Global News Podcast - Trump: Iran war could end with a deal

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

US media and Pakistan negotiators suggest Washington and Tehran are close to agreeing a deal to end the US-Israeli war on Iran. Donald Trump has warned the bombing would be more intense than before if Iran doesn’t agree to peace deal. Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces continue to strike Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.Also: The World Health Organization has confirmed an eighth case of Hantavirus on board a cruise ship at the centre of a deadly outbreak of the disease. Three passengers have died aboard the ship that is currently stuck at sea near the island of Cape Verde in the Atlantic. Spain insists the MV Hondius will dock in the Canary Islands despite objections from the local authorities. Four women linked to the IS miliant group are returning to Australia from Syria, along with their children and could face the prospect of arrest. Scientists are calling for Pluto to be reclassified as a planet, twenty years after it was demoted to dwarf planet status.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]

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and at 15 hours GMT on Wednesday the 6th of May, these are our main stories. The US and Iran are reported to be closing in on a deal to end the war after President Trump paused an operation to help stranded vessels get through the Strait of Hormuz. Spain insists that a cruise ship at the centre of a deadly virus outbreak will dock in the Canary Islands despite the local authorities' objections. Four women linked to the IS militant group are returning to Australia from Syria

along with their children and could face the prospect of arrest. Also in this podcast, there's more than a thousand kinds of Pokemon. That has not stopped kids learning them. Why should we not have a thousand planets? We'll hear why Pluto could be designated a planet once again. Just a couple of things.

of days ago, it looked as if the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran was on the verge of collapsing after the American military began trying to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz. In response, Iran began firing at US military and commercial vessels and at the United Arab Emirates. Then, in an abrupt about turn, President Trump announced he was pausing what he called Operation Freedom. Now, as we record this podcast, there are US media reports, echoed by Pakistan, which has been mediating peace discussions, that the two sides are close to agreeing a deal to end the war. Mr Trump has posted that if Iran doesn't agree, then the bombing will start again at a much higher level and intensity than before. But given that hopes have been raised before only to be dashed, how likely is it that a deal will be reached this time?

I put that question to Gial from the BBC's Persian Service. Right now what we are hearing, Iranian hasn't responded yet. We are hearing that still they are working on the draft one-page memorandum, which means removing the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and also Iranian suspend the nuclear program. But we know Iranians since 12 days war in June last year, the nuclear facility was damaged severely and even it was damaged more in recent war. There hasn't been report about any nuclear activities in Iran in the process. past few months. So what we are hearing, I think President Trump and also Iranian leadership,

they are sharing the same trade. They don't want to go back to war. This is very clear. But both side trying to keep face, both sides are trying to weigh out of this conflict. Iranian have been asking for a guarantee and permanent seize the fire. And also the American has been asking to remove the blockade of Strait of Hormuz and talk about halting Iranian nuclear program, that was the sticking point in the past negotiation they had. And so we're still waiting for details to come through. But we heard the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday talking about how the offensive stage of the Iran war is over. And Iranian state media are hailing this all as a victory for Iran. Absolutely. What we are hearing

from numbers of commanders, they say the U.S. has retreated. But in the same time, we know Iranians also are under severe pressure economically. Choking the Strait of Hormos, yes, inflicting economic pain on world economy, on the U.S. and its allies, but in the same time, they are choking their own economy as well, because more than 90% of Iranian expert, which is oil, going through a strait of Hormos, the blockade of the strait of Hormos causing pain to Iranian. I am in in contact with Iranian underground. Many of them are on economic survival, which means. means they only shop essential. They don't go dining out.

They don't go for shopping. And this is affecting the economy and deepening the crisis. And they feel that this war, two months of violence in which thousands have been killed, has only entrenched the regime and strengthened the Iranian military. Absolutely. I think at this point of time, if you remember in January, thousands of people killed simply coming to the street protesting and demanding change in the country.

And I think right now nobody talks about what happened three months. And I think the government is extremely worried about uprising again. Every day almost they have been executing young men. Many of them, there were protesters arrested in January this year. So it shows the government is still right now worried about another uprising. That's why they're trying to deter young people from coming back to the street. G.R. Gahl. While hopes of a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran are rising, Israel has again carried out attacks in Lebanon.

on what it says are Hezbollah targets. Six people are reported to have been killed, despite a ceasefire supposedly being in place between Israel and Hezbollah. Since the Lebanese militia began firing into Israel in response to its attack on Iran, nearly 3,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in just over two months. I put it to our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher, that even if a deal is agreed between Iran and the US, there is no end in sight to the violence in Lebanon.

