Global News Podcast - Israeli strikes kill an Iran intelligence chief as conflict intensifies

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel are "over the skies of Tehran" and have killed Iran's intelligence chief. In response, Iran carries out its first-day time strikes into Israel.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. deal ratings and price history. So you know a great deal when you see one. You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Monday 16th June. Israel has assassinated another military leader in Iran. The Iranians say the attacks have left more than 220 people dead. 13 have been killed in retaliatory strikes by Iran. President Trump says there's still a chance for peace. A gunman who killed a Democratic Party politician in Minnesota on Saturday is still on the run. We hear from the state senator. And people have been swept away after a bridge collapsed in the Indian city of Pune.

Also in the podcast? First, you're 35 or above. Second, you're healthy. Third, you have fathered at least two children. And lastly, you have consent from your partners. Why some men in Indonesia are being offered cash by the government to get a vasectomy. Iranian and American officials were supposed to be holding nuclear negotiations on Sunday, but they were cancelled after Israel launched a devastating series of strikes on Iran, killing 224 people, according to the Iranians. The attacks are continuing, but the US President

Donald Trump says a deal is still possible and Vladimir Putin could mediate. However the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears in no mood to compromise. Here he is on the Fox News Channel special report with Brett Baer. They attacked their chief nuclear scientists working, it's like Hitler's nuclear scientists, would you leave them? Of course not. We attacked their top command. I can inform you that moments ago we also got the chief intelligence officer and his deputy in Tehran because we're now over the skies of Tehran. And Iran has since confirmed that the Revolutionary

Guards intelligence chief and his deputy were killed by Israel on Sunday. Iranian retaliation has now killed at least 13 people in Israel, including some in an apartment building in Bat Yam on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. A short while ago, our Middle East regional editor, Sebastian Usher, told us what he'd seen on a visit there. A lot of destruction, not just the building that was hit. Half of it is kind of gouged out. Big protective cordon, as you can imagine around it.

Lots of rescue workers still going in to try to get people out of a rubble. They've now confirmed that seven people died, including two children in Malatak, but also lots of residential buildings had quite severe damage to them. The shops on the main street, just about 100 yards away, also their shop fronts were badly damaged. The shopkeepers said that they were sitting in their shops in order to prevent any looting happening and the mood was at first one very much sombre, one of mourning families, very worried about their loved ones who were there, were attending. But as the day went on it became more febrile, the people there, a great sense of shock. I'd spoke to so many people there who essentially said that they didn't believe that there could be such images in a residential building like that and you

could say well that brings home the reality of what is happening, which it does, but everyone that I spoke to, young, old, more liberal, more conservative, they all backed essentially what Israel is doing at the moment in one way or another, saying that the price is worth paying. And of course, you had the politicians made very much of it, Mr Netanyahu was there himself. You had the president, Isaac Herzog, understandably, but you also had very divisive figures like the far right national security minister, Ben Gavir who appeared. So an atmosphere of sadness, of determination, but also I think of cold anger. Where we are

in Jerusalem I think is relatively protected, partly because it's near the old city and Al-Aqsa Mosque. There were some drones and some missiles that went directly overhead, but I've heard and seen pictures that in Haifa there seems to have been another strike on a building, heavy smoke coming from there. So we might see similar images as the night goes on and in the morning of what happened in Bat Yam. Sebastian Usher in Jerusalem. Well Israel continues to launch its attacks across Iran, even targeting an airport in the Far East near the border with Afghanistan. So what do people in Iran make of all this death and destruction these Iranians sent

as voice messages? If I want to say how I truly feel, honestly I feel completely hopeless. I feel like my youth, my childhood was spent during the war. Then came the sanctions, economic hardship, political pressure, repression, the soaring dollar, dreams turned to smoke, and now the only thing left is this, that you go to sleep at night and a missile lands on your head. The truth is over these years we've died many times, really. I mean, we're truly not afraid anymore. We've been through everything, the Iran-Iraq war, COVID, sanctions, women, life, freedom.

