Bystanders ran in to rescue 12 newborns from fire at children’s hospital as PM Narendra Modi says deaths are ‘heart-rending’
Six newborn babies have died after a fire tore through a children’s hospital in the Indian capital, Delhi, with people charging into the flames to rescue the infants, police have said.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, called the fire and deaths “heart-rending” in a post on social media.
Continue reading...Most of those who died in blaze were children, according to police in Rajkot, Gujarat
At least 27 people, most of them children, have died after a huge fire broke out at an amusement park in western India, police said.
The fire erupted at the park in the city of Rajkot in Gujarat state on Saturday. Police commissioner Raju Bhargava said the fire was under control and the rescue operation was under way.
Continue reading...Authorities cut short school term as weather bureau warns of severe heatwave conditions this week
Authorities in the Indian capital, have ordered schools to shut early for the summer holiday, after temperatures in Delhi hit 47.4C (117F).
City officials told schools to shut with “immediate effect” due to the blistering heat, according to a government order quoted by the Hindustan Times on Tuesday, cutting the term by a few days.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ads containing AI-manipulated images were submitted to Facebook by civil and corporate accountability groups
The Facebook and Instagram owner Meta approved a series of AI-manipulated political adverts during India’s election that spread disinformation and incited religious violence, according to a report shared exclusively with the Guardian.
Facebook approved adverts containing known slurs towards Muslims in India, such as “let’s burn this vermin” and “Hindu blood is spilling, these invaders must be burned”, as well as Hindu supremacist language and disinformation about political leaders.
Continue reading...While the number of Indian billionaires soars, growing unemployment has become a big problem for the BJP as it campaigns for a third term
It wasn’t even the real wedding, just the pre-wedding party. But that didn’t stop India’s richest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, whose son is set to marry the daughter of a millionaire, from throwing an affair so ostentatious that no one could question just how wealthy they are.
The pop star Rihanna was paid about $8m to perform. The catering alone cost $25m and the final bill for the glittering soiree, held in March, reportedly came in at about $150m.
Continue reading...Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila
The record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.
The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study found. The scientists said the high temperatures compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where displaced people are living in overcrowded shelters with little access to water.
Continue reading...Opposition say ruling party undermining democracy by using police to harass candidates into not contesting in elections
When the people of Gujarat cast their votes last week in India’s six-week-long election, there was one constituency in the state that stood silent. There were no polling stations or impatient queues of people, and no one with the tell-tale inky finger. In Surat, no voting was necessary – the outcome was already decided.
Mukesh Dalal, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), won the seat by default after every other candidate was either disqualified or dropped out of the race. It was the first time in 73 years that Surat’s candidate was appointed, not elected.
Continue reading...Supreme court judges order Arvind Kejriwal’s release until 1 June and question timing of his arrest on corruption charges
One of India’s best-known opposition leaders, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, has been granted bail by the country’s supreme court to allow him to take part in general election campaigningafter being kept behind bars for almost two months.
Kejriwal, who heads the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), has been held in jail since March when he was arrested on money-laundering charges. He has maintained that his arrest and detention was politically motivated to prevent him taking part in the election, which began in April and will continue until June.
Continue reading...Congress party’s Arun Reddy held over fake video of interior minister Amit Shah
Indian police have said they have arrested the social media chief of the country’s main opposition party over a doctored video widely shared during the ongoing national election.
Arun Reddy of the Congress party was detained late on Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister, Amit Shah, vowing in a campaign speech to end affirmative action policies for millions of poor and low-caste Indians.
Continue reading...Inadvertent poisoning of scavengers across Indian subcontinent is forcing some communities to give up ancient custom
Traditional Zoroastrian burial rites are becoming increasingly impossible to perform because of the precipitous decline of vultures in India, Iran and Pakistan.
For millennia, Parsi communities have traditionally disposed of their dead in structures called dakhma, or “towers of silence”. These circular, elevated edifices are designed to prevent the soil, and the sacred elements of earth, fire and water, from being contaminated by corpses.
