Newshour

A senior Iranian military officer says the country's armed forces are ready to deliver an immediate response to any renewed hostilities by the US and Israel. The commander, Ali Abdollahi, was speaking with a two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran due to expire on Wednesday. It is still unclear whether peace talks in Pakistan will go ahead. We hear from Nate Swanson who served on the Trump Administration’s Iran negotiating team.

Also in the programme: We look at Apple's new boss; and how archery can help women having breast cancer treatment.

(Photo: A banner with a picture of Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is displayed during a ceasefire between the US and Iran. Tehran, April 20, 2026. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)

Confusion surrounds the second round of talks scheduled in Pakistan between US and Iranian officials. Also in the programme: the immunotherapy that could save cancer patients; and comparisons between the King of Horror, Stephen King and Shakespeare.
Photograph: Pakistani security officers outside Islamabad's Red Zone, where most diplomatic missions are based. Credit: Shutterstock

The BBC's Lyse Doucet has been speaking to the senior Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi, the Chairman of Iran's Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. He calls America "the world's biggest pirate".
Also in the programme: A BBC investigation finds that British soldiers stationed in Kenya fathered children with local women and in some cases, abandoned them. And a robot wins the Beijing half marathon - is this technological progress or a dystopian nightmare?
(Photo: Iranians walk past an anti-USA and anti-Israel mural on a street in Tehran, Iran, 20 April 2026. Conflict between Iran and the US over the Strait of Hormuz continues as Iran again closed the Strait. Credit: Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/Shutterstock)

President Trump says a US delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Monday for negotiations with Iran. The White House says it will again be led by Vice-President JD Vance. But reports from Iran say hardliners in the leadership are against attending as long as America's blockade of Iranian ports continues.
Also in the programme: The party of the pro-Russian former president, Rumen Radev, is on course to win Bulgaria's general election and more than 150 authors leave a prominent French publisher, but why?
(Photo: A police officer gestures to a vehicle at a check post along a road near Faisal Masjid, as Pakistan prepares to host the U.S. and Iran for the second phase of peace talks in Islamabad, Pakistan April 19, 2026. CREDIT: REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro)

Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the US lifts its blockade on Iranian ports, which it calls a "breach of the ceasefire". We'll hear from inside Iran from Lyse Doucet.
Also on the programme, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing the biggest threat to his leadership; and, amid our modern technology, people rush to independent record stores to celebrate vinyl records. 
(Photo:The Malta-flagged tanker Agios Fanourios I, an oil tanker that sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, arrives in Iraq’s territorial waters off Basra,Iraq April 17, 2026. REUTERS/Mohammed Aty)