分类： politics

In a historic transfer of power at Downing Street on Monday, Andy Burnham was sworn in as the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, succeeding Keir Starmer and immediately setting out an ambitious agenda to reshape British politics and economics after decades of neoliberal restructuring. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, who previously served as a cabinet minister during the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, used his first address to the nation to acknowledge the extraordinary political volatility Britain has experienced over the past eight years, noting he is the seventh prime minister to hold office since 2016.

“It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game and rise to the new challenge,” Burnham told the crowd assembled outside 10 Downing Street.

Aligning himself with progressive priorities first championed by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Burnham revealed that his first official order of business as prime minister will be to end the national crisis of rough sleeping across the UK. He outlined that a sweeping 10-year national strategy will be introduced later this year, mapping a unified path forward for all British citizens regardless of socioeconomic background or partisan affiliation. While the full long-term plan will be unveiled in the coming months, Burnham pledged immediate targeted action to ease the strain of the ongoing cost of living crisis, with specific relief measures — including details on how the policies will be funded — set to be announced Tuesday.

On the foreign policy front, the new prime minister offered few new details, confirming only that the UK will uphold all existing defence commitments to its international allies while focusing domestic policy efforts on tackling the cost of living crisis.

The core of Burnham’s inaugural address was a sharp rebuke of the neoliberal economic framework introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1979, which he said had left lasting damage to communities across the UK. He argued that Thatcher’s agenda triggered decades of centralized political power, mass privatization of public assets and deindustrialization that has never been reversed for left-behind regions.

“Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, large parts of the country deindustrialised, and they still haven’t recovered,” Burnham said. “Many feel as though they’re still in decline, and they don’t have the ability to turn things around.”

Thatcher’s administration privatized core national sectors including energy, water and social care, dismantling the post-World War II social democratic consensus that shaped British policy for nearly four decades. Notably, this neoliberal framework was largely retained by the New Labour governments Burnham served in between 1997 and 2010. The former prime minister’s vision of restructuring the economy was explicitly designed to reshape British society, with Thatcher famously stating in 1981 that “economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul.”

A longstanding advocate of devolving power away from Westminster and London to regional and local governments across the UK, Burnham pledged to reverse decades of deindustrialization and rebuild a national economy that puts essential public services and utilities under greater public oversight to lower costs for households. He stopped short of committing to full nationalization of key industries, however. The new prime minister also promised to accelerate construction of affordable public council housing to address the UK’s ongoing housing crisis.

Earlier in the day, outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer delivered his farewell address, framing his two years in office as a period of successful reform for the Labour Party and tangible progress for the country. Starmer took over the Labour leadership following the party’s 2019 general election defeat, and credited his internal reforms for delivering a landslide general election victory for Labour in 2024. In a notable break from his previous public comments, Starmer did not repeat his false claim that the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn had been institutionally antisemitic.

Starmer claimed that during his tenure, public services have improved, child poverty has fallen, and net immigration to the UK has dropped substantially. Describing his time in office as the greatest privilege of his life, he reaffirmed his unflinching support for Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. He framed Burnham’s ascent to the premiership as an orderly, peaceful handover of power, offering his full backing to the new prime minister.

“I wish him every success,” Starmer said.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and Spain carried far more stakes than just a global football title, turning the world’s most-watched sporting event into an unexpected public stage for the ongoing Middle East conflict, driven by sharp shifts in the two nations’ foreign policy stances toward Israel and Palestine.

Hours before kickoff at the final, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a public message of support to Argentine President Javier Milei, framing the new Argentine leader as a key ally. “Javier [Milei], you are a real friend, a great friend. We support you, we support Argentina, in so many ways,” Netanyahu said. While Spain ultimately claimed the trophy with a 1-0 victory over Argentina, the political symbolism of the match had already cemented itself in global public discourse, with social media users quickly aligning the two teams along the Israeli-Palestinian divide: Argentina was cast as Israel’s proxy side, while Spain was identified with Palestine.

This alignment did not emerge out of thin air. Since taking office in December 2023, Milei has made unwavering support for Israel the cornerstone of Argentina’s foreign policy, a dramatic reversal of the country’s longstanding position. His predecessor, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, officially recognized Palestinian statehood back in 2010. Milei, by contrast, has stood firmly with Netanyahu throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, has publicly announced his intention to convert to Judaism, and has pledged to relocate Argentina’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a move that aligns Argentina closely with Israeli policy.

