Three ships hit in the Strait of Hormuz

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

I'm Emily Thomas, and at 16 GMT on Wednesday, the 11th of March, we bring you the latest on the

conflict in the Middle East. Iran launches more strikes on its neighbours after again coming under

attack. Three commercial ships are hit in the Gulf. And member countries of the international

energy agency agree to make their biggest ever intervention in the oil market.

Also in this podcast, exploding parcels are correspondent investigates a sabotage attack

coordinated by Russian military intelligence. And conversations with hedgehogs imagine that

they're actually blabbering in other time and we just couldn't hear it.

Scientists identify the full range of hedgehogs hearing a discovery which could help save their lives.

There's been no let up in the conflict in the Middle East, with US and Israeli strikes continuing

in Iran and Lebanon. Iran continues to fight back and is striking targets in Saudi Arabia,

the UAE and Kuwait. Israeli territory has also been hit. The US says it's sunk 16 Iranian

mind-laying vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, which is a key passage for oil exports connecting

the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. Three commercial vessels have also been hit in the Gulf,

including a Thai flagged cargo ship which was attacked while sailing through the Strait of

Hormuz. The conflict has effectively blocked vital shipping lanes through the Strait,

halting the flow of one-fifth of the world's fossil fuel supplies. More on the financial impact

in a moment, but first our correspondent Barbara Pletasha, who's in the Katari capital Doha,

told anchor design more about these latest attacks. We had a couple of loud explosions here,

just recently in Katari, and the Katari said that they were intercepting incoming missiles. You

also had in Saudi Arabia reports that they shot down missiles aimed at the main military base

there and drones that were targeting the major oil field there. The United Arab Emirates

said early this morning it was also responding to a barrage of missiles and we've heard now that two

drones have fallen near the airport. Bahrain was warning its residents to seek shelter very early

this morning. Not clear what happened there. The Iranians say that they fired at military

installations there. They also say they fired at a U.S. base in Kuwait, although that hasn't been

confirmed by either of those countries. And in Iraq, a drone struck a major U.S. diplomatic

facility, the Baghdad diplomatic support center, no injuries, and apparently there were six drones

fired in total, five of them shot down. And then further north and northern Iraq, at

least three drones were intercepted on the outskirts of Arabia. So that's across the region.

And Bob, what about the latest on the activity in the Strait of Hormuz?

There have been three suspected Iranian attacks on ships this morning. The latest one

reported by a UK maritime monitor saying that it was hit in the Strait of Hormuz. It was a bulk

carrier, and the crew are safe, it said. Earlier, there was a tie flag ship that was struck

as it was trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. A fire started, and the crew had to

abandon ship. But again, I believe there were no casualties. Then in the very early hours of

this morning, of Wednesday morning, a container ship owned by a Japanese shipping company was hit

in the Gulf with partial damage to the hull, but the crew was safe. So that's now about 14 ships,

I think, that have been hit in suspected Iranian attacks in the Gulf area since the war began.

The Strait itself is largely shot down, but one analyst who spoke to the BBC said that there

were these single ships. He called them singletons trying to make it through still, and that was

happening. But also, he said, if ships grouped together at some point, they may try and

get a naval escort, which the US and the Europeans have both been talking about.

The Israeli military says it's begun a wave of attacks on Beirut and Iran simultaneously.

In Lebanon, the IDF says it's targeting Hezbollah command centres and weapon sites.

The Lebanese health ministry says Israeli strikes have now killed nearly 600 people since the war

began. The latest air strikes have hit southern Beirut from where our correspondent Karin Torbi

has sent this report. I am here in the heart of the capital. This is a residential area called Aisha Bakar,

and I'm just standing in front of a building where an apartment was struck during the very early

hours of this morning. Of course, the damage is expensive, nearby buildings cause and apartments

have been extensively damaged, and people here are in absolute shock. This is in the heart of

the capital. And as I mentioned, this is a residential area, families, people were here, and this

is a neighbourhood that people thought was somehow safe. People I spoke to here told me they never,

never considered this area to be in danger, or that it could be targeted by any strike.

But this has happened this morning, and this is the second time, unless then we said the capital

Beirut is a struck. The first time was in a hotel, in Beirut, and Israelis actually killed

for Iranian diplomats that were staying in a very famous hotel. And now this apartment here.

Across Iran, the strikes have been aimed at infrastructure targets.

There are reports that Iran's new supreme leader, Majdab al-Khamenei, may have been wounded,

but there's been no official comment on that yet. Our correspondent, Yolanda Nell,

is in Jerusalem. She spoke to Ankha Desai. In Tehran, first of all, I mean, the heavy

bombings continued with more explosions being reported there as the US and Israel continued to strike.

