BBC News Briefing

20 September, 2024

Jules Darmanin

Hello. Tensions continue to ramp up between Israel and Hezbollah after a strike on a Beirut building killed the group's operations commander, according to Israeli forces. Hugo Bachega is reporting from the Lebanese capital. I also have many stories you can save up for the weekend - on living in space, ADHD diagnoses and the "tech bros" who dream of creating new countries.

GET UP TO SPEED

A lawyer for accusers of Mohamed Al Fayed has said in a press conference the former owner of Harrods was a monster enabled by a system that pervaded the London store. Harrods has said it is "utterly appalled" by the allegations and has condemned his actions "in the strongest terms".

Police in southern Pakistan have shot dead a doctor accused of blasphemy, drawing condemnation from human rights groups.

Mark Robinson, a Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, has insisted he will not exit the race after it was reported he made controversial comments on a porn website more than a decade ago.

AT THE SCENE

Beirut, Lebanon

Israel says it killed senior Hezbollah members

People are surrounding a strike crater near Beirut.

Sixty-six people were injured by the strike, according to Lebanon's health ministry. Credit: Reuters

At least 14 people have been killed and dozens injured after Israel's military said it carried out a "targeted strike" on Beirut - its third attack on the Lebanese capital this year. Israel says it killed Hezbollah's operations commander Ibrahim Aqil in the strike.

Hugo Bachega, Middle East correspondent

We are in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, and the streets around the site of the airstrike have been closed. There’s a heavy security presence of Hezbollah members stopping journalists from getting close to the location, a densely populated area. The atmosphere, unsurprisingly, is very tense.

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This latest Israeli attack, which the IDF says killed senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, is another sign of the precise intelligence Israel has about the group. In July, another airstrike in Dahieh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut, killed Fouad Shukr, a right-hand man to the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah who was responsible for its military operations. He was the most-high profile Hezbollah member to have been killed in the current conflict. Today's attack is another humiliation for Hezbollah, in a week when hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group exploded, causing chaos and panic across Lebanon. It was an unprecedented security breach that indicated how Israel had managed to penetrate the group’s communication system.

Follow live

Analysis: As strikes and counter-attacks intensify, the spectre of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah is looming large, writes our digital Middle East editor Raffi Berg.

In the occupied West Bank: Israel's military has launched an investigation after its soldiers were filmed throwing the bodies of three dead Palestinians off a rooftop.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Kenyan runner Rebecca Cheptegei running during a marathon.

'A national crisis'

How the murder of Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei has reignited calls for stronger action against femicide in Kenya.

Read the story >

A woman astronaut is posing in front of Earth seen from space.

Life in space

Astronauts lift the curtain on the laid-back, unglamorous life on the ISS - from "space smell" to urine storage.

Find out more >

Montage of brains linked by dotted lines.

Attention span

The number of people taking ADHD medication in England is at a record high. Where will it end?

Read more >

Rupert Murdoch posing with his sons Lachlan and James.

Your weekend listening: The battle for the Murdoch empire

Katie Razzall and Brian Stelter unpack what we know about the secret court battle between the news mogul and three of his eldest children.

Listen here >

THE BIG PICTURE

The crypto bros dreaming of new countries

A man is sitting down with a microphone, speaking at a conference.

Tech entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan published his book The Network State: How to Start a Country in 2022. Credit: Getty Images

A growing movement of Silicon Valley financiers is looking at a new frontier in what they believe tech can successfully disrupt: democracy and the very idea of what makes a nation. Gabriel Gatehouse's journey to understand their motives has taken him from an Amsterdam conference to a New York nightclub with a Xerox machine to print manifestos. But is it the future, or are they just "trolling"?

Read the story

Aerial view of the bends in the Swindale Beck stream in Cumbria, England

FOR YOUR DOWNTIME

The shape of water

A healthy river should be sinuous, free flowing and replete with wildlife.

Here's why

And finally... in the Oxford English Dictionary

Ten new Welsh terms have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, including the phrase for cheers: iechyd da. Don't worry if you're not sure about the pronunciation, my colleague Harriet Horgan is here to explain.

World of Business

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– Jules

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