On the other side of the divide, the Spanish government under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has taken the opposite approach. Sanchez has openly condemned what the original report terms Israel’s genocide in Gaza, has called for Israeli leaders responsible for civilian casualties to face international arrest, and officially recognized the State of Palestine as a sovereign nation in 2024. Even the teams’ star players became wrapped up in this political contrast: Argentina captain Lionel Messi has faced repeated scrutiny over his past ties to Israel, while young Spanish star Lamine Yamal made headlines last season when he displayed a Palestinian flag after FC Barcelona won the Spanish La Liga title.

Netanyahu was far from the only Israeli politician to publicly back Argentina ahead of the final, with the entire right-wing Israeli cabinet leaning into the political narrative. Argentina’s newly appointed ambassador to Israel, Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish, met with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ahead of the match, gifting him an Argentina national team jersey and an official 2026 World Cup match ball. Smotrich – who the ICC prosecutor has also requested an arrest warrant for over alleged war crimes against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank – echoed Netanyahu’s support, saying “Every patriotic Israeli supports Argentina. Go Argentina!”

Other senior Israeli officials quickly followed suit. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, another controversial far-right figure, stated “We will love those who love Israel. Let’s go, Argentina.” Transport Minister Miri Regev posted public congratulations to Milei and the Argentine people, writing “Fingers crossed for you in the final!” Even Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon publicly celebrated Argentina’s previous victories on the road to the final.

However, Israeli leaders’ enthusiastic support for Argentina is rooted in its alignment with Milei, not the Argentine people themselves – a distinction that both Netanyahu and Argentine public opinion have made clear. A February-to-May 2026 Pew Research Center survey of Argentine public opinion found that 55% of respondents held a very or somewhat unfavorable view of Israel, with just 21% holding a favorable opinion. The divide between Milei’s policy and public sentiment was captured in a viral video filmed after Argentina’s semi-final win over England, where one Argentine fan rejected the framing of the team as an Israeli proxy. “No Argentinian that is a real Argentinian supports Israel,” she said. “Don’t believe our fucking president that has been put with money there.”

Netanyahu himself has openly acknowledged that Israel’s support stems from Milei’s leadership, not broader Argentine sentiment. Speaking on the Ben Ben Baruch podcast, he noted “They have a president who’s a superstar… Milei is a huge friend of Israel.” In a meeting with Argentina’s ambassador to Israel, he added: “I don’t hide the fact that I’m an Argentina fan. Most Israelis are Argentina fans, because President Milei has revolutionised Argentina’s relations with us. We have no greater or better friend.”

The political contrast also evokes the legacy of legendary Argentine footballer Diego Maradona, who took a very different stance from Milei’s current alignment with Israel. Unlike Messi, Maradona – who died in 2020 – was an outspoken supporter of Palestinian statehood, and met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during the 2018 World Cup in Russia. “In my heart, I am Palestinian,” Maradona said at the time.

On a Sunday in mid-July 2026, thousands of Israeli demonstrators, headed by senior cabinet ministers and sitting lawmakers, rallied near the boundary with the Gaza Strip to push for a dramatic policy shift: the re-establishment of Israeli Jewish settlements in the Palestinian enclave, 21 years after Israel pulled all its settlers and military forces out of the territory.

The demonstration was organized by Nachala, a hardline settler advocacy movement, which adopted the rallying slogan “Returning home after 21 years” in direct reference to Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, when the state dismantled all 21 existing Israeli settlements in the enclave. Organizers confirmed that at least 28 sitting ministers and members of Israel’s parliament took part in the event, including two of the most far-right figures in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Multiple legislators from Netanyahu’s own Likud party also joined the march.

Addressing the assembled crowd, Nachala’s founder and leader Daniella Weiss issued an explicit, controversial remark when responding to a common question about the future of Palestinian residents currently living in Gaza. “There will be no more Arabs in Gaza,” she declared, drawing applause from sections of the crowd.

Speaking to his supporters, Smotrich framed the push for resettlement as a correction of what he called a historic mistake. “We erased the disgrace of the expulsion in northern Samaria, and with God’s help, we will do the same here in the Gaza Strip,” he said, referencing the recent re-establishment of Israeli settlements in parts of the northern occupied West Bank that were also evacuated as part of the 2005 disengagement.

Ben Gvir doubled down on the demand for full Israeli control of Gaza, stating bluntly, “There will be Jewish settlements in all of Gaza.” He went on to echo common far-right talking points about encouraging the mass departure of Palestinians from the territory, adding, “Encourage voluntary immigration [of Palestinians to other countries], send those who need it to their countries. And we return home. Gaza is ours.”

