Global News Podcast - Trump briefed on new military options for Iran

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

One report says the US may deploy a hypersonic missile in the Middle East for the first time, as part of efforts to put pressure on Iran to reach a deal. This comes as a deadline passed for Donald Trump to secure authorisation from the US Congress to continue the war against Iran. US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, argues President Trump does not have to comply with the War Powers Resolution because the cease-ire agreement reached with Iran paused the clock on any such obligation. Also: head of one of the world's biggest fertiliser manufacturers warns the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz could cost the world up to 10 billion meals a week. Russia deploys nearly 800 emergency workers in the Black Sea port of Tuapse, after it was hit by Ukrainian strikes for the fourth time in two weeks. Danish study suggests weight-loss drugs could help people with alcohol problems cut down on harmful drinking. New footage of security breach outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner shows the moment the gunman bursts through a checkpoint on the floor above the ballroom where President Trump and others were dining. Hundreds of protesters take to the streets of South Africa in a wave of anti-migrant demonstrations. British couple, Lindsay and Craig Foreman, speak to their family from inside Iran's notorious Evin prison. And researchers map the nose of a mouse for the first time, detailing the position of more than 1,000 smell receptors. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 15 hours GMT on Friday the 1st of May. The deadline has passed for the Trump administration to get approval for the war on Iran, even as the president is briefed on new military options. Ukraine hits oil facilities in a Russian Black Sea port for the fourth time in two weeks. And one of the world's largest manufacturers of fertilizer warns of serious. serious disruption to food supplies. Also in the podcast...

Anything could happen really within the prison without the... outside the prison. I just feel as if we are wasting our lives in here and rotting away to a degree. We hear from a British couple detained in Iran. According to US law, President Trump must get congressional approval for any military action longer than 60 days. The war on Iran began 62 days ago. But Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says it's currently on hold because of the ceasefire,

so there's no need to go to Congress. Democrats and some Republicans disagree, while Iran says the US blockade breaches the truce anyway. At the same time, there are reports that the President has been briefed about options for new strikes on Iran and that the US military may deploy a hypersonic missile called Dark Eagle for the first time. I asked our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, whether this was all an attempt to put pressure on Iran or if the ceasefire was genuinely threatened.

I think the ceasefire is always under threat because, you know, you've got two sides, both maintaining a kind of ceasefire, but continuing the conflict through these competing blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, with always the possibility that one side will lose patience and decide to revert to overt hostilities. It's not surprising that we hear, you know,

talk from the United States of military planning, of the deployment of new and devastating weaponry, such as the one you just mentioned. And I think it all points to frustration, certainly a frustration in the White House, that the blockade has yet to bring Iran to its knees. I think there is a calculation going on at the Pentagon about how long it can maintain the military pressure. It's got three carrier strike groups in the broader region at the moment. How long can you? How long can those remain on station before decisions have to be taken about bringing them home? And all of these sorts of things are constantly going through the minds of those planners in Washington. And that's why I think we do hear from time to time these reports that the United States

might simply return to some kind of military action in an effort to force the pace. President Trump says he has already won, but just wants to win by a bigger margin. how much pressure is the Iranian regime under at the moment? It's under enormous pressure and it is mounting pressure. The blockade that the US Navy has imposed has certainly increased the economic pain being felt by the Iranian regime. There is talk about the point at which the blockade will force Iran to reduce its oil production. That is going to cause hardship.

It's felt possibly in the next couple of weeks. some of the workarounds that the Iranians are using, increasing their trade with Russia across the Caspian Sea, exporting oil to China via rail, all of these things can help to kind of ease the pressure somewhat, but are no substitutes for the proper functioning of the Strait of Hormuz. And so, you know, clearly Washington's hope is that this will ultimately bring Iran to its knees. I think a lot of Iran watchers say that simply doesn't really show an understanding of the kind of of pressure that Iran is willing to put itself through. And of course, this is a regime which just a few months ago killed tens of thousands of its own citizens. Does it really mind if ordinary

