Global Pulse

标签： Asia

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  • India’s Cockroach movement supporters gather to attempt a march to Parliament

    India’s Cockroach movement supporters gather to attempt a march to Parliament

    NEW DELHI — On Monday, as India’s national Parliament prepared to open its annual monsoon session, thousands of demonstrators aligned with the youth-led “Cockroach Movement” defied a formal police protest ban to push forward with a planned march to the legislative building, stepping up their demands for the resignation of the country’s top education official amid growing public fury over systemic failures in India’s examination system.

    Delhi law enforcement had already rejected the organizers’ application to hold the march, citing needs to preserve public order in the vicinity of Parliament during the opening week of the session. Scores of police officers were deployed to the designated starting point of the demonstration at Jantar Mantar, a central New Delhi landmark long used for public protests, where barricades were erected to block demonstrators from moving toward the Parliament complex, located just a few kilometers away. Police repeatedly broadcast calls for the crowd to disperse over loudspeakers, raising widespread fears of potential violent confrontation if protesters pushed past the police cordon.

    The diverse crowd gathered for the demonstration included university students, working professionals, and even entire families with young children. Many participants came prepared for an extended day of action, carrying backpacks stocked with bottled water and non-perishable food, while others waved national Indian flags as they marched. demonstrators chanted coordinated slogans calling for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling government.

    The satirical yet rapidly growing movement, which formally calls itself the Cockroach Janta Party, has its origins in an offhand comment from India’s Supreme Court Chief Justice back in May. During an unrelated public hearing, the chief justice compared a group of unemployed young job seekers to “cockroaches” — a dismissive remark that supporters reclaimed intentionally, turning the pejorative label into the identity of a grassroots movement that has already amassed millions of followers across major Indian social media platforms.

    The movement has gathered explosive momentum in recent weeks amid a string of repeated high-profile leaks of competitive entrance exams for government jobs and medical college seats, scandals that have sparked widespread public anger. Many young people see these repeated leaks as evidence of deep-rooted corruption and systemic failure in India’s education and employment systems, which leave millions of graduates competing for a tiny pool of stable public sector positions.

    Protests gained even more national attention over the weekend, when Delhi police forcibly transferred prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been leading a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar, to a local hospital on Saturday. For the past month, self-identified “cockroach” protesters have maintained a continuous encampment at Jantar Mantar, with dozens of student groups across the country joining the action and joining Wangchuk’s hunger strike. Large solidarity rallies have also been held at major universities and urban centers across India, expanding the movement’s reach far beyond the national capital.

    Before the Monday march, Wangchuk set clear conditions for ending his 21-day hunger strike: either the central government must formally accept responsibility for the systemic failures that enabled the repeated exam leaks, or authorities must allow demonstrators to march unimpeded to Parliament, where lawmakers must pledge to debate the movement’s demands in both upper and lower houses of the legislature.

    Alongside demanding Pradhan’s resignation, the movement is calling for sweeping structural reforms to India’s national examination system, as well as financial compensation for the families of dozens of students who have died by suicide in the wake of the repeated exam leaks, which have derailed the academic and career prospects of hundreds of thousands of young people.

    The protest movement represents one of the most significant public challenges to Modi’s Hindu nationalist government since the prime minister won a third consecutive term in 2024 national elections. It has drawn cross-sector support from major national opposition parties, prominent human rights activists, and even well-known Bollywood celebrities. Protesters argue that space for public dissent has shrunk dramatically under Modi’s administration, which has faced repeated international criticism for jailing opposition activists, restricting peaceful protest, and in some cases ordering aggressive police crackdowns on dissenting gatherings.

    Senior leaders from Modi’s ruling party have taken a uniformly hard line against the movement. Pradhan has publicly accused protesters of acting against national interests, while other senior government ministers have acknowledged the widespread frustration among unemployed students but have refused to open any formal negotiations with movement organizers.

    Jyoti Rajput, a yoga teacher who joined the Monday demonstration, summed up the frustration shared by many participants. “This rotten system refuses to take action,” she said. “It cannot see the pain of students, and that’s why so many people have joined this movement.”

  • Food delivery rider wins China’s top literary prize

    Food delivery rider wins China’s top literary prize

    For years, 56-year-old Wang Jibing balanced long, chaotic shifts delivering food across Chinese cities with a quiet, lifelong passion: writing poetry. Many of his verses were scribbled in fragments on scrap paper, jotted down between waiting for restaurant orders and rushing to drop off meals to customers. Now, this body of work rooted in the everyday reality of gig work has earned him one of China’s most prestigious literary recognitions: the Lu Xun Literary Prize.

    Wang’s award-winning collection, *Low Flight*, draws its inspiration directly from the daily struggles and quiet resilience of fellow delivery riders. The title itself carries a profound, unassuming philosophy—one line from the collection reads, “Who says spreading your wings means flying high? Flying low is also flying.” It is a sentiment that mirrors Wang’s own life trajectory, shaped by decades of working odd, manual jobs to make ends meet.