Weiss summed up the core goal of the demonstration, telling attendees, “We are walking today to tell the government of Israel and show all the world that this land belongs to us.”

Prior to the scheduled march, the Israel Defense Forces had declared the entire area along the Gaza boundary a closed military zone in an attempt to restrict access to the border. Despite the order, hundreds of participants bypassed Israeli army roadblocks and reached locations within close proximity of the security fence that separates Israel from Gaza. As of initial reports, no demonstrators crossed into Gaza territory itself.

Many attendees brought family members, including children, to join the demonstration. Local reporting from the *Times of Israel* notes that many participants wore stickers printed with the phrase “Gaza is ours forever”, while a number of activists carried flags calling for the construction of a Third Temple on the site of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, a site that is the third holiest in Islam and is also the holiest site in Judaism.

In a post-rally statement, Nachala celebrated the turnout, writing, “Thank you to the tens of thousands who came as close as possible to the Gaza border with a clear call: we are settling Gaza now!”

Calls for resettling Gaza have grown dramatically louder among Israeli far-right political circles and settler organizations since Israel launched its large-scale military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, following the Hamas-led cross-border attack that killed roughly 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. The original text of this report references the campaign as a “genocide”, and notes that resettlement advocacy has intensified significantly over the course of the conflict.

Nachala has previously stated that more than 1,000 Israeli families are already “ready to actually settle in Gaza”, and claim that a large share of the Israeli public supports the return of Jewish settlements to the enclave.

Beyond Gaza, there are currently roughly 250 Israeli settlements spread across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, home to an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers. Under long-standing principles of international law, all Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territories are classified as illegal, a position that has been repeatedly affirmed by the United Nations and most of the international community.

Against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza that has drawn widespread global condemnation, a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment in social media public diplomacy—known locally as Hasbara—has failed to reverse plummeting support for Israel across Western nations, particularly among younger demographics, regional analysts have confirmed in an interview with Middle East Eye.

A March Pew Research Center survey underscores this shifting sentiment: 60% of the American general public now holds an unfavorable view of Israel. The trend crosses partisan lines among younger voters, with 57% of Republicans under 50 and 84% of Democrats under 50 registering unfavorable opinions. Analysts broadly attribute this shift to the growing reliance of young people on social media for news, rather than mainstream Western outlets that have historically maintained overwhelmingly pro-Israel framing.

To counter this grassroots shift in public opinion, Israeli lawmakers approved a historic $730 million Hasbara budget in March 2025—nearly five times the previous year’s allocation, which itself was 20 times higher than pre-2023 levels. In September 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a group of high-profile American influencers in New York to recruit them to amplify pro-Israel messaging to U.S. audiences. During the meeting, Netanyahu framed social media as the most critical battlefield for Israel’s public relations campaign, noting “We have to fight with weapons that apply to the battlefields in which we’re engaged in and the most important ones are on social media.” He also praised the recent acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operations by American billionaire Larry Ellison and other pro-Israel business leaders, calling it “the most important purchase going on right now.”

As part of its coordinated propaganda campaign, Israel has launched covert public relations initiatives, including a secret operation code-named the “Esther Project,” which hired global corporate public relations firms to manage networks of paid influencers. U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings show Israel paid participating influencers up to $7,000 per post through its contractor Bridges Partners, which partnered with global advertising giant Havas Media Group Germany on the formal “Influencer Campaign.” Havas also signed a $15 million contract with Clock Tower X, a firm founded by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. That contract was recently exposed as backing a covert social media campaign targeting the Biden administration’s ceasefire agreement with Iran on Israel’s behalf.

Last week, Time Magazine published a report revealing that participating influencers received detailed scripting guidance for posts on platforms including X, Instagram, and TikTok in private group chats, with payouts reaching up to $4,250 per approved post. Separately, Wall Street Journal reporting documented a proposal from a U.S.-based group called Show Faith by Works to spend more than $3 million pushing pro-Israel messaging to megachurch attendees and Christian college students across the American Southwest, with a planned reach of 4 million people through partnerships with churches, pastors and Christian social media creators. Group founder Chad Schnitger later confirmed the organization has scrapped those plans.

