Global News Podcast - Partial restoration of phone services in Iran

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

An Iranian official has told the Reuters news agency that about 2,000 people have been killed in the protests, including security personnel. Some in Iran have now been able to make phone calls abroad to relatives, and have described bloodshed. One protestor, Erfan Soltani, will reportedly be "executed tomorrow". Also: the French far-right politician Marine Le Pen has begun her appeal against a two-year prison sentence and a ban on standing for public office. South Korean prosecutors have asked for the death penalty for the former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, over his attempt to impose martial law in December 2024. And is good gut health the secret to a long life? Our reporter is assessed by doctors. 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]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs.

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton on Tuesday, the 13th of January. These are our main stories. In Iran, thousands are feared to have been killed by government forces. With the partial restoration of phone services, Iranians have. have been describing violent crackdowns on anti-democracy protests in their initial calls abroad. The French far-right politician Marine Le Pen has begun her appeal against a two-year prison sentence

and a ban on standing for public office. Also in this podcast, My gut is equivalent to an Italian man five years older than me. Could good gut health be the key to living longer? Let's begin in Iran where a total communications blackout appears to be lifting, telling us more about the unprecedented anti-government street protests that led to a deadly crackdown by the authorities. Some people inside Iran are now making phone contact with people outside the country,

and that's helping us to fill in the picture on what's been happening since the Internet was shut down several days ago. This Iranian woman in London had a brief telephone conversation with a relative. A family member called me around sort of half ten, and very, very brief call. They just called to say that they're safe. Are they and their wife safe? And that was it. They're in the north of Iran. So they're in an area called Gorgon, just north of Tehran, quite kind of on the outskirts of the town, so quite rural area. And they said that basically everyone's been killed. And I asked, do they personally know people? And they said family members,

colleagues, neighbors, like, you know, in every household that's happening. And they had just called to say they're safe. A very brief call, got off the phone. Also just told me that they had told their daughter who I know. So, yeah, and that was it. The Reuters News Agency says an Iranian official has told them that about 2,000 people have been killed, including security personnel. And we're hearing about executions, too.

This from Jeremy Lawrence, a spokesman for the UN's Human Rights Office. It is extremely worrying to see public statements by some judicial officials indicating the possibility of the death penalty being used against protesters through expedited judicial proceedings. The High Commissioner stresses that Iranians have the right to demonstrate peacefully. Their grievances need to be heard and addressed and not instrumentalized by anyone. So what's the latest about the numbers killed and arrested?

Jaya Agul is from BBC Persian. Human rights groups say somewhere around 650 people have been killed. But this number is more before the internet blockout. Before people could contact us, give us name. And even we in BBC Persian were able to be before the internet blockout, find some of those families, talk about them, get the story of those people who have been killed, and identify some of the victims. But this time in the past four days, we believe the lethal force used against protesters is unprecedented. Doctors, surgeons, nurses, ambulance drivers,

they get entouched to us from hospital small and large, from the capital of Tehran or small city and large across the country. We received so many messages, but all of them, they had something in common. Our hospitals are overwhelmed with young men and women with shotgun wounds. Our morgues have been piled up with the bodies of young men and women, the protesters. And also the footage we have seen. One clip, somebody managed to send it to us. We counted in the street of Tehran. In one clip, in a street of Tehran, in one clip, in a video. a matter of a few seconds, 350 shots was heard, gunshot. It sounds like a live amination. So you're saying we have unprecedented numbers you believe of people killed. We're also hearing

reports now that communications are coming back online, some communications are coming back online of swift executions, executions that have been carried out and plans for more. What more can you tell us? We know numbers of people, scores of people have been round out in different places around the country. In one case, Erfana Sultani, a young man, he has been arrested last week. He has been convicted to death. And there is a fear by human rights group. His execution might be carried out on Wednesday.

So this is a kind of, I think, regime wants to execute those people who are protesting, showing the iron fist. So what is the appetite then for future protests? I think if we judge this protest with the previous one, we had numbers of them, just one of them three years ago, almost the regime collapsed. And this time around, it was much more widespread than the last one. I think eventually when we look at the regime, regime is internationally isolated, at home losing legitimacy, even amongst those small percentage supporting the regime. We're really hearing some strong words from foreign leaders, the German Chancellor Friedrich. Rick Merritt said we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of the Iranian regime. I think that's a lot of people hoping for that. But I don't think at this point of time,

we are in the turning point because the regime so far has been quashing and crushing the protesters. And even allowing people using phone, it's sound, they feel confident they have controlled it. And one thing we know, they don't hesitate to shoot if they feel. their existence is in danger. Jaya Ghul from BBC Persian. People inside Iran are cautious about speaking out, but there are Iranians outside the country who are willing to talk openly.