    Born in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, Wang left school as a teenager after his family could no longer afford tuition. Over the following decades, he bounced between a wide range of blue-collar roles: he worked on construction sites, collected recyclable waste, ran a small street stall, and eventually took up food delivery in 2019. Through every unstable season of work, however, his love of reading and writing never faded. For more than a decade, he quietly shared his original poems and personal essays on Chinese social media platforms, building a small but loyal following long before he entered the national spotlight.

    Wang’s viral breakthrough came in 2022, when his poem *Man in a Hurry* spread rapidly across Chinese social media. The verse was inspired by a 2019 delivery mishap, where Wang spent hours stuck trying to find a customer who had entered an incorrect address—an experience familiar to millions of gig workers across the country. The relatable, raw emotion of the poem resonated with online audiences, turning Wang from a little-known amateur writer into a national literary curiosity. In 2023, he published his first full collection, *Man in a Hurry: Poems of a Food Delivery Rider*, cementing his reputation as a working-class voice in Chinese literature.

    When news of his Lu Xun Literary Prize win broke on July 15, Wang told Chinese state outlet the Global Times that he had held his breath in nervous anticipation ahead of the announcement. The sudden flood of media attention that followed the win has brought unexpected mental pressure, he added. Despite this new acclaim, Wang shows no signs of leaving his delivery route: he plans to keep working until he turns 60, he says. “Financially I don’t need this job to make a living, but I love the vibe of the work and it keeps me fit,” Wang told the Global Times. “I want a down-to-earth life and the award will never change who I am.”

    Unlike Wang’s first collection, which centered his own experiences, *Low Flight*—published in 2024—grew out of extensive interviews and surveys Wang conducted with roughly 200 fellow delivery riders. The collection offers an unfiltered, on-the-ground look at the pressures facing workers in China’s massive gig economy, a sector that employs tens of millions of people.

    Wang’s win is part of a growing, widely celebrated trend in Chinese literary culture: working-class and blue-collar writers gaining mainstream recognition for works that center their own lived experiences. In 2017, an autobiographical essay by migrant worker Fan Yusu titled *I am Fan Yusu* went viral across Chinese social media, drawing millions of readers with its unflinching account of personal struggle, and forcing Fan to temporarily leave her home to escape a deluge of media requests. More recently, former courier Hu Anyan’s 2023 memoir *I Deliver Parcels in Beijing* became a surprise national bestseller, attracting international attention and being published in English translation last year.

    The Lu Xun Literary Prize, named for the writer widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese literature, is one of the highest honors a Chinese writer can receive. While the exact monetary value of the award is not publicly disclosed, the prize was set at 100,000 Chinese yuan (around $14,800) as of 2014. Lu Xun, a towering figure of 20th-century Chinese literature, was known for his incisive, satirical works that critiqued social inequality and traditional power structures. His work has experienced a renewed cultural resonance among young Chinese people in recent years: a few years ago, Kong Yiji, an out-of-work scholar character from one of Lu Xun’s short stories, became a viral meme representing the disillusionment of young Chinese graduates struggling to find stable work.

    For Wang and a growing community of working-class writers, however, the recognition of their work marks a larger shift: a growing appetite for stories that center the lives of ordinary people working at every level of China’s economy, proving that literary inspiration can thrive even in the most fast-paced, unassuming of daily environments.

  • Iran war, Myanmar crisis and South China Sea rifts under the spotlight in ASEAN ministerial talks

    Iran war, Myanmar crisis and South China Sea rifts under the spotlight in ASEAN ministerial talks

    MANILA, Philippines — Top foreign policy leaders from across Southeast Asia are gathering in the Philippine capital this week for annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) talks, joined by senior diplomatic representatives from major global powers including the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union. With renewed large-scale hostilities roiling the Middle East emerging as one of the most urgent threats to global stability, the bloc’s diplomats are set to signal grave concern over escalating tensions in their first formal joint session Tuesday.

    This year, the Philippines holds the rotating chairmanship of the 11-member ASEAN bloc, and will host three full days of diplomatic negotiations and high-level meetings. Confirmed attendees include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Ukraine’s top diplomat Andrii Sybiha has received an invitation to a Friday ceremony marking the 1976 ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, but will not take part in the core working meetings that Lavrov and Rubio will attend. As of the opening of the talks, no formal or informal meetings between Rubio, Lavrov, or Sybiha have been scheduled, according to official statements.

    Two anonymous Southeast Asian diplomatic sources confirmed to reporters that ASEAN foreign ministers will deliberate on the escalating cross-border hostilities between the United States and Iran, which have already spilled into neighboring Middle Eastern states and stoked widespread fears of a full-scale regional war. Following closed-door deliberations, the bloc will release a joint statement voicing alarm at the rapidly shifting security situation and calling on both Washington and Tehran to de-escalate and resume diplomatic negotiations, the sources added.

    The ongoing conflict has already disrupted critical commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic maritime chokepoint through which approximately 20 percent of the world’s total oil supplies passed before the latest outbreak of fighting. For Southeast Asia — a dynamic, densely populated region home to more than 680 million people that depends heavily on imported Middle Eastern energy — the conflict has already delivered severe economic shocks. Disruptions to global energy supplies and sharp price volatility have hit the region hard, prompting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to declare a national energy emergency back in March. The declaration was aimed at securing consistent access to fuel, food, and other essential commodities, while cracking down on hoarding and price gouging.

