04-10 00:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Defence Secretary John Healey says there is "no evidence" of any damage to UK infrastructure in the Atlantic.
UK says Russia ran submarine operation over cables and pipelines
Three Russian submarines conducted a "covert" operation over cables and pipelines in waters north of the UK, Defence Secretary John Healey said.
A British warship and aircraft were deployed to deter the "malign" activity by Moscow and there was "no evidence" of any damage to UK infrastructure in the Atlantic, he added.
Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, Healey said: "We see you. We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences."
The Russian embassy in London has denied Healey's claims, according to Moscow's state news agency Tass.
The UK is dependent on its undersea cables and pipelines for its data and energy.
There are around 60 undersea cables which come ashore at several points along the UK coastline, particularly around East Anglia and South West England.
More than 90% of the UK's day-to-day internet traffic travels via these undersea cables.
Healey told a Downing Street press conference on Thursday that Russia had sent an Akula class submarine as a diversionary tactic while two of its GUGI spy submarines carried out the surveillance of these cables.
Healey said the attack submarine soon left UK waters and went back to Russia after it was monitored, while the two GUGI vessels remained.
Tass reported that the embassy said Russia was "not threatening underwater infrastructure, which is truly critical to the UK. We are not using aggressive rhetoric in this regard."
The Royal Navy deployed frigate HMS St Albans, fuel tanker RFA Tidespring and anti-submarine Merlin helicopters to track all three of the Russian submarines.
Other nations were involved in tracking the Russian activity - though Healey mentioned only Norway by name.
"Our armed forces left [Russia] in no doubt that they were being monitored, that their movements were not covert, as President Putin planned, and that their attempted secret operation had been exposed," Healey said.
"We watched them, we were able to track them, we dropped sonar buoys to demonstrate to them that we were monitoring every hour of their operation."
Russia's GUGI submarines
GUGI is not yet as familiar to most people as say, the KGB or FSB, but it poses a formidable and dangerous challenge to Western nations. The acronym stands for the Russian words for Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (Glavnoye upravlenie glubokovodnikh issledovanii).
Although it is a part of the Russian navy it is so secretive that it reports directly to the defence minister and the president.
Its headquarters are in St.Petersburg on the Baltic Sea but it has an Arctic base from which it can deploy at Olenya Bay, up on the Kola Peninsula which is home to Russia's strategic nuclear submarine fleet.
GUGI specialises in underwater surveillance, sabotage and reconnaissance. No other nation on Earth, except for the United States, has the same capacity to operate military equipment at extreme depths.
This equipment includes the kind of miniature, uncrewed submarines that Russia is believed to have deployed over Britain's data cables in the North Atlantic.
These "mini-subs" can be launched covertly, at night, from spy vessels like the Yantar, seen previously loitering around the English Channel. They have the ability to cut cables or in some cases, it's feared, interdict them to allow Russia to monitor the data passing through them.
All this comes under the heading of hybrid warfare: hostile acts that stop short of an attributable, lethal attack.
Britain and NATO's concern is that all Russian covert surveillance of Western undersea cables and pipelines is aimed at giving Moscow a standing start should hostilities ever break out.
Were that to happen then the expectation is that Russia would attempt to sever or disrupt as much of Britain's data as possible, activating devices it may have pre-positioned in the run-up to war.
Healey also claimed Putin had sought to capitalise on the world being "distracted" by war in the Middle East and that it was Russia that posed the "primary threat to UK security".
He said Moscow still "poses a threat" but expressed confidence the UK could track and monitor future activity while continuing to expose "any covert operations that Putin wants to mount that may threaten our vital interests".
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "determined to protect the British people from paying the price for Putin's aggression in their household bills", adding this was why the UK would not "shy away from taking action and exposing Russia's destabilising activity that seeks to test our resolve".
Following Healey's press conference, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch posted on X calling for Starmer to "publish the Defence Investment Plan now".
Badenoch said: "We stand shoulder to shoulder on Russian aggression. To be strong abroad we need clarity on spending at home." She added that w
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04-10 00:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
She called rumours that Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump "mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation".
Melania Trump denies ties to Jeffrey Epstein and urges hearing for survivors
First Lady Melania Trump has denied connections to Jeffrey Epstein, telling reporters at the White House that any claims linking the two "need to end today".
In a surprise announcement on Thursday, the first lady called for congressional hearings for survivors of Epstein's sex trafficking.
She also denied online rumours that Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump, calling them "mean-spirited attempts to defame my reputation".
It is unclear what prompted the announcement.
