live from london. this is bbc news lebanon is reeling with 20 dead and a50 wounded, the day after thousands of pagers detonated. the us says it is working to prevent further escalation in the conflict between israel and hezbollah, as israel says it is opening a new phase in the war. the late mohamed al—fayed — former owner of harrods — is accused of rape by five female ex—employees, a bbc documentary reveals. evacuations in northern italy as storm boris — which has killed at least 2a people across europe since last week — batters the country causing severe flooding and landslides. and coming up — the bank of england will decide whether to cut interest rates from 5%. it's after the us central bank announced a cut

welcome, i'm martine croxall. we begin with the latest in the middle east, following two days of explosions in lebanon. the united states says it's involved in intensive diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict between israel and hezbollah escalating further. the comments come after explosions triggered in pagers and walkie—talkies used by hezbollah killed at least 32 people and injured thousands. the leader of hezbollah, which some western states have designated a terrorist organisation, is expected to address the events in a speech later today. israel hasn't confirmed it was behind the blasts, yet the defence minister, yoav gallant, has said it's opening a new phase in the war, with the centre of gravity shifting to the north. 0ur reporter simonjones has more. a funeral in southern lebanon is about to be interrupted. explosion an explosion, injuring

a hezbollah soldier, causing panic and fear. screaming in beirut, another blast caused by a walkie—talkie. explosion a new form of technological warfare. sirens seen too at this mobile phone shop in the city of sidon, where several devices went off. communication weaponised. on tuesday, it was pagers used by hezbollah that were exploding. 0ld—school technology that the group turned to recently, because it feared its mobile phones could be tracked. but it's thought the supply of pagers was intercepted and tiny amounts of high explosive hidden inside. among the dead were two children. hezbollah has blamed israel. it hasn't commented, but israel's defence minister has said this: translation: i believe that we are at the startl of a new phase in the war and we must adapt. the centre of gravity is moving towards the north. this means that we are diverting forces, resources

and energy towards the north. israel has released this footage of its troops training near the lebanese border. a second division of the army has moved to the area, leading to growing fears of all—out war. hezbollah, backed by iran, has been trading fire with israel across the border since last october. hezbollah's leader is due to give a speech today, in which he may indicate what the group will do next. the us is urging restraint. we want to see the war end. um, and everything we've been doing since the beginning has been designed to prevent the conflict from escalating. we still believe, for instance, that there is a diplomatic path forward that... particularly up near lebanon. explosion in beirut, the security forces carry out a controlled explosion on a pager outside a hospital. all devices are seen as a potential threat. a diplomatic path to peace

won't be easy to tread. simon jones, bbc news. walkie—talkies and pagers have now been banned on board all flights operating in lebanon's only operational commercial airport. as hundreds of walkie—talkies exploded across lebanon on wednesday, attention has turned to the devices themselves — and how the explosions were possible. this is what we know. the japanese firm icom says it's investigating reports the devices bear its logo. it said production of the model stopped 10 years ago, and added manufacturing of its batteries has also stopped. the company, icom, described the model as a handheld radio which was exported to the middle east from 200a to 201a, and has not shipped since then. icom also said it isn't possible to confirm whether the walkie—talkies that exploded were bought directly from icom, or via a distributor. there's been fresh cross—border violence between israel and hezbollah. israeli media are reporting at least five civilians

have been injured in a hezbollah rocket attack. 0ur correspondent injerusalem, yolande knell, gave us her analysis on israel declaring a "new phase" in the war. it is really not clear if they are expecting israel to go into all—out war with hezbollah and lebanon or whether this is a new focus on israel's northern border with lebanon. certainly, we know that a division of the israeli military that has been fighting in gaza has been transferred to that northern region. there are additional reservists being sent there and other military resources. what we have heard repeatedly from israeli leaders over the past week is that they are committed to this new war goal that they have set, of returning of israeli civilians to their homes,

they have been displaced by the fighting with hezbollah over the past 11 months. that has really gone on in parallel to the war in gaza. and the previous talk has been of the need to push hezbollah away from israel's border, perhaps through a small—scale ground assault. there have been multiple warnings from the international community over the last few months for there to be no further escalation. how much pressure is israel going to come under, particularly from the united states? the us secretary of state antony blinken has just been in the region. he is leaving it today, for discussions with european counterparts about what is going on here. he hasn't, on this occasion, come back to israel. we have had the israeli defence minister yoav gallant talking to lloyd austin the us defence secretary, and the readout from the pentagon

