This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast. from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher and at 16 hours GMT on Friday, the 6th of March, these are our main stories. President Trump demands the unconditional surrender of Iran as the United States and Israel continue their bombardment of Tehran and other Iranian cities. And as Israel pounds Beirut, the Lebanese government makes a plea to its allies. We appeal to you to support us and in demanding loud and clear that Israel ends military attacks on the population's displacement. Also in this podcast, Hungary is to expel seven Ukrainians accused of money laundering after they were found with two bank vans carrying millions of dollars worth of gold and cash. And Indonesia becomes the latest country to say it will ban social media for children. Will others do the same? President Trump has demanded the unconditional surrender of Iran and said it was the only way to end hostilities. Writing on social media, he said that following any capitulation by the Islamic Republic, Iran should choose a new leader acceptable to his administration. He then added that the US and its allies would work to rebuild the country's economy. His latest comments come as the US and Israel say they're moving into a new phase of their war on Iran. Heavy attacks have continued on Tehran and other cities. The Iranian authorities say more than 1,200 people have been killed since military operations against them began at the weekend. It's difficult for international news organisations to gather information from inside the country and internet blackouts make the situation even harder. However, our colleagues at BBC Persian have been hearing from Iranians there over the past 24 hours. They've revoiced their comments. The house was shaking for five minutes straight. Last night was the worst night. No, I'm not OK. I barely slept last night because of the constant explosions. I woke up to the sound of explosions at 5am and haven't been able to sleep ever since. It was terrible. They were hitting so hard that all the windows were shaking. It sounded as it was a dragon. Sivash Adalan from BBC Persian has been telling Tim Franks more. Well, in terms of the latest news update, today IDF released an image of the Supreme Leader's compound in Tehran having been hit for its second time this morning. Last night, the Iranian capital saw a very, very intense bombardment, if not the most intense over the past week, just a few hours after U.S. Defense Secretary said that the attacks on Iran will see a dramatic surge. So the residents of Tehran have been feeling that nonstop sounds of explosion. Some didn't have water, some didn't have electricity, some didn't have even the possibility to make phone calls. And the Internet is down. So every now and then, when there is some connectivity, we get some messages or the Iranians themselves post on social media their experiences. And those that managed to do that talk about how traumatizing these loud sounds of explosions are. And today, the Iranian government spokesman said that 3,000 residential units have been destroyed during this past week. In Tehran, I mean, we've heard in the past days that, look, you know, people don't get a warning of when the strikes are going to be. There aren't any public shelters for them to go to. Is this a city that is emptying? Unlike the 12-day war last year, not many residents of Tehran have left the city. They feel that the attacks is not intended for them. One reason is that unlike last year, many people are hoping that these attacks might bring about something good, might bring about regime change. And what's also different is that you have a surrogate TV, a pro-Israeli surrogate TV channel that is broadcasting programs to Iran in Farsi, and people look at that, and that's conveying the message of IDF and Israeli governments. We're not targeting you. Just stay put, and then we'll tell you when to come out in the streets. Well, we've heard, Sivash, in Washington, President Trump calling on Iranian officials in country, as well as diplomats abroad, to switch sides, to defect. Let's hear what he's had to say. And I'm once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police to lay down their arms. They're only going to be killed. and now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country. You're going to have a chance after all these years to take back your country. Accept immunity, we'll give you immunity and we'll be giving you really the right side of history because that's what it is. President Trump also has said that he wants to have a role in picking Iran's next supreme leader. I realise it's a country of 90 million people, So impossible question. But what do you think those sorts of messages, how do they play? Even that single clip that you played has two contradictory messages within it that leaves people wondering exactly what President Trump wants them to do. On one hand, he says, go out in the street and overthrow the regime. And on the other hand, he says he wants to have a say in picking the supreme leader of that same regime. The initial message to Iranian protesters and those who are opposed to the government was, let us pave the way for you. Let us get rid of this. And that was what was said yesterday's U.S. Secretary of Defense's press conference. And then when asked, well, are you going to announce a particular date? When is the right time for people to go