LONDON: Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement on Thursday calling Israel’s approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank “unacceptable and a violation of international law”.
Israel approved the plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometre (five-square-mile) parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“We condemn this decision and call for its reversal in the strongest terms,” said the statement, whose signatories included Australia, Canada and Italy.
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW: Military chiefs from the United States and a number of European countries have completed military options on Ukraine and will now present the options to their respective national security advisers, the US military said on Thursday.
US and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, following President Donald Trump’s pledge to help protect the country under any deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“These options will be presented to each nations respective national security advisers for appropriate consideration in ongoing diplomatic efforts,” a US military statement said.
The meetings between the chiefs of defence for the United States, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and Ukraine took place in Washington, DC, between Tuesday and Thursday.
Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Trump’s promise during a summit on Monday of security guarantees for Kyiv, but many questions remain unanswered.
Russia carries out the biggest drone and missile attack in weeks
Officials have cautioned that it would take time for US and European planners to determine what would be both militarily feasible and acceptable to the Kremlin.
One option was sending European forces to Ukraine but putting the United States in charge of their command and control, sources said.
Kremlin rejects plan
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said any presence of European troops in Ukraine would be “absolutely unacceptable”, as Kyiv’s allies worked on security guarantees for the country.
“This would be absolutely unacceptable for the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said in response to a journalist’s question about security guarantees for Ukraine, calling them “foreign intervention in some part of Ukrainian territory.”
Drones, missiles attacks
Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Thursday, Moscow’s largest attack in weeks after US-led efforts to halt the Kremlin’s invasion.
The air force said Russian forces had launched 574 drones and 40 missiles in an attack that left at least one dead. Air defence units downed 546 of the drones and 31 missiles.
Nord Stream blasts
A Ukrainian suspect has been arrested in Italy over the sabotage of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines from Russia to Europe in 2022, German prosecutors said on Thursday.
The man, identified as Serhii K., is accused of being part of a cell “who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines”, they said.
He is “believed to have been one of the coordinators of the operation” in which a group allegedly hired a yacht in the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock to carry out the attacks.
The pipelines that long shipped Russian gas to Europe were hit by huge explosions in September 2022, several months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Western powers were initially quick to blame Russia, which in turn accused them.
German investigations then pointed to a Ukrainian cell of five men and one woman believed to have chartered the yacht “Andromeda” to carry out the attack, according to Der Spiegel magazine and other media.
Their aim was to destroy the pipelines to prevent Russia from profiting in future from gas sales to Europe. Serhii K. was arrested in the early hours of Thursday in the Italian province of Rimini on a European arrest warrant, the prosecutors said.
He and his accomplices are accused of using forged identity documents to hire the yacht that departed Rostock to carry out the attacks, the prosecutors said. Italy’s carabinieri police confirmed that a 49-year-old Ukrainian was arrested without putting up resistance, at a bungalow where he was staying with his family, and taken to a local prison.
HYDERABAD: High velocity winds followed by another spell of downpour in Hyderabad district on Thursday evening caused considerable damage to 11kV lines at different locations in Latifabad. Power supply to a vast area was suspended.
Reports from the affected areas suggested that 21 feeders remained without power and Hesco teams were working on them till late in the evening.
This was a one-hour spell of downpour that caused accumulation of rainwater in low-lying areas of Hyderabad, Qasimabad and Latifabad.
Met’s Airport office recorded 42mm of rainfall from 8am to 8pm and its City office 38mm during the period.
Business activities were severely affected when it started raining at 6:25pm. A Hesco spokesman said that the winds brought down several poles.One of the pole-mounted transformers also fell near Bagh-i-Mustafa, Unit-8, Latifabad.
Hyderabad Mayor Kashif Shoro along with CM’s Special Assistant Abdul Jabbar Khan visited different rain-hit areas. Speaking to the media, the mayor said that many pumping stations were not having conventional electric supply to drain out rainwater accumulated at sewerage facility.
