Israel says it's killed Iran's top security chief

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You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 16 hours GMT on Tuesday the 17th of March.

Israel says it's killed one of the most powerful figures in Iran.

Ali Larijani, a top US counter-terrorism official,

resigns over the war, saying Iran posed no imminent threat.

And medical sources in Afghanistan say more than 100 bodies have been recovered

after a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre.

Also in the podcast.

What we've learned from the earliest known recording of whale song.

After the Iranian supreme leader Ali Haminai was killed at the start of the US

Israeli offensive 17 days ago, Iran's powerful security chief,

Ali Larijani, reportedly took over behind the scenes.

Now, according to Israel, he has suffered the same fate as his former boss.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have instructed the IDF to continue to hunt the

leadership of the terror and oppressive regime in Iran to cut off the head of the octopus

and not let it grow. I was updated by the chief of staff that the Secretary of the National Security

Council, Larijani and the head of the Basij, the main oppression body of Iran, were eliminated

overnight. The Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, announcing the deaths of Ali Larijani

and Hulam Reza Sulamani, head of the IRGC's volunteer paramilitary force, the Basij.

Iran hasn't commented. Ali Larijani was one of the most powerful leaders left alive in Iran

after more than two weeks of attacks. He was a former parliamentary speaker, IRGC commander,

and the country's nuclear negotiator. He reportedly tried and failed to get his brother chosen

as the next supreme leader, but was said to be close to the man who did get the job,

much Tabar Hamanei. Ironically, Ali Larijani recently told President Trump to be careful,

quote, not to be eliminated. As recently as Friday, he was seen walking defiantly through the streets

of Tehran for the annual al-Quds date march. The problem with Trump is that he's not intelligent

enough to understand that Iranians are a mature and strong and determined nation.

The more pressure he exerts, the stronger our nation's willpower will become.

Well, Paham, go by deep, and the BBC Persian service told me that if his death is confirmed

by Iran, it would be extremely significant. He is one of the people who was left behind the scene

that was seen as a person who was running the country because the supreme leader of the country,

Ali Hamanei, has been killed on the first minute of the war when it broke out. His son, who has

become the third supreme leader of Iran, he is whereabouts is unknown. His health condition is

unknown. Nobody knows if he's in a shape and formed to be able to run the country or not.

We know that a few days ago, one Iran's member of parliament said that there was an assassination

attempt on his life, not once, but twice. Once in a hospital, once on the first day of the war.

However, Ali Ali Hamanei comes from a family that the entire family is extremely powerful.

He was, as you mentioned, the speaker of the Iranian parliament for 12 years before that

he was the head of Iran's national TV. And before that, he was also comes from revolutionary

cars because Iran has two armies, one conventional regular army. The other one is the revolutionary

cars that is very loyal to the supreme leader, extremely ideological. So he has come from that kind

of background. Now in today's politics, he was seen as a bridge between the military, between

the revolutionary guards and different faction of the powers. He was a conservative, but he was

seen as a pragmatic conservative. However, his rhetoric changed tremendously after the war,

broke out as you played one of his audios. He became more belligerent to the United States to

also Donald Trump. Once, even during the 12-day war, he threatened to kill the head of

international energy agency implying that he would be killed because he said, let the dust settle

and will come after you because IAEA's report, Iranians believe, that paved the way for the first

round of the war with Israel. Regardless, he was a very important figure. And that in today's

Iran scene, there are not a lot of people who can run the country. So after he is killed,

one of the very few people who has lived is Muhammad Bukhari Ghualibov, the current speaker of the

parliament. He, after the 12-day war, he said that because so many commanders, Iranian commanders,

revolutionary guards commanders were killed, he was the person in charge of the military operations

against Israel. So he was running the fight against the country. He is, I wouldn't be surprised if

he's now leading the fight and also running the country because he also is a pilot and he also

comes from revolutionary guards and he has a revolutionary guard background. Yeah, talking of

the revolutionary guards, they are basically in control of the streets in Iran, along with the

besiege militia, that volunteer group, which works under them. And now the head of the besiege

has also been killed. That's correct. So besiege for your non-Iranian audience, it's a param militia

group that is a kind of sub-branch of revolutionary guards. This is where they recruit the youth

in the mosques. So in the mosques, they have this besiege headquarters, then the young people,

they try to recruit the young people as young as 14 and 15. And we've received some reports that

kids as young as 14 and 15, they're holding rifles on the streets to be able to exert their

power and to show that they're still dominant in Iran. I'm going to go by the, from the BBC

