Global News Podcast - Trump says ceasefire with Iran is 'over'

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

President Trump says the ceasefire agreement with Iran is "over", blasting the country's leadership as "scum" and "cuckoo" after fresh exchanges of fire. Mr Trump has warned the US will hit Iran 'hard' again tonight, but added that talks could continue if they want. Speaking with President Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, he also promised to license the manufacture of vital Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine. Also: French MPs have approved a bill that would automatically presume police officers acted lawfully in shootings; The United Nations is warning of an impending catastrophe in the Sudanese city of El-Obeid which is home to half a million people; The opening ceremony takes place in Paris for the Esports World Cup; And our culture editor speaks to Christopher Nolan, Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway about The Odyssey, a retelling of Homer's epic story.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] Photo: US President Donald Trump during the 2026 NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, 08 July 2026. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

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How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250 year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the U.S. has shaped the modern world. And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's The United States at 250. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankara and 16 GMT on Wednesday, the 8th of July.

These are our main stories. President Trump warns the U.S. will again hit Iran hard later today after earlier declaring that the ceasefire was over following fresh exchanges of military strikes. He was speaking on the sidelines of the sidelines of the war. the NATO summit in Ankara, where speaking alongside President Zelensky, he also promised to license the manufacture of vital patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine. Elsewhere, French MPs have approved a new law, which would mean police are presumed to have acted legally when they shoot someone. And also in this podcast, how do you follow Oscar-winning box office-conquering movies like Oppenheimer?

My son walked into my office while I was writing on the Odyssey and said, where are you Oscars? And I said, well, I'm trying to write a new project and have got Oscars sitting on the shelf. Think about how daunting that big. And he looked at him. He said, but you didn't win for writing. Hollywood director Christopher Nolan and his star studied cast talk about the new blockbuster movie, The Odyssey. President Trump has warned the US will again hit Iran hard later today after early declaring that the ceasefire was over. He was speaking at the NATO summit in Ankara. To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore.

They're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people. And they're vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over.

I'll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate. They're good people. Steve Whitkoff, Jared Kush. But they have to come back to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them. They're liars. We make a deal.

If I make a deal with him, we have a deal, and he goes out, he talks. We make a deal. Everyone's agreed. No nuclear weapon. We make a deal. They go outside, talk to the press. They say, we never even talked about it. There's something wrong with them. They're cuckoo. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. Well, in the latest clashes, U.S. Central Command said it fired at more than 80 Iranian targets. Iran said it targeted U.S. military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. The U.S. strikes followed attacks earlier in the week on 3rd. three oil tankers in the strait of Hormuz.

A correspondent in Jerusalem, Caroline Davies, is monitoring developments. She told us what she made of President Trump's comments about the ceasefire. Firstly, to just say that President Trump almost seems to be saying two things in the course of his comments. Obviously, firstly and very clearly, he said when asked, is the ceasefire still holding, is the MOU, the memorandum of understanding, which was signed only just last month? Is that still in place? and he said that as far as he is concerned, it's over were his terms.

But at the same time, he was then asked, does that mean the talks are finished? Are they over as well? And he said, well, they can continue to talk, but I think they're wasting their time. So he's not pulling his negotiators out of these talks and these conversations, which we know are ongoing. We know that that's part of the memorandum of understanding, that they've got 60 days according to that at the moment to continue to have these discussions. And that that process is not stopping,

but that President Trump is saying that as far as he is concerned, the ceasefire and the MOU is no longer holding. So what exactly does that mean is going to happen next? And that's what's really unclear. Does it mean that we are going to see an increase in hostilities again? Does it mean that we are going to see further attacks, further escalation, further tip for tat? Or, and this isn't necessarily completely exclusive, is this also a potential negotiating position from President Trump? What this slightly reminds me of is the period when we had a ceasefire, but no, MOU. So this was, the ceasefire was originally agreed back in April and then was sort of continually extended. And during that time, we saw both sides accusing the other of violating that ceasefire. We saw lots of tip for tap back and forth with military bases being targeted.

