WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said Monday that India was an exception among Washington’s allies with its “shaky” response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden lauded the US-led alliance, including NATO, the European Union and key Asian partners, for its united front against President Vladimir Putin.
This includes unprecedented sanctions aimed at crippling Russia’s currency, international trade and access to high-tech goods.
However, unlike fellow members of the Quad group — Australia, Japan and the United States — India continues to purchase Russian oil and has refused to join votes condemning Moscow at the United Nations.
Addressing a meeting of US business leaders in Washington, Biden said there had been “a united front throughout NATO and in the Pacific.”
“The Quad is, with the possible exception of India being somewhat shaky on some of this, but Japan has been extremely strong — so has Australia — in terms of dealing with Putin’s aggression.”
Biden said that Putin was “counting on being able to split NATO” and instead, “NATO has never been stronger, more united, in its entire history than it is today.”
Indian oil refiners have reportedly continued to purchase discounted Russian oil, even as the West seeks to isolate Moscow.
An Indian government official said last week that the world’s third-biggest consumer of crude relies on imports for almost 85 percent of its needs, with Russia supplying a “marginal” less than one percent of this.
But “the jump in oil prices after the Ukraine conflict has now added to our challenges... India has to keep focusing on competitive energy sources,” the official added.
New Delhi, which historically has had close ties with Moscow, called for an end to the violence in Ukraine but has stopped short of condemning Russia’s invasion, abstaining in three votes at the United Nations.
Biden calls India ‘shaky’ in Russia confrontation
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Biden calls India ‘shaky’ in Russia confrontation
- Indian oil refiners have reportedly continued to purchase discounted Russian oil, even as the West seeks to isolate Moscow
Europeans’ meeting with top Iranian diplomat yields hope of more talks, no obvious breakthrough
- It was the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict
- “The good result today is that we leave the room with the impression that the Iranian side is fundamentally ready to continue talking,” Wadephul said
GENEVA: A meeting between Iran’s foreign minister and top European diplomats on Friday yielded hopes of further talks but no indication of any immediate concrete breakthrough, a week after the crisis centered on the Iranian nuclear program erupted into war between Israel and Tehran.
Foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany, as well as the European Union’s foreign policy chief, emerged from talks at a Geneva hotel about 3 1/2 hours after Iran’s Abbas Araghchi arrived for the meeting.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict.
“The good result today is that we leave the room with the impression that the Iranian side is fundamentally ready to continue talking about all important issues,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said. He said the two sides had held “very serious talks.”
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “We are keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States.” He added that “we were clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
“Military operations can slow Iran’s nuclear program but in no way can they eliminate it, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. “We know well — after having seen what happened in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya — how illusory and dangerous it is to want to impose regime change from outside.”
Barrot also said that European nations ”invited the Iranian minister to envisage negotiations with all parties including the United States, and without waiting for the end of the strikes.”
The French Foreign Minister explained that in discussions with Iran, Foreign Minister Araghchi agreed “to put all the issues on the table including some that weren’t there before” and “showed his disposition to continuing the conversation — that we started today — and for the Europeans to help facilitate, including with the United States.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said ”we agreed that we will discuss nuclear but also broader issues that we have, and keep the discussions open.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also addressed reporters outside the meeting venue after the talks ended. He expressed support for “a continuation of discussions with the E3 and the EU and expressed his readiness to meet again in the near future.” He also denounced Israel’s attacks against nuclear facilities in Iran and expressed “grave concern” on what he called “non-condemnation” by European nations.
US considering how to proceed
Lammy traveled to Geneva after meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Trump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America’s “bunker-buster” bombs. He said Wednesday that he’ll decide within two weeks whether the US military will get directly involved in the war given the “substantial chance” for renewed negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Israel says it launched its airstrike campaign to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran’s program, though Trump has said Israel’s campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that “we wanted to open a discussion with the Iranian foreign minister because we believe that there is no definitive solution by military means to the Iranian nuclear problem — military operations may delay it but they can’t eliminate it.”
Singer Chris Brown pleads not guilty
- Brown was originally charged with a single count of grievous bodily harm after his arrest in May, but prosecutors subsequently brought an indictment adding two counts: assault causing actual bodily harm and having an offensive weapon, a bottle
LONDON: Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown pleaded not guilty Friday to a charge related to the serious beating of a music producer with a bottle in a London nightclub in 2023.
