protesters

Ten suspects are accused of abusing and torturing several people in the garage of a government compound in Belgrade.

Nine active Serbian police officers and one former officer have been arrested over accusations of using excessive force against students last year during protests that culminated in October’s electoral defeat of former President Aleksandar Vucic.

The Serbian Ministry of Interior announced Wednesday’s arrests, alleging that the suspects abused and tortured several people in the garage of a government compound in Belgrade in August 2025.

In a statement, the ministry said the suspects were on duty when they “used force and threats to inflict severe pain and suffering on several injured people, in order to obtain information, intimidate and unlawfully punish them”.

Anticorruption protests began in Serbia after 16 people were killed when the canopy at a railway station in Novi Sad collapsed in November 2024. The collapse was seen as symptomatic of alleged widespread corruption under Vucic, who served as president for 12 years before conceding defeat last month after parliamentary elections.

The ministry has released only the initials of the suspects but said they served in an elite unit. According to state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia, the commander of the Special Antiterrorism Unit, Igor Zmiric, was among the detainees.

Since last month’s vote, the winning student-led protest movement has demanded reforms within state institutions, including the police and intelligence services. Protesters have also called on top officials to resign, accusing them of colluding with Vucic while he was in power.

Hopes that Belgrade would join the European Union have increased since October’s elections as the bloc offered to hold further accession talks if Serbia’s new government strengthens democracy.

In a 2025 report on Serbia, Amnesty International warned that protesters, journalists and civil society organisations “continued to face intimidation, harassment and unlawful surveillance as authorities sought to rein in widespread discontent”.

The rights group said protesters were subjected to excessive force in “multiple cases across the country”.

Police have arrested 55 people after protesters camp in Lisbon and Porto.

Thousands of protesters have returned to two central squares in Portugal for demonstrations against an intensifying housing crisis, hours after police cleared their camps in the capital, Lisbon, and the city of Porto, arresting 55 people.

Activists have demanded the centre-right government withdraw a bill that makes evictions easier and ends rent caps on new leases, which passed a first parliamentary reading.

The demonstrators in Lisbon sought to rebuild their sit-in camp at Rossio Square on Tuesday, while those in Porto were returning to the northern city’s Dom Joao I Square.

Organisers said more than 1,000 people had gathered at each square. Activists have occupied Lisbon’s Rossio Square since Saturday, pitching around 200 tents, and Porto’s Dom Joao I Square for around 10 days.

‘Enough is enough’

Debora Miranda, 41, a communications consultant, told Reuters she joined the Rossio Square protest to represent generations struggling with soaring costs. “If people don’t feel at home, in every sense of the word, they can’t move forward with their lives…enough is enough.”

The camps mirrored housing protests in neighbouring Spain, and coincided with unrest over rising living costs in countries such as France, Belgium and Italy.

Shortly before 6am, after warning protesters that the camps were illegal, police launched coordinated operations in both cities. Demonstrators in Porto followed orders and dismantled their own tents. Officers cleared Lisbon’s Rossio Square in what Carla Valadao, a spokesperson for the camp, described as “very aggressive”.

Public Security Police superintendent Sergio Soares told reporters that the eviction had been “calm, proportionate and appropriate, with no police charge”.

The 55 detainees were later released pending a court appearance in Lisbon on Wednesday.

One of Europe’s worst housing crises

Portugal is grappling with one of Europe’s worst housing affordability crises as purchase prices have more than doubled since 2017 and rents for new leases have nearly doubled.

Jorge Paixao, 19, a history student, called it “a societal crisis”, saying his generation needed “the ability to live with dignity, start families and rejuvenate Portugal”.

The squeeze is most acute in the major cities, where there has also been opposition to excessive tourism and an influx of so-called digital nomads, people who travel while working remotely.

UN experts have called on the Indian government to stop the use of “excessive force” in the wake of the crackdown on opposition and student protests in India.

In a statement on Tuesday, the two dozen independent experts pressed for an impartial investigation into Indian authorities’ conduct, saying that demonstrators had sustained injuries and some reported being subjected to ill-treatment.

