This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and 16 hours GMT on Tuesday, 31 March, these are our main stories.
“The U.S. Defense Secretary has claimed that America is closer than ever to winning the war against Iran,”
and the Iranians would be wise to make a deal with President Trump. Where in Lebanon, at a displacement centre for refugees, as Israel says 600,000 people won't be able to return to their homes for the foreseeable future. And we look at the horrific toll of Sadan civil war on women and girls. Also, in this podcast, I hope people leave feeling empowered, excited, and that their love for Barbie was reaffirmed.
The Barbie experience that definitely wasn't a dreamhouse. The war in Iran grinds on, and with conflicting and shifting messages from President Trump on his aims, many are keen to get clarity about what the U.S. wants to achieve, and when the conflict will be over.
For the first time in 12 days, the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth has been giving a briefing to journalists.
He said talks to the Iran a very real, active and gaining strength. If Iran is wise, they will cut a deal. President Trump doesn't bluff, and he does not back down. You can ask a comedian about that. The new Iranian regime should know that by now.
This new regime, because regime change has occurred, should be wiser than the last. President Trump will make a deal he is willing. And the terms of the deal are known to them. If Iran is not willing, then the United States War Department will continue,
with even more intensity. And just before the U.S. Secretary of Defense spoke at the Pentagon,
President Trump said Iran had essentially been decimated.
Directing comments at his allies, he also said, all of those countries that can't get jet fuel, because of the straight-of-haul moves like the United Kingdom, should get their own oil and start learning how to fight. So does this look like there could be an end to the war? Laila Nathu put that question to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen.
I think they'd like a way out. I certainly think that it's become so much more complicated than ever they expected. With potentially pretty important, not to say, potentially even seismic global economic implications, and the U.S. will not be able to remain isolated from that, so they'd like to have a way out.
However, the thing about saying that they're decimated, meaning destroyed is what it means. Well, they're still hitting back. I mean, that's the point, the other day at the White House, his press secretary was saying they have to accept their beaten.
“If you have to accept whether or not you're beaten,”
being beaten in war is not a choice. It's a reality. And if you can fight back, the chances are you're not beaten. And as for the assertion that regime change has happened, the Iranian regime is not just about the faces at the top.
It's about the system. And while the faces may have changed, because they've killed so many of the leaders, the system hasn't changed. It is based on institutions, not on individuals. And that is why it has proved to be so resilient.
And that is why I think that they are, you know,
they of course will always have loads of tough rhetoric.
But the reality is the Iranians have, in a sense, even gained much of the initiative, despite the fact that undoubtedly, they're getting absolutely pounded and shattered in so many different ways. So Iran has the initiative. What then is the likelihood of negotiations,
“which Pete Hegsef is again talking up the prospect of a deal?”
It's really hard to say the degree to which they're actually talking, because on one side, the Americans are saying it's going amazingly. They're desperate for a deal. We're going to get a deal. The other side, the Iranians are saying there've been some context through third parties.
But that's about it. And they're declared public objectives. Are way apart, way apart. So it's really hard to see how that gap gets bridged unless both sides decide what the heck and leap into this unknown middle ground.
And I don't see that happening. So what do we go from here? Well, essentially, it's decision time for Trump. He can find a way to say, right, we're done. And maybe they're preparing to do that.
Some kind of victory narrative has said, look, they're decimated. There's been regime change, that's it. We're going to stop now. And then when it comes to the business of the Strait of Ornus,
It's ironic it's opening.
It has become a war aim. Because of course, when the war started with the American and Israeli attacks on the 28th of February, it was not a war aim to open the Strait of Ornus. Why? Because it wasn't closed.
It's been closed in response to the American and Israeli attacks. Could they end the war?
“Could the US declare it end to the war with the Strait still blockaded?”
They could do what they want.
I mean, they're very powerful country.
And they have a very willful leader who's moved seem to be shaping policy rather than a sort of consistent and professional study. Now, the F-T North America editor has got Donald Trump's mobile number. He called him over the weekend and Trump answered. And if you look at the things that this guy, the Adlyus has been saying,
he says things like, well, Trump seemed to be all over the place. He seemed to be casting around for policy options. I think they're in a bind right now. And while they are moving troops to the region and quite some considerable numbers,
“enough to take maybe one of those key islands, they don't necessarily want to do that.”
