welcome. to iran now where local media reports that dozens of schoolgirls have been poisoned in several schools. this phenomenon began last november and since then there have been reports of poisoning incidents from gases or toxic substances. in some cases students have been hospitalised. i was joined earlier by bbc persian service s parham ghobadi who told me how wide spread these incidents are. just before coming to the studio, the number of cities that were targeted rose to six, actually, and as you remember, as mentioned in your intro, for several months, we had the story of iranian school poisonings, but it went quiet for a while and the reason for that was that there was persian new yearfor two weeks, so students were on a break at that time. they went back to school on monday, and again, reports of school poisonings started appearing here and there, but today is the most widespread one. as i already mentioned, six cities across iran were targeted and in some of the cit
the coast opposite taiwan, following president tsai ing wen s trip to the united states. you are watching bbc news, now ukraine: a year on the front lines. 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
following president tsai ing wen s trip to the united states. now it s time for click. this week we ve got plenty to whet your appetite. we re in singapore to test the future with a starter of pink gold, followed by your main course. this is my first ever taste of cultivated chicken. there is a special 50th birthday treat as we chat to the man who made the first mobile phone call. and for desert, an internet legend tells us what it was like to be part of the twitter takeover. i really did get to see what was happening right in the thick of it. it s hot, it s bustling, it s intense. welcome to singapore. i ve come to a citystate that is home to more than 5 million people and atjust 50 kilometres wide and less than 140k from the equator, this place feels like it in the centre of everything. east meets west here, nature meets future. this is a thriving financial hub that seems to be doing pretty well for itself. when you think of singapore you might think of the tropical climate
to next month s coronation. two british israeli sisters killed in a shooting in the occupied west bank have been named as maya and rina dee. the sisters were killed on friday afternoon in the north of thejordan valley, as they drove through tiberias. the attacker was shot dead by police. their mother, leah, remains in a critical condition in hospital, local media reported. the family lived in the settlement of efrat and were immigrants from the uk, the mayor said. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu sent a tweet containing the sisters names, and a photo of them, on saturday evening. these details come at a time when the region is seeing an upsurge in violence. our correspondent lucy williamson reports from tel aviv a warning her piece contains some distressing details and images. last night, tel aviv s holiday crowds became targets. gunfire this, the moment when police surrounded the attacker and then shot him dead. people shout you can hear the fear of people filmin
the white house from camp david today saying he wanted to shoot down the balloon at the first available opportunity and that, in his view, is exactly what the pentagon did. watch it come over into the united states from canada. i told them to shoot it down as soon as it was appropriate. they concluded we should not shoot it down over land, was not a serious threat and we should wait until it got across the water. that s, of course, what happened saturday afternoon. a usf-22 fighter firing a single sidewinder missile at the chinese balloon bringing it down just off the coast of south carolina, and the president said the chinese were well aware of what was coming. we made it clear to china what we were going to do. reporter: but critics, many of them republican, question the wisdom of waiting to shoot down the balloon until after it had flown right across the united states and over several sensitive u.s. military sites. look, i m not saying detonate this thing over a