Tehran strikes more targets across the Middle East

Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from London.

I'm James Kamar Asami.

Ever since the United States and Israel launched their assault on Iran a week ago, the Trump

Administration has been accused of sending conflicting signals about its war aims.

Today, it was a turn of the Iranians to convey mixed messages.

President Masood Paseşkyan apologised to neighbouring states for striking their territory, just

as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, or IRGC, said they had hit an American airbase

in the United Arab Emirates and another in Bahrain.

Blasp also had in Qatar, while Saudi Arabia said a ballistic missile fell near Prince

Sultan Air Base.

The Iranian President, a relative moderate, said that Iran's interim leadership council

had approved a suspension of attacks against neighbouring countries unless that is they were

used to attack Iran, but Iran's parliamentary speaker warned any nations that host US bases

will not enjoy peace.

Well Joe Inwood has been following events on day 8 of this conflict.

This, so the Americans and the Israelis say, is the sound of the destruction of a significant

part of Iran's Air Force.

Last night, burning planes gave the night sky an orange glow as fires raged at one of

Iran's main airports.

Israel claims it destroyed 16 planes belonging to the elite Al-Quds Air Force at Tehran's

Metrabad Airport.

It was another night of the increased force President Trump has threatened.

It's been amazing.

We've knocked out 42 Navy ships, some of them very large in three days.

That was the end of the Navy.

We knocked out their Air Force.

We knocked out their communications and all telecommunications is gone.

I don't know how they communicate, but I guess they will figure something out.

It's not working out too well.

And they're bad people.

They're just bad people.

In the morning, his Iranian counterpart seemed to strike a more conciliatory tone.

Masoud Pasezkya and apologized to his Gulf neighbours for strikes on their territory

and said they would not be targeted again as long as they did not assist the US and Israel.

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

that were attacked by Iran.

The Interim Leadership Council agreed yesterday that no more attacks will be made on neighbouring

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

countries.

That was jumped on by President Trump as a sign of surrender, but Tehran has seemingly

rode back, saying that US bases could still be targeted.

That report from Joe Inwood.

Well, let's get more now on the situation in the Gulf, where as we've heard, the Iranian

President's initial apology for earlier attacks did not preclude new ones.

That explosion, the result of a drone being intercepted at Dubai International Airport

earlier today.

The disruption caused claims to be grounded there for a while, and this evening, the

authorities in the UAE confirmed that the driver of a vehicle had been killed by some

of the falling debris.

Well, before that, the President of the UAE had made his first public comment since the

attacks began.

He said that his nation was at a time of war, but promised it would emerge stronger than

before without doubt.

Mahamed bin Zayed al-Nayan spoke after visiting people who were being treated for their injuries

on Friday, but his comments directed at those attacking his country were only reported

today.

The UAE is attractive, the UAE is beautiful, the UAE is a model.

But I say to them, do not be misled by the UAE's appearance.

The UAE has thick skin and bit of flesh.

We are no easy prey.

Al-Arabi is editor-in-chief of the National Newspapers, a daily English-language regional

newspaper.

It's based in the capital of the UAE Abu Dhabi.

She told me what has happened there since the Iranian President made his apology.

His comments were broadcast shortly after an attack targeted the UAE and specifically

Dubai Airport, and while the attack was intercepted, it was still quite a shock to see

that attempt at a civilian airport.

Very soon after we got these mixed signals from the Iranian President, and yet only 15-20

minutes after they were broadcast, Qatar also had strikes directed at them.

And since then, today we've had three further strikes on the UAE, missiles, and drones intercepted.

But to be honest, the commentary from the Iranian President feels like a confirmation of

the fact that there is some sort of either disagreement or chaos at the top leadership

level in Iran.

And from the leaders across the Gulf, what kind of messages are we getting?

Pretty defined one from the President.

Yes, so the President of the United Arab Emirates went to a shopping mall a few days ago,

and people were surprised to see him in Dubai Mall with the crown prince of Dubai, interacting

with people speaking to many, many people.

We've interviewed a couple of them since then, and they said he was very relaxed, and

it was a sign of showing that not only are people largely safe, but that he was very

much here amongst his people and his people not only being Emirates, but everybody that

lives here.