And it wasn't a sort of level of full hostility that we'd seen when the war started, the sort of US and Israel offensive began initially back in the end of February. And then, of of course, the response from Iran. It wasn't that level of response, but we did see continual back and forth between the two sides during that in-between period. And during that time, you also heard from President Trump talking almost in a carrot and stick terms about this negotiation with the Iranians, saying that there are all these wonderful things that would happen if there was an agreement between the US and Iran, and if there wasn't the sort of damage that he would inflict on Iran instead. So is this him returning to a similar position or is this genuinely a change in where we have

been in the course of the last month or so and that we are now moving towards more hostilities, that is what is still unclear? Yes, it's interesting note that maybe he's putting pressure, not just on Iran, his own negotiating team as well, to try and come up with some solution. And this comes off with the backdrop of more serious clashes than we've seen for quite some time. Yes. So, of course, this particular recent clashes started because there were three tankers earlier this week that were hit when trying to cross the straight of four moves, the US and Israel and Qatar, they blamed Iran for those attacks. Iran's never directly said that they

were involved. However, they did, the foreign minister put out, made some comments essentially saying that if people were to use alternative routes that had not been agreed with Iran, that they risked what he referred to as a collision. So there wasn't a direct recognition. However, after that happened, that was the point at which the US then decided that they were going to remove the waiver that they had got in place on oil sanctions. And then, of course, overnight, last night, we had this announcement from the US saying that they were now conducting these strikes on sort of defences, air defences in Iran, and also on their capacity to be able to attack ships that were crossing through the Strait of Hormuz, including targeting,

and they said more than 60 of these high-speed boats. So that was what the US response was. Then Iran said that they had attacked military bases in Kuwait and in Bahrain. So again, initially that was all seen as a bit of a tip-for-tat back and forth. But the fact that the president has now said that the ceasefire and the MOU is over in his eyes, it does beg the question, how much further does this escalate? Caroline Davies reporting. What Tehran has described the US bombardment of coastal facilities as a blatant violation of the ceasefire, warning it will take decisive action. Iran's top negotiator, Mohamed Bahir Ghalibov posted online. The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don't fold.

There's been no official statement on President Trump's comments that the ceasefire is over. But as we heard from Paham Ghabadi from BBC Persian, the message from Iran's leaders over the last few hours has remained defiant. They are saying that we will respond heavily. But Iranian chief negotiator, Mohamed Bauer, Ghalibov, has tweeted and he has said that he's accusing America. of violating the memorandum of understanding. And he mentions several things. He says they have violated Iranian adjustments in the Strait of Hormuz. Their persistent threats of further strikes, they are reinstating of oil sanctions and attacks on southern Iran.

And also he calls Israeli attacks in Lebanon. He says these are the things that are the reasons that Iranians are reacting. But the thing is that Iran wants to exert its control in the Strait of Hormuz. According to the memorandum of understanding, they're not going to charge for 60 days. But it's vague. It says that Iran can do some adjustments. What are these adjustments? How are Iranians going to manage the strait of hormones?

So Iran does not want any ships to go through Oman because they want to have the control because they're saying that a few days ago, Iranian ambassador to China said that after the 60 days is over, we are going to get some fees. They say it's not a toll, but it's some fees. And the reason for that is that this is an infinite source of income for Iran, whereas oil waivers, as you can see right now, they can be just cancelled in a minute or if anything develops. Palm Gabbadi from BBC Persian.

At the NATO summit, Donald Trump also spoke alongside Velodemir Zelensky, who said they would hold formal talks to discuss air defences, a drone deal and, crucially, Ukraine getting licenses for patriot missile production, which are those key interceptors of the ballistic missiles Russia has been pounding Kiev with. The U.S. President said he's still actively negotiating with Vladimir Putin. I talk to him. I talk to President Zelensky. And I think that's all I've done.

My whole life I made deals. I guess becoming president was making a deal. It was like a lot of little individual things. In the end, it's making a deal. And that's what I do. And I do it well. know when people want to make a deal. I think he wants to make a deal. And I do feel that President Zelensky would like to get back to rebuilding this country as opposed to, you know,

having all of this death and destruction. A correspondent Sarah Rainsford was watching from Kiev and spoke to Lucy Hawking's about what we heard. I think particularly important, just generally the mood music, the atmosphere of these pre-talk talks, if you like, this encounter between the two men, which we can get into an assessment. second. But yeah, in terms of the real concrete results already, even before they've sat down for their formal talks, is the announcement by Donald Trump that he will allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles here. That means interceptor missiles for the Patriot anti-ballistic missile system. So to allow Ukraine to be able eventually to produce the missiles it needs to shoot Russia's ballistic

