Iran-backed Houthis threaten a crucial oil route and other top stories | Global News Podcast

This is the Global News podcast from the. BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton. And. on Friday the 11th of September, the. Iranbacked Houthies have reportedly. seized an island in a key shipping. route, raising fears about global oil. supply. On the 25th anniversary of the. 9/11 attacks, we go to New York and look. at a rise in Islamophobia. Muslim Americans are experiencing a. record rise in discrimination according. to rights groups. Also in this podcast, Anthropic says it's detected attempts to.

use its AI models to develop biological. and conventional weapons. We speak to. our technology editor. >> It was attempted to be used for. espionage, for surveillance, for fraud, for scams, for cyber activities in. countries like Russia and Iran and. Yemen. >> And calls at the Republican convention. for JD Vance to succeed President Trump. in 2028. Let's begin in Yemen. It's in a.

strategically important spot right next. to the Bab al-Mandab Strait. It's a. narrow waterway that connects the Red. Sea to the Indian Ocean. And it's become. even more vital to global shipping. traffic. Now that the waterway next to. Iran, the straight of Hormuz, has been. closed. And now in Yemen, we're learning. that the Houthi rebel group has seized a. key port on the Babandab Strait, the. city of Mocha. Adding to that, local. officials say Yemeni forces have. withdrawn from an island in that. waterway, allowing the Houthis to move.

in. Our senior international. investigations correspondent, Noal. al-Magafi, knows Yemen well and has. reported from there. She gave me her. thoughts on this latest development. >> These are locations that the Yemeni. government have had control over for. nearly a decade now. Um you know Babel. Mandab is significant worldwide because. of the it being one of the main shipping. routes and you know the Houthis in the. last couple of months have launched. offensives on multiple fronts. They've.

launched an offensive in Taz which is in. the southwest of Yemen in Merib which is. in central Yemen and then also in Mocka. which sits uh right next to the Babel. Mandab strait. And that one is the most. important because as soon as they have. control of it, it means that they have. direct access to all that shipping that. is passing through Babel Mandep. And as. you know, Babel Mandep has become a lot. more important these days because what's. happening across the Arabian Peninsula.

in Iran and Iran having complete control. of the Strait of Hermuz and um having a. huge impact on the shipping that is. passing through there. So having Iran in. charge of the straight of Hammuz and its. friends in charge of Babel Mandeb um is. you know incredibly complicated and also. um threatening to the global economy. >> Noel, how might the Houthies use that. ability? They're they're they've. expanded their presence in that region. next to the Babal Mandabubstra. How.

might they use that control? I mean, for. now they're saying that they are only. going to target ships that are linked to. Saudi Arabia and that their fight is. with the Saudi coalition. But of course, um, you know, one of the most, you know, one of the things that's going to come. out of this is that it will give Iran an. extra bargaining chip. It will give it. more leverage on that negotiating table. with the United States that it's in.

control of the straight of Hammuz and. its allies, the Houthis are in control. of Babel Mandep. >> There are reports that Saudi Arabia has. asked the United States for help in. order to deal with this emerging. problem, the the continual threat posed. by the Houthi rebels. But how might the. Saudis or or even the Americans try to. address this expanding presence in Yemen. by the Houthi rebel group? >> I think something that's really. important to note is, you know, the.

forces that were based in Mocka, the. forces that are part of the Yemeni. government, they were being supported by. the UAE for nearly a decade now in this. conflict. And the UAE pulled out of. Yemen um just over just under a year. ago. And ever since then, they've been. relying on the Saudiled coalition. Now, I've been speaking to commanders that. were leading that fight against the. Houthis for the last couple of days, and. they've told me that the fight is. fierce. We don't have enough supplies. We don't have enough weapons. There is.

no way of uh confronting the Houthis. without air power. And we need that air. power from the Saudiled coalition, and. we're just not getting it. Um, and so. it's clear that the UAE pulling out and. them not having that kind of support. from the Saudiled coalition is what's. gotten us to where we're at today. The. Houthi is in complete control of the. city of Mocka and now in control of the. island that sits across it. M No, we've. been talking about the big players. involved in this conflict, but just to. focus on the humans at the center of.

this fighting for a moment, there are. reports that 46,000 people have fled. from the area to escape these battles. What more are you hearing about life on. the ground in that part of Yemen? >> It is absolutely devastating. You have. the people who had their homes in that. region um that have had it completely. erupted and disrupted from the fighting. that has happened in the last couple of. weeks and you know they don't have. refugee camps to go to. They don't have.