    Beyond the immediate humanitarian and economic fallout from the Iran conflict, the crisis has sparked quiet unease across the Asia-Pacific: Washington’s deployment of additional military resources to the Middle East has diverted attention and capacity from long-standing U.S. priorities in the Indo-Pacific, including countering what regional powers describe as increasingly aggressive Chinese actions in the disputed South China Sea and around Taiwan. The Trump administration has previously made formal commitments to deter Chinese expansion in the region, leading to questions about whether those commitments will be weakened by the Middle East crisis. Rubio’s attendance at the Manila talks is designed specifically to reaffirm U.S. commitments to the region. “The secretary’s visit advances a clear U.S. priority: a free and open Indo-Pacific that delivers safety, security and prosperity for the region and for the American people,” State Department spokesperson Thomas Pigott told reporters from Washington.

    On the sidelines of the formal ASEAN meetings, Rubio is also scheduled to take part in a gathering of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, better known as the Quad. The bloc, established in 2007, counts the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia as members, and is widely viewed as a core pillar of American strategy to counter growing Chinese influence across the Indo-Pacific. Beijing has repeatedly criticized the bloc as an American-led initiative designed to contain China’s rise as a global power.

    Alongside the major international conflicts on the agenda, ASEAN foreign ministers are facing growing pressure to make tangible progress on long-simmering regional disputes, most notably the ongoing civil war in Myanmar and overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea. Myanmar has been mired in conflict since the country’s military seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a 2021 coup. Data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent human rights monitoring organization, shows that more than 8,100 people have been killed in fighting across the country, while nearly 22,500 political detainees remain in custody.

    In 2021, ASEAN leaders agreed to a five-point peace plan designed to end the violence, but the framework has failed to deliver progress, largely due to non-compliance from Myanmar’s military junta. In response, ASEAN imposed a ban on junta leaders and the country’s top foreign policy official from attending the bloc’s top-level meetings, a ban that remains in place for this week’s Manila gathering. In an effort to break the years-long deadlocked, ASEAN diplomats led by Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro — who also serves as this year’s ASEAN special envoy for Myanmar — held a historic meeting with Myanmar’s top diplomat in Bangkok earlier this month, the first such engagement between the bloc and a junta representative in five years. During that meeting, ASEAN leaders reiterated calls for an immediate de-escalation of violence and renewed efforts to launch inclusive dialogue between all warring factions. A day after the Bangkok meeting, Lazaro and Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow held consultations with high-level representatives of Myanmar’s ethnic armed opposition groups in the Thai resort city of Pattaya.

    Human rights organizations have sharply criticized the decision to meet junta foreign minister Tin Maung Swe, arguing that the move effectively reverses ASEAN’s long-standing ban on engaging senior junta officials and rewards military leaders without securing any concrete concessions toward peace. Lazaro pushed back against those criticisms, stressing that the engagement did not represent a departure from the bloc’s 2021 five-point consensus. “The path to peace can only be obtained through resolute diplomacy with all parties to the conflict,” she said.

    On the South China Sea, ASEAN ministers will hold formal talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to advance negotiations on a long-planned code of conduct, a binding agreement designed to prevent the region’s overlapping territorial disputes from escalating into open conflict. Territorial claims in the strategically vital waters are split between China, Taiwan, and four ASEAN member states: Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In recent years, armed confrontations between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and naval forces have become increasingly frequent, raising tensions across the region.

  • New Zealanders wake to a new major champion, heap praise on Ryan Fox

    New Zealanders wake to a new major champion, heap praise on Ryan Fox

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — While Ryan Fox sank a decisive 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole at England’s Royal Birkdale to claim the 152nd British Open by a single stroke, the clock had just ticked past 5:30 a.m. in his home nation of New Zealand, where the winter sun had not yet crested the horizon. Most Kiwis rolled out of bed to a cold Monday morning greeted by the historic news: their small country had just earned its fourth major championship title in men’s and women’s golf, cementing its outsized legacy on the global golfing stage.

    For the diehard fans who stayed up through the night to stream Fox’s final round, the bleary-eyed commute to work Monday came with the warm thrill of having watched their compatriot lift golf’s most iconic trophy, the Claret Jug. Even the nation’s golfing pioneer, 90-year-old Sir Bob Charles — New Zealand’s first ever major champion, and the first left-handed golfer in history to win a major, when he took the British Open title in 1963 — caught Fox’s career-making round, watching a recorded replay at a more comfortable waking hour.

    Reflecting on how far golf broadcasting has come since his own win, Charles told the *New Zealand Herald*, “I’m watching this in color. In my day, it was all black and white. I’m watching every hole that he’s playing. In my day, they only had about the last three or four holes.”

    Charles reserved high praise for the 39-year-old’s approach to the game, singling out his brisk pace of play as a welcome counter to the growing trend of slow, deliberate play that has drawn criticism across modern professional golf. Fox barely paused for 30 seconds over his game-winning final putt, a move that aligned with the traditional ethos Charles has long championed. With the win, Fox joined an exclusive club of New Zealand major champions: Charles himself, 2005 U.S. Open winner Michael Campbell, and two-time major winner Lydia Ko.

