Global News Podcast - US denies Iran's claim that it hit American warship

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

The US military says its warships have helped two US-flagged vessels transit the Strait of Hormuz, breaking an Iranian blockade. It's denied Iranian reports that one warship had been forced to turn back. Also: More than 30 world leaders - including the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney - attend the European Political Community summit in the former Soviet republic of Armenia, to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Three people have died on board a cruise ship that was crossing the Atlantic, following an outbreak of a respiratory illness - believed to be Hantavirus. The video game retail chain GameStop launches a $56bn takeover bid for the much bigger firm, eBay. Australia begins public hearings into the killing of 15 people in a gun attack on a Jewish event on Bondi Beach in December. A BBC investigation finds scammers in Uganda are posting online content of dogs in distress in a shelter to get money from international donors. The former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, is in a critical condition in hospital. And a team of North Korean women footballers is due to cross the border to play their neighbours in the semi-final of the Asian Football Confederation Champions League - the first time athletes from the north have travelled to South Korea since 2018.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 BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. 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 Monday the 4th of May. The US denies claims that Iran has hit an American warship in the Strait of Hormuz. Leaders from Europe and Canada meet to discuss security as concerns grow over US foreign policy. And three people have died after a virus outbreak on a cruise.

cruise ship. Also in the podcast, the video game retailer GameStop offers to buy eBay for $56 billion, but can it afford it? eBay's business is huge in comparison to GameStop. Talk about a business which is over $50 billion, whereas GameStop's only about 15 billion. So very cheeky indeed in terms of having a shot at this particular giant. But first, is the stalemate between Iran and the US about to escalate into a

Hot war again. Yesterday, President Trump announced a plan called Operation Freedom to guide ships safely through the Strait of Hormuz, supported by guided missile destroyers, 100 aircraft, and 15,000 service personnel. Iran responded by issuing threats to attack any U.S. warships in the waterway. Hours later, media in Iran reported that an American frigate had been hit by two Iranian missiles and been forced to turn back. U.S. Central Command responded by saying, no, US Navy ships had been hit. So what is going on? Barana Bassi is from the BBC Persian Service. We have different accounts from Iranian media. The state TV says that a workshop was trying to enter the Strait of Hormons. Some warning shots were fired and it had to turn back.

But the Forest News Agency affiliated to the Islamic Revolutionary God Cause has a different account. It says that the workshop had entered the Strait of Hormons. Two missiles were fired at it. after it ignored warnings from the Iranian Navy, the missiles hit the warship and it had to turn back. So we have different accounts, but the U.S. Central Command has denied this report saying that its workshop had not been struck. What we can say is that the reports of this confrontation comes after Iran's explicit warnings that if the U.S. forces enter the state of hormones, they will be struck. And also if commercial shifts, want to have a safe passage through the state of Hormos,

they have to ask permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard calls and have to go through a designated route that the Iranian forces have announced just today they have changed the route that tankers and commercial ships are allowed to go through. So they are maintaining that they have full control of the state of Hormos and they will not allow any ships to pass through without their permission. Yeah, the US military didn't deny the claims that the warship had been forced to turn back. But it comes against the backdrop of Operation Freedom, President Trump's effort to try to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, possibly by sending extra ships into the area.

How perilous a moment is this? It's potentially one of the most dangerous moments between the two countries since they ceasefire on the 8th of April. Both sides are adamant that they have control of the state of foremost. The U.S. has blockaded Iran's ports that is putting a lot of pressure on Iran economically. And Iran is choking off the oil and gas flow through the strait. And Iran has adopted a harsh rhetoric over the past few days saying that the United States has to accept a bad deal or an impossible war. It certainly believes that it is holding the cards by holding the world's economy hostage. And we are already seeing that projectiles have been fired at the UAE.

And now with this new operation by the United States, there's a risk of miscalculation that any escort of tankers through the strait might be considered a hostile move by the Iranian Navy. And we could see a further escalation and maybe a resumption of full-scale war. Baron Ambassador from the BBC Persian Service. And after we spoke, the US military announced that its warships had helped two US flagged vessels transit the Strait of Hormuz, breaking the Iranian blockade, it said. But there are doubts about how much difference the US operation will make. Here's maritime security expert, Martin Kelly.

