Trump: US to leave Iran in '2 or 3 weeks'

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson, and in the early hours of Wednesday, the first of April, these are our main stories. Iran says it will end the war with the U.S., but only in return for security guarantees. Donald Trump says it will be over in two to three weeks. Mixed reactions as Britain confirms King Charles will make a state visit to America, and ballroom blues for President Trump as a judge stops work on the White House extension.

Also in this podcast, the depleted North Sea oil and gas fields being turned into huge offshore carbon dioxide storage sites. And As the team is preparing, I think everybody's pretty excited and understands the significance of this launch. This first chapter on our way back to the moon. There's been some optimism after Iranian state media reported President Massoud Pezeshkiyan saying his country is willing to end the war with the US and Israel in return for security guarantees.

And Donald Trump has also said the war will end in two to three weeks, but there are conflicting accounts on the status of peace talks and few tangible signs of progress. Speaking in the Oval Office, President Trump said the end to US operations in Iran is not dependent on reaching a deal with Tehran, but rather meeting Washington's war goals. He also reiterated his call for countries struggling with fuel shortages to go get their own oil from the Strait of Hormuz.

We'll be leaving very soon and if France or some other country wants to get oil or gas You know, f sh go up through the straight. They'll be able to fend for themselves. I think it'll be very safe actually. But we have nothing to do with that because we hit them hard, we got rid of a lot of a lot of the radicalized lunatics along the strait.

We have had regime change. Now regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal. They will have no nuclear weapon. And that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons. Uh but we're finishing the job within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer.

The comments come after a day of heavy strikes on Iran and follow a warning from the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that it would retaliate against US tech giants if more Iranian leaders are killed. And in the past few hours it's understood a tanker has been hit by an unknown projectile off the coast of Qatar. The crew are reported to be safe. Our North America correspondent Gary O'Donohue gave me this assessment of President Trump's strategy.

I mean it does really depend what day it is, what the the war aims are for Donald Trump. He's talked about you know, bombing until Iran has no longer the capacity for nuclear weapons, which it obviously doesn't have anyway at the moment. Uh he's also said that the war is coming to an end. And I think a lot of people will find that quite surprising because, you know, we're in a situation where the Strait of Hormuz is still effectively closed.

all this nuclear material is still buried under the ground inside Iran and the Islamic Republic remains in place. Uh and so for you know, in terms of war aims, m one might wonder Uh can that really be what victory looks like? Can he just walk away and leave the rest of the world to sort out the straight of four moves?

Well I think they believe they can. They they insist always that um Pete He Hegseth did this today, that, you know, America isn't dependent on that oil, etcetera, etcetera. Although that's always belied by the fact that you know, gasoline has just gone over an average of four dollars a gallon here for the first time since August twenty twenty two. You know, the market means that it is still subject to what's going on elsewhere. So the rhetoric

uh i is along those lines, but it's not clear that that can really be something they believe. Uh and of course You know, can they walk away without achieving the goal of of retrieving the nuclear material, four hundred and forty kilos of sixty percent enriched uranium? Can they walk away with you know the the regime intact even if they, as they say, they have removed the top few echelons?

The interesting thing is that in the last few days Donald Trump has said we've achieved regime change. So you can see the beginnings I think of a narrative that says, you know, whether or not anyone believes it or not, that says we've achieved what we we set out to do. How's all this going down with ordinary Americans? This is a a very partisan war.

Um, the n the numbers are really quite striking. Yeah, I mean, you've got around three quarters of Republicans who support this war, you've got around one in ten Democrats who support this war. Um, amongst uh Donald Trump's most loyal supporters, you know as we call'em the MAGA base, you know, that support is up to ninety percent. You know, it drops away with more moderate Republicans, but it's still approaching six out of ten.

And I was in um I was down in Alabama actually over the weekend talking to uh some farmers, talking to some people at a baseball game, talking to people in a church. And you get a real sort of sense that there's a lot of loyalty to this president down there. This farmer said to me that his diesel was up fifty percent, that his fertiliser was up four or five hundred dollars a ton. And I said, Well, does that question your support for the president? He said, No, no.

