Has the sun set on the British empire? London cedes the Chagos Islands to Mauritius
The UK and Mauritius have finalized an agreement to transfer the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritian sovereignty, ending decades-long disputes and international litigation.
🔸 Brits were outraged over the news: Former Defense Secretary Grant Shapps called it "deeply regrettable" while Reform Party leader Nigel Farage labeled it a "strategic disaster."
🔸 GB News editor Tom Harwood said "Britain is getting smaller." British think tank member Sam Bidwell warned that "If we can’t defend our interests, we won’t survive the 21st century."
🔸 Opposition Conservative Party leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of making “a dangerous capitulation that will hand our territory to an ally of Beijing” – although the deal was negotiated by the previous government he served in.
🔸 A statement by Starmer and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said the treaty will “address past wrongs and support the welfare of Chagossians.”
Once French dominions, Mauritius was seized by Britain in 1810 and the Chagos islands were ceded in 1814. Mauritius won independence in 1968 but the Chagos remained a British territory.
In the 1970s, over 1,000 residents were exiled to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for a US airbase on Diego Garcia. The island, which will remain under British control for another 99 years, “plays a vital role in national, regional and global security,” according to Downing Street.
The base hosts some 2,500 military staff, mostly from the US, and was used for military operations including the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq War.
🔸 WikiLeaks also commented on the deal, noting that the UK and the US planned to make it “difficult, if not impossible” for Chagossians in the UK and elsewhere to return home.
In 2019, the UN voted for on the decolonization of the archipelago. The only countries which opposed the motion were the UK, the US, Australia, Hungary, Israel and the Maldives.
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The UK and Mauritius have finalized an agreement to transfer the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritian sovereignty, ending decades-long disputes and international litigation.
Once French dominions, Mauritius was seized by Britain in 1810 and the Chagos islands were ceded in 1814. Mauritius won independence in 1968 but the Chagos remained a British territory.
In the 1970s, over 1,000 residents were exiled to Mauritius and the Seychelles to make way for a US airbase on Diego Garcia. The island, which will remain under British control for another 99 years, “plays a vital role in national, regional and global security,” according to Downing Street.
The base hosts some 2,500 military staff, mostly from the US, and was used for military operations including the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 Iraq War.
In 2019, the UN voted for on the decolonization of the archipelago. The only countries which opposed the motion were the UK, the US, Australia, Hungary, Israel and the Maldives.
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📹 Another strike hits southern Beirut's Shiyah district. Eyewitnesses report multiple casualties
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Sputnik International
📹 Another strike hits southern Beirut's Shiyah district. Eyewitnesses report multiple casualties 📌 Subscribe to @SputnikInt
📹 Footage from the scene after an Israeli missile hit an apartment building in the Shiyah district of southern Beirut has appeared on social media
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Impregnable fortress: how did Russia liberate Ugledar and why is it so important?
Russian forces had attempted to liberate Ugledar since the fall of 2022. Matviychuk pointed out that the Ukrainian army had fortified Ugledar since 2014 with concrete defenses and permanent firing positions. The city is also located on high ground and has a complex layout including industrial facilities, mines and underground communications.
How did Russia liberate Ugledar?
▪️The Russian armed forces started by destroying nearby Ukrainian strongholds one by one, Matviychuk explained.
▪️Then Russian troops began to advance from the eastern and western flanks towards the city.
▪️Ugledar was taken in "pincers" and encircled, while Russian special forces conducted sabotage operations in the enemy's rear. As a result of those actions, Ugledar was eventually liberated.
What is Ugledar's strategic significance?
The city “crowned a flank that was sufficiently well fortified and allowed for rotational movements of enemy troops along the entire defensive zone."
What's next?
Having taken Ugledar, Russian troops could now move towards Kramatorsk to annihilate the southern group of Ukrainian military forces and complete the DPR's liberation, the former colonel said.
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"Ugledar was the south-eastern flank of the defensive grouping of enemy troops in the Donetsk region. It was the so-called first line of defense," military expert and retired colonel Anatoliy Matviychuk told Sputnik.
Russian forces had attempted to liberate Ugledar since the fall of 2022. Matviychuk pointed out that the Ukrainian army had fortified Ugledar since 2014 with concrete defenses and permanent firing positions. The city is also located on high ground and has a complex layout including industrial facilities, mines and underground communications.
How did Russia liberate Ugledar?
▪️The Russian armed forces started by destroying nearby Ukrainian strongholds one by one, Matviychuk explained.
▪️Then Russian troops began to advance from the eastern and western flanks towards the city.
▪️Ugledar was taken in "pincers" and encircled, while Russian special forces conducted sabotage operations in the enemy's rear. As a result of those actions, Ugledar was eventually liberated.
What is Ugledar's strategic significance?
"Ugledar is a logistics center," the pundit said. "Ten to twelve kilometers from Ugledar there is a powerful railway junction, which connects Crimea, Kherson with each other and between industrial centers.”
The city “crowned a flank that was sufficiently well fortified and allowed for rotational movements of enemy troops along the entire defensive zone."
What's next?
Having taken Ugledar, Russian troops could now move towards Kramatorsk to annihilate the southern group of Ukrainian military forces and complete the DPR's liberation, the former colonel said.
