NewsBeat
Eleven die in India as passengers fleeing fire fears hit by another train
At least 11 people have been killed and five injured after they fled rumours of a fire on board their train in India, only to be hit by another train.
Railway officials said the passengers got down from the Mumbai-bound train in western Maharashtra state after someone pulled the emergency cord, causing it to stop.
They were hit by a train on an adjacent track. It was not immediately clear whether there had actually been a fire.
India has launched a $30bn (£24bn) programme to modernise its railways in recent years but this has been marred by a series of accidents, including a major three-train crash in 2023 in the state of Odisha which left nearly 300 people dead.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a post on X that he was “deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives” during the incident near Pachora in Jalgaon district, about 400km from Mumbai, India’s financial capital.
He said eight ambulances had been dispatched and hospitals were on standby.
The crash will be seen as a setback for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has called for modernisation of the railways to boost the economy and connectivity.
There are plans to boost spending on the programme in next month’s budget, Reuters news agency reports.
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Britons now favour Europe over the United States as an ally, a new study has found, marking a complete reversal of public opinion from almost 60 years ago.
The study, by the Policy Institute at King’s College London, found that a majority of 53 per cent now say Britain should prioritise Europe, compared with 31 per cent who say the opposite – an almost mirror image of opinion back in 1967, when the public favoured America over Europe by 53 per cent to 33 per cent.
Professor Bobby Duffy, director of KCL’s Policy Institute, said the shift is related to both the “febrile and unpredictable political atmosphere around the re-election of President Trump” and “the many years building closer ties to Europe since the 1960s.”
It comes amid fears that the president’s plans to introduce tariffs and instigate a trade war will force Britain to choose between striking a trade deal with the incoming US president and continuing to pursue closer ties with the EU in a planned reset of Britain’s relationship with the bloc.
But in December, Sir Keir Starmer rejected demands that he make a choice between a trade deal with the US and closer relations with the EU, saying such a suggestion is “plain wrong”.
Meanwhile, insiders this week told The Independent that Mr Trump’s new administration believes it has Sir Keir’s government “over a barrel” on trade as Britain becomes increasingly reliant on a US trade deal.
Senior sources in the president’s team said the UK had no choice but to seek a trade agreement after the prime minister said his government’s success would be judged primarily on economic growth.
Despite the public generally being in favour of Europe, Reform UK voters have a marked commitment to America, with 55 per cent to 31 per cent saying Britain should side with the US over Europe if it ever had to choose between them as allies.
By contrast, Conservative voters are much more closely divided, with 43 per cent backing America and 40 per cent backing Europe.
Labour voters, however, heavily prefer Europe with just 23 per cent choosing the US and 65 per cent siding with Europe.
The polling comes just days after Nigel Farage travelled to Washington DC for the inauguration of Donald Trump, a close ally of the Reform UK leader.
The research – relying on data conducted by Focaldata in December 2024 and data from historic polls – also says the public are now almost twice as likely to say they’d prefer the UK to be more like Sweden and Switzerland (51 per cent) instead of trying be a leading world power (28 per cent).
“These long-term trends remind us how much we’ve changed, with UK public opinion being shaped by decades of national and global politics.
“We have moved away from seeing the US as key allies in the 1960s, which won’t just be related to the febrile and unpredictable political atmosphere around the re-election of President Trump, but also to the many years building closer ties to Europe since the 1960s”, Professor Duffy said.
He added: “Some of these international uncertainties, as well as perhaps increased realism in our global standing, mean most would now prefer Britain take a lower profile on the world stage, following Sweden or Switzerland’s example, rather than trying to be a leading power.”
Mr Farage and right-wing Tories, including Boris Johnson, flew into Washington this week for Mr Trump’s inauguration – but the British Labour government largely watched the festivities from afar.
The Reform UK leader was asked by members of Mr Trump’s team to speak at events around the inauguration and hosted a glitzy champagne-fuelled party for the incoming president.
Ahead of the inauguration, he was proclaimed “the next prime minister of Great Britain” at the party which was a coming together of top Maga conservatives with Reform UK, Brexiteers and top Tories.
The polling, which surveyed 1,033 UK adults, was conducted by Focaldata between December 11 and 12 2024.
Aston Villa enter the top 20 after competing in Europe last season for the first time since 2011.
Nine Premier League clubs are in the top 20, with Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Newcastle and West Ham retaining their places.
Lyon are the only other new club, with Napoli and Eintracht Frankfurt dropping out.
A further five Premier League clubs are in the top 30, with Brighton 21st after competing in the Europa League for the first time in their history.
Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham and Wolves are ranked 26th to 29th.
Revenues for the top 20 clubs rose by 6% to a record £9.47bn.
