that is according to us media reports. it comes as the iran—backed houthi movement has continued to disrupt global trade in the red sea. on tuesday, houthis claimed responsibility for a missile strike on a greek ship that was sailing from vietnam to israel. as with other recent houthi attacks it caused only minor damage. the attack on the greek ship followed an american missile strike on houthi infrastructure in yemen. the us says it destroyed anti—ship missiles that the houthis were prepared to launch. i spoke with bbc state department correspondent tom bateman about the us response to the attacks. what we're seeing is very much tit—for—tat. we are another us strike on yemeni soil. this was taking out four missiles that us officials said were primed and ready to fire at shipping. that had followed yesterday a houthi attack on a us—owned

container ship that struck the ship. nobody hurt, the ship carried on, but there was a fire on board. and after the us strike today in yemen, a greek—owned vessel also hit, now you have to put this into context of what we saw last week. the big joint attack by us and the uk into yemen. had that deterred the houthis? not completely, because they are still firing at ships. but i think what us officials are trying to say is that this is not at the level that it was of the kind of attacks happening before. so i think that they would present this as a sort of tactical success so far. but the biggest strategic question remains, because that is about the houthis trying to link this to the ongoing israeli military operation in the gaza strip. they say that needs to end. an end to the siege of gaza, or they'll keep firing. they're trying to isolate the us, which is saying what they're doing, what the us is doing is nothing to do with gaza, israel and hamas. it's just about trying to

protect international shipping. the us also announced it had seized a batch of advanced iranians weapons last week and transported to houthis in yemen. the us that it captured components for ballistic and cruise missiles. the disruption of houthi weapon supply put their arms roll into focus. heightened tensions in the region led iran to fire missiles into other countries including pakistan. the strikes killed two children. iranians support for houthi continue to threaten the safety of ships passing through the red sea. earlier i spoke to an expert on the region. thank you so much forjoining us today on bbc news. we have seen a further strike from the houthis in the red sea.

this time on a greek vessel there. also, the us continuing its air strikes. now, washington says that it is trying to de—escalate tensions in the middle east right now. in light of what we're seeing, do you see the prospect of that happening any time soon? i don't think that there will be a de—escalation any time soon. certainly not as long as the conflict in gaza remains ongoing. we also have to remember that the islamic republic of iran thrives in instability. the countries where it wields influence in the region are essentially five failing states. gaza and the palestinian territories. syria, lebanon, iraq and yemen. so iran actually, i would argue, that they thrive in instability. they thrive when there are power vacuums because they're more effective than other actors at filling the power vacuums. and they know that the united states doesn't want more

conflict in the region. they know that the united states is intent on de—escalating. and in a sense, that emboldens iran, because they don't want a war, but they know that the us first instinct is always to try to calm the temperature rather than escalate it. you say that they don't want a war, but is there the prospect that this strategy could actually become more risky for them if we just take a look, for example, when we know that iran has also launched missiles into irbil in northern iraq, syria as well. is there a greater prospect of a regional war in light of this? you know, iran now has 45 years of experience and being in a cold war with the united states and israel. and certainly, there is risk of miscalculation. but one grand take away over the last four decades that it had is if you hit the united states in the united states — for example, if you go and attack the twin towers in new york, america will come after you.

but it's also been iran's experience that if you go after the us outposts in the middle east, what that often times tends to do is it sours public opinion in the united states. and americans will ask — why are our soldiers even out there in places like iraq and in syria — we should bring them back home. so certainly, there is a risk of miscalculation, if iran ends up killing many dozens of us soldiers in the region. but again, their case study in the last four decades is, if you hit america in the region, it tends to actually sour public opinion about retaining a presence in the middle east. i just wonder about your assessment of the diplomatic efforts from the biden administration. we know that president biden has sent what was referred to as a private message to iran. we don't necessarily know about the content of that. but do you think that message is being heard? again, the challenge in dealing with the islamic republic of iran and actors like vladimir putin in russia

is that when you make clear to them you have no interest in conflict and you're just trying to de—escalate, they often times can mistake that as a concession and mistake that they can afford to be bolder and more aggressive. because america is not looking for a fight. and so, i think if you're constantly signalling to tehran that you know, we don't want conflict, we want to lower the temperature, that inadvertently can embolden them. i just want to touch on the role of the houthis in all of this. they have said that this is all about what is happening in gaza right now. do they also have their own aims here, though? own goals on the world stage? what the houthis and the islamic republic of iran

and virtually all of iran's regional allies and proxies have in common is a total disregard for the wellbeing and security and prosperity of their own people. the people of yemen are living under awful circumstances economically, but also politically and socially. and rather than focus on the people of yemen, the houthis, like the islamic republic of iran and iran's regionalallies, evoked the palestinian cause. but the health is — their actions actually haven't done anything for the wellbeing of palestinians, nor did anything for their own people. and i think one thing that is important to understand here — there's a difference between being anti—israel and being pro—palestine. the islamic republic of iran, the houthis and the so—called axis of resistance are viscerally anti—israel, but done little to improve the wellbeing of the palestinians.

