Global News Podcast - Iran warns Trump against joining war with Israel

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

Iran’s supreme leader says he will never surrender to Israel and warned the US not to intervene in the war. Also: More people killed in Gaza near an aid centre, and the tennis legend Martina Navratilova on her career.

This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Uncle Desai and at 1300 GMT on Wednesday, the 18th of June, these are our main stories. Iran's supreme leader says he'll stand firm against Israel and an enforced peace. As more deaths are reported in Gaza around aid distribution centres we hear what Palestinians think of the conflict between Israel and Iran. And tennis legend Martina Navratilova talks to us about her career, why she's worried about the future direction of the US and her views on transgender athletes in sports.

We still are lagging behind the guys and there's a boy that now has a ponytail and nail polish and identifies as a girl. And now these girls are like, I can't compete against that. I have no chance. Also in this podcast, how French police are attempting to stop migrants making the dangerous journey across the English Channel to the UK and the potentially groundbreaking research on development of human organs for transplants coming out of China. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said his country will never surrender in its conflict with Israel and warned the United States that it will suffer irreparable harm if it intervenes. This is an extract of his address played on Iranian state TV. Mr Hamenei said that Iran had expected these attacks from Israel but that his country will

stand firm against them as well as any imposed peace. It comes after more strikes by Israel focusing on Iranian missile sites and facilities making parts for the machines that enrich uranium centrifuges. And on the ground in Iran, the effects of the Israeli strikes are becoming clearer with shortages to food and fuel. Qasr al-Nazji is from the BBC's Persian service. He told me more about the speech made by Iran's supreme leader. It's the first time he appears after a few days.

In fact, he's been quiet and we don't know where he's been because obviously Israel is after him. They want to take him out. And I suppose he's in hiding someplace. So it was a surprise to see him appear on Iranian television in a video and he's speaking, we don't know where it is, but it's very typical of him, very defiant and a hard line. His message to, it's basically message to the outside world to Americans and the Israelis that he says in the same way as the Iranian nation will stand firm in

the war that has been imposed on it the Iranian nation will stand firm against an imposition the peace so he's saying that we will resist, we will go on fighting, and we will not give in to an imposed peace. Don't forget, President Trump has been calling for him and Iran to surrender basically, and he's saying no way. And then there's also a warning to the American side saying the Americans should know that any of any involvement by them in the war will cost them heavily. With this sort of rhetoric and language do you feel that Iran are prepared to dig in for a long conflict? Well he seems to be sort of indicating that's the policy but we

don't know I mean things are pretty chaotic in terms of what's happening on the ground and how far these attacks are going to go and what impact they will have on the regime as a whole and how far they will weaken the regime. That weakening will be significant enough for the regime to collapse or be in a position not being able to control things. We don't know all that but for the moment it's defiant and is calling on Iranians to stand firm and fight this out. Which is all well and good but I guess what are the effects that these strikes actually having on Iranian people? Everyone you talk to, it's very difficult to get through by the way, the internet is down most of the time, but it comes up and goes away. WhatsApp works. I talked to my

sister as one of the people, she's still in Iran, she hasn't left, is in Tehran, hasn't left the capital, but when you talk to her, you can see fear, you can hear stress, and they just basically don't know what to do, where to go, how long is this going to go, how this is going to end, basically. Katar Al-Najih with that update. But if Israel's strikes against Iran are proving devastating, Iran's reciprocal strikes are much less so, although ferociously expensive Israel's defence shield is holding. And meanwhile it has freedom of the skies over Iran and seems

to be reaching targets it considers vital to its campaign. Our correspondent in Jerusalem is Sebastian Usher. Well, the message is really the same. It's been giving each day since it started that it is aiming at you know all the military infrastructure of Iran and the nuclear facilities and that it's it's pursuing that. I think it's interesting actually to say the messaging has changed just in the last few minutes here in Israel though there has been from the Home Front Command a message sent out saying that the restrictions on people's movement which meant that only essential movement was being allowed for most of the country

is now being changed to limited movement will be allowed which means that the closing down that there's been of Israel will begin to lift. I think that comes after there have now been two nights in which there have been no fatalities. Overnight, there were, according to the IDF, around 20 missiles that were fired. Perhaps it's a feeling that, at least for now, the worst fears of what Israel felt Iran might be able to accomplish have been passed over. I mean, the Israeli defence minister has hailed this as a sign of victory, but warned people here not to take this as a sign that it's over and to stay very vigilant about any future attacks.