“Protesters have sustained injuries, with some reporting being subjected to ill-treatment. The experts expressed particular concern about reports of sexual violence and other forms of gender-based abuse in the protests and related detentions,” according to the statement.

UN experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and document specific human rights crises but are independent of the organisation itself.

India’s Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), along with other opposition parties and student organisations, has led protests this month demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, after 130 million names were removed from voter lists.

The protesting groups said the removal disproportionately affected poor and homeless people as well as ethnic minorities including Muslims, who are unlikely to vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP and India’s Election Commission deny the accusations. The Election Commission said it was removing duplicate, deceased, shifted and otherwise ineligible voters and that anyone excluded in error can pursue appeals.

‘Deployed force’

“Despite the non-violent nature of the assemblies, law enforcement agencies have reportedly deployed force against unarmed students including by means of police so-called lathi charges, and have prevented thousands from joining the protests,” the UN experts said.

Lathi charges are coordinated movements by a policing force using sticks to disperse crowds.

“We call on the authorities to immediately cease the use of excessive force, rescind blanket assembly bans, and refrain from the misuse of digital surveillance, including through biometrics, and internet disruptions,” they added.

India has repeatedly dismissed such criticism and cast it as interference in the country’s internal affairs, including when the UN human rights office earlier this month expressed concerns over mass detentions in relation to the latest protests.

For several days, the streets of Tirana have witnessed a wave of antigovernment demonstrations, with demonstrators engaged in fierce clashes with security forces, while police have fired tear gas on thousands of young protesters to prevent them from scaling barricades.

Protests escalated last week after school and university students joined them, citing rising tuition fees and crumbling infrastructure.

What initially began as a targeted environmental protest in May has rapidly escalated into one of the most serious political challenges facing Prime Minister Edi Rama in his more than a decade in power.

Yet, as the unrest reaches a boiling point, a fundamental question remains: Who is behind this movement, and can it force systemic political change?

Contrary to claims by government officials that the unrest is being orchestrated by political opponents or external actors, analysts and journalists on the ground emphasise that the movement is largely decentralised and youth-driven.

Fatos Hakorja, editor-in-chief of TV Klan and Klan News, told Al Jazeera that the demonstrations have evolved organically into a broad coalition of high school students, university students, environmentalists, and aggrieved citizens.

“So far, what can be said with certainty is that the protests have been organised mainly by young people themselves,” Hakorja told Al Jazeera. “What began as the ‘Flamingo Revolution’ gradually developed into a broader student and youth protest… There is no clear evidence that a single consolidated structure stands behind the protests,” he said, referring to the May protest against a luxury resort that threatens the protected coastline.

Hakorja noted that coordination takes place dynamically across digital platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat, rather than through formal organisational hierarchies.

Albanian political analyst and publicist Ben Andoni echoed this view, describing the situation not merely as a standard protest, but as “a genuine, horizontal revolt”.

“The protest has turned into a rebellion for the past seven days. It was a protest before, but it has never taken on the character of a movement. If it were so, there would be a leadership group and some short-, medium-, and long-term goals,” Andoni told Al Jazeera.

“It is a horizontal movement, where people are mobilised by TikTok groups and social networks, but not by true cultural and political organisations. That is also a handicap or a source of pressure for Rama’s government, which seeks to negotiate, but finds no single counterpart standing in its way.”

From the ‘Flamingo Revolution’ to broad structural discontent

The roots of the current unrest are multifaceted, blending localised grievances with deep-seated frustration over governance, economic stagnation, and corruption.

The initial spark – dubbed the “Flamingo Revolution” – was ignited by environmental opposition to controversial luxury development projects, notably in the protected area of Zvernec and the planned resort investment on Sazan Island by the firm of Jared Kushner, United States President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

The flamingo, native to these coastal lagoons, quickly became a symbol of resistance against the perceived commodification of public lands.

However, environmental concerns swiftly converged with student anger over high tuition fees, inadequate dormitory conditions, and low educational competitiveness. Beneath these immediate triggers lies a much deeper structural crisis.

“Problems of corruption, nepotism, and a lack of perspective are the main reasons that drove people to protest,” Andoni explained.

