Two US military personnel killed in Iranian attack on Jordan

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0:42Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the World Service of the BBC. Live from London, this is Owen Bennett-Jones. The breakdown in the US-Iranian ceasefire, as outlined in the two countries' memorandum of understanding, became even more stark today with the announcement that two US military personnel have been killed in Jordan. Iran struck targets in Jordan, Bahrain also, and Kuwait, after a seventh night of US strikes on Iran. And I'm joined now by our World News correspondent, Joe Inwood. Have you got any details on what happened in Jordan? So there were a number of strikes of missiles and drones fired into the country yesterday.

1:22The first reports we got were that they'd all been shot down, no reports of damage. But then a few hours ago, we got a message from U.S. Central Command. They oversee U.S. forces in the region saying that two of their service members have been killed in an Iranian attack. One person was missing and that four others have been taken to hospital with injury. So we know that certainly there has been at least one missile has struck a base. They haven't confirmed, the U.S. hasn't confirmed which base it was. But we have got claims unverified as yet from the Iranians that they struck a base, an air base near Al-Azrak.

1:57So we can only presume, I think, there'll be more strikes from the US on Iran. Yeah, I think that is pretty certain. Even before this, it seemed pretty likely the Americans were going to continue. We've had this sort of expanding tit-for-tat fighting, although actually tit-for-tat rather underplays it, I think, between the two sides. It's not a full-scale return to the fighting as we saw at the start of the war, but really quite heavy. It seems to have been ramping up over the last few days, and I think it is probably pretty certain that this will do nothing to calm things down. The fact it's not full-scale fighting between the two sides led someone talking on the last edition of News Hour just to suggest maybe there is a back channel still open.

2:41You know, both sides are holding back a bit. Have you heard anything to that effect? So the Iranians have said, we had a top advisor to the Supreme Leader said today that if it continues for a few more days, they would return to full scale attacks. So, as you say, implying that they are holding something back. But really, we are seeing attacks on bridges. We're seeing attacks on what the Iranians say are civilian infrastructure and the same on both sides. So I think it's not at the scale it was in the full destruction of factories and that sort of thing. But it really is more than the kind of the light exchanges we saw at the start.

3:20In terms of back channels, both sides have said that the ceasefire is essentially over. They haven't said, well, the Americans haven't said negotiations are completely done, but the Iranians have said that negotiations are now done. So I think there may be some conversations, not that I'm aware of. I can't rule that out. But it doesn't seem like diplomacy is the direction that both sides are going in at this point. I was just talking a few hours ago with someone very familiar with Iran. He's just saying, I can't see how this ends. And it's not clear how it ends, is it? Yeah, I think that's entirely a fair point.

3:53I mean, the main problem we have, or one of the many problems that exist, is around the Strait of Hormuz, this waterway we've spoken about so many times, because both sides say that they should exercise control over it. For the Iranians, it's their crucial negotiating position, is that they maintain control of this waterway. The Americans say that's not acceptable, and it doesn't seem that there's a path they can both find through that disagreement they have. Thanks very much. That was Joe Inwood, our World News correspondent.

4:28The wildfires in Canada are big. Nearly 30 ,000 square kilometres have been scorched so far. That's an area roughly the size of Belgium. And it's not the first time this has happened. And that has led four members of Congress from Michigan to write to the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney saying that it's the third year in a row that Americans have been affected by dense smoke coming across the border. And they say Canada isn't doing enough to prevent these fires. President Trump has taken a similar line. He's accused Canada of willful negligence and threatened more tariffs. While speaking in Thunder Bay, Ontario's Premier Doug Ford had this to say in response.

