Shadowing Practice: Iran attacks three cargo vessels in Strait of Hormuz | BBC News - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Hello, I'm Maryam Meshiri.
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Hello, I'm Maryam Meshiri.
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This is the Iran War Today, our daily briefing bringing you up to date with all you need to know on day 54 of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran.
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Over the course of the next 15 minutes or so, we'll get the very latest from our teams across the world.
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We'll be live with Gary O'Donoghue in Washington and with our economics editor, Faisal Islam.
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Let's start now with some of today's key developments.
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Iran says it seized two cargo ships after three vessels were fired at while trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
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The captain of one of the hundreds of other vessels stuck in the waterway has this plea.
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My message to the authorities would be I urge to prioritize de-escalation.
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Let's keep the seas open for trade and humanity.
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It comes a day after President Trump said he's extending the ceasefire with Iran without setting a new deadline.
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The BBC's Lise Doucette has reaction from inside Iran.
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The first reactions to President Trump's ceasefire announcement on social media by official aides and spokespersons were predictable, sceptical, defiant.
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Lebanon says discussions are underway to try to extend its ceasefire with Israel ahead of talks in Washington on Thursday between the two countries The war is pushing up prices around the globe Fuel is at a three-year high in the UK as inflation rises too The war is even hitting safe sex The world's biggest condom maker says it's going to have to increase prices by up to 30% well let's start the situation in the strait of hormuz iran has attacked three container ships whilst they try to navigate through the key waterway as tehran continues to impose restrictions on the strait that was the moment iranian state television announced the islamic revolutionary GARCORP had seized two of the three ships and was escorting them to the Iranian coast.
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The strait seemed to reopen briefly on Friday for a short window.
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That might have been sufficient encouragement for the vessels to try and make a run for it.
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Well, BBC Verify's Ben Chu has more on what we know about those attacks.
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The first was a container ship called the Epaminondas, which is owned by a Greek company.
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According to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, UKMTO, the body to which vessels report dangerous incidents, the vessel was approached by one IRGC gunboat at 3.55 GMT, while 15 nautical miles from Oman.
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IRGC refers to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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It was fired upon, resulting in heavy damage to the bridge.
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This is satellite imagery of the ship this morning.
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Importantly, the Ipanimondas was not transmitting its position via radio transmitter while crossing the strait possibly to avoid detection it only pops up here and this underlines that ship tracking data only gives us a partial picture of maritime activity in the strait and we have to use other sources such as satellite data to show the fullest possible picture now a second ship which according to the maritime intelligence firm Vanguard was the MSC Francesca was fired upon at some time after 505 GMT while approximately six nautical miles off the coast of Iran.
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Note that it too was not transmitting a signal until this point here.
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Now the third ship which we understand was a Swiss owned vessel called the Euphoria also reported being fired upon at 638 GMT eight nautical miles west of Iran though this one did not specify it was attacked by the IRGC.
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Iranian media says the IRGC navy has now seized the Epaninondas and the Francesca and has directed them towards the Iranian coast.
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Well, the cargo ships were attacked after President Trump said he was extending the U.S.-Iran ceasefire whilst maintaining the U.S.
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blockade of Iranian ports.
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Live now to our chief North America correspondent Gary O'Donoghue.
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Gary, people are saying that President Trump has blinked first in this and also surprising he hasn't actually mentioned these ships in the straits and the fact that they potentially break a ceasefire, don't they?
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Yeah, I mean, he's threatened to intervene if Iran was to start interfering with traffic But we know the strait is effectively closed.
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And, of course, his blockade on Iranian ports and therefore Iran's oil exports is also still in force.
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So there's a bit of a standoff on that.
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Iran regards that blockade as an act of war in itself.
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But the president really doesn't seem to be doing anything to ensure that there's safe passage for those boats out of the Gulf and into the Arabian Sea.
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That's something he had talked about before.
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So I think what's happening here is that this kind of detail, I say detail, these kind of events on the ground are taking second or backseat, if you like, to Washington waiting to see if there's some sort of global proposal from Tehran, some specific proposal that could get these negotiations back on track that were postponed from last weekend.
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end.
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That's what they're waiting for.
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And I think that's why they put their trust in the Pakistan intermediaries to persuade Tehran to come up with something they can work with.
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And that they're sort of in a way ignoring these this sort of skirmishing in the straits at the moment.
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Just seeing what happens with that.
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Gary, thank you.
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Well, let's get the view from Iran now.
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Our chief international correspondent, Lise Doucette, is allowed to report from Tehran on the condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian service restrictions that apply to all international media organizations operating inside Iran.
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Here's her assessment of the Iranian reaction to President Trump's move.
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An adviser to Iran's lead negotiator described it as meaningless.
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He said it was just a ploy to buy more time for a surprise attack.
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Two previous rounds of negotiations last year and this year were shattered by surprise attacks.
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So it underscores the deep distrust here of diplomacy.
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Iran, though, has its own commitments to keep under this truce.
