About 40 million people across the southern US are at risk for severe weather Sunday as storms move into the Lower Mississippi Valley and the central Gulf Coast states, bringing the risk of large hail and damaging winds.

There is an enhanced risk of severe weather, considered Level 3 of 5, for an area across the lower Mississippi River Valley, including Arkansas, northern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

The storms will be “fast-moving, including the potential for both supercells and linear/bowing structures,” which typically produce strong wind events, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

A new round of storms is likely to develop across the region and into the Florida Panhandle Sunday afternoon and evening, where a few isolated tornadoes are possible.

Overnight, there were 220 reports of severe weather, including eight tornadoes, across parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and along the Gulf Coast.

As of noon ET, more than 600,000 customers were without power in the South, including about 300,000 in Oklahoma and more than 100,000 in both Texas and Louisiana, according to PowerOutage.us.

The Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s outage map indicated there are about 200,000 customer outages in the region, particularly in and around Tulsa.

“Due to the level of damage and hazards, this will be a multi-day recovery event,” the company said in a Facebook post. “Estimated times of restoration for customers who can accept power will be available Monday morning.”

The City of Tulsa said nearly 250 power poles/lines were down and said 911 received more than 4,500 calls about those lines between midnight and 5 a.m. City officials urged residents to stay off the roads and stay home on Sunday if possible.

The Tulsa Police Department has activated the Incident Management Team and officers were prioritizing storm-related injury and emergency calls, the department posted on Facebook.

“More than 35 City of Tulsa crews are clearing Tulsa’s main streets, with others working to assess storm conditions neighborhood-by-neighborhood. Work will occur during daylight hours throughout the next few days,” the post said.

Near-record heat hits south

The risk of severe weather is just one of a number of weather issues facing the Southeast.

Showers and thunderstorms may also produce flooding from the mid-South to the Gulf Coast, according to the National Weather Service. Heavy rainfall could lead to isolated flash flooding, especially across portions of the Florida Panhandle and northern and central Florida.

Meanwhile, as the South sees hail and heavy rainfall, parts of the Gulf Coast are under excessive heat warnings. A total of 32 million people across central and southern Texas, Louisiana and southern Mississippi are under heat alerts today, which will likely continue for several days.

Temperatures will soar into the triple digits with heat index values in some areas close to 120 degrees. The heat is 10-15 degrees above normal for this time of year, and a handful of records could be either set or tied.

Cities across the south are preparing for hot weather by opening cooling centers, as some are still cleaning up from storms that have left thousands without power.

The City of Houston is opening cooling centers from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. CT on Sunday and Monday as the city braces for high temperatures. Caddo Parish in Louisiana has also opened additional cooling centers as the parish still grapples with power outages and storm cleanup.

“Parish officials will continue to monitor the power restoration with SWEPCO and Homeland Security to determine how long centers will be open,” the parish said in a release.

Storms left several dead in south

The severe weather comes days after storms tore a deadly path across Texas, Florida and Mississippi.

The tornado, packing estimated peak winds of 140 mph, damaged homes and businesses in the town of some 8,000 residents, including the local fire department and EMS, as well as multiple mobile homes, Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher said, noting many of the department’s trucks were damaged.

In Mississippi, one person died after severe weather swept through the state overnight, the Mississippi Department of Emergency Management said in a release. Preliminary reports showed more than 70 homes have been damaged.

A person in Florida died after being trapped when a tree fell on their home, Escambia County officials said. The county, which includes Pensacola, was hit with flash flooding emergencies overnight as water inundated roadways entered several structures.

Many of the areas hit with severe conditions Thursday could see storms return.

Large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes are possible in Montgomery and Mobile in Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; and Tallahassee, Florida.

A marginal, Level 1 of 5 risk is in place from South Dakota to Florida and for parts of the mid-Atlantic. Cities in the marginal risk area, which could see large hail and damaging winds, include Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, Denver and Jacksonville, Florida.

It was the sort of astonishing run the world has come to expect from those who don Argentina’s iconic number 10 soccer jersey.

From the corner of the pitch, the fleet-footed figure evades one challenger and leaves two others trailing hopelessly in his wake as he sprints the length of half the pitch and high-fives his side’s goalkeeper, all to the adoring cheers of the crowd.

But this stunning display of athleticism on show during Argentina’s friendly match with Australia in Beijing on Thursday was not by Lionel Messi – though the man widely thought of as the world’s best player did his own fair share of crowd-pleasing by scoring his fastest ever goal, in just 79 seconds.

