US pauses operation to reopen Strait of Hormuz

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1:29This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankur Desai and in the early hours of Wednesday the 6th of May, these are our main stories. President Trump is pausing efforts to help ships get through the Strait of Hormuz amid what he called great progress towards a peace agreement with Iran. President Zelensky has condemned the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine, which left more than 20 people dead. Spain says it let a cruise ship hit by an outbreak of Hantavirus travel to the Canary Islands following a request from the World Health Organization. Also coming up in this podcast, a US state takes action against the practice of charging people for products based on their personal data.

2:17Today, Maryland becomes the first state in the country to ban price manipulation in supermarkets and grocery stores all across the state of Maryland. We'll explain how surveillance pricing works and why it's controversial.

2:37Let's start with the latest on the situation in and around the Persian Gulf. President Trump's announced that he's halting the U.S. military operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Writing on True Social, Mr. Trump said so-called Project Freedom would be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not an agreement with the Iranians could be finalized and signed. Speaking beforehand at the Oval Office, he insisted the U.S. still had the upper hand. Iran wants to make a deal. They play games, but let me just tell you, they want to make a deal. And who wouldn't? When your military is totally gone, we could do anything we want to them.

3:20Who wouldn't? However, the Iranian Speaker of Parliament said on Tuesday that the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz was intolerable for the US and warned that Iran hadn't even started yet. For more assessment on the current state of the conflict, I spoke to our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher. What we've been hearing from the US is an effort to reframe the conflict. So to say that this is no longer an offensive conflict with Iran, it's now defensive. With that is still, of course, the threat of the big stick militarily that America carries behind all this. And the same story, essentially, of the Americans saying to the Iranians, look, you're just bluffing.

4:10You've got nothing here. Come to the table, accept the conditions, wave the white flag was what President Trump said today. But it doesn't seem the Iranians are willing to give up. They haven't seemed to have shown any signs of that throughout this conflict. and they're quite aggressive with their tone. They talk about the fact that they're just getting started whilst the Americans are talking about the fact that they have control of the strait. Who's right? Who is bluffing? Because it feels like a bluff after a double bluff all the time. You don't know. I mean, it's still a game of bluff where the cards haven't been called in yet completely.

4:40They could both be making serious miscalculations about the hands that they hold. The Iranians believe this is a game at the moment where hunkering down is what matters most and that's what they're good at. They can hunker down, they think, for as long as is necessary. They can take the economic, they can take the military beating, and that they'll see the Americans off by doing so. President Trump is losing patience over this process. He's not in it for the long kind of economic attritional war. That's where America is weakest. But if the Americans were able to remove this absolute key card that they have, which is control of Australia for moves, then that would radically alter the equilibrium between the two sides and it would suddenly put Iran much more exposed.

5:24I also think the Iranian leadership, I mean, in a sense, war is not their worst outcome. As long as the war goes on, they don't have to face up, you know, the really serious economic, social issues that they have with their own people. I think there's going to be a reckoning if this is over. And in many ways, this leadership, which is now essentially a military leadership, is more comfortable with this. Sebastian Usher reporting. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused the most severe energy crisis in decades. Much of the impact has been felt in the Asia-Pacific region, which is heavily reliant on oil supplies from the Gulf.

6:00Thailand has today approved a$12 billion emergency borrowing package, while Australia has announced it will establish a 1 billion litre national fuel stockpile. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Arangchi is set to visit Beijing on Wednesday for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. It's seen as a sign that China may play a role in any U.S. deal with Iran. The meeting comes just a week before a highly anticipated summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping. The U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that he wants China to be firm with Iran. I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told, and that is that what you are doing in the Straits is causing you to be globally isolated.

6:44You're the bad guy in this. You guys should not be blowing up ships. You should not be putting mines. You should not be trying to hold hostage to the global economy. I hope the Chinese bring, whether it's done privately, but I hope it's done directly, that that's the message they deliver to them. China is an export-driven economy. That means they depend on other countries to buy from them. Well, you can't buy from them if you can't ship it there, and you can't buy from them if your economy is being destroyed by what Iran is doing. Our correspondent in Beijing, Stephen MacDonald, told me more. It's very interesting.

