What happened
India has summoned a senior US diplomat following an incident off the coast of Oman where US forces fired on a Palau-flagged vessel, accusing it of breaching an American blockade of Iranian oil exports. The ship was carrying 24 Indian crew members, three of whom are currently missing.

US Central Command said an aircraft had fired “precision munitions” into the engine room of the Palau-flagged Settebello after its crew allegedly ignored repeated instructions from US forces. India said 21 crew members were rescued following the incident.

Who said what
The “targeting of commercial shipping and civilian infrastructure in the region must end”, said the Indian government. US Central Command said the strike was carried out only after the vessel failed to comply with directions from its forces.

The incident “has intensified legal and ethical questions surrounding the US naval blockade of Iran”, said Al Jazeera. “It could also further damage India-US ties”, which were “already at their lowest point in decades.”

What next?
While the US blockade is thought to have sharply cut Iran’s oil exports, officials in Tehran show no signs of giving in to Washington’s demands.

What happened
More than 1,250 Ministry of Defence-issued devices have been misplaced or stolen since 2024, according to new figures obtained by Sky News via a freedom of information request.

Smartphones accounted for more than half of the missing devices (774), along with 545 laptops and tablets. None have been recovered.

Who said what
“Seeing taxpayer cash vanish into a black hole of lost laptops and stolen phones is a kick in the teeth,” said Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson James MacCleary.

The cost of replacing the devices, the vast majority of which were lost by staff, “could be as much as £1,634,944”, said Sky News, and “comes at a time when the department is under immense pressure to deliver value for money”.

An MoD spokesperson told the broadcaster that the department had “robust policies and procedures to prevent losses and thefts”.

What next?
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the amount of missing items “raises questions about security in our most sensitive government department”, and he called on ministers to take action “to ensure as few devices as possible go missing”.

“Just happy to be here” is the category assigned to a host of footballing nations – including Haiti, Panama and newcomers Curaçao and Cape Verde – by the San Francisco Chronicle ahead of the men’s 2026 World Cup.

Unlike the established national teams coming into the competition with “high expectations”, these unlikely contenders have spent decades on the fringes of international football.

“One of the most topsy-turvy weeks in World Cup qualifying history” saw a handful of heavyweight footballing nations fail to qualify, while several “tiny nations reached the finals for the first time”, said ESPN.

Fifa’s decision to expand the World Cup finals from 32 to 48 teams has created more pathways for smaller countries to qualify, including first-timers Curaçao, Cape Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan. These nations have spent years building a footballing infrastructure that punches well above their demographic weight.

There is cause for optimism even among the smallest participating nations, according to The Athletic: when the women’s World Cup expanded its own group stage in 2023, there were predictions of drubbings, but “the underdogs fared much better than expected”.

Most of the “minnows” are likely to focus on defence against the stronger sides in their group as they aim to “keep the scorelines respectable” before taking a more aggressive stance against their weakest rival “in the knowledge that a single win in the group stage may take them through”.

And football is, perhaps “more than most sports”, known for its “shocks”, including when Saudi Arabia beat Lionel Messi’s Argentina, the eventual champions, in a 2022 group match, said Joshua McLeod and Hunter Fujak, sports lecturers at Deakin University in Melbourne, on The Conversation. “Could we see Cape Verde or Curaçao produce an even greater World Cup upset?”