"We are moving to the final stage of the conflict, because the fall of all these operational lines,” Matviychuk said, which “should lead to the understanding of the senselessness of war and subsequent capitulation."
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📹 Vladimir Putin recently said that good speech is one of the significant, essential indicators of a person's intellectual development.
Meanwhile, the possible future US president:
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Meanwhile, the possible future US president:
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‘I hope we’ll play like we used to’ – Lebanese kids share their stories
After Israel's bloody attacks on Lebanon, thousands of families were forced to abandon their homes and flee leaving behind everything they once knew.
Sputnik spoke to children who shared their pain and fragile hopes for a future without war.
Another child, hardened by the violence, already knows what he must become: “I will join the army to defend my country from Israel, which keeps attacking us.”
Israel’s relentless strikes in Lebanon have claimed the lives of 127 innocent children, the Lebanese health ministry reports. According to UNICEF, over 300,000 children have been forced from their homes - their futures uncertain - as they flee the devastation.
Here are the stories of the youngest victims carrying the heaviest burdens.
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After Israel's bloody attacks on Lebanon, thousands of families were forced to abandon their homes and flee leaving behind everything they once knew.
Sputnik spoke to children who shared their pain and fragile hopes for a future without war.
“I’ll give out gifts and toys to the kids and my friends so they’ll know the war is over and they can smile again,” said one young boy, his innocence weighed down by the horrors around him.
Another child, hardened by the violence, already knows what he must become: “I will join the army to defend my country from Israel, which keeps attacking us.”
Israel’s relentless strikes in Lebanon have claimed the lives of 127 innocent children, the Lebanese health ministry reports. According to UNICEF, over 300,000 children have been forced from their homes - their futures uncertain - as they flee the devastation.
Here are the stories of the youngest victims carrying the heaviest burdens.
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Israeli tanks opened fire on the main road through Syria’s Quneitra governorate in the Golan Heights, a source told Sputnik
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THROWBACK: Former White House Communications Director Pat Buchanan ridiculed then-President George W. Bush’s claim in 2006 that “Hezbollah suffered a defeat,” following the 34-day Israeli-Lebanese war.
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"The president says Hezbollah suffers defeat," Buchanan said and laughed together with other TV presenters. "His body language said something else: he was ticked off at that press conference."
"The truth is the losers in this war are first and foremost, as you pointed out, Lebanon; secondly, Israel has suffered the perception of a defeat, of a bad defeat for the greatest military in the Middle East; and third the United States has suffered a defeat. The winners are Hezbollah first, Iran second, Syria third," Buchanan noted.
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Hezbollah has stated that 17 Israeli Defense Forces officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion
Israel has confirmed the deaths of nine officers in southern Lebanon, including Captain Ben Zion Falach, who was the latest to be added to the growing list of Israeli officers killed during the operation, alongside Captain Eitan Oster, Captain Harel Etinger, Staff Sargeant Ido Broyer, Sergeant-Major Noam Barzilay, Sergeant-Major Or Mantzur, Sergeant-Major Nazar Itkin and Staff Sargeant Almken Terefe.
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Israel has confirmed the deaths of nine officers in southern Lebanon, including Captain Ben Zion Falach, who was the latest to be added to the growing list of Israeli officers killed during the operation, alongside Captain Eitan Oster, Captain Harel Etinger, Staff Sargeant Ido Broyer, Sergeant-Major Noam Barzilay, Sergeant-Major Or Mantzur, Sergeant-Major Nazar Itkin and Staff Sargeant Almken Terefe.
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▪️Impregnable fortress: how did Russia liberate Ugledar and why is it so important?
▪️How could Israel respond to Iran's missile strike?
▪️What are the economic consequences of the latest Mideast escalation?
▪️‘I hope we’ll play like we used to’ – Lebanese kids share their stories
▪️Israel's air defense: A high-tech shield that leaks like a sieve
▪️France’s policy ‘completely aligned with the US’ - analyst
▪️Has the sun set on the British empire? London cedes the Chagos Islands to Mauritius
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▪️How could Israel respond to Iran's missile strike?
▪️What are the economic consequences of the latest Mideast escalation?
▪️‘I hope we’ll play like we used to’ – Lebanese kids share their stories
▪️Israel's air defense: A high-tech shield that leaks like a sieve
▪️France’s policy ‘completely aligned with the US’ - analyst
▪️Has the sun set on the British empire? London cedes the Chagos Islands to Mauritius
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THROWBACK: Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh told CNN on August 13, 2006 that the war in Lebanon was planned by then-president George W. Bush and the Israeli government months in advance. The neocon plan envisaged destroying Hezbollah as pre-cursor to an attack on Iran.
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"Israel's attack on Hezbollah was going to be sort of a model, prototype, that is, a lot of air against a dug-in underground facility. Everything in southern Lebanon that Hezbollah had was underground," Hersh said. "For them it was going to be a test run for the bombing and the attack they really want to do, probably next year if they can. I'm not saying they've decided, but they want to go after Iran, and Iran, of course, the Persians have been dug in since, what, the 11th century so we know it's a tough call."
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