frank gardner, bbc news. our middle east editor jeremy bowen is here.the americans have done this now? avenue has been saying, there has been this build—up in the last week or so. but it is not just that. this in the last week or so. but it is notjust that. this is a man who has beenin notjust that. this is a man who has been in the sights of the americans and israelis and probably others as well for a long time coming years and years years. the question is why up and years years. the question is why up until now they never pulled the trigger. i think that is because they were worried about what would happen, the repercussions. would it make a bad situation worse? now the americans have flipped on that and decided it is time to kill him and they had the opportunity and they took it. why? perhaps this is part ofa took it. why? perhaps this is part of a coherent strategy. maybe, maybe not. perhaps president trump was being impulsive. buti not. perhaps president trump was being impulsive. but i think that... this is surmised but perhaps going through his m

let's hear more from our security correspondent frank gardner.e allegation which the saudi authorities strongly deny but the allegation is that in may 2018 a phone belonging to saudi arabia's crown prince sent a whatsapp message with an mp4 video and that contained spywa re, with an mp4 video and that contained spyware, malware which infected jeff bezos's phone allowing the saudis to download huge quantities of data from that. why do they think that? because a very detailed forensic analysis was done in the last year 01’ so over analysis was done in the last year or so over this alleged attack and its founder details, intimate details that were not known to anybody in the public other than jeff bezos himself had been leaked, had got out and they think that's why his phone must‘ve been leaked and some of those details refer to wa nt to and some of those details refer to want to occasions by the saudi crown prince in conversations or messages he had withjeff bezos. jeff bezos, most people know him as the ceo of amazon but is also the owner of the w

frank gardner, bbc news. let's talk to our washington correspondent gary o'donoghue.ll of this unfolding event? it took him a good few hours, actually, to address the actual killing of soleimani. his initial reaction to it, or his initial sort of intervention, if you like, last night was simply to post a picture of the american flag, a pixelated picture of the flag, which was a little cryptic, let say. but he has been talking today on twitter and talking about soleimani as being responsible for killing thousands of americans and millions of others and for planning other attacks. also, saying effectively that he should have been killed before now. the criticism of his predecessors which he often makes. there would have been opportunities, but he now seems to think this is the right time. that may have something to do with the us thinking that iran is particularly wea k the us thinking that iran is particularly weak at the moment, but i don't think anyone here, certainly in the administration or elsewhere, is going to assume there won't be some sort of retaliation becau

frank gardner, bbc news.he un correspondent for the bbc‘s persian service. he joins us from new york. thank you for being with us. we were seeing crowds there shouting death to america. how popular was the general in iran? was he genuinely popular amongst the people there?- was certainly very popular with the portion of the population that was sympathetic to the government. that is not the majority of iranians, but even among those who agreed with what he did, he was less involved with the day—to—day running of the country, and less in the face of protesters, he was playing a foreign role. it would have been hard to painta role. it would have been hard to paint a picture of him as someone protecting the country's interests fighting ices and alongside assad's regime. for a lot of people, he seemed above the fray of politics and partisanship of iran and was generally defending eran's interests, but that doesn't mean that he was seen favourably as the majority of iranians. that it was seen as majority of iranian

let's get the detai with frank gardner. >> he was a member of iran's estate.e was not a fugitive -- state. he was not a fugitiv from justice. it is a different world. i d't think america has thought through the ramifications. the society is really concern. the oil facilities damaged by iranian backed proxies took out half of its oil output in a few minutes, they could do that again. in the long term, this will cost the united states and played to a strategic advantage for iran, because it has changed the dynamic an t p iraqi government in a difficult position. the n pressure from iranian-backed she is militia, they were the dominant -- sh hia milit, they were dominant, they will put pssure on iraq's leadership to kick the americans out. but, saudi, the arab side of the gulf -- bahrain,audiofthat there sehe gulf, but it will be difficult to hold onto now. the people rubbing their hand are isis. 's not just the attacks it does in northern iraq and syria, itig is thelanning they have done from their to hit targets in europ the united statesan around the world, so