I think the terminology here is really quite important. The term guide does not reference any sort of military or naval escort through the Strait of Hormuz. I've said since the beginning of the conflict that this is far too dangerous. It's inherently different from any sort of escorting that we've seen in the past. What it probably does refer to is a sort of coordination cell where shipping companies and insurance companies could coordinate with the US military to try to request approval diplomatically to pass by the straight reform news. I think the DUS announced this on social media and we should be really sceptical about any foreign policy that is announced first on social media. There's already been several examples where Trump has made announcements on truth social that don't accurately reflect any sort of bilateral agreements. and more importantly dangerous.

We saw quite serious examples of this when Trump posted a couple of weeks ago that the Strait of Hormuz was open for business. Then some ships did move towards the Strait of Hormuz and was ultimately attacked by Iran. So I don't think that this is enough to persuade shipping companies and insurance companies that the Strait of Hormuz is freely open. Maritime security expert Martin Kelly. Set up after the Russian invasion of Ukraine,

the European political community has been holding a summit in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. More than 30 leaders are there, including President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, and the first non-European to attend Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada. Now, we have to actively take on the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. We know nostalgia is not a strategy, but we don't think that we're destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world. and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward. President Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to help bolster European defense resources

and that Europe needed to be involved in any negotiations with Russia. We need to focus on what we will do if Russia does not end this war. We need continued pressure and we need peace. And of course, it's number one. We need to find a workable diplomatic format. At the same time, Russian state TV warned Armenia against developing closer ties with the West, saying it would lose out economically if its relations with Russia were weakened. If politicians get ahead of economic realities, Ukraine shows how it can end, said the commentary in Rossi at 24.

I got the latest from our South Caucasus correspondent, Rahan Dimitri, who was at the summit in the Armenian capital Yeravan. A short while ago, there was a kind of panel discussion with, Emmanuel Macron and Kier Starrmer and Italy's Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron, who founded this format, the European political community format in 2022. He delivered very direct assessment on where Europe stands and he named the over-dependence on America quite bluntly, calling it elephant in the room. But he also offered Europe a role as an honest broker on Iran. He said that Europe was not at war with Iran, and he said that Europe is trusted by both Washington and also respected by Tehran.

We also heard a speech you just mentioned Vladimir Zelensky, and what I thought was quite interesting is that he said that their assessment is that this summer Putin will decide whether to expand the war or move to diplomacy. and he said that Russia must be pushed to diplomacy. And quite interestingly, he mentioned the main nine parade in Moscow, which is where Russia usually showcases all its military equipment. And it's been announced that this year there won't be a show of military equipment. And Zelensky assessment was that it's because they don't have much to show. And there's a threat of drone attacks in Moscow. Also, earlier, there were quite interesting remarks from Mark Carney.

I quite like him describing Canada as the most European, non-European guest. And he framed Canada's presence around shared values. He talked about democracy, rule of law and freedom, and pointed to the commitments that Canada has. He said it was one of the largest contributors in Ukraine. I just wanted to ask you about Armenia, Russia relations, of course, where you are used to be a key part of the Soviet sphere of influence. Absolutely. Armenia is still a Russia's ally in the South Caucasus. It hosts a military base.

And up until recently, it was a member of Russia's military alliance. That membership is currently frozen. Many reasons for that, but mainly because Russia's military alliance did not intervene when there were incursions by its neighbor Azerbaijan. Rahan Dimitri in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Three people have died on board a cruise ship that was crossing the Atlantic, following an outbreak of a respiratory illness believed to be hantavirus. A fourth person has been airlifted to hospital for intensive care. The MV Hondias was travelling from Argentina and is now off the coast of Cape Verde in West Africa. The ship's Dutch operator says it's seeking permission to evacuate two sick passengers from the vessel.

The World Health Organization says the risk posed by Hanta virus to the wider public remains low. Richard Hamilton reports. According to the tracking website, marine traffic, the cruise ship has not moved from Cape Verde for the last 24 hours. Its operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said no authorization had been granted from the Cape Verdean authorities to allow people requiring medical care to disembark. The World Health Organization said at least one case of Hanta virus had been confirmed by laboratory testing on a British national who'd been airlifted to hospital in Johannesburg. So what exactly is Hanta virus?

