welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we start this hour in lebanon where least nine people have been killed and almost 3,000 injured — according to the health ministry — after hand—held pagers used by hezbollah, simultaneously exploded across the country. the pagers are used by the armed group to communicate with each other. a ten—year—old child is among the dead. hezbollah fighters, medics and iran's envoy to beirut are also among the injured. security officials say the devices were hacked by israel, who have not yet commented. paul adams has the latest —

a warning, his report contains distressing images from the start. this was a devastating attack... ..in supermarkets, on the street, in cars, at home and even in barbershops. thousands of hezbollah members simultaneously injured by exploding pagers. incidents reported from all over lebanon, from beirut to the bekaa valley, and even in neighbouring syria. hospitals suddenly inundated. each explosion may have been small, but men lost fingers and eyes. some had gaping wounds to their hips where the pagers were worn. nine people are believed to have died, including one child. israel is saying nothing about these extraordinary attacks. frankly, it's hard to think of anyone else remotely capable of mounting such a sophisticated operation. but it comes at a time when the government is threatening to step up its military effort against hezbollah.

israel's border with lebanon has been volatile ever since the war in gaza began — exchanges of fire every day between israel and hezbollah. tens of thousands of civilians on both sides have been forced to flee. kiryat shmona has been hit several times by hezbollah rockets. israel says its gaza war aims now include getting israelis back to their homes close to the border. "the status quo cannot continue," benjamin netanyahu said at the weekend. "this requires a change in the balance of power on our northern border." today's wave of attacks will have injured hezbollah�*s fighters, wrecked their communications and damaged morale. but will it change the course of this war? paul adams, bbc news, jerusalem. the explosions have caused chaos, shock and disbelief across lebanon. how could so many devices

be made to explode at the same time? 0ur security correspondent gordon corera has been investigating. the middle of the afternoon when something extraordinary happens in lebanon — explosions in people's pockets. so how did it happen? it appears that what was blowing up were these — pagers, older devices which can receive text messages. this is believed to be one of the models targeted. this is the militant group hezbollah. this summer, it was reported to have given orders for its men to switch away from mobile phones because it feared they could be tracked and calls intercepted. instead, they were told to use pagers, as they believed it offered more security. but that decision appears to have been exploited to target them. now, this is thought to be one of the pagers that blew up today. but how was it detonated? a cyber attack hacking into it remotely to make it overheat would not make a pager explode

in the way seen today. more likely is that the pagers destined for hezbollah were physically intercepted and had small amounts of high explosive — maybe just a few grams — planted inside, ready to be detonated with a signal. so who was behind damage like this? israel has not commented, but few have any doubts about its role. it has used similar methods in targeted killings in the past, killing its enemies with explosives hidden in their mobile phones or in the headrest of their cars. but no—one has ever seen something on the scale of what happened today. there has been a simmering conflict between israel and hezbollah for months. so what will today's events lead to? as well as injuring many hezbollah operatives, this will be a blow to the organisation, making it harder for its people to communicate and spreading fear. but hezbollah has vowed to respond, and so the question is whether that response will lead to an escalation, even all—out war.

firas maksad is a senior fellow and senior director for strategic outreach at the middle east institute. he gave his analysis on the scale and sophistication of this attack in lebanon. this is unprecedented and uncharted territory for a conflict that now has been with us for almost a year. hezbollah relies on its communication network. a quick reminderfor our viewers — this is an organisation that launched an all out military offensive against its own government in 2008, when the lebanese government decided to dismantle hezbollah�*s communication network. communication is vital for any military organisation in order to be able to do battle. so this is quite a painful blow by israel against this organisation. and as well as the many injured, included iran's ambassador to lebanon, this adds to the prospect that they could also retaliate in some form.

