Monday 23rd March 2026. Middle East strikes & threats. South Korea fire, BTS. Ukraine Russian casualties. France Russian tanker. Iceland EU.

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Starting in Asia today, Israel and Iran continued to fire missiles at each other this weekend. Israel also continued to bomb Hezbollah sites in Lebanon. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said that Israel is destroying all of the bridges across the Latani river in southern Lebanon to stop Hezbollah from moving fighters and weapons south. United States President Donald Trump made a social media post on Saturday saying that if Iran doesn't open the straight of Hormuz in the next 48 hours, then the US would start to bomb Iranian power plants. Iran responded by saying that if the US bombed its power plants, then it would completely close the straight of Hormuz and would increase attacks on energy production and the water supply of Gulf countries. Some analysts have said that two Iranian missiles fired at the US base on the British Chegos Islands in the Indian Ocean may have been a warning to Europe to show how far Iran is able to fire missiles. It has been reported that one of the missiles was intercepted by a US warship and the other fell into the sea after traveling over 3000 kilometres towards the Chegos Islands. In South Korea, a fire at a factory making car parts has killed at least 14 people. Also in South Korea, tens of thousands of people attended a free concert of the K-pop group BTS performing together for the first time in over three years after the members completed their military service. 22,000 people won free seats and others watched at various large screens close to the concert venue. Some people flew from other countries to go to this concert. Europe France has seized a Russian oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea on social media, President Emmanuel Macron, wrote, quote, "The war involving Iran will not deflect France from its support for Ukraine, where Russia's war of aggression continues unabated. These ships, which circumvent international sanctions and violate the law of the sea, are war profiteers. They seek to reap profits and finance Russia's war effort." Iceland's Foreign Minister has said that she is optimistic that Iceland could join the European Union by 2028. Fulgördur Gunas.ir told Reuters that the most difficult areas of negotiation were on fishing and agriculture. "I think it's an honest approach that we do that, that we right away try to tackle the fisheries and agriculture as well as our labour market, welfare system. It's also very important for us. If we do that, then I'm pretty optimistic then we will be before the end of the year 2028 member of the European Union." According to Ukrainian data, the number of Russian soldiers that Ukraine is killing seriously injuring or capturing has been particularly high over the last week. Generally, this number has been around 800 per day over the last few months. However, last week it was over 1,200 per day for four days, and on Tuesday it was 1,710 Russian soldiers. The Institute for the Study of War has said that this is probably because the Russians have started a spring offensive aiming to capture more territory in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Russian attacks in southern Ukraine killed at least four civilians this weekend, according to local journalists. In Russia's region of Belgorod, which borders Ukraine, the governor said that a Ukrainian attack had killed four civilians in the village of Smorodino. Smorodino is close to areas of Ukraine's Kharkiv and Sumi regions, where Russia has launched various incursions over the last year. In Slovenia, there were parliamentary elections yesterday, and the time of recording this podcast votes are still being counted. However, early results appear to show an extremely close race between the social, liberal, freedom movement party and the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party. France held the second round of local and mayoral elections yesterday, and the time of recording votes are still being counted. Africa. In Sudan, a drone attack on a hospital has killed 64 people, according to the World Health Organization. The hospital is in El Dain in the southwest, which is controlled by the rapid support forces paramilitary group, which suggests that the attack was probably carried out by their enemy, the Sudanese Army. However, the Sudanese Army has denied being responsible for the attack. In Tunisia, human rights activist Sadia Moschba has been sentenced to eight years in prison for money laundering and other crimes. Human rights groups have said that her imprisonment is part of a pattern of repression in Tunisia. Moschba campaigned for the rights of black Africans in Tunisia. America's. Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio said this weekend that the Cuban political system and the Cuban President are not up for negotiation in ongoing talks with the United States. The New York Times reported last week that the administration of President Donald Trump was trying to remove Cuban President Miguel de Ascanel from power. In the United States, former FBI director Robert Muller has died aged 81. Muller was a lawyer and was chosen for government positions by two Republican presidents and two Democrat presidents. In 2017, Muller was appointed to lead a report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. After three years of investigation, his report found that Russia did influence the 2016 election. However, it did not suggest that President Trump or his team coordinated with Russia. Despite this, Trump said that Muller's investigation was a witch hunt, responding to the death of Muller this weekend. In a post on social media, Trump said, quote, "Good. I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people." Also in the US actor and martial arts champion Chuck Norris has died aged 86. Norris was best known for playing tough guy characters in action films. And in the UK, two weeks ago, this podcast said goodbye and good luck to Nile Moore. Tomorrow we have not got a new presenter, but a returning presenter. For the first time in a year, tomorrow you will be with Ben Mallet. Have a great day. Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words. When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated. For Lauren even. Like your efforts are futile. And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people, only to get flooded with candidates or just. fine. F*ck. Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that. And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com/zipp. With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations. Because we find the right people for your roles fast. Which is our absolute favorite F word. In fact, for. 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