“The protest summarised the entire range of problems that Albania has, and brought them to the doorstep of a government that has crossed lines regarding corruption, inequality, and particularly a lack of empathy for the people.

“Among some protesters, especially on social media, there is also a narrative that Rama is placing the country’s interests at the service of private interests, his personal hold on power, or foreign interests, including Israeli interests. These claims have not been proven, but they seem to have increased the anger of some young people and part of the wider population,” Hakorja added.

Rama has strongly rejected the allegations, calling them conspiracy theories and dismissing them as manipulated disinformation spread through social media by “foreign hands”, aimed at destabilising the government and undermining the country’s public institutions.

Rejection of the entire political class

A defining feature of the uprising is the protesters’ explicit rejection of the ruling Socialist Party (SP) and the traditional opposition, including the Democratic Party (PD) led by Sali Berisha.

While Prime Minister Rama has accused the opposition of taking over the movement, and opposition supporters have joined the crowds on the ground, experts stress that opposition leaders exercise no direct control over the demonstrators. In fact, several opposition MPs who attempted to address the crowds faced open hostility and rejection.

“A large number of these young people seem to feel unrepresented by the whole political class,” Hakorja told Al Jazeera.

“They see the political system as disconnected from their reality and as a system that protects the interests of a minority more than it addresses the problems of the majority of citizens.”

This widespread cynicism has resulted in an uncompromising stance. Demonstrators have demanded the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Rama and the formation of a technical government, refusing official offers of dialogue due to a total breakdown of trust in state institutions.

The deep cynicism towards Albania’s political class stems from a widespread feeling that leaders are entirely indifferent to citizens’ daily struggles. Young people face rampant corruption, high unemployment, and an economy that drives huge brain drain.

This disconnect is further spurred by years of government apathy towards crumbling public education, high tuition fees, and poor dormitory conditions.

Furthermore, controversial state-backed developments – such as the planned luxury resort by Kushner’s firm – serve as prime examples for citizens who believe the political establishment consistently trades national resources and public goods for private and foreign interests.

Heavy-handed security and growing fatigue

Faced with a leaderless movement that refuses to negotiate, the Albanian government has increasingly relied on security forces to maintain control.

Police have been accused of brutality as they have used tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets to quell the protesters. At least 167 people have been arrested, including minors.

In a move that highlights the administration’s reliance on law enforcement, Prime Minister Rama announced a 2,500-euro ($2,800) bonus for police officers on the front lines, alongside substantial salary increases set for 2027.

Hakorja pointed out that the government is treating the crisis predominantly as a matter of public order and security.

He also highlighted troubling incidents, such as the appearance of unidentified civilians armed with wooden sticks inside the Socialist Party headquarters. While these individuals remained inside to protect the building as protesters hurled stones and attacked the entrance, their presence – including individuals holding public positions – led to fears of informal, non-state security responses operating alongside or outside official police forces.

What lies ahead?

As both sides brace for further escalation, the immediate outlook remains uncertain. Without clear leadership to negotiate terms, or intervention from international partners such as the European Union and the US, the deadlock threatens to prolong political instability.

According to Andoni, the Rama administration has used force as its main instrument, as it has suffered a severe loss of moral authority and legitimacy.

“Demonstrators remain persistent and aggressive, while Rama plays the card of force through the police,” Andoni told Al Jazeera, adding that “fatigue” is impacting the young protesters.

“It seems that young people may execute a tactical withdrawal first by temporarily stepping back from the streets due to exhaustion, leaving the weight and burden of proof on Mr Rama” – placing the ultimate responsibility on the prime minister to prove that his government has the legitimacy, capability, and sincere intent to carry out deep reforms and resolve a crisis that police force has only further escalated.

Whether this youth-led rebellion marks the beginning of a new political era in Albania or subsides under policing and exhaustion, it has irrevocably exposed the deep rift between Albania’s youth and its governing political establishment.

Protesters have clashed with riot police in Albania’s capital, as antigovernment demonstrations escalated into violent unrest.

Demonstrations have shaken Tirana since Tuesday, with thousands of protesters calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down as they rally against poor university conditions, high tuition fees and corruption.

