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Brazil’s Lula says only he can stop rise of fascism under Bolsonaro’s son

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has claimed he is the only thing standing in the way of far-right “fascists” reclaiming power, as he led a huge rally through the streets of Rio ahead of Sunday’s crunch election. Speaking on the eve of the demonstration, the 80-year-old leftwinger said he had decided to seek a historic fourth term because he believed only he could prevent the family of his rightwing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, returning to government. “If it weren’t for me standing up to these fascists they’d easily win another election. I’m the one standing in their way,” Lula told a popular podcast called Flow, before adding: “It’s either me, or it’s barbarism.” Hours later, Lula flew to Rio, staging what his team called a “victory march” between two highly symbolic downtown locations that played an important role in Brazil’s fight for democracy during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. “What’s at stake is not the victory of one man, it is the victory of an idea, it’s the victory of democracy,” Brazil’s president said after the parade set off from the Candelária church. The church is the location where more than a million people, including Lula, famously gathered in 1984 to demand direct presidential elections. Lula, who was among those who spoke at that historic demo when he was an up-and-coming politician in his 30s, added: “Either we consolidate democracy, or we will lose it.” From Candelária, a sea of red-clad Lula supporters marched a mile south towards Cinelândia, the scene of an equally well-known pro-democracy protest in 1968 called the March of the Hundred Thousand. “No gringo is going to lay a finger on Brazil’s things,” vowed Lula, in an indirect reference to claims Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to sway the vote in Bolsonaro’s favour with a campaign of economic and diplomatic pressure. The decision to hold Friday’s rally between two such politically charged places spoke to how this year’s election has stirred up renewed fears over the future of Latin America’s biggest democracy. Election-eve polls suggest Lula holds only a slender lead over his adversary, whose father, the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a failed coup after Lula beat him in the 2022 election. Many Brazilian democrats fear that if 45-year-old Bolsonaro wins this year’s election, he will move quickly to free his father and his fellow coup-plotters from jail – and then set about dismantling and co-opting the country’s democratic institutions, such as the supreme court. “This is the most important election of our lives – and we have to do everything we can to win,” said Marcelo Freixo, a politician from Lula’s Worker’s party (PT) who is running for a seat in congress. Freixo warned: “We spent 21 years living under a really harsh dictatorship. We fought so hard to attain our democratic institutions. And a victory for the Bolsonaro family – a family that always … openly defended the dictatorship and tried to stage a coup … would spell the end for our democratic process and institutions.” Valmir Aleixo, a 55-year-old history teacher who was one of thousands of people who joined Friday’s pro-Lula demo, said: “This is [a choice] between democracy and the savagery of far-right fascism. This is perhaps the most important election since the return of democracy in the 80s.” Noni Ostrower, 74, came to what was Rio’s largest leftwing protest in years carrying a homemade banner that read: “Democracy Is Valuable”. “I’m the daughter of two refugees from nazism. They came to Brazil from Germany because of this,” Ostrower said. “I was born here in Brazil … and today I have grandchildren and I absolutely do not want to see fascism return to Brazil – it would be a tragedy for the country. That’s why I’m here today.” During the campaign, Flávio Bolsonaro has vowed to pardon his 71-year-old father if elected, with some speculating Jair Bolsonaro could even become a minister. His brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a radical former congressman with ties to Trump’s Maga movement, reputedly hopes to become foreign minister. Flávio Bolsonaro has announced plans to appoint five firmly conservative supreme court judges. Luiz Eduardo Soares, a prominent anthropologist and writer, said he feared what might happen if the Bolsonaro clan managed to reclaim power. “I think these elections could be the last ones in my life, for my generation … What was done over the course of 10 years in Hungary, [Bolsonaro] will do in two,” Soares predicted in reference to the European country’s transformation into an “electoral autocracy” under its former prime minister, Viktor Orbán. Diogo Nogueira, a famous samba singer who came to the rally wearing his trademark panama hat, said: “We need to win in the first round so we don’t allow this type of people to get back into government. If they do get back in, it won’t just be a problem for four years, but for 10 or 20.” Polls suggest the election is likely to go to a second round runoff between Lula and Bolsonaro on 25 October, with Lula expected to secure about 45% of votes on Sunday and Bolsonaro 40%, according to the Datafolha pollster. But at Friday’s rally Lula claimed he could pull off a shock first-round win by claiming more than 50% of the vote. In an online broadcast, Bolsonaro insisted his campaign would prevail. “Brazil is a few hours from deciding its future … for the next 30, 40, 50 years. It’s the end of an era. It’s the end of the Worker’s party era,” he claimed, asking undecided voters to back him to achieve that aim, even if they didn’t like him.