That may well be the way that it pans out. I mean, we have been seeing in this, as you say, nominal ceasefire attacks on a daily basis by Israel. Today, two strikes on two towns, killed four people in one instance, two in another, and widening the scope of those attacks, so into the east of the country and also beyond Volitani River, which is the kind of cutoff point for the south, which Israel has largely occupied now and caused the security zone,

And also the continuing clashes between Hasbullah fighters and Israeli soldiers, according to Hasbullah down in that region. So, yeah, there's no real ceasefire, except in the sense, you know, for people in the big cities in Beirut, they haven't come under attack during the ceasefire. But there were, again, drones overhead. This sense that the Israeli presence is there all the time which people feel very, very keenly. And gives them a sense that, you know, it could break out into a much bigger conflict again at any moment. So I have to see whether Lebanon, which was meant to be included in the original Iran ceasefire, whether there's a real impact on that with whatever deal may or may not be done in the coming days.

Yes, because events in Lebanon seem to be going their own way, apart from events in Iran. What are the Israeli military objectives here? What are they trying to achieve? I mean, it's an objective that they've had for a very long time and has never been able to achieve, which is essentially the elimination of any threat from Hasbullah to. the north essentially of Israel. There was a large scale evacuation of those areas during almost two years of a war in Gaza, because Hezbollah had essentially supported the Palestinians by firing missiles into that area. People have largely moved back now, so what the Israeli government

wants to avoid is there to be another evacuation. But again, it's a promise that I think a lot of people in Israel, you know, understand, be skeptical about Netanyar who has sold this for Prime Minister as this time we will go through to the very end. Sebastian Usher. The World Health Organization has confirmed an eighth case of Hanta virus on board a cruise ship at the centre of a deadly outbreak of the disease. Three passengers have died. Others are on their way to the Netherlands.

The Spanish government says those remaining on board have no symptoms. The ship currently stuck at sea near the island of Capeford in the Atlantic is to head further north to the Canary Islands, which is part of Spain. That's caused a political row there with the president of the Canaries saying the ship shouldn't be allowed to dock there. But the Spanish health minister, Monica Garcia, insists that it will sail to Tenerife

and from there, all those on board will be able to travel home. The World Health Organization asked yesterday for the Canary Islands to be the destination, with Spain identified as the country with the nearest suitable port to deal with the situation. The WHO considers that the Canary Islands in Spain meet the conditions for passengers to disembark under safe conditions and with appropriate health

protections. This is not only about minimizing risk to passengers and crew, but also that we have the necessary conditions to protect the public's health from this infection. One man who was on board is currently being treated in hospital in Switzerland after falling ill with the virus. He's been tested and health officials have now confirmed that it is a strain of hanta virus which is normally spread by rats. This particular strain, however, can be passed from human to human. James Menendez has been talking to the doctor who did that testing. She's Dr. Isabella Eccale, who's head of the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases at Geneva University Hospitals. What did she discover? It's actually quite a rare virus, even in the endemic countries.

So it's something that is known to occur frequently in South America, mainly in Argentina. and it belongs to a very big virus family that are called hunter viruses. And you find them mostly in rodents but also in beds and in shrews. And the particular thing about this strain is that it's among the very few hunter viruses that are apparently able to transmit from human to human, not very efficiently, but there are some reports that this is one of the more transmissible and also a bit more severe hunter viruses. with quite, can reach quite some high mortality in the reports that are there.

Right, okay, so that's interesting because there have been some suggestion that the Andes Strain was the only one that can be transmitted from human to human. But you say that there may be others. It's one of a few, though. Sources in Argentina, they list two, and one of them, and the more frequently one is the Andes virus. But among these very big family of hunter viruses, it's very rare. So most of the hunter viruses, we know, they don't transmit from human to human, but only from rodents to humans. You said it's not very effective in terms of its transmissibility. Can you sort of give us some idea of what that means in practice?

