Iran attacks energy facilities in the Gulf

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This is a global news podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Uncle Deci and in the early hours of Thursday the 19th of March, these are our main stories.

Iran attacks energy facilities across the Gulf after the country's largest gas field is hit by

Israel. America's top spies testify that after almost three weeks of war, the Iranian leadership

remains largely intact if weakened. And Iran's women's football team returns home to an uncertain

future after protest and asylum bid in Australia.

Also in this podcast. I mean the old process was you fire off a CV, wait four weeks and then

here yes or no. But now you get a chance to get AI to replicate a face-to-face interview.

We explore job hunting in the age of artificial intelligence.

The U.S. and Israel's war with Iran has entered a new and volatile phase.

After Israeli missiles fell on the world's biggest natural gas field on Wednesday.

Tehran promised to respond and within hours it launched its own missiles into Saudi Arabia,

the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The move prompted strong criticism from President Trump,

who warned that any further retaliation would result in U.S. military action,

threatening to blow up the Iranian gas field. A Middle East correspondent Sebastian Usher is

following developments from Jerusalem. He told Nick Miles why the attack on the South

Mars gas field was so significant. It provides around three quarters of the country's natural gas

production. Now that's all pretty much consumed domestically because of sanctions etc.

And so it has a real knock-on effect if that were to be put out of action, which is not what's

happened. But it would seriously impinge even further on the regime's ability to meet the needs

of its people, who even before this conflict started, were already in dire financial

straits. I mean, one of the key reasons that they went out onto the streets to protest back in

January, I mean, Israel just to say hasn't officially confirmed this, but I mean, Israeli media

here is quoting sources saying 100% that Israel carried out the attack. And they're also kind of

breathing these sources that this was a warning shot to Iran. It wasn't taking out the facility,

but it was essentially saying, sure, this is what we could do if there's no movement from your side.

No movement from Iran, apart from the fact that it has been responding in kind, doesn't it?

Yes, I mean, immediately said that it would mount attacks on a number of key oil installations,

gas installations of its Gulf neighbors, that's Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia said

four missiles were directed towards Readd. It's capital and that they were all intercepted.

People heard very loud booms above them. The first time that this has happened in Readd during

this conflict. And more significantly in Qatar, again, they are saying the authorities there,

but about five missiles were fired towards them or intercepted but one. And that hit the

rise Lafan industrial city. Now that is actually key to Qatar. It's where it's liquid natural gas,

main production facility is Qatar is the main supplier of this around the world. And it's

actually key to its extraordinary wealth. But it is important to say that a lot of what Qatar would

normally be doing, the operations there have been suspended for a couple of weeks now.

So it may not have an immediate, huge knock on effect. But of course, it's a real signal of how

much further this could escalate. Sebastian Asha. And since we heard from Sir Qatar State

Energy Company has confirmed that gas facilities at its main site have been hit by another round

of rockets overnight. It said they'd caused fires and further significant damage.

Global oil prices have surged again after that attack on South Paz. The market volatility is

affecting people around the globe in how much they pay for petrol and everyday goods. China is a

big importer of oil from the Gulf, including Iran. So how concerned is it? Our correspondent in

Beijing is Laura Bicker. China is not feeling the shock of this war like many others may be doing.

And that is because China has been stockpiling oil since around January. So it does have enough

oil considering it's the biggest consumer of oil in the world. It imports more crude oil than

any other country. It has about three to four months of stocks to go through. So then there is

the case when you look at how many business ties China has right across the Middle East. And

that is where China will be concerned. China is trying to export its way out of economic trouble.

And the way it does this is trade. So it needs all of those shipping lanes, all of those connections

to come through the street of Hormuz. China will be concerned thinking of its own interests when

it comes to this conflict whether or not it will spread, whether or not it will affect its global growth

and whether or not it will affect its overall economy in the long term. What you were saying there

about the concern being about stability, that was very much mirrored wasn't it by people that you

spoke to on the streets of Beijing? What what do they tell you? It's quite rare to hear Chinese voices

but they were eager to speak to us because this is a source of concern for them.

I reckon if the war escalates to nuclear level, it may trigger for the world war. The China

Iran relationship is a strategic partnership. No matter what decision the Chinese government

and military make, we as Chinese citizens will support it. Many people worried about this

China, we should support for the peace. We want to protect our own development and to keep our

economy in improvement our normal life should not be impact by the war.

Chinese people are worried about their own interests and their own kind of cost of living

and that's why they're worried about this war spiraling out of control and that's why stability

is so important to them. So a stable economy is hugely important but what about diplomatically

there are obviously opportunities here in a time of conflict? So I think when it comes to

Washington, there's always been this view that Iran and China are very close. The reality is

that alliance, if you want to call it that, is mostly transactional from China's point of view.

