A foul-mouthed former Philippine president who jailed political rivals, insulted the pope and claims to have hired “death squad” gangsters is running for re-election in his hometown in a desperate bid to strengthen his scandal-hit political dynasty.

Labeled “Asia’s Trump” by some commentators due to his unorthodox leadership style and bombastic rhetoric, Rodrigo Duterte is aiming for a perhaps even more unlikely political comeback than Donald Trump’s seismic return to the White House.

Duterte, 79, wants to return as mayor of Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao, where he held power for more than two decades before leading the archipelago nation between 2016 and 2022.

His return to politics is about more than a personal quest for power, analysts say – it’s an attempt to shore up support for his family against the Philippines’ other famed political dynasty – the Marcoses, who have an opposing vision for the country, particularly its relationships with the United States and China.

In a political culture dominated by clan-based alliances, the Marcoses and the Dutertes made a vow of unity when Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, ran for vice president alongside Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who died in exile in 1989 after a brutal 21-year reign.

The duo won a landslide victory in 2022, but not even halfway through their term the alliance is disintegrating as Duterte-Carpio faces calls for her impeachment for alleged corruption, which she denies.

The Marcos-Duterte fallout has since descended into public tirades and name-calling – a hallmark of Rodrigo Duterte’s years as a straight-talking, filter-free president.

Richard Heydarian, senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines, says the older Duterte has entered the political maelstrom to bolster his family’s defenses as they fight battles on several fronts.

“The Dutertes are at their most vulnerable moment in almost a decade,” he said.

Death squads and a war on drugs

Duterte soared to power on a promise to replicate on a national scale his anti-crime crackdown in the family’s stronghold of Davao, winning the 2016 presidential election in a landslide.

In the years that followed, more than 6,000 people were killed in his war on drugs, according to police data, though independent monitors believe the number of extrajudicial killings could be much higher.

Many of the victims were young men from impoverished shanty towns, shot by police and rogue gunmen as part of a campaign to target dealers.

The bloodshed prompted an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a monthslong House of Representatives inquiry, as well as a separate Senate inquiry led by the cousin of the current president.

In a House hearing Wednesday, Duterte declared that he was finally ready to face the ICC, even urging prosecutors to “hurry up” and “start the investigation tomorrow.” In typically combative fashion, however, he also told the 12-hour long hearing that he would kick any ICC investigators who came to the Philippines to face him.

Duterte’s fighting talk comes after the former president made a stark admission to the Senate inquiry last month during his first public appearance in the investigations.

Before an audience of millions watching on television and online, Duterte told lawmakers he hired a “death squad” of gangsters to kill criminals while mayor of Davao City, 600 miles (965 kilometers) from the capital Manila.

“I can make the confession now if you want,” Duterte said. “I had a death squad of seven, but they were not police, they were gangsters.”

But in the same hearing, Duterte distanced himself from claims he directly ordered his national police chiefs to carry out extrajudicial killings during his time as president. He also said he told police officers to “encourage” suspects to fight back, as legal cover for the killings.

Duterte’s attempts to fend off criticism come as his daughter fights calls for her impeachment over claims she misappropriated funds from both the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

Lawmakers in September deferred the approval of budgets to her office as allied political clans at odds with the Dutertes demanded more transparency and accountability over her public spending.

Heydarian, the analyst, said Duterte’s decision to run for Davao mayor marks an attempt to keep the family politically relevant, and is likely an acknowledgment that he may not have what it takes to run for a seat in the national legislature.

His return to Davao may also serve to support his sons – incumbent Davao mayor Sebastian Duterte and congressman Paolo Duterte – who are contesting the Davao election but are viewed as “out of touch” with locals, Heydarian said.

“It’s always foolish to underestimate the Dutertes given their almost fanatical base in certain parts of the country, but I think it would also not be foolish to think that the Dutertes are also now facing an existential crisis,” Heydarian said.

From unity to animosity

The Marcos-Duterte alliance was always an unlikely one. But major cracks appeared in January, when Rodrigo Duterte called Marcos a “drug addict” and threatened that the president could be removed from power.

Months later, Vice President Duterte-Carpio resigned as education secretary, a departure seen by analysts as a sign that the relationship between the country’s top leaders was beyond repair.

