Foreign News
India parliament: Security scare for MPs on attack anniversary
India’s parliament witnessed chaotic scenes after at least two men intruded into the chamber, shouting slogans and spraying coloured gas.
Images show MPs and security officials trying to catch one of the intruders, who is seen jumping from table to table.
Reports say the men were overpowered by security officials and taken away. The security breach occurred on the 22nd anniversary of a deadly terror attack on India’s parliament.
Lawmakers said the two men jumped into the well of the house from the visitors’ gallery. Their motive is not clear.
The incident occurred while lawmakers were in session in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament. Both houses were suspended for a short period before the session resumed.
“We are investigating the matter and have asked Delhi Police to join the inquiry,” Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla said. He added that according to the preliminary investigation, the smoke sprayed in the house appeared to be “harmless”.
Two other people – a man and a woman – have also been detained for protesting outside the parliament by setting off canisters of coloured gas. They were pictured being led away by police. “Two people jumped from the public gallery and there was smoke. There was chaos all around. Both of them were overpowered by security officials,” lawmaker Danish Ali told reporters outside parliament.
The breach occurred on the 22nd anniversary of a deadly attack on India’s parliament, in which 14 people, including five of the attackers, were killed.
Earlier in the day, President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders had paid tribute to the victims of the 2001 attack on parliament – 14 people, including the five attackers, were killed on the day.
Karti Chidambaram, an MP from the Congress party, said he was waiting for his turn to speak when chaos broke out. “Suddenly, it appeared that one person had fallen down from the visitors’ gallery. Then we realised that it was a deliberate act of him jumping into the well. There was another person, both of them pulled out canisters which were emitting yellow smoke,” he said.
(BBC)
Volodymyr Zelensky said he would be willing to “give up” his presidency in exchange for peace ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it for Nato membership for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said in response to a question during a news conference.
His comments came after US President Donald Trump called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” earlier in the week.
“I wasn’t offended by the comment, but a dictator would be,” Zelensky, who was democratically elected in May 2019, responded on Sunday.
Zelensky said he was currently focused on Ukraine’s security and it was not his “dream” to remain president for a decade.
Ukrainian legislation bans elections during martial law, which has been in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
EU and world leaders are due to head to Kyiv on Monday to show their support for Ukraine and discuss security guarantees.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are among those expected to attend the meeting in person.
Zelensky said the topic of Ukraine joining Nato would be “on the table” at the meeting but he did not know how the discussions would “finish”. He said he hoped the meeting would be a “turning point”.
On the topic of Trump, Zelensky said that he wanted to see the US president as a partner to Ukraine and more than a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow.
“I really want it to be more than just mediation…that’s not enough,” he told the press conference. His comments come as political leaders in Europe fear Kyiv is being sidelined in talks to bring an end to the war.
Zelensky was also asked about a potential deal the Trump administration has pushed for to provide the US access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals.
“We are making progress,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukrainian and US officials had been in touch about the deal.
“We are ready to share,” the Ukrainian leader said, but made clear that Washington first needed to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin “ends this war”.
Zelensky’s press conference came hours after Russia launched its largest single drone attack on Ukraine yet during the current conflict, Ukrainian officials said.
On Saturday night, Ukraine’s Air Force Command spokesman Yuriy Ignat said a “record” 267 Russian drones were launched in a single, coordinated attack on the country.
Thirteen regions were targeted and while many of the drones were repelled, those that were not caused destruction to infrastructure and at least three casualties, emergency services said.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported that 138 of the drones were shot down and 119, which were decoy drones, were lost without negative consequences, likely due to jamming.
In Kyiv, the attack meant six hours of air alerts.
In a statement, Zelensky claimed that 1,150 drones, 1,400 bombs and 35 missiles were launched by Russia this week.
He thanked Ukraine’s emergency services for their response to Saturday night’s attack and called for the support of Europe and US in facilitating “a lasting and just peace”.
In a post on X, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said that “hundreds of drones” had “brought death and destruction” overnight.
“It was another night of explosions, burning houses and cars, and destroyed infrastructure,” she wrote. “Another night when people prayed for their loved ones to survive”.
On Monday, the war will enter its third year.
As it does, diplomatic wrangling over a potential peace deal continue, with Ukraine, European allies and the US offering differing visions for how to end the conflict.
The US and Russia held preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia this week – without delegates from Europe, including Ukraine, present – which resulted in European leaders holding a hastily-arranged summit in Paris.
Zelensky criticised Ukraine’s exclusion from the US-Russia talks, saying Trump was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow, prompting Trump to respond by calling the Ukrainian president a dictator.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to visit Washington on Monday, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be there on Thursday.