really repeating that remains very committed to israel's security, when it comes to dealing with the likes of hezbollah and other iranian proxies in this region. but we are really waiting now to see what is announced by the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah when it comes to his speech later in the day. since the war in gaza started his speeches have been closely listened to around this region for clues of what his organisation, which is very powerful and well armed, is likely to do. in the past he has spoken about acting in solidarity with hamas in gaza and he has said that, if there was a gaza ceasefire deal, then the latest round of rocket fire by hezbollah into israel would stop. on this occasion the reading in the israeli media is very much that his organisation has been so humiliated by what has happened, there have been

hundreds of hezbollah operatives wounded, so this is likely to lead to a more powerful response. yolande knell in jerusalem. we've been speaking to nadim houry, executive director at the arab reform initiative team think tank, he told me that panic is starting to set in amongst the lebanese population. in the past a8 hours people have lived through terror, the passing sound of ambulances in the streets, the images of overflowing hospitals, and you have to remember that people went through after the explosion on august ath, something very similar in scale so, high levels of fear and concern, and also a great sense of uncertainty, because everybody talks about this was a targeted and precise attack,

but actually what happened to the people in lebanon is that in the middle of the afternoon thousands of devices started exploding. these were issued to hezbollah issues, but they were part of society, some of them were driving cars and motorbikes, shopping, so peoplejust felt suddenly their entire sense of security dissolved. so high levels of fear and concern amid constant escalating threats from israel. we are expecting a speech from the hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah later in the day. what might he need to say, given how destabilised his organisation would appear to be? hezbollah is in a bind. they have made it very clear that they do not want an escalating war, that they are tying the fire at the border to the situation in gaza, and even when they had the assassination of one of

their key leaders a few weeks ago, they decided not to escalate by attacking civilians. they know that if they escalate right now that this is what israel wants, to invade lebanon. 0n the other hand, there is clearly pressure on them to re—establish a form of mutual deterrence, which had existed between hezbollah and israel since 2006 and which kept the border in large part very quiet after october of last year, so they are in a bind. i do not expect them to rush into a decision. clearly, nasrallah will have to first speak to his supporters to calm them and convert them and give them confidence but one thing that hezbollah has been good at in the past, that they have learned from the iranians, they will probably take their time to figure out how they have been infiltrated to that level, and to decide operationally what they can do. but i'm sure that they will have to say

things like we will have to retaliate, vengeance is coming, but i fear that any escalation in the coming days and weeks is more likely to come from the israeli side and the us has not been playing the role of moderator, despite their statements that they want quiet at the border, they have in a way been supporting, financing, giving intel to the israelis since october 7th. with lebanon on edge, our correspondent hugo bachega gave us the latest from beirut. this is a humiliation for hezbollah, it is the worst security breach in their history. two days of attacks starting with devices used by members of the group, it shows that israel has managed to penetrate the group's communication networks. so, it is a very difficult reality for hezbollah right

now, how to respond to these attacks, not only in terms of retaliation but in terms of how to adapt to this new reality. again, hassan nasrallah, the powerful hezbollah leader is going to make a speech later today. his first public reaction since those attacks, and i think many people will be watching this speech to see any kind of indication of how the group is planning to respond. has vowed to respond after these attacks, blaming israel for these explosions that happened across the country. and again, realfears here, of a possible escalation in this conflict between hezbollah and israel. we saw yesterday that the israeli defence minister yoav gallant said that his country was at the start of a new phase in this war, so, again, concerns that this conflict that has been by and large contained to areas along the border could escalate into a major confrontation between israel and hezbollah.

you have to question how target these attacks have been when you look at the sheer number of civilians, and children as well, who have been affected and maimed by these explosions. exactly. this has been the source of a lot of anger in the country, because of the extent of these attacks. some of these devices exploded as people were in shops, at home with their families, and there has been of tales and confusion. yesterday i was in southern beirut when one of those explosions happened. there was panic because many people believed that no electronic device was safe, hezbollah members were stopping us to say do not use your phone or your camera. one of our producers received a message from a friend to say that she was changing her lebanese sim card to a international one, because she was concerned that her phone could explode.

so this gives you a sense of the feeling across the country. so there was shock, as a result of those attacks, but also a lot of anger because hundreds of people have been injured, lots of people with severe eye, hand, facial injuries as well. so, there is widespread anger as a result of those attacks that happened in several locations across the country. hugo bachega in beirut. the bbc news website is running this live page, including a timeline of how thousands of exposing devices attacks have unfolded over the last couple of days and the action that lebanon is now taking to try and protect people. around the world and across the uk,

the bbc has exclusively revealed that the late mohamed al—fayed — former owner of harrods, the uk's largest luxury department store — has been accused of rape by five female ex—employees. the egyptian—born businessman, rose from a poor family in alexandria to buying the world—famous department store in 1985. a bbc documentary has uncovered evidence that, under mohamed al—fayed's ownership, harrods not only failed to intervene, but helped to cover up abuse allegations. this report from shaima khalil contains descriptions of sexual violence. yeah, i went back to harrods about a year ago, and i knew if i could walk through and come out the other side, i'd be in a good place to be talking to you. ijoined harrods because i wanted to be a buyer, and i ended up working for an absolute monster. when mohamed al—fayed took over harrods, he quickly embraced his high—profile role and the status that came with it.

