>> this is "dw news" live from berlin. celebration turns to tragedy in israel. at least 45 people died and many others injured in a stampede at a religious ceremony. also, india sets another daily global record for covid-19 infections as the scramble for oxygen continues. medical aid is arriving from

abroad but cnot come fast enough. and hope for children has biontech seeks approval for a vaccine for young people -- as biontech seeks approval for a vaccine for young people. i'm phil gayle. welcome to the program. israel's prime minister has announced an inquiry into a horrific stampede at a religious celebration. at least 45 people killed and many more injured. it happened in israel's north where ultra orthodox jews were holding the country's first major religious festival since the end of the country's covid-19 restrictions.

>> an exuberant celebration. endi in a terrible tragedy massive crowds at a jewish festival stumbled down the slippery stairs into a narrow passageway. panic grew. in the chaos, victims, including children, were either trampled or suffocated to death. >> my legs were trapped. i could not move them. face down, i could lift my head a little. i tried not to strain too much and keep calm. strength in my faith. god will save us. >> this is the first mass religious gathering since israel eased covid restrictions, and e turnout s much higher than expected. as my as 90,000 people showed up to e event. organize had received peission for jus 10,000.

>> the people that have been cked away and not participating in any ents, neither religious nor civilian events, for a year and a half were encouraged to go out and practice their reliefs and ceremonies. >> ahead of israel's a day of rest, friends and families began gathering to say goodbye to the victims. the government is promising a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crush. finding out what happened will be crucial for the country's ultra-orthodox community, now plunged into morning -- into mou rning. phil: this happened just as the country reopened after a successful vaccination rollout. >> that's right. there's just the sense that the

country returns to some kind of normality. more than half of the country is vaccinated, and a lot of restrictions were lifted lately here in israel. now the since -- now the sense that religious communities want to go back to normal, taking partn what is usually a joyous event, despite the fact that there were concerns by health officials before this event took place. they were mostly pandemic-related. they did not want to see so many people gathering. what was supposed to be a joyful event turned into this massive tragedy. phil: what factors will investigators be looking at? >> they have a lot of factors to look at. on the one hand, of course, they

will look at security arrangements that were made but also arrangemes by the different religious sects that were involved in those festivities. i have a lot of images and footage of social media that are circulating of the event itself. also, the moments before the stampede happened, and of course, the eyewitnesses that have been talking about what happened to them, the very harrowing experience, and a focus will be on the very narrow pathway where the stampede happened. what is also interesting -- there is a discussion, because of course, this festival is happening every year except for last year when it was severely restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic, that there have been warnings for many years now that this holy site is not really made for not safe for thousands of people to gather there and that this was a

tragedy waiting to happen. phil: briefly, this must have dealt a devastating blow to israel's ultra-orthodox community. >> absolutely. the focus here all day was that people were still looking over the course of the day for their loved ones, for family members that had to be brought back. also the victims and the injured, of course, that are still in hospital, but the victims were identified, at least over half of them. some were laid to rest. this is right now the focus, especially in the ultra-orthodox community, for the community to come together. phil: now to india, which has posted another global record for coronavirus infections,

reporting 345 thousand new cases in a day. countries around the world sending medicines and much needed oxygen. >> the scramble for oxygen as demand continues to skyrocket. with hospitals low on supply, desperate people flock to have their own cylinders filled and refilled to save their loved ones, but even here, it is a struggle >> i've been waiting for hours. >> hospitals are overwhelmed and shutting their doors. even ambulances have to wait with patience gasping for breath in the street. >> today i learned how bad the coronavirus is. i've looking for oxygen since morning but to no avail, and we cannot get a bed in the

hospital. >> makeshift health facilities are springing up in spot complexes. oxygen supplies make up some of the eight that has been delivered to india across the world. the international relief effort has become a major mission, but there's also frustration. india is densely populated. yet, mass meetings have been allowed to go ahead. people have been gathering a lot. there's been a lot of gathering and people going up to the markets. there's been some rallies going on and people have been going to different festivals. >> for health workers across india, the situation has becom a nightmare. >> "crisis" is a very mild word

