Confused unity: the mood in Iran
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.4 • 4.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A sudden war made Iran’s leaders look unprepared. And many Iranians loathe the regime. But there are no signs yet that internal dissent will shape the conflict. Shortly after Nayib Bukele became El Salvador’s president, he was labelled as the world’s first millennial dictator; now he is going after his critics. And remembering Valmik Thapar, tireless campaigner for India’s tigers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:10.2 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:14.0 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:15.2 | And I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:16.6 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:25.2 | Naib Boukele was elected president in 2019 by pledging to cut El Salvador's extraordinary crime rate. |
| 0:32.5 | He was successful, but repression in one sphere has now spilled over into many others. |
| 0:39.2 | And by 1973, there were only 1,800 tigers left in India, |
| 0:45.4 | down from 50 times that at the turn of the century. |
| 0:49.0 | Our obituaries editor looks back on the life of Valmic Thapar, |
| 0:53.0 | who fought relentlessly to give the creatures the space they needed. |
| 0:57.0 | First up, though, |
| 1:04.0 | Inside the television studio of Iran's state broadcaster, a live report was cut short after an Israeli strike. |
| 1:16.6 | Three people reportedly died in the attack yesterday. |
| 1:33.3 | This morning, Israel claimed to have killed the country's most senior military commander. |
| 1:38.3 | His predecessor was killed in an airstrike just last week. |
| 1:42.7 | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told people to evacuate from Iran's capital because |
| 1:47.3 | the Israeli Air Force would strike regime targets. |
| 1:50.8 | But it struck civilian buildings too. |
| 1:54.1 | Now cars are streaming out of Tehran filled with citizens who are suddenly in the midst |
| 1:59.1 | of a war. |
| 2:01.3 | At the outset, Iranians were flabbergasted at just how inept and threadbare their regime seemed. |
... |
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