US launches strikes on Iran, targeting missile sites and boats

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Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. Coming to you live from London, I'm Regini Fydinarthan. A few days ago, the signs from the US were that a long term ceasefire with Iran was imminent. As the hours passed, that tone seemed to change. President Trump told negotiators to take their time to get it right. But as that diplomacy continued, America announced it had launched fresh strikes on southern Iran, targeting missile sites and boats attempting to place mines.

With regards to the cooperation of Islamic countries, what is certain is that the clock cannot be turned back, and that the nations and lands of the region will no longer be a shield for American bases. Moreover, America will no longer have a safe place in the region for mischief and the establishment of military bases. And day by day it will drift further from its former position. The Shaky Zionist regime, too, will move closer to the end of its ominous existence.

Well, as we said just then, that was announced by a newsreader because it's worth pointing out that Hamanai has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader after his father was killed in a US strike back in February. Well our correspondent Emir Nada has been monitoring latest the latest developments from Jerusalem.

Well, as you've mentioned, we've seen these uh US strikes on the south of uh Iran, uh vessels supposedly laying mines in the waterway around the Straits of Hormuz.

That's Amir Nader there. Well let's get more on the mood on the ground in Iran. Fowad Izadi is Professor of International Relations at the University of Tehran, which we should stress is aligned with the regime, where he's been speaking to the BBC's Sarah Montague.

You know, we are getting used to this. So and every time we we have a delegation negotiating, the United States starts attacking uh the Iranian side. So there are a lot of people in Iran that are

Of course the United States has said the the strikes were in self defence because of mine laying and that it doesn't affect the ceasefire. Do you think it does affect the ceasefire? Do you think it does affect negotiations?

You know, on the second day of the ceasefire, the United States announced blockade of Iranian ports, which is An act of war under international law. When you say you are doing ceasefire, you are not supposed to fight.

Yeah.

So what then are the chances that the talks going on at the moment will lead to something?

hope that Iranians have is that Trump realizes this is a failed policy. He's not going to be able to take over Iranian oil. he as he said he would like to do, he wouldn't be able to change Iran's borders. He the sooner he realizes that uh the hope that Iranians have is that he would change course.

Right. But what about what many in the rest of the world are just hoping for, which is that the Hormuz Strait is opened again? process leading to an opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

I think so. I think so. You know, it was open before. It will be open once this US blockade is gone.

So the oil price, which again today is bumping up at a hundred dollars a barrel, do you expect that to come down?

Yes, once the Strait i is open, y you will see that would come down. And in fact Iranians would encourage more passage through the strait because they're going to level a fee at passing ships and the more ships pass, the more money Iran will make.

Okay.

So so that system of payments will remain.

Yeah.

And what and what sort of level I would you expect that to be at?

Uh normal rebels uh we need to

Well normally of course there isn't you know at the start of the year there were no payments required.

Right. But I say normal, I mean international standards, uh Australia, Canada, Denmark, Turkey. They all uh charge uh fees. The countries that are members of the Convention on Law of Seas call it pilotage fees. Australia, Canada, Denmark, they they charge these fees, pilotage fees. It's going to be something similar to what other countries have done for many years.

Right, so the idea and pilotage is because what Iran would navigate allow and navigate ships through the strait and and would charge for that.

And provide security, you know, vi th this area is uh suffering from pirates. This is the word that Trump used when he was describing US Navy taking over Iranian oil tanker.

Blackmail. Isn't it blackmail? Isn't it blackmail when it's uh uh give pay us this or we'll bomb you?

It it is not blackmailed. It's called pilotage fees. If you call pilotage fees blackmailed, I I don't I don't think you use that in English. This is New English, but pilotage fees are pilotage fees. سوف يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب أن يجب

And Professor Azadi, when would you expect that to happen? The prospects of some deal being reached, when would that be?

You know, it it this is a war that Trump and Netanyahu asserted. When would they want to stop this war? It's their decision because they asserted.

That's Fuid Azadi speaking to my colleague Sarah Montague.

I think it still is too early to say it's it's it's been re it's restored or even partially restored, but that's true. We are seeing some traffics coming out from Iran. in particular from IRIB, Iran um nationalistic T V and radio, and some ISPs like uh ASIATE. So it looks like uh uh Pasashion's order which was challenging the court, finally getting somewhere.

And how effective has this internet blackout been?

