UK and allies discuss reopening Strait of Hormuz

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. 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. As he starts the engine. In 15 minutes, he's in an ambulance, unconscious. In 15 years, he's a billionaire. This is Toto Wolff, Formula One's most powerful team boss and the breakout star of Drive to Survive. This week on Good, Bad, Billionaire, how Toto Wolff made his billions. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:43I'm Valerie Sanderson and at 15 Hours GMT on Thursday 2nd April, these are our main stories. President Macron of France warned that using military action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is unrealistic as Britain hosts a virtual international summit to discuss ways of restoring normal traffic to the vital shipping lane. Israel faces an increased barrage of missiles from Iran. We hear more about the Artemis II moon mission from the celebrity astronaut Tim Peake. Also in this podcast, resurrecting dead celebrities. It's not uncommon for a famous personality, for let's call them the handlers, so to speak, to approach us within a month or two after someone passes away.

1:32And a ship sunk by Admiral Nelson's fleet 200 years ago is discovered in Copenhagen Harbour.

1:44Britain has hosted an online meeting of around 40 countries to consider what can be done to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East, a lane usually busy with ships transporting a fifth of the world's oil. The US did not take part in the meeting. The British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, described Iran's effective closure of the area in response to the war with the US and Israel as reckless. In the last 24 hours, it's estimated five vessels passed through the strait, which is an international shipping route that would normally see 150 vessels a day. There have been over 25 attacks on vessels in the strait, and there are some 20 ,000 trapped seafarers on some 2 ,000 trapped ships.

2:30We have seen Iran hijack an international shipping route to hold the global economy hostage. President Trump says he might end the war without the Strait reopening, and he called on allies who failed to support his military action to fix the problem themselves. In response, President Macron of France said that a military operation to open up the Strait of Hormuz was, in his words, unrealistic. It is unrealistic because it would take an inordinate amount of time and would expose anyone crossing the strait to coastal threats from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who possess significant resources as well as ballistic missiles and a host of other risks.

3:16This can only be done in concert with Iran, so first and foremost there must be a ceasefire and a resumption of negotiations. So was the virtual meeting in London looking for a diplomatic solution? Here's our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette. Yes, and as they do it, we've just heard this political ping pong across the Atlantic. President Trump in his speech last night said, well, it's up to you countries and it's easy to open up the Strait of Hormuz, which it's not. And hence that rebuke from President Macron of France. And you really tell how they're changing their language to President Trump.

3:51He has changed what was a war of choice for the United States into a war of necessity for so many countries, including these 35 or so countries, over 40 now they're saying, who are meeting virtually foreign ministers to discuss how to open the Strait of Hormuz. But the view is, and it's clear in what Sir Keir Starmer said yesterday, that they would look at it militarily. And there is now a report that after this meeting, the military planners will look at it, but only once there is a ceasefire. They don't want to get dragged into a war which would be very costly and very risky. But how do you find ways to open it up?

4:29Well, the strait is open for those countries who are negotiating with Iran. So Indian flag tankers, Pakistani flag tankers, they are getting through. Smaller numbers. I think the Philippines have announced that. The Philippines, yes. So people are going to Iran. And it underlines that only politically can you find a way out. And for the countries who are not siding with Iran in this war or who have been providing bases, etc., they can only wait until the war is over. Hence the frustration with President Trump. He didn't make it clear last night when it will end. And just briefly, what sort of message then do you think is being sent by this meeting?

5:06Well, it's a message to Iran, as Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said, that it's reckless for you to weaponise the Strait of Hormuz. It has to be open. And it's a message to President Trump. We're not going to join your war, but we are going to focus on our national interests and do what we can to open up this strait, which is causing economic shocks the world over. Lise Doucette. In his latest speech, President Trump vowed to bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages, asserting that Tehran's military power had been devastated. Iran's navy is gone. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of them, terrorist regime they led, are now dead.

5:50Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed and their weapons, factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces. Very few of them left. But Iran's military spokesperson, Ibrahim Zovakari has responded, saying the country's armament facilities are hidden and will never be reached by Israeli or American attacks. As we stated before, we declare to the American Zionist enemies, your information about our military capability, power and equipment is incomplete. You know nothing of our vast and strategic capacities. With such assumptions, you will only further increase the depth of the swamp in which you have trapped yourselves.

6:35Our World Affairs correspondent, Jiagol, has more details. Well, we know in the past five weeks, I would say we are entering 50 weeks of the war, a large part of Iranian missile system and also military, military commanders, naval has been damaged or destroyed, severely damaged. But in reality, Iran still has a lot of cheap, hard-to-stop weapons. I mean, using a symmetric war like mines, swarm of speed boats, and also it has a lot of missile cities across the country, has been working on it in the past four decades. It seems, yes, they may be able to, the U.S. and Israeli have been able to destroy the entrance, some of those missile cities.