Jafar Panahai is one of Iran's best-known film directors. Last year, he won the prestigious Pondor at the Cannes Film Festival. For his drama, it was just an accident, which tells the story of a group of former political prisoners trying to decide whether to exact revenge on someone they believed to be their tormentor. Jafar Panahai made the film in Iran without permission. He's also been imprisoned several times by the regime.

He's currently in the United States, where he attended Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards. Speaking through his translator, he told the BBC's North America, correspondent Gary O'Donohue, how he'd watched the latest scenes of violence in Iran as he traveled by car to the ceremony. Unfortunately, what I saw was unbelievable. There was bloodshed and I saw bodies on the ground. The state police had gone down protesters and they had done it with the. intention of murder, not with the intention of dispersing the crowds, because there are army bullets

used, and we know that when that happens, it is only for the intention of killing. Families who were looking for their loved ones within the bodies of the protesters were completely shocked. We were stuck in the car, in the traffic on the way to the globes, and before heading there while we sitting on the line to get in. I really could not say anything. I could not get out of the car. And once we finally got out, I couldn't do anything I had in mind and I couldn't say anything because I was completely distressed. You have in the past few days, along with other members of the artistic community, you have publicly come out and condemned what the regime are doing. But you also plan to return to the country. That must put you at it.

enormous risk. I really don't understand what risk means here. When people are out and giving their lives and sacrificing their lives for what they need, anything I do is not any different. I had said the same thing four months ago. I had said that I will return under any circumstances. You've been in prison before. There is another prison sentence awaiting you when you get back.

Are you resigned to be put back in prison? When you make a film in Iran, when you make a film in Iran and you will not accept censorship, there is a price that comes with it, and myself and other filmmakers have accepted that price, and this is one of them. We have other filmmakers who are currently in prison, Mohamed Mourizad, the documentary filmmaker,

has been in prison for several years. And this is not just something that is about me. Why do you think it is that the authorities allow you to travel outside the country, given their opposition to your artistic work in particular? They did not allow me to leave. They had given me a sentence that banned me from leaving around for 15 to 16 years. And I served that sentence. And then they had not seen the film itself before I traveled.

What role do you think artists like yourself have when it comes to these hugely traumatic political situations with protesters on the streets? Artists have always been together with people. They have always been standing with people. many of whom in the cinema circle were supporting people in their demands for the women life freedom movement. And as far as I could follow the news while being outside Iran, I also have been seeing artists standing with people this time. Iranian film director Jafar Panahai. To Paris now, where a crucial court case has now opened that could determine the political

future of the far-right leader Marie-Le Pen. This appeal will decide whether she can run in next year's French presidential election. Ms. Le Pen is challenging her criminal conviction for misusing European parliamentary funds to pay party staff. She was considered to be a prime contender for the 27 election until she was barred from running for public office. So what is the basis for her appeal? Our correspondent in Paris is Hugh Schofield. Her lawyers from the start said that the conviction that the original trial was wrong. They said that what she'd done was not a crime

and was not organised in the same way. Their fallback position will be that even if it was a crime, the sentence was disproportionate and too strong. So that's what they'll be arguing in court. I think there will be probably a different kind of tack taken by her legal team this. time from the different from the first trial there, they went in all guns blazing and were very much intended to politicise the trial and claim that Marine Le Pen was the victim of a kind of

political holdup to stop her running for office. I think everyone agrees that that backfired, that that made it much less likely that the court was going to be lenient with her. So I suspect we'll see an more emollient legal case made by her team now in the hope that the sentence is reduced even if she's not acquitted. And tell us more about Marie Le Pen's current popularity and that of her party. Well, I mean, it's very interesting and very stark. I mean, they are the biggest party in France. You know, we never have thought of this being the case 20 years ago, 10 years ago even now,

but national rally, the hard right, populist right, far right, called it what you will, is now the biggest party in France. And that's why this was such a big deal, because when she was convicted last year and then told that you will not be able to run for the presidency, it was interpreted by her camp as being an attempt to stifle her, she even compared herself to Nelson Mandela, an attempt by, you know, the powers at B to keep out the rising force in French politics. Now, this appeal has been arranged and accelerated in order to produce a result in time for the next elections,

and if she succeeds in getting the sentence reduced, she will be able to run. But, you know, there is, for the national rally, this backup plan, which is her number two, Jordan Bardella running in her place. And the extraordinary thing about the story is that he, even though he's only 30 and is not a Le Pen and has no experience, appears to be just as popular with the electorate as she is. So, you know, it's an important trial, but the party does have a plan B. Hughes Schofield in Paris. Now, could having a healthy gut be the key to living longer? That's a bit of a hot question these days. You don't have to stray too far on social media to find an influencer promoting a product that claims to maintain good bacteria.

