While a fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran has paused open military hostilities, the fragile peace has done little to mend deep, often painful divisions that have torn through the Iranian-American diaspora community. What outsiders see as explosive clashes on social media and competing street protests—one side cheering US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, the other condemning them—masks the most wrenching friction that plays out far from public view: inside family homes, across dinner tables, where differing visions for Iran’s future have pitted loved ones against one another.
标签： Asia
亚洲
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A faraway conflict threatens livelihoods in India’s glass hub
Half an hour’s drive from the world-famous Taj Mahal in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh Pradesh, Firozabad has built its identity around glass. Known nationally as India’s “glass city”, this industrial hub accounts for 70% of the country’s total glass output, with most production spread across hundreds of small and medium-sized family-run factories. The sector sustains nearly 150,000 daily-wage workers, whose incomes hover between 500 and 1,000 rupees ($5.29 to £3.91) a day – earnings that leave almost no buffer against sudden cost increases or production disruptions. Today, that vulnerability has been laid bare by escalating tensions in the Middle East, whose ripple effects have reached deep into Firozabad’s workshops and left thousands of livelihoods hanging in the balance.
Glass manufacturing is an energy-intensive process: furnaces must maintain extremely high, consistent temperatures around the clock to keep production running safely. If a furnace cools completely, it can suffer irreversible damage, and restarting it requires massive time and capital investments most small factory owners cannot afford. This means the entire industry relies entirely on a stable, affordable supply of natural gas – and that supply has been thrown into chaos by Middle East conflict.
Nearly half of India’s total natural gas imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow strategic Gulf shipping route that has been heavily disrupted by ongoing regional tensions. While some shipments have resumed in recent weeks, factory owners across Firozabad report they have yet to see any relief from the shortage. To cope with the national supply squeeze, the Indian government implemented a 20% cut to commercial gas allocations, forcing producers to adapt their operations to ration fuel.
Sanjay Jain, who has operated a glass bangle manufacturing unit in Firozabad for four decades, told BBC reporters his production has plummeted sharply since the cuts went into effect. To keep his furnaces from cooling beyond repair, Jain has lowered operating temperatures and paused production for three to four days at a time – a stopgap measure that has cut his output drastically but kept his business from total collapse.
The crisis in Firozabad exposes India’s broader systemic vulnerability to global energy shocks. The country relies heavily on imported natural gas across all sectors, from transportation to residential use, leaving industrial hubs built around gas-dependent manufacturing uniquely exposed. Firozabad’s 400-plus small manufacturing clusters produce a vast range of glass goods, from bangles and home decor to car headlamp covers and luxury chandeliers, feeding a domestic glass market valued at more than $200 million. Many small factory owners report losses ranging from 25% to 40% since the Middle East conflict escalated, with no clear path forward if supply instability continues.
Natural gas shortages are not the only pressure weighing on the industry. Mukesh Bansal, a representative of the All India Glass Manufacturers’ Federation, explained that the conflict has driven up costs across the entire supply chain. Many key chemical components used to melt glass are imported from the Middle East, so trade disruptions have pushed raw material prices sharply higher. On top of that, global shipping cost increases have priced many Indian exporters out of international markets, particularly the large U.S. market for decorative glass goods. Bansal noted his own business has suffered losses exceeding 45% since the conflict began, saying “the combination of gas shortages and rising input costs has made this situation almost unmanageable.”
The strain is hitting low-wage workers the hardest. Umesh Babu, a 35-year-old bangle maker who works 10-hour days in an uninsulated open-air workshop just meters from a 1,000C furnace, has already seen his work week drop from six days to four. To cut household expenses, he has pulled his children out of school. “This is the only skill I have,” he said. “If the factories stop hiring, I don’t know where I’ll turn to feed my family.”
The Indian federal government has acknowledged the urgency of the crisis, stating it “recognises the need for uninterrupted furnace operations” and is implementing emergency measures to stabilize energy supplies. Federal ministries have held regular coordination briefings, and the petroleum ministry has prioritized energy allocations for critical sectors including pharmaceuticals, steel, automobiles and agriculture. Uttar Pradesh’s state government also announced a temporary wage increase after thousands of northern Indian factory workers held protests earlier this month that turned violent in parts of the state, where demonstrators demanded living wages and better working conditions. Workers say the temporary increase still falls far short of what they need to keep up with soaring inflation.
