Ankur Desai

In another development, officials in Kuwait say an Iranian missile has damaged a power and desalination plant. That comes as Donald Trump is threatening ever greater destruction, including striking power plants and bridges, unless Iran does a deal. The escalation comes, despite international law experts, warning of serious violations by the US, Israel and Iran, as civilian infrastructure is targeted.

Katie Watson reporting from Doha. On Thursday the US and Israel struck one of Iran's biggest unfinished bridge projects. Iranian authorities say eight people were killed and nearly a hundred injured. What is likely to raise fresh questions about attacks on infrastructure that blurs the line between military and civilian targets. BBC Persian have managed to make contact with some people in Iran on what they think about the destruction of the bridge.

We will end up with a ruined country. I'm more disappointed and saddened that I'm in the middle of a situation where I see Iran being destroyed and I can't do anything. My country is being destroyed more and more every day. I was really surprised that they hit a bridge, but I think they must have a reason for it.

International humanitarian law says attacks must distinguish between combatants and civilians. The US and Israel insist they are only targeting sites linked to Iran's military or security apparatus. But the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher strongly condemned the strategy.

This has been a gradual and then very sudden deterioration in the way that we talk about protection of civilians, the way that we talk about international humanitarian law. This stuff isn't negotiable. You don't hit civilian infrastructure. That includes hospitals across Beirut and across Lebanon. I met huge numbers of medics whose ambulances are being hit at the moment. You don't hit schools. You don't hit energy sources. You don't hit bridges. Those are war crimes. That is absolutely clear.

We asked our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, what we're to make of the kind of sites being hit. We heard from President Trump in his first primetime address during this conflict in the early hours of yesterday morning that

Lise Doucette reporting. The UN says food prices have risen to their highest level in six months and could increase further if the war in the Middle East continues. The Food and Agriculture Organization said high oil prices were mostly to blame. Several countries have mandated working from home and raised petrol prices with restricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz, affecting their ability to import oil and gas.

Pakistan's government has raised fuel prices by a further 43% overnight. Caroline Davies has more from Islamabad.

Caroline Davies reporting. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Just search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find the Global News podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday.

A French court has overturned an attempt by the government there to ban a Muslim event, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people over the weekend. The annual meeting of French Muslims started as planned this afternoon, despite the police warning of the risk of terrorism. Hugh Schofield reports.

Part cultural and religious conference, part trade fair. This event is organized by an association called Muslims of France, which critics say is linked to the International Muslim Brotherhood. The French government is on principle ill disposed to it because it fears the group promotes separatism. But the reason given for trying to enforce a ban was the international context, the war on Iran and an increasingly polarized political atmosphere in France.

The risk of terrorism against Muslims could not be ignored, the government said. Far-right groups might seek to disrupt proceedings and foreign influencers might try to stage a provocation. But the organisers sought an injunction to overturn the ban and just in time they got it. The court ruling that police had failed to substantiate that there was a serious risk to public order. For the organisers, the suspicion is that the government was looking for a reason to have the assembly stopped. Hugh Schofield reporting.

Still to come in this podcast. They don't mate often and octopuses actually don't interact often. They're solitary. When they do interact, they're very aggressive. And so we wanted to observe mating in the lab. The new findings on how octopuses mate.

This is the Global News Podcast.

Next, Burkina Faso's leader has told the people there they can forget about democracy in an interview on national TV. Captain Ibrahim Traore rolled back on plans to hold elections, despite promising them four years ago when he seized power. His rights record has come under a lot of criticism, most recently by Human Rights Watch. Its new report says the government and allied forces have killed more than twice as many civilians as Islamist militants in the past few years.

Ilaria Alafrozi on tutkijana raportissa ja sanoi, että syrjintä on mahdollista olla paljon suurempi ja että hallitusten vahvoja ovat vahvempia ja vahvoja kuin militantteja. Militaarisuus luo syrjintää, frustraatioita ja syrjintää, erityisesti suurimmilla yhteisöillä, jotka voivat tuottaa syrjintää.

Rekrutment into the ranks of the Islamist armed groups, which are actually surfing and exploiting this kind of military abuse for their propaganda. Global Affairs correspondent Richard Kagoi is in Nairobi and told me more. Ibrahim Toure is, you would say, young. He's in his later 30s, considered to be one of the youngest African leaders, where the average age is about 65 years old.

Hän on rakennettu itsensä ympäristönä Afrikan puolustajana, joka on lähtenyt vahvistamaan Pohjois-Afrikan kaupungin vaikutuksista, joita hän kutsutaan ympäristön imperialismiin ja neokolonialismiin. Hän on tehnyt radikaaleja reformeja ja poliiseja kansainvälisesti kansainvälinen kaupunkisektorin, joka on erittäin rauhassa kulttuurissa.

Ja hän sanoo, että hän haluaa luoda kulttuuritaitoja. Ja tämä on todella hänet vahvistettu, erityisesti nuorille, ei vain Burkina Fasoissa, vaan myös Afrikassa. Monet näkevät hänet revoluutioiden luokkaan, ja se oli Thomas Sankara, joka oli siellä vuoden 1980-luvulla. Hän on voinut rakentaa itsensä henkilökohtaisesti sosiaalisessa mediassa.

He's reflecting what people say is perhaps a political shift that's taking place across the continent. And his appeal also goes even just beyond Africa. He seems to be resonating with African Americans, you know, black Britons. Yeah, so he's been able to do that over a period of time since he seized power in a military coup. So it seems a real sense of cult of personality with him. But is this likely to last? And what sort of reaction has there been to him?