There was no prior indication from her office that she would make a statement on Epstein, and the White House did not share the topic earlier when her remarks were put on its daily schedule.
She said she had not been a victim of Epstein, with whom she only briefly "crossed paths" in 2000.
"I have never had any knowledge of Epstein abuse of his victims," she said. "I was never involved in any capacity. I was not a participant."
She also denied knowing Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced financier's jailed associate.
She referred to a 2002 email between her and Maxwell released in the Epstein files, calling it nothing more than "casual correspondence" and a "polite reply".
An email that appears to be the one she referenced is addressed to "G" - presumably for Ghislaine - and includes compliments about a story featuring "JE" with a photo of G that appeared in New York Magazine. She wrote that she "cannot wait" to go to Palm Beach.
"Give me a call when you are back in NY," the email says. "Have a great time! Love, Melania"
The New York Magazine article included quotes from now-President Donald Trump calling Epstein a "terrific guy" and saying "he's a lot of fun to be with".
"It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them on the younger side," the story quoted him saying. "No doubt about it - Jeffrey enjoys his social life."
Melania Trump on Thursday additionally called on lawmakers to "give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony".
"Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the congressional record," she said. "Then, and only then, we will have the truth."
Several prominent business leaders have been forced to resign their positions in recent months after new details emerged about their ties to Epstein - a fact that Melania Trump referenced in her remarks.
"Of course, this doesn't amount to guilt, but we still must work openly and transparently to uncover the truth," she said.
She did not take questions from reporters.
In a statement published soon after she spoke, California Representative Robert Garcia, the most powerful Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said that "we agree with Melania Trump's call for a public hearing".
He urged the committee chairman, Republican Representative James Comer, "to respond to the First Lady's request and schedule a public hearing immediately".
Family of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, Sky and Amanda Roberts, and other survivors told BBC Newsnight that they "have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony.
"Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice," they said in a statement. They accused the first lady of protecting "those with power", including members of her husband's administration who they said still have not released all of the investigative files related to Epstein.
"Survivors have done their part," they said. "Now it's time for those in power to do theirs."
The relationship between the first lady and Epstein has already led to legal battles.
In October 2025, for example, HarperCollins UK said it would retract passages from a book that included "unverified" claims that Donald Trump and his wife met through Epstein. Similarly, the Daily Beast retracted and apologised for an article the publication later said "did not meet our standards."
The first lady also has been embroiled in an ongoing legal dispute with author Michael Wolff over a claim in his book Fire and Fury that she was first introduced to her husband through a modelling agent tied to Epstein.
Wolff moved to counter-sue her after she threatened him with a $1bn (£745mn) defamation lawsuit.
"My attorneys and I have fought these unfounded and baseless lies with success, and will continue to maintain my sound reputation without hesitation," she said on Thursday.
Her statement at the White House is an extremely rare appearance by the first lady, one of only a handful of similar events for a first lady who has proven both elusive and influential since her husband returned to the White House
The first lady's statement is likely to reignite intense public debate over the handling of the justice department's investigation into Epstein and the subsequent release of its files.
While Donald Trump has
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04-10 00:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Both sides have reason to end the war but share no common ground.
Ceasefire or no ceasefire, the Middle East's reshuffling is not yet done
The best hope for the ceasefire talks in Pakistan is that both the United States and Iran have strong reasons to call a halt to the war. The biggest obstacle to their success is a total absence of trust, no discernible common ground and the fact that Israel, America's full partner in the war, has hugely escalated its onslaught on Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump is already speaking about the war in the past tense. He has declared victory and needs an exit. Not only does he have a state visit from King Charles in the diary for later this month, followed by a summit with China's President Xi Jinping in May, there are midterm elections in November. With America's summer holiday season looming, Trump also needs petrol prices to fall back to where they were before he went to war. Royal visits, summits and elections do not mix well with wars.
Iran's regime has its own reasons to end the war. It is as defiant as ever, still able to launch missiles and drones, with its social media warriors pouring out AI videos lampooning Donald Trump. But Iran has suffered massive damage. Cities have come to an economic standstill and the regime needs time to regroup and will try to use the talks in Pakistan to strengthen its position.
The Pakistani intermediaries who will be shuttling between the two delegations have a tough job on their hands. The declared positions of the two sides are as far apart as it is possible to be.
Trump has a 15-point plan that has not been published but leaked versions make it sound more like a surrender document than a basis for negotiation. Iran's 10-point plan contains a list of demands that America has consistently rejected in the past.
Creating a more durable ceasefire will require some kind of agreement to at least keep talking about the two sides' contradictory lists of intractable issues.