And then you had a visit that he made on Friday to a hospital that has some of the wounded,

and the five people that he visited were once to Deniz, one Iranian, one Indian, and two

Emirates, which again reflects the mosaic of people living here.

And he recorded remarks that were today issued right after the breaking of fast.

He said he's proud of the Emirates who are here.

He's proud of the non Emirates that have really risen up and made clear that this is their

home.

And of course, he had very gracious words of appreciation for the military and all the

different security services here in the UAE.

By and large, have been able to keep the place as safe as possible, given the circumstances

with over 95% of missiles and drones intercepted.

But they are still being fired, as you point out, what kind of mood do you sense across

the UAE at the moment, indeed, across the region?

In the UAE, it's a mixed bag in the sense that people at first were quite saddened and

also enraged that the UAE was being pulled into this as all of the Gulf.

You know, the Gulf countries that said we'll not allow our bases to be used.

They don't, everything they can to avoid the war.

And so there was a sense that despite all these efforts here, we were being dragged into

this war.

Then there's been a mixed bag, some people, I would say, probably a minority of people

felt like it's probably better to leave their concern.

But the vast majority of people have been getting on with their day-to-day lives.

It's Ramadan, which is also a slower time in general and people like to come together.

They have been this alerts that come and when the alert comes is to tell you that either

missiles or drones are on their way and they're going to be intercepted.

So take shelter.

When they say take shelter, it's basically stay home or stay away from windows.

And then when it passes, a message is sent out that the danger for now has gone and then

people go in about their everyday lives.

So it's quite personal how people are reacting, but the general sense, the mood you get going

into the shops, going into restaurants, out in the street, that people are trying as

much as possible to be resilient and also to say we're not going to let them take away

our lives or take away our Ramadan from a regime that's decided to unleash its anger

on the Gulf.

That was Meena Al-Arabi, Editor-in-Chief of the National Newspaper in the UAE.

Well, let's turn out to the situation in Iran.

Susan Tamasebi is a US-based Iranian civil society activist and she's founder of Feminites,

a group that supports women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa.

She's just returned to Washington, DC, from Geneva, where she was speaking to the United

Nations about the humanitarian situation in her home country.

So what's she been hearing from her relatives and her wider network in Iran?

So obviously it's very difficult to get accurate information.

I've spoken to a few people, a few of my friends and relatives over the past few days.

And of course they're very concerned.

It's frightening.

The level of bombardment is very high and they are very concerned about the future of

the country.

At this point, when I talk to people, they said that they can still find food.

It's available in stores, but they are concerned that in the days to come, this will also

change.

So what are the security situation?

Clearly there's a threat from the skies, but what's the situation like on the ground

as far as you can make out?

Well, clearly we're also hearing a lot of reports from people inside the country that

the supporters of the regime are gathering in public spaces.

And also there's been statements made by regime officials against citizens that they shouldn't

be expressing support for the war or support for the death of those within the regime.

It's where especially also concern with the situation of prisoners.

As you know, Iran in the last nine months has gone through three major crises.

Iran was the war in June that was started by Israel and supported by the US.

Then we had massacres that started in January of this year, 2026.

And then also now we have this war.

So Iranian society is very overwhelmed.

What about internal displacement?

And we are seeing some people coming across the border going into Turkey, for example,

but what can you tell us or what have you been able to gather about the levels of internal

displacement inside the country?

Yeah.

So the numbers are not very clear.

You and HCR is reporting about 100,000 just in the first few days.

We have two types of displacement.

People leaving their homes, going to areas where they think it's safer that won't be

bombarded.

And then June, we also had the, you know, US president telling people to leave certain

areas to go to the north, for example.

And that's creates a lot of difficulty for people because you have to have certain access

right.

You have to have the money to go.

You have to have a car or some mode of transportation.

And then where you go, you have to have a place to go.

So that's one level of displacement.

But then we have other forms of displacement that have resulted from the destruction of

buildings and housing complexes.

So according to reports that I've read, over 3,000 residential buildings have been destroyed.

And these residential buildings in Iran, especially in the cities, are in the form of apartment

buildings and high rises.

