Global News Podcast - US seizes Iranian-flagged cargo ship

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

The US military says it has intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman as part of its naval blockade. Iran has promised to retaliate. The announcement came after the White House confirmed US Vice-President JD Vance would lead another delegation for a second round of talks on ending the war with Iran in Pakistan. Tehran has not yet confirmed its attendance. Iranian state media has reported that officials will not participate while the US blockade remains in place. Also, a gunman in the US state of Louisiana kills eight children - aged from one to fourteen years old. How DNA databases are helping dozens of Kenyans track down the British soldiers who fathered them and then disappeared. And a humanoid robot breaks the half marathon world record in Beijing.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 Jenat Jalil, and in the early hours of Monday the 20th of April, these are our main stories. President Trump says the US has seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that he claims was trying to get past an American naval blockade. Iranian state media says Iran has no plans currently to join senior U.S. officials for another round of peace talks in Pakistan. A gunman in the U.S. state of Louisiana killed. eight children aged from one to 14 years old. Also in this podcast, it's robots versus humans in Beijing. Robots are just really fun, so I wanted to bring my kids to experience it.

Technology is developing so fast, I think robots will soon beat humans in many ways. Iran's military has vowed to respond after the US fired at and seized an uranium-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of a market. President Trump said the American Navy had blown a hole in the ship's engine room. This was the moment of the confrontation. Motor vessel toska. Vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room.

We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire. This comes as a U.S. delegation is going to Pakistan again for talks with Iran. A week after negotiations in his. Lamabad broke up without any deal being reached. The White House says the Vice President J.D. Vance will once again be leading the U.S. side. Mr. Trump renewed his threat to destroy every power plant and bridge in Iran if it doesn't agree a deal. But Iranian state media says Iran is not currently planning to take part in the new talks as the blockade continues of the Strait of Hormuz. I got more on all this with our global affairs reporter, Ambrasana Tirajan, who first told

me more about the ship that had been hit. The US is maintaining this naval blockade, and they're not allowing any ship to do with Iran or any of the Iranian ports to pass through. And a short while ago, President Trump has just posted on his truth social platform about US Marines having a full custody of a cargo ship, he says, tried to get through the US blockade of Iranian ports.

And according to him, the Iranian crew refused. used to listen. So our Navy ship stopped them right in the tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room. Then that again is a major escalation, especially just days before the talks or on the eve of the planned talks in Islamabad. So they are saying that until this blockade is removed and also they are criticizing the statement made by President Trump earlier that about targeting the Iranian infrastructure. So they're not happy with the developments. And in this, But context only, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shabash Sharif, had a telephone conversation with the Iranian president a short while ago.

It was a 45-minute conversation, so you can as well imagine the hectic diplomatic activity going behind the scenes to bring Iran to the negotiating table. Yes, because for the second time, the U.S. delegation that is heading to Islamabad is being led by the U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, along with Steve Wickhoff and Jared Kushner, Now, it had seemed that the initial round of negotiations, which only lasted a day, had ended and that was the end of it. But now we're seeing this attempt to resume. What do you think the US is hoping to get out of this second round of talks? Well, if you ask the Iranians, they get confused by the messages, conflicting messages coming out of white, especially President Trump's messages on social media.

Now, Pakistan is very keen to hold these negotiations, and they have been conveying. messages between the two sides for the past few days. So Pakistan is playing a key role here, even if they can extend the ceasefire, because one set of ceasefire coming to an end on Wednesday, of course, with Lebanon it is a different deadline. So even if they cannot reach a final agreement or some sort of framework for an agreement, for the moment they want to keep continuing with the talks by extending the ceasefire. So the whole challenge is about narrowing down the different particularly with regard to enriched uranium and reducing missile capabilities and from Iran's point of view, removing the blockade and the sanctions. So that is a huge gap. And they may not

influence the talks, but what they say is we are facilitators. So it is a key role because this is one meeting ground where both the Americans and the Iranians feel comfortable to come because the Iranians may not want to go to any other country for security and other reasons. But for Pakistan, it is a prestigious thing for them to hold these negotiations. And that's what you see, this last-minute diplomatic activity going on without any concrete confirmation coming from Iran. Because Iran is saying lift the blockade first to the US before we sent our negotiators. And so far, they're not showing any sign of blinking.