But in these circumstances, and I'm not a supporter of the authorities, not at all, really, but in this situation, I feel a sense of unity among the people. We definitely won't back down against Israel. No way. Mr Netanyahu, even if you kill us, we won't let you and people like you dominate us." BBC journalists are unable to report from inside Iran because of Iranian government restrictions. But Siavash Adlan of the BBC Persian service has been monitoring the impact of this latest Israeli campaign. Initially many Iranians thought that an Israeli attack will be limited to Iran's nuclear sites

and the military bases and military commanders, which it did initially. But then as the civilian casualty figures began to emerge, of which there are quite a few, Iranians realised that the harsh reality of war is really worse than they thought. They were not prepared from this. As more industrial sites, as industrial infrastructures were hit yesterday, it was one of Iran's gas fields in the south in Persian Gulf, and also an oil depot in northern Tehran were hit where you had very dramatic pictures of the whole neighborhood being set on fire. The damage is quite extensive and also today for the first time

Israel attacked some institutions related to the civilian administration, the judiciary, the police force, law enforcement bases and so on. So it's dealt quite a severe blow to the establishment itself. Yeah, very senior people being targeted. Reuters is saying that two US officials told it that President Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the Iranian supreme leader. But we do see reports that 14 nuclear scientists killed and now Benjamin Netanyahu saying they've quote got Iran's intelligence chief. How damaged is the government? The government seems to have recovered from the initial surprise shock and awe attack by Israel. They managed to get

their act together, hence these barrage of missiles that are effectively hitting Israel but still that chain of command has been broken. Some of the most highest-ranking Iranian military commanders have been killed. So I find it very difficult to envisage a scenario in which the government can again retake control as it is today. The whereabouts of the Supreme Leader himself is quite unknown now. And many people believe that Israel deliberately and purposefully is not yet after the Supreme Leader because he needs someone to sign an agreement of, you know, to give the concessions which everyone can accept. So if they do eliminate the Supreme Leader, then Iran's the future

of the Iranian state is very uncertain. I mean, uncertain at the moment. What do the people make of all this? Are they pointing the finger at their leaders? Yes, they are because obviously as the Israelis are always arguing and putting forward the case, it was the government of Iran that had called for the destruction of Israel. So many Iranians are asking, we never called for the destruction of Israel. This is not our war. We have asked the government to revise this foreign policy. We even tried to revolt against the government over our own civil freedoms. We were put down, but

it's not our fault now. So they do blame the government, but you know, you have that national pride feeling as well emerging as more civilian casualties come in, as you know, more parts of Iran are being hurt. You know, Iranians are thinking, well, we thought that the Israelis may help us weaken the government, but if it's going to lead to a case of a collapse of law and order and the central government's power, then they might think twice. Sivash Adlan of the BBC Persian Service. Our World Affairs editor, John Simpson, has witnessed decades of war in the Middle East. How bad is this latest conflict? It's serious.

The slinging large amounts of high explosive around is always running the risk of some sort of disaster. Of course, it's an ultra volatile region and the outbreak of warfare is always going to make things more dangerous and difficult. The worst thing that could happen is that something goes really badly wrong in terms of an explosion, a lucky or an unlucky hit and that brings in other countries. People are going to die, that is true, and they are dying already both in Iran and in Israel. But we're not talking about Armageddon here. And if the strikes on both sides, but particularly on Israel's side, are fairly limited, then

I don't think it's going to widen out in any way. I noticed something scarcely being reported, but Russia, which after all is a close ally nowadays of Iran, Iran supplies drones to the Russian army to fight in Ukraine. Russia you might think would start to say, Israel must stop. This is an outrage. Iran has the right to counter in any way it chooses. We support Iran. Russia's not saying that at all. The statement that came out of the Russian Foreign Ministry said, we, meaning the Russian

government, remind you, meaning Iran, of the readiness of the United States to hold another round of negotiations. I mean, hard to think of anything that's softer and less aggressive than saying to Iran, look, your best bet is to go back to talks with the US. Our World Affairs editor, John Simpson. Other news now, police in America are still searching for a gunman who murdered a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota on Saturday. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in their home, while State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot and wounded.