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But it says it's not going to open that strategic Strait of Hormuz until the U.S.
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lifts its naval blockade of Iran's ports.
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So that's where the impasse is now, and there's no sense of how and when it will be resolved.
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Well, Lisa's been on the streets of Tehran to hear from some Iranians they were recorded for radio so if you're watching us we've added some images from the capital economic situation is worsening every day and we're really tired of them so that's why some people believe that if there is going to be a war maybe afterwards things will dramatically change for the better if you if you were to send a message to the negotiators what would you say I would say stop it that's enough but just a subject stop negotiating stop negotiating as well because I don't think that is going to happen something good for us are you hopeful well I'm trying to be hopeful we're trying to pass this stage and just go to normal life but that would be a bit difficult in Iran to to imagine that but yeah we are all hopeful well the economic effects of the war in Iran are being felt globally including here in the UK with a direct impact on the cost of living.
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Well today we've got the first inflation figure since the conflict began.
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They show prices rose by 3.3% in the year to March.
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That's faster than the 3% recorded in February.
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The war caused the largest jump in petrol and diesel prices in over three years.
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We've also had news that condoms are going to cost more because of the war.
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The boss of the world's biggest condom maker Carex says the firm will raise prices by up to 30% or possibly more if the war continues to disrupt supplies of the raw materials and its products.
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Well, the firm produces more than a billion condoms every single day.
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So what is happening with the global economy and where are we now?
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Let's go live to our economics editor, Faisal Islam.
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Lots of questions coming in to us at the BBC, Faisal.
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And the main one people are wanting to know is, is this going to get worse?
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Well, my crystal ball doesn't stretch to what's happening in the Straits of Hormuz.
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And in many ways, there's two sorts of data we need to be watching.
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right now.
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There is the sort of real economic data of which we've got an example in the inflation numbers in the UK this morning, an example of this wave of inflation coming from the straits and now washing up on our shores, primarily, as you said, in the form of higher petrol and diesel prices.
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But then we also have to watch that other form of data, which is, as Ben Chi went through earlier in this programme, the number of ships able to transit through the straits of Hormuz.
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and it kind of oscillates.
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You know, those things don't always work in the same direction.
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In terms of the implications of what's happening in the strait, this morning we woke up to news of ceasefire and it seemed like things were on a sort of calming trajectory and then we find out about these seizing and firing on ships from the Iranians and it seems like things are certainly going to go on for weeks to come.
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And the question really is, and it's totally fundamental, it's obvious, which is how much longer does this last?
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And as we oscillate with the geopolitical backdrop, So do the markets and so now to the real economy.
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As I said, this inflation number, really the foothills, I think, of an inflationary spike or shock doesn't really compare with what we saw four years ago in terms of the Russia invasion of Ukraine, where inflation got to double digits, not just in the UK, but around Europe, actually around the world.
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But I see a sort of countdown clock ticking down now, for example, in terms of the implications for food prices.
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We know that precursors for fertilizers are stuck in the Gulf.
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That has had an impact on price and it will have an impact on availability.
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What is the key timing for that?
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Well, we have three months approximately till sowing season in the southern hemisphere.
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Many developing countries essential, the bread baskets of the world.
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If the fertilizer isn't available or it's extremely expensive, which can amount to the same thing, that will impact on food availability.
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we have now, which is a kind of narrow fuel shock, which, although painful, if it ended today, it could end up being a painful bump rather than a fundamental economic shock or crisis.
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Well, this is what turns that into.
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Likewise, domestic energy bills too.
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In the UK specifically, they haven't really been impacted apart from heating oil, which is up 90%.
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But that could transpire if this lasts until summer.
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So it depends on how long the blockage lasts in the straight to foremost okay Faisal thank you let's turn our attention now to the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon the Lebanese president says communications are underway to extend the ceasefire deadline it all comes ahead of the second round of talks in Washington DC on Thursday between the two countries which are in the midst of that temporary 10-day truce which of course took effect on the 16th of April live to Jerusalem now and our correspondent John Donison Jonathan John what what are both sides saying ahead of those talks?
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Well, look, I guess it's good that these talks are taking place, but I don't think there is any great sense of optimism.
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First of all, the fighting hasn't really fully stopped.
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Israel has continued to fire on Hezbollah positions, and Hezbollah to some extent has fired back, perhaps less than it was doing before the ceasefire came into force.
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And fundamentally, you know, there is a problem with Israeli troops.
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Thousands of them are occupying large parts of southern Lebanon.
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And the Lebanese president has said that a key demand is that those forces withdraw to the internationally recognized borders.
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In other words, back into Israel.
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Well, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has given no indication that he's ready to do that.
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So I think perhaps the best we could get out of these talks is an extension of the ceasefire to give us more time.
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That is something, as you say, that the Lebanese president has suggested that they are working towards.
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I think there's no doubt the Americans would like to see a ceasefire and a deal come into place because it's key to getting a deal with the Iranians as well.
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The Iranians want a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as part of their deal.
