Global News Podcast - Trump warns 'clock is ticking' for Iran

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

President Trump has again issued a warning to Iran amid stalled peace negotiations - saying unless they act quickly to agree a deal, there won't be anything left of them. Tehran says the US has failed to make any concrete concessions to bring about an end to the war. Also: Rwanda tightens its border security as neighbouring DRC struggles to contain a deadly Ebola outbreak; Amnesty International highlights Iran's increasing use of the death penalty; Russian civilians are shocked by Ukrainian drone attacks; Britain's royal guards allegedly fall asleep on the job; and are street preachers a blessing or a curse?

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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Monday, the 18th of May, these are our main stories. President Trump has again issued a warning to Iran amid stalled peace negotiations, saying, unless they move fast, there won't be anything left of them. Rwanda is tightening security on its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, amid fears over the potential spread of an Ebola outbreak. The Kremlin responds to Ukraine's biggest drone attack yet on Russia. Also in this podcast,

The authorities weaponize the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instill fear among the population and essentially crush and stifle any dissent that there might be. Amnesty International says Iran is carrying out more executions than at any time since the 1980s. It's not the first time he's used such words, but if President Trump is to be believed, his patience is running out with Iran to agree to turn the ceasefire into a peace deal

and end the war with the United States and Israel. On Sunday, he wrote on his Truth Social website, For Iran, the clock is ticking and they better get moving fast or there won't be anything left of them. Then in capital letters, time is of the essence. Mr Trump's close ally in Congress, the Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, told NBC televisions meet the press that Tehran was testing Washington's patients. President Trump's very frustrated.

So what to do next? I think you weaken them further. What President Trump has done has been amazing militarily, but there's still more targets to be had, and there's things we can do to hurt their. The energy infrastructure is their soft underbelly. If you go back to the fight, I put energy on top of the list. hurt them more. Maybe they'll make a deal if you hurt them enough. But right now, I think they're

trying to wait us out. I think they're playing games. And in the words of the president, I think they're crazy. I think he's right. But Mr. Trump's repeated threats to resume attacking Iran appear to have had little impact on the Islamic Republic. It wants a permanent, durable ceasefire in Lebanon between its proxy there, Hezbollah and Israel, before reaching a deal with the U.S. According to media in Israel, the Prime Minister there, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke to Mr Trump on Sunday about the possibility of bombing Iran again. For more on the President's latest warning, I spoke to our correspondent in Washington, Joel Gunther. I think it would probably be quite foolish to try and make a prediction either way.

Obviously, we've seen him make very similar threats before, only to then back down from them. In fact, the language of this threat is sort of similar, it echoes that terrible threat he made last month that he was going to wipe the entire Iranian civilization off the planet if his demands were not met. That was a threat that he of course backed down from. He may do the same here. There is a sense that this is all part of a sort of coordinated maximum pressure campaign to try and bring the Iranians to the table, to try and force them to make concessions to give President Trump something he can sell as a win in America

where the war is deeply unpopular, becoming more unpopular by the day, and many ordinary Americans are suffering real economic hardship. Yeah, and actually that leads to some people suggesting that there are two audiences for this. Yeah, maybe Tehran, but also the audience at home. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, on the Tehran side, it's perhaps a little bit more straightforward. He's once again saying that if you don't do what I want, we are going to bomb you to Smitherines. It is out of the playbook. There is a feeling that perhaps he doesn't have much more left in negotiating terms apart from these threats of military force. Back home in the US a little bit more of a complicated picture because there is certainly a very big constituency that

will hear him saying, we're going back to war and be exhausted by that prospect. I don't think people really believe at this point that this military excursion or skirmish or whichever one of the various things Trump has called it over time is bringing something to Americans. I think by and large, the stories you see here is that most people are far more concerned about the sky high prices at the gas pump rising prices at grocery stores than they are about the future possibility of Iran developing a nuclear weapon. It had looked as though diplomacy was his preferred option, but particularly with the recent visit to China. Yeah, that's right. I mean, maybe there was a sense that diplomacy was now the only option.

