this is all because of rebels in yemen are firing attacking ships. these are houthi rebels that support hamas. this at one of the world s busiest shipping routes. bbc verify explains. a, busiest shipping routes. bbc verify exlains. ., ., ., , explains. a month ago, this was hi acked. successfully capturing the galaxy leader cargo ship in the red sea. now, the group supports hamas and they say they re targeting all ships with ownership links to israel as well as any shipping going in or out of israeli ports. and the houthi group still has that boat. so we spotted it here on satellite imagery off the coast of yemen. now, this is the best image we have from satellite image provider planet. and it was taken on wednesday last week. now, these attacks are huge problem for big companies because this region is crucial to global trade. so, the red sea is one of the world s most important routes for oil and fuel shipments. now, any ship passing through suez to orfrom the indian ocean
this is bbc news. the headlines: israeli air strikes pound the south and north of gaza. us defence secretary lloyd austin says the us has spoken to israel about making the war in gaza are more surgical. so we will continue to stand up for israel s right to defend itself and we will also continue to urge for the protection of civilians during the conflict, and to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into gaza. en verify, we look at how the war is impacting en verify, we look at how the war is impacting this trade route for oil in the impacting this trade route for oil in the red impacting this trade route for oil in the red sea. and the bbc understands the democratic unionist party has ruled out any deal to restore power sharing in northern ireland before christmas. time for a look at the business news now with tadhg. we are also talking about the potential looming crisis in world oil shipping. the oil giant bp has supended all shipments of oil through the red sea afte
good morning, everyone. we start with really serious news this morning. there is devastation happening. the staggering death toll keeps rising in turkey and syria after a catastrophic earthquake. 1300 people are now reported dead and a powerful after shock. it just hit just moments ago. we ll go live to istanbul for the latest on this frantic search. and new fallout from the downing of a chinese spy balloon. president biden is preparing to deliver his second state of the union address. a train loaded with hazardous materials derailing in ohio. thousands of people ordered to evacuate. now a battle is under way to keep that toxic wreckage from exploding. we re going to begin with this. devastating earthquake in turkey and syria. it struck before dawn and collapsed buildings while people were asleep in their beds. just moments ago, just got word of a powerful 7.5 magnitude after shock. there you can see people digging through the rubble. more than 1300 people now reported
coast of myrtle beach, south carolina, collecting the wreckage of the downed balloon. republicans are condemning president biden for failing to take action on the balloon sooner. let s get the latest on the balloon and today s recovery efforts, zachary cohen is here. zachary, what more are we learning about this balloon and, i guess, at some point, they need to pull it up out of the ocean and start examining it. i think at this early stage, u.s. officials are not buying the chinese government s explanation that it was a civilian aircraft. they have strongly indicated, defense officials and administration officials, strongly told us that this was used for spying and they believe it was used to try to collect data about sensitive u.s. military sites across the country. now, that raises an being question, though, and one that the biden administration is going to have to grapple with in the next few days. they know that was the intent of this balloon, why did they not shoot it
administration acted indecisively and waited too long, letting the balloon float across the continental u.s. for days. president biden says the military advised him there would be less danger to the public in shooting down the balloon once it got over the ocean. lawmakers are reacting sharply and along party lines. i want to start by doing something that i don t do very often, which is commending joe biden for actually having the guts to shoot this down. that was the right thing to do. that is absolutely what the president should have done. unfortunately he didn t do that until a week after it entered u.s. airspace. they re saying we should have shot down the balloon the minute we saw it. i would use two words in answering these gop criticisms. they are premature, and they are political. presidents have the ability to go before a camera, go before the nation and basically explain these things early on, and his failure to do so, i don t understand that. i don t understan