Trump urges nations to secure Strait of Hormuz

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This is the Global News Podcast

from the BBC World Service.

I'm Charlotte Gallagher,

and in the early hours of Sunday,

the 15th of March,

these are our main stories.

Donald Trump urges China,

Britain and others to send warships

to help secure the Strait of Hormuz,

the shipping lane which Iran has largely blocked.

Israel continues to bat a Lebanon,

and claims its wiped out

over a hundred Hezbollah command centres in Beirut.

And more of the female Iranian footballers

who sought asylum in Australia decide to go home.

Also in this podcast,

many people can't use the most basic services like

taxi or delivery or banking apps,

and in some cases,

bank terminals and ATMs were also affected by these outages.

The internet stops working in some major Russian cities.

We ask why and what impact it's having.

President Trump has told NBC Television Channel in the US

that while Tehran appears ready to make a deal

to end the war,

its terms aren't good enough yet.

He didn't specify what he meant by that,

but perhaps a major stumbling block

has to do with the narrow,

but strategically vital stretch of water

called the Strait of Hormuz.

Tankers carrying about 20% of the world's

liquefied natural gas,

and even more of its oil passed through it.

But Iran has carried out attacks on ships there,

traffic is dramatically down,

and energy prices are up.

Donald Trump wants Tehran to let the tankers pass through unhindered.

Until that happens,

he's asking countries like China and Britain

to help the US keep it open.

Our Washington correspondent,

Simea Jolla Oso, told me more.

President Trump has urged allies,

including the UK France and other countries

like Japan, South Korea,

and even China to send naval ships

to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.

He says that the US will secure it one way or the other,

and that the US will get the Strait open,

safe and free by means of continued strikes

on Iranian ships and boats in the region.

But in the same post, he did warn that

Iran could still threaten the waterway

by using drones, mines,

and short-range missiles.

And this is really different to what President Trump was saying

only a few days ago.

He was attacking the UK and saying that

when Kirstaam was considering sending warships,

he said, you want to join a war

after we've already won.

Essentially, we don't need your help.

And now he's making this direct appeal for help.

Yeah, this is the first time he's sort of taken a firm stance

when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz.

And even appealing to other countries,

as you mentioned previously,

he's sort of dismissed questions

when he's been asked about the strait

saying that things will get better

when he's asked whether the US will provide military escorts.

He said, well, if they need to,

even when he's been asked about soaring oil prices,

he's called it a glitch.

So this is the first time he's made a very firm stance

with regards to US military action

to sort out the situation at the Straits of Hormuz.

Has the Pentagon said any more about the next moves

by the US military?

Because, of course, there've been lots of reports

that Donald Trump's considering

sending thousands of Marines to the region.

The US media has been saying that an American naval task force

is currently on its way from Japan to the Gulf,

and that task force includes several warships

up to 5,000 Marines and sailors.

But when the Pentagon has been asked about this,

they've declined to comment citing operational security.

But this deployment with Backster Trump's latest truth social post,

right?

It shows that the US is considering a range of options

now in the war, potentially to protect commercial shipping

in the region, number two, potentially increasing action

on Hague Island.

And what is the US mood about this conflict?

The mood here, or the response,

can I say from the public here, has been very mixed.

We've seen rallies in Boston, LA, New York,

even here in Washington, just outside the White House.

Some of them have been calling for an end to the war,

and some of them have been pro-Trump rallies.

A Democrats have called this the war of choice

and said that they want the end goals of the war to be clearly laid out.

And Republicans have said that for them,

okay, they might support President Trump through this war,

but they have a red line.

And that's, number one, boots on the ground,

and number two, for this war to last longer than a few weeks.

Simee, Joel, Oso, let's take a closer look now at President Trump's call

to other nations to send warships

to secure the straight-up war moves.

How likely are they to do that?

Jonathan Beale is our defense correspondent.

He wants countries, including the UK,

China, which opposes the war,

to send warships to the region,

to keep the straight-up war moves open.

He's clearly worried about the rising price of oil.

