And as First Minister of scotland when his party faced the latest in a series of crises. John swinney, welcome to political thinking. Lovely to be with you, thank you. It has been something of a rollercoaster six months, havent it . You retire from Front Line politics, then the First Minister of scotland is forced from office and you decide to come back into Front Line politics, come to your partys rescue. Then Rishi Sunak calls a surprise early election in the summer, then you have a bit of a kick in the general election, the westminster election. Has it all been very stomach churning . Its been absolutely a whirlwind. A whirlwind, i think is the best way to describe it, because i quite literally, in the days before Humza Yousaf resigned as First Minister, was making further plans about what would be my gentle scaling down of political activity. And i was actually on the day that he resigned, giving a reflective speech about 25 years of devolution in scotland down here in london. And
Hello, Im nIcky schIller. Welcome to the programme. Israel has carrIed out further BombIng RaIds on beIrut, as fIghtIng wIth hezbollah contInues on the ground In southern lebanon. Israel claIms Its kIlled 440 hezbollah fIghters sInce the start of Its Ground InvasIon. WhIlst the un says lebanon faces a terrIble refugee crIsIs. These are todays maIn developments In the MIddle East conflIct. Israel agaIn struck the Southern Suburbs of beIrut. Clashes were also reported around lebanons southern border. Hezbollah has fIred rockets Into Northern Israel, wIth reports that resIdentIal buIldIngs were hIt. Israel says 90 rockets have so far been fIred. IsraelI prIme MInIster BenjamIn Netanyahu has tonIght vowed to respond to Irans MIssIle Attack on hIs country earlIer thIs week he saId, Israel has the duty and the rIght to defend Itself and respond to these attacks and we wIll do so. Israel meanwhIle has called on palestInIans to evacuate parts of central gaza, as the mIlItary saId It was prepar
Its operations in lebanon as leaders weigh options to retaliate against iran s longrange missile assault on tuesday. If israel does respond to the strike, then the islamic republic has vowed to retaliate against israel and countries it sees as supporting it. Us presidentjoe biden said the us is now discussing the possibility of israeli strikes on iran s oil infrastructure. Oil prices have increased 10% since iran s strike on tuesday, which was launched after israel s killing of hassan nasrallah, leader of the iranbacked hezbollah. Meanwhile, hopes are dimming of a ceasfire in gaza or lebanon. Nearly one year on from hamas s attacks on 7 october, israeli forces are still in gaza and 97 hostages remain unaccounted for. As the humanitarian situation worsens in both countries, us charities now say 30% of lebanon s 5. 8 million people are now displaced. Southern lebanon s salah ghandour hospital says it s been attacked by israel, after it was warned to evacuate. They say nine members of sta
Explosions and strikes in the southern suburbs of lebanon s capital beirut less than an hour after the israeli army issued an evacuation order for the area. Meanwhile, the afp news agency cites hezbollah sources saying its forces are fighting israeli troops near the lebanonisrael border. Israel earlier said its forces have hit more than 2000 sites since it began its ground operation in southern lebanon on tuesday. This recent map shows weapons strikes across the region. Attacks by israel are shown in red and those by hezbollah, rockets fired into northern israel are in purple. Israel has ordered residents in these southern lebanese communities about 30 villages, here marked in orange to leave their homes for their own safety. The areas in grey show places which have already received evacuation orders since tuesday. On friday morning, an israeli strike cut a key route with syria. Israel says it struck the masnaa crossing because the route was being used by hezbollah to transport weapo