Category: 2. World

India on Friday unveiled a 15-year defence modernisation plan that includes the possible construction of its third aircraft carrier — expected to be nuclear-powered — and the induction of home-grown fighter jets into naval service for the first time.

Bordered by strategic rivals China and Pakistan, both of whom India has clashed with in deadly fights in recent years, New Delhi is increasingly leaning on domestic defence companies to bolster capabilities and cut dependence on foreign suppliers such as Russia, France and the United States.

“As the nation stands on the threshold of embracing greater challenges and responsibilities in the forthcoming decades, it is but imperative that the Services be equipped accordingly,” said the defence ministry’s 2025 roadmap.

“Greater private-public sector partnership is thus the road ahead.”

India currently operates two aircraft carriers, one of Russian origin and the other home-built. The proposed carrier is expected to be nuclear-powered, a first for India, for longer reach and stealthier operations.

The document outlines the need for at least 10 nuclear propulsion systems to support the carrier and other future warships, underscoring India’s ambition to expand its strategic reach across the Indian Ocean.

India also plans to induct an unspecified number of new-generation twin-engine, deck-based fighters and light combat aircraft, both being developed by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for the navy.

In April, India signed a deal with France worth 630 billion rupees (about $8 billion) for 26 Rafale-Marine twin and single-seat jets, made by Dassault Aviation, to be deployed on its two carriers: INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya.

India hopes to have 62 Rafale jets in service by 2030, including 36 for the air force that started arriving in 2020. Currently, the carriers deploy a fleet of Soviet-origin MiG-29K.

The roadmap also anticipates procuring two electromagnetic aircraft launch systems, developed for the US Navy to launch aircraft from carriers using electromagnetic forces instead of traditional steam catapults.

It also places a big emphasis on drones that played a key role in a May military conflict with arch-enemy Pakistan.

India has budgeted spending of about 6.81 trillion rupees ($77 billion) on defence this fiscal year. It is the world’s fourth biggest defence spender after the United States, China and Russia, according to World Bank data.

LONDON: The UK’s complicity in Israel’s war on Gaza has crossed into participation, an investigative journalist told the Gaza Tribunal on Friday.

Matt Kennard, an author and creator of the Palestine Deep Dive blog, has tracked hundreds of British surveillance flights over Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023.

His remarks came on the second day of the tribunal, which is taking place in London. It is chaired by independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the governing Labour Party.

Speakers at the tribunal are examining allegations of genocide and war crimes against Israel, and exploring the UK’s potential complicity in them. It has heard testimonies from a range of medical, legal, political and humanitarian experts.

Kennard said the British government, responding to media reports over the past two years, had repeatedly been forced to reveal new levels of military ties to Israel during the Gaza war.

Defense Minister Luke Pollard in May said British surveillance flights over Gaza — revealed by the media — were strictly searching for the location of hostages held by Hamas and other groups. The aircraft were not involved in combat operations or intelligence sharing, he added.

But Kennard said the “still daily” missions, launched from the RAF Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus, show flight patterns that suggest a different purpose.

“The idea that it’s just for hostage rescue is preposterous,” he added. “It doesn’t make any sense. And the reason they (the UK government) say that is because they know it’s participation in war crimes.”

Kennard highlighted an example from his own research into the surveillance flights: A British spy plane had arrived over Gaza on July 28 and spent hours in a holding pattern over the southern city of Khan Younis.

At the time, the city was the focus of an intense Israeli offensive. However, the Israel Defense Forces had publicly said no known hostages were located there or its surroundings.

“We didn’t know what they were doing over Gaza until July 28, when that pilot forgot to turn off his transponder,” said Kennard.

“That evidence clearly shows, I believe, that they (the UK military) are involved in the campaign, because … if you’re looking for hostages, and the Israeli government itself doesn’t believe they’re in Khan Younis, why are you circling the major area of the fighting that’s happening in Gaza? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Kennard also highlighted reporting by The Times that revealed the UK military was providing “real-time” intelligence to Israeli counterparts.

He added: “I think they’re collecting information on the ground to help Israel in their genocidal war against the Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the family of a British aid worker killed by Israel in Gaza said it is “highly likely” that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is complicit in genocide.

Forz Khan is representing the relatives of James Henderson, 33, a former Royal Marine who was killed in April 2024 along with six others in an Israeli drone strike.

They were traveling in a convoy operated by World Central Kitchen, with clearly visible logos on their vehicles.

The family have condemned the UK government for failing to appropriately respond to the killings, and continuing to arm Israel.

Khan told the tribunal that Britain had clearly failed to fulfill its legal obligations relating to the Gaza war, and continues to breach criminal law and “assist genocide.”

He added: “It’s highly likely that the information which was provided to the Israelis which caused that strike (on the WCK convoy) came from a plane flying over Israel flying from RAF Akrotiri.”

Shabana Mahmood is moving from dealing with a creaking-at-the-seams prison service as justice secretary to an even more pressured asylum system as home secretary.

The department she will now head up will be making dynamic shifts to counter the public mood on immigration and grooming gangs.

Politics latest: Major cabinet reshuffle

What a moment for the Home Office mantle to be grasped by the first Muslim woman to occupy one of the great offices, taking charge of the police, MI5 and the government’s domestic direction of travel at a time of great flux.

She has also become the home secretary of a country where the national flag is being hoisted as a symbol of dissatisfaction – with anger at the arrival of desperate migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

Ms Mahmood picks up the in-tray of a home secretary who has been forced to make moves that often seemed to defy her natural position – tougher rules on asylum seekers, proscribing a pro-Palestinian group of activists, and ordering an inquiry into grooming gangs.