So uh the internet is being shut down in Iran for about I guess uh almost uh half of the c the year. Um it was in January first, uh in response to the protests and then the war. And basically that means you have no access to anything that in in any ordinary life you need to do. You have you don't have to access to the information, to education, to, you know, health services. It's it's like you're being trapped in your house.

Yeah, and you talk about that and the ways people can get access and we of course heard much more about the use of Starlink in the country.

That's true. A Sol Link is actually one of the um way that people can get access to the internet, but of course it comes with its own challenges, security challenges, because having a Solink is equal to running a spinach operation for Israeli American according to the Iranian law, but also financial challenges as well. It's very expensive and not everyone in this current economic situation can afford to to buy a stalling.

You talk about the economy and of course so many people in Iran uh rely on the internet to be able to do business.

That's true. That's true. Three main group of people actually being impacted the most. One, those who are selling internet traffic, like ISPs, internet provider, mobile operator. So they are being impacted a lot. That's why they have increased the price of in internet uh traffic and also they start to sell something they call it internet pro, which was a way to getting access to the internet during the internet shutdown.

And Amir, let me ask you this, because we've seen it with other countries as well. How much uh is uh the Iranian uh government using in the internet and shutting it down as a way to suppress human rights?

That's that's one of the f main tools they they have at their disposal. Look, internet has been shut down in Iran, I guess, at least twelve times. Some sometimes some of those internet shutdowns being national-wide internet shutdown, some of it was even focus on a particular neighborhood. And all of it, mostly all of it, were r in response to a national protest, a protest going on inside the country.

Amir Rashidi there and we are seeing reports from Iran's vice president that the first steps taken to restore the internet after that shutdown are underway as well. This is News Hour.

Coming up, a look at Myles Davis, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time on what would have been his one hundredth birthday.

Miles Davis was a revolution in himself. How he revolutionized jazz music from the forties, he created new concepts in form. It's one thing to be an influence, but to create new concepts in form i it really requires genius. This just doesn't come like that. You have to be someone like Picasso to create a new form, a new way, a new medium.

Here are the headlines. We are watching this hour. Iran's issued a new warning after the US carried out airstrikes on Iranian missile sites and mine laying boats. And one of the world's biggest oil companies, BP, has unexpectedly sacked its chairman. You can get more on those stories on the BBC News website.

This is Regini Vaidinarthan with NewsHour, coming to you live from the BBC in London.

It it's the second trial in this crisis, which is how it's being seen here in Paris, in in what they call the Periscolaire. That means in our school activities and the thousands of staff who are employed in that. Um the specifics of this case are as you say a a man thirty five at a particular school who Police and invaders have decided needs to face charges of sexualized touching of children.

Indeed, and as we mentioned in the introduction and as you alluded to, uh this is just one of a number of ongoing investigations in crashes and nurseries across Paris.

Indeed. I mean it all it all burst out about i a year ago. The background is goes further than that. The background is that in Paris about ooh ten years ago now there was a sudden demand because of a change in the way the schools were organised, a sudden demand for these

Thank you.

that there is in fact across the the city a problem in many, many schools of individuals who are n getting away from things which they are very, very unhappy with. It's very unclear though though in all of this Whether or not you know what what we're dealing with, are we talking about paedophile rings? No. Are we talking about

That's the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris there.

Ganawa music was developed in Morocco by people who were enslaved and taken there from other parts of Africa. Also known as Sufi blues, Ganaw was known for its hypnotic qualities, which can get the musicians and audiences into a trance like state. Well the New York based group Sahar Gana Ganawa have combined Ganawa music with Western jazz on their debut eponymous album and they're playing at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club here in London in June.

It's very ancient African music, has its roots in West Africa and other parts of North Africa as well. Because of the slave trade, a lot of it comes from the area of Senegal, Ghana, and the what we call today West Africa. As Senegal but as East as even maybe Ethiopia or Egypt because in the Gnawa music today they reference at least four different kinds of languages.

The Fulani which you can find in Niger and and Mali. You have the Hausa which go all the way down south to Ghana and Togo, but also span a lot of Saharan geography. And then you have Bambara, which are predominantly in Mali. We know for sure that These languages were mixed in when they came into Morocco at least five or six to eight centuries ago and then over the course of all that time it became what we call today Gnawa music, which is sung mostly in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic.

Daniel, why did you decide to mix music with Western Jars, New York jazz.

