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Britain’s recently elected prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the special relationship between Britain and the United States is stronger than ever as he met President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday.
“The special relationship is so important, it was forged in difficult circumstances and endured for so long and is stronger now than ever,” he said.
JAKARTA: Indonesia is continuing to evacuate its nationals from Iran, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday amid fears of further Israeli bombardments despite ceasefire claims.
The Indonesian Embassy in Tehran has been on its highest alert since June 19, following a week of Israeli attacks on Iranian cities that Tel Aviv claimed were aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Along with countries which evacuated their citizens from Iran amid growing destruction from Israeli attacks, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has moved 96 Indonesian citizens to Baku, Azerbaijan in its first phase of evacuation.
“There will be a second phase of evacuation, the Indonesian Embassy in Tehran is currently taking registration from other Indonesian citizens who wish to be evacuated,” Andy Rachmianto, director-general for protocol and consular affairs, told Arab News on Wednesday.
After Iran retaliated to Israel’s initial attacks with ballistic missile strikes, the two countries have been trading missiles, with the Israeli military increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure.
According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Israeli military attacks have killed more than 600 people and wounded over 5,300 others.
Over the weekend, the US joined Israel in attacking Iran by striking Iranian nuclear facilities. In retaliation, Tehran launched a missile attack on the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US military base in the Middle East.
Hours later, on Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire.
The Indonesian foreign affairs ministry said that its missions throughout the Middle East are “closely monitoring” the escalating situation between Israel, Iran and the US.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs encourages Indonesian citizens who are now in the Middle East to increase vigilance and to continue monitoring the security situation as well as instructions issued by local authorities, and to avoid locations of assets belonging to countries in the conflict,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Judha Nugraha, the director of citizen protection, told Arab News that the ministry is “ready to facilitate” the next evacuation.
There are nearly 400 Indonesian nationals living in Iran, most of whom are students, the ministry’s latest data showed.
On Tuesday, 11 Indonesians from the first group of evacuees arrived in Jakarta, to be followed by the arrival of 48 Indonesian nationals and one foreign national married to an Indonesian on Wednesday evening.
The rest of the group is scheduled to land in Jakarta on Thursday.
NEW DELHI: India celebrated on Wednesday the launch of the Axiom-4 mission, which has taken off to the International Space Station with a crew including the first Indian astronaut in 41 years.
Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday morning, the 14-day mission is a collaboration between American startup Axiom Space, NASA, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule carried the four-member team into orbit.
A private spaceflight, it is led by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut, with Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot responsible for flying the spacecraft through launch, orbital insertion, docking with the ISS, undocking, re-entry, and landing.
Another two members of the crew are Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski — a European Space Agency astronaut and the second Polish national in orbit, who will conduct science experiments in microgravity — and Tibor Kapu, a Hungarian mechanical engineer who will perform experiments in space health.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to wish “all the success” to Shukla and the other astronauts on the Axiom-4 mission.
“The Indian Astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is on the way to become the first Indian to go to (the) International Space Station,” Modi said. “He carries with him the wishes, hopes and aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians.”
Shukla is the second Indian national in space, after Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 in 1984 and spent seven days and 21 hours aboard the Salyut 7 space station.
“We are proud and happy to see Shubhanshu Shukla become the second Indian to travel to space, this time as part of the Axiom-4 Mission. This journey is a testament to the growing global footprint of India in space exploration and is a stepping stone to what we want to achieve with Gaganyaan, our own indigenous human spaceflight program,” Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt (retd.), director general of the Indian Space Association, told reporters.
India’s own first human spaceflight aboard the Gaganyaan spacecraft is planned for 2027. So far, only three countries — Russia, the US and China — have sent humans into space on their own spacecraft.
“India is now in the final stages of preparation for the Gaganyaan mission, with firms like Larsen and Toubro, Tata and Ananth Technologies playing a critical role alongside our vibrant startups,” Bhatt said.
“If all goes as planned, we are just one or two years away from realizing the dream of sending Indian astronauts to space on an entirely indigenous platform. The success of missions like Axiom-4 inspires our ecosystem and strengthens our resolve to make India a leading force in the new era of space exploration.”
Shukla, 39, was chosen to take part in the Axiom-4 mission by the Indian Space Research Organization, which is responsible for the country’s space research and exploration activities and is the agency preparing the Gaganyaan mission.
Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh told Indian news agency ANI that the offer for an Indian astronaut to take part in Axiom-4 was presented during Modi’s visit to the US in 2023.
“We had four Air Force officers who were already undergoing training for Gaganyaan — Shubhanshu being the youngest of the four. So, the choice had to zero down on one of them. Finally, Shubhanshu’s name was picked up and (the) standby was Nair (Gp. Capt. Prasanth Nair),” Singh said.
“The Americans were equally keen to have an Indian onboard. In other words, it means that they, today more than ever before, realize the importance of India’s potential, India’s talent and India’s capacity to contribute.”
For the past few years, India has been establishing its position in the global space industry.
In January 2025, it became the fourth country to perform space docking, connecting two spacecraft in orbit. Codenamed Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, the mission involved deploying two small spacecraft, each weighing about 220 kg, into an orbit approximately 470 km above Earth.
In August 2023, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 moon rover made history by landing on the lunar surface, making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth to land on the moon, after the US, the Soviet Union, and China.