missiles out of the skies. Now, why is that important? Well, not. not long ago, about an hour or so ago, just behind me here in the distance on the horizon, there was a huge, huge cloud of black smoke coming from a very big fire in the distance. Just the latest evidence on the horizon here of what Russia has been doing to Ukraine. Now that is hitting it hard with missiles and with drones for days and days and causing a lot of civilian casualties here. Another two people killed here in Kiev today, two people in Kharkiv up in the north too. So the argument Ukraine has been making is that it needs,

the ability to protect this country from Russia's ballistic missiles. And for that, it needs American technology, essentially. It needs patriot missiles. Now, interesting to underline that Donald Trump was asked, will he give Ukraine more patriot missiles from American stockpiles? And he said, well, we don't have many. We've got some. We've not got many.

We need them. But he said, Ukraine will be able to produce its own quickly. We're going to give them the license. He said, I haven't told the company yet, but that's going to happen. So I think, you know, that's not going to happen immediately. It's not going to solve the immediate problem. is something, as you say, that President Zelensky has been asking for for a very, very long time. Sarah, he said President Trump that he speaks a lot to President Putin.

He said he definitely wants to end this war, would like a meeting perhaps to take place in Moscow. How much can we read into that? That is something that has been said before by President Trump. But he seems quite convinced that Vladimir Putin wants to move towards some kind of settlement in an agreement to end the conflict. Yeah, I mean a few things there. The fact that Vladimir Putin is suggesting a meeting in Moscow means he doesn't really want a meeting because that's obviously never going to happen. So I think that's the first thing to say. And it was quite an amusing moment in the press conference when Vladimir Zelensky chipped in and said that perhaps he wouldn't like to go to Moscow because for Zelenskyy, it was a bit dangerous because, as he put it, there were a lot of Ukrainian drones in the skies over Moscow. So a bit of Ukrainian humor there. But yeah, certainly Donald Trump is saying that, President Putin wants a deal. He wants to end this war. He's also saying that, as he understands, that Vladimir Zelensky, wants the same thing. And that's certainly what he says publicly. Whether that is actually realistic, well, he was asked and he said that Russia's conditions for the end of this war had shifted slightly.

He suggested didn't give any details. We haven't seen any sign of that publicly. It's true. I think what is interesting is that Donald Trump tends to take sides. And what was it, 18 months ago in the Oval Office, There was a really acrimonious meeting between Zelensky and Trump. Mr. Trump referred to that today. He said, we actually have really good relations. It's hard to believe, if you remember what happened in the Oval Office. They do have a much better relationship. And now what Donald Trump is talking about is very much in line with what Ukraine has been telling him,

saying that Ukraine has the advantage on the battlefield, saying that Ukraine has an advantage in the skies with its drone technology, talking quite admiringly about Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian technology. and repeating quite a few lines from President Zelensky. And that is new. He never used to do that. He used to repeat Vladimir Putin. So I think the fact that he's shifted the way he's thinking, the way he's talking is really significant to Vladimir Zelensky

and to Ukraine as those two men head into this meeting. Sarah Rainsford reporting from Kiev. And we have more on this on our YouTube. Search for BBC News on YouTube and you'll find a global news podcast in the podcast section. There's a new story available every weekday. To Sudan now, which is in its fourth year of a civil war. The United Nations is warning of an impending catastrophe in the Sudanese city of El-Obed, home to half a million people.

It's a strategic hub, linking the capital with Western regions, and has seen a significant uptick in drone attacks over recent weeks. Military analysts think there could be an imminent ground attack by paramilitary rapid support forces. If they take the city, there are fears the RSF could carry a, out atrocities as they did when they took the city of El Fasha last October. Our correspondent Akisa Vandera sent this report. And a note, we changed the voices of some of these interviewees to protect their identities. We were sitting at the gas station waiting for a car.

We just suddenly heard the sound of the drones missile and suddenly the whole world lit up and then went dark. Sarah, not her real name, was waiting for transport in Sudan's city of El Abade, when a drone strike hit a nearby fuel station. The sounds become distant, we couldn't hear well, and in front of us, there were injured people, blood, burnt cars and smashed cars. The 27-year-old student survived, but has shrapnel in her leg. This is a current reality for Sarah and over half a million residents of El Aubeid in Sudan's North Codofan state. For months, El-Obeid oftened often.

offered refuge to people escaping conflict across Sudan. More than 100,000 displaced people have sought shelter there. But now, as drone attacks intensify, and shortages of fuel, water, and essential supplies worsen, many fear the city is becoming another front line in Sudan's war. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volk Attack warns that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding. It is a red alert.

that needs to land on the desks of heads of state and government around the world. The city sits at a strategic crossroads, linking army-held areas around Khartoum with a western Darfur region that's largely controlled by the RSF. Hospitals, too, are struggling. A doctor in one of the city's major hospitals told the BBC the situation is terrifying. We receive injured patients after almost every drone attack, and the hospital is under constant pressure. Last week, a seven-month-old baby was brought to hospital after being injured.