It's a very rare virus, so we don't have excessive data. There are a few reports that apparently reported human-to-human transmission under certain circumstances from a symptomatic patient to a very close contact to someone who works in a hospital like a doctor or a nurse who's not aware of that infection and not wearing protective. close while seeing that patient or in very close situations where people are in close contact. And that was the scenario where this transmission was described. But it's definitely not something that transmits very easily because otherwise we would see this more often and we

would see larger outbreaks, which do not happen. So what is happening on this cruise ship, I would still say still a bit unclear. I mean, there are different possibilities. It's not proven that it is really person-to-person transmission. There are also other possibilities. So it could be that all the people who are diagnosed now or who got sick, that they were all on land in Argentina and they were exposed to rodents urine or rodents excretia. So that is the most common way how it transmit. Another possibility would be that there is some kind of contamination on the vessel. So let's say a surface or maybe even rodents on the boat. We don't know. We don't have any information in that. And the third possibility is actually indeed person to person

transmission from one case to someone else who was on this cruise ship. And what we can maybe also say about cruise ships, so they play a certain role in outbreaks because you may remember that during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also had these outbreaks on cruise ships. They are also known for outbreaks with gastrointestinal viruses like norovirus. So this is really something that can occur because this is just a very particular place where there are a lot of people, they are close together, they have a lot of contacts with each other. So this seems to be a certain environment that favours transmission. Yeah. Just thinking about COVID, as you mentioned it, because obviously this will be in people's minds. Is it much less transmissible than COVID-19?

Yes. So you definitely need to be close to a sick person. We don't really think this is something that easily spreads through the air. So you really have to be close to a sick person. So it's very different to COVID or other respiratory viruses. And I would not be concerned about a big outbreak or an epidemic or even a pandemic. I think the risk here is to have several clusters of people who are in contact with each other and what seems to make it a bit more difficult that there's a lot of travel involved, like people taking planes or maybe going on the ship later, leaving earlier.

So I think that will be the tricky part now that is apparently managed by WHO in several countries to really do a good contact tracing and assess the risk. But I'm not concerned about this virus being really an airborne virus or causing a larger outbreak. That was Dr. Isabella Eccale. And we have more on this on our YouTube channel. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find Global News Podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every day. weekday. The Australian authorities say a group of 13 of its citizens thought to be the wives and children

of IS fighters is returning home from Syria. The four women and nine children who had been held or born in a camp in northern Syria during the past seven years are expected to land in Sydney and Melbourne airports on Thursday. Hundreds of other relatives of IS fighters remain in Syria as other governments refused to repatriate them. The Australian government says the women and children are not welcome and they'll not be assisting them, but there is little they can do to prevent them from returning under their own steam. Tony Burke is a Home Affairs Minister. They made an appalling, disgraceful decision. If they have committed crimes, they can expect to face the full force of the law without exception. I asked our Australia correspondent, Simon Atkinson, what more we know

about the women and children? So we know that there were 34 Australia. in the Roj camp in northeast Syria, and they all left that camp in February with the intention of coming back to Australia, but they were quickly turned around. But at the end of last month, 13 of them did leave, and they got to Damascus, and as we're here, are expected to be getting on planes

from Syria into Australia coming through Kato, we believe. We know that some of them, the children, were born in those refugee camps, born to mothers who'd gone out there during the war in Syria, and at a time when it was illegal to travel from Australia to there because it was a war zone. And they did go out there.

It's understood to marry IS fighters. So they are all Australian citizens, as we heard from Tony Burke. The government doesn't want them here. But the reality is they all have Australian passports. They're all Australian citizens. And there's actually not a whole lot that the Australian government can do to stop them coming back. And they've spent a long time in this camp,

which also hosts many citizens from other parts of the world. They've spoken kind of quite openly. over the past of seven or eight years to various media organisations who visited the camps and that we sort of know a fair bit about some of their stories. But it's true, it's sort of quite difficult conditions. The discussion here on Australia at the moment is particularly the situation around the children. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been quite outspoken. He doesn't seem to have a whole lot of sympathy for these young people.

He effectively says their parents got them into this situation. And there's a lot of political pushback as well. I think because the attack at Bondi Beach, which happened at the end of last year, was allegedly IS inspired, that has kind of hardened the rhetoric against this group. And so although they are going to be coming back to Australian shores, the overwhelming message from all sides of the political spectrum, and certainly large chunks of the community is that they're not welcome. Yeah, that attack targeted Jews, lots of accusations of anti-Semitism,

it does seem that they're going to get a very frosty welcome when they come back. how hard is it going to be for them to reintegrate? Absolutely. So for those who aren't arrested and charged and who are sort of going back into the community, the adults have spent much of their adult life in Australia. You know, they have families here. And so they'll be presumably moving back to live with them and close to them in Sydney and Melbourne, we believe.

