Hundreds of students marched through the streets of New Delhi on Wednesday, shouting slogans and holding placards demanding stronger safety measures following the latest high-profile case.

In that incident on Monday, three men posing as police officers allegedly gang-raped a 17-year-old girl in a public park in the heart of the capital city, according to authorities.

The case evokes the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old physical therapy student on a bus, which triggered nationwide protests and led to more robust laws against sexual violence.

But campaigners say those changes, which included a broadening of the definition of sexual offences and the introduction of stronger punishments for rape, have proven inadequate.

“Nobody is working on the actual solution, which is the mindset change,” women’s rights activist Yogita Bhayana told AFP.

“The mentality (is still) that it is a woman’s fault to be out of home late, or men policing women if they are seen with another man,” she said.

“It is outrageous that society still thinks this way.”

India recorded an average of 80 rape cases per day in 2024, according to the latest available official data. That compares with around 68 per day in 2012, the last year before the stronger laws came in.

Activists say the true number of sexual assaults is likely far higher because many victims never file a report, often fearing stigma in a deeply patriarchal society.

Lack of enforcement

The alleged assault on Monday followed the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl whose body was found by police in a decomposed state, and the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl by a bus driver and a conductor who offered her a lift during heavy rain.

Both cases occurred in recent weeks in Delhi — often called India’s “rape capital” — but other regions are not immune, with a video that surfaced this month showing a teenage girl being sexually assaulted in the eastern state of Bihar.

Each case has brought arrests, political condemnation and a public outcry.

After the watershed 2012 case — the woman is known nationally as “Nirbhaya” or “Fearless”, as Indian law does not allow the press to publish a rape victim’s name — the government expanded the criminal definitions of penetration and consent.

Gang rape became punishable by at least 20 years in prison, and the death sentence was introduced for repeat rape offenders.

Lawyers and activists say the challenge lies in enforcement.

Overstretched police forces and courts lack the means to investigate cases thoroughly enough, hindering the reforms’ impacts, criminal lawyer Shilpi Jain, who has represented survivors of sexual violence, told AFP.

“The problem is not in the law but with the people who are implementing it,” she said.

“Overworked judges. Overworked cops. One police station handles 200,000 to 300,000 people. How will it work? This is a vicious cycle.”

India’s conviction rate for rape has remained largely stable since 2012, hovering at around a quarter of all cases that make it to trial.

But the criminal justice system struggles with a vast case backlog.

Less than 10 per cent of the more than 200,000 rape cases before the courts in 2024 were actually completed, according to official data.

“An average rape case takes seven to eight years. If the case goes to the Supreme Court, then 20 years, so criminals lose fear of law and victims lose hope,” Jain said.

For gender rights activist Poonam Muttreja, legal reforms alone cannot solve a problem rooted in social attitudes and inequality.

Deep-seated cultural taboos and political resistance have hampered the effectiveness of government programmes to raise awareness of sexual violence, experts say.

“Prevention must begin much before a crime is committed: in homes, schools, communities, digital spaces and police systems,” Muttreja said.

“We thought we got permission to swim from the coast of France. Turned out that is not the case,” Karl Bushby, a former paratrooper, told AFP as he walked towards Cap Blanc-Nez in northern France, within sight of the white cliffs of the English coast.

“There was some internal confusion. So, right now we’re scrambling in kind of semi-panicked state.”

The 57-year-old had originally hoped to use a service corridor in the Channel Tunnel on foot, but he said the authorities seemed “set against” this idea.

So he resigned himself to swimming from Calais, even though he “hates” it.

“I say I swim like a cat dropped in a bathtub. It’s not funny. It’s bad.

“But you just do what you’ve got to do,” he said.

At an earlier stage of the journey he took 30 days to cross the Caspian Sea with a mixture of swimming and floating, resting — but not advancing — on a boat.

He hopes to get permission to swim across the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, before October 1, after which the winter weather would make the crossing too risky.

When he set off in November 1998, Bushby set himself two rules: not to use any form of transport to advance, and not to return home — near Hull in northern England — except on foot.

As he travels he pushes a cart containing all his belongings, nicknamed “the Beast”.

Over three decades, he has paused his journey several times.

Moscow refused him a visa for a long time, unhappy that he had crossed the Bering Strait separating Alaska from far eastern Russia on foot — something he says no one had ever done before.

Between them, visa woes, the 2008 financial crisis, and then the Covid-19 pandemic have accounted for about 14 of his 28 years on the road, he estimates.

At those times, he stepped away from the journey, living notably in Mexico, then once the situation cleared, he would resume his journey at the exact spot where he had left off.

As he nears England, Bushby looks back nostalgically on the very start of the adventure, on his trek up through the Andes and the difficult crossing of the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama.

“Then slowly but surely it becomes a job. You get older, it gets harder,” he said.

