Trump warns Iran 'whole civilisation will die tonight'

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains. A man straps himself into a car on the world's most dangerous racetrack. 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 Toto Wolff, Formula One's most powerful team boss and the breakout star of Drive to Survive. This week on Good, Bad, Billionaire, how Toto Wolff made his billions. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:42Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 Hours GMT on Tuesday 7th April. President Trump warns that an entire civilisation will die tonight unless Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz. Israel says it's attacked railway tracks and bridges in Iran after warning civilians to stay away from the train network. And the US Vice President J.D. Vance has again condemned Europe during a visit to Hungary. Also in the podcast, one of Australia's most decorated soldiers is arrested over the alleged murder of unarmed prisoners. Hang on in there because it's going to be great and here is one reason why you'll have to work less and you'll still get as much money.

1:25How realistic is the call by the boss of OpenAI for a four-day working week?

1:35Another day, another extraordinary post from President Trump directed at Iran. A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again, he said, adding, I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. He was referring to his deadline of midnight GMT tonight for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face being wiped out. But he went on to say, now we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary wonderful can happen. Who knows? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.

2:1947 years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran. Well, in response to that post, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said they will retaliate beyond the Middle East if the US crosses red lines. Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, is following developments. We live in a very disturbing moment, and I don't think that needs being said, is where the world is now on a brink of a very dangerous escalation because as we report day in, day out, whatever happens in Iran doesn't stay in Iran and there will be retaliation from Iran across the region.

2:58And there was already concern over President Trump's post over Easter weekend where he used expletives and threatened Iran to destroy every last power plant and every last bridge. And now he threatens to destroy their civilization, perhaps in response to Iranians saying, how can you dare view a country of 250 years to destroy our 2 ,000-year-old civilization? And now President Trump is casting it as a civilization. What we have seen ever since this war began is that President Trump uses moments in this war, and let's be honest, uses journalists to use his words to try to shape the course of the war, in particular to move the markets, to try to bring oil prices down and to stabilize the markets.

3:42Even in the first week of this war, on March the 9th, he came out and told CBS News, I'm going to end the war very soon. And predictably, oil prices came down and markets then stabilized. Now the markets have learned. But President Trump keeps ramping up his rhetoric because what he wants to do is not just move the markets. He wants Iran to submit to his diktats. Remember, even before this war began, how Steve Witkoff said that the U.S. president was curious as to why Iran had not surrendered when there was a U.S. military buildup in the region. Because President Trump thought, wow, that's such a big threat.

4:17We're such a major army, which they are. Why aren't they giving in? And perhaps he thinks that the more he rhymes up the rhetoric, the greater the chance that Iran will give in. And Iran has made it absolutely clear it will not submit to his diktats. But while everyone waits to see what President Trump will do, Israel is just carrying on with its own list of targets. Today, they attacked a train station in Kashan. That's in the north. They attacked a bridge in Qom. That's in the centre of Iran. They attacked a bridge on the Zanjan-Tabriz Highway. That's in the north. Yesterday, it announced that it had struck the main petrochemical plant, and it had already attacked other petrochemical plants.

4:55So Israel isn't waiting for the deadline to expire. It is already attacking infrastructure. And Iranians have also pointed out that they've attacked many universities. So the war is going on, whatever President Trump decides to do when that deadline eventually comes. Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette. Well, in Iran, media censorship and internet blackouts limit the amount of information getting out as well as in. But the rescue of an 18-month-old girl from the rubble of her home in the city of Tabriz has gone viral and given a rare insight into the suffering caused by the war.

5:31However, there's a side of the story not being told in Iran, as Paham Gobadi explains.

5:41Be careful, slowly. Amongst the dust and debris, an 18-month-old girl is pulled alive from the ruins of her home. I will take you out of this now. My dear, I will get you out. Wearing pink pajamas, Helma is limp and disoriented. The Israeli attack killed her mother, father, brother and sister as they slept. She was the only survivor of her family.

6:13Footage of her rescue has played across Iranian state TV and gone viral. It's been hailed a miracle, and an example of the Israeli-American brutality. All of them are martyred, and only Helma's left, her cousin told Iranian state media. What sin had they committed? Helma's father, Hamid Mirzadeh, was in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the presumed target of this strike. It was precise. The family's 10th floor apartment was directly hit. After clearing the debris, it became clear that four members of one family were killed. Dear Helma, you have never been alone and you will never be alone. There are 90 million Iranians and we are all united.

