welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: iran launches a ballistic missile attack on a us air base in iraq. the pentagon says the missiles were launched from iran itself hitting targets inside iraq. welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. iranian tv says it was in revenge for the american killing of general soleimani in a drone attack last week. his funeral has been taking place in his home city. as the human toll rises in australia's bushfires, venezuela's leader has been sworn in as leader of the national assembly amid chaotic scenes. facebook announces a ban on deepfake videos, but the policy stops short of prohibiting all doctored videos.

our breaking news this hour: iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on air bases housing us forces in iraq. tehran says the attack was carried out in revenge for the us assassination of the iranian general, qasem soleimani. oil prices have risen sharply on asian markets in response. the pentagon says at least two sites were hit in irbil and al—asad west of baghdad. president trump has tweeted he'll make a statement on wednesday morning local time. it's believed the missiles were launched from iran itself. these are thought to be pictures of the attacks taking place. there's no word yet on any casualties or damage. our north america correspondent, peter bowes, joins me now. peter, peter bowes, joins me now. how is all this looking there? peter, how is all this looking from there? well, the indications...

inaudible that, as president donald trump himself has tweeted in the last few moments, he says all is well. it is, in fact, quite an upbeat tweet. he's been huddled with his closest advisers in the situation room in the white house over the last... inaudible and he says missiles launched from iran... studio: forgive me, peter, you are coming and going on ourfeed so we will try to re—establish contact and come back to you if we can. some politicians in washington have been giving their reaction. i think ithink our i think our technology... first my immediate concern is for the safety and concern of american troops, as well as those who are our

partners in the region my hope and prayer is there haven't been american casualties and we don't yet know that tonight. second, it is clear we have escalated the threat to america's personnel and interest in the region by striking general soleimani, the commander of the ird see. ido soleimani, the commander of the ird see. i do not have any morning for the passing of this in debate, individual, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of americans over many years, but i'm questioning whether or not the trump administration has a coherent strategy as to what to do next. i want to know whether the iranians we re i want to know whether the iranians were shooting at our people or at infrastructure. it is clear this is just another example of iran trying to export terrorism. iran wants to ta ke to export terrorism. iran wants to take over iraq duh! they practically have already. before we respond to this latest attack, we need to get the facts. that is the word from capitol hill.

we will get more from the region a bit later in the bulletin. rana rahimpour from bbc persian is here. no word on casualties or damage at the moment, and clearly any attack is serious. it's a very serious matter to assassinate the most senior military figure in a country, but this looks deliberately contained to avoid a massive american response? sounds like it, and over the last hour they have two very important reactions. one was the iranians foreign minister, in which he treated iran took concluded proportionate measures in self defence. concluded is a very important word. mohammad javad zarif is saying what we did was self defence, it is legal and it is concluded. he is hoping that will calm things down. then trump the's reaction confirms that. president trump later tweeted that all is

well, so far, so good, we are assessing the situation. at the moment there's a sight of relief among many americans on social media, saying it looks like both sides are trying to contain their reactions and they hope this won't excavate further. to people who have seen the pictures of the funeral and the millions morning the general on the streets, that will be a puzzle. you have the sense there's an enormous strength of feeling and a call for a big response from the iranian leadership but there isn't? many of these who attended these funerals have been asking for harsh retaliation and revenge and revenge was a word we heard again and again from the people who joined the funeral and iranians authorities. state media is trying to picture this attack is the big revenge. when you look at the headlines of these stories on state news agency and

state television, there's a big iranian flag saying, we have taken our big revenge. the question is whether this will satisfy the supreme leader's hardcore supporters, who were angry and probably asking for more than this because to them qasem soleimani was assassinated by the united states on friday. he was a big figure, they saw him as a hero and the question is, will they be happy with a very contained attack? just for context here, perhaps it scarcely needs saying, iran sees iraq as part of its sphere of influence. iran is the shia superpower in the region, iran wa nts shia superpower in the region, iran wants america out of the middle east almost entirely, certainly out of iraq. and they have repeated that an foreign ministers i've said yesterday for us, the revenge is to

kick out the americans from the region. they have no business in the region. they have no business in the region and they have to leave. —— zarif. many of the government supporters are hoping the attacks of tonight will send that message that iran will do anything it can, or anything it needs to, in order to push the american forces out. already they have the backing of the iraqi parliament, the iraqi mps voted on a nonbinding resolution asking for all foreign troops, specifically americans, to leave iraq. whether they will be able to impose that on the americans is a different matter. this is where it gets complicated because president trump campaigned on a line of getting the us out of foreign wars, many getting the us out of foreign wars, ma ny voters getting the us out of foreign wars, many voters would like to see us troops out of iraq, there is around 5000, but he likes to look tough and

