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00:00:25Headlines Travel
00:00:28by Bin Salman to Cairo In an attempt to confront the Houthis
00:00:32of Yemen, the President of Egypt emphasized free shipping in
00:00:35Bab al-Mandab.
00:00:36did.
00:00:45The US Secretary of the Treasury defends sanctions that restrict
00:00:48Iranian students' access to international exams
00:00:52. Scott Bessent says other countries have joined
00:00:56the pressure and economic isolation of Iran . are.
00:01:00Security warning from three Western countries about new
00:01:03spyware from the Iranian government . The United States, Britain, and the Netherlands
00:01:07say the goal is to collect information from activists,
00:01:10opponents, and journalists
00:01:14. Concerns about the rapid development of artificial intelligence
00:01:18. One of the technology giants has proposed creating
00:01:21an emergency stop key .
00:01:24The main danger is that we are dealing with a system that is 100 times smarter than the smartest
00:01:28person on Earth.
00:01:56Saudi Arabia says it will respond decisively to the Houthi attacks.
00:02:00According to Riyadh, 13 people in Saudi Arabia were injured
00:02:03in the latest attacks by the Iran-backed group . The Houthis recently
00:02:07renewed their attacks on Saudi Arabia and captured
00:02:11strategic points on the western
00:02:13coast of Yemen , consolidating
00:02:16their control over the Bab al-Mandab strait . The possibility
00:02:20of further disruption to Iranian shipping in this important waterway, along with
00:02:24the Strait of Hormuz, has increased concerns about
00:02:27a deepening energy crisis in the world . Oil prices rose
00:02:312% today to more than $18 a barrel
00:02:34. Mohammed bin Salman , the Saudi Crown Prince, met
00:02:37yesterday with the commander of the US Central Command
00:02:41to discuss this crisis, and today he spoke with the Egyptian President
00:02:44in Cairo. Baran Abbasi and more
00:02:46details.
00:02:49Taiz, southwest Yemen. The Houthi forces are consolidating
00:02:53their positions after capturing several strategic cities
00:02:56that were previously under the control of the official Yemeni government.
00:03:00This includes the island of Perim at the mouth of the Bab al-Mandab
00:03:03Strait, which has solidified this Iran-backed group's control over this important
00:03:07waterway. A waterway
00:03:10whose potential closure could worsen the energy crisis
00:03:14in the world . What Qatar
00:03:17has warned about
00:03:19its dire consequences. The world is already facing enough problems with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz
00:03:23, and we cannot allow the Bab al-Mandab Strait
00:03:27to be added to this equation.
00:03:31This would be a disaster for the entire world. Therefore,
00:03:34Qatar emphasizes diplomacy and dialogue.
00:03:37The Houthis have for weeks prohibited Saudi ships from passing
00:03:41through this strait .
00:03:43At the same time, this group's attacks on Saudi
00:03:47territory have intensified . This photo, which the Saudi
00:03:50Civil Defense Organization says is the result of one of these
00:03:53attacks on a mosque in Jizan . But the Houthis say
00:03:57they targeted military objectives. In response to these
00:04:01attacks by Saudi Arabia and the official government of Yemen.
00:04:04This has raised concerns about further disruptions to energy
00:04:08supply. Especially after the attack a few days ago on the East-West
00:04:12pipeline in Saudi Arabia . This satellite photo
00:04:15is of a section of this pipeline south of Medina
00:04:19before the attack, and this is the same location
00:04:22after the incident. Saudi Arabia has blamed Iran's proxies in
00:04:26Iraq for this attack . An attack that has temporarily
00:04:29halted oil transfers through this pipeline
00:04:32. Saudi Arabia's tool for transferring oil
00:04:35to the Red Sea without the need to pass through the Strait
00:04:38of Hormuz. The Islamic Republic says that the Houthis
00:04:42and other militias supported by it act independently
00:04:45. But the increased tensions in the Bab al-Mandab
00:04:49Strait, alongside the Strait of Hormuz, have become
00:04:52another leverage in Iran's hands . God willing, in the coming days
00:04:56and this is the response of the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council
00:04:59of Iran to the possibility of resuming
00:05:02negotiations by Donald Trump, with conflicting messages
00:05:05from the US President : "There are no negotiations until
00:05:08we are ready for talks ." "Don't get distracted, the equation
00:05:12regarding oil and straits has changed . Attempts to
00:05:16manage damage cannot stop what is coming
00:05:19. As long as Iran's conditions are not met,
00:05:23there will be no negotiations . That's it
00:05:26." Conditions that, according to the IRGC spokesman,
00:05:30also include what has been called the end of the siege of Yemen
00:05:33. Along with a complete cessation of war,
00:05:36Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, the release
00:05:39of $24 billion in frozen Iranian assets, and
00:05:43the end of what has been described as US interference in Iran's nuclear
00:05:47and missile capabilities .
