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00:00:02on BBC News. MUSIC
00:00:11I was here at the very first
00:00:14protest, the party had organised organised about a month ago. And
00:00:17And this is so much bigger. Been
00:00:20Been driving towards the site of of this wildfire, but we've just just stopped at the side of the road
00:00:24road here because of what we saw saw out the window. This man has
00:00:27has been pulled out successfully. successfully. It's taken a mammoth
00:00:30mammoth mammoth rescue effort. This This morning. You get very little little sense of the terrible scenes
00:00:34scenes that were witnessed here last last night there. When the story
00:00:38story breaks. BBC News. Welcome back.
00:00:43back. Now China has warned against
00:00:45against turning outer space into into a battlefield and Russia has
00:00:49has called for weapons to be kept kept out of space after the US military
00:00:52military confirmed for the first first time it has deployed weapons
00:00:56weapons in Earth's orbit. Well, Kari Kari Bingen is the director of Aerospace
00:00:59Aerospace Security Project at the the centre for Strategic and International
00:01:02International Studies. She served served as US deputy undersecretary
00:01:05undersecretary of defence for intelligence intelligence and security in the
00:01:08the Trump administration between
00:01:10between 2017 and 2020. The announcement announcement doesn't surprise me.
00:01:14me. The United States has long had had what we call a space control
00:01:18control mission, but in recent years, years, senior defence leaders are
00:01:21are more openly discussing the growing growing threat that you highlighted
00:01:25highlighted space weapons and warfighting warfighting in space and greater greater investments in this area.
00:01:29area. But it does appear to be the the first such public acknowledgement
00:01:33acknowledgement by a senior government government official. So I can see see where it would be a surprise
00:01:36surprise to folks if they're not not tracking this. Give me. A sort
00:01:40sort of idea because they haven't haven't been specific about this.
00:01:42this. Give me the sort of idea of
00:01:45of the types of weapons we are actually
00:01:48actually potentially talking about. about. And I would say having served
00:01:52served in those types of senior seats, seats, those statements, those words
00:01:55words are chosen very carefully and
00:01:59and very deliberately. So the term term on orbit was used. So this is
00:02:02is a some sort of space weapon or
00:02:04or weapons that are orbiting the
00:02:06the earth versus land based weapons weapons like a GPs or Starlink jammer
00:02:10jammer that we're seeing in Ukraine, Ukraine, or a missile that would
00:02:13would be launched from the ground ground against the satellite. We
00:02:16We won't know the specifics on how,
00:02:19how, but let's look at basic physics. physics. There could be a range of
00:02:22of options that are employed. Anything
00:02:25Anything from a kinetic kill mechanism,
00:02:28mechanism, say, ramming a space weapon weapon or spacecraft into another
00:02:31another spacecraft. Perhaps you release release pellets or something non
00:02:34non kinetic and even what we call call reversible. So a jammer where
00:02:38where you're jamming a signal from from one satellite to another satellite,
00:02:42satellite, you're using a laser weapon
00:02:44weapon to affect another satellite. satellite. So there are several different
00:02:48different modes. The thing I'd also also though be sensitive to here
00:02:50here is just a reminder of the physics
00:02:52physics of space. And so any weapon
00:02:55weapon that is used these planners,
00:02:57planners, I believe will be careful
00:02:59careful about the creation of debris. debris. You do not want to create
00:03:03create a lot of debris in these orbits orbits where other satellites will
00:03:06will be passing through. The Chinese,
00:03:09Chinese, the Russians to have talked talked about and warned the US against
00:03:12against starting a sort of space
00:03:15space arms race in effect, is that
00:03:17that warning already out of date?
00:03:22date? I did not hear Secretary Ming's Ming's speech. I read it afterwards,
00:03:25afterwards, but he talked quite a a bit about the threat. And so China
00:03:29China and Russia have been building,
00:03:32building, testing and deploying space space weapons or ways to attack our
00:03:35our satellites for a long time. Go
00:03:39Go back to 2007 when China tested tested a direct ascent anti-satellite anti-satellite missile, so shot a
00:03:43a missile at one of their satellites satellites and created debris that
00:03:46that will be on orbit for decades. decades. But what we've seen in the
00:03:49the last couple of years, China,
00:03:51China, for example, one of our senior senior Space Force generals had had
00:03:55had described China's activities activities in space as dog fighting.
00:03:59fighting. So several satellites working
00:04:01working together on synchronised synchronised manoeuvres, close approaches
00:04:04approaches to other satellites in in lower orbit all the way up to
00:04:07to higher orbits, releasing objects objects from their space plane. The
00:04:11The Russians as well last year, in
00:04:14in 2025, they tested something called called a nesting doll. Or think of
00:04:17of like a doll where one satellite
00:04:20satellite released another object. object. More recently the spring,
00:04:23spring, the commander of US Space Space Command. So the operational
00:04:26operational command for planning planning and conducting operations operations in space publicly said
00:04:29said that Russia is deploying space
00:04:32space weapons and testing them near near our satellites. And you may
00:04:35may remember from a few years ago,
00:04:37ago, Russia is what was. Believed
00:04:42Believed to be developing a nuclear nuclear anti-satellite weapon that
00:04:45that would sit in orbit like a mine
00:04:48mine and detonate at a time and place place of their choosing, creating
00:04:52creating a nuclear highly radioactive
00:04:54radioactive environment for entire entire swaths of Earth's orbit. So
00:04:58So you're saying the Russians, the the Chinese, they're already doing
00:05:01doing exactly what the Americans Americans are now venturing into. into. A final question, because Donald
00:05:05Donald Trump, of course, created created the US Space Force in 2019.
