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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Do it in a resilient way with speed and effectiveness. Follow Resilient Edge, a Business Vitality podcast paid and presented by Deloitte. Check out our new episodes wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Ankur Desai and in the early hours of Thursday the 19th of March, these are our main stories.
Iran attacks energy facilities across the Gulf after the country's largest gas field is hit by Israel. America's top spies testify that after almost three weeks of war, the Iranian leadership remains largely intact if weakened. And Iran's women's football team returns home to an uncertain future after protest and asylum bid in Australia. also in this podcast.
I mean, the old process was you fire off a CV, wait four weeks and then hear a yes or a no. But now you get a chance to get AI to replicate a face-to-face interview. We explore job hunting in the age of artificial intelligence. The US and Israel's war with Iran has entered a new and volatile phase after Israeli missiles fell on the world's biggest natural gas field on Wednesday.
Tehran promised to respond and within hours it launched its own missiles into Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The move prompted strong criticism from President Trump, who warned that any further retaliation would result in US military action, threatening to blow up the Iranian gas field. Our Middle East correspondent, Sebastian Usher, is following developments from Jerusalem.
He told Nick Miles why the attack on the South Pars gas field was so significant. It provides around three quarters of the country's natural gas production. Now, that's all pretty much consumed domestically because of sanctions, etc. And so it has a real knock on effect if that were to be put out of action, which is not what's happened. But it would seriously impinge even further sanctions.
on the regime's ability to meet the needs of its people, who, even before this conflict started, were already in dire financial straits. I mean, one of the key reasons that they went out onto the streets to protest back in January. I mean, Israel, just to say, hasn't officially confirmed this, but the Israeli media here is quoting sources saying 100% that Israel carried out the attack.
And they're also kind of briefing these sources saying, that this was a warning shot to Iran. It wasn't taking out the facility, but it was essentially saying to Iran, this is what we could do if there's no movement from your side. No movement from Iran, apart from the fact that it has been responding in kind, hasn't it?
Yes, I mean, it immediately said that it would mount attacks on a number of key oil installations, gas installations of its Gulf neighbours, that's Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE. Saudi Arabia said that four missiles were directed towards Riyadh, its capital, and that they were all intercepted. People heard very loud booms above them the first time
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Chapter 2: What triggered Iran's missile attacks on Gulf energy facilities?
What did they tell you? It's quite rare to hear Chinese voices, but they were eager to speak to us because this is a source of concern for them. I reckon if the war escalates to nuclear level, it may trigger third world war. The China-Iran relationship is a strategic partnership. No matter what decision the Chinese government and military make, we as Chinese citizens will support it.
Many people worried about this.
Chapter 3: How are U.S. intelligence assessments contradicting Trump's claims about Iran?
China wishes support for the peace. We want to protect our own development and to keep our economy improvement. Our normal life should not be impacted by the war. Chinese people are worried about their own interests and their own kind of cost of living. And that's why they're worried about this war spiralling out of control. And that's why stability is so important to them.
So a stable economy is hugely important. But what about diplomatically?
Chapter 4: What happened with Iran's women's football team after their protest in Australia?
There are obviously opportunities here in a time of conflict. So I think when it comes to Washington, there's always been this view that Iran and China are very close. The reality is that alliance, if you want to call it that, is mostly transactional from China's point of view. When it comes to China and the US and this great global struggle, I think China will see a huge opportunity here.
Globally, what you've seen since January is a parade of world leaders coming to do deals with China, where you see a President Xi who is now looking like a tower and a beacon of stability in comparison to Washington. And that is music to Beijing's ears. That is what they've hoped for all along.
Is it the case, do you think, that the longer this goes on, there are more benefits for Beijing than there are problems? For China, the geopolitical benefits are certainly there. But for President Xi, the economy is all. I think when it comes to whether or not the party will continue to have faith in them, the people will continue to have faith in them, all of that depends on the economy.
I think in the long term, China will want this wrapped up. Laura Bicker speaking to Nick Miles. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in, surprise, surprise, the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday.
As the US-Israeli war on Iran continues, divisions within the Trump administration are becoming starker. On Tuesday, the U.S. counterterrorism chief resigned, saying he could no longer support the White House policy.
On Wednesday, America's most senior spies appeared before a Senate committee and were asked whether they could confirm President Trump's assertion that Iran had been weeks away from producing a nuclear bomb. Here's Democratic Senator John Ossoff from Georgia pressing the National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard on what was known ahead of the first strikes on Iran at the end of February.
Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that as the White House claimed on March 1st, there was a, quote, imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?
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Chapter 5: How is AI transforming the job recruitment process?
Once again, Senator, the intelligence community has... provided the inputs that make up this annual threat assessment. You won't answer the question. It is the nature of the imminent threat that the president has to make that determination based on a collection and volume of information and intelligence that he is provided with.
You're here to be timely, objective, and independent of political considerations. Exactly what I'm doing. No, you're evading a question because to provide a candid response to the committee would contradict a statement from the White House. Senator John Ossoff and Tulsi Gabbard there.