The point I'd make is that there are any US warships at the moment

that are escorting tankers through the straight-up war moves,

because the number of tankers have been hit.

And it is clearly a dangerous thing to do.

We've heard from President Macron recently

that he's thinking about sending warships,

but again, only he says when the fighting has subsided.

Britain says it's looking at options,

discussing that with allies.

But at the moment, I think most countries will conclude.

It's just too dangerous to put sailors' warships in harm's way,

because even though in that same tweet, President Trump said

Iran's military capability had been destroyed 100%.

We are still seeing Iran using drones and missiles.

So the Iranians still probably have capabilities,

even though a lot of what they have may have been destroyed.

But I think most countries will conclude at the moment

that putting warships in that narrow stretch of water,

which is only just over 20 kilometers wide,

with Iran on one side and what they used to have

quite a lot of defensive capabilities,

will be a very risky operation

that many publics wouldn't swallow.

Jonathan Biel.

Smoke was seen rising over the Lebanese capital,

Beirut on Saturday evening,

as Israeli strikes continued.

The Iranian-backed militant group, Hezbollah,

said it had been involved in direct clashes

with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon,

while Israel says it struck more than 100 Hezbollah

command centers in Beirut during the course of the war,

where a Davis reports from the Lebanese capital.

Israeli air strikes in Lebanon,

which began after Hezbollah began firing rockets

towards northern Israel in support of Iran,

have killed more than 800 people,

says the Lebanese health ministry,

and more than 800,000 have been displaced from their homes.

Thus far, there have been few serious diplomatic efforts

to end the conflict,

but after launching a 230 million-pound humanitarian

appeal for Lebanon,

the UN Secretary-General Antoni Guterres

said an expansion of the war would be good for no one.

The Lebanese people did not choose this war.

They were dragged into it.

And my message to the warring partners is clear,

stop the fighting, stop the bombing.

There is no military solution,

only diplomacy, dialogue,

and full implementation of the UN Charter

and Security Council resolutions.

Israel is striking several parts of Lebanon,

including the eastern Becavalli,

where it accuses Hezbollah of organizing campaigns

and storing weapons.

We saw the aftermath of an airstrike on a house

that had been completely destroyed.

Eight people were killed,

including several children.

Yellow flags and pictures of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini

indicated it was clearly a Hezbollah supporting home,

and where Israel later said

they were Hezbollah operatives present.

But a surviving uncle Hassan Tahan

said that nothing could justify such an action

without a parent warning.

Israel is wrong if they think that killing children

and civilians will separate us from the resistance.

On the contrary, it makes us more loyal to them.

I'm even more steadfast in my support now than I was before.

Previous four-scale invasions of Lebanon

have ended in disaster for Israel,

and if it were to try and create a big buffer zone

in southern Lebanon,

there is no indication for how long

an Israeli occupation would last.

There is pressure for direct talks

between the Israeli and Lebanese governments,

but if they happen,

they won't include Hezbollah,

which says it is determined to carry on its fight against Israel,

which it says had also repeatedly breached

a previous ceasefire agreement.

We're a Davis.

The impact of this war has been felt

in some unexpected places.

Last week, seven Iranian footballers

sought asylum in Australia

after staying silent for their national anthem

at a football game there.

A number of the women were granted humanitarian visas to remain.

Now, a total of four of them

say they will return home to Iran.

Katie Watson is our correspondent in Sydney,

so do we know why?

We don't.

I first got wind of this

by speaking to some activists overnight

who were concerned that there would have been pressure

put on them by the Iranian regime.

Pressure perhaps on their families,

but of course, we don't know

the actual ins and outs of this.

There's been no communication,

but what we do know is,

obviously, on Wednesday,

there was one woman who had a change of heart

about a day after she decided to seek asylum in Australia.

Now, the three women who have had the similar change of heart

is one of the technical members of the squad

as well as two players.

Now, the technical member of the squad actually

sought asylum just before getting on a bus to go to the airport.

Those players who were also returning to Iran,

they were the ones who initially

escaped from the hotel on the Monday.

