Morning Digest: European leaders to huddle in London to discuss Ukraine; India takes on New Zealand in last Champions Trophy league game, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on March 2, 2025

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer embraced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday (March 1, 2025) and told him he had the U.K.’s unwavering support, a day after the blowout at the White House with President Donald Trump. Mr. Starmer is also set to host a summit of many European leaders on Sunday (March 2, 2025) to discuss support for Ukraine. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau too confirmed that he will attend the meeting in London.

India and New Zealand, having already booked their semifinal berths early last week, will play in the final league encounter (Group A) on Sunday (March 2, 2025) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in what is essentially a dead rubber.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday (March 1, 2025) chaired a high-level review meeting in New Delhi with top security officials over the security situation in Manipur, during which he directed them to ensure free movement of people on all roads across the State from March 8 onwards.

The Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admissions to undergraduate programmes will be held from May 8 to June 1, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced on Saturday (March 1, 2025). The applications for the exam began on March 1 and will be open till March 22.

The agonising wait of the family members and co-workers of the 8 persons buried alive about 14 km inside the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel on February 22 morning is getting longer, despite the ground probing radar (GPR) scanning identifying the soft material under the debris of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and beneath the muck in the area beside it.

Four civilian workers were still missing, likely trapped under six feet of ice, as night fell on Saturday (March 1, 2025), two days after an avalanche hit a Border Roads Organisation building site at Mana village in Uttarkhand. On the second day of a rescue operation taking place amidst heavy snowfall at 10,000 feet above sea level, 17 workers were brought out by the Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police, but four of them succumbed to their injuries and were declared dead in the hospital after being brought out.

West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu’s vehicle was attacked inside Kolkata’s Jadavpur University on Saturday (March 1, 2025) by students while the Minister was attending a meeting of the teachers’ association. The incident triggered protests with students alleging they had been targeted by Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons. Protesting students were seen ransacking the venue of the teachers’ association meeting, and blocking traffic outside the university.