live from washington, this is bbc news. reports say the us is deploying stealth bombers to the pacific island nation of guam - as president trump weighs whether to take direct action in iran. the pro-palestinian student activist - mahmoud khalil - speaks out after being released from detention in the us. whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, anyone on this land, you are not illegal. that doesn't make you less of a human. and - feeling the heat - temperatures climb in europe and america - while the uk experiences the warmest day of the year so far.

hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. the us is moving stealth bombers to guam, according is partisan trump weighs whether to the offensive on iran. the us is moving stealth bombers to guam, according to our us news partners cbs. there's currently no indication that the us is planning to deploy the bombers to iran. the enormous planes are the only ones capable of delivering the so-called bunker buster bombs that could destroy iran's underground nuclear facilities. a b-2 can carry two such weapons - known as massive ordnance penetrators, that weigh 30,000 pounds. israel launched fresh strikes on iran saturday - the b-2s reportedly departed whiteman afb in missouri en route to the pacific island nation - where there is a us military base. guam is the largest and southernmost island in the mariana islands chain, situated in the north pacific ocean. there is no indication that the

us will join in the fight with iran, but president trump is said to be meeting with his national security team, we'll bring you more on that as we get it. but it sure audit on social media verified by the bbc shows explosions in the western iranian town of advise. the israeli military said it was conducting operations on military infrastructure in the area. the bombing campaign continues as iran's foreign minister said his country cannot negotiate with america while is being attack by israel. he was speaking in istanbul at a gathering of his counterparts from dozens of muslim-majority countries. he warned that us involvement

in the conflict would be "very dangerous". we've received reports that iran has been targeting israel with drone attacks. strategic targets throughout the regime's territory. earlier israel struck iran's nuclear facility pushing ahead with its aerial assault, so far that has struck two areas with the fordo facility which is believed to be deeper underground than the channel tunnel that connects uk and france. but in order for us to come back to diplomacy the aggression should be stopped. it is obvious i cannot go to negotiation with united states when our people are under bombardment under the support of the united states. our middle east correspondent hugo bechega, is in jerusalem and told me more about the american bombers. we are hearing that us military assets are being moved closer to the region, tell us more about that.

we've seen these reports in us media saying that america is now moving b-2 bombers to the pacific island of guam and this is obviously the type of aircraft that can carry the so-called bunker buster bombs that could be used to strike key nuclear facility of fordo out which is a facility buried deep underground inside a mountain. this is a type of bomb the israelis don't have but the americans do. this happens as president trump is considering his options and he has according to reports approved plans for direct american involvement in this conflict, but he hasn't taken the decision to go ahead with those plans. obviously this doesn't indicate, doesn't suggest that an attack is imminent but obviously any kind of direct american involvement would be significant escalation here because iran and its

proxies in the region have vowed to respond to any kind of american involvement by striking, targeting american interests in the region, so we could be saying escalation instead of de-escalation here. and more than a week into this, what signs are there of any diplomatic breakthroughs? we know there is a lot of diplomatic activity happening behind the scenes, but it's very difficult to see how any kind of deal can be reached at the moment. the iranians are saying they are not going to negotiate under attack. the israelis have been celebrating what they see is a very successful operation so far, so they have no reason to stop these attacks right now. and also there is no significant pressure on israel to stop these attacks. i think also what is very important here is that iran at least in public has been repeating his position that it will not give up its ability to enrich uranium.

it says it has the right to do so and this has become a red line in this issue because this is part of president trump's demand of unconditional surrender and the iranians are saying they are not going to do it. so there has been these diplomatic efforts but no signs of breakthrough. let's get more on all of that by speaking to ray to k, senior fellow for midlands studies on foreign relations. welcome to bbc news. he worked in the state department as a senior adviser on iran, under the obama administration, of course an administration that brokered that famous nuclear deal with iran. what do you think can be done to de-escalate the situation diplomatically? it's got to be very challenging because all three leaders of,