we'll talk to our security correspondent frank gardner.n church which claims to help vulnerable young black people from difficult backgrounds will be scrutinised in parliament today after allegations that it's a "cult" and a "criminal enterprise". we'll speak to this reverend from the church, and this labour politician who says the church has defrauded young people out of thousands of pounds. and this 55—year—old grandma faced a five—year jail sentence for growing cannabis which she used to treat her symptoms of ms. the case was dramatically dropped in court this week. will she begin to grow the plant again? hi, welcome to the programme. we're live until 11.00 this morning. we have a very busy programme today. we're also talking today to this man — labour mp clive lewis — who wants to be the next leader of the labour party, and therefore britain's next pm. and we're talking about harry and meghan after speculation that they may be considering moving to canada for a significant part of the year. what do you think about that? use the hashtag

you can follow frank gardner on twitter. stay with me on the program.e will have an update on the coronavirus in china. it has killed 17 pedal. the city at the heart of the outbreak, who hand, has to shut all of i transport corridors. australian scientistsed have identi the world's oldest asteroid crater, which they think may explain how the planet was lifted from the ice age. let's go to dr. thomas davison to explain. >> we know there was a potential global ice age at the time ofth impact. that got us thinking perhaps the two events might be linked and the impact could have helped to cause the end of that ice age. we do not know exactly how much ice there was at the time, but we have modeled impact rates into an i layer of various references to try to lculate how much ice. they put ther amount of ice va into the atmosphere that could have caused global warming and a thawing. we think there was about a 4 million year period where there was no more ice age across the globe. it would have had a bigger effect. ros: i am ros atkins with "outside source." de

khashoggi, was murdered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul in 2018. 0ur security correspondent frank gardnerthe direct question is, how credible are these allegations? the two un investigators seem to think they are credible and the crown prince was involved. this is a story with juice crown prince was involved. this is a story withjuice ingredients, basically sex lives and video tapes. what is the allegation? that in may 2018, the saudi crown prince allegedly sent a whatsapp message to jeff bezos, the well‘s richest man. they sent him some malware, some spywa re they sent him some malware, some spyware through a video attachment on the phone. with that, the saudis we re on the phone. with that, the saudis were allegedly able to extract vast volumes of data, which included intimate text messages and photographs, details of mr bezos‘ extramarital affair, which was published in a tabloid newspaper last year. if you are the richest man in the world you can hire the best tech consultants and they hired a company to investigate it. they concluded he was hacked by the saudi crown prince. the saudi

earlier our security correspondent frank gardner explained the allegations.. basically sex, lies and videotapes but there is a really sinister undertone. what is the allegation? the allegation is that in may 2018 the saudi crown prince allegedly sent a whatsapp message tojeff bezos, the world's richest man. they had communicated for and sent him some malware, some spyware with a video attachment on the phone and from that the saudis were allegedly able to extract large volumes of data which included intimate texts and photographs, details ofjeff bezos‘s extramarital affair which then got published in us tabloid newspaper last year and he commissioned his own security. if you are the richest man in the world you are the richest man in the world you can hire the best consultants and he commissioned a team to do that, and they concluded he was hacked by the saudi crown prince. the saudis categorically denied and say these allegations are observed. tea m say these allegations are observed. team are not so sure and they want an immediate investigation. it is yet o

our security correspondent, frank gardner, is with me. extraordinary story of this. claimed to have happened?m isa what is claimed to have happened?m is a story that seems to have everything. the world's richest man hacking, an extramarital affair and alleged surveillance by saudi arabia. what is being alleged is that a phone belonging to the saudi crown prince, mohamed bin salman, sent a video by whatsapp tojeff bezos soon after they met in los angeles in 2018. that video allegedly contained malware, which infected his phone and allowed what is called the ex filtration of gigabytes of data, large amounts of data, to come out of his personal phone. there has been a very forensic analysis commissioned by the amazon boss, jeff bezos, which they believe with a high degree of probability has proved it has been hacked. the saudis are denying this. the reason is there was surveillance by the saudi authorities on those they considered hostile to the crown prince, jamal khashoggi, who was murdered in istanbul, for example. this was carried out by a man who made several appro

