Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow supports US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, expressing hope it will be implemented. Speaking at a regional summit in Tajikistan, Putin said Russia is ready to back any peaceful effort to stop the bloodshed.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi have hailed their countries’ recent trade deal as transformative, saying the partnership has already begun to bear fruit.
The United Kingdom and India signed a trade agreement in July aimed at reducing tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky, cars and spices and allowing more market access for businesses. The stated goal is to boost trade by a further 25.5 billion pounds ($34bn) by 2040.
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Starmer met Modi on Thursday in Mumbai, where the British prime minister and more than 100 leaders from the UK’s business, culture and university sectors were wrapping up a two-day trade mission to India.
“In the three months since we actually signed that (trade deal) … we’ve seen a 6-billion-pound boost in trade and investment, that’s on top of the increased numbers over the last year already,” Starmer told business leaders from both countries at the India-UK CEO Forum in Mumbai.
Both countries are seeking to realign their trading relationships in the wake of tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump’s administration.
In August, the US slapped 50 percent tariffs on goods from India in response to New Delhi’s trade with Russia, specifically its imports of Russian oil, while the UK, which secured a trade deal with Washington in May, has also been hit with tariffs, albeit at much lower rates.
Modi told the forum on Thursday that he was confident the two countries would double their trade from the current $56bn before their target to do so.
Starmer’s visit “reflects the new energy and broad vision” in the partnership, Modi said after talks with the British prime minister.
“India’s dynamism and the UK’s expertise together create a unique synergy,” Modi said, speaking in Hindi.
Starmer said the focus of his visit was doubling down on the potential of the trade deal, expected to take effect within a year.
“This is just the start,” Starmer later told a fintech conference. “It’s time to invest in the United Kingdom, invest in this relationship and invest in our shared future.”
A statement by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the two sides agreed to set up a connectivity and innovation centre and a joint centre for AI, and unveiled a critical minerals industry guild to bolster supply chains and promote green technologies.
Earlier, Starmer’s office said 64 Indian companies would collectively invest 1.3bn pounds ($1.73bn) in the UK, without elaborating.
Despite the cordiality on display in Mumbai, the two countries are not aligned on some key issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war.
After Modi wished Russian President Vladimir Putin a happy birthday on Tuesday, Starmer joked to reporters that he would not be doing the same, given Britain’s strong backing for Ukraine and condemnation of Russia over its invasion.
Asked if he raised with Modi concerns about India buying Russian oil, Starmer said they did discuss it and looked particularly at ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which he said was “the outcome that we both want”.
The UK says it respects India’s strategic independence and can work with countries even if their views may differ on certain issues.
In an early indication of that strategy and a bid for closer defence ties, the UK said it had signed a 350 million pound ($465m) contract to supply the Indian army with lightweight multi-role missiles built in Northern Ireland, and the next phase of a deal, worth an initial 250 million pounds ($332m), includes collaboration on electric-powered engines for naval ships.
For decades, India has been dependent on Moscow for much of its military hardware. And Western sanctions levied against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine have pushed the country into a deeper trading partnership with India.
In August, India hit back at the US and European Union over sanctions, tariffs and threats it faced from them due to its purchase of Russian oil amid the war on Ukraine.
“Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the time.
But Jaiswal also directly pushed back against suggestions from the US and EU that India – in buying large volumes of Russian crude – had acted in a way that broke with the West’s own behaviour.
“In fact, India began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict,” Jaiswal said, referring to Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Nigeria’s foremost broadcaster, diplomat and elder statesman, Dr. Christopher Kolade, has passed on at the age of 93.
He died peacefully on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, according to a statement by his family.
Born on December 28, 1932 in Erin-Oke, Osun State, Dr Kolade had a distinguished career as a diplomat, academic, advocate for integrity and corporate governance, among other things.
Watch our special documentary on Dr Kolade, which aired just over a year ago, on the programme Amazing Africans.