When it comes to China and the US and this great global struggle, I think China will see a huge

opportunity here. Globally, what you've seen since January is a parade of world leaders coming to

do deals with China where you see a President Xi who is now looking like a tower and a beacon of

stability in comparison to Washington and that is music to Beijing's ears. That is what they've

hoped for all along. Is it the case do you think that the longer this goes on, there are more benefits

for Beijing than there are are problems? For China, the geopolitical benefits are certainly there

but for President Xi, the economy is all. I think when it comes to whether or not the party will

continue to have faith of them, the people will continue to have faith of them, all of that depends

on the economy. I think in the long term, China will want this wrapped up.

Laura Bicker speaking to Nick Maus, and we have more on this on our YouTube channel,

search for BBC News on YouTube, and you'll find global news podcast in surprise, surprise,

the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday. As the US Israeli war in Iran

continues, divisions within the Trump administration are becoming starker. On Tuesday, the US

counterterrorism chief resigned, saying he could no longer support the White House policy.

On Wednesday, America's most senior spies appeared before a Senate committee and were asked whether

they could confirm President Trump's assertion that Iran had been weeks away from producing a

nuclear bomb. Here's a Democratic Senator John Ossoff from Georgia, pressing the National Intelligence

Director Tulsi Gabbard on what was known ahead of the first strikes on Iran at the end of February.

Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that as the White House claimed on March

1st, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?

Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has provided the inputs that make up this annual

threat assessment. You won't answer the question. The nature of the imminent threat that the

president has to make that determination based on a collection and volume. You're here to

be timely intelligence that he is provided with. You're here to be timely, objective, and independent

of political considerations. Exactly what I'm doing. No, you're evading a question because to provide

a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House.

Senator John Ossoff and Tulsi Gabbard there, while I asked our Washington correspondent,

Bert Debussman, whether the hearing had provided clarity on the conflicting intelligence assessments.

There was very few answers as to the Trump administration's actual rationale for war and whether

the intelligence community gave an assessment that supported it. I thought it was very notable in

a written statement that was published online, Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence.

She said unequivocally that in last year's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities,

those facilities were obliterated and Iran had made no effort to kind of rebuild that

manufacturing capacity. That's directly contrary to what the Trump administration said in the

days immediately following the beginning of Operation Epic Fury, and she didn't actually say it

verbally in the committee hearing, which kind of led to accusations that she was covering for

the Trump administration. She also made the assertion that only the president can really make

the assessment whether Iran was or wasn't an imminent threat, but many lawmakers, and I think

large portions of the American public would argue that that's precisely what the intelligence

community is for to make those assessments and pass them to lawmakers in Washington. So it was

quite combative at times, and I think there's very few questions that were actually answered

to a degree that it's kind of settled the public debate about this war.

Questions also, whether everybody's singing from the same him sheet. The intelligence

officials said that the Iranian leadership remains largely intact, which is an assessment that

clashes with President Trump's framing of the war and how, in his words, how strong and successful

they are and how much they're winning. Certainly, and I think that's the other main question is,

the Trump administration has had kind of shifting justifications for why this war began and what

led up to it. I think also it's very notable that in Joe Kent, the former counterterrorism advisor

who resigned yesterday, he said that the intelligence assessment did not prove that Iran was an

imminent threat and that there was very little room for debate. I think most Americans would feel

more comfortable if there was at least a debate about whether a military campaign is a good idea

or not, at least internally within the White House, but in his view, that didn't happen. And

certainly nothing that Tulsi Gabbard said or John Rackliffe, the director of the CIA kind of

seemed to back up the Trump administration's rationale for launching this war, which there's

really quite heated public debate, not only in the American public, but I think increasingly we're

seeing that among Trump's own supporters. So so cracks are starting to form, would you say,

in the Trump administration and across the mega base because it's not been a popular war,

a lot of that core supporter base do not want war and they want the focus to be on

US domestic policies. Certainly, I think a lot of at least a significant chunk of Trump's

mega base was very drawn to his promise on the campaign trail that the United States

wouldn't become involved in protracted conflicts overseas or any sort of messy regime change

exercise. And I think the resignation of Joe Kent, the counterterrorism advisor, he kind of

solidified that viewpoint for a lot of people. This is a man who has four years been a staunch,

staunch Trump supporter. He very much kind of embodied a certain mega mindset in terms of foreign

policy and avoiding those sorts of wars in which he himself had a very distinguished war record.