out? The U.S. Defense Secretary said, just stay put. Right now there are bombs falling all over the place. But either we will tell you or President Trump will tell you or you yourself can decide when you want to go out in the street. While at the same time on Iran's state TV, families of protesters are being directly warned that if they go out in the street with the intention of carrying out protests, they will be seen as agents of the enemy and they will be shot. Siavash Adalan from BBC Persian. In retaliation to the ongoing strikes, Iran is still hitting other countries in the region Qatar Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have all said they thwarted attacks On Thursday Siren warning of Iranian missiles went off repeatedly in Israel Visiting the site of one such attack in the southern Israeli city of Bathsheba Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was on the way to completing all of its missions. I got more from our Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem, Jo Landnell. Israel said overnight that it had carried out its 14th round of strikes by its warplanes in Iran. The Israeli military chief of staff talking about there being synchronized action with US forces, saying in the initial stage of attacks, air superiority had been achieved. There have been these military successes. He was talking about missile launches and launch sites having been really targeted initially. He said that now they're going on to dismantle regime infrastructure. In terms of timeframes, we haven't really heard anything new from the Israelis. A couple of days ago, there were military sources saying that the Israeli Air Force was preparing for one to two weeks of intense bombing. I've not seen the same report since. Of course, earlier in the week, we had those suggestions that this could go on for four to five weeks. But, you know, I think they're keeping it quite vague at the moment to keep their options open. And they're saying that they are going to be additional surprises for the Iranians. So it's also a case of kind of keeping their strategy to themselves. And for people in Israel, what's life like at the moment? I mean, it's interesting because, you know, we're not really a week into this. And yet yesterday, Israeli restrictions on public life, some of them were lifted so that people could go back to their workplaces as long as they stayed close to an air raid shelter. Through the day yesterday, people were sent running to those air raid shelters with warning sirens going off. Lots of people have apps on their phones, but they're also sounded in many locations, including in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Schools are not going back yet in Israel, but I've just been to the shopping mall to see how things were this morning. And it's just striking to see people, you know, going back to some kind of normalcy. There was also the first flights for Israelis, because about 100,000 Israelis were stuck abroad with the start of strikes on Saturday, unable to return. Yesterday, we saw the first flights coming back into Israel's Ben Gurion airport with some suggestions that they could start to see flights going out of that airport as soon as this weekend. That was Yolan Nell in Jerusalem. The conflict has drawn in Israel's neighbour Lebanon after the militant group Hezbollah launched missiles in support of its back at Iran. There have been more strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday following a night of heavy attacks in the capital. The Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called for international help. Today, we appeal to you, friends of Lebanon, to support us in this endeavor and in demanding loud and clear that Israel ends military attacks on the population's displacement. And it's equally crucial that the infrastructures of Lebanon be spared. In addition, every assistance you may be able to extend to us in providing relief to the population is precious to us. And you will remain grateful to your support. Earlier, Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes to avoid the bombing. I heard more from our correspondent, Lina Sinjab, who's in Beirut. Thousands have fled the southern suburb of Dahye and its surrounding areas after warning from the Israelis that they're going to strike the area. And close to midnight, they were pounding these areas with airstrikes. And the families who fled cramped in the streets with a huge line of traffic. Some fled to the north of the country. Some went to shelters, others with relatives, hotels. But there are thousands who are, you know, stranded in the streets, sleeping in their cars or got their mattresses and blankets to sleep under open sky in public squares. It's really a terrible scene that the Lebanese are living yet again within the course of 15 months. And as you said there, Lina, people have gone through this before. What is the mood like? I think this is the first time that we hear more and more voices critical of Hezbollah, even among the Hezbollah community. This is a time where Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the war defending Iran. In 2024, Hezbollah also launched missile in support of Gaza, but there was a ceasefire that was reached. And throughout the ceasefire, Israel continued to target Lebanon without any response from Hezbollah, only to come on the early hours of Monday to fire rockets into Israel in what they said in retaliation for the assassination