7:01God willing, we will defeat the enemy. The Israel Defense Forces told the BBC it struck a military target of the Iranian terror regime in the city of Tabriz. It added that the IDF conducts strikes in accordance with international law and takes all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian infrastructures that may be affected by the strike. Helma's father, a military officer, may have been the target, but she will live with the consequences. Paham Gobadi of the BBC Persian Service. The authorities in Turkey are investigating a gunfight outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.

7:46Officials say one gunman was killed and two others wounded. The interior minister described them as terrorists. I got an update from Hilkin Boren of the BBC Turkish service. The wounded suspects are being interrogated right now according to a written statement issued by the interior ministry. And I'm here right in front of the plaza where the attack took place. And I can tell you there's heavy police presence here as well as ambulances. And we can see police special forces in camouflage gear from where I'm standing, which is very close to where the attack took place. I don't know if you can hear the sirens, but these have been going on for some time now because the gunfight erupted around 12.15 local time, and it's almost around 3 p.m.

8:26where we are right now. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said one of the suspects has ties to an organization that exploits religion, which is a term that is used to refer to the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda. And the other two were brothers and one suspect had a drug record, according to the interior minister. And we also know statements from other officials that there has been an official investigation into the attack and the suspects have come to Istanbul from the nearby town of Izmit via a car and then they were conducting this attack with long-barreled rifles. and the interior ministry also said two police officers had been lightly injured, no life-threatening injuries there.

9:06One of them was injured on their foot and the other one on their ear. But the authorities seem to have got this under control pretty quickly. Exactly, and they have been very keen to emphasize that point because the memories of a previous IS-affiliated attack is still fresh in the minds of the residents of Istanbul. A gunfight, similar gunfight, erupted in the nearby town of Yalova some months ago where a lot of police officers got killed and then the officials were condemned after the attack for their inability to get the situation under control and for the lack of appropriate resources in order to intervene in that situation.

9:41Right now, we're seeing a lot more bodies than we're accustomed to. This is the business heart of Istanbul, a very central district. This is a metropolis of 20 million people. So whenever you're taking this kind of mass security precautions, whenever there are a lot of police officers on the ground and the roads are being closed, it turns into a complete and utter nightmare for the residents of the city. Now, we don't know the motive, but I understand there were no Israeli diplomats at the consulate. Yes, numerous sources have told news agencies that no diplomats were present inside the building when the attack took place.

10:15And we also know this because most of the diplomats have officially left Turkey after Hamas' 7 October 2023 attacks and the ensuing military operation by Israel in Gaza. Now the consulate is very accessible. It's right in the business district of Istanbul. There are usually rapid response forces covering the premises and the attackers encountered those police officers who managed to tackle this threat before it got out of hand. Hylken Boran talking to me from Istanbul. On to the latest controversy involving Kanye West now and a planned headline festival performance by the rapper in London this summer has been cancelled along with the festival itself.

10:54after the British government revoked his visa to enter the country. The decision by the organisers to book him caused outrage over his past anti-Semitic comments. Kanye West, who now calls himself Ye, has blamed his behaviour on bipolar disorder. More details from our correspondent Noor Nanji. This controversy has actually been going on for days over this decision to book Kanye West, now known as Ye, as the headline act at the Wireless Festival, which takes place in July. It's been confirmed now that the wireless festival has been cancelled. And I can read you the statement now in full from Festival Republic, who organise wireless.

11:30They say the Home Office has withdrawn Ye, Kanye West, electronic travel authorisation, denying him entry into the United Kingdom. As a result, wireless festival is cancelled and refunds will be issued to all ticket holders. It says, as with every wireless festival, multiple stakeholders were consulted in advance of booking him. No concerns, they say, were highlighted at the time. Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact that these issues have had. And goes on to say, as Yeh said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this, still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community here in the UK.

12:14Just about an hour before that statement, we had a statement we heard from the government, And the government, it turns out, has blocked Kanye West's permission to travel to the UK. Now, the Home Office told the BBC that the decision to refuse permission was made on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good. Now, the festival obviously looked at that and thought, OK, well, we don't have a headliner. Kanye West was due to headline all three nights of the Wireless Festival. They don't have a headliner anymore. They've clearly taken the view we don't have a festival anymore.

