Sebastian Asha (3:05)

It provides around three quarters of the country's natural gas production now that's all pretty much consumed domestically because of sanctions, et cetera. 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 the Israeli media here is quoting sources saying 100% that Israel carried out the attack. And they're also kind of briefing these sources that this was a warning shot to Iran. It wasn't taking out the facility, but it was essentially saying to Iran this is what we could do. If there's no movement from your side,

Ankar Desai (4:06)

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

Sebastian Asha (4:11)

Yes. I mean, it 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 that four missiles were directed towards Riyadh, its capital, and that they were all intercepted. People heard very loud booms above them the first time that this has happened in Riyadh during this conflict. And more significantly in Qatar. Again they are saying the authorities there, but about five, five missiles were fired towards them. All were intercepted but one, and that, that hit the Ras Lafan industrial city. Now that is absolutely key to Qatar. It's where its liquid natural gas main production facility is. Qatar is the main supplier of this around the world and it's absolutely key to, 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.

Ankar Desai (5:37)

Sebastian Ascher and since we heard from Seb, Qatar state energy company has confirmed that gas facilities, cities 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.

Laura Bicker (6:13)

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 that 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 Strait 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.

Ankar Desai (7:13)

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 did they tell you?

Laura Bicker (7:21)

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.

Burton Debusman (7:32)

I reckon if the war escalates to nuclear level, it may trigger Third 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.

Emma Jaidala (7:46)

Many people worried about this. China we should support for the peace. We want to protect our own development and to keep our economy improvement. Our normal life should not be impacted by the war.

Laura Bicker (8:02)

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.

Ankar Desai (8:13)

So a stable economy is hugely important. But what about diplomatically? There are obviously opportunities here in a time of conflict.

Laura Bicker (8:21)

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, 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.

Ankar Desai (8:57)

Is it the case, do you think, that the longer this goes on, there are more benefits for Beijing than there are problems for China.

Laura Bicker (9:05)

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 in them, the people will continue to have faith in them. All of that depends on the economy. I think in the long term, China will want this wrapped up.

Ankar Desai (9:22)

Laura Bicker speaking to Nick Miles. 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 U. S. 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 Democratic Senator Jon 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.

Jon Ossoff (10:12)

Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that, as the White house claimed on March 1, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?

Nassim Khadem (10:23)

Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has

Burton Debusman (10:28)

provided the inputs that make up this annual threat assessment. You won't answer the question, the nature

Nassim Khadem (10:33)

of the imminent threat that the president has to make that determination based on a collection and volume.

Burton Debusman (10:39)

You're here to be intelligence that he is here.

Jon Ossoff (10:42)

You're here to be timely, objective and independent of political considerations.

Burton Debusman (10:47)

Exactly what I'm doing.

Jon Ossoff (10:48)

No, you're evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House.

Ankar Desai (10:57)

Senator Jon Ossoff and Tulsi Gabbard there. Well, I asked our Washington correspondent Burton Debusman whether the hearing had provided clarity on the conflicting intelligence assessments.

Burton Debusman (11:08)

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 degr that'll kind of settle the public debate about this war.

Ankar Desai (12:23)

Questions also whether everybody's singing from the same hymn sheet. The intelligence official 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.

Burton Debusman (12:38)

Certainly, I think that's the other main question is, you know, 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 adviser 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 Ratcliffe, 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.

Ankar Desai (13:37)

So cracks are starting to form, would you say, in the Trump administration and across the MAGA 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 politics?

Burton Debusman (13:52)

Certainly, I think a lot of at least a significant chunk of Trump's MAGA 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 adviser, he kind of solidified that viewpoint for a lot of people. This is a man who has for years been a staunch, staunch Trump supporter. He very much kind of embodied a certain MAGA 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 said that certainly especially when there's very public figures who are kind of darlings in the MAGA sphere, as some would call it, such as Mr. Kent, who's whose wife also is 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, a very heated debate among Trump's own supporters whether this war actually serves them and serve as that America first agenda that they were promised on the campaign trail.

Ankar Desai (15:28)

Ben Debusman reporting from Washington. As the 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 has played ahead of kickoff, the players refused to sing along, and that defiant 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 seven team 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 Khadem is a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC and has been following the Iranian team's progress.

Nassim Khadem (16:18)

We've seen posters come out that, you know, 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. You know, our players have come home, but what happens thereafter? And we also have to keep in mind that, you know, the reason they went back is a lot of the diaspora that I've spoken to journalists in Iran International, a former 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 IIGC was Threatening the families that, 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.

Ankar Desai (17:19)

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.

Nassim Khadem (17:27)

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, is in the regime's eyes, a major crime for them. For that small act. What we see as a small act is a massive, massive act of solidarity with the protesters.

Ankar Desai (18:23)

ABC's Nassim Khadem.

Emma Jaidala (18:27)

Still 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.

Ankar Desai (18:37)

The maths behind style trends.

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I'll come back up for you.

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Ankar Desai (22:07)

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 Litany 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. Mooradavies reports from Nabatiya, a region where civilians have been told to leave and where the consequences of staying behind can be fatal.

Wira Davies (22:54)

This is a part of southern Lebanon where Israel has now expanded its exclusion zone. So there aren't 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.

Ankar Desai (23:17)

No, there was no warning.

Sebastian Asha (23:19)

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.

Wira Davies (23:29)

We've now been stopped from filming and recording by not Hezbollah, but Amal, who sometimes are pretty close to Hezbollah. For whatever reason, they clearly don't want us filming and recording here. It's pretty kinetic around here at the minute. There's lots of explosions. And we've just heard another boom in the distance. We're now walking across the road. Buildings all around here have taken hits from Israeli airstrikes. Many of them are destroyed or badly damaged.

Ankar Desai (23:57)

We were just sitting here together.

Burton Debusman (23:58)

We thought the area was safe because most of the people have evacuated.

Ankar Desai (24:02)

There is no one here.

Sebastian Asha (24:03)

Then the missile hit.

Wira Davies (24:05)

There have been so many rocket attacks, missile strikes here. The Israelis have told everybody to leave. Why do you stay here?

Sebastian Asha (24:14)

There is nothing here for the Israelis to hit.

Burton Debusman (24:16)

No rockets or weapons. This building is mostly empty. They are just doing this to harm us.

Wira Davies (24:23)

We were upstairs, the hospital, and we heard sirens that came running down. This was an airstrike. 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 Has San Fakir. He's the head of the Civil Defense unit here in the Nabatiye region. Another airstrike going off. That's exactly what these guys are having to deal with. He said in the strike last night near the headquarters, 11 of his own crew were injured. They're not being targeted directly, but it's clear they're in danger.

Ankar Desai (25:18)

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.

Wira Davies (25:35)

The Lebanese army, the Lebanese police and the civil defense, they're not belligerents 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 airstrip 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 airstrike. We don't know what his condition is, but it's clear that the emergency services are victims of this war.

Ankar Desai (26:05)

Wira Davies 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. And 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.

Simon Jack (26:33)

One big challenge these days is getting past a machine to get a job. Bhuvana Chilicuri 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.

Burton Debusman (26:47)

It did get a little robotic throughout the process of applying.

Simon Jack (26:50)

Ivana Chilicouri is a third year business student at Queen Mary University and has applied for over 100 jobs and been rejected every time.

Burton Debusman (26:58)

There were moments actually where I applied and I got a rejection in less than two minutes which is really, really horrible.

Simon Jack (27:06)

The flat rejection within that short period of time makes you feel that, that this is not a human being.

Burton Debusman (27:12)

Looking at this, definitely I think that's where most of the students kind of can tell that. I'm Denis Machwell, I'm the CEO of the Adeco Group.

Simon Jack (27:19)

The boss of one of the world's biggest recruitment companies acknowledges the process can get demoralizing.

Ankar Desai (27:25)

People need to send on average like

Burton Debusman (27:27)

sort of 200 applications to get a job offer.

Ankar Desai (27:30)

What AI brings is scale. Before you would reach out to 50

Burton Debusman (27:34)

people and out of that you would select one. So you would have 49 possibly frustrated.

Ankar Desai (27:39)

Okay, now if you reach out to

Burton Debusman (27:41)

500 candidates, you create 499 people frustrated.

Simon Jack (27:46)

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 turning to AI, to screen, to sort, to sift, to be the gatekeeper to get into these places. Companies like top law firm Mishkan Durea. The law firm is piloting a video AI chatbot to screen applicants. Tom Wickstead, Mishkan's early careers manager, said they received over 5,000 applications for just 35 jobs.

Tom Wickstead (28:24)

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 hear a yes or a 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 personalized experience for the candidates.

Simon Jack (28:46)

Can the process tell if the candidate has used AI?

Tom Wickstead (28:50)

We can detect when 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.

Simon Jack (29:02)

Bhuvana says she understands why companies are using more AI and why candidates are fighting back.

Burton Debusman (29:08)

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.

Laura Bicker (29:21)

I don't blame them either.

Burton Debusman (29:22)

I think, I think it's just a situation. Everyone's trying to figure it out.

Simon Jack (29:25)

Adeco's Denis Mashuel has some advice for both sides.

Ankar Desai (29:29)

What needs to happen and what companies

Burton Debusman (29:32)

have to be conscious of is to inject the AI smartness at the right

Ankar Desai (29:38)

moment in the process so that you complement the efficiency of AI with the

Burton Debusman (29:45)

judgment, the human touch of people.

Ankar Desai (29:47)

Our business editor Simon Jack reported. Finally, as baggy low rise trousers replace the skinny jeans, once a staple in every cool kid's 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 Jaidala from Princeton University led the study.

Emma Jaidala (30:11)

We collected a database of about 35,000 images of women's dresses. The oldest dress in our database is 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 or is just a perception. So 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. 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 miniskirts, midi skirts, ankle length skirts, floor length dresses, you name it, it's coming back.

Ankar Desai (31:29)

Professor Emma J. Daler from Princeton University. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at GL Global podcast@BBC.co.uk you can also find us on X at BBC World Service. And you can 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 Global News Podcast was mixed by Masoud Ibrahim Khale and the producer was Stephanie Zakrison and the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Ankar Desai. Until next time. Time. Goodbye.

Burton Debusman (32:14)

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