Economists warn that without long-term intervention, many of Firozabad’s small and micro manufacturing units will not survive. Economist Arun Kumar noted that most of these labor-intensive small operations operate on extremely limited working capital, leaving them no financial buffer to withstand extended shortages. “If this situation continues, many units will either shut down permanently or operate at severely curtailed capacity for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Damage to energy infrastructure across the Middle East from recent fighting between March and early April could take months to repair, meaning supply disruptions will persist even after the Strait of Hormuz returns to full operation. “The situation won’t go back to normal for months even after the route reopens,” Kumar explained.
A recent UN Development Programme report warns that the ongoing conflict could push as many as 2.5 million additional people in India into extreme poverty. For Firozabad’s glass sector, which sits at the heart of India’s small and medium enterprise ecosystem – a segment that contributes 30% of India’s national GDP and employs hundreds of millions of people – this crisis is more than a local problem: it is a warning of how global geopolitical instability can quickly unravel livelihoods for low-income workers across the world.
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UK ambassador to US says only special relationship US has is ‘probably’ with Israel
Leaked private comments from Britain’s top envoy to the United States have upended diplomatic niceties between the two historic allies, just as King Charles III’s state visit to Washington was getting underway, throwing into sharp relief existing frictions over Middle East policy and domestic political controversy in London.
Sir Christian Turner, who took up the ambassadorship earlier in 2024 following the forced exit of his predecessor Peter Mandelson over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, made the unguarded remarks during a February Q&A session with a group of British sixth-form students visiting the U.S. capital. The comments were first published by the *Financial Times* on Tuesday, the second day of King Charles’ scheduled visit to the U.S.
Turner’s most explosive claim upended the long-standing diplomatic framing of UK-US relations: he argued that the iconic phrase “special relationship” – a term used for decades to describe the tight bond between London and Washington – is little more than a nostalgic, backward-looking concept weighed down by outdated historical baggage. Instead, he asserted that if any country truly holds a special relationship with the United States today, that country is Israel.
The revelation has already sparked significant embarrassment for Keir Starmer’s British government, coming at a moment when UK-US relations are already frayed over London’s initial reluctance to join the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. Despite ultimately granting Washington access to British bases for strikes on Iranian missile facilities and operations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Starmer has faced relentless public criticism and mockery from former President Donald Trump over the delayed approval.
Tensions escalated further last week when the Trump administration threatened punitive measures against NATO allies it accused of failing to back the Iran war, including a provocative suggestion that Trump could recognize Argentine sovereignty over the Falkland Islands – a territory long claimed and controlled by the United Kingdom.
Just this week, UK Minister of State for Europe and North America Stephen Doughty reiterated London’s break with Washington’s policy, confirming that Britain does not support the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and insists on unimpeded, free passage for global maritime traffic without arbitrary tolls or unnecessary security risks.
Beyond foreign policy, Turner also opened a new domestic political firestorm in his comments, questioning the lack of accountability for high-profile U.S. figures tied to the Epstein scandal. He noted it was “extraordinary” that the convicted sex offender’s sprawling network of connections had not led to consequences for prominent American politicians, business leaders and public figures – including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has been linked to Epstein in public reporting. By contrast, Turner pointed out that senior British figures, including his own predecessor Mandelson, have already been forced out of office over their ties to Epstein.
Turner went so far as to suggest that Starmer himself could be forced out of office over his 2024 appointment of Mandelson as ambassador, ahead of upcoming UK local elections on May 7. He described the prime minister as “on the ropes” politically over the controversy, and acknowledged that Starmer is a “stubborn guy” while noting that senior figures in the ruling Labour Party could move to remove him after the local polls close.
In the aftermath of the leak, the UK Foreign Office moved quickly to distance the government from Turner’s remarks, emphasizing that the comments were made in a private, informal setting for visiting students and do not represent the official position of the British government. Turner did acknowledge in his comments that the UK and U.S. retain deep historical and cultural ties, particularly in the defense and security sectors, where the two countries remain deeply intertwined. He added that rather than leaning on the nostalgic framing of the special relationship, Britain should proactively work to redefine its partnership with the U.S. and move away from over-reliance on an American security umbrella.