12:46So the whole thing is off. I mean, this whole decision to have him as the headliner has been really deeply controversial because we look back over the history of comments, anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi comments that Kanye West has made in the past, including last year where he sold clothing with swastikas on. And he also released a song titled Heil Hitler. Now, we should say that he has in January. He apologised. He said he's not anti-Semitic and he blamed his bipolar disorder for that. But clearly there was a lot of pressure mounting over the weekend from MPs, also from Jewish groups and indeed from a number of sponsors, high profile sponsors, Pepsi, its headline sponsor, pulling out over the weekend.

13:28No, no, no, no. After breaking the record for going deeper into space than anyone before, more than 405 ,000 kilometres from Earth, the crew of Artemis 2 is now heading home. The four astronauts lost contact with mission control for 40 minutes as they looped around the far side of the moon. Their Orion capsule will now take about four days to get back here. Our science editor Rebecca Murrell sent this report from Houston. A close encounter with the moon. Justin, the moon is so bright. It's just overwhelming brightness. A view that humans haven't witnessed for more than 50 years.

14:11and some parts that have never been seen by human eyes before.

14:20Earlier in the flight, the four Artemis astronauts made history. Integrity crew, on April 15, 1970, during the Apollo 13 mission, Three explorers set the record for the farthest distance humans have ever travelled from our home planet. Today, for all humanity, you're pushing beyond that frontier. As these four astronauts voyaged onwards, they named some of the moon's features, a crater now called Integrity after their spacecraft, and another named after Artemis Commander Reed Wiseman's late wife, who died six years ago. And so we lost a loved one. Her name was Carol. Carol, the spouse of Reed, the mother of Katie and Ellie.

15:07And it's a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call her Carol. And you spell that C-A-R-R-O-L-L. Integrity and Carol Crater, loud and clear. Thank you. After breaking the record, the crew just kept on going, surpassing it by more than 4 ,000 miles with their lights dimmed in the capsule to take the best pictures a treasure trove that's eagerly awaited by the team at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston. Science is playing a big part in this mission. There's even a special desk for it. The science officer sits right at the front but the hard work is really just beginning because the thousands of images and descriptions the astronauts have made will be poured over for many months to come.

15:58Rebecca Murrell at Mission Control. Still to come on the podcast. It was a great sense of satisfaction personally and a great sense of relief as well because there can be little hiccups along the way. I was just so relieved yesterday at Forward Amateurs that the game went ahead and it was a lovely sunny day. The football fan who's been to every professional and non-league ground in the UK.

16:29It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains. A man straps himself into a car on the world's most dangerous racetrack. 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 Toto Wolff, Formula One's most powerful team boss and the breakout star of Drive to Survive. This week on Good Bad Billionaire, how Toto Wolff made his billions. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. Now, some European leaders have a tricky relationship with Donald Trump, to say the least, but not the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

17:14He is a close ally of the Americans, and today he's had a visit from the US Vice President, J.D. Vance, ahead of the Hungarian general election on Sunday, which opinion polls suggest he could well lose. At a joint news conference, Mr Vance accused the EU of interfering in the election to get rid of Mr Orban. What has happened in this country, what has happened in the midst of this election campaign, is one of the worst examples of foreign election interference that I've ever seen or ever even read about. The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They have tried to make Hungary less energy independent.

17:55They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers, and they've done it all because they hate this guy. Well, for his part, Mr Orban heaped praise on the US president and vice president. With the election of President Trump, I believe a golden era has been ushered in in our relations. We owe gratitude to President Trump and Vice President Vance for standing by Hungary during the past years. The United States of America is the strongest country in the world, and I am happy to say that they are our allies today. The peace and the security of Hungary, therefore, is guaranteed. The words of Viktor Orban.

18:38But how is the US-Hungary relationship viewed on the American side, especially within President Trump's MAGA base? Isaac Stanley Becker is a staff writer at The Atlantic who focuses on US-European relations. He's currently in Hungary and Rebecca Kesby asked him what J.D. Vance gets out of his visit there. Well I think you're right to be thinking about and asking about the domestic political consequences of this because I think that's really more important than the significance of this visit to the actual voting in Hungary where I think that whatever J.D. Vance says is likely to have little significance.