America is considering giving more support. How's this being viewed? Well, as you can imagine, I mean, as far as the Israeli government is concerned, as far as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is concerned, I mean, that's what he wants. I mean, he went it alone despite last week President Trump saying that that's not what the US wanted

and that the US still wanted to continue down the road of talks potentially with Iran over its nuclear ambitions. Mr Netanyahu didn't heed that. The indications we've had is that the US was informed and then did essentially say that he could go ahead. And since then, President Trump has changed his tune completely, so that now he seems full square behind this. He's even talking about we and our in terms of the attacks that Israel is carrying out. The big question is whether he and his security advisors will decide to give Israel what I think the prime minister here most wants, which is the capacity

which only the US can provide for the level of bomb that could perhaps blow up the deep underground nuclear facilities, particularly in Fordow, that Iran has. And without that, the way that it's being framed, this offensive by the Israeli Prime Minister first, but now it seems very much by President Trump, is that the only real end to this is if that is achieved. Sebastian Asher. While the world's attention is on Israel and Iran, the suffering in Gaza continues. There have been more reports of deaths in the Strip around aid distribution centers as Palestinians wait

for desperately needed food supplies. This woman cried over the body of her brother outside of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where some of the victims of Israeli airstrikes and the shootings near aid centers were brought this morning. Our correspondent Rashdi Abou-Alouf, who's in Cairo, gave us this update. About nine or ten additional people were killed around the food distribution center in central Gaza this time near one of the centers, bringing the number to 61 people killed near distribution centers just in the last 24 hours.

And in total, the Hamas-run civil defense spokesman told me this morning that about 412 people were killed in the last two weeks around food distribution center. This is a very high number, just show that this mission of getting food has became like a killing points for Palestinians and daily routine. When we talk to people why you are risking your life, they said we are starving, our kids are starving and we have no other option but to go to the places to get some food. Well, people are feeling that they are forgotten while all the focus on media and all the international focus is in this new escalation between Iran and Israel. When we did ask people about how

they feel about this Iran-Israel escalation, one of the guys, I mean one of the people in Gaza told me that Iran has never built a hospital in Gaza or a school. They only supported Hamas. They give Hamas women and the outcome of what happened in October the 7th, Iran is part of it. So many people, they don't feel sympathized with the Iranian people. But on the other hand, they feel happy to see buildings collapsing in Israel. And they have been posting on social media many times saying that anybody who is hitting Israel is helping Palestinians.

This is what many Palestinians in Gaza feel about this recent escalation. Rushdie Abu Alouf, more support for Ukraine. That's the message from G7 leaders at the end of the summit of powerful nations in Alberta. What that support looks like though is not entirely clear. At the close of the ceremony, the host Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney outlined what was on its way to Kiev. We're launching a major new package of sanctions on individuals, on companies, on vessels, the Shadow Fleet, to exert maximum pressure on Russia.

We're also sending over $2 billion in funding for drones, ammunition, armored vehicles to help Ukrainians defend their territory. Canadian officials said Washington had blocked a stronger statement after the US President Donald Trump left the international conference early. Our diplomatic editor James Landell is following events. This G7 summit has illustrated all the strengths and the weaknesses of an event like this. The strengths are that you get Western leaders coming together, able to speak to one another, face to face.

Mark Carney, the host, the Canadian Prime Minister said it was a way of building trust and relationships in a way that you simply can't do in any other forum. It's also a moment when Western leaders can actually get face to face with Donald Trump and try and shape some of the thinking and some of the thoughts that might be going into his head so that he gets different opinions and not the rich brew that he just gets in Washington. But for all that, there are clear weaknesses. And the first weakness was evidenced by the fact that Donald Trump left this summit early.

And that took all the air out of this event as a diplomatic moment, because at that point, there were a lot of leaders here unable to talk to Mr Trump, unable to get their points across, and it also just left the summit, I'm afraid, with a sense of aimlessness. You could feel the atmosphere had gone down. And that was evidenced by the fact that the G7 leaders couldn't really agree on the big issues of the day. On the Israel-Iran war, they yes, they did agree a statement, but it was a pretty watered down statement, a diplomatic compromise

designed to get the Americans on side, not putting much pressure on either side to do anything, certainly not calling for a ceasefire. And on the other big conflict affecting so much of the global economy, the war by Russia against Ukraine, there was no joint statement by these leaders. Instead, there was merely a statement put out by Mr. Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, saying that, yes, all leaders were, and I quote, resolute and exploring all options to maximise pressure on Russia. He insisted the Americans, Donald Trump, agreed to that orally, but the Americans were not

prepared to put their name to that on a piece of paper with a signature. So as ever with these summits, yes, some useful conversations, but again, an illustration of differences of opinion by some of the world's most powerful liberal economies. Our diplomatic editor, James Landell. Still to come in the Global News podcast. It's a very exciting field of kind of generating organs and tissues in post-animal embryos. How research by Chinese scientists may be a future game changer in the field of human organ transplants. In less than two weeks time the most famous tournament in world tennis Wimbledon gets underway.