Persian Service and we have more on the reported death of Ali Larajani on our YouTube channel,

search there for BBC News and you'll find the global news podcast in the podcast section.

The conflict in Iran is not universally popular back in the US and has even been criticized by

some of President Trump's strongest supporters. Now a senior counterterrorism official there has

resigned, saying he could not in good conscience back the war in Iran. Trump appointee Joe Kent,

director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, said Iran posed no imminent threat to the

nation and he urged the president to reverse course. Our Washington correspondent Helena Humphrey

spoke to Leyla Nathou. Joe Kent is the first senior Trump administration officials to resign

over the war in Iran. And what all of this is exposing is a split inside President Trump's own

America first base. So if you want to know more about Mr. Kent, ideologically just to begin where

it's worth noting that along with being a high ranking official and a veteran, he also twice

ran for Congress, unsuccessfully as a Republican backing President Trump. So in this letter which he

posted on X, Joe Kent said that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States. He argued that

this war was started under pressure from Israel and its allies in Washington and he claimed that

the president had been misled by what he called misinformation from Israeli officials and influential

US voices. He was quite blunt in that letter which I've got in front of me. He says at one point

that this was a lie. And so I think what all of this is highlighting is this growing unease within

the America first wing of the Republican Party because many analysts will say that this is the

exact kind of foreign entanglement that President Trump promised to avoid. I mean you've got some

others more traditional Republicans who are supportive of confronting Iran, but certainly we're

seeing this divide reemerge. I mean he's not a marginal figure. He's a former special forces

operative, a CIA officer, really embedded in counterterrorism. And I think it's also worth noting

that his wife was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019. So when he's talking about the cost

of these wars, you know, I think that carries weight. Right. And he is the first senior official to

actually leave his job over this on a matter of principle and disagreement over this strategy.

Do you think that we could see more now, more figures in the Trump administration at least

speaking out more forcefully against the war? Indeed, Leyla, that is what everybody will be

watching for now. I think it's fair to say. We haven't had comment yet publicly from the White House,

but certainly as you say this resignation raises questions about internal dissent, whether others

might follow. And I think it goes to the heart of President Trump's political identity as well,

because as I'd mentioned, you know, he was campaigning against ending so-called forever wars in the

Middle East. And so if you've got a senior official resigning saying that this war contradicts that,

I think it's politically sensitive, especially as we head towards the midterm elections in November,

and it will raise those kind of questions about whether we could see others in his wake.

Helena Humphrey in Washington talking to Leyla Nathu. Well, before Iran, the US carried out a

military operation against Venezuela, seizing the authoritarian president there Nicholas Maduro

on the 3rd of January. With his departure came a cautious hope for change among Venezuelans,

though the rest of the Maduro regime is still in power. So how are things going now? I only

well has been to find out. I'm at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas to hear from some

students about what they hope for from the future. I am a medicine student and 30 years old.

A transition should happen in a peaceful calm way. It wouldn't happen overnight.

Today, there's a meeting here of a new political movement in Venezuela called We Save Venezuela.

It's a group of young people of different political persuasions getting together to discuss

what the future of Venezuela might look like, possible opposition candidates, and how a transition

might work. I feel intervention in any country isn't the best thing, but it was the firm hand

to Venezuela needed to move forward and be a free country with democracy, where everyone can

raise their voice without fear of being arrested. It's absurd that we as a country with the largest

oil reserves in the world have these deficits. Yesterday, I was without power for six hours

there in Maracay. The energy issue ends up paralyzing the economy and the progress of the country.