Magnitude 4.8 earthquake hits Victoria with tremors felt across Melbourne

A magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck Victoria in the early hours of Saturday morning, shaking Melbourne and waking people across the whole region. Geoscience Australia said it detected an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.8 at 2.01am near Leongatha, 130km south-east of Melbourne, with the tremors felt across the city’s eastern suburbs. Geoscience Australia said it had received thousands of reports from people who said they had felt the earthquake. Posting on Facebook, Brian Morley in Narre Warren said “felt it and woke me up”, while Theresa Stevens said: “Shook our house in Garfield.” Other posts indicated the quake had been felt in Preston, Heidelberg Heights, Venus Bay and many other parts of Melbourne. The quake was estimated to have struck at about 10km below the Earth’s surface. Victoria’s State Emergency Service said the earthquake was a “timely reminder” to remember the drill to follow during an earthquake and that was drop to the ground, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture and protect your head and neck, and hold on until the shaking stops. The Bureau of Meteorology said there was no tsunami threat from the quake. https://earthquakes.ga.gov.au/

The Rev Ian Gregory obituary

There was a point in the 1980s when the Rev Ian Gregory, a former journalist and church minister, who has died aged 93, was himself making the news. In the time of Margaret Thatcher, the yuppy and union battles, Ian, my father-in-law, launched a campaign to bring back courtesy. Ever with an eye for a good headline, he called his campaign group the Polite Society. The landline in his Staffordshire house lit up with calls from newspapers and broadcasters around the world. The Los Angeles Times quoted Ian as saying that Britain had rebutted many enemies in the past 80 years, but “in 1986, the British people face national defeat at the hands of a sinister foe: our ignorant and ill-mannered selves”. During this heyday there was a warm seat for Ian on breakfast TV sofas, often side-by-side with pop stars – Rick Parfitt of Status Quo wore a Polite Society badge on his leather jacket for years after they met. Although the Polite Society may have had a conservative, nostalgic whiff about it, Ian was a radical in his Christian ministry. Ordained in 1983, he was a much-loved minister at King Street Congregational church, Newcastle-under-Lyme, who was not afraid to question faith, and invited people to think rather than accept. He was one of few ministers who would marry divorced people. He blessed babies in pubs – because he believed in meeting people where they felt comfortable – and he held Christmas services for licensees. A pub chain asked him to train staff in the importance of courtesy, and this led to a hostelry in his home town being named after him: the Polite Vicar. Born in Bolton to Gabriel Gregory, a Congregational minister, and Lilian (nee Unsworth), a teacher, Ian went to Silcoates, Wakefield, a boarding school for the sons of Congregational ministers, then Peartree secondary school in Derby. In 1953 he went to Lancashire Independent College, a theological institution in Whalley Range, Manchester, where his father had also studied. Ian became a journalist after leaving college following a “scandal” when a bottle of ginger wine was found in his room there. He said what made him a good journalist – getting things done by deadline and “being impatient with wafflers” – did not sit well with being a church minister, so the ministry had to wait. He knocked on the editor’s door of the Stockport Advertiser in 1954, was given a reporting job, and was told that all journalists wore a trilby hat. Ian took to it, and a trilby became a wardrobe staple. Ian was one of the first journalists to work at BBC Radio Derby when it launched in 1971; his combative interviews with the then Derbyshire county council leader, David Bookbinder, were well known. He retired in 2003. He continued questioning up to his death, reading theology and science books, and writing pamphlets from his garden shed office. Ian is survived by his wife, Trisha (nee Donaldson), whom he met in 1960 and married five years later, their children, Russell (my husband), Rachel and Jamie, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Spanish right wing votes down housing crisis plans as protest movement grows