alright, seniorfellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. thank you for your analysis. pakistan has strongly condemned an iranian airstrike on its territory, calling it completely unacceptable and warning of serious consequences. the strike — which reportedly killed two children — happened near the iranian border in the balochistan region. with more on reaction in pakistan, here's our correspondent in islamabad, caroline davies. the missile attack by iran on its neighbour, pakistan would be near unprecedented. in the early hours here in pakistan, the country's foreign ministry said that there has been an explosion after an air attack it has blamed on iran. that would make pakistan the third country in a matter of days to be hit by an attack from iran after it also hit syria and iraq. the explosion happened in a pakistani village in the border regions of pakistan and iran in an area

known as balochistan, pakistan's largest but least populated region in the south—west of the country. earlier on, state media from iran said the military had used drones and missiles to hit militant groups in the area. those reports were subsequently removed without explanation according to the newsagency ap. the group has said that they were targeting, at the time, the newsagency said that they were targeting a militant group known as the army ofjustice, a sunni militant group. pakistan has strongly condemned this violation of its airspace and says it is completely unacceptable. it has also warned that there could be serious consequences. the statement complained of what they refer to as an illegal act that had taken place despite the existence of several

channels of communication between pakistan and iran and it said that responsibility for the consequences would lie squarely with iran. in ukraine two russian missiles struck a residential area in the country's second largest city injuring i7 the country's second largest city injuring 17 people according to local officials. the twin explosions damaged at least ten homes according to the mayor of kharkiv. leaders from across the globe are gathering in davos, switzerland, for the world economic forum where global crises top the agenda. ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky urged the west to tighten sanctions on russia to ensure the kremlin doesn't success in its war against his country. they discussing the israel gaza war and the red sea attacks

disrupting global trade. great to see you. just to begin with we have been hearing from the ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky out delivering his message and trying to rally support. at a tense time i wonder how his message being received ? ukraine is still an important topic here at davos and it has been over the last few years. in that sense there is a sense of continuity but it has changed. instead of asking for more weapons and more money what he was asking for actually was moral support and supporting a peace plan that ukraine has been proposing for a while now. this is a plan that has actually won support from dozens of countries around the world, crucially not russia, but it is also a plan that many experts believe russia would never go for as it entails russia essentially

backing out of ukraine entirely and giving up crimea as well and then paying for reparations among other demands in this peace plan. if those demands are maximalist i think one way to see it is that it opens a door to negotiations which at least ukraine, publicly, has not been as willing to do for the last few years. in that sense this could be the year that some diplomatic advance is made. but even beyond zelensky�*s speech there has been a lot of attention on a new cause. there's a bit ukrainejouse on the main promenade at davos and a lot of prominent speakers have been dropping by. there is a big ukrainian delegation of mps and the foreign minister and other important dignitaries from there, all of whom are working very hard to make sure that ukraine stays at the forefront of the agenda, not only

in europe but for other places around the world where there may be other concerns that grab attention. there is something of a split screen here as well because there is the situation in ukraine and, of course, what we see happening in the red sea as well. how is that being discussed there? what kind of level of attention is that situation receiving? there are so many different types of davos. if you look at the main street, the promenade, less attention is being paid there to the middle east but behind the scenes there is a lot of diplomatic activity. the us national security adviser gave a public address here on tuesday which was very well attended and in that speech he made quite clear what he saw as the path forward for israel and gaza, putting forward a plan for a potential piece deal, one that would hinge around normalising ties between israel and saudi arabia.

presumably as a carrot to get israel to commit to moving forward with some sort of a peace deal however people see that as far—fetched even given prime minister netanyahu's government contains ministers who have openly said that they would not countenance a peace deal. be that as it may it is the proposal that the... israel's president president will be speaking on thursday and that will be widely watched but also behind the scenes we have the saudis here in force, the emiratis are here in force and of course qatar's prime minister who has played such an important role in behind—the—scenes negotiation with hamas, trying to release more of the hostages who are still being

held in gaza. ...met with the us secretary of state on tuesday and you can imagine there are some advances there that will emerge in the coming days. something else i want to briefly touch on was ai because every time i have covered the world economic forum in davos we always speak about the industrial revolution 4.0 saying the message was that this was an opportunity. but i wonder whether with wef, if they will come forward and say that companies have to engage in retraining, whether it is starting to be seen as a challenge as well. what do you think? it is definitely a big tent pole of topics here at davos. if you walk across the main promenade there are several major companies who have set up their stalls advertising their wares when it comes to ai. it is a big topic of discussion along a number of streams whether it is elections this

year, this is the year where more people vote than in any other year in the history of the world and ai could play a role in this, supercharging those things in a sense and that is an issue and an area with a lot of concern for a lot of leaders and civil society leaders here as well. ai has been playing into a range of issues here and there are a lot of tech leaders here who are trying to position ai as a force for good but there is also geopolitical tussle behind it and inasmuch as ai is only possible with the most powerful chips which, again, onlya handful of companies and handful of countries have access to, it immediately becomes a geopolitical tussle involving countries and of course again that is what it often tends to be about. the worry i have heard from many people here is that we are creating a world of haves and have nots where

you have a few countries and companies that basically monopolise the world of ai and everyone else is catching up or completely left out. editor—in—chief of foreign policy joining editor—in—chief of foreign policyjoining us from the world economic forum. for being with us. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. the british prime minister is facing a rebellion from his own party about his decision to send some asylum remainder, two senior members of the conservative party and an aide has resigned after defying the government after proposed changes to law. theyjoined a group of mps voting for amendments in the columns. —— commons. venice is launching its day pass purchases for tourists via online booking.

officials are hoping to limit excessive visitor numbers to the historic italian city on peak days. there are 29 days from late april to mid—july where the day's pass, costing five euros, are required for entrance. venice draws millions of visitors each year. the world health organization says the global use of tobacco is declining but warns that it will take another 30 years to feel the impact. meanwhile, it says, eight million people a year will die from their habit. about 150 countries are successfully reducing tobacco use. you alive with bbc news. now on our top story, the war in the ukraine. a consignment of aid will leave diehard bound for gaza part of a deal agreed by the two sides medicine will be given to hostages being held by hamas in return israel will allow more deliveries of urgently needed humanitarian aid. us says it is hope for further talks could lead to the release of more hostages.

here in the us, the next stop in the republican race for president stops in new hampshire, tuesday. it comes afterformer president donald trump defeated his rivals in the iowa caucuses by an unprecedented margin. our north america editor sarah smith reports from des moines on the latest victory for the former president and the challenges that still lay ahead in campaign 202a. the motorcade is rolling once more, as the trump show never stops. moving from triumph in iowa to a trial in new york. where a court will decide how much donald trump must pay in damages for defamation to a writer, ejean carroll, who he sexually assaulted decades ago. # god bless the usa...# last night he looked like the cat that got the cream or maybe the king regaining his crown. donald trump was practically inhaling the adoration. # proud to be an american, where at least i know i'm free. ..#

knowing he'd won support beyond his usual base, including women, college graduates and younger voters. # god bless the usa!# he's already talking about being back in the white house. so we are going to come together. we're going to drill, baby, drill, right away. drill, baby, drill. we're going to seal up the border. you can tell donald trump is impatient to get this nomination wrapped up so he can take the fight tojoe biden. he's not the republican presidential candidate yet, but he might be soon. and he's behaving as though he has already won his party's nomination. i think people want peace and prosperity and strength back, and that's what we had under donald trump. we had strength, and we no longer strength underjoe biden, who is arguably the most incompetent president in the history of our nation. gop candidates are turning to new hampshire... ..where trump's rivals hope they have a very slightly better chance of beating him.

we came out with a strong showing. that's what we wanted in iowa. now we're in new hampshire. you can look at the polls in new hampshire. we are a stone's throw away from donald trump. ron desantis came a second behind trump in iowa. that is a bad look after sinking time, money and most of his hopes into this state. he says he will fight on, for now. we have a lot of work to do, but i can tell you this. as the next president of the united states, i am going to get thejob done for this country. the scale of his victory left donald trump feeling unusually magnanimous toward his rivals. i want to thank you very much, congratulate ron and nikki for having a good time together, we are all having a good time together. i think they both actually did very well, i really do. we don't even know what the outcome of second place is.