i beg to disagree on that. i do think that the iranians can be still drawn into this conflict. israel in the past has flattened the israeli, the iranian consulate in syria, killed several generals there. that didn't draw iran directly into the conflict. iran is very hesitant to face israel in a direct war. it understands that it is at a military disadvantage in doing so. but that said, if this conflict in which the line is clearly an escalatory line in terms of the viciousness of the fighting between the two sides, the escalation, if iran is drawn into this fight in defence of hezbollah, should all out war break up, then we're in a completely different ballgame. well, israel, for its part, hasn't commented on these developments that we've seen today, but it said earlier that a new aim of the war in gaza is to return evacuated residents to northern israel following attacks

from hezbollah. will this help that goal? well, i mean, this is the crux of the matter. us diplomacy would argue otherwise. i was in the room earlier this week when amos hochstein, president biden�*s envoy to lebanon and israel, was very much making the argument that israel will not be able to return some 60,000 residents of the north who have fled their homes through a devastating conflict that would only sort of visit further destruction on northern israel and also on southern lebanon, therefore making the case for the diplomatic track. i think it's also time for hezbollah to reconsider. hezbollah launched this conflict in october of... 0n the 8th of october in support of hamas in gaza. this operation has yielded very poor results for hamas and for hezbollah. we all know israel proceeded to dismantle hamas and destroy gaza. so it's very important for hezbollah at this point

to take stock of its loss and not risk an all out war that could see it and also much of lebanon destroyed. and just quickly, how do you think hezbollah will respond? well, hezbollah is caught in a catch—22 situation, a policy dilemma, if i may. if it doesn't respond or if the response is deemed too weak, that will only invite israel and israeli prime minister bibi netanyahu, perhaps, who wants to broaden this war, only encourage them to strike further and deeper into lebanon. but if it strikes and responds in a manner that's too strong, then perhaps that gives israel the very pretext it's looking for to broaden this war. so they're in a very difficult situation. and that's why perhaps this is an opportune time to take the diplomatic off ramp and accept to work with american diplomacy. in france, a man accused of drugging his wife and allowing dozens of strangers to rape her during a period of ten years, has admitted to all the charges against him. dominique pelicot, who's

on trial with 50 other men, acknowledged that he was a rapist, and said his wife gisele, who has waived her right to anonymity, "did not deserve" what happened to her. andrew harding reports. prison vans arriving at the courthouse in avignon. inside, some of the 51 men on trial here. handcuffed, all accused of raping one drugged and unconscious women. but many of those on trial remain free men. masked, they enter the courthouse through the front door. and look who walks in beside them each day. the woman they are accused of raping, gisele pelicot. boldly refusing anonymity, insisting the shame belongs not to her, but to her attackers. no cameras are allowed inside the courtroom, but today, pelicot�*s former husband dominique finally took the stand. he had this to say about the decade he admits he spent drugging his wife,

then filming strangers raping her. translation: i regret what i did, even if- it is unforgivable. i had nothing but love for my wife. we had a perfect family. it was me who was not good. pelicot told the court he was not born evil, that he was abused as a child. significantly, he was quick to condemn his co—accused. translation: i am a rapist, like the others in this room. | they knew everything. gisele then told the court it was hard to listen to a man she had trusted completely for half a century. news from the trial is creating new tensions here in mazan, the nearby village where the couple lived. the sense of shock in this small community is deepening by the day. the french police now say they have evidence that 80 local men took part in the rapes.

50 of them are now on trial, 30 more have yet to be tracked down. translation: we know 30 of them still haven't been caught. _ there are tensions here because we don't know if we can trust our neighbours any more. but some here, strikingly, claim the whole pelicot case has been overblown. translation: it could have been far more serious. - there were no kids involved, no women were killed. - the family will have a hard | time, but they can rebuild. after all, nobody died. such attitudes do persist here. applause. but the far bigger story is how gisele pelicot is becoming a national hero. breaking into a rare smile as she is cheered on her way out of court today, her poise deliberate, designed to inspire other victims. andrew harding, bbc news, france.

