India and Cyprus to boost defence and maritime cooperation, Modi says
India will strengthen its defence partnership with Cyprus through expanded collaboration between their defence sectors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday during a state visit to the island nation — the first by an Indian premier in over two decades.
Modi, following talks with the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, stated that bilateral cooperation in maritime security and cybersecurity would be intensified, although he did not elaborate on specifics.
The two nations also agreed to establish an information-sharing framework aimed at countering terrorism.
In a joint statement, both leaders pledged to enhance maritime cooperation, including more frequent Indian naval visits to Cypriot ports and the exploration of joint training and search-and-rescue operations.
Highlighting the strategic importance of Cyprus in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), Modi said the initiative could foster 'peace and prosperity in the Middle East.'
The corridor aims to enhance trade, energy, and digital connectivity, positioning Cyprus as a key hub due to its proximity to India and the Middle East.
Christodoulides described Cyprus as India's 'gateway into Europe,' offering a base for Indian firms looking to expand westward.
He committed to backing key infrastructure initiatives like IMEC and noted that deepening India-EU ties — including progress on a free trade agreement — would be a priority during Cyprus's EU presidency in the first half of 2026.
Modi hailed the visit as the beginning of a 'new era' in India-Cyprus relations, rooted in long-standing ties and mutual values.
Both countries, once British colonies, share a history of cooperation through the Non-Aligned Movement, having remained independent of Cold War allegiances.
As Israel and Iran exchange fire for the fourth consecutive day, unverified footage of missile and drone attacks targeted at both countries is spreading virally online.
Euronews' fact-checking and verification team, Euroverify, has been taking a closer look at some of those videos in order to verify their authenticity and corroborate the location of strikes.
Verifying such footage is crucial in this conflict. It allows us to debunk false reports and ensure the footage used in our reporting is authentic.
Videos generated using artificial intelligence and falsely claiming to show Israeli and Iranian strikes are spreading virally online.
This video, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, claims to show destruction caused by Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
But our analysis shows that the video has been clearly generated using AI. A closer look reveals that artificial-looking rays are emanating from one of the cooling towers. A fire truck can also be seen on the precipice of a crater while some of the emergency workers seem to disappear into thin air.
Other AI-generated videos spreading virally claim to show damage caused to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport by an Iranian strike.
Euroverify detected several versions of the videos circulating on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X.
But the video is clearly the work of AI, and is being shared widely by known disinformation accounts.
While Iran's semi-official state media Mehr has reported that Iranian strikes struck Ben Gurion airport in Israel's largest city on Sunday, those reports have not been verified.
We also detected online users falsely linking old videos of unrelated events to the current strikes.
A video showing what appears to be a residential building engulfed in flames was shared by Al Jazeera's Arabic profile on X, with the caption: 'Massive fires in Tel Aviv sites as a result of the Iranian missile attack.'
But a reverse image search shows that the same video was first circulating online in early May, meaning it cannot show damage caused by the current exchange of fire.
A Facebook user shared the video on 10 May, claiming it shows the impact of an airstrike of fire between India and Pakistan.
A brief but intense exchange of fire between those two countries took place from 7 to 10 May, but we were unable to verify whether the video in question shows damage resulting from those attacks.
Another widely shared image claims to show an explosion at an Iranian oil refinery caused by an Israeli strike.
We used a reverse image search to find that the picture in fact comes from a video showing a November 2020 explosion at a petrochemical plant in Ilam, Iran.
The explosion was widely covered by Iranian media, and has no link to the ongoing conflict between Tehran and Tel Aviv.
Israeli strikes have nonetheless struck key energy infrastructure including the South Pars gas field in southern Iran and the Shahran oil depot in Tehran.
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The president of the European Commission declared, point blank, that the source of "the biggest collective problem" in the global trading system lay in China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Beijing's entry into the WTO has been highly controversial as it opened international markets to a wave of low-cost exports. The admission is linked to the so-called "China shock" and a decline in manufacturing jobs in both the EU and the US. At the G7 summit, von der Leyen warned a "new China shock" was underway. It was a gloves-off denunciation that laid bare the state of mind of the Commission chief, her mounting displeasure and exasperation. In many ways, it was a return to the hawkish stance of her first mandate, during which she famously promoted the concept of "de-risking" to slash vulnerable dependencies that China could exploit. Beijing was quick to hit back at von der Leyen's invective. 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Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the 50th anniversary of bilateral relations as an opportunity to "open up a brighter future" in diplomacy. Von der Leyen replied: "We remain committed to deepening our partnership with China. A balanced relationship, built on fairness and reciprocity, is in our common interest." But in her G7 intervention, delivered with Trump in the room, this commitment was conspicuous by its absence. Instead, she let the hawk fly free and wild. At the core of her speech was Beijing's recent decision to restrict the sales of seven rare earth materials, which she said amounted to "weaponising" trade. China holds a quasi-monopolistic position over rare earths, the 17 metallic elements that are essential for building cutting-edge technologies. The country commands roughly 60% of the world's supply and 90% of the processing and refining capacity. 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Trade will be at the very top of the agenda at the EU-China summit, with both sides looking forward to having something to announce. Brussels is keen to put an end to China's probes into brandy, pork and dairy products, which it considers unjustified. But as the date nears, hopes for a trade breakthrough that can make a tangible difference on the ground and relieve some of the tensions are fading, as von der Leyen's hardened tone at the G7 demonstrated. "It's about being realistic: we still see China as a partner, competitor and rival," a senior diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We have to be perhaps more confident about our interests, what we can do to pursue them better, but also act when actions are taken that threaten the stability of our continent." 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