Rightwing lawmakers in Spain have rejected emergency measures put forward to tackle the country’s housing crisis, pitting a fractured parliament against the widespread protest movement that has swelled in recent days. On Friday Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist-led coalition put forward two decrees that included a range of measures aimed at improving access to housing, from a ban on evictions until 2030 to the regulation of temporary lettings and lettings by room. As hundreds of protesters outside the parliament building in Madrid held up homemade signs bearing images of vultures, the conservative People’s party, the far-right Vox and the Catalan pro-independence party Junts voted against both decrees. The People’s party said it had voted in line with its belief that building, rather than regulating, was the best way to address the crisis. “Housing doesn’t become more affordable through decrees; it becomes more affordable by building more homes,” said the lawmaker Juan Bravo. News of the package’s rejection was met with boos and cries of “shame” outside. “Your profits, our misery,” the protesters chanted. The long-simmering anger at soaring housing costs boiled over late last month, when 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal, who uses a wheelchair, was evicted from the home she had lived in for 70 years. The octogenarian said she was unable to afford the 230% rent hike demanded by the investment fund that bought her apartment. Tens of thousands of people heeded the call by housing campaigners to take to the streets, while encampments protesting against the housing crisis sprung up in cities across Spain. The demonstrations have dominated the national conversation, breathing new life into Sánchez’s beleaguered government and shifting attention away from the lingering impact of recent events in Ceuta. On Friday, as a poll suggested that two-thirds of people in Spain supported the idea of government intervention in the housing market to limit prices, sources told the news site Eldiario.es that the Socialists were mulling whether to bring forward next year’s elections, potentially to this November. After news broke that several rightwing parties were planning to vote against the proposed measures, Sánchez said the parliamentary vote would go ahead as planned. “You’re with the social majority or with speculators,” the Spanish prime minister said on social media, adding that the vote would reveal the “true colours” of the rightwing parties. Following five hours of parliamentary debate on Friday, Sánchez made a last ditch appeal to lawmakers to back the measures. “What is behind these decrees is the desire to instil order and a sense of humanity in a market that – if we do not rein it in – will destroy our society,” he said. “Do the right thing, or history will judge you, and sooner than you think.” Across Spain, where rents have surged 80% within a decade and the cost of homes climbed by 63%, the issue of housing has long ranked as one of people’s biggest concerns. Earlier this year, the Youth Council of Spain said the average rent in Spain had climbed to €1,176 ($1,323) a month – an amount equivalent to 98.7% of the average salary for under-30s. The figures help to explain why the protests that began with Abascal’s eviction have continued even after the investment firm that bought her apartment said it had struck a deal that would allow her to return to her home, with her rent returning to a level closer to that she had paid in the past. The government decrees presented in parliament on Friday were intended to quell some of this public uproar. As they were rejected, campaigners vowed to continue their push to improve access to housing. “They’re not going to stop us,” the Confederation of Tenants’ Unions said in a statement, as it called on people across the country to take to the streets this weekend. “In the face of a parliament that is out of touch, the answer is more organisation and mobilisation. The next step: a general strike.” Saturday will mark one week since a small group of protesters, intent on making their demands heard, set up 10 tents in Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol plaza, a short walk from parliament. Since then, the encampment had swelled to more than 1,200 tents – a peaceful settlement in the heart of the capital with its own street names, a medical centre and even a co-working space. As news of the vote reached the camp on Friday, some said it was not what they had expected. “People here are disappointed,” said Marta García. “We had thought that at least one of the decrees would be approved.”

G7 to release 100m barrels from reserves to combat surging diesel prices – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Leaders of G7 nations are to release up to 100m barrels of their emergency diesel and crude oil stockpiles after coming under pressure from Donald Trump to ease surging fuel prices (16:27, 16:40, 16:54, 17:31). For more updates, follow the US live blog here: In other news, Hundreds of schools across France saw disruptions today, as student protests continue and escalate to violent incidents, with hundreds of people arrested today (13:16). The French government is struggling to deal with its worst crisis in months after it was taken by surprise by the thousands of teenagers demonstrating outside schools across the country this week (10:09, 11:54, 12:23, 14:33, 14:56, 15:17, 15:49). The protests are expected to continue next week (17:47). Elsewhere, Sweden’s Social Democratic leader Magdalena Andersson has been given another change to form the new Swedish government, with seven days to report back on the progress (11:21). The Spanish government lost two key votes to ratify a package of emergency measures aimed at tackling the nation’s housing affordability crisis – just as protesters marched on the parliament demanding help for renters (15:59). Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko warned that Russian attacks are “tearing Kyiv apart,” amid dramatic escalation in relentless strikes in the city (18:01). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Suicide by plane or terrorism? Speculation over motive in flight 1073 attack

