
India: Deoghar bus accident leaves many Hindu pilgrims dead – DW – 07/29/2025
A bus crash in eastern India left at least 18 Hindu pilgrims dead, a local lawmaker said Tuesday.
The crash occurred in the city of Deoghar in the India state of Jharkhand.
The bus carrying the pilgrims collided with a truck loaded with gas cylinders, killing the religious devotees onboard.
"18 devotees lost their lives due to a bus and truck accident," local Jharkhand lawmaker Nishikant Dubey wrote on social media platform X.
Dubey is a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Deoghar is a considered a holy city for Hindus in Jharkhand and is the location of a major temple. The city receives an influx of visitors during the sacred month of Shravan.
Modi also commented on the accident, calling it "extremely tragic." He expressed his "deepest condolences" to the families of the victims.

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DW
10 hours ago
- DW
Trump tariffs: India faces 25% hike as deadline looms – DW – 08/06/2025
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Int'l Business Times
12 hours ago
- Int'l Business Times
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DW
13 hours ago
- DW
What if India and China stop buying Russian oil? – DW – 08/06/2025
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With military spending now exceeding 6% of GDP and real inflation estimated by some analysts at 15-20% versus the official 9% figure, Russia is burning through cash, putting serious pressure on its budget and arms factories. For global markets, new sanctions could trigger a seismic shock in energy prices and trade flows reminiscent of 2022, when the oil price surged and Russia bypassed Western sanctions by striking discounted energy deals with two of the world's largest economies. "If India had not bought Russian crude [in 2022], it's anyone's guess what the oil price would have been — $100 (€86), $120, $300 [per barrel]," Sumit Ritolia, a New Delhi-based oil analyst from trade research house Kpler, told DW. WTI crude hovered between $74 and $95 per barrel in the weeks before the invasion. Trump's 25% "secondary tariff" could leave India with no choice but to scale back at least some of its oil trade with Russia. Any additional sanctions would only make matters worse. Katinas said secondary sanctions "raise the stakes" significantly, "threatening Indian companies' access to the US financial system and exposing banks, refineries, and shipping firms to serious repercussions given their integration into global markets." If Russia's 5 million barrels a day were suddenly removed from the oil market, analysts think oil prices could surge once again, as affected countries scramble to source other supplies. Even with oil cartel OPEC recently increasing output, replacing such a large volume would be exceptionally difficult in the short term, given limited spare capacity and logistical constraints. "There is nowhere to get those 5 million [barrels] fast enough to prevent a spike in oil prices." Alexander Kolyandr, senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told the UK's newspaper. Ritolia told DW it may take Indian firms up to a year to cut their reliance on Russian oil, if required. Higher oil prices would trigger a sharp rise in inflation both in the US and worldwide. The US Federal Reserve has estimated that every $10 increase in crude adds about 0.2 percentage points to US inflation. India's central bank reached a similar conclusion. If prices were to climb from the current $66 a barrel to $110-$120 per barrel, a roughly 1 percentage point inflation rise would drive up costs for consumers and businesses — especially in energy, transport, and food. Katinas said China, whose total trade with the US is more than four times the size of India's, "might be exempt" from the new US measures. With the world's two largest economies conducting over $580 billion of trade, China's sheer economic scale gives it bargaining power that India lacks. China's chokehold on the supply of rare earth minerals — a persistent friction point in US-China relations — may serve as yet another lever Beijing is pulling to temper Trump's stance. With India lacking comparable leverage, Trump earlier this week doubled down on New Delhi, saying the likely impact of his new sanctions on Russia and India would "take their dead economies down together." India is, meanwhile, no longer reaping the same windfall from Russian oil as it did in 2022, when discounts ranged from $15 to $20 per barrel. That margin has now narrowed to around $5, according to Kpler's Ritolia. Eager to replenish its war chest, Russia is aggressively maximizing energy revenues, buoyed by rising demand from Turkey — now its third-largest oil customer — and across Asia, where Russian crude is discreetly reexported under alternative labels to sidestep US sanctions. Still, Indian refiners continue to buy. Imports hit an 11-month high in June at 2.08 million barrels per day, accounting for 44% of India's total crude intake — a sharp rebound driven by geopolitical hedging and price competitiveness. Beyond the rhetoric, China's likely response seems guided by its earlier reaction to secondary sanctions. Chinese banks are increasingly refusing Russian transactions, even in yuan, forcing Moscow to rely on opaque intermediaries and third-country workarounds. Beijing sees oil imports as a priority that is mostly shielded from political pressure, India is seen as more likely to hedge: trimming purchases if pressured, but not abandoning discounted Russian crude entirely Ritolia speculated that India might "reduce" its Russian oil imports, but added: "I don't see us going down to zero anytime soon."