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Trump Approves F-22 Sale to Israel

US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Reuters)
    Tel Aviv - Nazir Magali
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Trump Approves F-22 Sale to Israel

US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Reuters)

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in Israel Thursday for a short visit and held a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Benny Gantz, followed by a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Esper informed the officials that President Donald Trump has approved the sale of F-22 fighter jets and precision-guided bombs, according to senior sources in Tel Aviv.

Esper arrived in Tel Aviv following his visit to India where he signed an agreement expanding military satellite information sharing and highlighted strategic cooperation between Washington and New Delhi with an eye toward countering China, The Associated Press reported.

According to security sources in Tel Aviv, the US-Indian agreement strengthens the regional alliance against the threat of radical Islam.

But, Esper's visit to Tel Aviv was primarily to inform Israeli officials of the US response to their demands, which Gantz raised during his two previous visits to Washington.

The sources believed that Esper's arrival to Tel Aviv aimed at two things: Ensuring US voters that the Trump administration guarantees the security of Israel, and containing the implications of advanced US arms deals, such as the F-35, to the UAE and other possible Arab countries.

Gantz presented a long list of demands including an increase in military support and another squadron of F-35 fighters, advanced model of F-15 jets, V-22 helicopter, and refueling aircraft.

Israel also requested the smart bomb, which weighs 14 tons, and F-22 jets, which is the only model that can carry that bomb. Notably, the US pledged to refrain from selling this bomb and jet to any country in the world.

Alex Fishman, a military analyst at Yedioth Ahronoth, said that Esper came to inform Gantz and Netanyahu that the US has approved their demands over this issue.

Zohar Palti, head of the Political-Military Bureau at Israel's Ministry of Defense, and the US Deputy Defense Secretary, James Anderson, reached an understanding regarding the threats that Israel will face, according to Fishman.

He said that there is an unwritten commitment that Israel will receive what it needs to confront any threat that could evolve over the next decade, before getting the full aid package.

Fishman, who is known for his close ties with the security establishment, made it clear that the US administration had pledged to provide Israel with new technology, including smart bombs to infiltrate underground bases “against the Iranian threat.”

He pointed out that Israel does not possess stealth aircraft capable of carrying the heavy bomb, but can benefit from new technology embedded in it.

Washington surprised Tel Aviv with its generosity in the technological field, claimed Fishman, adding that it pledged to change and extend the schedule of repaying Israeli debts, which would allow it to sign new contracts for buying a number of weapons.

The Israeli Ministry of Security wanted these measures completed before the US elections, to avoid obstacles with the new US administration, if the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is elected president, noted Fishman.

However, he added that the Israeli government is unable to reach agreements within its parties, and did not succeed in holding a meeting of the armament committee, ratifying these agreements and understandings for implementation.

Fishman concluded his article by saying that he hopes all these postponements are not for personal reasons aimed at thwarting achievements that can be attributed to Gantz.

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World

India Rolls Out Red Carpet for Russia's Putin

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP
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India Rolls Out Red Carpet for Russia's Putin

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi look out from a car prior to an informal dinner at Modi's residence. Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL/AFP

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts Russia's President Vladimir Putin at a summit on Friday, with defense and trade ties taking center stage as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying Moscow's oil.

Both leaders will also discuss the geopolitical situation in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and global trade disruptions triggered by tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, said AFP.

Big ticket defense sales and co-production ventures, energy purchases, and wider economic engagement are on the agenda, Putin's first visit to India since the Ukraine war.

Modi welcomed Putin at the airport on Thursday with a warm hug on a red carpet, before the two rode together in the same car to a private dinner -- mirroring a lift that Putin gave Modi when they last met in China in September.

"India-Russia friendship is a time-tested one that has greatly benefitted our people," Modi wrote in a post on social media, accompanying a photograph of them grinning together inside the vehicle.

It was a symbolic show of friendship, after US President Donald Trump imposed 50-percent tariffs on most Indian products in August, citing Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil -- revenue Washington argues helps fund the war in Ukraine.

In an interview with India Today, Putin said he was "very happy" to be meeting "my friend" Modi.

"The range of our cooperation with India is huge," he said in remarks translated by the broadcaster, citing ship and aircraft manufacturing, nuclear energy and space exploration.

"This visit is part of India's diversification strategy, both in terms of strategic and economic, especially at a time when the US tariffs have hurt India," Ashok Malik of business consultancy The Asia Group told AFP.

On Friday, Putin is due to be given an honor guard welcome at the presidential palace in New Delhi, before meeting with Modi.

'Balancing acts'

India is walking a diplomatic tightrope -- relying on strategic Russian oil imports while trying not to provoke Trump during ongoing tariff negotiations.

"Balancing acts are second nature to Indian foreign policy making", wrote Pankaj Saran, a former Indian envoy to Russia, writing in the Times of India.

The leaders will also address business and industry leaders before Putin attends a state banquet hosted by the Indian President Droupadi Murmu.

India, the world's most populous nation, has become a major buyer of Russian oil, saving itself billions of dollars and providing Moscow with a much-needed export market after it was cut off from traditional buyers in Europe because of the war.

Putin also told India Today that Modi is "not someone who gives in to pressure", when asked about the impact of US tariffs.

The Russian share of India's arms imports fell from 76 percent in 2009-13 to 36 percent in 2019-23, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Besides discussions around cutting-edge defense hardware, which includes air defense systems, fighter jets, and nuclear submarines, New Delhi will push for easier access to the wider Russian market.

Bilateral trade reached $68.7 billion in 2024-25 -- almost six times higher than the pre-pandemic levels -- but Indian exports accounted for only $4.88 billion.

