NewsBytes

Trump to hold call with Putin on moves to end Ukraine war

US President Donald Trump will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Tuesday to try to convince him to accept a ceasefire in the Ukraine war and move towards a more permanent end to the three-year-old conflict.

Ukraine has agreed to a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire in Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced and towns have been reduced to rubble since Russian's invasion in February 2022.

In a test of his deal-making ability, Trump hopes he can now persuade Putin to also accept the ceasefire and allow progress towards a longer-term peace plan which he has hinted could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

ZELENSKIY SAYS SOVEREIGNTY NOT NEGOTIABLE Zelenskiy has said that the sovereignty of his country is not negotiable and that Russia must surrender the territory it has seized. Russia seized the Crimea peninsula in 2014. It controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most of the territory of four eastern Ukrainian regions.

Putin has said he sent troops into Ukraine because NATO's creeping expansion threatened Russia's security and has demanded Ukraine drop its NATO membership ambitions.

Delhi’s air dirtiest among Indian metros: CSE report

Delhi remained India’s most polluted megacity by a wide margin during the 2024-25 winter, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 175 micrograms per cubic metre, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.

However, the Centre for Science and Environment analysis found that PM2.5 pollution in the national capital declined in the 2024-25 winter (October 1 to January 31) compared to the 2023-24 winter (189 micrograms per cubic metre). Kolkata was the second-most polluted megacity during the 2024-25 winter, with an average PM2.5 concentration of 65 micrograms per cubic metre. The analysis showed that PM2.5 levels declined in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata compared to the previous winter but remained the same in Chennai and Hyderabad.

The average PM2.5 levels during the 2024-25 winter were 52 micrograms per cubic metre in Hyderabad, 50 in Mumbai, 37 in Bengaluru and 36 in Chennai.

Last surviving pilot from Battle of Britain dies at 105

John “Paddy” Hemingway, the last surviving pilot who flew during the Battle of Britain, has died at the age of 105.

He died Monday at his home in Dublin, the Royal Air Force said. Hemingway was just 20 years old when he and his comrades in the Royal Air Force took to the skies to fight off wave after wave of Nazi aircraft that sought to pound Britain into submission during the summer and autumn of 1940.

During dogfights with German aircraft in August of 1940, Hemingway was twice forced to bail out of his Hurricane fighter, once landing in sea off the east coast of England, before returning to his squadron to resume the fight, the RAF said. He was awarded the Dikstinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in 1941.

In an interview with the BBC in 2020, Hemingway dismissed suggestions of bravery and heroism, saying he was a pilot and had a job to do. “The world was at war, and you couldn’t go somewhere and say, I’m at peace and I don’t fight wars,'” he said.

The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.