Monday briefing: How the Air India ​crash ​happened​ and why ​it ​raises ​questions ​about ​aviation ​safety

In today’s newsletter: ​With just one survivor emerging from the wreckage​, investigators work to uncover the cause

Good morning. An Air India plane bound for London Gatwick took off from Ahmedabad, India, at 1.38pm local time last Thursday. On board were 242 people. Within moments of takeoff, the airliner crashed, sending up a fireball of exploding jet fuel.

Initial reports suggested all passengers and crew had perished. Then, miraculously, there was one survivor – a British man, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, who while badly injured was able to walk out of the wreckage by himself. Ramesh, who was returning to his family in London, told the Hindustan Times: “I don’t know how I survived. I saw people dying in front of my eyes – the air hostesses, and two people I saw near me … I walked out of the rubble.”

Middle East | Israel and Iran broadened their strikes against each other in an escalating war that has killed and injured hundreds of people. Donald Trump called for an end to the conflict and warned Tehran against striking US targets in the region.

UK news | The government’s welfare plans have to be pushed through, Keir Starmer has said, indicating that there will be no further concessions over cuts to disability benefits.

UK news | Thousands of university students in the UK have been caught misusing ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools in recent years, while traditional forms of plagiarism show a marked decline.

UK news | China and Russia are stepping up sabotage operations targeting undersea cables and the UK is unprepared to meet the mounting threat, according to new analysis.

Greenland | Emmanuel Macron has criticised Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland as he became the first foreign head of state to visit the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory since the US president began making explicit threats to annex it.

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Trump’s ‘revenge tax’ could threaten foreign investment into US, analysts say

Concerns raised that section 899 could backfire and also undermine dollar’s safe haven status

Foreign investment into the US could be threatened by Donald Trump’s new “revenge” taxes, analysts have warned.

A provision within the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow the US to apply higher taxes on foreign individuals, businesses and investors connected to jurisdictions that impose “unfair foreign taxes” on US individuals and companies.

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Send in armed UN troops to protect aid convoys or risk ‘dystopia’, says expert

UN rapporteur calls for move as food deliveries are attacked and starvation becomes a weapon of war in Gaza and Sudan

UN peacekeepers should be routinely deployed to protect aid convoys from attack in places such as Gaza and Sudan, a senior United Nations expert has proposed.

With starvation increasingly used as a weapon of war, Michael Fakhri said armed UN troops were now required to ensure that food reached vulnerable populations.

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Iran strikes Tel Aviv and Haifa as Israel conflict enters fourth day

Casualties reported in central Israel as G7 leaders were set to meet in Canada with the battle between the two regional enemies set to dominate the agenda

Iranian missiles have struck Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa, destroying homes and fuelling concerns among world leaders at this week’s G7 meeting that the conflict between the two regional enemies could lead to a broader Middle East war.

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said Monday that four people were pronounced dead after strikes at four sites in central Israel, with 87 injured. The dead were two women and two men, all approximately 70 years old, the MDA said.

Authorities in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv said that Iranian missiles had hit a residential building there, charring concrete walls, blowing out windows and heavily damaging multiple apartments.

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Israel appears to take aim at Iran’s regime with expanded targets – The Washington Post

  1. Israel appears to take aim at Iran’s regime with expanded targets  The Washington Post
  2. Trump, Netanyahu and Khamenei – three angry old men who could get us all killed | Simon Tisdall  The Guardian
  3. Israel has learned no lessons from Iraq  Al Jazeera
  4. The Israel-Iran war is now a brutal test of staying power  The Economist
  5. What's the US role in the fighting between Israel and Iran?  NPR
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As Trump Returns to G7, Rift With Allies Is Even Deeper – The New York Times

  1. As Trump Returns to G7, Rift With Allies Is Even Deeper  The New York Times
  2. Donald Trump Eyeing New Trade Deals at Critical G7 Summit  Newsweek
  3. Trumps Returns to G-7 He Once Loathed as Iran Crisis Intensifies  Bloomberg
  4. Trump wants to score trade deals in Canada. He’s unlikely to get them.  Politico
  5. World leaders will still talk trade at the G7. They ‘can’t afford not to’  CNN
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Iran launches new strikes on Israel as Israeli attack widens – BBC

  1. Iran launches new strikes on Israel as Israeli attack widens  BBC
  2. Live updates: Israel and Iran resume missile strikes as conflict deepens  CNN
  3. Israel-Iran live news: Missile hits Haifa, Trump calls for a deal  Al Jazeera
  4. Live Updates: Israel and Iran Launch New Attacks; Trump Nixed Israeli Plan to Kill Iran’s Khamenei  WSJ
  5. Israel’s Attack in Iran Echoes Its Strategy Against Hezbollah  The New York Times
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Trump rejects Israeli plan to kill Iranian supreme leader, US officials say – CNN

  1. Trump rejects Israeli plan to kill Iranian supreme leader, US officials say  CNN
  2. Trump told Israel not to kill Iran's supreme leader - report  BBC
  3. Khamenei in bunker in northeastern Tehran; Israel didn't kill him Friday to give him chance to yield -- report  The Times of Israel
  4. Trump opposed Israeli plan to kill Iran's supreme leader, CBS News sources say  CBS News
  5. Exclusive: Iran’s Supreme Leader ‘Not Off Limits’ in Israel’s Strikes, Israeli Official Says  WSJ
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