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United Arab Emirates says it is leaving Opec and Opec+
In a seismic shift that reshapes the landscape of global energy geopolitics, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has formally confirmed its complete withdrawal from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the broader OPEC+ coalition of oil-producing nations. The country’s Ministry of Energy framed the decision as the outcome of a full, strategic review of its national production framework, in a public statement released to global markets.
The statement acknowledged that short-term market instability, driven by ongoing supply disruptions across the Arabian Gulf and the critical Strait of Hormuz, has already upended global energy supply dynamics. Even so, it noted that long-term structural projections point to consistent, sustained growth in global energy demand through the medium and longer terms, a core consideration that guided the policy shift.
Emphasizing the legacy of its decades-long participation in the cartel, the ministry noted that the UAE’s membership dates back to 1967, when the Emirate of Abu Dhabi first joined the organization. Following the formal unification of the United Arab Emirates as a sovereign state in 1971, the country retained its OPEC membership, and over the decades, it has positioned itself as an active stakeholder working to stabilize global oil markets and foster productive dialogue between major producing nations across the world.
The announcement comes against a backdrop of escalating regional crisis triggered by the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran that began in late February. The conflict has inflicted widespread economic and security damage across multiple Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, with the UAE bearing a disproportionate share of the impact. As the Gulf nation with the closest formal and economic ties to Israel, the UAE has become a primary target for retaliatory Iranian strikes, which have consisted of thousands of ballistic missiles and drone attacks. These assaults have severely damaged Dubai’s reputation as a safe luxury tourism destination, while also cutting the country’s oil export volumes to a fraction of their pre-conflict levels.
Within the Gulf bloc, the UAE has emerged as one of the most hawkish voices on the conflict, rejecting calls from some neighboring states for diplomatic de-escalation with Iran and openly calling for the US-led military campaign to continue. Regional analysts widely attribute this hardline stance to two core factors: the UAE’s overwhelming dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies transit daily for export, and the deep reluctance among the country’s ruling elite to allow Iran to consolidate its position as the dominant regional power in the Gulf.
Tensions between the UAE and its fellow GCC members boiled over earlier this week, when senior UAE officials publicly criticized the bloc’s collective response to the Iran conflict. Speaking at a Dubai policy conference, UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash slammed the six-member GCC, half of whose members also hold OPEC membership, for failing to mount a unified, forceful response after Iran launched retaliatory attacks against GCC states.
“The GCC’s stance was the weakest in its history, when you consider the scale of the attack and the threat it posed to every single member of the bloc,” Gargash told attendees. He added that while he had anticipated a muted, weak response from the 22-member Arab League, the Cairo-based pan-Arab organization, he never expected the same level of inaction from the Gulf Cooperation Council. “I don’t expect it from the GCC, and I am surprised by it,” he said.
When pressed by Reuters reporters on whether the UAE had consulted with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader and the UAE’s closest regional neighbor, ahead of announcing its withdrawal, UAE Energy Minister confirmed that the country did not hold direct consultations with any other government or OPEC member ahead of the decision. As global energy markets and regional powers digest the unexpected policy shift, further updates on the implications for oil prices and regional alliances are expected in the coming days.
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Photos show demolition of Christian churches by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh
Newly released satellite imagery has put to rest lingering questions over the fate of two historic Armenian churches in Khankendi, the city known to ethnic Armenians as Stepanakert, located in Azerbaijan’s disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The visual evidence, published by Radio Free Europe, confirms early reports that both the Holy Mother of God Cathedral — a modern spiritual center consecrated only in 2019 — and the smaller Church of St. Jacob have been completely destroyed.
Initial claims of the cathedral’s demolition first circulated across Armenian media outlets back in April, sparking outrage among Armenian religious and political communities before the satellite confirmation. As the primary site of Christian worship for Khankendi’s longstanding Armenian population, the cathedral held deep cultural and spiritual significance for the local community.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, the administrative and spiritual heart of the global Armenian Apostolic Church, was quick to condemn the destruction when reports first emerged. The institution accused Azerbaijan of a deliberate campaign targeting Armenian Christian sacred sites, framing the damage as part of a broader effort to erase traces of Armenian cultural and historical presence in the disputed region.