they like to see him look tough. it is hard to know where this goes next because the killing of soleimani was a major escalation in itself. it was huge, and it came as a surprise to many huge, and it came as a surprise to ma ny a nalysts huge, and it came as a surprise to many analysts because we know that president obama and president bush had enough information at certain points during their presidency to assassinate qasem soleimani but they decided the consequences could be very serious. president trump has made the decision. you have to remember that although the attack has come and the iranians leadership has come and the iranians leadership has been talking about revenge, at the same time, although they announced they are reducing their commitment to the nuclear agreement that they are still in with with europe, they haven't left it. that's what many analysts said, they said the iranian leadership is being very cautious and calculated and it seems the attacks of this evening seem like another calculated move by the iranian leadership, trying to

somehow calm their supporters, their angry supporters, in iran, and also send a message to the americans. "we took revenge", but, as the foreign minister said, it has concluded and let's move on. let's go back to our north america correspondent, peter bowes. how things looking from there?m how things looking from there? it is looking like this is an opportunity perhaps, following on from your conversation just then, an opportunity to draw a line. the tweet from the president in the last hour or so quite upbeat in its tone, saying that so far, so good, an indication that as far as officials are concerned, there don't appear to have been any casualties in this attack and also the tweet from the iranian foreign minister, talking about a conclusion in its

operations. both sides indicating perhaps that this could be it and if thatis perhaps that this could be it and if that is the case, that will reflect the desire of a lot of people around the desire of a lot of people around the world. we've heard many messages from world leaders, from europe especially, that no—one has an appetite for. president trump himself has said it. he saw the actions last week as an attempt not to increase the chances of war but to increase the chances of war but to prevent a war, and the opposition, the democrats here, also say they don't want a war but they don't necessarily support all the actions of the president. early days but there's a glimmer of a sense that people around the world could be optimistic in terms of perhaps the gloomy prospects we've been seeing a few hours ago. peter, thanks, good to get to talk to you despite the technicalities. oil prices have risen sharply as asian markets opened following the missile attacks. our asia business coresspondent,

karishma vaswani, is in singapore. karishma, you would think the markets would have priced in an iranian response? yeah, they have priced in an iranian response and we have seen oil prices surging since last week, in fact, because of the attack on the iranian general and many fears about the fa ct general and many fears about the fact this could affect global oil production supplies in this very sensitive region. at the same time, mike, i have to say, in the last our news has been coming out of exactly what you've been talking about on—air as well, what seems to be commentary on both sides indicating perhaps the escalation is not as intense as we initially thought an hour ago when we saw the immediate knee—jerk reaction in asian markets falling as a result of this news. we saw shares creeping up slightly, recovering some of these losses and

perhaps investors making the assessment that things are not as bad as they could be at this point in time. having said that, however, you are still seeing that rush to safe haven assets as many investors are making the calculation that, for now at least, take their money out of markets and take a debt of profit from what they've had in the last couple of months, put them in places like gold, the japanese yen and oil prices. all of these things are seen as the so—called safe haven assets. you are seeing that trend and i think that trend will continue over the next couple of days as investors try to work out what's going on on either side. at the same time, we're seeing an impact the commercial aviation sector. already in asia, singapore l line is has announced it's advising its flights in and out of europe to divert over the iranian airspace, as well as the us aviation authority, the faa, saying it is banning american carriers from flying over this airspace. keep in

mind current tensions but learning lessons from previous conflicts, where commercial airlines have been hit, the case of malaysian airlines coming to mind. some respite in the markets as asian investors try to ta ke markets as asian investors try to take this into account but the days ahead will obviously be extremely tense. thank you for that. let's go to the live pictures from south—east iran, from kerman, the general‘s home city, where his burial has finally got under way. there was a delay because of the deadly crush because of the vast crowd that attended his funeral in his hometown. 50 killed and 100 injured. a huge number gathered, many carrying pictures and others passing items of clothing to be touched by the casket. a military commander promised there would be retribution for the death at this ceremony and this is the last

ceremony, attended by millions in iran. those pictures from kerman. from washington, dc, president donald trump has been tweeting in the last few minutes. he says: lauren wolfe writes for foreign policy magazine and she joins us now from new york. it is fairto it is fair to say you are not a fan of president trump, and you are speaking about the nervousness, why? we have been the centre of terrorist attacks, our president seems to make our country less safe and there is

zero indication right now that he has done anything to make it more safe copy congress has requested the records of why this attack happened but in the meantime we have no idea and it basically calling upon a traditional enemy of the united states to retaliate. mr trump is right in saying that general soleimani had been responsible for many deaths. certainly, but we have laws in this country, and to assassinate someone without just cause, we don't have congress declaring any kind of war, this is just a rogue action from a president who has acted broglie since he was elected. it is a fact that his administration shared many people who had long—term knowledge of the region. people in and around his administration have talked openly favouring war with iran. do you

