six cities across iran were targeted, and in some of the cities, multiple schools were attacked. we started receiving videos from the city of qom, which is the iranian vatican. parents are furious. they re talking to officials, they re shouting at them. there are scenes of chaos and horror. in other cities, we have obtained videos from hospitals where parents are picking up a girl student who has fainted on the floor. other students are crying, gasping for breath on hospital beds, and we have reports that in the north western town of ardabil and also in the southern kurdish town in western iran, the hospitals are packed with schoolgirls. reports of poisonings have become frequent. no girls have died, but dozens have suffered respiratory problems, nausea, dizziness and fatigue. at the beginning of this month, bbc reality check looked into this. the first known case was recorded in november in the city of qom. it s spread to a number of other provinces, including the capital, t
us, now, tiktok absolutely denies that, chinese estate spokespeople have been saying they deny that as well. but it has raised broader questions about what china hopes to achieve with its media strategy around the world. how is it trying to create narratives that suit its goals? how is it, on occasions, trying to put this information into the information ecosystem? let s information ecosystem ? let s start information ecosystem? let s start by understanding these broad ambitions of president xi jinping and everyone else within the chinese state. i am joined by howard zhang, editor of bbc news chinese, but first, nguyen, how would you outline china s media strategy and its ambitions? ambitions? yes, thanks for havin: ambitions? yes, thanks for having me ambitions? yes, thanks for having me on. ambitions? yes, thanks for having me on. there - ambitions? yes, thanks for having me on. there has i ambitions? yes, thanks for. having me on. there has been ambitions? yes, thanks
the mosque after palestinians barricaded themselves inside, after the evening ramadan prayer. that led to palestinian militants firing rockets into israel from lebanon and gaza, and israel hitting back with airstrikes. there is some context to all of this. the al aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in islam, is located on a hilltop complex known by muslims as al haram al sharif and byjews as the temple mount. jews revere it as the location of two biblical temples and it is the holiest site injudaism. thousands of muslims and jews are gathering injerusalem, with ramadan and passover overlapping this year. earlier, tens of thousands of people protesting against the israeli government s plans to gain more control over the judiciary held a minute s silence for the victims of a wave of recent attacks on civilians. two british israeli sisters who were killed in a shooting in the occupied west bank yesterday have been named as maia and rina dee. their mother was injured in the shoot
over the past 30 years or so, i ve covered conflicts in the middle east, in the balkans, and in africa, but this is unlike anything that i have ever known. this is a war that we did not expect to see in europe in ourtime. there was a sense that the security architecture that we knew, the safety, the security, that we thought we had since the end of the cold war, that was gone. i was here injanuary and february of last year counting down to the invasion. i was sure it would come, but it turned out to be even worse than i expected. we were in mariupol, which is a port city in the east. it s only 30 miles from the russian border. but inside the city, there was this surreal atmosphere of calm. and i remember we went to film in a supermarket. there was no panic buying. the shelves were full. we met a lady called tatiana, who was 7a, and very feisty. and, i remember, she almost seemed angry that we had dared to ask the question, will the russians invade all? maybe it was denial. ma