‘Lives turned in a second’: Family of baby Sam, shot dead by Israel, grieve
Fahd Abu Haikal, 41, is still in shock at the sudden death of his seven-month-old son, who was shot dead by an Israeli soldier as he travelled through the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Friday. Sam was in the backseat of a car with his mother Dania Salameh, 28, and his brother Kinan, 11, as the father drove his mother, Ferial, 61, back to her home in Hebron, following a brief stay with the family in Bethlehem. As they approached Tel Rumeida, a Hebron neighbourhood containing a large Israeli settlement where Ferial lives, a group of soldiers appeared out of the darkness. Fahd stopped the car and raised his hands, but despite all attempts to make it clear they were not a threat, a soldier took aim and fired at the vehicle. A bullet pierced the windshield, went through Fahd’s hand, and hit Sam, who sat behind him, in the face. It killed him instantly. The same bullet that killed Sam then travelled through his mother’s jaw, leaving a fragment lodged in Dania’s body, close to her heart. Doctors decided not to remove the shrapnel, fearing an operation so close to a major artery would endanger her life. [Sari Jaradat/Al Jazeera] Fahd called an ambulance, but with blood pouring from his wife’s and son’s bodies, he could wait no longer, so he flagged down a passing car and headed to the hospital. Due to Dania’s critical condition, he waited a day before telling her that their son was dead. “After seeing the injuries, the soldiers withdrew from the scene without offering any assistance or doing anything about it,” Fahd told Al Jazeera. “We were shot with intent to kill; the soldier who shot us was on the front left side [of the vehicle].” Advertisement Fahd intends to file a case against the soldier who fired the fatal shot, but he has little hope of accountability, particularly after the steps taken by the army at the scene of the boy’s death. “After the incident, the soldiers confiscated the security camera footage from the area, but no one has contacted us about investigating the crime,” Fahd said. “My eldest son, Kinan, is in a very difficult psychological state after losing his only brother, whom he had waited for, for so long. Our lives were turned upside down in an instant.” Fahd Abu Haikal inspects the car where his seven-month-old child, Sam, was shot dead [Sari Jaradat/Al Jazeera] Ferial remembers the harrowing moment she saw her grandson killed. “When I heard the gunshots, I thought the soldiers were just warning us, but then I realised a bullet pierced the car and hit the baby,” she told Al Jazeera. “I screamed at the top of my lungs in the street, and people gathered around. I felt like I’d lost my mind when I saw the blood covering Sam’s face and clothes.” Before leaving her son’s home, Ferial filmed Sam on her phone as he sat in his stroller, exactly seven months to the day he was born. “He was a quiet, cheerful baby who didn’t cry much, was obedient, and laughed constantly,” she said. “I used to take pictures and videos of him with my phone camera so I could watch them when I got home because I always missed him so much.” Troubled neighbourhood Hebron is one of the most oppressive environments in the West Bank for Palestinians, due in part to the presence of Israeli settlers in and around the city. Israeli forces have tightened their grip over Hebron since October 7, 2023, particularly the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque and Kiryat Arba settlement, where Tel Rumeida is situated. A thousand Palestinian families there are now effectively confined to an open-air prison. An Israeli flag is set atop the Palestinian Ayoub Abdel-Basit al-Tamimi family home, which was allegedly taken over by Israeli settlers overnight, in Hebron city near the Israeli settlement area of Tel Rumeida in the occupied West Bank on March 24, 2025 [AFP] “We fear they are digging under our homes, just like they are doing in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem, so that the house will collapse and they can seize everything,” Ferial said of her experiences living in Tel Rumeida. Violence against Palestinians, including children, in Hebron is also increasing. In December, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a vehicle in the Bab al-Zawiya area of central Hebron, killing a sanitation worker and a boy. His body is still being held by Israeli authorities. Advertisement A month later, Israeli forces shot dead a 58-year-old Palestinian man as he drove in the area with his daughter and four grandchildren, wounding one of the children. Issa Amro, coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements group and a resident of Tel Rumeida, said Israeli forces have established a ring of checkpoints around the neighbourhood. Palestinians are not only prevented from entering Tel Rumeida to visit family there, but a wave of Israeli violence has also made it an unsafe place for the local population to remain. “We live in constant fear and feel like we are being targeted,” Amro said. “Anyone living in this area expects to be shot at point-blank range without any justification. We live in hell and terror, constantly fearing for ourselves and our children.” Adblock test (Why?)
