18/03/2026 08:01 GMT

BBC News with Gavindergill. Israel has struck at the heart of the Lebanese capital Beirut,

with airstrikes on a number of densely populated areas in an escalation of its offensive against

Iran, against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. One central district was targeted twice

overnight. A multi-story building in another commercial neighborhood was destroyed following

an Israeli warning. From Beirut, here's Hugo Busheger.

Iran's revolutionary guards said they've launched a series of retaliatory attacks on Israel to

avenge the killing of the security chief Ali Larajani. Israeli officials and two people were

killed near Tel Aviv after being hit by Shrapnel. The city's train station was also damaged.

Reports from Jerusalem. Iran fired missiles carrying cluster warheads at Tel Aviv overnight.

In what state television said was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Ali Larajani.

Arab Gulf states have also come under renewed Iranian missile and drone fire. As the US and

Israel continue to attack Iran, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Raphael

Grossi, has repeated his call for maximum restraint to avoid a nuclear accident. On Tuesday

evening, a projectile hit near the Bushehr nuclear power plant without reports of damage.

With oil largely unable to pass the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqqi,

has said the global repercussions of the conflict will hit everyone regardless of

wealth or race. The US military's announced it to use some of the most powerful bombs to target

Iranian missile sites near the vital waterway. President Zelensky has warned that the conflict

in the Middle East may mean there is a shortage of missiles for his fight against Russia.

He was speaking to Laura Koonsberg. One war is just weeks old, another more than four

bitter years. But President Zelensky is worried, worried that conflict in the Middle East means a

shortage of missiles that he needs to keep fighting Russia in Ukraine, worried that the United

States is absorbed by conflict with Iran, delaying negotiations that might eventually bring

war on the edge of Europe to an end, but candid in his view that President Trump's only priority

is to stop that war, not to defend the smaller country Ukraine from its aggressor Russia.

World news from the BBC. A US charge has ordered the Trump

administration to reinstate the jobs of more than a thousand employees of voice of America

and allow the government-funded outlet to resume global broadcasting. It follows a ruling

that the Trump appointee tasked with shutting down the broadcaster,

ran its parent's body unlawfully. V.O.A. was created during the Second World War to provide

impartial news, especially to countries without press freedom. Nigeria's President

Bolaak Medinibu is beginning a two-day visit to the UK today, the first in 37 years. Daniela

Ralph reports. The Prince and Princess of Wales will greet President Tanubu and First Lady

Ola Raimi to Nubu and Windsor, ahead of a formal ceremonial welcome with the King and Queen.

There will be a carriage procession and a state banquet this evening, where both the King

and President will deliver speeches. During the trip, the President will meet the Prime Minister

Sir Keir Starmer, and the First Lady, who is a Christian pastor, will preach during a prayer

service at Lambeth Palace. Nigeria has the biggest population of any African country,

with about 240 million people, and more than a quarter of a million Nigerians live

in the UK. There have been raucous celebrations late into the night in Caracas and across

Venezuela, after the country defeated the United States to win the World Baseball Classic,

for the first time. Thousands of Venezuelan fans also celebrated the victory in Miami,

a city with a huge diaspora from the South American country.

The Senegalese Football Federation says it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for sport

after the team was stripped of its recent Africa Cup of Nations title.

The title has been given to runners-up and hosts Morocco. Senegal's players were deemed to have

broken tournament rules by leaving the pitch in protest at the awarding of a late penalty

in the final. That's the latest BBC News.