Hindu pilgrims from across India flocked to the northern city of Prayagraj yesterday as the world's largest religious festival began.

Over the coming 45 days, an estimated 400 million Hindus are expected to come together for Maha Kumbh Mela. The Kumbh Mela festival is held every 12 years but the "Maha", or grand, version takes place only every 144 years, "marking the 12th Kumbh Mela and a special celestial alignment of the sun, moon and Jupiter", said The Guardian.

'Spiritual purification'
One of the most sacred pilgrimages for Hindus, the Kumbh Mela represents a "journey of self-realisation, purification and spiritual enlightenment", said Sky News. The "ritualistic dip" in the "sacred rivers" serves as a "symbolic cleansing of the body and soul" that "renews the connection with the divine".

Pilgrims believe that the ritual baths can ultimately help them "achieve Hindu philosophy's ultimate goal: the release from the cycle of rebirth", said The Associated Press.

'Herculean task'
Many pilgrims stay for the duration of the festival, which means the authorities face a "Herculean" task to manage such a large gathering, said The Times. A "vast ground" has been converted into a "sprawling tent city", complete with more than 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 toilets, said AP. It spreads over 15 square miles and has housing, roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals.

State authorities in Uttar Pradesh have "put in place state-of-the-art security measures", including drones, 268 AI-powered systems, and more than 2,750 CCTV cameras, said The Times of India.

'Advocacy of Hindu nationalism'
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the festival has "become an integral part" of his "advocacy of Hindu nationalism". For him, Indian civilisation is "inseparable from Hinduism", said AP.

This is the first Maha Kumbh Mela to be held since Prayagraj abandoned its previous Muslim name, Allahabad, in 2018, and Modi hopes it will "burnish" his project of "reclaiming India's cultural symbols", following the "humiliating setback" of losing his majority in last year's election.

But for the pilgrims flocking to the festival, it remains a spiritual, rather than political, experience that, this year, is "extra special".

A former Labour MP for Hove was arrested on Saturday following a sting operation by amateur "paedophile hunters".

Sussex Police confirmed they had a 66-year-old suspect in custody after "footage circulating on social media" showed "a man in Brighton being detained on suspicion of engaging in online sexual communications with a child". The 30-minute "confrontation" with former defence minister Ivor Caplin (pictured above) was live-streamed on Facebook, said Brighton and Hove News.

The case has highlighted the role of amateur law-enforcement groups, and the ethical implications of putting vigilantes on the frontline in the battle against child sex abuse.

How do online paedophile-hunter groups work?
Volunteers create fake profiles on social media sites or messaging apps and pose as under-age children. To abide by laws against entrapment, they wait to be approached and do not try actively to turn the conversation towards sex.

After weeks, or even months, of online chat, the sting operation culminates when the would-be predators suggest meeting up for sex. Expecting to meet their underage prey, they are greeted instead by members of the vigilante posse, armed with chat logs.

How many convictions are secured this way?
Figures published by the BBC in 2019 demonstrate how online "paedo-hunter" communities have become instrumental in convicting child sex offenders.

A call for information in 2018 – the most recent year for which detailed data on the impact of paedophile hunters in the UK has been released – revealed that, of the 403 prosecutions for attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming that year, 252 involved evidence gathered by paedophile-hunter groups.

What can go wrong?
Many fear that publicly "outing" suspected paedophiles could expose suspects and their families to retaliation, and encourage further witch hunts. Naming and shaming suspects who have not been charged or convicted has particularly worrying ethical ramifications.

Last November, the Police Service of Northern Ireland warned that paedophile hunters were slowing down police investigations, and could even prevent criminal-justice outcomes.

This follows concerns that the groups' amateur techniques or imperfect knowledge of the law could let criminals slip through the net, leaving "potentially serious offenders free to move away without any legal controls on their movements or where they can seek employment", said Belfast Live.

The "largely forgotten" city of Chemnitz in the heart of Saxony has been crowned one of the joint European capitals of culture for 2025, said The Sunday Times.

Formerly known as Karl-Marx-Stadt, the birthplace of Germany's industrial revolution might seem like a surprising choice, until you realise the EU scheme's goal is to put overlooked destinations on the cultural map.

"I must admit, when I first heard the news, it sounded like a particularly unfunny German joke," said William Cook in The Telegraph. Has the "unprepossessing city" really had an "unlikely renaissance?" Once "renowned for its art and music", Chemnitz was "flattened by the RAF" during the Second World War, before being largely rebuilt as a "futuristic citadel of faceless tower blocks" under East Germany's communist regime.

Today, though, much has changed. Gleaming new buildings are "springing up" while "shabby" old ones have been vastly improved, and there's a sense of "local pride and discreet optimism that's often missing in more touristic destinations".

"Remarkably" for such a small city, Chemnitz has a range of "excellent" museums. The "most spectacular display" can be found at Saxony's state archaeology museum, which is set within a "striking" Art Deco department store, while the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz art gallery features a "superb" array of German Expressionists. Elsewhere, in a "medieval monastery on a wooded hill, overlooking a tranquil lake", you'll find the Schlossberg museum, which is home to a "modest" local history collection.

When it comes to hotels, you can't go wrong with the "majestic" Chemnitzer Hof, said Simon Calder in The Independent. Located in the centre of the city, it was "probably the most atmospheric and comfortable place I stayed last year".

We need a government that gets business, not businessmen running government
Eliot Wilson in City A.M.
Keir Starmer "tried hard" to woo business before the election, writes Eliot Wilson, and I said then "it was a sham" because Labour "remained fundamentally uncomfortable with free enterprise". But "some lessons have to be learned the hard way". Government borrowing costs have "hit a 27-year high" and "investors are losing faith in the economy". Some want Starmer to bring in business leaders to help govern, but "success in business" and "political ability" form a Venn diagram "at best".

Age is more than a number when it comes to policy
Sarah O'Connor in the Financial Times
Is chronological age really a "good yardstick for ageing"? asks Sarah O'Connor. People born in the same year can "vary hugely in how frail or unwell they are". Perhaps new "clocks" that "measure a person's 'biological age' based on metrics such as proteins in the blood" could one day be used to "determine each person's state-pension age" – because any system using dates of birth or "average life expectancy" is "unfair to poorer people who live shorter lives".

Why we need a cultural elite more than ever
James Marriott in The Times
The internet has "radically democratised our culture", writes James Marriott. Access to the "public conversation" – once the preserve of those "allowed to express their opinions in the Newsnight studio" – has become "virtually unlimited". Yet our "newly democratised culture" has not led to an "egalitarian paradise of reasoned debate". The "complacent" cultural elites did "at least provide a common worldview in which citizens could share", however, and their "flawed consensus" may be "preferable to anarchy".