The real hope of Venezuela is that we can live in freedom and that our rights would be respected.

There are still regular government rallies for Nicolas Maduro with supporters demanding his release,

but away from the main crowd, some young people told me they were public sector workers,

who were compelled to attend or risk penalties at work.

This 22-year-old worker, Elena, whose voice and name we've changed,

says last month, public employees received a $150 bonus for attending promodoro marches

on top of a $120 monthly salary. Friends who didn't go didn't get it.

The economy continues, but the economy remains the same. The government remains the same.

The fear of expressing yourself still exists because the figures that represent the most

terror in government remain in post. I asked how she felt about the idea of living in a democracy.

I imagine it as a dream. Elena doesn't want to emigrate like the millions of Venezuelans who

have fled the economic crisis, but others told me they no longer see a future for themselves.

One of them is Anna, whose name we've also changed. A 25-year-old teacher from Maracaibo,

hoping to move to Spain. I don't know what it is like to be able to go on the street and don't

feel like you could get killed at any point in time just because you posted a wrong thing in social media.

I want to earn money and feel like I can't leave somewhere that actually has electricity.

She grew up watching her mother cry when the family did not have enough money for the week,

and people looting shops in her hometown, Maracaibo, when power cuts lasted a week.

She's lived through too many cycles of things getting better, then worse again,

to believe things will be different just because Maduro is gone.

Not all young people are convinced by the US's intervention, but one thing I clearly heard

that unites many young Venezuelans who have never lived through a change of political party,

is they want less polarisation and corruption, with crucially the freedom to speak without fear.

I only was reporting from Venezuela.

And still to come in this podcast?

What's wrong with that? Edmund Dorf.

All the best dealers and have 40 names, much more convincing.

I'm sorry, I just don't feel like an Edmund Dorf.

Charlie.

We look back at the life of the spy thriller author Len Dayton, who's died age 97.

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This is the Global News Podcast.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of harboring Pakistani militant groups,

something the Taliban government denies.

The ongoing conflict between the two former allies intensified in February

when Pakistan launched new airstrikes on what it said were militant targets in Afghanistan.

But now the Pakistani military is accused of hitting a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul.

Video footage from the scene showed flashes of light, explosions, and a giant plume of smoke.

Shadowfat Zaman from the Afghan Health Ministry says hundreds of people died.

Unfortunately, we have more than 400 civilian casualties that they were targeted

from the Pakistani military regime.

It was a totally civilian area and it was a health facility that they targeted.

Unfortunately, the Pakistani military regime there doing propaganda that we targeted the TTA or TTP.

But the reality in fact, we have lots of media partners.

They are witness that here we have totally civilian casualties in lots of them.

They were a health professional as well, so a medical staff in 400 plus

were the killed people they were under the treatment in the hospital.

The BBC's Yamab Ariz in Kabul visited the scene about an hour after the fire broke out.

We got to the hospital. It was a scene of total carnage.

There were fire everywhere. There were bodies lying all over the place.

There were debris. There were twisted iron rods from the building, the structure.

And there were paramedics, ambulances. I personally saw over 30 bodies

being carried to the ambulances. Tens of ambulances were standing and aligned there.

We saw members of the families of these drug addicts outside the hospital.

There were women crying. They wanted to get some information about their loved ones.

When we spoke to authorities there, at that time the authorities did not have any exact number

about deaths and injuries, but they estimated that it could be hundreds because

3000 drug addicts were being treated in that facility. It's a huge rehabilitation facility.

There are several blocks, but this bomb which has landed on this building had hit one block.

That block was completely reduced to rabble. Because according to the officials,

a lot of wood was used in the structure because it was a sort of a makeshift rehabilitation

structure. That's why they said that the fire was burning. I can plead distraction.

I can plead scene of total carnage.

Yamab Ariz in Kabul and sources at the Kabul Forensic Medicine Department

have now told the BBC that more than 100 bodies have been recovered after the strike so far.

Pakistan, meanwhile, has denied targeting the rehabilitation centre, saying it only hits

military sites. I spoke to the BBC's Caroline Davis in Islamabad.