Matchday revenue was the fastest growing revenue stream, rising by 11% to £1.77bn, helped by an increase in stadium capacity, ticket prices and premium hospitality.
Real benefited most from an increase in matchday revenues, generating £210m – double last year’s figure – after renovation of their Bernabeu Stadium.
Barcelona dropped from fourth to sixth after a £53m fall in matchday revenue, with games played at a smaller stadium while the Nou Camp is redeveloped.
Commercial revenue remained the largest revenue source in the Money League, rising 10% to £4.14bn and accounting for 44% of total revenue, helped by the hosting of non-football live events such as concerts.
“Money League clubs continue to break records with ongoing growth in commercial and matchday revenues,” said Tim Bridge, lead partner in the Deloitte sports business group.
Total broadcast revenue remained at £3.64bn because each of the big five leagues – the Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, German Bundesliga, France’s Ligue 1 and Italy’s Serie A – are in the same domestic broadcast cycle.
*Figures converted from euros may differ from previously reported figures because of a change in currency exchange rates
Politics
Keir Starmer scolded for ‘bizarre rabbit hole of blame’ over Axel Rudakubana failings: ‘A real cover-up!’
The head of a leading think tank has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of going down a “bizarre rabbit hole” of blame in his response to the Southport attack case.
Alan Mendoza, Executive Director of the Henry Jackson Society, told GB News he was “puzzled” by Starmer’s approach to the failings that led to Axel Rudakubana’s deadly rampage.
Mendoza criticised the Prime Minister for focusing on social media and Amazon rather than addressing the multiple occasions authorities could have intervened.
“It would have been quite easy for the Prime Minister to make a decision to say, ‘look, we messed up, the authorities messed up, it wasn’t on my watch, I promise to do better’,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza hit out at Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s blame of Amazon in Axel Rudakubana’s case
GB News / PA
The Southport attacker had purchased the murder weapon from Amazon without significant barriers, when he was 17-years-old.
In response to the attack, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced stricter measures for online knife purchases, requiring two forms of identification.
Mendoza claimed there was a “real cover-up” of crucial information about the attacker in the aftermath of the incident.
He specifically criticised the Government’s decision to withhold key information about Rudakubana’s activities.
Keir Starmer has defended his actions after being blasted for Southport ‘cover-up’
PA
“You knew things about al-Qaeda training manuals, you knew he was watching beheading videos, you knew that he had an interest in all these activities and was talking about ricin back in August,” he told GB News.
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He argued this information could have been revealed within days of the crime. The think tank director suggested earlier disclosure might have prevented subsequent unrest.
“Had that come out, I think they would have defused a lot of the pressures out there, where people felt there was a real cover up going on,” he said.
“It turns out they were right, there was a cover up going on,” Mendoza added.
Starmer has recently warned that Britain faces a new threat from “young men in their bedrooms” accessing radical materials online.
Mendoza told GB News that there was a ‘cover up’ of information relating to Rudakubana
GB News
“Terrorism has changed,” the Prime Minister said. “Now, alongside that we also see acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom.”
The new requirements for buying knives online will mandate that buyers provide documents such as a passport or driving licence, along with a live video verification of their age.
Amazon has responded to the incident by launching an urgent investigation, stating they take their responsibility around age-restricted items “extremely seriously.”
The online retailer confirmed they use ID verification services to check personal details and require age verification upon delivery.
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A company controlled by the Captain Tom’s daughter is on the verge of financial collapse and the related charity’s website has vanished from the internet.
The Captain Tom Foundation website, used to raise millions when the beloved war veteran began walking laps around his garden in lockdown to support the NHS, now shows an error message with the domain name said to be unclaimed.
Companies House filings this week for Club Nook show the firm run by Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore, 53, and her husband Colin Ingram-Moore, 66, now has net assets of just £149, slashed from £336,300 the previous year.
The firm, which was used to manage the late army officer’s commercial interests, also shows they owe creditors £67,000.
Captain Tom’s daughter drew an angry backlash after they were accused of repeated misconduct in a report by the Charity Commission about the running of the Captain Tom Foundation.
The watchdog’s highly critical November report found they “repeatedly benefited” financially from a charity created in his name in 2020, engaging in a “pattern of behaviour” that saw them personally earn more than £1million from their involvement.
The Ingrams were also forced to reduce the price of their country mansion by £250,000 as the property fails to sell amid the scandal embroiling them.
The Covid fundraiser’s loved ones have now removed any mention of him from the online listing after previously using photographs of some of his key moments to try to sell the seven-bed house for £2.25million, according to reports.
Captain Tom became a household name during the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020 by walking 100 laps around his garden ahead of his 100th birthday to raise money for the NHS.