That's where the Israeli military says its aim is to deepen the damage on the regime.

In some of its latest strikes, it says it's targeted Iranian forces preparing to launch missiles

at Israel. And it's also targeted. It says key command centers for Iran's armed forces,

particularly in the west of the country. There were some more comments from the Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his ex-account, where he addressed the people of Iran,

calling on them to overthrow their religious leadership to gain their freedom. We are creating

the conditions for you to act. In the coming days, we will pass the torch to you, he said,

grasp your destiny. And Israeli commentators are really saying that, despite the fact there

are these repeated calls on people to rise up in Iran, Israeli officials do seem to be

lowering their expectations about the prospect of regime change. Israeli comment is saying that

there are no signs of regime collapse or or defeat, maybe just some cracks at the moment

as a direct result of the ongoing strikes. And so the goals appear to be more about degrading

Iran's military as much as possible and the governing capabilities of the Iranian regime.

There are also reports that Iran's new supreme leader, Moistab al-Khamenei, has been injured.

We haven't seen or heard from him so far. What more do we know?

Yeah, this is interesting because Iranian state television has used a term to describe him,

being sort of translated as wounded veteran. The New York Times and Reuters claim to have

Israeli intelligence sources. The American newspaper saying it's also got Iranian officials

who are saying that he was lightly wounded at least in some of the earlier joint strikes by Israel

and the US. And suggesting that's why he's not been seen in public or even in any kind of

video message since he was named as the leader. And, you know, the New York Times is saying that

he's believed to be in a secure location with very little communication.

Yo Land now there in Jerusalem. It's hard to overstate how much fluctuations in oil prices affect

the world from petrol pumps to heating, industrial production and manufacturing.

So a decision to release hundreds of millions of barrels from reserves to try to stabilize the

markets isn't to be taken lightly. But in response to the situation in Iran, the 32 member

countries of the international energy agency have now unanimously agreed to make their biggest

ever intervention in the oil market. Fatih Birol is executive director of the IEA.

As a result of the discussions among IE members, I can now announce that IEA countries

have unanimously decided to launch the largest ever release of emergency oil stocks in our

agency's history. IEA countries will be making 400 million barrels of oil available. To be clear,

the most important thing for a return to stable flows of oil and gas is the resumption

of transit through the state of Hormuz. The release of the emergency reserves is more than

double the amount made available after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Our business correspondent Michelle Flarey has more details.

The action that we're seeing here by the IEA and the scale of it is very significant.

The fact that they're doing the biggest strategic release of oil reserves in its history double

anything we've seen before in terms of size. They're trying to make a statement here.

And I think it underscores the seriousness of the situation when you've got the

straight-up Hormuz, which is responsible for about a fifth of the world's oil passing through

there. It expresses the concern. But it's in the detail, as always, crucially. They say that they

are not releasing details of the timeframe or the specific amounts. So in other words,

will this be drip, drip, drip? Will there be a big release in one go? And I think in part,

you take that together with the fact that we don't know how long the conflict is going to last.

And if you look at what has happened to Brent Crude, initially obviously there was some optimism

and so it helped bring down the price of oil. That didn't last long and Brent Crude is back

up to $90 a barrel right now. How influential do you think the Europeans were in this decision,

Michelle, because the G7 countries were talking today. Emmanuel Macron was leading that discussion.

And they were putting pressure on the IEA to start talking about this strategic reserve.

Yeah, I mean, look, I think it played a significant role. But you have to remember that,

as you said, in your introduction, there's about 30 or so countries involved here.

Any one of them, if they had sought to block this, potentially could have scuppered the deal.

So really, it speaks to kind of the unanimity amongst these people right now and their concern

about this situation. But ultimately, I was speaking to an analyst a couple of hours ago,

they were telling me, you have to get the flow going again. So this is a band-aid,

but ultimately, because of sort of the role the Strait of Formus plays, you need the flow going

through that. There is talk about naval vessels escorting tankers through there, but even trying

to set that up is going to take time. And so perhaps this is about bridging that gap with these

reserves until there is some sort of way to work out how to kind of resume the flow. Because

ultimately, that is what's going to take the pressure, and that is the point at which you'll

see the oil price come down. Michelle Flurry speaking to Christian Fraser. Inside Iran,

there have been fresh air strikes, according to the Israeli military. John Sodworth has pulled

together a picture of the last 24 hours inside the Islamic Republic.

After the US Defense Secretary promised the most intense day of bombardments yet,

late into the night, cities across Iran were rocked by the sound of explosions.