In October, Duterte-Carpio aired a litany of grievances against the president in a two-hour livestreamed press conference, saying she “wanted to chop his head off.” She said the Marcoses “used her” to propel themselves to victory in the 2022 election.

At one point, Duterte-Carpio spoke about Ferdinand Marcos Sr. – the late patriarch and longtime dictator. She said she had become so incensed by the attacks on her that she wanted to dig up his body and “throw it in the West Philippine Sea.”

Despite this, Duterte-Carpio told reporters she does not regret running for vice president under Marcos. “They can drag me to hell,” she said. “And when they get there, I will be the president of hell.”

Marcos insisted he thought he and the vice president were friends.

“I always thought that we were,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference in September. “But maybe I was deceived.”

His son, Sandro Marcos, entered the fray, saying in a rare statement that he “cannot remain silent” as the vice president “threatens to exhume a former president and behead an incumbent one.”

At the heart of the feud is geopolitics, specifically how the Philippines should balance its relationships with China and the US, according to Ranjit Singh Rye, an assistant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines.

The incumbent Marcos administration has leaned more closely toward Washington – the Philippines’ oldest and closest ally – particularly strengthening its military alliance, in a move that reverses Duterte’s pro-Beijing tilt for investment in infrastructure.

Cozying up to China is believed to have led to the nefarious proliferation of the gambling and online scams industry, with alleged links to Chinese organized crime, under Duterte’s administration.

The leaders’ split views on the Philippines’ geopolitical standing ultimately divided the Marcos-Duterte alliance, according to Rye.

“The differences are irreconcilable because they both represent a different vision of where the Philippines needs to go and how the Philippines needs to be governed,” Rye said.

Home turf survival

When Duterte filed his candidacy in Davao, he was met by a roaring crowd of supporters. “I want to serve you. Davao is better than yesterday,” he told reporters, implying its current progress was due to his past iron grip.

The midterm elections are not until May 2025 but politicking and campaigning in the Philippines starts punishingly early, and thousands of local posts are up for grabs across the country of just under 120 million people, from district councilors and mayors to lawmakers.

Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist and head of polling firm WR Numero, said the outcome could shape the political landscape for years to come.

In Davao, five members of the once-mighty Duterte clan are facing off with familiar rivals.

Along with Sebastian, who will be his father’s running mate, Rodrigo’s eldest son Paolo is seeking re-election to Congress and two of Paolo’s sons are running for other local seats. Political pundits are saying that at least one Duterte may make a bid for the presidency in 2028.

“The Dutertes are not just joining this race as regular players. This is a fight to the death. This is for their political survival,” Arguelles said.

The Dutertes’ biggest challenger in Davao is the Nograles clan, reigniting a decades-old family rivalry.

The late Prospero Nograles remains the only person from Mindanao to have served as the nation’s House speaker. Though he only held the role for two years until 2010, the patriarch of the Nograles family built formidable ties with influential lawmakers and entrenched political elites across a decades-long career in local and national politics.

Now, the next generation of Nograles politicians is running against the Dutertes in their shared hometown.

Karlo Nograles is running against Rodrigo Duterte for the mayoralty while his sister, Margarita, a lawyer and rising TikTok influencer, is challenging Paolo.

Karlo Nograles has said people in Davao “deserve a chance to have real, meaningful and lasting change” – a message that could sway a portion of voters, Arguelles said.

“If the Dutertes lose the ballot in their home turf, it’s a sign that they have not been able to defend themselves from attacks on several fronts,” Arguelles said.

A lingering problem for the Dutertes is their relationship with Pastor Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, a self-styled “appointed son of God” and founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ church, who is wanted by the FBI for alleged sex trafficking.

Quiboloy is a close supporter and spiritual adviser of Rodrigo Duterte, who regularly appeared on a church-linked media network when he was mayor of Davao and was accused by lawmakers of concealing Quiboloy’s whereabouts.

The church leader was arrested in September after a weeks-long standoff involving nearly 2,000 officers who surrounded a sprawling church compound just outside Davao International Airport – a massive operation for which Marcos took credit.