This week’s unrest follows months of antigovernment protests in the Balkan nation, initially prompted by a controversial resort development linked to United States President Donald Trump’s family.

New Delhi, India – A 19-year-old woman was detained by police during the youth-led antigovernment protests in the Indian capital over the weekend.

The young woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of further reprisals from the authorities, said she was detained on Sunday as thousands of people congregated in central New Delhi. They were demanding the resignation of India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls, which saw the removal of 133 million people from the voter lists.

After the woman’s detention, she and several other demonstrators were taken on a police bus to a location about 50km from the protest site. With no cash and her phone battery drained, the woman spent nearly an hour wandering along a dark road, trying to figure out what to do next.

A car pulled up and the driver asked if she needed any help.

“I was frightened and completely lost. When those volunteers finally helped me get back safely, it felt like a miracle. I had never imagined that someone I had never met would come forward to help me like that,” she told Al Jazeera.

For a young woman in New Delhi, notoriously referred to as the “rape capital of India”, being alone in the middle of the night and getting into a car with strangers is not an easy decision. The city records an average of three rapes a day.

But the young protester said she immediately recognised one of the volunteers in the car. She had seen his videos online, in which he had asked the detained protesters whether they needed help. Recognising a familiar face reassured her that the people offering the ride could be trusted.

The woman was rescued using an AI-assisted tool developed by 25-year-old Rajiv Choudhary, who is helping protesters get home safely after being detained and dropped off by the police far away.

Called the Detainee Gharwapsi Yojana, the initiative combines a digital dashboard with a network of volunteers who track information about police buses carrying detainees and arrange transport for those left stranded.

“Gharwapsi” in Hindi means “to return home”. It is also a play on a campaign by India’s right-wing Hindu groups which want to bring the country’s Muslims and Christians back into the Hindu fold, claiming that their ancestors converted to “foreign” religions from Hinduism. “Yojana” means a plan.

Since the beginning of this month, India has seen near daily protests over alleged electoral fraud by Kumar and his commission. Led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a number of left-leaning student groups as well as the main opposition Congress party, the protests have seen tens of thousands of people hitting the streets in New Delhi and other cities.

In response, authorities in the Indian capital have imposed a sweeping crackdown, blocking roads, closing metro stations and detaining thousands as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faces the biggest challenge to its power after 12 years of rule.

Choudhary said his network’s primary focus was to help minors, elderly people and women, mainly first-time protesters.

The initiative operates through a private digital dashboard that uses AI-assisted data processing, live mapping and information shared by volunteers on the ground. Volunteers send details, including police bus numbers and locations, through WhatsApp, helping the team coordinate assistance and rides home.

Choudhary said he and his associate, journalist Meghnad, who goes by a single name, initially worked with a small group of volunteers to connect detainees with transport, legal assistance and medical support. The network has since expanded to more than 130 volunteers, who have offered their time and resources to assist detained demonstrators.

“For people caught up in these demonstrations, the ordeal doesn’t end with detention. They can be taken far from the protest site and left trying to find their way home from unfamiliar locations, often struggling to contact friends or arrange transport,” he said.

The idea grew out of Choudhary’s experience during an earlier protest called by the CJP at Jantar Mantar, the designated protest site in New Delhi that has now been denotified by the authorities. Initially, he helped organise supplies and volunteers.

As demonstrations continued, he recognised that protesters needed more systemic support, particularly those who were detained by the police and left fending for themselves far from the city limits.

As renewed protests began on October 2 , Choudhary built a digital system around the same volunteer network using AI tools. It began with a simple spreadsheet.

“The whole aim behind the application was that I had to systemise things that are not systemised,” he said. “We just wanted to become a support system that could help our people in their fight for their demands.”

Choudhary recalled receiving a distress call from a woman who had been detained in central New Delhi and released on the outskirts of the city. Stranded alone near a railway station, with metro services shut and no clear way to get home, she was frightened and unsure which way to turn.

She reached out to Choudhary’s network for help and he arranged for a nearby female driver to take her home safely. “It is heartbreaking to see people left helpless in an unfamiliar city, frightened and unsure of how they will get home,” he said.