Very quickly on social media, we saw a response from the Ministry of Information in Pakistan,

saying that this was not the case that they had been targeting military sites as they refer to

sites that can facilitate militant activity as well. Since then, we have heard them really

continue with that line. Mostly, we have still continued to hear from the Pakistan authorities

labeling the Taliban's points, saying that they're talking about propaganda that has been

their kind of consistent line of sense. I think that is something we've seen repeatedly in this

conflict. Of course, Pakistan used to support the Taliban in Afghanistan. Why are they fighting now?

There has been a rapid deterioration in the relationship between Afghanistan and the Afghan

Taliban and Pakistan. As you say, in 2021, when the Afghan Taliban came to power and sees

control in Kabul, there were people who were inside the Pakistan government who were saying that

this would be a good thing for Pakistan. However, relatively quickly, Pakistan started to

criticise and to say that the Afghan Taliban were allowing militants to be able to operate inside

Afghanistan's borders that would then plan attacks that come across the border into Pakistan,

carry those attacks out. They wanted to see the Afghan Taliban government doing more to stop

those groups. We saw a sort of a flurry of attempts at sort of diplomacy, lots of different

meetings between the two sides, but ultimately the relationship really deteriorated. In October

last year, we saw major clashes on the border and attacks and missiles being fired as well.

Again, there was a fragile ceasefire that was broken in February and now there does not currently

seem to be any suggestion of a ceasefire being anywhere on the table. We know that China has

attempted to try to do some form of back and forth, speaking to both sides, but at the moment,

we've also heard from the Pakistan Prime Minister's spokesperson who said there is nothing to talk

about, which doesn't suggest that there's a huge amount of scope for finding a middle ground at

the moment. Now why would an artificial intelligence firm want to hire a chemical weapons

expert? The US company Anthropics says it needs one to prevent what it calls catastrophic misuse

of its software. In particular, it wants to make sure its AI tools can't be used to generate

recipes for chemical weapons. Here's our technology editor Zoe Kleinman. What Anthropics says it's

trying to do is to make sure that its product is as safe as possible, so it's looking for a

world-leading expert in chemical weapons and dirty bombs. And what it wants that person to do

is to be able to spot anything that its system might generate that could result in the creation

of a lethal weapon if prompted or sort of fooled into being prompted to do it. And that's

quite reassuring in a way, isn't it, because you sort of think, you know, someone like you or

me might not spot something that was in a load of AI-generated content that could be dangerous,

whereas somebody with huge and very specific expertise is more likely to do that. But the

counter argument to that, there are concerns from other experts that the factors you're still

giving these tools, that information aren't you, even if you're telling them not to do it. So

for example, if I say to you, don't think about the colour red, I'm still, you know, giving you

the idea of the colour red, that's very simplistic, but there, but some people are saying, well actually

we shouldn't be handing over that information at all, especially as we know that this technology

is evolving very rapidly, and there's promises that it's going to become ever more

independent and autonomous, you know, might there come a day when it knows all of this, but it

decides to overall the instruction not to do it. So currently the human in the loop, that's what

the tech company's call it, it is very important in the industry, in terms of how future proof that

is, you know, it's really difficult to tell. I mean, anthropic isn't the only company taking this

approach, the firm OpenAI, which of course developed ChatGPT, has also advertised for a researcher

in chemical and biological risk, and they're paying good money, OpenAI is offering over $400,000

for this position. So it does seem to be the approach that the industry is going for to try to make

the system safe, and anthropic says it's also appointing experts in other subjects. Interesting,

I spoke to a few people at the firm about this job advert when I first saw it, and one of them said to

me, are you inquiring as a journalist, are you interested in the position? And I have to say,

I'm definitely not someone who considers myself to be an expert in chemical weapons, but you know,

they're obviously sort of casting the net wide. Our technology editor Zoe Kleinman,

one of the best-selling authors of the 20th century, Len Dayton, has died at the age of 97,

born into poverty in London, he also worked as an illustrator and wrote a number of historical

books. He sold tens of millions of novels, including the Ippcress file, which was made into a successful

film, Lizo Mazimba looks back at his life. Courtney, I'm going to cook you the best meal you've ever

Michael Cain in the film of Len Dayton's The Ippcress file, a new kind of spy working class and

Bolshee and a bit like his creator. Len Dayton was born in a workhouse, the child of domestic servants.

