More than 40 people, mostly women, were killed after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Mali on Saturday.

The collapse took place near Kéniéba, in Mali’s western, gold-rich Kayes region.

The victims had climbed into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth around them caved in, a gold miner’s union leader told Reuters.

This is Mali’s second deadly mining accident in three weeks, after at least 10 people were killed when a mining tunnel flooded late in January.

Reports of the exact number who died in Saturday’s accident are conflicting.

A local police source told the AFP news agency that 48 people were killed in the collapse, while the head of an industry union told Reuters there were 43 victims.

“Some of the victims fell into the water. Among them was a woman with her baby on her back,” the local police source told AFP.

Mali is one of the biggest gold producers in the world. Accidents are common in the country as much mining activity is unregulated, with miners using unsafe methods to dig for gold.

Just over a year ago, at least 40 people were killed after a tunnel collapsed in a mine.

A spokesperson from the country’s mines ministry confirmed to Reuters that the accident had taken place between the towns of Kéniéba and Dabia, but declined to give further details.

Ministry teams are drawing up a report at the scene, Reuters reports.

The collapse on Saturday occurred at an abandoned site formerly operated by a Chinese company, according to AFP.

Beijing is heavily invested in developing Mali’s mining industries, with the approval of its government.

Mali is currently engaged in a dispute over revenue sharing with one of the largest mining companies in the country, the Canadian firm Barrick.

Last month, the Malian government seized gold bars worth $245m (£194m) from Barrick and issued an arrest warrant for its CEO, Mark Bristow.

Mr Bristow said he had “no doubt” the conflict would be resolved in an interview with Bloomberg this week.

On Sunday morning, the New Delhi Railway Station in India’s capital looked much like it always does; bustling, with its many platforms full of eager, impatient passengers waiting to catch their trains.

But on Saturday night, a deadly crush – reportedly caused by overcrowding – killed at least 18 people and left several injured.

According to officials, two trains had been delayed at the station, while a third – heading to Prayagraj city where the massive Hindu religious festival, Kumbh Mela, is being held – was waiting to depart as people pushed against each other.

The crush occurred after “a passenger slipped and fell on the stairs”, a spokesperson for Indian Railways said.

Opposition leaders have criticised the government, alleging that Indian Railways did not make adequate arrangements to manage crowds at the station.

An investigation has been launched, and authorities have announced compensation for the victims.

When asked by the BBC about safety and security at the station, Pankaj Gangwar, Principal Chief Security Commissioner of Northern Railway, said “let the investigation be completed first”.

Crushes like these are not unheard of in India, where there is frequent overcrowding at religious events, festivals and public spaces. Last month, 30 people were killed and dozens injured in a crush at the Kumbh Mela.

Crowds at the railway station were also not unexpected – trains are by far the cheapest long-distance mode of transport in India and it is common for the number of passengers to far exceed the capacity of trains.

Eyewitnesses and the families of victims have been recounting their ordeal. Many of them were angry at authorities and police officials at the railway station, who they say did not act in time.

Some eyewitnesses said the crush was not limited to one place but took place on the overhead bridge, staircases and platforms.

Bipin Jha was at the station to meet his wife Mamta, who was arriving on a train. She died in the crush.

“I met her at the platform and we were walking on the footbridge overhead when she was trapped in the crush. She died in front of my eyes. I will live my life with the guilt of not saving her,” he says.

“We were on the stairs, suddenly we felt a push from behind. We fell, along with many others, and were trapped under bodies. I was barely breathing,” said Seema, whose sister-in law Pinky Devi died on the staircase.

Usha Devi, who was travelling to the eastern state of Bihar for her nephew’s wedding, said chaos erupted the moment she reached the platform.

“Many people fell. Everywhere, there were scattered belongings, food items and clothes. I was on the verge of fainting. So many people were collapsing. The crowd was so dense that we couldn’t board our train.”

Umesh Giri’s wife Shilam Devi was among the victims.

“The crowd became uncontrollable,” he told BBC Hindi while waiting outside the mortuary at Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College.

“I saw several bodies already lying there. People were colliding with each other, and others started falling over them,” said Mr Giri, who was also injured.

He added that help took time to arrive and that he pleaded with officers for help.

Senior police and railway officials at the scene did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Most of the victims were taken to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital in New Delhi, where police and paramilitary forces were deployed, and railway authorities had set up a help desk to assist families. Journalists were not allowed to enter the hospital on Saturday.

Relatives of victims shared their grief with reporters waiting outside, while also expressing anger at the facilities in the hospital.

“Multiple people were crammed onto a single bed,” alleged Shobha, the sister-in-law of Shilam Devi.

Others coming out of the hospital also confirmed this. Hospital authorities did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

At Lady Hardinge Hospital, the grieving family of Riya, 7, completed the paperwork so they could receive her body.

“No child deserves to die like this”, her uncle Vivek said, wiping away tears.

The UK and US have a “mutual interest” in negotiating an exemption for the UK from President Donald Trump’s planned export tariffs on steel, the business secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC the impact of the 25% tariffs which could come into force in March “would be negative for ourselves, it would be negative for the US as well”.