The vast majority of Iranians are suffering this onslaught in enforced silence.

To stifle any internal opposition, the government has cut off the internet.

But some voices are finding ways to circumvent the censorship, the very few who have access

to VPN software or satellite phones.

So with government channels, uncensored, of course, showing footage of the devastation,

with emergency teams working in destroyed buildings, what do Iranians make of the war?

12 days in. Our colleagues at the BBC's Persian Service asked two residents who were both

supporters of the anti-government protests that shook Iran earlier this year and were put down

with brutal force. How they view things now. First, a woman in her 20s from Tehran.

Does she now harbour anger towards those bombing her country?

Or is it still reserved only for her leaders and the Islamic Republic?

Islamic Republic. I'll be angry with America and Israel too, but first the Islamic Republic,

which dragged the country into a war. It caused all this damage. I think if Trump stops,

people will pull into the streets. This man also in his 20s, but from another heavily targeted

city, Karaj, is less optimistic about war, bringing any kind of positive change.

From the beginning, I never really can't on Trump's promises anyway.

In my opinion, the future of Iranian people isn't even the smallest of factors in their

calculation. I'm not angry at America or Israel at all, even if they end the attacks.

Why should it matter to another country? They have always acted for their own benefit.

My anger is toward the Islamic Republic. All the blame, including the war and the destruction,

is on the Islamic Republic. Right now, I feel like U.S and Israel have to some exit

achieve what they want. They just want to make sure their regime can never stand back up again

or crush trouble for them. Otherwise, even if they want to change their regime,

it wouldn't be for the benefit of the people of Iran.

Other Iranians simply speak of their terror, their fatigue, and the risks from the burning

buildings and oil fields that make the air thick with smoke and the rain black with tar.

It's kind of the running it along, so you can hear the troubles of water falling down in the background.

Yeah, the bombing is intensive, I would say. It doesn't really matter if it's close to where we

live or it's for. The sound is so loud that it would be heard across the city.

So, I'm not really sure how many bombs have been dropped on Tehran.

For now, despite the onslaught, in its outward messaging at least the government remains defiant.

Still threatening retaliation against America while warning its own people of harsh consequences

for anyone found collaborating with the enemy.

John Sudworth. So, what about the humanitarian situation inside Iran?

Jan Eglant is the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, the biggest

Western humanitarian organisation operating there. He spoke to Justin Webb.

We have 110 aid workers on the ground in Iran. Many of them have fled themselves now,

but we put up eight relief centers in as many provinces. What are people on the ground tell us is

that the bombing is intense. It's around the clock and it's all over this vast country, so millions

of fleeing. You cannot have this kind of an intense air campaign on heavily populated urban

areas without vast consequences for ordinary people. And the same thing is happening in Lebanon,

where well over half a million is fleeing in that small place. So, I find this to be

not well portrayed when it is in the West seen as some kind of a military strategic chess game.

Who's running out of missiles first? It's first and foremost a immense strategy for millions and

millions of families on both sides of this crossroad. And when you talk of them fleeing in Iran,

to where are they fleeing? Out of the main urban centers, especially to Iran, to smaller places.

But many say we felt we were safe when we left to Iran in a great hurry.

But they're also bombing here. I mean, they're bombing in the east where we

serve the millions of Afghan refugees. Iran has one of the highest refugee populations in the

world. Many more Afghans are seeking protection in Iran than in Europe combined. They are also hit

by all of this. What would you say then to those in Iran who have been welcoming what has

happened? And there's no doubt there are some of them. Do you think the balance of those who

welcome it and those who don't will change? It's a political question in many ways. I would just say

that I mean, I think all on our journey for a ceasefire and this kind of air raids, thousands

of air raids on heavily populated areas in Iran, in Lebanon, and from Iran on civilian populations,

is going to make things worse by the day and it will solve nothing.

This podcast calls for more women to be involved in the development of artificial intelligence.

We're just not involved in the design. So, you know, this has happened throughout science,

not just in computing and AI.

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This is the Global News Podcast.