So you can just imagine how many people have lost their homes.

And what sort of structures are in place to help those people?

I'm not sure if there are any structures in place to help them.

Iran is not a country that has experienced war.

I think, you know, with the June war that the government promised to support the individuals

who had lost their homes.

But I'm not sure if that was ever, that ever reached any sort of conclusion if that actually

happened.

Today we also heard news of bombing, of two water distillery sites, the sites that actually

turn sea water, undrinkable water into drinking water.

We know that the entirety of the Middle East actually has a lot of issues with drinking

water.

So this is pretty serious development.

Also I think about 13 hospitals and health emergencies centers have also been struck,

which shows the level of destruction of civilian institutions.

Right now we're facing needs as a result of two different crises.

One is the result of the massacre that happened and thousands of people were killed during

peaceful protests by the regime and tens of thousands were arrested.

So they have a whole set of needs.

We need to support the human rights defenders and the political prisoners, the protesters

who were arrested, pressed for their release.

Maybe there's some crossover between what needs to be done between the two different crises.

So we have to think about crises in terms of protections of civilians, you know, those

who have been targeted by the regime and then supporting and protecting the civilians

who have been targeted as a result of this war.

Susan Tamasabi there, you're listening to News Hour from the BBC World Service.

And coming up later on in the program, the results of a space mission designed to prevent

asteroids from colliding with Earth.

The basic idea there is that if we can take something really fast and smash it into an

asteroid that might be headed towards the Earth early enough that we would be able to push

it clear off the Earth to avoid any asteroid impacts.

How did they get on?

You can find out in about five minutes time.

The headlines at this hour, Iran has continued its drone and missile attacks on neighboring

Arab countries, hours after its president apologized for targeting them in retaliation for

US and Israeli strikes.

Benjamin Netanyahu says that the attacks on Iran will continue with full force and there

is a systematic plan to dismantle the region.

And regime and in other news, President Trump has launched a new military coalition to target

Latin American drug cartels in collaboration with regional leaders who share his political

outlook.

You're listening to the BBC World Service.

This is News Hour coming to you live from London with James Kamara Sami.

Ladies and gentlemen, Nepal's next Prime Minister.

The man at the mic is Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old rapper turned politician who appears to be heading

for a landslide victory in Nepal's general election.

The vote was called after last year's wave of Gen Z protests in which dozens of people

were killed and which forced the Prime Minister to quit.

He stood again in this election but has been roundly defeated by the rapper known to his

fans as Balen, who became mayor of the capital Kathmandu three years ago.

I've been hearing more about the man and his music from Fanindra Dahal of the BBC Nepali

Service in Kathmandu.

These are rapper and structural engineer by profession.

Politics is very something new for him.

He was elected as a mayor, as an independent candidate in Kathmandu in 2022, but his

rap journey and his presence in the Nepali hip-hop circle dates back to nearly one and

a half decades.

He used to sing songs, critiquing the political establishment, the nepotism, the corruption,

calling for jobs and advocating for aspirations of young people.

Some of the songs talk about pain and suffering of the Nepali youths who work in Middle

East countries and Gulf region.

So his career as a musician is central by the sound of things to his political career?

Yeah, that resonates with many demands that were raised by the Gen Z during the protest

that took place in September, eight and nine.

Though he did not actively participate in the protest by himself, he said, as a mayor

of Kathmandu, that he had extended his moral support to the protestors.

And when things turned nasty and people died and the Prime Minister had to resign, Prime

Minister only had to resign after widespread violence on September 9th, he was the first

choice by Gen Z to be the Prime Minister, but he didn't take a very short cut kind of path.

But he instead, later on, joined the Rastya Suthantra party, the party which just emerged,

which was formed just prior to the previous general elections and with the burial post

and participated in the general elections this time.

He's also known for the way he goes about law enforcement, I understand.

On that issue, this track record is often criticised as a mayor of Kathmandu because the

approach he took to deal with landless squatters or street vendors, the crack down that the

municipal police adopted against street vendors was criticised by the human rights group

and they advocated for a more durable solution instead of using law enforcement to address

these kind of issues.

And there was also like jurisdictional conflict because many said that squatters the issue

of like addressing the problem of landless people, they fall in the jurisdiction of the central

government.

