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  • ‘Riyadh no longer feels safe’: Houthi strikes shatter Saudi capital’s aura of calm

    ‘Riyadh no longer feels safe’: Houthi strikes shatter Saudi capital’s aura of calm

    For decades, Saudi Arabia has carefully crafted a public image as a stable sanctuary amid the widespread chaos that has gripped much of the Middle East. That carefully constructed narrative has been violently torn apart, however, following a pair of deadly Houthi attacks on the kingdom’s capital that have left thousands of expatriate residents questioning their future in the country and thrown Riyadh’s ambitious economic and image-building plans into doubt.

    The first and deadliest assault came Saturday, when Houthi forces launched a strike targeting King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh’s primary international air gateway and a key hub for religious travelers bound for the holy city of Mecca. The attack left at least 12 civilians dead and more than 300 others injured, with casualties ranging from a Bangladeshi cleric and a Syrian mother of four to a United States citizen. State broadcaster Al Ekhbariya aired shocking CCTV footage from the attack showing pilgrims clad in traditional white Umrah garments scrambling for cover as ceiling panels collapsed and thick dust engulfed the airport’s main lounge.

    A second, follow-up strike the next day killed one additional person and wounded at least 11 more. Beyond the airport attack, the Houthi movement also fired cruise missiles toward key Saudi oil infrastructure and Dammam Airport in the kingdom’s eastern province. Houthi officials have framed the coordinated assaults as a direct retaliation for Riyadh’s ongoing military support for Yemeni government forces in the country’s long-running civil war, as well as a Saudi airstrike that targeted Sanaa Airport earlier this year.

    The violence has sent shockwaves through Riyadh’s large expatriate community, many of whom have built long-term lives and careers in the kingdom. Bilal, a 39-year-old British expat who has lived in the Saudi capital for seven years, condemned the attack in an interview with Middle East Eye, noting that civilian spaces and religious travelers should never be targeted. “There’s no justifying attacks on ordinary people, and no way they can defend striking a civilian facility – whatever the Saudi-led coalition did in the war years ago,” he said. While Bilal noted he has no immediate plans to abandon his well-compensated position and comfortable life in Riyadh, he acknowledged he would not hesitate to send his family back to the UK if attacks become more frequent.

    Similar concerns were echoed by Mohamed, another British national who has lived in Riyadh on and off for a decade. Mohamed told MEE he had long viewed the kingdom as a safe place to raise his children, but the failure of Saudi Arabia’s advanced missile defense systems to intercept the attack on one of the country’s most critical infrastructure sites left him deeply unsettled. “My children are also pretty scared by what’s happening,” he said. “I’ve reassured them that they will be safe, but with schools being cancelled and some foreigners openly expressing their plans to return to their home countries, it’s becoming much harder to explain Riyadh no longer feels safe.”

    Beyond the immediate human cost, the strikes have struck a severe blow to the core of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship modernization agenda. In recent years, the crown prince, who launched the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen back in 2015, has worked tirelessly to rebrand the kingdom as an attractive destination for global business, tourism, and foreign direct investment. Just two weeks out from Riyadh’s high-profile Future Investment Initiative – the kingdom’s flagship investment conference that aims to draw billions in foreign pledges – a major energy conference scheduled for Sunday drew only a handful of international delegates, signaling early investor jitters over the new security risk.

    The latest attacks mark a sharp dangerous escalation in the nearly decade-long confrontation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement, which controls most of northern Yemen. The conflict had been locked in a lengthy stalemate for months until Saudi-led forces launched an airstrike on Sanaa Airport in July, aimed at preventing a plane carrying Houthi officials from Iran from landing in the rebel-held capital. In response, the Houthi movement threatened reciprocal action, vowing to target core Saudi interests in response to restrictions on their access to key airspace and transport routes. The group later declared an embargo on all Saudi shipping passing through the Red Sea – a route that has grown dramatically in importance for Saudi oil exports after tensions related to the Iran conflict disrupted shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies.

    The long-running conflict traces its roots back to 2014, when the Houthi movement capitalized on widespread public anger over crippling fuel subsidy cuts and the failure of a UN-backed national dialogue process to resolve Yemen’s deep-seated political and economic divides. After rejecting a proposed federal governing structure, the Iran-aligned movement advanced south and seized Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in March 2015 with the stated goal of restoring Hadi’s government to power. Backed by American-made munitions and British-built fighter jets, the coalition’s military campaign has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis, most of whom have died from preventable causes including hunger, disease, and the total collapse of essential public services.

    Beyond its impact on Saudi Arabia’s domestic security and economic ambitions, the escalation has also laid bare growing strains between Gulf Arab states and their long-standing security partner, the United States. For more than 70 years, the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council – Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Oman – have hosted U.S. military bases and infrastructure, and spent hundreds of billions of dollars on American weapons systems, in exchange for Washington acting as the region’s primary security guarantor. That long-standing arrangement is now under unprecedented strain, a senior Gulf analyst told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

    The analyst noted that Saudi leaders were already deeply concerned by former President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon diplomatic engagement with Iran in favor of a confrontational approach, which left regional allies to face the consequences of a conflict they did not choose. That frustration only deepened after the Riyadh attacks, when Trump publicly stated that Saudi Arabia was “able to defend” itself against Houthi attacks, signaling a historic retreat from long-standing U.S. security commitments. “The US has spent decades asking Gulf states to invest in American weapons and build their security around Washington. When the threat materialises, dismissing it as something Saudi Arabia can handle raises serious questions about what that partnership is actually worth,” the analyst said.

    The growing uncertainty around U.S. security commitments has increased the strategic importance of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, a new collective defense pact signed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan in August. The agreement is designed to strengthen regional deterrence against shared security threats, though questions remain over the timing and scale of any Turkish military deployment to the kingdom, as Ankara weighs its next strategic moves.

