India’s Deadly Train Crash Spotlights Modi’s Uneven Modernization Push

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a deadly train crash in India, Ukrainian counteroffensive claims by Russia, and violent clashes in Senegal.

On Saturday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was supposed to inaugurate the Vande Bharat Express, a new high-speed train, to highlight his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s efforts to improve the country’s rail system. Instead, he traveled to India’s eastern Odisha state to address one of the nation’s deadliest train crashes in history. On Friday, an electronic signaling system error derailed 21 passenger coaches, killing at least 275 people and injuring more than 1,000.

India has one of the largest and most extensive rail networks in the world. It includes 40,000 miles of tracks, 14,000 passenger trains, and 8,000 stations. Yet much of it is antiquated, having been built more than 160 years ago under British colonial rule. In 2016, Modi vowed to modernize the country’s transportation infrastructure; but despite train-related deaths decreasing in recent years, Modi’s efforts have been far from effective in slashing deadly rail accidents entirely.

Between 2017 and 2021, more than 100,000 individuals died in railway accidents in India—including more than 16,000 people in 2021 alone. Some of the worst incidents occurred in 2005, 2011, and 2016, with Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh states facing some of the deadliest derailments. Friday’s incident has once again raised public calls for Indian Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to resign. However, Modi is standing firm, supporting Vaishnaw while at the same time promising to severely punish whomever is found responsible.

The public’s biggest criticisms of Modi have centered on the prime minister’s focus on building new high-speed trains instead of fixing old rail lines. This strategy is part of Modi’s hope to create a $5 trillion economy by 2025. In February, Modi inaugurated the first 861-mile section of a new high-speed railway linking New Delhi to Mumbai. He has also ordered the construction of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor and the world’s tallest railway bridge in Kashmir. Yet although India’s government spent nearly $30 billion on the rail system in the past fiscal year—a 15 percent increase over the previous year—the country’s auditor general found last year that the amount of money allocated for track renewal and other basic safety measures has actually fallen.

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Tuesday, June 6: The United Nations General Assembly elects five non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council for 2024.

Slovakia hosts the Bucharest Nine summit.

Kuwait holds a general election.

Tuesday, June 6, to Wednesday, June 7: Iran is expected to reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia.

Wednesday, June 7: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends Gulf Cooperation Council talks.

Thursday, June 8: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hosts talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

U.S. President Joe Biden holds talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The French National Assembly convenes to discuss reversing the decision to increase the country’s retirement age.

Sunday, June 11: Montenegro holds parliamentary elections.

Monday, June 12: Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid testifies about fraud allegations in the corruption trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Counteroffensive now? Russia says Ukraine’s much-awaited counteroffensive has begun, but Kremlin officials claim to have successfully repelled all of Kyiv’s attacks thus far. These include the heavy shelling of at least 10 villages in Russia’s western Belgorod region on Monday as well as a drone strike on a power facility there and the targeting of five front line locations in Ukraine’s Donetsk region by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials called Russia’s claims of success “delusional” and reiterated their stance denying all attacks on Russian soil. Two paramilitary groups made up of Russian citizens who oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed credit for the Belgorod attacks.

Despite evidence for months of a coming Ukrainian counteroffensive, the exact date and location of its start is still unknown. On Monday, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Kyiv’s forces were moving to “offensive actions,” making some war experts believe the launch would occur soon. “For weeks, top Ukrainian officials—from President Volodymyr Zelensky on down—have been telegraphing that they will not start another major military onslaught on Russian lines without more weapons from the United States and the West,” FP’s Jack Detsch reported in April. With new military aid details announced last month, the wait may finally be over.

Deadly protests in Senegal. Around 500 people were arrested in Senegal following three days of violence in response to the sentencing of top opposition politician Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison. Sonko was convicted of “corrupting youth” on Thursday but was acquitted on charges of raping and threatening a massage parlor employee. Sonko and his supporters say the charges are political. Around 16 people were killed in the clashes, and more than 350 protesters were injured.

Sonko’s PASTEF-Patriots party has accused the government of deploying “private militias” to beat back the demonstrators, urging its supporters to “defend themselves in any way they can and fight back.” Senegalese President Macky Sall has accused Sonko of promoting violence, including “vandalism and banditry.” The government has temporarily suspended mobile internet access in the West African country to defuse the situation.

Mexico’s historic Morena win. For the first time in nearly a century, Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost control of the State of Mexico, which surrounds Mexico City, in gubernatorial elections held on Sunday. Delfina Gómez Álvarez, the candidate for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s ruling Morena party, will now lead Mexico’s most populous state and its 17 million residents. “It has been 100 years of corruption, but times change and the people united and won,” she said. “The end of those 100 years of darkness and mistreatment has come. A new history begins in the State of Mexico.”

One German court is hoping the 25th time’s the charm. An 82-year-old retired sailor was given a suspended sentence on Monday after being found guilty of dealing marijuana to supplement his $857 monthly pension—despite having already received 24 previous convictions and an ongoing suspended sentence. According to the presiding judge, this is the man’s “very last warning” to avoid jail time. Maybe now he’ll get the message.