    “Ryan is a refreshing player,” Charles said. “He plays the way the game should be played, the way it used to be played and should be played. And that is: you get on with it, and you don’t spend half an hour lining up every putt. Let’s hope that Ryan can be a great example of how the game should be played now, even when you’re playing for, you know, $100 million!”

    With New Zealand’s Parliament in recess for the season, elected officials did not get the chance to publicly toast Fox’s win — a step many political observers believe would have been a popular move for lawmakers hoping to share a sliver of the champion’s national goodwill. Instead, ordinary New Zealanders flooded social media with congratulations, celebrating not just Fox’s win but his status as a third-generation elite sports star in a country obsessed with competitive athletics. His father, Grant Fox, was a star player for New Zealand’s legendary All Blacks rugby team and won the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, while his grandfather Merv Wallace captained the New Zealand men’s national cricket team.

    In his post-victory remarks, Fox addressed the legacy of his sporting family, noting that he never felt pressured to live up to his relatives’ achievements. “We’ve got a great history in our family,” he said. “The other great thing is I had no pressure on me to follow in any of their footsteps. I don’t know if this tops their achievements, but it’s certainly right up there. I guess there’s no pressure on my kids going forward now!”

    In a fitting tribute to Fox’s triumph, New Zealand’s national cricket team sealed a match and series win over the West Indies in the Caribbean just hours after Fox lifted the Claret Jug. Back at Fox’s home course, the Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club, club leadership said the entire membership is bursting with pride over their fellow member’s win.

    “You couldn’t find a nicer guy and more worthy champion golfer,” said club captain Ian Blair. “Our club has been privileged to watch Ryan develop from a fine young man with potential to a champion player and member.” Club chief executive Ian Chapman told New Zealand’s *Stuff* news outlet that members will be lining up to buy Fox a celebratory beer when he returns home.

    Michael Campbell, the 2005 U.S. Open champion who paved the way for Fox’s historic run for modern Kiwi golfers, called Fox’s victory an incredible milestone for the player. “To beat the world’s best players in a difficult situation is an incredible feat,” Campbell told the *New Zealand Herald*’s *Ryan Bridge Today* podcast. “I got to experience that 21 years ago. It’s mind-blowing. It really changes your world and he’s up there with the best players in the world now.”

  • New Zealand beats West Indies in a 1-wicket thriller to clinch ODI cricket series

    New Zealand beats West Indies in a 1-wicket thriller to clinch ODI cricket series

    BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – A dramatic final-over finish at Kensington Oval on Sunday delivered New Zealand a heart-stopping one-wicket victory over the West Indies in the fourth ODI of their five-match series, locking in an unassailable 3-1 series lead for the tourists ahead of Tuesday’s final fixture.

    The match was played under the shadow of mourning, just days after the passing of West Indian cricket icon Garry Sobers at the age of 89 in his hometown Bridgetown. Widely regarded as the greatest all-rounder in the history of international cricket – with more than 8,000 Test runs and 200 Test wickets to his name – Sobers cut his teeth at Kensington Oval, where the venue’s main pavilion bears his name. To honor his legacy, both teams wore black armbands, official flags were flown at half-mast across the ground, two seats were left vacant in the Sobers Pavilion, and a minute’s silence was held before the first ball. West Indies had entered the match with a fierce determination to seal a series-leveling win as a fitting tribute to their legendary compatriot.

    Play opened with New Zealand winning the toss and electing to bowl first, extending a curious trend that has seen the team bowling first claim victory in all four matches of the series so far. Batting conditions proved challenging from the first over, and West Indies collapsed to 81-6 before a resilient 81-run seventh-wicket partnership between wicketkeeper Amir Jangoo and spinner Gudakesh Motie dragged the hosts to a modest final total of 188 all out. Jangoo notched his first half-century of the series with a 71-ball 51, while Motie contributed a valuable 41 to the innings. For New Zealand, young pace bowler Matthew Fisher enjoyed a dream ODI debut with the ball, claiming 3 wickets for 40 runs including the prized scalp of West Indies captain Shai Hope, who fell to a searing cross-seamer that jagged sharply back into the top of off stump.

    New Zealand’s chase got off to a disastrous start, with the tourists slipping to 6-2 inside the first six overs. A steady 65-run fifth-wicket stand between batsman Mark Chapman and all-rounder Michael Bracewell pulled New Zealand back into control, with Chapman hitting a fluent 80 to put the visitors on the brink of victory. When Chapman was dismissed, New Zealand stood at 142-5, requiring just 47 more runs with almost 25 overs remaining – a target that looked well within their reach for a comfortable win.

    What followed was a breathtaking collapse that put West Indies on the cusp of a fairytale tribute win. A short rain break disrupted New Zealand’s rhythm, and Motie ripped through the tourists’ lower order, claiming Bracewell with his first delivery after the restart before quickly dismissing Nathan Smith, Jacob Duffy and Matthew Fisher. Motie finished the innings with outstanding figures of 5 wickets for 47 runs, while fast bowler Alzarri Joseph kept the pressure on with economical line and length that yielded just 23 runs from his allocation.

