Iran fires missiles at US Qatar base
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See how life insurers put life into America at acli.com. Paid for by the American Council of Life Insurers. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Julia McFarlane and in the early hours of Tuesday the 24th of June, these are our main stories. Iran has launched missiles at the US airbase in Qatar. Tehran says it was in response to the US's airstrikes on its main nuclear sites over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Israel has attacked government targets in Iran, including the notorious Evin prison. And as we record this podcast, President Trump has just announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which will come into force in the coming hours.

Also in this podcast, the gangs of Cape Town and their child recruits. And Belarus' opposition leader in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, speaks to the BBC about the moment she first heard her husband was released from prison. Somebody called me from Belarusian mobile and I picked up the receiver and heard my husband's voice. He told Sveta, my dear wife, I am free, I can't believe this. MUSIC

Ever since the Americans attacked three nuclear sites in Iran in the early hours of Sunday morning, the world, but especially the region, braced for the Iranian response. It came on Monday evening in the form of missiles launched in the direction of the biggest US airbase in the Middle East, Al Udayd in Qatar. The size of a small town and home to thousands of American service members.

The U.S. embassy sent out an alert to U.S. citizens in Qatar, ordering them to take shelter until further notice. Qatari authorities announced they were closing their airspace and diverting all traffic away from the capital. Just half an hour later, explosions were heard in the skies above the streets of Doha. This was recorded on a mobile phone.

Colonel Iman Tajik is a spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. He confirmed that the attack was in response to the targeting of its nuclear facilities by US stealth bombers over the weekend.

After the military invasion by the murderous regime of the United States of America towards the peaceful nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran and clear violation of international law, by the order of the Supreme National Security Council, the Al-Yudayde base in Qatar was targeted in a destructive and powerful missile attack. Under no circumstances Iran will leave violation of its sovereignty and national security unanswered.

Mehran Kamrava is Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar. He lives close to the airbase. I'm at home approximately 30 kilometres away from Al Udeid base. And what we witnessed earlier were a series of flares in the air. The night sky was lit up with what looked like flying objects and then a series of

very loud boom noises. The house shook very strongly. There was a scary shake and a number of shakes. And then sirens went off. And I have lived in Qatar for 18 years. I've never heard sirens like this before or have never seen anything in the night sky like that before.

We did get a notice earlier today from the U.S. Embassy asking us to shelter in place. And so there's been a sense of apprehension among at least the American and also the British communities here.

US officials say there have been no injuries and that the combination of medium range and ballistic missiles were intercepted by air defences. And President Trump gave his reaction on social media, dismissing the strikes as very weak and suggesting the Iranians had gotten it all out of their system. He also thanked the Iranians for giving early notice of the strikes.

James Kumarasamy got analysis from the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner. The pragmatists in Tehran won out because it could have been a whole lot harsher. They could have gone for a mass launch of ballistic missiles at a whole range of 20 bases up and down the Gulf that the US has got. They could have targeted the US naval facility in Bahrain. They could have gone for an Assad base in Iraq, in Kuwait.

They could have had a go at some US warships, possibly with swarms of drones. They didn't. They chose a very specific target. Now, I'm not in any way downplaying the gravity of this. I'm saying that it was a measured response because clearly Iran is looking for an off-ramp here. They telegraphed the Qataris in advance. So I was able to speak to sources, Gulf sources, Iranians,

who told me what was going on, that there was an imminent credible threat, but that the air defences were locked and loaded and ready to shoot down, and indeed that is exactly what happened. Iran launched six short and medium-range ballistic missiles, all of which were intercepted by Qatari air defence. So the explosions that people heard were those missiles being blown up above the skies above Doha.