Iran had, apparently to the surprise of the Trump administration, withstood that joint American-Israeli attack, the sort of overthrow of the regime that they thought might happen, that the people might bring about after the initial strikes, clearly did not happen. and Iran proved itself capable of withstanding the force and also turning to the strait of Hormuz as a huge leveraging technique. So diplomacy was perhaps the only option. There was some speculation before the trip to China that the Trump administration might try to press China

to give them some support to lean on China's longstanding ally Iran. But coming out of that China summit, nothing you could really hang your hat on that suggested that China was keen to get involved. Joel Gunter in Washington. Before the ceasefire, Iran tried to draw its Gulf neighbors into the war by attacking them with drones. On Sunday, the Defence Ministry in Saudi Arabia said that it had intercepted and destroyed three drones coming from Iraqi airspace, while the United Arab Emirates is investigating the source of a drone strike at a nuclear power plant near Abu Dhabi.

Authorities said an electrical generator in the compound was hit, but that no one was hurt and that radiation levels remained normal. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said any military activity that threatened nuclear safety was unacceptable. With more, here's BBC Persian Special Correspondent, Kazranaji. The UAE has just issued this statement saying that three drones were fired towards the nuclear power plant. Two of them were shot down and the third hit the ground within the compound. and they're saying that they came from the west of the country. That could be either from Iran or from the Houthis.

But obviously, the main suspect is Iran, and the relations between Iran and the UAE is at rock bottom after the war, and Iran fired about 3,000, according to the UAE, 3,000 missiles and drones at the UAE during that time. So things are not going very well with these two countries, and this is the latest. I suppose this is a message from Iran, if Iran is behind it, that the UAE should not get involved in this war any further. Kasserad Naji. Amnesty International says the number of executions that took place around the world in 2025 was the highest in more than four decades.

The Human Rights Campaign Group said the rise had been driven largely by Iran, where more than 2,000 people were put to death, double the number of the previous year. Most were for drug and murder offences. But Amnesty said there had also been a rise in executions of political prisoners. Caroline Hawley has compiled this report. Hello, people of Iran. You are hearing my voice from Urumia Central Prison,

and this may be the last time you hear it. 29-year-old Mejrab Abdulazadeh was arrested in 2022 during anti-government protests that followed the death of a young woman in police custody. He was accused of being involved in the killing of a member of the security forces. From the very first day of my arrest, they forced confessions out of me through torture and threats. They know it, and God knows it, that I'm innocent. In this recording, obtained by the Kurdistan Human Rights Network, he describes the torment of being on death row, the sleepless nights. A condemned person can only find a sliver of peace

after 1 a.m., perhaps letting go of their racing thoughts to sleep for two or three hours. This is his mother, wearing a navy headscarf, sitting on a grey sofa, holding in her hand a framed black and white picture of him. She begs for help to save him, saying he's young, he's innocent, He has dreams ahead of him. But in the early hours of May 3rd, state media announced his execution. He's one of dozens of political prisoners who've been put to death since the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran began. At least 14 of them were only arrested in January

during a nationwide uprising that was crushed with lethal force. Nassim Papayani from Amnesty International says executions are carried out by hanging at dawn. Effectively, people in Iran have been waking up daily, near-daily announcements of executions being carried out. The authorities weaponize the death penalty as a tool of political repression to instill fear among the population and essentially crush and stifle any dissent that there might be. At the end of last month, State Run TV ran a report on Sarsan Azad Var, a 21-year-old karate champion, convicted of effective collaboration. with the enemy during January's protests.

He's seen in the report in handcuffs, apparently confessing to breaking the window of a police car with a stick, asking for petrol to set it on fire. Less than four months after his arrest, he was executed, even though he wasn't officially accused of a lethal crime, which is the threshold for using the death penalty under international law. Thamin El-Hittan, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, says Iran's increased use of the death penalty to silence political dissent is frightening.

We are seeing people who are being charged on vague laws and texts and executed, often also in expedited processes. And many individuals, including children, are still at risk of execution. This is the voice of Erfán Shakuzadei. He's wearing blue prison uniform, and appears in the circumstances, unbelievably calm. He was arrested last year while studying for a master's in satellite technology and accused of spying for the US and Israel. Again, his confession was televised. Erfand Shakurzade was 29 when he was executed last Monday.

In a letter he wrote from prison, obtained by Iranian human rights groups, he says he was subjected to eight and a half months of torture and solitary confinement. And the confession he made was underwent. under duress. Iran executed more people in 2025 than at any time since the 1980s, according to the UN, and it fears that the number this year will be even higher.

Caroline Hawley and the BBC has asked the Iranian authorities to comment on their increased use of the death penalty, including against Sasan Azadvar and on claims of torture, but it has not received a response. countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC are watching warily as the authorities in Kinshasa struggle to contain a deadly outbreak of Ebola. There have been about 300 suspected cases and more than 80 deaths so far. The virus has also been recorded in Uganda and Rwanda has tightened its border security. Residents near the eastern DRC border city of Goma are reportedly not being allowed to cross into Rwanda. Rafael Casali, who lives in Goma, said that he was scared.

