US downplays suggestions it could commit war crimes in Iran

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1:05This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 31st of March, these are our main stories. President Donald Trump threatens to destroy Iran's energy infrastructure and desalination plants unless Tehran makes a deal. The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting later today after two more UN peacekeepers were killed in southern Lebanon and Israel's parliament passes a new law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks on Israel. Also in this podcast. Months later, we heard in the news that premature infants had died in El Shifa hospital. I would look at the photos trying to feel as a mother, whether this could be my child or not. Premature Palestinian babies evacuated from Gaza finally return home.

2:08President Trump has been reading Iran the riot act since the start of the war issuing threats to the Islamic Republic on an almost daily basis. Mr Trump's latest warning to Tehran was to make a deal to end the conflict or he would order the US military to destroy all of Iran's oil wells, electricity generating plants, and hog island, the country's critical hub for exporting its oil. He went further, raising the possibility of making water a weapon of war by including desalination plants on his list, which your journalist read out during a press conference at the White House. Caroline Levert, Mr Trump's press secretary, was asked why her boss was threatening Iranian civilian infrastructure, which, if attacked, could constitute a war crime. The president has made it quite clear to the Iranian regime at this moment in time, as evidenced by the statement that you just read that their best move is to make a deal, or else the United States Armed Forces has capabilities

3:09beyond their wildest imagination, and the president is not afraid to use that. That's not what I said, Garrett, and you're saying the word potential for a reason, because I'm sure some experts are telling you that in your ear, to try to ask me that question. Of course, this administration in the United States Armed Forces will always act within the confines of the law, but with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epicfury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated, and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration. Iran said it had received US peace proposals via intermediaries, but these were unrealistic, illogical, and excessive. Although President Trump wants a deal for ending the war by the beginning of next week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he didn't want to put a schedule on the timeline for finishing the conflict. He told US television that more than half of Israel's military aims had been achieved since the start of the war more than four weeks ago. I've been speaking to our North America correspondent Peter Bose.

4:13Iran doesn't appear to be backing down, or showing any signs of coming on board as far as the US demands are concerned, far from it. It's really hard to quantify any effect that the President's strategy is having. Indeed, it is difficult to define what the President's strategy is. He claims to be in serious discussions with a new and more reasonable Iranian regime, but Donald Trump vacillates constantly one moment he's making as you suggest increased threats against Iran, the other suggesting that talks are going well. And we're still not clear that actual talks are taking place as opposed to an exchange of messages through intermediaries, which seems the most likely, but not direct contact. Is there a strong appetite in the White House to put, as they call it, boots on the ground? Well, there's no indication that the White House wants a ground war, but it is, I think, deliberately keeping that option on the table, as it has since the start of the war at the end of last month. Officials have been quite careful to talk about all options,

5:13which is a familiar phrasing of the various scenarios that could unfold, I think, designed to maintain pressure on Tehran. In fact, if I were to attempt to define what the strategy is, it will be one of maximum pressure without full commitment. So, keeping military options visible, and we're watching the build-up of US military personnel in the Gulf, but relying on air-powered deterrence, negotiation, whatever, that is taking to avoid the political and human costs of boots on the ground. President Trump has set next Monday as his deadline for a deal. How much pressure is he under at home to finish this war? I think he's under significant domestic pressure, and it is growing every day. There's certainly economic pressure, rising oil and fuel prices, linked to the disruption in the Middle East. There's certainly feeding domestic concern. Public opinion is broadly against the war continuing. There was an opinion poll published towards the end of last week, which suggested that around 61 percent of Americans disapprove

6:17of Mr. Trump's handling of the conflict only about 37 percent approving. Separate polling has suggested that a majority of voters, about 54 percent, oppose the military action altogether. And I think most significantly, six in ten, say that the strikes have already gone too far. Peter Bose. An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council will be held on Tuesday after two more peacekeepers with the UN's unifilk force were killed in southern Lebanon. It's there. Israeli forces have been fighting the Iranian-backed group, Hezbollah, a route correspondent, Lena Sinjab, sent this update. This is probably the deadliest time of this war in Lebanon. Unifilk has come to announce two of its peacekeepers have been killed. They haven't confirmed how this happened or who's the source of the killing. The Lebanese army, though, said one soldier has been killed, and many others injured in an Israeli strike on a checkpoint south of the city of Tier.

