Politics
No olive branch for Gazans as Israel bulldozes hundreds of trees in West Bank

Israeli bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Sunday, with military personnel present, AFP journalists reported.
Most of the uprooted trees were olive trees, central to both the economy and culture of the West Bank. Olive groves have long been flashpoints for disputes between Palestinian farmers and Israeli settlers.
Local farmer Abdelatif Mohammed Abu Aliya said he lost olive trees more than 70 years old on about one hectare of land. “They completely uprooted and levelled them under false pretences,” he said, adding that villagers had already begun replanting.
AFP photographers witnessed overturned soil, felled olive trees, and several bulldozers working on the surrounding hills.
One bulldozer had an Israeli flag, and Israeli military vehicles were parked nearby.
“The goal is control and forcing people to leave. This is just the beginning — it will expand across the entire West Bank,” said Ghassan Abu Aliya, who leads a local agricultural association.
Residents said the bulldozing began on Thursday. A Palestinian NGO reported 14 people had been arrested in the village over the past three days.
When asked about the incident, the Israeli army told AFP late on Sunday it had “launched intensive operational activity in the area” following a “serious shooting attack near the village”.
‘Heavy price’
In a statement issued Friday, the army said it had arrested a man from al-Mughayyir, accusing him of being “responsible for a terrorist attack” nearby.
On August 16, the Palestinian Authority reported that an 18-year-old man had been shot and killed by the Israeli army in the same village.
The army said its forces responded to stones thrown by “terrorists” but did not directly link the incident to the young man’s death.
In a video widely circulated in Israeli media on Friday, a senior military commander refers to the attack in al-Mughayyir and vows to make “every village and every enemy… pay a heavy price” for attacks against Israelis.
Avi Bluth, the military’s top commander in the West Bank, says in the video that the villages of Palestinian attackers could face curfews, sieges and terrain “shaping actions” with the aim of deterrence.
Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the war in Gaza began following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Since then, at least 971 Palestinians — including both militants and civilians — have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank, according to AFP figures based on Palestinian Authority data.
In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, according to official Israeli sources.
The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
Politics
Netanyahu says he was successfully treated for prostate cancer

- Netanyahu does not disclose when treatment occurred.
- Delayed release of medical report by two months: Israeli PM.
- Move aimed at preventing Iran from spreading “propaganda”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said that he had received successful treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, without specifying when the treatment took place.
In a statement on social media, as his annual medical report was released, Netanyahu, 76, said an early stage malignant tumor had been discovered during a routine checkup. He said “targeted treatment” had removed “the problem” and left no trace of it.
According to the medical report, which otherwise said the prime minister was in good health, Netanyahu was treated with radiation therapy for early-stage prostate cancer.
Neither the medical report nor Netanyahu said when the treatment occurred.
Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said that he had delayed the release of the medical report by two months to prevent Iran from spreading “false propaganda against Israel”.
In March, during the fighting with Iran, rumors that circulated on social media and aired on Iranian state media claimed that Netanyahu had died.
The Israeli leader recorded a video of himself visiting a Jerusalem cafe in March to refute the claims.
Netanyahu underwent surgery on his prostate in 2024 after he was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement. In 2023, he was fitted with a pacemaker. Elections are due to be held in Israel by October.
Politics
Strategic Assertion or Legal Breach? Deconstructing India’s Indus Waters Doctrine