  • Boardroom feud tests trusted Indian business empire

    Boardroom feud tests trusted Indian business empire

    Long before the sun rises over Mumbai’s crowded street markets, small business owner Mansi Kadam starts prepping vada pav, the city’s beloved spicy potato snack, for her daily stream of customers. When it comes to one core ingredient, Kadam refuses to compromise: she only uses Tata salt. When asked if she would ever consider switching to another brand, her answer echoes a decades-old Hindi advertising jingle ingrained in generations of Indian consumers: “If it’s salt, it has to be Tata.”

    Kadam knows almost nothing about the high-stakes confrontation unfolding in the boardrooms of the Tata group, one of India’s oldest, largest, and most culturally influential business empires, whose product portfolio stretches from humble table salt to cutting-edge enterprise software. But her unthinking, lifelong loyalty highlights the core question now facing the conglomerate: can one of India’s most trusted household brands survive a very public battle over leadership, corporate governance, and strategic control without damaging its hard-won reputation?

    The conflict has erupted between two key pillars of the Tata structure: the board of directors at Tata Sons, the group’s central holding company, and Tata Trusts, the philanthropic entity that holds a majority stake in the business. At the heart of the standoff are two critical, interconnected decisions: the proposed initial public offering of Tata Sons and the reappointment of current Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran. The vast majority of the Tata Sons board, including the group’s largest minority stakeholder the SP Group, has thrown its support behind both moves.

    But Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts and the half-brother of iconic former group chairman Ratan Tata, has publicly opposed both resolutions. He argues that taking Tata Sons public would dilute the group’s century-old commitment to philanthropic impact, and he is pushing to overturn both decisions at the conglomerate’s upcoming annual general meeting.

    Shriram Subramanian, founder and head of InGovern Research, an independent corporate governance advisory firm, explained the core of the rift in an interview with the BBC. “When we say this is a governance crisis, it’s a misalignment of interests between the board [of Tata Sons] and the shareholders [Tata Trusts],” he said. While Subramanian does not expect an immediate hit to the Tata brand’s public image, he has raised concerns about whether the fractured leadership can effectively steer the group through growing market and operational challenges.

    The current tensions have been building since the death of Ratan Tata in 2024, who named Noel Tata his successor in his will after decades at the group’s helm. For most Indians, Ratan Tata’s personal commitment to public good and steady leadership became inseparable from the Tata brand itself. His passing sparked nationwide mourning, and industry analysts agree it left a significant leadership void that has yet to be filled, both internally and in the public eye.

    According to the Tata group’s official website, Brand Finance has ranked Tata as India’s most valuable brand every year since 2018, a testament to its decades of reputation-building. Tata Sons, the central holding entity, is described by the group as the “fastener keeping the many disparate elements of the whole together.” Tata Trusts, which manages seven individual philanthropic endowments that collectively own the group’s controlling stake, is widely seen as the conglomerate’s moral compass, guiding all business units on social impact and charitable giving. For generations of Indian consumers, this combination of commercial success and public-minded leadership has built a reservoir of public trust that few corporations anywhere in the world can match.

    Today, that trust is under strain as the two core entities find themselves on opposing sides of a public fight. “Once upon a time, there was a unified audience which said the Tatas are good people with good governance. Today, the opinion is divided,” said Harish Bijoor, an independent business and brand strategy consultant based in India. While most everyday consumers like Kadam remain unaware or unbothered by the boardroom dispute, the conflict has sharply polarized other key stakeholders including investors, business partners, and employees. Some frame the rift as a naked power play, others as a genuine debate over the group’s founding values, but there is little consensus on which side holds the moral high ground, Bijoor explained.

    “This conflict has brought the Tatas into conversations everywhere, which is not good as they have always liked to be out of it,” he added. For its entire history, the Tata group has intentionally kept a low profile, both around its philanthropic work and when resolving internal disputes. The BBC reached out to the Tata group with detailed questions about the current conflict, but received no response.

    Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group grew dramatically under JRD Tata, who transformed it from a family-run collection of businesses into one of the world’s first professionally managed large conglomerates. Ratan Tata later drove the group’s global expansion, leading a wave of high-profile international acquisitions that established Tata as a global player. Today, the group boasts a combined market capitalization of more than $260 billion, employs hundreds of thousands of people across more than 100 countries, and counts industries from steel to automotive to digital services among its holdings.

    This is not the first time the group has weathered controversy. It has faced public protests over large industrial projects, regulatory scrutiny of its telecom division during India’s 2G spectrum allocation scandal, a high-profile public dispute with Japanese telecom giant Docomo, and ongoing questions about the operational performance of Air India, which the group acquired in 2021. Some of its biggest business moves have drawn criticism, most notably Tata Steel’s troubled 2007 acquisition of European steel giant Corus, though other overseas bets including Tetley Tea and Jaguar Land Rover have been enormously successful and cemented the group’s global footprint.

    The group’s most high-profile previous internal crisis came in 2016, when the Tata Sons board abruptly removed Cyrus Mistry as chairman and reinstated Ratan Tata as interim leader. Mistry, an heir to the SP Group, had originally been selected for the role by a selection committee led by Ratan Tata himself. The ouster sparked a four-year legal battle that ultimately ended in 2021, when India’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Tata group.

    Last month, veteran Indian journalist Sucheta Dalal wrote in a column for Moneylife magazine that the Tata group has “weathered serious governance storms” in the past, and has long enjoyed “special privileges available to no other business group” – a reference to the unique tax exemption granted to Tata Trusts for its controlling stake in Tata Sons – thanks to its reputation for integrity built over 150 years. Most long-time Tata observers agree with that assessment.