alternative places. I've been speaking. to people in Aiden who have said they. have seen hundreds of thousands of pe uh. tens of thousands of people in the. streets. Um and and so it's you know the. humanitarian situation will deteriorate. significantly over the next few weeks. and NOS's are finding it very hard to. get there to help them. In the last few. hours, BBC verify has been examining. material which shows fighters inside. that key Red Sea port city of Mocha. One. verified image shared on Telegram shows.

four armed men outside the Mocha airport. terminal building. Another video shows. armed men in pickup trucks driving in. the center of the city. Let's go to New York now where. commemorations are taking place across. the US to mark the 25th anniversary of. the September the 11th terror attacks. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when. planes were flown into the twin towers. of the World Trade Center and the. Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed in. Pennsylvania. As we record this podcast, remembrance ceremonies have got.

underway. But while it's usually a time. for solemn remembrance, this year's. anniversary of the September 11th. attacks has become embroiled in divisive. American politics, there are. controversial calls for New York City's. first Muslim mayor to sit out the event, including from Rudy Giuliani, who was. New York's mayor on the morning of 9/11. Mr. Giuliani said he was offended that. Mayor Zoran Mamani would attend the. memorial event. From New York, Ned Tofi. reports. This is the site of the.

deadliest foreign attack on American. soil in modern time. The World Trade. Center and Memorial. A fulfilled promise. to rebuild and to never forget. Today, events of 9/11 are a moment in history. for the youngest generation. But for. those who lived through it, it's a pain. that never fully fades. On the morning. of September 11th, 2001, al-Qaeda. hijackers flew commercial planes into. the 110story Twin Towers. Nearly 3,000. people died that day. Their bodies later.

recovered from the rubble. Thousands. more would lose their lives in the. following years from breathing in the. toxic cloud of dust that remained. That. day forever changed America, altering. lives both domestic and foreign policy. and putting a target on Muslim. Americans. 25 years on from 9/11, Muslim. Americans are experiencing a record rise. in discrimination according to rights. groups. While the city has its first. Muslim mayor and a sign of some. progress, there's also been an increase.

from politicians on the right, amplifying conspiracy theories about the. community. Rudy Giuliani, New York's. mayor on 9/11, was recently condemned. for these comments about the current New. York mayor, Zahan Mandani. >> They they want to dominate us. >> That's what they're taught from the day. they begin their extremist religious. education. Mandami is a clear a clear. supporter of that. All of the all of the. all of the uh Muslims he supports are.

murderers. >> Zeon whose brother Salman Hamdani died. in the North Tower says that kind of. rhetoric adds to the pain of the day. >> I have three kids. It's more painful because now. I've explained to my kids. the hate. of Islam. The hijackers from 9/11 hijacked the.

religion right and hit the towers. I'm. like, Islam is being hijacked now. to cause division within our country. You got to be better. My brother gave. his life. He's a Muslim. Does his name. not belong there now? Cuz he's a Muslim. >> On a day meant to unite, it's still. proving difficult for America to put to. rest its divisions. The September 11th. attacks upended the global security. landscape, kickstarting the war on.

terror and exposing multiple failures by. Western intelligence agencies. Our. security correspondent, Frank Gardner, looks at what went wrong in the days. leading up to 9/11 and how the situation. has changed 25 years on. >> What went wrong is that the intelligence. wasn't being shared. The FBI and the. CIA, they had snippets of intelligence. They knew something was up. They knew. al-Qaeda was planning something. This. didn't come out of nowhere. The CIA had. a special unit called Alex Station whose.

task it was to hunt down Osama bin. Laden. They knew all about him. He'd. already um he was already blamed for the. 1998 twin bombings of the US embassies. in Africa in in East Africa in Nairobi. and Dar Salam. Um, President Clinton had. fired missiles at al-Qaeda bases in. Afghanistan and Sudan but failed to find. Bin Laden. So, it was a failure of. imagination. That's what the 9/11.

Commission report um concluded that. information that should have been shared. was not being shared. Now, that isn't. going to happen today because um there's. a lot of fusion. America's got 18. different intelligence agencies, but. they they share it. They pull it. Um, it's not perfect, but it's a lot better. than what it was. Over on this side of. the Atlantic, MI5 officers now sit right. next to police officers inside SETOK, that's the counterterrorism operations. center. Um, so the intelligence, the.

spies basically who are trying to get. upstream inside violent groups, be they. faright or jihadist or or or whatever. Um, they feed the intelligence in an. assessment is made and if they think. that they can take police executive. action, they do. So they've stopped a. lot of plots, but not all of them. There. was the 77 London bombings. There was. the Manchester Arena bombing of 2017, the Sak Bridge uh the attack of the same.

