lördag 25 juli 2026
Student protests in India
Indian minister resigns after protest movement demands
India's Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is resigning, Al Jazeera reports. The student movement "Cockroach Party", which has been putting heavy pressure on the government in recent weeks, has had the minister's resignation as its main demand.
In a letter published on X, Pradhan himself writes that he is resigning to preserve national unity. He also warns that "anti-national elements" are trying to exploit the protests for their own purposes and mislead students.
Modi tries to reach young people on Instagram - breaks record
The student protests sweeping across India have prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to test a new approach on social media to reach young people, writes Bloomberg.
In several posts published in recent days, the Prime Minister has spoken directly into what appears to be the selfie camera on a mobile phone.
According to The Next Web, one of the clips on Instagram Reels has received over 300 million views in 24 hours. 75-year-old Modi thus breaks the previous record of Youtuber Ishowspeed, which was set in connection with the World Cup.
Whether this is enough to win the trust of the protesting students is unclear – many of them have already started to make fun of the prime minister’s new film technology.
The cockroaches agree to end the protests
The student movement “Cockroach Party” has agreed to end its large-scale demonstrations in India, a spokesperson announced according to Reuters.
Just hours earlier, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, which had been one of the movement’s most important goals.
Further talks between the movement and the government are to take place in four weeks, reports The Hindu. The cockroaches’ other goals mainly concern measures against those behind the invalidation of two million medical entrance exams, as well as compensation for the families of students who took their own lives after the scandal.
The “Cockroach Party” protest movement — it’s about the matter
- The Indian youth movement “Cockroach Party” has grown from a satirical online phenomenon to a mass movement with over 22 million followers on Instagram.
- The movement was started by recent graduate Abhijeet Dipke after India’s Chief Justice called unemployed young people “cockroaches”.
- Two days earlier, two million students had been forced to retake their medical entrance exams after the exam questions were leaked and sold to the highest bidder. At least 20 students took their own lives after the scandal.
- The protests have included hunger strikes, demonstrations and petitions.
- The movement has grown to encompass broader demands for education reforms, measures against youth unemployment and corruption, and has received support from parents, opposition politicians and other community groups.
Forest fires in Europe
Powerful forest fires approaching Bordeaux in France
The powerful fires in France are approaching Bordeaux in the Gironde region, several media outlets report.
Several areas near the city have been forced to evacuate as a "precautionary measure", writes AFP.
"Due to the ongoing fires in Gironde, it is strongly advised not to travel to or cross the region. Postpone your trip if possible", writes the road information service Bison Futé according to Le Monde.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the military is being mobilized to support civil society. According to Expressen, there are over 1,000 soldiers in Gironde.
Horses flee the fires in France - could not be evacuated
In several videos from southern France, a large group of horses can be seen fleeing the streets from the heavy smoke after the forest fires, writes Le Figaro.
The horses are said to have come from an equestrian center near Biscarrosse, south of Bordeaux, which decided to release them after a failed evacuation attempt.
The severe forest fires are approaching Bordeaux and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate.
Fire inferno draws closer to Bordeaux – more evacuated
“Unprecedented scale”
Sophie Brocas, prefect of the region, said late Friday that the fire had assumed an “unprecedented scale” and was now approaching the Bordeaux metropolitan area. Evacuations were underway overnight in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles and three other suburbs as a “preventive measure,” Le Figaro reports.
The fire in Gironde has so far swept over more than 30,000 hectares, the mayor of the municipality of Biganos told BFMTV. This is twice the size of the large forest fire in Västmanland in 2014.
In Spain, giant fires are being fought around Madrid and in the neighboring province of Ávila. Two of three large fire areas have merged just outside the capital, and the fire has been described as “impossible to control” by local rescue services during the day. Authorities warned on Saturday that the fires could worsen due to unpredictable winds.
Nasa affected
The fires have also affected the American Nasa, which evacuated its Spanish facility for communication with space probes. According to the authority, flames have swept past the area.
According to an AFP compilation, at least 166,000 people had been ordered to evacuate in the two countries, overnight Saturday. Of these, 141,000 are in France and 25,000 in Spain. In addition, thousands have been urged to stay indoors. Both Le Var and Gironde are common holiday destinations for Scandinavian travelers.
Starship postponed – new test
Space X has carried out another test launch of the giant Starship rocket.