His efforts raised £38.9m and catapulted him into fame, which saw him knighted by the late Queen at Windsor Castle before his death in January 2021.
In a statement issued at the time, Captain Tom’s family said they were treated “unfairly and unjustly” in the report, adding the Charity Commission’s two-year inquiry has taken a “serious toll” on the family’s health, “unfairly tarnishing” their name.
Captain Tom’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore has been approached for comment.
Getty ImagesAn endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink is about to bloom in Australia – and captivated the internet in the process, with thousands already tuned in to a livestream ahead of its grand debut.
The titan arum plant, housed in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney, blooms only once every few years for just 24 hours.
Affectionately dubbed Putricia, it will release a smell described as “wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh”.
The long wait and uncertainty as to when Putricia will bloom – has spawned jokes and even a unique lingo in the livestream’s chat, with thousands commenting “WWTF”, or “We Watch the Flower”.
The current view is not much: Putricia stands silent and tall in front of a brown curtain, comfortably ensconced behind a red velvet rope. Occasionally, a visitor pops into the frame as they snap a selfie with the plant.
But once she blooms, viewers can expect to see Putricia unfold a vibrant maroon or crimson skirt, known as a spathe, around her spadix which is the large spike in the middle of the plant.
The Gardens have said it is “hard to predict exactly when” Putricia will bloom, but that has not stopped the thousands gathered online.
“I’m back again to see how Putricia is going and I can see she’s still taking her time like the queen she is, fair play,” wrote one commenter. “This is the slowest burlesque ever,” said another.
Yet another person wrote: “Overnight I watched, fell asleep, awoke, watched, fell asleep. I am weak, but Putricia is strong. WWTF.”
Other popular acronyms among viewers are WDNRP (We Do Not Rush Putricia) and BBTB (Blessed Be The Bloom).
Getty ImagesThe plant can only be found in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is known as bunga bangkai – or “corpse flower” in Indonesian. Its scientific name is Amorphophallus titanum, which is derived from Ancient Greek and means “giant misshapen penis”,
It has the world’s largest flowering structure, as it can grow up to 3m (10 feet) tall and weigh up to 150kg. The plant contains several hundred flowers in the base of its spadix.
It is endangered in the wild due to deforestation and land degradation.
Putricia is one of several titan arums in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, which last saw one bloom 15 years ago.
But there have been other corpse flower blooms across Australia in recent years, including Melbourne and Adelaide’s botanic gardens, each time attracting thousands of curious visitors keen on having a whiff.
There are also a few housed in Kew Gardens in London, where one bloomed in June last year. The titan arum first flowered outside of Sumatra in 1889 in Kew.
House and Senate GOP leaders are internally debating a possible deal with Democrats that would include government funding, California wildfire aid, a debt-limit hike and border security money, according to two Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter.
Senior Republicans have been privately mulling a bipartisan government funding deal for weeks now, wary that they may not be able to add a debt-limit hike to their party-line reconciliation package given internal GOP divisions over the matter. But conversations around the potential larger deal have heated up in recent days as GOP leaders try to figure out how to lift the approaching debt ceiling while also advancing a massive, party-line reconciliation bill and avoiding a March 15 government shutdown.
The strategy isn’t finalized. Asked about it on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) indicated that he was open to linking everything together in a giant package but that several options are currently under discussion.
“I’m interested in getting a result on all of the above but how we do that is still an open question,” he said.
It would come with plenty of risks — Republicans would need to convince Democrats to accept the border funding increase. And they could face backlash from House GOP hard-liners unless they attach steep spending cuts, which would automatically threaten Democratic support and raise the risk of a shutdown. President Donald Trump has already shown interest in linking wildfire aid to the longer-term debt ceiling hike he is pursuing.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) met Wednesday as they negotiated a top-line dollar amount to pitch to Democrats that would pave the way for lawmakers to craft the larger funding package. Those appropriators are circling an agreement for the top-line number, which they hope to clinch in the coming days.
As expected, conservative hardliners who are less inclined to support funding bills such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), are signaling they’ll oppose such a package. Roy warned in a brief interview Wednesday that he would oppose the option unless there were spending cuts included and indicated he would want disaster relief spending to be paid for.
Linking border, debt and disaster aid to government funding isn’t the only option that leadership has floated, and in some cases walked back, in recent weeks.
Speaker Mike Johnson has floated linking the debt ceiling to money to recover from the California wildfires. Thune also previously indicated that the debt ceiling was unlikely to be included in the GOP border and energy bill Senate Republicans are crafting, in another sign that Republicans were likely to leave it out of their party-line reconciliation effort.
Johnson, Thune and their respective leadership teams met with Trump on Tuesday, where they discussed the government funding deadline, and potentially linking disaster aid and the debt ceiling.