For now, the Detainee Gharwapsi Yojana operates only in New Delhi, but Choudhary plans to expand it to other cities.

“I am overwhelmed by the response from volunteers and drivers who have come forward to help without charging anything. They are offering their services for free because they want to support the protesters,” he said.

The 19-year-old woman who was helped by Choudhary’s team described the initiative as “a lifeline for protesters”. She said the team not only arranged her return, but also offered reassurance and emotional support.

“I cannot thank them enough. As long as we have people like them in our society, no authority can stop us from demanding our rights and protesting peacefully,” she said.

India’s capital is bracing for a second day of protests after thousands of people, including the leaders of the “cockroach” youth movement and opposition politicians, were detained amid a major crackdown on demonstrators.

Abhijeet Dipke, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leader, called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “bully” shortly after he was released on Sunday. Thousands of other protesters, some of whom are members of left-wing student groups, were released on Sunday after the Supreme Court called their detention “illegal”.

“Modi, as PM, is an embarrassment to India. Never has this country seen a bigger coward and bully,” Dipke said in a post on X.

The protesters are demanding that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign over a revision of voter lists that they say disproportionately benefits Prime Minister Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Millions of voters, including Muslims, have been deleted from the rolls in a process marred by technical errors and a perceived lack of transparency.

The protests erupted across several Indian cities after an investigation by the Indian Express newspaper found that two election commissioners objected to many of Kumar’s decisions. India’s Election Commission is a constitutional body with three members, and decisions are taken by majority.

What was the scale of the government crackdown?

Ahead of Saturday’s protests, the capital, New Delhi, was turned into a fortress with tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces deployed, trains and metros suspended, and markets and major roads blocked, to prevent protesters from reaching Jantar Mantar – a designated protest site close to India’s parliament. Jantar Mantar was sealed off.

Jantar Mantar was the site of the July protest that led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmesh Pradhan. That protest, also led by the CJP, was triggered by a string of exam paper leaks.

Security forces also set ⁠up checkpoints on major roads and entry points across the city of 20 million people, checked buses and inspected vehicles searching for protesters.

Barricades and concrete blocks disrupted traffic, while anti-riot vehicles equipped with tear-gas launchers guarded key routes.

More than 30,000 police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across the ⁠city, according to local media, and mobile internet services were suspended across several areas of the capital to stop people from online mobilisation efforts by the CJP and other youth groups.

Police detained CJP founder Dipke, as well as his associates, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, from an airplane upon arrival in New Delhi from Mumbai.

Dipke shared a video on his Instagram channel, showing a team of police officers entering the Air India plane after it landed. As they came closer, he said: “I have come to get arrested. I am not afraid of you guys.”

In another video shared by Ranka, Dipke said: “This is dictatorship”.

Delhi police also detained YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and Neha Bora, the national president of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), a leftist group affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).

Some opposition politicians, as well as former chief ministers – Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, and Pinarayi Vijayan of Kerala – were also detained, television channels showed.

Despite the unprecedented crackdown, small protests took place elsewhere in the city, including at the popular crafts market “Dilli Haat”. But police also ended up quashing these protests and detaining journalists trying to cover the demonstrations.

Besides New Delhi, some 600 people were also arrested in Mumbai, India’s financial hub, over the protests, according to the ANI news agency.

Have protesters been released?

On Sunday, police officials said all detainees had been released.

The CJP leaders were released on the condition that there would be ‘no breach of peace’ for a year.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon after their release, Saurav Das, the group’s co-convenor, slammed the police for “arriving like mafia dons” and “abducting” them on their plane.

After his release, Rathee said he was “KIDNAPPED.”

Several journalists from news outlets, including Scroll.in, Newslaundry and others were detained. They have all since been released, but Newslaundry said some of their reporters’ media equipment was seized during the detention.

The Committee to Protect Journalists told Al Jazeera on Saturday that it was deeply concerned by reports of journalists being temporarily detained.

“Just as police personnel are doing their jobs, journalists are also doing theirs. A free and independent press is essential to democracy,” Kunal Majumder, the CPJ’s Asia Pacific programme coordinator, said.