5:11You don't get on and start threatening and criticising because guess what? One day it's going to be your turn. But to make the comments they did through the administration, unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. We're trying to get through this. And maybe, I got an idea. I got an idea for President Trump. Why don't you get rid of the softwood lumber tariffs? because 30 percent 33 percent of the lumber that you use in your building guess what it comes from canada you want us to clear the the forest well open up the gates that was uh doug ford elena olszewski is the canadian minister of emergency management and community resilience so very much involved in the rescue effort here and the emergency work she's currently in edmonton First of all, what's the state of the fires?

6:02So at the current time, we have a really challenging and evolving wildfire situation in parts of our country. And particularly right now in the province of Ontario. And the situation there is that there are a number of wildfires that are out of control. A lot of those fires are affecting northern and remote and First Nations communities. and those fires are particularly challenging because of the area that they're in. You know, some of the communities are, they're not accessible by road and so they are very challenging, not only in terms of fire suppression, but in terms of evacuations as well.

6:46Right, and there's a lot of smoke. Now, US officials have been talking about that and we'll come to that in a moment, but presumably there's a lot of smoke affecting Canadian towns and cities too. Yes, and fortunately I'm in the province of Alberta and we really, for a change, this wildfire season really haven't had any smoke. But in the province of Ontario and then of course drifting into the United States as well, there is a significant amount of smoke. and you know the best way of course for people to deal with that is um it should just follow their air quality regulations and recommendations in the communities in which they live and you know in in some of the um some of the smaller centers where we're doing evacuations and we're doing those because of smoke too not just um because of the wildfire risk Now, there is smoke across US cities too.

7:43And I just want to read you what four congressmen have been saying from Michigan. We were told last year that this would be treated with urgency. It wasn't. We were told the causes chronic underinvestment in forest thinning, fuel reduction and prescribed burns, and it goes on a bit, were being addressed. They're not. Or not adequately enough to matter to the people we represent. So they're saying, you know, these incidents, you could be doing more to stop them happening. So we have, for decades, we've had a very collaborative working relationship with United States in terms of wildfire management, but also other kinds of risks.

8:22And so that relationship has included the exchange of aerial firefighting assets, as well as firefighting personnel. And so in terms of that relationship at the present time, from an on-the-ground perspective, that absolutely has continued. And our officials are in touch with American officials throughout this wildfire season as we have been in the past. And we have provided the Americans, certainly, with assistance when they've had wildfire issues to deal with. So we sent aerial firefighting assets when they had the Palisades fire in California. And in fact, really recently, we had a pilot, water bomber pilot die while he was working, trying to suppress a wildfire in Colorado a couple of weeks ago.

9:14So we do have a longstanding relationship with the United States. And I've got to add to that, though, that at the present time, my primary objective is the safety of Canadians who are facing wildfires in their communities who may need to be evacuated. And that's absolutely what my focus is at the present time. But just to be clear, are you saying that you've asked for U.S. help and it's not been forthcoming? No, not at all the opposite. said, I'm saying that we have a long relationship, decades long with the Americans, where we have provided assets and firefighting personnel to them, and they have to us as well.

9:57And just with respect to this wildfire season, we've continued to have a collaborative relationship with the Americans. And that was Eleanor Olszewski, the Canadian Minister of Emergency Management and community resilience. So just how dangerous is all the smoke being produced on this scale? Kerry Nardo is Dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, an adjunct professor at Harvard, and with the WHO's Scientific Advisory Board, comes to us live from California now. What does this kind of smoke do to people? Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. This is dangerous smoke. Smoke sees no boundaries.

10:40It can go around the world within four days, for example. Smoke like this affects, on average, about 440 million people in the world. There's about 700 ,000 premature deaths per year. And those deaths, about 40 % of them are in children. So this is to be taken seriously. There are acute issues that can occur as well from smoke exposure, and they can come from head to toe, for example, that can cause headaches, eyes irritation, nose irritation, itchy throat. It can cause lung disease like asthma, especially in children. It can cause stroke and heart disease in people over 65, as well as have skin and premature births in pregnant women.

