LONDON (AP) — A two-week-long music festival in central London has cancelled its final night after Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra pulled out of the headline slot on Sunday.
Lynne, 77, who was billed to play alongside his band Sunday at the The BST Hyde Park festival, withdrew on Saturday on the advice of doctors as a result of what was termed a “systemic infection."
In a statement, the festival organizers said the event will “sadly be cancelled” and that ticket holders will be refunded and contacted directly by their ticket agent with further details.
Stevie Wonder will be taking to the London stage on Saturday evening in what will now be the festival’s final event of 2025. This year's festival, which started on June 27, hosted the likes of Olivia Rodrigo, Van Morrison and Neil Young.
U.S. rock band The Doobie Brothers and Steve Winwood were among those slated to perform on Sunday ahead of ELO's headline performance.
In an earlier statement, BST said Lynne was “heartbroken” to report that he could not perform.
“Jeff has been battling a systemic infection and is currently in the care of a team of doctors who have advised him that performing is simply not possible at this time nor will he be able to reschedule," the statement read.
“The legacy of the band and his longtime fans are foremost in Jeff’s mind today — and while he is so sorry that he cannot perform, he knows that he must focus on his health and rehabilitation at this time," it added.
It comes after the band, best known for “Mr Blue Sky,” pulled out of a performance at Manchester’s Co-Op Live on July 10.
The band was formed in Birmingham in 1970 by Lynne, multi-instrumentalist Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan, and first split in 1986. ELO are known for fusing classical music, Beatles-style pop and futuristic rock visuals, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
Lynne resurrected the band in 2014.
FILE - Jeff Lynne performs at the 52nd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame induction and awards ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Thursday, June 15, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