IAEA chief says Iran-US nuclear talks in ‘complicated phase’
NewsFeed IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran-US nuclear talks were in a ‘complicated phase’ and dialogue with Iran ‘broken’ as Iran and Israel traded fire on Monday, the worst escalation since a ceasefire was reached in April. Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Lebanon Latest: Israel pushes deeper as conflict escalates
[unable to retrieve full-text content] The latest developments from southern Lebanon amid escalating Israeli attacks.
Powerful earthquake hits Philippines, triggering tsunami alerts across Asia
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, Officials in Indonesia, Philippines and Japan warn of possible tsunami waves after quake off Mindanao. A powerful earthquake has struck the Philippines, destroying buildings and triggering tsunami alerts across Asia. The magnitude 7.8 quake struck off the southern island of Mindanao shortly before 7:40am local time on Monday (23:40 GMT Sunday), according to the United States Geological Survey. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The initial earthquake was followed by more than an hour of aftershocks, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). Video posted on official social media channels showed a three-storey building that housed a Jollibee restaurant collapsing in a cloud of debris and dust in Mindanao’s General Santos City, startling onlookers. Other images showed extensive damage to buildings, including smashed windows and caved-in roofs. The Philippine seismology authority said the city, which lies in the southern region of Soccsksargen, experienced a 7 out of 10 “very strong” earthquake on its internal intensity scale. The number of potential casualties is yet to be confirmed. Mary Ann Blanco Rhudy, a Catholic nun working for Notre Dame of Dadiangas University in General Santos, said she was travelling to the college when the earthquake struck. “The cars on the road were moving erratically. I am lucky that they didn’t crash against each other,” she told Al Jazeera. “The trees on the side of the road were also swaying violently.” Rhudy said some of the buildings at the college have partially collapsed. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday morning that emergency agencies had been activated, including the Office of Civil Defence and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. Advertisement Marcos urged people to follow government advisories about the risk of tsunami waves. “To our kababayans [countrymen] in the affected provinces, please heed the tsunami warning. Move to higher ground now. Do not wait. Your life is more important than anything left behind,” Marcos said. Marcos said schools across several provinces of Mindanao have been closed for the day. The US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said earlier that tsunami waves as high as 3 metres (9.8 feet) could hit coastal areas of the Philippines, and waves of up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) were possible in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. The first waves were expected to hit the Philippines and parts of Indonesia at about 10am local time (02:00 GMT), followed by southern Japan and Taiwan at about 11am (03:00 GMT), and Micronesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands an hour later, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The US National Tsunami Warning Center, which downgraded the quake from an earlier estimate of magnitude 8.2, said the quake posed no threat to coastal areas of the US. Officials in Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia have issued alerts warning of hazardous waves and advising citizens in coastal areas to get to safety. Philippine authorities said people in nine provinces – including Sarangani, Davao Occidental, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu – should immediately evacuate to higher ground or further inland. “Owners of boats in harbours, estuaries or shallow coastal water of the above-mentioned provinces should secure their boats and move away from the waterfront,” PHIVOLCS said. “Boats already at sea during this period should stay offshore in deep waters until further advised.” Indonesia also issued an immediate evacuation order for parts of northern Sulawesi, northern Gorontalo province and the Sangihe Islands, with residents urged to move to higher ground. A tsunami warning is also in place for Japan’s outlying islands, including Okinawa and the country’s southern coast. Officials in the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam cancelled earlier tsunami warnings, but said there was still a risk of strong currents and dangerous beach conditions. Adblock test (Why?)