Because it is a risky matter and they will lose soldiers.
So they would like a way out. But I mean, the idea of this kind of abuse that Trump throws out saying, "You just come out and take the oil." In other words, if you're mad enough, go and get it. I mean, it's playground stuff, really.
It's not how a state should or ought to be behaving. Jeremy Bowen israel has said it will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages along its border and keep control of a large sway of southern Lebanon after the current conflict with Hezbollah ends. The defense minister israel Katz said more than 600,000 people would be unable to return unless the safety of northern Israeli residents was guaranteed.
He drew a parallel with previous Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip. "If you come on, be sure we are, we'll be ours now." Just as in Syria and Gaza, the same will be in Lebanon. The idea for will defend the residents and communities from within enemy territory. We promise to protect the northern communities and that is exactly what we will do.
Our Middle East correspondent, Yolan Nell, in Jerusalem told us more about those plans set out by the Israeli Defence Minister. What is doing really is giving a lot more details about Israel's military plans going forward in southern Lebanon and he talks about creating this buffer zone said that the area in the very south of Lebanon will come to resemble a bit Hannun and Rafa in Gaza following the Gaza war. That's the very south and the very north of the Gaza Strip.
We're during the war. There were these wide-scale demolitions. He's also said that even after the current operation against Hezbollah is completed, Israel will keep control. He's calling it security control of this wide area of southern Lebanon right up to the Latani River saying that more than 600,000 people who live in that area who were told earlier in the war by the Israeli military to leave that they will not be able to go back to their villages until the security
of the residents of northern Israel is guaranteed. The authorities in Lebanon say more than 1,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the strikes. Many families not for the first time. Korean tourbie of BBC Arabic is in southern Lebanon in one of the biggest displacement centers. I am in what was or what is supposed to be a faculty of Lebanese university. It's several buildings and they have turned into shelters and they were supposed to be
classes and classrooms but they have turned into shared rooms for families. We've seen lots of people from different ages. This is the biggest displacement center in the site inside and it is a city in the south. It was one of several vibrant cities in the south but now it remains probably
“the only one where life is relatively normal. After lots of areas have become you know war zones”
or have been included in the blanket evacuation orders that was issued by Israel. I also met sub newborn babies. They are just four or five days old twins, two brothers. Very tiny, very cute
but just to live in a place where you would have never imagined newborn babies everything gets extremely
depressing. I can hear behind you it's noisy, it sounds quite chaotic and as you say there are families that are trying to bring up their children, protect their children, the best they can. These people who had houses, rooms, toys and now they're completely
Approoted.
So you can imagine also that they are not in their best mental shape. Also they are now really unaware of what will happen. They're just living day by day, hour by hour and their biggest fear is first that this war might drag on and on and their conditions might deteriorate even further. And second that they might see their land, their houses occupied by Israel. If it does what it says, "twence" to you by expanding the borders or creating some sort of security zone
as Israel would call it and basically that they might never be able to go back to their land.
And you can hear more from Lebanon 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 new story available every weekday.
“Still to come in this podcast. I think it's going to be fun. I think it's going to be crazy.”
I think it's going to be unpredictable, but yeah, I think it should be pretty un-missible. The biggest party in European music, your vision, is heading to Asia. The Civil War in Sudan has left thousands of civilians dead and displaced millions, but another distressing element of the conflict has been widespread sexual violence against women
and girls. Now report by the medical charity MSF says abuse by armed men has become part of
every day life in the Western Darfur region. Darfur isn't the control of the paramilitary group. The rapid support forces are Africa correspondent Barbara Petasha told me more about the report. The MSF report was based on more than 3,000 survivors of sexual violence who sought treatment at their clinics, but there are many, many more MSF says because it's difficult to access care. Services are scarce, traveling any distance is not secure, and there's a social stigma
to admitting that you've been raped, and it is very wide spread. So the MSF reported or documented rapes that were carried out in hot conflict zones in northern Darfur,
especially during the fall of the city of Ophasher, very disturbing accounts of
very violent rape, very often gang rape, ethnic targeting, Arab fighters targeting non-Arab communities, but they also documented rapes carried out regularly in South Darfur, which is not on the front line. And then the report said rape had just become part of everyday life. Women were raped on their way to the market. They were working in the field. Again, often gang rapes, and this they said MSF said is rooted in previous decades of conflict, gender discrimination, and frankly,
“complete impunity. What do the RSF say? As I remember in the past Barbara,”
you've reported on appalling stories of even tiny children being raped by their fighters. Well, it has to be said that all of the warring parties in Sudan are accused of sexual violence, that includes the regular army and its allies, as well as the RSF. But Darfur is the stronghold of the rapid support forces, and the vast majority of survivors, sexual violence survivors, identified the perpetrators as RSF fighters. The MSF report did say there was a significant number
of victims under the age of 18, in South Darfur, for example, including 41 under the age of five. Although in South Darfur, it was not just armed men. There, you also had criminal gangs and sometimes intimate partners. But the RSF leadership has admitted that individual violations were committed during the takeover of Al-Fasher in particular. It says these are being investigated and the scale of atrocities it insists was exaggerated. And is there anything that can be done
“because this just feels like a desperate situation that shows no sign of ending any time saying?”
Yes, both of those things, desperate and it feels like there's no sign of ending. So what MSF says is there has to be accountability. It says that the parties that have influence with the fighters should press them to protect civilians. There should be the international groups that monitor human rights violations should press forward with accountability measures. It says there should be money by donors to improve services for sexual violence. And it also
says there should be a greater presence of UN agencies on the ground. And if they're not, then donor money should be given to local and international NGOs that are. Barbara Flattasher. Over more than five decades, hundreds of thousands of children from developing nations were sent to Western countries to be adopted. But concerns about fraud, forged documentation and an ethical practices in recent years caused several European states
To halt into country adoption altogether or significantly restrict it.
children removed from their countries of origin are returning as adults to uncover their roots.
“Stephanie's one of them as she tells Tan Yadata. I spend a year in an orphanage”
here in Mumbai and this is where I've been adopted from by my French parents. And now you're back and I'm back and I'm trying to reconnect with with my birth story. Stephanie's French, she's 39 and she was adopted from India when she was just a 16-month-old baby.
Stephanie had a happy childhood with her adoptive French parents and freely admit she was never
interested in her roots. Nor her birth mother because this is what she was told. I was abandoned, it was unpaid her. So you move on somehow. It's not like the story was, oh, she could not keep you. I didn't have that. I just have a line on the paper and saying, you've been abandoned, parents are known and that's it. So you have to move on to,
“you have to grow up with that. Absolutely abandoned and destitute. That's what it said on”
Stephanie's adoption document from the missionaries of charity orphanage. And that paperwork also stated, it should be considered Stephanie's birth certificate too. But when we visit our own door, co-director of adoption rights council, a non-profit helping Indian adulties reconnect with their roots and a leading anti-adoption activist, he tells her the orphanage shouldn't have done this. So this is just issued by the missionaries of charity. This is nothing, it's worth nothing.
They have no authority to issue birth certificate. Birth certificate can be only issued by the Bomley Municipal Corporation, Descent Burst Register. This was done to consume your original identity. Aaron Dol, who's an inter-country adoptive too, believes it was all about smoothing the way for Stephanie's adoption in France. And he says, most Indian adoptees weren't abandoned with unknown parents, a Stephanie's believed all her life. Those children were usually born to unmarried
teenage women. So what it has been done here systematically, is separating young, single, mothers from their babies. There was no informed consent, no free will, social pressure, pressure from the agencies, and the demand from adoptive parents to have a child. And that created a systematic child trafficking. And that may be a crime against humanity.