So, what kind of challenges await him?

Basically, his challenges is to implement the grievances that he used to raise while

the rap music and also to fulfil the aspirations of the Gen Z protests.

The foremost challenge now will be to implement the report that will be submitted by the pro

committee regarding September 8th, killings and September 9th violence.

And that was Fanindra Dahal from the BBC Napoli service in Kathmandu on Balindra Shah that

the rapper turned politician who is going to be Nepal's next prime minister.

Now, if an asteroid was hurtling towards Earth, would we be able to deflect it from its

path and save mankind?

Well, that is what NASA set out to establish just over four years ago and it smashed and

spacecraft into Dymorphus, the moon of an asteroid called Diddimus.

On new analysis of that mission, which is known as DART, has shown that it is possible

to change an asteroid's orbit around the Sun.

I've been hearing more from Rahil Makedia, who's a planetary defence researcher at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The name of the mission was the double asteroid redirection test or DART for short.

It was a spacecraft that NASA launched in November of 2021 and the sole purpose of the

mission was to demonstrate what's called the kinetic impact method of deflecting asteroids

away from the Earth.

And the basic idea there is that if we can take something really fast and smash it into

an asteroid that might be headed towards the Earth early enough that we would be able

to push it clear off the Earth to avoid any asteroid impacts.

And this mission actually involved two asteroids, or the smaller asteroids orbiting another

one.

Exactly.

The target of the mission was the binary asteroid system Diddimus and what it means to be a

binary system is that the primary asteroid, in this case it's called Diddimus, has a

smaller moonlit called demorphos orbiting around it, similar to the Earth moon system

where the moon is orbiting the Earth.

Before the DART impact, the smaller asteroid used to take 12 hours to complete one full revolution

around the primary.

And after the DART impact, it now takes around 11 and a half hours, so 30 minute or so

reduction in the time it takes the secondary to move around the primary.

And what is the significance of that?

We know that we can actually go ahead and hit an asteroid when we're moving at very fast

speeds.

The spacecraft was moving at around 6 kilometers per second when it impacted demorphos and

demorphos is around 160 meters in diameter.

So it was first and foremost a test to make sure that we can go ahead and hit an asteroid

and making sure that we're not doing it for the first time if we ever find an asteroid

that's headed towards the Earth.

So we know we can do it, we know we can deflect it slightly, but is that enough?

What this new study found is that not only that the DART impact shift the motion of the

secondary asteroid around the primary asteroid, but it also changed the motion of the entire

system both of the asteroids around the Sun.

And that's exactly what we need to do if we find an asteroid that's headed to the Earth.

We need to change its motion around the Sun to make sure that we've pushed it clear

away from the Earth.

So that was the big result from this new study.

So that is now proof of concept, I guess, where we're at.

Exactly.

Yeah.

The basic idea behind the DART mission was that we want to make sure that if we ever find

an asteroid that's headed towards the Earth, we're not doing these things for the first

time that we have some experience in doing this.

So what next do you have to, I guess, look at different types of asteroids that might

head towards Earth and look at different types of spacecraft that might be used in this

way?

Exactly.

So we always want to have more data study different types of asteroids, build different

types of spacecraft, but what DART does specifically is provide us with one solid data

point that we can then use to go ahead and design future missions.

Another cool thing for the DITIMO system is that the European Space Agency's aerospace

craft is currently on its way to the DITIMO system to study the after effects of the

DART impact in more detail.

So we'll have a spacecraft there towards the end of this year to get us even more information.

Brody speaking, if someone's kept up at night worrying that an asteroid might come and

hit the Earth, can they sleep a bit easier tonight?

Yeah, absolutely.

And for DITIMO and for all the objects that we know of, they're not an Earth or impact

risk for more than the next 100 years or so.

I hope that's reassured you.

That was the Planetary Defense Researcher Rahil Makadyeh there on the results of that

mission from NASA to try and smash a spacecraft into an asteroid just to remind if you miss

any live additions of this program.

You can always catch up with our podcast.

We updated twice a day, seven days a week.

Just look for BBC NewsHour podcast, whatever you get yours.