Well, I asked our Washington correspondent, Bert DeBoosman, whether the hearing had provided clarity on the conflicting intelligence assessments. There was very few answers as to the Trump administration's actual rationale for war and whether the intelligence community gave an assessment that supported it. I thought it was very notable in a written statement that was published online.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, she said unequivocally that. In last year's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, those facilities were obliterated and Iran had made no effort to kind of rebuild that manufacturing capacity. That's directly contrary to what the Trump administration said in the days immediately following the beginning of Operation Epic Fury.
And she didn't actually say it verbally in the committee hearing, which kind of led to accusations that she was covering for the Trump administration. She also made the assertion that only the president can really make the assessment whether Iran was or wasn't an imminent threat.
But many lawmakers and I think large portions of the American public would argue that that's precisely what the intelligence community is for, to make those assessments and pass them to lawmakers in Washington. So it was quite combative at times. And I think there's very few questions that were actually answered to a degree that kind of settled the public debate about this war.
Questions also whether everybody's singing from the same hymn sheet. The intelligence official said that the Iranian leadership remains largely intact, which is an assessment that clashes with President Trump's framing of the war and how, in his words, how strong and successful they are and how much they're winning.
Certainly, I think that's the other main question is, you know, the Trump administration has had kind of shifting views. justifications for why this war began and what led up to it.
I think also it's very notable that in Joe Kent, the former counterterrorism advisor who resigned yesterday, he said that the intelligence assessment did not prove that Iran was an imminent threat and that there was very little room for debate. I think most Americans would feel more comfortable if there was at least a debate about whether a military decision
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of the missile strikes on Qatar's gas facilities?
Eleven of our team members were injured, staff and volunteers. You've seen the damage to our station. but this does not lessen our determination. The Lebanese army, the Lebanese police and the civil defence, they're not belligerents in this conflict, but they're clearly also victims. We've seen what has happened to the civil defence headquarters. Several members...
Of that unit were injured in that Israeli airstrike and also now a group of police have just come in here. One of them is very, very distraught. It looks like one of her colleagues has been caught up in an airstrike. We don't know what his condition is, but it's clear that the emergency services are victims of this war. We're at Davies reporting from southern Lebanon.
Across the world, these can be tough times if you're looking for a job, especially as a young graduate. With low levels of economic growth in many countries, it's not unusual to find many times more candidates than vacancies. And artificial intelligence is changing the game on both sides of the recruitment process.
Our business editor, Simon Jack, has been speaking to job seekers and hiring companies in London. One big challenge these days is getting past a machine to get a job. Bhuvana Chilukuri is practising her interview skills with a simulated employer for when she has to talk to a computer which will screen her job application for real. It did get a little robotic throughout the process of applying.
Bhuvana Chilukuri is a third-year business student at Queen Mary University and has applied for over 100 jobs and been rejected every time. There were moments actually where I applied and I got a rejection in less than two minutes, which is really, really horrible. A flat rejection within that short period of time makes you feel that this is not a human being looking at this. Definitely.
I think that's where most of the students kind of can tell that... I'm Denis Machuel, I'm the CEO of the ADECO Group. The boss of one of the world's biggest recruitment companies acknowledges the process can get demoralising. People need to send on average sort of 200 applications to get a job offer. What AI brings is scale.
Before you would reach out to 50 people and out of that you would select one so you would have 49 possibly frustrated. Now if you reach out to 500 candidates you create 499 people frustrated. So I'm here in central London, part of the morning commuter crush. And for many young people, that's the golden ticket, a place at one of these palaces of commerce around me.
And employers are inundated with hundreds, sometimes thousands of applications for every place. One reason why companies are turning to AI to screen, to sort, to sift. to be the gatekeeper to get into these places. Companies like top law firm Mishkondorea. The law firm is piloting a video AI chatbot to screen applicants.
Tom Wickstead, Mishkon's early careers manager, said they received over 5,000 applications for just 35 jobs. Candidates are using AI to write more application forms. So we've seen an explosion of applications over the last four years. I mean, the old process was you fire off a CV, wait four weeks and then hear a yes or a no.
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Chapter 7: How is the war affecting global oil prices and economies?
But also, of course, dresses can only be so short or so long. And because of that, it's going to start to oscillate. And we think that's maybe what sets this 20 year period. but it's definitely less clear than it has been in the past. Starting in the 1980s, the mid-1980s, there's been really an increase in the diversity of styles that women are wearing.
So instead of having one dominant style that almost all women would wear, there's mini skirts, meaty skirts, ankle-length skirts, floor-length dresses, you name it, it's coming back. Professor Emma J. Daler from Princeton University. 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 and you can use the hashtag Global News Pod. And don't forget our sister 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 Masood Ibrahim Kail and the producer was Stephanie Zachrisson and the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Ankur Desai.
Chapter 8: What concerns does China have regarding the conflict in the Gulf?
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