Iran has damaged 20 US military sites since the start of the war, satellite images and videos analysed by BBC Verify show, suggesting the attacks are more extensive than publicly acknowledged.

Iran has targeted key facilities across eight countries in the Middle East since the end of February, causing millions of dollars of damage to state-of the-art air defence systems, refuelling aircraft and radars.

The US has sought to limit satellite analysis of the conflict by requesting Planet, a major provider, to impose an "indefinite" restriction on new images of Iran and most of the Middle East. The company justified the move, saying that it wanted to ensure its images were not used "by adversarial actors to target allied and Nato-partner personnel and civilians".

BBC Verify has used satellite imagery from other international providers combined with older images from Planet to track the damage caused by Iranian attacks. The facilities are in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman. The actual figure could be higher, with some analysts placing the number of bases hit as high as 28.

Among the valuable hardware damaged were three state-of-the-art anti-ballistic missile batteries systems at the Al Ruwais and Al Sader airbases in the UAE and Muwaffaq Salti Airbase in Jordan.

The US is only known to operate eight of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries, which are deployed at bases around the globe and cost around $1bn (£766m) to manufacture. Each battery needs a crew of about 100 troops to operate it while the interceptors it fires cost around $12.7m per round.

Vice-Admiral Mark Mellett, the ex-head of the Irish Defence Forces, told BBC Verify that the batteries are at the core of a "highly complex" regional defence network that cannot be "quickly or easily replaced".

Iranian strikes have also heavily hit US refuelling and surveillance aircraft at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, expert analysis of satellite images show, with damaged aircraft and smoking craters clearly visible.

One aircraft was identified by a MAIAR analyst as an E-3 Sentry surveillance plane. US media reported that it could cost up to $700m to replace.

Putting a launcher and radar on a tiny island the size of a park isn't viable for actual conflict. That park is going to get hit by a hundred drones. Where's the launcher supposed to shoot and scoot to, how and where are replacements coming. Forget Ukraine. There's around 1,000km distance of US ally/bases territory U.S. could use from the border of Israel right up to the border of Iran.

For comparison, the width of the Korean peninsula on average is 300km and is around the same distance from the Chinese coastline. People have crossed the Yellow Sea on jet skis before.

Where is the U.S. supposed to get its strategic depth in a conflict off the Chinese coastline and how far away is it? Okinawa island is 1/10 the size of Qatar. Kyushu is only the size of Taiwan/US state of Maryland and over 1,000 km away. All of China would be strategic depth starting from right next to the conflict area. That's around 5,000km eastern coast and 5,000km to the west from that coast.

Both Ukraine and Iran conflicts continue to affirm everything is going to get hit and hit often, so strategic depth and logistics/supply lines still dominate modern warfare.

If you believe conflict with America is inevitable, a small island off the entire Chinese coast is exactly where the PLA would want it. Iran neutralised military threats near its territory without sending a single soldier out. China has a far larger arsenal and the threats are in very localized areas. The same for blockades, Iran can hold out for a long time. China has far more non Malacca options than US Asian allies, Russia is literally right there and the numerous over land Central Asian routes. There's also no selective blockades for Hormuz or Malacca, sooner or later it is all shutdown or all open.

From the star of the show: the Unitree R1 humanoid robot, showcasing a surreal range of motion; to the massive crowd-pleaser Go2 quadruped robot outfitted in a lifelike, simulated panda skin; the video highlights how China's tech giants are bringing next-generation embodied Al into everyday households, backed by the proud achievement of shipping over 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025 to rank first in the world.

