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pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" h us. h we begin the show with the possibility of retaliatory strikes from iran on israel, raising fears of a wider conflict in the middle east. two u.s. officials have told the bbc that an attack could come as soon as friday. here's what we know. iran has vowed to retaliate, blaming israel for a strike on its consulate in syria 11 days ago that killed 13 people including a senior commander. israel has not taken response ability for the attack. a growing number of countries are warning their citizens against traveling to the region. the u.s. has restricted travel for its embassy personnel in israel. one unnamed official says iran's

retaliation could include more than 100 drones, dozens of cruise missiles, possibly ballistic missiles and would be aimed at military targets in israel. tensions have risen because iran backs thomas -- hamas. another iranian proxy, hezbollah, launched strikes friday towards israel but the bbc understands those are not thought to be part of iran's retaliation. israel and hezbollah have been trading fire for a long time in the region. let's go right to our diplomatic correspondent james langdale standing by for us in jerusalem. great to see you. i want to start with those hezbollah strikes that we saw today. what is israel saying about this? james: well, israel says they counted about 40 launches. they say somewhere intercepted, some fell into open ground. there were no reports of anybody being hurt. and israel responded by saying

it fired back at some targets as part of that process. as you say, a relatively regular occurrence. there have been exchanges of fire across the border for many months now. it has always been fairly calibrated. this is probably of the upper end of the amount, the total rocket launchers and drone lunches. as you say, there's no evidence this is part of some iranian led retaliation further strike on the iranian consulate in damascus about 10 days ago. sumi: that being said, with the threat of an attack on israeli territory remaining, you are in jerusalem, how tense are things there? james: well, israel is on alert. and the authorities here are preparing for the possibility of a strike. the head of the israeli army has said this evening that his

forces are on full alert and ready for whatever threat they have to face. there have been some reports that hospitals have been put on standby. my own experience of walking the streets of jerusalem earlier today, things are calm. people were out on the streets enjoying their day off, buying food normally as they would to prepare for the sabbath meal. there was no sense of panic, panic buying or anything like that. those i spoke to were pretty, i wouldn't say relaxed, but they were resigned to whatever would happen is going to happen. sumi: if there are retaliatory strikes, you get a sense of what the consequences would be. we keep hearing about the threat of this conflict spiraling wider into the region. james: i think everything depends on the nature of iran's response. if iran were, for example, to retaliate with a mass rocket and missile and drone attack

from iran to israel directly, that would be near unprecedented and it would provoke a substantial israeli response, and it would trigger a full-scale regional war. that is why that is seen very much at the outer limits of the options before iran to make its response. iran has said it wishes and attends -- intends to punish israel for its attack on its consulate in damascus, but ministers also say they don't want to widen the scope of the war. they have a very calibrated and calculated decision to make, if they wish to make a response, to try to act in a way that projects iranian power, but also does not provoke escalation. sumi: really interesting point. thanks for reporting for us tonight from jerusalem. great to speak to you. now, the white house has reiterated it is doing everything it can to make sure

israel can defend itself. the u.s. national security council spokesperson john kirby said the threat is being taken seriously, and president biden says he expects iran to attack israel sooner than later and warned tehran against taking such an action. >> we are devoted to the defense of israel. we will help defend israel and iran will not succeed. sumi: joining me now is tom bateman, our state department correspondent covering the story from washington. good to see you. what has the white house said about what this threat could look like? tom: two things are going on because there's a public messaging like the kind of thing we heard from the president, similar to what he said a couple days ago in the rose garden that they expect a significant attack or they are worried about a significant attack on israel from iran. and that they are closely watching the situation. then, there has been a lot of behind the scenes messaging going on, both from the white

house and other parts of the u.s. administration. that has been a lot more focused and specific. for example, it has been things like from two official story to cbs about this could be, and the words of one of these unnamed officials, a missile strike from iran onto israeli soil involving up to 150 cruise missiles. why are we getting those very specific leaks and briefing of information? i think it is because the u.s. wants to make clear that it knows of a range of possibilities that the iranians are looking at, but it does not know which one the supreme leader is going to choose. and i think they are come along a very concerted diplomatic effort of messages being passed via arab countries to the iranians, trying to get the iranians to step back and standdown, and selena bit more on some of the messages we've heard from the iranian foreign

