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BBC News with Chris Barrow.
Lebanon's civil defense authorities say the most intense day of Israeli strikes on the country since the start of the Iran war has killed more than 250 people and wounded more than 1,100. Israel carried out 100 separate strikes in a 10-minute period alone, saying it was aiming for Hezbollah targets. Images showed massive damage to residential buildings. Imran Riza is the United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon. "This has been dramatic. It's been enormous, the level of these strikes. It's believed that, you know, hundreds may have been killed and certainly lots of casualties. The hospitals are overwhelmed and of course there's a huge, huge callout for blood donations throughout the country. The strikes were not only in Beirut, they were also in the south. They were in a lot of different areas." President Macron of France has led condemnation of Israel's massive bombardment of Lebanon. He described the attacks as "indiscriminate" and said Lebanon must be covered under the Iran ceasefire agreement and its territorial integrity preserved. Earlier, the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the attacks showed the Israeli leader's intolerable disregard for life and international law. Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire deal by allowing Israel's war in Lebanon against Hezbollah to continue. The U.S. Vice President JD Vance insisted Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire. He'll visit the Pakistani capital on Saturday for peace negotiations with Iran. Ione Wells reports. The two-week ceasefire agreement may have prevented the U.S. from following through on Donald Trump's threat that a whole civilization would die, but it already appears very fragile. Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it would deliver a regret-inducing response if Israeli strikes in Lebanon did not stop and warned ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz without permission would be destroyed. The White House said Mr. Trump wanted the strait to reopen without any limitations. Today's events, though, underline that the two sides appear to remain far apart on key issues like Iran's longer-term control of the strait and its desire for a commitment to ending both this conflict and others in the region. The head of NATO, Mark Rutte, says he's had a very frank and open discussion with Donald Trump after the U.S. president expressed disappointment with the defensive alliance over the war he started against Iran. Mr. Rutte said he'd pointed out many European nations had in fact been helpful with logistics and overflights. Later on social media, President Trump claimed NATO wouldn't be there when the U.S. needed it next time and referenced Greenland, calling it a "big, poorly-run piece of ice." Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the 32-member alliance. The U.S. says it's allowing its diplomats to leave the Nigerian capital Abuja as security deteriorates in the country. Washington also advised U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Nigeria due to risks including civil unrest and armed gangs. BBC News. The interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, has vowed to not repeat errors of the past. In a message to the nation, Ms. Rodríguez said her priorities were increasing salaries responsibly and developing oil and mining, and insisted Venezuela wouldn't go back to hyperinflation and mass immigration. "Before everything, I want to direct this message towards the future, towards a Venezuela that will be definitively free from blockades, free from sanctions. I know that this recuperation won't happen from night to day, or even from one day to the next, but I want us to start this journey. And it's a journey we know how to do, because we were able to do it in the midst of the worst difficulties of the blockade against Venezuela." Ms. Rodríguez has worked closely with the Trump administration since her predecessor, Nicolas Máduro, was seized by U.S. troops. The Gambia has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate crimes committed during the 22-year rule of the former dictator Yahya Jammeh. The British lawyer Martin Hackett will investigate hundreds of killings and kidnappings committed by the state, as well as torture and other abuses. Germany's defense minister says men of military age do not need government permission for extended trips abroad amid controversy over a new law on military service. Boris Pistorius said the government was suspending the requirement as combat duty remained voluntary. The clause, under which men aged under 45 would have needed approval to leave Germany for three months or more, had gone largely unnoticed until a newspaper report last week. The award-winning Scottish photographer and wildlife cameraman Doug Allan has died at the age of 74. A trained biologist and diver, he worked closely with the naturalist David Attenborough and was responsible for capturing some of his most famous scenes, including on the series "Blue Planet" and "Frozen Planet." That's the latest BBC News. |