🇲🇺 Starmer resignation throws the Rs 10.6 billion Chagos deal into doubt

Starmer resignation throws the Rs 10.6 billion Chagos deal into doubt

Sir Keir Starmer is out as Britain's prime minister, and his exit lands straight on Mauritius. His resignation leaves the Chagos sovereignty deal without the man who drove it, and a Rs 10.6 billion gap staring back at the national budget. Not loose change. It is money the state has already banked.

Under the agreement, Britain would recognise Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago while leasing back Diego Garcia, the military base it runs there with the United States. Those lease payments were folded into the 2026-27 budget read on 19 June. Take them out, and the sums stop adding up.

Starmer owned that settlement. Whoever follows him has promised nothing, and a deal left half done is a deal someone can reopen. For Port Louis the trouble is timing. The Rs 10.6 billion was meant to help shrink the deficit this year, not wait on a leadership contest in London. Until Number 10 has a new occupant, the cheque stays uncashed.

Fraud watchdog handled 57 online scam cases in 15 months

Fifty-seven. That is how many cybercrime and electronic fraud cases the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC), the body that chases money offences, says it has handled in just 15 months. The scams keep finding new victims across the island.

Director general Sanjay Dawoodarry said the hardest cases are the ones that cross borders, where suspects sit abroad and investigators must request foreign legal help to move at all. He spoke at the FCC Youth Forum 2026, on staying safe online. His ask was blunt: banks, business and the public have to share what they know, or the fraudsters keep winning.

Your car and home cover gets a new 5% tax from January

A new 5% tax on short-term insurance is coming, and the industry has already settled who pays: you. PM Ramgoolam unveiled it in the budget on 19 June; the levy hits car, medical and home cover from 1 January 2027, on new policies and renewals alike. Life cover is spared.

Abdel Ruhomutally of the Insurers Association pegs the floor at 5.26%. Insurers say the maths is simple, the cost lands on the customer. Households are already sore: premiums climbed 20 to 30% in January, before this tax arrives.

Twelve years on, a guilty plea in the Eishanne Coowar killing

"I ask the family and the court for forgiveness. I never set out to kill." With those words Jean Ricardo Archiane pleaded guilty to the 2013 killing of Eishanne Coowar at Eau-Coulée, 12 years on.

Archiane, 23 then, admitted taking a knife to the victim's home on 6 July 2013 over an unpaid Rs 15,000 debt. Prosecutors want 20 to 30 years. Sentencing follows.

Plastic tax to push up prices on nearly 1,000 everyday goods

Almost 1,000 everyday products are about to cost more. From 1 October 2026 the Rs 2 plastic bottle levy stretches well beyond fizzy drinks to cover a long list of household items wrapped in plastic. Small per item. It adds up basket by basket.

Shorts

Tamarin barman killed in Case-Noyale crash – Naraindeo Neemaye, 47, died on his motorbike early Monday while riding home.

Mauritian, 59, held in Saudi drug arrest – Ganeshan Irlen was detained in Saudi Arabia after police found drugs on him.

Standard Chartered keeps custodian title – Standard Chartered held onto its best custodian bank title for second year running.

Anticyclone brings a 14° chill and big swells – Vacoas warns of gusts to 50 km/h and swells up to 3 metres this week.

Three more held in Port-Louis extortion case – Police arrested three alleged accomplices after the suspected ringleader.

Rs 500,000

The new customs line above which travellers must declare cash, jewellery or precious metals on the way in. Skip the declaration and you face penalty under the 2026-27 budget rules.

Rs 14 to Rs 90

The extra you now pay per bottle of rum, vodka, whisky, gin or liqueur, depending on the type, after the budget excise rise took effect on 20 June.

2 goals

Lionel Messi's double against Austria on Monday made him, at 38, the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, one more line in a career that keeps refusing to end.

Guinea bans raw gold exports to keep value at home

Guinea will no longer let raw gold leave the country. The government outlawed exports of the unprocessed metal this week, betting that forcing refining at home will keep more of the money, and the jobs, inside Guinea rather than overseas. It is a gamble plenty of African producers are now weighing: refine it yourself, or keep shipping it raw and cheap.

Kenya stops work on a US Ebola centre

Kenya's health minister told a court the government has stopped a US Ebola quarantine site, days after a judge held the minister in contempt for ignoring an order to halt the work.

Algeria edge Jordan for a first World Cup win since 2014

Two late corners turned it around as Algeria beat Jordan 2 goals to 1, their first World Cup win in over a decade and a real lift for their knockout hopes.

Israel orders Shiite villages emptied in southern Lebanon

Israel has ordered Shiite majority communities in southern Lebanon to clear out, accusing residents of backing Hezbollah, while telling Christian, Sunni and other families they can stay.

That split along sect lines is exactly what many feared. The displaced worry it revives divisions that had mostly slept since Lebanon's 1982 to 2000 civil war, when the same fault lines ran with blood. A border emptied by sect is hard to refill as one.

Mbappé double on his 100th cap sends France through

On his 100th cap for France, Kylian Mbappé struck twice in the rain to beat Iraq and carry France into the last 16.

UK shuts schools as a heatwave sets records

English schools are closing early and some stay shut into Thursday as Britain braces for record June heat.

A British governor's heir comes to talk reparations

What does a colonial governor's family owe the island he once ran? A descendant of Sir Henry Barkly, Mauritius's tenth British governor between 1863 and 1870, is due here at the end of July to help ask exactly that.

She is not coming as a tourist. A historian in the global reparations movement, she wants to talk slavery, recognition and what repair might mean, on the soil her ancestor governed.

🙏 Merci, à demain! 👋

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