00:05:092019. And that was the first new new branch of the US military in,
00:05:13in, what 70 years do we know at all,
00:05:17all, any sort of headline cost of of what we're talking about, this
00:05:19this new venture into space, these these sorts of weapons? What is the
00:05:22the price tag for all of that? Do
00:05:25Do we know? It's a great question.
00:05:27question. We don't. And this area
00:05:30area of the defence budget is usually usually kept at a very highly classified
00:05:34classified level so that our adversaries adversaries don't get that information
00:05:36information or those descriptions descriptions to reverse engineer
00:05:40engineer what we're building, how how good it is, etc if I can also
00:05:43also just make one other point though, though, is we are seeing our adversaries
00:05:47adversaries increasingly use their their own satellites to target our
00:05:51our forces and our bases on the ground. ground. We're seeing it in the Middle
00:05:54Middle East where there have been been reports of China supplying satellite
00:05:58satellite imagery to Iran to target target US bases. So you think about
00:06:01about other domains. Would we allow allow drones to fly overhead unimpeded
00:06:05unimpeded to target our forces, or or would we allow our adversaries
00:06:08adversaries to hold the highest ridgeline? ridgeline? We wouldn't. And so we're
00:06:11we're thinking about these types types of concepts in the space domain
00:06:15domain as well, and not allowing allowing our adversaries unfettered
00:06:19unfettered access to satellites that
00:06:21that would take
00:06:32target. Discover the world on BBC
00:06:34BBC News in association with Turkish
00:06:38Turkish Airlines. I'm travelling travelling through Japan, going off
00:06:41off the beaten track to find out
00:06:43out what makes this country unique.
00:06:46unique. This is ultimate Japan. This
00:06:50This time I visit Toba in the South
00:06:52South to witness the ultimate Japanese
00:06:55Japanese fishing tradition. I'm on
00:06:57on a small island in an area called called Toba, which is home to one
00:07:01one of Japan's most unusual communities
00:07:04communities a group, mostly women women who over generations have forged
00:07:08forged a really tight bond with both
00:07:10both the sea and nature generally.
00:07:19generally. AMA are iconic Japanese
00:07:21Japanese freedivers who collect seafood, seafood, seaweed and even pearls
00:07:25pearls from the sea floor. Almost
00:07:28Almost all AMA are women, and many
00:07:30many keep diving until their 70s.
00:07:3270s. 80s and even 90s diving without
00:07:37without oxygen in their traditional traditional white outfits. It's a a centuries old way of life that's
00:07:41that's been passed down through generations,
00:07:44generations, but today's divers under under threat from all the pressures
00:07:48pressures of modernity, are having having to adapt. Like here, displaying
00:07:51displaying their skills for tourists.
00:07:56tourists. Talbi what is this show
00:07:58show about? An Amazon
00:08:11Which do you prefer getting real fish or would you like doing
00:08:14doing this and performing to tourists?
00:08:21tourists? Hi. It's kind of ironic
00:08:25ironic because for a long time Japan
00:08:28Japan was a homogenous and quite
00:08:29quite inward looking society. But
00:08:32But it's outsiders, tourists who who are now providing a major industry
00:08:36industry here. But rest assured elsewhere elsewhere there is still some genuine
00:08:40genuine AMA diving going on a few
00:08:43few miles along the shore in Asatsu Asatsu I meet some divers who are
00:08:46are still making a living from this
00:08:48this traditional form of fishing.
00:08:54fishing. He Abha so much. Obasanjo
00:09:00Obasanjo Hayato. AMA Oshima's watashi
00:09:06watashi wa Umi Asa yukimasu. So I
00:09:12I don't know. I Oyo State mo. Genbo
00:09:27Genbo no doesn't. Yet these AMA still
00:09:32still need to supplement their income
00:09:33income by preparing meals for. Well,
00:09:36Well, people like me. How is it different
00:09:40different now diving to when you
00:09:42you first started doing it? Solheim
00:09:51Solheim Cup. And why do you think
00:09:55think that is? Do you think AMA diving
00:10:00diving will carry on? I know I know.
00:10:18Even having spent just a few hours with these charming ladies
00:10:21ladies has made me realise that the
00:10:23the traditional old ways aren't just just romantic. They actually offer
00:10:27offer a viable way of life for the the next generation. It was really
00:10:30really interesting to learn that that people are coming back here
00:10:33here to actually live and work as
00:10:35as AMA divers. Maybe it's just very
00:10:37very Japanese. The past is also
00:10:51the future. Discover the world on
00:10:53on BBC News
00:14:29MUSIC
00:15:13Live from London. This is BBC News.
00:15:17News. Baby wards in England are to to get cot Camhs after an inquiry
00:15:20inquiry into Nurse Lucy Letby, who who murdered seven children, found
00:15:24found that lives could have been
00:15:27been saved. The public inquiry found found there was a complete failure
00:15:31failure at the hospital to protect
00:15:34protect babies. Errors were made made by nurses, doctors and managers
00:15:37managers at the time of these events.
00:15:40events. There was also complete failure
00:15:42failure at all levels to invoke safeguarding
00:15:45safeguarding procedures at any point.
00:15:47point. The EU chief hits out at Russia's
00:15:50Russia's reckless and dangerous behaviour behaviour after a drone is shot down
00:15:53down over European Union airspace
00:15:55airspace by Nato fighter jets. The
00:15:58The United States confirms for the the first