He said the UK was in a different trading position to other nations and could offer “very specialised” steel and aluminium exports the US needs, such as Navy submarine casings that are made in Sheffield while tariffs would push up costs for US taxpayers.

Reynolds’ comments on the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme came after the government promised up to £2.5bn in support for the UK steel industry.

President Trump has said the tariffs would be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”.

However, Reynolds told the BBC he has had “some very constructive conversations with key people in the Trump administration recognising our relationship is different”, including the special envoy to the UK, Mark Burnett, and the director of the US National Economic Council, Kevin Hasssett.

He told the programme he thought there was a basis for “constructive engagement” between the UK and US but “I’m not saying it’s easy”.

He added: “I appreciate they have a mandate for changing how they approach the issues of trade, but we have got a different argument, a different story to tell, to the EU or to China in relation to our trading relationships,” he said.

Reynolds was also asked about 2,000 jobs under threat at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, where there is a plan to close blast furnaces.

While he said he would expect some guarantees on jobs if the government was investing in the industry, he accepted that there would be a “reduction in head count” with the introduction of new technologies.

As the government committed to provide up to £2.5bn support, it also launched a consultation on the Plan for Steel to look at long-term issues facing the industry.

The government’s Plan for Steel will include measures that seek to bring down the cost of production and encourage the use of domestic steel in infrastructure projects.

Trump’s plan to impose a 25% tariff on all steel imports from 12 March is something the UK sector fears would cost it millions in trade.

Both countries report trade surpluses with each other owing to measurement differences, according to the UK’s Office for National Statistics. Trump had previously said tariffs would target countries that the US run a deficit with.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the “uncertainty” the steel industry faced due to US tariffs was something the government “has been entirely silent on when instead they should be talking to the US, our closest trading partner”.

The plan will address issues that have been “holding the industry back for too long”, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said.

These include:

• Identifying opportunities to expand steel production
• Encouraging the use of UK-made steel in public infrastructure projects
• Improving scrap processing facilities
• Investing in electric arc furnaces, which are less energy-intensive than blast furnaces and take out the need for high carbon-emitting coke

The consultation will also examine electricity costs for steel companies “to make the UK competitive globally”, and how to protect the sector from unfair trading practices abroad, such as cheap imports flooding the market, the DBT added.

However it did not make a firm commitment to reduce energy bills in launching its plan.

The government has already said it would not retaliate immediately to the tariffs announced by Trump.

UK Steel, which represents the industry, has said the tariffs would be a “devastating blow” that would damage the sector’s £400m-a-year contribution to UK-US trade.

The UK is not a big supplier of steel to the US, with the country accounting for about 10% of British steel exports.

But there are concerns within the industry the tariffs might not just hinder exports to the US, but also lead to excess steel being “dumped” in the UK.

This could occur if other countries no longer exporting to the US decide to offload steel at cheaper prices, which could potentially lead to UK steelmaking businesses being undercut.

Financial support could benefit Scotland and areas such as Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, Rotherham in South Yorkshire and Redcar in North Yorkshire “which have a strong history of steel production”, the DBT said.

Help will be available through the National Wealth Fund, which partners the government with the private sector and local authorities to finance infrastructure and other projects.

The DBT said it was “wasting no time” supporting UK steel, pointing to the government’s backing of expanding Heathrow Airport, which it said would require 400,000 tonnes of steel.

The UK steel industry has faced heavy job losses in recent years.

Tata Steel said it was replacing traditional blast furnaces with an electric arc furnace at its largest UK site in Port Talbot, Wales. Traditional steelmaking at the site ceased in September, resulting in 2,800 job cuts.

British Steel announced in 2023 it would close blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, and unveiled plans to roll out an electric arc furnace, which requires fewer workers to keep it going, with 2,000 jobs under threat.

The GMB union said the government’s plan to support the “beleaguered” steel industry provided “desperately needed” funding after “years of dithering”.

“As the world becomes more volatile, primary domestic steel making capacity is vital for both our economy and domestic security,” the union’s national secretary Andy Prendergast added.

Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, said the government’s commitment to the industry was “both vital and welcome”.

Information gathered in the consultation will be used to help form a “steel strategy”, to be launched in the spring.

Stace added a robust strategy “has the power to reverse the sector’s decline, particularly as we face increasing competition from imports benefiting from more favourable business conditions”.

Griffiths said he looked forward to seeing a detailed plan, but added “a clear part must be steps to reduce the cost of energy which is placing an intolerable strain on UK steel”.

The Liberal Democrats have said the government urgently needs to prepare for retaliatory tariff. The party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the UK steel industry was being left “dangerously exposed to Donald Trump and the devastating damage his tariffs could do”.

There can be “no durable peace” in Ukraine without European nations, particularly Ukrainians, taking part in talks to end the war with Russia, the business secretary has told the BBC.

Jonathan Reynolds downplayed divisions between the US and its allies over resolving the conflict, after concerns over the Trump administration moving ahead with peace talks that would lock out European countries, including Ukraine.

