US Congress receives classified briefing on war with Iran

Global News Podcast

BBC

Daily News, News

4.3 • 8.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the US-Israel war with Iran continues the Trump administration is facing mounting calls from Congress to explain why it started its campaign now, and how long it could last. In an attempt to curb surging oil and gas prices, President Trump says the US navy will, if necessary, escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran. The crisis in the Middle East is continuing to cause turmoil on the financial markets. Shares across Asia opened sharply lower. Also, scientists in Spain studying how women's brains are altered during pregnancy say they've identified changes influencing how mothers bond with their babies. And an English golf club stumbles across an unexpected find underneath part of its course - an abandoned wine cellar.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:07.5	American politics can sometimes feel like a different language.
0:11.1	But our podcast can help you translate.
0:13.3	Make sense of what's happening in the US,
0:15.2	with new podcast episodes arriving throughout the week.
0:18.1	AmeriCast, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:21.2	This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:25.6	I'm Janet Jalil, and in the early hours of Wednesday the 4th of March, these are our main
0:30.7	stories. The Trump administration tries to justify the war in Iran to Congress after days
0:36.6	of conflicting explanations.
0:38.9	It comes as the U.S. military says it struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran.
0:44.2	Stock markets plunge, with trading in South Korea briefly suspended over concerns about the conflict.
0:50.5	President Trump attempts to curb surging oil and gas prices by saying the U.S. Navy will escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary, which Iran has blocked.
1:02.5	Also in this podcast, women's brain changed profoundly during pregnancy. Those changes are dynamic.
1:09.6	What we have done is to have a lot of subjects
1:11.3	so we can compute and have statistics and numbers about this change. A study in Spain finds that
1:17.0	women's brains go through profound structural changes during pregnancy. As the Israeli and US bombardment of Iran continues, an Iranian retaliatory missile and drone barrages across the Gulf intensify,
1:35.9	the Trump administration is facing mounting calls to explain why it started this war now, what its goal is and how long this conflict could last.
1:45.9	Ahead of a vote this week in Congress on a war powers resolution aimed at limiting the
1:50.4	president's actions, lawmakers received a classified briefing from the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
1:57.2	The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said he was deeply concerned by the conflicting explanations for the war being put forward by Mr. Trump and his officials.
2:07.6	His administration can't explain the reasons we did it. I left the intelligence briefing more concerned than reassured.
	...

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