    New Zealand’s final pair of captain Mitchell Santner and No. 11 batter Jayden Lennox entered the match with the Black Caps needing just 8 runs to win. Santner inched the team within three runs of victory before a dropped catch off his own batting left the door open for a dramatic finish. When Santner left Lennox to face a full over from fast bowler Vitel Lawes, the last batter survived two separate reviews for caught behind and leg before wicket, turning aside confident West Indies appeals to stay at the crease.

    Lennox’s survival allowed Santner to hit the winning run from the very first ball of the 45th over, finishing the innings unbeaten on 34 and sealing the nervy win with 35 overs still to spare. Speaking after the match, Santner described the closing stages as chaotic.

    “It was pretty chaotic, especially the ending,” Santner said. “You try to chip off the total as much as you can. Even partnerships of 10 or 15 at that stage was going a long way. It probably shouldn’t have got that close but it was nice to get over the line.”

    West Indies captain Shai Hope praised his team’s fighting performance despite the narrow loss, noting that the tense match was a treat for neutral fans. “It’s been a really good cricket game for the onlookers,” Hope said. “If you watch a game like this as a neutral you’re going to be really happy to see play like this. It was one that could have gone to either side. I must commend our guys for the fight they showed.”

    After the match, New Zealand hold an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series, having lost the opening fixture by seven wickets before claiming wins by five wickets in Game 2, six wickets in Game 3, and Sunday’s one-wicket thriller. The fifth and final match of the series will be held at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown this Tuesday.

  • India’s Cockroach protesters set to march to parliament

    India’s Cockroach protesters set to march to parliament

    A mass protest movement demanding sweeping education reforms in India is moving forward with a scheduled march to the country’s parliament on Monday, after authorities forcibly removed a prominent hunger-striking activist from the demonstration site over the weekend, spurring escalating tensions between protesters and the ruling government.

    The movement is led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a grassroots group that first launched as a satirical online movement in May to push back against widespread exam paper leaks and systemic irregularities in India’s education system. Founded by Abhijeet Dipke, the group has rapidly gained a massive national following, with thousands of protesters – who refer to themselves as “cockroaches” – having maintained a continuous month-long sit-in at Delhi’s historic Jantar Mantar observatory.

    The demonstration gained national attention after well-known activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk joined the cause, launching a 21-day hunger strike in solidarity with the CJP. Through the scorching Delhi summer heat, Wangchuk sustained himself only on salt and water, losing more than 9 kilograms and suffering severe physical pain. Despite his declining health, he vowed to join the planned parliament march, even joking to supporters that if he died during the fast, his ghost would still join the protest.

    That vow was cut short on Saturday morning, when dozens of local police and paramilitary forces raided Wangchuk’s stage at the protest site. Officers covered the activist with bedsheets to shield the removal from public view, pushed back crowd members who attempted to intervene, and transported him via ambulance to Delhi’s government-run Safdarjung Hospital for medical care. Wangchuk has refused to end his hunger strike even in hospital care, according to his wife Gitanjali Angmo. In an update Sunday, Angmo outlined a clear condition for ending the fast: sitting political leaders must meet with Wangchuk at the hospital and commit to making education accountability a top priority during the upcoming parliamentary session.

    The forced removal did not derail the protest, however. CJP founder Dipke reaffirmed Sunday that the planned march to parliament will proceed as scheduled on July 20, and launched an indefinite hunger strike of his own Saturday to replace Wangchuk at the protest site. “If they think that taking Wangchuk away will end this movement, they are mistaken,” Dipke said in a statement. “We will remain here, and will march to parliament on 20 July.” Thousands of people from across the country have already confirmed they will join the march in solidarity with the reform movement.

    The CJP’s protests were sparked by a string of high-profile exam cancellations tied to confirmed paper leaks. In May, a critical national medical entrance exam – taken by nearly 2.28 million aspirants – was scrapped after a leak was confirmed. A retest was held June 21, but according to family reports, more than 20 affected candidates have died by suicide in the wake of the disruption to their academic and career plans.

    Protesters initially put forward two core demands: the cancellation of compromised exams and the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who they argue must take moral accountability for the systemic failures that allowed the leaks to occur. Pradhan has previously dismissed the CJP and its supporters as “the B-team of disruptive elements,” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s central government has refused to open any dialogue with the movement. Following Saturday’s forced removal of Wangchuk, the CJP escalated its demands, now calling for Prime Minister Modi’s resignation. Dipke called the government’s action a “despicable act” that merits the prime minister stepping down.

    Opposition political parties have widely condemned the government’s handling of the protest, describing the forced removal of Wangchuk as “shocking coercive state violence” and “an assault on democracy.” In recent days, growing pressure from opposition leaders and civil society groups has pushed the government to engage with the protest, with many public figures visiting the Jantar Mantar sit-in to affirm that the protesters’ demands for education reform are legitimate and require a government response.

    Heavy security deployments, including scores of police and paramilitary personnel, are already in place across central Delhi ahead of Monday’s planned march, as the country braces for a major showdown between the reform movement and the ruling government.