On board were 20 of the company's most advanced Starlink satellites.
The 124-meter-high rocket lifted off from the company's base in Texas. Before the launch, six of the 33 engines were replaced after an aborted launch attempt last week. The test launch in May also suffered problems.
The launch was the 13th for the world's largest rocket and the second this year of the new V3 version. The launch had previously been postponed after the July 16 attempt and due to Tropical Storm Bertha.
NASA was monitoring the launch ahead of upcoming moon missions.
ICC Chief Prosecutor to Leave After Sex Allegations
International Criminal Court ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan must leave his post following allegations of sexual harassment.
The decision was made on Friday evening by the court's supervisory body ASP, where a clear majority wanted him to leave.
Khan will appeal the decision.
Karim Khan has previously voluntarily temporarily left his post since the allegations of sexual assault became known in 2024. He has consistently denied all allegations.
The crisis meeting on Khan's future as prosecutor at the court was held at the UN headquarters in New York. Representatives of the court's 125 member states have participated in the process.
Diplomats familiar with the vote, which was held after closed-door negotiations, said 82 countries voted to remove Khan from his post. 13 countries voted against the demand to dismiss him, while 15 countries abstained. A number of countries did not participate in the vote.
Immediately after the vote, Khan's lawyer Tayab Ali wrote on X that the decision would be appealed "through available legal mechanisms."
The court and Khan have been criticized from some quarters for, among other things, issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on suspicion of war crimes in Gaza.
Several countries have not joined the ICC, including Russia, China and the United States. The United States has previously imposed sanctions on Karim Khan, saying that the ICC poses a threat to US sovereignty.
The International Court of Justice (ICC) is located in The Hague, Netherlands.
NATO intern arrested on suspicion of espionage
A Canadian citizen of Chinese origin has been arrested in Belgium on suspicion of “espionage on behalf of a third country,” Belgian authorities announced on Saturday.
The suspect was doing an internship at NATO, at the headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe (Shape), near Mons in southern Belgium.
– She is suspected of having spied on behalf of a third country and of being a member of a criminal organization, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The woman was noticed by Shape's security service, which did not provide any details about what the espionage was about.
Romania shoots down another drone
Romania shot down another drone in its airspace on Saturday, the country's defense minister said on Facebook. A drone was also shot down on Friday, the first since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Drone intrusions have been detected in Romania on several occasions since the war began, but Romanian forces had not shot down a drone until yesterday. However, in 2025, the Romanian parliament passed a law that allows the country to shoot down drones that violate its airspace.
The drone was detected by the defense radar system and shot down five minutes later by a Romanian F-16 aircraft, writes Romania's Defense Minister Radu Miruta on Facebook.
After the protests: India's education minister resigns
The protests have been met with tear gas and batons.
But now the "Cockroach Party" has got what they want.
India's education minister resigns.
It is on X that India's education minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on Saturday that he had submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reports AP.
The student protests, which have demanded his resignation, have recently engaged millions in India.
They started as a way to show dissatisfaction over recurring leaks of the entrance exam to the country's prestigious medical schools, which has led to millions of students being forced to rewrite the exams in recent years. This has in turn been linked to a large number of suicides, reports The Guardian.
The protesting students believe that the government has not taken the leaks and suicides seriously.
Started as a joke
Behind the protests is the movement “Cockroach Janta Party” (CJP).
The name comes from a joke on X, which involved India’s Chief Justice Surya Kant calling unemployed Indian youth “cockroaches”.
During the week, student protests in New Delhi, among other places, have been met with both tear gas and batons from the police. At least 70 people have been detained and over 200 injured during the protests, reports the Times of India.
Trump attacked – for 67 minutes
About the Iran war: “Going extremely well”
Donald Trump’s presidential debut at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is complete.
In his speech, he attacked the press corps, a number of politicians – and joked about running in the next election.
– Fake news media... when I’m gone, you’ll all be broke.
At 03:30, Swedish time, Donald Trump walked up to the microphone to the tune of Lee Greenwood’s “God bless the USA”.
This was the first time he had attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in his role as US president. On the five previous occasions, he had ignored tradition and missed the gala, citing that he believed the press corps had treated him unfairly.
According to CNN, the speech was scheduled to last half an hour.
At 4:37 a.m., 67 minutes later, he had finished speaking.
“What are you going to do without me?”