And in fact, the air base, Al Udeid, which is a very important air base to the Americans and their allies, including the UK, it's where they run all their air operations for the entire broader Middle East. It's the forward headquarters of CENTCOM, the US, the Pentagon Central Command. That had been largely evacuated. So there's a big difference between... I counted 37 planes there on a satellite image on the 5th of June, and it's empty today. So clearly...

clearly people knew something might be coming. So if it was a measured response from Iran, what do you make of the response on social media to that from President Trump? I think it's quite sort of mature. And I say that with a bit of a smile on my face because I

It would have been very tempting, I think, for him to say, you know, they've threatened the lives of U.S. servicemen and women, that this was an insult to, you know, one of our most important bases, an attack on it. And, you know, it is an attack on a U.S. base, and Qatar is furious, calling it a flagrant breach of their sovereignty. But I think if he's going to leave it at that...

And if Iran leaves it at that, then this is the high watermark in terms of the confrontation between the U.S. and Iran. The confrontation between Israel and Iran is not yet over, but President Trump has hinted that he wants that to end pretty soon. So I think we might be on the downward slope in terms of the peak of this confrontation may well have been passed.

The U.S. has demonstrated extraordinary long reach with these bombers. I don't think they've destroyed all the highly enriched uranium, by the way.

They may have destroyed the centrifuges beneath Fordow, but not all that material. But that's really the IAEA's job. And part of that job is trying to keep Iran in the nonproliferation treaty now. So I think we are in a kind of de-escalation mode. So I have to say, just before six o'clock this evening, things were looking very hairy indeed, that this was looking like a great big disaster.

escalation. It's now looking a lot better. It doesn't help that Donald Trump kind of mocks Iran saying this was a very weak response. You know what? Be careful what you wish for. Don't goad them into attacking something else because then he will have to respond. So for now, I think we're not quite out of the woods, but we can see light. Frank Gardner.

Earlier on Monday, Israel carried out further widespread strikes across Iran, targeting the Fodo nuclear site again, as well as places associated with the government in Iran. These included the command centres of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, where hundreds of political prisoners are held in brutal conditions.

The British-Iranian businessman, Anousheh Ashouri, spent more than four years in Evin prison after being arrested while visiting family in Tehran. How did he feel when he heard that it had been hit? I'm extremely worried, mostly about the people I left behind. You see, Evin prison consists of a number of wards. In each ward, which is a building block, there are holes where prisoners are kept.

And what they do is that they shut the heavy metal doors of each hall with a padlock so they have no way of going out, even at the time of emergency.

And the news that I heard was that because of that explosion at the entrance of Evin prison, some of my friends there were actually hit by flying glass and they were injured. And I was told that soldiers are ordered to shoot at anyone who tries to leave those halls. So the situation is really volatile and I'm extremely worried about the inmates who are there.

There is a lot of talk of regime change, of this is the end of the Islamic regime there. What are your feelings as you see where this war is going and loose conversation about regime change? Well, I condemn killing under any ideology or flag. My only side is with civilians, not governments. And civilians are the ones who suffer most in Iran, in Israel, in Gaza, everywhere.

And when it comes to Iran, it makes me deeply worried about all those left behind in every prison. But more broadly, 92 million people who live in a much larger prison called Iran.

But at the same time, I think that military intervention has proved not successful because we see it in Iraq, we see it in Libya, we see it in the Arab Spring. We have never seen that it has brought democracy to these countries. That has to come from the inside.

Of course, there are no grounds for the people to rise because now the situation has changed and the regime has weakened. But be aware that should they remain, they will become emboldened and there will be more massacres and more executions if this regime is not toppled.

Anousheh Ashouri speaking to Evan Davis. So after more than 10 days of bombing Iran, what are Israel's objectives now? Tim Franks asked Anshul Pfeffer, Israel correspondent for The Economist. From what I've been hearing from Israeli officials over the last 24 hours, they feel that

The list of targets that they began the war with, they've crossed off most of the items on it, certainly most of the military and strategic plants and bases and launchers in Iran that they were planning to attack. And they were saying this already at the beginning. We're now at day 11 of this war. They were saying at the beginning they're planning a two-week campaign, so we're nearing the end of that. And as we've seen today, they've been focusing more on what you would call regime targets.

rather than military and strategic ones. And from what I'm hearing from Israelis here that

That is mainly aimed at pressuring the leadership of Iran to accept some kind of agreement which will significantly limit their capability of developing both nuclear and ballistic missile projects in the future. Given that Iran still does seem to retain some ability to launch ballistic missiles at Israel, and given that Israel's sort of secondary declared aim was to degrade Iran's ballistic missile capability, do you think in a sense...

that Israel is just hoping that it can declare an end to this without necessarily that having been completely destroyed.