Bushby is the subject of a documentary currently in preparation, and once the journey is complete he plans to devote himself to the film and to giving talks.

“I’ve got to try and get established in the grown up world again, because I’m going to arrive home with nothing,” he said.

But first there is the Channel to cross, and despite the challenge, Bushby is optimistic.

“I think we can work it out. If not, I’m living in France for the rest of my life!” he said.

Thursday’s lavish state summit at the White House appeared heavy on symbolism but light on substance, with no sign of major breakthroughs between the world’s biggest economies.

Still, Trump highlighted progress under a bilateral trade mechanism, citing what he described as increased market access for US farmers and ranchers, while both leaders identified artificial intelligence as an area for cooperation.

Trump said in remarks welcoming Xi they would see some of the greatest treasures of US history at the National Archives, including the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

They would also see “artifacts testifying to the long and cherished relationship” between China and the United States and their “cultural exchanges”, he said.

“Just as our ancestors reached across the ocean centuries ago to trade, to learn, and to build a better world, our two countries do really the same thing, and we’re very proud of it and the relationship,” Trump said.

China has not commented on the visit to the archives, but analysts say Xi may be keen to see records relating to the US switch of recognition to communist China from Taiwan in 1979.

China presses on Taiwan

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and Xi has long sought to persuade Trump to state publicly that the United States opposes Taiwan’s independence, rather than saying only that it does not support independence, which has been Washington’s formulation for decades.

He is also keen to get the US to halt arms sales to the island.

As expected, Xi pressed Trump on Taiwan on Thursday, saying he hoped the United States would “handle the Taiwan question with prudence.” China’s state news agency also reported that Xi “hopes the US side will adhere to the correct position of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’.”

While the United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic relations with Taipei, Washington is its most important international backer and is bound by US law to provide it with the means to defend itself.

America’s Asian allies will watch closely to see how Trump talks about Taiwan following Xi’s visit.

After his May summit with Xi, Trump, whose administration in December approved an $11 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, said he was holding a second package, worth some $14 billion, in abeyance and described it as a “very good negotiating chip.” Craig Singleton of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank said Beijing may believe it has established a new baseline on Taiwan with Trump.

He said Xi’s use of the word “adhere” was revealing because “it implies Beijing believes Washington is already behaving in ways it wants.”

“In the context of the current standdown on Taiwan arms sales, China may increasingly view that restraint as a new baseline rather than a temporary pause,” he said.

“Beijing’s objective is to get Trump to absorb Chinese red lines into his own definition of a stable relationship.”

On Thursday, Senate Democrats criticised the summit, saying Trump had failed to secure meaningful concessions from Beijing on trade, security, artificial intelligence or human rights.

They also criticised Trump for failing to publicly address China’s military pressure on Taiwan and called for the immediate delivery of approved military aid and arms sales to the island.

Aleema was detained by authorities on Sept 20, after the office of Lahore’s deputy commissioner (DC) ordered her detention or arrest for 30 days. The DC’s order cited a letter by the Lahore capital city police officer, which referred to police reports that Aleema and Ameer “are prejudicial to the public safety and maintenance of public order”.

Justice Abher Gul Khan has been holding hearings on the petition. In the previous hearing, Justice Abher had sought arguments on the plea’s maintainability.

As the hearing resumed on Friday, a Punjab government law officer asked the court to dispose of the petition, arguing that the home secretary had already fixed a hearing to review the detention order issued by the Lahore DC on Sept 28.

The judge, however, issued a notice to the home secretary for submission of a reply to the petition.

Barrister Taimur Malik submitted that his client, Aleema, was facing difficulties in receiving her medicines and other essentials in jail. The judge directed the counsel to file a separate application on this issue.

Aleema’s detention took place amid reports of a crackdown on the PTI ahead of its September 27 countrywide protest and march to Islamabad, which the party has called to demand Imran’s release from jail and mobilise people for the supremacy of the Constitution.

Shahraiz Khan, Aleema’s son, filed a petition through Advocate Rana Mudassar Umar, challenging the detention orders issued by the Lahore DC against his mother and two aunts.

Following Aleema’s detention, her two sisters, Dr Uzma Khan and Noreen Niazi, were also detained under MPO. A day earlier, the LHC turned down a request to immediately suspend the preventive detention notifications issued against Noreen and Dr Uzma.

The petition contends that the DC unlawfully issued the detention orders and failed to follow the procedure prescribed under Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance.

It further argues that the orders contain no specific allegations and demonstrate no application of mind.

The petition also says that ordinary criminal law and less restrictive measures were not considered and contends that the grounds for detention were not communicated within the required period, alleging that the detention orders were issued after the arrests.

It asks the court to set aside the detention orders issued by the Lahore DC and declare them unlawful.