You are listening to the BBC World Service and this is NewsHour coming to you live from

London with James Camarassani.

Welcome back to NewsHour.

We're going to look now at one of the world's oldest icebergs, which appears to be reaching

the end of its life.

The AU-23A, as it is known, was formed in Antarctica 40 years ago for the four decades since it's

been a gigantic structure.

At the beginning of last year, it measured around three and a half thousand square kilometers.

But over the past 12 months, it has been carried rapidly northwards, twisting and turning

and breaking up as it reached the warmer waters of the South Atlantic.

Laura Taylor is a biogeochemist.

She 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 wedel sea 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 had melted a bit and it wasn't quite

so 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, 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 and 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 in 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, 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.

There was a paper published yesterday in Geophysical Research Letters saying that the pace

of climate change has doubled in the past ten 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 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.

And that was that Laura Taylor, a biogeochemesis chemist even who visited that iceberg, the

A23A with the British Antarctic Survey.

You're listening to the BBC World Service and this is news hour coming to you live from

London with James Camarassani, more now on the war in the Middle East and Israel has

warned Lebanon that it will pay a very heavy price if it doesn't rain in attacks by

Hezbollah.

Lebanon was brought into the wider Middle East war on Monday when Hezbollah, a group

backed by Tehran, fired at Israel which responded with a new military campaign that has forced

hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes, homes.

Well, dozens of people are reported to have been killed in one recent Israeli operation

in the eastern Bekhar Valley.

The BBC's Wira Davis has been to the site and he sent this report on the aftermath.

This is the town, quite a large town of Nabi Sheet up in the Bekhar Valley and I'm standing

in front of one of the biggest bomb craters I have ever seen.

It's a huge hole in the ground, damaging, obviously dozens of houses around it.

The hole is about 10 meters deep, I'd say.

It has destroyed everything.

There are cars blown up onto the roofs of nearby houses.

Now this is clearly an Israeli bomb strike.

People are trying to clear up the rubble from this huge bomb crater and I've been speaking

to the head of the local municipality to find out exactly what happened.

At midnight we felt a strange movement on one side of the village.

It turned out to be an Israeli commander's unit deployed for some mission.

The resistance then surrounded them and heavy clashes ensued.

The enemy air force increased their air strikes to allow the extraction of their unit,

which caused tremendous damage, like this one here.

This is crazy, you look how much, that's meat.

Well, there's still a lot of confusion about exactly what happened here.

I've been speaking to Ali Shukur, he's an architect, he's a mayor and he also teaches

in the local university.

I think at one o'clock they send an alert that is their idea army to evacuate all people

who live here, child, parent, older, elder, to evacuate in less than half hour, where

go?

We have here some people who have a special need, where to go, how to live them, how?

I don't know.

After half hour they be gay, after half hour.

Of our many younger families, perhaps dead heed Israeli warnings to leave, the elderly

and those who couldn't have stayed here, including one very angry woman we've been speaking

to who lives around the corner from this huge bomb site.

Israel is attacking us unjustly.

What do they want from us?

They want to fool us?

No one fools us.

We are Hizbullah and we will prevail.

Hizbullah.

A few people were killed at this site, we're not sure how many, but this area has been

the subject of loads, many, many Israeli bomb strikes in recent days.

What is particularly interesting about this one as we're trying to put together exactly

what happened is that a few hundred meters to my left at the same time there was an

Israeli military incursion by helicopter.

These Israeli fighters are apparently engaged in a gunfight with Hizbullah fighters.

There were casualties.

We don't know exactly how many from the gunfight details are still scarce.

But this has been one of the biggest incidents so far of this particular episode of the war

in Lebanon.

Now report from We're a Davis while staying in Lebanon.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has condemned an attack on the UN peacekeeping

mission in the south of the country that injured three Ghanaian peacekeepers, one of

them severely.

The government in Ghana has said that Friday's assault amounted to a war crime and has demanded

an immediate investigation.

Lebanon's president, Joseph Ayun, has blamed Israel for the attack.

Well, Tilak Pukharell is spokesperson for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon

or UNIFIL.

Earlier he updated me on the condition of the peace-cafe keeper with the most serious injuries.