The suspect is thought to be 57-year-old Vance Bolter, who disguised himself as a police officer. Amy Klobuchar, a US Senator for Minnesota and a friend of Melissa Hortman, has been speaking to Tim Franks. I can't explain to your listeners how much I wish they knew Melissa like we know her. We lost her and her husband. She has two children who will not have a parent. She got into politics as a young mom. That's when we got to know each other. I also had a young child and we, you know, door knocked together.

And I saw just that personal relationship she had with her constituents. And she went on to be a Sunday school teacher and a Girl Scout leader and trained dogs for veterans and all the time rising up in the legislature to become Speaker of the House and by all accounts the most consequential speaker in Minnesota's history. She could work across the aisle, especially this year where we had a tied state house and she had to work out a budget and did it to the work she did with the governor on free school lunch and paid family leave, standing up for women's rights and passing legislation.

She's absolutely incredible and a really good friend. And I certainly want to ask you about the broader implications of this. May I ask, and it may not be a question that you want to answer publicly, but one of the responses has been that we need to provide more protection for people. Are you taking more precautions? Well, I appreciate the extra security. I've and I appreciate both Senator Schumer and Senator Thune called yesterday and a number of our elected officials here in Minnesota have more security. I'm actually not scared myself just because I'm more worried about honestly what innocent person he's going to come up against, as he's clearly knows there's a manhunt going on.

But at the same time, we've seen in the US this major increase in threats against judges and threats against elected officials. Do you think though inevitably people are going to wonder, should I bother? Should I bother either going into politics or frankly becoming a member of the judiciary? Because there are such threats now, maybe I could just have a quieter life elsewhere. You know, it is understandable people might think this, but I just beg them not to. Because now, more than ever, we need people like Melissa in her name to go into public service. I do believe I wouldn't be doing this job still if I didn't think we'd see a better day.

I do think we'll see a better day and maybe when they keep seeing her face and hearing about what she did it's going to change how they act and it's going to change what happens because something's got to change. Amy Klobuchar, US Senator for Minnesota. because something's got to change. Amy Klobuchar, US Senator for Minnesota. And still to come on the Global News podcast. Anchors or jetty remnants, or like here, there's this massive chain, which, you know, is fairly grand.

The search for treasure on the banks of the River Thames. on the banks of the River Thames. In India, at least four people have been killed and others swept away after a bridge collapsed in the western city of Pune. Eyewitnesses said tourists were standing on the bridge when it broke apart. Richard Hamilton has the details. Footage from the scene shows locals desperately trying to help people in the water before the emergency services arrived. The National

Disaster Response Force is now overseeing rescue operations. The collapse occurred on a busy Sunday afternoon when many tourists, possibly around 100, were on the Iron Bridge, which has been described as old and dilapidated. This eyewitness said he saw the bridge suddenly break up. He said at least 25 people were swept away. He added that rescue workers did manage to save a few tourists, but he feared that many more were still trapped beneath the debris. So far around a dozen people have been taken to nearby hospitals. It's thought that recent heavy rainfall increased

the volume of water in the river and the strength of its current. Richard Hamilton. According to Ukraine, Russian troops have executed at least 124 prisoners of war on the battlefield since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion three years ago. Now Russian soldier Dmitry Khrushchev is on trial in Ukraine, accused of executing a Ukrainian soldier called Vitaly Hodniuk. Joel Gunter has been in court in Zaporizhzhia. The allegation is that as Hodniuk was emerging from the foxhole essentially to surrender with no weapon, Khrushchev shot him execution style with his AK-47.

Khrushchev initially pled not guilty and then switched his plea to guilty, but he said only to speed up the process. We had the opportunity to go and do an interview with him, and he told us a little bit about his life up until that point. An orphan from birth, he was raised in a group home in Russia, had some brushes with the law as a teenager, ended up in a penal colony just for essentially shoplifting and stealing from homes while he was homeless. And he was among those prisoners who was offered the opportunity to be freed in exchange for

going to fight in the war in Ukraine. Khrushchev said he knew very little about the war at that point in his penal colony in a remote part of Russia. It seemed better to him than serving five more years there in the penal colony. And he was only at the front line for barely a few weeks before this operation took place. And then he was captured by Ukraine. Of course, the war is still going on. How did the Ukrainians investigate this incident? Yeah, they had a lot of difficulty because their crime scene essentially was on the front

line. So, Ukraine's state security services and then the prosecution had no access to the crime scene. So they did a remote investigation using open source material, intercepts of Russian communications. But really the key to the investigation and the prosecution was a remarkable turn of events, which is that three of Khrushchev's own Russian unit mates, also freed prisoners, agreed to testify against him. That they had either seen or could put together that they felt