Iranians feel a bit more economic pressure? Probably not. So the question is, who blinks first? And briefly, will the passing of the 60-day War Powers Act deadline make any difference? There's a legal debate going on in Washington about this. You heard Pete Hegeseth saying the administration's understanding was that the clock stopped when the ceasefire came into effect some weeks ago. That is not the view of legal scholars. And I think it is clear that some Republicans who have so far stuck with the administration may reconsider it at the point at which they feel that the administration has gone beyond what the war power, the 1973 war powers resolution allows for. That remains an ongoing debate in Washington. Paul Adams. And there's more from Paul

about the likely direction of the conflict in Iran on the BBC News YouTube channel. You'll find us in the podcast section there. The war in Iran has already caused huge disruption in world energy markets, with the price of oil hitting a four-year high this week. Now there's a warning about how the conflict could harm global food supplies. The assessment has come from the boss of Yara, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of fertilizers. Svein Holsetter has been talking to our business editor, Simon Jack. Fertilizer is not just any other commodity. It's responsible for half of the food production in the world.

And given the importance of the strait of hormones for fertilizer exports, it has huge consequences for every day that passes. And right now it's not only a matter of not getting product out. It's also a matter of not being able to produce in that part of the world as well. And it's very difficult to put exact numbers. No one has full overview of that, but if I try to estimate, it could be that we're up to about half a million tons of nitrogen fertilizer not being produced in the world right now because of the situation that we're in. And if I try to translate that into, okay, so what does that mean for food production? And again, using some standard calculations on that, I would get up to 10 billion meals that will not be produced every week as a result of lack of fertilizer.

And are there any particular areas in the world where this is more urgent? Is it Europe? Is it Asia? Is it Africa? Where are the hotspots? It will have the biggest impact where there's the least fertilizer application already. And what I mean by that, the soil conditions in Europe are such that you can reduce somewhat in Europe with not that big consequences on the crop yields.

Now, if we move to Africa, Africa is under fertilising. So you're not replacing the nutrients in the soil. And when you then reduce just slightly on fertilizer replication, it will have a much bigger impact on the crop yields. As we see this scarcity of fertiliser supply, which has a direct impact on food production, could you see us in a bidding war for fertilizer and in fact a bidding war for food?

And that would be a very dramatic situation if there's a bidding war on food and one that Europe is robust enough to handle. But what we need to keep in mind in Europe is, okay, in that situation, who are we buying the food away from? And that is, again, a situation where the most vulnerable people pay the highest price for this in developing nations where they cannot afford to follow that. And that leads to food affordability, food scarcity and hunger. and that's why it's important that we do our part in Europe right now

and grow as much food as we possibly can. So in Holsetter, talking to Simon Jack. Russia has deployed nearly 800 emergency workers in the Black Sea port town of Tuapse after it was hit by Ukrainian strikes for the fourth time in two weeks. Ukraine is targeting the port's energy infrastructure to try to prevent Russia benefiting from the high oil prices. Jessica Parker in Kiev told me more about Ukraine. tactics. Ukraine is clearly trying to hit the Kremlin's pocket here. They have been intensifying

hits on Russian oil interests, using particularly this evolution in drone technology, being able to reach inside Russian territory. And as you mentioned there, the port city of Tuapse, now reportedly experiencing its fourth hit, this time on the seaport. And hits on the refinery earlier in the week, there were residents reporting seeing black rain in the city. oil spills. And from Ukraine's perspective, they say, look, Russia targets our energy infrastructure and the money that is being made out of Russian oil exports is being used to finance the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which of course the full-scale invasion began back in 2022, now into its fifth year. Moscow, though, has accused Keeve of destabilizing energy markets. We're just

obviously hearing what's been happening in the Middle East and has accused the West as well of ignoring the environmental cost that's been resulting from these strikes. But Ukraine certainly managing to make a number of successful strikes, it seems, over the past couple of weeks as part of this intensified campaign. Yeah, how damaging is this to Russia's war effort amid suggestions that some people there are beginning to wonder how long this conflict is going to go on? Yeah, I mean, it has gone on a long time now. And in terms of how damaging, obviously, it's difficult to say for sure exactly what this is costing Russia. or indeed costing the Kremlin.