I'm afraid, like any human being, because we have children at school and they still come into contact with a lot of people. We don't really know who they might be around or play with. Once they come home, they can infect the whole family. In his latest address, the DRC's health minister, Samuel Roger Camber, gave an update on how the outbreak seems to have begun. People in the community said it was witchcraft. Now we realise that the first person fell ill in late April and died.

The body was repatriated to a nearby town. It was the return of this body to a mining area with a large population that caused the Ebola outbreak to escalate. I asked our health correspondent James Galaher, how worrying the situation is. There's a lot going on here that makes it a more difficult and challenging outbreak than many others. One of them is there is a different species of Ebola,

to the ones that we're normally used to dealing with. This one has only cropped up in two outbreaks before, hasn't been seen for more than a decade. So when doctors were doing blood tests on patients, they're using the latest technology that looks for the most common forms of Ebola. And so patients were coming back negative, despite the fact they had it. It took more sophisticated analysis, so that has slowed the response.

It's also taking place in a part of the world where there's a lot of people moving, across borders. That complicates things like contact tracing. You need to know who every patient that has had Ebola, who they may have passed it onto. And as soon as you introduce multiple countries and a large proportion of the population that don't live in their own homes, they're displaced by conflict in the region, that makes it all incredibly hard. And we're also in the territory of not having a proven effective vaccine or drug treatment for this particular form of Ebola too. Lots of it is challenging. Why does Ebola seem to be focused on this part of the world so often?

This is the 17th outbreak in the DRC. Yeah, and it's all going to come down to where the virus is living in animals because this isn't a virus that is principally affecting people. It's an animal infection. It's what's known as an animal reservoir. Principally, that's going to be fruit bats, but you can also get into other animal species. And the reason why DRC is involved in so many of these outbreaks is because, that's where people come into contact with the infected animals as simple as that.

So many people, to the frustration of the authorities, are going to priests and churches instead of to medical centers. Why is it, after all this time, why is the message still struggling to get through? I think you have to remember that when it comes through Ebola, there's been years of prejudice and superstition and discussions around things like witchcraft involved. You know, you're trying to overturn lots of deep-seated beliefs and concerns and distrust in medical professionals. And that is a lot to overcome. And in some cases, you also have lots of cultural things that it goes against as well, such as like burial processes, all these little things that are additional challenges in terms of trying to contain Ebola and something like this. I do think it's worth mentioning, though, that even if we were to look back to the 2014 to 2016 outbreak of Ebola, this time in West Africa, that affected nearly 30,000 people and it was a huge issue for the countries and areas that evolved.

I do think it's worth just being reassuring, though, that despite the fact the World Health Organization has declared there's a public health emergency of international concern, that doesn't mean we're in the early stages of a COVID-style. pandemic, it means that the scale of the problem needs a international response to it, but that doesn't mean the whole world is under threat. If we were to cast our minds back to 2014, there were only a handful of cases that appeared in other parts of the world, and they were mostly in volunteer health workers who had travelled to the region to help out. James Galaher. Still to come in this podcast.

Good afternoon. People are Voxys Street. People may cry out to go out. saying, why is there so much suffering in this world? Why is there so much pain? When does street preaching become a nuisance worthy of police attention? This year, 193 countries are electing a new Secretary-General of the United Nations. And there's a lot at stake. If we don't make the right type of decisions, that is the relevance of the UN for the rest of humanity.

What kind of leader does the UN need right now? And how does a candidate prepare to take on? this job in January 27. We'll get into all of it on world's toughest job, wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. Last Wednesday, a committee in the Israeli parliament met to discuss rising attacks and harassment of Christians in Jerusalem. This followed a violent attack on a Catholic nun by an Israeli settler a few weeks ago. Insults, vandalism of churches and being spat on have become daily occurrences for Christians in Jerusalem and members of the clergy and congregations warn it is getting worse.