the american rapper and music mogul sean �*diddy�* combs — has been denied bail by a new yorkjudge, after pleading not guilty to charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. he is accused of forcing women to take part in recorded sex acts to fulfil his desires. 0ur correspondent nada tawfik has the story. sean combs is one of the most influential producers in hip—hop. .. the key to the city! ..whose hits shaped the sound and culture of a whole generation and propelled the genre onto the global stage. # i did it before. # i'll do it again. but he is now facing some of the most serious charges — sex trafficking and racketeering. in a newly unsealed indictment, prosecutors accused him of engaging in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals from at least 2008. we are not done, this investigation is ongoing, and i encourage anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly. the charges follow a raid

by heavily armed agents on his properties in miami and los angeles in march. today, outside of court in new york, his sons showed up in support. his lawyer said they knew the charges were coming ahead of his arrest last night. i am going to fight like hell to get him released, and he should be released with all that he's done and coming here voluntarily. graphic details in the indictment matter much indictment mirror much of the allegations in a lawsuit against him by his former partner and r&b singer cassie ventura, which he settled the next day without admitting wrongdoing. but his tone of defiance changed after this security video was released showing him chasing and assaulting cassie in an la hotel hallway in 2016. my behaviour on that video is inexcusable. i take full responsibility for my actions in that video. the rapper cultivated a bad boy image, but the disturbing claims against him now threaten the legacy he built in this city. nada tawfik,

bbc news, new york. well, nada spent the day outside the court — here she is with an update. sean combs pleaded not guilty in court. his family was there to support him, but the judge then heard nearly two hours of arguments from both sides over his detention, the prosecution saying that he was a flight risk, a serial abuser who had tried to tamper with witnesses and obstructjustice, and that given his vast wealth, for the safety of the community and to ensure he wouldn't try to flee, he should be held. his lawyers, on the other hand, said that he should get home detention. they even offered $50 million in bail. but ultimately, the judge sided with prosecutors. this is, of course, a case with incredibly serious allegations — sex trafficking, racketeering, essentially accusing sean diddy combs of using his business as a criminal enterprise to force women to engage in what he referred to as "freak—offs", sexual encounters with male

prostitutes that were transported across state lines. so this will be a case where mountains of evidence will be brought forward. after raids on his two homes, prosecutors say they have over 90 devices with footage of the so—called freak offs and other evidence, and that they have over 50 witnesses that they have spoken to already. ghislaine maxwell's appeal against her sex trafficking conviction has been rejected by a us court. maxwell was found guilty in december 2021 of helping disgraced financier jeffrey epstein sexually abuse young girls. she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

instagram has announced a change to its platform, introducing teen accounts,

which they say will help protect teenagers and improve their safety online. it has parental controls as a default setting and will initially roll out in the uk, us, canada and australia, with the european union being added later this year and the rest of the world injanuary next year. here's our technology editor zoe kleinman. instagram already claims to have more than 50 tools aimed at keeping teens safe on its platform, but an 0fcom study earlier this year found that every single child it spoke to had seen violent material online. these new measures aim to put more control into the hands of parents. accounts belonging to anyone under the age of 18 are already made private by default. now, if someone under 16 tries to make their account public, they'll have to add a parent to approve it. that parent will then also be able to see who their child messages, and which topics they follow. 0lder teens will have to verify their own age. notifications will be muted overnight, and young people will get an alert if they spend an hour on the app.

the biggest change is that under 16s will need parental permission to alter any of the teen settings. i think there's a side to instagram where you go down a wormhole and you can't get out of it. we spoke to some pupils in belfast about their experiences on instagram. there's a lot of racism and a lot of homophobia going on on instagram, and people are just going along with it in the comment section. so yeah, ijust feel like i shouldn't be able to see that. i think that people of younger ages, parents should - definitely get involved - in their children's accounts and just even monitor it. it doesn't mean, like, j you need to always be on your child's account. some parents have campaigned for years for better protection for their children. ian russell's daughter molly took her own life in 2017 after viewing self—harm content on instagram. meta are very good at drumming up pr and making these big announcements. what they also have to be good at is being transparent and sharing how well their measures are working. so sometime before christmas, when these measures are in place and children are using them, we should know from meta how they're