prime minister netanyahu, supreme leader ali, nay are blowing their bridges behind them. -- fordo, donald trump. it is released because there military attacks while some diplomatic arrangement gets off the ground. at that is possible but it seems far-fetched, as the report mentioned israelis feel very euphoric about their successes, the iranians are entrenched in their position and the united states is edging to get close to intervention in this conflict. i'm just reading what we heard earlier from the president of iran, he said his country will not agree to give up all nuclear activities and yet that seems to be the red line for the president trump in some way. well, proscribing domestic enrichment in iran is

the position of the united states today, it was the position going into the negotiations during the trump administration with representative witkoff, but again you can negotiate a pause where everybody pauses activities. the fact of the matter is, at this point i'm not sure if iran is capable of enriching uranium. the fordo plan may be struck soon and much of its enrichment capability, at least the ones we know of, will be disabled at least for a period of time. so they don't have to give up the right in principle but they can posit as a practice while they come to some sort of framework agreement. but that requires cooler heads and it requires time, the american position at this point is a compressed timeline of two weeks and its demands are maximalist. especially calling on iran to capitulate, that's going to be tough to do. you've worked at this close up, how do the iranians negotiate on the stuff? in a very problematic,

protected and difficult way. they tend to be very technical in terms of their reportage and the tend to elaborate every detail, but you know, these are arms control agreements and negotiations are inherently difficult and they tend to be very technical but they are quite it can take cantankerous and collected tour, that's what i'll say. these b-2 bombers are being moved to guam, how significant do you see that? is significant as a symbolic gesture of the very least, b-2 bomber, by the way, can probably reach its targets from the united states. but it's ostentatious deployment and guam is another indication to iran that the united states is serious about possibly intervening in this conflict, and therefore it would behove iranian officials to come to terms with the americans with alacrity. there's some kind of

a showmanship taking place here but it is essentially a symbolic gesture. but the problem with deploying the be twos in this manner, in such a public display is hard to walk that back. right. as the national security meeting continues to take place at the white house, do you think, it's difficult to guess, difficult to guess anything with the current administration but do you think there is a stronger possibility that this could mean that the us does join israel and its offensive? unless there is some sort of nomadic meeting. it's very difficult to see the united states getting involved in this war without at least some kind of a meeting between iranian and american representatives. but we are in a very kind of crisis situation where everything is moving fast so everything is possible, but it behoves the american and iranian representatives to at least meet to discuss the issue. i do believe at least

indirectly, that the foreign minister and president trump was my emissary steve witkoff had been in touch, have exchange messages, whether they've talked past each other, i don't know, but the two week deadline that the president has issued, hopefully some kind of double medic activity can take place during that time. ray, it's great to have your insight on the story, thank you. thank you very much, thank you. a suspected iranian spy has been arrested near an raf base in cyprus, after intelligence suggested he was planning a terror attack. local media say the man is of azerbaijani descent and has links to iran's revolutionary guards. but the foreign office says it is in contact with the cypriot authorities regarding the arrest of a british man and israel says an iranian attack on israelis in cyprus has been foiled. our correspondent joe inwood explains that many israelis have travelled to cyprus to escape the fighting. cyprus is the closest part

of europe to israel so i think what has been happening is a lot of people, because they can't fly out, you get in via the sea route. one imagines there are going to be a lot of israeli citizens going both directions because that is the only way to get in and out of the country and presumably that is why there is this concern or reports of attacks on israeli citizens there. the pro-palestinian student activist mahmoud khalil returned home - after being released from three-plus months in detention in prison in the us state of louisiana. mr khalil was arrested by immigration agents in march. he was a prominent voice in protests at columbia university against israel's conduct in gaza. instead the administration invoked a rare immigration law to claim his views threatened american foreign policy. a federal judge ordered that the syrian-born palestinian be freed.

mr khalil is a legal us resident and has not been charged with any crime. he spoke to journalists after he arrived in new jersey, nobody iqbal was there. he was accompanied by his wife and they were both pushing a problem with his newborn son. a son that was born when he was in detention. he was one of the more high profile voices during those anti-war protests we saw spread across us campuses last year. he was detained back in march and when he arrived at the airport he was greeted by a group of friends who cheered him. i asked him, given that the trump administration wanted to keep him detained, what was his message for president trump? just the fact that i'm here is the message. the fact that all the attempts to

suppress protest palestine voices has failed. this is my message, my existence is the message. he was never charged for the crime, marco rubio used a rare immigration law to argue that his presence, his arguments for palestinians was a threat to national security. his lawyers say that's not true and it was a violation of his right to free speech. there is a separate case going to the courts for mr clear regarding his immigration status. the trump administration wants to deport him but for now his lawyers say he's happy to be reunited with his wife and his son. the husband of the exiled opposition leader of belarus has been released from prison, along with 13 other prisoners.