It was by a young Chinese pitch invader, eager to meet his hero, the seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or.

Videos that have gone viral on Chinese social media show the young fan leaping from the stands before sprinting toward the Argentine striker – who like him was wearing the number 10 jersey – and giving him a hug. The clips show Messi, who appears initially shocked, stretching out his arms and hugging the fan back.

With the crowd cheering three security guards then give chase, the first of them falling over as the young fan evades his grasp. The fan then raises his hands as he outsprints the other two guards and high-fives Argentina’s goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. It is only after the fan eventually trips up himself that security finally catch up to him and take him back to the stands, where he is greeted like a hero.

For many onlookers, the brief interlude was one of the most entertaining moments of an event that has drawn widespread interest across China since the 35-year-old Messi arrived in Beijing on Saturday.

On Chinese social media, many users – football fans or otherwise – celebrated the young fan’s sprint across the grass pitch as a liberating moment.

For some, his daring dash through security lines has become a symbol of freedom and youthful vitality in a society still reeling from the trauma of three years of Covid restrictions and feeling the squeeze of a slowing economy.

“This kind of running is exactly what is lacking in the increasingly desolate souls of the Chinese people,” says the headline of a widely circulated commentary on WeChat, which was later censored.

But even before the fan’s antics, interest in the event had been sky high.

Tickets to the match at the 68,000-capacity Workers’ Stadium, which cost up to $4,800 yuan ($670), sold out within 20 minutes, according to Chinese state media Global Times, while touts advertised tickets online for multiple times their face value.

Messi and his teammates were temporarily “trapped” in their Beijing hotel at the weekend after large numbers of fans gathered outside, Chinese state media reported.

So great has been the interest that local police cautioned members of the public to be on guard for scammers trying to sell fake tickets or bogus chances to meet the superstar.

Several unofficial social media accounts have claimed to be offering VIP stadium passes, front-row seats and autographed jerseys, often at widely inflated prices, while a viral – and bogus – ad claimed to be offering dinner opportunities with Messi at 300,000 yuan ($42,000) per person.

Beijing’s public security bureau debunked the advert on its official Weibo account, joking, “If you can be scammed of 300,000 yuan, then our police will raise a glass to you.”

On the pitch, Argentina eventually triumphed 2-0, though it maybe for other reasons that the game will be most remembered.

In a series of clips posted online after the game the fan apologized to his hero for his “bad behaviour.”

“Messi, I’m sorry… I’m really sorry to meet you this way. I really wanted your autograph, but they were chasing me, so I didn’t ask for it,” he said.

But he was less apologetic to the security guards he left flailing in his wake.

“I also hope to use my negative case to tell the security personnel that your security work is not competent and gave me such an opportunity,” he said, urging the authorities to step up their game before the Chinese capital hosts its next international sports event.

Beijing Police said later that an 18-year-old fan, identified only as “Di” had been put under “administrative detention”, but did not say for how long.

The fan has also been banned from entering sports venues as a spectator for similar games for 12 months. Police said he had offered an apology and accepted his punishment.

Weighing into the debate, a Chinese state media outlet said in an editorial that while the fan’s passion was understandable, it did not endorse his behavior, adding that it would disrupt matches and endanger safety.

Argentina will next travel to Jakarta for a friendly against Indonesia on June 19.

Police in Austria say they foiled an attack on Vienna’s annual Pride parade Saturday after arresting three suspects with alleged links to Islamic extremism.

The three – aged 14, 17 and 20 – are Austrian nationals of Bosnian and Chechen origin, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner from Austria’s State Protection and Intelligence Directorate (DSN) told journalists at a hastily called press conference Sunday.

They had allegedly become radicalized online and developed views sympathetic to ISIS, according to Haijawi-Pirchner.

“In our democratic society, hate and terror have no place,” he said.

State police president Gerhard Pürstl told journalists: “For the LGBTQ community, many Islamic as well as right-wing extremists represent an intense enemy, which is clear from the violent crimes that have been committed during events in the past across the world, as well as in Europe.”

The DSN had advance knowledge of the suspects’ alleged plans and kept them “under constant control.” The trio were arrested ahead of Saturday’s parade by Austria’s Cobra special forces.

“The investigations by the State Protection and Intelligence Directorate found that multiple people were planning an attack on the parade,” a statement released by Austria’s Interior Ministry said.

“The suspects were subsequently tracked down and taken into custody in a coordinated attack,” it said, adding that those attending the event were never in danger.