    Morgen Witzel, a fellow at the Exeter Centre for Leadership who authored a book on the Tata brand in 2010, noted that the group’s trust is built on far more than advertising. In an email interview, he pointed to decades of on-the-ground investment in communities across India: in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, where Tata built India’s first integrated steel plant and the country’s first planned industrial city, the group provides free healthcare and education to residents of hundreds of surrounding villages. Watchmaker Titan, a Tata subsidiary, supports employees who leave the company to launch their own small businesses. Tata Motors’ Pune facility has helped thousands of local women launch their own entrepreneurial ventures.

    “It is the concatenation of all of these things that builds trust because people see that, by and large, Tata is there to serve their needs rather than just take their money,” Witzel said.

    But unlike past controversies, which were largely external or rooted in one-on-one disputes, the current rift is a fundamental divide at the very top of the organization. What began as a private boardroom disagreement has increasingly spilled into public view, with Tata Sons and Tata Trusts clashing through public legal notices and competing official statements. Venu Srinivasan, vice-chairman of Tata Trusts and a nominee director on the Tata Sons board, has called for an independent investigation into alleged governance lapses at some Tata Trust entities, claims that the trusts have outright denied.

    Noel Tata has put forward two alternative proposals to avoid a public listing of Tata Sons. First, he has suggested that the Tata Sons board buy back a portion of the SP Group’s minority stake, a move he frames as a “fair and equitable solution” to the SP Group’s demand to monetize its holding. Second, he has proposed restructuring Tata Sons by merging two existing business units into the holding company, a change that would alter how the Reserve Bank of India classifies the entity and potentially let the group avoid mandatory listing requirements.

    It remains unclear whether Noel Tata can gather enough support to pass his proposals, as he has not yet consolidated the same level of personal authority and influence that Ratan Tata held over decades. Subramanian argues that Ratan Tata’s iconic status and the manner of the succession itself contributed to the current crisis. “Ratan Tata’s larger-than-life image is, to some extent, the reason behind the current conflict. Everyone was deferential towards him and his successor was known only after his death through his will,” he said. Had Ratan Tata overseen a public, planned transition of power during his lifetime, Subramanian added, the handover would likely have been far smoother.

    Bijoor, the brand strategist, has called on the group to publish a full public “white paper” outlining the dispute and its final resolution, arguing that the group’s long-held reputation for transparency demands openness. “They stood for transparency, and they must never shed that,” he said.

    How one of India’s most influential corporations manages these internal tensions will go a long way toward defining its future. The outcome of the dispute is being closely watched across India’s entire corporate sector, where Tata’s governance standards and ethical business practices have long been held up as a gold standard for other firms to follow.

  • Australian freed from Iraq thanks family after landing in Ireland

    Australian freed from Iraq thanks family after landing in Ireland

    After five years of detention in Iraq that drew global attention over alleged violations of international law, Australian engineer Robert Pether has finally landed in Ireland, where he was joyfully reunited with his family on Monday at Dublin Airport. The 51-year-old, who had lived and worked in the Middle East for nearly a decade, was first arrested amid a bitter commercial contract dispute between his employer, Australia-based CME Consulting, and Iraq’s Central Bank. He took on the high-profile project of reconstructing the Central Bank’s Baghdad headquarters back in 2015, setting off the chain of events that would upend his life.

    In 2021, Pether was convicted of fraud alongside his Egyptian colleague, Khalid Radwan, after the Iraqi bank accused both men of embezzling $12 million from the reconstruction project. What followed, however, raised major international alarms: the pair were held without formal charges for almost six months before a rushed, expedited trial that the United Nations later ruled violated basic international legal standards. A 2022 UN report confirmed the two men were subjected to abusive and coercive interrogation tactics, a claim that Iraq’s government has repeatedly denied. Both men were sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay a combined $12 million fine. As of Pether’s arrival in Ireland, there has been no official confirmation on whether Radwan has also been granted release.

    Pether was granted conditional release from Iraqi prison last year, but he remained trapped in the country, barred from leaving and facing ongoing threats of additional legal action. Multiple international bodies and government authorities had pushed for his full release for years: the UN formally declared Pether’s detention illegal, and in 2023 the International Chamber of Commerce’s Court of Arbitration issued a landmark ruling that cleared CME Consulting of any wrongdoing in the contract dispute, finding Iraq’s Central Bank entirely at fault and ordering the bank to pay $13 million in damages to the Australian firm.

    Speaking to reporters shortly after landing in Dublin local time, a tearful Pether expressed profound gratitude to his family, who have resided in Ireland throughout his detention. “Our children lost years with their dad,” he said. “They watched their mum fight every day to try and bring me home. They grew up with uncertainty, fear and circumstances that no child should ever have to carry.” He praised his wife Desree as “incredible”, noting that her tireless years of advocacy for his release, paired with her work holding their family together amid constant crisis, had taken an enormous emotional toll. Desree had described the entire ordeal as “an absolute nightmare” in a statement to the BBC ahead of her husband’s arrival, adding that countless obstacles and unexpected last-minute setbacks had stretched the years of waiting into an agonizing experience.

    Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that Pether’s release came after years of coordinated, persistent diplomatic advocacy by both the Australian government and Irish authorities. “I spoke to Mr Pether shortly before his departure from Baghdad and am pleased he is now free to move forward with his life,” Wong said in a statement shortly after Pether crossed into Irish airspace. For Pether and his family, Monday’s reunion marked the end of a half-decade-long fight for justice and freedom, and the start of a long-awaited chance to rebuild their lives together.

  • Israeli press review: Anti-Palestinian racist incidents spike across Israel

    Israeli press review: Anti-Palestinian racist incidents spike across Israel

    Over a single weekend, three interconnected incidents of sectarian violence, hate speech, and discriminatory rhetoric have laid bare deep and persistent divisions along ethnic and national lines within Israeli society, sending ripples of concern across political and civic spheres.