7:23This comes after escalation, more airstrikes in the south of the capital Beirut and in the south of the country. Over the weekend, three journalists have been killed. More than seven paramedics have been also killed, totaling the number of paramedics being killed in this war to 52. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they are expanding their ground operation in the south of Lebanon. They've already taken control of nearly 10% of Lebanon's territory to the south of Lytani River. There are talks that they are reaching even further north of Lytani River. This is an area that is home to hundreds of thousands. Many of whom have fled their areas and their villages. The total number of displaced people have reached over 1.2 million scattered around the country with no idea when they're going to go back to their homes. But the problem is in the south that there are still almost 150,000 civilians who are still trapped with no way to reach north of the country after Israeli bombed the infrastructure,

8:28cutting out roots and bridges and fuel station. The Lebanese have lived an occupation, an Israeli occupation since 1982 for 18 years, and now they fear that they are living this situation again, especially that at the time Hasbullah is determined to continue firing rockets into northern Israel with no, you know, respond to any mediation for talks, for negotiations, for a way to de-escalate detention. Lena Sinjab, Myanmar has been hit harder than most by the fuel shortages caused by the war in Iran. Once an oil exporter, it now relies on imports for 90% of its oil and refined petroleum. The military government tried restricting motorists to driving on alternate days, based on their number plates, but has now introduced a rationing system using barcodes, which means drivers can use less than one tank of petrol a week. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head filed this report from Yangon.

9:30Endless queues of cars, taxis, minibuses and motorbikes can be seen outside pretty much every petrol station in Myanmar. They start forming early in the morning, long before the fuel supplies arrive. Some of these people have waited more than two hours to get to this point, and even when they reach the pumps, their subjects to strict rationing, just 35 liters a week for most private cars, the increasing cost is putting a huge strain on a population already struggling with an economy that has collapsed thanks to the ongoing civil war, and their only alternative to getting fuel here is to use the black market where fuel costs more than 10 times as much as it does here. Now to respond to this, some people are turning to Chinese-made EVs, but even that's not a solution in Myanmar because electricity supplies here are so erratic. Many households rely on generators for which they can no longer get the fuel needed to power them.

10:31Jonathan Head in Yangon. Members of the Israeli Parliament or Knesset have voted to pass a new law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks on Israel. Although the death penalty has long been legal in Israel, only two people have been executed in the country's history. European nations, including France and Germany, say the legislation risks undermining Israel's democratic principles, at least analysts Sebastian Asher reports. This has been on the cards for a long time. We've just had the second and third final readings in the Knesset. It passed relatively smoothly, relatively easily. It's essentially a law that will mean that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in the part of Gaza that is under Israeli control, will once they've been convicted of carrying out a deadly attack and attack essentially

11:32on the state of Israel by default, they will be executed within 90 days. They'll be executed by hanging. This is in military courts and as it stands, there isn't an appeal. This is something that's been pushed through very much by the hard right, National Security Minister, Eta Mabengavir. It's a real victory for him to get this through. It has been attacked within Israel by rights groups and outside European governments. Others have expressed their deep concern that it's discriminatory because, although it doesn't explicitly say that there's is only for Palestinians, because of the way that it's phrased, the way that it's couched, there's the faintest shadow of a chance that a Jewish extremist also convicted of a killing would not face a death penalty. Sebastian Asher in Jerusalem. During Israel's war in Gaza,

12:3331 newborn babies were evacuated for medical treatment when the IDF attacked our Shefa Hospital, claiming Hamas was using it as a base. Two and a half years later, with a fragile ceasefire in place and the raffer crossing partially open, some of those Palestinian children have now returned to Gaza and been reunited with their families. Our correspondent Lucy Williamson reports. It was the other battle at Shefa Hospital. Dozens of premature babies born into war, dependent on a waning system of life support, power cuts, as deadly as gunfire. The evacuations were hurried convoys through an active combat zone. In the chaos of displacement, links to some parents were lost. One of those babies was Sundousel Kurds daughter Bissan. Months later, we heard in the news that premature infants had died in El Shefa Hospital.

