World Echo

India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement, whose protests have forced the education minister’s resignation, urged authorities on Monday to release all demonstrators detained in weeks of rallies nationwide. The online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which organised protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said they had received reports of students held in detention, particularly in the states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. “Any failure to release those detained or withdraw criminal cases would amount to a breach of public trust,” the protest group said in a statement, adding they would take “further necessary steps” if their demand was not met. 🚨STATEMENT We are deeply concerned by multiple reports reaching us of students and other protestors being targeted, detained, or arrested by various state agencies, particularly in Assam, West Bengal, and Bihar. The Cockroach Janta Party had called off its nationwide protest...

Ukraine wants a prototype for a European anti-ballistic system codenamed Freyja to be ready within the first half of next year, a senior official said, as Kyiv pushes its allies to help deliver a weapon capable of downing Russian missiles. Davyd Aloian, deputy secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, who oversees the Freyja project, said that an international steering committee tasked with estimating the research and development costs was due to convene for the first time soon. Leaders from 10 European countries, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as well as around a dozen defence manufacturers gathered at a summit in Paris two weeks ago to officially launch the anti-ballistic coalition. "Since we're working within such a tight timeframe, we have an ambitious goal: to have an MVP (minimum viable product) ready by the first half of next year," Alo...

Britain's new Prime Minister Andy Burnham "will always put Britain's interests first", he ‌told the BBC in an interview when asked whether he was willing to call out US President Donald Trump. Burnham's predecessor Keir Starmer, who announced he was stepping down last month, had a fraught relationship with Trump due to differences over the US-Israeli war on Iran, immigration, ​energy and tech regulation. While Trump initially described Starmer's successor as "extremely liberal", he said this week he ​had a "very good conversation" with Burnham, who became Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade ⁠on Monday. READ: Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, vows to end years of instability In his first major interview since taking office, parts of which were released on Sunday, BBC ​journalist Laura Kuenssberg asked Burnham if he was willing to call out Trump if he thought it was the ​right thing to do. "All le...

An Israeli airstrike killed Gaza's internal security chief in central Gaza on Sunday, while nine more Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the territory over the past 24 hours. According to the territory’s interior ministry, the Israeli army killed the head of the Internal Security Directorate in central Gaza and another officer in an airstrike targeting their vehicle in Deir al-Balah, . In a statement, the ministry said Col Wael Mousa al-Ladawi, 44, and Maj Ramez Tawfiq Abu Zureiq, 49, were killed in the strike. The ministry said the two police officers were travelling in a vehicle in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza when it was hit by an Israeli aircraft. The attack came despite a ceasefire agreement in effect in Gaza since Oct 10, 2025. وزارة الداخلية في #غزة تعلن اغتيال مدير جهاز الأمن الداخلي في المحافظة الوسطى ومرافقه، إثر غارة إسرائيلية استهدفت مركبتهما، وتُظهر مشاهد متداولة قصف الاحتلال المركبة للمرة الثانية، خلال محاولة مواطنين تفقدها وانتشال الشهد...

Mediators Pakistan and Qatar have intensified the exchange of messages between the US and Iran after the two warring sides communicated their responses to a joint formula to end their months-long war, Pakistani government sources told Anadolu on Sunday. The development came after US President Donald Trump ordered a "pause" in the latest bombing campaign on Iran after two weeks of consecutive nights of strikes, the sources added. Earlier this week, Islamabad and Doha proposed a joint de-escalation formula, urging the US and Iran to return to their pre-July 9 positions "as a first step" to resume stalled talks to permanently end the conflict, according to an official familiar with the matter. Although the sources did not elaborate on details of the responses, they said both sides have communicated their consent for dialogue and diplomacy to end the latest hostilities and return to negotiations. The sources said the pause in strikes from both sides has raised ...

An impending "super" El Niño is likely to inflict a combined $10 billion to $20 billion hit on affected African countries and trigger mass migration from hard-hit areas, the African Development Bank's top climate expert told Reuters. Forecasters are warning that the El Niño weather pattern — which often drives severe droughts, flooding and storms in Africa — could turn into one of the strongest ever seen if current Pacific Ocean warming trends continue. As well as the threat to food and water security, government finances and banking sectors could also be undermined if disasters damage infrastructure and leave cash-strapped countries struggling to repay the connected loans. "Just this event is going to reduce heavily affected countries' GDP by 1% to 2% on average, which is about $10 billion to $20 billion across the contin...