Authorities carried out searches on properties in Vienna and lower Austria, during which they seized banned weapons.

The annual Rainbow Parade is part of Vienna’s largest LGBTQ event in Austria – Vienna Pride – which runs from June 1 to 18. This year the march was attended by around 300,000 people.

A dozen police officers and several protesters were injured Saturday in clashes at the construction site of an Alpine railway tunnel connecting France and Italy.

Around 2,000 police were mobilized to the site to face more than 3,000 people protesting the 57-kilometer tunnel project that will connect the French city of Lyon with Turin in Italy upon completion, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.

An organization called “Uprisings of the Earth” had called for the demonstration.

Authorities in the department of Savoie had issued a ban on demonstrations on public roads near construction site.

“This is a protest that was banned because it was dangerous, because it gathers people who are delinquents and not activists,” Sacha Houlié, president of the legal commission at the French lower house told French TV Franceinfo on Sunday.

“Can we just take a moment to wonder why these radical ecologists are against the train,” Houlié told Franceinfo on Sunday.

The violent clashes, including scenes of police firing tear gas and protestors trying to block off a highway, have reignited debate around the tunnel project, agreed upon by France and Italy back in 2017 and partially sponsored by the EU.

“You can’t equate people demonstrating against a hole used as a basin with someone shooting up the Bataclan,” Mélenchon said.

Several officials from his party, France Unbowed, participated in the protest.

The French government estimates that the new tunnel, together with the high-speed railway, can cut travel time between Lyon and Turin by half and significantly reduce travel time between Paris and Milan too.

Those opposed to the project are concerned about possible environmental damage and say that existing train networks, albeit slower, can handle demand.

Embattled coach Bob Huggins has resigned as the men’s head basketball coach at West Virginia University and announced his retirement Saturday after he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Pittsburgh.

“My recent actions do not represent the values of the University or the leadership expected in this role. While I have always tried to represent our University with honor, I have let all of you – and myself – down,” Huggins said in a statement on Saturday.

“I am solely responsible for my conduct and sincerely apologize to the University community – particularly to the student-athletes, coaches and staff in our program. I must do better, and I plan to spend the next few months focused on my health and my family so that I can be the person they deserve.”

Pittsburgh Police said in a statement that just before 8:30 p.m. Friday, officers observed a black SUV with the driver’s door open in the middle of the road, blocking traffic. The vehicle had a “flat and shredded tire,” according to the statement.

Police said they directed the driver, Robert Huggins of Morgantown, West Virginia, to move the vehicle off the road and noticed Huggins was having difficulty maneuvering the SUV. Police said they questioned Huggins and, suspecting he was intoxicated, performed standard field sobriety tests, which Huggins failed.

Huggins was placed in custody without incident and transported for further testing.

The 16-year Mountaineers head coach was later released from custody and will face a preliminary hearing at a later date.

“Coach Huggins informed us of his intent to retire and has submitted his letter of resignation, and we have accepted it in light of recent events. We support his decision so that he can focus on his health and family,” university president E. Gordon Gee and vice president/director of athletics Wren Baker said in a statement.

West Virginia has not named a replacement but said the school will be focused on supporting the student athletes in the men’s program and solidifying the leadership of the program.

Last month, Huggins had his salary reduced by $1 million per year and received a three-game suspension after he used a homophobic slur while appearing on a Cincinnati radio show. Huggins was also instructed to participate in sensitivity training and had his multiyear contract amended to a year-to-year deal.

After his comments, Huggins apologized and admitted there was no excuse for his hurtful language.

“I deeply regret my actions,” Huggins said. “I also regret the embarrassment and disappointment it has caused our Athletics family, members of our campus community and the state of West Virginia.”

At the time, Gee described the long-time Mountaineers coach’s language as “inexcusable” and “offensive.”

In his coaching career, Huggins tallied 935 victories in his 41 seasons as head coach, which ranks as the third-most wins in college basketball history among Division I head coaches.

During his tenure as West Virginia head coach, he led the men’s program to 345 wins while reaching the NCAA Tournament 11 times, including five NCAA Sweet 16’s and the 2010 NCAA Final Four.

Before becoming the head coach of the Mountaineers, Huggins was a head coach at the University of Akron (1984-1989), University of Cincinnati (1989-2005), and Kansas State University (2006-2007).

Huggins was selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.

Rickie Fowler led the US Open by two shots heading into the last hole of his third round. When the 34-year-old tees off on Sunday, he will do so tied at the top.