Susie Wiles is a microbiologist at the University of Auckland. It's actually a group of related viruses that normally live in rodents, lots of different kinds of rodents in different parts of the world. And they don't cause any disease in those rodents. They just make those rodents basically shed lots of virus for their entire lives. And that virus is found in their droppings, in their saliva and in their urine. People get infected by either breathing in kind of dust and dander that's got that urine and the virus from those things in it or from being bitten by a rodent, possibly even by

eating food that's been peed on by an infected rodent. There's been some very rare cases of human-to-human transatlantic. So normally somebody would pick it up from the environment. Other medical experts say that the Andes strain of hantavirus, the most common form in South America, where the cruise began, is not easily spread from person to person, but can be occasionally. Hantavirus has reported to be fatal in around 40% of cases. There are two illnesses, one that leads to a build-up of fluid in the lungs,

and another that affects the kidneys. In this case, the symptoms are more severe and include internal bleeding. The incubation period for the virus takes up to eight weeks, so a passenger may have been unknowingly infected before the cruise began. There's no vaccine or specific treatment for hanta virus, and patients normally require specialist hospital equipment, such as ventilators, which are not available on board cruise ships. Richard Hamilton.

During the pandemic, shares in the video retail chain GameStop surged when an online campaign turned it into a meme stock. The firm is now worth nearly $12 billion, but it's recently had to close hundreds of stores across the US and Europe. So there is some surprise that it's now launched a $56 billion bid to take over a much bigger firm, eBay. GameStop chief executive Ryan Cohen told the Wall Street Journal, he saw potential to make the online marketplace a much bigger rival

to Amazon. eBay has not yet commented. Our business reporter Nick Marsh told me more. GameStop is having to close its physical stores. Obviously, we know the way that shopping trends and commerce trends are going. If you're a video game store, you're not going to get anywhere as near as much custom as you might have done 10, 15, 20 years ago. In fact, GameStop was really struggling until that meme stock, you know, that surge on the internet happened during the pandemic. So the idea would be take over a really, you know, well-known e-commerce platform and move more smoothly into the digital space. That way, Ryan Coe and the chief executive, he's talked about using the stores that GameStop does have still for live streaming, live e-commerce, that sort of

thing. And he's convinced that there are massive cuts to be made in eBay as well, you know, to make it more profitable. Apparently it spends $1.2 billion on marketing, which, if that's true, is an absolutely huge amount. So he wants to slash the budget there. So he, in his head, it all adds up to a really, really good idea. You buy eBay, you make it into a massive $100 billion company, and you do something very, very good for GameStop share price as well, which wouldn't hurt his pay packet because that's the way his compensation is structured as well. That's what he is laying down in theory.

Might be something different in practice. Yeah, I mean, how can a $12 billion company do a $56 billion, dollar takeover? Yeah, I mean, the numbers don't seem to quite add up. Ryan Cohen's talked about $20 billion in loans secured, $9 billion, that GameStop has in cash assets, but that still leaves a pretty big gap. You're going to need to get some pretty big investment from elsewhere.

Not just that, though. eBay hasn't commented, like you say, there's no indication at all that eBay's board is happy with this offer, so it's going to have to be a hostile takeover. Essentially, GameStop's going to have to say to eBay's share, shareholders, look, we're giving you a really good deal here. You know, we're going to give you 20% more than your shares worth. We want you to essentially overpower to outvote the board and create some kind of hostile takeover. So there are a few hurdles here financially, but also from a governance point of view.

If it does happen, it would be a pretty curious and pretty remarkable takeover. But like I say, quite far away. Nick Marsh. And still to come on this podcast. really worked long and hard on orchestrating how the two teams will move around for meals and training in the hotel so that there would be absolutely no chance of them bumping into each other. The logistics of getting North and South Korean footballers together. The crew of NASA's Artemis II mission have returned home safely after successfully completing their groundbreaking voyage around the moon. Splashdown confirmed.

Humans are back in the business of going to the moon. moon. But while the mission is over, the Artemis Space Program is just getting started. 13 minutes, the BBC Space Podcast is looking back on their epic journey and discovering what the future holds for the Artemis Space Program. Just imagine what we as humans can do next. 13 Minutes presents Artemis 2 from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast. Australia has begun public hearings into the killing of 15 people in a gun attack on a Jewish event on Bondi Beach in December. The inquiry chief said a sharp spike in anti-Semitic incidents in Australia seemed linked to events in the Middle East.