The RAF trained him as a photographer, after art college, he became an illustrator, then a food writer.

He wrote three more books featuring his nameless hero called Harry Palmer in the films,

including funeral in Berlin. He tried his hand at filmmaking himself, writing and co-producing

Oh Water Lovely War, but he preferred writing books, especially about the Second World War.

Bomber was an account of an allied bombing raid on Germany, a scene from both sides,

some thought it anti-war. He disagreed. Where does it say it's an anti-war book that

the publishers have never said it's an anti-war book, and this is just in existing your mind

as an anti-war book. What this is, it's a war book. Blood, tears and folly was a history of the

wars early years. Like all his work, it was carefully researched. He felt he had something to prove

to those who, unlike him, had degrees and expensive educations. Lizo Mazimba, on Len Dayton,

who's died at the age of 97. Marine scientists in the US have stumbled across what they believe to

be the earliest recording of whale song on a disc in their archives. The recording from 1949

captures the sound of humpback whales off the coast of Bermuda. Researchers say it paints a picture

of how whales communicated at a time when the oceans were much quieter. Here's what the microphones

picked up almost 80 years ago. Well Peter Tyak is from the Woods Hole Oceanographic

institution in Massachusetts. He told Sean Lay how their researcher discovered the recording.

When she was reviewing data from early research cruises about a year ago, she discovered

about 200 audio recordings from 1949 that had been recorded directly on the vinyl discs.

And she was particularly curious about one whose liner notes said fish noises on the side.

And she sent this disc and two others to be digitized by a specialist. And as soon as she heard

the digitized recording, she thought the sounds probably were more likely whales than fish.

And then she contacted me and other bioacousticians to get a positive identification.

And what's unusual about this is how far back these sounds recorded, yes?

Yes, this recording was made well before people knew what sounds different species of whales make.

During World War II, people recorded sounds in ships and were able to hear unusual sounds that

they thought were biological, but they had no idea what the source of sound was. So when they heard

the sound, when they were recording from this cruise, they just recorded it because it was so

unexpected and unusual. We're going to play a bit from the 1940s on recording and then

then we'll play something else and you can perhaps draw out the contrast for us if you would

Peter. So here's the recording that was digitized and recovered last year.

Now this is a more recent recording from the 2010s.

Now the recording quality is unsurprisingly better, but is there any other difference that you

would draw attention to? The ocean's soundscape that the whales live in has changed quite a bit.

There's a lot more ships for shipping and as motorized ships move, they inject noise in the ocean

that elevates the background. There also are new sources of sound. A sound used to probe for oil

and gas below the sea surface. A new kinds of sounds used for sonar and for communication within

the ocean. It also turns out that a warming ocean changes how sound propagates. So climate

changes also causing changes in how sound from all of these different sources propagate through

the ocean and change the sound that we hear anywhere listening in the ocean. Is there any sense in

which their communication has been affected by all this additional noise? Yes, the best case that

we have for looking at how whales have changed their vocalizations when they have increasing

amounts of low frequency shipping noise is right whales in the Atlantic have been recorded

from the 1950s to today. And if you look at the frequency of the calls that right whales made in

1950 and compare them to 2000, they've basically switched from being basis to tenors. So the low

frequency shipping noise caused them to increase the frequency of their calls about half an octave.

It's hard for basis to shift to be tenors. So presumably, presumably in a quiet environment,

they preferred the earlier frequencies but they were able to shift to compensate for the noise.

Marine scientist Peter Tyak.

And that's all from us for now, but the global news podcast will be back very soon. This

addition was mixed by Charlie Berringer and reduced by Richard Hamilton. Our editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.

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