But it is going to be difficult. I mean, look, the whole mood in Australia has always been quite hard on immigration. There's a federal election by-election coming up at the weekend where one nation, the right-wing party, is strongly tipped to win its first seat in the House of Representatives. So just give you a sense of the wins of public opinion here in Australia. So definitely for these women and children coming back into Australia, very difficult times ahead. Simon Atkinson.

Still to come in this podcast. The apartment we were living in was bent down. Now I'm in someone else's house, which has also been burned. But I'm not moving anymore because there is no point. There are strikes everywhere. We have a special report from the front line in Ukraine. This is the Global News podcast. In parts of Somalia, families are once again facing the prospect of going without food

after years of drought, shrinking aid donations and rising costs that are making it harder and harder to get help to those who need it most. Matthew Hollingworth is Assistant Executive Director for Program Operations at the World Food Programme He's been visiting some of these communities this week, and he's been speaking to James Copnell about what he saw. Well, we saw people in horrific situations. Families that have been displaced, seeking pasture for their animals, seeking water for themselves and food, and just livelihoods, because in many cases they've lost their animals to make a living. and, you know, people are really desperate.

Somalia is always, sadly, and has been certainly these last couple of years, a malnutrition hotspot in the world. And we are seeing the impact on that on children across the country, but in particular in Puntland where I was yesterday, where we, you know, it is absolutely horrific. And unfortunately, as you say, because of a lack of resources, we're having to take terrible decisions with partners like UNICEF and others on who we can help and who we can't, because we simply don't have the specialised nutrition commodities to feed under fives who desperately need that specialised food to treat their malnutrition.

And those are, I take it, life or death decisions you're making? Well, it's going to get to being life or death because at the moment we are, we're not being able to provide preventative care. we're only providing treatments. So we can stave off the worst, but that only lasts so long. And as you don't prevent, the caseload gets bigger and bigger. We've already seen more than 200,000 people displaced this year. The World Food Program provides around 90% of the food assistance, the food aid, around Somalia.

After three consecutive failed rainy seasons, the situation is dire. And even if we are 90% of the world, work, we can only help one in ten of those that we should be providing food assistance to. You mentioned those droughts. How do they factor in with the conflicts in the Middle East and some of the pressures that is bringing with cuts in foreign aid from the US and other Western countries? Sort of take us through those different strands, if you could. I mean, clearly, all of these aspects are a recipe for disaster, you know, reduced resources, increased need not just here in Somalia, but around the world, but particularly acute here.

And at the same time, fuel costs around Somalia are 150% higher today in some areas than they were three months ago. Food costs going up as well. Sorghum, a mainstay cereal for most people here, is 17% more expensive than it was before the conflict in the Middle East. Matthew Hollingworth of the World Food Programme. Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner says a town in the South Wales, of a country that's under Russian occupation is facing a humanitarian crisis. People still living in the frontline town of Oleshki are said to have been largely cut off from fresh supplies for months, while to leave is to risk a journey out on what's been dubbed the Road of Death. The BBC has

contacted aid groups and officials, as well as people who say they're still in or have only recently managed to get out of Oleshke. Our Europe correspondent, Jessica Parker, the story. Olegki, a city humanitar catastrophe in occupied

Oleshi Oleschi, a city that Ukrainian news reports warn could be facing catastrophe. An estimated 2,000

people remain, but food and medicine deliveries we've been told are scarce, while to leave is to risk your life.

So I'm looking at a map and satellite images of southern Ukraine. Alecchi, see is imprisoned by geography and war. The city's in Russian occupied territory, but only just. It lies by the Denepro River. And right on the other side of the river there are Ukrainian forces.

There are roads out of Aleshki, but those roads, say locals, have been badly damaged or mined. The call's trying to connect. We're just trying to get through to a woman we're calling Ludmiller, who says she's inside Oleshki. Hello, good day. Yeah, she says that internet is very bad. The only way is to connect like this to iPhone. The people we've spoken to want to remain anonymous, in part for fear of Russian reprisals against them or their families.