GENEVA: The United Nations on Thursday urged the United States to end its rounds of reprisals after Washington imposed further sanctions on International Criminal Court judges.
The US imposed sanctions on two more ICC judges and two prosecutors on Wednesday, including from allies France and Canada, in a new effort to hobble the tribunal, particularly over its actions against Israel.
“The relentless intensification of US reprisals against international institutions and their personnel must stop,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
Turk said sanctioning ICC staff who were fulfilling their mandates was “an assault on the rule of law and corrodes justice” and called for all the measures to be withdrawn.
“In the meantime, I call on states to take immediate steps to protect all of (the sanctioned individuals), including by taking measures to encourage corporations operating within their jurisdiction not to implement the sanctions,” he said.
“States need to step up to defend the institutions they have created to uphold and defend human rights and the rule of law. Those working to document, investigate and prosecute serious violations of international law should not have to work in fear.”
WASHINGTON: Frank Caprio, a US judge who became an internet sensation for his compassion and courteous demeanor in court, has died at 88, his family announced on social media.
The retired Rhode Island judge, who served on the bench for nearly four decades before retiring in 2023, became known for his lenient approach to minor infractions.
“It is with profound sadness that I share the news that my father Judge Frank Caprio passed away today, peacefully surrounded by family and friends after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer,” his son David Caprio said in a video posted on the judge’s Instagram account on Wednesday.
His family said in a statement that he was “beloved around the world for his deep compassion, humility, and unwavering faith in the goodness of people”, and an “example of humanity”.
Caprio had posted a video on Tuesday from his hospital bed asking for prayers after suffering a health “setback.” His courtroom reality TV show “Caught in Providence,” which began in 2000, featured his sympathetic treatment of defendants facing traffic violations and parking tickets.
Clips from the show garnered tens of millions of views on social media, often showing him dismissing fines for struggling families or asking children to help decide their parents’ punishments.
He drew millions of followers on social media, who dubbed him “the nicest judge in the world.”
LONDON: Britain is grappling with its highest-ever number of asylum applications, official data showed Thursday, as a political storm brews over the temporary housing of thousands of migrants in hotels.
Immigration is a thorny issue in the UK, where Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is struggling to stem rising support for a hard-right party led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
His Reform UK campaigners are tapping into anger over record numbers of undocumented migrants making the dangerous crossing the Channel from France to England small boats.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, according to figures released by the Home Office, the UK’s interior ministry.
That was the highest for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Farage said Britain’s “streets are becoming more dangerous yet this disaster gets worse”. The government has insisted it is “restoring order” to the asylum system.
“We have strengthened Britain’s visa and immigration controls, cut asylum costs and sharply increased enforcement and returns,” said interior minister Yvette Cooper.
The statistics showed that while asylum claims are up, officials are processing those applications faster than before as they seek to clear a backlog.
At the end of June, some 91,000 people were awaiting a decision, down 24 percent on the previous year, the Home Office said.
EDITORIAL: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to China later this month — his first since 2018 — to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit comes at a pivotal moment amid shifting global power dynamics.
On Tuesday in New Delhi, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi underscored the significance of India-China ties, stating, “History and reality prove once again that a healthy and stable China-India relationship serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both our countries.” His remarks were not mere diplomatic pleasantries, but a clear invitation for India to adopt a more strategic and forward-looking regional vision.
India appears to be reassessing the long-term costs of sustained hostility with China — its second-largest trading partner and a leading force behind the rapidly expanding BRICS economic cooperation bloc. With India set to assume the BRICS presidency next year, and as global economic alignments shift, New Delhi may be recalibrating its China policy in light of broader geopolitical trends, including its increasingly complicated ties with the United States.