Brown, 36, wearing a blue suit, white shirt and black-rimmed glasses, was arraigned in London’s Southwark Crown Court on one count of attempting to unlawfully and maliciously cause grievous bodily harm with intent.
Brown’s friend and fellow musician Omololu Akinlolu, 39, who performs under the name “Hoody Baby,” pleaded not guilty to the same charge.
Prosecutors previously said Brown and Akinlolu assaulted producer Abe Diaw at a bar in the Tape nightclub in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in February 2023. Brown allegedly launched an unprovoked attack on Diaw and hit him several times with a bottle and then punched and kicked him.
The attack was caught on surveillance camera in front of a club full of people, prosecutors said.
Brown was originally charged with a single count of grievous bodily harm after his arrest in May, but prosecutors subsequently brought an indictment adding two counts: assault causing actual bodily harm and having an offensive weapon, a bottle.
When a court clerk asked Brown how he pleaded to the grievous bodily harm count, he replied: “Not guilty ma’am.”
Brown did not enter pleas on the additional counts and was ordered to return to court July 11 to face those charges after wrapping up the European leg of his world tour. His trial was scheduled for Oct. 26, 2026.
The singer of “Go Crazy,” “Run It,” and “Kiss Kiss” was released last month on a 5 million-pound ($6.75 million) bail, which allowed him to start his “Breezy Bowl XX” tour earlier this month.
Following his release after almost a week in jail, Brown posted on Instagram: “FROM THE CAGE TO THE STAGE!!! BREEZYBOWL.”
Brown, who quickly rose to stardom as a teen in 2005, won his first Grammy for best R&B album in 2011 for “F.A.M.E.” and then earned his second in the same category for “11:11 (Deluxe)” earlier this year.
UN’s Guterres urges ‘give peace a chance’ in Israel-Iran conflict
- Guterres said there were “moments when the directions taken will shape not just the fate of nations, but potentially our collective future“
- Rafael Grossi, IAEA’s head, outlined Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Arak
NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that expansion of the Israel-Iran conflict could “ignite a fire no one can control” and called on both sides and potential parties to the conflict to “give peace a chance.”
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, speaking at the same United Nations Security Council session, warned that attacks on nuclear facilities could result in the release of radiation “within and beyond boundaries” of Iran, and called for maximum restraint.
Guterres said there were “moments when the directions taken will shape not just the fate of nations, but potentially our collective future.”
“This is such a moment,” he said.
He said expansion of the conflict would “ignite a fire that no one can control” and added: “We must not let that happen.”
“To the parties to the conflict, the potential parties to the conflict, and to the Security Council as the representative of the international community, I have a simple and clear message: give peace a chance,” Guterres said.
The Security Council session took place as European foreign ministers met their Iranian counterpart on Friday hoping to test Tehran’s readiness to negotiate a new nuclear deal despite there being scant prospect of Israel ceasing its attacks soon.
Israel has repeatedly bombed nuclear targets in Iran and Iran has fired missiles and drones at Israel as a week-old air war escalated with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.
The White House said on Thursday US President Donald Trump would make a decision within the next two weeks whether to get involved on Israel’s side. Iran said on Friday it would not discuss the future of its nuclear program while under attack by Israel.
Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said his country sought genuine efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear capabilities from Friday’s meeting between European and Iranian ministers, not just another round of talks
“We have seen diplomatic talks for the last few decades, and look at the results,” he told reporters.
“If it is going to be like another session and debates, that’s not going to work.”
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, outlined Israeli attacks on nuclear facilities at Natanz, Isfahan and Arak.
He said the level of radioactivity outside Iran’s Natanz site has remained unchanged and at normal levels, indicating no external radiological impact on the population or the environment there.
However, he said that within the facility there was both radiological and chemical contamination. He said the IAEA was not aware of any damage at Iran’s Fordow plant at this time.
An attack on Iran’s Bushehr plant would be most serious, he said: “It is an operating nuclear power plant and hosts thousands of kilograms of nuclear material.”
“I want to make it absolutely and completely clear: In the case of an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a direct hit would result in a very high release of radioactivity to the environment,” Grossi said.
“Similarly, a hit that disabled the only two lines supplying electrical power to the plant could cause its reactor’s core to melt.”
He said any action against the Tehran nuclear research reactor will also have severe consequences, “potentially for large areas of the city of Tehran and its inhabitants.”