Additional details about Israel’s global Hasbara infrastructure emerged in April 2025, when Ella Kenan, a former captain in Israeli military intelligence, disclosed at a New York conference that she had coordinated with a network of 60,000 international influencers to shape public narratives in Israel’s favor after the October 7, 2023 attacks. Kenan founded the organization Bright Mind to counter what she frames as misinformation about Israel, and claimed her network’s content—much of it produced for non-Jewish influencers to share—has amassed nearly 3 billion views across social platforms. She also took credit for coining the slogan “Hamas is ISIS,” which was later adopted by global leaders including former U.S. President Joe Biden.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has also launched targeted outreach to right-wing American creators, funding an Israel tour for influencers associated with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement through a $86,000 contract with nonprofit Israel365. The trip brought 16 U.S.-based influencers under 30 to Israel to encourage them to share messaging aligned with the Israeli government with their large followings of young conservative Christians.

One high-profile misstep in this outreach came recently when U.S. right-wing influencer Clavicular—real name Braden Eric Peters, a leading figure in the male “looksmaxxing” internet subculture—faced widespread backlash after visiting Israel to address past accusations of antisemitism. Clavicular had previously appeared alongside self-described misogynist Andrew Tate and white nationalist Nick Fuentes while singing lyrics from Kanye West’s song “Heil Hitler.” During the visit, which was promoted as “Israelmaxxing” by pro-Israel right-wing outlet The Free Press, Clavicular appeared on a livestream with Shira Braun, a soldier in the Israeli army’s Spokesperson Unit (the military’s official propaganda wing), and asked her if he would be paid $7,000 for sharing pro-Israel posts. Braun was subsequently removed from her role as social media coordinator and barred from continuing the position. Clavicular was also publicly confronted by Israeli citizens over his past antisemitic comments, and the entire incident failed to produce the polished positive publicity Israeli officials had planned for.

Marc Owen Jones, associate professor of media analytics at Northwestern University, explained to Middle East Eye that modern pro-Israel propaganda campaigns have shifted away from reliance on official government accounts, instead operating through hybrid networks that blend state institutions, advocacy groups, private donors, diaspora organizations and independent content creators, blurring the line between official public diplomacy and decentralized grassroots digital advocacy. “The strategy contains an inherent trade-off: influencers derive much of their persuasive power from perceived authenticity, yet overt coordination or sponsorship can undermine that credibility and generate backlash,” Jones said, pointing to the Clavicular incident as a clear example of this flaw.

Rachel Lester, a former Israeli military spokesperson who spent four years producing social media content for the Spokesperson Unit’s international branch, acknowledged in an interview with The Media Line that Israel cannot win the online battle against rising anti-Israel sentiment. “Our enemies are too good at manipulating the world’s emotions,” she said, adding that the “biggest challenge that we face is that you can’t really fight photos of dead children.” Lester explained that her branch’s core goal was convincing global audiences that Hamas does not care about Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and even the highest-performing pro-Israel content focused on civilian suffering in Gaza failed to shift broader public opinion, because “the international community doesn’t really have much sympathy for Israel.”

Miriyam Aouragh, professor of Digital Anthropology at the University of Westminster in the U.K., told Middle East Eye that most of Israel’s influencer recruitment attempts have backfired. Not only have they failed to move public opinion, but they have also drawn unwanted attention to the covert infrastructure behind the messaging, turning the propaganda operation itself into the central story. She frames the strategy as a “triumphant failure”: even as Israel has consolidated control over mainstream media and gained leverage over major social media platforms, it has been unable to reverse the shifting cultural zeitgeist and growing organized pro-Palestine movement pushing for change.

Aouragh noted that Israel faces an inherent messaging conflict between its domestic and international audiences: to maintain public support among its own population for continuing the occupation and conflict, it relies on colonial framing that radicalizes the public around ethnic supremacy, a narrative that directly undermines Israel’s longstanding international branding as “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

“Palestine has become our generation’s… political cause like Vietnam was in the 60s and 70s,” she said. “It is impossible to break through the zeitgeist with money and influence. There are some things that money cannot buy.”

This shift in attitudes among younger Americans poses a long-term existential challenge to Israel, which has depended on consistent bipartisan support from elected U.S. officials to maintain the billions of dollars in annual military aid it receives. However, recent Democratic midterm primary elections have seen multiple openly pro-Palestine candidates defeat establishment incumbents whose ties to pro-Israel funding have come under growing scrutiny from voters.

One high-profile example is Abdul El-Sayed, who is running in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary against incumbent Haley Stevens. According to pro-Israel lobbying watchdog TrackAIPAC, pro-Israel political action committees have spent more than $20 million to support Stevens’ campaign. The United Democracy Project, the super PAC aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), launched a barrage of attack ads against El-Sayed claiming he has “a history of disrespecting women” after multiple polls showed El-Sayed leading the race ahead of the August 4 primary. A Jewish influencer recently revealed he received a confidential recruitment offer from Stevens’ campaign, offering $1,500 to share pro-Stevens talking points under a non-disclosure agreement he ultimately refused to sign. Middle East Eye reached out to the Stevens campaign, Clavicular, and the Israeli army for comment, but received no response prior to publication.

