Hegseth: US 'closer than ever' to defeating Iran

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1:42That's Grammarly.com. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher and at 16 Hours GMT on Tuesday, the 31st of March, these are our main stories. The US Defence 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. We're 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 Sudan's civil war on women and girls. Also in this podcast.

2:30I hope people leave feeling empowered, excited and that their love for Barbie was reaffirmed. The Barbie experience that definitely wasn't a dream house.

2:46The 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 US wants to achieve and when the conflict will be over. For the first time in 12 days, the US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has been giving a briefing to journalists. He said talks with Iran are 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 Khomeini 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.

3:30President 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 US 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 Strait of Hormuz, 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? Leila Nathu put that question to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen.

4:09I 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 US 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 he means. Well, they're still 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 they're beaten. If you have to accept whether or not you're beaten, being beaten in war is not a choice.

4:51It'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.

5:42So Iran has the initiative. What then is the likelihood of negotiations, which Pete Hegseth 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'd be some contacts through third parties, but that's about it. And their 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.

6:24And I don't see that happening. So where 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 that says, 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 Hormuz, it's ironic its opening 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 Hormuz. Why? Because it wasn't closed.

7:02It's been closed in response to the American and Israeli attacks. Could they end the war? Could the US declare an end to the war with the Strait still blockaded? They can do what they want. I mean, they're a very powerful country and they have a very willful leader whose moods seem to be shaping policy rather than a sort of consistent and professional study. Now, the FT North America editor has got Donald Trump's mobile number, and he called him over the weekend, and Trump answered. And if you look at the things that this guy, Ed Luce, has been saying, he says things like, well, Trump seemed to be all over the place.

7:43He 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 in 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, this kind of abuse that Trump throws out saying you just come out and take the oil. In other words, if you're man enough, go and get it. I mean, it's playground stuff, really. It's not how states should or ought to be behaving. Jeremy Bowen.

8:20Israel has said it will destroy all homes in Lebanese villages along its border and keep control of a large swathe of southern Lebanon after the current conflict with Hezbollah ends. The defence 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. Just as in Syria and Gaza, the same will be in Lebanon. The IDF 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.

9:03Our Middle East correspondent Yolan Nell in Jerusalem told us more about those plans set out by the Israeli Defence Minister. What he's doing really is giving a lot more details about Israel's military plans going forward in southern Lebanon. And he's talked about creating this buffer zone, said that the area in the very south of Lebanon will come to resemble Beit Hanoun and Rafah in Gaza following the Gaza War. That's the very south and the very north of the Gaza Strip where 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 Letani 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.

10:10The authorities in Lebanon say more than a thousand people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the strikes, many families not for the first time. Karine Torby of BBC Arabic is in southern Lebanon in one of the biggest displacement centres. I am in what was or what is supposed to be a faculty of the Lebanese university. It's several buildings and they have turned into shelters. 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 centre in Saiden. Saiden is a city in the south.

10:55It 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 war zones or have been included in the blanket evacuation order that was issued by Israel. I also met newborn babies. They are just four or five days old, twins, two brothers, very tiny, very cute, but just live in a place where you would have never imagined newborn babies. Everything is extremely depressing. I can hear behind you, it's noisy, it sounds quite chaotic. And as you say, there are families there trying to bring up their children, protect their children the best they can.

11:47These people who had houses, rooms, toys, and now they're completely uprooted. They're uprooted from the area. Most of them, they have experienced traumas. of the war. So you can imagine also that they are not in their best mental shape. Also, they are now really unaware of, you know, 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 it wants to do by expanding the borders or creating some sort of security zone, as Israelis call it, and basically that they might never be able to go back to their land.

12:43And 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 news story available every weekday.

12:57still 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 unmissable. The biggest party in European music, Eurovision, is heading to Asia.

13:19Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Jewel Osco. Are you looking for a refresh this spring? Make sure you take some time for self-care with savings on all your favorite hair care essentials now through March 31st. Shop in store or online for participating hair care items from Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Aussie, and Old Spice and earn four times points. Points can be redeemed later for discounts on groceries or gas. Offer ends March 31st. Restrictions apply. Promotions may vary. Visit Jewelosco.com for more details. Hi, this is Alex Kanshowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology Podcast, a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC.