    The first incident unfolded Saturday evening, immediately after a tightly contested Israeli league football match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Sakhnin, a club led by Palestinian citizens of Israel, that ended in a goalless draw at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium. As the Bnei Sakhnin fan contingent prepared to leave the venue aboard their team bus, a crowd of Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters pelted the vehicle with stones, shattering multiple windows. Flying glass shards from the broken panes left one Bnei Sakhnin supporter with injuries, and authorities launched a manhunt for the attackers immediately after the assault, which failed to turn up any suspects as of Sunday. A formal criminal investigation has been opened into the violence.

    Israeli police emphasized to local sports outlet Sport 5 that they take all acts of sports-related violence seriously, stating they will take firm action against anyone involved in such incidents to protect public safety. But Bnei Sakhnin’s leadership has decried the attack, which comes amid longstanding accusations of racist sentiment among segments of the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan base, and warned it represents a growing dangerous trend of targeted harm against the club’s fans. In a formal letter sent to Israeli police Sunday, Bnei Sakhnin officials said the incident “is a serious warning sign of the development of an improper and dangerous phenomenon of deliberate harm to the fans of the club,” adding that the team would not be deterred from continuing its operations.

    This attack is not an isolated case of fan violence against Bnei Sakhnin this season: back in August, supporters of Maccabi Netanya, another Jewish-led Israeli club, assaulted Bnei Sakhnin players after a match between the two sides.

    Separately, Israeli media reported Sunday on a previously unpublicized racist assault that occurred last August, targeting a young Israeli Druze woman on a public Tel Aviv bus. The attack unfolded after the woman received a phone call and spoke Arabic during her conversation, a choice that triggered a vitriolic attack from a group of young Jewish Israelis.

    Independent right-wing Israeli journalist Daniel Amram confirmed the attackers hurled verbal abuse at the woman, screaming, “Stinky Arab, get off the bus, you have no place in this country.” The woman told Israel’s Channel 12 News that after the verbal harassment, the group physically assaulted her, throwing socks at her head roughly eight times, all while laughing and recording the attack on their phones.

    Months after the incident, the woman’s brother obtained closed-circuit camera footage of the assault from the bus operator and has pledged to file a civil suit against the perpetrators to hold them accountable for the public humiliation of his sister. The woman told reporters she filed an official police complaint immediately after the attack but held little expectation that authorities would pursue the case. “I went to file a complaint, but I went to the police station expecting them to do nothing,” she said.

    The attack has had a lasting psychological impact: the woman stated she is now too afraid to use public transportation. Most notably, she and a family friend confirmed that despite the bus being filled with passengers, not a single bystander stepped in to intervene or stop the attackers’ harassment. “The bus was full, and not even one person bothered to intervene or silence those boys,” a family friend told Channel 13 News.

    Compounding these two violent incidents, a sitting Israeli lawmaker sparked new controversy Sunday with openly discriminatory remarks calling for broad racial segregation in the country’s public education system. Yinon Azulai, a Knesset member from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party — a longstanding close ally and coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — told public broadcaster Kan 11 that he opposes hiring Palestinian citizens of Israel as teachers in schools serving Jewish students.

    Azulai called for a full separation of Palestinian and Jewish students and teaching staff along national identity lines, arguing that “When an Arab teacher in a school teaches a Jewish child, I don’t know what ideas he’s putting into his [the child’s] head based on his [the teacher’s] own background.” He extended his argument to non-Jewish teachers of other faiths, claiming that “maybe a Christian teacher will come in too, and then he’ll teach Christianity the way he knows it, and the Arab teacher might teach Islam.”

    The lawmaker laid out his proposal plainly, stating: “Arabs will teach in Arab schools, and Jews will teach in Jewish schools.” He added that existing arrangements where Palestinian teachers instruct Jewish students “shouldn’t happen.”

    Azulai’s remarks come at a time when Israel’s public education system is grappling with a severe nationwide staffing shortage: official data indicates that more than 30,000 teaching positions remain unfilled across the country in the 2024-2025 school year. Facing widespread recruitment shortfalls, Jewish schools have increasingly turned to qualified Palestinian candidates to fill vacant roles, with official Israeli figures showing more than 4,000 Palestinian teachers currently working in the Jewish education system.

    Independent Israeli outlet Local Call has previously documented systemic bias against Palestinian educators in the country, reporting that three out of every four teachers targeted for political persecution in Israel are Palestinian. The outlet also confirmed that the Israeli Education Ministry has a longstanding policy of monitoring the private political statements of teaching staff across the country.

  • British man in Israeli army posed in front of burning Gaza school, new film reveals

    British man in Israeli army posed in front of burning Gaza school, new film reveals

    An in-depth investigation by independent UK-based investigative outlet Declassified UK has exposed that a British-born citizen served as a soldier in the Israeli military during the 2023-2024 Gaza campaign and posed for a photograph in front of a destroyed, burning school in the enclave. The findings, which were presented in a YouTube documentary released Tuesday titled *”We Exposed a British-Israeli Who Fought in Gaza”*, center on Jonathan Burman, a British national who posted the image of himself in uniform on his private Instagram account before it was obtained by investigators.

    Independent transparency monitoring non-profit Airwars cross-referenced geographic details of the photo to confirm the structure in the background is Madrasa al-Farabi, a school located in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The site was attacked by Israeli forces on December 12, 2023, more than two months after the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza launched following the October 7 2023 Hamas attack.