  • Iran accuses US of violating international law after strike on nuclear plant

    Iran accuses US of violating international law after strike on nuclear plant

    Tensions between the United States and Iran have surged to their highest level in months after a US air strike targeted the under-construction Darkhovin Nuclear Power Plant in southwestern Iran, marking a sharp escalation following the collapse of a one-month-old interim ceasefire last week.

    In an official statement released after the attack, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) issued a fierce condemnation of the United States, framing the strike as an assault on a core symbol of Iranian national pride and the country’s decades-long push for technological self-reliance in the nuclear sector. “The terrorist and criminal US regime, whose very identity is rooted in bullying and open disregard for international law, has committed an aggressive, barbaric act that violates every norm of global governance,” the statement read. While the AEOI confirmed the strike targeted the nuclear construction site, it has not released any details on the scale of damage incurred, but reaffirmed that the attack constitutes a clear breach of international law.

    Located in Khuzestan Province along the banks of the Karun River, the Darkhovin facility sits roughly 70 kilometers south of Ahvaz and 100 kilometers north of the Persian Gulf. Construction on the plant’s new reactor only began in 2022, and the project remains in its earliest phase of development. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear oversight body, confirmed that no nuclear material was present at the site during its most recent inspection, meaning the attack does not pose any public radiological hazard. The agency announced it is currently investigating credible reports of the overnight strike. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi repeated his longstanding call for global powers to exercise strict military restraint around all nuclear-related facilities, regardless of their operational status.

    The strike on the nuclear site came as part of a broader wave of US air operations ordered directly by US President Donald Trump, which launched at 6 p.m. ET (10 p.m. GMT) Saturday, according to US Central Command (Centcom). In its official statement, Centcom said the strikes were ordered to achieve two core goals: to erode Iran’s capacity to disrupt commercial shipping in the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, and to deliver immediate retaliation for a recent attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that targeted American service members stationed in Jordan. After completing the first wave of attacks, Centcom confirmed it had targeted multiple Iranian military assets, including coastal surveillance outposts and air defense systems along Iran’s southern coast.

    Local Iranian media outlets have offered conflicting initial reports on casualties and non-nuclear damage. Iran’s state-aligned Mehr News Agency reported that one strike near the southern city of Sirik caused no reported casualties and no damage to major civilian infrastructure. Semi-official Tasnim News Agency also confirmed a second strike near Shadegan, a city located close to Iran’s border with Iraq.

    The renewed full-scale hostilities follow the collapse of an interim ceasefire agreement that was signed roughly one month prior, ending a brief period of de-escalation and raising urgent fears across the global community that the two sides will return to open, all-out war. Earlier on Saturday, Iranian officials confirmed the country had formally withdrawn from a bilateral memorandum of understanding with the Trump administration, in response to the resumption of US bombardments across Iranian territory.

    The current round of conflict traces back to February 28, when joint strikes by the United States and Israel were launched against targets across Iran, with the stated goal of disabling Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs and weakening the network of regional proxies aligned with the Iranian government. That opening wave of strikes included an air attack that killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s long-serving former supreme leader. The current supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, has not appeared in public since the first day of the war, a point that has fueled widespread speculation about his status.

    In a written statement carried by all major Iranian state media outlets Saturday evening, Mojtaba Khamenei issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration, arguing that the latest strikes prove any agreement signed by the US president is completely lacking in credibility and value. “Donald Trump’s signature is utterly worthless and devoid of credibility,” the statement read, warning that the United States will face “even heavier costs and further humiliation” in response to its aggression.

    Beyond the immediate human and security risks, the escalating conflict has already triggered major ripple effects across the global economy: it has severely disrupted regional energy supplies, stoked new fears of sustained global inflation, and intensified the high-stakes competition for control over the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s global oil supplies pass every day.

  • ICC’s Khan probe ‘reduced to political referendum’, Palestinian rights groups warn

    ICC’s Khan probe ‘reduced to political referendum’, Palestinian rights groups warn

    A coalition of leading Palestinian human rights organizations has issued a stark warning about deep procedural flaws and growing political interference in the disciplinary process against suspended International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, just days before the court’s 125-member Assembly of States Parties (ASP) votes on whether to remove him from office. In a joint public statement released Friday by the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) — an umbrella group counting Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Addameer among its members — the coalition stressed it is not taking sides on the merits of the misconduct allegations against Khan or the prosecutor’s defense. Instead, it is sounding the alarm that systemic failures in the proceeding violate fundamental human rights protections and mark a dangerous departure from the rule of law that threatens the ICC’s core institutional independence.

    The coalition argues the disciplinary process has devolved into a political referendum driven by the competing national interests of individual ASP member states. “It is impossible to extricate such national interests from the political impact of the Chief Prosecutor’s decisions made in the various situations currently before the ICC,” the statement reads, noting that this political capture opens the door to widespread overreach that risks eroding the court’s credibility as an impartial arbiter of international justice.

