UK court lifts injunction, allowing Chagos Islands deal to proceed

Update UK court lifts injunction, allowing Chagos Islands deal to proceed
Members of the Chagossian community in Crawley, south of London, protest on Oct. 7, 2024 against the UK government’s decision to hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius. (AFP)
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Updated 22 May 2025
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UK court lifts injunction, allowing Chagos Islands deal to proceed

UK court lifts injunction, allowing Chagos Islands deal to proceed
  • In 1965 Britain detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius to create the British Indian Ocean Territory
  • The injunction was the latest legal action in the last two decades brought by members of the wider Chagossian diaspora

LONDON: Britain can conclude a deal with Mauritius on the future of the Chagos Islands on Thursday after a judge at London’s High Court overturned an eleventh-hour injunction which had blocked the agreement being signed earlier.

Lawyers representing a British national born in the Chagos Islands were granted an interim injunction in the early hours of Thursday morning, postponing the formal signing of a treaty that aims to secure the future of the strategically-important US-UK Diego Garcia air base.

But Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the injunction following a hearing later on Thursday, clearing the way for Britain to sign the multi-billion-dollar deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

The deal, the details of which were first announced in October, would allow Britain to retain control of the air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.

Following the court’s decision to overturn the injunction, the agreement is due to be signed off later.

James Eadie, the government’s lawyer, said it needed a decision by 1200 GMT in order for the deal to be sealed on Thursday and “everyone is standing by.”

He said the delay was damaging to British interests and “there is jeopardy to our international relations ... (including with) our most important security and intelligence partner, the US”

In 1965, Britain detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius — a former colony that became independent three years later — to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.

National security

The earlier injunction had been granted following action by Bertrice Pompe, a British national who was born in Diego Garcia and has criticized the deal for excluding Chagossians.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deal was the right way to protect the Diego Garcia joint military base.

“The legal challenge is an example of what this government would face without a deal, which would only jeopardize our operations and provide a threat to our national security,” the spokesperson said.

The injunction was the latest legal action in the last two decades brought by members of the wider Chagossian diaspora, many of whom ended up in Britain after being forcibly removed from the Indian Ocean archipelago more than 50 years ago.

They have said they cannot endorse an agreement they were not consulted on, while critics have also said the deal plays into the hands of China, which has close trade ties with Mauritius.

Starmer’s political opponents have been highly critical of the accord, arguing that it was both costly and damaged Britain’s national security.

“Labour’s Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defense and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians,” Conservative Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said on X.

The financial component of the deal includes 3 billion pounds to be paid by Britain to Mauritius over the 99-year term of the agreement, with an option for a 50-year extension and Britain maintaining the right of first refusal thereafter.

The base’s capabilities are extensive and strategically crucial. Recent operations launched from Diego Garcia include bombing strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024-2025, humanitarian aid deployments to Gaza and, further back, attacks on Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan in 2001.

US President Donald Trump, who took office in January, indicated his backing for the deal in February after meeting Starmer in Washington, following some uncertainty over his administration’s support. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had backed the agreement.


Russian strike on Ukraine’s Odesa kills two, wounds 14

Russian strike on Ukraine’s Odesa kills two, wounds 14
Updated 8 sec ago
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Russian strike on Ukraine’s Odesa kills two, wounds 14

Russian strike on Ukraine’s Odesa kills two, wounds 14
  • Moscow has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine
  • Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes on Russia throughout the war
KYiV: A Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa killed two people and wounded 14, including children, local authorities said on Saturday.
Moscow has stepped up drone and missile attacks on Ukraine and peace talks initiated by the United States to end the three-year conflict have stalled.
“Rescuers pulled the bodies of two people from the rubble who died as a result of a hostile drone strike on a residential building,” Odesa Governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram.
The night-time strike wounded 14 people, Kiper said, adding that “three of them children.”
Separately, authorities in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region said one person was killed and three others were wounded in Russian strikes over the past day.
“Russian troops targeted critical and social infrastructure and residential areas in the region,” the Kherson’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram early on Saturday.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Russia’s offensive, which has forced millions from their homes and devastated much of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has launched retaliatory strikes on Russia throughout the war.
The Russian defense ministry said on Saturday its air defense had shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Moscow also said it had captured another village in the Donetsk region, which the Kremlin has claimed as part of Russia since late 2022.
Russia has demanded Ukraine cede more land and give up Western military support as a precondition to peace – terms Kyiv says are unacceptable.