think this is a process that is under way at the moment. certainly. john bolton, the biggest hawk in his administration, may now be testifying against him in impeachment. we really don't know what's going on behind the scenes. it is interesting there has been this reaction from iran and our white house acting confident, we do know that president trump sits around with his finger on his iphone and it doesn't often go through his advisors. it is very hard here in america to understand exactly what the plan is because the plans are not quite made coherent, publicly, for us. he campaigned for the presidency on a plat form of ending american involvement in foreign wars and many of his core voters would like to see the us out of iraq. he said he is not ready for that yet, thatis said he is not ready for that yet, that is a process that could also be under way. fascinatingly, his

government is one who can kill the head of the iranian secret service without understanding that they are basically releasing a press release saying we are pulling out of iraq, the level of incompetence is disturbing, is world consequence causing. it is all very non—traditionalfor causing. it is all very non—traditional for us over here. thank you very much for talking to us. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: venezuela's leader is sworn in as speaker of the national assembly amid chaotic scenes. the japanese people are in mourning following the death of emperor hirohito. thousands converged on the imperial palace to pay their respects when it was announced he was dead. good grief! after half a century of delighting fans around the world,

charlie brown and the rest of the gang are calling it quits. the singer paul simon starts his tour of south africa tomorrow in spite of protests and violence from some black activist groups. they say international artists should continue to boycott south africa until majority rule is established. teams were trying to scoop up lumps of oil as france recognises it faces an ecological crisis. three weeks ago, the authorities confidently assured these areas that oil from the broken tanker erika would head out to sea. it didn't. the world's tallest skyscraper opens later today. the burj dubai has easily overtaken its nearest rivals. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on a us air base in iraq, the pentagon says

the missiles were launched from iran, there's no word yet on casualties. iranian tv says it was in revenge for the american killing of general soleimani in a drone attack last week, his funeral has been taking place in his home city peter mansoor is a retired us army colonel, and currently professor of military history at ohio state university, hejoins us now from columbus. where do you think we are at? where do you think we are aflm where do you think we are at? it is significant that these ballistic missiles were launched from iranian territory, because any retaliatory action that the administration takes is going to be directed onto iranian territory and that will put us into a escalation and cycle of violence that could lead to a full—blown war, so it is going to be interesting to see what president trump decides to

do, but he has painted himself into a corner with his tweets, saying that we have 52 target, any iranian strike on our targets would lead to certain retaliation. he has left himself much diplomatic wiggle room. iran would have known that, and nato and the us said that troops and equipment were being redeployed in anticipation of revenge attacks. does this look like the iranians did something very controlled to avoid a massive retaliation? i think they have a couple of calculations. one that if they continue to strike american targets on iraqi soil, the iraqi legislators and government will eventually force you with forces to leave. that is a major goal of the iranian government. the second population is they are calling trump's bluff stopping they don't think america will go to war with iran, so they are daring him to strike back on their territory. they

think they can when a cycle of escalation against him given his political problems at home. what do you think? it is possible two processes a re you think? it is possible two processes are under way. do you think a processes are under way. do you thinka war processes are under way. do you think a war with iran is under way, you think we are headed towards a situation where the us might come out iraq? i think they are underestimating a very... a president who is not very predictable, and he could strike backin predictable, and he could strike back in much harsher session than they realised. the problem is, given they realised. the problem is, given the way congress is currently constituted, i am not sure he will getan constituted, i am not sure he will get an authorisation for the use of force, he only has 60 days before the plug is pulled on any kind of military action. in terms of us forces coming out of iraq, i think they will. maybe not right away, i don't think president trump would allow that, it would be a loss of

faith, but they can see some sort of negotiated solution whereby us troops come out over the period of one year or 18 months, because the american people want to be out of iraq, quite frankly. and you can find much more on our website, including breaking news, the latest from our correspondents and an analysis of president trump's warnings to iran. just log on to bbc.com/news. the venezuelan opposition leader, juan guaido, has been sworn—in as speaker of the national assembly, after a stand—off with the armed forces. troops tried to stop mr guaido and his supporters from entering parliament, but they eventually forced their way into the building. mr guaido is accusing president nicolas maduro of trying to bring about a parliamentary coup. olivia crellin reports. two parliamentary speakers, sworn in on two separate occasions, just two

days apart. on the left, juan guaido, the former head of the national assembly, recognised as interim president of dennis weller by more than 50 countries. on the week, louise potter, a corruption tainted legislation official publicly back bite nicolas maduro. just moments before both these declarations, scenes of chaos. it on sunday, louise para... translation: juan guaido knew that we all had to be here and nobody prevented him from entering. he didn't have the votes in that way he decided to stay out of the federal legislative palace. juan guaido was not to be