That's fine, I'll take the pain to try and stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon and sending over here. Now, you can argue about whether that's likely, whether this the homeland is under threat, but many Republicans do buy the argument. And on the other hand, a priest I spoke to down there, he said to me, Yeah, there's broad support for the President in this community but don't forget

You know, these things can change. People can be fickle. There was support for Vietnam, there was support for Iraq, and things changed. Gary O'Donohue in Washington.

President Trump has again lashed out at countries which he says haven't helped with his war in Iran. As we've heard, he said the UK, France and other countries could get their own oil from the now blocked Strait of Hormuz Earlier, Mr Trump's defence secretary Pete Hegsith appeared to make fun of Britain's Royal Navy. In what was perhaps an unfortunate coincidence of timing, on the same day royal officials in Britain confirmed that King Charles will make a state visit to the US later this month.

It raised the question of whether the King ought to visit a country whose leaders have been rude about Britain. It's an issue that has divided opinion. David Dimbleby, a veteran BBC broadcaster who's commented on many royal occasions. strongly opposes the idea of a state visit at the moment. I think it's an acute embarrassment. No, I don't think it's a good idea. I mean I pity the king. I mean he's at the mercy of the government. If the government says go, he goes.

a sitting down to a steak dinner with a man who has insulted the British troops in Afghanistan and said they weren't particularly important and weren't needed. goes out of his way to be rude about Britain and about NATO, and who's a narcissist and a bully. And the way to stand up to bullies is not to take it, but it seems that that's not the government's view. It appears to endorse what the President is standing for. It appears to endorse the narcissism and I think the British people

for whom, you know, the King speaks, would actually have liked to seen a slight distance made. A postponement because while The president is involved in this very important war and they would see it in Iran. It would be inappropriate.

That's why I think it could have been used cautiously as a actually President Trump, you're not gonna win everyone in this in this game. You're not gonna win over. You know, we're not gonna send our monarch Yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw, yn yw.

insulted them. When we've been on such a rocky road with this presidency, I would have thought not cancelling it, that would be too much of a rebuke, but there would be a diplomatic way of finding But not everyone agrees. Robert Hartman is the author of an upcoming biography of the late Queen Elizabeth. He thinks Mr. Trump will be on his best behaviour as he was when he visited Britain last year. speech at the state banquet at Windsor last September. I mean I can't recall in decades of

state visits or state visitors having quite such warm words to say about Britain generally. I mean, let's not forget this is a a president who is half British. There is a a really deep rooted love and respect for the monarchy. That runs completely on a separate axis, if you like, from uh his views on the British government. I would argue for the Foreign Office, for British Foreign Policy, for the Prime Minister

I mean this is a useful way of resetting the dial. When you look back at the track record of Donald Trump in the presence of royalty, I mean I was there in twenty eighteen when he came to see the Queen for the first time and then he had his first state visit the following year, twenty nineteen, and then he obviously came last year. on his day visit every time he's with the royal family, he's on his best behaviour. I mean he during all his visits with the late Queen there was no tweeting

So th there is not going to be any sort of over office toe curling embarrassing moment, I don't think. I think he will be very conscious that this has got to this has this has got to work. Robert Hardman.

As fuel prices rise around the world because of the war in Iran, countries have begun to implement measures to conserve as much as possible and to offer help to those paying inflated prices. In Australia, the federal government has halved fuel tax. In some states, they've even started offering free public transport. Prime Minister Anthony Albanizi has reassured Australians that the country's fuel supply remains secure after panic buying and petrol stations running dry.

Our correspondent Simon Atkinson, who's in Cairns in Queensland, told me how much people would say. The excise duty's been halved, which means it's going down by about twenty six and a bit Australian cents, that's around eighteen US cents per litre for petrol and diesel. So it should say drivers between ten Aussie dollars, about seven US dollars and twenty dollars, depending how big their vehicle is. So that's that's yeah, it's a bit of a saving.

Um I've been past a few service stations here this morning and it's clear that while some of them have already started to cut their prices by pretty much exactly the same amount as that And the government is that this is fair enough because they've got to sell the stock first that they bought at the higher price.

And y will it help curb the economic impact of the war? I mean you speak to people here and they say it's better than nothing, you know, even with this tax cut though, fuel is still going to be way, way more expensive than it was before the US and Israel. attacked Iran. If I can give you an example, just before the war began I filled my car here with diesel. It cost a touch over a hundred Australian dollars. It's about seventy US dollars.