It would be hard enough to work through them in peacetime.
In wartime, without any kind of mutual trust, even a form of words that keeps the ceasefire going irrespective of there being no agreement on wider issues will look positive. No agreement at all points towards the road back to war.
The newest, and most urgent problem they face concerns reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow exit from the Gulf. Keeping it closed gives Iran a chokehold on the world economy.
Reopening the waterway that was used by hundreds of ships a day until the US and Israel attacked Iran has become the central issue in the negotiation. The millions of civilians in the Middle East who have been caught up in this conflict hope this negotiation will be the war's endgame.
No victory parade
The Americans did not expect to be spending early April sitting down to ceasefire talks when, alongside Israel on 28 February, they ignited the war with huge strikes that killed among many others Iran's supreme leader, his wife and other members of their family.
Trump was expecting a quick victory, an Iranian version of the US military's stunning kidnap of the Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife in January. Both are on trial in New York on narco-terrorism charges, and the US has installed his former deputy in the presidential palace.
Hopes – expectations – that killing Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, in the war's first wave of airstrikes would lead to the collapse of the regime were wildly misplaced. His son Mojtaba has not been seen since he was appointed as his successor. There is speculation that he was badly hurt in the attack that killed his parents, as well as reportedly his sister, his wife and one of his sons. With or without the active participation of the new supreme leader, Iran's regime has demonstrated depths of resilience that took Trump by surprise.
Now Donald Trump's representatives, led by his Vice-President JD Vance, must negotiate with adversaries that they claim, incorrectly, to have defeated. "A capital V military victory", as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth put it.
The Hormuz factor
The war that the US and Israel ignited is already reshuffling Middle Eastern geopolitics. As the longer-term consequences of the war reveal themselves, that process will deepen. The US and Israel have done immense damage to Iran's armed forces as well as its military and civilian infrastructure. However, while the Iranian regime may be battered, it's also intact. Regime change is not happening. Iran can still launch missiles and drones. That means that despite loud claims, the US and Israel have not translated tactical victories into strategic advances.
Iran, on the other hand, has shown that the closing of the Strait of Hormuz gives it a strategic edge that Donald Trump either dismissed or did not understand when he listened to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's arguments for going to war with Iran.
It should not have been a surprise that Iran blocked the Strait when it was attacked. Iran has threatened to do so in the past, and disrupte
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04-09 08:09 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The US president says Nato "wasn't there when we needed them" during the Iran war.
Trump criticises Nato as alliance chief describes meeting as 'very frank'
Donald Trump has again attacked Nato for not supporting the US in the Iran war, following a private meeting with its Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.
In a post shared to Truth Social after the meeting, the US President said: "NATO WASN'T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON'T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN."
Ahead of the talks on Wednesday, Trump had toyed with the idea of quitting the trans-Atlantic military alliance after several Nato countries resisted his calls to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ease rising global oil prices.
The White House did not disclose details of the talk.
The Secretary General was at the White House for over two hours on Wednesday, although it is unknown how long the meeting with Trump was.
What is clear, however, is that Trump still has deep misgivings about the alliance and the member countries that he believes did not help the US enough before and during Operation Epic Fury.
In recent weeks, Trump has threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance.
Asked about Nato's role in the ongoing conflict with Iran, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday said in a direct quote from the president that Nato was "tested and they failed".
Leavitt said Nato countries had "turned their backs on the American people," who fund their nations' defense, and that Trump would have a "very frank and candid conversation" with the Nato chief.
Meanwhile, much of Rutte's message to Trump appears to be that many European countries did not stand in the way.
The Secretary General told CNN that he pointed out that "the large majority of European nations has been helpful with basing, with logistics, with overflights".
"It's therefore a nuanced picture," Rutte said.
Whether or not that point - and the Secretary General's own warm relationship with Trump - are enough for the US president remains to be seen.
Asked if the world was safer now than it was before the war, Rutte said "absolutely" and credited that to Trump's "leadership" in degrading Iran's nuclear threats.
He added Nato members do not see the war in Iran as illegal, and most agreed it was important to degrade Iran's nuclear capabilities.
At the end of 2023, the US Congress did vote to prohibit any US president from unilaterally withdrawing from Nato without the approval of a two-thirds Senate majority or an act of Congress.
The relationship between the administration and the Nato alliance was already in a difficult place before the war with Iran, largely as a result of disagreements over Trump's plans for Greenland.
Trump included his frustrations over Greenland in his Truth social post after the meeting with Rutte, by saying: "REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!"