with me is our security correspondent frank gardner.ory and quite a complicated one. explain to us quite a complicated one. explain to us out this has allegedly come about. one day they'll make a film about. one day they'll make a film about this but i suspect it probably will not be showing at cinemas in saudi arabia because it implicates two very powerful, very rich man. jeff bezos the chief executive of amazon but also the owner of the washington post and saudi arabia's crown prince mohammad bin salman. the allegation with the saudi authorities have very quickly and some would say sufficiently quickly denied is that in may 2018, the crown prince sent a watch that message containing a video that contained is really made spyware. they allow them to download remotely a huge amount of private and intimate data from jeff bezos‘s phone. no question his phone was hacked on the 1st of may in 2018 and a large amount of data flowed out of it. it is called exfiltration. why do they think the saudi crown prince did this? he had a dinner shortly

our security correspondent frank gardner is here.at are a couple of tweets. well, more than a couple. key tweets from donald trump and from the iranians foreign minister. we have mentioned donald trump's tweet. javad zarif saying, iran took and concluded proportionate measures. we do not seek escalation work war. what is your analysis of those? javad zarif does not represent the hardline faction in iran. he is the front of house, as it were, the sort of acceptable international statesman. he is only recently been trying to get into new york to address the un. behind him is the hardliners and if you remember, javad zarif actually resigned some months ago because he said, i can't deal with this. my policies are different from theirs, effectively. the way iran thinks and works on this is very long—term. what we have seen this is very long—term. what we have seen here is probably at the end of the ovate action, the directly attributable to iran ballistic missile attack from one country to another. but iran has got a whole array of option

earlier, our security correspondent frank gardner explained the allegations. it really is a story that it is very damaging potentially for the saudi crown prince because they came out saying that they are gravely concerned by the allegations. what are the allegations exactly? well, that following a dinner in hollywood that jeff had with the conference, the exchange phone numbers and at the time, the man was murdered by the agents, he was publishing very critical articles in the washington posts so they had an interest in what he was doing. this was really all a part of an online surveillance campaign which included revealing details of extramarital affairs that jeff bezos had which are published in the national enquirer and details that can only be found in his phone in which the saudi crown prince allegedly sent to jeff bezos in it is all denied by the saudi government. the headlines on bbc news... the chinese city of wuhan closes public transport over the virus outbreak that's killed 17 airports around the world step up screening of travellers from the region. it's day two of donald

here's the analysis of the bbc's security correspondent frank gardner.tate, he was not a fugitive from justice like 0sama bin laden, so this is a very different world that america has got itself into and i don't think it's thought through the ramifications of this. the saudis, for example, are really concerned, i went around the oil facilities in september and saw the damage that was done by iranian backed proxies who took out half its oil output injust a space of a few minutes. they could do that again. in the long term, this is going to cost the united states, this is going to probably play into a strategic advantage for iran because it's changed the dynamic, and put the iraqi government in a very difficult position. the pressure now from iranian backed shia militia in iraq who are the dominant upper forces, they are far more powerful and influential than the americans in iraq. they will put a lot of pressure on iraq's leadership to kick the americans out. americans will not leave the gulf, they will stay in places like saudi, on the arab side of the g

our security correspondent frank gardner is here. hello.t expect an immediate response. they will do this in a very measured and calculated way and probably in and calculated way and probably in an unexpected way. if you think of some of the attacks that we have seen some of the attacks that we have seenin some of the attacks that we have seen in the last few months, which have been blamed on iran and denied by iran but certainly most western companies blame them. there was an attack on these curious minds that detonated on tankers. there was an attack of a pipeline in saudi arabia karelia, then the cruise missile attack that came out of nowhere, knocking out saudi arabia's 50% of their oil output in a few minutes. came out of nowhere and no one saw it coming. that was supposed to be a warning. it was by iranian proxies somewhere but denied by iran. it will probably come up with some of the people have not seen but it is certainly a dangerous time right now for us diplomats, possibly even for expatriates and foreign us military bases throug