There's

been a quite a history of collaboration between Ghanawa musicians and and American musicians. Uh Jimi Hendrix went to Morocco, people from Led Zeppelin. So there's there's always been a connection but it's really the shared history of West Africa, the traditions of the blues And this rhythmic sense and harmonic sense, most of Ganawa music is pentatonic music, leaning on five notes which is really similar to the blues and I think that's

Tell us about what some of the songs say.

It's

It's a lot of uh either homages to ancient uh masters or ancient important historical figures in Morocco and and then you have homages and revering uh saints. uh from the Islamic tradition, close to the Moroccan history again. And then of course praising the Prophet.

And uh Amino, just tell us about some of the instruments that your group plays.

Main instruments is this three stringed bass.

Three strings but only two notes. So it's very very limiting in that way and because of that you can get so much amazing rhythms and different kinds of grooves

I've heard your music described as Sufi blues and Sufi is known for having a trance-like effect on people. Do people find they get into that trance zone?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean uh traditionally the Gnawa culture in Morocco is all about that and they have these long night ceremonies where people really trance for hours.

I remember the first time I really heard real Ganama music live and that my my hair stood up on my arms and I just knew that I was experiencing something incredibly special. That feeling, that excitement, we get there ever every time.

If you have any kind of bad feeling, if you're even sick, then come to any of these shows and uh you will be healed and it's not a scam, you know, it's it's for real.

Well, that was Martin Venard reporting there on Saha Ganawah. That's a fusion of jazz and Moroccan traditional Ganawah music. What a reminder: you can listen to NewsHour whenever you want to. We have two editions a day. You can find the latest online at bbcworldservice.com. Or you can also sign up for our free download. You can just search for BBC News Hour Podcast wherever you usually get your podcasts.

There's a rare type of Ebola spreading in Central Africa and it has no vaccine. The WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern, and the US has restricted entry for people coming from some African countries. What does this deadly outbreak tell us about how prepared or not we are for an international health? For more, check out the global story on bbc.com or wherever you listen.

Four people have been killed in a collision between a train and a school minibus in Belgium. Seven secondary school children, a chaperone, and the driver were on a level crossing when the accident happened in Buggenhoof. Well the children reportedly attended a special needs school. Thomas Biken is a spokesperson for the Belgian National Rail operator Infrabel.

We have the images of our technical camera and on those images we can see that the level crossing was closed at the moment of the accident, so that means the lights were on red and the barriers were closed. why did the minivan still proceed to uh to drive further? We don't know. We are trying to understand that and that's why we are collaborating with the magistrate. Of course we are trying to understand why this accident, this terrible accident

That's Thomas Baikon there from the Belgian National Rail Operator. Well I've been speaking to our global affairs correspondent, Paul Moss, to get more about what we know so far.

Well I think what we heard there from Thomas Beckhard expresses the fact that this really is something of a mystery. I mean it's only a few hours since the accident took place. So I guess we wouldn't expect to have an exact image uh of what happened anyway. But yes, the fact that all the signs are that the barriers of this uh m road level crossing were down, the red lights were flashing to tell people not to go through.

And Paul, what do we know about the record in Belgium when it comes to these sort of collisions?

Well, Belgium does actually have quite a high rate of accidents involving level crossing. You've got to understand this is a very small country, but with a very large and therefore dense railway network criss crossing towns and villages. Now, according to the Reuters news agency, since twenty twenty one there have been one hundred and sixty eight accidents at level crossings in Belgium, in which thirty six people have died.

That's the BBC's Global Affairs correspondent, Paul Moss, reporting there. You're listening to News Hour from the BBC World Service. I'm Regini Videnarvan.

selamat menikmati

Child is suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting as soon as he eats anything due to the extreme. I also suffered from diarrhea two or three days back, so we are facing a lot of challenges because of the heat.

And temperature records also continue to be broken here in the UK, which is also experiencing record highs and a heat wave. On Monday the Mercury hit thirty four point eight Celsius, that's ninety-four point six four Fahrenheit in Kew Gardens in southwest London, beating previous records for May, which were set in nineteen twenty-two and nineteen forty-four.

There are a couple of things that they should be doing as soon as temperatures start rising and one is to avoid peak heat hours, so stay out of the sun between eleven and four. Hydrate regularly, cool the body directly whenever possible. So put water directly on the skin, like taking showers. make sure that you're under shade as much as possible and have light clothing on you. So all of this is like to keep the body cool. Keep your home shaded. So during the day

I want to ask you about that point about vulnerable people because we mentioned India just then. Across India there are so many low wage, casual workers who have to be outside in the heat to do their jobs and at least sixteen people in the southern state of Telangana have died of heat strokes.