11:27That's a lot of symptoms. I mean, presumably the duration of exposure matters. And in a case like this, it could be days, right? That's right. So these symptoms usually occur between three to six days of acute exposure of wildfire smoke. And typically, if you have an air quality index between about 200 and 300, which is what we're seeing in the wildfires here on average, although the people in Canada close to the fires are seeing much higher, it's like smoking about 8 to 15 cigarettes a day. So these symptoms can occur within days. If you find yourself in a situation, and many people will, and you're at home with what you normally have at home, you know, without buying special equipment, what is the best thing to do?

12:14I think it's really important to, if you're getting signals to evacuate and you're monitoring, which I hope everyone is, there are great apps that you can monitor. and then all of the smoke is being measured. And what you can do is first make sure you're aware of what's happening. Evacuate if you need to and if you're being told to. Number two, you can, if you are experiencing the smoke, go indoors and use air filters inside your home. There are low-cost air filters you can get and they work really well to reduce the pollution in your home, but they need to be changed out frequently so they don't get clogged up.

12:52And then the last thing you can do if you do have to be outside or you're really suffering from the air pollution, you can use an N95 mask like we used in COVID. Right. And that will give you some protection from the smoke getting into your body. Yes, some protection, which is what we all would like. Thank you. Sure. Thanks very much. That was Kari Nadu there, who is with UCLA in California. You're listening to the World Service of the BBC.

13:39And coming up, our culture editor gets a sneak preview of an historic new arrival in London. I'm outside the gallery at the British Museum, and I'm putting on a blue plastic apron, very fetching. and some blue plastic shoe covers, because they are taking every precaution when it comes to the safety of the bio-tapestry. The bio-tapestry. More from Katie Razzle in five minutes. Headlines. Two US service personnel have been killed, and another is missing in action while defending against Iranian airstrikes in Jordan. And Hungary's president has agreed to step down as the new government continues to dismantle the legacy of its right-wing populist predecessor, Viktor Orban.

14:40Ukraine's latest long-range attack on Russia hit an online retailer called WildBriz. It's the Russian equivalent of Amazon or Alibaba. and TV images show warehouses were destroyed by several waves, it seems, of Ukrainian drones that targeted the company. Well, the BBC's Paul Adams is in Kyiv. What have the Ukrainians been saying about why Wildberries was attacked? President Zelensky has said that Wildberries is playing a central role in Russia's military logistics infrastructure, supplying, according to President Zelensky, components for drones and navigation equipment. He calls this part of Ukraine's campaign of long-range sanctions.

15:24Experts who I've been speaking to this afternoon say that Wildberries actually plays a pretty central role as a place where soldiers go to buy all sorts of military equipment from uniforms and body armor to walkie-talkies and other gear. And the Ukrainians also point out that the Russians have been hitting essentially Ukraine's equivalent online delivery services for some years now, probably for fairly similar reasons. There is also one other suggestion which was put to me this afternoon, which was that Wildberries is owned by someone with a relatively close relationship with Vladimir Putin. And so it may be that Ukraine is also trying to disrupt those parts of the Russian economy that the leader in the Kremlin really cares about.

16:09It's a hugely successful and important business. Yeah. And it wasn't a small attack. I mean, there were loads of drones going in. Absolutely huge attack. I mean, we don't know how many. There were the two warehouses. Each complex was pretty huge. We know that the attack from what we can see from the videos, the attack started at night. Some people tried to get out of the buildings only to find that the attacks were still underway, came back in. There was complete pandemonium at both places. and there's video of one of these huge warehouses simply collapsing. I think it's fair to assume that multiple drones were involved.

16:45And just to sort of amplify that, the mayor of Moscow has published a map today showing Ukrainian attacks, drone attacks on the Moscow region. Of course, one of these warehouse complexes was in his region. Those attacks in the past week alone, 1 ,900 Ukrainian drones in the past week on the Moscow region, with a relatively modest number of those being intercepted. So this is an increasingly important part of Ukraine's military strategy. Sure. But we've got used, I mean, used over the last few weeks to oil infrastructure being hit and those kind of targets. I mean, this is a private company. Does that take us into new territory that they're hitting a private company?