of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. And what's the price? The price is more attacks on Lebanon, more people killed, more people displaced. Economy is already struggling, and these people have no clue when they're going to go back to their homes. So this is really Hezbollah, an open-ended conflict with Israel without any strategy and without even consulting the government. And are people saying, look, this is to do with Iran and Israel. This is nothing to do with us. Why have you dragged us into it? That's more and more what you hear from people. But some have even gone further in criticizing Hezbollah and saying that they are treason now because they are acting on behalf of Iran, neglecting the interests of the country, neglecting the safety of the people. So they are even calling off banning Hezbollah completely. Now the government have banned its military and security activities, but Hezbollah is not responding. They continue with launching rockets on Israel. And now there are more voices saying, well, should we even, you know, ban the group? But will the government be able to implement this? That's really difficult to answer now. And we've got more on this story with Lina and Oliver Conway on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find the Global News podcast in the podcast section. There's a news story available every weekday. Still to come in this podcast How bad vibrations are hitting a Formula One team hard Var offline tools van Shopify heb je geen stress over design. En, bouw je makkelijk een prachtige webshop. We work harder on the ancient world's website, but slimmer. Because inspectors can then take a few minutes a report. Administrators can help even begin in a way to something. helpen. Ontdek onze slimme technologie op kpn.com slash slimmerwerken. KPN, voor een beter werkend Nederland. What in the World is a daily podcast from the BBC World Service We cover news and trending topics every weekday in less than 15 minutes Find us wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Could the US-Israel war with Iran ripple across the entire Gulf region and affect us all? The Persian Gulf is made up of some of the wealthiest and safest countries on Earth. And until recently, they've mostly been insulated from Middle East conflicts. But that's now changing. For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Next to a story that could come from the pages of a spy thriller. Seven Ukrainians and two bank vans carrying millions of dollars in cash and gold have been detained in Hungary on suspicion of money laundering. Ukraine's foreign minister has accused Budapest of taking them hostage. Vitaly Shevchenko from BBC Monitoring is following the story. These two vans yesterday were travelling from Austria to Ukraine, transiting through Hungary as part of what the Ukrainian officials are saying regular services, when they were stopped by the Hungarians. Now, predictably, this caused outrage in Ukraine. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andriy Sibiha, accused Hungary of state terrorism, racketeering, hostage taking and stealing the money. Hungary has a different view of what's going on. This morning, the Hungarian tax service confirmed the detention of those two vans and seven staff members of the Ukrainian bank, Oshad Bank, and said that the operation was carried out on suspicion of money laundering. Now, the foreign minister of Hungary, Peter Sijarto, said that he wants answers from Ukraine. What's going on? Why so many millions are being transported across Hungary? In those two vans, there were 40 million dollars, 35 million euros and nine kilograms of gold. And Hungary says they were being transported to what Budapest calls the Ukrainian war mafia, presumably meaning the Ukrainian government. Because the context of this is really important because Orbán, Viktor Orbán, the leader of Hungary, he's Russia's strongest ally in the EU and relations between Hungary and Ukraine have been quite strained, haven't they? They're going from bad to worse, Charlotte. Just yesterday, the Ukrainian president, Valdimr Zelensky, he was giving a news conference and he sounded really unhappy at Hungary, which had blocked a massive 90 billion euro loan to Ukraine and blocked new EU sanctions in Russia. So Woldomir Zelensky said, well, I'm prepared to give the address of a certain person in the EU who's blocking all this and let my armed forces speak to this address in their own language. Now, Viktor Orban took this as a threat against him. And he said, now, this is unacceptable. And he is prepared to unblock the flow of Russian oil to Hungary by force. And this charge is, I think, what it's about. Russian oil flows to Hungary, which have been blocked since January. That's Vitaly Shevchenko. And Hungary has now said it will expel the seven Ukrainians who'd been detained. After the success of the Winter Olympics in Italy, it's the turn of the Paralympians to show their sporting prowess. But the Games are already proving controversial, as Ukraine and a number of other European countries will boycott the opening ceremony later in protest at Russian athletes being allowed to compete under their own flag. It's the first time in 12 years that a Russian flag will be held aloft at the Paralympics. Valery Sushkevich is the president of the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee and a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. He's been