Are US and Israel Aligned On Iran War?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, President Trump has threatened that the US “will massively blow up” the world’s largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again.
This comes after Iran bombed Qatar's Ras Laffan energy complex, in retaliation against Israel attacking its South Pars Gas Field - all of which has sent gas prices skyrocketing.
Adam is joined by chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and deputy economics editor Dharshini David to discuss what this means for the war and energy prices around the world.
Meanwhile, health correspondent Jim Reed joins Adam to discuss the latest report in the Covid-19 inquiry, which found the NHS came close to collapse at the height of the pandemic.
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Shiler Mahmoudi, Anna Harris and Harry Craig. The social producer was Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The technical producer was Jack Graysmark. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.5 | Hello, so the big news between Wednesday and Thursday overnight was that Israel attacked |
| 0:10.9 | Iranian natural gas fields in the Persian Gulf, and then Iran retaliated by hitting similar |
| 0:17.1 | facilities belonging to Qatar, which sent the global gas and oil prices through the roof |
| 0:23.3 | and triggered basically a monumental meltdown on Truth Social from Donald Trump in what feels |
| 0:28.9 | like a new phase and a very momentous momentous moment in the war in the Middle East. So we will |
| 0:34.0 | focus on that in the first half of this episode of Newscast. |
| 0:39.7 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:42.7 | He has just compared me to the fat controller. |
| 0:43.6 | Did I say that? |
| 0:45.6 | I can't believe I said that. |
| 0:46.4 | Next question? |
| 0:49.0 | This is R for the benefit of Earth. |
| 0:52.0 | I'm not personally a huge Sabrina carpenter ham. |
| 0:53.5 | I don't think I'm being rude. |
| 0:55.5 | I like landscapes. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio. Leis Ducet is here. |
| 1:01.8 | Hello, Lease. I'd like to say really good to join you, but it's not a very good time for many of our |
| 1:06.8 | podcast friends. And I have to say it did for me, the events of the last 24 hours makes the whole situation feel a bit scarier now. And I have to say it did for me the events of the last 24 hours makes the whole |
| 1:12.6 | situation feel a bit scarier now. And Darshini David is here as well to explain why. Hello |
| 1:17.2 | Darshini. Hello, Adam. And yes, you only drag me in when things are scary and ambates. I'm really sorry |
| 1:21.7 | about that. Right. Let's, I think, go through the timeline of just why the events of the last 24 hours |
| 1:26.4 | have been so significant. And it's |
... |
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