Led by Congress party, India’s opposition alliance channels anger over removal of 130 million names from voter roll

Thousands of opposition supporters have gathered in Delhi as protests against the Narendra Modi government continue to gather momentum.

Led by the Congress party, India’s opposition alliance has brought together supporters from across the country, amid growing anger over a large-scale revision of the country’s voter roll that has seen 130 million names erased.

Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka spent a week in jail after defying restrictions on protests in Delhi amid government crackdown

An Indian court has ordered the release of two leaders of India’s Cockroach movement who were jailed last week amid a mounting state crackdown on youth-led protests.

The two leaders of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) movement, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, had spent a week in Delhi’s Tihar jail after being arrested by Delhi police last week.

Abhijeet Dipke was arrested before planned anti-government demonstrations in Delhi

The leader of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) youth movement, Abhijeet Dipke, was detained by police on Friday as authorities cracked down on fresh anti-government protests in the Indian capital.

Dipke was detained before a planned Friday evening demonstration he had called in central Delhi, urging supporters of the movement to come out and hold up the Indian flag.

A fresh wave of protests by India’s youth-led Cockroach movement has been met with a brutal crackdown by Narendra Modi’s government and the closure of a historic protest site in Delhi. Two of the movement’s leaders have been imprisoned for five days for violating suppression measures. The protests, which began over frustration about education and unemployment, are now focused on voting rights. Modi’s government denies claims that it is seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters. But its treatment of protesters has been criticised by the UN and Amnesty International and raised concerns that the country is sliding further into autocracy. Lucy Hough speaks to the south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen – watch on YouTube

Anger at electoral roll changes has boiled over, sparking a crisis for Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government

• Leaders of India’s Cockroach party jailed

Born into a small village in West Bengal, Shahida Fakir had always taken her vote for granted. That was, until it was suddenly taken away. She presented officials with her Indian birth certificate and family land documents from the village going back to 1962.

Both her parents had been on the electoral roll going back decades, so she showed proof of that too. But when the final revised voter list came out in April, Fakir was not on it.

Authorities impose strict lockdown in capital to try to stop rally against removal of 130m names from electoral roll

Indian authorities have placed Delhi under a severe lockdown and detained tens of thousands of people, including the leader of the youth-led “Cockroach” movement, in an attempt to stop an anti-government protest.

Thousands of people from across India were blocked from attending the demonstration, which had been called by the “Cockroach Janata party” (CJP) to protest against an exercise that has stripped 130m names from India’s electoral roll.

Pakistani authorities insist marchers calling for former PM to be released from jail will not reach the capital

Imran Khan’s supporters have begun a march to Islamabad to demand his release from jail after efforts by the government to halt the protest failed.

The march began in the former prime minister’s stronghold province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-west Pakistan on Sunday, according to leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Modi government, election body and its head issued notices after removal of millions from lists prompts mass protests

India’s supreme court has demanded accountability from the government and the election body over a controversial exercise that has led to the deletion of tens of millions of voters from the electoral roll and prompted mass protests.

Demonstrations have erupted across the country in recent days as opposition parties, student groups and the youth-led Cockroach movement have demanded the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar, the head of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Thousands gather in Mumbai with heavy police presence as concerns mount that millions will be denied voting rights

India’s youth-led Cockroach movement kicked off more nationwide protests on Friday as thousands of people gathered in Mumbai, amid mounting concerns that millions of citizens are being unfairly stripped of their vote.

The movement, which calls itself the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) and has massive support among the country’s gen Zs, returned to the streets to demand the resignation of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar.

Swift actions of Smit Machchhar allowed passengers and off-duty pilots to subdue attacker and land plane safely

Smit Machchhar was lying on the floor of the flydubai flight deck, covered in blood, when he managed to click the release to open the cockpit door, allowing passengers and crew to gain entry, overpower his attacker and save 174 passengers onboard.

Moments earlier, Machchhar’s fellow pilot had stabbed him, in an apparent effort to crash the plane, which was travelling from Dubai to Tel Aviv. Machchhar, from Mumbai, is being treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia’s north-western city of Tabuk, where the plane landed safely.

Women say nothing has changed since Delhi’s infamous Nirbhaya bus rape case 14 years ago

The posters, just like the women holding them, were taking no prisoners. “Girls don’t need curfews, rapists need consequences,” read one. “Lock your dicks rather than your women at home,” read another.