To understand the context of this development, Nagorno-Karabakh held a decades-long status as a majority ethnic Armenian enclave that was self-governed by the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh following the conclusion of the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in the 1990s. But in September 2023, a rapid military offensive by Azerbaijani government forces retook full control of the entire territory, bringing it back under Baku’s official rule consistent with international legal recognition of the area as Azerbaijani sovereign territory. The 2023 offensive triggered a mass exodus, with more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians — the vast majority of the region’s remaining Armenian population — fleeing across the border into the Republic of Armenia to escape the new governance.
Tensions remain high between the two neighboring states in the aftermath of the 2023 offensive, with the continued detention of Armenian separatist figures by Azerbaijani authorities serving as a persistent flashpoint that fuels widespread anger in Armenia. In line with standard journalistic practice, Middle East Eye reached out to both the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs to request official comment on the confirmed church destructions, but neither side had issued a response by the time of this report’s publication.
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Ex-Mossad chief says Israeli settler violence reminds him of the Holocaust
One of Israel’s most senior former intelligence leaders has delivered a scathing rebuke of unaddressed settler violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, drawing a deeply personal, provocative comparison to the Holocaust that has reignited debate over the Israeli government’s failure to curb escalating attacks.
Tamir Pardo, who led Israel’s iconic Mossad intelligence agency from 2011 to 2016, shared his searing observations during a recent on-the-ground interview with Israel’s Channel 13. The interview took place during a tour of violence-ravaged Palestinian villages, which Pardo joined alongside a group of retired senior Israeli military officials.
Pardo, whose mother survived the Nazi Holocaust that killed 6 million European Jews, opened up about the visceral reaction he had to what he witnessed during the tour. “My mother was a Holocaust survivor, and what I saw reminded me of the events that happened against Jews in the last century,” he stated. The former intelligence director went further, adding, “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish.”
Beyond the emotional condemnation, Pardo issued a stark warning about the long-term consequences of unchecked settler aggression. He argued that ongoing settler crimes, which have been largely unpunished by Israeli authorities and in some cases actively enabled by state actors, are laying the groundwork for another devastating escalation of conflict similar to the October 7, 2023 attacks that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel.
“It will be in a different format, much more painful, because the region is much more complicated. The state has chosen to sow the seeds for the next October 7,” Pardo warned. He added that while Israeli law enforcement agencies are fully aware of the scale and severity of settler violence, political leadership has deliberately chosen to look the other way. “What I saw today is the existential threat to the State of Israel,” he emphasized.
Pardo specifically called out the outsized political influence held by hardline settler groups, which enjoy open backing from top figures in Israel’s current far-right governing coalition, including controversial ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. While Pardo acknowledged that it is still possible to reverse course and address the crisis, he warned that doing so would come at a profound cost, even raising the prospect of internal civil conflict within Israel. “If we want, we can correct this, but the price will be very high,” he said. “It is very much in our interest not to reach that point.”
The former Mossad chief also reflected on a decades-old warning from prominent Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who publicly condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War. In his 1968 essay *The Territories*, Leibowitz argued that permanent military rule over millions of Palestinians would inevitably corrupt Israeli society as a whole, writing that “the corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the state of Israel” and calling for an immediate full withdrawal from occupied lands. Pardo noted that he once rejected Leibowitz’s assessment as wrong, but his recent tour of affected West Bank villages has convinced him the philosopher’s prediction held significant truth.
Pardo’s comments come amid a well-documented surge in settler violence and territorial expansion in the West Bank that has accelerated dramatically since October 2023. According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli settlers have killed at least 16 Palestinians in the West Bank so far in 2025. A United Nations report published in March 2025 added further context, documenting that more than 36,000 Palestinians have been displaced from their homes in the West Bank between November 2024 and October 2025, driven by a wave of coordinated military raids and settler attacks. Over that same 12-month period, the UN recorded 1,732 separate incidents of settler violence that resulted in casualties or property damage – a 25% increase compared to the previous year. Many of these attacks have taken the form of systematic forced displacement of Palestinian communities from their historical land, with settlers increasingly using live fire against unarmed civilian residents.