That's what, like, Iran was putting its foot down, even on the first round of negotiations because they said they will not adhere to the ceasefire until Lebanon was included. in the whole ceasefire discussion. And we've now seen a ceasefire in Lebanon. So after a few days, and then you saw President Trump also posting on social media saying, Israel targeting Lebanon prohibited. So for many analysts, they saw that was in terms of tactical victory for Iran because Iran was insisting on having a broader ceasefire.

Even Pakistan said Lebanon was included, but whereas Israel and others were giving a different version. And now what they're saying is, according to the Iranian version, that the US said agree to remove the blockade. So that is what the bone of contention now. So many of these Iranian analysts would point out that, you know, you can't conduct diplomacy on social media. It has to be behind the scenes.

So we don't know whether Iranians are going to come to the talks until the US and others agreed to the condition. Ambrasan Etirajan. Legal experts have described Mr. Trump's repeated threat to destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure as a potential war crime. But the American ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, asked about this on ABC News, defended the U.S. president. That would be an escalatory ladder. And if you go back in the history of warfare, go all the way back to World War II.

Of course, we bombed and took down bridges, other infrastructure, power plants that, yes, could be used for civilian, but also are used to manufacture drones and missiles. So the Iranian regime in particular and its terrorist proxies have a long history of actually deliberately hiding military infrastructure in hospitals, schools, neighborhoods, and other civilian assets. So they are standing on, they have no ground to stand on. Our chief international correspondent, Lee Doucette, is in Tehran. She's been speaking to the senior lawmaker, Abraham Azizi.

the chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. And a reminder, she's reporting on condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian service. These restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating inside the country. Will Iran ever give up its control of the Strait of Hormuz? Certainly not. Certainly not. We believe this is our inalienable right. We are preparing a plan to be approved by Parliament,

with comprehensive regulations ruling passage through the strait to be implemented by the armed forces. Even your neighbors, with whom you had good relations before the war, are saying this is international waters and this is an act of piracy. Today, America is the world's biggest pirate. There are people in the squares supporting the government, but there are also young Iranians being arrested in waves of arrest. They're young Iranians being executed for their part in the protests.

And there's a fear that after the war is over, that this internal repression will get worse. I think you probably haven't been given the correct analysis regarding the situation in Iran. We are at war. even though there is a ceasefire and there are rules. We do speak to young people here who tell us that they're still angry and pained by what happened in January, the crackdown which caused many thousands of deaths.

Today Iran is a free country. It is very free. Senior Iranian lawmaker Abraham Azizi speaking, to Lise Doucette. A gunman has shot dead his seven children plus another child in the US state of Louisiana. Their ages ranged from one to 14 years old. Two adults were also wounded in the attack in the town of Shreveport. The suspect identified locally as Sharma Elkins was killed by police who had chased him after he tried to flee in a stolen car. Tabitha Taylor is a member of the town's council. I pain and I grieve for this family.

I grieve for the lives that are lost. There are eight children that are deceased. I can't be strong for you. I think about the mother and what this family has lost. I think about this community and what this community has lost. And I don't have the words to give you and I'm sorry. Riley Curry is a local journalist. It has been definitely a tragic day here in Treesport.

Treetport police have confirmed that Shemar Elkins is the shooter. And I also heard word that seven of the eight children that he killed were his own biological children. Shreveport police say most of them were shot in the head. And one of the children was found dead on the roof. I think it's important to note that the woman who was shot in the home escaped the house and then entered into the Brown House right next door. And she was the one who called Treesport Police. I've never seen anything or heard anything like this. I think that has been the thing that's stuck in my mind. Even Treesport Police, they're just saying we've never in our

career seen anything so devastating. And that really just breaks my heart to know that it was children. I started here at around 9 a.m. and people were here crying. You can just feel the grief. in the air. No one is okay after visiting this crime scene today. Journalist Riley Curry. One of Britain's largest overseas military training areas is in Kenya, north of Nairobi. Thousands of British troops train at the Nanyuki Army base each year. And it's emerged that nearly a hundred children have been found to have been fathered by British men serving at that base.

