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President Trump has said he is considering 'winding down' Iran war and leaving other countries to 'police' the Strait of Hormuz, the key sea lane through which around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas is transported.

Trump said the US was “getting very close to meeting our objectives”. He repeated an earlier claim that the US doesn’t use the strait of Hormuz, and said therefore other nations who do will have to “guard and police” it.

Writing in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that would be “an easy military operation” for those countries.

He wrote: |We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran… The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated. Importantly, it will be an easy Military Operation for them.”

It comes as turmoil continues in the markets due to soaring oil and gas prices.

Jane Hill presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Lyse Doucet, Nick Eardley and Dharshini David.

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With claims of over 7,000 targets struck by the US and Israel in Iran in just three weeks - how much of a role is artificial intelligence playing in finding and eliminating targets?

We speak to a former Pentagon advisor on precision warfare, to hear his thoughts on how AI is changing how wars are waged, and crucially - how fast it's evolving.

This is the Security Brief with the BBC's Christian Fraser, and former Senior Officer in the British Military, Mikey Kay.

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US President Donald Trump called Nato allies "cowards" over the Strait of Hormuz, saying it would be "easy" for them to help open the vital shipping lane which transports around 20% of the world's oil.

Meanwhile, the UK has approved the use of its bases for the US to launch strikes on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel has been hitting Iran's capital, Tehran, with air strikes as Iranians mark Nowruz - the Persian New Year.

Overnight, Iran also launched rounds of missiles at Jerusalem, while the Israel Defense Forces said it struck targets in southern Syria.

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The US fuel blockade of Cuba is crippling the country, causing nationwide power blackouts that can last for hours or days. Many Cubans are unable to cook food or fill their cars with petrol.

A Russian-flagged tanker heading for the island seems poised to test the US fuel embargo, while advocacy groups and left-wing politicians from overseas have sent an aid convoy to Cuba with food and medicines.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to ''take'' the island, saying "I think I can do anything I want with it."

So what exactly does he want from Cuba? And, could Cuba's communist government bow to this pressure, after defying Washington for decades?

We speak to the BBC's Will Grant in Havana.

New episodes of the Global News Podcast are published twice a day. You can listen here: https://link.mgln.ai/GNP-YT

And you can find more of our Youtube episodes here: https://bbc.in/GlobalNewsPodcast

How has an algorithmic arms race created an environment where controversial and incendiary content is routinely amplified on our feeds?

On this episode, Marianna discusses her latest investigation, which provides a paper trail showing how social media giants ignored internal warnings about the design of their platforms.

She's heard from whistleblowers about problematic moderation practices, how companies deal with so-called borderline content, and the troubling reality that algorithms may now be beyond our control.

Also this week, we look at the website 'your ai slop bores me' which launched two weeks ago and is already claiming over a million unique visitors. It may look like a chatbot, but this is actually humans cosplaying as generative AI and completing mundane tasks for one another.

Matt explains how this relates to what's becoming known as the 'meat layer', where humans are used to prop up the shortcomings of artificial intelligence.

Top Comment is hosted by Marianna Spring and Matt Shea.

Chapters:

00:00 – Inside the Rage Machine: Algorithm Whistleblowers

00:30 – What is the ‘algorithm arms race’

02:45 – Meta’s research into the harm of reels

05:00 – TikTok’s prioritisation controversy

09:00 – Engineers admit algorithms are now a black box

12:30 – CrowdTangle and the collapse of transparency?

13:45 - TikTok and Meta respond

14:20 – Musk’s X Algorithm

15:30 – Your AI slop bores me: Humans pretending to be AI

17:20 – “People are sick of AI slop”

18:40 – The meat layer of AI: Hidden human labour

19:30 – Human fleet operators for driverless cars

20:35 – What is Moltbook? AI‑agent social network

23:00 – Why AI companies benefit from AI fear narratives

Why do people think Benjamin Netanyahu has died?

Social media platforms have been flooded with the wild rumour that Benjamin Netanyahu is dead (which he is not).

Fake photos and videos of his body, coated with dust and debris, seemed to show that the Israeli prime minister had been killed – during the US-Israel war with Iran – in an Iranian air strike.

The rumour was false – Netanyahu had not died, nor been involved in a strike. The photos and videos were AI-generated. But when Netanyahu posted several videos of himself, debunking and mocking the rumour, some people on social media still refused to believe these were really him.

Today on The Global Story podcast, Thomas Copeland from BBC Verify explains how the economics of social media drive the creation of AI-generated fake videos – sometimes by people with no strong feelings about the war itself.

And we speak to Peter Pomerantsev, author of 'Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible', who says the essential strategy behind wartime disinformation remains unchanged since ancient times.

New episodes of The Global Story are released daily. If you’re in the UK, listen on BBC Sounds. If you live outside the UK, listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

LINK: https://app.magellan.ai/listen_links/the-global-story-ytl

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Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:55 When the rumour of Netayahu's death start?

05:21 Where did the rumour originate from?

07:00 Why do people believe that Netanyahu is dead?

13:00 How do you verify what's real and what's fake?

16:30 When has misinformation changed the course of a war?

18:00 The misinformation surrounding the US-Israel war with Iran

22:30 Could AI change future conflicts?

Adam, Chris and Faisal are joined by Panorama filmmaker Jane Corbin to discuss the latest strikes in the war in Iran.

They look at a straining relationship between Israel and the US and how the UK is reacting to the shock to the global economy.

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00:00 What's it like to make a documentary about Iran?

00:54 What do the latest strikes mean for the global economy?

05:40 Is President Trump in control of the war?

07:01 How aligned are Israel and the US?

12:00 What are the economic pressures on President Trump?

14:57 What does this mean for the UK?

24:57 How might deescalation happen?

Heavy explosions have been reported across Tehran as the Israeli military continues to bombard the Iranian capital.

The Israeli military says it is targeting infrastructure of the regime, without specifying what.

Elsewhere the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain all reported missile or drone attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will "hold off" attacks on Iranian gas fields after being asked to by US President Donald Trump.

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As the US President Donald Trump tells Nato allies they are making a “mistake” not joining him in the US-Israel war with Iran, one member of the Question Time audience asks the panel: Should US President Donald Trump accept attacking Iran was a mistake?

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Conservative MP Helen Whately, Reform UK’s James Orr, The Green Party’s Caroline Lucas, and Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde join the discussion.

Catch up with the whole of the debate with BBC Question Time on iPlayer and Sounds now.

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President Trump has threatened that the US “will massively blow up” the world’s largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again.

This comes after Iran bombed Qatar's Ras Laffan energy complex, in retaliation against Israel attacking its South Pars Gas Field - all of which has sent gas prices skyrocketing.

Adam is joined by chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and deputy economics editor Dharshini David to discuss what this means for the war and energy prices around the world.

Meanwhile, health correspondent Jim Reed joins Adam to discuss the latest report in the Covid-19 inquiry, which found the NHS came close to collapse at the height of the pandemic.

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