It started off jokingly.
Then Trump chose to attack Kamala Harris, Chris Christie, Joe Biden, Gavin Newsom, Rosie O’Donnell, Kaitlan Collins, Bari Weiss, James Talarico, Elizabeth Warren and Ilhan Omar, to name a few.
The gala is to celebrate freedom of speech and the role of journalism in democracy. The White House press corps, which made up the majority of the audience, unsurprisingly also received harsh words from the president.
– Fake news media... when I’m gone, you’ll all be broke. What are you going to do without me? he said, referring to the viewership and click-through rates he generates.
“They can’t have nuclear weapons”
Many had wondered if Trump would address the war on Iran.
And so he did.
– It’s going extremely well. We’ve hit Iran very hard. They don’t have much left. They’re talking to us right now, they would have loved to come to an agreement. But they can’t have nuclear weapons, we can’t let them have them because they used them.
Joked about the 2028 election
Towards the end of his speech, Trump joked about a possible third term, which is not allowed under the country’s constitution.
Wearing a red cap with the text “Trump 2028,” he ironically talked about running for president in the next election.
– This dinner, just like my term, is better. It always gets better the second time. And my third will be even better, he joked.
– I won three times. Now I’m going to do it again.
Canceled after attack
The original White House Correspondents' Dinner in April had to be canceled after a man opened fire and tried to enter the dinner.
The suspected shooter, Cole Allen, is in custody, charged with, among other things, attempting to assassinate the president.
fredag 24 juli 2026
Latest news
Russian invasion Negotiations
Source: Zelensky to meet Trump in Washington on Tuesday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is traveling to the United States for a meeting with Donald Trump early next week, a White House source told Reuters.
A Ukrainian source told the news agency that the two countries have discussed a proposal for a ceasefire in air warfare, which they can jointly present to Russia.
According to sources to AFP, the presidents are to meet on Tuesday.
Political situation in Pakistan
15 dead in attack on roadblock in Pakistan
15 people have been killed in an attack on a roadblock in northwestern Pakistan overnight, the country's military said according to AFP.
Militants are said to have driven a vehicle loaded with explosives into the roadblock. Twelve of the dead were soldiers, two were police officers and one was an official employed by an authority.
Pakistani security forces killed 12 militants in the attack, according to the military.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
New space race
New rules create debate over who controls space
The number of satellites in Earth's orbit has doubled in the past six years and now many of them are at risk of colliding, writes CNN.
Therefore, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has developed rules for how the process of sending a satellite into space should look. This means that the operator must be able to track the satellite in real time, to create a better picture of the orbits.
The rules are generally supported by the industry, but they are also creating debate over who should control space. Representatives from both Republicans and Democrats have written letters to the FCC urging them to stop the new rules.
The allegations against Karim Khan
Sources: ICC chief prosecutor sacked – accused of harassment
International Criminal Court ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan is being sacked from his post after he was accused of sexual harassment, two anonymous diplomats told the AP.
Karim Khan denies the allegations. His lawyers have called them politically motivated.
According to the sources, a large majority of the ICC's 125 member states voted to dismiss Khan.
The ICC has held a meeting today to discuss what to do about the situation.
Earthquakes in Venezuela
False information about survivors is spread after tremors
Disinformation on social media is spreading false hope after the earthquakes in Venezuela, AFP reports.
On Wednesday, reports were spread that people had been found alive in the rubble in the city of La Guaira. When relatives arrived at the scene, the stories turned out to be fabricated.
– For God nothing is impossible, but it is wrong to play with people's feelings. It makes me sad, says Naiti Sarria to the News Agency. She has been searching for her missing 74-year-old mother-in-law in the rubble since the earthquake a month ago.
According to the UN, 50,000 people are still missing after the devastating earthquakes.
Saudi attack on Houthi movement in Yemen
The Houthi-controlled port city of Hodeidah in Yemen has reportedly been attacked by Saudi Arabia, reports the Iran-backed group's news site Almasirah.
According to the rebel group, several telecommunications facilities have been hit in the attacks on the province of Hodeidah (al-Hudayda) in Yemen and explosions have been heard. Attacks are also said to have been directed at the island of Kamaran, where one person is reported to have been injured.
The attacks were directed at the rebel group's facilities - including naval bases, a Yemeni security source told AFP.
