Latest news bulletin | January 20th, 2026 – Midday
Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond this January 20th, 2026 - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
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00:00Activists say the number of deaths in a crackdown by authorities during Iran's ongoing nationwide anti-government protests now exceeds 4,000.
00:10Spain has announced three days of mourning following a train collision in Adamus, in which at least 40 people have died.
00:20Bulgaria's President Ruman Radev announced he is stepping down, signaling the launch of a bid for prime minister ahead of a snap parliamentary election.
00:31China's birth rate plunged to its lowest level on record last year, leading to a shrinking population for a fourth straight year.
00:40The number of deaths in a crackdown by authorities during Iran's ongoing nationwide anti-government protests now exceeds 4,000, according to the U.S.-based human rights activist's news agency.
00:53They fear the number will grow far higher as information leaks out of the country, still gripped by the government's decision to shut down the Internet.
01:02Iranian officials have not given a clear death toll, but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that the protests had left several thousand people dead, blaming the United States.
01:15The agency also reported over 26,000 people had been arrested.
01:21Comments from officials have led to fears of some of those detained being put to death.
01:26Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran over the crackdown after President Donald Trump drew two red lines,
01:34the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations.
01:40Trump has repeatedly vowed to intervene should his administration assess that Iran has crossed those lines.
01:50Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez vows to uncover the truth after 40 people were killed in a train collision,
01:59while also announcing three days of national mourning.
02:03One day after Sunday's tragic accident, Sánchez accompanied by the Minister of Transport, Oscar Puente,
02:11paid a visit to the site of the crash in Adamus, Córdoba.
02:15Meanwhile, the regional president of Andalusia explained the difficulties rescuers were facing.
02:22The difficulty is that the heavy equipment that we were expecting has difficult encajes to be able to work and to be able to work those vehicles
02:30so that they can work for the bomber and therefore, the medical forensics, the Civil Guard and certificate and identify those people dead.
02:40Another option could be that, and part of the vehicles, to identify those people dead.
02:47In an animation, we can see how the back of one of the trains on a straight stretch of the track,
03:01which had been renovated in May 2025, derailed and collided with another oncoming train.
03:09Transport Minister Puente has described the incident as tremendously strange.
03:15As the death toll could rise, 48 people, including five children, remain in hospital, according to officials.
03:28Bulgaria's President Ruman Radev announced on Monday he is stepping down from his post,
03:33a decision signaling the launch of a bid for Prime Minister ahead of a snap parliamentary election.
03:39Under the Constitution, the current Vice President, Ilyana Yotova, must be sworn in by Parliament to take the post until the end of the presidential mandate.
03:49Radev's resignation is the first by a head of state in Bulgaria's post-communist history,
03:54and comes as the country struggles to overcome a prolonged political crisis.
03:58Radev has indicated that he has no idea of democracy, but it actually works by the mechanisms of oligarchity.
04:14Bulgarian politics is happening outside institutions.
04:17Radev has indicated he may take part in new elections, planned after a large anti-corruption protest last month
04:33forced the resignation of the governing center-right coalition.
04:37The left-leaning president was an opponent of the government and threw his support to the protests in early December.
04:43While Radev did not reveal his plans, the public expectation is that he will form a new political party.
04:52Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to join U.S. President Trump's Gaza Board of Peace,
05:01the Kremlin announced on Monday.
05:02At least 60 countries have been invited to join the board by the White House for a price of $1 billion each,
05:10intended to help Gaza's rebuild.
05:13While some world leaders have accepted, many say they need to understand what membership entails.
05:19Yes, indeed, the President Putin has also received, by the diplomatic channel, the invitation to join U.S. in this system,
05:29in the world's office, in the right moment, we are looking at all the details of this proposal,
05:35in particular, we hope to contact with the American side of the system to explain all the nuances.
05:40It is clearly worth what we have always said, I think that Italy can play a role in the first place in the construction of the peace plan,
05:47and therefore, we are ready to do our part.
05:50At this stage, we can confirm the receipt of the invitation.
05:52The President is in close contact with the EU leaders on all geopolitical matters and discussions will continue on this topic.
05:59Meanwhile, the new committee has been objected to by Israel, which says it goes against Israeli policy.
06:06The official list of participants is expected to be announced by the U.S. in the coming days.
06:24On Friday, Trump announced the first appointments to the board, including himself as chair, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
06:41China's birth rate plunged to its lowest level on record last year, official data showed on Monday,
06:47leading to a shrinking population for a fourth straight year despite efforts to curb the decline.
06:53The total population in 2025 stood at around 1.4 billion, 3 million less than the previous year.
07:01The country is threatened with a demographic crisis after its birth rate halved over the past decade,
07:07despite the end of the restrictive one-child policy.
07:10Marriage rates are also at a record low, with many young Chinese couples put off from having babies by high child-rearing costs and career concerns.
07:20Authorities have attempted to address the issue with a raft of measures, such as childcare subsidies, free public kindergartens, and increased taxes on contraception.
07:30Young people in China have largely shrugged off these measures, saying they are not enough to address the problem.
07:36This is a massive milestone for NASA and the Artemis Programme, because this is going to be the first time,
07:38that a crew of humans will think that they are not enough to address the issue with a raft of measures.
07:45And this is a massive milestone for NASA and the Artemis Programme, because this is going to be the first time,
07:52that a crew of humans will see the far side of the Moon and is such an important milestone in NASA's eventual goal of getting two feet, human feet, back on the lunar surface.
08:16The benefits of pursuing a space programme, and we're looking at a space programme,
08:44The benefits of pursuing a space program, and we definitely saw that through Apollo, was there are huge technological innovations that then filter down to the general public.
08:53A lot of things that we take for granted today, like fire suppression technology, things like just simple things like safety blankets, for instance.
09:02The SLS Space Launch System is designed to be such a large rocket that it's actually capable of perhaps even going a bit further eventually in the future.
09:18If NASA continues its trajectory, it could well see missions to the moon, to Mars, sorry, it could see things going deeper into space, for instance.
09:27It's been suggested that it's powerful enough to reach Jupiter, for instance.
09:32The SLS Space Launch System
09:50Sentimental Value
09:52A drama about an aging filmmaker and his estranged actor daughter was the talk of the night at this year's European Film Awards.
10:02It was closely followed by Surat, an existential road trip which tells the story of a father willing to venture into the Moroccan desert to find his daughter.
10:12The award for best European documentary went to Igor Besinovich's Film O Morte, in which the Croatian filmmaker asked his local town to reenact their 16-month occupation at the hands of the dandy proto-fascist Gabriel Danuzio in 1919.
10:34And the 96th is 555.
10:37Joaquin Trier's Sentimental Value has swept the board here in Berlin for the European Film Awards, winning the coveted Best European Film and several other prizes including Acting Awards, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
10:50The film now cements itself as the Europe's frontrunner for the Oscars come March.
10:56Elsewhere, Olivia Lachis Sirat has won several awards, and the main surprise of the evening is Jafar Panahi's Palmya Dorr winner It Was Just An Accident, going home empty-handed.
11:07The Iranian filmmaker did take to the stage to open the ceremony tonight in Berlin, delivering a politically charged speech in which he denounces the atrocities committed in Iran.
11:18He said,
11:19Silence in times of darkness is not neutrality, silence is participation in darkness.
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