In response, European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, will meet in Paris on Monday, while US officials prepare to meet Russian negotiators.

Reynolds told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the UK could act as a “bridge” between the US and Europe to strengthen relations.

Reynolds also told the programme, hosted by Victoria Derbyshire, the UK and Europe had to respond to US demands for them to pay more towards their “collective defence” in the face of “greater threats”.

He said the UK government would set out a roadmap to increase defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of national output, but declined to offer a definitive timetable.

The Trump administration has called for its Nato allies to uplift to 5% and has said in the past week that it will no longer primarily be focused on European security.

Pressed on whether the 2.5% figure would be sufficient, Reynolds said any decision would take threats to national security into account.

Asked if the threat had “just got bigger without the US”, he said there was “no doubt” it had.

Reynolds said he thought the UK could “play a constructive role” as a bridge between the US and Europe “as we adjust to this new era, and it certainly is a new era”.

But he added there had not been a “fundamental breach” in relations and there was “still a great deal of common ground”.

The business secretary did concede it would not “be it easy, there’s a very assertive agenda from the US.”

Asked what he made of the UK and European nations not being invited to the US-Russian talks, Reynolds said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had made clear “everything is still on the table”.

“We shouldn’t rule out potential outcomes,” he added.

He argued Europe and Ukraine would have to be involved for any peace settlement to be lasting.

“Ultimately [President Trump] is somebody who likes to win, and winning would not be rewarding a war of aggression,” he said.

On Saturday, Sir Keir said that the emergency summit in Paris was a “once-in-a-generation moment for our national security” and it was clear Europe must take a greater role in Nato.

He added that the UK would work “to keep the US and Europe together” and could not allow divisions between the two to distract from “external enemies”.

Plans for the summit came after Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said European leaders would be consulted but not take part in any talks between US and Russia over ending the war.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the meeting should not be “over-dramatised”.

Senior White House figures are due to meet Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia in the coming days. US officials said that Ukraine was also invited – although President Volodymyr Zelensky says his country has received no such invitation.

Also talking to Victoria Derbyshire, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said it was “too premature to make assumptions” about the way Ukraine peace talks were heading.

“We all have to have very, very cold and calm heads right now, primarily because this conflict is still raging.”

She said Ukrainians should be the ones determining their future because the war was about their “independence and sovereignty”.

Asked if she supported President Trump’s proposal that Ukraine give up territory to end the conflict, she said: “We have to understand in more detail what they are saying, it’s too easy to generalise.

“It’s very early days in those talks, and I think right now, the United Kingdom, along with Nato allies, we must continue to be firm and solid and strong in that support we’re giving.”

Dame Priti added that as a priority, the UK needed to step up its spending on defence.

Appearing on the same programme, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice said it was “no surprise” Trump and his team were taking “a completely different” approach by putting “everything up for grabs” in terms of Ukraine.

He described it as a “massive wake-up call” for European leaders to take responsibility for their own defence.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said Ukraine had to be “at the front and centre” of any peace talks.

He warned that the US moves could leave Ukraine and the rest of Europe “at risk of future Russian aggression”.

Karin von Hippel, former director at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said she did not think Trump would “sell Ukraine down the river” and European nations should “stay calm”.

Meanwhile, Conservative former Prime Minister Sir John Major has warned democracy is under threat as the US steps back from its leading role in the world.

He told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend Trump’s policy of “isolation” was creating a power vacuum which would embolden countries like Russia and China to fill it.

Sir John said: “Many of the gains we made over recent years, when the Soviet Union collapsed, are now being reversed and you see a very aggressive Russia again in Ukraine.

“And if they were to succeed with their venture in Ukraine, no doubt they’d be elsewhere before too long.”

Police are investigating whether a suspect wanted after the fatal shooting of a woman outside a pub on Valentine’s Day may have entered the River Thames.

The woman, who was in her 40s, died at the scene of the attack, which happened at the Three Horseshoes in Knockholt, Kent, just after 19:00 GMT on Friday.

Police later found a vehicle that contained a gun on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which crosses the River Thames, near Dartford.

The force said it was not ruling out the possibility the man may have entered the water after it received reports of a man “on the wrong side of the barrier”.

The woman has not been formally identified but police said her attacker was known to her.

It is thought both people were not from Kent but had connections to the local area.

A Kent Police spokesperson said: “Officers continue to work with the families of both parties involved to support them following this tragic incident.”

BBC reporter Ben Schofield, at the scene in Main Road, Knockholt, on Sunday, said more information was “gradually becoming available” on what happened.

Villagers recalled hearing gunshots “ringing out” at about 19:00 GMT on Friday.

Police said they were looking for one suspect and did not believe there was an ongoing risk to the public.

Flowers have been left outside the village pub, located about five miles (8km) north-west of Sevenoaks.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the Three Horseshoes pub expressed its “sincere condolences to the victim’s family and friends” and reopened on Sunday.

Meanwhile, local reverend Tim Edwards said prayers were being offered at St Katherine’s Church in Knockholt “for the family and all affected”.

He said the church would also be open for anyone who wanted “to pray or just sit quietly”.