in Cortina, the the curling has been underway since since Thursday.

Actually, that started before the opening ceremony. So we have the mixed doubles event making

its debut at these Paralympics. China are leading there so far. They're on beaten four from four.

The ice hockey also starts today in Milan so far. We've had a win for the Czech Republic and the

US play Italian's later. Excellent. Well, quite a lot going on then. Anything that in particular,

we should be looking out for sort of stars, highlights that we expecting to come.

Yes, I mentioned Oxana Masters earlier getting that six Winter Olympics. That's actually her 20th

medal overall at Paralympics across both the summer and winter games. She's got an incredible

story. I couldn't coddle about drop, but she's had quite a tricky lead up into these games

with a lot of time in hospital having various surgeries. So it's great that she's here and fit

and we're able to compete. Her fiancé is also competing and they're going to get married

shortly after the game. So, and I sort of tell there, and then we've got China as well. They've

never really been in contention at previous Winter Paralympics until they hosted it for years

ago in Beijing. Their government ploughed money into those games and they've reaped the rewards.

Siblings and fiancés, that sounds great. Katie, thank you so much for bringing us up today.

The BBC's Katie following them there, forking them, sorry, who's watching all that action for us in

Cortina. After the beginning of a sporting competition taking place on snow and ice, we turn

out to the end of the journey of one of the world's oldest icebergs. The AU-23A, as it's known,

was formed in Antarctica 40 years ago. For most of that time, it's remained a gigantic structure,

but at the beginning of last year, it measured around 3,500 square kilometers. Over the past 12

months, though, it has been carried rapidly northwards, twisting and turning and breaking up

as it reached the warmer waters of the South Atlantic Ocean. Well, Laura Taylor is a biogeochemist.

That's someone who analyzes the interaction of chemical, physical, geographical,

and biological processes. She has visited AU-23A with the British Antarctic Survey,

and she's been telling me about the iceberg's journey. It first formed in 1986,

and very shortly afterwards, it became stuck in the wettelsea very close to

where it broke off from, and it was there for about 30 years. Just stuck hanging out for a bit,

and then around 2020, it started to come loose as it melted a bit, and it wasn't quite too deep,

and then by 2022, it started making rapid progress northwards along the Antarctic Peninsula.

But then it had another little altercation, just north of the Antarctic Peninsula when it became

stuck in a rotating column of water for a few months until it could escape that, and then

fast-forward a little bit later until around the year ago when it then became stuck again

by the island of South Georgia, where it broke apart and melted quite substantially,

and then started moving a little bit more until where we are today. Fascinating to hear about

all those stages. What do they tell us about the various interplay between the geology,

the climate, and the chemistry as well, I guess? Yeah, and this iceberg is a really great example

of the different scenarios of how these giant icebergs can impact the whole earth really.

When they form, they aren't just water, but they're containing all kinds of sediment and mud

and rocks within the ice from where they formed. So when they melt, they then release those

things back into the water in places they didn't originally come from. So this can provide nutrients

for marine life so it can allow tiny microscopic plants in the ocean called phytoplankton to grow

and bloom essentially, which can have quite a lot of consequences for the movement of carbon

between the atmosphere and the ocean, which is something we're really interested in.

Now you've been on it, haven't you? Tell us about that.

Yeah, I haven't quite been on it and that I have been up close and personal, so I have worked

on the research ship that's a David Aftonborough, so I've been able to see what it looks like

up close, which is quite a spectacular experience. It was so massive, it's harder to comprehend

that it is in fact floating and isn't a piece of land or an island in itself. Giant icebergs

like this one are definitely predicted to increase with climate change, so more and more of

them are going to form, so it's really important for us to understand what impacts these giant

icebergs are going to have if there's going to be so many more of them. So for us, this was a really

valuable opportunity to get up close and study the impact the iceberg is having on the ocean.

There was a paper published yesterday in geophysical research letters saying that the pace of

climate change has doubled in the past 10 years. What kind of impact do you think it's going to have

on the sort of work you do? As we know Antarctica is one of the places that's changing the most

rapidly with climate change, and especially West Antarctica, where I'm focused on, or when most of

these icebergs are coming from, the ice is melting at very, very unprecedented rates and it's

definitely going to be one of the first places it impacted that it's going to have large consequences

for global sea level, and so it is really important for us to refine our understanding of exactly

what's going on, how fast things are changing so that we can continue to improve our predictions

of what the future might look like, and our understanding of how things currently work so that we

can then begin to understand how that might change into the future. That was the biogeochemist

Laura Taylor there on the disappearance of what was the world's biggest iceberg, the A23A,

time for us here to melt away. Thanks very much for listening to this edition of news out from

all of us here. Goodbye.