Notably, tensions with Washington flared over India’s refusal to credit President Donald Trump with brokering a ceasefire during last May’s military confrontation with Pakistan. Yet, even as it explores a potential thaw with China, the Modi government’s South Asia policy remains constrained by a narrow, ideologically-driven worldview rooted in Hindu nationalism and enduring hostility towards Pakistan.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has consistently leveraged anti-Pakistan sentiment for domestic political gains. This has reduced India’s regional engagement to a series of tactical manoeuvres rather than a coherent long-term strategy for peace and cooperation. The latest of these confrontational moves in May resulted in a forceful military retaliation from Pakistan, underlining the risks of such short-sighted approaches.
Similarly, while India continues to view China as a strategic competitor economic ties between the two continue to deepen. The two nations also share converging interests in multilateral platforms like the SCO and BRICS, which advocate for multipolarity, non-alignment, and inclusive regional development. Since the disruption of global trade triggered by President Trump’s tariff wars, India, like many others, has found itself navigating a delicate balance between economic pragmatism and geopolitical rivalry.
In this context, Modi’s visit to China has the potential to be more than just a diplomatic formality. It offers India a valuable opportunity to adopt a broader, more mature foreign policy that prioritises regional cooperation over confrontation. That would mean moving away from zero-sum narratives of vengeance, and embracing the principle of indivisible security — a core tenet of both the SCO and BRICS.
As the world transitions toward a multipolar order, stability in South Asia cannot be built on religious nationalism or military posturing. If India truly aspires to a leadership role in the Global South, it must shed ideological rigidity and commit to a consistent strategic vision — one that values diplomacy over division, and constructive engagement with both Pakistan and China over enmity.
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Good morning. There is no dearth of drama in this country. The monsoon session of parliament closed yesterday with the house in uproar over last-minute legislation that would allow the government to remove elected senior officials who have been arrested over criminal charges. In a country where the average legal case takes between five to 15 years for resolution, removing elected representatives from their posts before they are convicted can be a dangerously undemocratic tool.
In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the other big surprise the government pulled this week: a death knell for online games that involve real money. But first the Russian oil situation, which seems to have divided the world — with India at the centre.
Russian roulette
Is Russian oil the new trade deal? It’s beginning to look that way, if the amount of newsprint dedicated to the subject is anything to go by. Reports suggest New Delhi has now restored its oil procurement from Moscow after a brief dip in July, and placed advance orders for the next two months. Russia’s charge d’affaires Roman Babushkin told the press on Wednesday that oil exports to India are expected to continue at similar levels “despite the political situation”. He also expressed hope of trilateral talks soon between India, China and Russia. Meanwhile, external affairs minister S Jaishankar is in Moscow, urging Russian companies to deepen their engagement with India and seeking solutions to address the trade imbalance between the two countries, since India is now a major importer.
In the US, the narrative continues to be one of punishing India for buying Russian oil, without addressing any of the related contradictions in that position. Earlier this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the 25 per cent additional tariff on India “sanctions”, a punitive term usually reserved for states seen by the US as threats or rivals. Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, accused India of funding Russia’s war in Ukraine in a piece for the FT. His commentary was so bereft of logic it gave me a headache.
The US position does not mention other countries that buy Russian oil, most notably China, the largest customer. Nor does it address Europe’s procurement of Russia’s pipeline gas, or the US’s own purchase of fertilisers and uranium from Russia. To India, this inconsistency in the Trump administration’s stance indicates that the real issue is not the country’s crude oil procurement strategy, but fallout from stalled trade talks and a cooling of personal ties between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US president.
For now, India seems to be digging in its heels and pivoting towards China and Russia, to somehow make up the missing numbers from trade with the US. This is a reflection of both the challenges of dealing with Trump’s whimsy as well as the sign of a failed diplomatic strategy by India. (Within India, the government’s stance of not bending to Trump’s wishes is a narrative that has not had as many fans as I thought it would.)
What does the future hold? In the short to medium term, all options are wobbly. Neither China nor Russia are strong allies for India, even if all three countries face a common problem in Trump. India is not going to back down from Russian oil until the terms of a US trade deal are finalised. The additional 25 per cent will hit next Wednesday. For now, both sides are holding firm, waiting for the other to blink first. It’s a fool’s game to pick a winner here.