Oppenheimer: Trump holds the reins on Netanyahu’s escalation options
NewsFeed Yariv Oppenheimer told Al Jazeera that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has incentives to escalate tensions with Iran and Hezbollah but is constrained by US President Donald Trump and US interests. He said Iran’s June 7 response was a warning, not a push for war, and doubts Trump would allow major Israeli retaliation. Published On 8 Jun 20268 Jun 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
How Mexican cartels turned South African farms into meth production hubs
Johannesburg, South Africa – In the quiet mining town of Swartruggens, a small courthouse is preparing to decide whether five Mexicans accused of a major illegal drug operation will be granted bail or remain in custody. Their arrests followed a raid on a remote farm in North West province, where police said they uncovered a large methamphetamine laboratory worth about one billion rand ($60m). The case is one of several pointing to a pattern taking shape in South Africa’s rural interior. The Swartruggens laboratory was not an isolated discovery. It was one of four major meth sites linked to Mexican criminals uncovered in South Africa in just two years, a pattern that has unsettled investigators and organised crime experts. In 2024, police dismantled a large meth facility worth about $105–110 million on a farm near Groblersdal in Limpopo. Later that year, another laboratory worth roughly $5–6 million was discovered near Tshwane, followed by arrests last year in Mpumalanga. Then came Swartruggens. When police moved in on the North West farm in May, they found 481 kilos of methamphetamine, containers of chemicals and firearms. Among those arrested were Mexican nationals Fabian Astorga, Jesus Alonso Medina Astorga, Luis Alberto Ramirez Rios, Jose Andres Medina and Jacquelin Lopez Madrid, alongside co-accused South Africans. All the sites followed the same pattern: remote farmland, long distances from towns and enough isolation for criminal activity to go undetected. For investigators, the pattern is becoming harder to ignore. Advertisement Mexicans are increasingly being found working alongside local collaborators in rural production sites, suggesting a shift from trafficking meth into Africa to producing it there. Organised crime researcher Julian Rademeyer told Al Jazeera the model reflects a deliberate strategy. “It’s quite a unique development where you have members of Mexican drug cartels franchising, moving chemists into remote rural areas and farms,” he said. The approach has been building for more than a decade, he added. The logic is straightforward: produce closer to consumers, cut transport costs and reduce exposure to border and maritime enforcement. How it spread Mexican-linked networks in Africa did not begin in South Africa. Researchers trace early activity back to Nigeria, where local groups were producing meth with Mexican involvement by around 2016. From there, the networks spread through East Africa, then south through Mozambique and Botswana, before reaching South Africa more recently. For years, users on the streets spoke of “Mexican meth”, often assumed to be imported. That supply chain has now shifted inward. “Now, basically, the cartel chemists are being sent here,” Rademeyer told Al Jazeera. Analysts say multiple supply routes now feed the South African market, but the most significant change is the rise of local production. Who looks the other way Methamphetamine dominates parts of South Africa’s illicit drug market because cheaper drugs such as cocaine and heroin remain out of reach for many users, creating steady demand for a cheaper, highly addictive stimulant. Crime expert Willem Els says demand is only part of the story. “The main reason why manufacturing locally is lucrative to cartels is the local conditions that exist, where there is protection from corrupt police and politicians,” he told Al Jazeera. “It is very lucrative. The cartels can make a lot of money because South African conditions result in undetected and protected operations.” A separate commission of inquiry into law enforcement has heard testimony alleging deep corruption within policing structures, including missing drug consignments and suspected inside involvement in major cases. One case under scrutiny involves 541 kilos of cocaine seized in 2021 and later stolen from a police facility, in what investigators believe was an inside job. Former Interpol ambassador Andy Mashiale told Al Jazeera the problem is visible on the ground. “There is no way in which police don’t know those labs,” he said. “So corruption plays a role.” Advertisement He said officers deployed to rural areas were often aware of suspicious activity but failed to act. “What inspires the drug manufacturers or the drug cartels is the willingness of the police to enable the drug trade from happening,” he said. South Africa’s elite Hawks unit says recent raids show progress in disrupting networks, while international partners, including the US Drug Enforcement Administration, have provided intelligence linking some suspects to the Sinaloa Cartel. But investigators warn that the system behind the labs is resilient. A frontier that keeps moving US Africa Command officials have warned that Mexican cartels are now not only moving drugs through Africa, but also producing them on the continent. For South Africa, the challenge is no longer just border control, it is institutional capacity, intelligence and corruption within the system meant to contain it. Without deeper reform, analysts warn, the pattern is likely to continue: new farms, new labs, new chemists arriving quietly in rural provinces. For the five men in Swartruggens, the question is immediate, whether they will be released. For South Africa, the question is larger and more difficult: how to contain a trade that is no longer arriving at its borders, but taking root in the country. Rademeyer says the structure is built to absorb disruption. “It’s a game of whack-a-mole,” he told Al Jazeera. “You seize a meth lab here, you seize a meth lab there. They’ll spring up elsewhere.” Adblock test (Why?)