deterred, and he tried once again to force his way past the national guard. translation: we are going to work for venezuela, despite the militarisation of parliament done by the dictatorship, in of it, we will do the session in with our constitution. this time, there was a different outcome. things like this are not uncommon in crisis in venezuela, which has been seeing double for a while. as well as to claimants to the presidency, venezuela has two parliament. the national assembly, the literal and symbolic side of venezuela's recent power struggles is just that, symbolic. after president maduro effectively sidelined in 2017, even asjuan effectively sidelined in 2017, even as juan guaido and effectively sidelined in 2017, even asjuan guaido and his supporters triumphantly sunk the country's national anthem and swore their leader in, there was another attempt to hamper this assembly is the

lawmakers were plunged into darkness. both left most in the dark whether country citizens who feared that as there country squabbles, their lives western. —— their lives worsen. let's get some of the day's other news a state of emergency has been declared in puerto rico, after the island suffered its most powerful earthquake in more than a century. at least one person was killed in a series of earthquakes including one with a magnitude of 6.4. numerous buildings have been damaged and a powercut has plunged much of puerto rico into darkness. a teenager convicted in cyprus of making false rape allegations, is arriving back in the uk, after she was given a four—month suspended jail sentence. the girl maintains she was coerced by police into retracting her allegation, that she was raped by a group of men. facebook says it will remove so—called deepfakes from its platform, videos that are modified by artificial intelligence to look real. the company says these videos distort reality and present a significant challenge for the tech industry. critics say the move doesn't go

far enough in removing all misleading content. that's it for now, thank you so much for watching. well, the winds have been a real feature of the weather across northern parts of the uk, particularly scotland. still pretty blustery out there but not as windy as it has been. how about wednesday for most of us? well, there is both sunshine and rain in the forecast. so here is the big picture across our neck of the woods. there is a big storm just south of iceland, pushing still some clouds in our direction, and it looks as though it's going to be pretty cloudy across southern parts of the uk during the course of wednesday, but this is also where we have the milder air, so two areas of weather, really, across the uk on wednesday. the milder, cloudier weather in the south, and the more brisk weather with that fresher atlantic air across northern parts of the uk. and this is what it looks like

through the early hours of the morning — even some snow showers there, across the hills of scotland, giving a little covering here and there. clearer spells across this central swathe of the uk, and then to the south we have got the cloudier, milder weather. you can see 12 degrees — that is the starting temperature in london early on wednesday. and wednesday's forecast itself, so kind of three areas of weather. so we've got the cloudy and eventually wet weather reaching south—western parts of the uk. the bit in the middle here, in fact, from belfast, say, to liverpool, to around about yorkshire, some sunshine. and then we've got the stronger winds, some blustery showers there around western and north—western scotland, and that is how pretty much things continue as we go through the course of wednesday evening, but the rain in the south turns heavier, and it looks as though it will be raining all the way towards east anglia. now, thursday is giving us a bit of a headache in terms of what the weather is going to bring. it certainly looks like there will be some rain around. a real mix of weather. you can see that wet weather earlier in the morning, even some snow falling across the pennines

and southern scotland. there could be some strong winds around as well but, at this stage, it looks as though probably the wintriest of the weather will be out in the channel and, actually, some of us may end up having some sunshine around on thursday. still mild in that southern south—eastern part of the country, 13, maybe 1a, but a lot colder there in scotland, only three, five degrees. we are fairly confident that friday is going to bring some sunshine. it should be for most of us a good end of the week, in terms of the weather. a lot of sunshine around, especially around england, but later on friday it does look as though it will start to turn wet and windy again across western scotland and northern ireland. that's a hint of things to come as we head into the weekend. if we look at the weather maps through the weekend, again, another big low pressure there, close to iceland, sending weather fronts in our direction so it does look as though, through the weekend into next week, it is going to be very changeable. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

iran has launched a ballistic missile attack on air bases housing us forces in iraq. the pentagon says at least two sites were hit in irbil and al—asad, west of baghdad. it says the missiles were launched from iran itself. iranian state tv says the attack was launched in revenge for the us assassination of general soleimani. the burial ceremony has been taking place of the iranian general, qasem soleimani, who was killed in the us drone strike last week. during the ceremony on tuesday more than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured during a crush in his home city of kerman. the venezuelan opposition leader, juan guaido, has been sworn—in as speaker of the national assembly, after a stand—off with the armed forces. troops tried to stop mr guaido and his supporters from entering parliament, but they eventually forced their way into the building.