Ludmilla's words are voiced by a producer. The apartment we were living in was bent down. Now I'm in someone else's house, which has also been burned. But I'm not moving anymore because there is no point. There are strikes everywhere. The city seems deserted. There are many empty houses. We've run out of electricity, gas, water and heating.

People are doing their best to survive. The town is living of pasta and tinned food. Ukraine blames Russian occupying forces for what's happening in Olegki. Russia blames Ukrainian bombardments. It's a city, as Ludmilla knows, on the front line. Russian soldiers are sitting in base. We don't see them, but they are there. The road to leave the city is mined.

So we are stuck here. A small group gathers around a piano in a bombed-out building. In another video, people line up in the dark to receive an Easter blessing. Glimpses, we're told, from inside Olleshi. But we've also contacted people who say they recently got out. None of us could endure it any longer. This man who we're calling Vlodomir says he was evacuated by volunteers last month. An ambulance took us. As we left, we prayed we wouldn't hit a mine.

People die every day from drones, mines or shelling. The highway is littered with burnt out cars. Vlodomir, whose words are also voiced by a producer, says the horrors he's seen in Oleshki will haunt him forever. My neighbour was sweeping, shattered glass from her windows after a shelling. Ten minutes later, a strike hit just a meter away from her. Workers from the morgue came, collected what was left of her and took her away. Another life claimed by this conflict.

Aid organisation, the Red Cross, says it's talking to authorities on both sides. As some residents tell us, they hope for a humanitarian corridor. There are signs deliveries into the city may be picking up. But Aleshki, like other places, remains in the crossfire. of this long, destructive war. That report by Jessica Parker. Is Pluto a planet? It's a scientific debate that's been raging for years.

Pluto was a planet until 2006, but then scientists reclassified it saying it didn't meet their criteria for being one. So it was called a dwarf planet. Now NASA's chief, Jared Isaacson, has said it's time to welcome Pluto back into the planetary fold. He was speaking to the... the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.

I am very much in the camp of make Pluto a planet again. And I would say we are doing some papers right now on, I think, a position that we would love to escalate through the scientific community to revisit this discussion and ensure that Clyde Tombaugh gets the credit he received once and rightfully deserves to receive again. The man who's talking about there, Clyde Tombo, discovered Pluto in 1930. Paul Byrne, Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Science at Washington University, has been speaking to my colleague Nick Robinson.

A lot of us grew up thinking there were nine planets, but in the last 20 years or so, we've learned that there's actually probably a lot more worlds about Pluto's size way out in the dark, way past Neptune. And so in 2006, the International Astrospection, Union, which is the international group of astronomers who were tasked with deciding what we call things, held a vote. And that vote was to determine whether they would include all those other worlds as planets or whether there would be a need to come up with a new term to declassify, if you like, Pluto from a planet and call it a dwarf planet, including all these other worlds as well. And the vote was contentious, but it passed. And since 2006, we now have technically eight planets and a whole pile, an uncounted number of dwarf planets. Now, you can imagine for teaching young children in particular, well, maybe me as well, actually, dealing with hundreds of planets would have been a bit of a struggle, much easier to do with eight or nine. But technically, what is the measurement

that's being made to decide that Pluto is or isn't a planet? What's the test? So there were three criteria that the International Astronomical Union settled on in this very contentious vote 20 years ago. One, it has to orbit the sun. The second required. is that they have to have been big enough for gravity to pull themselves into a round ball. So that way we don't count things like asteroids, which are often shaped like bananas and peanuts. And the third criterion is that they must have cleared their orbit. That means that they must be the dominant object in terms of mass in the part of space where they orbit. Now, it was this third criterion that got people particularly upset because per that rule,

a lot of places that we consider planets don't technically clear their orbit. And to be clear, we only know a few dozen of these worlds out where Pluto is. We suspect there are likely many hundreds more. We just haven't found them with telescopes. Now, Paul, I've figured me, we can't reinvent the boundaries of space all time, so we're out of time. But in a word, what's your vote? Pluto, a planet, yes or no?

It's always been a planet, and in my opinion, should continue to be so. And I will say this. There's more than a thousand kinds of Pokemon. That has not stopped kids learning them. Why should we not have a thousand planets? Why not, indeed? Professor Paul Byrne. And that's all from us for now.

If you want to get in touch, you can email us at Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Robin Schroeder. The producer was Alice Adley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jol.

Until next time. Goodbye.