Iran’s World Cup squad lands in Mexico amid US visa row
By AFP and Reuters Published On 7 Jun 20267 Jun 2026 Iran’s World Cup squad has landed in Tijuana, Mexico ahead of the World Cup – amid a diplomatic row with cohosts United States, which is at war with Tehran and has refused visas for several members of the Iranian delegation. The squad touched down shortly after 5am (1200 GMT) in the Mexican city, across the border from San Diego in California, after an overnight flight from Turkiye, where they have been training for the past three weeks. The Iranian football federation negotiated at the last minute to move the team’s base camp from Arizona to Mexico, due in part to uncertainty over whether they would be granted visas to enter the US. The US awarded visas to all the players on Friday, just 10 days before their first match, but several members of the support squad were not given visas, including “key managerial and administrative members,” according to the federation. The dispute comes days before the tournament kicks off on Thursday, when Mexico play South Africa in Mexico City. Iran will be based in the city throughout the tournament, despite playing their entire group stage on the US West Coast. When they do play in the US, it will be the first World Cup to see a host nation receive the team of a country it is at war with. ‘Hold the US accountable’ Iran’s team spent nearly three weeks at a training camp in Antalya, using their time in Turkiye to apply for visas for the three host nations. On the eve of their departure for Mexico, the players received their US visas, Washington’s envoy to Turkiye, Tom Barrack, said on X late on Friday. Advertisement But Iran’s embassy to Turkiye said 15 administrative and management staff had been denied visas. “You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy posted on X on Saturday, calling for world football’s governing body FIFA “to hold the US accountable for violations of its rules”. Adding to the tensions, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico said on Saturday that the squad had been notified that under their visa conditions the team must enter and leave US soil on the same day as their matches. “We can enter in the morning and we must leave the same day,” Iran’s envoy Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters. That appeared to contradict what the team’s spokesman Amir Mahdi Alavi told state TV earlier. “The visas issued for the national team are multiple-entry visas, and the national team will arrive at the match venue one day before the first game and, for the following games, two days prior to each match,” Alavi said. FIFA rules for World Cups stipulate that a team’s coach must give a news conference on the eve of the match at the venue where the game will be played. (Al Jazeera) ‘Political interference’ Iran’s Football Federation – whose chief Mehdi Taj was reportedly among those denied a visa – has described the decision as “political interference in sport in its worst form”. In response, a US administration official confirmed that “the visas necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.” Without directly addressing the matter of those whose visas were refused, the official added: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences.” In April, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any problem would not be with the Iranian players but “some of the other people (they) would want to bring with them,” suggesting some had ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is on the US blacklist of “terrorist” groups. Iran are in Group G and will play New Zealand and Belgium in Los Angeles on June 15 and 21, followed by Egypt in Seattle on June 26. Adblock test (Why?)
Iran’s World Cup team arrives in Mexico as US visa row continues
NewsFeed Iran’s national football team has arrived in Mexico ahead of its World Cup matches in the US, after last-minute visas were approved for players, just 10 days before their first match in Los Angeles. The team shifted its base to Tijuana amid uncertainty over US entry permits, with several support staff denied visas. Published On 7 Jun 20267 Jun 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
From online class to Revolution Square: A Tehran teacher’s routine amid war
The “Ramadan War”, as the US-Israel war on Iran is popularly known, disrupted daily life in Iran. Universities, schools and industries were bombed, and streets were emptied out. Mehran, a 47-year-old teacher based in central Tehran, has been forced to teach his students online from a cramped corner of his modest apartment as distance learning has become the norm. “Life hasn’t stopped here, as some might imagine, but it has taken on a completely different rhythm,” Mehran told Al Jazeera, which shadowed the teacher, who wished to be identified by a single name, as he navigated a new reality dictated by the war. From the frustrations of a virtual classroom to pharmacies with bare shelves, and from hyperinflation to crowded, fare-free public buses, Mehran’s day offers a microcosm of a city desperately trying to maintain normalcy as war leaves its indelible mark. The digital bottleneck Mehran’s day begins with a gruelling battle for bandwidth. Following the curbs on the internet during the early days of the war, the education system shifted to the domestic “Shad” e-learning platform. “The national internet is available, but it has become frustratingly weak due to the