Author: BBC World Service

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Newshour - Trump to make decision on Iran attack within 2 weeks

In Washington DC earlier, President Trump said he would decide within the next two weeks whether or not to take military action against Iran. The US leader is reported to have agreed a potential plan of attack targeting Iran's nuclear facilities. The BBC’s Nomia Iqbal joins us from Washington to discuss what Trump might be thinking. We also get the latest on the Israeli Soroka Hospital that was struck by an Iranian missile overnight. Also in the programme: Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh tells the BBC it would be "a big mistake” for the US to join in Israeli attacks; One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets explodes on a Texas launchpad; and the project patching fragmented Roman frescoes back together in London.

(Photo: US President Donald Trump answers reporters' questions in the White House in Washington DC, USA, 18th June 2025. Credit: Ken Cedeno/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

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Science In Action - Once lost now found: half a universe

How half of the normal matter in the universe is finally confirmed to exist, not that most of us knew it wasn’t. Also, why the next big collider should be muon-muon, and a spider that hangs out around underwater methane seeps.

The universe is thought to consist of 70% Dark Energy, 25% Dark Matter, and just 5% Baryonic matter which is the atoms that make up you and me. At least, that’s what the models suggest. But a well-kept secret between astronomers and cosmologists for all these years has been that they haven’t actually ever seen almost half of that 5% normal matter because it is thinly dispersed as gas between the galaxies and galactic clusters. This week, two studies have been published putting that right.

Satisfactory model-match #1: Liam Connor of Harvard University with colleagues from Caltech have been using a mysterious phenomenon called Fast Radio Bursts (FBRs) to infer what the intergalactic medium is in between, and how much of it there is.

Satisfactory model-match #2: Konstanios Migkas of Leiden University and colleagues have been looking at the very faint x-ray signal from the intergalactic medium, removing the incidental x-ray sources such as black holes, and have managed to identify some structure - in this case a mind-bendingly huge filament of ionised gas stretching between two galactic superclusters - confirming the state of “Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium” (WHIM) as predicted for much of the universe.

Of course, there is not just the cosmological standard model (lambdaCDM) that these satisfy in science today. There is also the remarkably resilient Standard Model of particle physics. A report this week from the US National Academies recommends the US begins building the world’s next particle collider to follow the work of the LHC (and FCC) at Cern. It should, as University of Texas at Knoxville’s Tova Holmes tells us, collide not ordinary, stable, easy to manipulate particles like protons and electrons, but muons.

Finally, Shana Goffredi of Occidental College in California, has found a VERY odd spider. Diving to depths in the submersible Alvin, they have found that a species of small sea-spiders, Sericosura, actually farm bacteria on their exoskeleton. Why? Because they hang around methane seeps on the ocean floor, where a specialist bacteria can metabolize methane – something the spiders themselves can’t do. Not only do the spiders then graze on the bacteria they carry around, they even pass samples of the bacteria onto their offspring by leaving bacterial lunch-boxes in their egg-sacs.

Presenter: Roland Pease Producer: Alex Mansfield, with Sophie Ormiston Production Coordinator: Jasmine Cerys George

Photo Credit: Jack Madden, IllustrisTNG, Ralf Konietzka, Liam Connor/CfA

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Newshour - Iranian minister warns US not to join in Israeli attacks

In a rare interview with the Iranian government from inside Tehran, Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh tells the BBC's Lyse Doucet it would be "a big mistake" for President Trump to join Israel's bombing campaign. It's a view shared by many of Mr Trump's most loyal supporters; we assess what's at stake, militarily and politically.

Also in the programme: a draft peace deal to end the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo; and the American businessman buying the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team for an eye-watering $10bn.

(IMAGE: Smoke rises near the Milad Tower following an Israeli airstrike on Tehran, Iran, 18 June 2025 / CREDIT: Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock)

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Focus on Africa - Nigeria: What’s behind Benue state attacks?

Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu has ordered security agencies to bring an end to the wave of killings in Benue state. It's believed that more than 200 people were killed in attacks across various communities. What's behind the increase in violence?

Also, a young man from the DRC is on the path to sainthood in the Catholic Church. Who was he and what did he do to achieve this?

And we discuss the state of the book industry on the continent, following the first ever UNESCO report on the issue, with one of the authors of the report, Elitha van der Sandt and the internationally acclaimed Nigerian author, Lola Shoneyin.

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Tom Kavanagh, Sunita Nahar and Wedaeli Chibelushi Technical Producer: Chris Ablakwa Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

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Newshour - Will the US get directly involved against Iran?

Will the US get directly involved in Israel's military campaign against Iran? We hear from former CIA director and US commander in Afghanistan and Iraq, General David Petraeus. Also: low attendance and low morale at FIFA's Club World Cup; and mounds of clothing turn up in protected conservation sites in Ghana,

(Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump salutes as a U.S. flag is raised on a new flagpole installed on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

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Focus on Africa - How Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis affects education

The Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon is severely impacting education. With widespread school closures and displacement of teachers and students. Over 200,000 students are reportedly out of school.

Is China’s recent offer to extend zero-tariff treatment to almost all African countries a reason to celebrate?

And why Kenyan smallholder farmers went to court to fight for the right to sell indigenous seeds.

Presenter:: Audrey Brown Producers: Bella Hassan in London. Blessing Aderogba in Lagos and Richard Kagoe in Nairobi. Technical Producer: Chris Kouzaris Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi