US downplays suggestions it could commit war crimes in Iran

It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains.

“A man strabs himself into a car on the world's most dangerous race track.”

He whispers to himself. It's time to put my balls on the dashboard. As he starts the engine. In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance unconscious in 15 years. He's a billionaire.

This is Total Wolf, Formula One's most powerful team boss

and a breakout star of Drive to Survive. This week on Good Bad Billionaire, how Total Wolf made his billions. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Alex Ritzon and in the early hours of Tuesday the 31st of March, these are our main stories. President Donald Trump threatens to destroy Iran's energy infrastructure and desalination plants unless Tehran makes a deal. The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting later today

“after two more UN peacekeepers were killed in southern Lebanon.”

And Israel's parliament passes a new law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks on Israel. Also in this podcast. Months later, we heard in the news that premature infants had died in El Shifah Hospital.

I would look at the photos trying to feel as a mother, whether this could be my child or not. Premature Palestinian babies evacuated from Gaza finally return home. President Trump has been reading Iran the riot act since the start of the war issuing threats to the Islamic Republic

on an almost daily basis. Mr. Trump's latest warning to Tehran was to make a deal to end the conflict, or he would order the U.S. military to destroy all of Iran's oil wells, electricity generating plants, and hog island.

The country's critical hub for exporting its oil.

He went further, raising the possibility of making water a weapon of war by including desalination plants on his list, which a journalist read out during a press conference at the White House. Caroline Levitt, Mr. Trump's press secretary, was asked why her boss was threatening Iranian civilian infrastructure,

which, if attacked, could constitute a war crime. The President has made it quite clear to the Iranian regime at this moment in time as evidence by the statement that you just read that their best move is to make a deal. Or else the United States armed forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination.

And the President is not afraid to use that. That's not what I said, Garrett. And you're saying the word potential for a reason, because I'm sure some experts are telling you that in your ear to try to ask me that question.

Of course, this administration in the United States armed forces

will always act within the confines of the law.

But with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated. And he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration. Iran said it received U.S. peace proposals by intermediaries, but these were unrealistic, illogical and excessive.

Although President Trump wants a deal for ending the war by the beginning of next week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he didn't want to put a schedule on the timeline for finishing the conflict. He told U.S. television that more than half of Israel's military aims had been achieved since the start of the war more than four weeks ago.

I've been speaking to our North America correspondent Peter Boes. Iran doesn't appear to be backing down, or showing any signs of coming on board as far as the U.S. demands are concerned. Far from it, it's really hard to quantify any effect that the President's strategy is having.

Indeed, it is difficult to define what the President's strategy is. He claims to be in serious discussions with a new and more reasonable Iranian regime. But Donald Trump violates constantly. One moment he's making as you suggest increased threats against Iran, the other suggesting that talks are going well.

And we're still not clear that actual talks are taking place as opposed to an exchange of messages through intermediaries, which seems the most likely, but not direct contact. Is there a strong appetite in the White House to put, as they call it, boots on the ground?

Well, there's no indication that the White House wants a ground war,

“but it is, I think, deliberately keeping that option on the table.”

As it has, since the start of the war at the end of last month, officials have been quite careful to talk about all options, which is a familiar phrasing of the various scenarios that could unfold. I think designed to maintain pressure on Tehran. In fact, if I were to attempt to define what the strategy is,

it will be one of maximum pressure without full commitment.

military personnel in the Gulf, but relying on air power,

deterrence, negotiation, whatever that is taking to avoid the political and human costs of boots on the ground. President Trump has set next Monday as his deadline for a deal.

“How much pressure is he under at home to finish this war?”

I think he's under significant domestic pressure, and it is growing every day. There's certainly economic pressure, rising oil and fuel prices, linked to the disruption in the Middle East. There's certainly feeding domestic concern.

Public opinion is broadly against the war continuing.

There was an opinion poll published towards the end of last week,

which suggested that around 61% of Americans disapprove of Mr. Trump's handling of the conflict only about 37% approving. Separate polling has suggested that a majority of voters, about 54%, oppose the military action altogether. And I think most significantly, 6 in 10 say that the strikes have already gone too far.

Peter Boes.

“An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council will be held on Tuesday”

after two more peacekeepers with the UN's Unifill course were killed in southern Lebanon. It's there. It's ready forces have been fighting the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah Beruit Correspondent Lena Sinjab sent this update. This is probably the deadliest time of this war in Lebanon.

Unifill has come to announce two of its peacekeepers have been killed. They haven't confirmed how this happened or who's the source of the killing. The Lebanese army, though, said one soldier have been killed and many others injured in an Israeli strike on a checkpoint south of the city of tier. This comes after escalation, more air strikes in the south of the capital Beirut

and in the south of the country. Over the weekend, three journalists have been killed, more than seven paramedics have been

“also killed, totaling the number of paramedics being killed in this war to 52.”

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they are expanding their ground operation in the south of Lebanon. They've already taken control of nearly 10% of Lebanon's territory to the south of Litania river. There are talks that they are reaching even further north of Litania river.

This is an area that is home to hundreds of thousands. Many of whom have fled their areas and their villages. The total number of displaced people have reached over 1.2 million scattered around the country

with no idea when they are going to go back to their homes, but the problem is in the south

that there are still almost 150,000 civilians who are still trapped to no way to reach the north of the country after Israeli bombed the infrastructure cutting out roots and bridges and fuel station. The Lebanese have lived an occupation and Israeli occupation since 1982 to 18 years, and now they fear that they are living the situation again, especially that at the time Hezbollah

is determined to continue firing rockets into northern Israel with no respond to any mediation for talks, for negotiations for a way to de-escalate the tension. Lena Singeb, Myanmar has been hit harder than most by the fuel shortages caused by the war in Iran. Once an oil exporter, it now relies on imports for 90% of its oil and refined petroleum.

The military government tried restricting motorists to driving on alternate days, based on the number plates, but has now introduced a rationing system using barcodes, which means drivers can use less than one tank of petrol a week. South East Asia, Correspondent Jonathan Head, filed this report from Yangan. English queues of cars, taxis, many buses and motorbikes can be seen outside pretty much

every petrol station in Myanmar. They start forming early in the morning, long before the fuel supplies arrive. Some of these people have waited more than two hours to get to this point, and even when they reach the pumps, their subjects restrict rationing just 35 litres a week for most private cars.

The increasing cost is putting a huge strain on a population already struggling with an economy that has collapsed thanks to the ongoing civil war. And the only alternative to getting fuel here is to use the black market where fuel costs more than 10 times as much as it does here. As from respond to this, some people are turning to Chinese made EVs, but even that's

not a solution in Myanmar, because electricity supplies here are so erratic. Many households rely on generators for which they can no longer get the fuel needed to

Jonathan Head in Yangan.

“Members of the Israeli Parliament, or Kinesa, have voted to pass a new law, imposing”

the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks on Israel. Although the death penalty has long been legal in Israel only two people have been executed in the country's history. European nations, including France and Germany, say the legislation risks undermining Israel's Democratic principles, at least analysts, Sebastian Asha reports.

This has been on the cards for a long time, we just had the second and third final readings

in the class of it passed relatively smoothly, rather easily. It's essentially a law that will mean that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in the part of Gaza that is under Israeli control will once they've been convicted of carrying

“out a deadly attack and attack, essentially, on the state of Israel.”

By default, they will be executed within 90 days, they'll be executed by hanging. This is in military courts, and as it stands, there isn't an appeal. This is something that's been pushed through very much by the hard-right National Security Minister, Etima Ben Guevier, it's a real victory for him to get this through. It has been attacked within Israel by right groups and outside European governments, others

have expressed their deep concern that it's discriminatory, because although it doesn't explicitly say that there's only for Palestinians, because of the way that it's phrased, the way that it's couched, there's the faintest shadow of a chance that a Jewish extremist also convicted of a killing would not face a death penalty. It's a bastion asher in Jerusalem.