In many supermarkets now stock a range of products from kimchi to kifir that promise to nourish our gut. Some have dismissed all this as a passing fad. However, increasingly, some doctors think our gut microbiomes affect a whole spectrum of things from mental health to cancer prevention and could hold the key to aging well. I spoke to our health editor, Hugh Pim, who's been looking into all this and asked him if there was a link between gut health and aging. Well, Celia, that is a question that is being asked increasingly

by people in this field. And I should say, as you pointed out, this was seen at one time as a fashionable thing to do. There were influences promoting products, and there was some skepticism, cynicism even, about the whole thing. But I was very strong. coming into this story, that there were senior consultants in Britain's National Health Service, who were clinical experts, who were, one of them described himself as a microbiome evangelist.

What they do say, though, is to find a scientific proof that good gut health leads to aging is just not possible at the moment. But there are a number of studies that lead them in that direction. There's this fascinating story about a 117-year-old woman in Spain. and scientists were able through tests and to look at her diet to come to the conclusion that as well as having a healthy Mediterranean diet, she had three portions of yoghurt each day. And of course, yogurt is seen as a probiotic and very important part of the microbiome. And there was another study in China which showed that centenarians had a better gut diversity, more diverse microbiome.

Incidentally, these are the microorganisms, trillions of them in our gut, bacteria and fungi and so on. So there's an increasing move in this direction without anyone quite being able to say, yes, you'll get a very long life if you have a good diet. But they are taking it very seriously. And of course it speaks to an agenda for older people

who may become frail. One expert in geriatric medicine told me that actually having the right diet for an older patient who might become more vulnerable could be a very important part of their well-being. Wow. So you've really thrown yourself into this story, though, haven't you? You had your gut microbiome analyzed by St. Mary's Hospital in London. What was that experience like? Well, it was interesting. It was a bit scary. I mean, to get to the gory details, it involved a poo sample being sent in and analyzed in a laboratory. I mean, anyone who's done tests for bowel cancer will know about that. It's pretty straightforward. It was then examined by Dr. James Kinross, who's a professor at Imperial College London

and a clinician at St Mary's Hospital, incidentally where penicillin was invented in London. And he basically said, I've analysed your microbiome after the lab tests, and you're okay. You're not doing too bad. Now, one reason I did this is because I'm in my 60s and a grandparent. And the general view is the microbiome is pretty stable for most of the decades leading up to that. And in fact, experts say it's probably not worth people having it tested if they're younger than me. But given where I am and the possibility of the biome degrading over the next few decades, I did the test.

And I'll give you one more result. Apparently, it is actually something could be improved. My gut is equivalent to an Italian man five years older than me who has it on the Mediterranean diet. Our health editor Hugh Pym. Still to come in this podcast, using AI to develop new drugs. We're hoping we can develop medicines much faster and much more effectively than humans can ever do by using computers. Okay, new year, fresh start. And honestly, I'm starting with dinner. This year, I'm being smarter about where my energy goes. And dinner was taking way too much of it.

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Just simple, stress-free recipes and meals. that help me save more. Waste less. And for the first time in a long time, I actually look forward to dinner. Get your fresh start right now and get 50% off your first box plus free sides for life with HelloFresh. That's right, free sides for life. Go to Hellofresh.c8 and use code Dinner 50. That's Hellofresh.cate. C8, code Dinner 50. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed. hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it.

It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. to Ukraine now, where in the midst of a brutal winter, Russia has launched huge missile and drone attacks on cities across the country, targeting key infrastructure.

The attacks have killed several people in Kharkiv and left hundreds of thousands of people in Kiev without power. Thousands of homes don't have generators, so many have no choice but to endure freezing temperatures. I spoke to our correspondent Weira Davis, who's in Kiev. Russia has launched a nurse. intensive night of airstrikes across the country. The most damaging impact appears to have been Kharkiv on the eastern frontier with Russia where at least four people were killed, dozens injured. But there were also injuries as far south as Odessa, the port in the south, the strategically important port, and also the city of Kriri in the centre of Ukraine and here in Kiev in the capital.