The two countries are expected to announce an agreement on easier mobility of Indian workers into Russia.

World

Iran Accused of ‘Digital Apartheid’

03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
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Iran Accused of ‘Digital Apartheid’

03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa
03 December 2025, Iran, Teheran: View of the smog-ridden metropolis of Tehran. Photo: Aref Taherkenareh/dpa

Ordinary Iranians face up to 10 years in prison or even execution if they use X to write anything the government deems critical.

But little did they know that government officials and regime supporters have been using the social media site, which is banned inside Iran, Britain’s The Telegraph reported.

This practice has been revealed after Elon Musk’s X rolled out an update that displays each user’s location.

It has exposed government ministers, state media figures, political officials and pro-regime accounts as having accessed the banned platform from within Iran using special white SIM cards.

The new X location feature was designed to spot fake accounts but instead has lifted the curtain on the divide in Iran, one of the world’s most censored countries, according to the newspaper.

Critics of the regime have termed the online divide a form of “digital apartheid”, with only certain groups able to access the internet freely.

Ordinary Iranians are forced to use VPNs, which conceal their true location, to get around the ban. If they are caught posting on X they are reprimanded by Iranian authorities, and if those posts are anti-Iran or pro-Israel, they face execution or prison sentences.

Meanwhile, state and pro-regime accounts use the white SIM cards in their phones to receive unrestricted access to the internet and bypass their own restrictions.

Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, an Iranian politician who serves on the national security commission, criticized their use.

Ardestani said: “Many people want filtering to exist because they want to sell VPNs and do business.”

He added that the VPN market, used by ordinary Iranians, has high financial turnover and is controlled by “a mafia”.

If users access X through VPNs, the location shows the country where their server is located rather than their actual location.

Other banned platforms in Iran include Facebook, YouTube and Telegram.

“This is obvious discrimination in public rights and against the explicit text of the constitution,” one Iranian citizen told The Telegraph, referring to Iran’s constitutional guarantee of equality among citizens.

“When you yourself use white SIM cards, how can we expect you to understand the pain of filtering? How can we expect you to fight to remove it?” another Iranian said.

Among those whose locations were displayed were communications minister Sattar Hashemi, former foreign minister Javad Zarif, government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani and dozens of journalists working for state-aligned media outlets.

Also exposed were political figures, eulogists who praise the Iranian regime at official events, and accounts that had claimed online to be opposition voices, including some monarchist and separatist pages operating from inside Iran with apparent government approval.

Analysts say it is meant to keep parts of the opposition narrative under the control of the clerical establishment.

The exposure proved particularly embarrassing for officials who had publicly opposed privileged internet access.

Mohajerani had claimed she used VPN software like ordinary citizens, saying: “Class-based internet has neither legal basis nor will it ever be on the government’s agenda.”

Mahdi Tabatabaei, communications deputy, said: “Making society white and black is playing on the enemy’s field.”

He added that from President Masoud Pezeshkian’s view, “all 90 million Iranians are white”.

Journalist Yashar Soltani compared the situation to George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He said: “When freedom is rationed it’s no longer freedom – it’s structural discrimination.”

World

Aid Workers Stand Trial in Greece on Migrant Smuggling Charges

TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)
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Aid Workers Stand Trial in Greece on Migrant Smuggling Charges

TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Migrants sit onboard an inflatable boat before attempting to illegally cross the English Channel to reach Britain, off the coast of Sangatte, northern France, on July 18, 2023. (Photo by BERNARD BARRON / AFP)

Two dozen aid workers went on trial in Greece on Thursday on charges including migrant smuggling, in a case that rights groups have dismissed as a baseless attempt to outlaw aid for refugees heading to Europe.

The trial on the island of Lesbos comes as EU countries, including Greece - which saw more than one million people reaching its shores during Europe's refugee crisis in 2015-2016 - are tightening rules on migration as right-wing parties gain ground across the bloc, Reuters said.

The 24 defendants, affiliated with the Emergency Response Center International (ERCI), a nonprofit search-and-rescue group that operated on Lesbos from 2016 to 2018, face multi-year prison sentences. The felony charges include involvement in a criminal group facilitating the illegal entry of migrants and money laundering linked to the group's funding.

Among them is Sarah Mardini, one of two Syrian sisters who saved refugees in 2015 by pulling their sinking dinghy to shore and whose story inspired the popular 2022 Netflix movie The Swimmers, and Sean Binder, a German national who began volunteering for ERCI in 2017. They were arrested in 2018 and spent over 100 days in pre-trial detention before being released pending trial.

"The trial's result will define if humanitarian aid will be judicially protected from absurd charges or whether it will be left to the maelstrom of arbitrary narratives by prosecuting authorities," defense lawyer Zacharias Kesses told Reuters.

Greece has toughened its stance on migrants. Since 2019, the center-right government has reinforced border controls with fences and sea patrols and in July it temporarily suspended processing asylum applications for migrants arriving from North Africa.

Anyone caught helping migrants to shore today may face charges including facilitating illegal entry into Greece or helping a criminal enterprise under a 2021 law passed as part of Europe’s efforts to counter mass migration from the Middle East and Asia. In 2023, a Greek court dropped espionage charges against the defendants.

Rights groups have criticized the case as baseless and lacking in evidence. "The case depends on deeply-flawed logic," Human Rights Watch said in a statement. "Saving lives at sea is mischaracterized as migrant smuggling, so the search-and-rescue group is a criminal organization, and therefore, the group’s legitimate fundraising is money laundering."