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The Supreme Court seems likely to shut down a lawsuit by Falun Gong over Cisco’s aid to China
WASHINGTON – During oral arguments held Tuesday, a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices signaled clear openness to granting tech conglomerate Cisco’s request to dismiss a high-profile human rights lawsuit that alleges the company deliberately provided technology enabling the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The case centers on a challenge to a lower appellate court ruling that cleared the way for the suit to be heard in U.S. federal courts, bringing long-simmering debates over corporate accountability for overseas human rights abuses to the nation’s highest court.
The lawsuit, first filed by Falun Gong adherents back in 2011, accuses Cisco of knowingly customizing its digital infrastructure to help Chinese authorities track, identify, detain and torture followers of the spiritual movement. Declassified internal documents and internal corporate materials leaked to the press in 2008, later confirmed by a 2023 Associated Press investigation, back up many of these claims: those records show Cisco framed China’s massive “Golden Shield” internet censorship and surveillance program as a lucrative business opportunity, openly referred to Falun Gong as an “evil cult” in alignment with Chinese government rhetoric, and advertised that its products could flag more than 90% of Falun Gong-related online content. The company even built a national-level tracking system specifically designed to monitor Falun Gong believers, marking the group as a national security “threat” in official marketing materials to Chinese officials.
Cisco has forcefully denied all allegations, arguing it cannot be held legally liable in U.S. courts under the two statutes cited by plaintiffs: the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The company’s legal counsel Kannon Shanmugam reiterated the firm’s denial during Tuesday’s arguments, telling the bench that “Cisco vigorously disputes those allegations.”
The court’s conservative majority, which holds a 6-3 advantage in the chamber, centered its questions on the scope of authority for lower courts to hear similar transnational human rights cases. Multiple conservative justices raised concerns that lower tribunals have allowed too many foreign-focused civil rights claims to proceed. Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of the court’s most conservative members, pointedly asked whether the door to U.S. courthouses for such suits is being “not closely guarded,” signaling skepticism of retaining broad access for these claims.
This skeptical tilt aligns with a years-long trend: both the Supreme Court and successive Democratic and Republican presidential administrations have pushed back against allowing U.S. courts to hear claims over human rights abuses committed by foreign governments on foreign soil. To counteract this well-documented skepticism, lawyers for the Falun Gong plaintiffs have emphasized that a significant share of Cisco’s decision-making and product development related to the Golden Shield project was carried out at the company’s U.S. headquarters, giving U.S. courts legitimate jurisdiction over the case.
Only the court’s two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, voiced clear support for allowing the lawsuit to move to trial. Sotomayor pushed back directly on Cisco’s claims during arguments, noting “Cisco was a willing partner with the Chinese government. It knew that those people will be tortured.”
The Supreme Court’s final ruling in the case is scheduled to be issued by the end of June 2024. The outcome will set a major precedent for future corporate human rights litigation, potentially closing off U.S. courts as a venue for holding American tech companies accountable for their role in enabling authoritarian surveillance and repression overseas.
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Path cleared for Everest climbers after huge ice block
For two weeks, a massive fallen glacial serac had put all spring climbing plans on hold at Mount Everest, trapping teams below Base Camp and threatening to upend the annual prime climbing season. But following urgent days of work by elite high-altitude crews, a usable alternative path has been carved through the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, opening the way for climbing teams to resume their acclimatization rotations toward the summit.
Ram Krishna Lamichhane, director general of Nepal’s Department of Tourism, confirmed to the BBC that specialized icefall doctors have successfully installed fixed ropes all the way to Camp 2, which sits at an altitude of roughly 6,400 to 6,500 meters (21,000 to 21,325 feet) above sea level. “Still there are some risks, but icefall doctors have picked up the most convenient available route and identified the path forward,” Lamichhane said. He added that climbers are expected to begin moving toward Camp 1 and Camp 2 for acclimatization exercises starting tomorrow.
The disruption began in early April, when rope-fixing teams launching preparations for the 2026 spring season encountered the 100-foot (30-meter) tall serac that had calved off the glacier and blocked the standard route. Crews were forced to pause work for two weeks as they waited for the unstable ice block to begin melting naturally, putting all season preparations roughly two weeks behind the original schedule. This delay has sparked growing concerns that the backlog will lead to the dangerous summit queues that have plagued crowded Everest seasons in past years.