At about 9.30 on Wednesday morning local time, Tali Manes was taking her six-year-old daughter, Nina, to the toilet on the regular flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard a series of heavy blows against the cockpit door. Manes, an Israeli bank executive, immediately told a flight attendant seated nearby that something was wrong. When he did not react, she shouted at him: “Something is happening in there!” Seconds later, the man “simply went to the [cockpit] door and opened it”, Manes told Israel’s Channel 12 TV. Inside, the scene was the stuff of travellers’ nightmares: blood spattered over the cockpit walls and a brutal struggle in progress between the badly injured pilot and the co-pilot, who was armed with some kind of sharp weapon. There was no one at the controls of the Boeing 737. Manes shouted again: “He’s stabbing the pilot, he’s stabbing the pilot, come help!” Many of the details of what happened on flight FZ 1073 are still unclear, but what happened next is well documented by witness testimony and videos. As the plane went into a steep dive, losing 16,000ft of altitude in about a minute, most of the 182 passengers screamed, prayed and tried desperately to reassure panicking children. But a small group rushed to the cockpit and overpowered the co-pilot. One, a plumber, copied an action seen on TV documentaries about plane crashes to pull the aircraft out of its dive. Two off-duty pilots on the flight, both among the handful of non-Israeli passengers, then took over the controls of the now almost rudderless aircraft to guide it eventually to a landing 90 minutes later in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, Manes had helped truss the co-pilot with a telephone cord while a dentist treated the injured Indian pilot, Smit Machchhar. It was a “great miracle”, Manes said on eventually reaching Tel Aviv on an emergency flight 10 hours later. In a video call with Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, broadcast live by TV networks, Machchhar, who is recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, said he had been “fighting for my life”. The pilot successfully sent an alarm to air traffic control signalling the attack and then, as his strength ebbed, managed to unlock the cockpit security door. “I had so many wounds. I had fallen down,” Machhchar said. “At one point, I realised that if I didn’t get up … then passengers would lose their lives.” For the moment, the identity of the co-pilot who attacked Machchhar is unknown, though regional sources said he was an Omani national who had joined flydubai – which is owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government – between five and nine months ago. In Israel, there is little doubt about the co-pilot’s intentions. “The co-pilot is a terrorist who tried either to hijack the plane or bring it down as a suicide. The worst scenario is he was trying to get into Israel,” said Arik Arad, the chair of the aviation cybersecurity consultancy Cyviation and El Al’s former head of security at Ben Gurion airport Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has claimed the co-pilot was exposed to “Islamist radical indoctrination”, saying Israeli investigators had found evidence on social media accounts that he wanted to “kill Jews”. “The attacker, he calls out to the aircrew: ‘Kill me, kill me,’” Netanyahu told Fox News, adding it was “clear he was suicidal”. Experts said there have been only a handful of instances of suicide by plane – cases where the pilot’s motivation is primarily to kill him or herself by crashing the plane, rather than using the plane as a weapon, as in the 9/11 attacks. In 2015, the co-pilot of a low-cost German airline flight who had hidden evidence of psychiatric illness from his employers deliberately crashed, killing himself and 150 others. Suggestions that the crash of an AirIndia 787 in Ahmedabad last year was the result of a pilot deliberately cutting fuel to engines have been fiercely disputed. Terrorism experts are sceptical that the flydubai co-pilot’s only motivation was to end his own life. “The odds that a pilot would decide to commit suicide and just happen to be flying a plane full of Israelis are pretty low,” said Colin Clarke, a terrorism expert at the respected Soufan Center in New York. “Netanyahu has a big interest in this being terrorism, but the best explanation is probably the most obvious one [ie terrorism],” he said. “The question … is: was [the co-pilot] recruited by a group or an organisation … or was he radicalised alone? In which case, what was hyping him up, given he was flying a planeload of Israelis? Could that be Gaza?” Security services have been warning of a wave of radicalisation across the Middle East prompted by the war in Gaza, which came to an inconclusive halt with a fragile ceasefire a year ago. But there has been limited evidence as yet that any violent Islamist extremist groups have gained support as a consequence of the conflict. Terrorism experts said the most obvious group that might be involved in such an attack would be al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which is based in Yemen and has a history of efforts to bring down planes. They said AQAP had recently sought to launch or inspire violence internationally. “Aviation remains the classic propaganda by deed,” Clarke said. “It’s been said that terrorism is theatre, and nothing is more theatrical than taking down an airplane. You get a body count, media coverage, you get your message across, and this makes a plane the ultimate spectacular terrorist attack.” There are now many questions for aviation security. Changes made to plane design after 9/11, which allowed pilots to lock cockpit doors from the inside, have long been controversial among experts. If Machchhar’s desperate efforts to allow access to the flight deck had been unsuccessful, there is little doubt all onboard FZ 1073 would have died. There are also questions about screening of pilots. This can be expensive for airlines and could deprive them of valuable crew if too many fail more rigorous efforts to expose psychiatric illness or extremist views. Pilots may be reluctant to fly routes where they undergo greater screening, and some may hide physical or psychological problems for fear of being grounded. Arad said: “The important issue … is that obviously pilots are not being screened enough. Lots needs to be done.” Dubai international airport, the world’s busiest airport for international passenger traffic, has built some of its appeal on a reputation for safety in a volatile region, said Philip Baum, a visiting professor of aviation security at Coventry University in England. “They are very conscious of the fact – a little bit like Israel in many respects – that they cannot afford to have a terrorist attack happening on a flight out of there,” he said. The UAE has ordered investigators to “collect information and evidence to determine the truth of the incident, its circumstances, details and motives, and to verify the extent of its connection to any terrorist activity or purpose, or the existence of prior planning or direction for it,” its attorney general, Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, said on Thursday. Arad foresees growing threats to civilian aviation from cyber-attacks and the malevolent use of AI, which could allow the targeting multiple planes simultaneously. But other experts pointed out there was no need for such sophistication to pose a threat. Clarke said: “Whether or not it involves an attacker who was self-radicalised or part of a group, keeping things simple is always the best way to carry out an attack, and this came pretty damn close.”