Her hand had to be amputated because of the severity of the injury, but sadly, she did not survive. Human rights groups now fear some of the warning signs missed in Elfashe, including attacks on civilian infrastructure and the disruption of basic services, are beginning to emerge in Elobaid. But while the fight over the city escalates, its residents are fighting to survive. People now leave their homes saying goodbye to their families because they don't know if they will return or not. That report by Akisa Vandera. Still to come in this podcast, Paris will be the gaming capital of the world for the next seven weeks.

Hello, I'm Nikita Sirimutov, aka Derke, playing for Team Vitality in Waller. You're based in Paris. Really excited because I never played in front of a French crowd before yet. The ESports Gaming World Cup kicks off with a combined price pot of $75 million. How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250 year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the U.S. has shaped the modern world.

And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen to the global story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast. There was heated debate in France on Tuesday evening as ministers in the National Assembly deliberated over a highly contentious bill

that would automatically presume police officers acted lawfully in cases involving shootings. And despite vocal opposition, from left-wing groups who argued the measure could amount to a licence to kill, the legislation was eventually approved by French MPs. Supporters said it would provide necessary protection for law enforcement officers facing increasingly dangerous situations on the ground. I got more on this from our global affairs reporter, Paul Moss.

When you look at it in detail, it is a little hard to see what it changes, and that indeed raises interesting questions about exactly why this bill was introduced, which I will come to. If a police officer was prosecuted for a killing, they would be presumed innocent anyway, as all criminal cases. But the reason why we heard the kind of protests you heard just then, why it's got people so angry is they're worried that it sends a signal to the police by saying, look, there will be a presumption you acted lawfully. They're saying this gives the police a right to kill. But they're a license to kill. But what the people who defend the bill say is, look, if the policeman shoots someone, then the prosecutors can overturn that presumption.

evenings can begin, but as you see, very, very divisive. Okay, so it's very controversial. The bill's one support from the government and also parties of the right, far right working together. So just talk about the politics behind this as well. Well, the politics are very interesting here. And there's a funny coincidence on Tuesday as well as this bill going through before Parliament. What we also saw was judges saying that Marine Le Pen could stand for the presidential election when it comes in France. she, of course, the candidate for the far-right National Rally. Now, the National Rally have for years been saying we need more bills, more laws to protect the police.

And it's interesting, they've been calling for it, but this measure was introduced, in fact, by a centre-right MP from the Republicans Party, and as you suggested, supported by the ruling party of Emmanuel Macron. And what cynics are saying is, look, they do not want to go into an election with a national rally, able to say, look, we're the party that's tough on crime, we're the party. that supports police. They don't want to be outflanked in this way. And so therefore, they're adopting the measure and giving it their support. I should say the mill does still have to go before the upper house. But with this kind of broad political support, I don't think it's in any danger of falling. But it will be opposed. I mean, one thing you need to know is that the French police

already have one of the highest rates in Europe for shooting people dead. I was just looking at the figures, the last years for which there were figures, I think it goes up to 2024. They shoot between 50 and 70 people dead every year. Disproportionately, they are black or from an Arab background. And that has led to lots of calls for people to say, look, we want tougher monitoring of police, more investigation when they shoot people. And in fact, this law clearly goes in completely the other direction. I should mention also it continues the trend. In 2017, they brought in a law which said police are entitled to shoot at someone if they're driving away and they can't stop them in any other way. And a group of academics studied this. They clearly,

claim that led to a massive increase in the rate of which police were shooting people dead in France and what they're worried about is that this measure will have the same effect. Paul Moss reporting. After the leader of Britain's populist right-wing party Reform UK announced his resignation, forcing another election to take place in his constituency, all the major political parties have now said they won't put forward candidates. Nigel Farage, whose party is leading the opinion polls, said he will stand as a candidate in the election describing the vote as a battle against the establishment. Opposition parties have labelled it as a stunt.