    When contacted for comment by Declassified, the Israeli military referenced a December 2023 statement claiming its forces had eliminated a Hamas terrorist cell operating from a school in the area. But Airwars investigators confirmed that the incident the IDF cited occurred at a different campus located two kilometers from Madrasa al-Farabi, the site where Burman posed for the viral photo.

    According to Declassified’s reporting, Burman attended the elite Manchester Grammar School in northwest England before taking a gap year in Israel, after which he formally enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces. The IDF confirmed to investigators that Burman served in the 55th Brigade, an elite reserve paratrooper unit, with Declassified’s reporting indicating he was most likely assigned to the brigade’s 66th Battalion. Burman also shared additional photos from his deployment on his personal account, including images of himself in heavily damaged areas of Khan Younis, on deployment in Lebanon, and posing with other soldiers in military uniform.

    The documentary includes an interview with Yuval Green, a former medic who served in the 66th Battalion, who described extreme ideological motivations among some members of the unit. Green stated, “Some of the people are really driven by crazy insane religious ideas. This [fighting in Gaza] was just an opportunity for them to kill as many Gazans as they can and kick them out and get their lands.”

    Research from the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Palestinian casualty documentation organization, was also cited in the investigation, which linked Burman to a company within the battalion that the foundation says was involved in intense close-quarters combat and the demolition of hundreds of residential structures across Khan Younis, leaving large swathes of the southern Gaza city in ruins.

    Chris Sidoti, a sitting member of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, appeared in the documentary and endorsed the rigor of Declassified’s investigative work. He noted that while the reporting does not itself prove Burman committed war crimes, the evidence collected is substantial enough to require formal follow-up. Sidoti called on London’s Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit to open a formal investigation into Burman’s actions during his deployment in Gaza.

    To date, Burman has not responded to multiple requests for comment from Declassified UK on the investigation’s findings.

    Estimates indicate that approximately 2,000 dual British-Israeli nationals have served in the Israeli military during the ongoing Gaza campaign, which a separate UN Commission of Inquiry concluded last year constituted an act of genocide against the Palestinian people. Since the start of the campaign, Israeli forces have killed more than 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with an additional 170,000 wounded. Thousands more Palestinians remain missing, presumed dead under rubble destroyed by Israeli air strikes and ground operations. For context, the October 7 2023 Hamas attack that precipitated the Israeli campaign killed approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel, mostly civilians.

    This new call for investigation comes months after London’s Metropolitan Police announced in April 2024 that it would not open probes into 10 other British nationals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity while serving with the IDF in Gaza. That decision followed the submission of a 240-page evidence dossier by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the Public Interest Law Centre to the Met’s War Crimes Team in 2023. Police at the time said there was no realistic prospect of securing a conviction and that a full, effective investigation could not be carried out from the UK.

  • The island where locals say data centres are taking their water

    The island where locals say data centres are taking their water

    On a hot, dry day on Indonesia’s Batam Island, 300 frustrated residents marched into the Nongsa Digital Park compound carrying empty plastic bottles and jerry cans, chanting for one basic necessity: water. For three months, their home taps have run completely dry, while the data centres at the heart of Batam’s plan to become a regional digital hub have had continuous access to water to keep heat-sensitive servers from overheating. The protest is the latest flashpoint in a growing conflict between economic development ambitions and the daily survival of local communities, as global demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure pushes water and energy resources to breaking point.

    Dewi Susanti, a protester from the village of Bakau Serip, told the BBC that local water access was consistent and reliable before data centre construction began. Today, residents rely on government water tankers that deliver water she described as dirty, cloudy and foul-smelling. The crisis has already upended household finances: money that once covered staple foods like rice now goes toward storing water, and Dewi’s husband is forced to stay up overnight to queue for limited water deliveries before reporting straight to work the next morning.

    Local authorities have offered conflicting explanations for the shortage. BP Batam, the government agency in charge of overseeing trade and industrial development on the island, blames an extended dry season worsened by this year’s historic super El Niño, and denies allegations that residential water supplies have been diverted to feed corporate data centre demand. Batam’s state water utility has acknowledged it is working to improve distribution but declined to comment on whether supply cuts are tied to rising industrial demand from the tech sector.

    Batam has no natural large freshwater sources, so its 1.3 million residents depend entirely on rainwater captured in six man-made reservoirs. Local environmental non-profit Akar Bhumi Indonesia ran hydrological simulations that found the Nongsa reservoir – which supplies Bakau Serip and surrounding communities – will run completely dry within a month if no significant rain falls. Even before the current wave of data centre development, Batam faced routine seasonal water shortages; growing demand for digital infrastructure has stretched the island’s limited resources far beyond capacity.

    The conflict in Batam is not an isolated incident. As tech firms pour hundreds of billions of dollars into building new AI infrastructure across the globe, communities from the United States and the United Kingdom to Southeast Asia have pushed back against the rapid expansion of data centres. These large, windowless facilities run nonstop, requiring massive amounts of electricity to power servers and equally massive volumes of water to cool equipment and prevent overheating. US research shows a standard data centre consumes roughly 300,000 gallons of water per day – equivalent to the total domestic water use of 1,000 American households. Malaysia’s central bank estimates that a larger 50-megawatt facility can use as much water daily as 2,200 households, while drawing enough electricity to power 22,000 homes.

    Experts warn that a lack of transparency around data centre water use makes it harder to address resource conflicts. Agus Hasan, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, notes that reliable public data on water consumption by Indonesian data centres remains extremely limited, because most tech firms treat usage figures as proprietary business information. “We should build data centres rationally, transparently, and responsibly, and insist on seeing the numbers,” Hasan said. “Otherwise, those kept in the dark while their taps run dry will push back, and rightly so.”