India’s unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty under the pretext of security concerns constitutes a flagrant violation of international law , devoid of any legal basis within the Treaty framework. By invoking unsubstantiated claims surrounding the Pahalgam incident , India advances a dangerous doctrine that legitimizes treaty erosion and the coercive weaponisation of shared resources.
The Indus Waters Treaty is a binding bilateral instrument that contains no provision permitting unilateral suspension , reinterpretation, or conditional compliance, thereby rendering India’s decision to hold it in abeyance legally untenable and inconsistent with the principle of pacta sunt servanda. The attempt to justify this breach through allegations linked to the Pahalgam incident remains entirely unsubstantiated in international fora, exposing the claim as a politically motivated pretext rather than a lawful justification. By conflating disputed security narratives with treaty obligations, India not only undermines the integrity of a long-standing water-sharing regime but also sets a pernicious precedent that threatens the stability of transboundary agreements and the broader rules-based international order.
India’s unilateral move to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance is not a policy shift, it is a shameless act of legal defiance , openly violating the most basic rule of international law; pacta sunt servanda.
The weaponization of a water-sharing treaty exposes the dangerous ideological imprint of the RSS mindset , where majoritarian extremism overrides legal commitments India’s attempt to justify its conduct through the Pahalgam incident collapses under scrutiny even after a year; no evidence, no accountability, no credibility, only a politically convenient narrative weaponized to rationalize treaty violations.
Dragging terrorism allegations into a binding water treaty is not strategy, it is blatant and reckless escalation , dismantling decades of carefully insulated cooperation and replacing it with instability and mistrust.
By sidestepping proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, India has revealed a pattern of selective legality , embracing international law when convenient and abandoning it when constrained. Moreover, India yet remains silent to the UN Special Rapporteurs queries even after 130 days.
The weaponisation of water by an upper riparian state is nothing short of hydro-political terrorism , targeting the economic and agricultural lifeline of millions and crossing the line from governance into coercion.
This conduct represents a shameful erosion of treaty sanctity , sending a chilling message to the world that binding agreements can be hollowed out by power politics and ideological rigidity.
Pakistan’s position remains unequivocal; treaties are not conditional favors but binding obligations, and no state has the authority to unilaterally rewrite or suspend them under the guise of security narratives.
The growing international concern surrounding India’s actions underscores a simple reality: Unilateralism is isolating, destabilizing, and fundamentally incompatible with a rules-based order.
At its core, this doctrine of “blood and water cannot flow together” is not a principle of justice, it is a dangerous precedent, legitimizing collective punishment and transforming a historic instrument of peace into a tool of strategic pressure.
Politics
India rebukes Trump for sharing ‘hellhole’ remarks on birthright citizenship

- Trump shares commentary on birthright citizenship on his social media.
- Conservative talk show host called China, India ‘hellhole’ places.
- India says inappropriate comments do not reflect reality of India-US ties.
India has dismissed as “uninformed” comments shared by US President Donald Trump that described the country as a “hellhole”, saying they were inappropriate and inconsistent with the strong relationship between the two countries.
The comments were made by conservative commentator Michael Savage in an episode of The Savage Nation talk radio show. Trump posted a transcript of the show on his Truth Social account on Thursday without any comments.
“A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet,” Savage said, according to the transcript.
“That there’s almost no loyalty to this country amongst the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case. No, they’re not like the European Americans of today and their ancestors.”
Reuters could not immediately contact Savage.
Trump has issued a directive seeking to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States, a move that has been challenged in the US Supreme Court. Earlier this month, he attended a hearing on the issue in a historic visit to the court.
India’s foreign ministry late on Thursday reacted strongly to the comments.
“The remarks are obviously uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, said in a statement.
“They certainly do not reflect the reality of the India-US relationship, which has long been based on mutual respect and shared interests.”
The US embassy in New Delhi said: “The president has said ‘India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top’.”
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
India’s main opposition Congress party called the “hellhole” remark “extremely insulting and anti-India. It hurts every Indian”.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take up this matter with the US President and register a strong objection,” the party said on X.
Indian government data shows nearly 5.5 million people of Indian origin live in the United States. Indian Americans and Chinese Americans are the two biggest groups of Asian origin in the US.
Trump and Modi enjoyed warm ties during Trump’s first term, but relations cooled after India was hit last year with some of the highest US tariffs, many of which were rolled back this year. India and the US are now working on a trade deal aimed at preventing any renewed increase in tariffs and boosting sales to each other.
-
Fashion1 week agoFrance’s LVMH Q1 revenue falls 6%, shows resilience amid Iran war
-
Tech1 week agoCYBERUK ’26: UK lagging on legal protections for cyber pros | Computer Weekly
-
Sports5 days agoWWE WrestleMania 42 Night 2: Live match results and analysis
-
Business1 week agoPepsiCo earnings beat estimates as North American food business improves
-
Sports5 days agoNCAA men’s gymnastics championship: All-time winners list
-
Tech1 week agoAnthropic Plots Major London Expansion
-
Entertainment4 days agoLee Anderson, Zarah Sultana kicked out of UK Parliament for calling PM ‘liar’
-
Tech1 week agoCyber Essentials closes the MFA loophole but leaves some organisations adrift | Computer Weekly