In July 2024, a parcel burst into flames just before it was loaded onto a DHL cargo flight to

the UK, one of several incendiary devices sent by post from Lithuania. Now an international

investigation has concluded that this was a sabotage attack coordinated by Russian military

intelligence against countries allied with Ukraine. 22 suspects have been detained and will soon

stand trial in Lithuania and Poland. In recent months, a wave of such attacks across Europe have

been linked to Russia, though Moscow consistently denies involvement. As part of her investigation,

our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Reinsford has been speaking exclusively to the man

who sent the parcels to Britain. This was a sabotage operation run from Russia through messages

on telegram. I've had unprecedented access to the texts, and they show that in the summer of 2024,

a user called HK was sending instructions to Alexander Shuranivas in Lithuania. He was told to

collect four parcels in Vilnius and post them to the UK and Poland. So what's the pay and what's

inside? They'll give 150 euros. Hold on, I'll send a picture. What? That reaction is because the

pictures showed tubes of face cream, massage cushions and sex toys. But concealed inside the parcels,

there was a liquid high explosive. These were improvised in-century devices, and one of them

would burst into flames just before being loaded onto a DHL flight to Britain. Any later could have

been disastrous. I have now met Alexander Shuranivas. It's the first time any suspect in this case

has spoken publicly. I wrote to him in prison as I investigated a wave of sabotage attacks

across Europe. And when he was released recently to a white trial, he agreed to an interview.

I didn't know what I was part of. I was just sending some parcels and no more.

Shuranivas is 53. His tall and talkative, and he maintains he would never knowingly have handled

explosives. I would not have agreed to this, not even for a million dollars. Even though we had

money problems, I would not have done it. Why would I need a million if I'm going to end up in

prison for life? But he did send the parcels. The joint investigation team just released this video,

and in it you can clearly see Shuranivas on CCTV posting the four boxes.

Then there's his arrest face down on the floor. His story, together with the many case files I've

seen, reveals the threat that Russia now poses as it actively recruits within Europe for people to

carry out its attacks. Sometimes you hear people talk about it, a shadow war by Russia. Do you

think that's what we're seeing? I wouldn't call it shadow it. I think it's pretty intense

active confrontation. I think this is active aggression against our nations, and we are in

different ballgame. Bill Mantis-Fitt Kalskas is crisis manager at the Prime Minister's office in

Vilnius. It's quite clear message that those who support Ukraine, they will be hit by the Russians.

We followed the route Shuranivas took last July when his wife drove him to the pick-up.

So this is the small park where Alexander Shuranivas sat on a bench and waited for the man who

was to hand him the four parcels. But he's told me he had no idea that inside those boxes were

the devices that this courier had already prepared and had set to go off all over Europe.

The files I've seen show Shuranivas was the last link in a long chain where each person had

a task. Set the timers, supply the cars, move the parcels. Many seem to have known only their

parts are not the full picture. Shuranivas tells me HK, the man who hired him, was an older

acquaintance from Russia he'd done business with before. In the chat he asks,

there's nothing illegal or banned. Shuranivas is Lithuanian, but Russia is his first language.

He talks of money troubles and of a criminal record he has for theft and fraud. So I point out

he has the exact profile Moscow usually looks for. Shuranivas tells me he'd have to be stupid though

because he got his wife to drive him to the deliveries and he used his own debit card.

At the DHL office they used, near the airport, a member of staff inspected the parcels he brought

in then very closely. She even taped up a leaking tube unaware that it contained an explosive.

The next day that package burst into flames at Leipzig Airport. Another went off near Warsaw

and a third at the DHL warehouse in Birmingham. Investigators can't be sure whether Russia's ultimate aim

was to bring down a plane or to intimidate countries aiding Ukraine, but the capacity to do harm

is clear. And I've discovered that the parcel plotters had no plans to stop. Shuranivas told

me he'd already been hired to send three or four parcels every month. The next delivery was due

a few days after he was arrested. Sarah Reinsford

With the AI revolution well underway, the technology seems to be popping up everywhere.

One of the latest initiatives uses AI to help save the estimated 20,000 whales who die each year

due to collisions with ships. It's called whale agents and it comes from the technology company

cognizant. Bebar Kodzert who's from the company told Anne Sawy how the technology might help save

the whales. We're losing about 20,000 whales every year and that number is growing at around 18%

a year. So it's significant, especially when you think about the fact that the numbers of these

larger whales for some of the species is in the hundreds left in the world. So it is a major issue.

The number of ships is growing. In fact, there are more and more ships around three times what

is going around right now is estimated by 2050. These are large ships. They have a hard time

putting the brakes on. It takes kilometers for them to actually stop or change route and most of

the shipping routes sexually overlap with the known whale habitats. So around 92% of them. So

there's a lot of data sources, especially with things changing. So not only do we have more ships,

but the migration routes of these whales are also altering with climate change and other

changes. So we need to keep up with that. There's a plethora of data that comes in and AI can

bring in the various different data sources and work them together through what we call multi-agentic

systems and solve this problem, which is itself also multi-objective, which means that we're solving

not just to save the whales, but also to reduce the risk of collision, therefore reducing the cost

on the ships themselves, reducing climate impact on ships rerouting. So we want to solve multiple

problems at the same time, basically. How does it work? We feed the various different data sources

as well as historical data. Some of these data sources are real time. Some are weather-related,

could be ocean-current-related. Then there's vessel traffic that's coming in. All of those come in.