Sir Keir has publicly backed Zelensky, reiterating the UK’s iornclad support for Kyiv, said he would discuss the importance of Ukraine’s sovereignty when he speaks to Trump.
Pope Francis – who is in hospital with respiratory illness – wrote in a remarks released on Sunday that the third anniversary of the war was “a painful and shameful occasion for the whole of humanity”.
[BBC]
Health officials in two US states are tracking measles outbreaks as cases rise to nearly 100 people.
The Texas Department of State Health Services reported Friday that it was aware of 90 cases diagnosed in the last month in the South Plains area, in the north-west part of the state. At least 77 of them were reported in children and teens under 17.
In New Mexico, officials said nine people had been sickened in Lea County, along the state’s eastern border with Texas.
Measles is highly contagious and can be deadly. The outbreaks come amid a rise in US anti-vaccine sentiment, including towards the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jab that is typically received during childhood.
Health officials in Texas say those numbers are likely an undercount, as some parents may not report infections or may not realise their child has the disease.
“It is troubling, because this was completely preventable,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University, told CBS News, the BBC’s American news partner.
“It’s the most contagious infectious disease known to humans,” she added.
Symptoms of the highly infectious illness include fever, cough, runny nose, eye irritation and a signature rash.
A measles infection can have particularly devastating complications for pregnant women and young children, including pneumonia, neurological impairment, hearing loss and death, and survivors are at risk of developing a degenerative brain and nervous system disease known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE).
Most US children receive two shots to protect against the illness, which together are 97% effective in protecting against measles, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Health experts say that the disease could be controlled or even eradicated with proper inoculation rates – generally defined as 95% of a community receiving the measles vaccine.
But vaccination rates have dropped in some communities in recent decades as a loose network of vaccine sceptics have without evidence questioned the safety and efficacy of the shots. Robert F Kennedy Jr, recently confirmed as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, faced strong criticism for his ties to these groups.
Most states require that children receive the MMR vaccine to attend school, but many, including Texas, also allow families to file a conscientious exemption – a non-medical reason to refuse a vaccine requirement.
In Texas, federal data shows that the state achieved a 94.3% vaccination rate among kindergarteners for the 2023-2024 school year, while New Mexico reached 95%. But a state survey of Texas schools found that rates of exemptions were ticking upwards for MMR and other required vaccines.
In Gaines County, where 57 of the Texas cases were reported, exemptions have surged over the last decade. State data shows 17.62% of students had a conscientious exemption to at least one required vaccine during the 2023-2024 school year, up from 7.45% in the 2013-2014 year.
Neighbouring Terry County, home to 20 cases, saw exemption rates go from zero to 3.73% in the same time period.
Texas officials reported that of the 90 cases in their state, 85 were in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unclear.
CBS reports that the area is home to a large Mennonite community, which typically have low vaccination rates due to the group’s religious beliefs.
But some officials are reluctant to intervene.
“We respect everyone’s right to vaccinate or not get vaccinated,” Albert Pilkington, CEO of the nearby Seminole Hospital District, told the Texas Standard. “That’s just what it means to be an American, right?”
American children have been vaccinated against measles since 1963. The jab was improved and combined with vaccines for the mumps and rubella viruses about a decade later, and is widely considered to be safe.
Prior to the vaccine’s introduction, around 48,000 people were hospitalized with measles each year and 400–500 people died. In 2024, the US reported 285 cases with 114 hospitalisations.
Health officials in New Mexico are offering a free vaccine clinic this week in an effort to boost protection. Texas also directed residents to contact their doctors or visit a clinic to get vaccinated if they have not previously received a shot.
[BBC]
US President Donald Trump has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff CQ Brown, the highest-ranking officer in the country, as part of a major shake-up of top military leadership.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country,” Trump posted on social media. He said five other top officers were also being replaced.
Gen Brown was the second black officer to hold the post, the holder of which advises both the president and the secretary of defence on national security.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously said that Gen Brown should be fired because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in the military.
Later on Friday, Hegseth announced the firings of two additional senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen Jim Slife.
Adm Franchetti was the first woman to lead the US Navy.
All three top officers removed on Friday were appointed by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.
Hegseth said in a statement: “Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”
Trump said he would nominate Air Force Lt Gen Dan Caine – a career F-16 pilot who most recently served as CIA associate director for military affairs – as the new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Last year, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump recalled first meeting Gen Caine in Iraq. “He looked better than any movie actor you could get,” Trump told the audience.
In the same speech, he praised the US military but said it was “woke at the top”.
[BBC]
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