Iran's Supreme Leader describes demonstrators as vandals
Global News Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 8.3K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Anti-government unrest has continued to spread across Iran, despite an internet blackout and a defiant address by the Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the protesters as "a bunch of vandals" and said the authorities would not back down. Demonstrations began nearly two weeks ago because of anger at rising living costs. Also: Russia uses a powerful hypersonic missile against the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, in another wave of air attacks. Switzerland observes a national day of mourning for the victims of the New Year's eve fire. And why the giant pandas in a Japanese zoo will soon be replaced by people in panda suits.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.7 | I'm Alex Ritson and at 16 hours GMT on Friday the 9th of January, these are our main stories. |
| 0:18.9 | Iran's supreme leader sends a chilling warning to thousands of |
| 0:22.2 | anti-government protesters. Switzerland holds a day of morning for the victims of a fire on New Year's |
| 0:27.6 | Day and Elon Musk's platform X stops most users from being able to use the AI tool GROX's image |
| 0:34.4 | generation option over sexual deep fake pictures. |
| 0:40.3 | Also in this podcast, why the pandas in a Japanese zoo will soon be replaced by people in panda suits. |
| 0:50.5 | As a fan of pandas, I'm really sad because we'll no longer have pandas here. I hope they'll come back again. |
| 1:01.5 | As nationwide protests escalate and spread across the country, Iran has been plunged into a near |
| 1:07.9 | total internet blackout. In his first public comments, since the protests started nearly two weeks ago, |
| 1:14.5 | the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hemanai has insisted that the Islamic Republic |
| 1:19.4 | would not back down in the face of the protesters, |
| 1:22.4 | who he called vandals and saboteers. |
| 1:30.3 | Last night in Tehran and some other places, a bunch of vandals showed up and |
| 1:36.3 | destroyed buildings belonging to their own country just to please the U.S. President. |
| 1:42.6 | Let him, Donald Trump, run his own country if he can. In his own |
| 1:47.6 | country, there are all kinds of incidents going on. The Islamic Republic was established with the blood |
| 1:53.6 | of several hundred thousand honourable people, and it will not back down in the face of those |
| 1:59.7 | who engage in destruction, |
| 2:01.7 | nor will it tolerate mercenaries serving foreign powers. |
| 2:06.2 | I asked Kazanaraji from BBC Persian what he made of the Supreme Leader's comments. |
| 2:12.0 | He's doubling down on cracking down on the protesters. |
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