7:23But we have seen satellite images as shown in a few hours or a few days. They have reopened the gate and they made it operational again. But as I said, yes, this has been damaged. The commander has been killed. But so far, what we have seen, Iran has shown resistance and the commanders, particularly the Revolutionary Guards, which, in fact, they are in charge of the government right now as well. I think we don't hear any message of backing off. It's a message of defiance we are hearing from them. And if the U.S. says its work is done and it leaves the Middle East, I mean, would that leave Iran in a powerful position?

8:03as after all it holds, as we've been hearing, the key shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz? I think Iranian Islamic Republic gains leverage in that region and also its image across the region that we stand up to the major power, the world power, and even for Iranian regime not to lose it is a win. Surviving is a win. And obviously this also might empower those proxies in the region which has been loyally and supported by Iran, like Shia militias in Iraq or Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen. But in the end of the day, Iran also is fragile. The greatest danger for Iranian regime is its own people.

8:43Today, in the midst of this war, they executed a young man who was arrested during the protests just in January. It shows the regime is extremely worried about its own population because the economy is in a dire situation. People believe the economy is crippling. And also in the same time, And many people are worried about their own long-term future. That's why I think the regime is extremely worried about uprising just like the protests we had a couple of months ago. Giagol. Despite Donald Trump's assertion that the war will be over soon, the US president made no mention of whether Israel would also be willing to end the fighting.

9:24Israel faced an increased barrage of missiles from Iran on Wednesday night as the country began to mark the start of the Jewish holiday, Passover. Our Middle East correspondent, Yolai Nell, is in Jerusalem. The Israeli Prime Minister, when he's given interviews this week, when he's given an address, he's been very careful not to contradict President Trump, especially on this sensitive issue of timelines. He knows the war is very unpopular with the US public. That said, you do detect in the media here some concern that public pressure could force the US basically to kind of leave this war sooner than Israel would like without a clear strategy, without really dealing a lasting blow to the Iranian regime.

10:05Because although this war has really severely damaged Iran's military capabilities, it has not destroyed the regime. Some commentators saying it's actually radicalised it. And given time, there is the prediction that they will try to rebuild, that they'll continue to pose a threat to Israel. Does Israel and the US, do they have different objectives regarding this war? I think the biggest difference between the two is the way in which, you know, Iran is seen here as being a real immediate threat, even an existential threat is how the Prime Minister puts it. And that is why the war, despite all the disruption to daily life, you know, we had four Iranian rocket salvos in just a few hours since the early hours of the morning, children among the latest casualties, you know, people here see Iran as being a real threat.

10:50And from Israel's point of view. It wants to end Iranian support for proxies. It wants to deal with Iran's nuclear program and its ballistic missile program. And, you know, there is concern without some sort of comprehensive ceasefire agreement that even if the US, you know, leaves the war or declares it to be over quite soon, the Israelis will still have to kind of over time keep dealing with what they see as threats from Iran, reacting to those, taking preemptive action. And they've also been hinting Israeli officials at new alliances with Gulf Arab states, because they will see a common threat from Iran after all this happened in the past four weeks.

11:26So is it your sense the Israeli public are happy for this war to continue as long as it takes? What the polls are suggesting is that, you know, public support for the war is not as high as it was at the beginning, when there was this very sort of dramatic killing of the of the supreme leader and military targets hit. And it It was very apparent there was this careful coordination between Israel and the US. Polls this week are suggesting that there's a growing percentage of Israelis who think that the war will not effectively deal with those threats from Iran that I mentioned. And people are really divided about whether the war should go on for long enough to try to bring down the regime or whether there should be a sort of, you know, ceasefire after maximum damage or just to have a ceasefire as soon as possible.

12:09Yuland Nell. NASA's latest mission to the moon has gone to plan. The astronauts involved in the Artemis II are now in orbit around the Earth, waiting to slingshot off to the lunar body. So far, so good. One man who knows what being in space feels like is retired British astronaut Tim Peake. From 2015 to 2016, he spent 186 days on board the International Space Station and even completed an almost five-hour-long spacewalk there. He's co-presenter of the BBC podcast 13 Minutes Presents Artemis II. So what did he think of the launch? That was phenomenal to see SLS lift off the launch pad. We had a, you know, a flawless launch, incredible to see and to hear the commander's comments on the way up, you know, when that launch abort system was jettisoned and they got the first view outside the Orion capsule and then just a few moments later saw the moon rising over the Earth.

13:04And to think that you're riding that huge rocket into space, actually pointing at the destination. It must have been incredible for the crew. They went straight into what we call a low Earth orbit. That's similar to the orbit that the International Space Station's in, just a few hundred kilometres away from Earth. And then they had to do this thing called an apogee rays burn. And that burn sends it on a highly elliptical orbit a long way from Earth. So they're currently almost at the furthest part of that orbit. And they're about 44 ,000 miles away. And that's about 70 ,000 kilometres. and they're going to start falling back towards Earth.