During the campaign, El-Sayed faced criticism for meeting with Hasan Piker, a prominent political commentator and Twitch streamer who is one of the most influential pro-Palestine voices for younger American audiences. Piker was recently the target of a coordinated smear campaign by U.S. mainstream media, but a rally with Piker boosted El-Sayed’s polling numbers, increasing his name recognition and cementing his standing as the anti-establishment candidate voters were seeking. A similar trend benefited Piker himself after he was banned from the U.K., a move he says was “at the behest of Israel.” The ban increased his popularity, an example of what Piker calls the “Streisand effect,” where attempts at censorship draw greater public attention to the censored viewpoint.

Unlike Israel’s network of paid influencers, Aouragh noted that independent pro-Palestine content creators set the media agenda and understand how to build social media traction that can operate parallel to mainstream media, and even drive mainstream news coverage. She added that efforts to ban creators like Piker are a dangerous development: “every erosion of citizen liberal rights is one too many, and creates… new rules of engagement” that normalize the suppression of free speech.

Abeer al-Najjar, professor of media and journalism studies at the American University of Sharjah, told Middle East Eye that Israel’s campaign to silence pro-Palestine creators and buy support from other influencers is almost guaranteed to fail, and may in fact accelerate the shift in public opinion that Israel fears. Pro-Israel influencers act as “the ‘organic-looking’ front of a professionalised state operation” whose official channels have already lost credibility, she explained, with the core goal of “laundering state messaging as peer culture.”

“Israel’s real problem is the gap between message and reality; you cannot ‘explain’ a livestreamed genocide,” al-Najjar said. “The Clavicular episode exposes the model’s limit; even funded, curated trips can’t manufacture the authenticity they’re buying.” Instead of winning over young audiences, Israel can expect “diminishing returns, visible backlash like the Clavicular fiasco, and deepening cynicism among the very youth being targeted,” she added.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s new government has opened a wide-ranging official investigation into a major Chinese electric vehicle investment by global industry leader BYD, a project that was negotiated by former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó — who resigned from parliament last week to take a senior executive role at the automaker. The sudden career move has sparked fierce accusations of conflict of interest, and thrown a spotlight on the hundreds of billions of forints in public support Szijjártó helped secure for BYD while he held public office.

Prime Minister Péter Magyar outlined the scope of the probe to Hungarian lawmakers on Monday, noting that Szijjártó, a long-time close ally of former prime minister Viktor Orbán, backed BYD’s expansion in Hungary with hundreds of billions of forints in public funding, diplomatic backing, and state-supported infrastructure development. “We will examine every decision, every negotiation, and every state commitment that Péter Szijjártó made that is connected to the BYD Hungary investment,” Magyar stated.

The investigation will not be limited to the BYD deal alone. Magyar confirmed that reviewers will scrutinize all subsidies, tax incentives, construction permits, environmental regulatory exemptions, and public-paid infrastructure projects granted to large multinational corporations over the course of Orbán’s 12-year tenure in office. “We will look into who made these calls, who drafted the policies, what expert warnings were overlooked, and what burdens these decisions have left for Hungarian taxpayers, workers, local communities, and the natural environment,” Magyar added.

To date, neither Szijjártó nor BYD have issued a public response to the conflict of interest allegations leveled by the prime minister. Szijjártó has previously framed his new role at BYD as a prestigious opportunity to contribute to what he calls one of the most successful modern stories in the global automotive sector.

During his time in government, Szijjártó was the central figure in courting Chinese foreign direct investment for Hungary, including landing the BYD projects that have now come under scrutiny. In 2023, he announced BYD would build its first European manufacturing plant in the country, a move that lets the company avoid the European Union’s punitive import tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles, which were enacted to protect the bloc’s domestic auto industry. Two years later, in 2025, he revealed plans for BYD to locate its European headquarters and a new research and development center in Budapest, in exchange for 20 billion forints ($63.7 million) in direct government assistance.

The BYD investments are part of a broader strategy carried out by the Orbán administration to position Hungary as a global hub for lithium-ion battery manufacturing, a push that has centered heavily on attracting Chinese battery firms to build a string of new production facilities across the country. This policy has already sparked widespread pushback from local residents, environmental activists, and opposition politicians, who have raised concerns that the expanding new industry will worsen existing environmental degradation, strain Hungary’s limited freshwater supplies, and increase the country’s economic dependence on China.