The conflict in Iran, however, has taken Trump's grievances with Nato to new heights and created what is perhaps the greatest challenge the alliance has faced in its history.
Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
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04-09 00:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
The path to the two-week ceasefire with Iran may have fundamentally altered the way the rest of the world views the US.
Iran ceasefire deal gives Trump a way out of war - but at a high cost
In the end, cooler heads prevailed – at least for now.
At 18:32 Washington time, President Donald Trump posted on his social media website that the US and Iran were "very far along" with a "definitive" peace agreement and that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire to allow negotiations to proceed.
It wasn't exactly the last minute, but with Trump's looming 20:00 EDT (00:00 GMT on Wednesday) deadline to reach a deal or the US would launch massive strikes against Iranian energy and transportation infrastructure, it came pretty close.
All of this is contingent on Iran also suspending hostilities and fully opening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping traffic, which the regime says it will do, while insisting it still exerts "dominion" over the waterway.
The deal allowed Trump to extricate himself from what was shaping up to be a treacherous choice – either escalating with his promise that a "whole civilisation will die tonight" or backing down and undermining his credibility. The US president may have only bought himself a temporary reprieve, however.
The US and Iranians now will engage in negotiations over the next two weeks, buying some time to try to reach a permanent settlement. It is likely to be a bumpy ride, but in after-hours trading, the price of a barrel of oil dropped below the $100 mark for the first time in days and US stock futures soared. There appears to be a sense of optimism that the worst is over.
Even this kind of progress was far from certain as recently as Tuesday morning, when Trump threatened the death of Iranian civilisation, "never to be brought back again".
Whether such a jaw-dropping threat from an American president pressured Iran to agree to the kind of ceasefire they had previously rejected is uncertain. What is clear is that Trump's astounding, inflammatory declaration – just two days after a similar obscenity-laced Truth Social demand – is unlike anything a modern US president has ever levelled or hinted at.
And even if the two-week ceasefire does result in a permanent peace, the Iran war – and Trump's recent words – may have fundamentally altered the way the rest of the world views the US.
A nation that once styled itself as a force for stability around the globe is now shaking the foundations of the international order. A president who has seemingly relished shattering norms and traditions in domestic politics is now doing the same on the world stage.
Democrats were quick to condemn Trump's words on Tuesday, with some going so far as to call for his removal.
"It is clear that the president has continued to decline and is not fit to lead," wrote Congressman Joaquin Castro on X.
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the US Senate, said any Republican who did not join in voting to end the Iran war "owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is".
While many in Trump's own party stood by their president, it was far from the near-universal support he often enjoys.
Austin Scott, Republican congressman from Georgia and senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, strongly criticised Trump's threats about a civilisation dying.
"The president's comments are counter-productive," he told the BBC, "and I do not agree with them."
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, usually a Trump loyalist, said it would be a "huge mistake" if Trump followed through with his bombing campaign. Congressman Nathaniel Moran of Texas wrote on social media that he did not support "the destruction of a 'whole civilisation'".
"This is not who we are," he wrote, "and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America."
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has frequently broken with the president, was equally direct, writing that the president's threat "cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran".
The White House is likely to counter that the leverage worked, however. And for a president who has faced declining poll numbers, a growing number of critics within his own party and an economy that is struggling over higher energy prices, any off-ramp in the conflict is likely to come as a relief.
In his Truth Social post announcing the ceasefire, Trump said that the US had "met and exceeded" all its military objectives.
Iran's military has been significantly degraded. Although its Islamic fundamentalist regime is still in power, many of its top leaders have been killed in bombing strikes.
At the moment, however, many of the stated American objectives are still in doubt. The disposition of Iran's enriched uranium – the foundation of its nuclear weapons programme – is unknown. The nation still has influence over regional proxies, such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
And even if Iran does fully open Hormuz – without conditioning passage on tolls or other payments – its ability to control the key geopolitical chokepoint is more clear now than ever.
In a statement after Trump's ceasefire m
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04-08 00:01 · 航天,科技政策,国际合作,基础设施,研发投入
The Artemis II mission has been near flawless to date, but has the test flight shown Nasa is ready to send humans to the lunar surface?
Has Artemis II shown we can land on the Moon again?
Nasa's Artemis II mission has passed every major test since its launch on 1 April, with its rocket, spacecraft and crew performing better than engineers had dared to hope for.
The mission's first six days have shown that the Orion capsule works as designed with people on board for the first time - something no simulator could prove.