00:05:49The question is whether relying on the leverage of the Strait of Hormuz and now
00:05:53Bab al-Mandab might lead Iran to these demands
00:05:56, or whether increasing pressure on vital
00:05:59energy transit routes will ultimately lead to a larger
00:06:03crisis whose consequences will be difficult for Iran
00:06:06to control. Baran Abbasi. BBC
00:06:10.
00:06:13Farzaneh Nadimi, military analyst from Washington, is with us. Welcome, Mr.
00:06:17Nadimi. We know that so far, the Houthis
00:06:21have expanded their control over one of the most important shipping routes
00:06:24in the world. But can we understand their
00:06:28strategy from now on ?
00:06:32The Houthis, as you mentioned, have established themselves on the eastern
00:06:36coast of Bab al-Mandab
00:06:39and have captured several islands
00:06:43. It seems that they want to have more control over
00:06:47the Bab al-Mandab strait . But they are closer to
00:06:50the coast and can
00:06:53have a significant impact on ships
00:06:57with short-range weapons . Currently, about 20
00:07:00ships pass through Bab al-Mandab daily
00:07:04, compared to 5 ships before the war
00:07:07. But for now, the Houthis
00:07:11are exerting control, as they say,
00:07:14at their discretion, over specific ships
00:07:18, Saudi oil tankers or Israeli ships
00:07:21that have connections with Israel
00:07:25from the past .
00:07:28And in my opinion, one of the ways they will pursue
00:07:31in the future, given that they have specifically occupied these islands
00:07:35, is to establish a kind of special
00:07:38toll system for Iranian ships in the Bab al-Mandab strait
00:07:41. Because the Houthis could always exert
00:07:45power from further coasts
00:07:49in Bab al-Mandab, there was no need for them to physically
00:07:52take control of the coast
00:07:56. But now, if they decide,
00:07:59they can also take action regarding tolls. The conflicts
00:08:03that are still ongoing in Taiz province
00:08:07, and it can be expected that if the Houthis maintain
00:08:10their momentum or energy and increase it, they will move
00:08:14towards Taiz and engage there. They will try
00:08:18to take control of this very strategic city, and later,
00:08:22perhaps even think of Aden, the province of Aden,
00:08:25in the future, if Saudi military support
00:08:28for government forces is not successful. On the other hand,
00:08:32Saudi Arabia is also trying to resolve the issue
00:08:35. He went to Egypt today, and it does not seem
00:08:38that Egypt will cooperate . As Sisi said
00:08:42that he actually supports
00:08:45diplomacy more , do you think
00:08:49Saudi Arabia in this case
00:08:52has no choice but to activate the Mecca Pact , for example,
00:08:56or is there even such a potential ? Well,
00:09:00the Mecca Pact, although from Saudi Arabia's point of view
00:09:03it is a pact that will help the security of this country
00:09:07and the energy security of Saudi Arabia , but perhaps
00:09:11they will be more cautious
00:09:19than Saudi Arabia expects and will behave
00:09:23accordingly. Even if we assume
00:09:26that Turkey and
00:09:28Pakistan decide to help Saudi Arabia
00:09:32within the framework of the Mecca Pact in similar
00:09:36security conditions , this will take time. This
00:09:40newly established pact and coordination among
00:09:43the forces of the countries still does not exist. Although Pakistan has
00:09:47had a military presence in Saudi Arabia for years , it can be expected that
00:09:50Pakistan will play a defensive role
00:09:53. I doubt that
00:09:55Pakistan will play an important offensive
00:09:58role in this war.