    Batam’s rise as a digital hub is largely driven by spillover demand from neighbouring Singapore, located just a one-hour ferry ride away. Singapore imposed a moratorium on new data centre construction in 2019 due to constraints on land and energy, before lifting the ban in 2022 alongside new strict efficiency standards. The city-state has actively promoted surrounding regions including Batam and Malaysia’s Johor state as complementary hubs for digital infrastructure. Johor quickly approved tens of billions of dollars in data centre projects, but soon faced widespread public backlash over noise, construction dust and growing water scarcity, prompting state officials to impose strict new consumption limits.

    Batam has emerged as a top alternative for investors from the US, China, Australia and Singapore thanks to its proximity to Singapore, low operating costs and access to major global subsea internet cables. To date, Indonesian officials have approved 10 data centre projects for Batam, six of which are located in the Nongsa Digital Park. Two facilities are already operational, a third is under construction, and at least six more projects are currently under review for approval. Official data puts total confirmed investment in Batam’s data centre sector at more than $6.7 billion (£5.1 billion) as of mid-2024, with major players including Hong Kong private equity firm Gaw Capital, Indonesian developer Sinar Primera, Singapore’s DayOne, and AI giant Nvidia already committed to projects. By 2030, official projections estimate power demand from Batam’s data centres will exceed 1,100 megawatts – enough to power nearly 1 million average Indonesian households.

    Following earlier protests against water diversion in August and September 2024, authorities mandated that all new data centres build their own desalination plants to avoid drawing freshwater from local reservoirs. But local residents remain deeply concerned that they are now forced to compete for limited water resources with corporate AI infrastructure. For communities already struggling with daily water access, the promise of billions in digital investment has done little to ease their hardship.

    Marlinda, a resident of Sei Beduk district which is also facing severe water shortages, called on officials to visit affected communities and prioritise local needs over corporate profits. “Don’t just sit at the top and keep approving these projects. Come down here and see for yourselves what we are wrestling with,” she said. “We are not asking for anything extravagant. We just want our water supply restored.”

  • Immigration agents search congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home

    Immigration agents search congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s home

    Three weeks ahead of critical midterm elections that will determine congressional control for the next two years, a federal law enforcement search targeting the home of U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar has ignited a fierce national political debate over the weaponization of government power. The Minnesota Democrat, a trailblazing Somali-American and one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal high-profile critics, has condemned the operation as a deliberate act of political intimidation.

    A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed that agents from Homeland Security Investigations carried out the judicially authorized search of Omar’s Washington-area property as part of an active, ongoing federal criminal probe. Officials declined to release any further details about the investigation’s scope or target, and it remains unclear whether Omar was present at the residence during the search, as Congress is currently in recess. Eyewitness reporting from a BBC crew on the scene documented multiple agents removing boxed materials from the home and loading them into agency vehicles.

    Initial reporting from Fox News indicated the investigation centers on immigration paperwork submitted by Omar’s late father when she was a child, aligning with unsubstantiated accusations of immigration fraud that Republican officials have leveled against the congresswoman in recent months. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin teased impending action against Omar over unproven marital fraud claims, while White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed to the outlet that the congresswoman was under investigation for unspecified immigration violations. Omar has repeatedly denied all such allegations, dismissing the probes as politically motivated sham investigations.

    Shortly after news of the search broke, Omar took to social media to frame the operation as the latest escalation in a years-long campaign of harassment against her. “For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” she wrote. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.” Her communications director, Jacklyn Rogers, called the pre-dawn raid an “outrageous abuse of power” by the Trump administration and reiterated that the congresswoman “has done nothing wrong.”

    When pressed by reporters for comment on Monday, Trump denied any involvement in the Department of Justice’s actions, while launching a fresh personal attack on Omar. He described the Somali-born lawmaker as a “complainer” and a “terrible person,” claiming “she comes from a country that is a non country. And then she comes over here and she complains about our Constitution.” This is consistent with Trump’s long pattern of aggressive rhetoric targeting Omar: he has previously suggested she “should go back” to Somalia and repeated calls for her deportation, falsely implying she is not eligible to serve in Congress, a role that requires U.S. citizenship. Just last week, he stoked anti-immigrant sentiment targeting the Somali-American community in Minnesota, writing on social media that the state “is being taken over by Somali immigrants” and urging residents to “fight back.”

    The timing of the search, just 22 days before the November midterms, has triggered sharp pushback from Democratic leaders, who point to a longstanding Department of Justice policy that bars most law enforcement actions that could reasonably be perceived as intended to influence election outcomes. Top House Democrats released a statement noting that Omar has faced “vile personal attacks and baseless accusations” from Trump since she took office, arguing that “now, less than 30 days before the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”

    Minnesota’s top Democratic state leaders echoed those concerns. Governor Tim Walz said, “Americans see this for what it is – President Trump is abusing his power to go after political opponents weeks before an election.” U.S. Senator Tina Smith called the operation “a transparent attempt to interfere in our elections.”

    Republican officials have been split in their reactions: some, like Minnesota’s House Representative Tom Emmer, celebrated the search, tweeting “Nobody is above the law. We look forward to learning more details about this raid and investigation. ACCOUNTABILITY IS COMING!”

    Omar made history as the first Somali-American elected to the U.S. House, and one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. She represents a Minneapolis-area district and won re-election in 2022 with 74 percent of the vote. Republican efforts to scrutinize her immigration background are not new: earlier this year, South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace introduced an unsuccessful resolution to subpoena Omar’s immigration records, continuing years of partisan efforts to challenge her eligibility for office.

  • Crew searching for Amelia Earhart arrives at crab-infested island

    Crew searching for Amelia Earhart arrives at crab-infested island

    Nearly 90 years after American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart vanished without a trace mid-flight during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, a new archaeological expedition has arrived at a remote Pacific atoll to investigate a potential clue that could finally crack one of history’s most enduring unsolved mysteries.

