The late hezbollah leader have been set up here. The scale of this destruction gives you a sense of the power of the attack that happened here. Israel and iran have each warned the other against further attacks, after iran launched a massive ballistic missile attack on israel tuesday. Israel is vowing consequences for iran, which fired some 180 missiles at israel in its second, and largest, direct attack ever. There is our chief international correspondent. Iran's most powerful missiles. Sending the most darkest message to israel. And today, a message from the president while visiting qatar. Translation: we were left with no choice but to respond. If israel decides to retaliate, then it will face harsher reactions. It's this man who calls the shots in tehran, the supreme leader ayatollah khomeini. . . . . Revered by his supporters, reviled by enemies, ultra conservative, deeply distrustful of the west. Translation: in our region, the root cause of all these i wars is the presence of those who claim they want peace and calm, america and some european countries. Iran's cautious cleric has tried to avoid direct confrontation with israel, with america. But today, his supporters celebrated iran's attack. For hardliners, israel's assassination of hassan nasrallah, the hezbollah chief, crossed a red line. They had to retaliate. And this is why. Iran believes it had to protect what it calls its ring of fire, militias it's armed in these countries across the region, most of all hezbollah in lebanon, right on israel's border hassan nasrallah was part of iran's forward defence and in gaza, hamas. Their political leader, ismail haniyeh, was killed injuly while visiting iran. Israel was blamed. These groups, which also call themselves the axis of resistance, are in syria, iraq and as far away as the houthis in yemen. They've all been weakened but not wiped out by israel's recent strikes, and they're certain to keep attacking. But what matters most of all for the islamic republic is to preserve the islamic republic, their power at home. That means striking hard enough to send a message, but not so hard it drags iran into an allout war it knows it cannot win. Lyse doucet, bbc news. Here in the us, a strike by 16,000 us dockworkers has entered its second day, halting shipments across the us coast with no current progress on negotations. Presidentjoe biden*s administration has put presssure on us port employers to secure a deal with the dockworkers to end the strike. Economists say the strike will not initially raise consumer prices, but a prolonged stoppage could eventually affect the price of key goods like food. Here's our north america business correspondent ritika gupta. It's the second day of the strikes, and neither side has shown signs of backing down. The international longshoremen*s association turned down an offer from the united states maritime alliance for a 50% wage increase for workers over the next six years. It's notjust about the pay. The ila is also concerned about automation, technology and machines taking dock workers* jobs. No negotiations are currently scheduled between the two sides, and the lack of progress is raising concerns on those reliant on shipments that the disruption could be prolonged. Presidentjoe biden*s administration has put pressure on the port employers, saying it's time for them to bargain. The strike has blocked goods from food to raw materials and auto shipments across dozens of ports, from maine to texas. Analysts warn it will cost the economy billions of dollars a day. While consumers might not feel the pinch right away, if it extends for weeks, it could snarl supply chains and lead to shortages and higher prices ahead of the presidential election. Food prices are likely to react first, according to morgan stanley economists. For more we spoke to secretary of transportation pete buttigieg. We mentioned it seems like negotiations at the moment are stuck. Is there anything that is moving this forward 7 administration has engaged both the union leadership in the ocean carriers and other parties on the other side of the negotiation. We have urged the parties to come to an agreement. We actually believe economically they may not be that far apart, and of course it's important for them to reach any agreement that takes care of workers, that allows them to participate in the record profits of the shipping industry, one that i think is compatible with that industry remaining very profitable, and to get those ports back up and running and goods moving in this country as quickly as possible. I will ask you about those goods in a moment, but if we look at where the sticking points are, there are disagreement about the use of automation going forward. The longshoremen, they want protection from automation, and us maritime alliance said they want to keep that language about automation, saying their offer would increase wages and triple employer contributions to retirement plans. What do you think of that? we have seen in many different industries, for manufacturing industries to the recent negotiations with screenwriters in hollywood, concerns over the impact to workers from automated technologies. Those concerns are addressable. There was language in the last contract with dock workers that spoke to those issues. Obviously this is an example of the sort of thing that the two parties have to come to terms on, but we believe that can be done, certainly we have seen in other countries that have a very strong labour tradition and labour protections, ways that that has been addressed in collective bargaining, and the bottom line is we believe in the collective bargaining process and its capacity to create notjust the terms around issues like that, issues like benefits, but also just the basic question of pay. These workers went without raises in some recent years, including 2020, which was a year when they went to work, covid was going on, many of them lost their lives doing a job that can't be done over zoom, and it's understandable that they want to participate in the astronomical profits that have been accrued in the shipping companies in recent years. What are the economic consequences if this work stoppage continues over a long period of time? certainly prolong the stoppage would have impact across our supply change and affect the economy in a number of ways. Even a short stoppage is disruptive, which is why we are urging the parties to weakly come is why we are urging the parties to quickly come to terms. We've also been reporting on the impact of hurricane helene on a number of states, particular north carolina, where the devastation has been reallyjust magnified by some of the unexpected consequences of the flooding in places like asheville, as you know. What impact does that have on things like shipping, goods, transportation? we are aware relief and recovery operations are still ongoing. They are, and our department has been in contact with the various departments of transportation in