13:36I would look at the photos trying to feel as a mother, whether this could be my child or not. I lived for nearly a year between despair and hope that my daughter might still be alive. Today, eight of those children came home, a small triumph of Gaza's fragile ceasefire deal. The chaos at NASA Hospital, for once, a sign of excitement. Bissan was one of those who returned today. The baby in an incubator, now a toddler, in bright pink glasses. Her first battle for survival won. She could still face another. Six months into this ceasefire, Gaza's future is uncertain, stuck in limbo between war and peace. With Israel's new wars in Lebanon and Iran, attention has drained away from Gaza, but the lessons it holds are more relevant than ever, about the challenge of leveraging military might into peace. Lucy Williamson

14:40Still to come in this podcast. I'm almost 79 years old, so 40 years ago I said, I'll be back. Now I say, oh my back. The Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger receives an honorary doctorate. For the first time in more than 50 years, humans are traveling to the moon, and 13 minutes, the BBC's space podcast is following this epic endeavor every step of the way. We're telling you the story of Artemis 2, as it happens, and chatting with some of the people making it possible. 13 minutes presents Artemis 2, from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Welcome to the interface, the show that decodes the tech that's rewiring your week and your world.

15:43On this week's episode, we'll look at the way that algorithms could change how much you're paying for your groceries, how even astronauts have issues with Microsoft Outlook, and whether the next trend in tech is less tech. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. British jets have been flying defensive missions over Cypress, Jordan, Qatar, and Bahrain ever since the US and Israel began their bombing campaign against Iran. They've clocked up more than 1,000 hours of flying and have already shot down several drones. Our defence correspondent, Jonathan Beale, joined the crew of an RAF refueling tanker on a mission from RAF Akratiri in Cypress. A typhoon jet rips through the night sky above RAF Akratiri in Cypress.

16:50Followed by the heavier rumble of a voyager refueling tanker, which we've joined on a mission to hunt down Iranian drones. Soon the shimmering lights of Cypress fade into the distance, and for the crew in the voyager, signs of a war still raging. We're just sort of flash of orange there that could have been a missile going down. Proof Iran is still a threat after a month of heavy US and Israeli bombing. Yeah, we're safe here. It's very much targeted at that area that's first to you at the Arle of Cypress. Yeah, it might be the iron dome from Israel or something else,

17:53so we don't necessarily know that there's just a lot of kinetic things happening in the area at the moment. The typhoon and the net 35 refueled several times from this petrol station in the sky after looking for targets. This time they find none. But British jets have shot down several drones. On the ground an F-35 pilot explains it's no easy task with the drones flying low and slow. There are lots of risks as you might expect as operating a fast jet is a dangerous business let alone if you're trying to do targeting close to the surface of the land or the sea and integrate with a lot of other assets in what might be a complicated scenario that's evolving very rapidly. Acritiri's defenses were bolstered before the war started, but they've been reinforcements

18:57after a drone hit the base, including helicopters carrying air defense missiles. In addition to the armored vehicles fitted with the same. I asked Major General Tom Buick, the commander of British forces Cyprus, whether it's enough to deter Iran from trying to carry out any future attack. All I say is that the amount of capability that we've got to deploy that here means that I am as sure as I can be that we're in a good place. You do not think this base will be attacked again by... It could easily be attacked again. I'm so I'm not saying it's been attacked once so I'll be a fool to say it's not going to be attacked again. What I'm saying is that given the amount of warning out there and the air defense assets we've got in place we're as well protected as we can be. British jets have been flying these defensive missions for a month now, but when and how this winds is out of their hands this could become another enduring commitment