Despite all the controversies and alleged links to extrajudicial killings and suspected criminals, Duterte has told Davao voters that a vote for him is a vote for order.

Eight people were killed and 17 others injured in a stabbing attack on a college campus in eastern China on Saturday, police said — the latest in a recent spate of attacks that has shaken a nation long used to low rates of violent crime.

The attack took place around 6:30 p.m at the Wuxi Vocational Institute of Arts and Technology in the city of Yixing, according to a police statement. A suspect was detained at the scene, it said.

The statement said the suspect was a recent graduate who was motivated by “failing (an) exam, not receiving a graduation certificate, and dissatisfaction with internship compensation.” An investigation is ongoing.

The attack is the latest mass casualty incident to hit China — a country of 1.4 billion that has one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world, partly due to its strict gun controls and powerful mass surveillance.

Last Monday, 35 people were killed after a car plowed into people who were exercising in the southern city of Zhuhai in the country’s deadliest known attack on the public in a decade. Around 40 others were injured.

As news of that attack spread, censors swooped in to take down online videos of the attack and moderate social media discussions

In October, police arrested a 50-year-old man after a stabbing attack near an elementary school in Beijing injured five people, including three children.

In September, three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a suburban supermarket in Shanghai.

Also in September, a bus crashed into a crowd of students and parents outside a school in Tai’an city in Shandong province, killing 11 people and injuring 13 others. Chinese authorities did not reveal whether that incident was accidental or deliberate.

This story has been updated with additional infomation.

Dozens of people detained during protests over Venezuela’s disputed presidential election have been released, according to the local rights group Foro Penal.

Fifty people were released from the Tocorón prison in the state of Aragua and 20 more from three other prisons, Foro Penal’s leader Alfredo Romero said early Saturday.

Video footage from outside one of the prisons shows some of those released hugging loved ones surrounded by cheering crowds.

According to Foro Penal, more than 1,800 people have been detained for protesting July’s election, which saw strongman President Nicolas Maduro reelected despite widespread skepticism about the result in Venezuela and abroad.

Human Rights Watch has said there are “credible” reports of 24 people being killed during the crackdown on the protests.

More releases could be on the way, with Venezuela’s Attorney General saying Friday it would review the cases of more than 200 people detained during the protests.

The releases come after one protester died in custody.

Jesús Manuel Martínez Medina, a member of the opposition party Vente Venezuela, was detained on August 2 and had been in hospital since October 11.

The Attorney General said Friday he had died in hospital after receiving “adequate medical attention,” but did not specify the date of his death.

Venezuela has been in a state of crisis since the July election, when Venezuela’s electoral authority – a body stacked with Maduro allies – declared him the winner with 51% of the vote.

But tens of thousands of tallies published by the opposition suggested a win for opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez.

Multiple countries have refused to recognize Maduro’s victory.

Maduro – a follower of “Chavismo,” the left-wing populist ideology named after his predecessor Hugo Chávez – is set to begin his third consecutive six-year term in January.

More than half a million people have been evacuated from their homes as Super Typhoon Man-yi made landfall along the eastern coast of Catanduanes, Philippines on Saturday.

Winds are currently up to 160 mph (260 kph), making Man-yi the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane.

More than 500,000 people in the country’s Bicol region have been evacuated, a disaster official told DZRH radio, Reuters reported Saturday. This number is expected to rise.

At least 26,000 people in the country’s Northern Samar province were evacuated on Friday and Saturday, according to the country’s government-run Philippine News Agency (PNA).

A further 18,000 were preemptively evacuated from the Eastern Samar and Samar provinces, PNA reported, with patients and staff members of Eastern Samar’s Arteche District Hospital being evacuated to the area’s municipal hall.

Man-yi underwent rapid intensification on Friday, jumping from a tropical storm early Friday to a super typhoon early Saturday. The increase of 55 mph in 24 hours well exceeds the definition of rapid intensification, which is 35 mph in 24 hours.

Signal 5 warnings have been issued for the Catanduanes area by the Philippines meteorological agency PAGASA. This is the highest level for warnings that can be issued.

Catanduanes Governor Joseph Boboy Cua asked for “continued prayers” for the area in a Facebook post, PNA reported.