The legendary Martina Navratilova won a record nine Wimbledon singles titles. She's been speaking to the BBC's Amal Rajan about her career, the state of tennis, and the country she's called her home for the past 50 years, the United States. She spent three decades at the top of tennis. It's 50 years since Martina Navratilova defected from Czechoslovakia as a teenager to pursue her career in the US.

I just felt that if I want to become number one, which I want to, that I couldn't do it under those circumstances at home. Her life has had its struggles. Just over two years ago, she was treated for cancer for the second time. How's your health right now? It's all good. Yeah, all clear and no side effects at all. The cure was hell, but the aftermath has been great.

And I was looking on that front because people can have lifelong issues. No salivary glands, the voice box can be affected, swallowing, you know, so I need to chew my food a little bit better, but that's about it, so I'm good. What's the biggest challenge facing women in tennis today? It's still trying to get the corporate money because we still are lacking and lagging behind the guys in financials.

And also, men's sports has been around for 150 years. Women's sports is very young. And it's just the right thing to do. We'll talk about the right thing to do. I want to get your views on trans athletes in sports. You have been very outspoken. So just looking at your social media on Twitter and elsewhere, you said so, for instance, you said it's not for failed male athletes, whatever age, this is not right and it's not

fair. As you cast it, it's about being fair to women who are participating. Absolutely, and that there's a certain step ladder that you have to go through before you get to elite sports. So it starts really in high school, and then you come out to go into your local meet, and there's a boy that now has a ponytail and nail polish and identifies as a girl. that's all fine and well,

but the ponytail and nail polish does not a female make. And now these girls are like, I can't compete against that. I have no chance. What do you think about where tennis has got to? Because the WTA permits transgender women to participate if A, they provide a written and signed declaration that they are female or non-binary, binary be their testosterone levels are below a certain limit for two years and see they sustain those levels what do you think about

that position I think it I think it's wrong I think it's still wrong because number one you don't lose the five inches of built-in height average male is five inches taller than a female then you add add arm length, you get like seven inches, you get this much height, just here. So I have to jump this much higher for an overhead as the guy, well, and it finds as a woman, to be on the same level. The other subject on which you've been very outspoken

of late is your adopted homeland of modern America. And I know that on your pinned tweet on the platform X, you say that you grew up in a totalitarian, authoritarian country, which we've spoken about, Czechoslovakia under the Soviet Union. And basically you say you refuse to be someone who lives in another one. Do you really fear America, your home,

is turning into a totalitarian, authoritarian country? Don't you see that? I mean... Totalitarian? Well, yeah, when they are checking all your social posts to decide whether you can stay in the country, even though you already have legal visa and they want to send you back. How would you like to be remembered in years to come? I'd like to be remembered. you back. How would you like to be remembered in years to come? I'd like to be remembered. Martina Navratilova, thank you so much for your time.

Amarajan speaking to the tennis icon that is Martina Navratilova. As final results coming from Mexico's judicial election on the 1st of June, a former defense lawyer for the notorious drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman has been elected as a judge in northern Mexico. Silvia Delgado defended Guzman before he was deported to the United States and refused to accept that she should have pulled out of the race. From Mexico, our correspondent Will Grant reports. Given the complexities of the new judicial voting system, it has taken more than two weeks for many results to be properly tallied. But one of the most controversial candidates to win is Silvia Delgado,

former defence attorney to the world's most wanted drug lord, now elected to local criminal judge in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez. Silvia Delgado was part of the defence team for Joaquin El Chapo Guzmán when he was brought before a judge in Ciudad Juarez in 2017. Her critics say she represents everything that is wrong with voting for judges in Mexico. A leading human rights and transparency organization said she was one of several candidates with alleged links to organized crime on the ballot sheet and could be compromised as a judge. Speaking to the BBC ahead of the vote, she dismissed the idea that she should

step down over her previous ties to a drug cartel. Why should I, for doing my job, for defending people's individual guarantees? Why should that make me illegitimate? she said. Meanwhile, the new president of the Supreme Court is Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an indigenous lawyer from the southern state of Oaxaca. He now becomes the first indigenous person to hold the highest judicial office in Mexico's modern history. Another vote will be held in two years to choose the remaining positions in the judiciary which weren't filled in this election. Will Grant reporting. As the weather in the channel clears, French police are struggling to stop a potentially

record-breaking surge of people from reaching the UK in small boats organised by a growing network of smuggling gangs. Although the French authorities claim they're now intercepting more than two-thirds of the boats before they reach the sea, smugglers are now changing tactics to launch so-called taxi boats from new sites, in new ways and with greater speed, as our correspondent Andrew Harding reports. It's a clear warm night and the sea is very calm and it's a perfect night for crossings. We are south of Boulogne, it's about two in the morning, we're with a group of French gendarmes. They've got a drone out and they are scanning the forests

and the beaches for migrants and for smugglers. They've spotted a group of 30 migrants to the south and another 100 or more a little further north. In charge of this sector is Colonel Olivier Alary. We are trying to intercept as many of the smugglers' boats as possible. We are managing to catch up to 70% of them. It's very satisfactory. But sometimes they are smarter and they manage to surprise us.