“During Israel's war in Gaza, 31 newborn babies were evacuated for medical treatment when”

the IDF attacked Al-Shifa Hospital, claiming Hamas was using it as a base. Two and a half years later, with a fragile ceasefire in place and the raffa crossing partially open, some of those Palestinian children have now returned to Gaza and been reunited with their families. Now correspondent Lucy Williamson reports.

It was the other battle that she for hospital, dozens of premature babies born into war, dependent on a waning system of life support, power cuts, as deadly as gunfire. The evacuations were hurried convoys through an active combat zone in the chaos of displacement, thanks to some parents were lost. One of those babies was Sunderzel Kurds, daughter-by-san. Months later, we heard in the news that premature infants had died in Al-Shifa Hospital,

I would look at the photos trying to feel as a mother, whether this could be my child or not. I left for nearly a year between despair and hope that my daughter might still be alive. Today, eight of those children came home. A small triumph of Gaza's fragile ceasefire deal. The chaos that NASA hospital, for once, a sign of excitement. Be said was one of those who returned today. The baby in an incubator, now a toddler,

in bright pink glasses. Her first battle for survival one, she could still face another.

Six months into this ceasefire, Gaza's future is uncertain. Stock in limbo between war and peace. With Israel's new wars in Lebanon and Iran, attention has drained away from Gaza, but the lessons it holds are more relevant than ever, about the challenge of leveraging military might into peace. Lucy Williamson

Still to calm in this podcast. I'm almost 79 years old, so what a years ago I said, I'll be back. Now I say, "Oh my bag." The Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger receives an honorary doctorate. It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains, a man strapped himself into a car on the world's dangerous race track. He whispers to himself, "It's time to put my balls on the dashboard.

As he starts the engine." In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance on conscious, in 15 years,

he's a billionaire. This is Total Wolf, Formula 1's most powerful team boss,

and a breakout star of Drive to Survive. This week on GoodBabb billionaire,

This is the global news podcast.

“British jets have been flying defensive missions over Cyprus, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain,”

ever since the US and Israel began their bombing campaign against Iran. They've clocked up more than a thousand hours of flying and have already shot down several drones. Our defense correspondent Jonathan Beal joined the crew of an RAF refueling tanker on a mission from RAF Akrateri in Cyprus. A typhoon jet rips through the night sky above RAF Akrateri in Cyprus.

Followed by the heavy aromble of a voyage or refueling tanker, which we've joined on a mission to hunt down Iranian drones. Soon, the shimmering lights of Cyprus fade into the distance, and for the crew in the voyage signs of a war still raging.

“Every night direction you've got the Israel Leblon coast,”

it's quite often you can see either incoming missiles from Iran or the Israeli response going up as well. So we just saw a flash of orange there that could have been a missile going up and going down. We're potentially up. We are studying the term project. Proof Iran is still a threat after a month of heavy US and Israeli bombing.

Yeah, we're safe here, we're safe here, that's it's very much targeted at that area of the first two

of the island of Cyprus. Yeah, it might be the island aim for Israel or something else, so we don't necessarily know that there's just a lot of kinetic things happening in the area at the moment. The typhoon and the net 35 refuel several times from this petrol station in the sky after looking for target. Yeah, sure, right, you've had a thousand eight hundred pounds. This time they find none, but British jets have shot down several drones.

On the ground, an F-35 pilot explains it's no easy task with the drones flying low and slow. There are lots of risks, as you might expect, is operating a fast jet as a dangerous business, let alone if you're trying to do targeting close to the surface of the land or the sea and integrate with a lot of other assets in what might be a complicated scenario that's evolving very rapidly. Aggratory's defenses were bolstered before the war started, but they've been reinforcements

after a drone hit the base, including helicopters carrying air defense missiles. In addition to the armored vehicles fitted with the same, I asked major general Tom Buick, the commander of British forces Cyprus, whether it's enough to deter Iran from trying to carry out any future attack. All I say is that the amount of capability that we've got to deploy that here means that I'm as sure as I can be that we're in a good place.

You do not think this base will be attacked again by. It could easily be attacked again, I'm not saying it's been attacked once, so I'd be a fool to say it's not going to be attacked again. What I'm saying is that given the amount of warning out there and the air defense assets we've got in place where it's well protected as we can be. That is your think you've got your T-guys at the moment, 8,000 feet below 20 miles.

We're going to start a left-hand test for you. British jets have been flying these defensive missions for a month now. But when and how this winds is out of their hands, this could become another enduring commitment for all ready-stretched British armed forces. Jonathan Beal. Some of the world's biggest social media companies are being investigated

by the Australian internet regulator over suspected breaches of its new social media band for under

“16's. The government and campaigners said the changes were crucial in order to protect”

children from harmful content and addictive algorithms. The BBC's Simon Atkinson told me more.

So this is the first report from the regulator since the social media band was instigated

in December and in it the country's safety commissioner who's basically in charge of this so they had significant concerns about the compliance five of the platforms covered by the law, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. It's basically all the big ones and it's identified what's calling poor practices across those companies. So some of those are basically around the way that children are effectively getting round the band, round the restrictions.

giving them the chance to show that they are in fact over 16, allowing children to repeatedly try the same age assurance methods again and again until they get the result they're after to kind of convince the system that they are 16 and also not providing effective ways for parents and others to report those under 16's who still had access to social media. So the regulator says it's going to gather evidence now of those breaches and move into enforcement mode.

The powers it has basically are fines and the fairly minuscule compared to the profits of these

tech giants. They work out about 33 million dollars and of course because these are predominantly

US-owned firms, but this is law in Australia. So it only has regulation and jurisdiction over

“under 16's accessing the platforms here in Australia. Any response from those social media giants?”

Yeah, I've contacted all of those, which the regulator has had concerns about today. TikTok had nothing to add at this point. I'm still waiting to hear from Google, which of course owns YouTube. Met out the own Facebook and Instagram. It did respond. It said it wanted a stress that although there were a list of these poor practices, not all of them applied to Meta, it said it was committed to complying with the law. And also effectively, it's a look. It's

actually very hard to determine accurately when someone is 16 or not. There's a margin of error and it wants more of the emphasis to be put on the operators of the app stores to determine before these apps are downloaded and snap. They've also applied the owner of Snapchat. It said it's locked 450,000 accounts since the ban and continues to lock more every day. It also alluded to it being difficult. It said, you know, this is a new and untested law and that improvements

to preventing underage users from having snapchat accounts is going to take time to kind of perfect. Simon, @Consum in Queensland. It's a voice that is famous for instilling fear. That's the list of baby. That was, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's now offering inspiration to students in Belfast, the actor, bodybuilder, and former governor of California has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Ulster University. Our island correspondent Chris Page was at the

ceremony. Students held up signs saying, "Hastela Vista, Ulster, as the movie icon arrived in Belfast City Center." Arnold Schwarzenegger said it was six decades since he first visited Northern Ireland for a bodybuilding exhibition. He described his nervousness when the host asked him

to say a few words for the audience. He'd never spoken in public before. Since then, he's one

Mr. Universe, being awarded numerous movie prizes, and being elected governor of California. After he received his honorary degree, Dr. Schwarzenegger was asked for life lessons for young people studying at Ulster University. He used an illustration from wit training to make his point. "If I do the exercise, and it's easy, no bicycle grow. But when I train with heavier weights

“and I struggle, then it will grow. And that's the way it is in life. Most important things work,”

work, work, there is no short cut." He said he still had ambitions, though hinted he was feeling some of the "x" of aging. "I'm almost 79 years old, so 40 years ago I said, I'll be back. Now I say, "Oh my back." His parting message was, ignore the naysayers who tell you that your ambitions aren't possible. Dr. Schwarzenegger's advice was to be relentless, like the Terminator." Chris Page reporting. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have been tackling the issue of

economic inactivity, the relatively high number of people who are eligible for work, but not employed or actively looking for a job. But what prompts a disgruntled employee to quit? Anthony Klotz is a London-based American academic who foresaw that the pandemic would lead to what he called a great resignation of workers across the United States. He spoke to my colleague James Kumrasami about the various jolts that can lead to people quitting their jobs.

The jolt is an event that makes a stop and rethink our relationship with work. And so you can imagine these often come from outside of work as well, so when we have a health scare, or perhaps a family member does. Or even when we hear about tragic news on the other side of

“the world, and we think to ourselves, these important things are going on in the world, and here's”

what I'm doing in my job. And then finally, I don't want to be completely negative. There's

positive jolts as well. So even the positive events in our life, such as having a first child

is this what I want to be doing with my life. And are these jolt things that you might want to

try and fight against be aware of? Absolutely. And they're more common than we think. And so if

“we went around responding dramatically to every jolt we had, I think that would be a pretty”

hectic and disorganized way of working and living. And so I think ideally when these jolts happen, if you can, really do nothing until the emotion subsides. And then try to figure out the cause of the jolt. What is this really telling us? Why am I questioning my job, my relationship with work right now? And what options do I have for responding to it? So even though the book is partly

about quitting, often for most of our careers, quitting isn't an option for us when we experience

these jolt. So what are the other options we have? Well, I'd like to ask you, I mean, you came up with this phrase, the great resignation. I think what was it May 2021 as the pandemic was in full swing. Why were you so certain that people would quit their jolbs afterwards? Well, it had to do mostly with

“jolt and then a little bit about the economy as well. And so over the course of the pandemic,”

people experienced a number of different jolt. So the way that many people worked, changed, the place where many people worked changed from in-person to remote and then back again. And during the pandemic, I mean, look, it was a health scare for a lot of us and, you know, a lot of people were sitting and thinking, if I make it through this, I'm going to change things. And all of these jolts were happening against the backdrop of a really slow economy that was shut down for the

pandemic. And so you had this backlog, really, of jolt's causing quitting in the economy. And coming out of the pandemic, the economy opened up pretty quickly, which is fairly rare and unleashed these jolts on the labor market. That was Anthony Klotz, author of jolted, why we quit when to stay and why it matters. Celine Dion has announced that she will return to the stage in the autumn four years after she was diagnosed with a rare medical condition. The Canadian pop star whose 58

will perform 10 shows in Paris. It's also her birthday. And she said this announcement was the best gift of her life. On Monday night, the multiple award winning singers returned to the stage was marked by the "I Full Tower" lighting up with the message, "Yes, we've met, or I am ready." Music correspondent, Mark Savage, reports on her long awaited return. This is the news that Celine Dion's fans have been waiting for. She will come back for

10 nights in Paris this September, and October, playing to more than 400,000 fans. It's six years since she last played a concert. And in that time, she's been diagnosed with an incredibly rare neurological condition called stiff person syndrome. It affects the muscles, including the vocal chords, and that has left her for a long time, unable to sing, and when it was at its worst, it affected her mobility as well. But she's had years of intensive training, a physical therapy,

and medicine in order to be able to make her come back. She said in a video message to her fans tonight that she would even be able to dance when she's back on stage. Now demand for those tickets is going to be incredibly high. You can register on her website, but they don't go on sale until next month. Mark Savage reporting on Celine Dion's remarkable music come back.

“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 global news pod, and don't forget our sister pod cast, the global story, which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the global news pod cast was mixed by Holly Smith, and produced by iRacharn. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Richardson until next time. Goodbye. Manstrap himself into a car on the world's most dangerous race track. He whispers to himself.

It's time to put my balls on the dashboard. As he starts the engine. In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance unconscious in 15 years. He's a billionaire. This is Total Wolf,

Formula One's most powerful team boss and a breakout star of Drive to Survive.

This week on GoodBabb billionaire, how Total Wolf made his billions. Listen wherever you get your BBC