for it. >> but the battle to keep this country breathing must go on. phil: an epidemiologist at the london school of medicine and dentistry joins me now. welcome to dw. india has been hit by a perfect storm of mass gatherings, contagious variants, and low vaccination rates. what could the indian government have done to prevent this becoming a crisis? >> we will certainly at the indian government to that perfect storm. this crisis has been building for the last six weeks or more. it has been on the horizon for many states in india for weeks, and the government has not taken action. we continue to see a doubling of cases every five or six days. there's no action being taken for restrictions or lockdowns in

most states. elections are going ahead. most states still only have weekend for nighttime curfews -- weekend or nighttime curfews. the number of deaths is only a reflection of cases from about three weeks ago. we know deaths always lag. we know it will continue to get worse unless we do something to actually contain infection at this point in time. what happens next is entirely dependent on what we do now. phil: that's quite a condemnation. does that start at the state or from a lack of leadership from

the federal government? >> i would say both. state governments have power to essentially control conversations and local lockdowns, but they have been ruled out by state ministers. the central government and prime ministers have done nothing to curb spread. there's nothing being done to ntain transition, which will be impacting deaths over the next three weeks. phil: anyone with a television or radio or access to the outside world can see that you need lockdowns, vaccines, multiple things. what is stopping state authorities from doing this? >> i honestly cannot for the life of me understand. i kn there is a prioritization of politics, but what is happening in many other states,

there is this thinking that lockdowns hugely impact the flow, which is true, but so does covid. the right thing to do here is to put a lock down in place and support with financial and medical assistance. phil: we thank you for your forthright use. -- your forthright views. india's covert emergency has eclipsed another crisis in the country, people's mental health. >> breakdowns, fear, anxiety. these are the words this 29-year-old uses when asked about how she is coping with the

second day of covid-19. both her parents are covid positive, and her father has been in the hospital for days. >> in this second wave, my dad became a victim, and a very serious one, and it made me realize how crazy things are at the moment. >> and online mental health platform connects people to therapists, and the statistics are enough to tell her that she is not alone. apart from anxiety and depression many are already experiencing, she says a lot of young people may end up coping with ptsd. last year, there were 50,000 or 60,000 people coming in in one day. for the last three or four weeks , the number is up to 50 a day.

>> the numbers are catastrophic. images of people gasping for breath have impacted many. some experts are convinced this wave has triggered a major mental health epidemic of its own. this therapist as many people come to her anxious over an uncertain future. >> we a collectively going through a traumatic space right now with the pandemic. nonef us is prepared to hand anything as traumatic o difficult as this on a global scale. >> we are getting updates of

these very distressing images, and its obviously affecting mass growth. >> yes, we need help as w recover from this. >> they have been doing what they can to help. they say tha while there is an overwhelming feeling of helplessness, there is also a way people have been mobilizing help in these times. >> when i come back from the hospital, i'm just working because i know if i do not distract myself, i will just cry. >> as she struggles to maintain a positive mindset, she is doing

everything she can to bring her father back home soon. phil: still to come, biontech seeks approval for a new vaccine for young people. we will meet a family who have been protecting their daughter from the pandemic. also, we will look at some of the other stories making news around the world. afghan interpreters for the u.s. military and nato morning washington not to leave them behind. many risk their lives translating for troops and would like to be brought home to the united states rather than face retribution from the television. -- from the taliban. russia has banned eight european

officials from entering the country in response to eu sanctions against russia last month. moscow has criticized european sanctions and accused brussels of fomenting hysteria. tech giant apple is facing huge funds from an anti-competition case brought by the european commission. the country is accused of abusing its market dominance by forcing unfair conditions on app makers. >> swedish streaming service spotify raised a case with the eu in 2019 and complained that to get a lucrative spot in apple 's app store, it had to pay a commission fee and agree to other restrictions. spotify says the rules give apple's service and unfair advantage. the eu's competition watchdog on friday agree.