Sheena Guttnick's father was killed in the shooting. She spoke to reporters after giving testimony at the hearing. On one hand, he would be happy that we're having an opportunity to have our voices heard. his main goal would be to instill our Jewish community with pride for who we are and what we stand for, but at the same time ensure that measures are taken to eradicate this hatred that unfortunately he grew up with, my parents grew up with, my great-grandparents faced. We heard more from our correspondent in Sydney, Katie Watson. This is the first block of public hearings which form part of this Royal Commission,

which is the highest level of public inquiry here in Australia. and it's very much focused on the lived experience of people who've experienced anti-Semitism. And there will be later public hearings on different issues such as the circumstances around the attack itself. But there were 12 witnesses. And the first, you know, we heard from Shane Guttnick's father, Reuven Morrison, was one of the 15 people killed. He had, in fact, he was filmed hurling objects at one of the gunmen to try and stop them from carrying on the attack.

And she talked about the fact that her father, had come to Australia at the age of 14 from the Soviet Union. He had met her mother on Bondi Beach. She talked about those special childhood memories. It held a special place for her in many ways, but yet it was also a very heavy place for her family now. She talked about her fear as a Jewish mother, concerned for her children, especially feeling particularly threatened as part of the Jewish community. You know, she talked about the increase in anti-Semitism, especially after the events of October 2023, and talked about as if it was, it was almost anti-Semitism was okay and out in the open. And that was a huge, dramatic change for

her and scared the community. But several people, I think, it was interesting, talked about this, this idea of a golden age for the community. There had been for many years, this feeling that Australia was welcoming, it was a safe space. But again, many witnesses that I heard today, talked about this era no longer being the case and a couple of people who emigrated from different parts of the world, one from the UK who said they thought Australia was better to bring up their children, but they no longer believed that to be the case. And perhaps Australia wasn't the place for their grandchildren and the future of their family. Katie Watson in Australia.

A BBCI investigation has found that scammers in Uganda are posting online content of dogs in distress in a shelter to get money from international donors. Undercover filming shows that instead of benefiting the dogs, most of the money has gone towards funding the scammers' luxury lifestyles. Nyesha Michelle has this report. Across social media, you can find videos of dogs in distress, pleading captions and urgent calls for help. But behind some of these posts lies a darker.

After reviewing hundreds of fundraising pages for dog shelters and talking to online animal activists, the BBC found one town, Mityana in Uganda, to be at the center of the global scam. Mityana police said they have previously investigated animal cruelty at dog shelters and made arrests. Locals the team spoke to are aware of the scammers, but fear challenging them. Ashraf is an animal lover who looks after chickens in his garden and cares for goats which graze around Mitiana. To others, especially young people, dogs are seen as a source of money. Some people are afraid to speak out about the scammers because they could use their wealth

and power to retaliate. They have fear. To understand how the scams work, BBC Africa Eye sent an undercover team posing as aspiring content creators. They were introduced to a shelter owner known as Charles, who has been very active online. For small fees, Charles allowed them to film dogs kept in cramped and sanitary cages. He openly described how to deceive supporters. You tell the white people that you're being evicted and the landlord has given you one month notice to leave.

They will then start a GoFundMe fundraising campaign for you to build land. And once you receive the GoFandMe money, use it to buy a car or build a house. He also claimed that some scammers fake treatments and have maimed dogs. You pretend to the donor that you're treating the dog and you show the medicine, but in reality you have only injected it in the far. When they run out of content,

some people started intentionally cutting the dogs and asked for money. One dog known as Rassett became a symbol of the crisis. His injuries appeared across multiple fundraising accounts. Charles admitted to the BBC undercover reporter that he had at one point owned Rassett.

We contacted him for comment. When shown images of Russet, he said he did not recognise the dog. He acknowledged that content creators paid to film at his shelter, but he denied injuring dogs. Fighting Back is an international network of volunteers called We Won't Be Scammed, led by British activist Nicola Bird, herself a former donor.