So another night of intense Russian attacks using drones, missiles, even cruise missiles, reportedly. But particularly, says the Ukrainian government, Russia seems to be targeting Ukraine's critical infrastructure, things like power stations, port facilities, gas distribution points. And all of this, of course, the aim is to weaken not just Ukrainian resolve, but actually weaken the power supply, energy supplies, electricity supplies across the country. And this is coupled with a very, very severe winter here in Ukraine. Here in Kiev, temperatures today are well below minus 10 degrees centigrade. So, you know, with power outages, shortages of some basics and with the cold, it makes things very difficult for the residents of the city. Just a miserable time for many people in Ukraine then. How are the Ukrainians responding militarily? Well, the front in the winter doesn't tend to change much on the ground because of the severe conditions on the ground.

But both sides are attacking each other. It must be said that Ukraine also seems to be targeting key roads. Russian infrastructure in Russian cities close to the border, particularly oil depots and other points where Russian weaponry or energy facilities may be kept. So much of the activity seems to be in the skies, either with drones or with missiles. The impact here in Kiev is that many parts of the city, particularly on the left flank of the River Nipro, which runs to the city, thousands of homes are left without energy, without electricity. critical infrastructure like hospitals and schools have to be provided with diesel generators and sometimes there aren't even enough of those to go around.

So, you know, the battle is being fought mainly in the air at the minute, but the impact on the ground in cities like Kiev is quite distressing for many people. We are Davis and Kiev. Now, to news of a significant development in the case against the former president of South Korea, Yun-Sung-Yul, who's facing insurrection charges. Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for Mr. Yun over his failed imposition of martial law in December 2024. They've accused him of being motivated by a lust for power aimed at dictatorship and long-term rule. Our correspondent in Seoul is Jake Kwan.

Mr. Yun is facing multitude of charges, but the most serious one here is, of course, leading an insurrection. He is being accused of leading a coup d'etat in December 2024 by sending the troops into the nation's Parliament and then trying to arrest the lawmakers there. The special prosecutors have asked for death penalty for Mr. Yun, as well as life imprisonment for his chief of military, and 30-year sentenced for the military officer who is considered the architect of the needy-gritty details of this alleged insurrection. Now, this is, of course, a country that had practically abolished the death penalty. They haven't carried out death penalty since the 90s.

the prosecutors, they are arguing that it is necessary for the judge to give him the highest penalty that the South Korean law allows so that they can make an example of it, make sure that no other leader follows in Mr. Yun's footsteps later. They pointed out that they need to also look at a precedence of the last military dictator in South Korea, who was given a death penalty in 30 years ago and then commuted to life sentence later. They were saying that because that did not prevent this coup d'etat from happening, that they need to even take a more severe penalty against Mr. Yun here, and that they are seeking that this is very much necessary. Now, we are not going to hear the verdict until next month, that is when it's expected to arrive. But even if he is

found guilty of the death penalty here, and given the death penalty by the judge, the most likely outcome here is, of course, life in prison. Jake Kwan in South Korea. Well, like many countries in Europe, the Netherlands, is facing a housing shortage. The country needs around 400,000 homes. The party that won the most votes in the recent general election, D66, had a bold new proposal, pledging to build 10 new cities. Despite the squeeze on accommodation, the authorities are using the law to try to protect tenants and stop the spiraling cost of renting. Linda Presley reports. In the Port City of Rotterdam, we create. the Erasmus Bridge to the south side, taking in the glitzy new builds.

Among Rotterdam's recently constructed tower blocks are the old terraced homes, four-story brick buildings. And it's outside one of these we meet Sebastian Oscom, a senior housing inspector for the city who's arranged to visit a family living in the top floor attic. It looks like they pay a certain amount from the rental contract, but they also pay under the table an amount to the landlord extra. Oh dear. Yeah. Also, the rental contract is for one year, and that's not allowed in Holland anymore.

Temporary contracts are not allowed anymore. Most temporary rental contracts were banned in the Netherlands in 2024 to give tenants stability and to stop landlords raising rents at the end of a typical two-year contract. A teenage girl opens the front door. So we're going up one of these very steep Dutch staircases. Quite crumbly. There's no railing here, so be careful, yeah. Okay.

There's just a child safety gate right at the top of the stairs, no front door to the attic space, a small one-bedroom flat, where a family of five lives. The tenant brings his contract. He and his family arrived from Bulgaria eight years ago. Sebastian checks the paperwork, then calls a translator, because a man doesn't speak good Dutch. She explains to the tenant that his one-year rental contract isn't legal.

So we were just giving him the information about the new law and what his rights are in this. Okay, so how much rent are they paying here? They are paying 850 according to the contract, and we're going to just confirm. But last time we heard that they're paying like around 1,500. So part of it would be under the table. Yes, exactly.