‘The enemy is tearing our city apart’: terror in Kyiv as Russia ramps up attacks

Valeriya Tkachenko was dropping her son off at school in central Kyiv when the air raid alert sounded. Staff hurried the children and parents into the shelter, where the frightened lawyer spent the next two hours with her son. “I’m scared to death all day about what could happen to my son,” she said as she emerged from the shelter, already late for work. A day earlier, a Russian jet-powered drone had struck a school nearby. “And I can’t plan anything any more,” she said. “It’s not sustainable like this.” Across the city on Friday morning, Artem Marchenko, an IT worker, was forced to abandon his car and walk for 20 minutes across the Pivdennyi Bridge on his way to work after repeated Russian strikes damaged the crossing. He feared Russia would soon target Kyiv’s other bridges, paralysing movement across a city of about 3 million people, the two halves of which are divided by the Dnipro. Kyiv is entering its most difficult period since the early days of the invasion, as intensifying Russian attacks reshape everyday life in a capital that Moscow is seeking to plunge into darkness. For weeks, the main worry in the capital had been the coming winter, when Russia is expected once again to try to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold. But a sharp escalation in Russian attacks has left many residents feeling that some of the hardship they had been bracing for is already here. “The capital is in a very dramatic situation. And it’s no longer possible to pretend that we can live now as we do in peacetime,” the Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on Friday. “The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart.” This week alone, Russian missiles and drones have struck offices, datacentres, a school and hospital and one of Kyiv’s main bridges. Moscow has also started its attacks on Ukraine’s energy, targeting a thermal power plant and other energy facilities, leaving several neighbourhoods without power and water by morning. Volodymyr Zelenskyy underlined the apparent shift in Russian tactics in an interview with the Financial Times this week, saying Vladimir Putin had recently ordered his commanders to abandon the rules of war. “They want Ukrainians to leave the capital … and show that if you don’t have the capital you don’t have the country,” Zelenskyy said in separate comments to reporters. Until recently, Kyiv had retained a deceptively normal rhythm, while cities closer to the front, including Kharkiv and Dnipro, absorbed the brunt of daily missile and drone attacks. Now, residents joke grimly that the balance is beginning to shift, with those cities at times feeling safer than the capital. The city is confronting a particularly dangerous combination of an acute shortage of Patriot interceptors for ballistic missiles and a new generation of faster, jet-powered Russian drones that are harder to shoot down. Kyiv is racing to fast-track a new generation of interceptor drones capable of taking down the jet-powered models. Several are already in use, according to three defence industry sources, though they said it could still take weeks or months to deploy them at a scale sufficient to provide meaningful protection for the capital. At the same time, Russia’s advances on the battlefield remain relatively slow and are coming at enormous cost. Moscow captured about 361 sq km in September, according to the military analyst Konrad Muzyka, an increase on recent months but still far short of the pace needed to seize the rest of the Donbas before winter, when offensive operations typically become more difficult. Ukraine, meanwhile, has clawed back about 126 sq km in a series of counteroffensives in the east, being conducted under the codename Vivaldi. That slower-moving battle on the ground is increasingly at odds with what is happening far behind the front. The contrast reflects a broader shift in the war, as Ukraine’s major cities come under growing pressure. “You can be quite successful in the land domain, but if you are vulnerable in the air, especially in the rear, that is the vulnerability your opponent is going to exploit,” said Mykola Bielieskov, a military analyst at Ukraine’s government-run National Institute for Strategic Studies. Ukrainian officials have been warning their European counterparts about the scale of the looming threat. According to the New York Times, Ukraine’s energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, recently briefed European counterparts on an intercepted Russian plan to use as many as 1,000 missiles, drones and bombs against the country’s energy system. The targets included electrical substations, hydroelectric and thermal power plants and boiler houses, in what appeared to be an effort to plunge Ukrainian cities into darkness and cold and create a humanitarian crisis. “Russia plans to freeze Kyiv out, to throw it back into the stone age,” said one senior western diplomat in Kyiv, speaking on condition of anonymity. Western diplomats say publicly that they intend to remain in Kyiv, mindful that leaving would hand Moscow a propaganda victory and risk creating the impression that Ukraine was being abandoned. However, privately two senior diplomats said contingency plans were being drawn up to relocate embassies to Lviv or eastern Poland if Russia began deliberately targeting foreign missions. “The situation is obviously deteriorating fast,” the diplomat said.