13:38But if they were to look out their windows right now, Earth would be about the same size of a basketball if you held it at arm's length. So they're actually a really long way from Earth right now. And then they kind of come back in. And during this time, they've detached from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage. That was part of the rocket that took them up into space. And they used it to try and manoeuvre around it to kind of practice actually flying the spacecraft, that would have been Victor Glover with the hands on the controls. If all is well and they then head off to the moon, just talk us through the mission and the key points that we should be looking out for.

14:18Yeah, so the next really big moment will be in the UK around midnight tonight where they'll do a translunar injection burn. Now this is the burn, once they've fallen back towards Earth, that is going to start to really accelerate that spacecraft and send them on a trajectory that is going to allow them to actually escape Earth's gravity. That's about a three to four day mission that will take them out towards the moon and then they'll get pulled in towards the moon's gravity and slingshot around the moon. So a really spectacular event is going to be in about four days time where they pass behind the moon and they're going to get to see parts of the moon that no human eyes have ever set on before.

14:59They'll take amazing photographs of that. So we look forward to seeing those images. Until they do that translunar injection tonight, they're not going to the moon. And for people trying to get a handle on this particular mission and where it fits into the longer term goals, what would you say? What should we be looking out for? What are the key objectives? They're testing out, you know, the mundane stuff like does the loo work? Does the water dispenser work? Can we warm our food up? And this is part of the entire Artemis program. We're just at the very beginning of this Artemis program. We've had the uncrewed launch now, the first crewed launch.

15:40Artemis 3 will be testing out the landing system, the lunar landing system in low Earth orbit, ahead of Artemis 4, which could be as soon as 2028, which has put humans back on the surface of the Moon again, to actually build a lunar research facility at the south pole of the Moon. So in 10, 15 years, you know, we might see astronauts going off to that lunar research base to live there for maybe six months, a year at a time, just like we see on the International Space Station right now. Tim Peake. And we'll have more on this in our YouTube channel. Just search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section.

16:17There's a news story available every weekday. Still to come in this podcast, a blind man explains how he'll run a marathon wearing smart specs, which use volunteers watching on screens to guide him. As I say, hey Meta, call be my eyes. Within about, what, 30 seconds, I will get a complete stranger. From around the world, they said there's a bin or parked car or person.

17:07year read watch and listen to trusted independent journalism and storytelling it all starts with a subscription to bbc.com and the bbc app find out more at bbc.com slash unlimited

17:23from shows featuring a hologram elvis to judy garland narrating audiobooks a growing industry is emerging around the legacies of celebrities after their deaths but there's a fierce debate over the ethics of digitally reviving stars, as the BBC's Sean Alsop reports. You should go in that other door because there's a little sign in. I'm in a secret location where they're preparing a show for one of the biggest stars the world has ever seen. It's very dark, so keep them on your step. I hope I can see no particular way. It's a dark warehouse. There are many technicians around working away. And then a giant screen lights up.

18:01Oh, so everyone needs to come up. It's Elvis Presley, in a way you have never experienced him in a brand new show. But how is this possible? Elvis isn't in the building. In fact, he's dead. But that's not stopping him and others still bringing in millions after death. Firstly, what exactly are estates? In short, an estate refers to the people, usually family members, who inherit control over a celebrity's work after they pass away. They manage the legal rights and finances tied to the artist's legacy. Every October, Forbes magazine publishes a list of the highest earning dead celebrities. In 2024, the top five earned over a billion dollars, with Michael Jackson topping the list, followed by Freddie Mercury, Dr.

18:56Seuss, and in fourth place, Elvis. My name's Mark Rossler. I'm the chairman, CEO and founder of CMG Worldwide. We're in our 45th year. My first client was the Elvis Presley Estate in 1981. Estates usually work with managing companies, people like Mark Rossler. It's not uncommon for a famous personality, for let's call them the handlers, so to speak, to approach us within a month or two after someone passes away. The speed of new technology means another opportunity has arisen. And estates are now asking, should we resurrect these dead celebrities? But I wanted to see myself something new being made with a star of old.

19:42So are we OK to just have a little wand? Yeah, of course. We can just walk anywhere you want. I'm back at the Elvis show rehearsals in London in the UK with its director, Jack Pirrie. It's called Elvis Evolution and it's an immersive experience being created to tell the story of Elvis. In some sequences you are physically walking through an environment, in others you're seated, and in this sequence you'll be seated. So this will happen in 360 around you as you're seated and you experience Sun Records and 1950s Memphis. It's a murky world. On one hand, we're preserving the legacies of those we love in exciting new ways.