For Stephanie, listening to Aaron, it's the first time she's really encountered critical views
of inter-country adoption. Because you've grown up in the French family full of love, very nice and with this nice story about adoption, and then you come to this country and you realize, again, not all the time be as it has been told. Also, it has a very strong point of view on international adoption, on being a crime against humanity being child trafficking. Obviously, I did not grow up with this opinion. It didn't change my opinion also. It was fully agree on
some abuse, but I would strongly disagree on every adoption is this case. At least my story, I didn't feel it that way. Tanya data reporting. It was conceived 70 years ago, as a way of bringing Europe together. It's got the music for costumes, millions of fans, and the occasional dash of global politics. Now your vision, the world's longest running international music competition, is heading to Asia. Broadcasters from 10 countries in the region have already confirmed that taking
part in the contest, they'll each hold national selections before the final in Bangkok in November. So why the expansion, Rob Lily Jones, is the host of the Euro trip podcast. He's been speaking
“to Leyla Naffu. I think one of the reasons is because of the huge popularity of Eurovision,”
the contest that we know in the Asian continent. And there are so many potential viewers for this
program. The Eurovision team has been saying potentially, you know, 4.7 billion people live in Asia
who could conceivably watch the show. So it's a huge untapped market. Why do they need the Eurovision brand as it were? Do they not have their own regional seeing contest or even national ones that could be more popular? What does Eurovision think it's got to offer that others don't? Well, they hope that this will be a competition that celebrates the cultural identity of all of the participating nations. And, you know, you've got a kind of like South Korea, they're taking
Part and obviously a pop, absolutely massive.
like Cambodia, Bhutan, for example, Laos as well. So the amount of different musical genres and different cultures that are going to be celebrated, all in that one show in Bangkok, in Thailand,
“on the 40th November. And I think one thing that we will potentially see and again, this is one thing”
that the team behind it, hoping we'll see, is that artists from Asia will be looking at Eurovision Asia as a platform to, of course, introduce themselves to a wider market across Asia. But also,
we have heard that there are hopes that the winner of this first edition of Eurovision Asia
will then go on to perform at the 2027 edition of the Eurovision song contest for over that may be. So then giving them a platform, of course, you know, even further around the globe here in Europe as well. What do you expect to be the sort of vibe of Eurovision Asia? I think it's going to be fun. I think it's going to be crazy. I think it's going to be unpredictable,
“but yeah, I think it's, it should be pretty un-missable. Rob Lilly Jones. Finally,”
the organizers of a Barbie festival in Florida have agreed to issue refunds after customers
complained the event was not as advertised. The creators of the Barbie Dreamfest weekend had promised
an unforgettable experience, but many families who paid hundreds of dollars for tickets were left underwhelmed as Richard Hamilton explains. The event as a convention centre in Fort Lauradale was build as the perfect place to let your imagination saw, and there certainly was a lot left to the imagination. Visitors found a mostly empty gray warehouse with a scattering of pink Barbie props.
The larger than life interactive Dreamhouse was a cardboard cutout with a strip of artificial grass,
a picnic blanket, and a camper van. The 80s disco roller rink was a cluster of metal barricades
arranged in a rectangle. Speaking before the complaint started rolling in, Michael Corrigan from Barbie Dreamfest talked up the experience. Barbie dare to dream big, you know, and I think that like it's been really fun to see this concept come to life and seeing how much people have taken to it, and there's so much opportunity to further grow it whether that's to other cities, but I hope people leave feeling empowered, excited, and that their love for Barbie was reaffirmed.
The event was not cheap, a single day adult pass cost $72, those who paid $250 for all three days got a swag bag with Barbie hand sanitizer. The experience has drawn parallels with other famous flops. There was the infamous Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience in Glasgow in 2024. Families arrived to find a virtually abandoned warehouse on an industrial estate where embarrassed actors tried to make the best of a bouncy castle, and a woman dressed as an unparlumpa became an
unlikely internet sensation. And before that, there was the disastrous fire festival in the Bahamas in 2017. Guess paid up to $100,000 for luxury villas at what was supposed to be a music event on a private island, but they were greeted by rain-soaked mattresses, disaster relief tents, and cheese sandwiches. In the case of the Barbie Dreamfest, at least the financial nightmare seems to be over. Mattella announced that all tickets would be fully refunded by the event creator,
mischief management, which licensed the Barbie brand from their company. He's not just can,
“that was Richard Hamilton. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch,”
you can email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on x@bbcworldservice, use the hashtag #globalnewspod, and don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story. This edition of The Global News Podcast was mixed by Daniela Verella Hernandez, and the producer was Marion Strong. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Charlotte Gallica. Until next time, goodbye.