    The controversial proceeding stems from unproven allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against Khan in April 2024, a claim Khan has repeatedly and vehemently denied. The ASP’s executive governing body, the Bureau, suspended Khan from his post on June 8 after a majority of its 21 members voted to label his actions “serious misconduct.” PHROC’s criticism centers heavily on the Bureau’s rejection of the findings of an independent three-judge panel the Bureau itself appointed to review a United Nations investigation into the claims. In a unanimous March ruling, the panel concluded the evidence presented did not meet the ICC’s strict “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard to prove misconduct, noting the probe produced only conflicting testimonies and largely hearsay-based evidence. No independent legal body, PHROC emphasizes, has formally found the facts of the investigation amount to serious misconduct or a major breach of the prosecutor’s official duties — yet the Bureau’s contrary finding deliberately side-stepped the panel’s binding legal conclusions.

    PHROC also pushes back against the Bureau’s unsubstantiated claim that Khan engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with the complainant, enabled by an asymmetric power dynamic. The coalition notes that neither Khan nor the accuser has ever corroborated this framing, and the Bureau’s ruling failed to establish the non-consensual sexual misconduct that formed the core of the original complaint. “The Bureau, as a political body composed of diplomats, does not have the independence, impartiality or legal expertise to make assessments on the legal characterisation of conduct, nor did it enjoy the same timeframe as the ad hoc Panel to independently examine the two reports and 5,000-pages of evidence,” the statement adds.

    Further drawing condemnation is the Bureau’s last-minute rushed change to voting procedures, which PHROC says was designed to lower the bar for Khan’s removal. Previously, the process required a two-thirds majority vote to first confirm serious misconduct, followed by a separate vote requiring 63 member state votes to remove the prosecutor. The Bureau rewrote the rules to combine these steps into a single vote, eliminating the higher two-thirds threshold for a misconduct finding. According to PHROC, this procedural change dismantles critical checks and balances on the Bureau’s political decision-making, clearing a path for removal that would have otherwise been impossible to achieve.

    The coalition directly ties the push to oust Khan to a broader, coordinated campaign by the United States, its allies, and Israel to undermine the ICC’s ongoing investigation into war crimes committed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Following Khan’s May 2024 decision to request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes charges, the U.S. imposed retaliatory sanctions on the prosecutor, later expanding the measures to target two ICC deputy prosecutors, eight ICC judges, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, and multiple Palestinian rights groups that provided evidence for the Gaza investigation.

    PHROC traces this pattern of interference back years, noting that several current Bureau member states challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories in 2020, and the United Kingdom launched a formal legal challenge to Khan’s 2024 arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. Most recently, Israel cited leaked details from the misconduct investigation in a November 2025 court filing asking that Khan be disqualified from leading the Gaza war crimes probe.

    The coalition warns there is a clear and present danger that Israel and its political allies have already compromised the disciplinary process through political interference in bodies like the Bureau. “There is a very serious risk that State Parties will again prioritise their national interests and support for Israeli impunity over any genuine care or concern for either the interests of the complainant, the Prosecutor, or for the integrity of the Court,” the statement reads. The ongoing process, which launched in late 2024, has failed all parties involved, PHROC concludes, and stands to cause irreversible, far-reaching damage to both the ICC and the global project of international criminal justice. The ASP is scheduled to hold its special vote on Khan’s removal at United Nations headquarters in New York on July 24.

  • US completes eighth night of strikes as Iran retaliates across Gulf

    US completes eighth night of strikes as Iran retaliates across Gulf

    On Sunday, the United States concluded its eighth straight night of military strikes targeting Iranian territory across the country’s southern regions, hitting both designated military sites and civilian infrastructure, according to multiple on-the-ground and official reports.

    Al Jazeera’s on-the-ground reporting noted that this latest round of airstrikes was marked by lower intensity compared to the three waves of attacks carried out in the preceding three nights. In an official statement, US Central Command (Centcom) confirmed that American military forces successfully engaged multiple key Iranian assets, including coastal military surveillance outposts, air defense installations, maritime operational capabilities, and storage depots holding missiles and drones.

    The command added that the strikes also specifically targeted units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the US holds responsible for a fatal attack that killed two American service members in Jordan on July 17.

    Local Iranian media documented multiple explosions across five locations in two southern provinces: Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas, Hajiabad, Sirik in Hormozgan Province, and Shadegan in Khuzestan Province. Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported that at least six blasts were heard across Qeshm Island before emergency civil defense teams were dispatched to the area to survey damage and respond to any emergencies.

    Major-General Ali Abdullahi, commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, issued a stark warning in response to the strikes, emphasizing that any further acts of American aggression will be met with a firm and devastating retaliatory response. Abdullahi accused Washington of seeking to sow internal division within Iran, and pledged that Iran would impose far heavier costs on the United States for its military campaign than it had in previous rounds of conflict.

    Alongside its defensive warnings, Iran immediately launched retaliatory actions targeting Gulf states that host US military forces. Iranian officials confirmed that they carried out a large-scale drone assault on what they described as two key US military facilities in Kuwait: an ammunition storage depot at Camp Al Adiri and air defense systems at Ali Al Salem Air Base. In response, Kuwait’s military announced that its air defense units were actively intercepting incoming hostile drones and missiles.