India’s Cockroach movement launches new protests over changes to voter roll

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. Kumar has become a highly contentious figure after a report in the Indian Express newspaper alleged irregularities and internal concerns about a process to revise and “purify” India’s electoral register, called the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). SIR, which was overseen by Kumar, has resulted in tens of millions of people being deleted from the electoral register. Large numbers are challenging their removal. Opposition politicians and civil society groups have alleged SIR is part of a widespread manipulation of India’s electoral system to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). The CJP began as online satire but grew into a powerful manifestation of youth power and an unexpected challenge to the Narendra Modi government. There were protests for weeks in the heart of Delhi and the education minister was eventually pressured into resigning in July. In the aftermath, the group declared it would remain active as a “pressure group” to hold the government to account on issues of education and democracy. Last week, after the revelations about the election commission, the CJP’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, announced that if Kumar did not resign over the controversy, the “Cockroaches” would resume their agitation until he stepped down. Dipke said the Mumbai protest would kick off a nationwide movement, with more protests planned in Delhi, Goa, Kolkata and Bengaluru. The authorities denied permission for the group to hold their protest at Mumbai’s Shivaji park but Dipke had vowed to go ahead regardless. “We are fighting against those in power,” he said at a press conference. “We all remember Mahatma Gandhi, who fought against the Britishers. Did the British ever permit him to agitate?” Hundreds of people assembled in Mumbai on Friday afternoon, amid a heavy police presence, including many young people who said they were there to fight for India’s democracy. “Voting is the most basic right of any citizen, but because of the actions of Kumar and the election commission, that right is under attack,” said Deesha, 22, a student activist. “So many millions of people have lost their votes and aren’t even recognised as citizens of India any more. This attack on our democracy must stop. The first important step is to get Gyanesh Kumar to resign, and then SIR must be reversed.” Janvi Upadhyay, 18, said the Cockroach movement had awoken the young people of India “and if they think they can just come and take away votes and cheat the elections, we will show them just how wrong they are”. “We already forced the education minister to resign. Gyanesh Kumar should be very worried right now because he is definitely next,” she said. The election commission has denied wrongdoing in the SIR but in a move that appeared aimed at easing tensions, officials were directed to expedite the process to register newly eligible voters and those who claimed to have been wrongly omitted from electoral rolls. Anger at Kumar and the election commission also erupted in Delhi on Friday, even as the police took draconian measures to try to stop people from protesting. Thousands of police were deployed to the Jantar Mantar protest site in Delhi – which was the epicentre of the last Cockroach agitation in July – a dozen metro stations in the surrounding area were closed and an internet shutdown was imposed. Hundreds of those who turned out to Jantar Mantar were immediately forced into police buses. The mass detentions of at least 700 people, including civil society leaders and opposition politicians, prompted outrage, with protesters leaning out of the bus windows to accuse police officers of depriving them of their fundamental democratic rights. Opposition parties said they would also start a nationwide protest movement to demand Kumar’s resignation. All opposition lawmakers plan to march to the election commission office in Delhi next week.