Hundreds of millions of Hindu devotees have bathed in sacred waters, despite concerns over overcrowding and water pollution, as the world’s largest religious gathering wrapped up Wednesday in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Over the last 45 days, more than 620 million people – nearly a third of India’s roughly 1.4 billion population – have attended the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the festival of the Sacred Pitcher, on the riverbanks in the city of Prayagraj, in a spectacle of color and expression of faith.

Followers have come to take a holy dip in the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of three holy rivers – the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati – to purify their sins and take another step closer to “spiritual liberation.”

Every 12 years the festival carries the prefix “Maha,” which means great, as it’s the largest gathering of the Kumbh Mela that’s held every three years in one of four cities.

“It is a unique, once in a lifetime experience,” said Sushovan Sircar, 36, who works as an independent consultant in Delhi. “People from all over India are here, as I saw number plates of cars from almost every state.”

Though this year’s festivities have been marred by two separate, deadly crowd crushes, millions have turned out for the festival despite concerns of overcrowding and reports of “unsafe” levels of contamination in key bathing sites.

A report from the Central Pollution and Control Board (CPCB), part of India’s Environment Ministry, last month found high levels of coliform faecal bacteria in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, despite the government touting sustainable initiatives and sanitation efforts.

Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath denied the accuracy of the government report, insisting that the water was not just safe for bathing, but also for the Hindu ritual of drinking a handful after bathing.

Attendees often submerge themselves fully, sometimes drinking or collecting the sacred water in containers.

‘My sins are cleansed, but not my body’

Sircar, the independent consultant from Delhi, said he bathed in the water at Sangam point – the confluence of the three rivers considered to be the most auspicious place to bathe and where most people take their dip – twice last week.

“There is a concern because there is nothing I can do about the contamination in the water. In your mind you tell yourself, this part looks clean, spend a few minutes in, recite prayers and come out,” said Sircar.

“I took a shower for sins and then another shower for the contamination,” he laughed. “So you need a bath after the bath… My sins are cleansed, but not (my) body.”

Before the festival began, India’s top environmental court directed the state and federal pollution boards to ensure the river water was clean enough to drink and bathe in. It called for increasing monitoring and sample collecting of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers and ensuring that no untreated sewage or solid waste would be discharged.

But a report submitted by the federal pollution board on February 3 stated that faecal coliform levels, a key indicator of untreated sewage and faecal matter in water, were far above the safe limit set by the board of 2,500 units per 100 millilitres.

At various parts of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers around Prayagraj levels were more than 1,000 over the safe limit, according to the report.

Adityanath said his government was continually monitoring the water levels to ensure its quality.

“We have ensured that the water quality has been maintained,” said Kumbh Mela officer Vivek Chaturvedi.

Aishwary Sharma, 31, a finance professional in Delhi, said he took a dip in the rivers despite knowing it could be polluted.

“I think it is quite evident that the Ganga and Yamuna are not clean rivers,” he said. “(But) there are many things that are bad for you… The air we breathe is so toxic for our health… It is just another thing that is polluted that could have a harmful impact on my health.”

For others, their faith and participating in the sacred festival was more important than their concerns.

“What (most people) are interested in is their devotion and religion and that they want to take that holy dip,” said Sunny Parasher, 34, from Panchkula in Haryana state.

“Where there is devotion, where there is religion, there is no question,” he said.

Kalpana Mishra, 55, a housewife from Prayagraj, said she would not take another holy dip after reading the pollution board’s report.

“What does being a literate person mean if you hear all this and still decide to go?” she asked.

Exposure to faecal contamination can cause water borne diseases such as typhoid, diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, E-coli, skin disease and vomiting, health experts warn.

Push to clean the rivers

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made cleaning the Ganges, India’s holiest river, a priority since first taking office in 2014 – with billions of dollars spent or pledged on sewage treatment, cleaning surface waste and afforestation in the decade since.

The Ganges, a lifeline for 400 million people who live and work along it, runs through 50 Indian cities that pump out about 3 billion liters of sewage every day – only a fraction of which is treated before it reaches the river, according to the World Bank.

The Yamuna, a tributary of the Ganges, has also for decades been plagued by the dumping of toxic chemicals and untreated sewage.