Europe bakes in summer’s first heatwave as continent warms

Updated 1 min 5 sec ago
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Europe bakes in summer’s first heatwave as continent warms

Europe bakes in summer’s first heatwave as continent warms
MARSEILLES: Sweating Europeans braced on Saturday for the first heatwave of the northern hemisphere summer, as climate change pushes the world’s fastest-warming continent’s thermometers increasingly into the red.
Temperatures are set to rise to 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rome, driving the Eternal City’s many tourists and Catholic pilgrims to the Vatican alike toward the Italian capital’s some 2,500 public fountains for refreshment.
With residents of the southern port city of Marseille expected to have to cope with temperatures flirting with 40C (104F), authorities in France’s second-largest city ordered public swimming pools to be made free of charge to help residents beat the Mediterranean heat.
Two-thirds of Portugal will be on high alert on Sunday for extreme heat and forest fires with 42C (108F) expected in the capital Lisbon, while visitors to — and protesters against — Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos’s Friday wedding in Venice likewise sweltered under the summer sun.
“I try not to think about it, but I drink a lot of water and never stay still, because that’s when you get sunstroke,” Sriane Mina, an Italian student, told AFPTV on Friday in Venice.
Meanwhile Spain, which has in past years seen a series of deadly summer blazes ravaging the Iberian peninsula, is expecting peak temperatures in excess of 40C (104F) across most of the country from Sunday.
Scientists have long warned that humanity’s burning of fossil fuels is heating up the world with disastrous consequences for the environment, with Europe’s ever-hotter and increasingly common blistering summer heatwaves a direct result of that warming.
With peaks of 39C (102F) expected in Naples and Palermo, Sicily has ordered a ban on outdoor work in the hottest hours of the day, as has the Liguria region in northern Italy.
The country’s trade unions are campaigning to extend the measure to other parts of the country.
The heatwave comes hot on the heels of a series of tumbling records for extreme heat, including Europe’s hottest March ever, according to the EU’s Copernicus climate monitor.
As a result of the planet’s warming, extreme weather events including hurricanes, droughts, floods and heatwaves like this weekend’s have become more frequent and intense, scientists warn.
By some estimates 2024, the hottest year in recorded history so far, saw worldwide disasters which cost more than $300 billion.

UK distances new spy chief from ‘Nazi’ grandfather

UK distances new spy chief from ‘Nazi’ grandfather
Updated 47 min 20 sec ago
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UK distances new spy chief from ‘Nazi’ grandfather

UK distances new spy chief from ‘Nazi’ grandfather
  • The Daily Mail newspaper reported this week that her grandfather Constantine Dobrowolski defected from the Soviet Union’s Red Army to become a Nazi informant in the Chernigiv region of modern day Ukraine

LONDON: The British government has distanced the incoming head of its foreign intelligence service from her grandfather following reports he was a Nazi spy known as “the butcher.”
Blaise Metreweli will in the autumn become the first woman to lead MI6 in its 116-year-old history, the British government announced earlier this month.
The Daily Mail newspaper reported this week that her grandfather Constantine Dobrowolski defected from the Soviet Union’s Red Army to become a Nazi informant in the Chernigiv region of modern-day Ukraine.
The newspaper said German archives showed Dobrowolski was known as “the Butcher” or “Agent No 30” by Wehrmacht commanders.
“Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.
“Blaise’s ancestry is characterised by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with eastern European heritage, only partially understood.
“It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today’s hostile states, as the next chief of MI6.”
The Daily Mail said Dobrowolski had a 50,000 ruble bounty placed on him by Soviet leaders, and was dubbed the “worst enemy of the Ukrainian people.”
He also sent letters to superiors saying he “personally” took part “in the extermination of the Jews,” the newspaper added.
The head of MI6 is the only publicly named member of the organization and reports directly to the foreign minister.
Metreweli, 47, will be the 18th head of MI6.
Like her predecessors she will be referred to as “C,” not “M” as the chief is called in the James Bond film franchise.


African Union says DR Congo-Rwanda deal ‘milestone’ toward peace

African Union says DR Congo-Rwanda deal ‘milestone’ toward peace
Updated 56 min 11 sec ago
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African Union says DR Congo-Rwanda deal ‘milestone’ toward peace

African Union says DR Congo-Rwanda deal ‘milestone’ toward peace

NAIROBI: The African Union said on Saturday a peace deal signed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda was a “significant milestone” in bringing peace to the deeply troubled region.
For more than 30 years the eastern DRC has been riven by conflict, which has intensified in recent years with the advance of an armed militia backed by Rwanda.
A statement said AU Commission head Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, who witnessed the signing of the deal in Washington on Friday, “welcomed this significant milestone and commended all efforts aimed at advancing peace, stability, & reconciliation in the region.”
It said he “appreciated the constructive & supportive role played by the US & the State of Qatar in facilitating dialogue & consensus that led to this development.”
The agreement comes after the M23, an ethnic Tutsi rebel force supported by Rwanda, sprinted across the mineral-rich east of the DRC this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma.
The deal does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 in the area torn by decades of on-off war but calls for Rwanda to end “defensive measures” it has taken.
Rwanda has denied offering the M23 military support but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus involved in the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
The agreement calls for the “neutralization” of the FDLR.


13 soldiers killed in a suicide attack in northwest Pakistan: officials

13 soldiers killed in a suicide attack in northwest Pakistan: officials
Updated 9 min 41 sec ago
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13 soldiers killed in a suicide attack in northwest Pakistan: officials

13 soldiers killed in a suicide attack in northwest Pakistan: officials
  • The suicide attack killed 13 soldiers and wounded 29, including civilians

PESHAWAR: A suicide attack killed 13 soldiers and wounded 29, including civilians, in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, local government officials and police officers told AFP.
“A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy. The blast killed 13 soldiers, injured 10 army personnel and 19 civilians,” said a local government official in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“The explosion also caused the roofs of two houses to collapse, injuring six children,” a police officer posted in the district told AFP.