    The joint team, composed of researchers from the Archaeological Legacy Institute (ALI) and Purdue University, reached Nikumaroro Island — part of the island nation of Kiribati — on Monday, following a five-day, 830-nautical-mile journey across the South Pacific aboard the research vessel *Marin Mainiku*. This trip marks the first authorized expedition to Nikumaroro in seven years, and the first formal investigation of the site’s Taraia Peninsula in more than 15 years, according to Purdue University records.

    At the center of the expedition’s work is the so-called Taraia Object, a feature first identified on the edge of Nikumaroro’s lagoon via satellite imagery back in 2020. The formation has sparked fierce debate among aviation historians and researchers: some experts argue it could be the long-lost wreckage of Earhart’s Electra twin-engine plane, while others remain deeply skeptical, suggesting it is nothing more than a naturally fallen, collapsed tree trunk.

    Expedition leader Rick Pettigrew framed the investigation as a long-awaited milestone for the decades-long search for answers. “It is incredibly rewarding to be this close to completing our inspection of the Taraia Object and potentially solving, at long last, the outstanding mystery of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan more than 89 years ago,” Pettigrew wrote in a Monday blog post updating the public on the expedition’s progress.

    The five-day investigation is not without its significant challenges, however. Two major threats have the potential to hamper the team’s work: a record-strength El Niño climate event, and the island’s population of giant coconut crabs — the largest land-dwelling invertebrates on Earth.

    El Niño has already disrupted regional weather patterns, and researchers warn shifting conditions could limit daily access to the shore, with an ongoing east-to-west weather system threatening safe passage through the narrow reef channel the team plans to use to reach the peninsula. Marine archaeologist Michael Krivor noted that unsafe conditions in the channel could cut the expedition short or prevent researchers from reaching the object entirely.

    For the team’s safety, crew members will not camp on the island overnight, instead returning to *Marin Mainiku* each evening — a rule driven in large part by the coconut crab population. Also called robber crabs, these nocturnal giants can grow to a leg span of up to one meter, weigh more than 4 kilograms, and lift loads as heavy as 28 kilograms. Best known for their ability to crack open whole coconuts, they also actively hunt live prey including small mammals and seabirds.

    This is not the first time coconut crabs have been linked to the Earhart mystery. One long-running theory suggests the aviator and her navigator survived an emergency landing on Nikumaroro, only to be killed by the giant crabs, who dragged their remains into underground burrows. A 2018 experiment by the International Group of Historical Aircraft Recovery confirmed the crabs are fully capable of this: researchers used pig carcasses to demonstrate the species can strip flesh from bone and drag remains to their burrows in less than two weeks.

    To reach the Taraia Object, the team will follow a carefully laid timeline. On Tuesday, crew members will navigate the narrow reef channel blasted into the atoll by the British in 1963, the final year the island hosted a permanent human settlement, to prepare for shore landing. Their first full day on the island will be dedicated to moving research equipment ashore, clearing dense overgrown vegetation, and establishing a base of operations, with one crew tasked with cutting a new access trail through the island’s jungle. On Wednesday, the team will shift focus to systematic evidence gathering on the Taraia Peninsula, using magnetic detection tools to locate buried metal debris consistent with plane wreckage. Finally, researchers will deploy specialized dredging equipment to shift sediment in the shallow lagoon, where the Taraia Object sits just 10 feet from shore in as little as five feet of water at low tide, to conduct a full visual inspection of the formation.

    Earhart’s disappearance has captivated the public since 1937. By the time she and her navigator Fred Noonan departed Lae, Papua New Guinea, on July 2 that year, she had already completed the majority of her round-the-world journey, flying successfully from California across South America, Africa, and Southern Asia. The pair planned to stop at tiny, uninhabited Howland Island, just 300 nautical miles from Nikumaroro, to refuel before the final leg to Hawaii. But the plane never arrived, vanishing without a trace over the central Pacific. The official U.S. government conclusion holds that the plane experienced radio communication failures, the pair became lost while searching for Howland Island, and eventually ran out of fuel before crashing into the open ocean. For decades, however, alternative theories have persisted, many centering on the possibility that Earhart and Noonan crashed on Nikumaroro and died as castaways.

  • Six Ukrainian energy sites hit by Russia since Trump announced ceasefire, Zelensky says

    Six Ukrainian energy sites hit by Russia since Trump announced ceasefire, Zelensky says

    Just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a bilateral energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine that he claimed would take effect “immediately,” Moscow launched a wave of strikes targeting six Ukrainian energy facilities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has confirmed. The attacks shattered hopes of a quick de-escalation along energy infrastructure lines, even as international leaders had signaled varying levels of support for the proposed truce.

    On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov openly stated that Ukraine did not deserve the “respite” a ceasefire would provide, a comment that came alongside multiple confirmed strikes across Ukrainian territory. Ukraine’s state news agency Ukrinform reported that Russian strikes destroyed power grids in the eastern city of Izyum, leaving residents completely without electricity. Overnight attacks also targeted energy and railway infrastructure in western Ukraine, expanding the scope of the damage. By Monday afternoon, Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo confirmed that new power outages were in effect across Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia after Russian attacks damaged critical energy equipment. To prevent total system failure, electricity rationing has been rolled out across multiple regions of the country.

    The attacks also extended beyond energy infrastructure: on Monday evening, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced that a Russian drone had struck a 25-story residential building in the capital’s Darnytskyi district. Klitschko reported that multiple parked cars in the building’s courtyard caught fire, the attack killed one person and injured 11 others. Emergency services were also dispatched to Kharkiv to respond to damage from a drone strike on a residential building in the northeastern city earlier the same day. Zelenskyy confirmed that 33 people total were injured in the nationwide strikes on energy facilities.