We have different AI systems specializing on the different feeds. We then have AI systems that

specialize in bringing in and using the various different feeds in combination. And also machine

learning systems that make predictions and estimations on risk of collision ahead of time.

Well enough ahead of time to be able to then make a call on whether or not we want to reroute a

vessel so that the collision is avoided. Bebar, Khodjat speaking to Anne Sawey. The potential of AI to

save whales aside, many have fears about this rapidly advancing technology and how it could affect

our lives. And here's something else to think about. One of the world's leading computer scientists

and a member of the UN's high-level advisory body on AI has warned that because so few

women work in AI design, there's a risk that robots of the future will reflect an overwhelmingly

male perspective and could become misogynistic. Professor Dame Wendy Hall from the University of

Southampton in southern England is working on creating an AI driving license to teach people

the rules of the road. She's been speaking to Emma Bartonett. We're really talking about the fact

that there's so few women going into AI that we're not involved in the design of the robots,

or the design of the software and I'm also not involved in how it's being applied in society.

And as we're 50% society and we'll be using this technology as much or not more than the other 50%

then I find that a very worrying thought. What does that mean do you think though? Is it about

bias and a sort of lens that's not being applied? What could happen? What could happen that wouldn't

happen potentially? Yes, bias. And when you start involved in the design, this has happened

throughout science, not just in computing in AI. I mean design of cars or baby seats in cars and

all sorts of things. The stories about how women are not designed in the things that affect them a

lot. So that happens throughout society. But what's important about AI is that

that technology is going to have a profound effect on us as a society. And the female voice and

the female culture, our way of doing things, the things we need to do and want to do are not

reflected in the research labs and the design, there's companies that are designing the software

and the robots. So they're more likely, my mantra is always, if it's not diverse, it's not ethical.

They're more likely to actually take on the male characteristics. And then you have to retrospectively

think, well, how will this, how does this help women or work for women? And we're in that vicious

cycle again. I've us not included in the in the development. The computer scientist Wendy Hall

speaking to Emma Barnett. Let's finish today's pod with something uplifting, if not entirely

pleasant to listen to. The European hedgehog is a small mammal covered in thousands of spines

and it's in peril, numbers are falling and many hedgehog deaths are caused by traffic.

But could this be prevented by a high pitched noise? Researches in the UK and Denmark have

identified the full range of the animals hearing at a frequency that's four times higher than humans.

They're hoping that discovery could be used to warn the hedgehogs of danger.

Our science correspondent Georgina Ranard explains but you might want to cover your ears.

Take a listen to this and see where you stop hearing it.

The highest frequencies humans can hear are around 20 kilohertz. At 45 kilohertz,

dog stop hearing and beyond 65 is the limit for cats. Until now, no one knew the acoustic range of

hedgehogs, but scientists at Oxford University have been testing it. I spoke to Dr. Sophie

Rasmussen who led the research. We discovered to my great surprise and joy that hedgehogs can hear

up to 85 kilohertz, so it's really high frequency hearing and it's way above ultrasound.

To make their discovery, Dr. Rasmussen and team played this soundtrack to the hedgehogs.

But at a much higher frequency, they monitored brain activity in the animals to pinpoint the range.

The findings could help protect the European hedgehog, which is classed as near threatened.

Dr. Rasmussen wants to develop sound repellents that could be fitted to cars or lawn mowers

to keep hedgehogs away from them. We need to discover which sounds actually scare the hedgehogs.

Now we know its frequency they can hear in, but are they scared of screams or should it be like

a pulsating sound or, you know, what would be efficient? And could it help us understand more

about how hedgehogs communicate? We know they slow fall snort and grunt.

But maybe they're also making sounds we simply cannot hear.

They're often one that when hedgehogs pass by each other, they do interact and you can tell

that they are interacting in some way and that could also just be chemically by sniffing

each other, but imagine that they're actually blabbering all the time when we just couldn't hear it.

Dr. Sophie Rasmussen and a hedgehog ending that report by Georgina Ranath.

And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast

at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag globalnewspod.

And don't forget to our sister podcast, The Global Story, which goes in depth and beyond

the headlines on one big story. This edition of The Global News Podcast was mixed by Darcy Obrey

and the producer was Alice Adely. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Emily Thomas,

and till next time, goodbye.