minister about not wanting to escalate the situation. there's one more dimension to this, which is that in the middle east generally, when you get a lot of telegraphing of what an adversary might be about to do and it is leaked, it is not for generally often for public service reasons. this is done to try to alter behavior. another thing i think the americans want to do is if there's some kind of iranian attack, they want the israelis to also show restraint. they want to cool the temperatures. they are talking up the possibilities of the iranian strike. it might help them to be able to say if the action is a bit different, look, they acted with some restraint so the israeli response should be restrained too. sumi: president biden has reiterated this ironclad commitment to protecting israel against any strikes from iran. has the u.s. said what that would look like? tom: they tend to talk in terms of protecting israel's right to

defend itself. i think we have to remember the context here because there is a deep rift at the moment between the americans and israelis over the issue of israel's conduct in gaza. i think the americans are worried about the impression that sense to israel's other adversaries in the region, namely the iranians who they think might try to exploit that sense of division at the moment. they are trying to make it clear that division is only around the issue of gaza, it is not about america's commitment to israel's ability to defend itself and that means arms, weapon shipments, missile defense systems from the u.s., the ammunition as well. that is very clear. the other point is there's a lot of frustration from the white house about the fact that the suspected israeli strike was carried out at all on the embassy in damascus. the americans have made very clear that they didn't know about this. trying to message the iranians

that this one was not them and they don't want to be involved in any response. they are trying to come i think, contain this so they don't want to see any attacks on their forces and therefore have to respond. sumi: tom bateman, thank you for your reporting. with me in the studio is brigadier general mark, the former assistant secretary of state for political military affairs, former deputy secretary of defense for middle east affairs. can you tell us what capability iran would have to strike israeli territory directly? what would that look like possibly? >> it could come into forms. number one, a missile strike. they have very long-range missiles. number two, they could infiltrate terrorists into israel proper to conduct attacks. look at what happened with hamas coming into israel on october 7. i think those would probably be the two main methods they could use to get into israel.

sumi: what were the targets be? do we have an idea? gen. kimmitt: i would argue there probably will not be an attack by ground forces and it would be extraordinary if they used missiles against either military targets or civilian targets, such as tel aviv. that would create such a response from both the united states and israel. i don't think people in tehran are thinking about that. sumi: do we know at this point much about what the considerations are right now? gen. kimmitt: only looking backwards. i think one instructive story would be what happened with sula meni. he had far greater significance to the external influences of iranian affairs. their response, frankly, was muted. it was less proportional and symmetric. sumi: i want to ask you about

how this current escalation started because we just heard our state department correspondent tom bateman reporting that the white house was frustrated about the fact israel carried out this strike on an iranian consulate in damascus. it was condemned by the u.n. as well. was that a provocation in an already very tense situation? gen. kimmitt: we have to understand what's going on in the mind of benjamin netanyahu. he does not want to be seen as just another prime minister that sees an early secession of the war and a yasser arafat-like figure going up and down the streets of beirut declaring victory. for hamas, victory is not success. it is being seen as successful resistance. and that is why he wants to wipe them out. candidly, i think netanyahu wants to go further with a provocation against hezbollah and this provocation against iran. i think he wants to, in his own

mind, particular with the support of the orthodox right to go far further than gaza. that is a worrying concern that this administration has. sumi: how far further? gen. kimmitt: certainly, he is seeking in my mind to provoke hezbollah into another war, and perhaps he wants to use this as an opportunity to send either a message or far more than that to his sworn enemy of iran. sumi: where does that leave the white house? because from the beginning of the war, the white house has warned about this conflict spreading. gen. kimmitt: president biden has said we have their back. so, i think the policymakers and the people inside the white house are concerned about what president biden is saying because he's in fact creating the very incentives for benjamin netanyahu to do more, whereas his secretary of state and policymakers are trying to get the israelis to do less. sumi: you think the president is

