others died in the blast on tuesday. he was considered one of the founders of hamas military wing, the al qassam brigades. hamas is considered a terror organisation by the uk and us governments. israel has not denied carrying out the explosion, and a spokesman mark regev described it as a surgical strike on hamas. hamas called it an act of terrorism , while hezbollah said it was an assault on lebanese sovereignty. hezbollah, a politically influential islamist group which controls the most powerful armed force in lebanon, has been exchanging fire with israel along the israel lebanon border since the war in gaza began in october. there s been reaction to the strike in beirut from the the un it s peacekeeping mission in lebanon says it s deeply concerned by any potential escalation. a warning echoed by french president emmanuel macron. the lebanese foreign minister says his government has appealed to hezbollah not to retaliate. live now to carine torbey in beirut. what i
i m lucy hockings. welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast moving news, interviews and reaction. we start with the situation in iran. let s turn to iran, where state media is reporting that at least 70 people have been killed in several blasts near the tomb of iranian revolutionary guards general, qasem soleimani. these are pictures we have from social media saying these blasts occurred quickly in the south eastern city of kerman. us drone attack, officials say two bags containing explosives detonated by remote control were at the entrance to the burial site and we have been watching ambulances, as you can see there, heading towards the cemetery. hundreds of iranian had gathered to to commemorate the anniversary of qasem soleimani s death. to put into context who he was, the most powerfulfigure in context who he was, the most powerful figure in at around the time after the supreme leader. he was in charge of the revolutionary guards overseas operation, which made him inc
events here in the uk and across the world mark holocaust memorial day on the anniversary of the liberation of the auschwitz birkenau nazi death camp. and the actress sylvia syms, best known for her roles in the films ice cold in alex and the queen, has died at the age of 89. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the chancellor, jeremy hunt, has been defending the government s record on economic growth. in a speech, he said there s too much gloom about the economy, and that the uk can be the next silicon valley with a network of investment zones, and brexit a catalyst for growth. but his speech follows recent warnings that thousands of british businesses face bankruptcy and news this week of a slump in the uk car manufacturing industry. this report from our economics correspondent, andy verity. uncertainty has made it really difficult to attract investment into the uk, and that is the number one thing we need to address. there are absolutely decisions available to british
derailment have been prevented? if so, how? the answer to that question will eventually come from the ntsb, which is currently investigating the crash, but we can and should take a look at the conditions of rail freight across this country and the allegations that across the industry safety is being sacrificed for profit. we spoke with one 40-plus year veteran railroader and certified accident investigator who told us what happened in east palestine was the logical outcome of precision schedules railroading. and that without change it will happen again. we re going to explain what that means in a moment with greg reagan, the president of the transportation trades department of aflcio. it s important to understand the operating conditions because the crash itself is becoming a political football. donald trump is touring the derailment site, and the mayor of east palestine who told us on this show the other day that he didn t want president biden to visit because the security d