War Financial News

assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil, three senior Iranian officials said. Iran has vowed a severe response to Haniyeh's killing, which took place as he visited Tehran late last month and which it blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed or denied its involvement. The U.S. Navy has deployed warships and a submarine to the Middle East to bolster Israeli defenses. One of the sources, a senior Iranian security official, said Iran, along with allies such as Hezbollah, would launch a direct attack if the Gaza talks fail or it perceives Israel is dragging out negotiations. The sources did not say how long Iran would allow for talks to progress before responding.

geopolitical risks as the war in Gaza drags on, and kept the rating outlook negative, meaning a further downgrade is possible. The ratings agency expects the Israeli government to permanently increase military spending by close to 1.5% of GDP versus pre-war levels, putting upward pressure on the country's budget deficit and debt levels. «In our view, the conflict in Gaza could last well into 2025 and there are risks of it broadening to other fronts,» the ratings agency said in a statement.

Russia are exploring the idea of a dynamic reference rate to start a rupee-rouble market, along with allowing greater deployment of the rupee balance that has accumulated in course of trade between the two countries since outbreak of the Ukraine war. A reference or exchange rate is aimed at overcoming the dollar trade barriers raised by US sanctions imposed on Russia in February 2022. These, along with putting in place a payment confirmation mechanism, are expected to figure during a meeting of senior central bank officials and bankers in Moscow this week, two industry persons told ET. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently took feedback from banks and financial institutions dealing with Russian funds registered in India.

Iran is preparing to supply Russia with hundreds of ballistic missiles. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel emphasised on Monday that if this transfer occurs, it would mark a significant escalation. On Friday, Reuters reported that dozens of Russian military personnel are being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, according to two European intelligence sources. They added that they expected the imminent delivery of hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine. According to the report, Russian defence ministry representatives are believed to have signed a contract on Dec. 13 in Tehran with Iranian officials for the Fath-360 and another ballistic missile system built by Iran's government-owned Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO) called the Ababil.

Tata started the trend at the turn of the century by buying Tetley, the first leveraged buyout by an Indian conglomerate, for $407 million, emerging as the second largest tea company in the world. In 2007, Tata scooped up Corus in the largest overseas M&A by an Indian company at $12.11 billion, just before the global financial crisis. Much of Corus’ UK operations may have shrunk today but India’s most trusted conglomerate still has deep roots in the island nation, having acquired Jaguar Land Rover, British Salt and Brunner Mond, making Tata the single largest private sector employer in the country. Last year, the group announced a 4 billion pound greenfield giga factory for battery cells in the UK, which at the time was regarded as something of a coup by the first Indian-origin PM of Britain, Rishi Sunak. Not that this could stop his defeat in the July general election.

Bharti Global's acquisition of a strategic stake in BT (formerly British Telecom) is an unprecedented diversification for the Indian telecom industry. Sunil Mittal has pursued subscribers in Africa after building up an enviable base in his home market and has placed big bets on European satellite communications. The latest investment gives him exposure, at least as an investor, to better-yielding markets.

living Nostradamus,' had accurately predicted the recent Microsoft outage months in advance. Salomé, known for his precise insights, including foreseeing the coronavirus pandemic and Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, now warns that this technological disruption could be the precursor to more severe global tensions.

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena on Sunday said de-silting work of three arterial drains of the national capital is progressing with removal of over 700 MT silt in a week. Saxena had visited Sunehri, Kushak and Barapulla drains on August 4. In a series of posts on X, he said, «Took stock of the ongoing de-silting work at Sunehri, Kushak and Barapulla drains that commenced after my visit on 04.08.2024. De-silting work is progressing satisfactorily at these sites with over 100 workers equipped with hi-tech machines working on war footing, round the clock.» With collective efforts of all agencies and a decisive push, the results have begun to show, he noted.

China as both a competitor and an adversary, Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J D Vance said on Sunday that his party wants to establish a robust international framework where the US can «check» Beijing. «I think they're both, right, and I think that what we want to do here is build the kind of international order where we can check China,» Vance told CBS in an interview when asked if he views Beijing as a competitor or an adversary. «We don't want to go to war with China, but certainly they're an adversary...for example, the Chinese know that they're manufacturing tons of fentanyl, they're letting them come into our country. (Vice president and Democratic presidential candidate) Kamala Harris has done nothing about this,» Vance said in «Face the Nation» programme. He said Harris should apply diplomatic and economic leverage on the Chinese to stop manufacturing fentanyl, which is smuggled into the Mexican drug cartels and subsequently shipped into the US.