working and where there are still problems and what they're doing to plug the gaps. these tools might give parents more oversight, but they still can't control instagram's algorithms or what gets put on the app in the first place. and this is all assuming parents actually want the extra responsibility and understand what they're supposed to do. meta's uk chief, sir nick clegg, had this to say last week. one of the things we do find — i'll be very open about this — is that even when we build these controls, parents don't use them. other big platforms like snapchat and tiktok also offer screen time and parental controls. instagram hopes this new combination of teen account limits and parental supervision will result in fewer young people seeing harmful content on the app. zoe kleinman, bbc news. the military government in myanmar says the death toll in the wake of typhoon yagi has now risen to more than 220, with nearly 80 people missing.

the storm swept through northern vietnam, laos, thailand and myanmar in early september and has killed more than 500 people across the region so far, according to official figures. the united nations said the floods are among the worst in myanmar�*s recent history. azadeh moshiri reports. entire villages submerged, survivors huddling for shelter. before the storms, myanmar had already been torn apart from a military coup three years ago. now thousands of hectares of farmland have been destroyed and the un is warning more than half a million people are in urgent need of food and drinking water. translation: we have lost many things - we lost houses, _ clothes in the wars, no floods have swept away now floods have swept away the house we are living in. we can't save it so there's nothing left for us. we can even catch fish in the floods.

rescuers are trying to reach remote areas, get floods have remote areas, yet floods have already wrecked roads and damaged phone and internet lines. the number of casualties has been difficult to establish. some say the number of deaths is far higher than official estimates. the militaryjunta has issued a rare call for help. translation: we are already displaced people from war - zones, and after the floods, we don't have anything left. we are very sad. i've just gotmarried this year, and i fled this camp. but we are not the only ones who face this fate — all families are facing difficulties. the un says the civil war alone has already displaced more than 3 million people and killed thousands. and yet residents will have to rely on myanmar�*s fraught and fragile system to help rebuild their lives. azadeh moshiri, bbc news.

a former director at the company which built the titan submersible has told the us coastguard hearing into the disaster that the company was rushing to get titan ready for lucrative trips and that he had no confidence whatsoever in the way the vessel had been built. all five people on board were killed when the submersible imploded during a trip to look at the wreck of the titanic lastjune. 0ur science editor rebecca morelle reports. it was heading to see the titanic, but 0ceangate's titan sub suffered a catastrophic failure, killing all five people on board. nothing but the truth, so help you god. - now for the first time, david david lochridge, the former director of marine operations, has spoken publicly about safety concerns. the way the company were going with this project, bypassing all the standardised rules and regulations, they bypassed it all, it was inevitable something was going to happen and it was just when.

0ceangate said the sub was experimental, but it made 13 previous dives to the titanic, so passengers thought it was safe. however, the material it was made from — layers of carbon fibre — was getting damaged with every descent. so, counterintuitively, people were safer on the first dive, rather than on the last. you're taking a risk going down in a submersible, but don't take risks that are unnecessary with faulty — and i mean faulty — deficient equipment in everything that came in had anomalies. he took his concerns to the us occupational safety and health administration, 0sh but in his closing 0sha, but in his closing statement, he said they failed to act. i believe that if 0sha had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns i raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented. the hearing continues for the next two weeks. rebecca morelle, bbc news.

