in popular culture, such as music. In 1979, the British punk rock band The Clash released the hit song "London Calling", which was partly based on the station identification phrase. During the Eurovision Song Contest, before announcing the contest points from the UK, the broadcaster from the BBC delivering the votes usually begins with "This is London Calling". In 2019, the BBC started a weekly podcast called Eurovision Calling with Jayde Adams and Scott Mills. Magazine publishing The BBC World Service previously published magazines and programme guides: London Calling: listings BBC Worldwide: included features of interest to an international audience (included London Calling as an insert) BBC on Air: mainly listings BBC Focus on Africa: current affairs Assessments British soft power The World Service claims that its aim is to be "the world's best-known and most-respected voice in international broadcasting, thereby bringing benefit to the UK, the BBC, and to audiences around the world", while retaining a "balanced British view" of international developments. In 2022, the Financial Times wrote that the World Service "is considered a pillar of British soft power", and a House of Lords Library report noted the widespread recognition of this soft power. According to the American socialist magazine Monthly Review in 2022, former director Peter Horrocks inferred the World Service's scope to Russian state broadcaster RT as a means of extending international influence and soft power, In 2014, Conservative MP John Whittingdale, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, characterising the BBC's primary mission as fighting an 'Information War' (a role which some media scholars agree to), saying: "We are being outgunned massively by the Russians and Chinese and that’s something I’ve raised with the BBC. It is frightening the extent to which we are losing the information war.” In March 2022, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, the UK government announced additional emergency funding for the World Service to provide "independent, impartial and accurate news to people in Ukraine and Russia in the face of increased propaganda from the Russian state" and to counter "Putin’s lies and exposing his propaganda and fake news". BBC Persian Service In the context of the Iranian Revolution, the BBC World Service's Persian-language service has been criticised for its role in promoting the Shah's regime and undermining local norms in favour of British-selected values, with the British Ambassador in Iran, Peter Ramsbotham, stating in reaction to a