Many of them have grown up in Kenya, not knowing their fathers, who left and never returned. returned. Some of the children have endured extreme poverty or been ostracized by their communities. The BBC World Service has been following a groundbreaking project which uses commercial DNA databases to identify these men and in some cases take them to court here in the UK. Ivana Davidovich reports. So you guys have all been waiting very patiently. I see you kids are waiting very patiently as well. It's December 2024. A group of women are crowded into a room in the back of a cafe in a town called Nanuki in Kenya.

Each of them has a child who they believe was fathered by a British soldier, who they say is now failing to support them. We will try as hard as we can. We will use every tool we can. We will go to court as much as we can. They're here to meet a team of lawyers and a geneticist who are looking for volunteers for a legal project which has the potential to change their lives.

I can't promise you will find them. I can promise you we will work very. very hard for this. UK lawyer James Netto and his colleagues are here to collect DNA samples, then use commercial DNA databases like ancestry to track down the missing military fathers.

You see this little stick. It's got a little swab on the end. I'm going to put it inside your mouth. That's fine. Okay. It's here that I meet 18-year-old Kathy. I'm an insomniac. So I just lie down, look at the ceiling and I'm like, if he was still here,

This could have been my life. This could have happened. I would have been happy. She believes her dad was a British soldier, and through this project, she hopes to find him. It's in DNA, literally. I can't escape it, because something in me is like, get to know him.

And then there's some part of me, which is like he doesn't care. He was never here for you. Kathy's mom, Maggie, was engaged to her dad, but when Kathy was seven months old, he disappeared. They spent years trying to track him down and Cathy sent him messages through Facebook over many years but never received a reply.

I knew I was talking to a ghost. I just literally poured my heart out. It's like a journal. I was writing a journal but I was talking to someone who's not there. Back in London, the samples are uploaded to commercial DNA databases. When matches are found, lawyers build family trees until, in some cases, they find a father. Kathy, hey, it's great to see you again. How are you doing?

Yes, it's nice to see you too. All these bits of the jigsaw, when you put them together, it really does show that this gentleman is really quite likely that this gentleman is your dad. How do you feel about it? I'm conflicted in a way, but I have hopes, yeah. Next, James takes Cathy's case along with others to the highest family court in England and Wales. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Cases on such scale all heard at one time.

And the common thread is that all of them are in the British Charlie. Well, that was a very good day in court. I'm so happy for these kids. Kathy's father is confirmed in the eyes of the law, meaning he will be added to her birth certificate and she can register for British citizenship. For mothers of children under 18, they can now demand child support.

And after 19 years of silence, Kathy's dad, Phil, contacts her almost. immediately. He tells me it all started when his mobile phone was stolen and he lost all his contacts. He says he never saw any of the messages Kathy and Maggie were sending him or thought there were spam. And then, when he left the army, his life fell apart. I wasn't in a very good place either, you know, because I just come back from a really nasty part of my life, been homeless. And it was like, it was getting too much for me. So I had to take it. I was go down to the mental health clinic.

I wasn't sleeping at all. I was just trying to survive at the time. Phil tells me that hearing from lawyer James Netto was a happy surprise. I'd never make up for the amount of time that I've lost with her, but all I can do is to do the best that I can. 20 cases have so far gone to court,

and many more are in the pipeline. The Ministry of Defence told the BBC, while paternity claims are a private life issue, the UK government cooperates with Kenyan authorities on these matters. All soldiers are trained on the behavior expected of them on and off duty in Kenya. Ivana Davidovich reporting and to hear the full investigation search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Still to come in this podcast, K-pop, K-drama and now the latest Korean cultural export. Reading other stories and sharing my