And then in his interview this evening with Tucker Carlson, he kind of made the argument that

Israel had pushed the US to war and he used the Trump administration's own comments from

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, that Israel informed the US it was going to strike

and therefore the US felt compelled it had to strike as well. So I think certainly especially

when there's very public figures who are kind of darlings in the mag, a magosphere, as some would

call it, such as Mr. Kent, whose wife also was kind of regarded as a war hero. She was killed in

Syria. When a figure like that starts to verbalize those sorts of concerns about the way the US

military is being used and why and the justifications for this conflict, I think that's something that

will spread at the very least of very heated debate among Trump's own supporters,

whether this war actually serves them and serves that America first agenda that they were promised

on the campaign trail. Bad debusement reporting from Washington. As a US and Israel were launching

their air attacks on Iran, the country's women's football team were in Australia taking part in

the Asia Cup. When the Iranian national anthem was played ahead of kickoff, the players refused

to sing along and that defined gesture led to a state broadcast presenter labeling the players

as wartime traitors. As a result, the Australian government offered the team humanitarian visas,

which initially 17 members accepted, but heavy pressure from the Islamic regime led five of the

seven to withdraw their asylum claims. The team has now arrived back in Iran to wait what could

be an uncertain future. Nassim Kadem is a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC

and has been following the Iranian team's progress. We've seen posters come out that suggest that

they'll be celebrated when they get home, but what I would say is just watch what happens thereafter,

so there might be a big celebration, there might be a big song and dance. I know our players have

come home, but what happens thereafter. We also have to keep in mind that the reason they went back

is a lot of the diaspora that I've spoken to journalists in Iran, international, a form of football

player have said these players who wanted to stay but then changed their minds were basically being

played voice messages from family members in Iran who were under threat that the intelligence

arm of the IRGC was threatening the families you know to pressure them to tell these players to

return home. So you know with all this going in the background you have to question whether what

happens publicly is in sync with what happens privately under this regime. Yeah because there's a lot

of speculation that they could face arrest or be banned from playing football in the future or

representing Iran in the future. Exactly and then there's also I mean look these are things that

we'll never know but a lot of athletes that have in the past sort of taken a stance against the

regime in solidarity with protesters have gone missing there's been accidents you know so there's

all sorts of things that go on and we don't we don't know exactly kind of what happens but

people mustn't forget that what these women did when they were in Australia this act of not

singing the national anthem this is a really massive thing and it's why Iranian State TV then ran

a segment calling them traitors and basically saying they you know in wartime conditions they

should face a revolutionary court and be brought to justice for what they've done things like that.

So you know have to understand that it is in the regime's eyes a major a crime for them for what

for that small act what we see as a small act is a massive massive act of solidarity with the protesters.

ABC is Nasim Hadeb. Still wants to come. We quantified the length of dresses,

hemlines, waistlines and necklines and we were able to show that fashion actually does come back

every 20 years. The mass behind style trends.

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you

European leaders have warned that an expanded Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon could lead to

devastating humanitarian consequences. Israel recently issued evacuation orders all the way to

the Zahrani river almost 40 kilometers into the country on Wednesday Israel said it destroyed

two bridges crossing the Latani river which it said was being used by the Iranian backed

Hezbollah group to transport fighters and weapons Lebanon says nearly 970 people have been killed

since the latest round of fighting broke out over 1 million people have been forced out of their

homes where a Davies reports from number tier a region where civilians have been told to leave

and where the consequences of staying behind can be fatal this is a part of southern Lebanon where

Israel has now expanded its exclusion zone so that too many people in this town of Zifta

but we're now at the site of an explosion a missile strike last night there were

three shops here we're not clear how many people were here at the time but they're all saying

that no warning was given before this building was hit no there was no warning it suddenly hit

but didn't explode for five more minutes there is no one here related to a political party we are

all civilians we aren't affiliated with anyone we've now been stopped from filming and recording by

not Hezbollah but Amal who sometimes are pretty close to Hezbollah or whatever reason they clearly

don't want us filming and recording here it's pretty kinetic round here I mean there's lots of

explosions that we've just heard another boom in the distance and now walking across the road

buildings all around here have taken hits from Israeli air strikes many of them are destroyed or badly

damaged we were just sitting here together we thought the area was safe because most of the people

have evacuated there is no one here then the missile hit there have been so many rocket attacks

missile strikes here the Israelis have told everybody to leave why why you stay here there is

nothing here for the Israelis to hit our rockets or weapons this building is mostly empty they are

just doing this to harm us we were upstairs the hospital and we had sirens that came running down

this was an air strike about 12 minutes further south along the road from the hospital where we are

there's one injured person as you can hear behind me being treated now

it's obviously really stressful for the medical staff here as well we don't know the extent of

this man's injuries but a nurse has just come out of the room clearly quite emotional because of

what she's having to deal with in there we're trying to deal with all this is Hassan Fakir he's the head

of the civil defense unit here in the Nabatir region another air strike going off that's exactly

what the east guys are having to deal with he said in the strike last night near the headquarters

eleven of his own crew were injured they're not being targeted directly but it's clear they're in

danger yesterday the building right next to the civil defense headquarters only about 10 meters

