Nuclear-war head: assassination in Iran
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2020
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The killing of the country’s top nuclear scientist comes at a tricky time: violent retribution may threaten hoped-for diplomacy with the incoming American administration. An artificial-intelligence breakthrough may transform protein science, with implications for everything from industrial processes to tackling disease. And why Europe’s lighter-touch, second round of lockdowns have been so effective.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 0:10.0 | Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:17.0 | Nearly every process in biology involves different proteins, with each one's shape defining its purpose. |
| 0:25.0 | But those shapes are incredibly hard to work out. So a speedy new artificial intelligence approach could solve all kinds of problems in disease and drug design. |
| 0:37.0 | And about a month ago, as COVID-19 cases rose sharply, a number of European countries went back into lockdowns. |
| 0:45.0 | We look into streams of mobility data and ask why this round of lighter touchdowns was so surprisingly effective. |
| 0:55.0 | But first... |
| 0:58.0 | The funeral of Iran's top nuclear scientist underlined his significance to the country. |
| 1:11.0 | Yesterday's ceremony for Mosin Fakhrizade was attended by top level officials at the Defense Ministry in Tehran. |
| 1:20.0 | A military detail then carried his flag-draped coffin through the streets to a cemetery in the north of the capital. |
| 1:28.0 | Mr. Fakhrizade was shot dead while driving last Friday. He'd been at the heart of Iran's clandestine nuclear ambitions for decades. |
| 1:37.0 | Iran has blamed Israel for the murder, a charge that formerly Israel refutes. |
| 1:43.0 | Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has promised retaliation. |
| 1:47.0 | But any retribution might be temperate by hopes of renewed diplomacy with America. |
| 1:59.0 | There are a number of countries in the Middle East, namely Israel and Saudi Arabia that don't want to see Iran prodding from the cold. |
| 2:07.0 | Roger McShane is our Middle East editor. |
| 2:10.0 | And one way to look at the killing of Mosin Fakhrizade is as an attempt to sort of scorch the earth before Chobain enters office and tries to restart diplomacy with Iran. |
| 2:21.0 | And what do we know so far about Mr. Fakhrizade's killing? |
| 2:24.0 | Well, Iran first said that gunmen carried out the attack in a roadside ambush. |
| 2:29.0 | Now it says it was carried out with a machine gun operated by remote control. |
| 2:34.0 | The question is who was operating the remote and according to the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council on Ali Shampkhani, that would be Israel. |
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