Category World News

Ten women and three children were among at least 15 people killed in a crowd crush at a train station in India’s capital New Delhi, as thousands of Hindu pilgrims waited to board trains to attend the annual Mahakumbh Mela religious festival.

The incident unfolded on Saturday night at about 8pm local time (14:30 GMT) on two platforms at the New Delhi Railway Station as huge crowds waited to board trains to Prayagraj city, where the festival is being held, some 624km (387 miles) southeast of the capital.

Delhi’s Chief Minister Atishi, who only uses one name, told reporters that 15 people had died, while the local news outlet NDTV reported that the death toll was 18 people.

India’s Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw said four trains had been deployed to “evacuate” a sudden and unprecedented surge of travellers at the station and an investigation has been ordered to find out what went wrong.

High-level inquiry ordered https://t.co/Egaifp5Onx

Video footage shared on social media by local news organisations showed people jostling as they tried to force their way onto packed train carriages.

“People were running across platforms and there was a chaotic situation that led to people falling on each other,” a man who witnessed the events told India’s ANI news agency.

The Times of India said witnesses reported a “crowd surge” that was sparked by the delay of two trains which led to an unexpectedly large number of passengers waiting on platforms. When people rushed to board an arriving train, “the situation spiralled out of control, with some passengers fainting amid the sudden surge”, the media outlet reported.

“This sparked rumours of a stampede, leading to further panic,” it said.

The Mahakumbh is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, and officials said about 500 million devotees have already visited the festival since it began in January.

Crowd crushes regularly occur at India’s major religious festivals.

At least 30 people were killed in a crush at the Mahakumbh last month when tens of millions of Hindus gathered to bathe in sacred river waters. The centrepiece of the six-week festival is the ritual bathing at the point where the Ganges and Yamuna merge with the mythical Saraswati River.

At least 36 people were also crushed to death in 2013, the last time the festival was held in Prayagraj, and more than 400 died after they were trampled or drowned on a single day of the festival in 1954.

Europe will be excluded from talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, the United States lead Ukraine envoy said.

General Keith Kellogg made the announcement on Saturday after the US sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.

Trump took European allies by surprise this week by calling Russia’s President Vladimir Putin without consulting them or Kyiv beforehand and declaring an immediate start to Ukraine peace talks.

The Trump administration has made it clear to European allies in NATO to take primary responsibility for the region, stating that the US has other priorities, such as border security and countering China.

Asked if he could assure the audience that Ukrainians and Europeans would be at the table for talks, Kellogg told a global security conference in Munich that “the answer to that last question, just as you framed it, is no”.

Ukrainians, however, will “of course” be at the table, he said, adding it would be foolish to suggest otherwise.

European leaders were swift to react.

“There’s no way in which we can have discussions or negotiations about Ukraine, Ukraine’s future or European security structure, without Europeans,” Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told the same security conference in Munich. “But this means that Europe needs to get its act together. Europe needs to talk less and do more.”

A European diplomat said the US questionnaire included six queries, with one specifically for European Union member states.

“The Americans are approaching European capitals and asking how many soldiers they are ready to deploy,” one diplomat said, the Reuters news agency reported.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte chimed in by urging Europeans to get their act together.

“To my European friends, I would say, get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending,” he said in Munich.

France is discussing with its allies the possibility of holding an informal meeting among European leaders on the issue, a French presidency official said on Saturday.

Kellogg told the conference that talks aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine could focus on territorial concessions from Russia and targeting Putin’s oil revenues.

“Russia is really a petrostate,” he said, adding that Western powers needed to do more regarding effectively enforcing sanctions on Russia.

Kellogg’s announcement came shortly after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the creation of a European army, saying the continent could no longer be sure of protection from the US and would only get respect from Washington with a strong military.

“Let’s be honest – now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on issues that threaten it,” said Zelenskyy.