I think we have to do everything and all at once. We have to go from high tech solutions to low tech just to make sure that we can protect as many people as we can.

Of course there's a growing conversation certainly here in the UK uh about getting more air conditioning into people's homes, uh because it's not a standard like it might be in countries say like India or America. But of course, even in those places It comes at a cost, doesn't it?

Yeah, and the cost is steep because air conditioning heats up the air even more, so it exacerbates the conditions of heat within urban centres. and also air conditioning creates more greenhouse gas emissions, CO two. Basically we cannot air condition ourselves out of this overheating planet. It's not a solution.

There are concerns, as you mentioned there, about carbon emissions from air conditioning units. So what other ideas and solutions have you looked at?

The solutions have to be three layers. It has to be the people, it has to do with governments, and it has to also do with global solidarity. A lot of the onus falls on governments and the governments have to create cooler cities. that will have conditions

That's Doc Elaine Myrie Villi. And I should just say in the last hour, the record for the hottest May temperature in the UK has now been broken for the second day in a row, with thirty five degrees Celsius recorded. both at London's Heathrow and at Kew Gardens in the city.

Now it's been more than three years since Sudan's devastating civil war began, which has seen tens of thousands of innocent people killed. Well the conflict began following a power struggle between the Sudanese army and a powerful paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces the RSF.

Our report released today documents how Colombian private military contractors who were recruited in Colombia Transited through sensitive UAE military sites and received military training by Emirati nationals in the UAE before they were then deployed to Sudan to fight alongside. the RSF um in the context of the conflict there. And we um this evidence adds to a growing body of work linking the UAE's support um to the RSF.

Mm-hmm. And um curious to s to ask why Colombian mercenaries are allegedly being used.

So it's an interesting question. Columbia offers a very fertile recruiting ground for private security firms seeking to hire pr uh retired military contractors. This is linked to decades of internal armed conflict, an army with tactical and operational capacity for irregular warfare, and soldiers who retire at a young age. Um, there's also a long history of a relationship between retired Colombian personnel and the UAE, going as far back.

Okay, and very briefly, if I may, uh what is the extent of this involvement?

We have um do uh our our legal conclusion is that this is further evidence that the UAE is assisting or otherwise substantially contributing to the Rapid Support Forces' capacity to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity.

That's Joey Shea from Human Rights Watch and we did contact the Foreign Ministry of the UAE to get their response. And in a statement they said That the UAE does not permit its territory to be used for the recruitment, training, financing, or transit of foreign fighters to any conflict in the including Sudan. It says where allegations have been made about specific entities the relevant authorities have investigated, including by making inquiries with companies cited in open sources.

Bye bye!

This was the scene on the day in early twenty eighteen that Koyadu learnt its so-called peace diamond had sold at auction for some six and a half million dollars.

Fig joy на we art. We dance, we dance, we jubilate, we laugh, we glad it too much.

Combo John Bull was the 15-year-old boy who discovered the stone in a local open cast pit. Comber and other diggers each received over a hundred thousand dollars for their find. He recalls now how he used the money to try to emigrate to Canada. The application and months of waiting cost him most of his earnings.

Even though we're not on board.

spending a lot of money on feeding, we're also going out to bars and enjoying ourselves. Looking back I think that um I

The Canadian visa was rejected. Comba now works as a welder. But for the wider community in Koriadu, it's perhaps a different story. Pastor Emmanuel Momo, the owner of the pit where the diamond was found. He did a deal with the government. In return for him declaring it to them, they would provide the village with much needed development. They promised all of those things. The school, the clinic water. And the road, yeah. So, did that happen?

We want to make the future bright for the people. With education, they can change this community.

That's Abu Baka Amara, the head teacher at the large new primary school he now runs in the village. With multiple classrooms and solar power, it does feel like a world away from the husk of a building that I saw nine years ago.

झाल झाल झाल झाल

A shiny zinc roof on the new maternity clinic also speaks of progress. The village midwife Judith Sia Lamine tells me that some six percent of expectant mothers used to die on the roads trying to reach the main hospital in town. They haven't had a single maternal death here since the clinic was built. Pastor Momo is proud of what's been achieved, although he says the government has done the bare minimum to fund the running of these new facilities, which is now paid for by foreign aid money.