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In one fell swoop, the government has threatened the very existence of online games that deal with real money. Both Houses passed a new regulation with a voice vote, and the bill now goes to the president for approval.
In the bill, the government said such games have led to serious social, financial, psychological and public health harms, especially to young people and the financially disadvantaged. The games were linked to unlawful activities including money laundering and financial fraud, and called out for using addictive algorithms and aggressive marketing techniques. The new law targets all parties involved — developers of such games, celebrities and influencers who promote them and financial institutions who process gaming transactions will all face hefty fines and even jail time. The ban also extends to offshore entities, closing a loophole that some developers had used in the past.
Both the sudden emergence of the bill and the tightly worded provisions in it took operators by surprise. Efforts to regulate the industry had until now treated games that required skill differently from those that involved only luck, but the new legislation has done away with this distinction and delegitimised both kinds of games. Several large gaming companies are already in court battling a Rs1.2tn ($14bn) retrospective tax bill. The ban not only questions the fundamental existence of companies such as Dream11, which commands a valuation of $8bn, but also has a network impact on the economy.
The gaming industry itself is expected to expand to $9.2bn by 2029 and is a growing contributor to government coffers. Just last September, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was talking about a 422 per cent annual growth in tax collected from online games, which the government will now lose. These companies are also some of the biggest advertisers both online and on television, spending an estimated $2bn a year.
I reached out to a few industry players, who expressed shock about the bill and are weighing next steps, including potentially shifting to an ad-based or subscription revenue model. Operators have also flagged that the new rules will only move the action to the grey market. By the government’s own estimates, some 450mn Indians play these games; at least some of them will find a way to continue despite the law. Some in the industry have lobbied the government by stressing the jobs and tax revenue at stake, but their efforts have been in vain. The sudden regulation is a further blow to what is now becoming a regular bugbear in this newsletter — the ease of doing business. A stable legislative environment is a basic ask, one that has not been provided to these companies.
But, on the user side, the picture is more complex. For the upper classes, who can afford to lose money in these games, the ban is indicative of an ever-expanding nanny state. For the poor, who now have easy access to mobile phones and data plans but may not have the savvy to understand the dynamics of online gambling or the money to pay for it, this law is a necessary protection. My view on the subject differs depending on which of these Indias I am thinking about, and the existence of several Indias is a perennial difficulty for Indian policymakers and commentators alike.
Do you think the government is right in outlawing all games that involve real money? Hit reply or email me at [email protected].
Go figure
HSBC’s flash survey for August showed the highest ever growth in India’s private sector since the survey began in 2005. The index tracks monthly changes in combined output across manufacturing and services. Manufacturing growth and international demand were strong during the month, but it was the service sector that broke records. Here are some key figures from the index.
Read, hear, watch
I watched Outrageous on the BBC Player on Prime Video. It’s an excellent series about the Mitfords, an aristocratic family with six daughters (and a son) who became famous in the 1930s. One sister married the British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, another was an ardent defender of Adolf Hitler. One was a staunch communist, two of them were writers. With endless arguments and fights, as well as balls and dances and hunting parties, the show is Downton Abbey with a generous dose of pre-world war two reality.
I also highly recommend this episode of the London Review of Books podcast, which married my two big loves — books and tennis. Give it a whirl.
Buzzer round
The sales of which product, named after a famous actress, helped this company briefly overtake LVMH to become the world’s most valuable luxury corporation by market valuation earlier this year?
Send your answer to [email protected] and check Tuesday’s newsletter to see if you were the first one to get it right. Note: This question has been edited for clarity.
Quick answer
On Tuesday, we asked you to keep the ethics of it aside for a minute and tell us if the permanent relocation of stray dogs to shelters was a practical solution? Here too, we couldn’t find a consensus. Looks like it’s pretty evenly divided.
Thank you for reading. India Business Briefing is edited by Tee Zhuo. Please send feedback, suggestions (and gossip) to [email protected].
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