writing. Here, we don't need to censor ourselves. And it's really widened my perspectives. Literature with female authors at the forefront. This is the Global News podcast. The UN Children's Agency, UNICEF, has said it's outraged after two truck drivers it contracted to deliver clean water to families in the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli forces over the weekend. It happened during a routine delivery. in northern Gaza. James Elder is a UNICEF spokesperson. The two men were performing routine trucking operations without any deviation from the standard movement procedure, been doing this a long time since the approval of December 2024, and they came under Israeli fire. At no time

of these people ever armed. It's not an area that's subject to coordinated movement, so it's 400 metres within, you know, or west of, the yellow line, if you will. Their trucks were parked at the time. It's not yet confirmed on. whether the fire came from a fixed position, a tank or a quadcopter. Initial eyewitnesses into account it may have come from a tank. Two other drivers were injured at the same time. So it's obviously absolutely achingly sad for their families and extremely damaging for one of the most critical water points

for the entirety of the Gaza, well, certainly for Northern Gaza. So this is the Israeli statement. On Friday, IDF troops operating in the Northern Gaza Strip identified two suspects in the area of the Yellow Line who approached the troops, immediately upon identification, the troops received a threat and opened fire towards the suspects. Does that accord with what you think happened or you know happened? No, it doesn't accord with what we think happened, doesn't accord with what the eyewitnesses happened, doesn't accord with what we have done every single time there, scores and scores of times as we access water.

And no clear rebuttal has been made, and it always would when a UN agency, see, we are very sparing in coming out with things like this. Now, I mean, look, go on, from my own point, I've done hundreds of interviews on Gaza. Scores of them when I was told enough aid was being allowed in, and we had a famine. Scores of them where I was told by officials there was sufficient water and sanitation. We saw polio. Governments deny information during wars and then later revise their position. The death toll in Gaza is probably the ideal example, widely dismissed for years,

even as we got to 20,000 children killed and later acknowledged then as accurate. The UN's James Elder speaking to Owen Bennett Jones. In Italy, Georgia Maloney's right-wing government is seeking to introduce a scheme which would reward lawyers with a financial bonus if they convince their immigrant clients to return to their home countries. The move is part of the Italian government's latest security bill and is drawn criticism from across the legal and political spectrum. Our reporter Carla Conti has more. Critics have described it as a Wild West-style bounty. One of the most controversial elements of Georgia Meloni's latest security bill is a decree that would pay lawyers bonuses

if they persuade their immigrant clients to return to their countries of origin. According to calculations reported in the Italian press, lawyers would receive a fee of over $700 for handling the voluntary repatriation process, but only when the migrant actually leaves Italy. The decree goes further. It also gives Italy's National Bar Council a formal role in the repatriation process, including overseeing the payments made to the lawyers involved. That's triggered a fierce backlash across Italy's legal institutions. The Bar Council says it was never informed it would be drawn into the scheme and is now urging lawmakers to remove its role altogether. The measure has also sparked criticism across the political opposition.

Ricardo Magi, leader of the left-wing Pew Europa Party, said the government was trampling on migrants' rights and described the decree as one step away from Trump's eyes, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. This is the Italian Prime Minister's latest move to clamp down on irregular immigration. But it comes at a politically vulnerable moment for Ms. Meloni. Just last month, Italians rejected a key constitutional referendum concerning the reform of the judicial system

that had turned into a vote of confidence on our government. The security decree passed the Senate after fiery debate and we'll go to the lower house for final approval this week. Carla Conti. To Beijing now, where people witnessed a leap or perhaps sprint forward in robot technology. A humanoid robot ran a half marathon faster than ever before, smashing the world records set just last month by the Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.

