Ankur Desai

On Monday the US began a rival blockade, stopping ships from using Iranian ports. And it comes after talks between the US and Iran crumbled over the weekend in Islamabad. Mr. Vance has been speaking to Fox News, but insists certain conditions must be met. We must have the enriched material out of Iran. We must have their conclusive commitment to not develop a nuclear weapon. And I think that if the Iranians are willing to meet us there, then this can be a very, very good deal for both countries.

I heard more from our North America correspondent Peter Bowes, who's in LA.

He said the ball was very much in Iran's court. He also addressed some issues that we didn't hear about when the talks broke up in the early hours of Sunday over the weekend, namely the status of the Strait of Hormuz. In fact, Mr Vance went as far as to accuse Tehran of moving the goalposts during the meeting, saying that he'd expected the Iranians to fully reopen the strait in return for a ceasefire. He said by blocking traffic, Iran was engaging in an act of economic terrorism.

Ja jos se jatkuu, sanoi hän, että Yhdysvallat sopii samaan prinsipuuteen, että eivät iranialaiset saa ulos. Hän sanoi, että kaksi voisi pelata tämän pelin. Ja kuten me tiedämme, ja kuten sinä olet huomannut, Yhdysvalto Iranin puutteet ovat nyt tehty. Donald Trump sanoi, että enemmän laitteita saa ulos. Mutta tämä asia on se, joka on suurin piirtein, at least I think for the next coming days.

Because as long as global trade is being hampered in the way that it has been in recent weeks, it seems highly unlikely that any of the other big issues are going to be resolved. Peter also seemed to allude that they talked over a number of things in Islamabad over the weekend with Iran. Se seemed to give an indication of what some of those topics would have been.

Yes, he did. He elaborated a little bit more on these core issues that are dividing the two countries. He said the US had to put a lot on the table and he said it had done that. Tehran, he said, wasn't responding in the way that he and the president wanted. On the table, he said, was the ceasefire and the promise that Iran could one day be treated like a normal country, he said.

If it was a normal economy, people would prosper and thrive, but in order for Iran to be a normal country, he said, it could never get a nuclear weapon. And he said, we must have, just to quote him, the enriched material out of Iran, we must have the conclusive commitment not to develop a nuclear weapon. That, he said, would be a very, very good deal for both countries. And he repeated what

He and the president have been saying that their view was that the weekend talks made some progress, but that both sides had to progress even further and that it was up to Iran to make the next move. North America correspondent Peter Bowes reporting.

The conflict in the Middle East has had a volatile effect on markets and the wider global economy. A few hours after the start of the US blockade of Iranian ports and shortly after the close of trade on the American markets, I spoke to our business editor, Simon Jack.

Oil price is still actually right now below $100 and stock markets in the US are actually up and in fact have eradicated all their losses so far this year. So either they're being horribly complacent about this or there's reasons for confidence that a deal can be achieved. Asian markets, Asian countries and their economies are desperate for oil because we know this strait is so important to them. So what are their solutions then if they want to try and access oil?

Well, we've seen supply constraints, which has seen what they call in economic terms demand destruction. Things either get so expensive you stop doing them, or the supplies aren't there and you can't do them. And we've seen things like fuel rationing in Sri Lanka, we've seen LPG rationing in India, four-day weeks elsewhere, people being told to stay at home. All of these kind of things to try and bring down demand.

And also there are, of course, other sources of oil. The Gulf isn't the only one. China, for example, gets quite a lot of its oil from Russia. India also gets some from Russia. But I'm not trying to downplay the fact that there are real shortages in some places causing real hardship. And the more you are reliant on the Gulf, the more that hardship, and certainly Asia fits that bill. Yeah, reserves are being drained by the day for sure. A lot of people listening will wonder, well, how is this affecting me? How is this affecting my pocket, my bank balance, and the finances of many people around the world?

It pushes up inflation and inflation is a killer in two ways. One is it increases the cost for businesses of doing business and at the same time it takes money out of the pocket to those customers. So it's a double whammy on, if you like, economic growth.

Inflation goes higher, economic growth goes lower. For many governments that means that the amount of tax they get in from that economic activity will also go down. At the same time as interest rates being higher, the amount they pay on their borrowings. This is particularly true in Asia, which has a lot of US dollar denominated debt.

So the public finances can get very stretched very quickly, and the longer this goes on, the worse it gets. And there's one commodity which really gets battered in a situation like this, and it's not oil, and it's not helium, and it's not fertilizer. It's confidence. Confidence means that businesses don't spend money, they hoard cash, they don't invest, and that can affect growth for many weeks, months, even years down the line.

Finally, in every situation someone benefits. So a lot of people are looking towards Russia. So are Russian oil producers currently rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of many countries knocking on their door? This is a birthday present for Russia. They're obviously big suppliers to both India and China, both of whom are in desperate need of it. So yes, Russia is a big winner from this. And also, given the fact that the Ukraine war is going on, international attention has obviously been diverted to the Gulf. So good news for Russia, bad news for Ukraine.

Simon Jack. Donald Trump may have removed the AI post on his Truth Social feed, which depicted himself as a Jesus-like figure after supporters accused him of blasphemy. But he's not backing down in his spat with the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Late on Sunday he accused Pope Leo of being weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy, after the US-born pontiff had said a delusion of omnipotence was fueling the war in Iran.

Ja se ei tapahtunut, joten en pysty. Luulen, että hän on hyvin vahva kriisiin ja muista asioista. Hän meni ylös. Olen vain vastaanottanut Leohan. Miten nykyinen späti käsittelee aiemmin keskustelua poliittisista ja poliittisista? Professori Massimo Fagioli Trinity College Dublinista on kristillinen kirkko. Hän on puhunut BBCn James Kumrasamiin.

So there is a history of contraposition between strong men, strong leaders, Hitler and the Mussolini and then Stalin. But there was a sense of respect of the Vatican as an institution that we don't see here, right? What's different now is that the United States of Donald Trump claims to be the defender of Christianity.

Ja Donald Trump itse suosittelee olevan poliittinen messiaali. Ja se on erilainen taso.