The background to this is that Mr Farage is being investigated over private donations he received before becoming an MP, which he didn't declare. Our political correspondent Rob Watson told us more. What's triggered it, what's made this actually happen just yesterday, is the buildup of stories, in particular new story at the weekend, about how Nigel Farage had received gifts in kind from a supporter in terms of staff and offices. And that was on top of a story that had been running for some time about how he'd received £5 million from a crypto millionaire.

And essentially, in British politics, the kind of rules are that even if you're not an MP in the year up to becoming an MP, if you've received any donations of any kind that might be seen to be political, you need to declare them and Nigel Farage hadn't now. He has argued, look, they were all personal. It's nothing to do with my role as a politician now, but others have disagreed and it's being investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commission, certainly the five million donation.

So why now? I think Nigel Farage has just decided, look, I'm going to take them on, I'm going to come out fighting. He's pitched this as he has before, as you were saying, as a battle between the people. That's him against the establishment, by which has meant that the main part. and the media. And of course, he's doing it because, you know, these stories have been rather

damaging because, you know, he styles himself as Nigel Farage, man of the people, and this kind of stuff about, you know, lining your pockets doesn't look very good. Now, if the other parties won't take part in the by-election, what does that mean, Rob? Because some of the other parties are accusing Nigel Farage of a stunt. Absolutely. Oh, gimmick, you have several different words. I mean, the verdict of many of Britain's newspapers this morning, as the it's in danger of turning into a farce. I mean, if they don't stand, Nigel Farage stands without any of the other main parties, it'll be a, well, it would look like a walkover. So yeah,

it's as a danger as that his gamble, which was about taking on the establishment, reasserting that, you know, him against the establishment line, falls rather flat. Just very briefly then, Rob, how is Nigel Farage taking all of the scrutiny? Is it him trying to reassert the upper hand, I guess? Well, he hasn't been taking it well. and there are two views. His supporters say that's because, you know, the main part is the media genuinely have it in for him. His critics say it shows you that he's rather thin-skinned, doesn't like scrutiny and is therefore unfit for high office.

Rob Watson reporting there. While the world's attention is on the carnival of football state side, there is a rather different World Cup about to kick off in France, the ESports World Cup. Now that's competitive video gaming if you're wondering. where top players and teams from around the globe battle it out in front of huge crowds and online fans. Around 2,000 of the best competitive gamers are participating, and a flashy opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday night by the River Sen in Paris. It's the first time the event, the biggest in global e-sports, has been held outside of Saudi Arabia. As the BBC's Andrew Rogers explains.

Welcome to Paris, where over the next seven weeks, The world's top professional gamers will compete for a record combined price pot of $75 million, playing games like Call a Duty, Football Sim E-A-F-C and Street Fighter. Plenty more, too. There's 24 games in total as part of the lineup. Here's how it essentially works. Players are part of big multinational teams based around the world. Win an event and you get a cash prize and points.

Get the most points by the end of the summer and you don't just get a big trophy, you get a bonus $7 million too. That's something these fans say is worth watching. Pretty amazing. I've landed here earlier today and just traveling here to get to the event. So I'm from Austria. I'm from Germany. As soon as I heard, I had to get tickets.

Same. We were stopping in Paris on vacation. And my buddy over there was like the ESports World Cup is in Paris the same time we are. And so we booked tickets just for fun. It might be really hot outside right now, but inside the massive and thankfully, air-conditions port to Versailles Convention Centre, events have already started taking place, including the one that this guy plays, Valerun.

Hello, I'm Nikita Sirmutev, aka Derke, playing for Team Vitality in Valerent. And you're based in Paris. I'm really excited because I had never played in front of a French crowd before yet. These crowds making plenty of noise, but all of them are actually here pretty last minute, because this isn't how things were meant to go. The Esports World Cup has always been held in Saudi Arabia. Arabia, a country this event gets lots of its funding from. But with just weeks ago, it announced it would move to France because of instability in the Gulf region. Mike McCabe is

one of the tournament's top bosses. This is over 45,000 square metres of space. We have seven stages. It's a massive undertaking. We have enough cable powering all of these incredible technical systems to get basically from London to Birmingham and back again. We still can't quite believe that we're here. Everything's... working. Organizers say it was always planning to move to new cities, but global events meant bumping that plan up sooner. It did, though, leave just weeks to arrange complicated live broadcasts and opening ceremonies expected to be watched by millions online. Not that these guys might. I book my tickets right away and came, so it's great to have this in France.

