Cargo ships struck in the Strait of Hormuz
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Three vessels have been hit by 'unknown projectiles' in the Strait of Hormuz, maritime authorities say. We are joined by Dr Harry Broadman, a former US Assistant Trade Representative to discuss how disruption in the shipping channel might affect global supply chains.
Also on today's programme: Chile sees its biggest shift to the hard right in decades with the inauguration of Jose Antonio Kast as president. British organ preservation charity Pipe Up says five pipe organs are sent to a landfill each week. Plus, as Iran says it will not play in the World Cup, we hear from Afshin Ghotbi, who coached both the US and Iranian national football teams.
(Photo: An LPG gas tanker at anchor as traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, in Shinas, Oman. 11 March 2026. Credit: Benoît Tessier/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.2 | Hello and welcome to Newsare. |
| 0:11.6 | It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service studios in central London. |
| 0:15.4 | I'm Tim Franks. |
| 0:16.8 | We're starting, inevitably, with the war in the Middle East, |
| 0:20.4 | but not to head initially at least to Lebanon, hit hard again today by the Israeli military in its campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, nor to Iran itself, which also has been struck by the near uncontested might of the Israeli-U.S. Air Force. |
| 0:38.0 | We will hear from Iran a little bit later, but we're starting instead with a dramatic image |
| 0:43.6 | from the Strait of Hormuz, that narrow channel of water separating Iran from Gulf Arab countries. |
| 0:50.9 | The photo is of a Thai cargo ship pouring smoke after being attacked. |
| 0:56.3 | Attacked, it's presumed by the Iranians who had warned shipping to steer clear. |
| 1:01.8 | The news was the headlines in Thailand. |
| 1:33.9 | Thai news news news news. There's a lot of fun KATHLEEN, uh, me of Rue Sarmes, to be able to be able to encode to Khae Phaughmuz. Thai News Network Broadcasting reports that one of the country's tankers had been struck and was on fire, one of three commercial ships in the region to be hit. Just within the last, um, within the last hour or so, President Trump has announced that the US for its part has hit 28 Iranian mine-laying ships in the area. |
| 1:41.2 | The huge reduction in maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuzes had a major effect on oil and gas prices and supplies. |
| 1:44.7 | Countries around the world have been reacting to all that that means, such as this promise from the Greek Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis, that his government will impose |
| 1:48.9 | a cap on profit margins for both fuel and food products. |
| 1:57.1 | Obviously, we cannot counter the primary price increases, but we are certainly sending a message |
| 2:03.3 | that this economic upheaval must not lead to speculative practices that would worsen a problem, |
| 2:09.7 | which is, in any case, already real. |
| 2:13.2 | In an attempt to alleviate the immediate shortages, the 32 member states of the International Energy Agency have agreed to release a third of their emergency oil reserve. |
| 2:26.7 | It's their biggest ever intervention, 400 million barrels. |
| 2:30.2 | The IEA executive director is Fati Birol. |
| 2:32.5 | This is a major action aiming to alleviate the immediate impacts of the disruption in markets. |
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