our security correspondent frank gardner is here.oleimani —— and it won‘t be the end of it. this is a direct attack by iran against bases housing americans but they warned iraq in advance that the attack was coming, although they did not say where was going to be had and so far there are no reports of any casualties, iraqi or american. quite clever in that sense, but i don‘t think that will be the end of it. i would expect to see iran carrying out some covert actions which will be harder to find actions which will be harder to find a return address for. the initial reaction from the iranians and the foreign minister was that this was a carefully considered retaliation and thatis carefully considered retaliation and that is it, and then within the next few hours we heard from the supreme leader, that they still need to get the americans out of iraq. the iranian foreign minister does not necessarily speak for the opinions of all iranians, but there are two iran perera, the front of house, the comparatively moderate —— irans. the relati

our security correspond and frank gardner is here with me now.s' phone immediately after his phone received to this video message on whatsapp, and mp4 containing what they say... he is having a conversation with the prince on whatsapp. not exactly. no. rewind. early 2018, everybody loved in the west this new charismatic crown prince called mohammed bin salman. he was feted, given the red carpet treatment in london, paris, hollywood, in hollywood he had death —— dinner with jeff don hollywood, in hollywood he had death —— dinner withjeff don ——jeff bezos and he was going to the great big hope for the west... the westernisation of saudi arabia and to some extent he has done that but also he has crackdown on dissidents and he exchanged phone numbers with jeff bezos, the exchange whatsapp numbers, sometime after they had been no communication, jeff bezos possibly phone received an mp4 attachment, a video attachment, which his team believe contain spywa re. which his team believe contain spyware. and that planted basically a bug in his phone. they bel

frank, this is an ad, an anti-trump republican group put out against senator corey gardner of colorado. watch this. >> the only thing you will fight for is trump. you are another trump servant. weak. frightened. >> a small man terrified of a political bully. so scared of his tweets you will do anything trump orders. blocking witnesses, breaking your oath to follow the constitution and the law. >> that is an anti-trump republican group. these are the types of ads vulnerable republicans are facing. will this motivate them for having witnesses in the trial? >> yeah. it is possible. i think he will ultimately vote for acquittal he might hedge it by voting for witnesses in the meanti meantime. his likely opponent is the former governor. he really needs to be careful about being deeply and automatically in trump's pocket. that will not go over well with the middle in colorado. >> frank, amanda, pamela, thank you very much. i appreciate it. breaking news i need to report. we are learning several service members were injured in that iranian attack on a base housing u.s. troops. why didn't the

frank, where do we go from here? this is an ad that an anti-trump republican group put out against senator cory gardner of colorado. >> the only thing you'll fight for is trump. you're just another trump servant. weak, frightened, impotent, a small man, terrified of a political bully. so scared of his tweets he'll do anything trump orders. blocking witnesses, stonewalling to keep trump's corruption secret, backing your oath to follow the constitution and the law. >> so these -- anti-trump republican group, these are the kinds of ads that vulnerable republicans are facing, could this motivate lawmakers to vote for more evidence during the trial? >> i think cory gardner is one of the senators to watch. he'll ultimately vote for acquittal but he might try to hedge that for voting for witnesses in the meantime. he's not got a reelection fight, his likely opponent is john hickenlooper. he needs -- that's not going to go over well with the middle in colorado. >> frank, amanda, and pamela, thank you very much. i appreciate it. >>> breaking news i need to report. we're learning tonight that several service members were injur

frank gardner, bbc news.s within the last hour or so. but we have not spoken much about the russians. we understand there has been a conversation between presidents putins and macron. yes, president putins and macron. yes, president putin are said to have expressed his concern over the killing of the iranian general and this is said to be possibly about to exasperate tensions in the media. i think the russians are in an interesting position here. only one hand, they have a relationship with iran. 0nly recently, russia and china carried out naval exercises within the iranian navy is russia was seen by iranian navy is russia was seen by iran as an outlet to give it a wider set of relationships in the world but equally russia and iran, the two main backers of president assad in syria, have rivalries of their own, everything the iranians do in the region is not necessarily to rush cosmic taste and indeed russia —— mac necessarily to rush applause can you russia's taste taste. while we're talking about the reactio