    Simultaneously, Bahrain triggered air raid sirens for the sixth time within a multi-hour window, urging all residents to immediately move to designated emergency shelters. In another development, the IRGC announced that its air defense units intercepted and destroyed an American MQ-9 reconnaissance drone over the southwestern city of Ahvaz. Separately, Iraqi Kurdish leadership condemned recent Iranian missile strikes targeting the Kurdistan Region as a clear violation of Iraqi national sovereignty.

    Iranian officials confirmed that the ongoing US airstrikes have caused widespread damage to civilian infrastructure across southern Iran. Local media reports confirm that critical public assets including bridges, highways, railway lines, road tunnels, and regional airports have been hit by strikes, disrupting civilian travel, commercial freight movement, and the delivery of humanitarian aid to affected areas. Multiple hospitals have been forced to evacuate patients due to damage or safety risks, and scheduled school examinations across affected regions have been postponed indefinitely.

    Iranian officials argue that the US campaign aims to cut off Iran’s southern provinces and weaken the IRGC’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global chokepoint for oil maritime trade. They have reiterated that the IRGC will not cede control of the strategic waterway under any circumstances.

    The escalating conflict has also amplified urgent concerns over water security across the entire Gulf region. On Saturday, Kuwait issued its second public accusation against Iran for targeting a major power and desalination plant, a critical piece of infrastructure for the arid nation. Local residents interviewed by AFP confirmed that they have already begun stockpiling bottled water and non-perishable canned food, amid widespread fears that ongoing conflict will disrupt critical supply chains.

    The Gulf Cooperation Council region holds approximately 60 percent of the world’s total desalination capacity, making these facilities irreplaceable for maintaining drinking water supplies in one of the most water-scarce regions on the globe. Earlier, Iranian officials reported that previous US strikes destroyed a desalination facility in Hormozgan Province, cutting off drinking water access for roughly 10,000 residents across 20 local villages.

    In response to the rapidly escalating tensions across the Middle East, the US Department of State has issued a global advisory urging all American citizens around the world to exercise heightened caution due to the rising risk of spillover conflict.

  • Ryan Fox wins the British Open with birdie on the final hole

    Ryan Fox wins the British Open with birdie on the final hole

    On a sun-battered, tension-filled Sunday at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, 39-year-old New Zealand golfer Ryan Fox etched his name into golf history, surviving a chaotic back-nine rollercoaster to sink a career-defining 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and claim his first-ever major championship at the British Open.

    The final round was defined by shifting momentum, with five different golfers holding a share of the lead at various stages. American contender Cameron Young sat atop the leaderboard for nearly two full hours without hitting a single stroke, having carded a blistering 6-under 64 in his morning round more than 120 minutes before the final groups teed off the back nine.

    Fox, the son of a former All Blacks rugby player, refused to let a late pair of bogeys derail his bid for the Claret Jug. He pulled even with Young at the top of the leaderboard with a birdie on the par-4 16th, then delivered a stunning closing birdie on Royal Birkdale’s toughest finishing hole to secure victory. The win made him just the third golfer from New Zealand to claim a major men’s championship.

    Finishing the round at 2-under par for a 68, Fox threw his powerful arms into the air in elation immediately after the ball dropped into the cup. Within moments, he was on a call with his family back home, telling them with a shaky, excited voice: “You asked me to bring a trophy home, and I am, aren’t I?” His name will now be added to the base of the iconic silver Claret Jug, joining New Zealand golf legend Bob Charles, who won the event at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1963.

    For Young, the dramatic finish added another chapter of near-misses in major championship play. The American already finished one stroke shy of victory at the 2022 British Open at St Andrews, and he held a third-round lead at the Masters Tournament before Rory McIlroy overtook him on Sunday.

    Fifth-ranked Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader entering the final round, saw his chances fade over the closing holes. Burns had only planned to compete in the 2025 Open after his wife gave birth to the couple’s first daughter earlier than expected, forcing him to rearrange his tournament schedule at the last minute. He held a two-shot lead heading into the back nine but failed to record a single birdie over his final 12 holes, ultimately finishing two strokes off Fox’s winning pace.

    Defending champion Scottie Scheffler stayed in contention through most of the day, but two costly bad bounces sapped his momentum. A late lucky break gave him an unlikely birdie to stay in the hunt, but he failed to convert a birdie opportunity on the 18th, closing with a 67 to tie for fourth. He shared that spot with local favorite Tommy Fleetwood, the Southport-born golfer who fell back early in the round but sent the thousands of fans lining Royal Birkdale’s dunes into a frenzy with back-to-back closing birdies for a 68.

    In a surprising turn of events, fan-favorite contender Bryson DeChambeau was largely absent from the final-round drama. After losing his tee shot on the 11th hole, he carded a triple bogey that knocked him far down the leaderboard, and he did not record a birdie until he was well out of contention. A two-shot penalty assessed to him on Friday for improving his swing path never ended up impacting the final outcome, as he shot a 1-over 72 to tie for 14th place.

    Sunday’s victory marks Fox’s 10th career win across global professional golf tours. Prior to this major triumph, his most prestigious title came at the 2023 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. At 39 years old, Fox is the oldest golfer to win his first major championship since Henrik Stenson won the 2016 British Open at Royal Troon at age 40.