speaking to the BBC's Tim Franks. I'm very angry. Many, many leaders of National Paralympic Committee of different countries in the world not agree this decision. Why? Because it's against the Constitution IPC. It is against the United Nations statute. It's against any international lawyer. You say that it's against the constitution of the IPC, the International Paralympic Committee. And yet, when the IPC General Assembly met, they voted to lift the partial suspension of Russia and Belarus. So their argument is it was a decision taken democratically. I was on this General Assembly. Exactly after General Assembly, President National Paralympic Committee of Russia very open say, thank you very much, President Putin, for your influence on delegate. It's terrible. Do you think that actually maybe you and others should go further and boycott the Games altogether? No, I don't want, I never agree that Putin can stop participants, my country, my atlas, or maybe atlas in other countries, participants in the world, the international sport. Our diplomatic correspondent James Landale, who's in Kiev, told me more about the background to this row. Initially, the Russians were excluded because of doping bans, then because of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The decision was made last September to allow these athletes to participate. Six Russians, four Belarusians, and not surprisingly, the Ukrainians are furious about it. President Zelensky yesterday described it as an unprincipled decision. His foreign minister describes it as sports-washing war crimes. And the point the Ukrainian officials make is they say, look, 650 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have died, have been killed since the Russian invasion four years ago. And they say, look, you know, people say politics and sports don't mix. Well, in Ukraine, they do. So that's why they're leading this boycott. The IPC says seven countries are taking part in the boycott, European, Baltics mainly. The Ukrainians say actually other governments are also boycotting, pointing out that the UK, Austria and Romania are not sending any officials or ministers to the opening ceremony to try and make that point. The IPC says it's disappointed, saying that it was a democratic decision taken last September. Russian officials accused the Ukrainians of politicising sport. But the key thing is that here in Ukraine, it's really being felt they cannot really quite believe that a Russian flag is going to be flown at an international sporting event. And the question, of course, now is, is this the beginning of Russia? It's exile from international events. You know, is this the first of many? That was James Landale reporting from Kiev. Restricting social media to younger audiences has become a hot topic across the world. Australia has already introduced a ban for under and now Indonesia says it also take action over platforms it deems as high risk I heard more from our global affairs reporter Mimi Swaby Indonesia says it is going to ban social media access for children under 16 saying this is due to threats of online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud, as well as internet addiction. So Indonesia's communications minister said that all these accounts for children under 16 on high risk platforms, so this includes Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and other very commonly used platforms, would start being deactivated on March the 28th. She says that the government is stepping in so parents no longer have to, as she said, fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. So a joint effort to have better child protection policies. And what's been the reaction to the announcement? It's been quite a mixed reaction. As you can imagine, users under 16 have vented their frustration, their anger, saying it takes away their freedom. But in this mixed reaction, we're seeing actually more support, especially from parents and the public more generally, as well as government support, citing basically they're kind of relieved that the government are taking stronger action. One thing to point out here is that Indonesia has quite a young population. It's thought about a quarter of the population under 16. So this is many people that are going to be affected. The population of Indonesia is about 280 million people. So mixed reactions, but largely a lot of people are in favour of it. So Australia have already banned it. Indonesia are going to do it now. Are there any other countries that are thinking about it? There are. This is a growing global concern. So Indonesia is just the latest to say it's going to ban it. Just this week, the European Union expert group began work on a comparable, very similar ban and France, Denmark, Spain and Greece, they're all pushing for similar action. In the UK here, they have begun, the government have begun a public consultation on a ban again for under-16s. And this is where young people and their parents or guardians can comment on basically the proposal for this ban before the government decide what to do. India as well and the other side of the world are also considering their own ban on preventing teenagers of under-16s again from accessing social media. So lots of different countries and it really is a growing consensus that actually social media is potentially doing more harm than good, especially for their younger audiences, that under 16 age group that is deemed a high risk on