Ahead of the festival, Indian authorities touted this year’s gathering as a “Green Kumbh,” with sustainable initiatives such as a ban on single-use plastics, eco-friendly toilets, electric rickshaws and an army of 15,000 sanitation workers hired to clean up after major bathing days.

The Ministry of Culture said in January that the festival had been “meticulously planned to uphold hygiene and ecological balance” and would “set an example for future large-scale events worldwide” in environmental responsibility.

Protecting and cleaning the river was even a major theme at a conference held on the sidelines of the festival with religious and environmental leaders coming together for the first time on how religious institutions can address the climate crisis.

“If there is no water in the rivers, there is no Kumbh. We don’t consider it water, we consider it nectar,” said Indian spiritual leader Swami Chidanand Saraswati at the meeting. “If we all do not make efforts to protect it, then the next (Kumbh Mela) will be on mere sand.”

But complicating the green efforts was the enormous crowd size at this year’s Kumbh Mela, which saw 250 million more people than originally expected, according to one expert. Authorities had planned for about 400 million people to attend over the six-week gathering, with about 9 million people per day, but about 620 million people attended in total, according to government figures.

“It is a mammoth task to take care of such a crowd,” said Dr Nupur Bahadur, an associate director with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), a research institute that looks at wastewater management, established by the Indian government.

River contamination could be better managed by adopting better on-site prevention and disinfection methods, Bahadur said.

One of them could be halting the dip after every 12 hours for one hour” and letting fresh water run through the bathing areas before “the dips can be restarted,” she said.

Bahadur said that while the festival’s “massive increase in footfall” strained its infrastructure, it has still been “the best human effort possible” in such a situation.

Prayagraj resident Mishra said she will be happy when her city gets back to normal.

“My eyes are constantly burning and there is so much dust,” she said. “I want the festival to end so I can get back to my life.”

The parents of an 8-year-old girl who died after they withheld her insulin, encouraged by members of a small Christian sect who believed God would save her, have been sentenced to at least 14 years in prison.

Elizabeth Struhs died in January 2022 on a mattress on the floor of her home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, five days after her father Jason Struhs, 53, declared that she no longer needed medication for Type 1 diabetes.

Her mother, Kerrie Struhs, 49, encouraged Elizabeth’s father to withhold her insulin, as did 12 other members of a Bible-based sect known as “The Saints,” who were also found guilty of manslaughter.

Sect leader Brendan Stevens, 63, was handed a prison sentence of 13 years by Justice Martin Burns in the Queensland Supreme Court on Wednesday. Eleven other members of the sect, who sang and prayed while Elizabeth died, were also due to be sentenced.

It’s not the first time Jason and Kerrie Struhs have been prosecuted for failing to give Elizabeth medical care.

In 2019, Elizabeth, then 6, was hospitalized for a month after becoming gravely ill from undiagnosed and untreated diabetes. At the time, her father rejected the sect’s insistence that God would heal her and eventually took his daughter to hospital.

That time, Jason Struhs pleaded guilty to “failing to provide the necessaries of life to Elizabeth” and was given a suspended sentence after testifying against his wife. Kerrie Struhs pleaded not guilty and was given an 18-month sentence.

What happened next all but sealed Elizabeth’s fate.

While Kerrie Struhs was in prison, her husband’s 17-year opposition to the sect crumbled, the trial heard, and he became “baptized” as its newest member.

Elizabeth died just three weeks after her mother was released from prison on parole, telling her parole officer that she’d withhold her daughter’s treatment again, if given the choice. She also said she wouldn’t intervene if anyone tried to help Elizabeth – but no one did.

A ‘miracle’ recruit

The couple at the center of the case had a long and often combative relationship.

Jason Struhs told police that his wife wasn’t very religious during the first few years of their marriage, but that changed when she met sect leader Brendan Stevens and his wife Loretta in 2004.

As Kerrie Struhs grew closer to the Stevens family, she began to reject medical treatment. Jason Struhs remained a staunch non-believer, who insisted that their eight children be vaccinated.

The couple’s conflicting beliefs caused friction in the household, and for a time Jason moved to the garage to “escape the tension.” He worked night shifts and preferred to stay away from the house, either working or playing golf, he told police, according to court documents.