The BYD probe is not the only investigation Szijjártó is facing. The former foreign minister has long drawn international controversy for his close ties to the Kremlin, which he maintained even after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Breaking with nearly all other EU foreign ministers, Szijjártó made repeated trips to Moscow to negotiate energy purchase agreements for Russian oil and natural gas, and repeatedly met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, whom he has publicly referred to as a personal friend.

He became a major point of contention during Hungary’s 2026 election campaign after the Washington Post published a report alleging that he provided live updates on discussions during high-level EU meetings to Lavrov via regular phone calls. Szijjártó has denied the core of the report, though he has acknowledged that he consulted with Lavrov before and after EU foreign minister gatherings to discuss meeting agendas and policy outcomes. During a government press briefing last week, Magyar confirmed that a separate investigation into Szijjártó’s ties to the Russian government has already been launched, “as far as I know.”

What started as a lighthearted online parody has rapidly grown into one of the most high-profile youth-led mass movements India has seen in recent years. Tens of thousands of Gen Z demonstrators flooded the streets of New Delhi on Monday, demanding the immediate resignation of the country’s top education official and sweeping systemic reforms to India’s troubled higher education examination system.

The unexpected rise of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), or Cockroach People’s Party, traces back to an offhand comment made by India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant. During a public court hearing, Kant allegedly compared unemployed young people who turned to journalism and activism to cockroaches and parasites. The justice later walked back the remark, clarifying he was only referring to individuals holding fraudulent academic credentials, not the broader Indian youth population. Even so, the comment struck a nerve. Movement founders reclaimed the derogatory label, and built the group’s name as a playful parody of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party which has held national power since 2014.

CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, a 30-year-old political communications strategist and former Boston University student, originally launched the movement as a joke. He shared a simple Google Form to collect sign-ups for the satirical group, never expecting the overwhelming response that would follow: tens of thousands of young Indians signed on almost immediately, transforming the parody project into a bona fide protest organization that channels widespread frustration among India’s disaffected youth.

The catalyst for Monday’s mass capital demonstration was the forced detention and hospitalization of prominent Indian engineer and activist Sonam Wangchuk. The 59-year-old activist had been conducting a 20-day hunger strike at Delhi’s historic Jantar Mantar, a centuries-old public space that has long hosted peaceful political protests, in solidarity with the CJP movement. When authorities forcibly removed Wangchuk and transported him to a hospital on the preceding Saturday, Dipke issued a call for demonstrators to march on India’s national parliament, sparking the mass gathering.

At the core of the CJP’s demands are long-simmering grievances over India’s broken higher education entrance exam system, most recently highlighted by a high-stakes leak scandal involving the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the country’s mandatory entrance examination for admission to all national medical colleges. In May of this year, nearly 2.3 million aspiring medical students sat for the notoriously difficult exam, after months and often years of intense preparation. Just days after the test was administered, authorities were forced to cancel the entire exam following widespread confirmed allegations of question paper leaks. Students were required to retake the exam weeks later under heavy security, a devastating blow that left countless candidates reeling. The CJP and affected student families claim that around 20 aspirants died by suicide as a direct result of the distress caused by the cancelled exam. This is not an isolated incident: the NEET exam was rocked by an identical leak scandal back in 2024, amplifying public anger over the lack of accountability in the system.

Beyond demanding Wangchuk’s immediate release, the CJP is calling for a full overhaul of India’s education system, stricter accountability for repeated exam mismanagement and leaks, and the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. In the wake of Wangchuk’s detention, Dipke, who has launched his own hunger strike in protest, expanded the demands to call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step down as well. Young movement volunteers have embraced the group’s cockroach identity in creative ways: many have appeared at clean-up drives and protests dressed as the insect, turning the derogatory comparison into a unifying rallying symbol.

While it remains uncertain whether the CJP will achieve its stated policy and leadership goals, the movement has already left an indelible mark on India’s national political landscape. Monday’s demonstration marks the largest mass protest against the Modi government in the national capital in recent years, and has drawn high-profile public support from multiple major Indian opposition parties. Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the police use of baton charges against protesting students, calling the crackdown an “attack on democracy.” All India Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra joined demonstrators on the streets of Delhi before heading to parliament for official business, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav released a statement affirming that the gathered students and protesters deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

On a rain-soaked Monday in India’s capital Delhi, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered to participate in a mass protest organized by the youth-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), defying an official police ban to march toward India’s parliament and call for the resignation of the nation’s education minister. What began as a localized movement sparked by widespread allegations of public exam paper leaks has ballooned into one of the most significant displays of public opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sitting government in recent years, uniting students, working professionals, parents, and teachers behind a broader platform demanding systemic education reform and greater accountability for public officials.