Perhaps its greatest achievement, though, is through the actions of the Artemis crew, which have generated hope, agency and optimism for a world appearing to be in desperate need of inspiration.
But the bigger question remains - is a Moon landing by 2028, as Nasa and President Trump want, now really an achievable goal?
What Artemis II has taught us so far
A few days after Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS) reached the launch pad at Kennedy Space Centre, the most important lesson about Artemis II had already been learned.
After two scrubbed launches in February and again in March because of separate technical issues, Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman said "launching a rocket as important and as complex as SLS every three years is not a path to success."
The previous uncrewed Artemis I mission took off in November 2022.
The agency, he said, had to stop treating each rocket "like a work of art" and start launching with the frequency of a programme that means serious business.
It was, in effect, a declaration that relearning the same lessons every three years had to stop.
That matters, because it reframes everything that has followed. And judged against that ambition, what has the mission shown us in the six days since Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen lifted off on April 1st?
The short answer is more than even the optimists dared hope for.
A Rocket that did the job
The SLS generated 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff and, by every measure engineers care about, performed to plan. Each phase of the ascent was, in the understated language of mission control, "nominal": maximum dynamic pressure, main engine cut-off and booster separation.
Two of the three planned course corrections on the way to the Moon were scrapped because the trajectory was already so accurate they were not needed. As Dr Simeon Barber, space scientist at the Open Univertsity, put it: "Credit to them - they got it right the first time."
A day after launch came the critical moment. Orion fired its main engine for five minutes and fifty five seconds - known as the translunar injection burn - putting the spacecraft on a looping path to the Moon with no further major manoeuvres required.
The powerful engine burn was "flawless" according to the head of the Artemis programme, Dr Lori Glaze.
Humans in the machine
The official purpose of this mission is to put people inside Orion and find out what happens - not just to the spacecraft, but to the interaction between crew and machine. What has unfolded is precisely what was anticipated, and precisely what could not have been learned in a simulator.
There have been toilet problems. A water dispenser issue requiring the crew to bag water as a precaution. A minor redundancy loss in one of the helium systems was mentioned at an early press conference and quietly resolved.
As Barber observed: "This is all about putting humans in the loop - these pesky humans that press buttons and breathe carbon dioxide and want air conditioning and want to use the toilet. It was all about how the system works with those guys on board."
The engineers monitoring Orion's CO2 removal system through back-to-back exercise sessions, or testing how the spacecraft handles with thrusters deliberately disabled, are building the case that this vehicle is safe enough to carry people to the surface of the Moon.
Barber's overall assessment was direct: "Orion itself seems to have worked pretty well, actually - certainly all the propulsion stuff, which is the real critical stuff."
Great science or Nasa hype?
NASA has talked up the scientific returns. The crew made extensive observations during their flyby - around 35 geological features noted in real time, colour variations that could reveal mineral composition, and a solar eclipse from deep space that pilot Victor Glover said "just looks unreal."
One image stood out: the Orientale basin, a 600-mile crater near the Moon's far side, seen in full by human eyes for the first time.
And yet the science is not the main point. Professor Chris Lintott of Oxford, co-host of The Sky at Night, was blunt: "The artistic value of the images returned from Artemis and its crew is significant, but their scientific value is limited."
India's Chandrayaan-3 landed near the south pole in 2023. China's Chang'e-6 retrieved samples from the far side in 2024. Robotic probes have mapped this terrain in extraordinary detail.
The most affecting moment came not from any instrument, but from the crew. As the astronauts broke the distance record set by the stricken Apollo 13 crew in 1970, Mission Specialist Jere
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04-08 00:01 · 娱乐产业,社会舆论,活动取消,国际新闻,品牌风险
West was due to headline the festival in July but drew criticism over past antisemitic comments.
Wireless Festival cancelled after Kanye West blocked from coming to UK
This summer's Wireless Festival has been cancelled after headliner Kanye West was blocked from coming to the UK.
The government refused permission for West, now known as Ye, to travel to the UK after backlash to his planned set at the London festival this summer.
For the last several years, West has caused outrage for a string of antisemitic, racist and pro-Nazi comments.
In a statement, Wireless Festival said it was cancelled and refunds would be issued to all ticket holders. It added that "multiple stakeholders" had been consulted ahead of booking West, "and no concerns were highlighted at the time".
It continued: "Antisemitism in all its forms is abhorrent, and we recognise the real and personal impact these issues have had.
"As Ye said today, he acknowledges that words alone are not enough, and in spite of this still hopes to be given the opportunity to begin a conversation with the Jewish community in the UK."