On his first visit to India since becoming the United Kingdom’s prime minister last year, Keir Starmer has met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, alongside a caravan of British business and cultural leaders.
In particular, Starmer wants to know more about India’s mammoth digital ID system – which logs the world’s largest population, with more than 1.3 billion cards issued – two weeks after announcing a controversial digital ID system for the UK.
Starmer hailed India’s ID system as a “massive success” as he defended that announcement, which has been met with criticism from rights groups.
During his trade-centric visit to Mumbai, Starmer also held a meeting with Nandan Nilekani, cofounder and chair of Indian tech services group Infosys, who headed the government body which delivered the ID database more than a decade ago.
So, why is Starmer so interested in India’s ID system? What are the concerns in the UK? And what can London learn from mistakes made in New Delhi?
Starmer has pitched the new digital ID, to be known as a “Brit Card”, at the core of his plans to tackle irregular migration and exploitative work practices in the UK.
A digital ID system “will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure”, Starmer said last month.
In addition to verifying that a person is permitted to work in the UK, the Brit Card will also offer citizens “countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly”, he said.
While ID cards have long been common in other Western European countries, the UK has a history of strong resistance towards them.
Speaking to reporters on his way to Mumbai this week, Starmer said he hopes, however, that digital IDs, which will become mandatory by 2029, will gain public confidence because of the convenience they will be able to provide.
“I don’t know how many times the rest of you have had to look in the bottom drawer for three bills when you want to get your kids into school or apply for this or apply for that – drives me to frustration,” he said. “I do think that we could gain a significant advantage.”
However, rights groups have strongly criticised the proposal of digital IDs, which, they say, would infringe on people’s right to privacy – and more than 2.2 million people have signed a petition opposing the introduction.
The petition describes the Brit Card as a “step towards mass surveillance and digital control”, and adds that “no one should be forced to register with a state-controlled ID system.”
India’s digital ID system, Aadhaar, is much bigger and far more detailed than the one the UK is planning. New Delhi stores people’s fingerprints, eye scans, photos, home addresses and phone numbers, and its system processes about 80 million authentications each day.
By comparison, the UK’s proposed digital ID system will be much narrower in scope, focusing on basic identity verification, without collecting biometric data like fingerprints or iris scans.
Under Aadhaar, every Indian citizen receives a 12-digit number that aims to replace many paper documents. All adults and children more than the age of five must provide biometric information.
The system is used to verify identities when people open bank accounts or apply for a new SIM card for their mobile phones, for example. The system has also aimed to streamline the disbursement of government benefits, giving the holder instant proof of identity and access to basic services.
Launched in 2009, the Indian government has issued more than 1.3 billion cards and claims to have saved nearly $10bn in administration costs. Some critics say that is an overstatement, however.
UK officials have made it clear that they do not wish to replicate the Aadhaar system – rather, to learn from how it has been implemented.
A government spokesperson denied that the system would store biometric data of holders, adding that “one of the core priorities is inclusivity and that’s what the British consultation will be about.”
India’s Aadhaar has suffered several mass data leaks, at times exposing the personal information belonging to as much as 85 percent of the population and raising concerns about privacy.
At least three large-scale Aadhaar data leaks were reported in 2018, 2019 and 2022, with personal information put up for sale on the dark web, including one from the government’s COVID-vaccination portal.
In January 2025, the Indian government allowed private companies to access Aadhaar’s databases for authentication purposes. To gain access, private companies must apply and be vetted by the government. Critics have opposed this access to behavioural and biometric data.
“The core problem with Aadhaar was conceptual – centralisation of digital ID and accompanying biometric information should be avoided,” said Vrinda Bhandari, a Supreme Court lawyer with a focus on digital rights and privacy. “More importantly, it should never be linked or seeded into other databases.”
Public confidence is low. A survey conducted earlier this year by civic-tech company LocalCircles revealed that 87 percent of Indian citizens believe elements of their personal data are already in the public domain or on compromised databases. That number is a rise from 72 percent in 2022.