to his customers and the celebrity guests, he was all charm, but to many of his female employees, he was a different man — a predator. we've heard testimony from more than 20 of al—fayed's female ex—employees. he tried to rape me more than once. and he pushed me in and on to the bed so that i couldn't move. you know, he was 79, nearly 80, and i was 15. mohamed al—fayed was rich and powerful. that power allowed him to carry out assault at scale over decades. i wasn't at home. i was in france. and he'd come upstairs into my room. i was absolutely terrified, he got into bed with me and was trying to kiss me and push himself on me and i... again, ijust... i don't know how i did it. ijust kicked him off. i kicked him, kicked him, kicked him, kicked and screamed. and again i got him off. i was just. . .just terrified. i think mohamed al—fayed is a rapist. i think he's a serial rapist. gemma worked as al—fayed's

personal assistant my first trip was actually to abu dhabi, and he was trying to get in my room in quite an aggressive manner. it was absolutely terrifying, just didn't know which way to turn. so i bought a small dictaphone that i had in my pocket. and, um, these are the transcripts from those recordings. one of them was in paris, in his residence there, villa windsor. i said, "i just want to go to sleep on my own. mr fayed, i don't want to, mr fayed." and he kept saying, "relax, please relax." how can you relax when you're in that situation? he walked out and he was angry. not long after this incident, gemma says al—fayed raped her. the bbc has heard testimony from four other women, who say he raped them at his properties. in 2009, gemma contacted a lawyer, who told harrods she was leaving herjob on the grounds of sexual harassment. she didn't feel able to disclose the more serious allegations at the time.

they agreed to pay a settlement if she signed a non—disclosure agreement. there was also one other condition. the lawyers organised for a shredding truck to come to my lawyer's office. it was shredded in front of us, including tapes i had of him, my phone that had messages and voicemails, really quite nasty voicemails on them. someone from hr was present for the shredding of all of the evidence i had. i thought i'd lost the transcripts, but actually what i did have was the transcriptions sent to my lawyer in my sent items of my e—mail account at the time. in a statement, the current owners of harrods say they were utterly appalled by the allegations and that employees, who were his victims, had been failed, for which they sincerely apologised. they also said that the harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by al—fayed between 1985 and 2010. there were several attempts to expose al—fayed before his

death, but it is only now that many of the survivors feel able to speak publicly about the abuse. for those who have, the silence and the taboo are finally broken. shaima khalil, bbc news. you can get more on this story. the new season of world of secrets, from the bbc world service, is available right now, wherever you get your bbc podcasts. if you have been affected by theissues if you have been affected by the issues in that report you can find advice on the bbc action line section of our website. next, we turn to the floods that have forced thousands to evacuate across central europe, and killed at least 23 people. italy is the latest country to close schools in the north, and move its residents to safety. more thunderstorms are expected in the coming days. some roads have been blocked due to landslides.

poland is bracing itself for the peak of the recent flooding today — with warnings that the country's third—largest city, wroclav, is at risk. this is wroclav — where as you can see, local residents have been working to fill sandbags, which will be used to try to control the river 0der. it has already gone past the level at which flood warnings are issued. elsewhere, in south western poland, you can see how the flood have already caused damage near rivers. around 10,000 members of the military have been deployed to help with the emergency operations — and helicopters have been sent to help evacuate some stranded people. these pictures give an idea of the sort of devastation the flooding has caused. this is klodzko — where the nysa river burst its banks. local reports suggest the floods surged to two metres above the height of the river banks. poland's prime minister, donald tusk, says the authorities have not yet been able to establish how many buildings have been destroyed in some remote areas. the united nations wants to treat artificial intelligence with the same urgency

as climate change. an international panel of experts tasked by the un secretary—general has released a highly critical report on its global governance describing it as a "patchwork" of rules and guidelines. let's speak to our technology editor zoe kleinman. what editor zoe kleinman. are they concerned about? if what are they concerned about? if i had a dollarfor every what are they concerned about? if i had a dollar for every set of regulation, proposals, guidelines, treaties, voluntary codes about al safety and responsibility i have read in the last couple of years, i would have my own tropical island because there have been so many. this report that has been commissioned by the un itself really makes that point, that there are so many different things out there, lots of them voluntary, and, actually, many people have been calling for a body like the un to have global oversight of what we decide to do with this powerful technology that is evolving so rapidly, and is disrupting so many lives around the world. it took a sample of