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Dorothy Camille Shea, said the United States “continues to stand with Israel and supports its actions against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
“We can no longer ignore that Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon,” she said.
China and Russia demanded immediate de-escalation.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said Israel’s actions risked pulling third countries into the conflict and internationalization of the conflict must be avoided.
He said targeting of what he called Iran’s peaceful civilian nuclear facilities was “liable to plunge us into a hither to unseen nuclear catastrophe.”
Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons. It neither confirms nor denies this.
Greek coast guard says over 600 migrants rescued from 2 fishing boats
- The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 55 kilometers south of the tiny island of Gavdos
- The second was found 90 kilometers south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board
ATHENS: More than 600 migrants were rescued overnight and early Friday from two wooden fishing boats found sailing miles (kilometers) from the southernmost part of Greece, the country’s coast guard said.
The first fishing boat, carrying 352 people, was spotted overnight about 30 nautical miles (35 miles, 55 kilometers) south of the tiny island of Gavdos, the coast guard said. Passengers were rescued by a ship from the European border patrol agency FRONTEX, aided by a coast guard patrol boat and four other vessels.
The second was found 50 nautical miles (about 60 miles, 90 kilometers) south of the island of Crete with 278 people on board. The passengers were picked up by a passing Portuguese-flagged cargo ship. In both cases, the migrants were transported to Crete.
There was no immediate information on the nationalities of those on board the two fishing boats.
Another two boats carrying migrants were located in the same area on Thursday, the coast guard said. One, carrying 73 men, was found south of Gavdos and another with 26 people, including one woman and three minors, was found near the coast of southern Crete.
The coast guard said those on the smaller boat told authorities they had set sail the previous evening from Tobruk in Libya, and had each paid smugglers either 4,000 euros ($5,500) for their passage to Greece. Two Sudanese teenagers, one aged 16 and the other 19, were arrested on suspicion of migrant smuggling after other passengers identified them as having been operating the boat.
Greece has been on one of the preferred routes into the European Union for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia for decades.
Arrivals from neighboring Turkiye to the east and the Libyan coast to the south spiked last year, with Greece recording more than 60,000 people arriving — the vast majority by sea — in 2024, compared to just over 48,000 the previous year, according to figures from the UN refugee agency.
As of June 15 this year, a total of 16,290 arrivals were recorded, with more than 14,600 of those by sea.
With authorities closely patrolling the eastern sea border with Turkiye to prevent migrant boats reaching nearby Greek islands, smugglers appear to be increasingly opting for the much longer and riskier Mediterranean Sea crossing from the north African coast to the southern tip of Greece, using larger boats into which they can cram more people.
Health officials issue warnings as UK bakes in the first heat wave of 2025
- Temperatures are expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius
- The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber heat health alert covering all of England
LONDON: British health officials are warning people across the country to take precautions when out in the sun as the UK bakes under its first heat wave of the year.
Temperatures are expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of eastern England on Saturday following a week of unusually warm weather, according to the national weather agency the Met Office. That’s about 12 C (22 F) higher than normal for this time of year.
The UK Health Security Agency has issued an amber heat health alert covering all of England because of increased health risks for people over 65 and those with heart and lung problems.
“Heat can result in serious health outcomes across the population, especially for older adults or those with pre-existing health conditions,” Dr. Agostinho Sousa, head of the UKHSA, said in a statement. “It is therefore important to check on friends, family and neighbors who are more vulnerable and to take sensible precautions while enjoying the sun.”
Saturday is expected to be the hottest day of the heat wave, with temperatures falling slightly on Sunday and dropping back into the more normal temperatures next week, the Met Office said. The heat alert is currently scheduled to remain in effect until Monday morning.
Unusually, temperatures in London this week have been higher than in many parts of Western Europe. That’s because the high temperatures are not the result of hot air moving north from the Iberian Peninsula or North Africa as is often the case, the Met Office said.
Instead, this weather system originated in air high over the Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland. As it approaches the UK, it descends toward ground level, causing it to warm rapidly, Chief Meteorologist Matthew Lenhert said.
That said, it has been plenty hot in Europe too. Aviation enthusiasts attending the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, north of Paris, this week sought the shade of a Boeing 777’s wing, cooling off as temperatures hovered in the low 30s C (mid-80s F.)
Met Office scientists this week published research showing that climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme high temperatures in the UK The chance of temperatures exceeding 40 C (104 F) is now more than 20 times higher than it was in the 1960s, the researchers said.