Ukrainian estimates are putting it at billions and billions of dollars in terms of the amount of cost that these strikes are having. But then there is also that matter you're referring to of morale in Russia. Ukraine must have that on its mind as well. And it's interesting there's the upcoming Victory Day parade in Moscow on the 9th of May, which of course commemorates Russia's role in defeating Nazi Germany towards the end of World War II. it's going to be scaled back this year because of what the Kremlin calls a terrorist threat from Ukraine.

So there is this sense, I suppose, of the war coming home to Russia, even though, of course, the actual fighting between troops is going on largely in, of course, eastern Ukraine, where the war keeps raging. Jessica Parker in Kiev, weight-loss drugs could help people with alcohol problems cut down on harmful drinking, according to a new Danish study. Published in the Lancet, it looked at the impact of semi-glutide on patients with alcohol abuse disorder.

The study was led by Professor Anders Fink Jensen of Fredericksburg Hospital and the University of Copenhagen. We had a randomized controlled trial where every patient's involved had to have a BMI of 30 or higher and diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder. And all of these patients over six months' time period got psychotherapy. And on top of that, they got either placebo or we go in a semi-glutide weekly. What we find was quite potent effect, a reduction in number of heavy drinking days, total alcohol

consumption, craving and so on. So why do you think those taking these drugs were drinking less? With this compound, we haven't investigated. We have looked at it in an earlier study. We put people also in scanners and measured the... brain activity when they were shown pictures of alcohol. And the pictures of alcohol increased the activity in the reward center of the brain. And the group that was treated had reduced activation. It's also what rodent experiments indicate. And we believe at least there are overlapping

brain circuits involved in appetite regulation and involved in the rewarding effects of alcohol and food and also other drugs of abuse. What do you make of the fact that those who didn't have the drug but had a placebo still drank less? There was absolutely an effect and I think it's because everyone was treated with psychotherapy, which is a documented effective treatment of alcohol use disorders and probably also combined with the fact that you asked them to measure how much they were drinking. This is known to have a reducing effect on consumption. Now there have been some cases where people who lost weight as a result of being on these drugs put it on once they stopped taking them,

could the same thing happen here? Yeah, that could easily happen. That is exactly what we see in rodents and in monkeys too. And then a very interesting thing is it looks as if lower doses than those used for weight loss may be effective here. And also the price, which is, of course, an issue would be lower probably. So that's what is needed to be looked into. And might you be able to use this for treating other addictions?

Yeah, this is what laboratory experiments from Denmark and Sweden, and especially from the US has indicated, where it seemed that there could be an effect on nicotine, on cocaine, on cannabis, basically on all drugs of abuse. That could be really interesting because a lot of our patients actually are not only dealing with alcohol. They also take different drugs on top of each other. So if it holds through, it would be the first time that there was medication that actually would work on different kinds of addiction.

Danish psychiatrist Anders Fink Jensen. And still to come on this podcast, You've got thousands and thousands of different types of cells and you're faced with this very intricate anatomy. It's this beautiful structure with lots of worlds and different kind of tunnels in the nose. So you've got to try and figure all of that out in 3D. What mice knows is tell us about our sense of smell.

You're listening to the Global News podcast. New footage has been published of the security breach outside the White House Correspondence dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel on Saturday night. It shows the moment the gunman burst through a checkpoint, not far from where President Trump and other officials were dining. Our North America correspondent, Peter Bowes, told us more. Several minutes of security video showing the crucial few moments

when the gunman Cole Allen sprints through the security point, the metal detector. This is much clearer video than we saw in the hours after the shooting. It also shows what happened in the seconds before. with the suspects apparently wearing a large overcoat as he approached this area. He dips into a doorway for a few seconds when he emerges without the coat. You can see the long gun that is holding. And what follows appears to be the exchange of gunfire with a Secret Service agent. Now, we don't see him being detained.