>> the preliminary finding is apple exercises considerable market power. on that market, apple has a monopoly. >> a company spokesperson told media they want all the benefits of the app store but don't think they should have to pay anything for that. the commission on -- the commission's argument on spotify's half is the opposite of fair competition. apple is also facing antitrust cases in the u.s. and u.k. as apple's business grows bigger, so does the target on its back from global regulators. will: as vaccines -- phil: as vaccines are being rolled out, children are being excluded, and that is a particular worry for

parents of children with issues like down syndrome. we have an interview with the family who have been trying to protect their vulnerable daughter. >> physical exercises are important, especially for this 14-year-old with down syndrome -- down syndrome -- down's syndrome. for her, a covid infection could be fatal. >> for people with down's syndrome, people have much greater risk. additionally, we have very little long-term information, so if she were to survive an infection, we would not know what would come after that. >> therefore, the family keeps

to themselves. physical contact with others is restricted. the children are only occasionally allowed to play with others. school happens online. all of this puts a strain on fluffier -- a strain on flavia. >> i cried quite a bit when school was closed, so we had to do it digitally, but that was stressful. we have noticed that flavia suffers enormously from this loneliness. she sits in her room for hours. she talks to herself more and more were just makes noises. she just isolates herself. the parents have all been given the job -- the parents have already been given the jab, but

getting flavia is considered most important. >> in these trials, different age groups are tested and observed so researchers can gradually find out how the jab reacts with certain groups. >> the family are hopeful they will soon be able to vaccinate their daughter. until then, they will do everything they can to protect her from infection. phil: let's get more from our correspondent in berlin. tell us more about what biontech and pfizer are hoping to do. >> they have now presented their request to get approval for the vaccine after results from the clinical trials showed good efficacy of the vaccine. they showed it is 100% efficient in fighting the virus and immunizing people and is also

very tolerable as a vaccine, and the side effects are similar to the age group between 16 and 25-year-olds, so a positive result, and it should take some weeks now for the ema to approve the vaccine for 12-year-os. the german health minister has put forward the prospecthat children in this age group could already be vaccinated during the school summer holidays around july, and biontech and pfizer have also started a clinical vaccine trial for children aged six months to 11 years, and they hope to see results from that trial in december. phil: we saw in the report that children's mental health is suffering. what kind of support are they being offered? >> the government is looking to

help children and their families, not only in terms of social isolation and schools being closed but also the fact that children are missing out on learning opportunities. the government recently approved a budget of 2 million euros to try to push a program that will help children catch up. half of the money will go to tutoring, for example, thanks to the help of retired teachers, and the other billion euros will go to programs for socializing and coping with the consequences of covid lockdown. phil: this must be good news for families. >> it is indeed good news for families, both parents and children. we have seen that children are not particularly at risk for covid, but as we saw in the report, there are some children

at extra risk, so it is good news germany this week has reached a record in vaccination -- around one million vaccinations in one day. the rollout is picking up speed. that is good for children not only because with a larger share of the adult population vaccinated, it protects them more, but it also means they might be getting closer to the moment they can get the shot, too. phil: thank you. on to sport, and we start with the tokyo olympics which could be held without any spectators according to the head of the organizing committee. he says the games would only be a success if organizers completely protect athletes and japanese people. this week, organizers issued olympic playbooks that require daily testing of athletes and restrict their use of public

transport. the games are expected to begin on the 23rd of july. a german gymnast has told dw she hopes more female athletes across other sports will follow her lead and wear full body suits at the tokyo olympics. last week, she was one of three german artistic gymnasts who made history as the first to wear a full suit for unitard -- full suit or unitard in competition for nonreligious reasons. she said it would help end the sexualization of her support. >> yes, i would love to see more gymnas wearing this full unitard. but i wan every woman in every sport to have the opportunity to decide for herself what she wants to wear. phil: german cars are often associated with heft and

horsepower, but today marks 30 years since the last rebel rolled off the assembly line. buyersere forced to wait more than 10 years for delivery because the factories were so inefficient. this is "dw news" live from berlin. a reminder of our top story -- israel is morning victims -- israel is mourning victims of a stampede at an overcrowded religious event. the prime minister promised an investigation. india has posted another global record for coronavirus infections with more than 385,000 new cases in a day.

countries are sending shipments of medicines and oxygen to help several states who say they are now running short of vaccine. i'll have more world news at the top of the hour, but i will be back, though, just -- in just a moment to take you through the main events in "the day."

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anchor: israel mourns the deaths of at least 45 people fresh -- crushed in the stampede at a religious festival. pray mr. netanyahu has promised an investigation into what he calls one of the nation's worst disasters. the palestinian president delays planned elections, laming a dispute with israel. palestinians last voted in 2006. the french president says covid vaccines will be open to all adults