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This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Janet Jolil, and at 16 hours GMT on Friday the 30th of January, these are our main stories.

Iran says it's ready for talks with the US, but only on

equal terms after Donald Trump's threats of military action. China lists sanctions on a group of

British parliamentarians during a visit by the UK Prime Minister Kirstama. The US president

nominates an outspoken critic of the Central Bank of the Federal Reserve

to succeed Jerome Powell. We'll tell you who he is. Also in this podcast, could our genes

be crucial to living long and healthy lives? New research suggests that our genes could be more

important than previously thought.

The fact that genes determine how long we live is hardly surprising because we know your chance

of breast cancer, your chance of cardiovascular disease, that runs in families. You can hear at some

of that risk. And the UK becomes the latest country to trial self-driving taxis coming later this year.

My first observation is no driver, no pedals, no steering wheel, but it feels quite normal.

At the height of the Iranian protest this year, President Trump promised help was on its way, only to backtrack as thousands of demonstrators were slaughtered by the regime's security forces.

Now the US president is again threatening to strike Iran after sending what he calls a huge US armada to the Middle East, while at the same time signaling that he is open huge U.S. Amada to the Middle East,

while at the same time signaling that he is open to negotiations.

We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now,

and it would be great if we didn't have to use them.

Can you say what the message was that you shared with Iranians? Well, I told him two things. Number one, no nuclear and number two, stop killing protesters.

They're killing them by the thousands.

Iran, weakened by earlier U.S. and Israeli attacks, is now intensifying its diplomatic efforts.

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