The route-clearing work was a collaborative effort carried out by experienced icefall doctors from Nepal’s Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) alongside veteran sherpas from expedition operator associations, who specialize in navigating the constantly shifting icefall terrain. Lakpa Sherpa, a veteran climber and expedition manager who oversaw part of the work, explained that modern technology played a key role in speeding up the operation. Airlift support was used to deliver critical supplies including fixed ropes, aluminum ladders, snow stabilizer bars and food to high-altitude crews during the most challenging phases of the work. Teams also leveraged cutting-edge survey tools: “3D photogrammetry and real-time drone surveys to map the Khumbu Icefall and assess hazards like seracs and crevasses,” he said.
While the route to lower camps is now open for traffic, officials and expedition leaders have stressed that major hazards remain in the area. Lakpa Sherpa warned that the original massive unstable serac is still at high risk of collapse within the next four to five days, and urged climbing teams to avoid carrying heavy payloads through the affected section of the icefall. “Safety is our highest priority; further rotations should proceed with extreme caution and at your own risk,” he said. Acknowledging the delays to the season timeline, he urged permit holders to remain calm: “The season is slightly delayed but the summit will come,” he added.
Nepal’s Department of Tourism echoed that safety message in a post to X, noting, “As climbers navigate the route, utmost caution is urged, particularly in the serac-affected section. Wishing all a safe ascent.”
This year, 425 climbers have received official permits to attempt a summit of Mount Everest from the Nepali side of the border. According to the Department of Tourism, these permits will generate roughly 924.2 million Nepalese Rupees, equivalent to approximately $6.1 million or £4.5 million, in government revenue, making the spring climbing season a key contributor to Nepal’s tourism-driven economy.
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Palestine Action defendant says guard ‘assaulted me multiple times’ during Elbit raid
On Monday, a key defendant in the high-profile trial linked to a Palestine Action raid on an Elbit Systems factory gave dramatic testimony at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, detailing what he says were repeated assaults by a on-site security guard during the August 2024 break-in near Bristol.
Thirty-one-year-old Jordan Devlin is one of six people facing criminal damage charges connected to the incident at the Filton facility, which manufactures military technology. His co-defendants are 30-year-old Leona Kamio, 29-year-old Charlotte Head, 21-year-old Fatema Rajwani, 22-year-old Zoe Rogers, and 23-year-old Samuel Corner. Corner faces an additional charge of grievous bodily harm with intent, accused of striking a police officer with a sledgehammer during the incident.
Taking the stand to testify before jurors, Devlin described the sequence of confrontation that unfolded after security guard Angelo Volante intervened in the raid. Devlin, who told the court he was unarmed when Volante first encountered the group, explained that Volante had already seized a sledgehammer from co-defendant Rogers, who was standing nearby. Devlin said he stepped between the two because he believed Volante intended to harm Rogers, triggering a physical altercation.
“Volante assaulted me multiple times,” Devlin told the court, recounting that the guard kicked him and launched a series of wild swings at him after Devlin caught Volante’s leg during the attack. Body-worn camera footage from Volante was presented to jurors, and Devlin argued that when slowed down, the footage captures Volante delivering a downward swing that would have seriously injured him if it had connected with the back of his head. Devlin went so far as to accuse Volante of enjoying the confrontation, saying “He was looking like he wanted to hurt her… I could see from his face, he was enjoying the opportunity to bully people. He should have lost his job, been barred from the security industry altogether.”
Photographs of injuries Devlin sustained during the raid were also shown to the court. Devlin pointed to a distinct red linear mark across his shoulder, which he said was likely caused by a blow from the handle of Volante’s sledgehammer. He further testified that after he grabbed the sledgehammer from Volante, the guard deliberately pressed against him to turn off his body-worn camera — and just seconds after the camera cut out, Volante attempted to bite his neck.
Devlin also described a second, unrecorded confrontation in a factory alcove that was not captured by either body-worn cameras or on-site CCTV. During that grapple over the sledgehammer, Devlin said Volante drove the weapon into his face, leaving him with the black eye visible in his post-arrest mugshot, which was shown to jurors. “The moment I was struck my tinnitus went off, and I stepped back stunned,” Devlin recalled, adding that he even attempted to de-escalate the tension by joking about a “Star Wars moment,” suggesting the two duel with the sledgehammer as if they were light sabers. Devlin noted he has been unable to verify this second altercation because CCTV footage from the relevant part of the factory is missing, a gap the court has previously confirmed.