Well, there are two aims. There's the interim aim, as it's been explained to me, of seriously, as you said, degrading these capabilities. They still retain some of these capabilities we've seen just this morning, when around 20 missiles were fired over a space of about 45 minutes towards Israel. Only one of those missiles got through Israel's defences, but it still shut down the country, and that missile that got through did hit Israel.

some kind of electricity infrastructure causing disruption here in Israel. But the Israelis see that as something that they can accept that Iran will still hold if Iran signs some kind of deal that they won't continue developing and manufacturing these missiles. I mean, this is trying to find every single missile launcher hidden away in Iran was something that they didn't expect to achieve.

One reading of the impact of these events, Anshul, and I don't know if you think this is just too sort of heroic a leap of imagination by some people, is that Benjamin Netanyahu potentially, as a result of his position being bolstered by these attacks on Iran, might feel that he's no longer in such hock to fight.

the far right members of his coalition and might be willing to wind down the war in Gaza as well. Deep.

Do you think that that sort of chain of possibility is plausible? Well, I'm certainly hearing some similar things both here in Jerusalem as well. There was also before, just before the war talk, that Israel and Hamas are close to some kind of a ceasefire agreement. Now, that kind of agreement, as you said, would have caused the tension and perhaps a coalition crisis between Netanyahu and

and his far-right coalition partners. He's certainly now in a much stronger position. He has the political capital, I think, to face them down if he chooses to do so. All the focus now is on Iran. The main Israeli official in charge of negotiations with Hamas is also deeply involved in the Iranian campaign. So we don't know yet when Israel will focus back on Gaza. That will happen the moment this war with Iran does end.

And just before we started recording this podcast, President Trump announced on his Truth Social website that a complete and total ceasefire has been agreed between Israel and Iran. He congratulated both countries on having the stamina, courage and intelligence to end the war. Here's our correspondent, John Donison. Certainly, Prime Minister Trump has been very supportive of the

Prime Minister Netanyahu, I think, is in a position to be able to sell this to his public as a victory, to say, look, we have substantially diminished Iran's military capability, its nuclear ambitions. However, you know, the regime is still there. It wasn't, what,

36 hours ago that both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu were talking about regime change in Iran. Well, that's not going to happen. So, you know, let's just wait and see whether this truce holds. But it does seem now that all three sides are willing to step back. John Donison. And still to come.

Scientists have observed killer whales massaging each other using seaweed. But why?

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The Belarusian opposition leader in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has given her first interview since her husband was unexpectedly freed from prison in Minsk on Saturday, together with 13 other political prisoners. Sergei Tikhanovsky's release after five years in solitary confinement followed a meeting between President Trump's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, and the authoritarian leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

James Kumarasamy asked Svetlana how she found out her husband was being freed. Somebody called me from Belarusian mobile and I picked up the receiver and heard my husband's voice. He told Sveta, my dear wife, I am free, I can't believe this. So that was the first time you knew anything is when you picked up the phone and heard his voice? Yes, that's true.

What did you think? Did you believe it? We have been expecting some people to be released, but maybe we thought that will be different people like Nobel Peace Prize winner Oles Belyatsky, maybe Masha Kolesnikova, but I couldn't believe that it will be my husband because he's one of the biggest enemy of Lukashenko. And how is he? I think he said...

