India’s Pakistan strikes show how warfare has been normalised again

All-out war is unlikely but shifting of goalposts amid Gaza and Ukraine conflicts suggests Kashmir crisis could escalate

India’s string of attacks on Pakistan overnight – a response, Delhi says, to the killing of 26 in a terror attack in Kashmir last month – comes at a time when warfare has become increasingly normalised internationally and the restraints of the global diplomatic system weakened.

Though flare-ups between the two south Asian powers are nothing new, India’s Operation Sindoor is already notably more aggressive than recent military actions launched by Delhi against its neighbour in 2016 and 2019, raising the stakes for Pakistan’s promised response to what it says was “an act of war”.

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Kashmir crisis: what is Lashkar-e-Taiba and is it supported by Pakistan?

India claims to have attacked camps associated with a militant group in Pakistan – but what is its relationship with Islamabad?

As India launches missile strikes on what it says are camps associated with militant groups inside Pakistan in retaliation for last month’s massacre in Kashmir, attention has once again focused on India’s claimed relationship between Islamabad and armed groups involved in attacks in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, most prominently Lashkar-e-Taiba.

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Elk could return to UK after 3,000 years in rewilding project

First stage of initiative will introduce ‘keystone’ species to beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire

Elk could return to the UK after 3,000 years under plans by the Wildlife Trusts to reintroduce the “keystone” species into Britain’s landscapes.

The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust wants to introduce elk into two existing beaver enclosures in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with the hope of demonstrating that the large semiaquatic deer should be released to roam free in the wild.

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Trump plans to announce US will refer to Arabian Gulf rather than Persian Gulf

Move sparks outrage in Iran as diplomats try to broker deal between Tehran and Washington over nuclear programme

Donald Trump plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the US will now refer to the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia rather than the Persian Gulf.

The move has prompted outrage from Iranian leaders, and last-minute efforts are being made to persuade Trump to pull back from offending Iran in the midst of vital talks on the future of the Iranian nuclear programme. “If Trump went ahead with the proposal he would manage to unite every Iranian, pro- or anti-regime, against him, and that is a near impossible achievement,” one diplomat said.

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Court orders detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk returned to Vermont

Lawyers say the Turkish national, who has been held in a Louisiana Ice center for two weeks, was illegally detained

A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a judge’s order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated.

A judicial panel of the New York-based US second circuit court of appeals ruled in the case of Rümeysa Öztürk after lawyers representing her and the US justice department presented arguments at a hearing on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Trump says he’ll decide what the U.S. will call the Persian Gulf during his Middle East visit – PBS

  1. Trump says he’ll decide what the U.S. will call the Persian Gulf during his Middle East visit  PBS
  2. Trump planning to change how US refers to Persian Gulf  CNN
  3. Trump to rename Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf ahead of US-Iran nuclear talks, Middle East trip: report  Fox News
  4. Trump plans to rename Persian Gulf, officials say  The Times of Israel
  5. Trump's Reported Move To Rename Persian Gulf Unites Iranians In Outrage  Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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RecipeTin Eats’ Nagi Maehashi beats Brooke Bellamy at publishing industry awards amid plagiarism allegations

Maehashi beat five finalists to take out prestigious prize after her second cookbook broke Australian records for first-week nonfiction title sales

Recipe book writer Nagi Maehashi has beaten cupcake queen Brooke Bellamy at the publishing industry’s annual awards, as Maehashi and other authors accuse Bellamy of plagiarism.

Maehashi won the illustrated book of the year a second time at the Australian book industry awards night in Melbourne on Wednesday for her most recent book, RecipeTin Eats: Tonight.

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UN experts demand action to avert ‘annihilation’ of Palestinians in Gaza – Middle East crisis live

More than 20 experts call on countries to act or ‘witness the slaughter of innocents’

The Dutch government, seen as one of Israel’s most loyal allies in the European Union, is calling for an urgent review of the EU Israel association agreement, the basis for the EU-Israeli free trade agreement, the Dutch foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp told the Guardian.

Veldkamp described the Israeli ban on the supply of aid into Gaza as “catastrophic, truly dismal” and in clear breach of international humanitarian law.

You cannot starve the people of the Gaza Strip. It is against international law. It’s morally wrong. It’s dangerous. I don’t think it’s in Israel’s own interest.

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India and Pakistan can ill afford war, but who will talk them down? | Hannah Ellis-Petersen

The US has brought the two sides back from the brink before, but the mood is very different with Trump

The uneasy calm that had settled over India and Pakistan in the past two weeks was swiftly shattered in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

In the days that followed the deadly attack that killed 25 Indian tourists and a guide in Kashmir in late March, the Indian government made it clear it held Pakistan responsible – and it intended to avenge the deaths.

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