Yeah. They're paying 1,500 euros per month. If the flat was assessed as being good for occupation, which is doubtful, this would be way too much under laws that cap rent. Sebastian wants to help to put the landlord on notice and get a fair rent for this family. But the tenant doesn't want Sebastian to get involved. The tenant told us he, even if we try to enforce,

he's scared for the landlord. He's scared of the landlord. Yeah, he's scared that even if we lower the rent, he's going to come by again and, in Persian demand more money. They're already looking for another place, which is not easy in this housing crisis. Sebastian plans to tackle the landlord once he has all the facts.

Outside, I ask him if this family paying 1,500 euros just for a pokey one-bed flat is as bad as it gets in Rotterdam. No. No, we have people that rent a room for that same amount. A room? A room? Yeah. And a lot of people, they don't know the law. They don't know their rights. Property developers and landlords complain the Netherlands' affordable rent laws and the end of temporary rental contracts, together with the tax they pay, mean they can't get a return on their investments.

But at Rotterdam's City Hall, Chantal Zegas, the vice mayor responsible for housing, pushes back. We need laws to enforce good landlordship. How much of a problem are bad landlords here in the city? Yeah, I have to emphasise that not every landlord is a villain. They are also good landlords. But before we had this law on affordable housing, the law of affordable rent, we had seen so many, so many bad situations for tenants.

In one area, we have seen that the average amount of rents, they asked too much, was like 500 euros per month. More than the actual, the capped rent should be? Yeah. Yeah. So that's really bad. Deputy Mayor of Rotterdam, Chantal Zayers, ending that report by Linda Presley. And last, we're hoping we can develop medicines much faster and much more

effectively than humans can ever do by using computers. That's Dr. Oliver Vance, co-founder of Basecamp Research. He says his biotech company has developed the world's biggest genome database. It's using artificial intelligence models to create new treatments for things like cancer and autoimmune diseases. Currently, the vast majority of new therapies developed by scientists don't make it through the testing stage. Dr. Vance told my colleague Nick Robinson how he hoped his company's research could change that and revolutionize the way drugs are made. What we're hoping to do is build AI systems that can understand disease biology sufficiently to design medicines straight into clinic. So ultimately to have a system

where you can tell it the disease, you can tell it what's wrong, and it will design you a medicine and ideally a cure for that treatment. Now the key to the success of any AI model, a specialist AI model, is a vast database. What is it that you're feeding into it in order to have any hope that it can achieve that aim? So the starting premise of Basecamp was that we don't know anywhere near enough about the vast majority of life on Earth. So far more than 99% of life on Earth is completely unknown. 70% of everything we know is from five species. And so Basecamp set out to change this. We've built partnerships in 28 countries, 150 different locations.

It is the rainforest, the Arctic, volcanoes, under the ocean, to basically look for the rest of the species. So far, we've discovered over a million new species, previously unknown to science, and use them to train huge AI models that are starting to understand evolution, understand life, and to use that to design medicine. So in other fields of AI, they train on the entire internet. If you want to write a poem with a new AI model, you train on the entire internet and then ask it to write a poem. You don't train on 100,000 poems. And so the analogy is same here. So if we trade on the internet of life,

the Wikipedia of Life on Earth effectively, if we can understand that, we can access that, then these models, they have amazing the ability to learn and to generate new ideas from having learned enough of that information. To be clear, though, it is a bet, isn't it? You can't be sure until the results come out the other end. That's exactly, exactly the point. And that's why we're so excited with the results we've released today. So this is the first AI model. We've called it Eden that designs therapeutic

candidates directly from a disease prompt in lots of different disease areas. So it's cancer, genetic disease, autoimmune disease, infections, where you basically type in something to do with the disease and outcomes a therapeutic candidate. And most of the cancer, and most of the And most excitingly of all, in all the lab tests we've run, it has a near 100% success rate at designing something that works first time in the lab. Anyone who's used AI even rather basically as part of a search engine will know the danger of what is called hallucination, but in other words, what looks like a plausible answer and it turns out to be nonsense.

Do you have that same risk? For us, it's not a risk. For us, it's a super exciting invention, right? So a plausible answer that sounds good, sounds realistic and could work. When we test them in the lab and you get near 100% success, honestly, if it's developing new antibiotics that we've never seen before, don't know anything like we've ever heard of, but they're working.

What matters for the patient, what matters for humanity is that it's working. Dr. Oliver Vance from Basecamp Research. And that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast. later. And for one story, in-depth, that gives you the backstory behind the headlines, search for our sister podcast, the Global Story, wherever you get your podcasts. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service.

Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Jack Wilfen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it.

It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first? time. The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.