Presale tickets for Wireless Festival were released at midday on Tuesday and are believed to have sold out, while the general sale was due to open at midday on Wednesday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Home Office told the BBC the rapper had made an application on Monday to travel to the UK via an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
It said the decision to refuse permission was made on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good.
Visitors to the UK need an ETA if they do not need a visa for short stays of up to six months, or do not already have a UK immigration status.
West has faced criticism for his previous comments. In 2022, he posted on social media saying he would go "death con 3 On Jewish people".
Later the same year, he appeared on a podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and said: "I see good things about Hitler."
In May 2025, West released a song called Heil Hitler and sold T-shirts featuring swastikas.
The rapper has been seeking a return to mainstream public view after apologising for his actions in a lengthy statement published in the Wall Street Journal in January.
Just last week, he played two sold-out concerts in Los Angeles, telling the crowd at the SoFi Stadium: "Tonight we're going to put all this behind us, ain't that right LA?"
West had said on Tuesday that he "would be grateful" to meet members of the Jewish community in the UK in person "to listen" after controversy over his booking.
"I know words aren't enough," added the star.
"I'll have to show change through my actions. If you're open, I'm here."
Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic, the company behind Wireless, previously said attempts had been made to reach out to Jewish groups after the concerts were announced, but "they have refused a meeting". He said that the approach had been made over the past couple of days.
In response, a Board of Deputies spokesperson told the BBC: "Neither the Board of Deputies nor, we understand, the Jewish Leadership Council has refused any request to meet with the Wireless festival organisers.
"When the Board of Deputies received a letter from Melvin Benn on 6 April, proposing to meet, in response to a letter we sent setting out our concerns, we responded positively."
The board said that, regardless of any meeting, they had been clear that the invitation for West to perform "should be rescinded".
That decision has now been taken out of West's hands, and those of Festival Republic, which runs other major UK festivals including Reading and Leeds.
"It may be that the home secretary does rescind his visa... if she does, the issue is over," he told the Today programme.
Benn, who is a major UK music industry figure and event promoter, agreed that West's past behaviour was "abhorrent" and "disgusting".
But the promoter highlighted the role that the star's mental health may have played, and asked for understanding.
"Mental health is not something that disappears overnight," Benn said.
"People suffer psychotic behaviour, suffer bipolar behaviour, for many, many years... And I think people are forgetting that."
However, Jewish groups criticised Benn's support for the star.
The Community Security Trust (CST), which aims to protect British Jews from antisemitism, described the government's decision to stop West travelling to the UK as "a sensible outcome to what has been yet another bruising episode for British Jews".
Its statement added: "Anti-Jewish hatred should have no place in society and cultural leaders have a role to play in ensuring that is the case.
"People who show genuine and meaningful remorse for previous antisemitic behaviour will always receive a sympathetic hearing from the Jewish community, but that process must come before this kind of public rehabilitation."
Gideon Falter, chief executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, has called for an apology from the organisers of Wireless.
He told the BBC that the booking of West represented a pursuit of "profit over
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04-08 00:01 · 国际,新闻,BBC,国际
Attacks have targeted bridges, steel plants and pharmaceutical facilities, verified videos show.
Tracking recent US-Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure
President Donald Trump has pledged to target infrastructure across Iran unless the country reaches an "acceptable" deal to end the war with the US and Israel by Tuesday night.
Promising to bomb the country "back to the Stone Ages", Trump said US forces would target bridges and power plants across Iran. He also posted to social media on Tuesday that a "whole civilization will die tonight" if an agreement is not struck.
There has been a spate of attacks on infrastructure critical to ordinary Iranians since the conflict began, with schools and hospitals damaged.
BBC Verify has confirmed that US and Israeli strikes have targeted at least two steel plants, three bridges and a pharmaceutical plant over the past two weeks.
Some senior Democrats in the US Congress and UN officials have warned that strikes like these could amount to war crimes. But in a news conference on Monday Trump dismissed those concerns.
What civilian infrastructure has been hit by strikes?
Footage confirmed by BBC Verify showed at least two strikes on the bridge. A large gap in the bridge can be seen in the aftermath of the attack, with construction cranes visible either side of it.
A number of steel facilities have also been targeted. On 27 March, verified footage showed smoke billowing from the Isfahan Mobarakeh Steel company, forcing workers to suspend operations. The plant - which is Iran's largest steel manufacturer - exported around $860m (£649m) between March 2025 and January 2026, according to company linked-reporting.
