Alex Ritson

As long as that naval blockade is there, as long as the US is blockading those ports, Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is not going to be open and they're not going to come to peace talks. So it's really a case of who blinks first. Now Iran can take a lot of pain, but this is really tough for them. They need their Gulf ports to be able to export their oil.

to generate income to pay people's salaries. So not only they're going to be running out of money, but the oil is going to be stacking up in their reservoirs and soon going to fill them up, which means that they're going to have to start shutting down wells. For the US, there is pressure because

This blockade on the Strait of Hormuz is driving up the price of the pump. And much as Donald Trump says he doesn't really care about that, he's not in a big hurry. Internationally, there's more and more people turning to look at the White House saying, you need to solve this. And Iran's position hasn't really changed. So the ball is pretty much in the US court on this one right now. Frank Gardner.

Russia's Internet Crackdown.

Ruotsin presidentti-administraatioiden ulkopuolella ihmiset odottavat lopetusta. He kutsuvat Vladimirin lopetuksen lopetuksen lopetuksen lopetuksen lopetuksen

It's a very small group of people that's come out today. And the suspicion is that people are frightened to publicly demand that constitutional rights are restored. When we turned up here a few minutes ago, we were filmed, we're still being filmed quite closely by security officers on this street. Those who have turned up, pretty brave I think.

My business is entirely on internet. Julia has signed the appeal. She runs a catering company. We are losing money every time there is a blockage of internet. We are losing, losing, losing, losing. And no one is caring about me. Aren't you frightened? Aren't you scared? I'm very. I'm shaking. Do you think that coming here today will make a difference? I don't know. Probably not. But it's what I can do.

An advert for Max, Russia's new state-backed messaging app. The authorities are heavily promoting it. It's excellent, says the voiceover.

But many Russians doubt it's at all secure. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has been blocked, access to the popular Telegram messenger restricted, and in many parts of Russia, curbs on mobile internet mean that only state-approved sites open. The authorities talk about a sovereign internet for a sovereign Russia. It feels like a digital iron curtain is being built.

I travel 120 miles from Moscow to Vladimir. In the town center the taxi booking app on my phone opens okay and I can access state media. But Google searches aren't working and independent news sites aren't loading. Across town Yulia Grekova shares her story. She had applied to the local authorities.

to hold a rally against internet restrictions. She'd listed 11 options for a venue. City hall replied, sorry, not possible. On that day we'll be cleaning the streets at all 11 locations. Then the police came to her work and warned her, don't protest.

Back in Moscow I asked Vladimir Putin's spokesman, is Russia on a road to the past? No it's not, replies Dmitry Peskov. Security considerations dictate certain measures. Most of our citizens understand that. Once the need for such measures disappears, services will be fully restored and returned to normal.

It also looks like trust in the president is falling. Vladimir Putins approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As well as frustration with the internet restrictions, there is concern about the economy and growing fatigue with the war on Ukraine. Remember Yulia, who I'd met outside the presidential administration office?

She handed in her petition. Now she's back at work, in the kitchen, at her catering company. All the conversation is about survival. Future is not even mentioned in day-to-day conversations with friends, with relatives. It's like what we are doing in three days, in a week, in a month. Nothing more than a month.

Just like the bread I can see expanding in the oven, rising across Russia right now is a deep sense of uncertainty. And you can see the full version of Putin's Russia. We're cut off from the outside world on the BBC News YouTube channel.

Delegates attending talks on how to tackle gang violence in Haiti say some progress has been made. Around one and a half million people have been displaced since gang warfare erupted five years ago. UN Security Council representatives said a new multinational gang suppression force will replace the Kenyan-led security forces in the coming months. Here's our global affairs reporter Mimi Swaby.

Mimi Swaybi. The tech giant Meta has told its staff that it plans to cut 10% of its global workforce, impacting almost 8,000 employees. This comes as the parent company of Facebook and Instagram plans to spend more than ever on artificial intelligence. I heard more from our reporter Alfie Habershon.

Meta-alueen sisältöjen sisältöjen sisältöjen sisältöjen sisältöjen

It's hard to process figures like that, but it's about the yearly cost of running a country like Portugal or Greece. Meta is not the outlier here. It's worth noting Microsoft, Google, Amazon all spending similar amounts, all trying to win this race. There's been so much talk about how AI will turn the world of work upside down, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg says 2026 is the year it will happen. And it is the latest in a series of cuts from Meta.

How is it able to function with such a reduced number of staff? Meta has been rapidly automating a lot of routine admin tasks, content moderation, ad creation, customer support. Even this week the company told its staff it's going to begin tracking them on their computers and logging their interactions to train and improve its AI models. Given all the layoffs, one employee told the BBC that this situation just feels dystopian.