19:15Where it has more significance is back home in the MAGA movement that J.D. Vance wants to lead into victory in the 2028 presidential contest. And Hungary has been this real model for that movement. And so the consequences of the election here are enormous. It's been this kind of foreign template for, you know, a certain vision, a kind of right-wing vision of seizing the institutions of the state, using them to advance a particular vision of the good life and punishing those who don't comply with that. Can they really be comparable, though? Because Hungary, whilst obviously an important country, is tiny.

19:53It's got a population less than that of the US state of Ohio, which is one of the least populated states. So, I mean, what's in it for Mr. Vance? Well, that's the thing that's kind of remarkable about this. You stand back and you realize this is a landlocked country of fewer than 10 million people. It contributes negligibly to NATO, which is the ostensible measure that the Trump administration uses to determine which European partners are valuable to Washington. But because of this ideological symmetry, it's come to take on this really outside significance in the MAGA mindset. In terms of where this puts the US-EU relation, the EU has been very critical of Viktor Orban.

20:33They blame him for holding up the funding to go to Ukraine. Recently, there's been talk that there's been direct contact with the Kremlin, which various governments are cross about. It does put the Americans on the totally different side to all of this to the EU. That's exactly right. We're seeing a kind of new convergence here between the US and Russia, who are on the same side of this election. You know, a raid on the other side are the leaders of most EU countries, who quietly, at least not in the overt way that Vance is doing, are hoping for a different outcome. So it's just one more kind of dent in that US-Europe relationship.

21:12Isaac Stanley Becker of The Atlantic in Hungary. Ben Robert Smith was once hailed as Australia's most distinguished living war hero. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action during an operation in Afghanistan. But now he's been arrested, accused of murdering unarmed prisoners there. He's denied any wrongdoing. Our correspondent in Sydney, Katie Watson, told me more. On Tuesday morning, he was arrested at Sydney Airport. Now he faces five counts of war crimes murder. One charges of murder. One is of jointly commissioning a murder. three of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a murder.

21:52Now, there was a press conference earlier today and authorities talked about the fact that alleged victims were not taking part in hostilities at the time. They were detained, unarmed, under the control of the Australian Defence Force. And they were allegedly, the victims were shot by the accused or by subordinate members in the presence of or acting on behalf of Ben Roberts Smith. So he now will be spending the night in a cell in custody. And on Wednesday, he will appear for a bail hearing. And what's been the reaction in Australia to his arrest? Well, certainly there's a lot of making, you know, a lot of people who've been asked about it, including the prime minister, making sure that there is a legal recourse and that the law takes the path without getting too involved.

22:40But certainly there's been a lot of discussion about wanting to make sure that this is an isolated case, that this is not something that is intrinsic of the Australian forces. But it certainly has been criticism that's taken a long time for this process. I mean, interestingly, it's worth pointing out that it was back in 2023, there was a defamation judgment. He'd sued several papers for allegations that he had committed war crimes and he sued several papers. A defamation judgment in 2023 found that he had indeed killed several unarmed Afghans. He tried to appeal that and that appeal, He lost last year against a federal court.

23:18But of course, it's not been tried in a criminal court. That's the difference. That has a higher burden of proof. But certainly the response has been making sure that the legal avenues can take their path. And briefly, what sentence might he face if found guilty? So war crime murder would face a maximum penalty of life in prison. Katie Watson in Sydney. The chief executive of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has called for companies to pilot a four-day working week with no loss of pay as part of a vision for how an AI economy could work. Our technology editor Zoe Kleinman told Anna Foster more about the plan.

23:55It does kind of feel like finally we get a carrot with all this doom that we've been hearing about the threats and the potential problems with AI. Here is a big AI company coming out and saying, well, look, guys, you might be able to work less and get as much money. But the question is, you know, how realistic is this, honestly? Is this something we've been hearing the AI sector say for quite some time? I heard Elon Musk say a few years ago, he talked about something he called universal high income. And he said, look, there's not going to be work in the way that there is now because AI is going to be doing so much of it.

24:28So let's just distribute the wealth among us. We won't have to work and we'll all have loads of money. And you think that sounds great, doesn't it? brilliant, when does that start? But actually, in reality, knowing how these big companies work and looking at the history of how big companies operate, is it really likely that they are going to be sharing any what OpenAI calls efficiency gains, productivity dividends, if you like, with the workers? Or is that likely to stay among the very few giant companies that we have who are really operating this AI? When you read this document, it's 13 pages long, and it addresses lots of issues around how society and how our economics isn't really set up to manage AI coming in the way that the tech companies keep telling us it's going to come.