20:03for already stretched British armed forces. Jonathan Beale Some of the world's biggest social media companies are being investigated by the Australian Internet regulator over suspected breaches of its new social media ban for under 16s. The government and campaigners said the changes were crucial in order to protect children from harmful content and addictive algorithms. The BBC's Simon Atkinson told me more. This is the first report from the regulator since the social media ban was instigated in December and in it the country's safety commissioner who's basically in charge of this said they had significant concerns about the compliance five of the platforms covered by the law, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. It's basically all the big ones and it's identified what it's calling poor practices across those companies. Some of those are basically around the way that children are effectively getting around the ban, around the restrictions, so that includes companies giving children who at some point said they were under 16,

21:07giving them the chance to show that they are in fact over 16, allowing children to repeatedly try the same age assurance methods again and again until they get the result thereafter to convince the system that they are 16 and also not providing effective ways for parents and others to report those under 16s who still had access to social media. So the regulator says it's going to gather evidence now of those breaches and move them to enforcement mode. The powers it has basically are fines and they're fairly minuscule compared to the profits of these tech giants. They work out about $33 million and of course because these are predominantly US-owned firms but this is law in Australia. So it only has regulation and jurisdiction over under 16s accessing the platforms here in Australia. Any response from those social media giants? Yeah, I've contacted all of those which the regulator has had concerns about today. TikTok had nothing to add at this point. I'm still waiting to hear from Google which of course owns YouTube.

22:08Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, it did respond. It said it wanted a stress that although there were a list of these pool practices, not all of them applied to Meta, it said it was committed to complying with the law and also effectively it said, look, it's actually very hard to determine accurately when someone is 16 or not. There's a margin of error and it wants more of the emphasis to be put on the operators of the app stores to determine before these apps are downloaded and snap. They've also applied the owner of Snapchat. It said it's locked 450,000 accounts since the ban and continue to lock more every day. It also alluded to it being difficult. It said, you know, this is a new and untested law and that improvement to preventing underage users from having Snapchat accounts is going to take time to kind of perfect Simon Atkinson in Queensland. It's a voice that is famous for instilling fear. That was of course Arnold Schwarzenegger who's now offering

23:09inspiration to students in Belfast, the actor, bodybuilder and former governor of California has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Ulster University. Our island correspondent Chris Page was at the ceremony. Ulster University, please welcome our very special guest, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Students held up signs saying, Hastel Avista Ulster, as the movie icon arrived in Belfast City Center, Arnold Schwarzenegger said it was six decades since he first visited Northern Ireland for a bodybuilding exhibition. He described his nervousness when the host asked him to say a few words for the audience he'd never spoken in public before. Since then, he's won Mr. Universe, been awarded numerous movie prizes and been elected governor of California. After he received his honorary degree, Dr. Schwarzenegger was asked for life lessons for young people studying at Ulster University. He used the illustration from weight training to make his points.

24:12If I do the exercise and it's easy, no bicep will grow. But when the train will have your weight and their struggle, then it will grow. And that's the way it is in life. Most important things, work, work, work, there is no shortcut. He said he still had ambitions, though hinted he was feeling some of the aches of aging. His parting message was, ignore the naysayers who tell you that your ambitions aren't possible. Dr. Schwarzenegger's advice was to be relentless, like the Terminator. Chris Page reporting. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have been tackling the issue of economic inactivity, the relatively high number of people who are eligible for work, but not employed or actively looking for a job. But what prompts a disgruntled