svetlana tikhanovskya posted this video of her reunion with her husband sergei on x. sergei tikhanovsky, an influential blogger, was arrested in 2020, after announcing his plans to run for the presidency, and sentenced to 18 years in prison. his wife ran in his place and is widely considered to have won the election, but was forced to go into exile with their children. all 14 prisoners were released during a visit to minsk by the us envoy keith kellogg, who met president alexander luakshenko. they are now safe in lithuania, but there are thought to be more than a thousand political prisoners being held in belarus. he shared to the bbc his feelings on what he said to be a special day. it was so nice to see them together. these are two powerful persons who inspired the protests of 2020.

oh, it was so, so nice to see them together. these are two powerful persons who inspired the protests of 2020. you know, sergei, when he spoke first to svetlana, he said, "svetlana, i forgot to speak, i forgot to talk, because for five years i was talking only to the walls of the prison cell." but in the end, you know, he joked, you know, addressing the american state department people, he said, "oh, americans, you made my day today." and it was very funny how this person who maybe looked very differently from sergei tikhanovsky five years ago, but inside he's the same, you know, with humour, with energy, with charisma. and i think he will give a lot of inspiration to belarusian movement, both inside the country and in exile. we see today, you know, thousands of messages, requests, come into the office of svetlana tikhanovskaya from inside of belarus. they want to join the movement, they want to do things. so this release will help to revive our movement, our work and the changes in the country, and also to raise the topic of political prisoners. it will not be the last release. we have to fight for the release of all 1,150 people. and he said today that, "you know, svetlana, i didn't believe i will come out alive." because the health was deteriorating, he was basically killed by the regime. he was tortured without

contacts, without medical care. but he also is willing to get back to the political life, and i'm sure he will join the democratic forces, he will be a powerful voice on the international arena. we will work continuously with the european union, who is our major ally, but also united kingdom and the united states, to release all political prisoners because it's the first step to bring changes in belarus. let's turn to some other important news around the world. an accident involving a hot air balloon in brazil has killed at least eight people. the balloon caught fire and plunged to the ground in the southern state of santa catarina. the local fire department said 13 people survived, including the pilot. an investigation is under way. restaurant chains in japan specialising in rice dishes are introducing more noodles in their menus as they struggle to keep up with the sky-high cost of rice, which has doubled in price in the past year. the cost has continued to rise depsite the release of more than 600,000 tonnes of stockpiled rice from government reserves. the italian fashion

designer, giorgio armani, will miss his two shows at milan's men's fashion week for the first time in over 50 years. the company has said the 91-year-old is recovering at home after being admitted to hospital. they added that mr armani will closely follow every phase of the shows, as usual. millions of people across the us and the u.k. face dangerously high temperatures, going into the first official weekend of summer. a heat dome formed by warm air trapped in earth's atmosphere is stretching across much of the us the country's national weather service has issued heat advisers and extreme heat warnings across the central and eastern parts of the country, including major cities like chicago, washington, and new york city. the agency warns that triple-digit temperatures and oppressive humidity could be common throughout next week, affecting between 270 and 300 million people. frank pereira is lead forcaster at the weather prevention center.

and this is the first significant heat wave of the season, and what this makes this one especially significant is the early onset of it. we're expecting temperatures that we don't typically see until later in the summer, july, august, but we are saying them now in late june. across a good portion of the midwest and the eastern us. and what do you think is the cause of this? the specific cause for this is as you mentioned, a heat dome. it's an area of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere, that kind of serves as a lid and traps the heat in and doesn't allow it to escape, and it also doesn't allow for much relief at night, giving us temperatures above average, especially in urbanised areas. so what is your advice to people, some hundreds of millions who are going to be impacted by this was mark so, of millions who are going to be impacted by this?

