Cecilia Lei

Late on Thursday and into the early hours of Friday, Israel unleashed a major bombardment in Lebanon, heard above the skies of Beirut.

The IDF targeted a Hezbollah stronghold after the Iran proxy group sent rockets into Israel.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, over 100 people have been killed since Hezbollah entered the war late Sunday.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to take heavy fire.

The Washington Post reports satellite imagery showing extensive damage to Iran's missile production complex, and the Israelis say they've knocked out 80 percent of the country's air defenses.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed concerns about possible shortages of munitions and said that firepower over Iran was, quote, about to surge dramatically.

As Iranians endure more bombings, uncertainty looms over who will run the country next.

President Trump wants to have a say on who that might be.

Yesterday, he told Axios he has to be involved in the appointment of any successor like he was with the leadership change in Venezuela.

This past week, though, Trump's position on the matter has seemingly evolved.

At first, after the initial strikes, he called for revolutionaries to seize their country.

Later, he suggested a moderate from inside the government could be acceptable, showing little enthusiasm for the former Shah's son, who currently lives in the U.S.

But he also acknowledged that most of the people from within who he thinks could be suitable were now gone.

One person Trump did take a hard line on yesterday was the man currently seen as the frontrunner, Ayatollah Khamenei's son, Moshtaba Khamenei.

Trump said it would be unacceptable, but also conceded it was the most likely outcome for now.

Parisa Hafezi is the Iran bureau chief for Reuters.

She told us that Mujtabaq Khamenei has worked behind the scenes rather than holding an official position.

But if a large body of clerics, the so-called Assembly of Experts, pick Moshe Pahamaneh, it could be seen as a message of defiance to the U.S.

and Israel, and an attempt to show that the hardline Revolutionary Guard was still in charge.

Hafezi told us he is widely seen as skeptical of engagement with Western powers and committed to maintaining the ideological foundations of the Islamic Republic.