Satellite images also showed damage at the Khuzestan Steel Company - the country's second largest manufacturer. Local officials said that it could take up to a year to repair the damage caused to the plant by the attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the strikes have disrupted up to 70% of Iran's steel manufacturing capability. Arman Mahmoudian, research fellow at the University of South Florida's Global and National Security Institute, said the damage could seriously impact the Iranian economy.
"Steel is a cornerstone of Iran's non-oil economic capacity," he said. "If Israeli strikes have indeed dismantled around 70% of Iran's steel production capacity, this would place nearly 20 million tons of output at risk, potentially affecting around 3–3.5% of Iran's GDP."
Mahmoudian also noted that attacks on Iran's pharmaceutical industry could pose major issues for the healthcare system. On 31 March, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said it had carried out a strike on the Tofigh Daru Research & Engineering Company - one of Iran's largest pharmaceutical companies which produces anaesthetic and cancer drugs.
The IDF said in a statement that it had carried out the strike and alleged that the company had transferred "chemical substances, including fentanyl, that were used for research and development of chemical weapons". The BBC cannot independently verify that claim.
While pharmaceutical goods represent only a small part of Iran's economy, Mahmoudian noted that strikes against the sector could impact access to medicine at a time of need and undermine Tehran's "medical independence". Iranian media has previously claimed that over 90% of pharmaceuticals are produced domestically, but BBC Verify cannot confirm that.
Educational facilities have been heavily damaged in recent strikes, verified footage and photos suggest. On Saturday, images showed debris around the exterior of Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and parts of the building were destroyed after a reported attack.
Images also showed damage at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran on Monday after strikes on the capital.
Religious buildings have also been hit. In the central city of Zanjan an attack levelled parts of the Husseinya Mosque, photos showed. Local officials said two people were killed in the strike, which destroyed a clinic and a library within the complex.
The IDF also said on Tuesday that it had bombed 10 "key" parts of the Iranian railway. Verified footage from Aminabad village in central Iran showed a collapsed railway bridge said to be caused by the attacks.
Another video posted by the Iranian Red Crescent and which we verified showed paramedics carrying an injured man away from a railway line near Karaj. It's unclear what caused his injuries.
One railway worker in Tehran who spoke to the BBC expressed frustration at the attacks on the lines. "I'm really angry," the worker said. "Everything is falling apart."
The strikes came after IDF warned Iranians early on Tuesday against travelling. Writing in Farsi in a post to social media, it warned civilians that their "presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life".
Could the US-Israeli strikes amount to war crimes?
The recent strikes are just the latest in a wave of attacks which have damaged civilian infrastructure.
Legal experts and some senior US and UN officials have questioned wheth
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04-07 00:01 · 地缘政治,供应链风险,国际市场,能源通道,安全预警
The US president is in a delicate political position as the final hours to Tuesday's deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz tick down.
Trump's Hormuz ultimatum nears - with little indication Iran is on board
President Donald Trump has set deadlines, made demands and issued threats over the course of the five-week joint US-Israeli war against Iran. But seldom have they been this explicit.
The new round of strikes against Iran will be devastating. They will begin at 20:00, Washington DC time (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday. Within four hours, every bridge and power plant in the nation will be "decimated".
To avoid this fate, according to the president, Iran has to make a deal "that's acceptable to me". A component of the agreement should include "free traffic of oil" through the Strait of Hormuz.
As the final hours tick down, there has been little indication that Iran is ready to agree to Trump's ultimatum. They've rejected a temporary ceasefire and issued their own list of demands, which a US official described as "maximalist".
This places the American president in a delicate position. If there is no agreement, Trump could extend his deadline – for the fourth time in the past three weeks.
But backing away after such detailed threats, punctuated with expletives and dire warnings, could undercut his credibility as the war grinds on.
It's possible Iran, and the rest of the world, could conclude that despite America's military might and tactical skill – readily displayed in this weekend's intricate operation to rescue two downed airmen deep in Iran – it is not negotiating from a clear position of strength.
"We won," Trump insisted during his press conference on Monday afternoon. "They are militarily defeated. The only thing they have is the psychology of: 'Oh, we're going to drop a couple of mines in the water'."
That "psychology" – the ability to deter oil tankers from transiting the Strait of Hormuz with drones, missiles and mines – may be a more potent Iranian asset than the US has been willing to acknowledge.
During Monday's press conference, Trump marveled at American military precision on display in last year's "Midnight Hammer" bombing raid on Iran's nuclear sites, the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January and this weekend's rescue mission.
He and his national security team celebrated that most recent effort – which included coordinating hundreds of aircraft and elite military personnel and employing misdirection and technological wizardy. But the effort, while remarkable, was to avoid what Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged was a "potential tragedy".