A couple of days ago that same tank of fuel was one hundred and ninety dollars, so close to double. And so the savings on this duty are only going to offset that. And of course there are other flow on costs as well, everything in Australia needs to be transported, huge distances. So prices of everything are going up so

Yeah, this might help a little bit, but overall the picture's pretty grim here in terms of um cost of living. And free public transport in some places. Yeah, that's right. So for the next month people in the states of Tasmania and Victoria won't have to pay to use public transport.

And this is basically the authorities there saying, Come on, leave your car at home, save some fuel and a bit of an incentive you'll save some money too. Get on the bus, get on the train, get in the tram and it won't cost you a penny And it it's proven to be quite popular. I I'm in Queensland today where public transport it's not free but it's had a flat rate of fifty Australian cents for coming up for a couple of years now, something that became so popular that no politician dares cancel it.

And that's led to a real jump in public transport use. So hopefully the governments of Transmania and Victoria will be hoping for a similar uptake. Of course this is a big country Simon Atkinson. Still to come in this podcast. It's who you are as a person, really. The shocking news for some families who've used fertility treatment in northern Cyprus.

Jag skulle ju köpa några nya palstält i lagret. Det kanske blev lite mer grejer. De hade ju allt, man hade en skribord, jag köpte en sån här, och kontorstolar, och sen hade de en skit snyggt. Vi har inredning för hela arbetsplatsen. Välkommen till AI-produkten! On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon. People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard, and we pull apart the story behind the image. Discovering forgotten interviews that change exactly how we see these things.

the human version of our heroes. I'm Emmanuel Jochi. I'm Kyright. Listen to Big Lives where everyone. Jag har fått in larm om det full att barn. Hej, Alexandra Rappad här. Jag spelar Veronika Gren i serien Veronika. Jag undrar om du har sett mild. Du är inte fattar. Vilket är det har att göra med. Som är tillbaka med säson 3. Den här utredningen som ni håller på. Den börjar bli lite problematisk för oss. Streamar Veronika Säsong Trén nu, bara på Sky Showtime.

اشتركوا في القناة När det kommer till ålderskontroller. För med en begränsad Till alkohol må folk hälsan bättre. Hittar du lägget heller? Anorlunda av en anledning. This is the Global News Podcast.

Now to another matter that's been on President Trump's mind over recent months, the new ballroom he's having built as part of an extension to the White House. Work has already started, but a judge has now ruled that construction has to stop because mister Trump doesn't have the authority to build it without approval from Congress. I heard more about what the judge said from our Washington correspondent I anywell.

Well he said that while Donald Trump is the steward of the White House at the moment, he isn't the owner and so he doesn't have the authority to approve funding or large scale alterations to federal property without the permission and approval of Congress. Essentially he he was saying that the preservation group, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, that have brought this lawsuit against the Bullham project

are likely to succeed in their lawsuit. That is effectively the judgment here by this federal judge. Now he he said that Donald Trump essentially has fourteen days to try and appeal this decision. Otherwise construction will be halted in two weeks. So I think unless Donald Trump

successfully manages to appeal this decision in the next fourteen days, it is likely that construction's gonna be paused on this. What does the president actually want to do with the bullroom and why are his plans so controversial? Well he sees this as a chance to massively expand

essentially the hosting space of the White House at the moment. Sometimes when large scale events are put on they have to erect marquees or tents or for example outside and this is a way of increasing the capacity for posting balls, big state dinners for example, Although Trump has actually said recently that the bullroom is just in his words a shed for what's underneath and that there will also be this big military complex underneath it.

So he has huge ambition, I think, for this project, which is part of his wider plans to make his mark on Washington and and make various changes to the city while he's in office. Why it's controversial is the White House of course is one of the most symbolic buildings in the US.

And I think there is a a sense that critics when they saw diggers going in and essentially deconstructing the East Wing, tearing it down and starting to construct a new building on it, that they were pretty horrified that there were these huge changes being made to the White House without much

input from the public or federal lawmakers. Has there been any reaction from the White House? What's this going to mean for the President's plans? Is he gonna have to go to Congress? Well Donald Trump has reacted himself, posting on Truth Social.

attacking the National Trust for Historic Preservation who brought this lawsuit against the project, accusing them of being a radical left group of lunatics who he accused of essentially overlooking projects elsewhere in the US that he described as over budget. but now opposing a ballroom which he said was under budget, ahead of schedule, didn't cost the taxpayer, and in his words is one of the finest buildings of its kind anywhere in the world.