“Most importantly, we pray you do not forget about Catanduanes. We appeal for your power restoration teams, free calls and text booths, in-kind donations, help and attention, especially after the typhoon leaves the country,” he said in the Facebook post, according to PNA.

After crossing Catanduanes, Man-yi is expected to make another landfall about 70 miles (110 km) northeast of Manila Sunday afternoon.

The storm is expected to bring several meters of potentially catastrophic storm surge, widespread damaging winds and power outages, severe flooding and landslides across a significant swath of eastern Luzon.

The head of Georgia’s Central Electoral Commission was doused with black paint Saturday at a meeting to confirm the results of the country’s divisive Oct. 26 parliamentary elections.

Protesters gathered outside the commission’s building in Tbilisi, where officials announced that the ruling Georgian Dream party had won 53.93% of the vote.

Opposition supporters have rejected the results amid allegations that the vote was rigged, an accusation that Georgian Dream denies.

The Saturday session was interrupted when David Kirtadze, a commission member from the opposition United National Movement party, threw black paint at commission chairman Giorgi Kalandarishvili.

Before the incident, Kirtadze told Kalandarishvili that the official results of the vote did not reflect voters’ “true choice.”

Kalandarishvili responded by saying that the use of “pressure, bullying and personal insults” proved that there was no evidence of vote rigging.

When the meeting resumed, Kalandarishvili was seen with a bandaged eye.

“It once again becomes evident that there is no tangible proof indicating that the elections were manipulated,” he told the audience.

European election observers have described the Georgian parliamentary elections as taking place in a “divisive” atmosphere marked by instances of bribery, double voting and physical violence.

Many Georgians viewed the vote as a pivotal referendum on the country’s effort to join the European Union. The bloc suspended Georgia’s membership application process indefinitely in June after the country’s parliament passed a “foreign influence law” that critics say mimics Moscow’s crackdown on civil society.

Critics have accused the ruling Georgian Dream, established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia, of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow. It has recently adopted laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

President Salome Zourabichvili, who has rejected the official results, says Georgia has fallen victim to pressure from Moscow against joining the European Union. Zourabichvili, who holds a mostly ceremonial position, has urged the United States and EU to support the demonstrations.

Officials in Washington and Brussels have urged a full investigation of the election, while the Kremlin has rejected the accusations of interference.

Intense Israeli strikes targeted areas of Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah considered its response to a fresh ceasefire proposal.

The strikes marked the fifth straight day of Israeli attacks on the Dayiyeh region of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Lebanon’s National News Agency said three areas were hit.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had targeted Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure, accusing the Iran-backed group of embedding itself within the civilian population. It issued evacuation orders across several locations ahead of the attacks.

Israel has intensified its strikes on the capital and expanded its ground operation in southern Lebanon in recent days. The heavy strikes coincide with revived negotiations for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

The latest proposal is the first to be submitted by the US and Israel since a temporary ceasefire was negotiated in late September. Those efforts were upended when Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a major bombing attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Authorities are “optimistic” that Hezbollah will agree to the terms of the agreement and expect to submit an official response to the latest proposal next Monday, the Lebanese official said. But Hezbollah is yet to respond.

It remains unclear if the intensified strikes across Lebanon will influence the ceasefire negotiations. On Thursday alone, Israeli airstrikes resulted in the deaths of at least 59 individuals throughout Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Most of the strikes have been in Shia-majority areas where Hezbollah wields influence, but Israel has also struck buildings housing displaced families well outside areas of the militant group’s dominance.

Meanwhile Hezbollah has continued systematically firing projectiles onto areas in northern Israel. At least 60 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israel on Saturday, the IDF said.

Israel launched a major offensive in Lebanon in mid-September following months of tit-for-tat border attacks, which started when Hezbollah attacked Israel in solidarity with Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza. Returning 60,000 civilians to their homes in northern Israel has become a political imperative for the Israeli leadership.

Iran’s foreign ministry denied that a meeting was held between the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations and Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person and close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, Iranian state media reported Saturday.

The New York Times reported the meeting took place earlier this week, citing two Iranian officials.

But Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei “categorically denied” that a meeting took place and was “surprised” by the coverage in US media, state-run IRNA said.

The Times reported that a meeting between Musk and Iran’s envoy Amir Saeid Iravani was held at a secret location in New York on Monday and lasted more than an hour, citing the Iranian officials, who reportedly described the discussion as focused on how to defuse tensions between the two countries.

Reports of the alleged meeting raised questions about what Musk’s influence might look like in the incoming administration, especially when it comes to US foreign policy.

Just last week, the day after the presidential election, Musk joined Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to two sources. Trump put the call on speaker and Zelensky thanked Musk for his help with providing communications through Starlink to Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia, a source added.

Trump announced Tuesday that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” in his second administration. Musk, who is the CEO of Space X and Tesla, has benefitted from billions of dollars worth of federal contracts, including from NASA, the military and other US government agencies, and the announcement raised immediate concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

It is not immediately clear how the department – which Trump said would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government” – would operate, and whether the US Congress – even fully controlled by Republicans – would have the appetite to approve such a massive overhaul of government spending and operations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia’s war in Ukraine will end “faster” when Donald Trump takes over as US president.

Speaking in a radio interview with Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspine on Friday, Zelensky said “I believe that the war will end,” adding that there is “no exact date.”

However, he said, the war “will end faster with the policy of this team that will now lead the White House.”

“This is their approach, their promise to their society, and it is also very important to them,” he added.

Trump, who was elected for a second term earlier this month, has repeatedly claimed that the Ukraine-Russia war would not have started if he had been president. In July, he said he could settle the war in one day.

Throughout his campaign, the president-elect and his running mate, JD Vance, cast strong doubts on continued US commitment to Kyiv. The war has been ongoing for more than two and a half years, following the large-scale invasion of Russian forces in February 2022.

The bad news keeps coming. Wherever Kyiv looks, Moscow seems to have the advantage.

Russia is making gains at key spots along the frontlines of eastern and southeastern Ukraine, while unleashing wave after wave of aerial terror against Ukrainian cities.

At the same time, Moscow is preparing to launch a counteroffensive in the southern Russian region of Kursk, the site of Kyiv’s only major military success this year. Moscow has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to Kursk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says, numbers that were boosted by recently arrived North Korean troops.

Barros, who leads the Russia and Geospatial Intelligence teams at the DC-based conflict monitoring group, said that Russia’s advantage on the battlefield makes it impossible for Ukraine to prepare for a possible counteroffensive.

“The Russians are the ones taking action, and they’re forcing the Ukrainians to respond. That’s not a good thing, because you lose wars by constantly being on the defensive. … You just get boxed into a corner and you have to choose from a buffet of bad options,” Barros added.

The situation is particularly dire around Kupiansk. The key northeastern city is once again at risk of falling to Russia after it was liberated by the Ukrainians in September 2022 following more than six months under Russian occupation.

Kupiansk sits on the crossroads of two major supply roads and the Oskil river, which forms a major defensive feature in the area. Taking over Kupiansk would make it a lot easier for Russia to push further into the Kharkiv region. That would in turn put further pressure on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city that has been pummeled by Russian drones and missiles on nearly daily basis.

Russian state news agency Tass reported on Friday that Russian troops entered the outskirts of the city, although Ukrainian officials insisted Kupiansk remained under full control of their forces.

At the same time, Ukraine is struggling to hold back Russian advanced further south, around the city of Kurakhove, which has been surrounded from three sides for months. Earlier this week, Zelensky called the situation around Kurakhove “the most difficult area” of the frontline.

But while Russia seems poised to take over the city in the coming days or weeks, Barros said this may not be a strategically significant loss for Kyiv, as it won’t significantly impact its ability to defend the wider region.

Ukraine has put up a fierce fight in the area in recent months, even though it has lost some ground.

Kurakhove lies some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub that has been in Russia’s crosshairs for many months. By late summer, Pokrovsk appeared almost certain to fall. Yet Kyiv’s forces have – for now – managed to repel Russia’s advances there, forcing Moscow to redraw its plans.

Barros said that the Pokrovsk situation is just one example of Russia’s failure to achieve its own, publicly stated goals.