The American winced in pain as his five-foot putt for par agonizingly rolled around the lip of the 18th hole, as compatriot Wyndham Clark promptly birdied to rub salt into the wound and set up a tantalizing final round battle at Los Angeles Country Club.

“Bummer to have that one slip away, but tomorrow is a whole new day,” said Fowler, who holed a stunning 69-foot putt at the 13th hole.

“That’s when the tournament really starts.”

Tied at 10-under overall, Fowler and Clark each sit 18 holes from a dream first major title after shooting even-par 70 and one-under 69 respectively. It marked the highest rounds recorded yet by both players, as more Californian sunshine firmed up fairways and greens, leading to a rise in scores across the field.

Clark continued to dazzle on his first ever US Open weekend, rebounding superbly after back-to-back bogeys at the 11th and 12th holes threatened to send him sliding.

Having missed the cut at both previous outings at the tournament and with a tied-75th finish at 2021 PGA Championship his best ever major finish, the 29-year-old is in uncharted waters, but remains unfazed.

“I felt like I handled all of it really well,” Clark said.

“Two back-to-back bogeys which were unfortunate but followed it up with birdie, and then birdieing at the end I felt like I handled all the adversity, and I feel like my best round is still out there.”

McIlroy in the hunt

The duo will tee off together at 5:30 p.m. ET tomorrow, but will have to hold off the chase of seasoned winner Rory McIlroy to achieve their major aspirations. Just one stroke behind, the Northern Irishman remains within striking distance of ending a nine-year wait for a fifth career major.

The world No. 3 looked dialed in from the outset, booming a 388-yard effort with his maiden swing of the day to record the longest drive of the day from the first tee.

“Felt like I played really smart, solid golf,” McIlroy said.

“Hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens. Sort of felt somewhat stress free out there, if you can ever call golf at a U.S. Open stress free.”

A blazing finish catapulted Scottie Scheffler into contention, with the world No.1 heading into Sunday three shots behind Clark and Fowler.

Scheffler closed with an eagle and a birdie to card 68 and reignite his hopes of adding to his 2022 Masters title.

“Definitely a huge momentum boost going into tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll just keep it rolling,” he said.

Schauffele loses more ground

McIlroy is the only non-American inside the top six, with Harris English a shot behind Scheffler in fifth, one stroke ahead of Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele, who lost further ground on the lead after a rollercoaster Saturday.

Schauffele, who had set a record-breaking first round pace alongside Fowler, shot three bogeys across his first five holes, and three more in the closing six, to card 73.

Incredibly, the damage could have been even worse, as the seven-time champion scrambled brilliantly to only escape with a bogey at the first hole after taking three swings to escape a bunker.

With reigning champion Matt Fitzpatrick nine shots back from Clark and Fowler, a title defense looks unlikely, as does a second consecutive major for Brooks Koepka. Last month’s major champion trails Fitzpatrick by a stroke at even-par overall.

Romeo Beckham, the son of former England and Manchester United star David Beckham, has signed a one-year contract with Brentford B, the Premier League club announced.

Brentford, whose senior team plays in English soccer’s top division, said the club had an option to extend the deal by an additional year.

The 20-year-old played for the B team last season while on loan from Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer club which is father co-owns, playing 15 times and scoring once.

Speaking to the club, Beckham said of the new deal: “Best feeling, so excited, ready to get started and have a good next season.”

“It’s been such a good experienced and [I have] loved every second of it,” he said of his time on loan at the club. “It’s a good group of boys, good coaches, it’s a nice place to be.”

Brentford B coach Neil MacFarlane said in a statement on the club’s website: “We added Romeo to our squad in January and he’s been fantastic for the group.

“He’s had a terrific end to the season in terms of his recent match against Manchester City where he showed what he’s learned during his loan with us.

“We’ve continued to develop him in and out of possession and we look forward to him coming back in good spirits to continue working with him next season.”

Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bob Brown, known for his aggressive and intimidating style of play in the 1960s and early 70s, died on Friday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced.

“Bob Brown demonstrated different personalities on and off the field,” Hall president Jim Porter said in a statement Saturday. “On the field, he was as fierce an opponent as any defensive linemen or linebacker ever faced. He used every tactic and technique – and sometimes brute force – to crush the will of the person across the line from him. And took great pride in doing so.