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But as I say, no great sense of optimism and a ceasefire that is really fragile at best.
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John, thank you.
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Well, when President Trump announced the ceasefire extension, he said it was so Iran's leaders and representatives could come up with a unified proposal.
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So for today's Big Picture, we ask the question of whether Iranian leadership is really fractured or not.
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Murt Chabot Khomeini was chosen as supreme leader after his father Ayatollah Ali Khomeini was killed in the US-Israeli strikes, but he's not been seen in public since being chosen.
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Sir Simon Gass, the UK ambassador to Iran from 2009 to 2011, thinks it's Iran's revolutionary guards that are making decisions.
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I'm in no doubt that at the moment it is the IRGC in Iran who are calling the shots.
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I think they are probably consulting the supreme leader, the new supreme leader.
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But the decisions in Iran are now being taken by people who are arguably more hardline, even than the regime was before the fighting started.
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Well, with me now is Syavash Ardalan, senior reporter for BBC Persian.
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Syavash, do you agree with that?
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Do you think the Iranian leadership is a fractured one?
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Who is leading Iran right now?
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I don't think it's fractured.
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It's true.
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We have hardliners and we have moderates, but who are the people who are making the decisions that matter?
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I think it's more consensus at this point, obviously stamped and authorized by the Supreme Leader, who incidentally, we haven't seen, but we definitely do know that he's alive.
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I think what Donald Trump is saying, the narrative that himself and some Western media outlets are pushing is that there seems to be fracture, even warring factions, some exaggerated language that I think is a misreading of the way Iranian politics is working at the moment.
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And I think also some opposition, Iranian opposition outlets are also pushing this narrative, hoping that there might, a fracture might emerge somehow that could weaken the regime.
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But to me, even if the Revolutionary Guards calls the shots, but still it's based on a consensus within the body called the High National Security Council.
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So, Mohammad Baughal-Ghalibov, who has now emerged as one of the senior leaders in Iran, his official post is Speaker of Parliament.
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He went to Islamabad to engage in the first round of talks with the Americans.
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He has become really the face, the spokesperson of Iran.
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He himself used to be a member of the Revolutionary Guards.
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I don't think he would be in disagreement with the Revolutionary Guards.
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He's a pragmatist.
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And even if there is a disagreement, just like in the United States where you had J.D.
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Vance, who is known to be against the war, at the end of the day, they would support the decision that the majority of people within that council make.
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So when Donald Trump says that we're waiting for a unified response for Iran, it gives the impression that Iranians are confused and they're putting out different proposals.
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Whereas if you look at the Iranian position, it's been fairly consistent from the beginning in terms of uranium enrichment, the Strait of Hormuz, and now the issue of the naval blockade, which Iran is saying needs to end before it will engage in a second round of talks with the U.S.
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Okay.
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Siyabash, thank you very much indeed for that.
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Now whether you're joining us on YouTube, TikTok, Sounds, radio or TV, thank you so much for your time.
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We'll be back at the same time tomorrow with the Iran War Today.
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Context & Background
In this video titled "Iran attacks three cargo vessels in Strait of Hormuz," Maryam Meshiri provides a detailed briefing about ongoing tensions between Iran, the U.S., and Israel. The discussion focuses on a significant incident where Iran seized two cargo ships while they were navigating through the crucial Strait of Hormuz. This geopolitical conflict impacts global trade and raises concerns about maritime safety, making it a vital topic for English learners interested in current events and international relations. Understanding such dialogues will enhance your vocabulary and comprehension of formal and tense situations in English.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- "I urge to prioritize de-escalation." – This phrase highlights the importance of reducing tensions in a conflict.
- "The strait seemed to reopen briefly." – This phrase can be used to describe temporary situations.
- "We have to use other sources such as satellite data." – This emphasizes the necessity of diverse information sources.
- "Iran regards that blockade as an act of war." – This phrase illustrates how perceptions can shape responses to political actions.
- "Discussions are underway to try to extend its ceasefire." – A useful expression for indicating ongoing negotiations or processes.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively improve your English speaking skills through this video's content, follow these steps using the shadowing technique:
- Listen Actively: Watch the video without subtitles the first time. Focus on the pronunciation and intonation of the speakers.
- Break it Down: Replay sections of the video, particularly key phrases. You can pause and repeat sentences out loud to practice your own shadow speech.
- Compare and Contrast: After practicing, listen again to assess how closely your pronunciation matches that of the speakers. Pay particular attention to stress patterns and rhythm.
- Use Contextual Clues: Whenever you encounter a new term or phrase, use the context to understand its meaning. Try to use these phrases in your daily conversations.
- Finalize with Repetition: Repeat your shadow speech practice regularly. This will help reinforce your memory and speaking fluency. Engage with the material by summarizing it aloud; this is particularly useful for IELTS speaking practice.
By employing these practices, you can significantly enhance your English communication skills and develop a deeper understanding of current events through the strategic use of resources like learn English with YouTube.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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