The CJP’s unexpected momentum received a major boost over the preceding weekend, when Delhi police intervened to forcibly transfer prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike in solidarity with the movement. Wangchuk, who has continued his fast despite medical intervention, formally appealed to attending physicians to discharge him so he could join Monday’s march, a request that was ultimately denied. The movement’s unusual name itself carries a charged origin story: it was adopted after India’s chief justice drew widespread public condemnation for comparing unemployed young Indians to “cockroaches” during a public court hearing. Though the justice later retracted the remark, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke reclaimed the label, transforming the insect into the movement’s official symbol of grassroots resistance.

Despite explicit police warnings that no permission would be granted for a march to parliament, crowds began assembling at Delhi’s historic Jantar Mantar observatory before dawn, with thousands more joining through the morning even as steady rain soaked the protest site. The contrast between the peaceful gathering at the observatory and the heavy security lockdown surrounding parliament was stark: while young demonstrators draped in Indian national flags queued for volunteer-distributed food, painted protest placards, and posed for photos, rows of uniformed police and paramilitary personnel blocked every road leading to the legislative complex, with barricades stretching across all major access points. Movement organizers repeatedly urged participants to avoid violent confrontation with law enforcement, even as patriotic protest songs blared from speakers across the site.

When the march officially got underway, protesters spilled onto surrounding streets only to be stopped at successive layers of police barricades. Large groups sat down on paved roads, waving national flags and chanting demands for reform, while smaller splinter groups attempted to reach parliament by navigating narrow residential side streets. Inside the legislative complex, the opening day of parliament’s annual monsoon session was repeatedly adjourned as opposition lawmakers joined the outcry over the alleged exam leaks and broader education system failures.

As police moved to push back crowds attempting to breach barricades, reports of injuries quickly began to spread across social media. Multiple protesters told reporters they had been injured in police baton charges, with dozens returning to the Jantar Mantar site bleeding from head wounds or suffering limb injuries. Volunteer medical worker Gaurish Batra, treating injured demonstrators on site, told the BBC that his team had provided care to at least 10 injured people, including one man with a severe head wound and a woman with a suspected broken leg. Delhi Police have not issued any formal comment on the allegations of excessive force. Authorities also suspended mobile internet service across large parts of central Delhi, cutting off many demonstrators from reliable access to messaging apps and social media platforms.

By early afternoon, two senior CJP representatives met with Union Health Minister JP Nadda after waiting for roughly two hours outside his official residence. CJP spokesperson Saurav Das confirmed that the delegation submitted a formal letter outlining the movement’s core demands, and that Nadda gave assurances he would bring the group’s concerns to the full Union Cabinet. Shortly after the closed-door meeting, Nadda posted a public statement on the social platform X urging protesters to disperse and help restore “normalcy” to the capital. The meeting and minister’s statement did little to defuse tensions, however, with thousands of demonstrators remaining at Jantar Mantar through the afternoon, committed to seeing their demands addressed.

Even when heavy rain intensified, the protest barely slowed. Volunteers stretched blue tarpaulins to shelter crowds, and chants continued as soaked demonstrators waited for updates from police lines. Among the out-of-town participants was commercial pilot Samrat Khanna, who rearranged his professional flying schedule to attend the demonstration. “I felt I had to be here,” Khanna said. “I couldn’t just watch from the sidelines.” For most demonstrators, the original trigger of the alleged exam leaks has become a symptom of deeper frustrations, rather than the movement’s only goal: protesters say the leaks are just one example of systemic failures around employment access, economic opportunity, and government transparency that have left young Indians disillusioned.

Since its first small public protest in June, the CJP has grown at an extraordinary rate, expanding from a fledgling online campaign to a national movement with chapters in major cities across the country, drawing support from a broad cross-section of Indian society. By Monday evening, the situation shifted again when riot police entered the Jantar Mantar protest site, announcing over loudspeakers that protesters had lost permission to remain in the area. Officers began pushing crowds back, prompting some demonstrators to flee while others linked arms to resist eviction. Brief confusion emerged around founder Abhijeet Dipke’s location after the CJP initially announced he had been detained by police, before clarifying that officers had attempted to take him into custody but were blocked by crowds of protesters. Delhi Police later issued a statement calling the detention claims “entirely false.” As of Monday evening, thousands of demonstrators remained committed to the movement, with protests continuing to draw crowds across the capital.