7:13We're waiting for the readout to come because they've already started having their meeting or meetings. And the readout, of course, will give us the various government's perspectives on the meeting or at least what they publicly can say about it. But the fascinating thing is why do it face-to-face? Wang Yi and Abbas Arangqi have already spoken several times on the phone since the war started. So why has Iran's foreign minister come here now for this face-to-face meeting? Most observers would say it can't be a coincidence that it's the week before Donald Trump arrives in Beijing. So it could be that the Chinese government wants to be able to present itself to Donald Trump and his administration as a good actor in this, and that Beijing can say, look, we're trying to bring about a negotiated solution.

8:03We heard Marco Rubio saying that what the US wants China to do is essentially read the Riot Act to Iran and say, you're isolated because you're blocking the Strait of Hormuz. China isn't going to do that because although the Chinese government wants that strait unblocked, it doesn't blame Iran for it. The Chinese government says all parties need to sit down and discuss this, including those who started the war, namely the US and Israel. I think it's just showing that this is laying the groundwork for these discussions next week between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. I mean, we had Scott Besant from the Trump administration also saying that this is going to be high up on the agenda.

8:47Beijing does see itself now as something of a broker at times. For example, when it did a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, bringing those former enemies together. and of course like everyone else the Chinese economy is being hit by the war so I think it all points to China encouraging Iran to be part of the negotiations now of course the problem is that getting both sides to agree but from a Chinese perspective talking is better than shooting and that's what they'd be hoping will come of these discussions. Stephen McDonnell reporting from Beijing. Four weeks ago, on the 8th of April, Israel launched a wave of strikes against Lebanon, hitting 100 targets in 10 minutes.

9:33Lebanese authorities say that more than 300 people, among them children, were killed on what has become known as Black Wednesday. Israel says it was targeting Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia backed by Iran, which has launched multiple attacks against Israel. The BBC's senior investigations correspondent, Nawal Al-Maghafi, has been piecing together what happened on one of Lebanon's deadliest days in many years. In Hayyassalam, a neighbourhood in Dakhia where Hezbollah holds sway in Beirut's southern suburbs, the debris is overwhelming. Huge blocks of concrete and twisted metal are piled several stories high.

10:18Excavators are parked nearby. The people here are still picking up the pieces. Be careful with the wires. They might have electricity. Mohamed Khairuddin is showing me what's left of his home. The staircase leading to his third floor apartment is only just accessible. One side of the building has completely fallen away. Three floors collapsed down onto his apartment, killing his son, Abbas. This is the second home I have lost. I wish it was just my home and that my son survived. This brick can be rebuilt, but nothing will bring my son back. Following the death of his son, Mohamed expressed his sympathies for Hezbollah, asking it to defend Lebanon in an interview with local media.

11:09That's a sentiment echoed by many people we spoke to in areas that have been consistently attacked by Israel. This is a poor, very densely populated neighbourhood. I mean, you can see how close all these buildings are to each other. And it's also the site of the highest number of fatalities in that 10 minutes that rocked Lebanon. At least 80 people died here in this neighbourhood alone. From Hermal in the north, across the Bekaa Valley, to further south in cities like Sidon, a hundred bombs fell across Lebanon in just 10 minutes on April 8th. Kurnish al-Mazra 'a is one of Beirut's busiest arteries.

11:56Noha owns a gym here, and she's coming back for the first time. Insha 'Allah, everything will be fixed. Just like everyone else in Kurnish al-Mazra 'ah, Nuhar never expected this area to be hit. She recorded the chaos that followed on her phone.

12:18Our analysis of social media videos shows that an Israeli strike hit the top floor of a neighboring apartment block. Then, moments later, two bombs hit a warehouse directly behind Nuhar's building, causing a huge explosion and extensive damage to the surrounding area. The Israeli military say it was targeting Hezbollah command centres and military infrastructure that day, but it didn't specify who or what the target was in Kurnesh al-Mazra 'ah. When asked what steps were taken to protect civilians, it said it made extensive efforts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals. I asked Noha what she thinks was the target near her gym.

13:02The target was civilians. Certainly a civilian target. Who died, who was injured and who was hurt? We were. Me and my friends and my neighbours. 16 people were killed in Kournish al-Mazra 'ah. Why can't we live a life like the rest of the world? Why? Because Lebanon is beautiful and they want it. They don't have a right to it. Lebanon is beautiful and it is ours. They cannot strike it because they want it. Israel said it killed 250 Hezbollah operatives in the attack. Lebanon's health ministry disputes this. It told us that the majority of the 361 people killed that day were civilians. 100 bombs in 10 minutes.