00:10:02It is not impossible, it may happen on a limited scale in the future
00:10:06. The Pakistani Air Force is an efficient
00:10:09air force, but I think at this stage, both Saudi Arabia and Turkey can
00:10:13deploy air defense systems in Saudi Arabia. Even now,
00:10:17Greece is doing this, and Greek Patriot
00:10:20missile batteries are deployed in Saudi Arabia . Correct.
00:10:33If reports that the US has rejected
00:10:37Saudi Arabia's request for military cooperation in this area
00:10:41are true, how much do you think this report that was published
00:10:44about the strategic shortage of ammunition had an impact on
00:10:48America's decision-making ? It's not insignificant . It's not insignificant
00:10:52. Operation Raider. The US
00:10:55used significant weaponry against the Houthis
00:10:59during those 50 days . Of course, it will depend
00:11:02on what the Houthis' reaction will be. If the Houthis decide
00:11:05to use their relatively limited number of ballistic
00:11:09missiles against American targets, then
00:11:13naturally, a significant portion of the US air defense
00:11:15systems in the region will be focused on defending against
00:11:19Houthi missiles and drones , including both fighter jets
00:11:23and air defense systems.
00:11:55In today's meeting with members of Congress, he defended the implementation of sanctions that
00:11:59restrict Iranian students' access to international
00:12:02language exams and entrance exams to American universities
00:12:06. Mr. Bessent also said that
00:12:09other countries in the world have joined the pressure and economic isolation
00:12:13of Iran. Mohsen Kalbasi, my colleague from
00:12:16New York, is with us to talk more about the issue.
00:12:20Bahman, tell us about the details of this meeting, where it seems Mr. Bessent
00:12:24defended the Trump administration's policies regarding Iran .
00:12:28As expected, at the beginning of this
00:12:31Q&A session with members of Parliament
00:12:35, the relevant committee in the House of Representatives, Mr.
00:12:38Beresent, also emphasized that this
00:12:42economic pressure and isolation that the US has taken
00:12:45responsibility for against Iran is working very
00:12:49effectively and has been very successful,
00:12:52and many countries will join it or have
00:12:56joined it. And he even said about China that
00:12:59he will meet with the Vice President of China in the coming
00:13:03days on the eve of the Chinese President's visit
00:13:06to Washington, and they will discuss this,
00:13:09and it is expected that in the meeting between Mr.
00:13:13Trump and Mr. Xi, it will also be raised that the US
00:13:17wants China to join in this widespread
00:13:20economic isolation against Iran , and some representatives
00:13:24also asked him about these so-called
00:13:28sanctions that have led to the access of Iranians to exams
00:13:32like TOEFL, LSAT, and GRE , which are for
00:13:35university entrance language, being cut off. Mr. Bassin
00:13:39gave a
00:13:41strange answer. He said that
00:13:44our goal is to free the Iranian people
00:13:48and for them to gain their freedom . When he was asked whether
00:13:51Iranian students not having access
00:13:56to these exams would make the Iranian people more powerful
00:14:00against their government, he said yes .
00:14:03And beyond that, in this same meeting, he was interrupted
00:14:07several times by those who oppose
00:14:11sanctions against Iran .
00:14:13They came to the meeting with some placards
00:14:17and interrupted him several times, chanting against
00:14:21him and saying, "Stop the sanctions, they are taking the lives
00:14:24of the Iranian people ." And the police
00:14:28removed these individuals from the meeting one by one and arrested them. But
00:14:31in any case, Mr. Bessent still emphasizes
00:14:34that this economic isolation is working and is very
00:14:38effective, and now many countries have joined it. Thank you
00:14:42. From Bahman, Bahman Kalbasi, my colleague from
00:14:44New York.
00:14:46Let's take another look at the main headlines
00:14:49of this program.
00:14:55Saudi Arabia says it will respond decisively to Houthi attacks.