But the reasons for it,

Iranian diaspora,

are here very concerned that they've come under pressure

and they've had to make a decision on the basis of that.

That said, the Iranian Minister of Sports have said that,

you know, that they will be welcome back with open arms

and have accused Australia's government

of playing in Trump's field.

And what kind of reaction has there been in Australia to this?

Because I know lots of people really wanted the team

to stay on in Australia and not go back to Iran.

There was a big push from the Iranian diaspora

to encourage the women to stay here.

There were a lot of efforts made and even before the tournament began

kind of plans put in place to try and encourage the women

to feel confident and know that they'd be protected here.

And so there will be a lot of disappointment there.

But I think also, you know, a lot of worry

on the basis of concerns about what,

why indeed they've made that decision.

I mean, the authorities here in Australia

have said that, you know, they provided ample opportunities

to, you know, talk to them and make sure

that they were talking about their options

and knew what their options were.

But also understood that, you know,

even if the opportunities were there,

they couldn't remove the context in which the players

are making these difficult decisions.

And that's something that has been repeated,

that, you know, weighing up whether it was better to stay here

in Australia or go back to Iran was obviously up

to each individual player.

Katie Watson, people living in the Russian cities

of Moscow and St. Petersburg have reported

strange internet problems over the past week.

Some say they can't get websites to load

or apps won't work.

Others say they can't even make phone calls

and have had to rely on pages and even walkie talkies.

Rebecca Kesby asked BBC Russians lies a fox

what was going on?

Those internet blockages in St. Petersburg

and especially in Moscow over the past week

can only be described as unprecedented

because in many neighborhoods,

especially the city center,

there has been virtually no mobile internet reception

or sometimes even basic phone service.

And that means that many people can't use

the most basic service it's like,

taxi or delivery or banking apps

and in some cases bank terminals and ATMs

were also affected by these outages.

And so a local authorities have been

encouraging people to pay with cash

since cart payments were unavailable

or even buy maps to navigate in the city.

Of course, Russia has been titanic control over the internet

for many years now.

Obviously more so after invading Ukraine

with many independent media websites

such as BBC Russian or popular messaging

and social network apps like Instagram,

WhatsApp, YouTube,

fame blocked or slowed down.

But this mostly operated under

everything that is not prohibited

is permitted rule,

which is certainly not the case now.

So are people suspicious as to what's behind it?

Or could it be Ukrainian involvement

or is it more likely that the Kremlin is behind it?

The Kremlin explained these outages

by, quote, systemic safety majors,

unquote, but provide it no specific details.

But there's little doubts that Russia's security services

that have been the most influential part

of the government ever since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Many Russian regions have been already experiencing

such cutoffs for months,

especially the region's

on a border with Ukraine,

where drone strikes happen on a daily basis.

And Moscow has faced these kind of strikes too.

And some internet outages too,

but never on this scale.

And it's a very dramatic shift

because ever since invading Ukraine,

Russian authorities had been trying to sort of preserve

this image of Moscow being a modern developed capital,

which is very stable, not affected by the war.

And some people describe to me their experience

as returning back to the Stone Age

then people are very annoyed by these developments

and you can even see some pro-war, pro-Kremlin bloggers

who believe it's a mistake that's going to anger people.

And I've heard from some people

that they haven't been this scared

or anxious since Russian invaded Ukraine,

and they compared this situation

to the events in Iran or North Korea.

And the authorities said

when normal service will be resumed?

No, they made no promises whatsoever.

Liza Falked from BBC Russia.

Still to come in this podcast.

The Razif, where the worst picture of the year goes to

War of the Worlds, 2025.

The prize no one in Hollywood wants to receive.

Hey there, it's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway.

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It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains.

A man straps himself into a car on the world's most dangerous racetrack.

He whispers to himself.

It's time to put my balls on the dashboard.

If he starts the engine.

In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance on conscious.

In 15 years, he's a billionaire.

This is Total Wolf,

Formula One's most powerful team boss

and the breakout star of Drive to Survive.

This week on Good Bad Billionaire,

how Total Wolf made his billions.

Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is the Global News Podcast.

Next to Cuba, where in the early hours of Saturday,

peaceful anti-government protests turned violent

as a communist party office

in the central city of Moran was attacked.

A video on social media showed a large fire

and people throwing rocks through the windows of a building

as people shouted Liberty.

In a post on X,

the Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canal

said the complaints and demands of the people were legitimate,

providing they were conducted with civic responsibility

and respect for public order.

The protest is being seen as a reaction

to the power cuts and food shortages Cuba has been experiencing

since the US imposed an oil blockade in January.

Cristiana Mosquito works for the AP news agency in Havana.

The authorities say that some people have been arrested

during that protest.

They are saying for destruction of property,

what they call vandalism,

some they accused of being drunk

and causing a public disruption,

using the usual words that the Cuban government uses

on this situation.

It wasn't a huge protest,

but is the first one that was somewhat politically oriented.

We had seen before isolated, small up protests,

even here in Havana that were more directed

against the power outages,

people banging pots and pans.

But this certainly looked much more political.

You know, Cuba has been under an embargo from the United States

and different threats from the United States

for over 60 years and no government has been toppled yet.

Having said that, you know,

the president of Cuba admitted that no oil had come to the country

for the last three months.

And this is affecting every aspect of life in Cuba.

So anything can happen.

Cristiana Mosquito,

Jürgen Harbemass, one of the most influential philosophers

in post-war Germany, has died.

He was 96.

Known for coining the phrase, the public sphere,

he was a staunch pacifist and anti-fascist.

Believing a united Europe was the only remedy

for the rise of nationalism.

Aryan Kocchi looks back at his life.

Often recognized as the public conscious of post-war Germany,

Jürgen Harbemass was involved in most of the social

and philosophical debates of the 20th and 21st centuries.

He is best remembered for his theory of communicative action

in which he argued that human societies are sustained

not merely by power or economics,

but also by the capacity for rational dialogue

and mutual understanding.

He championed democracy as a living process of dialogue,

which ought to take place outside state control

in a free and open discussion,

which he called the public sphere.

Throughout his life, he did, as he said,

and linked thought and action.

He clashed with the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel

over her handling of the Eurozone debt crisis in 2010,

describing the austerity policies in Greece as toxic

and designed to appease financial markets

rather than support the Greek people.

Born in 1929 in Dusseldorf, Harbemass was enrolled in the Hitler youth,

but he was too young to have taken an active part in the Second World War,

and in the 1960s he became the voice of German student protests.

Often suspicious of tradition,

shared ethnic and national identities,

Harbemass was a strong proponent of European integration,

which he saw as the only remedy for the surge of nationalism.

In a time of rising populism,

Harbemass's ideas of strengthening democracy

through public dialogue and legitimate political power

are perhaps more relevant than ever.

That was Aryan Kochy.

Now, to a very different sort of job,

a British scientific charity is looking for volunteers

from around the world to work in Antarctica.

The job is in Port Lockroy and includes looking after a museum

and more than a thousand penguins

and preserving the world's most southerly post office.

If that sounds like your dream come true, you better be quick,

because applications close at midnight GMT on Sunday.

The museum's manager Amanda Barry told my colleague Justin Webb

what it's like to work in Antarctica.

I was there for two months,

and my job was to look after the historic base

at Bransfield House and to welcome the visitors

who would come to buy postcard from the most southerly post office in the world.

And also to really get a taste of what it was like

for the men who worked down there all those years ago.

What was it like?

Very remote.

I mean, it feels remote for us and the team.

I mean, it's 9,000 miles away from home.

It's in Antarctica for goodness sake.

But for the men there, when they wave goodbye to their ship

that dropped them off, that was it for six months.

There would be no more ships that becoming by

if there was some problem they had to deal with it themselves.

And the only communication they had with the outside world

would have been via Morse code.

So sending messages to the Falklands,

which would be relayed to the UK

or by letter, but the letters could only be sent

and received every six months.

So for someone who's thinking of applying,

what sort of a person do you have to be?