different states to make sure roads are up and running, airports and everything else they need, and when i was at the fema headquarters yesterday getting briefed on this, certainly this came up. Just think about the pace of ocean shipping. It is not the kind of thing that would have an immediate overnight impact but the issues and the shocking devastation around hurricane helene is one important reminder of why it is important to have our supply chains working as smoothly as possible in this country and is why we are urging the ocean carriers to put forward a deal that is sufficient to bring the union to the table to work out something durable and that will get everything back up and running for the good of the economy. Could very much have a real impact. We know many americans don't feel great about the economy right now. Are you worried about the impact on how people feel going forward if things like the cost of food and gas and all the rest start to go up? certainly, americans have felt a lot of price pressure in recent years, and if you look at how we got insulation from its peak around 9% back to where it is now in the 2, 2. 5% range, a big part of that, disinflation, came through the work on the supply chains, but one of the points we've been making to the ocean carries in this process is, unlike some of the other issues that have affected supply chains in recent years, and costs as well, whether we're talking about covid, houthi attacks in the red sea, water levels in the panama canal, the baltimore bridge collapse that shut down the port of baltimore for a period of time, this one can be addressed. There is control over this one. But there was not in some of the others. All the more reasons why we think the parties need to come to terms. And by the way, we think that is abundantly doable. I was looking at reporting, just one shareholder, just one person who was one of the owners of one of the shipping companies personally made about $14 billion in a single year recently. That by the rough maths is a personally triple the collective pay of all 16,000 ila dock workers in that same year. We know this is something that can be compatible with the business continuing to succeed and with the workers participating in that success. Nonetheless, the mayor says they are making a fair offer so i guess last question to you, what more can the biden ministration do to try and break the stalemate? we are engaged in constant dialogue with the players. We have seen many times before in difficult negotiations where it felt like the parties were dug in but we were able to urge them to get to a deal and they did, and i should note, time and time again with the united auto workers as just one example, the rail workers as another one, ultimately we saw workers get a serious, major increase of pay and benefits, to participate in those profits, and those businesses and companies remained profitable. President biden is optimistic? he is certainly paying attention to this issue and we are working hard day and night to encourage the parties to come to a deal to get the workers their raises, get the companies back into business and get the goods moving again. The president and vice president have today been visiting some of the worsthit areas affected by storm helene last week. The latest death toll stands at at least 180. Joe biden has been surveying the damage in both south carolina, and north carolina where almost half the known deaths occurred. My colleague carl nasman has been in north carolina, just north of the hardhit area of asheville. The announcement today by us presidentjoe biden sending in a thousand military personnel, that will be welcome news in communities like this one. This is green valley, very remote, up in the mountains in the western part of the state. There is still no electricity where we're now, no cell service, no internet service. Bringing in any kind of relief right now will be very useful. What we've heard from local mayors, fire department officials, they're telling us federal aid is not getting in. It has been really difficult to get in until the last 48 hours. These roads have been blocked, downed power lines in the way. What we're seeing is a very active repair and recovery effort. 0ver my shoulder, you might be able to see some teams now working to get some of these electric poles, utility poles back up, get communications restored. This is where that water really poured in during that storm, it came rushing down this valley. And local residents tell us it took out homes and businesses along with it. In this region, this really is the hardest hit region, we still know there are people missing and there are active search and rescue operations still going on here. The death toll doe continues to rise, there are fears it could go even higher still. Right now, this does look like a long rescue operation and a long recovery operation. We heard that from the secretary of homeland security, alejandro majorkas, saying there is likely to be a multibilliondollar and multiyear recovery effort. One more note to talk about here. There are residents we talked to who simply lost everything. Living in a mobile home park, the water came up five feet high, spilt into their homes. The worry now is that many of these types of people simply don't have flood insurance. They told us their homes have now been condemned, they're not sure what will happen next. This could be another unfolding disaster, a financial one. If there is no flood insurance for many people here in north carolina, where will they go next? how will they afford to buy their next residence? that is something we will have to see in the future. Around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. Now to some other stories making news. Downing street says sir keir starmer has paid back more than 6,000 worth of gifts and hospitality that he received since becoming prime minister following an ongoing controversy over donations. The prime minister said it was the right thing to do as he seeks to tighten the rules over what is called freebies. We came in at the government of change was that we when i bring in principles for donations because until now that politicians have used their best individualjudgement on a casebycase basement, i think we need some principles of general application. We need some principles of generalapplication. I we need some principles of general application. I took the decision until principles are in place, it was right for me to make those payments. You're live with bbc news. A us federaljudge unsealed new evidence in the federal election case against former president donald trump. Special counseljack smith used the brief to lay out his case for why he believes trump is not immune from prosecution for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election. He claims trump resorted to crimes in a bid to stay in power. He also alleges trump knew his fraud claims were false and continued to make them after his advis