The peacekeeper who got severely injured in the attack is still in the hospital.

He is stable, but he needs further treatment.

Those who were mildly injured, they are out.

So that's the situation at the moment.

Is there any clarity yet about where the missile came from?

That is under investigation now, so that will take a bit of time.

Both either of the warring parties been in touch, have they made any statements to you

directly?

We, as UNIFIL, are in touch with both parties, both parties, meaning IDF and the Lebanese

Army every day on various ground issues, as well as tactical issues and other issues of

concern.

So we are in touch, of course, the issue about yesterday's incident definitely would

come there.

But I don't have further details to say.

In terms of what UNIFIL's focus is on at the moment given that there is a lot of military

activity taking place in the region, where are you concentrating your efforts?

We have been focusing on the safety security of our personnel, our sets, and also we have

been trying to support the people who are still stuck in some cases in the area, about

the past week, we received numerous requests from locals who couldn't leave the area.

So we have actually facilitated their transportation to safety also, at the same time we have been

supporting the Lebanese Red Cross with their access to areas where they are needed to go.

And what can you tell us about the current security situation?

This all started in South Lebanon early Monday morning here, so it's been already

six days.

We have observed IDF, Israel Defense Forces advancing deep inside Lebanon in numerous locations.

And of course there are A-strikes, there are other strikes, air activities, ground activities

from the Israeli side crossing into Lebanon, but also unfortunately from the Lebanese side

there have been rockets in missiles fired towards Israel daily almost.

We have observed all of those.

So this is a very delicate situation, so we are trying to do our best in the given circumstances.

Yes, and I mean the rhetoric coming from the Israeli Defense Minister is that if the

Lebanese government is unable to disarm or cannot disarm Hezbollah, Lebanon would quote

pay a very heavy price.

How concerned are you about how this situation might develop?

Again, we have been calling on the parties to resolve issues through dialogue and even

when in the previous round of conflict, after that conflict there was this ceasefire monitoring

mechanism and we were also providing support through that mechanism facilitating their work.

So we as UNIFIL operating in the South, we have supported and have been supporting anything

that is geared towards a lasting solution.

Now it's Tillac, Poccarella, spokesperson for UNIFIL, that's the United Nations, Interim

Force in Lebanon.

Sea grass 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 sea grass 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.

Then why it 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?

Yeah, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

The team here are preparing to take me across the lagoon of the Cinepuxen Bay.

So we can get out close to the sea grass meadows, they've been working so hard to restore.

While the boat thaws outside in the midday sun, I sit down with the leader of the Sea

Grass Project, Professor Stephen J. Tomacetti, of the University of Maryland East and

Shore, to learn more about its focus.

We're as a team working on eel grass.

It's the foundational sea grass 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.

We'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 eel grass 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 it's 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 to 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 eel grass, 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 eel grass 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 onto 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 wheat.

It's coming up to my hips, and this water is at zero degrees Celsius, so just praying

there are no leaks in the wheaters.

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

They were from like a couple inches to six feet maybe.

The water today is too murky to see the sprout 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 eel grass meadows in Maryland.

The effort here is costing $300,000 over five years, but for Stephanie, its tax pay

and money will spend.

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.

Now as professor Stephanie Camel ending that report from Ben White in Maryland, and if

you want more on that story, just look for people fixing the world wherever you get

your BBC podcasts.

You are listening to the BBC World Service and this is news hour coming to you live from

our studios in central London with James Camarassami.

You're listening to the BBC World Service.

This is news hour coming to you live from London with James Camarassami.

President Trump may not have placed American boots on the ground in Iran, but the war he

launched a week ago has not been casualty free this evening.

He visited the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where he welcomed home the bodies of six

American soldiers who were killed in Q8 during Iran's retaliatory drone strikes.

We've seen images of President Trump, the first lady, other senior members of the administration

in the last half hour or so, Mr. Trump wearing a white baseball cap with the USA on its

saluting coffins of the six soldiers draped with the American flag.

Early in the day, he had said that Iran would be hit very hard, and the United States and

Israel have continued pounding targets across the country today, a refinery south of the

capital Tehran reportedly on fire this evening.