As hundreds of women walked from the gates of their university campus into the streets of Delhi – where sexual harassment, assault, catcalling and molestation are a constant, daily threat – they shouted together in a chorus of rage and defiance: “We want justice.”

Locals say Google’s $15bn project in Andhra Pradesh has resulted in smallholdings being taken back off them by the government

When the government officials arrived in Tarluvada last year, they came with abundant promises.

Google, one of the world’s richest and most powerful tech companies, would soon be bringing a “golden opportunity” to this tiny village in south India: a $15bn AI datacentre.

Tens of thousands of police deployed and roads barricaded as PTI party demands release of jailed former PM

Leaders from Imran Khan’s party have vowed to go ahead with a nationwide demonstration in Pakistan to demand the former prime minister’s release, even as the government deployed tens of thousands of police to Islamabad, barricaded highways and issued arrest warrants to try to stop the march.

The state has taken extreme measures to prevent Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from proceeding with the march. It was announced after mounting concerns of the treatment of Khan, who has been in jail since 2023 on corruption charges.

Islamic State-inspired bombings of churches and hotels in 2019 was one of the country’s worst ever attacks

A court in Sri Lanka has convicted 15 men on terrorist charges for their involvement in the deadly 2019 Easter bombings and sentenced them each to at least 220 years in prison.

The terror attacks, which targeted luxury hotels and churches as they held Easter services, left 267 people dead and wounded almost 6000. The bombings, which were inspired by Islamic State (IS), were among the deadliest terror attacks in Sri Lanka’s history and sent shockwaves through the country.

Activation of mutual defence agreement by Riyadh as fighting with Houthis escalates would have wide-reaching repercussions for Islamabad

As he stood in Riyadh last September, the world looked like a very different place for Pakistan’s most powerful man, Gen Asim Munir.

The country’s army chief was there to witness the signing of a historic defence pact with Saudi Arabia, which he had personally orchestrated with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

From Sri Lanka to South Korea, governments are preparing for droughts, wildfires, typhoons and floods – with climate plans facing their biggest challenge to date

Asian governments are rushing preparations for the most severe El Niño weather event on record, with hundreds of millions of people bracing for multiple crises at once as extreme heat, heavy rain and food shortages hit the region.

Fuelled by exceptionally warm ocean conditions across the tropical Pacific – and developing alongside the human-driven climate crisis – El Niño is virtually guaranteed to grow to a very strong intensity towards the end of this year and into 2027.

Kasim and Sulaiman Khan tell Guardian they believe ex-PM is being ‘slowly killed’ by harsh treatment, driven by Asim Munir

The sons of Imran Khan have accused Pakistan’s powerful army chief of a “personal vendetta” against the incarcerated former prime minister and expressed fears their father is being “slowly killed” in jail, as international pressure mounts over his prison conditions.

Kasim Khan, 27, and Sulaiman Khan, 29, have become strong advocates for the release of their father, who has been held in Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since his arrest in 2023, and is serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges.

Officials say pair were rescued from Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nepal after being trapped at depth of 170 metres

Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods buried the projects in deep mud and left them trapped.

The workers were rescued during an operation at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, a hydropower project in one of the areas worst affected by last week’s floods, according to the army spokesperson Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet.

Thousands remain missing and aid is hampered by treacherous conditions in communities almost wiped out of existence

Searching for the body of his wife in the mud, Dil Bahadur Shrestha lamented that he did not even have a shovel left. For now, he has been using his hands to try to find her as he picks through the ruins of his house.

On Wednesday morning last week, Jamuna Shrestha, his wife of 50 years, had been at home in Betrawati on the banks of Nepal’s Trishuli River, feeding her beloved chickens and goats.

Dil Bahadur Shrestha, who is searching for his wife of 50 years, Jamuna.

Relatives of those missing have been given PowerPoint slideshows of recovered bodies in effort to speed up identification of the dead

The bodies continue to wash up. But the morgues have already run out of room.

Since the deadly floods coursed through the Himalayan valleys of Nepal and Tibet, the numbers of people killed have continued to rise. The bodies have surfaced in their hundreds and continue to be pulled from the thick, tar-like mud that engulfed everything after the flood waters receded. By Sunday, the death toll stood at 804 in Nepal and Tibet.