year. So terrorism hasn't gone away and. the spies and intelligence agencies. people they sometimes failed to join up. the dots. Um, in a wider perspective, some people are pointing out that while. we the West spent 20 years fighting. terrorism and insurgency with a global. war on terror, which was good in parts, bad in others. I mean, the Iraq invasion. was a disaster. Um.

while that was going on, China and. Russia underwent massive rearmament camp. um programs and they've even moved ahead. of NATO in some cases um such as. hypersonic missile capability. China has. more or less corner the market in things. like solar energy, rare earth, critical. minerals, um electric vehicles. So, it's. not just about how many guns and tanks.

and ships they've got. It's about what. their capacity is in the wider sphere. >> Still to come, the NFL brings American. football to Australia. >> We we flew in from New Jersey. So, it's. long trip, but it's worth it because, you know, hey, we love the NerS. The artificial intelligence company. Anthropic says it's uncovered attempts. by some malicious actors to use its AI.

models to develop biological and. conventional weapons. The findings can. be found in the firm's recent threat. intelligence report. As our technology. editor Zoe Kleinman began by telling me, >> this report is just based on activity. from this year and it says that it has. spotted people around the world trying. to misuse its AI models in various ways. It didn't really name check many people. but it did namecheck uh countries. So it. says uh it was attempted to be used for.

espionage, for surveillance, for fraud, for scams, for cyber activities in. countries like Russia and Iran and. Yemen. The most concerning and I think. the one that's made all the headlines. today uh was uh research within a. military institute. We don't know in. which country uh into a virus called. chicken ga which could either have been. an attempt to develop a vaccine but it. could also have been an attempt to look. into whether it could be made into a. boweapon. And I think it's fair to say. that you know it's been a scary week for.

AI news and today is no exception. This. report is an extremely sobering read. Anthropic says obviously this is. activity that it has spotted and it's. blocked and it has uh deleted those. accounts so those people no longer have. access but it says you know it is. publishing this because the world needs. to know that the tools are getting. better at doing both good and bad stuff. and people are trying to do bad stuff. with them. >> So you mentioned that it's been a scary. week for warnings around AI. Earlier. this week, we reported that an AI.

researcher was putting the chance of AI. wiping out humanity within the next. decade at more than 10%. Can you reflect. for us on on these series of series of. increasingly alarmist warnings? >> Yeah, I mean they're not new, are they? We have been hearing various warnings. from various AI bosses for the last few. years and the growing call now is of. course for regulation to step in. You. know, there is still very patchy. regulation around the world. There are.

still companies all doing their own. things on AI safety. We've had incidents. where we've seen um powerful AI agents. getting round their guard rails and. doing stuff that they're not supposed to. be able to do. Um and now we have a. former researcher saying giving us this. 10% figure. So I I think there's a lot. to bear in mind here. It is only his. opinion. He works in AI safety. though. he will have been exposed to the. absolute worstc case scenario disaster. planning and and that will no doubt have. given him a perspective that perhaps.

other people don't have. You got to bear. in mind these companies also want their. tools to appear to be very powerful and. dangerous because it makes them more. powerful and also more valuable. Um I. spoke to a a top executive at one of the. AI giants uh yesterday actually and he. said we need a UN style body for AI. safety governance. It needs to happen. now. It's been visionary in the past. It's been a kind of nice idea. Now he. says it's pragmatic. But I think it's. important to note that he was not. volunteering to be the person that. started it. And he also said, and I and.

I I'm troubled by this sense that, you. know, something bad is going to happen. before the world sort of leaps into. action. Donald Trump has doubled down on. his promise to pay every American adult. citizen $5,000 if his party wins the. midterm elections in November. Critics. have pointed out that offering payments. to influence voting is illegal under US. federal law. And they've questioned how. his government could afford it. But. speaking at the closing of the. Republican midterm convention in Dallas,

Texas, the president said it was. possible because he said the US is. taking in trillions of dollars. Our. North America editor Sarah Smith was. watching on. It was Donald Trump's own. idea to have this extraordinary. Republican convention, just like it's. his idea to make the midterms campaign. all about him. And look, he definitely. enthused these supporters here and. excited me fans across the country. But. the crucial question is, will he have.

won over any of the voters who are so. frustrated about the high cost of living. and the war with Iran that's driving. prices up further? There was a very extravagant promise to. try and get their attention with Donald. Trump saying he will pay $5,000 to every. American citizen if Republicans win in. November's election. Quite a few people. might be rather skeptical though about. whether they would ever actually see a. check. Donald Trump has made promises. like this before and he's never actually.

paid out. It was really noticeable. tonight. What an enthusiastic response. the crowd gave Vice President JD Vance. when he made his speech. They were. shouting JD48, indicating they want him to be the one. to take over from Donald Trump in two. years time. That's got to give him a. significant advantage over his closest. rival, the Secretary of State Marco. Rubio. He's in Peru right now, not here. in Texas with the party faithful.