13:50It was one of Lebanon's deadliest days in decades. That report from Nawal al-Maghafi. A truce declared by Ukraine in the war with Russia has officially begun, but in the hours leading up to it, at least 22 people were killed in Russian strikes across three Ukrainian cities. The temporary halt in hostilities is designed to mirror a separate Russian ceasefire due to begin on Friday, ahead of the annual commemoration of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. Vitaly Shevchenko, our chief analyst at BBC Monitoring, told me more about these strikes. They were pretty bad. It was an evening of relentless strikes across Ukraine, targeting key regional centres.

14:40And Vladimir Zelensky, he issued a statement calling the glide bomb strike on Zaporizhia a terrorist strike. That's the wording he used. and he said it was devoid of military sense. Now there are effectively two ceasefires happening simultaneously. What do Russia and Ukraine, I guess, respectively get out of it? For Russia, the main objective is being able to hold this crucial victory day parade on Red Square on Saturday. After Vladimir Zelenskyy hinted or threatened that he could dispatch drones to Moscow on the day and disrupt the parade, the military in Russia said that if you do that, we will hit central Kiev pretty badly.

15:29So that event is absolutely crucial for Russia's state ideology. Vladimir Putin really does not want it to be disrupted. Now, for Ukraine, for Volodymyr Zelensky, announcing a rival ceasefire, if you like, is a way of taking the initiative from Russia and removing the pressure to either follow Russia's suit and essentially accept Russia's conditions or look uncooperative and unwilling to compromise. So what Ukraine said, we don't need a ceasefire that lasts mere couple of days. We want an open-ended ceasefire and let's see what happens. But I would be really surprised if Russia followed Volodymyr Zelensky's suit and stopped attacking Ukraine.

16:28Now, with this aggression, I guess, is this likely to have any impact on long-term efforts to end the war? It's nothing new, really. All it does is highlight how much hatred, how much distrust there is between Russia and Ukraine. Of course, for different reasons, both Russia and Ukraine are willing and able to continue fighting. What Russia showed by carrying out these massive strikes across Ukraine is that it's completely and utterly determined to continue attacking key cities across Ukraine, regardless of how many civilians die. Russia is as relentless as it was. And that leaves Volodymyr Zelensky in the pretty tricky situation.

17:20He wants to look willing to compromise and find a way of halting, if not ceasing hostilities. But when scores of people die, of course, he will be thinking, OK, what's in it for me? We need to respond. Our chief analyst at BBC Monitoring, Vitaly Shevchenko. Still to come in this podcast, have you heard of the WhatsApp whistling craze?

17:56We will reveal all.

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19:52This is the Global News Podcast. The stricken cruise ship on which three people have died of Hantavirus is to set sail for the Canary Islands, where everyone on board will be medically examined and cared for before being transferred home to their own countries. The Spanish government says it has a moral and legal obligation to help. The vessel is currently anchored off the coast of Cape Verde in West Africa and hasn't been allowed into port. Specialist planes are being sent to Cape Verde to evacuate three people from on board the ship. Two of them are said to require urgent medical care. The BBC managed to get through to one passenger on board, a Jordanian travel vlogger called Kasem Hato.

20:38One of our producers read out what he told us. The situation on the ship has been very calm. People are taking the situation seriously but without any panic, trying to keep social distancing and wearing masks to be safe. The leadership and captain on the ship are keeping us informed whenever they have new information. We are not obliged to do anything but we're trying to follow the recommendations we received of limiting close contact with other passengers and sanitising our hands as much as possible. Our days have been close to normal just waiting for authorities to find a solution but morale on the ship is high and we're keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies having hot drinks and that kind of thing.

21:18While it was really unfortunate losing some of our colleagues in this journey, from my point of view being on the ship, this story has been blown out of proportion. The situation is still unclear and we have to wait for more information to draw conclusions. Our hearts are with those who passed away and their families and we wish a speedy recovery to the sick people on board. The World Health Organization says it is continuing work to identified the strain and now believe it's possible the virus is spreading human to human. Our Southern Africa correspondent Pumza Filani has been following developments.