20:18On the other, we might be crossing a line into something that's exploitive. But as technology continues to evolve, we'll face more decisions over what we choose to buy from those in the past. Sean Alsop. More than 200 years ago, the British Navy, under Admiral Horatio Nelson, fought a battle with Denmark in the harbour of Copenhagen. Now, one of the warships sunk by Nelson in that battle has been discovered on the seabed of the harbour, and there's a race on to unearth it. One of the divers is marine archaeologist Marie Johnson. It's very well known from the historical sources and described in detail how the ship was built and how it was rigged and all the armaments and how much gunpowder and firewood there was on board.

21:04But there was no real archaeological material from this kind of environment before. So we can learn a lot more about the people involved instead of the ships and the armaments. Our global affairs reporter, Anbarasan Ethirajan, told me more. Danish marine archaeologists are very excited about this finding. It's very close to the Danish coast, about 500 metres from the harbour. I was talking with Martin Johansson, one of the archaeologists earlier, And they say, you know, even though they have been hearing about the ship Denebruhe, which was blocking the harbour when Hiroshi Nelson and the British fleet, very powerful fleet, they were trying to enter.

21:45So it took a lot of fire and it exploded and sank. People knew the rough area where it was because it was some of the parts were sticking out. And then over a period of time, most of it like disappeared. Now they found it. The reason why they wanted to know what really happened, and also it is part of their national consciousness, like it is history, part of the history. And Denmark had a very vibrant and very traditional history of navigation and shipping. And this is the peak achievement, like building this huge ship. And that's why it is part of, you know, Denmark's what's called curriculum.

22:25And they were talking about it. So now they've found it, what they say, they've found the ballast and then the wooden parts and some of the items like shoes and... I see they found somebody's jaw. Yes, jaw and items and some of the cookery items. So they found all these vessels and stuff. And so that's why they think it is an important find. And what they say is at the moment, they're not going to bring it up immediately. So they want to see what else is there and then see whether they can bring some of those items, whether they put it in the museum or elsewhere. But for them, it has revived the memory about this Danabruha.

23:05It's a race against time, isn't it, though, because there are plans, aren't there, to brick over that part of the harbour? What they are trying to do is to build a housing district around this area, even part of this harbour. So they wanted to identify this area where they protect this area so that it doesn't get swallowed up because of this huge expansion where they think it will take 20, 30 years to build this entire district. That's the main reason why. And then he was also talking about how difficult it was to find this. It is really pitch dark and the water current and there was fully muddy water.

23:45So it took a lot of time for them. For the last one year, they've been working on that. So they want to build kind of a barrier so that they can protect this area. They can showcase this for the future generation, what they have found. And Barisan Edharajan. Running a marathon when you're blind is a challenge that some have overcome by attaching themselves with a cord to a sighted runner. But now one man is going to attempt the feat on his own. Clark Reynolds, a braille artist known professionally as Mr Dot, is going to rely on smart specs that allow volunteers watching on screens to be his guide on the route.

24:21Nick Robinson asked him how it works. It's amazing. The technology for the past couple of years of the blind community, as we take a leap and bounce, obviously, the rocket launch today, is literally changing our lives. We're pushing the boundaries of what vision impairment is through technology. And the app is more of a human story. It's not just AI. AI is the glasses that allow the app to be a platform. But it's more of a human story. So it's real people. Take us back to the fundamentals, if you would. You put on a pair of glasses with cameras built in, and those cameras are fed online. So what are you hearing in your ears?

25:00And who is it that's talking to you? It's complete strangers. So I say the magic words. I say, hey, Meta, call me my eyes. And within about, what, 30 seconds, I would get a complete stranger. I have no idea who they are from around the world, literally. And they have a bit of discussion. I say what I'm about to do. And they said, oh, yeah, please, we'll be on board. And for five minutes, we talk and they say if there's a bin or a parked car or a person. And the majority of the time, it is about a conversation about what is so close. Just to really get it down to nuts and bolts, they're monitoring the image through the camera on your glasses and they can see an obstacle.

25:38What? And say, you know, swerve to the left, go to the right. Yeah, it's like when you have those Peloton bikes and you've got someone guiding you on a video screen. They say, oh, yeah, let's go with me, go with me. It's like that. It's just that I'm the Peloton and they're the virtual reality. And I always say, I'm getting your steps in for you today. So they're not only being your eyes, they're also being cheerleaders as well. They're supporting you. Yes, so much. What I've found out the last 10 months doing this is the human stories. It's the connections. And it's a different lingo. If I've got something from up north, if they say a bin, they say it's a wheelie bin.

26:14If I've got something from America, they say it's a garbage bin. And that's great, isn't it? Clark Reynolds. And that's it 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 Global News Pod. And don't forget 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 Abbey Wiltshire. The producer was Charles Sanctuary. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye-bye. Thank you.