13:54And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going. They come from places like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues, and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. This is Mike Bolo of Lexicon Valley. And I'm Bob Garfield. Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words?

14:30Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language? Hey, us too. So join us on Lexicon Valley to chew over the history, culture, and many mysteries of English. Plus some wisecracks. Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts. Have you ever received a call from a stranger regarding student loans you don't owe? An unpaid parking ticket for a car that you don't even own? If so, you might have been the target of a scam orchestrated by criminals thousands of miles away. I'm Tristan Redman, one of the hosts of the Global Story podcast, and we're taking an inside look at the highly lucrative scam factories of Southeast Asia.

15:14Listen to the Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

15:24The 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 a report by the medical charity MSF says abuse by armed men has become part of everyday life in the western Darfur region. Darfur is under the control of the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces. Our Africa correspondent, Barbara Pletosha, 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.

16:07Services are scarce. Travelling any distance is not secure. And there's a social stigma to admitting that you've been raped. And it is very widespread. 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 Al-Fashir. 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 there the report said rape had just become part of everyday life.

16:43Women were raped on their way to the market. They were raped 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? Because 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.

17:24The 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 5. 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-Fashir 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 anytime soon.

18:03Yes, 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.

18:42Barbara Plattuscher. 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 unethical practices in recent years caused several European states to halt inter-country adoption altogether, all significantly restricted. Now a growing number of children removed from their countries of origin are returning as adults to uncover their roots. Stephanie's one of them, as she tells Tanya Datta. I spent a year in an orphanage here in Mumbai and this is where I've been adopted from by my French parents.

19:23And now you're back. And I'm back and I'm trying to reconnect 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 admits she was never interested in her roots, nor her birth mother, because this is what she was told. I was abandoned. It was on paper. 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 unknown, and that's it. So you have to move on too.

20:07You 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 Arun Dole, co-director of Adoption Rights Council, a non-profit helping Indian adoptees 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 a birth certificate.

20:51A birth certificate can be only issued by the Bombay Municipal Corporation with death and birth registrar. This was done to conceal your original identity. Aaron Doll, who's an inter-country adoptee 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, as Stephanie's believed all her life. Those children were usually born to unmarried teenage women. So what 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.

21:45And that created 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 a French family full of love very nice and with this nice story about adoption and then you come to this country and you realize it cannot all the time be as it has been told and also he has a very strong point of view on international adoption on being a crime against humanity being like child trafficking obviously I did not grow up with this opinion didn't change my opinion also.

22:29I fully agree on there's some abuse, but I would strongly disagree on every adoption in this case. At least my story, I didn't feel it that way. Tanya Datta reporting. It was conceived 70 years ago as a way of bringing Europe together. It's got the music, the costumes, millions of fans and the occasional dash of global politics. Now Eurovision, the world's longest running international music competition, is heading to Asia. Broadcasters from 10 countries in the region have already confirmed they're taking part in the contest. They'll each hold national selections before the final in Bangkok in November.

23:09So why the expansion? Rob Lily-Jones is the host of the EuroTrip podcast. He's been speaking to Leila Nathu. 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 programme. You know, the Eurovision team have been saying potentially, you know, 4.7 billion people live in Asia who could conceivably watch the show. So it's a huge untouched market. Why do they need the Eurovision brand, as it were? Do they not have their own regional singing contests or even national ones that could be more popular?

23:47What does Eurovision think it's got to offer that others don't? Well, they hope that this will be a competition that celebrates, you know, the cultural identity of all of the participating nations. And, you know, you've got a country like South Korea, they're taking part. And obviously, you know, K-pop, absolutely massive. But then also you've got smaller nations in there 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 14th of November. I mean, I think one thing that we will potentially see, and again, this is one thing that the team behind it are 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.

24:33But 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, wherever that may be. So then giving them a platform, of course, 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 should be pretty unmissable. Rob Lily-Jones. Finally, the organisers of a Barbie festival in Florida have agreed to issue refunds after customers complained the event was not as advertised.

25:12The 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.

25:29The event at a convention centre in Fort Lauderdale was billed as the perfect place to let your imagination soar, and there certainly was a lot left to the imagination. Visitors found a mostly empty grey warehouse with a scattering of pink Barbie props. The larger-than-life interactive dream house 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 complaints started rolling in, Michael Corrigan from Barbie Dreamfest talked up the experience. Barbie dares you 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.