21:52Scientists in South Africa are leading efforts to help identify the strain of Hanta virus which has hit passengers on the MV Hondias. The WHO has told us that it is now considering the possibility of human to human infection, which is rare, between passengers who've been in close contact on the ship. Tariq Yashagovic of the WHO explains. We are doing sequencing of the virus to understand better what hantavirus we are really dealing with here because hantavirus is a group of viruses and some of them, those who are circulating in South America, can really produce a severe cardiopulmonary syndrome that can lead to fatal outcomes.

22:37The WHO has also said it was trying to trace passengers who were on board a flight from St Helena to Johannesburg on the 25th of April, who may have come into close contact with a Dutch woman who later died in hospital here in South Africa. She's the wife of the first passenger who died on the ship in early April. She'd traveled to South Africa to receive his remains and travel back home to the Netherlands when she became ill on arrival at the airport, officials told the BBC. Our Southern Africa correspondent, Bumza Filani reporting. Now imagine going into a grocery store and paying two dollars for a bottle of milk, but the person before you paid less or maybe more.

23:20It might sound unfair, but it's a real practice known as surveillance pricing, where prices are set based on personal data, such as someone's household size or shopping habits. Now Maryland has become the first US state to ban this form of pricing in grocery stores and some other businesses. Here's the BBC's Ira Khan. Surveillance pricing is a form of dynamic pricing, like when airlines, hotels, taxi companies, they adjust their prices because of demand, time of day or weather. But the way that it's different is that it's a practice of when a company sets the price of a product based on the personal data of that particular consumer.

23:59That data can be the way the customer shops, their location, their household size. Even though companies have always been free to set prices based on their own costs and on markets, surveillance pricing is all about charging the maximum price that a particular individual might be willing to pay. And by charging customers this maximum price, they're able to make huge profits. So the governor of the state of Maryland has signed into law the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act. This is what he said at the signing. Today, Maryland becomes the first state in the country to ban price manipulation in supermarkets and grocery stores all across the state of Maryland.

24:41Because people deserve to know that the prices on the shelf is actually the price they're going to pay for when they get to the check account. People deserve to know that the price that they pay is not different from the customer who walked in just before them. And today, Maryland is putting an end to any forms of price manipulation. So under this new law, grocery retailers in Maryland will be prohibited from using surveillance data to set individual prices. The law also requires that prices will be fixed for at least one business day. And what that does is limits a grocery store to change its prices minute by minute, sort of depending on who's buying the item.

25:18It applies to physical supermarkets as well as online delivery platforms. But critics have pointed out that there are certain loopholes. For example, the law only applies to grocery stores and certain online delivery platforms, even though they've been documented examples of stores selling clothing, beauty products and home goods, also using surveillance pricing. Ira Khan reporting. Now here's a question. When did you last walk past a Gap store? You might not even have noticed it, but there was a time when Gap was one of the coolest places to shop for clothes. It was built by two people, Don and Doris Fisher.

25:55And it started, as the best ideas often do, with a moment of frustration. Don couldn't find a pair of jeans that fit, so they opened a store. Now that was in San Francisco back in 1969. Doris came up with the name Gap, a nod to the Generation Gap and the young shoppers they wanted to reach. She died on Saturday, aged 94. From that one store, they built a business with three and a half thousand outlets worldwide and brands you still know today, Banana Republic and Old Navy. Here's what Gap sounded like in the 70s. We've got one tonne of Levi's just for girls. At the Gap, now fall into the gap. It's the latest, greatest selection in the world.

26:42At the Gap, now fall into the gap. Catherine Shuttleworth is one of the UK's leading retail marketing experts. My colleague Sam Fenwick spoke to her about the legacy left behind by the founder of Gap. This was an unbelievably successful business, a husband and wife business. And she was the merchandiser in the business. So that meant she was responsible for the way things looked, the way things appeared. And importantly for Gap as well, the sort of ethical approach they took to producing goods and how they looked after their staff. So, I mean, without Doris, the business would never have been as successful as it was.

27:18And when we look back and you talk about the scale of it, I mean, three and a half thousand stores across the world, nobody has that anymore, do they? They essentially sort of invented a template, don't you think? Kind of affordable, aspirational, democratic fashion that everybody wanted to wear. Exactly. And I think probably a lot of younger people would think, well, haven't retailers always been like that? Not at all. I mean, it didn't used to be democratic at all. A lot of clothing shops were quite snooty. Things were behind counters. And they brought this whole thing to life and brought it into the modern day.