making a mistake with that policy? gen. kimmitt: i think the way he is articulating policy without condition, i think is a mistake. sumi: what do you think you would need to hear from the president that would dial down the situation? gen. kimmitt: that he has talked to benjamin netanyahu and netanyahu said he would dial down the situation. sumi: they have not heard that yet, but they've had many conversations. i want to ask you about the department of defense's posture in the region. they moved additional assets to the middle east. does that mean the u.s. is anticipating a direct strike on its own targets in the region? gen. kimmitt: certainly. we've had 180 attacks against either iran or iranian backed proxies over the past two years. they go further this time. they may not simply attack small units of american troops inside of iraq. they may go toward some of the crown jewels. the fleet, the air force. there could be other areas that

iran would attack. i don't think they will, but there are a lot more targets than just a few bases in iraq. sumi: looking at the bigger picture, from your experience, what do you think we are witnessing as we are waiting what might be retaliatory strikes on israeli territory? could this be a tipping point in this war? gen. kimmitt: i can tell you what i am hoping to see. i am hoping to see even though our friends in tel aviv may not be thinking proportionately and symmetrically. i hope tehran is not taking the provocation and is being, as i've seen in the past, while wrong, sober and calculating about their next response. sumi: what do you think the u.s. partners in the region can also do diplomatically to help dial down the situation? the u.s. has been leaning on partners in the region. gen. kimmitt: one of the things the white house has been doing right, they are talking to saudi arabia, turkey, other leaders in the region who in the past

wouldn't talk to tehran are now talking to tehran because of successes such as the abraham accords. that gives them the ability to make this about more than just israel and america, but about the region. and the consequences and the cost to the iranians should this escalatory cycle starts spinning out of control. sumi: what about the cost of israel, because it is still engaged in this ongoing war, devastating war in gaza where so many civilians have died? gen. kimmitt: well, so have a lot of hamas fighters. so have a lot of israelis caused by hamas. i would like to see the hostages returned. i would like to see hamas destroyed. i would like to see the infrastructure destroyed. i don't think it will be achieved, and candidly, as netanyahu starts looking outside of gaza to lebanon, syria, i

think that takes them away from what should be the major focus, which is ending this war successfully against hamas. sumi: really interesting conversation. thank you for joining us. gen. kimmitt: thank you for having me. sumi: turning now to the war in sudan. the world health organization says several regions could be tipped into famine if the current conflict is not come to an end. the warning is part of a growing course of alarm over the country's hunger crisis. doctors without borders has screened tens of thousands of women and children in a displaced peoples camp and has found a third were malnourished, twice the threshold required for nutritional emergency to be declared. a here of war between the nation's army and paramilitary forces has had a devastating humanitarian impact, especially in the darfur region. it has been almost impossible to transfer aid. the paramilitary rapid support forces control much of darfur. warehouses have been looted and most aid workers have withdrawn. the army has blocked land routes

from outside the country to stop weapons, and that is eased slightly for food supplies but not nearly enough. the bbc has managed to get rare video. our correspondent reports. just a warning, you might find images in her report upsetting. >> the youngest casualties of sudan's war are often not victims of bombs and bullets. this pediatric hospital in northern darfur is a frontline in the country's hunger crisis. signs of mound attrition are stark. it is difficult for outsiders to get access to the region. we worked with a local cameraman to film these images. the son is getting emergency nutrition after bouts of diarrhea and malaria. >> we just don't have enough food here. we are farmers, but are not able to harvest enough now. >medicine is hard to get. >> in the next that, amin is

caring for her six month old twins. slowly recovering from weeks of dysentery. doctors treated malnutrition here before the war. much more so now. >> the numbers have doubled. every month in the next month, the numbers increase. >> in the nearby camp for displaced people, the queue for food. there is not much of that, nor of clean water or health care. illnesses that could once be treated now kill. one child here dies every two hours. so says the charity doctors without borders, the last international humanitarian still on the ground. they found that one third of the camp's children under the age of five are malnourished and so are their mothers. she's living that pain. she lost three children in four months.