Ioney Wells reports from Jerusalem. The Christian community here in Jerusalem was shocked recently when a video went viral of a man pushing a French Catholic nun to the ground and kicking her in the old city. It took place on Mount Zion, near a site Jews believe is King David's tomb and Christians believe is the site of the Last Supper. The suspect is a 36-year-old Israeli settler called Yona Simcher Schreiber. The nun was a researcher here at the French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Its director, Father Olivier Pocchio, says the attack was a shock, but not a surprise. Having one of us, a victim of that, wasn't a surprise. It's arriving, unfortunately, on a daily base. But the level of violence was totally unexpected. And this is showing this is a new step. in what we are facing. Physically speaking, she was very lucky, but psychologically speaking, she is still under shock and now she has to refrain from walking in the old city. Over the past month, anti-Christian incidents have also occurred in the West Bank and southern Lebanon,

where an Israeli soldier was photographed smashing up a crucifix and another holding a cigarette to a statue of the Virgin Mary. The soldiers involved in these incidents were given military detention. This week, Jerusalem church leaders urged Israel. to address rising hate crimes against Christians at a committee in Israel's parliament, the Knesset. Gilead Kariv, chair of the Israeli Immigration Absorption and Diaspora Committee, called the attack on Nun, terrorism. There are about 200,000 Christian citizens in the state of Israel.

Christian families are afraid to come to the old city of Jerusalem. This is a situation we must. must not accept. An Israeli police commander in the old city said his force was doing everything possible to allow people of all faiths to go about their lives. The hearing happened the day before Jerusalem Day, when Israel celebrates its capture and annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967. Here, crowds of mostly religious nationalist youth waving Israeli flags parade

through this predominantly Palestinian area and the Muslim quarter of the old city. At times, they sang insults to Arabs and attacked and vandal. vandalized shops. Most of the harassment was directed at Palestinians in the Muslim quarter, but the Christian areas were targeted too. Now, there was this group here of Ethiopian Jewish girls who learned from us. It was interesting because they were open curiously to what we had to say. They heard, they learned about the Armenians, about the Armenian genocide. And then the smaller girl said, are they Christians?

So they should die. The religious freedom data center who run a hotline for anti-Christian harassment set up an educational stall in the Armenian Christian quarter of the old city. Its founder, Yiska Harani, said in 2025, their hotline received 181 reports of anti-Christian harassment, but that this is likely an underestimate. Yiska says often some of the anti-Christian attitudes among some extremist Jewish communities comes from the bloody history between Jews and Christians. There are three roads to making this change. You have to understand that history does not die. out. But there's present. We live in the 21st century. Secondly, enforcement. If the police

doesn't take it seriously. And it's not really the police. It's the government. And the third thing is the visibility of Christians in the public space. Back at the school of the nun who was attacked in Jerusalem, her colleagues are closely watching the outcome of the suspect's upcoming trial. Father Olivier hopes justice will be served to set an example. The political climate is not helping, since there may be a feeling of of impunity from perpetrators of crimes. So we are really monitoring the enforcement of the laws and we will see the outcome of the judiciary process.

That report from Jerusalem was from Ione Wells. Russia has attacked Ukraine's southern Odessa region overnight with local officials saying residential buildings and schools have been hit. It comes after Kiev launched a major drone offensive that reached the Moscow region, prompting people in the capital to feel the threat Ukrainians have been living under for four years. Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, reports. In the skies around Moscow, it's becoming a familiar sight.

Ukrainian drones. But this was one of the largest drone attacks the Moscow region has come under. Residential blocks were hit. An oil facility, too. What preceded this was one of the heaviest Russian drone and missile attacks on Kyiv. On the edge of Moscow, we saw for ourselves some of the drone damage. No one had been injured here, but at least three people were killed in the Moscow area. Some of these residents were shocked to find themselves on the front line.

Yevgeni heard the drone hit the block of flats. No one expects this to happen, he says. It's terrifying. Leif blames Europe for supporting Ukraine. We should send a few drones in your direction, he tells me, so that you stop sending them against us. For a long time, many Russians tried to put what was happening in Ukraine out of their minds and pretend that the war there is happening so far away and doesn't affect them.

That's becoming much harder to do. It's not just Moscow. Recently, Ukraine has been launching long-range strikes on many parts of Russia and penetrating air defences. It was fear of drone attacks that led to last weekend's Victory Day parade on Red Square being scaled back with fewer soldiers and no military hardware. But after these strikes deep inside Russia, there is no sign from the Kremlin of any scaling back on its war on Ukraine.

Steve Rosenberg. Here in the UK, a number of police officers who protect members of the royal family at Windsor Castle are under investigation for allegedly leaving their posts unattended or being asleep while on duty. The residents of King Charles and Queen Camilla, which is just outside London, is an area of high security.