but do remember, he is not the outright victor yet. this mood will definitely not last. making his first public comments on the so—called post office scandal to the bbc at the world economic forum the global chief executive of fujitsu, takahito tokita, apologised to british postal workers that were wrongly prosecuted as a result of its faulty it software. the ceo made the apology on the sidelines of the forum to the bbc and between 1999 and 2015, more than 900 some postmasters and post mistresses were prosecuted for theft and false accounting after money appeared to be missing from their branches. but their convictions were based on evidence from faulty horizon software. some sub—postmasters wrongfully went to prison, many were financially ruined and some have since died. thousands of people are still waiting for compensation

settlements. erosion is carving dramatic features into the world's biggest iceberg in what's likely to be the final months of its existence. the iceberg is being ground down by the warmer air and water it's encountering as it drifts slowly away from the antarctic. but it's not seen as a consequence of climate change, and as it melts, it will have benefits, as jonathan amos reports. after three decades confined to the freezer in antarctica, a23a is on the move, travelling north into warmer waters. the berg is now melting — and fast. an expedition this week saw waves gouging huge caves and arches in its walls. only a23a's enormous scale is keeping it in existence. satellite images show the frozen block to have a width of 65 kilometres, or a0 miles. that's like the distance from manchester to sheffield. a23a has an area of 3900 square kilometres — that's more than twice the size of greater london.

and its average thickness is about 280 metres, nearly as tall as the eiffel tower. and it weighs close to a trillion tonnes. but these dimensions are shrinking all the time. now that it's moved off from its relatively cooler position in the southern area of the weddell sea, it's being exposed to much warmer water temperatures, much stronger currents and much warmer air temperatures as well. so all of these forces will combine to attack the integrity of that iceberg, and it will eventually begin to calve off, and break up into smaller pieces. the production and melting of these big icebergs is part of a natural cycle, not an obvious consequence of climate change. and, as this one melts, there are upsides. it'll be dropping mineral dust in the ocean. this is a fertiliser, stimulating the growth of the very smallest organisms, like plankton, all the way up to the biggest creatures on the planet, the blue whales.

a23a may eventually wither to nothing, but its legacy will be long felt. jonathan amos, bbc news. you are up to date. goodbye for now. hello there. tuesday brought some fresh snowfall to parts of northern ireland and northern england, although here the snow did tend to turn back to rain through the day, but nevertheless it left a thick covering here in grasmere in cumbria. further northwards, though, in scotland it was here that the snow stayed as snow, particularly across the northern half of the country. a snowy pitlochry here. we have had some very large accumulations of snow, then building in. really the result of a few days worth of snowfall. lerwick — 18 centimetres of thick snow there on the ground and there is morejust around the corner because of these shower clouds you can see here. very heavy snow showers heading into northern scotland. this cloud further southwards — well, that's storm irene. it's named by the french forecasters at meteo—france. it will be bringing some

disruptive snowfall here, some freezing rain mixed in as well. and in parts of belgium, germany, we could see 20 or 30 centimetres of snow. now, the precipitation from that just about stays offshore. you'll get very close and there will be a veil of cloud working into southern—most counties of england over the next few hours. at the same time, there will be some showers around working southwards across england and wales, mostly rain, maybe one or two flurries. but that will leave a legacy of icy conditions pretty much nationwide as we start the day on wednesday. now, wednesday, there will be further snow showers in northern ireland, so a few more centimeters here, but the heaviest snow will once again be affecting northern scotland. another 5 to 10 centimetres expected on top of what's already fallen. so, yes, there will be some further disruption here. more heavy snow to come as well for northern scotland through thursday. a few more centimetres possible for northern ireland. thursday, a lot of dry and sunny weather elsewhere. but again, there could be some wintry showers working down the north sea coast affecting parts of eastern england, and late in the day, as the winds start to turn to a north—westerly direction, you might see some

wintry showers turn up across north wales, cheshire, merseyside and the north—west midlands. by friday, although for the majority of the uk it continues to be cold and sunny, the showers that will be affecting scotland could be really prolonged, but the air is turning very slightly less cold and so the snow should tend to become confined to the hills. that process of the weather turning milder, then continues into the weekend, with south—westerly winds blowing much milder weather conditions across the country. however, there will be some very strong winds, maybe even disruptive winds around on sunday into the early part of next week. and spells of heavy rain, as well, that could see areas of flooding return.

voice—over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. since hamas�*s assault on southern israel on october 7th and israel's massive military response in gaza, there has been one ever—present fear — escalation of conflict across the middle east. the spill—over potential is obvious — in the west bank, across israel's northern border with lebanon, and right now in the red sea shipping lanes and in yemen.

all of these theatres have one factor in common — significant iranian influence. my guest is mohammad marandi, an iranian academic who has advised his government during nuclear negotiations. how far will tehran go in its strategy of regional resistance? mohammad marandi in tehran, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it's a pleasure to have you on the show, professor marandi. now, viewed from where you are, the iranian capital, does it feel right now like the middle east is on some sort of inevitable slide toward a multi—front war?