Even if that tragedy was averted, the triumphant rescue underlined the risk American forces still face in Iran. And the president may be learning that American military power has its limits.
"We can bomb the hell out of them," he said. "We can knock them for a loop. But to close the Strait, all you need is one terrorist."
The other option is for Trump to follow through with his threats. On multiple occasions on Monday, he said that was a course he did not want to pursue.
While Trump said that the Iranian people were willing to endure the ongoing US military campaign – and, in fact, welcomed the bombs falling on their cities – he also acknowledged that anything the US destroys now would eventually have to be rebuilt and that the US might ultimately contribute to that rebuilding effort.
"Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? No," he said. "Right now, if we leave today, it will take them 20 years to rebuild their country."
He added that if he followed through with his bombing threats, the rebuilding effort would take a century.
It's not exactly the "stone age" that he has warned Iran would be reduced to, but an ensuing humanitarian crisis – including the regional impact of the "crushing" retaliation that Iran has promised – could be devastating.
Even in this late hour, however, Trump continues to hold out hope of a breakthrough.
"We have an active, willing participant on the other side," he said. "They would like to be able to make a deal. I can't say any more than that."
With the stakes as high as they are, the president's opacity is notable. He has a plan – "every single thing has been thought out by all of us", he said on Monday - but he won't divulge it.
It could be an indication that, behind the scenes, negotiations are farther along than have been publicly acknowledged. Or it could be some combination of bluff and wishful thinking.
"They have till tomorrow," Trump said. "We'll see what happens. I believe they're negotiating in good faith. I guess we'll find out."
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04-07 00:01 · 地缘政治,能源安全,国际关系,供应链风险,市场波动
The US president wants Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy route, before his Tuesday deadline.
Trump threatens to take out Iran in 'one night' if no deal before deadline
US President Donald Trump has threatened to take out Iran "in one night" if it fails to make a deal before the deadline he set for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy route.
Trump's deadline for an "acceptable" deal - one that includes the free flow of energy through the Gulf - is set for 20:00EDT (00:00GMT) on Tuesday.
Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump said that he believed "reasonable" leaders in Iran were negotiating in "good faith", but the outcome remained uncertain.
Iran has so far rejected proposals for a ceasefire, and has instead called for an immediate end to hostilities, post-conflict reconstruction and the lifting of sanctions.
Trump's news conference held alongside General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and defence secretary Pete Hegseth comes days after US forces successfully recovered two crew members of an F-15 fighter jet that was downed in southern Iran.
While much of Trump's remarks highlighted what he described as the "heroic" rescue of the crew, he once again repeated his warning that the US could launch attacks on Iran's energy and transportation infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened by Tuesday's deadline.
"The entire country can be taken out in one night – and that night might be tomorrow night," he said on Monday.
Once the deadline passes, Trump added, Iran would be sent back to the "Stone Ages".
"They're going to have no bridges," he said. "They're going to have no power plants."
Despite Iran's earlier rejection of US demands, Trump continued to express optimism that Iran was negotiating in good faith after successive layers of Iranian leadership were killed in US and Israeli strikes.
"We're going to find out," he said.
Meaningful progress in any negotiation is unlikely to take place without a ceasefire first, according to a regional official familiar with the discussions.
The official - who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of talks - said that talks were complicated because of difficulties in getting messages to and from Iranian officials amid an ongoing communications blackout.
"To convey messages to Iran, getting a response in a reasonable time is not possible," the official said. "The average time of response has been a day or so."
Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt have all been involved in efforts to mediate.
Trump provided few other details as to the administration's plans going forward, saying only that he has "the best plan" but that he won't divulge it to the media.
Legal experts have warned that deliberate, sustained assaults on Iranian infrastructure could constitute a war crime.
"Obliterating all power plants, threatening coercive actions against the civilian population to try to bring a government to the negotiating table, those kinds of things are all flatly illegal," former Obama-era National Security Council legal advisor told CBS, the BBC's US partner.
Earlier in the day, Trump said he was not "worried" about that possibility, and in the news conference insisted that Iran's population would be "willing to suffer to have freedom" - even if toppling Iran's government was not his intention.
The president also renewed his criticism of key US allies - including the UK, Nato and South Korea - that he said had failed to come to the help of the US during the conflict.
"That's a mark on Nato that will never disappear," he said, adding that the US does not "need" the UK.
American forces have conducted over 13,000 strikes across Iran since the war began, according to an update from the US military's Central Command on Monday.
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