“Yet off the field, he demonstrated a quiet, soft-spoken and caring nature that his son, Robert Jr., captured eloquently when he presented his dad for enshrinement in 2004. The Hall extends its thoughts and prayers to CeCe and Robert Jr. for their loss,” Porter said.

An All-American at the University of Nebraska, Brown led the Cornhuskers to a conference title in his final season in 1963. He would be enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

Once called “the most aggressive lineman that ever played” by the legendary John Madden, Brown was selected with the No. 2 pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1964 NFL Draft. The towering 6-foot-4 and 280 pound lineman made an immediate impact with the Eagles, where he made three All-Pro teams in his five years with the team.

After requesting a trade ahead of the 1969 season, Brown was dealt to the Los Angeles Rams, where he continued his success by earning All-Pro and Pro Bowl recognition in his two years with the team. During his first year with the Rams, the team allowed only 17 sacks in 416 pass attempts.

Following his stint with the Rams, Brown was traded to the then-Oakland Raiders in 1971, now known as the Las Vegas Raiders, where he played under Madden. Recurring knee injuries would force Brown to retire in 1973.

“Bob was the most intimidating player I’ve ever seen. I had opponents come up to me during games and say, ‘Gene, tell Bob to stop hitting me,’” Hall of Fame guard and Raiders teammate Gene Upshaw said of Brown, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

In his 10 seasons in the NFL, Brown played in 126 regular season games and was selected to six Pro Bowls and five All-Pro first teams.

Brown was selected as a member of the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1960s and was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.

“The Raiders Family mourns the passing of Hall of Fame tackle Bob Brown,” the Raiders said in a statement.

“A five-time All-Pro first team selection in 10 NFL seasons, Brown was among the toughest and most intimidating linemen in football history. He played his final three seasons with the Silver and Black and earned his sixth-career Pro Bowl nod with the Raiders in 1971. He was enshrined in Canton in 2004. The thoughts and prayers of the entire Raider Nation are with the Brown Family at this time.”

A popular song from Hong Kong’s democracy movement has begun to disappear from several major music streaming sites – including in some locations overseas – days after the Chinese business hub’s local government filed an injunction to ban the tune.

“Glory to Hong Kong” was created in 2019 and became the unofficial anthem of the now crushed democracy protests in the city, with demonstrators singing renditions throughout the mass protests that raged across the city for months on end that year.

The ballad contains lyrics that reference the phrase “liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” a protest slogan that has been already outlawed in 2020 for what the government and courts have declared are the phrase’s secessionist and subversive connotations.

Multiple versions of the song posted by “ThomasDGX & HongKongers,” known to be the original composer of the orchestral anthem, were no longer available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Google to users within the city on Wednesday.

A Facebook account tied to the original composers said it was “dealing with some technical issues unrelated to the streaming services” in a post.

Multiple versions and covers of the song have been recorded by other artists.

The titles of those covers can still be seen on Spotify in other parts of the world, including the United States, South Korea and Australia.

Users in the US cannot purchase the song on Apple Music either, although it also still yields search results on the platform.

The song can no longer be found on Apple Music and KKBOX in Taiwan, however multiple versions of it are still available on YouTube.

Following its 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong was promised key freedoms and autonomy to run its own affairs. As a result it flourished as a bastion for free speech and creative expression within authoritarian China.

But a crackdown on dissent in the aftermath of the democracy protests has since transformed the city, especially after a sweeping national security law was imposed by Beijing in 2020.

Protest leaders have been arrested or driven into exile, while the government persists on scrubbing references to the social unrest and calls for democracy in the city. New laws have also been passed to increase censorship of films to “safeguard national security.”

Battle in court

Music is now coming under closer scrutiny.

Hong Kong’s government filed a court injunction on June 5 seeking to ban the broadcast or distribution of the protest song after it was mistakenly played at several international sporting events.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, city leader John Lee – a former police chief – said authorities were taking action because “Glory to Hong Kong” was “not compatible with the national interest.”

Under the injunction filed by the Department of Justice, the song’s “melody or lyrics or in combination” would be banned to avoid “inciting others to commit secession.”

It further seeks to restrain anyone from “broadcasting, performing, printing, publishing, selling, offering for sale, distributing, disseminating, displaying or reproducing (the song) in any way.”

The writ also listed 32 YouTube videos of the song, including instrumental and sign language versions.

The government’s bid to outlaw the song was heard in the High Court on Monday, but the judge has postponed a decision on the interim injunction to July 21, public broadcaster RTHK reported.

The head of Amnesty International’s China team, Sarah Brooks, described the government’s move to outlaw the song as “absurd.”