Axel Rudakubana bought a 20cm blade from the online retailer days before he carried out his attack
Western officials have told the BBC that North Korean troops have already suffered nearly 40% casualties in the fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region, in just three months.
The officials, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, said that out of the estimated 11,000 troops sent from North Korea, known as DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), 4,000 were battle casualties.
That term comprises those killed, wounded, missing or captured. Of the 4,000, the officials said around 1,000 are believed to have been killed by mid-January.
These losses, if confirmed, are unsustainable by the North Koreans.
It is not clear where the wounded are being treated, nor even when and to what extent they will be replaced.
But the figures point to an extraordinarily high cost being incurred by President Vladimir Putin’s ally, akin Kim Jong Un, as he seeks to help him evict Ukrainian forces from Russia ahead of any possible ceasefire negotiations later in the year.
Ukraine launched a lightning thrust into the Russian oblast of Kursk last August, taking Russian border guards by surprise.
The government in Kyiv made it clear at the time that it had no intention of holding onto the territory seized, merely to use it as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations.
Ukraine’s early gains in Kursk have since been steadily pushed back, partly due to the arrival in Russia of the North Koreans in October.
But Ukraine still retains several hundred square kilometres of Russian territory and is inflicting huge losses on its enemy.
The North Korean troops, reportedly from an “elite” unit called the Storm Corps, appear to have been thrown into the fight with comparatively little training or protection.
“These are barely trained troops led by Russian officers who they don’t understand,” says the former British Army tank commander, Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon.
“Quite frankly they don’t stand a chance. They are being thrown into the meat grinder with little chance of survival. They are cannon fodder, and the Russian officers care even less for them than they do for their own men.”
Reports attributed to South Korean intelligence say the North Koreans are unprepared for the realities of modern warfare, and appear especially vulnerable to being targeted by Ukrainian First-Person-View (FPV) drones, a weapon that has been a familiar part of the battle space further south in Ukraine’s Donbas region for years now.
Despite this, Ukraine’s top military commander Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi warned earlier this week that North Korean soldiers were posing a significant problem for Ukrainian fighters on the front line.
“They are numerous. An additional 11,000-12,000 highly motivated and well-prepared soldiers who are conducting offensive actions. They operate based on Soviet tactics. They act in platoons, companies. They rely on their numbers,” the general told Ukraine’s TSN Tyzhden news programme.
Politics
Reform UK declare ‘national security emergency’ as staggering number of illegal migrants in London laid bare
London is home to as many as 585,000 illegal migrants, equivalent to one in 12 of the city’s population, according to a previously confidential report commissioned by Thames Water.
The study, conducted by Edge Analytics and demography experts at Leeds University, aimed to quantify “hidden” users of water services.
The report estimates between 390,355 and 585,533 illegal migrants live in London, with a median figure of 487,944.
Most illegal migrants arrived in the UK on work, study or visitor visas before overstaying, the report suggests.
Zia Yusuf declared a national emergency
GB NEWS / PA
Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf said he was “not the least bit surprised” by the figures, stating that “anyone who has walked or lived in London knows in their bones these figures are true.”
He accused the Office of National Statistics of “gaslighting” the public, pointing to how legal migration figures were revised upward by 20 per cent.
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Migrant small boats continue to arrive from across the channel.Getty Images“The Tories allowed hundreds of thousands of largely men to cross our Channel illegally and what did they do? They put them up in phones and basically give them every incentive to come here,” he added.
Yusuf warned the situation represents “not just a national emergency, it’s a national security emergency.”
He expressed particular concern about demographics, stating: “90 per cent of the people crossing the Channel are men.”
“The number of military age males making that journey legally surpasses the number of available soldiers, both standing and territorial,” he said.
Zia Yusuf joined Patrick Christys on GB News
GB NEWS
“And most of them come from Afghanistan, Syria, Iran – countries with not the friendliest track records to this country,” Yusuf added, calling the situation “incredibly and grossly unfair.”
In total, there are estimated to be more than one million illegal migrants in the UK, with 60 per cent of those in the capital.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice told The Telegraph: “One in 12 people in London are here illegally, probably working illegally using taxpayer-funded public infrastructure and services. It is totally unacceptable.”
“It’s another reason why we need to properly control our borders and welcome those who come here legally but thank those who are here illegally as we return them where they came from,” he added.
A Home Office spokesman said: “This Government is strengthening global partnerships and rooting out the criminal gangs who profit from small boat crossings which threaten lives.”
The spokesman added they had “removed 16,400 illegal migrants in just six months, the highest figure in half a decade, making it clear that those who arrive illegally will be returned.”
The Home Office confirmed 1,000 migrants had crossed the Channel so far this year, following 38,816 in 2024, the second highest total on record.
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