so, yeah, this level of heat can be dangerous to anybody without effective cooling were adequate hydration, so we always advise people who are outside to wear light coloured loose-fitting clothing, take breaks as often as you can, stay hydrated. check on those that are more vulnerable to the heat, that would include the elderly, the very young, always, never leave anyone unattended in a locked car, we always advise people to look before they lock and this would include pets as well, temperatures can quickly soar inside of a locked car without air conditioning. again, these are the things that we advise. you talk about a heat dome as we've discussed, how common are these heat domes? could we expect more of them as the summer continues? it's too early to say how many more of these we'll see but they are typical at this time of year, especially as we get later in the summer. we tend to see these a lot

especially in the western us. they typically build over the west or south western us, the desert areas, but there are not unheard of in the eastern us as well such as this one, but this one is up really early onset for this one, this year. the record temperatures in the uk as well, record temperatures in the uk recorded 33.2 degrees celsius in the south of england in surrey making it the hottest day of the year. potentially dangerous temperatures of 40 celsius or over are expected this weekend. olivia richwald reports. when the longest day of the year coincides with the hottest day of the year, the result is thousands of people up early to see in the summer solstice at stonehenge.

the crowd this morning broke new records. it's beautiful, sunrise is beautiful. it's picture-perfect. you stand in front of these stones and you feel that weight of history. for thousands of years people have been gathering and it's incredibly special. a sticky night for many gave way to sunny skies, and with it an amber warning for heat. a record temperature of 33.2 degrees celsius was recorded in surrey. it was hot, too, in central london. these swimmers in hampstead heath were taking advantage of the cool water as the intense heat kicked in. and at lincoln zoo, keepers put sun cream on some of the animals, including this tapir. and the monkeys enjoyed frozen treats. in the small village of buckden in the heart of the yorkshire dales, around 100 runners took part in a fell race up an incredibly steep hill. imagine running up a hill that steep in a heatwave. thankfully, the upper wharfedale fell rescue team are here counting every competitor out and every competitor back in.

and they're up there with water and rehydration sachets if they are needed. did it put you off, the fact we are in a heatwave, doing a fell race? no, a few friends text this morning saying, are you sure it's a wise choice, i hope you stay safe. but no, it was absolutely fine. how did you find the run? for 65, not bad. very warm, but enjoyable. the village gala here is a tradition broken only by covid and foot-and-mouth. last year it was a wash-out with heavy rain. this year, organisers hoped to raise thousands of pounds for the local community. tonight, a yellow storm warning is in place for northern england, north wales and south scotland, with flash flooding and intense lightning possible until three o'clock tomorrow morning. back in north yorkshire, the buckden gala ends with something else that should also come with a yellow warning. olivia richwald, bbc news,

in the yorkshire dales. the netherlands have officially handed back to nigeria 119 precious ancient sculptures, stolen from the former kingdom of benin more than 120 years ago, during the colonial era. the benin bronzes are metal and ivory sculptures dating back to the 16th to 18th centuries. there's long been a campaign for them to be returned. nigeria celebrated the return of the priceless statues with a ceremony held at the national museum in lagos. they are, you can see what some of those famous bronzes look like, incredible given that they are so old. just a reminder of our top story this hour, and right now we understand that president trump is meeting with his national security team at the white house, this is the live shot of the white house as that meeting continues on. this all comes as the president is weighing

whether or not to join israel's military offensive on iran and a significant development in the last few hours here in the united states is that media reports here say that america is moving stealth bombers, be b-2s, to the island of guam. these are the only plans capable of delivering the bunker busting bombs that could destroy iran's underground nuclear facilities. a b-2 can carry two weapons known as massive ordnance penetrators, which way £30,000. -- at 30,000 pounds. if the us joins israel in its attack on iran. we do have more on that on the bbc news website, we are continuing to run a live pager is what you can see here with all of the

updates including the latest on the

hello, i'm katie razzall. and i'm ros atkins. this week on the media show, we'll look at how the international media has covered the conflict between israel and iran. and as netflix releases a new documentary about the grenfell tower fire in london, we speak to its director. we'll also talk about the social media platform reddit. it's turning 20, and we're going to learn how its communities moderate themselves and how ai may change that. that's all coming up on the media show. the conflict between israel