• 6月1日（国际儿童节）：起源于1949年国际民主妇女联合会（纪念二战受难儿童），许多前社会主义/共产主义国家采用。中国、俄罗斯、越南、朝鲜、蒙古、波兰、罗马尼亚、阿尔巴尼亚、柬埔寨、老挝等40多个国家在此日庆祝。

• 11月20日（世界儿童日 / Universal Children's Day）：联合国1954年设立（纪念1959年《儿童权利宣言》和1989年《儿童权利公约》），强调儿童权利。由UNICEF推动，加拿大、法国、希腊、以色列、瑞典、澳大利亚等国采用，许多国家在此日开展全球行动。

注意：乌克兰2025年起从6月1日改为11月20日。

• 中国：6月1日（学校活动、表演、礼物、半天假等）。
• 日本：5月5日（Kodomo no Hi，男孩节传统），放鲤鱼旗、吃柏饼、家庭出游，是黄金周一部分。
• 韩国：5月5日（Eorininal），家庭野餐、游乐园、礼物。
• 印度：11月14日（Nehru生日），儿童权利活动、学校庆祝。
• 土耳其：4月23日（国家主权与儿童节），儿童象征性“管理”国家、议会活动。
• 墨西哥：4月30日（Día del Niño），学校派对、游戏、糖果。
• 巴西：10月12日，家庭聚会、礼物。
• 泰国：1月第二个星期六。
• 台湾/香港：4月4日。
• 其他：新西兰（3月第一个周日）、印尼（7月23日）、阿根廷（8月21日）等。

Microscopic analysis of residues on surgical scissors and tweezers from a 1348-1411 CE tomb in Jiangyin, China finds the first evidence for the controlled application of a highly toxic chemical as anaesthetic, highlighting the sophisticated medicine of the Ming dynasty.

To tackle this, archaeologists used a novel, non-destructive microscopic technique to analyse residues on a pair of surgical scissors and tweezers from the tomb of early Ming dynasty physician Xia Quan.

“Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopic imaging is an advanced optical technique that can be used to accurately identify material compositions and map component distribution, effectively overcoming the key challenges in residue research of minimal sample availability and the need to preserve archaeological material”, says co-author of the research, Professor Congcang Zhao from Northwest University.

The researchers found evidence for residue of aconitine: an alkaloid derived from the plant Aconitum. Also known as wolfsbane or monkshood, Aconitum is extremely toxic.

This toxicity was recognised and several methods to mitigate it had been developed by the time of the Ming dynasty, from vinegar-boiling to detoxifying with mung beans. The resulting powder acted as an anaesthetic, enabling pain-free surgery.

Whilst recipes for the production of Aconitum powder are known from ancient Chinese medical texts, this is the first direct physical evidence for its use in surgery.

It was likely applied to the patient’s skin to numb the area before incisions were made, requiring meticulous application and strict control to mitigate toxicity.

“Combined with records of anaesthetic prescriptions in Ming Dynasty medical texts, the study confirms that Aconitum was employed as a topical anaesthetic, safely and precisely applied during surgical procedures”, explains Professor Zhao. “Ming physicians used iron surgical instruments and controlled the toxicity of aconitine through topical application, compound prescriptions and strict procedural controls, demonstrating a practical ability to balance drug potency with patient safety.”

Medical professionals in Ming China were therefore not only highly knowledgeable in the production of anaesthetic, but also in its safe use, highlighting sophisticated medical knowledge and surgical techniques as early as the 14th century CE.

“Six centuries ago, a Ming Dynasty surgeon performed an operation with a pair of iron scissors and tweezers, and today we have read the traces of anaesthetic medicine left on those instruments using a beam of laser light”, Professor Zhao concludes—this is the first time humanity has found direct chemical evidence of anaesthetics on ancient surgical tools, proving that our ancestors already knew how to safely alleviate patients' pain with highly toxic herbs.”

Iran is poised to fire far more long-range missiles at Israel and other Middle Eastern nations after rapidly digging out its buried arsenals – an effort that highlights the limits to US bombing strategy, experts said.

For weeks, strikes by the United States and Israel restricted Iran’s access to its underground missile sites by destroying roads and burying tunnel entrances.

But satellite images reviewed by CNN show how Iran has used simple equipment such as bulldozers and dump trucks to counter those costly campaigns — suggesting that Tehran’s missile capabilities can’t be destroyed just by targeting tunnel entrances, experts said.

If hostilities do resume, Iran is in position to “continue launching missiles so long as they have launchers and crews, even if production has halted,” said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies who analyzes Iran’s missile capabilities. “There’s nothing to prevent the launchers from being armed with the ample stockpile of missiles that the Iranians still have.”

