Global News Podcast - Iran attacks energy facilities in the Gulf

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Qatar's state-owned petroleum company says an Iranian ballistic missile attack on its main gas complex at Ras Laffan has caused widespread destruction. Several Gulf states were attacked by Iran after its largest gas field South Pars was hit in an Israeli strike. President Trump has warned Iran not to launch further attacks on Qatar, or face a "massive" response from the US. He said Iran's gas field had been attacked by Israel - not the United States. But he said the US would "blow" it up if Tehran continued to retaliate.Also: America's top spies tell a Senate committee that after almost three weeks of war, the Iranian leadership remains largely intact - contradicting President Trump's framing of the war as a success. Five members of Iran's women's football team return home after their silent protest in Australia. How Artificial Intelligence is changing the recruitment process for jobs. And the maths behind why some clothes keep coming back into fashion.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

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It's time to see it differently with Britbox. Watch with a free trial now at Britbox.com. How does growing up in war affect the way your brain works? It's a question that Fergal Keen, one of the BBC's most experienced foreign correspondents, has been wrestling with for almost 40 years. He's reported from some of the most violent wars around the world and spoken to the children caught up in them.

You can hear him on the global story. Listen on BBC.com. or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Ankara 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 hear a 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 US 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. Our Middle East correspondent, Sebastian Usher, is following developments from Jerusalem,

He told Nick Miles why the attack on the South Paz 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 the 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, 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, isn'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 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 that about 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 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 Usher. And since we heard from Seb, 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 stopped. piling 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 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. 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 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 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. 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. 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 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 in them, that 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 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 US-Israeli war on Iran continues,

divisions within the Trump administration are becoming starker. On Tuesday, the U.S. 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 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. It is the nature of the imminent threat that the president has to make that determination based on a collection and volume of information and 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. When I asked our Washington correspondent, Bert de Booseman, whether the hearing had provided clarity on the conflicting intelligence assessments.

There was very few answers as to the Trump administration. 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, Toltey 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'll kind of settle the public debate about this war. Questions also, whether everybody's singing from the same hymn sheet. The intelligence

official said that the Iranian leadership remains largely in time, 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. 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 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 Rackleff, 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 cracks are starting to form, would you say, in the Trump? 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 U.S. domestic policies. 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 advisor, 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 U.S. to war and he used the Trump administration's

own comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for example, that Israel informed the U.S. it was going to strike and therefore the U.S. 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 maga, magasphere, as some would call it, such as Mr. Kent, whose wife also was, 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 U.S. 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 serves as that America first agenda that they were promised on the campaign trail.

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 defined gesture led to a state broadcast presenter, labelling 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. We've seen posters come out that, you know, suggests that they'll be celebrated when they get home. But what I would say is just 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 IRGC was threatening the families 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 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 crime for them for that that small act, what we see is a small act is a massive, massive act of solidarity with the protesters. ABC is Nassim Kadeem. 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. The maths behind style trends. How does growing up in war affect the way your brain works? It's a question that Fergal Keene, one of the BBC's most experienced foreign correspondents,

has been wrestling with for almost 40 years. He's reported from some of the most violent wars around the world and spoken to the children caught up in them. You can hear him on the global story. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Zaharani River,

almost 40 kilometers into the country. On Wednesday, Israel said it destroyed two bridges crossing the Litani 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. Rura Davies reports from Nabatia, 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 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. 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. 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've 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 do you stay here? There is nothing here for the Israelis to hit. No rockets or weapons. This building is mostly empty. They are just doing this to harm us.

We were upstairs at the hospital and we heard sirens that came rolling 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 Hassan Fakir.

He's the head of the civil defense unit here in the Nabatir 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. 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 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 airstrike, and also now a group of police have just come here.

I mean, 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. Wehradavis 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.

Bivana Chilicuri is practising 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. Vivana Chilicuri, is a third-year business student at Queen Mary University and has applied for over 100 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 Denim Heschel. I'm the CEO of the Adéco Group.

The boss of one of the world's biggest recruit companies acknowledges the process can get demoralizing. 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 candidates, 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 sift, to be the gatekeeper to get into these places. Companies like top law firm, Mishkonderea. The law firm is piloting a video AI chatbot to screen applicants. Tom Wickssted, Mishcon's early careers,

The manager said they received over 5,000 applications for just 35 jobs. Candidates are using AI to write more application form. 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 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 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. 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. Adekko's Denise Maxwell 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 complement the efficiency of AI with the judgment, the human touch of people. Our business editor, Simon Jack, report. Finally, as baggy low-rise trousers replace the skinny jeans, once a staple in every core 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 J. Dala from Princeton University led the study. We collected a database of about 35,000 images of women's dresses. The oldest dress in our database is from 80s. 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 many skirts, meaty skirts, ankle length skirts, floor 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.com.com. 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 Masood Ibrahim Kail and the producer was Stephanie Zacherson and the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Uncle Dissai. Until next time, goodbye. How does growing up in war affect the way your brain works? It's a question that Fergal Keen, one of the BBC's most experienced foreign correspondents, has been wrestling with.

for almost 40 years. He's reported from some of the most violent wars around the world and spoken to the children caught up in them. You can hear him on the global story. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.