Continue reading...Prime minister said there were ‘credible allegations’ that India was behind killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Canadian police have charged three members of an alleged hit team for their role in the assassination of the Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the first arrests in a high-profile killing which officials believe was masterminded by India.
The arrests comes nearly a year after the prominent activist was killed in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Sikh gurdwara on the evening of 18 June in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. In what investigators previously described as a carefully orchestrated operation, two assailants fired about 50 bullets at Nijjar and escaped the area in a grey car.
Continue reading...Asio director general Mike Burgess had referred to expulsion of foreign operatives in 2021 speech but did not name country behind threat
Australia reportedly expelled two Indian intelligence officers in 2020 after Asio alleged a “nest of spies” had sought to cultivate politicians, monitor diaspora communities and obtain classified trade information and airport security protocols.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that two officers from the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s foreign intelligence service, had been expelled from Australia in 2020. The newspaper reported the incident was one of “a series of clashes between RAW and western domestic security services.”
Continue reading...Parties clash over communal issues in increasingly charged campaign amid concerns unseasonably hot weather affecting voter numbers
India has held the second phase of the world’s biggest election, with prime minister Narendra Modi and his rivals hurling accusations of religious discrimination and threats to democracy amid flagging voter turnout.
Almost 1 billion people are eligible to vote in the seven-phase general election that began on 19 April and concludes on 1 June, with votes set to be counted on 4 June.
Continue reading...Warnings of dangerous temperatures across parts of Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and India as hottest months of the year are made worse by El Niño
Millions of people across South and Southeast Asia are facing sweltering temperatures, with unusually hot weather forcing schools to close and threatening public health.
Thousands of schools across the Philippines, including in the capital region Metro Manila, have suspended in-person classes. Half of the country’s 82 provinces are experiencing drought, and nearly 31 others are facing dry spells or dry conditions, according to the UN, which has called for greater support to help the country prepare for similar weather events in the future. The country’s upcoming harvest will probably be below average, the UN said.
Continue reading...£2.2bn-worth of oil processed in China, India and Turkey – to whom Russia supplies crude – was imported in 2023, data shows
The UK has been accused of “helping Russia pay for its war on Ukraine” by continuing to import record amounts of refined oil from countries processing Kremlin fossil fuels.
Government data analysed by the environmental news site Desmog shows that imports of refined oil from India, China and Turkey amounted to £2.2bn in 2023, the same record value as the previous year, up from £434.2m in 2021.
Continue reading...Despite eventual visa backflip by authorities, ABC’s south-Asia correspondent Avani Dias left after being made to ‘feel so uncomfortable’
The south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a sign of the increasing pressure on journalists in the country under Narendra Modi.
Dias, who has been based in Delhi for the ABC since January 2022, said she felt the government had made it “too difficult” for her to continue to do her job, claiming it blocked her from accessing events, issued takedown notices to YouTube for her news stories, and then refused her a standard visa renewal.
Continue reading...Opposition says prime minister targeting Muslim minority with ‘hate speech’ and violating election rules
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of hate speech during a campaign rally where he called Muslims “infiltrators” who had “many children” and claimed they would take people’s hard-earned money.
The opposition accused Modi of “blatantly targeting” India’s 200 million Muslim minority with comments made while addressing voters at a speech in Rajasthan on Sunday.
Continue reading...CEO was due to meet Narendra Modi but carmaker is likely to report worst performance in seven years
Elon Musk has postponed a trip to India, including a planned meeting with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, after citing “very heavy obligations” at Tesla.
The Tesla chief executive was due to visit on 21 April and 22 April, where he was expected to announce an investment of $2-3bn in the country, according to Reuters, with the spending plans focused on building a new plant in India.
Continue reading...Voters back President Mohamed Muizzu’s tilt towards China and away from traditional ally India
Maldives voters have backed President Mohamed Muizzu’s tilt towards China and away from traditional benefactor India, with his party winning control of parliament in an election landslide.
Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) won 66 of the first 86 seats declared, according to the Elections Commission of Maldives, already more than enough for a super-majority in the 93-member parliament.
Continue reading...For the first time, government military spending increased in all five geographical regions, Sipri thinktank finds
Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.
The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.
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