The bot finished the 13-mile course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, around seven minutes faster than Kiplimo. Pete Ross reports. The sound of the winning competitor, cheered on by a young fan, speeding across the line of the E-Town Half-Marathon in Beijing. The race, in only its second year, saw dozens of Chinese-made humanoid robots easily surpassed, hundreds of human runners taking part in the race, while also showing off their rapidly improving agility

and autonomous navigation skills. Not only did the winning robot complete the course in a time that shattered the best time ever recorded by a human runner, it did so with a performance that was a vast improvement on last year's robot competitors. The race's inaugural edition was famously riddled with mishaps, with clips of robots, flanked by teams of people controlling them, struggling to get off the line or keeling over mid-race,

going viral online. Last year's championed humanoid recorded a time of two hours 40 minutes, more than double the time of the human winner of the conventional race. But one year on, the difference in performance from the robot athletes could not have been more stark. Not only did the number of competitors

grow from 20 to over 100, but many were noticeably faster than the professional athlete in the human race. That's not to say that this year's race wasn't without its issues. The winning robot toppled over close to the end. crashing into a barrier and had to be helped to make it over the finishing line. But despite the odd hiccup, many spectators seemed impressed with what they saw, including this man.

Robots are just really fun, so I wanted to bring my kids to experience it. Technology is developing so fast, I think robots will soon beat humans in many ways, not just in speed, but also in things like AI-driven behavior. So, yeah, I wanted to come and see them before they actually saw them. for now it remains to be seen what practical use these speedy robots could be put to. Viable applications of humanoid robots mostly remain in a trial phase. This woman worried about what the robot tech on show might mean for the future. I grew up in the 2000s and I watched a lot of robot science fiction movies.

Back then people would imagine things like what if robots gained consciousness one day and turn against us humans. I grew up on those films, but now seeing this event, I can't help but wonder if those fantasies might actually come true someday. After this year's robot domination of the podium, there's little doubt about the rapidly improving physical prowess of the machines and the potential to reshape everything from dangerous jobs to battlefield combat. Pete Ross reporting. Cultural products from Korea, from K-pop to K-drama to K-B beauty have hooked people all over the world in recent years. The latest addition to this trend are books, as exports of translated Korean literature

more than doubled in 2024. Female authors are propelling the growth, and they're also developing an extensive community of readers inside Korea itself. Li Heun Choi reports from Seoul. I'm on the train heading south to the city of Tejjong, an hour and a half away from Seoul, to attend a book talk event led by a renowned feminist author, Hamina. Lately, these book-related events have become increasingly popular amongst women in South Korea, popping up across the country. We will soon be arriving at Dejan Station. I'm about to find out why these women are gravitating towards these literary spaces.

I've arrived at the book talk event, and we're all waiting for it to see. start. It's about 30, 40 women of all ages from what I can see. I also see a mother here with a daughter maybe three or four years old and a lot of young women as well. That's Hamina. She's one of South Korea's many successful women writers dominating the book market. Last year, a whopping 90% of the country's top 20 best-selling novels were written by women. Haa published her first book in 2019, unpacking the connection between gendered violence and young South Korean woman's mental health. In Korean society, the feminist label is taboo.

You're considered a weirdo. So writer's spaces are one of the few places for women to grow. Has been running gulbangs or writing rooms where anyone can join to share their writings with each other. Notably, these gulbang communities led by women have been growing in recent years. When the book talk ended, I spoke with Kim Gahehan, a 28-year-old woman who loves attending these events and regularly participates in gulbongs. In the context of your everyday life, what does having this literary space mean for you? Reading other stories and sharing my own writing.

Here, we don't need to censor ourselves, and it's really widened my perspectives. Guyon is one of many women finding inspiration and bound to, breaking stories abundant in Korean literature today. I'm calling Shin Aromi, who is one of those authors pushing those boundaries. For Shin, that meant going against the current by choosing not to get married and writing about why she loves her single life. Yes, my book is not talking about don't marriage. Marriage is like, help.

I didn't say that. I just say, find your life, what you really like, don't get pressure from society, something like that. Contributions like Xin's are helping to shape a quiet revolution in South Korea's literary scene. In 2024, novelist Hangang became the first Asian female writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, demonstrating the expanding reach of K-literature on the world stage. And now, through a growing gul-bang community, even more emerging writers have been able to carve out a space to share their voices. And that report was by Li Yun Choi in Seoul.

And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can always email us at global podcast at bbc.com. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Jack Wilfan. The producer is Chavonne Lehi. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Jalil. Until next time. Goodbye.