    Speaking to Fox News, Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine had held its fire under the terms of the proposed ceasefire, while Russia deliberately targeted civilian energy sites. “We did not attack, while Russia attacked our gas stations, energy infrastructure, and other facilities,” he said, adding that “I think it was Putin’s answer to President Trump.” In a post on X, Zelenskyy further noted that the strikes were clear proof Russia remained “unwilling to accept an energy ceasefire.” When the ceasefire was first announced by Trump on Sunday, Zelenskyy acknowledged that the proposal was “news to him” but expressed cautious support, framing it as a “major step toward ending the war” if the U.S. could guarantee Russian compliance.

    Trump, for his part, defended the ceasefire announcement on Monday, saying “I said you agree” when asked how the deal was reached, and adding that the war “has to get settled.” “That war is a disaster if you see the numbers,” he told reporters. The proposed energy ceasefire comes as Trump has pushed for Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, clearing the way for a new deal that would allow Russian diesel exports to enter the U.S. market, temporarily rolling back existing U.S. sanctions on Russian energy imports. Zelenskyy has characterized this deal as a “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the move comes ahead of U.S. midterm elections where rising global fuel prices driven by the ongoing conflict have become a key political issue.

    For months, both Russia and Ukraine have exchanged reciprocal strikes on energy infrastructure, disrupting energy supplies across the region. Moscow has consistently justified its attacks by claiming the targeted installations support Ukraine’s military operations, while Zelenskyy has framed Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory as a necessary measure to “reduce Russia’s ability to finance the war.” Analysis from BBC Verify shows that both sides have ramped up their attacks on energy infrastructure in the months ahead of the winter heating season, when demand for energy peaks across Eastern Europe. In 2026 to date, BBC Verify has recorded 273 strikes on Russian-controlled oil and gas facilities, more than double the 124 strikes recorded over the same period in 2025. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a global conflict monitoring group, further confirms that reported Russian attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy network have increased 2.4 times so far this year compared to 2025.

    International reaction to the proposed ceasefire has been mixed. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Britain “strongly supports President Trump’s call today for a sustained energy ceasefire to start now,” and France, Canada, and the European Union have also issued statements of general support. But European officials have expressed skepticism about Russian compliance. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday that the bloc would welcome an energy ceasefire “when it holds,” noting that “We haven’t yet seen that also Russia will stick to it.” Estonia’s foreign minister went further, stating outright that the ceasefire was “not working.”

  • ‘No military solutions’: Iran offers to mediate as Saudi-Houthi conflict escalates

    ‘No military solutions’: Iran offers to mediate as Saudi-Houthi conflict escalates

    Fresh deadly attacks targeting major Saudi Arabian airports have sent regional tensions soaring, prompting Iran to publicly urge Riyadh to abandon military escalation and pursue a negotiated political resolution to its long-running conflict with Yemen’s Houthi movement, with Tehran offering to mediate talks between the two parties.

    The diplomatic outreach took shape during a Sunday phone call between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, according to official statements released by both Saudi state media and Iranian journalistic outlets.

    “Insisting on a military approach and disregarding a political solution would only further complicate the situation,” Araghchi stressed during the conversation, adding that none of the ongoing crises across the Middle East could be resolved through military force. He confirmed that Tehran stands ready to support and facilitate negotiations between Saudi leadership and Yemeni stakeholders to reach a durable political settlement.

    Iran’s call for dialogue comes in the immediate aftermath of a sharp escalation in Houthi attacks on Saudi territory. On Saturday, a strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport left 12 people dead and more than 300 others injured, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation confirmed. By Monday, the death toll rose to 13 after an injured Indian national succumbed to their wounds, Reuters reported. A separate Houthi attack a day later killed a Pakistani resident and wounded 11 more people, Saudi authorities confirmed.

    On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei doubled down on Tehran’s position, telling reporters that the Islamic Republic has no interest in seeing continued hostilities between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. “We do not want hostilities to continue between two Muslim countries, especially as the region is already facing tensions caused by the United States and Israel,” Baghaei said. He reaffirmed Iran’s longstanding stance that the Yemeni people are entitled to live with dignity, free from external pressure, economic sanctions and the regional blockade imposed on Yemen, and reiterated Iran’s willingness to support a dialogue-led resolution to the crisis.

    The escalating attacks have had immediate operational impacts on international travel: multiple major global airlines have suspended flights to the Saudi capital. Lufthansa has canceled all Riyadh services through October 16, while Air France-KLM has extended its suspension of flights to the city through the end of October, Reuters reported.

    Houthi military officials have issued a formal warning to aviation firms, shipping operators, airport workers and passengers to avoid all Saudi airports and airspace, with the only exceptions being the airports serving the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. In a Sunday post on X, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree announced that the group’s armed forces were renewing this public warning. “The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces, with the exception of the airports of Makkah and Madina,” Saree said, urging all parties to “take our warnings seriously” and holding Saudi Arabia responsible for any harm resulting from failed interception of Houthi strikes.

    The Iran-aligned Houthi movement, officially known as Ansar Allah, has already claimed full responsibility for the Riyadh airport attack, as well as additional strikes on Dammam Airport and facilities operated by Saudi energy giant Saudi Aramco, per Reuters. The Saudi-led coalition that has fought the Houthis in Yemen since 2015 has labeled the deadly Riyadh attack a “full-fledged war crime.”

    This diplomatic exchange comes two years after Iran and Saudi Arabia restored full diplomatic relations under a China-brokered agreement, ending a seven-year diplomatic rupture between the two major regional powers. Despite decades of strategic rivalry across the Middle East, the two governments have maintained open diplomatic channels since the 2023 re normalization, creating a framework for this latest outreach over the Yemeni conflict.