Saudi Arabia to broker peace deal… for Ukraine?!

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

Saudi Arabia to broker peace deal… for Ukraine?!

Top US and Russian officials are in Riyadh—ready to cut a deal over Ukraine. Looks like the bros are back together—and ready to make it official:

The Kremlin said the talks would be “devoted primarily to restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations,” and could lead to a summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zero invites for the European Union and Ukraine. Though Washington concedes Kyiv will have to be at the table for any final deal. But US officials have pulled no punches re Europeans—saying, for now, they have no role in negotiations.

The ‘great panic’ in Paris: The scorned EU is holding its own summit in Paris—joined by Brexit Britain. Brought together by US plans to cut back its forces on the continent—leaving them to face Moscow alone:

“Europe’s security is at a turning point,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on X after arriving in Paris on Monday. “Yes, it is about Ukraine — but it is also about us. We need an urgency mind-set. We need a surge in defense. And we need both of them now.”

But, but, but: The summit was marked by squabbling over Ukraine. UK PM Keir Starmer said he was “ready and willing” to send British troops to Ukraine to enforce security guarantees in any peace deal. Others were, well, kinda cranky:

After the meeting, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said that any debate now on sending peacekeepers to Ukraine was “completely premature” and “highly inappropriate” while the war is ongoing.

Mr. Scholz said he was “a little irritated” about the peacekeeping debate “at the wrong time.” His views are shared by Poland and Spain, among other nations, especially given the vagueness about what any security guarantee would mean.

What’s interesting: Despite their disagreements, all of them—including Starmer—are intent on appeasing Trump.

Wtf is up with Riyadh? With the European buddies shoved to the sideline, the spotlight is on Trump’s other great BFF: Saudi crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman. Saudi National Security Adviser will be “involved in a mediation role” at the US-Russia summit—with Trump’s blessings. In fact, he’s indicated that his first post-election meeting with Putin may happen in Riyadh.

Quote to note: According to the New York Times:

For Prince Mohammed, mediating the war presents an opportunity to solidify his status as a global leader with influence that extends beyond the Middle East. It also enables him to position himself as a key intermediary capable of bringing powerful nations to the table…

Over Ukraine… but oddly not Gaza. Also: Salman the Peacemaker, really? Anybody, remember Jamal Khashoggi?

Speaking of Gaza: Riyadh may have rubbished Trump’s plans to kick Gazans out of their own land—but they have been eagerly embraced by Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared he is “committed” to the US proposal to take over the Gaza Strip. In fact, Tel Aviv will “establish a special directorate for the ‘voluntary departure’ of Palestinians.” Prince Salman has not said a word—but he did have a warm meeting with Secretary of State Marc Rubio.

Reading list: CNN and New York Times look at Saudi Arabia’s role in Ukraine negotiations. Associated Press has the analysis of the summit in Paris. Al Jazeera is best on the Gaza developments.

The New Delhi stampede: A shameful payoff

On Saturday night, a stampede at the New Delhi Railway Station claimed 18 lives (See: this Big Story for details). Here’s what we learned on Day 3.

An RPF report: The Railway Protection Force released a report that acknowledged that there was a change in platforms—which triggered the stampede. Though the Railways Minister continues to dismiss the fact:

…at around 8.45 pm, an announcement was made that Kumbh Special going to Prayagraj would depart from Platform Number 12, but after some time, another announcement was made that the Kumbh Special would leave from Platform Number 16, due to which a stampede situation arose among passengers.

The exact circumstances looked like this:

Upon hearing the announcement, passengers started trying to climb the stairs from Platforms 12-13 and 14-15 via foot-over bridges (FOBs) 2 and 3; and passengers of Magadh Express, Uttar Sampark Kranti and Prayagraj Express were climbing down the stairs. In the midst of pushing and shoving, some passengers slipped, fell on the stairs and got injured; and other passengers started walking over them.

It’s worth revisiting the station map to understand what this might have looked like:

Indian Express has the exclusive—and lots more details—on this report.

The shameful payoff: The Railways doled out Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased—and between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh to the injured. But the payments were made in a strange and unseemly manner. According to families of the victims:

[A] three-member Indian Railways team met them at the mortuaries around 4.30am, asked them to identify and claim the bodies of their loved ones after the autopsy, conducted their on-the-spot personal verification by checking and keeping copies of identification documents handed over the Rs 10 lakh [1 million] ex-gratia amount in cash, and asked them to sign acknowledgement papers of having received the money and the body.

After receiving the money, the families were immediately rushed back to their hometowns—with a cop in tow:

“They handed me the body and a railway official gave me Rs 10 lakh in cash. They then rushed me towards an ambulance and sent a cop along. I was not allowed to talk to the media around and was told to take the body home.”

Point to note: Legal experts say they have never heard of such a speedy verification process—which usually takes two to three months.

Where we are now: Paramilitary forces have been deployed at the station to enforce crowd control. Also: The Railways is planning a publicity blackout (you really can’t make this up):

Railways is mulling the possibility of taking down publicity ads and promotional material on railway stations, especially at the New Delhi Railway Station (NDLS), that may attract passengers to travel to the Kumbh Mela.

Hindustan Times has the best reporting on the payout.

In other news from Maha Kumbh: A new report shows high levels of microbes from human and animal poop in river water at the mela—due to the many snans. But no one plans to do anything about it. Meanwhile, Prayagraj/Allahabad is bursting at the seams with over 1.5 crore pilgrims. The Telegraph has more on the panic on the ground.

Argentina prez to be impeached… over crypto scam?