A month later, it launched Aditya-L1 in 2023 — the country’s first solar observation mission, and the world’s second after the US Parker Solar Probe in 2021.
SEOUL: A South Korean court has rejected a request to issue an arrest warrant for former President Yoon Suk Yeol related to a probe into his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, the Yonhap News Agency said on Wednesday, citing a special prosecutor.
A spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court and the prosecution office could not immediately be reached for comment.
South Korea’s special prosecutor had asked the court on Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon as an investigation intensified over the ousted leader’s botched bid to declare martial law in December.
Yoon, who is already facing a criminal trial on insurrection charges for issuing the martial law declaration, was arrested in January after resisting authorities trying to take him into custody, but was released after 52 days on technical grounds.
The new warrant was on a charge of obstruction, a senior member of the special prosecutor’s team of investigators said on Tuesday.
POIPET, Cambodia: At the usually bustling border crossing of Poipet between Thailand and Cambodia, tuk-tuk driver San Noeun now has to work overnight to make ends meet.
Thailand has all but closed the land crossings in seven border provinces as a territorial dispute with Cambodia that erupted into deadly military clashes last month festers.
Cambodians living near the checkpoint in Poipet – the main land crossing between the two neighbors – say they are worried about the conflict escalating.
San Noeun, 64, said the dispute had badly impacted small businesses and people like himself who earn hand-to-mouth from daily commuters around the border.
“Since the border dispute, we cannot make much money,” he said, adding he could previously make around $18 a day.
“It causes trouble to our livelihood.”
He wrung his hands in an appeal to both the Cambodian and Thai authorities to end the dispute and re-open the border.
“Please don’t use weapons. I don’t want to see a war anymore. I am so tired of it,” he said.
Poipet – a busy casino city popular with Thai gamblers and known for underground cyberscam operations – is dotted with new construction projects.
But since the gates on the Cambodian and Thai sides were both locked, the border crossing has fallen unusually quiet.
Local residents said there are fewer people around in the evenings, and those that do come are spending less.
San Noeun said he usually drives many foreign casino workers around “but they don’t come out to hang around now.”
Chhan Siyoeung, 54, a shoe vendor with a store about a kilometer (0.6 miles) from the Thai border, also bemoaned a drop in sales due to fewer commuters.
“When there is a problem like this, people don’t want to spend money,” she said.
“I am so scared, but I cannot go anywhere else. If I stay here, I could make some money.”
She said military violence would see local Thais and Cambodians suffer the most, and urged authorities not to take up arms.
In the flimsy hut where he stays with his son, San Noeun is also afraid.
“I am a bit scared. We do not have a bunker.”
He had just returned with 200 baht ($6) after offering an overnight ride-hailing service.
“It is very hard now. We do not make enough money for day-to-day expenses,” he said, fretting over his $2,000 debt to a bank.
Despite the hardship, some said they were confident they could ride out the hardships of the border dispute.
“It is quiet, So it is a bit difficult to do business,” fruit vendor Pov Bal, 34, said. “But it should be okay.”
JOHANNESBURG: The Zambian government filed last-minute legal papers seeking to stop the private burial of former President Edgar Lungu in South Africa on Wednesday, forcing members of Lungu’s family to attend a court hearing dressed in their black funeral attire.
The hearing in the South African administrative capital, Pretoria, began around an hour before Lungu’s funeral service was due to take place. It was not clear when a judge would issue a ruling and if the ex-leader could be buried.
Meanwhile, mourners arrived for the funeral service at a Johannesburg church around 60 kilometers away.
The court challenge was the latest development in a nearly monthlong dispute between Lungu’s family and the Zambian government over where and how the former leader is buried.
The Zambian government wants Lungu to have a state funeral at home – something Lungu’s family have refused to allow because of his bitter political feud with current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.
Lungu, who was Zambia’s leader from 2015 to 2021, died of an undisclosed illness in a South African hospital on June 5 at the age of 68.
A state funeral for him in Zambia was canceled twice because of disagreements over the details. His family and lawyers said he left specific instructions that Hichilema should not attend his funeral, while the Zambian government said Hichilema was due to preside over the state funeral.
Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha filed papers in a South African court Tuesday seeking an urgent injunction to stop Wednesday’s funeral, according to Zambia’s national broadcaster ZNBC. The court papers demand that the former president be buried in Zambia with full military honors, as mandated by Zambian law and in keeping with the public interest, ZNBC reported.
Zambia’s government said it had already prepared a grave for Lungu at a cemetery where all presidents are traditionally buried. It added that any personal wishes must give way to the national interest.
Lungu’s family decided against repatriating his body and arranged their own funeral service and a private burial. Top members of Lungu’s political party traveled to South Africa for the funeral.
Lungu and Hichilema had a long history of political enmity in the southern African country.
Lungu beat Hichilema in a 2016 presidential election, and his government imprisoned Hichilema for four months in 2017 on charges of treason because his convoy didn’t give way to the president’s motorcade on a road. The move to imprison Hichilema was widely criticized by the international community and Hichilema was released and the charges dropped.
Hichilema defeated Lungu in a 2021 vote. Last year, Lungu accused Hichilema’s government of using the police to restrict his movements and effectively place him under house arrest. Lungu also accused the government of interfering in a court case that prevented him from running again in next year’s presidential election against Hichilema.
The government denied the accusations.