“They were working towards trying to seize Pokrovsk this fall, but they have abandoned this operational objective, and they’ve actually started attacking in a different direction,” Barros said.

“It’s not just the Russians failing. It is actually part of a very stalwart Ukrainian defense,” he added.

Since seizing Avdiivka in early 2024, Russia has only managed to advance some 30 to 40 kilometers (18 to 25 miles) deeper into Ukraine’s territory. That is a very small advance given the huge costs to the Russian military.

Moscow has lost about five divisions worth of mechanized equipment, amounting to many hundreds of tanks and armed personnel carriers, in the Pokrovsk region in just the past year, according to the ISW’s assessment of visual evidence from the battlefield.

“To lose five divisions worth of tanks and other personnel carriers over the course of a year to only advance about 40 kilometers, you can go and compare this to all the other major mechanized offenses of the 21st century and even the great battles of the Second World War …. that’s actually a really terrible performance,” Barros said.

War of attrition – but for how much longer?

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, and despite the assistance from its allies, Ukraine has always been on the back foot when it comes to material and manpower.

Russia has more weapons; more ammunition and more people.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategy still appears to be slowly grinding Ukraine down by outgunning and outspending it and by wearing down its western allies.

But number of analysts have said that Putin has a limited window of opportunity to achieve this goal, given the staggering losses Russia is suffering to make even the smallest advances.

The strain the conflict is putting on Russia’s economy is clearly growing. Russia has massively increased its military spending over the past two years and its economy is now showing signs of overheating: inflation is running high, and companies are facing labor shortages. Trying to control the situation, the Russian Central Bank has raised interest rates to 21% in October, the highest in decades.

And while Russia has many more people than Ukraine, it is suffering significant losses and recruitment of new troops is already a problem – last time the Russian military introduced a partial mobilization, hundreds of thousands of men fled the country.

The recent influx of North Korean troops into Russia will help for some time, but the material losses could be harder to make up for.

“Between the economy, the shortage of men in Russia and losing the pile of vehicles that the Russians require for their current style warfare, these are strategic resources that are going to impose serious problems on the Kremlin if the current tempo holds for the next year,” Barros said.

Whether Ukraine could take advantage of these problems will depend mostly on the willingness of its allies to continue support it – and the return of the former president Donald Trump to the White House certainly puts a major question mark over that.

Zelensky this week said that the war will end “faster” once Trump returns to the presidency.

“If the international Western coalition, including the United States, keeps backing the Ukrainians for the next maybe 12 to 16, 18 months, there will be opportunities to really disrupt the way that the Russians have been resourcing this war,” Barros said. “(They) can decide whether the Russians win or lose.”

Lucknow, India (AP) — A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, authorities said.

The fire occurred late Friday at a hospital in Jhansi city, Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the blaze spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated. Forty-five babies were rescued and are receiving medical care, said Bimal Kumar Dubey, a local official.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the blaze. Brajesh Pathak, the deputy chief minister of the state, visited the hospital and met with families on Saturday. He pledged government support for the victims’ families and promised a thorough investigation.

“We will identify those responsible for this tragedy and take strict action. The government stands with families during this difficult time,” he said.

When the firefighters arrived, the ward was engulfed in flames and plumes of smoke. Rescuers had to break through windows to reach the newborn babies. Eyewitnesses said the rescue operation began about 30 minutes after the fire erupted, delaying evacuation efforts.

The incident has raised questions over the hospital’s safety measures. While fire alarms had been installed in the intensive care unit, parents and witnesses said they did not activate during the blaze. Hospital staff acted only after they saw signs of smoke and fire.

“If the safety alarm had worked, we could have acted sooner and saved more lives,” said Naresh Kumar, a parent who lost his baby.

Akhtar Hussain, whose son was rescued and is receiving treatment in an adjacent ward, agreed that the tragedy could have been prevented if the hospital had better safety protocols.

Fires are common in India, where building laws and safety norms are often flouted by builders and residents. Poor maintenance and lack of proper firefighting equipment in the country also leads to deaths.

In May, at least six newborn babies died in a fire at a children’s hospital in New Delhi, three years after a hospital fire in the western state of Maharashtra killed 10 newborns.