But according to the head of the Secret Service, Sean Curran, who's been speaking to Fox News, the suspect then falls after hitting his name. and that's how they were able to subdue him near the top of the stairs leading to the ballroom where Donald Trump and the guests were just starting their dinner. I suspect that in releasing this video on X, Janine Piro, who's the US attorney for the District of Columbia, the chief federal prosecutor,

she wanted to make the point. She writes, there is no evidence the shooting was the result of friendly fire. And she is referring to the shooting of the Secret Service agent who wasn't seriously injured, his bulletproof vest, him, and there's been much speculation in the media here, that he may have been hit by a bullet fired by one of the other agents. But officials, including President Trump earlier in the day, now appear to be saying categorically that that was not the case.

Sean Curran, from the Secret Service, in his interview, said that one agent was shot at point-blank range by the suspect, and that agent fired five times, but the alleged gunman, Cole Allen, was not injured. Our North America correspondent Peter Bowes Hundreds of people have taken part in a wave of anti-migrant demonstrations in South Africa in recent days. Protesters blame undocumented migrants for unemployment and pressure on public services and are calling for stricter immigration enforcement and mass deportations. As a result, several businesses owned by migrants from other African nations have closed

amid fears of xenophobic attacks. Shamari Mukandwa is a trader who moved to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He recorded this message for us. I am married to South Africa and I've been living in South Africa for 24 years. I am a trader who helped myself trading in order to support my family. I had shops that was back in 2004, but my shops were all looted in 2017 when it was a xenophobia, again in South Africa. I just want to highlight a few incidents

what happens in this matches that occurred in Pretoria because I am living in Pretoria. The matches in Pretoria, they did not start in Pretoria. They started in Quasulu Natal, which is Thurban and caused many havoc. This matches never started yesterday. They started, in fact, last year, August,

when the very same organization, March and Operation Dudula, they started protesting, blocking access to health care to all foreign national. They claim foreigners. They have occupied the hospital space, school space, women's space. Therefore, they don't need foreigners anymore. They must leave. We have been engaging with the authorities, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee,

in order to fund the solutions. Recently, we wrote a letter asking for a dialogue between foreign national, and local people, of course, with the other stakeholders, so that we can find the solution together. We are concerned with South African demand. We are concerned with joblessness. We are concerned with all most of the demand they make. But what is more concerning for us is the safety of the refugee, the safety of foreign nationals who are attacked without anyone condemning the attack that are going on. And that's why, as Sarov, we wrote a statement calling this kind of xenophobia which are going on as a coordinated silent xenophobia.

And therefore, we're still making the very same call to the authorities in the provinces, the authorities on national level to come on board so that we can have a conversation to address the matter that are raised by South Africans. Of course, also to look into the matter of the safety and security and the protection of all the people, including refugee and the Assalam Sika, who are. living in South Africa. Jamari Mukandwa in South Africa. Along with millions of Iranian civilians,

two travellers from Britain, Lindsay and Craig Foreman, have been caught up in the conflict in Iran. They were arrested in January 2025, accused of spying in sentenced to 10 years in Yveen prison, which was hit by deadly Israeli strikes last year. Until last August, their relatives had heard nothing from them. But now the couple are able to call out and spoke to our correspondent Caroline Hawley.

I'm with Lindsay and Craigson Joe, and we are waiting for them to call in by payphone from Evan Jail. These phone calls are a lifeline in so many ways for them and for us. Hi, Lindsay. How are you today? Hi. Hi, Craig. I hope you're okay. How are you doing? I'm all right. How are you, more to the point?

No, not too bad. You've said in the past that you feel abandoned by the government, what do you want the government here to be doing? and what do you think they realistically can do? I don't actually know what they can. We want help. You know, we need to be removed from this place. We are innocent people.

We have committed no wrong. The phone calls are constantly interrupted by a recording which says this call is from Evan Prison and the caller is a prisoner. Craig's used to it and carries on. It seems to me we're sitting here like happened really within the prison, outside the prison. I just feel as if we are wasting our lives in here

and rotting away to a degree. The war brought its own fears and risks, with explosions going off close to the prison. And you've got the physical bombing. I was on the phone to Joe when there was one that came so close. The after-effects of being, you realise how hyper-alert you were during that whole period. Lindsay, how do you spend your days?