During the fighting, Iran worked to excavate the tunnel entrances at great peril, with the US and Israel often striking the equipment used for digging. That work enabled Tehran to continue firing missiles throughout the war, though at vastly reduced rates. Since the ceasefire more than seven weeks ago, Iranian efforts to excavate the bases have accelerated significantly.

CNN found that Iran has now unblocked 50 out of the 69 tunnel entrances struck by the US and Israel at 18 underground missile facilities.

Iran has repaired other parts of the bases as well, including roads that the US and Israel bombed to prevent missile launchers from using them. Satellite images show almost all these craters have now been filled, and at two sites, even repaved.

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Video description: Japan’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has firmly rejected accusations of “new militarism,” saying Japan has neither nuclear weapons nor strategic bombers and remains committed to international law and a free and open international order.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Koizumi questioned the basis of the label, urged direct and candid dialogue between nations, and expressed disappointment over the absence of a meeting with his Chinese counterpart. He reiterated that Japan’s “door to dialogue is always open,” even amid rising regional tensions and repeated accusations from Beijing.

Yicai

Chengxin Memory Technology has won the Shanghai Stock Exchange's approval for its initial public offering, setting up China’s leading producer of dynamic random-access memory chips for what will be the Chinese mainland’s biggest listing since 2022.

CXMT has been given the green light to list on the Nasdaq-style Star Market, the bourse said yesterday. The Hefei-based chipmaker plans to issue 10.6 billion shares to raise CNY29.5 billion (USD4.4 billion), which would also rank as the second-largest IPO on the Star Market.

China Mobile's "homecoming" listing in January 2022 was the biggest mainland IPO in the past four years, raising CNY56 billion.

CXMT’s planned fundraising is modest relative to firm’s long-term capital needs, Yang Haiyan, chief electronics sector analyst at SWS Research, told Yicai. While CXMT targets nearly CNY30 billion, a single wafer fabrication plant typically costs hundreds of billions of yuan, Yang pointed out.

CXMT ranks first for DRAM production capacity in China and fourth worldwide, though it still trails the industry’s top three players, according to its prospectus.

As a leading domestic DRAM maker, CXMT’s listing will support growth across the upstream equipment, materials, and packaging segments, as well as downstream memory-related industries, Yang said.

CXMT’s expansion will create sustained and sizeable demand for semiconductor equipment and materials, encouraging suppliers to speed up product validation and hasten large-scale deployment, Yang said. It is also expected to deepen ties between domestic wafer fabs, midstream packaging and testing firms, and downstream memory module makers, while enabling greater flexibility in responding to market demand, he pointed out.

Global DRAM prices have skyrocketed on booming demand from the artificial intelligence industry and data centers, with their share of a computing rack’s value doubling to about 20 percent from less than 10 percent last year, Yang noted. As AI applications continue to scale and commercialize, the DRAM market is likely to remain tight in the years ahead, he added.

CXMT swung to a CNY1.9 billion (USD280.3 million) net profit last year, after losing CNY7.1 billion in 2024 and CNY16.3 billion in 2023, according to the prospectus. Revenue soared 156 percent to CNY61.8 billion in 2025.

For the first quarter of this year, profit topped CNY33 billion, with nearly CNY24.8 billion attributable to shareholders of the parent company. Revenue skyrocketed more than eightfold year on year to CNY50.8 billion.

The earnings recovery reflects ongoing growth in global demand for computing power, a persistent supply shortage in the DRAM market, and rising prices.

It's quite interesting that CXMT captured 8% of world share as a private company. It seems it is leveraging the current DRAM memory crisis as a launchpad to go public. It is guaranteed to have state preference over the big 3 so you can reasonably assume their market share to dominate China soon.

As for their tech level, they are projecting localized HBM3 mass production within 1 year. So around 3 years behind.

CGTN

China's first commercially operated smart container ship, "Zhi Fei," docked precisely at an automated terminal in Qingdao Port in east China's Shandong Province using autonomous navigation mode on Saturday. This marks the first time China has achieved full-process unmanned operations for a container ship, covering navigation, berthing and cargo handling.