On Sunday, Ellie Price sent this report from Windsor. In a statement, a police spokesperson said, the alleged behaviour falls below the high standard expected of officers, particularly in the frontline protective roles. We also understand they're assessing whether any of those officers under investigation should be placed on restricted duties. We understand that that decision will be taken by the end of the week. Windsor is, of course, one of the busiest of the royal residences.

It played a big part in the four state visits that happened last year, not least the one that President Trump came to town. And of course, the Prince and Princess of Wales live in the broader Windsor Great Parks. So this whole area is an area of heightened security. Now, the Royal Standard, the big flag that flies on top of the castle, is flying today, suggested that the king is here today at Windsor. We understand he was informed of the allegations and the investigation, but so far there's been no comment from Buckingham Palace.

Ellie Price, a blessing or a nuisance. Street preachers can be found in many parts of the world, talking about their faith and hoping to convince others to believe. But in the English city of Colchester, the local council has called in the police to stop an evangelical church from preaching on the street. The Bread of Life Community Church allegedly told passers by, they were going to hell, though the church maintains its preaching a message of God's love. So what do the British public think? The BBC's Naomi Wellings has been out in London to sample views and hear from street preachers themselves. Good afternoon, people at Oxford Street.

People may cry out to God and say, why is there so much suffering in this world? Why is there so much pain? Dave Mwaniki and his team from open-air campaigners ministries illustrate their messages on a board, and unlike some other speakers, don't use any amplification. Yet, as relatively low-key as they are, there are mixed views on whether this kind of activity has a place in public. I don't think it's appropriate.

Let the people do what they want to do, give them the freedom to change. choose, you know. I don't really mind what people do on the street. They can do what they want. I shook his hand and said, thank you very much for doing this, because I'm pleased that he's doing it. As a Christian, I'm really happy for that. I don't think this is the place for it, and it does annoy me sometimes that they do it. But how does the Lord judge what's inappropriate or offensive? Sam Webster, a solicitor based at the Christian Institute, has been advising street evangelists for more than two decades. Now we do have public order legislation that addresses the question of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. But at the end of the day, it is a defence if the street preacher can show that his conduct was reasonable in all the circumstances.

His organisation wrote a street preacher's charter last year to help guide preachers about both their rights and their responsibilities. Where cases have arisen, well, firstly with police forces, there can be a misconstruing of what public order. legislation says. So the mere fact, somebody has complained to the police and has said that they're offended by something that's been said. But invariably, later, it's found, you know, the street preacher has not broken the law. I did a little, like, Facebook post about it, and I was so shocked, it went right round the world. Pastor Mick Fleming from Burnley, his ministry on the streets, sees him drive around in a van which spells out his message.

So on the back of my van is John 316, which says, for God's so long, love the world that he sent his only begotten son, whoever believes in him will have eternal life. So it's like a gospel message and they were stopped by a policeman. And he sort of said to me, you know, if somebody complained about that, so in the wrong context, you know, that could be seen as hate speech. And I said, but it says loved. I said, so what can be so hateful about that? And he said, I'm just saying if someone complained, we'd have to come and speak to her about it.

Lancashire Police has no record of this and says it wouldn't view it as a hate crime. What do you want? Three hot chocolates. Three hot chocolates. Okay. Stephen McArdle and his team from the Ixas movement are giving out hot drinks to students outside Greenwich University in South East London. They rarely preach now, preferring the one-to-one approach. Well, Lord, Jesus, I thank you so much for these three guys.

Lord, thank you that we bumped into them today. I just pray that they'll be so blessed today, Lord, The rain may be beating on the umbrellas, but there's a steady flow of people still stopping to chat and be prayed for. Some heartwarming that we get this kind of like a treat after putting a hard work into it. Pastor Mick Fleming, the street evangelist with the Bible text on his van, says like Ixas, he doesn't really preach on the streets anymore, working in an area where there's high levels of poverty, addiction,

homelessness. The gospel he ministers on the streets is a practical one, and he says it's helped many people come to faith. Naomi Wellings. And that's all from us. For now, if you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at bbc.c.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. And don't forget our sibling 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 Sid Dundon, and the producer was Muzafa Shakir. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritson. Until next time, goodbye.

This year, 193 countries are electing a new Secretary-General of the United Nations. And there's a lot at stake. If we don't make the right type of decisions, that is the relevant. of the UN for the rest of humanity. What kind of leader does the UN need right now? And how does a candidate prepare to take on this job in January 2027? We'll get into all of it on world's toughest job, wherever you get your podcasts.