Khrushchev must have been the person who carried out this alleged battlefield execution. And all three of those testified on the first day of the trial. And that is, according to Ukraine's War Crimes Prosecution's Office, the first time that that has happened. Now, the investigation ran to 2,000 pages of evidence. You've got these prisoners of war giving testimony. What is the point of this for Ukraine? These investigations are important for Ukraine.

I spoke to Yuri Belosov, the head of war crimes prosecutions for Ukraine. And he told me their responsibility is to do this to get justice for the victim. But there is also another story which is about Ukraine showing that it can bring Russia to justice in some form. The BBC's Joel Gunter talking to me from Ukraine. Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Barcelona and other southern European cities to protest against mass tourism. Smoke bombs were set off next to luxury stores, a hotel entrance was taped off and water squirted at shops.

Tourists get out of our neighbourhoods, they chanted. The activists say visitors have driven up housing costs and caused environmental damage. Our correspondent in Barcelona, Sarah Rainsford, told me more about the protest. Well this was a march through the city centre. It wasn't huge, there were hundreds of people rather than thousands, but they were really quite angry, quite frustrated, quite passionate about their cause. And their cause, of course, is calling for measures that will tackle what they're describing as over-tourism, which means there are huge numbers of visitors heading to cities like this and crowding the streets, filling up the restaurants, over-filling the restaurants

and pushing up prices for everybody. But but particularly they talk about prices for housing. That's becoming a massive problem and the protesters essentially blame short-term lets for that. They say that landlords are forcing tenants out of flats so that they can rent them for much more money from tourists. So that's why it was so passionate today, including protesters with water pistols who were spraying tourists. But at one point, they threw smoke bombs, red smoke bombs, into the lobby of a hotel that they were passing. They were trying to tape it off with red and white tape, sort of a symbolic protest, and then somebody threw a smoke bomb inside. And I spoke to some of

the tourists after that. They were really shaken. An American man who said he was actually in the U.S. Army, he really looked taken aback and quite scared. His family were in the hotel and they hadn't been expecting that at all. And they were upset that as tourists they felt they were being targeted. Now nearly three million people work in tourism in Spain. What do businesses and indeed the authorities make of these kind of protests? Of course tourism is huge for the economy here and these are protests in other countries where tourism is massively important to the economy. I think what the protesters say it's about how that's managed you know

not having cruise liners spilling out thousands of people at the same time as your other measures like for example here in Barcelona expanding the airports just been approved so more people are expected to come here. So there have been measures. The Spanish government has introduced rent caps, for example, to try to help tackle rising prices for local people. They've also here in Catalonia, they have issued a ban, in fact, on short-term lets. So from 2028, there will be no more licenses. And in fact, all licenses that currently exist for B and B rentals, they're going to be taken away.

And of course as you suggested it's not just Spain but other parts of Europe as well. Yeah, protests today in Lisbon, protests on Mallorca, on Ibiza, here in Spain, also in Italy too. Prices in Rome are extraordinarily high for rent these days and it's the same in places like Venice and Sicily. Sarah Ainsford in Barcelona. Officials in Indonesia have begun offering cash for vasectomies in an attempt to slow population growth. Indonesia is the fourth most populated nation on earth with some 286 million people. The new scheme is being rolled out in West Java province as I heard from

our Asia Pacific regional editor, Jason Lee. If you're a man living in West Java province, you can get the procedure done if you meet these requirements. First, you're 35 or above. Second, you're healthy. Third, you have fathered at least two children. And lastly, you have consent from your partners. Now in return for the procedure, the local government will pay you 500,000 rupiah, that's about 30 dollars. And it's actually proven to be quite popular. One local official said that more than 200 men have come for the procedure when they