They expose scam operations, but their methods have caused controversy with the online animal welfare community. So we work with our partners in Uganda who work undercover. Some of them pretend to be scammers. Some of them literally just hide out to watch the shelters.

And when the scammers are away, we will then just take the dogs. So what's Nicola's response to criticism of stealing the dogs? and to those who say it fuels the problem. The dogs that we steal are the ones that are the most severely abused. I don't feel bad about stealing a dog that's being abused by a scammer. Rassett was eventually taken away to a veterinary clinic run by Dr. Isha Lutebemberwa.

Admit an assessment. The chances of this being an accident at law. Why? Because if you look at these bones, all of them are broken. He was almost in the same oppositions. He was operated on, but a few days after surgery, Rathet died. He had a bright life ahead of him, because I mean, he even had a person who was willing to foster him. These dogs which have no one to speak for them, the voiceless animals out there, they need someone who can advocate for them. That report by Nyasha Michelle.

The former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, is seriously ill in hospital. A spokesman said the 81-year-old is in a stable but critical condition. Mr Giuliani became known as America's mayor after leading New York City through the aftermath of the 9-11 attack in 2001. He later became a vociferous supporter of Donald Trump, but his career ended in disgrace after he lost a $148 million defamation case over the false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. President Trump wrote on social media that Rudy Giuliani was a true warrior. Our White House correspondent, Bernd de Booseman, told us more.

He really was the ultimate Trump lawyer list and really stuck with him through all Trump's legal issues and really backed him with Trump's claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. But even beyond that, this is a man with whom President Trump has had a long, long relationship, long before President Trump got into U.S. politics. President Trump, of course, God began his career as a real estate developer in New York City and has known Rudy Giuliano, for a very important. very, very long time since the 1980s. And I think his statement, which came just moments after arriving back in Washington, D.C., just shows the depth of that relationship. And that President Trump really did value his loyalty through all the various legal issues, which really earned, was very troublesome for Rudy Giuliani. He was disbarred in New York and Washington. He faced state charges, although he denied all wrongdoing. He really did stick with President Trump through

President Trump's kind of darkest hours between his administrations. I think in the coming days, President Trump, when he does speak to reporters, he will almost certainly address this. This is something that I think will be very big news to President Trump, just given the depth of those ties. And that President Trump really, as a president, he really values loyalty above else. And all those who have stuck with him, he's kind of come out and supported when they needed it. And so I think it's very likely we'll hear from President Trump in the next day or to, if not tonight, more about Mayor Giuliani. Burnt to Busman in Washington.

North and South Korea rarely engage in any kind of cultural or sporting exchange. The two countries are still technically at war, since they didn't sign a peace treaty when their conflict ended in 1953. But later this month, a team of North Korean women footballers is due to cross the border to play their neighbours in the semi-final of the Asian Football Confederation Champions League. It's the first time athletes from the north have travelled to South Korea since 2018. So what will this visit look like for the two careers?

Nemo Kim is a journalist in the South Korean capital Seoul. It is fairly rare to have teams from both sides playing each other. In fact, it'll be the first visit by a North Korean sports delegation to South Korea in over seven years. The last time we had a sports delegation from the north, we had table tennis players competing at an event back in December of 2018. I think it was in Inchan. And it's also the first visit by a North Korean women's football team since the 2014 Asian Games also held in Inchang.

They will be staying at the same hotel, but dining arrangements and travel routes, you know, going back and forth between the gym and their rooms, they are expected to be totally separate, making encounters between the two teams almost impossible outside official match settings. And I've been told by South Korean Football Association officials that they really worked long and hard on orchestrating how the two teams will move around for meals and training in the hotel so that there would be absolutely no chance of them bumping into each other or even, you know, taking glances. at each other. Journalist Nemo Kim. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon.

This edition was mixed by Chris Murphy and produced by Chauvin Lehi and Chantel Hartel. Our editors, Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. The crew of NASA's Artemis 2 mission have returned home safely after successfully completing

their groundbreaking voyage around the moon. Splashdown confirmed. are back in the business of going to the moon. But while the mission is over, the Artemis Space Program is just getting started. 13 minutes, the BBC Space Podcast is looking back on their epic journey and discovering what the future holds

for the Artemis Space Program. Just imagine what we as humans can do next. 13 Minutes presents Artemis 2 from the BBC World Service. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.