Speaking of surprises, the police have just heard some frustrating news. Let's go. Who is going to be scared and disoriented? Speaking of surprises, the police have just heard some frustrating news. There's been a successful boat launch further up the coast. We're rushing off to see what happened. We've arrived at the scene. There's an abandoned black Volvo axle deep in the sand. It's obviously been driven at high speed straight onto the beach. A new tactic. So the smugglers are adapting again. What's happened is the smugglers

have inflated their boat near the beach, probably in a barn where the drones couldn't spot it. Then they strapped it to the car roof and drove fast towards the sea, untied it and launched it within a matter of seconds. So the key is speed, it's getting the boat in the water as quickly as possible. To be clear, a taxi boat is a relatively new innovation. The smugglers preferred system now. They launched their inflatables in secrecy or far away from the main beaches and only then cruise along the coast picking up people already queuing in the water.

So we're now driving up the coast trying to chase basically the taxi boat. The police are ahead of us here and I've just got a glimpse of what looks like the boat. Well this is quite a scene we've come running across the beach near a little town called Ouisson. The sun is nearly rising and in the water here I can see maybe 50, 60 people up to their waists and they're waiting as inflatable boats circles round. The boat circles round. I'm going to wade out towards the manor. Hello. How are you doing?

I'm from BBC. I'm from Afghanistan. Are you going to get on? Yeah. You go to England? Yeah, England. So the group of migrants here waiting to see if they can also get on board the boat here and...

Kids on parents' shoulders and behind me on the coast, on the shore, maybe 20 policemen standing there watching, not intervening because they say the rules that they have prevent them from going into the water, except if they're going to rescue somebody who's drowning. Andrew Harding reporting. Netflix says it struck a deal with Deafin that will give its subscribers in France access to the French broadcasters content. The agreement is the first it's made with a major traditional television company. Risto Pucco reports. it's made with a major traditional television company. Risto Pucco reports. So it's a second night, rhythmically.

The agreement between Téfin and Netflix makes sense in a number of ways. The US streaming service has traditionally been weak on news, sports, and live events, all of which are among the strengths of Téfin, the most popular French broadcaster. So the deal will improve the position of Netflix on one of Europe's biggest markets and may provide a template to follow elsewhere. For Téfin, working with

Netflix gives a way of increasing its reach, but the company says its main focus will be on developing its own streaming service. Risto Poucault Chinese researchers say they've grown beating hearts containing human cells inside pig embryos for the first time. It is hoped that this could pave the way to the development of human organs for transplants and ease the long waiting list. Dr Naomi Morris works for the Biomedical Research Centre at the Francis Crick Institute in London. She explained the scientists' findings. They've used a genetic trick here where they've edited the pig embryo so that it doesn't

have the genes needed to make a particular organ, in this case the heart, and then injected human stem cells into a very early embryo. And the idea is that then the human cells will preferentially go to that kind of missing organ, if you like, in this case the heart, and repopulate it. And so that's the kind of idea. It's called a pig-human chimera. I mean, it's a very exciting field of kind of generating organs and tissues in post-animal embryos. I think it's very early days for this particular research. We haven't got a paper. It's just a report from a scientific conference. So we would need to see the data to be able to evaluate the claims. But it's certainly an exciting movement forward in the field. I think we're a long

way off of patient relevance here though, of course, the researchers said they could get the embryos to about 21 days. So very early, we don't know what happens to the embryos after that point. So we're a long way off, but I think it's an exciting movement, definitely. And the movement is in the direction of trying to help with the shortage of transplant organs. Exactly. So I think the goal is to use animal embryos as a kind of container, if you like, of human cells that would contribute to particular organs. So yeah, the idea is to generate kind of human specific organs within these embryos. But like I say, we're a very long way off.

A lot of the previous reports have had very low efficiencies or very low percentage of human cells in those organs. So yeah, there's a lot of work to be done. And ethical concerns? Yeah, of course. I think it's not really clear exactly sort of the ethical status of these chimeras as they're called. That's definitely a kind of wider discussion that we need to have and whether there are particular organs that might have ethical implications above others. Dr Naomi Moore is speaking to the BBC's Emma Barnett.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk and you can also find us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at BBC World Service.

You can use the hashtag globalnewspod. The edition was mixed by Holly Smith and the producer was Isabella Jewel. The editor is Karen Martin and I'm Uncriticized. Until next time, goodbye.