Technologies
India’s viral Cockroach Party calls election panel head ‘biggest threat’ to democracy. Here’s why it matters
India’s Cockroach Janta Party demanded election chief Gyanesh Kumar resign after reported internal objections over voter-roll revisions.

Cockroach Janta Party, the viral pseudo-political movement behind the Gen Z protests that rattled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in July, has demanded the resignation of India’s chief election officer after claiming he had undermined the country’s democracy.
On Friday, Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the CJP, said the party will begin a nationwide protest from Oct. 2 if the chief election officer does not resign by Saturday.
In a press conference on Thursday, Dipke said the country’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, “is the biggest threat to India’s democracy,” raising questions over his role in a recent electoral roll revision exercise that has led to the deletion of millions of voters.
The exercise has given the government the power to select who can vote, rather than empowering voters to choose the government, Dipke said at a press conference.
The three members of the Election Commission are handpicked by the government and appointed by a selection panel of the prime minister, the home minister and the leader of opposition. The Indian National Congress, the main opposition political party, had opposed the selection of Kumar as the head of the election panel last year, as per local media reports.
Voter roll revisions
Last year, the Election Commission of India began conducting “special intensive revisions”, or SIR, to update voter lists across the country. The authority said the exercise aimed to ensure “electoral rolls are accurate, up-to-date, and free of ineligible or duplicate entries, while ensuring that no eligible elector is left out.”
However, local media reports earlier this month showed millions of voters had been deleted from the draft electoral rolls. India’s leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, who has been complaining of “vote theft” for years, joined the CJP in demanding the resignation of Kumar on Thursday.
The concerns raised by Modi’s political rivals over the election process have intensified after an investigation by the Indian Express on Wednesday revealed that the two other members of the Election Commission had made 14 formal complaints over discrepancies in the SIR process over the last 10 months.
The two members, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, complained about being kept in the dark about adding new voters and deleting names, the report said. They also flagged concerns over the integrity of voter software and warned against voter database access being centralized in Delhi, bypassing state officials, as per the Indian Express.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Election Commission underplayed the objections. “Differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution,” it said, adding that they are part of “the decision-making process.”
It has yet to comment on the demand for the resignation of the chief election commissioner and the reported deletion of 130 million voters in the draft electoral rolls.
The process for updating electoral rolls started last year in Bihar, where Modi and his allies won a landslide victory, winning more than 200 seats out of 243 in the state assembly.
Modi’s popularity was seen to be waning when, in June 2024, his party failed to secure an outright majority in the national polls and had to form a coalition government for his third term as prime minister.
However, his success in key state elections has since dispelled worries of Modi losing political momentum. Following elections earlier this year, his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power for the first time in West Bengal.
Technologies
Anthropic warns investors of AI’s ‘existential risk to humanity’ in IPO prospectus, reports say
Anthropic’s IPO filing dedicates 80 pages to the risks of AI, nearly double the 48 pages it spends discussing its business plans, according to Reuters.
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Technologies
U.S. and Iran hold separate mediated talks as Middle East oil exports hit wartime peak
U.S. and Iranian officials have engaged in separate mediated talks aimed at ending the seven‑month war, while Middle East oil exports have surged to near‑record levels despite the conflict.
Iranian and American officials reportedly held separate meetings with mediators on Monday, urging a ceasefire.
Middle Eastern crude exports climbed this month to their highest point since the war started in February.
According to Kpler, a total U.S. export ban on diesel would keep about 1.2 million barrels per day domestically and could overwhelm Gulf Coast storage capacity.
The ruins of the Shajareh Tayebeh primary school, destroyed in Minab, Hormozgan province, are shown in an image taken on August 10 2026, surrounded by rubble. Six months later, AFP journalists gained rare access to the site, which remains largely in ruins, with collapsed walls and twisted steel framed by portraits of the children who were killed and Iranian flags waving above the debris. Iran asserts that the attack involved two separate U.S. Tomahawk missiles, though neither the United States nor Israel has officially claimed responsibility. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images) / Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Images
U.S. and Iranian officials have reportedly engaged in separate indirect talks with mediators on Monday, reviving efforts to end the seven‑month war. Tehran is pushing for a response to a revised ceasefire framework while Middle East crude exports reach their highest level since the conflict started.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met Qatari mediators in New York, where he stayed after the United Nations General Assembly, and said he expects a reply from Washington by Tuesday. “We discussed ideas and how to find solutions to meet Iran’s conditions,” Araghchi said, adding that he plans to return to Tehran once a response arrives. “Whenever the Qataris have an answer, they know how to get it to us.”
Iran’s proposal, first presented on the sidelines of last week’s General Assembly, calls for the United States to release frozen Iranian funds within four to five days, lift sanctions on Iranian oil, and end the naval blockade of Iranian ports, with nuclear talks slated to begin within seven days. Tehran has linked any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the fulfillment of these steps.
President Donald Trump called the plan “unacceptable” on Sunday and rejected it, telling reporters that Iran seeks a rapid agreement because of the economic pressure it faces. At the White House on Monday, Trump said U.S. officials had spoken separately with mediators but offered no further details, adding, “We’re going to win. It’s going to go pretty quickly.”
The diplomatic push comes as physical supply data indicates the war’s impact on the oil market is easing. Middle Eastern crude exports rebounded this month to roughly their highest level since the conflict began in February, according to Kpler. The tracking firm noted that Middle East crude exports are at just under 80 % of pre‑conflict levels.
The Strait of Hormuz itself remains far from normal. Kpler’s real‑time tracking showed total traffic through the strait at 10,591 kilobarrels per day on Saturday, compared with a pre‑war baseline of 17,133.
Technologies
Oil prices fall as crude exports recover at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea ports
Saudi Arabia has restored flows through the pipeline to around 3.5 million barrels per day, according to media reports.
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