The drills, which started on Friday, are ongoing in the western province of Kermanshah close to the border with Iraq to «enhance combat readiness and vigilance,» an armed forces official told IRNA. The drills are taking place as Iran has vowed to retaliate against Israel after the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh's on July 31 in Tehran.

Authorities say four suspected attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted a ship in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait linking the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea

Russia has announced increased security measures in the border region of Kursk

The recent rupture of a crucial oil pipeline has sent fresh pain through the economy of South Sudan, where even the security forces haven’t been paid in nine months

Rush Doshi, a key architect of US President Joe Biden’s China policy, served in the National Security Council in 2021-24. Author of an acclaimed book, The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order, he speaks to Seema Sirohi on the US, India and China. Edited excerpts: How do you view the India-China border situation? What would US do if there was another Galwan-type situation? First, the Biden Administration has repeatedly noted the need for China to refrain from aggressive activity around the Line of Actual Control. Second, the US is not only more public about the border dispute but even includes it alongside the South and East China Seas, Taiwan Strait, as examples of provocative Chinese activity.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday promised 'exemplary punishment" against the offenders, who are behind the death of a Post-graduate trainee doctor found dead inside the government-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata with injury marks suggesting sexual assault. Meanwhile, the RG Kar premises turned into warzone as a major scuffle broke out between senior students and members of the students wing of political parties and police. They were seen beating each other as they protested in front of the hospital. One accused, a civic volunteer (contract bound police official), was arrested and remanded to 14-day police custody. A woman Post Graduate medical trainee doctor, who was sleeping in a seminar room of the hospital after continuous 36 hours duty, was allegedly raped and murdered early morning on Friday.

Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza early Saturday, killing at least 80 people, Palestinian health authorities said, in one of the deadliest strikes in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli military acknowledged it targeted the Tabeen school in central Gaza City, claiming it hit a Hamas command centre within the school. Hamas denied that. The United Nations said the latest strike was part of Israel's increasing attacks on Gaza's schools, which have been turned into shelters for people who have been forced to flee their homes by the war. Video from the scene showed walls blown out on the ground level of a large building. Concrete chunks and twisted metal lay atop the blood-soaked floor, along with clothing, toppled furniture and other debris. A blackened car with the windows blown out was covered in rubble.

Shashi Tharoor on Saturday opined that it would have been good had Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the landslides-hit Wayanad earlier. The MP from Thiruvananthapuram said he hoped at least after the Prime Minister's visit the Central government would announce it as natural calamity and provide appropriate funds for relief and rehabilitation. «As far as I am concerned, I think that better late than never is the best I can say,» Tharoor told reporters responding to a question on Modi's visit to Kerala's Wayanad earlier in the day. The July 30 landslides claimed the lives of 226 people so far, while over 130 are feared missing. The calamity caused widespread destruction in Chooralmala, Mundakkai and Punchirimattam hamlets.

Ukraine army’s surprise charge into Russia this week was a stunning maneuver that caught the Kremlin’s forces off guard.The Kremlin declared a “federal-level” emergency in the Kursk region following the large-scale incursion and sent reinforcements there on Friday, four days after hundreds of Ukrainian troops poured across the border.Meanwhile, a Russian plane-launched missile slammed into a Ukrainian shopping mall in the middle of the day, killing at least 14 people and wounding 44 others, authorities said. It was the latest in an unrelenting barrage of strikes on civilian targets, which made July the deadliest month for civilians since October 2022, according to the U.N.

Gaza's civil defence agency said Saturday at least 90 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced people in the besieged Palestinian territory. The agency said three Israeli rockets hit the school in Gaza City, describing the incident as a «horrific massacre», with some bodies catching fire. Israel's army said Saturday it had «precisely struck Hamas terrorists operating within a Hamas command and control center embedded in the Al-Taba'een school».

Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region was the largest such cross-border raid by Kyiv's forces in the nearly 2½-year war, exposing Russia's vulnerabilities and dealing a painful blow to the Kremlin. The surprise foray has prompted thousands of civilians to flee the region as the Russian military struggles to repel the attack. For Ukraine, the cross-border raid offers a much-needed boost to public morale at a time when the country's undermanned and under-gunned forces have faced relentless Russian attacks along the more than 1,000 kilometre front line. A glance at the Ukrainian raid and its implications.

Biden administration has decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, the State Department said on Friday, reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war. The State Department was lifting its suspension on certain transfers of air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia, a senior department official confirmed. «We will consider new transfers on a typical case-by-case basis consistent with the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy,» the official said. Reuters was first to report the decision earlier, citing five sources.