25:16employee to quit? Anthony Klotz is a London-based American academic who foresaw that the pandemic would lead to what he called a great resignation of workers across the United States. He spoke to my colleague, James Kumarasami, about the various jolts that can lead to people quitting their jobs. The jolt is an event that makes us stop and rethink our relationship with work. And so you can imagine these often come from outside of work as well. So when we have a health scare, or perhaps a family member does, or even when we hear about tragic news on the other side of the world, and we think to ourselves, you know, these important things are going on in the world, and here's what I'm doing in my job. And then finally, I don't want to be completely negative. There's positive jolts as well. So even the positive events in our life, such as having a first child getting married, or even reaching a big birthday can cause us to take a step back and think, is this what I want to be doing with my life? And are these jolt things that, you know,

26:16you might want to try and fight against? Be aware of? Absolutely. I mean, they're more common than we'd think. And so if we went around responding dramatically to every jolt we had, I think that would be a pretty hectic and disorganized way of working and living. And so I think ideally when these jolts happen, if you can, really do nothing until the emotion subsides. And then try to figure out the cause of the jolt. What is this really telling us? Why am I questioning my job, my relationship with work right now? And what options do I have for responding to it? So even though the book is partly about quitting, often for most of our careers quitting isn't an option for us when we experience these jolts. So what are the other options we have? Well, I'd like to ask you, I mean, you came up with this phrase, the great resignation. I think what was it? May 2021, as, you know, the pandemic was in full swing. Why were you so certain that people would quit their jobs afterwards? Well, it had to do mostly with jolts

27:20and then a little bit about the economy as well. And so over the course of the pandemic, people experienced a number of different jolts. So the way that many people worked changed the place where many people worked changed from in person to remote and then back again. And during the pandemic, I mean, look, it was, it was a, it was a health scare for a lot of us. And, you know, a lot of people were sitting and thinking, if I make it through this, I'm going to change things. And all of these jolts were happening against the backdrop of a really slow economy that was shut down for the pandemic. And so you had this backlog, really, of jolts causing quitting in the economy. And coming out of the pandemic, the economy opened up pretty quickly, which was fairly rare and unleashed jolts on the labour market. That was Anthony Klotz, author of Jolted, why we quit, Wednesday, and why it matters. Celine Dion has announced that she will return to the stage in the autumn,

28:22four years after she was diagnosed with a rare medical condition. The Canadian pop star, who's 58, will perform 10 shows in Paris. It's also her birthday. And she said this announcement was the best gift of her life. On Monday night, the multiple award-winning singers return to the stage was marked by the Eiffel Tower lighting up with the message, yes, we pret, or I am ready. Music correspondent Mark Savage reports on her long awaited return. This is the news that Celine Dion's fans have been waiting for. She will come back for 10 nights in Paris this September and October, playing to more than 400,000 fans. It's six years since she last played a concert. And in that time, she's been diagnosed with an incredibly rare neurological condition called stiff person syndrome. It affects the muscles, including the vocal chords, and that has left her for a long time unable to sing. And when it was at its worst, it affected her mobility as well. But she's had years of intensive training, a physical therapy and medicine

29:28in order to be able to make her comeback. She said in a video message to her fans tonight that she would even be able to dance when she's back on stage. And I demand for those tickets is going to be incredibly high. You can register on her website, but they don't go on sale until next month. Mark Savage reporting on Celine Dion's remarkable music comeback. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod. And don't forget our sister podcast, the global story, which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the globalnewspodcast was mixed by Holly Smith and produced by Ira Khan. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Richardson until next time. Goodbye.

30:39It's been over half a century since humans lost travel to the moon. Now, NASA's Artemis 2 mission hopes to change that. Four astronauts on a journey living around the moon, which aims to take them further from the Earth than anyone has ever got before. I'm Space Scientist, Madeleine Daring. And in this special new season of 13 minutes, the BBC Space Podcast, we're telling you the story of Artemis 2, as it happens. Joining me is the astronaut Tim Peek. We're bringing you the inside story of every moment of the mission and chatting with some of the people making it possible. So, buckle up for 13 minutes presents Artemis 2 from the BBC World Service. Listen now, whatever you get to your BBC Podcasts.