only had space for 60 people. Now, some critics have questioned the effectiveness of this policy, including officials, human rights activists, and importantly, religious leaders. Remember, Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country. But some of the men who underwent the procedure have told regional media that they really welcome the cash payout, especially as more than three million people in the West Java province live below the poverty line. Now the authorities are clearly worried enough to put up some cash towards this policy. How bad a problem is overpopulation in this area? This province has 50 million people and overall in the country population growth

has been declining steadily. That's because in the 1970s the government launched a program providing universal access to volunteering quality family planning and reproductive health services. But the government is worried that the country might face pressure in the future as high population density could put a strain on resources, infrastructure and services. So the authorities here are trying to bulletproof themselves from future problems that could arise from overpopulation with initiatives like this one we're seeing today.

Interestingly, Indonesia seems to be something of an outlier in the region because a lot of countries like China, South Korea are actually worried about a shrinking population now. That's correct. In contrast to Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, China, Singapore and importantly Vietnam, I'll come back to this, are all countries that are experiencing some of the lowest birth rates in the world. And so governments there are trying to incentivize couples to have more children with things like financial support from your parents, subsidized education, and expanded parental leave.

Now coming back to Vietnam, I just want to point this out because recently it scrapped its long-standing two-child policy there. That's because the authorities fear the low birth rate could threaten its economic growth. They want to continue seeing this robust growth that it's been experiencing for the past few years. And it's hoping one day it will become a developed nation. So they want to keep this going. That's why they're trying to incentivize couples to have more children so they will have a robust working population. J. Sung Lee. Finally, do you fancy scrabbling about among the debris washed up on the foreshore of a polluted river in a busy city centre? Well, mudlarking as it's known is now so popular here in London that there's a long waiting list for licenses to search the banks of the River Thames at low tide, as Annabel Arianeigam has been finding out.

London's dirtiest hobby has become one of its most popular. Since the Covid-19 lockdown, the waitlist for mudlark licenses has rocketed to 10,000 people. Driven by a thirst for history and the time-old irresistible allure of treasure hunting, the River Thames has never had so many people wanting to dig through its mud. Mary Louise Plum is an avid mudlark and I'm going to meet her now to hear what exactly mudlarking involves. We are down on the bank of the River Thames. I'm looking for items of historical interest. If you looked in my bag now, you'd think, why are you taking about homes? There's like really, there's kind of like mudlark mudlark finds and then there's the finds that everyone loves.

So, we're in a bone line here. We are, I'm literally looking at bones. Lots and lots of animal bony stuff. The remnants of many meals had by Londoners past and butcheries, tanneries and lots of animal processing. That's why you get all these bones down here. Clay tobacco pipes. You see these everywhere down here especially in central location. When were they mainly in Yusha? So the very end of the 16th

century going up to the early 20th so when tobacco first came in it's all kind in central location. When were they mainly in Yushan? So the very end of the 16th century going up to the early 20th, so when tobacco first came in it's all kind of signs of everyday life of eating, drinking, living, working, being on the river. We call it foreshore furniture, it's the stuff that stays here like anchors or jetty remnants or like here there's this massive chain which you know is fairly brown, fairly heavy duty, so it would have been a mooring chain. The payoff is finding something amazing, especially when you can research it and it can put you in contact with actual people.

I'm now headed to the London Museum to meet with Kate Somnall. She's curated over 350 mudlarked objects for the Secrets of the Thames exhibition. We wanted to tap into that sense of discovery that the mudlarks feel when they go on the banks of the Thames, of they just never know what they're going to find, from the everyday to the really special. The earliest records we have of mudlarks stretch back into the 1700s. These were often women and children living in utter poverty and who were mudlarking to try and scrape together enough pennies to maybe get some food and a room for the night. I like to find those very little personal stories that are held in these

objects. Interest and knowledge about mudlarking has really soared in recent years thanks to social media. The river is the holder of all the secrets of London's past, but it's also got so many surprises down there as well. And that report by Annabel Arianeigam. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and produced by Alfie Havishen and Peter Goffin. Our editors Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. Ever feel like car shopping is designed to make you second-guess yourself? Is this a good price? Am I making the right choice?

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