in scotland, the government backed a deal to host the 2026 commonwealth games in glasgow. the games had been due to take place in the australian state of victoria but the bid was withdrawn because of rising costs. it will be a smaller event compared to the last games with only ten to 13 sports being featured, compared to 18 in 2014. the princess of wales has carried out her first work meeting since her chemotherapy treatment began earlier in the year. the meeting, related to the princess's work on families and early childhood, was held at windsor castle. it's another sign of the princess's recovery and what kensington palace describe as her return to a light schedule of engagements. just time to show you some spectacular pictures from hong kong, where a huge drone show has taken place over victoria harbour. the event marks the mid—autumn festival — and it features images of rabbits and mooncakes, which are a traditional dessert — because they are closely associated with the festival. the show lasted for around ten minutes — and it all took place under

a full moon. i'll be back with business today, see you soon. hello! tuesday was another glorious day across the uk with lots of autumnal sunshine. skies like these in aboyne. aboyne was the warmest place in the whole of the uk, reaching a top temperature of 25 degrees celsius through the afternoon — that's a whole eight degrees celsius above average for this time of year. but the warmth was pretty widespread — 2a in leuchars in eastern scotland, into the north—west of northern ireland, 2a degrees celsius as well. now, over the next few hours, we are starting to see a drift of cloud come in off the north sea, affecting eastern and central areas of england, probably reaching east wales. a few fog patches already forming in scotland. one or two of these could be quite dense as we start off into wednesday. otherwise, it's quite a chilly night where we keep the skies clearest longest. now, over the next few days, high pressure is going to stay

firmly in charge of our weather and that means we've got more of this fine, settled sunny weather to come. but that said, we are going to start wednesday with quite extensive cloud across england, eastern parts of wales. it will take a time for that to thin and break up, but eventually the sunshine will come out — mist and fog patches clearing away elsewhere. plenty of sunshine around and it's another very warm day for september. temperatures probably about 25 again for parts of scotland, a 2k for the london area, and a 22 or so for western counties of northern ireland. 0n into thursday, it's a similar kind of weather picture, really. again, there'll be a fair bit of cloud to start the day across parts of england, clearing away. still quite a brisk north—easterly breeze blowing across east anglia and south—east england, otherwise the winds are quite light. wherever you are in the sunshine through the afternoon, it is going to feel pleasantly warm, with temperatures widely climbing into the 20s and probably peaking at about 2k degrees or so. again, some mist and fog, a bit of cloud around to start the day on friday, but this time, as we head into the afternoon, there's a chance of seeing one or two showers pop up across parts of england and wales.

some of these could end up being thundery as well, but they'll stay away from scotland and northern ireland, where it'll be another dry day with some sunny spells developing perhapsjust a little bit cooler into some of our eastern coastal areas. well, that takes us on into the weekend, and low pressure to our south is going to be drifting into england and wales, bringing heavy, thundery showers or some longer spells of rain so it could turn quite wet for a time over the weekend across england and wales, but for scotland and northern ireland at this stage it looks like most of the rain will stay away and it should stay mostly fine and dry with more of that sunshine.

the us federal reserve kicks off its two—day policy meeting, with wall street bracing for an interest rate cut. instagram enhances protections for teenagers, as the social media app faces pressure over child safety online. hello and welcome to business today. i'm steve lai. we begin with the us federal reserve as it begins its highly anticipated two—day september policy meeting. the fed is poised to cut rates for the first time in four years this week. although the size of the move is unknown, america's central bank is turning the corner on its fight against inflation and shifting its focus to protect the job market from weakening further. other central banks around the world from canada, the uk to the euro area have

already lowered rates. the bbc�*s michelle fleury visited york pennsylvania to find out what it means for us consumers and businesses. jennifer is the owner of sweet mama's mambo is all too familiar with the burden of higher borrowing costs. finally that is set to change. the first time in four years interest rates are about come down. for the maker of firebrick —— barbecue sauce we met the most powerful banker to room power here, some relief, she's been playing a high rate on the credit cards she has been using to fund her business.— been using to fund her business. y ., , , business. my monthly payments have increased _ business. my monthly payments have increased tremendously . business. my monthly payments have increased tremendously so | have increased tremendously so i would like to see the interest rates come back down. whenjerome interest rates come back down. when jerome powell interest rates come back down. whenjerome powell visited this market the federal reserve was watching closely if the

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