Janet Jalil

We're still waiting for details to come through, but we heard the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday talking about how the offensive stage of the Iran war is over. Iranian state media are hailing this all as a victory for Iran.

Absolutely. What we are hearing from numbers of commanders, they say the U.S. has retreated. But at the same time, we know Iranians also are under severe pressure economically, choking the Strait of Hormuz. Yes, inflicting economic pain on world economy, on the U.S. and its allies. But at the same time, they are choking their own economy.

Kiitos puheenjohtaja.

And they feel that this war, two months of violence in which thousands have been killed, has only entrenched the regime and strengthened the Iranian military. Absolutely. I think at this point of time, if you remember in January, thousands of people killed simply coming to the street protesting and demanding change in the country. And I think right now nobody talks about what happened three months ago. And I think the government is extremely worried about uprising again. Every day almost they have been executing young men in

Many of them, they were protesters, arrested in January this year. So it shows the government is still right now worried about another uprising. That's why they're trying to deter young people from coming back to the streets. While hopes of a peace deal between the US and Iran are rising,

Israel has again carried out attacks in Lebanon on what it says are Hezbollah targets. Six people are reported to have been killed despite a ceasefire supposedly being in place between Israel and Hezbollah. Since the Lebanese militia began firing into Israel in response to its attack on Iran, nearly 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in just over two months.

Sanon Middle East-analystin Sebastian Usherille, että vaikka sopimus on sovellettu Iranin ja USAin välillä, ei ole lopulta lopulta vahvistusta Lebanonissa. Tämä voi olla niin, että se on lopulta lopulta lopulta. Olemme nähneet, kuten sanoit, nomenalisia lopulta lopulta lopulta israelilaisilla päivillä. Tänään on kaksi lopulta kaksi kaupungilla, joka on tullut kuusi ihmistä, kaksi ja toinen.

Ja lisäämällä näitä asioita, joten maan etelästä ja myös Veletanin rannasta, joka on semmoinen loppupointi. Ja maan etelästä, jota Israel on nyt suurin piirtein osallistunut ja kutsuttu turvallisuudessa. Ja myös jatkuvien keskustelujen ja israelilaisen sotilaiden kanssa, kuten Hezbollahin alueella.

So yeah, there's no real ceasefire, except in the sense, you know, for people in the big cities in Beirut, they haven't come under attack during the ceasefire. But there were, again, drones overhead. This sense of Israeli presence is there all the time, which people feel very, very keenly, and gives them a sense that, you know, it could break out into a much bigger conflict again at any moment. So we have to see whether Lebanon, which was meant to be included in the original Iran ceasefire,

Whether there's a real impact on that with whatever deal may or may not be done in the coming days. Yes, because events in Lebanon seem to be going their own way apart from events in Iran. What are the Israeli military objectives here? What are they trying to achieve?

I mean it's an objective that they've had for a very long time and has never been able to achieve, which is essentially the elimination of any threat from Hezbollah to the north essentially of Israel. There was a large scale evacuation of those areas during almost two years of a war in Gaza because Hezbollah had essentially supported the Palestinians by firing missiles into that area.

People have largely moved back now, so what the Israeli government wants to avoid is there to be another evacuation. But again, it's a promise that I think a lot of people in Israel understand and be sceptical about. Netanyahu has sold this for prime minister, as this time we will go through to the very end.

Sebastian Ascher. The World Health Organization has confirmed an eighth case of hantavirus on board a cruise ship at the center of a deadly outbreak of the disease. Three passengers have died. Others are on their way to the Netherlands. The Spanish government says those remaining on board have no symptoms.

The ship currently stuck at sea near the island of Cape Verde in the Atlantic is to head further north to the Canary Islands, which is part of Spain. That's caused a political row there, with the president of the Canaries saying the ship shouldn't be allowed to dock there. But the Spanish health minister, Monaco Garcia, insists that it will sail to Tenerife, and from there all those on board will be able to travel home.

World Health Organization asked yesterday for the Canary Islands to be the destination, with Spain identified as the country with the nearest suitable port to deal with the situation. The WHO considers that the Canary Islands in Spain meet the conditions for passengers to disembark under safe conditions and with appropriate health protections.

One man who was on board is currently being treated in hospital in Switzerland after falling ill with the virus. He's been tested and health officials have now confirmed that it is a strain of hantavirus which is normally spread by rats. This particular strain, however, can be passed from human to human. James Menendez has been talking to the doctor who did that testing. She's Dr. Isabella Ekele, who's head of the Center for Emerging Viral Diseases at Geneva University Hospitals. What did she discover?

Just thinking about COVID, as you mentioned it, because obviously this will be in people's minds, is it much less transmissible than COVID-19?

That was Dr. Isabella Ekele. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday.

Australian authorities say a group of 13 of its citizens, thought to be the wives and children of IS fighters, is returning home from Syria. The four women and nine children who had been held or born in a camp in northern Syria during the past seven years are expected to land in Sydney and Melbourne airports on Thursday. Hundreds of other relatives of IS fighters remain in Syria, as other governments refuse to repatriate them.

Australian government says the women and children are not welcome and they'll not be assisting them, but there is little they can do to prevent them from returning under their own steam. Tony Burke is a home affairs minister. They made an appalling, disgraceful decision. If they have committed crimes, they can expect to face the full force of the law without exception. I asked our Australia correspondent Simon Atkinson what more we know about the women and children.