So he's clearly, as expected, not happy at all with this decision. In terms of options going forward, the judge has said that it's not too late for him to go to Congress and seek approval, so if he did get that approval then perhaps that would give him that authority to go ahead. Or he could potentially try to launch a legal appeal in the next two weeks. It is a short timeline though for him to successfully get that appeal approved in time to allow construction to continue.

To Denmark now, where an ambitious carbon capture plan will soon be underway, with human activities emitting record levels of carbon dioxide. Carbon capture allows thousands of tons of CO two that's being released from power stations and other industrial processes to be captured and then stored in depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

This could make a real difference in limiting the long term warming of the planet. Greensun's future, which is led by British chemicals giant Ineos, will become the EU's first large scale offshore CO two storage site. Our reporter Adrienne Murray travelled from the Danish port town Espeyer and out into the North Sea. Our helicopter had flown two hundred and fifty kilometers from Denmark's west coast. When it circled a solitary oil rig rising up from the choppy waters of the North Sea.

is about to get a second life as the site of a massive carbon storage project called Green Sand Future. Where CO two emissions captured from industry will be buried eighteen hundred meters below the seabed. After landing at the large mother platform nearby, Merz Gauer, CEO of Ineos Energy, showed me to the whale head. Instead of pulling the oil and gas off the ground, we're gonna inject the CO2 into the ground instead. When commercial operations get underway in the next few months

This will be the EU's first large-scale offshore storage site. We think it's one of the best answers to cut emissions and Denmark has the potential to actually store more than several hundred years of our own emissions. Globally, hundreds of carbon storage initiatives are in development. In Europe, the North Sea is emerging as a hub, with several large-scale projects advancing in Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK.

And after decades of exploration, the region's geology is also well understood. What we have here is now four pieces of core. At a large warehouse on the outskirts of Copenhagen. Cases of rock samples are stacked floor to ceiling. Neil Scovesbone, a senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Greenland and Denmark.

showed me a grainy green slab drilled from the seafloor. We call it green sand because it is actually green. If you feel it it's a little rough. He says the North Sea's porous bedrock is well suited for CO two storage.

We want a large volume of pores, small cavities in the rock that can actively store the CO two and then we want mudstones that can seal off the reservoir. We know that over geological time that this caprock has been capable of withholding oil and gas below and that is the same ceiling mechanism that we use for CO two storage. Both the UN's top climate science body and

say that carbon capture is a necessary tool to help limit global warming. However, the technology is not without critics. If we want to go net zero and even net negative, we will need these technologies. Helena Hegel is Head of Climate and Environmental Policy at Greenpeace Denmark. if our generation use the seabed for storing carbon now that we shouldn't have emitted in the first place, then the generations coming after us won't be able to use the seabed to store their emissions.

Back on the Siri rig out in the North Sea, maintenance manager Peter Pierre tells me that carbon storage offers new opportunities. Seeing a future building up here to the green transitions is just amazing. And soon that climate warming CO2 will be shipped out here in the North Sea and locked away for good. Adrien Murray.

Going through fertility treatment can be a difficult experience for many couples, and for those travelling abroad and using sperm or egg donors. There are a different set of challenges. Northern Cyprus is a popular destination for those seeking more affordable IVF. But there's no independent fertility regulator. The BBC has spoken to parents who used clinics there and now believe their chosen donors were not used. Anna Collinson reports.

Siblings Kate and James are looking through a photo album with their parents. Their two mums, Beth and Laura, each underwent IVF to have their children. The same sex couple needed a sperm donor. They selected an anonymous Danish man known as Finn from a sperm bank. They're showing me his profile. Bright, witty, creative, optimistic, strong physically and mentally. Are you a smoker? No, never.

It was really important that they had some sense of who he is, because that's half of them, that's half their genetics, their DNA, shapes their identity, their sense of self, who they are. As Beth and Laura would each be a biological mother to one child, they wanted donor finn to be used in all IVF procedures to ensure their children were biologically related.