massive surge in users,” the teacher explained with an exhausted smile. “Sometimes my voice breaks up, and suddenly dozens of students just vanish from the platform.” Inside his small apartment in the Amirabad neighbourhood, the day is a cacophony of overlapping lives. In the living room, his 14-year-old daughter, Mehraneh, squints at an old tablet for her own lessons. In the narrow hallway leading to the kitchen, his eight-year-old son, Sam, clings to his mother’s smartphone, hovering near the window to catch the strongest signal. Advertisement Meanwhile, Mehran’s 41-year-old wife, Azadeh, manages the finances for a private company from another room – a job that transitioned entirely to remote work until last month. “The weak internet can barely sustain one stable connection, let alone three or four at the same time,” Mehran said. “Add to that the cramped space and total lack of privacy, and the daily toll just multiplies”. The cost of survival When the virtual school bell rings, Mehran heads to a nearby pharmacy to buy heart medication for his mother. At first glance, the shelves look neat and well-stocked, but a closer look reveals that dozens of essential medicines have been unavailable for over a month. According to Mehri, a young pharmacy worker, prices for both domestic and imported drugs have skyrocketed. After paying for a month’s supply, Mehran quietly slips the boxes into his bag. “Medicines now eat up a quarter of my salary; they used to be just seven percent,” he noted. Still, he considers himself lucky. Other families face severe shortages of life-saving drugs due to the United States naval blockade of Iranian ports and suspended flights that have crippled supply chains. The economic strain is even more glaring at the Jomhouri electronics market. Mehran travelled there to buy a new television ahead of football’s World Cup, which is going to be held in Mexico, the US and Canada, as his old set was damaged by explosions near his home during the final week of the war. Football is the most popular sport in Iran. Its national team has been based in Mexico amid the conflict with the US. Mehran has opted for the metro over a taxi amid soaring inflation. Public transport has been free since the war began, a government measure to ease traffic and conserve petrol. Inside an electronics shop, a vendor observed: “The war made transportation free, but it made everything else unaffordable, especially food.” The vendor noted that TV prices in his shop alone had surged by 40 to 60 million rials ($29 to $44) – roughly matching the dramatic plunge of the local currency, the rial, against the US dollar. At a nearby shop selling TV stands, 59-year-old owner Ali Morad said prices have doubled since last winter, despite the goods being entirely locally manufactured. He blamed soaring wages, rent, and raw material costs, which have driven customers away as their purchasing power has evaporated. An illusion of normalcy Exhausted by the market, Mehran takes a break at the nearby Osta public park. The scene is jarringly serene: children bouncing around colourful playgrounds, families picnicking under ancient trees, and young men vigorously using outdoor gym equipment. Advertisement In a quiet corner, an elderly woman sits entirely absorbed in a paperback book, insulated from the chaos. “For a second, looking at this, you forget we are living under a blockade,” Mehran reflected. “You see Tehran wresting its right to live from the jaws of breaking news and a relentless war.” But 22-year-old Mona sees a different reality. The calm, she argued, is just the “face of a city learning to dance on the edge of crisis”. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mona explained that the people in the park are not there for leisurely strolls; they are seeking a free space to breathe. Their household budgets have been decimated by doubled food costs and internet bills. To Mona, the parkgoers are hiding profound exhaustion behind a facade of tranquility. “It’s as if they collectively decided to grant themselves an hour-long ceasefire from the idea of war before they have to go back home,” she added. Searching for rhythm in the dark As night falls over Tehran, Mehran does not head home. Instead, he makes his way to Enghelab (Revolution) Square near Tehran University. Here, hundreds of men and women gather nightly to chant nationalistic slogans and sing in support of the state and its armed forces. “These gatherings make us feel like we are all in the same trench,” he said. “We might not have stealth bombers or aircraft carriers, but we have our voices and our physical presence. The war may have stolen our comfort, but it gave us back our social solidarity.” What started as a political statement has evolved into a psychological anchor. “Up until the 10th night, I came here out of duty,” Mehran
‘I’m a cockroach’: Gen Z protest movement lands in Indian capital