Reading mainly. I am running as my salvation always have been, so I continue to do that. And yoga, again, one of my salvation's that I choose to keep doing. I wonder how you stay positive. Because without that, there's people who keep here. It is. We'll get through it together. And sometime, I hope soon, we will be on the other side of these four wars.

Look how beautiful Iran is. We are here. Craig Foreman had crossed into Iran in late December 2024, only planning to spend a few days there before continuing their motorbike journey towards Australia. I feel content. I'm in Iran, having an amazing time. They're super grateful for being here, just in this lovely country with these lovely people. They were posting prolifically about their trip before their arrest. Along their route, they've been talking to people about what it means to live a good life. And it's these conversations that seem to have got the pair into trouble.

In February, they were both sentenced to 10 years in jail for spying. Lindsay, I know you were aware of foreign office advice not to go to Iran, but could never have imagined you would wind up in this situation. I wonder if you have regrets. Craig and I have discussed this research prior to coming and assessed the risk. They did not imagine too innocent tourists that we would end up in prison for this long, with no evidence. And Lindsay, you genuinely have no regrets. No, it is, but then so is running a marathon, but people choose to do that.

You know, I take responsibility for the choice I made to be here, and I have to live with a conflict. How about you? Do you wish you'd never cross the border from Armenia into Iran? No. I'm glad that we came on this journey together. you know, we, yes, we're in a horrible position right now, but we have met some fabulous people on the way. We have seen both sides of this country firsthand. I have seen four of my friends that have been removed and executed. For a crime in England or a different country, you may have got a caution.

Four of your cellmates have been executed. Yes, four people have been taken. And I know they've been executed. because they publicise it on the TV the next day. Craig and Lindsay Foreman talking to Caroline Hawley from Evin Prison in the Iranian capital Tehran. Researchers have mapped the nose of a mouse for the first time, detailing the position of more than a thousand smell receptors.

The study reveals a few surprises about their sense of smell, as Anna Foster heard from Professor Matt Grubb, neuroscientist at King's College London. We knew there were these receptors in the nose, and we knew they had different abilities to detect different smell molecules, but we thought the different receptor cells were distributed pretty much randomly across the nasal space. And what this study shows is that it's completely not the case, and much like many other sensory systems,

and these cells are really, really tightly organised, and it's really exciting. And what does it tell us about smell more broadly? There's a consistency in this level of organisation, but there's also variability in terms of how people perceive smell. certain people can detect certain smells that other people can't. So there's still that interperson variability there. But what this tells us is that in general, the variability is much, much lower than we thought it was. And presumably the same for humans as for mice, for other animals as well? We're presuming so. So that hasn't been shown, and that's obviously a next target for the research is to

take this and move it forward. But these early stages of the smell system tend to be very, very similar are mice and human. So I'd be surprised if it wasn't the case in us. It must be. It's an enormously complex thing to try and do to map the nose of a mouse. It's really very, very complicated. You've got thousands and thousands of different types of cells and you're faced with this very intricate anatomy. I mean, if you've seen any of the pictures that accompany the articles, it's this beautiful structure with lots of whirls and different kind of tunnels in the nose. So you've got to try and figure all of that out in 3D and access all the different kind of genetic coding information of all the cells at the same time. I put those two things

together, which is what these teams have been able to do so well. And as you say, there are still things that we don't know quite yet. What would you really like to understand about the way our sense of smell works? Based on this study, I think I'd like to know what it is about the smell signals that is being organised so well and so intricately in space. So we know that the cells themselves are really tightly organized and very, very specific. What we don't know yet is exactly what that means for how different bits of the nose detect different smells and how that signal is then processed in the brain. So that's the next thing to figure out. Professor Matt Grubb of King's College, London. And that is all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, email us at global podcast at

bbc.c.c.com. This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett and produced by Paul Day and Oliver Berlough. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. Thank you.