The trial proceedings have already revealed that two on-floor CCTV cameras never had their footage retrieved by investigators, a point defense counsel raised earlier this month when questioning PC Sarah Grant, the officer tasked with recovering the facility’s security recordings. Body-worn footage shown to the court also captures a separate incident where Volante runs at Devlin and strikes him across the neck with a sledgehammer handle, knocking him to the ground.
Devlin also detailed his confrontation with responding police officer PC Aaron Buxton. He told the court Buxton put him in a headlock and pulled him to the slippery floor, which had been covered in fire extinguisher fluid during the raid. After Buxton fell to the ground, Devlin said he was unable to identify the man as a police officer or see anyone approaching because his goggles were coated in Pava spray, an incapacitating agent Buxton had fired just moments earlier. Devlin told the court he did not learn Buxton was a police officer until three days after his arrest, adding “If they had said they were police, it would have been over a lot easier.”
Jurors viewed Buxton’s body-worn camera footage from the ground, which shows Corner raising a sledgehammer and striking the officer. Devlin told prosecutors he had no idea Corner was nearby at the time, as he was crouched focused on Buxton. When prosecutors asked Devlin if he admitted to causing property damage during the raid, he openly acknowledged the damage, telling the court “Yes I do, and it was an honour.”
The trial of the six Palestine Action defendants is ongoing.
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Indian billionaire’s son offers to save Escobar’s hippos
Decades after the death of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, a decades-long ecological crisis in Colombia has drawn an unexpected offer from one of Asia’s wealthiest families. The crisis traces back to Escobar, the infamous leader of the Medellín Cartel who was killed by police in 1993, who illegally smuggled a pair of African hippopotamuses into his luxurious Hacienda Nápoles estate, located 155 miles northwest of Bogotá. After Escobar’s death, the two hippos were left to roam freely, and the Magdalena River basin, with its fertile swamps, lack of natural predators, and ideal conditions in the Antioquia region, allowed the species to explode in population. Now numbering in a growing herd recognized as the largest population of hippos outside their native Africa, these animals, nicknamed the ‘cocaine hippos’, have been officially classified as an invasive species by the Colombian government.
Colombian authorities and environmental groups have long documented the damage caused by the non-native hippos: they have displaced local native wildlife, threatened fishing communities along the Magdalena River, and disrupted the regional ecosystem. Adult male hippos can weigh up to three tons, making aggressive encounters with humans a serious public safety risk. For years, Colombia attempted multiple population control measures, including surgical castration, but all efforts failed to slow the herd’s rapid growth. Facing an uncontrolled population projected to expand far beyond current limits, the government made the controversial decision to cull approximately 80 hippos to manage the crisis.
That plan is now facing a potential alternative following a public proposal from Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani—Asia’s richest man. In a formal letter to Colombia’s Minister of Environment, the CEO of Vantara, Ambani’s private zoo in Gujarat’s Jamnagar district, stated that the facility is ‘willing to receive and care for’ the targeted hippos, offering to provide lifelong care for the entire herd on its grounds. The proposal, shared publicly on the zoo’s official Instagram account, emphasized that ‘at the heart of this proposal is Vantara’s belief that every life matters and that we have a shared responsibility to protect life wherever possible’. As of this reporting, Colombian officials have not issued any formal response to the offer.
Vantara, a 3,500-acre private zoo located near the world’s largest oil refinery owned by Mukesh Ambani, currently houses more than 2,000 animal species including elephants, tigers, and other large megafauna. The facility gained global attention in 2024 when it served as one of the venues for Anant Ambani’s high-profile, extravagant pre-wedding celebrations. However, the zoo has also faced repeated criticism from wildlife conservation activists, who have raised concerns over a range of issues including the incompatibility of Gujarat’s hot, dry climate for many of the species held in captivity there.
The ‘cocaine hippo’ dilemma remains one of Colombia’s most intractable environmental challenges, balancing ecological protection for native ecosystems and public safety against animal welfare advocacy. The unexpected offer from the Ambani family has opened a new chapter in a debate that has divided conservationists for years, with the Colombian government yet to indicate whether it will accept the proposed relocation plan.