During that news conference today, I think it's your daughter didn't recognise him. Oh, look, he has changed so tremendously. You know, in prison, he lost half of his weight. And today at the press conference, he explained a lot how people are treated in prisons, that they're so cold, they don't have enough food, no medical care at all. And just it's real torture of Bill Morrison political prisoners.

I mean, he, like you, is now having to live in exile. What are your plans? Our plans is to continue the fight for release of all political prisoners. And our bigger goal is to preserve Belarus' independence and serenity. So we have continued. We need solidarity from the democratic world. We need pressure from our allies.

Your husband during that news conference said President Trump now has the power and the opportunity to free all political prisoners in Belarus with a single word. And I asked him to do so, to say that word. What did he mean exactly? What can President Trump do? It happened because of pressure, solidarity and diplomacy. And we keep working closely with the US and I appreciate that they put political prisoners so high on their agenda. And I believe

And Selye believes that President Trump can free more people. Why do you think President Lukashenko decided that this was the time? What is it that he has got out of this? He badly needs, you know, to be important, to look like a political player,

And actually, I don't know exactly what Special Envoy Kellogg discussed with Lukashenko about military issues, but I know that his visit had a clear result. People were afraid. So maybe Lukashenko wants to show that, you know, humanity, maybe. But, you know, I wouldn't suspect Lukashenko in humanity. It's only like he's calculating. He wants to soften sanctions, you know, I suppose, or achieve better relationship with the USA. And your husband has made it clear that you...

are still the leader of the opposition. He's not going to challenge that, he said. Are you going to work together now? What...

What are you thinking about how the pair of you take things forward? Selye will strengthen the position of the democratic forces of Belarus. He's very active and energetic, and he will contribute with his strong voice to our movement and our fight. And we are not in competition with him. We are just complementing each other. We will fight together, shoulder to shoulder. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya speaking to James Kumarasamy.

Cape Town has been described as South Africa's gang capital. And according to new research, more children than ever before are being recruited into gangs in the Western Cape province, some as young as 12. But some grassroots activists are trying to break the cycle, as Sowimet Maus of BBC Africa Eye has been finding out.

This is Hanover Park, a township of Cape Town in South Africa's Western Cape. Children play on streets lined with concrete houses topped by corrugated iron roofs. Around 50,000 people live in this neighborhood built during apartheid. Gang violence is rife. Shootings and stabbings happen almost daily. All these years I've been in the gang, I've been in and out of jail.

31-year-old Nando Johnson is a member of the Mongrels, one of the hundreds of gangs operating in the region. The police recorded 263 gang-related deaths in the last three months of 2024. In this game, there are only two options. You either go to jail or you die. I do want to change direction, and I believe there is always a way.

Nando chose to take part in a rehabilitation program run by local pastor Craven Engel from the First Community Church. We negotiate gang conflicts among different gangs and look at which members would like to make an exit or change their behavior, change their life.

Cape Town is South Africa's second wealthiest city and capital of the Western Cape. But beneath its prosperous surface lies a dark reality. It's where around 80% of all gang-related murders nationwide happen. Groups fight for control of the drug trade, recruiting ever younger members.

I think what makes it very, very terrible now is because there is more children involved in the gangs. Because gangs are recruiting between the age of 8 years old and 15 years old. And when a child gangster runs into a group of children acting like he's a child, the gangs shoot the whole group of children. So you get six, seven children get shot and killed.

In Westbank, a township in eastern Cape Town, a mother is grieving the loss of her four-year-old child, Davin.

I screamed for help and went crazy. I ran out and I didn't care who was standing outside. I shouted, our neighbour came out, the one across the road. He's a medic. Davin was lying in his bed when two stray bullets broke through the wooden walls of the house and killed him. He's the second child this family has lost to gang violence.

A special police unit has been set up to patrol the worst affected areas 24-7. But families continue to live in fear. The little job opportunities available here make the cycle of violence difficult to break. Samiat Moos.