The government body, Unique Identification Authority of India, which issues Aadhaar cards, maintains that personal data is secure. But India does not yet have a robust data protection law in practice, so critics say there is no way to be sure of this.
“The creation of a digital ID architecture requires strong legal and data privacy protections,” said Bhandari. “Without this supporting law and the surrounding complaints infrastructure, citizens are forced to fight expensive legal battles in courts.”
The reliance on Aadhaar has also led to greater hardship for some of the country’s most marginalised and poorest citizens, denying them medical care or food rations, critics say.
Technical problems have often halted the payment of pensions when fingerprints don’t match or internet connectivity has stalled, with researchers claiming that Aadhaar has often made welfare delivery more difficult, not easier.
India’s Supreme Court approved Aadhaar’s use for welfare and taxes but restricted its use by private companies or in education in 2018, following a case lodged by civil society groups. This year’s access to the system for private groups was made possible by policy changes which introduced government vetting into the process.
Furthermore, critics argue, India’s digital ID system has created an “architecture of surveillance” without strong enough safeguards.
Yes. In 2019, Kenya attempted to build a national digital ID system that closely followed India’s Aadhaar model.
The government launched the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), also called Huduma Namba, to streamline government services and fight fraud. Its design drew heavily from the Aadhaar framework.
But the project quickly faced pushback from civil society groups, who argued that it was fraught with privacy and exclusion flaws, with no adequate legal safeguards to protect citizens. In 2020, these groups lodged a case against the introduction of the system in the High Court in Nairobi, which halted the rollout.
The following year, Kenya passed its Data Protection Act, which created a legal framework for collecting, storing, and processing personal data, and later rebranded its system as “Maisha Namba”, promising stronger oversight of how citizens’ biometric and personal data would be stored and used. Various legal challenges, which argue that gaps in safety have not been adequately addressed, however, are ongoing.
The national ID systems in other countries, including the Philippines, Morocco and Ethiopia, are also modelled on Aadhaar.
In the UK, rights groups have raised concerns about Starmer’s Brit Card plan. Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, a UK-based civil liberties and privacy advocacy organisation, warned that the system would “make Britain less free” and create “a domestic mass surveillance infrastructure that will likely sprawl from citizenship to benefits, tax, health, possibly even internet data and more”.
Addressing these concerns in September when the ID system was announced, the UK’s culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said ministers had “no intention of pursuing a dystopian mess”.
On Thursday, Modi and Starmer were hoping to capitalise on their July free-trade agreement. Aiming to turbocharge commercial links, the UK delegation included more than 100 leaders from British businesses and universities.
Under the trade agreement signed in July, India and the UK agreed to cut tariffs on goods ranging from textiles and whisky to cars in order to double trade to $120bn by 2030.
“India’s dynamism and the UK’s expertise together create a unique synergy,” Modi said, after talks with the British prime minister on Thursday, adding that the industry leaders accompanying Starmer “reflect the new energy and broad vision” in the partnership.
Starmer said: “When we leave India tonight, I expect that we will have secured major new investments creating thousands of high-skilled jobs in the sectors of the future.”
Ultimately, the two countries announced a string of new agreements on Thursday.
A statement by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the two sides had agreed to set up an India-UK connectivity and innovation centre and a joint centre for the development of artificial intelligence (AI), and unveiled a critical minerals industry guild to bring together businesses and researchers and to coordinate the safe mining and processing of minerals.
An official handout from the UK government noted that 64 Indian companies would collectively invest 1.3 billion pounds ($1.73bn) in the UK.
“The UK-India trade deal is already unlocking growth, and today’s announcements mark the beginning of a new era of collaboration between our two nations,” Starmer said.
London and New Delhi do not see eye to eye on all issues, however.