How were detainees treated?

Aban Raza, a 37-year old visual artist based in New Delhi who was detained on Saturday, said the “entire experience has left her shocked and angry”.

“We are protesting for the right to vote. It affects all of us. So why is the police suspicious of us and treating us with so much aggression? This makes me angry,” she told Al Jazeera.

Together with three other protesters, including economist Jean Dreze, Raza managed to get close to Jantar Mantar on Saturday morning.

“As soon as we reached close enough to the protest site, we started unfurling our banners which called for the resignation of Election Commission chief Gyanesh Kumar and for free and fair elections. But within minutes, police officials approached us, began tearing our banners and dragging us towards a bus to detain us,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We tried to resist as the police dragged us inside the bus. Both my arms feel very sore today,” she said.

Raza says that some of those detained were not even protesters.

“They were people who had just been picked up whilst they were going about their day. One person was going to the Gurudwara, another was going to meet his wife and they got detained. Most of these people were working class people,” she said.

Raza, who was released on Saturday night, said she is going back to protest on Sunday.

Will the protests continue?

Youth leaders have struck a defiant note, pledging to keep up protests in New Delhi. Some members were detained on Sunday.

The group’s co-convenor Saurav Das, who was released from detention on Sunday, said in a post on X: “After Modi-Shah [Amit Shah, India’s home minister] turned Delhi into a fortress and unleashed what can only be described as a war against their own citizens, one thing has become abundantly clear: Gyanesh Kumar is at the very heart of this government’s survival.”

“But we the young generation will continue to demand accountability. We shall neither be intimidated nor silenced. We are not backing down. We are returning with full strength!” he added.

The CJP has also announced protests in other Indian cities including Mumbai for Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, Neha Bora, the national president of the All India Students’ Association, began a protest on Sunday afternoon in central Delhi.

“Our peaceful protest has started at RK Ashram. Join us here and stand with us!” she said on X.

But shortly afterwards, Bora and several others were detained.

Are India’s opposition parties backing the protests?

The INDIA Bloc – India’s opposition alliance led by the Indian National Congress – has participated in protests alongside the youth-led groups, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Kumar.

The Bloc is expected to hold a protest on Monday in the capital.

“Yesterday, we held a comprehensive meeting with various leaders to prepare for this march,” Congress general secretary K C Venugopal told reporters on Saturday.

“Gyanesh must go. There will be no backing down,” he added.

Congress party leader and the leader of the opposition in parliament, Rahul Gandhi, has been spearheading a campaign against the election commissioner for months. He was briefly arrested last week over the election protest in New Delhi.

“Modi government has turned the ‘Mother of Democracy’ into a ‘Muzzled Democracy’!” Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on X.

“Detentions, arrests, jails, lathis [batons] and pellets cannot deter the people of India. Since the days of our freedom struggle, the youth have been at the forefront of shaping the nation’s destiny.”

Why is India’s government refusing to talk to the protesters?

The protests intensified after the Indian Express reported last month that two election commissioners had ⁠questioned Kumar’s revisions that removed roughly 130 million names from voter lists.

The BJP says that of the 130 million names deleted from voter lists, 28 million are dead, 63 million have relocated, 10 million are duplicates and 30 million could not be traced by officials.

The ruling party has also said its electoral success reflects Modi’s popularity and India’s economic growth, and accuses opposition parties of spreading misinformation.

But these protests have become a larger question of democracy and the right to dissent under the Modi government.

While the government had briefly engaged in talks with the youth groups during the July 2026 protests, it has taken a much more hardline stance against demands targeting constitutional and electoral authorities.

The BJP’s officials have also characterised the protests and online opposition as a concerted political effort to destabilise the government rather than highlight legitimate public grievances.

On Saturday, BJP spokesman Sambit Patra dismissed the demonstrators as “anarchic elements” and said that “their flop show has been completely demolished”.

“What is happening at Jantar Mantar, what you can see on TV and a few social media handles, is not India’s story. India is calm and going ahead under good governance,” he told reporters.

Critics and analysts interviewed by Al Jazeera argue that conceding to demands for the election chief’s resignation would validate opposition accusations of vote theft and project weakness for a prime minister sensitive to his political aura.