17:29I think it does. Yes. And we think that this is the first attack of its kind. And also, of course, the casualties were civilians. For a long time, we've got the impression that the Ukrainians have been pretty careful to avoid civilian casualties. But I think as this drone, this large scale drone war has gone on, Ukraine's horizons have broadened. Its target list has become more extensive and they are less and less squeamish about who ends up being killed as a result. I mean, it's still very, very targeted, but they clearly felt that the military utility of these facilities was sufficient to warrant an attack of this kind.

18:12Now, this all comes as the defence minister in Ukraine, Mikhailo Fedorov, has been, well, not quite sacked, but, you know, he's going to lose his job in a reshuffle of the government. And there is a lot of support from apparently, you're probably aware of protests on the streets with people defending him. And he was associated with this drone campaign. So what do you make of all that? It's a really interesting bit of timing. I mean, those protests absolutely are going on. They're happening all over the country. And I suppose there is a kind of subliminal message to today's attacks. It does enable the government to say, look, these attacks, this strategy of long-range sanctions, as President Zelensky calls them, they are going to go on.

18:55They are not the product of one man. Yes, Mikhailo Fedorov may absolutely have been intimately involved in promoting all forms of drone warfare and other innovative techniques to combat the Russian military. But this is a well-established strategy now. There are plenty of people involved in it, and it will go ahead whether he is defence minister or not. Now, the protesters definitely want him back. They would prefer to see him in position and for the head of the military, General Siersky, to be sacked instead. there's no sign that the government is yet prepared to do that but the protest the protesters are carrying on nonetheless and that was paul adams in kiev

19:46the bio tapestry which depicts the norman or let's say french conquest of britain has suffered no visible damage on its first journey back to the British Isles in over 900 years. And that will relieve the anxieties of many who thought that moving something so old and so delicate was just a crazy idea. Well, it will soon be opened for public viewing with huge numbers expected to go to the British Museum to take a look. And our culture editor, Katie Razzle, has been to the museum herself to have a peep.

20:24I'm outside the gallery at the British Museum and I'm putting on a blue plastic apron, very fetching, and some blue plastic shoe covers because they are taking every precaution when it comes to the safety of the Bayer tapestry. Shall we go and have a look? Merci vraiment. Et voilà. George Osborne, the British Museum chair and former chancellor, is showing the French culture minister the tapestry to check the prized medieval masterpiece has not been damaged. We have had a team of French and British experts who have done an amazing job in transporting this very, very delicate item across the channel and unfurling it here for us.

21:03Yes, we have looked after it, so it's there for all time. Catherine Pegar, the French minister, tells me she's moved to be here and to see the tapestry from so close. And will the French public be reassured that the tapestry is safe here in Britain? She told me, of course the French public can feel confident about the safety of the precious work. Every care is being taken, she said, and it is in a wonderful condition. That, she believes, will reassure the sceptics. It speaks to a long-standing relationship between Britain and France. Of course, this tells a story of destruction and invasion. but what it also tells is a story of the fate of two nations, two peoples, that are forever entwined.

21:52There's a kind of frenemy-love-hate relationship between the British and the French because we're so close, we're neighbours. The Normans have their backs of their heads shaven. Curator Michael Lewis is pointing out part of one exposed panel of the tapestry to the French minister. He dispatches these... Do we know who made it? We don't know who made it, really. We have a pretty good guess that it was made by English women, a Norman patron. but there's lots of pieces in the puzzle that I think modern science could help us with in the future. This is an absolutely vast room and of course it has to be because right along the full length of it is this specially commissioned glass display case that has to hold the 70 metre long Bayer tapestry.