One major bone of contention is Russia’s invasion of and ongoing war in Ukraine. The UK, as part of NATO, has taken a strong position against Moscow, imposing sanctions and sending weapons to Kyiv. India avoids condemning Russia, however, and has continued to buy Russian oil – part of the reason United States President Donald Trump said he was imposing 50 percent trade tariffs on India earlier this year.
Indian officials describe their position towards Russia as a policy of strategic autonomy, while British and European leaders view it as a major point of divergence within their broader partnership.
Another area of tension is Khalistan-related activism in the UK. India has repeatedly raised concerns about Sikh separatist groups operating from British soil, especially after the 2023 vandalism of the Indian High Commission in London.
In 2023, a BBC documentary that portrayed Modi in an unflattering light was denounced by Indian officials as “anti-India propaganda”.
At the same time, tensions between India and Canada – a member of the UK’s Five Eyes intelligence alliance – deepened after Ottawa alleged Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Celebrity Traitors star Nick Mohammed made an instant impact on the BBC hit from the get-go, easily solving a fiendishly difficult puzzle in the manner of a man who does five Rubik’s Cubes before breakfast.
Fans of his character Mr Swallow might not be surprised – the comic character is able to memorise a pack of playing cards and Ted Lasso star Nick has said the maths and recall stunts he does are “real and legit” explaining that he learnt them himself.
“My eldest son has an eidetic memory, which is essentially photographic, but mine is good too,” he told the Sunday Post in 2023, speaking about the feats that have gone viral after appearances on the likes of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown that left Rob Beckett and Jimmy Carr speechless.
Nick, 45, who was the scheming Nathan in Ted Lasso, studied Geophysics – essentially a study of the Earth – at Durham, having turned down the chance to attend the equally-prestigious University of Cambridge, and played violin in the orchestra. He paid his way through university doing magic at summer balls, parties and weddings.
The funnyman doesn’t say much about his private life, but it is known that he met his wife Becka, who is a teacher, way back in his student days at Durham. The couple tied the knot in 2014, with Nick announcing: “Got married last weekend, this is my niece’s impression of the events,” before adding: “WHAT IS GOING ON NEAR MY WIFE’S CROTCH?””
They have three children together, and their eldest, Finn, appeared alongside him on an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. In an interview with The Guardian, Nick was asked about the ‘funniest person’ he knows. In a heartwarming reply, he said: “My wife. Pretty much every day she’ll say something that makes me roar with laughter (which I’ll then secretly write down).”
During his time at Durham, Nick and Becka performed together in the orchestra, though he didn’t make it into the Durham Revue, so he explored the comedy circuit before moving on to study at Cambridge. There, he became part of their renowned Footlights troupe.
It was at this point that he created Mr Swallow, basing the character on his secondary school English teacher. Nick’s alter-ego has brought him considerable success, and he has refined it across stage and screen throughout the years. Additional television recognition came through regular roles in Sorry, I’ve Got No Head, Drifters and Cuckoo.
However, it was Ted Lasso that catapulted him to worldwide stardom, where he appeared alongside the likes of Hannah Waddingham and Jason Sudeikis in the Apple+ comedy. When discussing the possibility of another series, he commented: “Everyone has said if there’s an idea that feels good, we would be all up for it. I would personally go back in a heartbeat!”.
Despite not pursuing music as his primary career, he has still managed to indulge in his love for it. Last year, he hosted the BBC Proms, and fans of Ted Lasso will remember that, portraying his character Nathan Shelley, he genuinely played the violin as the scriptwriters incorporated his particular talent into the storyline.
At the time, he explained that his wife also played a role, saying: “This ep of Ted Lasso is special for lots of reasons… but mostly because it’s my *incredible* wife playing the piano to Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ with me on my old violin from home. The piece was Jason’s idea: literally translates as ‘mirror in mirror.”
Before going into Celebrity Traitors – where he has been picked as a Faithful – he admitted he didn’t have a game plan, saying: “I think I’ll just try and be quite easy breezy in the first instance. Because, you know, people are going to go right from the off.