One of India’s most high-profile grassroots advocates, 59-year-old Sonam Wangchuk, has become the center of a growing national political firestorm after launching an open-ended hunger strike in New Delhi to back youth-led demands for sweeping overhaul of India’s crisis-plagued education system. Since starting his fast on June 28, Wangchuk has survived only on salt and water, shedding more than 9 kilograms as his health has declined sharply, prompting police to forcibly admit him to a hospital on July 18 – a move that escalated tensions between authorities and thousands of supporting protesters.

Wangchuk’s protest is anchored in backing the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a viral online satirical youth movement that draws its provocative name from a comment by India’s most senior Supreme Court justice, who labeled young critics of the government with that term. The CJP emerged in response to a string of high-profile education controversies, most recently repeated leaks of public examination question papers that have thrown the academic careers of millions of young Indians into chaos. Political analysts now frame the movement as one of the most significant displays of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national government, which has held power since 2014.

A household name across India, Wangchuk commands widespread public respect that stretches far beyond the protest movement. A revered educator, engineer and innovator from the disputed Indian-administered region of Ladakh, he won the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award – widely known as Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize – for his community development work. His life and innovations even served as the inspiration for the lead character in *Three Idiots*, the 2009 blockbuster Bollywood film that remains one of the most popular Indian movies of all time, and he has appeared as a celebrity guest on India’s top-rated game show *Kaun Banega Crorepati*. This public standing has turned his hunger strike into a national crisis: as his health has worsened, opposition politicians, fellow activists, A-list Bollywood stars and prominent musicians have publicly urged him to end his fast, but Wangchuk has refused three non-negotiable conditions for stopping: government accountability for recent systemic failures in education, a meeting between CJP leaders and members of parliament where lawmakers commit to taking up reform, or a personal visit from lawmakers to his hospital bed with the same assurance.

This is far from Wangchuk’s first act of political protest via fasting, a tactic long rooted in India’s political and cultural history, where many major faiths frame voluntary self-denial as a moral act of conscience. Just one year ago, he staged two multi-week hunger strikes to draw attention to the environmental threats facing Ladakh, a high-altitude cold desert in the Himalayas that sits at the center of a long-running border dispute between India and China. Before launching that protest, Wangchuk and hundreds of supporters marched hundreds of kilometers from Ladakh to New Delhi to demand greater regional autonomy and constitutional safeguards for Ladakh’s fragile ecosystem. He argues that the Indian federal government’s accelerated push for large-scale infrastructure development – including new highways, power projects and military installations, built in response to the region’s strategic importance bordering both China and Pakistan – is irreparably damaging the Himalayan environment without any meaningful consultation with local communities. “We don’t oppose development. We want sustainable growth,” Wangchuk has said, noting that Ladakh’s unique ecology cannot accommodate the one-size-fits-all development model imposed by the national government on other Indian states.

Wangchuk’s lifelong advocacy for education reform stems from his own childhood experiences in the Indian education system. As a young boy from Ladakh studying in Srinagar, where lessons were taught only in English, Urdu and Hindi, he recalled being mocked as a “dumb boy from the mountains” who could not fluently speak the dominant languages. That experience shaped his decades-long critique of India’s centralized education system, which he says fails to meet the needs of regional and indigenous communities. In the 1980s, he began organizing protests against the use of Delhi-published textbooks written in unfamiliar languages, full of cultural and environmental references that made no sense to Ladakhi children – examples ranging from ships and oceans to coconut trees and monsoon rains, concepts unrecognizable to most children growing up in the high Himalayan desert. He co-founded a local school focused on adapting curricula to Ladakh’s unique cultural and environmental context, working for decades alongside local communities and government officials to center regional needs in education.

Beyond his education advocacy, Wangchuk has earned acclaim as a pioneering innovator focused on sustainable, low-cost solutions for Himalayan communities. After a relative noticed his early experiments using concave mirrors to heat dark mountain homes and cook food, he went on to study mechanical engineering. In recent years, he developed an affordable, passive-heating mud house that maintains a steady 15°C internal temperature even when external winter temperatures drop to -15°C, cutting reliance on carbon-intensive heating fuel for remote communities. He also designed the ice stupa, an artificial glacial spring shaped like a traditional Buddhist hemispherical monument that stores glacial meltwater for use by farmers during the critical late spring planting season, when water supplies often run dry.