A two-year-old girl and her mother have died from injuries suffered in a car-ramming attack earlier this week in the German city of Munich that left 37 others injured.

“Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother,” police spokesman Ludwig Waldinger told the AFP news agency.
An Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving a car into a trade union demonstration on Thursday.

According to prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann, the 24-year-old Afghan national admitted to having deliberately driven a white Mini Cooper into a labour union demonstration in the Bavarian capital on Thursday.

Tilmann said the motive remained unclear, and there was no evidence to suggest the suspect was affiliated with any “Islamist” or “terrorist” organisations. She added that there was no indication of any accomplices.

The man was in Germany legally and had no previous convictions.

Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators have marched through central London to protest Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip.

Waving Palestinian flags and brandishing placards saying “hands off Gaza”, several thousand people walked from Whitehall, in Westminster, to the US embassy in Nine Elms, in southwest London on Saturday.

Protesters also held banners that read “Stand up to Trump” and “Mr Trump, Canada is not your 51st state. Gaza is not your 52nd”.

Earlier this month, Trump’s suggestion that the US could redevelop the embattled enclave and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” attracted global condemnation.

His proposal aims to resettle Palestinians elsewhere, with no plan for them to return.

“I think it’s completely immoral, illegal, impractical and absurd,” 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos told the AFP news agency.

“You simply cannot deport two million people, especially that the surrounding countries already said that they wouldn’t take them, not out of the goodness of their heart but because it would destabilise those countries. So, it’s not going to happen but it does a lot of damage simply stating that as an endgame.

The march, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), was the 24th major pro-Palestinian protest in London since October 7, 2023.

A heavy police presence was deployed as officers kept protesters away from a counter-march called “Stop the Hate”, where participants waved Israeli flags.

Hamas’s attack resulted in the death of at least 1,100 people. In addition, approximately 240 were taken captive.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 48,239 people while 111,676 people have been wounded. The Government Media Office has updated its death toll to at least 61,709 people, saying thousands missing under the rubble are now presumed dead.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas released captives in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons, completing the latest swap of a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.

Hamas issued a statement after the release saying it was “a renewed message” to Israel.

“The release of the sixth batch of enemy prisoners confirms there is no way to free them except through negotiations and by adhering to the requirements of the ceasefire agreement,” the group said.

After decades of colonisation, exploitation and resource extraction, African countries want an apology and a paycheque.

Members of the 55-member African Union bloc are meeting in Addis Ababa to try to consolidate a position on reparatory justice.

Currently, there are armed conflicts in more than 30 African states.

The violence in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular, is likely to dominate discussions.

Is now the right time to be having this debate?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Liliane Umubyeyi – Co-founder and co-director of African Futures Action

Jude Bellingham was sent off and 10-man Real Madrid failed to hold its lead against Osasuna in a 1-1 draw in LaLiga.

Kylian Mbappe put Madrid ahead in the 15th minute on Saturday with his 11th goal in as many league games.

But Madrid were outnumbered following Bellingham’s red card, apparently for protesting, five minutes before halftime.

The referee then awarded Osasuna a penalty after a video review and booked Eduardo Camavinga for stomping the foot of Ante Budimir in the box.

Budimir slotted the 58th-minute equaliser past Thibaut Courtois to unleash celebrations at El Sadar Stadium.

The draw in Pamplona puts Madrid’s league lead in jeopardy. Atletico Madrid is two points behind Madrid before hosting Celta Vigo on Saturday evening.

Barcelona can pull level with its top rival if it beats Rayo Vallecano on Monday.

Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was also shown a yellow card early after he complained excessively about what he thought was a handball by an Osasuna player in the host’s area.

The decisions by referee Jose Luis Munuera will likely aggravate Madrid’s sense of grievance regarding the refereeing in LaLiga.

Following its loss at Espanyol, the powerhouse sent a scathing letter to Spain’s football federation to decry what it considered “adulterated” refereeing that favoured other teams.