A Saudi ship was also reportedly hit in the Red Sea on Friday evening - the damage is said to be limited.
The Iran-backed Shiite Islamist Houthi movement in Yemen claimed earlier this week that it had initiated a naval blockade in the Red Sea, targeting Saudi Arabia.
Middle East Crisis Iran War
Sources: Trump Colleagues Warned of Iranian Assassination Plans
American intelligence agencies have warned several of Donald Trump's top advisers that Iran is trying to have them assassinated, sources tell the Wall Street Journal.
Several of them have reportedly been advised, among other things, to stop using private chauffeur services.
At the same time, sources tell the New York Times that it was a threat image linked to Iran that prompted Donald Trump to switch from the new to the older presidential plane when he traveled home from Turkey earlier in July.
According to previous information, the change of aircraft was made on the recommendation of the Secret Service, and sources now say that it was due to a threat that Iranian-backed proxy groups were planning some kind of attack.
Sources: Iran has rejected a ceasefire proposal from the United States
Iran has rejected a ceasefire proposal from the United States, Iranian and Iraqi sources tell the New York Times.
The proposal was reportedly delivered by Iraqi President Ali al-Zaidi during a visit to Tehran. Iranian President Abbas Araghchi, in a statement to state media, appeared to confirm receipt of the message, but also said it had not changed relations with the United States.
“The problem is the US attitude, which is illogical, greedy and controlling,” he said.
Middle East Crisis Strait of Hormuz
Huthi: We do not want to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels do not aim to completely close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, as Iran has done with the Strait of Hormuz, a spokesman for the group told AFP.
Rather, the Houthis' ambitions are "limited to a naval blockade that only affects the Saudi side," said Mohammed Abdusalam, the group's spokesman and negotiator.
The Houthis have this week claimed responsibility for attacks on ships in the Red Sea, forcing the ships to turn back from Bab al-Mandeb. This has helped oil prices reach over $100 a barrel.
UN urges evacuation of 6,000 sailors in Hormuz
The UN is urging evacuation of around 6,000 sailors stuck in a "terrible crisis" in the Strait of Hormuz, AFP reports.
Hundreds of ships are currently stuck in the strait after Iran fired on several oil tankers this week. UN human rights chief Volker Turk is now urging nations, ship owners and other actors to ensure the safety of the sailors as soon as possible.
– Seafarers have been left on their ships without food, water, fuel, medical care, power or any way to communicate with their families, said Turkish spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo during a press conference.
Attacks between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia continue
Another Saudi ship has been attacked in the Red Sea, AFP reports. The ship is said to have suffered minor damage to the hull.
Meanwhile, media controlled by the Houthi rebels are reporting that Saudi Arabia has attacked the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida in Yemen.
Witnesses in Hodeida have heard explosions near the port. According to a security source in Yemen, facilities belonging to the Houthi group have been hit in the attack. According to Houthi-controlled media, this concerns the telecom authority and the island of Kamaran.
Trump expected to attend correspondents' dinner
The White House Correspondents' Dinner has been postponed until Saturday night local time. US President Donald Trump will attend.
This year's original dinner in April had to be canceled after a man opened fire and tried to enter the dinner held at the Hilton hotel in Washington, DC. The suspected shooter, Cole Allen, is in custody on charges of, among other things, attempted murder of the president.
This summer's edition of the dinner is smaller and is being held at a different hotel than last time: the Waldorf Astoria. President Trump is expected to attend - as well as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, writes CNN.
The Correspondents' Dinner is arranged annually. Aside from the canceled dinner, this is the first time Trump has participated in the role of president.
Many in the journalism community are critical of the arrangement, as the current administration has introduced rules that restrict journalists' freedom of movement and press.
The sit-in with Trump tonight is defended by organizer Weijia Jiang, who spoke to CNN.
“We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of democracy. Of all the years, this was not the year that we should let the celebration of the First Amendment be taken away from us. More than ever, we must value the freedoms that make us who we are,” she says.
Netanyahu meets Trump during US visit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is traveling to the White House on Tuesday to attend the funeral of Republican Congressman Lindsey Graham.
“As part of the visit, the Prime Minister will meet with President (Donald) Trump at the White House on Tuesday and attend the funeral service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a friend of Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham died after a sudden illness on July 12.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump comes after a period of heightened tensions between the United States and Israel.
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