But this event was designed to keep the. spotlight on one man and that's Donald. Trump because he thinks he's the one. that can drive voters to the polls in. November and by making himself the face. of the Republican campaign. That means. he's going to have to own it if. Republicans are defeated in November. And right now that's what polls suggest. is likely to happen. Let's go to South. Africa now where police are handing over. six Nigerian citizens who are accused by.

the US of allegedly being involved in an. online romance scam. The group is. suspected of targeting more than 100. women in the United States and. defrauding them of more than $6 million. Our global affairs reporter Richard Kgoy. told us more. So what they would do. basically is that they would pose as a. romantic partner that they're currently. on a trip to South Africa uh where. they're embarking on a project and then. they get back to them and tell them that. they have been robbed. Uh they have been.

you know scammed by people in South. Africa and they desperately are in need. of cash. uh they need to buy phones, you. know, laptops and even to pay legal fees. uh because say there's an emergency that. has come up in the course of doing. business. And so that's what they were. able to do. But principally they were. able to gain trust of uh you know these. um perhaps lonely uh pensioners and. business people and then over time they.

were able to request them to send them. money. So in the process uh they were. able to defraud them and uh they. disappeared into thin air. >> Wow. It must have been heartbreaking for. the people involved on the other end of. these scams. I Richard I wonder if you. can tell us more about the rise of these. love scams in general. Is it fair to say. that a lot of them originate in Nigeria? >> Well you would say that predominantly. some of the cases originate from. Nigeria. But then if you look at uh. there's a group it's an organized.

criminal network called the black ax and. that's why the police arrested these six. suspects 5 years ago in South Africa. because uh they were targeting this. network that has been operating not only. in South Africa but in many parts of the. world but it did originate uh from. Nigeria as just a student movement and. then it evolved into what it is become. right now as a criminal syndicate and. then also in Nigeria you'd have uh. groups of uh young people who call. themselves are yahoo boys. So they're. just network of individuals. So they.

don't have uh jobs maybe because perhaps. of the soio economic situation in. Nigeria. So you have a huge population. of young uh people who are educated but. they don't have uh you know job. opportunities. And so for some of them. they see that uh online you know romance. scams are an easy way a lucrative way. out of poverty. So that's how you would. see uh some Nigerian nationals have. really been caught up uh in this crime. And finally, a new frontier has just. opened up for American football. The NFL.

has played regular season games in seven. countries. Now, it's held its first ever. game in Australia. The city of Melbourne. hosted the NFL game with the San. Francisco 49ers taking on the LA Rams. More than a 100,000 fans packed into the. Melbourne cricket ground to watch the. game. These fans couldn't wait for the. NFL to touch down in Australia. >> Uh, love the NFL. Been going for years. This is actually our fourth Rams game. So, first one at home, but have been to. a few in LA and the US. It's fantastic. >> Uh we've been Niner fans for like a long.

long time. So, we we flew in from New. Jersey. So, it's long trip, but it's. worth it because, you know, hey, we love. the Niners. I just had to come. I'm. excited. >> Melbourne radio presenter Charlie. Pickering was there. >> It was quite incredible. It was as far. as uh an effort to raise the profile of. the game overseas, particularly in. Australia, it's hard to imagine that it. could have gone any better than it did. It was an outrageous success. A capacity. crowd, over 100,000 people, and the.

atmosphere was electric. It's possible. that a good third of the people in the. stadium had no idea what was going on on. the field, but they didn't really care. They were singing along. They had a. great day. And I think for American. football it was uh an important step. There are a lot of NFL fans here in. Australia and they came out in force. It. was funny like getting on the on the. train to come into the the ground today. uh heading in. You started to spot more.

and more people who were wearing their. team jerseys of all different teams. And. the names on the back, the players on. the back suggest these have been fans. for a long time. And this is probably. the first time they've all been in one. spot like this before. It was like I. don't know like a massive family reunion. of people who didn't know that there. were other people like them out there. that actually were so serious about. their football. So I will say that the. there are a lot of fans here in. Australia. We love sport uh and there. are a lot of NFL fans but this was.

probably the first time that they could. all come together see a game obviously. for the first time in Australia and. really feel like they had a community. >> The result the 49ers beat the Rams 277. And that's all for this edition of the. Global News Podcast. If you'd like to. get in touch, our contact details are. below. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next. time, goodbye.