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BBC News with Chris Barrow.
President Trump has sent mixed messages over his plans for the war with Iran. Shortly after telling reporters in Washington that he didn't want a ceasefire, he posted on social media that the U.S. was considering winding down its military campaign. Mr. Trump said the U.S. was getting very close to meeting its objectives. Our State Department correspondent Tom Bateman is in Washington. It's a pretty clear sign that he's looking for an off-ramp but it's a bit perplexing because none of the signals, although he has said, you know, we're close to ending the war and it will be short and all of that, what's actually happened on the ground of course is that Mr. Trump has strategically lost control of a big element of this because of the closure of the control of the Strait of Hormuz by the Iranians. So what he's saying is that, you know, on this issue of the Strait of Hormuz it'll be up to America's allies to guard it and will help them but he doesn't say how. Iranian media are reporting explosions overnight in and near the capital Tehran and in the city of Isfahan linked to airstrikes. Few details about the strikes have been reported. Separately in Israel, debris from an Iranian missile has hit the old city of Jerusalem just a few hundred meters from some of the world's most important religious sites. Sebastian Usher is there. Where this impact site is is only about 300 meters away not just from Al-Aqsa Mosque but from the Western Wall obviously sacred to Jewish people and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. So this really brought home I think to people the fact that the Iranian ability to continue with these strikes even if they're not causing a large number of deaths or casualties and the damage so far has not been that intense. U.S. stock markets have ended the week sharply down as the U.S. war in Iran concludes its third week. The S&P 500 closed at its lowest in six months amid concerns that the conflict could trigger inflation. The Mexican President Claudia Schoenbaum has announced the departure of another humanitarian aid ship bound for Cuba. The Caribbean island is undergoing an acute energy crisis exacerbated by a U.S. fuel blockade. Warren Bull reports. President Claudia Schoenbaum said Mexico would continue to support the people of Cuba and seek ways to provide them with fuel. Mexico has increased its aid to the island since Washington imposed a fuel blockade shortly after it deposed the Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a key ally of Havana. The crisis has also prompted Russia to declare itself ready to help Cuba as international observers on the island report that power cuts, especially in hospitals, are endangering the lives of children. This is the world news from the BBC. The authorities in South Korea say ten people have been killed and four others remain unaccounted for after a massive fire at a car parts plant in the central city of Daejeon. A total of 170 workers were inside the plant when the fire broke out on Friday afternoon local time. A jury in California has found that Elon Musk deliberately misled shareholders in the social media company Twitter while he was bidding to buy the company. They concluded he'd been trying to pay less than his original bid. At the time he tweeted that the company had too many fake accounts and threatened to pull out of the deal. The Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denied having links to drug trafficking or receiving money from criminal groups for his political campaigns. He issued a statement after the New York Times and other U.S. media said the Colombian leader was under criminal investigation by two different U.S. prosecutors offices. NASA's giant moon rocket has arrived back at its launch pad at Cape Canaveral ahead of the Artemis II lunar mission. The hundred-meter high rocket was first rolled out last month but it had to undergo repairs after helium leaks were found. The Artemis mission will last about ten days. Here's our science editor Rebecca Morrelle. Standing almost 100 meters tall, it was carried vertically on top of a special crawler transporter vehicle for the four-mile journey to the pad. It's the second time the rockets been rolled out. It had to be repaired after helium leaks were found last month. But NASA is confident the problem has been fixed and says the rockets almost ready to go. The Artemis II mission will last about ten days. Before the astronauts head to the moon, their journey starts in orbit around the earth. Now the rockets back on the pad, engineers will perform the final tests and checks and the Artemis astronauts have entered quarantine. Rebecca Morrelle with that report and that's the latest world news from the BBC. |