Kerrie Struhs told police her husband was an “angry man” who didn’t believe in God, and that she was planning to leave him after her release from prison in December 2021.

But she changed her mind after she discovered that Jason had joined the church, describing him as much calmer, like a “new person.”

“The change in him has been unbelievable,” she told police.

Jason Struhs told police he had a “mental breakdown” after Kerrie went to prison and sought support from sect members.

To the church, the conversion of someone once vehemently opposed to their teachings was something of a “miracle” – proof that God had cured his anger.

A small home-based sect

When Jason Struhs declared in early January 2022 – just five months after joining the sect – that Elizabeth no longer needed insulin, church members were elated.

Their campaign to convince him that Elizabeth could be cured by God had worked.

Within days her condition deteriorated, and even as she lay dying with the insulin in the cupboard, no one gave it to her or suggested they seek medical help.

As Elizabeth became sicker, vomiting then unresponsive, Jason Struhs seemed to waver in his conviction, but church members rallied around him, encouraging him to follow God’s will.

They sat at Elizabeth’s bedside, singing and praying. “Whatever the Lord’s plan is for us, we will follow it,” Stevens later told police.

Elizabeth died on January 7, 2022, of diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication caused by a lack of insulin and medical treatment for diabetes – the same condition she had in 2019.

The sect continued to sing, dance and pray around her body for 36 hours before Jason Struhs said it was time to phone police.

For years, the sect’s beliefs were reinforced by their leader, Brendan Stevens, who taught his followers to reject modern medicine but denied any responsibility for Elizabeth’s death.

In 2022, as Elizabeth’s condition deteriorated, Stevens told her parents, “This is just a little trial to prove that you all are truly faithful to our faithful God,” according to court documents.

Stevens’ wife Loretta, 67, and six of their adult children – Therese, Andrea, Acacia, Camellia, Alexander and Sebastian Stevens, ages 24 to 35, were also convicted, along with Elizabeth’s older brother Zachary Struhs, 22.

The others included Lachlan and Samantha Schoenfisch, a married couple aged 34 and 26, and Keita Martin, 24, who went to school with the Stevens children and moved in with the family when she was 17. During the trial, their family members told the court they’d become increasingly concerned about their extreme religious beliefs.

But not all were taken in by Brendan Stevens.

Jayde Struhs, Jason and Kerrie Struhs’ eldest daughter, gave evidence against her parents. She left their home at age 16 for fear she’d never be accepted as gay.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Jayde Struhs said: “These people only wanted to control my family and everything they did. All for the sense of power … so they could play God.”

All 14 defendants represented themselves during a 9-week judge-only trial in 2024, however none gave or called any evidence. Speaking on their behalf, Brendan Stevens called the trial a “religious persecution.”

Jayde Struhs told Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, that Stevens instilled an Armageddon-style fear in his followers.

“The main … messaging that Brendan puts out there is that the world’s going to end and Jesus is going to come back and save us … if you’re not absolute in the walk of God, you’ll go to hell forever,” she said.

Cult expert Raphael Aron, director of Cult Consulting Australia, says Jason Struhs would have been under “immense” pressure to join the group and follow their beliefs.

He said prison is unlikely to change the beliefs of “The Saints,” and if members are allowed further contact with each other, it could further entrench their ideology.

“I don’t know if any group has fallen apart because the leader went to jail; he’s just seen as a martyr, basically a replica of Jesus on the cross,” said Aron. “There’s all sorts of other ways of justifying it, and they keep going.”

He said he hopes Elizabeth’s death acts as a “wake up call” to anyone who may be questioning the legitimacy of people influencing themselves or a loved one.

A major red flag is the rejection of conventional medicine, Aron said, as it allows the group to conceal abusive behavior.

“The one area in life where the groups can actually be held accountable will be through the medical world, because that practitioner has a responsibility to do something about what’s going on,” said Aron.

Sect leaders also often ban members from accessing the internet because if they did, they might find damning testimony from former members, he added.

Small groups with extreme beliefs are all but impossible to detect unless people come forward, Aron said – but in Australia, unlike the United States, there are few avenues to report them.

He’s advocating for a regulatory body with the power to investigate complaints.