You have to like penguins, I'm guessing.

Oh, but it's so easy to like penguins, just.

I defy anybody not to really fall in love with them.

I think you've got to be adventurous.

Open-minded, have a good sense of humour.

You've got to get along with people.

It doesn't really matter what you've done before.

I mean, having certain skill sets, of course, are great.

We run a small gift shop there.

So if you've got retail skills, fantastic.

If you've got experience with museums with wildlife.

But actually, I had no real experience with museums before.

You've just got to have an attitude of mind to be open,

to be willing to muck in, to do whatever it takes.

It's such a varied role.

It's full-on, so you've got to be healthy and fit.

But oh, my goodness, it's worth it.

Honestly, if you're thinking about doing it,

I wouldn't hesitate.

Just go for it.

I mean, you know, it's a cliche, but life is short

and just do it because Antarctica is worth it.

And apart from the scenery and obviously the penguins,

I'm interested you say social,

because obviously there are cruise ships coming again.

That's who your customers are, presumably.

But it must be a small team.

So you've got to be able to deal with the fact

that you are in a quite isolated circumstances

with a group of people.

And like it or not, that's your friendship group.

Absolutely.

And where you sleep is the mixed bunk room.

All your privacy is a curtain around your bed.

I always call it the form of extreme camping

with the load of strangers.

But again, I think the sort of people

that are attracted to this sort of role,

you just get on with it.

And you help each other.

That's really important.

It doesn't actually matter what your role is.

You just muck in.

Amanda Barry speaking to Justin Webb.

Finally, the red carpet's in place.

The Oscar statues are ready.

And no doubt some nerves are jangling ahead of this year's Academy Awards.

It's the glitziest day of the year

on the entertainment calendar

and success can send careers into orbit.

But not all Hollywood gongs are as coveted

as Wendy Urkart reports.

The Razzie for the worst picture of the year

goes to War of the Worlds, 2025.

The Razzie's or Golden Raspberry Awards

are almost as famous as the Oscars.

But for all the wrong reasons,

because they represent the best of the worst

in the business in the last year.

The prime video film War of the World Staring Ice Cube

swept the board with five raspberries

for worst picture, worst actor,

worst director, worst screenplay

and worst remake.

Ouch!

You'll be saved from the Queen here.

The Queen's stolen everything from all of us.

Disney's Snow White remake scooped

worst supporting actor and worst on-screen combo,

which went to all seven computer-generated dwarfs in the film.

Elsewhere, Rebel Wilson was named worst actor for bride-hard

and Scarlett Rose Stallone was awarded

worst supporting actress for the Western film Gunslingers.

But she's got a long way to go to catch up with her dad

because Sly holds the record for the most

worst actor Razzie's.

There was some good news, though.

Kate Hudson's Oscar nomination for Song-Song Blue this year

earned her the Razzie Redeemer Award,

which is given to someone whose performance has improved,

which kind of makes up for being handed

the worst actress award in 2021 for music.

Kate Hudson isn't the only a-listed to be called out

for a poor performance, though Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock,

Leonardo DiCaprio and even Loris Olivier

have all been panned at one time or another.

Over the years, the Razzie's have developed a cult following

and rather than hide away to lick their wounds,

some of the world's top actors have actually turned up

to collect their gongs, so it seems the great

and the good are not afraid of being made fun of.

If it's only now and again.

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.

Don't forget our sister podcast, The Global Story.

This edition of The Global News Podcast was

mixed by Holly Smith and produced by Stephen Jensen

and Wendy Irkhardt.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Charlotte Gallagher.

Until next time, goodbye.

It's 2009 and we're in the German mountains.

Amanda straps himself into a car on the world's

most dangerous racetrack.

He whispers to himself.

It's time to put my balls on the dashboard.

If he starts the engine.

In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance on conscious.

In 15 years, he's a billionaire.

This is Total Wolf, Formula One's most powerful team boss

and the breakout star of Drive to Survive.

This week on Good Bad Billionaire,

how Total Wolf made his billions.

Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts.