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Middle East crisis live: Trump says he is ‘not at all’ worried about possible war crimes as his deadline nears | US-Israel war on Iran

Published

2 months ago

April 7, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and its consequences for the region, the world and the global economy.

Donald Trump said he was “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants if Tehran does not meet his Tuesday 8pm ET deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz.

“I’m not worried about it,” the US president said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.”

Speaking at the White House, Trump refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off-limits. Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wanted a permanent end to the conflict.

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the Associated Press.

At a news conference, Trump said all of Iran could be “taken out” in one night “and that night might be tomorrow night”, referring to Tuesday. Without an agreement with Tehran, he said, “every bridge in Iran will be decimated” by midnight ET (0400 GMT) on Wednesday and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again”.

Israel and the US carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.

People look at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, after it was hit in airstrikes. — People look at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background. Officials at the site in Zanjan, Iran, say it was hit by US-Israeli airstrikes at the weekend. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP

In other key developments:

The UN security council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a resolution to protect commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz but in significantly watered-down form after veto-wielding China opposed authorising force, Reuters is reporting, citing diplomats.
The Israeli military said early on Tuesday it had completed an “air strike wave” aimed at damaging Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran and additional areas across Iran. It said soon after that missiles were launched at Israel from Iran and defensive systems were operating to incept them.
Israel’s military also said it carried out strikes on three airports in Tehran, targeting several Iranian planes and helicopters.
The World Health Organisation suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing after a contract worker for WHO was killed in Gaza on Monday. Separately, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people outside a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, health officials said. Before the strikes some Palestinians had clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia who they said attacked the school, Reuters cited medics and residents as saying.
Oil prices extended their rises on Tuesday amid Trump’s heightened rhetoric against Iran. The head of the IMF, meanwhile, said the war would lead to “higher inflation and slower global growth”.
The head of International Committee of the Red Cross said that “deliberate threats … against essential civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities must not become the new norm in warfare”. Mirjana Spoljaric said, without singling out any country or leader: “Any war fought without limits is incompatible with the law.”
Israel said it struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex on Monday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the facility had been “destroyed” and his country was “systematically eliminating the Revolutionary Guards’ money machine”.
The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Maj Gen Majid Khademi, was killed in US-Israeli strikes at dawn on Monday, the Guards said.
Saudi Arabia intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched towards its eastern region and debris fell in the vicinity of energy facilities, the defence ministry of said on Tuesday.
Two blasts were reportedly heard near the Erbil airport – which hosts advisers from the US-led anti-jihadist coalition – in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, an Agence France-Presse journalist said.

Key events

Malaysia’s foreign ministry has said that one of seven Malaysian commercial vessels stranded in the strait of Hormuz has been allowed to pass and is now heading to its destination.

The ministry said this followed diplomatic talks with Iranian officials led by Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. It didn’t give further details.

Malaysia reaffirmed its support for safe and open sea routes under international law and called for continued dialogue to maintain peace and stability in the region.

Iran has rejected a proposed ceasefire deal, state media has reported, confirming earlier reporting that diplomatic negotiations appeared to be faltering a day before Donald Trump’s deadline, in which he has threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and attack its power plants.

“Iran has conveyed to Pakistan its response to the American proposal to end the war,” the news agency Irna said, without revealing its source or what the US offer contained.

Several countries have been acting as mediators to try to halt more than five weeks of fighting sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“In this response – set out in ten points – Iran … has rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end to the conflict,” the Iranian state news agency added.

Irna also said Tehran’s demands included “an end to conflicts in the region, a protocol for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, reconstruction, and the lifting of sanctions”.

The New York Times, citing two unnamed senior Iranian officials, reported that Tehran was also seeking guarantees it would not face future attacks, and that Israeli strikes against its ally Hezbollah in southern Lebanon would cease.

Oil prices rose on Tuesday while equities were mixed as investors assessed Donald Trump’s latest deadline for Iran to reopen the strategic strait of Hormuz or be “decimated”.

The US president warned Tehran that its civilian infrastructure would be destroyed if it did not let ships through the waterway, through which a fifth of global crude and gas passes.

Both main oil contracts rose Tuesday, with West Texas Intermediate topping $115 – its highest in a month – and Brent sitting around $111.

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei index at a securities firm. Photograph: Eugene Hoshiko/AP

Equity markets fluctuated, with Tokyo, Singapore, Manila and Jakarta down while Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Wellington and Taipei rose.

That followed a positive start to the week on Wall Street.

“Financial markets are oscillating in a narrow, uneasy range as traders sized up the countdown to Donald Trump’s Iran deadline,” wrote Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management.

Tentative ceasefire optics [were] offering brief relief but never fully offsetting the lingering risk of escalation.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and its consequences for the region, the world and the global economy.

“I’m not worried about it,” the US president said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.”

“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the Associated Press.

Israel and the US carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.

People look at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background. Officials at the site in Zanjan, Iran, say it was hit by US-Israeli airstrikes at the weekend. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP

In other key developments:

The UN security council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a resolution to protect commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz but in significantly watered-down form after veto-wielding China opposed authorising force, Reuters is reporting, citing diplomats.
The Israeli military said early on Tuesday it had completed an “air strike wave” aimed at damaging Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran and additional areas across Iran. It said soon after that missiles were launched at Israel from Iran and defensive systems were operating to incept them.
Israel’s military also said it carried out strikes on three airports in Tehran, targeting several Iranian planes and helicopters.
The World Health Organisation suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing after a contract worker for WHO was killed in Gaza on Monday. Separately, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people outside a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, health officials said. Before the strikes some Palestinians had clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia who they said attacked the school, Reuters cited medics and residents as saying.
Oil prices extended their rises on Tuesday amid Trump’s heightened rhetoric against Iran. The head of the IMF, meanwhile, said the war would lead to “higher inflation and slower global growth”.
The head of International Committee of the Red Cross said that “deliberate threats … against essential civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities must not become the new norm in warfare”. Mirjana Spoljaric said, without singling out any country or leader: “Any war fought without limits is incompatible with the law.”
Israel said it struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex on Monday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the facility had been “destroyed” and his country was “systematically eliminating the Revolutionary Guards’ money machine”.
The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Maj Gen Majid Khademi, was killed in US-Israeli strikes at dawn on Monday, the Guards said.
Saudi Arabia intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched towards its eastern region and debris fell in the vicinity of energy facilities, the defence ministry of said on Tuesday.
Two blasts were reportedly heard near the Erbil airport – which hosts advisers from the US-led anti-jihadist coalition – in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, an Agence France-Presse journalist said.

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Boy, 2, seriously hurt in nursery playground car crash

Published

23 minutes ago

June 15, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

A 63-year-old woman is arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

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UK News

Backlash against ‘short-termist’ UK plans to weaken EV sales targets | Electric, hybrid and low-emission cars

Published

1 hour ago

June 15, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

The UK government’s plans to further weaken electric car targets have provoked a furious backlash from the charging industry and the electric car brand Polestar, which would lose out from the changes.

The Labour government is expected to dilute rules known as the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate. Government sources have said it will reduce a target for pure electric cars from 80% of all sales by 2030 to 50%.

The Labour government had already weakened the mandate last year by introducing loopholes – known as “flexibilities” – that allow the sale of more plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which combine an engine with a small battery.

The slower shift to electric cars would be a huge blow in particular to the charging industry, which is investing on the basis of future demand.

Greg Jackson, the chief executive of Octopus Energy, said the government had chosen “short-termist incumbent lobbying instead of the long-term future of industry”. As well as being the UK’s largest retail energy provider, Octopus is also a large player in electric vehicle leasing and charging.

“The fossil fuel market is shrinking globally and our best hope is to speed up development of electric vehicles, not go the other way,” Jackson said. “This hesitation undermines the credibility of government commitments which were supposed to give certainty to investors.”

The charging industry has invested in infrastructure on the basis of future demand for electric vehicles. Photograph: Xiu Bao/Alamy

Vicky Read, the chief executive of the industry lobby group ChargeUK, said weakening the target was an “astonishing” proposal which could cost tens of thousands of jobs in the longer term.

“The charging sector has ploughed billions into putting chargers in the ground on the basis of this policy, ahead of profitability,” Read said. “This government said it would not flip-flop like the previous did. To move the goalposts again would be exactly that – an act of self-harm denying the country a forward facing, economically prosperous industry leaving us behind the rest of the world.”

The proposal would probably mean millions more cars with petrol engines on British roads and significantly higher carbon emissions. Plug-in hybrids produce about 135g of carbon dioxide per kilometre driven on average, compared with about 166g from petrol cars, according to T&E, a thinktank monitoring transport and environmental issues. Electric cars produce zero carbon directly and have much lower associated emissions over their lifetime.

The government’s decision followed heavy lobbying by car manufacturers as well as the Unite union, which represents many workers in British automotive factories. Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, described the proposed changes as “a huge victory” and said it would “protect the jobs of UK automotive workers”.

However, Anna Krajinska, the UK director at T&E, argued that allowing more plug-in hybrid sales would ultimately harm the UK industry by leaving the door open to Chinese manufacturers. China’s Chery, owner of brands including Omoda and Jaecoo, and BYD, the world’s biggest electric carmaker, have sold about 30,000 cars each in the UK this year, many of them PHEVs.

“Slowing down targets and increasing hybrid sales will destroy the UK’s automotive sector,” Krajinska said. “Only a rapid transition to battery electrics can secure the future of UK manufacturing. For that to happen targets have to remain unchanged and [the business secretary] Peter Kyle needs to deliver a coherent and robust industrial policy to transition the sector and jobs.”

A weaker ZEV mandate would also represent a blow to manufacturers focusing on electric cars. Matt Galvin, the UK managing director of the Chinese-owned electric brand Polestar, said: “Weakening these targets allows car manufacturers to decelerate development of EVs at a time when they should be doing exactly the opposite and accelerating their investment and product offering.”

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