“The problem is, if you go to the police and no crime has been committed, they can’t do anything, and by the time the crime has been committed, it’s too late.”

China’s military has set up a zone for “live-fire training” about 46 miles (74 kilometers) off the southwestern coast of Taiwan without advance notice, the island’s defense ministry said on Wednesday.

It comes a day after Taiwan’s coast guard detained a Chinese-crewed cargo ship suspected of cutting an undersea cable in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 32 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait starting shortly before 9am on Wednesday (7.42 p.m. Tuesday ET). It added that 22 of those aircraft flew near the north and southwest of the island and carried out a “joint combat readiness patrol” with Chinese warships, according to the statement.

“During this period, (China) blatantly violated international norms by unilaterally designating a drill zone approximately 40 nautical miles off the coast of Kaohsiung and Pingtung without prior warning, claiming it would conduct ‘live-fire training,’” the ministry said.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing on the Taiwan statement. China’s Foreign Ministry did not comment on it when asked at a regular news conference Wednesday, saying it’s “not a diplomatic issue.”

China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory, despite having never controlled it, and has vowed to take the self-governing democracy by force if necessary. Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing has significantly ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan.

Kaohsiung, a strategic commercial hub for Taiwan, is home to the island’s largest and busiest port.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said China declared the drill zone within international shipping lanes via temporary radio broadcasts, posing “a severe threat to the safety of international aviation and maritime navigation.”

“This is a blatant provocation against regional security and stability,” the ministry added.

Israel had delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees since Saturday in protest of what it said is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release by Hamas and demanding guarantees that future hostage releases would take place without “humiliating ceremonies.”

Hamas released six Israeli hostages from Gaza on Saturday in two public ceremonies and one private transfer, in what was the final return of living hostages in the first phase of a ceasefire deal that began last month.

Israel was expected to free 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including 23 children and one woman — but Israeli officials delayed that release.

Hamas accused Israel of violating the truce with the delay, casting some uncertainty over the precarious ceasefire deal, and said talks on a second phase would not be possible until they are freed.

On Wednesday, an Israeli source familiar with the talks said a new agreement had been reached to transfer the remains of four hostages held in Gaza in exchange for the release of the 620 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Hamas confirmed that an agreement with Israel had been made through Egyptian mediators, but did not specify how many Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees would be released.

Hamas and its allies continue to hold 63 Israeli hostages in Gaza. At least 32 of those are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli government – one of whom, the soldier Hadar Goldin, has been held since 2014.

The 42-day truce between Israel and Hamas is set to expire this weekend unless an agreement is struck to extend it. The two sides were meant to begin talks on a permanent end to the war in early February, but those discussions have not begun yet.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

An airline traveler has spoken of his shock after cabin crew sat him next to the body of a fellow passenger who had died during the flight.

Ring recalled watching the crew try to revive the woman.

“Unfortunately, the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heartbreaking to watch,” he told Nine.

The crew then tried to wheel the body toward the business class section but were unable to maneuver it through the narrow aisle, Ring said.

“So they looked a bit frustrated and then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me… and they just said to me, can you move over please?” he said. “And I just said, ‘yes, no problem,’ and then they placed the lady in the chair that I was in.”

Ring then sat next to the body for the roughly four remaining hours of the flight, he said, despite there being other empty seats on the plane.

Another passenger offered Colin an empty seat across the aisle from Ring, where she sat for the rest of the flight.

“I was really shocked,” Colin told Nine, calling the experience “traumatic.”

“We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol then to look after the customers that are on board,” she said.

After the flight landed, Ring said passengers in his area were told to stay put until ambulance workers and police officers arrived to remove the body.

“I can’t believe they told us to stay,” he said, adding he was present when ambulance officers pulled away the blanket.

The couple said they weren’t immediately contacted by the airline, which they said owes them “a duty of care.”

Ring said he expected the airline to offer counseling support.

Qantas Airways, through which the couple bought their tickets, said they were in touch with Colin and have followed up with Qatar Airways.

“The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways,” it said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Ring and Colin are trying to process the tragedy.

“I don’t really know how I feel,” Ring told Nine.

“And would like… to talk to somebody and to make sure I’m alright.”