away was targeted and destroyed eleven of our team members were injured staff and volunteers

you've seen the damage to our station but this does not lessen our determination the Lebanese army

the Lebanese police and the civil defense they're not belligerence in this conflict but they're

clearly also victims we've seen what has happened to the civil defense headquarters several members

of that unit were injured in that Israeli air strike and also now a group of police have just

come in here one of them is very very distraught it looks like one of her colleagues has been caught

up in an air strike we don't know what his condition is but it's clear that the emergency services

are victims of this war we're a davis reporting from southern Lebanon across the world these can be

tough times if you're looking for a job especially as a young graduate with low levels of economic

growth in many countries it's not unusual to find many times more candidates than vacancies an

artificial intelligence is changing the game on both sides of the recruitment process our business

editor Simon Jack has been speaking to job seekers and hiring companies in London one big challenge

these days is getting past a machine to get a job Bivanna Chilikuri is practicing her interview

skills with a simulated employer for when she has to talk to a computer which will screen her job

application for real it did get a little robotic throughout the process of applying Bivanna Chilikuri

is a third year business student at Queen Mary University and has applied for over a hundred jobs

and been rejected every time there were moments actually where I applied and I got a rejection in

less than two minutes which is really really horrible a flat rejection within that short period of time

makes you feel that this is not a human being looking at this definitely I think that's where most

of the students kind of can tell that I'm Denny Meshwell I'm the CEO of the adiccogrew the boss of one

of the world's biggest recruitment companies acknowledges the process can get demoralising people

need to send on average like sort of 200 applications to get a job offer what AI brings is scale

before you would reach out to 50 people and out of that you would select one so you would have 49

possibly frustrated okay now if you reach out to 500 countries you create 499 people frustrated

so I'm here in central London part of the morning commuter crush and for many young people that's

the golden ticket a place at one of these palaces of commerce around me and employers are

inundated with hundreds sometimes thousands of applications for every place one reason why companies

are turning to AI to screen to sort to shift to be the gatekeeper to get into these places companies

like top law firm Mishkonda Rare the law firm is piloting a video AI chatbot to screen applicants

Tom Wickstead Mishkonda's early careers manager said they received over 5,000 applications for

just 35 jobs candidates are using AI to write more application forms so we've seen an explosion

of applications over the last four years I mean the old process was you fire off a CV wait four

weeks and then here yes or no but now you get a chance to get AI to replicate a face-to-face

interview so you get to go into far more detail and much more personalised experience for the

candidates can the process tell if the candidate has used AI we can detect where and it potentially

has been used and we take that into account when we're reviewing those applications but ultimately

we're not going to turn someone down if we think that they've used AI to help them write some of

their answers Buvana says she understands why companies are using more AI and why candidates

are fighting back I don't blame the companies right they're getting flooding amounts of applications

but it is coming to a point where the students are now getting lazy so they're like okay if

you're going to screen with AI I'm going to apply with AI I don't blame them either I think it's

just a situation everyone's trying to figure it out Adeco's Deni Mashuel has some advice for both

sides what needs to happen and what companies have to be conscious of is to inject the AI

smartness at the right moment in the process so that you compliment the efficiency of AI with the

judgment the human touch of people I'll business editor Simon Jack reporting finally as baggy low

rise trousers replace the skinny jeans once a staple in every core kids wardrobe we're now

witnessing a cardinal rule of fashion in action clothing trends repeating themselves and mathematicians

have actually calculated the fashion cycle Emma J. Darla from Princeton University let this

study we collected a database of about 35,000 images of women's dresses the oldest dress in their

databases from 1869 and the latest goats till 2022 and what we were really interested in is looking

at this question of does fashion come back and trying to see if we could prove that this is true

was just a perception so we quantified the length of dresses hamlines waistlines and necklines

and we were able to show that fashion actually does come back every 20 years some people suggest

that it would be because of a generational gap I also think that it has to do with the rate of change

that's acceptable to us per year so for something to be fashionable it needs to be different from last

year but also of course dresses can only be so short or so long and because of that it's going to

start to oscillate and we think that's maybe what sets this 20 year period but it's definitely

less clear than it has been in the past starting in the 1980s the mid 1980s there's been really an

increase in the diversity of styles that women are wearing so instead of having one dominant style

that almost all women would wear there's many skirts, meaty skirts, ankle length skirts,

floral length dresses you name it it's coming back. Professor Emma J. Dela from Princeton University

and that's all from us for now if you want to get in touch you can email us at global podcast

at bbc.co.uk you can also find us on x at bbc world service and you can use the hashtag global news pod

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 global news podcast was mixed by Masoud Ibrahim Kael

and the producer was Stephanie Zacherson and the editor is Karen Martin I'm on good

aside until next time goodbye.

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