But Sanjay Kapoor, editor of Hard News Magazine and a political analyst, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that most people coming to the protests do not want Modi’s BJP to continue to govern.

“Modi’s government has begun to lose a lot of credibility at the moment,” he said.

“BJP is afraid that the ground has shifted dramatically against them and they would find it very difficult to come back to power.”

What has been the global reactions to the protests?

On Saturday, the United Nations Human Rights Office expressed concerns over mass detentions before and during the protests.

“We call on the authorities to ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and fulfilled,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement.

He also urged authorities to engage in “meaningful dialogue” to address the “broadly ‌held” concerns expressed.

Amnesty International told Al Jazeera that the detentions signal the Indian government’s desperate attempts to “suppress critical voices”, while Human Rights Watch said that “instead of addressing legitimate citizen concerns, institutions expected to uphold rights appear to be under the stranglehold of rising authoritarianism.”

The Indian mission to the UN in Geneva, however, called the global concerns “misplaced” and said they constitute “an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of India”.

It stressed that the right to peaceful assembly was guaranteed by India’s Constitution.

“As in every democracy, Indian citizens exercise this right subject to reasonable restrictions in the interest of public order.”

However, Jorge Galindo, director at the Esade centre for economic policy, says that available data makes it difficult to know exactly how many Spanish properties are owned by so-called “vulture funds” and being used for speculation.

He points to Bank of Spain figures from 2024 showing that only 8% of properties for rent are owned by companies.

Galindo says he concludes from the data available that there is not a notable accumulation of property to rent among a small number of owners in Spain.

“When it comes to explaining the rise in rentals, that is not the big cause,” he says. “What explains it is the shortage of supply compared to demand over recent years.”

The Bank of Spain appears to agree, and has estimated that the country has a housing shortfall of around 750,000 homes.

The institution’s deputy governor, Soledad Núñez, warned in September that by 2028 that could rise to one million.

There are 3.8 million empty properties in Spain, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE), but a large number of those are in depopulated rural areas and therefore have little relevance to the current crisis, which is most acute in urban hubs.

Other explanations for this high number include properties awaiting renovation, or legal disputes between family members who have inherited them.

Demographic changes play a major part in the imbalance between supply and demand.

Between 2021 and 2025, there were about 1.2 million new households in Spain, driven in great part by the arrival of migrants who have played a major role in the country’s recent economic growth.

However, house building has not kept pace, with fewer than half-a-million new homes during that period.

That was partly because Spain’s construction industry had shrunk in the wake of the Eurozone crisis, while the cost of materials rose substantially after Covid, and a lack of political consensus put legal obstacles in the way of building.

“It was not a priority for us to build new houses,” Galindo says. “But, once the demographic boom came, we realised how costly it was for us.”

He adds that short-term tourist accommodation, like Airbnb, which has been identified by both the Spanish government and many activists as a culprit, is likely to have had a more localised effect, pushing up prices in specific urban areas rather than having an overall impact.

Hundreds took to the streets of Bogota to protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Protesters have rallied in Colombia’s capital opposing the new far-right government’s policy towards Israel.

Hundreds took to the streets of Bogota on Wednesday to protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the Colombian government’s decision to restore diplomatic and economic relations with Israel.

The protesters, who began their rally in front of the Israeli embassy in Bogota, criticised President Abelardo de la Espriella’s decision to open a new Colombian embassy in Jerusalem.

The rally marked three years since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, which were followed by Israel launching a genocidal war on Gaza.

“When diplomatic relations with Israel were broken off, the message was that we would not be a nation complicit in their atrocities,” Nicolas Isaza, who took part in the protest, told Al Jazeera.

“Today our government is no longer drawing a line against the atrocities being committed in Palestine,” he added.

De la Espriella, who was sworn in as president in August, promised close relations with the US and Israel during his election campaign as a way to combat armed groups in his country.

Colombia’s government has since restored relations with Israel after former President Gustavo Petro, who criticised Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, severed diplomatic relations and halted Israeli arms imports.

The Colombian government also recognised Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, just days after the new president took power.