some of the big ai declarations we have had, including one from bletchley park in the uk last year, the t20 ai principles, for example and found that only seven countries in the world had signed up to them all, including the us, the uk and canada and france. but, there were 118 un member states that had not signed up to any of them at all, and a large amount of those were in the global south, so we can see a real divide in terms of the conversations around how we are going to try and control ai, we hear a lot about how we want to maximise its benefits and minimise risks but there seem to be only few countries taking control of that, even though it is very much a worldwide technology. fist is very much a worldwide technology-— is very much a worldwide technology. at the risk of sounding _ technology. at the risk of sounding terribly - technology. at the risk of sounding terribly cynical, | sounding terribly cynical, would you think how ineffective international frameworks have been about things like climate change, how much can you hope

that a framework will emerge for al and to be effective? it is great to be cynical. we will have to see what are you in response to this is. —— it is right to be cynical. we have this fragmented patchwork of voluntary stuff been pushed out by various nations but there is nobody taking the bigger picture view, and there is probably room for both of those things to happen. another really interesting point from the report was that the group asked 3a0 ai and tech experts what worried them most about the use of in —— artificial intelligence andy two things were trying to compromise information, we see this with the generation of misinformation and deepfake, at the other thing that was super concerning them was the use of ai in armed conflict. we have bodies like the red cross calling on the un to review its treaty on autonomous weapons,

and this reportjoins that i definitely support it and says that they need to be some red lines drawn on autonomous weapons specifically in terms of whether they are used on their own to identify and then target potential targets. what target potential targets. what is the timeframe _ target potential targets. what is the timeframe for - target potential targets. what is the timeframe for all - target potential targets. what is the timeframe for all of - is the timeframe for all of this to start to materialise? how long is a piece of string is the short answer. what we're seeing with al in general is that only is the tech moving quickly but there is lots of good will and determination to keep it on the right track so there are certainly support there are certainly support there about whether or not people will put their money into it remains to be seen. thank you, our technology corresponding as a client. the israeli military has said it has its seven hezbollah site overnight in air strikes in southern lebanon. this is being

reported on the bbc live page, where you can also read that walkie—talkies and pagers have been banned from use in beirut airport. friday into the weekend, low pressure moves in from iberia. rainfall amounts from friday through to sunday. 0ne rainfall amounts from friday through to sunday. one of two of us could see about a month's worth of rain but the rain for the most variable, to the north and west it stays dry today for many. we've had plenty of sunshine across western areas, developing more widely through the afternoon. some of that that will take to shift. but through lincolnshire, east yorkshire and the naughty curci could stay cloudy all day long. in the breeze, cooler temperatures in the mid to high

teens and elsewhere in the sunshine, low to mid 20s, the highest around london and the south—east, around 25 celsius possible. this evening and overnight, that north—easterly breeze dragging the cloud back, more extensive to like parts of scotland, central and eastern areas especially, but in the west that the clearer skies, temperatures could drop down into lower single figures for one or two isolated spots. for most of us mild enough what a great start to friday. the local i will linger more widely in eastern scotland and eastern england and through the day, lots of sunshine coming through with spun three showers developing through the midlands, southern england and wales. it had missed at this stage, many will still dry, pleasant enough in the sunshine back temperature starting to creep down, cooler in the onshore breeze on north sea coast. into the weekend, saturday, because he showers lingering across the south—west, then developing more widely across parts of central and southern england and wales. really, it is the

low cloud which could bring some drizzle to the north sea coast. plenty of sunshine to the north and west back temperature see a bit as the breeze picks up. that breeze will pick up further into sunday, the pressure drifting towards us by this stage bringing longer spells of heavy and thundery rain possible across wales, central and southern england. 0ne across wales, central and southern england. one or two spots, east anglia may not be too bad, drierfurther north but with patchy drizzle where that blue that lingers near eastern coasts. that is all for now. —— where that low cloud lingers.

this is bbc news. the headlines... lebanon is reeling — with 20 dead and at least a50 wounded in explosions — a day after thousands of pagers detonated. the us says its working to prevent a further escalation in the conflict between israel and hezbollah, as israel says it's opening a �*new phase' in the war. the late mohamed al—fayed — former owner of harrods — is accused of rape by five female ex—employees, a bbc documentary reveals. evacuations in northern italy as storm boris — which has killed at least 2a people across europe — batters the country causing severe flooding and landslides. and coming up — the bank of england will decide whether to cut interest rates from five percent. it's after the us central bank announced a cut last night, for the first time in four years.