The context: Javier Milei, elected in 2023, has been a Rolling Stones cover band singer, TV pundit, and libertarian economist. Milei's controversial comments—like "I ejaculate every three months”—earned him the nickname "El Loco." He was swept into power on promises of drastic economic reforms—a la Trump.

What happened now: Milei is now facing impeachment for a pump-and-dump crypto scam. He talked up a cryptocurrency token called ‘$LIBRA’—which sent its value soaring. In less than an hour, the coin surged by 2,000%, reaching a market cap of nearly $4.5 billion!

What happened next: But the small clique of investors who owned 82% of the currency dumped their holdings—leading to an equally steep fall. In about five hours, nearly all of that $4.5 billion market cap was wiped out. One financial analyst newsletter described it as “one of the fastest and largest destructions of wealth in retail trading history.”

The fallout: Milei quickly deleted his tweet and distanced himself from it entirely. But a judicial investigation has been launched—to see if he was part of the fraud. And it has opened the door for the Opposition to call for his impeachment. Milei’s presidential response: “To the filthy rats of the political caste who want to take advantage of this situation to do harm, I want to say that every day they confirm how lowly politicians are, and increase our conviction to kick their asses out.” (Gizmodo)

A bizarre Delta airline crash in Toronto

A flight from Minneapolis crashed and overturned while landing at Toronto Pearson Airport—on Monday afternoon. All 80 passengers have been evacuated—and there are no reports of deaths so far. At least 18 have been injured. You can see the belly-up plane on the tarmac below:

There is also unclear and unverified footage of the crash here.

What happened here? The airport experienced strong winds all day—and snow through the weekend. But that doesn’t explain this sequence of events:

As the plane neared the airport, air traffic controllers notified its pilots of about 38 mph wind gusts. “Might be a slight bump in the glide path,” the air traffic worker said. “There will be an aircraft in front of you.”

Within two minutes, the plane had flipped. Fire erupted as the aircraft tumbled, and the plane slammed into the runway, spitting out a huge fireball and leaving passengers hung aloft in their seats.

According to passengers, they were “hanging like bats” from the ceiling. CNN has the eyewitness account.

what caught our eye

business & tech

Another day, another buyout by Jio—the giant just got bigger by merging JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar into one platform.
Nifty snapped its eight-day losing streak, inching up 0.13% while Sensex gained 0.08%.
The doge.gov site tracking Musk’s federal cuts is full of security holes, with anyone able to edit the database—one coder even added a cheeky message calling it a “joke of a .gov site.”
Xi Jinping urged Jack Ma and China’s tech giants to “show their talent” as he tries to revive the economy, signaling a possible end to his tech crackdown.

sports & entertainment

The countdown to the annual cricket extravaganza has started—the men’s IPL 2025 kicks off on March 22 with Kolkata Knight Riders defending their title against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, with 74 thrilling matches to follow until the final on May 25.
Shakira had to cancel her Lima concert after being hospitalised with an abdominal issue.

health & environment

A new study has found that thirty minutes of exercise can give people with ADHD a short-term boost in cognition.
New York Times has a good read on whether fake meat is actually better for you—or just a lab-grown illusion of health.
Article 14 has an in-depth piece on the unfulfilled promises of Narendra Modi’s Ayushman Bharat, showing how delays, cost disputes, and low claim settlements have failed to match the ambitious goals of the world’s largest health scheme.

as for the rest

The Print explains why the Delhi earthquake on Monday felt stronger than its Richter scale reading.
ISB climbs to #27 in the FT Global MBA Ranking, keeping its top spot in India.
Gyanesh Kumar is the new Chief Election Commissioner, appointed by a panel led by PM Modi. He takes office Wednesday, just as the Supreme Court hears a challenge to the law that put him there.
The UK Special Forces has rejected asylum to 2,000 Afghan commandos. The likely reason: “because they were witnesses to the alleged UK war crimes currently being investigated in the Afghan inquiry.”
No stinky mummies here—an expert sniffers team found out that Egyptian mummies surprisingly smell quite pleasant.
Just two months after the landmark Gisele Pelicot case, a French court is getting ready to conduct a public trial on a former surgeon—accused of raping almost 300 former patients, most of whom are children.

Three things to see

One: Let’s start with the news that matters most—zero wins for desis. ‘Emilia Pérez’ trumped ‘All We Imagine As Light’ in the foreign film category—while ‘Kneecap’ beat ‘Santosh’, ‘Sister Midnight’ and ‘Monkey Man’ in the best British debut category. But, but, but: there were plenty of memorable moments through the night—here are our favourites:

We loved Jesse Eisenberg’s acceptance speech—on behalf of his ‘A Real Pain’ co-star Kieran Culkin who won Best Supporting Actor:

Robbie Williams’ biopic ‘Better Man’ didn’t win anything but his former band Take That had a blast performing ‘Greatest Day’—see below:

The awards’ host David Tennant was hilarious as ever in his opening monologue—featuring a rendition of ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’:

As for the red carpet: ‘Sing Sing’ star—and nominee for Best Actor—Colman Domingo was the easily the best dressed:

Demi Moore—nominated for ‘The Substance’—made a stylish splash as well:

The Guardian has the full list of winners, while Harper’s Bazaar has the red carpet roundup.

Two: Former world champion and Olympic silver medallist David Storl is offering lessons on shot put techniques—in Hindi?! The German athlete announced his plan in a lipsynced video—made possible by the miracle of AI. A lovely thought—though watching him speak shuddh Hindi is kinda weird—as you can see below. (Indian Express)

Three: A father and son duo were kayaking in the waters of Chilean Patagonia when a humpback whale swallowed the son—but mercifully spit him out within a second. He is unharmed. Yes, human beings do indeed taste terrible. (New York Times)