“A little further down the line you can maybe start considering strategy – and it also depends on whether I’m made a Traitor or a Faithful. There’s a certain thrill of being made a Traitor, of course. In conversation with BeyondTheJoke, he continued: “If I’m a Faithful, I’ll have that constant worry each night whether I’ll be murdered.
“You can of course be discovered and banished as a Traitor, but I feel that in the first instance, you’re in a little bit more control. So, I would enjoy that element to a degree and I’d love to make the final. That said, I’ve got lovely family at home, so it’s sort of a win, win. When my time is up, I get to go back home and see them!”
However, Nick has one genuine concern about the whole situation. He confessed: “My problem is I do find things very funny, and a lot of people who I’ve worked with will testify that I do often get the giggles. My biggest worry is the moment when the blindfolds are taken off at the start.
Because irrespective of whether I’ve been made a Traitor or a Faithful, I’ll struggle not to smile. So that is a real, genuine worry.”
Celebrity Traitors star Niko Omilana’s appearance left older viewers frantically Googling who he is – but their teenage kids will have spotted him straight away. Niko is part of the British YouTube team Beta Squad and, as his co-stars in the castle wasted no time pointing out, he’s a master of deception through his meticulously-planned stunts.
The 27-year-old, who has more than 8million subscribers on YouTube, has targeted everyone from fellow social star KSI to former prime minister Rishi Sunak. Here we look at some of his most high-profile stunts where the Soccer Aid player’s talents for deception got put to work…
Niko had been banned from Matchroom Boxing events after blagging his way into KSI’s two fights with Logan Paul and Jake Paul’s professional debut. However, he managed to neatly side-step the ban – by turning up dressed up as a giant bottle of Prime Energy.
Using a seven-foot Prime bottle costume and leveraging his fellow content creator Kysha’s connection with KSI, YouTube prankster Niko hatched a plan. He tasked Kysha with securing him an O2 Arena wristband which granted him VIP access to the venue and he even went backstage and greeted KSI.
At the time it was time for the Celebrity Traitors star to enter the arena, he donned him Prime Energy drink bottle disguise and led KSI to the ring for his first fight of the night totally unnoticed. But as KSI was introduced to the crowd, he removed the front of his costume and smiled to the millions of people watching.
After his knockout victory over Swarmz, KSI was left gobsmacked when the Traitors star revealed himself, telling him: “Fair play Niko, you absolute d***head. Unbelievable, I thought it was the other guy, the other YouTuber. He didn’t say a word. I just thought he’s acting a bit weird, maybe he’s shy or scared to meet me. As soon as Niko popped out his head, I knew he’d played me.”
Rishi Sunak had a punishing Election night, when a landslide Labour triumph swept away many Tory MPs. So he probably didn’t need to be mocked during his speech by Niko, who was standing behind him holding up a printed piece of paper bearing the letter ‘L’. And when the cameras moved to block Niko’s embarrassing prop, the prankster moved too.
Niko stood as an independent candidate in Sunak’s Richmond, Yorkshire seat, which the outgoing PM managed to hold with a reduced majority of 23,059. Niko, on the other hand, won a mere 160 votes – fewer than 308 racked up by Count Binface, who was also standing.
He fared better in the 2010 London mayoral elections, where he got nearly 50,000 votes with his policies of turning branches of McDonald’s with broken McFlurry machines into social housing and removing racists’ teeth. The tally made him the best-performing independent candidate, ahead of the likes of Laurence Fox.
Niko’s latest prank came just last month when he turned up at Unite The Kingdom, the London rally organised by Tommy Robinson, dressed as an old white man called Ron Side – a similar stunt to the one that went viral in 2018 and catapulted him to fame.
Aiming to expose the racist views of attendees, he interviewed members of the public for a video that saw him branded “one of the bravest people alive”.
He said afterwards that not everyone who attended the march was a racist but that “it’s clear a lot of racists feel very comfortable being involved”.