New Delhi, India – Saurav Kushwaha, 17, packed just a change of clothes and boarded an overnight train with his elder brother to reach New Delhi early on Saturday from their village in central India’s Madhya Pradesh. The brothers rested on a footpath, waiting for Abhijeet Dipke to arrive from the United States. The anger in Indian youth – where half of the country’s 1.4 billion population is under 25 – has been simmering for a while now, exacerbated by paper leaks and discrepancies in the country’s largest school boards. And that anger seemed to have found an unexpected outlet in a satirical political party, the so-called Cockroach Janata Party (Cockroach People’s Party, or CJP), born out of taunts and jokes. The Indian chief justice’s comments last month equating the youth with cockroaches drew widespread ire. In turn, Dipke, a recent graduate of Boston University, pondered on X at the time: “What if all cockroaches came together?” It became a sensation on the Indian internet, making way for the launch of the CJP, a play on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Dipke’s casual joke attracted more than 22 million followers on Instagram, double that of Modi’s party, which has been in power since 2014. But Dipke and hundreds of others who turned up in New Delhi on Saturday, demanding that Modi’s education minister resign, are not joking any more. “The warning to the Modi government is simple: get the education minister to resign,” Dipke said, addressing a swelling crowd. “Or we will not leave from here.” ‘All cockroaches, assemble!’ Part of this movement is Kushwaha, the student from Madhya Pradesh, who has just cleared the 12th school-leaving exams from India’s Central Board of Secondary Education. The process had been mired in controversy over several discrepancies, including digital marking on the answer sheets. Advertisement He is not sure if he can afford higher education, but Kushwaha is angrier about the government “that has been indifferent to the people who voted them to power”. The school board’s fiasco came just a week after the top medical examination for graduates was cancelled after the paper was leaked. Such events, the distraught students say, are an annual affair, with no political accountability. After gaining online traction, Dipke’s CJP first tapped on the youth’s anger to galvanise support for the movement. The party had called for “all cockroaches to assemble” at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, a designated protest site in the capital, to demand Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation. “I followed them on Instagram for fun,” Kushwaha said among the crowd. “But there is a chance that we can actually get the minister to resign.” That would be a first for Modi’s 12 years in power, if and when it happens. India’s Gen Z population – the largest such cohort in the world – has only seen the rule of Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP. Critics say the government has criminalised dissent, with India slipping in multiple democratic indices since Modi rose to power in 2014. Abhijeet Dipke of the Cockroach Janta Party was overwhelmed by supporters during a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Saturday, where demonstrators demanded the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan [Yashraj Sharma/Al Jazeera] A season left behind Still dressed for the chill he had left behind in the US, Dipke stepped into New Delhi’s sweltering, oppressive heat in a black zip-up hoodie, with a cap pulled low over his face. Pushing through a crowd of cameras jostling for a glimpse, Dipke reached for the mic and gestured to the crowd to erupt in slogans. Drenched in sweat, he shrugged off the hoodie. In his opening words, Dipke recalled the anxious overnight flight, saying his family feared he would be arrested after landing in New Delhi. “But this is not a fear only of my mother,” he said, as the crowd shouted, “Shame!” “Every mother in this country fears that if one talks about politics, speaks against this government, [they] will be arrested,” he added. The Modi government has jailed several human rights and student activists over the last few years, in what the opposition and critics of the government say is a slump towards authoritarian rule. The BJP and the Modi government reject these allegations, insisting that they have followed the law of the land and the constitution. For Dipke, 30, who left for the US two years ago to pursue higher studies in public relations, it has been a quick turn of events as he finds himself leading a political movement out of nowhere. In his interview with Al Jazeera last month, Dipke said he felt a responsibility for the overwhelming response his initiative has garnered. Advertisement Standing exhausted from the heat, Dipke handed over the mic and fell back against a wall to drink water, tossing his remaining bottle towards the crowd. “I love you, Abhijeet,” a young protester shouted. Several protesters, wearing a cockroach mask, turned up with roses or bouquets in their hands and carried books, as Dipke’s party had asked them to on social media. “To everyone who believes that Indian youth only post on social media, come down here and see this,” Dipke said later, now donning the Indian cricket team’s blue jersey. “And to those who think we will go away after shouting, I want to say: we are cockroaches and we will stay until the minister resigns.” Saurav Kushwaha (right), 17, travelled from his home in Madhya Pradesh via overnight train to attend the Cockroach Janta Party’s first protest in New Delhi on Saturday [Yashraj Sharma/Al Jazeera] ‘Get on streets’ Mohammad Aftab, a 28-year-old gig worker from one of Delhi’s satellite townships, climbed a tree to catch a clearer view of Dipke. He said he could not complete high school due to economic struggles, and instead delivers groceries for a living, with no social security net. To leave a day’s work could mean no dinner, said Aftab, wearing a cockroach mask. “But still, I wanted