They know that what they promise They have never met the promise.

The Minister of Mines declined to speak to me about this story, but some do defend the government's record. Martin Rappaport is a philanthropist and campaigner whose charitable support helps maintain the Diamond Peace Project now.

We were providing rights. And now the government is providing the food for the children. Which is an amazing thing. So what happened is we hooked them into the development cycle in an environment.

Tell me then, what would you say the legacy of the Peace Diamond has been?

It's created a

In thinking.

And it's showing that resources like diamonds can have a real impact on the local community. You have to have patience to do development properly and you have to let the

people.

do their own development. The legacy of the Peace Diamond is in fact

And you can hear more from Ed Butler and the discovery of that huge diamond by listening to the assignment programme here on the BBC World Service. Or you can also find it wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the BBC World Service. This is NewsHour.

This is Regini Vaidinarthan with News Hour coming to you live from London.

The music of Miles Davis, of course, and the iconic track So What, which opened his seminal album A Kind of Blue. Well we're playing that because today, May the 26th, 2026. would have been his a hundredth birthday. Well, he died at the age of sixty five, and as his centenaries marked, I've been speaking to the guitarist John McLaughlin, who played with Myles Davis on a number of his albums. He began by telling me about his first day in the studio with him.

I arrived in the studio. The first tune up was called In a Silent Way and the the composer was Joe Zawinel. He told me right off, he said, I don't have a score for the guitar. I said, Oh well we gonna do? He says I'll make a photocopy of my piano score. Miles arrives and we start to run down Joe's tune in a silent way.

Oh.

Ha ha ha.

I'm standing there. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this piano score. It was quite sophisticated, the harmonic movement. Since I was looking at him, not knowing what to do, he said, one of his famous ko ons, he said Play it like you don't know how to play the guitar. Which threw me into complete tizzy, but I had him do it quite a few times with different musicians just to knock them off their thinking. And so I couldn't think anymore. And so I was reacting on my gut feeling.

And that of course began your journey working with Miles on other albums.

Mm-hmm.

Oh well well from that point uh I'd kind of pass this this test and uh Miles took my number. From that point to the next few months he was calling me at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, and he'd say, Come over, come over to the house and bring your guitar. Uh what he was interested in was my R and B soul Motown experience that I had.

Yeah, I mean there's a track named after you on it, no less, isn't there, John?

I know. I didn't see that until I bought the album. I had no idea. He did me such honour, Virginia. I I was staggered really.

What would you say about why it's really important to listen back to his music?

Miles Davis was a revolution in himself. How he revolutionized jazz music from the forties, how he took it, he created new concepts. in form is one thing to be an influence, but to create new concepts in form i it really requires genius for Jenny. It's it just doesn't come like that. You have to be someone like Picasso. to create a new form, a new way, a new medium.

If you had to pick your favourite Miles Davis track, what would it be?

Oh, my God. Blues for Pablo. Uh I was already entranced by flamenco music. In fact I was trying to learn flamenco music at that time. Uh I was fifteen years old and Miles was really the first fusion jazz player because you i when you hear this piece you hear the flamenco influence come in with Gil Evans's marvelous orchestration. This completely blew me away because Miles always stayed close to the blues. He was the epitome of a jazz player and yet he introduced in such a beautiful way

Look, we we're speaking today, John, on the day that another jazz great has died, Sonny Rollins, who died at the eight Of ninety five. What what would you say Sonny's legacy was to jazz?

Sonny Rollins was along with John Coltrane the two giants of the tenor saxophone. I actually uh got to meet him and what a man. P lack of pretension, just gracious Human being and what a player wonderful Saint Thomas. I know it by heart. I saw Sonny playing with Al Foster and on this particular concert, all of a sudden Sunny stopped playing And he he's he turned round and said to Al Foster, Okay, solo So after two, three minutes, Al Foster finishes his solo and Sunny no playing more, more.

Guitarist John McLaughlin on his heroes Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. And of course, Sonny Rollins has died at the age of ninety-five. That's it for this edition of NewsHour. Thanks very much for listening.

There's a rare type of Ebola spreading in Central Africa and it has no vaccine. The WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern and the US has restricted entry for people coming from some African countries. What does this deadly outbreak tell us about how prepared or not we are for an international? For more, check out the Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you listen.