>> i couldn't afford to take them to hospital. the pharmacy demanded too much money. my first child died on the way home from there. the second child died after six days. the baby fell sick and died three days later. >> it is one of sudan's largest camps, formed by previous conflict. so already fragile, but the latest war has displaced more than 8 million people. blocked aid. shut down the economy. what's needed is full humanitarian access across conflict lines and a massive surge of food and medicine. but, famine looms. i spoke with doctors without borders at their nairobi headquarters. >> we have a nutritional crisis. it is catastrophic. the children that we screened in the camp is the tip of the iceberg. we are talking about only one camp.

it could be much worse. >> this little boy may live, but if the war stretches into another year, many, many other children will die. bbc news, nairobi. sumi: here in the u.s., president biden announced friday his administration is canceling $7.4 billion of student debt for more than 270,000 americans. it brings the number of americans eligible for debt relief to 4.3 million, according to the white house. earlier this week, biden announced plans to cancel student debt for 30 million borrowers. the white house is exhausting all avenues to wipe out student debt despite repeated court rulings against biden's plans, including by the supreme court. it comes as the president seeks to inject new energy into his reelection campaign. he is cementing abortion rights as a campaign issue, coming out against extreme bans and tying them to donald trump. vice president harris is visiting arizona where

republican state lawmakers reinstated an 1864 abortion law criminalizing the procedure. president biden is helping the issue of abortion will help carry him to reelection in november. internal biden campaign polling data shows abortion is more important than the gaza war for many voters, according to the washington post. mr. biden's republican rival donald trump has offered conflicting statements in recent days, saying abortion rights should be left up to states, but that states like arizona and florida have gone too far in their bans. it was his supreme court appointees who stroke down roe v. wade. mr. trump hosted house speaker mike johnson at his mar-a-lago estate on a meeting he is calling election integrity. these are pictures of mike johnson, as you can see with the former president, at mar-a-lago. they are hosting this meeting in the middle of this election campaign season. they are speaking about election integrity. just earlier this week, the british foreign secretary david

cameron paid mr. trump a high level visit, showing his continuing influence. as mr. trump touts election security, two of his for criminal cases involve accusations that he tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election results. his first criminal trial will begin next week. it is also the first criminal trial ever of a former president. he will be legally required to be present at a manhattan courtroom on monday to face 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. it stems from a $130,000 payment to former adult film star stormy daniels in 2016, allegedly meant to cover up an affair as he was running for president. trump calls the case a witch hunt. the former interpreter for japanese baseball star shohei ohtani has surrendered to federal authorities in los angeles a day after he was charged with stealing $16 million from ohtani's bank account to cover gambling

losses. the justice department said he abused his position as ohtani's manager to plunder his bank account. bank fraud carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, but he's thought to be negotiating a plea deal. a criminal complaint detailing allegations of bank fraud against him says the translator, ohtani's longtime friend, transferred more than $16 million on the baseball star's bank account to pay off his own substantial gambling debts incurred with an illegal bookmaking operation. there was no evidence to suggest ohtani was aware of or involved in the illegal gambling activity. now to some other important news from around the world. haiti has a new seven-member governing council that has been formerly installed with the aim of restoring order in the country. it comes a month after the prime minister announced he would stepped out amid a wave of gang attacks in the capital. the new council is set to pick his replacement.

rapidly rising floodwaters are causing thousands of residents in the russian city to evacuate. friday come authorities told residents to leave their homes immediately after major riverbanks burst through her a historic day lujan of melting snow. 130,000 people have been evacuated in cap extent -- kazakhtan. roberto callavi has died at the age of 83. he is known for his flamboyant printing techniques. he died at home in florence after a long illness. he rose to prominence in the 1970's, dressing stars including sophia loren. his styles were still favored decades later by generations of celebrities from kim kardashian to jennifer lopez. remember, you can find more on all of the day's news on our website, bbc.com/news. plus, to see what we're working on at any time, check us out on

your favorite social media site. i'm sumi in washington. thank you for watching world news america and stay with bbc news announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is on assignment. on the "newshour" tonight. israel prepares for a possible attack from iran in retaliation for israel's strike on iran's consulate in damascus. a preview of former president donald trump's criminal hush money trial ahead of its start on monday.