But perhaps all this will come more naturally to our new home secretary.

The Oxford-educated MP is considered a “blue Labour” social conservative.

Only last month she announced that foreign criminals will be deported after sentencing to free up prison space and protect the public.

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On the issue of Asian grooming gangs, she recently told former Tory Cabinet minister Michael Gove in the Spectator that “there is still a moment of reckoning”, adding “there is still an outstanding question of why so many people looked the other way”.

She studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, where she managed to win the vote of Rishi Sunak to become junior common room president, and she used her electioneering skills to help Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer win the general election.

She had declined a position in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and became crucial to Labour’s regeneration, describing her role as “dragging them back to a position of common sense”.

Ms Mahmood will need that antenna for public opinion in the months to come.

NEW YORK CITY: The UN General Assembly on Friday voted to resume a high-level international summit on the two-state solution on Sept. 22, reviving a process that was suspended during the summer amid escalating violence in the Middle East.

It followed a proposal by Saudi Arabia and France that was adopted despite strong objections from Israel and the US, both of which disassociated themselves from the decision and described the initiative as politically motivated and harmful to peace efforts.

The High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine initially convened during the 79th session of the General Assembly but was suspended on July 30. The conference will now resume during the General Assembly’s 80th session, at the level of heads of state and government, underscoring the need for what proponents describe as an urgent international push toward a just and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine.

Speaking before the vote on the proposal, the Saudi representative to the UN, Abdulaziz Alwasil, delivering remarks on behalf of Riyadh and Paris, said the initiative was not aimed at any particular side or party but was “a reflection of our shared commitment to uphold international law and relevant UN resolutions.”

He added: “The situation on the ground in Palestine has never been more dire. Escalating violence, deepening humanitarian suffering and the erosion of hope for peace all underscore the urgency of our collective responsibility.

“This process cannot be allowed to stall. The resumption of the conference is a substantive commitment by the international community to act with resolve, consistency and responsibility.”

Israel rejected the decision, accusing backers of the proposal of “procedural bullying” and complaining of a lack of transparency in the process behind it.

“This is not a serious attempt at peacemaking, it is a performance, a publicity stunt,” the Israeli representative said.

“Far from advancing peace, it threatens to prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and undermine real diplomatic efforts.”

The representative warned that such gestures send the wrong signal to militants, and that terrorist groups such as Hamas have publicly praised recent international initiatives, interpreting them as validation of their tactics.

The US also formally opposed the decision by the General Assembly, warning that the conference itself, along with the resolution mandating it, lacks legitimacy.

“We were surprised and dismayed to see this proposal added to the agenda only yesterday,” the US envoy said, bemoaning a lack of transparency surrounding the text, the timing and the budgetary implications of the move.

Describing the resumption of the summit as an “ill-timed publicity stunt,” the envoy warned that the conference could embolden Hamas and prolong the conflict, and stated that Washington would not participate.

“This is an insult to the victims of Oct. 7,” the US representative said, referring to the Hamas-led attacks on Israel in 2023.

“Our focus remains on serious diplomacy, not stage-managed conferences designed to manufacture the appearance of relevance.”

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Arab states are ready to agree on an Arab component within international forces in Gaza in a post-war phase, emphasizing that discussions on the matter are ongoing, Egyptian media reported on Friday, Anadolu reports.

Aboul Gheit made the remarks during a press conference following the conclusion of the ordinary session of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo late Thursday.

When asked about an agreement on the presence of Arab forces within international deployments, he said: “We listened to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who confirmed his readiness to approve this matter.”

He added that Egypt is currently supporting a related proposal, noting that Arab states are prepared to reach a consensus on an Arab–international presence.

Aboul Gheit stressed that Arab ministers agreed that Israel’s plans extended beyond the genocidal war in Gaza to attempts to eradicate the Palestinian cause, including forced displacement or annexation of the West Bank.

He outlined two priorities for the upcoming Arab action: ending Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and preserving the Palestinian statehood project.

He also revealed that Egypt and Saudi Arabia had submitted a draft resolution on Arab cooperation in the Middle East, which was approved by the League.

READ: 700 days of Israeli genocide in Gaza a stain on humanity: Hamas

He said the resolution “reaffirms Arab sovereignty, rejects any Israeli threats against it, and emphasizes that a two-state solution remains the only path to end regional tensions.”

The draft also warned against relying on regional cooperation or integration while Israel’s occupation or threats of annexation continue.

Arab foreign ministers unanimously supported recent official UAE statements rejecting West Bank annexation, describing it as a red line that jeopardized regional stability.

The comments come after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to annex 82% of the occupied West Bank and emphasized the importance of preventing the formation of a Palestinian state.

Aboul Gheit also addressed the US decision to deny visas to Palestinian officials, including President Abbas, to attend UN General Assembly meetings in September.

He said the Arab League’s Egypt–Saudi resolution calls on Washington, DC, to review its decision and confirmed ongoing Arab diplomatic efforts to persuade the US to change its stance.

The ongoing genocide in Gaza entered its 700th day on Friday, with Israel having killed more than 64,000 Palestinians. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

READ: UK’s foreign secretary to visit Gulf to seek consensus on Gaza peace

Britain’s Yvette Cooper was named foreign minister on Friday, replacing David Lammy who will become deputy prime minister and justice minister, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement.

The appointment is the most significant of a cabinet reshuffle carried out by Starmer following the resignation of deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, after she admitted underpaying property tax on a new home.

Shabana Mahmood, currently the justice minister, will replace Cooper at the home office – or interior ministry – taking on the brief which includes tackling illegal migration.

The government also appointed new ministers in departments including the environment, business, housing, and work and pensions.