Mr. Trump has also been posting some rather disparaging comments about the British Prime

Minister on his social network, true social this evening.

He wrote, The United Kingdom, once a great ally, maybe the greatest of them all, is finally

giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East.

That's okay, Prime Minister, we don't need them any longer, but we will remember we don't

need people that join wars after we've already won.

I mean, while the head of Iran's National Security Council has been giving a televised

address designed to project unity amongst the leadership.

He accused America of being, quote, stuck in the swamp of its own miscalculations.

All the while, Iranians are continuing to flee their country.

The BBC's Emily Whither is on the Turkish board with Iran.

She spoke to this 16-year-old girl who had left her home in Tehran.

It was really awful.

They were attacking us.

They were bombing us.

The places that was a military misses.

They'll leave them nearby.

They're getting harmed too.

They're getting attacked.

As a 16-year-old, I'm really disappointed in my country and in my future.

It's really hard.

What kind of future do you see yourself in Iran?

If this regime is going to stay, I don't see any future for me.

But if it changes in a good way, I could see some future.

I don't know the Israel and the Americans plan, and now they are in charge.

They decide what is going to happen in Iran.

Do you trust them more than the regime?

More than the regime, yes.

But they're fighting for their own people, not for us.

That was that one 16-year-old speaking to the BBC's Emily Whither just across the border

in Turkey.

Well, let's turn to another aspect of the conflict.

Because early in the week, the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said that during

the initial US and Israeli attacks on Iran, American cyber and space forces had jammed

Iranian communications.

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

the Iranian capital was an important part of the operation to kill Ayatollah Hamanei.

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

And, indeed, of Iran's cyber capabilities.

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

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 traffic lights that you mentioned were compromised were 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.

It's a great example of the increasing blurring of lines between what we look at as traditional

cyber operations and influence operations.

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.

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.

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 kind of 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 going forward.

Cyber warfare specialist, Lauren Williams.

Well, let's turn to another theater of war where advances in technology is playing a big

role Ukraine where autonomous fighting machines are playing an increasingly important role

in the war after drones in the air and at sea more and more ground-based combat robots

are being deployed as Vitaly Shevchenko reports.

Uncrewed ground vehicles or UGVs have already been used in attacks, defensive operations

and even in taking prisoners.

They have been equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers and they've been used

to plant and clear landmines and barbed wire.

Comeykharza UGVs blow up enemy positions.

Both Ukrainians and Russians are using such killer machines.

Here's Aleksandr Afonassiev from the Ukrainian Army's K2 brigade.

Robot wars are already happening.

A UGV can open fire on a battlefield where an infantryman would be afraid to turn up,

but it's happy to risk its existence.

There have been reports of armed Ukrainian UGVs ambushing a Russian personnel carrier

and defending a Ukrainian position for weeks.

In most battles, however, such killer robots are remote controlled rather than fully autonomous.

Here's the deputy commander of the Ukrainian 33rd Brigade's tank battalion that goes by

the call sign of Han.

Just near Breviye Narkavani, yeah, just go off the mountain.

Modern UGVs are part autonomous.

They can move on their own, they can observe and detect the enemy,

but still the decision to open fire is made by a human, their operator.

As things stand at the moment, fully autonomous fighting systems aren't standard.

Why not?

Because of ethics and international humanitarian law.

Robots can misidentify or attack a civilian.

That's why the final decision must be made by an operator.

Russia has also been developing combat UGVs.

According to media reports, they can be equipped with a flame-thrower,

a heavy machine gun, norly phoned on tanks,

and they can run autonomously for five hours.

Yuri Puritsky, the CEO of Ukrainian UGV manufacturer Devdroyd says that it's a matter of time

before Ukrainian and Russian killer robots clash.

Sooner or later, we'll end up in a situation where our strike UGV

will come up against their strike UGV on the battlefield.

Robot wars may sound like science fiction,

but there's nothing sci-fi about the battlefield.

It's our reality.

Right now, most uncrewed ground vehicles are used for delivering supplies

and evacuating the wounded.

But experts say that before too long,

AI-powered swarms of robots will be able to attack from the air, ground, and sea.

And that's all from NewsHour.

Goodbye.