“The Hong Kong government must end its increasingly fervent crackdown on freedom of expression. A song is not a threat to national security, and national security may not be used as an excuse to deny people the right to express different political views,” Brooks said.

The semi-autonomous city does not have its own anthem. It uses the Chinese national anthem “March of the Volunteers” at events and in schools ever since it returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, while during the years under British rule, the city sang “God Save The Queen.”

The use of “Glory to Hong Kong” at international sporting events infuriated officials who previously criticized Google for listing the song in search results for the city’s anthem, something Google said was decided by its algorithm which returns results based on a host of criteria including popularity and relevance.

Playing the song in public in Hong Kong is now fraught with legal risk. Last year, a man who played the tune on a harmonica during a vigil for Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II was arrested by police on suspicion of sedition.

India’s two aircraft carriers led their battle groups in a combined operation in the Arabian Sea earlier this week, showcasing what the service calls its “formidable maritime capabilities” and ability to project power around the Indian Ocean and beyond.

Analysts say it’s a big accomplishment and one that only the United States Navy has pulled off in recent memory.

“This is not a small achievement and underlines that the Indian Navy is one of very few in the world that operates more than one aircraft carrier,” said Nick Childs, senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The two aircraft carriers, INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant, led the exercise with more than 35 aircraft and an array of surface ships and submarines, according to a press release from the Indian Navy.

“The successful demonstration of two-carrier battle group operations serves as a powerful testament to the pivotal role of sea-based air power in maintaining maritime superiority,” the release said.

India became capable of dual-carrier operations when the $3 billion Vikrant, India’s first domestically built carrier, was commissioned last September, joining Vikramaditya, which was bought from Russia and went into service in 2013.

Upon Vikrant’s commissioning last year, India joined only the United Kingdom and China in commissioning a domestically built aircraft carrier in the previous three years.

But while both China and the UK have more than one aircraft carrier in their modern fleets, neither has yet to perform dual-carrier operations with them, analysts said.

Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said India’s naval history may put it ahead of China, whose People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is the world’s largest, in the current operating environment for aircraft carriers.

“The Indian Navy has had decades-long experience and expertise in aircraft carrier ops and this is probably the key advantage it possesses over the PLA Navy, its key rival in this field, despite the latter’s relative advance in its indigenous aircraft carrier program,” Koh said.

China has two aircraft carriers in service, the Soviet-built Liaoning and the domestically built Shandong, while a third carrier, the Fujian, has been launched but not commissioned.

Hawaii-based analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, said India’s dual-carrier operations this week show “the rejuvenation of the Indian Navy.”

India commissioned its first aircraft carrier in 1961 and added a second in 1987. It has operated two aircraft carriers on two previous occasions, between 1987 and 1997, and between 2013 and 2017.

“It should be remembered that the Indian Navy has always been a highly trained, tightly disciplined and very proficient force,” Schuster said.

The Indian Navy press release called the carriers “floating sovereign airfields,” adding that “they provide our friends with an assurance that the Indian Navy is capable and ready to support our ‘collective’ security needs in the region.”

New Delhi’s forces have been stepping up cooperation with other navies in the Indo-Pacific, including those in the informal Quad partnership – the United States, Japan and Australia – in the annual Malabar naval exercises.

“India’s partnerships and collaborative exercises with other navies have broadened the navy’s operational knowledge and open ocean experiences,” Schuster said.

What the Indian Navy can learn about dual-carrier operations from the United States could be substantial. The US Navy operates the world’s largest carrier fleet – 11 warships – and just last week had two of those, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, operating together in the Philippine Sea.

The US Navy sees China as a “pacing threat” in the Indo-Pacific, and India’s naval operations look toward China too, Schuster said.

“China’s aggression along the (shared Himalayan) border and expanding operations and presence in the Indian Ocean have become India’s most serious security concern. The naval expansion and modernization is intended to address that concern,” Schuster said.

But even with the advancements demonstrated by the dual-carrier operation, India’s carrier program still has question marks, said Childs from IISS.

“While an impressive-looking display, there may be some question over what this really amounts to as yet in terms of actual operational capability,” he said, noting that images from the Indian operation showed relatively few fighter aircraft on the decks of the Vikramaditya and Vikrant.

“This may indicate limited aircraft availability, or that the ships’ capacities are somewhat constrained at the moment. It would certainly suggest that the Indian Navy could do with more carrier aircraft,” Childs said.