platforms, like I said, such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, all these kind of different platforms that many of us are so used to going on to now out of habit. That was Mimi Swaby and there was no immediate response from the affected platforms. The new Formula One motor racing season has got underway with the first practice runs for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The race itself takes place on Sunday. But there's a problem with Aston Martin. They're well off the pace and they'd complained earlier that the Honda engines they were using vibrated so badly that drivers feared they'd suffered permanent nerve damage, resulting from fears of further Iranian missile attacks. Sean Lay spoke to the motoring journalist Will Buxton. So firstly, what's wrong with Aston Martin's cars? Formula One has undergone one of the biggest changes in its history over the winter, and that is in terms of the aerodynamics of the cars, but also critically in terms of the engines in the back of them and the power delivery. They're ultimately going to have about 50% coming from the engine, 50% from the battery, and that means a wholesale redesign of the power units, as we call them, in the back of the cars. Some engine manufacturers have been on the front foot with this, notably Mercedes. Honda have struggled when there's been a change in engine regulation, massively when we brought in the hybrid units. And they appear to be massively behind the ball this time as well. We thought it was just an issue in terms of overall performance. But it appears that the engine, the battery, everything in the back of that car is shaking itself so violently that it's not just shaking the engine and the battery to pieces, but it's also creating unbearable vibrations for the drivers in the cockpit. to the tune that Adrian Newey, the greatest designer in Formula One history and now Aston Martin's team principal, has had to admit this weekend in Australia that they probably can't even do 25 laps without causing their drivers serious nerve issues. It's more than a small problem. It is absolutely gargantuan and one that they will not be able to rectify massively quickly. So in other words, for the Australia Grand Prix this weekend, they are not expected to do that well. Well, they're not expected to see the chequered flag. They will not be able to do more than 25 laps. For Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll is experiencing such terrible issues in the car, they don't think he'll do more than 15. There's another practical problem, isn't there? There's more generally that everybody is facing what a matter of three or four days before they're supposed to be competing in Melbourne, and that's the fact that Bahrain is under assault from Iranian missiles, and that a lot of flights from the sports winter quarters just aren't taking off. Yeah, there was supposed to be a tyre test in Bahrain. That's been cancelled for obvious reasons. The biggest potential disruptor is the fact that so many of the flights for those based in Europe usually fly through the UAE, which also we know is having its problems at the moment. Certainly to get to and from Australia, I know a lot of colleagues were either on the way to the UAE or were due to fly to the UAE to transit over to Australia. They had to completely change their flights to fly via America in order to get to Australia. In terms of the team freight, I think it's important to remember in this that the teams have multiple sets of their freight, which are set off in a sort of a beautiful ballet around the world. So the set that goes to one race won't be flown to the next race. There'll already be a second set being flown to that second race and a third set being flown to the third. And the cars themselves have to go from race to race, but the garage setups, the pit wall setups, all of those things, they've got multiple sets of those. The difficulty, though, comes when we get into April, when Formula One is due to race in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Formula One themselves have said that they are working with local authorities. They are obviously, you know, watching the unfolding situation, which is rapidly developing on a day to day basis. But the World Endurance Championship, which was due to race in Qatar in just a matter of weeks time, that event has been cancelled. And that's an FIA event, just like Formula One. That was the motoring journalist Will Buxton And that's all from us for now If you want to get in touch you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk You can also find us on X at BBC World Service Use the hashtag Global News Pod And don't forget our sister podcast The Global Story This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Mark Pickett and the producers were Judy Frankel and Stephen Jensen The editor is Karen Martin I'm Charlotte Gallagher Until next time, goodbye As the US-Israel war with Iran continues, Iran says it will set fire to any ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. And that could lead to higher prices for petrol, food and electronics. I'm Ikra and on What's in the World, we're finding out how this narrow waterway in the Middle East affects the whole world. What's in the World is a daily podcast from the BBC World Service. We cover news and trending topics every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Find us wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