It's just amazing to see that we get a bit more Europe representation. Andrew Rogers, reporting from Paris. The Oscar-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan is renowned for his ambitious, large-scale blockbusters like Oppenheimer, Interstellar and Dunkirk. And now he's turned to one of the oldest stories in Western literature for his next project, retelling of Homer's epic The Odyssey. It features some of the biggest names in acting and was filmed on real ships in seas across six countries. Matt Damon is Homer's hero Odysseus. Tom Holland plays his son in a story that is nearly 3,000 years old.

But according to Nolan, it's crowd-pleasing popcorn stuff. Our culture editor Katie Razel met him and some of his stars. Everyone wants to work with Christopher Nolan. We want him more. Matt Damon plays Greek hero Odysseus. Help me go home. He said, I'd like to offer you the lead role. And so I just said, yeah.

And he was, don't you want to hear what it is? I think his king is coming back. No, he's not. Anne Hathaway is Odysseus's wife, Penelope. When I got the call, it was how quickly can you get on a plane to Los Angeles because I live in New York with my family. And I said, I think I've missed all the flights today, but how about tomorrow? Unlike Hathaway and Damon, Tom Holland as their son. My dad is coming home. And his wife Zendaya, who plays the goddess Athena, our first

timers in a Nolan movie. You yearn for that opportunity, and then you get the opportunity, and that comes with a lot of pressure. Even Christopher Nolan was a little intimidated, after the success of Oppenheimer. You're talking about turning theory into a practical weapon system faster than the Nazis. You have ways of coping with it. My son walked into my office while I was writing on the Odyssey and said, where are you Oscars? And I said, well, I'm trying to write a new project and if I've got Oscars sitting there on the shelf.

Think about how daunting that big. And he looked at me and he said, but you didn't win for writing. Just from the jump, I thought this isn't the Penelope that I've come to expect. This is a volcano of a woman. Unless me, you will come back. What if I can't? Anne Hathaway's character has waited 20 years for her husband to return from war while watching her son grow up without him.

It was really interesting to kind of translate what my idea of being a loving mother is to 3,000 years ago. I know this is going to sound silly, but go to her pre-therapy world. You know, there's no such thing as gentle parenting in ancient Greece. The stakes were really, really high. She's already been separated from one great love in her life. And so I think that makes her cling more tightly to the other great love of her life for a child. There are big themes to be read into this film. What makes a man, the trauma of war, and the ancient Greek tradition of hospitality to strangers.

It's essentially a golden rule. It says, treat others as you would be treated. And when that principle of respecting others is ignored or abused, things fall apart. Have we lost that hospitality that the Greeks talk about? there's a danger that we're not valuing it as we should. But if you think about it, it's so fundamental that if we'd really lost that, it would be chaos and anarchy everywhere around the world. I mean, it is what holds our society together.

And when you're making a film like this, do you think about how it will be received by modern audiences and whether it is picking up something about our culture? No, I don't. But I also trust that if done right, that process will lead to something that does reflect the world we live in. What would you do? He came back here and found all these suitors in his house.

Tom Holland's got two big films this summer, a new Spider-Man movie and The Odyssey, with its themes around masculinity that feel very timely. Maybe what you can learn from this movie about masculinity is that it comes in all shapes and sizes, and there's no version of it that's perfect and that people are flawed. You seem very relaxed about the whole idea of what it is to be a man.

I'm just living in my life the way my parents raised me, which was to be respectful to anyone, and everyone and to be humble, to enjoy your successes, to work hard and, you know, don't take anything for granted. What was new for you on this set? What did you learn on the Odyssey? I mean, I did a lot of sword fighting, which I loved. Useful in future life? I mean, if someone broke into my house, you're keeping a sword at home now. I have a cricket bat, actually, and I can wield that in a sword-like fashion. I think it's asleep. That report from our Culture Editor Katie Razzle.

And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at BBC.com. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. 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 Chris Murphy and the producer was Stephanie Tillotson.

The editor is Karen Martin. and I'm Ankara Desai. Until next time, goodbye. How has America shaped the world? I'm Asma Khalid, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. As the United States marks its 250 year anniversary, we've been exploring the surprising and often hidden ways the U.S. has shaped the modern world.

And today on the show, we answer your questions about this moment and what to expect in the years to come. From the BBC, it's the United States at 250. Listen to The Global Story on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.