00:14:59At the same time, Iran has emphasized that the equations related
00:15:02to oil and straits have changed
00:15:04.
00:15:12The US Treasury Secretary defended the country's
00:15:15sanctions against Iran in a meeting with members
00:15:19of Congress. Scott Bessent said other countries have joined the pressure
00:15:22and economic isolation of Tehran .
00:15:30of artificial intelligence . One of the technology giants
00:15:33has proposed that an emergency stop key be created.
00:15:40The US, UK, and Netherlands, in a joint cybersecurity
00:15:44slaughter, released details of spyware that, according
00:15:47to them, agents linked to the Iranian government are using
00:15:51to target opponents, activists, and worried journalists
00:15:55. The UK National Cyber Security Centre announced
00:15:59that cyber agents linked to the Iranian government
00:16:03are using a family of spyware called Chozen
00:16:06Break to steal emails , messages, and other
00:16:09sensitive information through targeted phishing campaigns
00:16:13on messaging platforms
00:16:16such as WhatsApp and Telegram . Alireza Manafi,
00:16:20an internet researcher and digital rights activist from Toronto,
00:16:23Canada, is with us. Welcome, Mr. Manafi. Well,
00:16:27how different is this happening
00:16:30from the activities that the Islamic Republic has had
00:16:34in this area before
00:16:36? Greetings to you. Yes, these things that are happening
00:16:40are in line with the activities that the Islamic Republic has been doing
00:16:44for several years. Even this campaign was written about
00:16:47in 2023 that it is active,
00:16:50and in March of this year, the FBI had also
00:16:54warned about it, and now it has been talked about
00:16:57again. The only things that distinguish
00:17:01this campaign
00:17:02are its technical
00:17:05features and the fact that its focus has become more precise. For example, individuals
00:17:09are monitored very closely . If necessary,
00:17:13they are encouraged to do specific things.
00:17:17They try to understand their interests so that they can
00:17:20influence them and understand their needs
00:17:23. Even in one case, it was reported that one of
00:17:27the individuals targeted received a file titled
00:17:30"MRI result," meaning they knew that
00:17:34this person had undergone an MRI and was now
00:17:37waiting for it, and they sent something
00:17:40to them with that name, which was actually malware.
00:17:43However, what I see that has received less
00:17:47attention is how these malware
00:17:50are spread through messaging
00:17:52apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram
00:17:56. But when they send these, they encourage
00:18:00the user to install or run it
00:18:03on their Windows device , because this malware
00:18:07that they have designed is currently only executable
00:18:11on Windows, at least according to the information we have
00:18:14so far. For this reason, it may not be effective
00:18:18on all devices . The next
00:18:21point is that if someone
00:18:24is affected, what they should do is also important
00:18:28to inform them. Well,
00:18:31if someone is compromised through
00:18:34this method, they should pay attention to the next steps.
00:18:37For example, they should quickly scan their computer
00:18:41with antivirus software, change the passwords
00:18:44of all their accounts, check their accounts to see if
00:18:48they are connected to other devices, change their banking passwords
00:18:52, and in this way, take the next steps
00:18:55into consideration. That is, when hacked, the next steps
00:18:58are much more important to react accurately
00:19:02and correctly to what has happened. You mentioned
00:19:05what to do after being hacked, but
00:19:09there is a step before that . How can we protect ourselves
00:19:13from not being attacked
00:19:15by these groups and not being hacked ?
00:19:19That's right, because these attacks are mostly focused on activists
00:19:23outside the country, and according to what has been seen,
00:19:26the reality is that they
00:19:28focus on human
00:19:31emotions and, for example, they pretend to be a friend from
00:19:35elementary school or a distant relative
00:19:38whom they haven't seen for years and miss.