They paid their fertility clinic in northern Cyprus to import Finn's sperm. When did you start thinking not everything is adding up here? So when James was born, we expected him to have blue eyes and he didn't so that kind of rung a bit of an alarm bell. The family decided to do a series of DNA tests. Lovely to meet you, I'm Denise. They're meeting with a leading genetics expert to find out their results. Beth and Laura, I've got your results here in these envelopes.

After a few minutes of quiet reading, Beth tells us the findings. Mae'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw'n yw? Professor Denise Syndicum Court has analysed all of the family's DNA tests. She says not only are the children from different sperm donors, she thinks it's unlikely either are from donor fin.

Beth and Laura have gone from knowing a lot about their children's donor to knowing nothing at all. What screening have they done for the donor in terms of health checks and also how many donations? Beth and Laura's IVF treatment was in northern Cyprus, one of the most popular destinations for British people seeking fertility treatment abroad. Clinics there promise high success rates, low costs, and even a sunny holiday.

Many patients say they have positive experiences there, but our investigation has uncovered a more disturbing side. The families of seven children have told me they believe they were given the wrong sperm or egg donors at clinics in northern Cyprus. That's an absolutely uh appalling position to be in. That that should never ever happen. Doctor Hippocratis Saris from the British Fertility Society has viewed our findings.

It's important to say that there's nothing inherently wrong with what's called cross border medicine and it happens quite a lot. However, the moment you exit the shores of this country, you rely on the local regulation of wherever you're having treatment. Northern Cyprus is only legally recognized by Turkey and has its own fertility laws. Unlike the UK, it does not have an independent regulator monitoring its clinic.

Beth and Laura's doctor denies any wrongdoing, and the clinic where they had their treatment has not responded to our questions. Oh wait, no, everyone's gonna sand. Back on a beach in South West England is a family coming to terms with what they've discovered, particularly James. How did you feel when you saw your DNA results? Upset because like you can't just say someone's this and then they're not. Identity is the main thing. It's who you are as a person really.

James ending that report by Anna Collinson.

Final preparations are underway for America's first manned mission into deep space since nineteen seventy two. The Artemis two rocket will take four astronauts on a ten day journey around the moon if all goes well. The launch could take place later today. Senior NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding gave this up to him. There was a lot of smiles today, so Felt really good about that as the team is preparing. I think everybody's pretty excited and understands

But there is a chance the launch could be delayed because of the weather. The rocket might not take off if it's too cloudy or if there's rain. Mark Berger is the launch's weather officer. Still maintaining a twenty percent chance of a no go condition during the launch window, so the optimistic side of me says that means uh eighty percent chance of go here.

Again, isolated showers uh wandering around, but a lot of real estate between those showers in all likelihood. So we should be able to shoot the gap between those showers and none of these uh look particularly vigorous. Our science editor Rebecca Morel is at Cape Canaveral for the launch.

In Florida the crowds will gather on the beaches to watch four astronauts begin their journey to the moon. I'm pretty excited about it. I came out here to see it and I heard it's gonna be a great show. A lot of people are gonna be here. People going up to the moon is kinda like cool and stuff because when the booster comes down it makes a big old noise. I love space. It's amazing. It's the greatest unknown out there.

The huge countdown clock which sits on the lawn at the Kennedy Space Centre has started ticking down. The Artemis II mission team says the rocket is ready to launch. The crew has been spending time with their families, having dinner at the astronaut beach house, like the Apollo astronauts did with their families more than fifty years ago. These astronauts won't be landing on the Moon. During their ten day long mission they'll be travelling around its far side, the side we never see from Earth.

Their journey will start on the most powerful rocket Natas ever built, with the astronauts strapped into a capsule right at the top. Randy Bresnik, a former commander of the International Space Station, says the Artemis crew will be in for quite a ride. When the liquid engines light off at six seconds and they test it out and they're all looking good, three, two, one, you know, once those solids light, there's no turning them off. So they're going to space. And they're definitely ready for that.

Former astronaut Randy Bresnik ending that report from Rebecca Morell. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X. At BBC World Service, use the hashtag GlobalNewspod. 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 Holly Smith. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Alex Ritz, and until next time. اشتركوا في القناة När det kommer till ålderskontroll. Till alkohol mår folk hälsan bättre. Systembolaget är annorlunda av en anledning.