22:32When visitors come to see the exhibition they'll actually start up high on a mezzanine which means they'll be able to look down and for, I'm told, the first time in the history of the tapestry being on display, they will be able to see the full length of it in one go. They'll then come down, the whole visit will only take 40 minutes, and they will move along the scene by scene, this story of the Norman Conquest that tells us so much about our shared history with France. A million people are going to walk along here over the next year, and for people who haven't got a ticket yet, don't worry, there will be more chances to apply.

23:08We've still got hundreds of thousands of tickets to go on sale. This is an exhibition that's going to run until next July. So there will be plenty more opportunities. It's cheaper than the crown jewels. And I would say even more impressive. That was George Osborne talking there to Katie Rattle.

23:39How did a boy called Jimmy become a billionaire from posting videos? On Good Bad Billionaire, we're going to find out how the world's most popular YouTuber, Mr Beast, made his fortune. He's buried himself in a coffin for days. Counted to 100 ,000 on camera. And even recreated Squid Games, all in an attempt to go viral on the internet. But it all started when he gave a homeless man$10 ,000. So is he a philanthropist reshaping capitalism? Or is he just the king of the attention economy? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

24:14You're listening to NewsHour. There have been reports from time to time in recent days about Iran hitting tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. But what exactly does that mean? When vessels are hit, are they sunk? Are there casualties? What actually happens? Perhaps because there are no independent journalists moving around a strait, for obvious reasons, that's not always clear. Well, Philip Belcher is Marine Director at Intertanker, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners. What typically happens when a ship is hit? We represent about 4 ,000 tankers around the world, with many of them in the Gulf.

24:52They'll be hit by a drone, so these are one of these small-ish Shahid drones, or maybe even an anti-ship missile. There's a significant warhead on those, and it hits the ship. Now, if it was to hit into the accommodation block, which is where the 24 or so crew will be, it will be exploding into that area. There's no self-protection. The civilian seafarers on board those ships would then be subject to the blast, to the explosion, to whatever that's going on. So we could have some significant casualties, particularly if it hits the navigation bridge. Other areas of the ship, if it hits into the cargo area, the explosion would outdo it into the void space between that and the cargo.

25:31so it shouldn't do too much damage there. There'll be a hole, but not too much. I see, so there may not even be an oil leak. No, we've had very few oil leaks. I mean, ships are very strong, tankers particularly. They're designed to get through any of the normal navigational accidents like collisions and groundings to prevent the oil spill. But what we often end up with is a fire. So the ships use their fire hoses, etc. All the seafarers, the civilian seafarers, are professionally trained, and they'll be fighting this fire as much as they can. But there does come a point when they have to abandon the ship, get into the lifeboats, the life rafts, and get off.

26:10And that's happened in the last week or two, is it? Yeah, at two occasions in the last week. There was one ship probably hit by accident. It was the missiles being fired as a warship, and it hit the civilian ship by mistake that caused a major fire in the engine room of the ship. These are large ships. These are 50 ,000, 60 ,000-tonne ships. or the very large crew carriers, 300 ,000 tonne ships. These are large pieces of metal, steel, etc. And they had to get into the lifeboat and abandon the ship because the fire was too great for them to be able to fight. You talked about the navigation bridge.

26:43So that's the key bit of the ship, isn't it, where the captain is and all the rest of it. Are the drones so manipulable that the attackers, Iran could target the bridge specifically or do they not have that degree of control? We're sure that some of them probably would have that ability. We've seen them attack into various places. But if they're homing in on some radio emissions, etc., from the ship, most of those aerials are on top of the bridge. And so that's going in there. And whilst those people who are attacking the ships might be doing it because they're seeing just ships, it's this callous disregard for the safety and life of these professional civilian seafarers on board, which is particularly galling.

27:24About 16 of them have been killed so far. Many others have been maimed and injured. These are life-changing injuries these civilian seafarers have suffered. And that was Philip Belcher, who is the Marine Director at Intertanko.