00:19:41The most important step
00:19:44is this social engineering. That is, when
00:19:47someone receives such messages, they should
00:19:51check and verify their authenticity to see how true
00:19:55it is. When a file is sent to them, they should not click
00:19:59on that file too quickly. For example, when
00:20:02an MRI report is sent, as reported,
00:20:06someone who receives
00:20:37an MRI result file is not an executable file. It's at most a
00:20:41PDF file or an image. When someone clicks
00:20:44on such a thing and sees a message displayed
00:20:48on their device that this
00:20:51is malware, all malware are software
00:20:55and executable files, and as a result,
00:20:58if such a message is displayed, it means something suspicious
00:21:02wants to be installed on your device. In all these cases, the first thing
00:21:06is authenticity that needs to be checked.
00:21:09A person who has received malware under any title, such as an image,
00:21:13or this MRI file, for example, should go and make sure
00:21:17that this is indeed what is claimed.
00:21:21Is this a family photo that was sent to me? They should check
00:21:25its authenticity and make sure. Thank you
00:21:28. Alireza Manafi, internet researcher and digital
00:21:31rights activist. A few
00:21:35short news. Reports from Gaza indicate
00:21:39that in Israeli airstrikes on Sheikh Radwan neighborhood,
00:21:42two people, including a child, were killed and 7 others
00:21:45were injured. Palestinian media say the adult
00:21:49killed was a civil defense worker. Witnesses
00:21:53said the Israeli army said it targeted an armed person
00:21:57in the area but did not provide more
00:22:00details. Israeli attacks have continued almost
00:22:04daily despite a US-backed ceasefire
00:22:07.
00:22:09Russia and Ukraine continued their attacks on each other's
00:22:12energy facilities last night. This comes as US President
00:22:16Donald Trump claimed yesterday that the parties agreed.
00:22:50Regarding the space arms race, he has asked the US
00:22:53not to seek to create war in space.
00:22:57Beijing's reaction came hours after the US confirmed
00:23:00it had deployed a space weapon
00:23:04in Earth orbit. An action that Washington publicly confirmed
00:23:08for the first time. Senior US military officials had previously
00:23:11cited Russia and China's plans to disrupt
00:23:15US satellites as the reason for this
00:23:18action in space.
00:23:22The founder of one of the world's largest artificial intelligence companies
00:23:26told the BBC that companies in this field may need
00:23:29to be required to have an emergency kill
00:23:33switch so that if this technology gets out of control, it can be
00:23:37stopped. Jack Clark , CEO of Anthropic
00:23:41, says artificial intelligence becomes smarter and more capable
00:23:44every few months, and this could be a serious threat to humans
00:23:48. Donald Trump, however, angrily rejected calls to slow
00:23:51down the development of AI and called concerns about
00:23:55its threat to humanity a great deception
00:23:59. Faisal Islam, the BBC's economics editor, has a report
00:24:03on this
00:24:03.
00:24:07One of the AI giants, Anthropic, has called for
00:24:10a slowdown in competition in this field. One whistleblower and a number
00:24:14of the company's safety experts say that it is possible
00:24:17that this technology could destroy all humans
00:24:50, take control of the internet , shut down power plants
00:24:54, or destroy financial institutions? I think it's time to clarify
00:24:57what this danger actually looks like. The main danger
00:25:01is that we are dealing with a system that is 100 times smarter than the smartest
00:25:05person on Earth. How much chance do we have of countering it? In my opinion,
00:25:08the probability that you can control such a situation and come out of it
00:25:12unscathed is very low. From an overall perspective, artificial intelligence
00:25:16should be controlled as a technology , because we are building things that may
00:25:20be smarter than humans, and things that are smarter than humans
00:25:24can be very dangerous . This is the issue
00:25:26that brings up the discussion of an emergency kill switch
00:25:30. Do you have such a capability ? Can you shut down the system
00:25:33? I think most companies have different ways
00:25:37to stop their systems. Yes, we also have some ways to do
00:25:40this. But this issue should be part of a broader discussion about
00:25:44policymaking. Should companies be required to have a kill
00:25:48switch? Can an independent body ensure the true functionality
00:25:51of this switch? I think the public wants answers to these questions, and perhaps
00:25:55in the end, laws may also need to be enacted in this area. But it may
00:25:59already be too late , right?
00:28:03With this report, we have reached the end of this news segment. Thank you for being with the BBC.