In most parts of the world, electric cars are generally a little more pricey than budget petrol options, but not in China. Thanks to its huge manufacturing capacity, the expansion of its domestic automaker giant BYD, and of course its massive population, electric cars have been able to be sold cheaply and at scale. Now, after domestic success, Chinese EV makers like BYD are turning their attention to Western markets.

Our transport correspondent Nick Marsh sent this report from China. This is a battery swapping station in Shanghai. There are thousands of them for the city's legions of electric vehicles. You simply drive in and the machines do the rest. In a matter of minutes, your flat battery is taken out and replaced with a fully charged new one. It's state-of-the-art technology for less than the price of a full tank.

Even the southern city of Guangzhou, known for its polluting factories, is today a sea of green number plates. When I was there, the roar of rush hour had been reduced to a gentle hum. So green means it's an EV and blue means that it's not an EV. Now we have green here.

Another green behind. An electric moped. Here's another green one here. The point is that for most countries EV is seen as the future of driving, but for China the future has arrived. It's here now.

None of this is an accident. For the past two decades, China's been on a mission to dominate the technologies of tomorrow, and it's thrown the full weight of its economy into it. You've got to think completely differently when we step into China because there's subsidies in every possible form. Michael Dunn is an auto industry analyst who spent two decades in Asia. What we're facing is this thing called state capitalism, where the government is

actively working hand in hand with companies to say, auto industry, electrics, goal is to dominate it. Here's how we're going to get it done. What other resources do you need? He calls it state capitalism. Western countries call it unfair. The truth is that they're worried.

Today, seven of the world's top ten EV producers are Chinese, and many of them are recent start-ups, like XPeng. I met with their president, Brian Gu, in Guangzhou. We are selling well in Europe. We just launched in the UK in March. We see tremendous interest in our products. It is traditionally a stigma attached to some Chinese products.

But I would say probably it's more related to older generation of Chinese products. We actually see a lot of encouraging signs, European and UK customers seeing China can produce high quality and very good technology products. This one here is the best seller, is that right? What's it called? Correct, the best selling models. As I was given a tour of the showroom, it felt more like being in Silicon Valley rather than China's old industrial heartland.

Their newest car has voice activation, an inbuilt entertainment system. This is video streaming. Correct. It's also got genuinely impressive self-driving capability. The car's just slowed down by itself. The total price for this car? $20,000. It seems that China has made luxury mainstream. Nick Marsh.

The healing power of seaweed treatments can be traced back to ancient cultures such as the Greeks, Romans and the Celts. But now scientists believe that orcas in the North Pacific are also embracing the benefits. Our science correspondent Victoria Gill has more details. It looks like some kind of underwater ballet, two killer whales rubbing their bodies together as they move through the water.

What's trickier to see in this new research footage that was captured by scientists using drones is a piece of kelp between the bodies of the two animals. Let's call it a kelp massage. They're using the kelp to rub between themselves. That's Professor Darren Croft from Exeter University and the Centre for Whale Research in the US. So they're selecting a piece of kelp and biting off a piece of the stipe, which is a bit like a piece of horse pipe, a piece of tube.

They're then carrying it over to another whale and placing it on the back of another whale. You'll see them swim around a kelp mat, choose the piece that they want, break it off, and then take that and use that bit, the tool that they fashioned for the kelp rubbing.

The scientists don't know if this seaweed tool use is unique to the population of orcas they've studied, a group known as the Southern Resident Killer Whales. But they think it could have multiple benefits for the animals. Here's Professor Croft again. Brown algae seaweeds have antimicrobial properties, so there might be something around helping to maintain healthy skin. But we also know that physical touch in animals is really important for building and maintaining social relationships.

In 12 days of following these killer whales, the researchers saw kelp rubbing 30 times. They hope that this new intimate insight into the lives of these magnificent but threatened animals will help highlight the importance of protecting the coastal waters where they live, hunt and often massage one another. That report by Victoria Gill.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or any of the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global News Pod.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll and produced by Judy Frankel and Ariane Kochie. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Julia McFarlane. Until next time, goodbye.