Category World News

India’s opposition protests against electoral roll revision

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India’s opposition parties have held a protest demanding the rollback of a revision of the voter list in the eastern state of Bihar, where elections are scheduled for its legislature in November.

Hundreds of lawmakers and supporters began Monday’s protest from parliament and were confronted by police who stopped them from marching towards the Election Commission office in the capital, New Delhi. Police briefly detained dozens of lawmakers, including the leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi.

“This fight is not political but for saving the constitution,” Gandhi, who is an MP from the Indian National Congress party, told reporters after being detained.

“The truth is before the entire country,” he added.

More than 200 people took part in the protest, according to police officials quoted by the NDTV channel.

India’s opposition accuses the Election Commission of rushing through a mammoth electoral roll revision in the eastern state of Bihar, saying the exercise could render vast numbers of citizens unable to vote.

Gandhi last week said the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is an “institutionalised chori [theft] to deny the poor their right to vote”.

Congress party leader and leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi, centre, and other parties’ lawmakers are stopped by police during the New Delhi protest [Manish Swarup/AP]

The revision of nearly 80 million voter registrations

The revision affecting nearly 80 million voters involves strict documentation requirements from citizens, triggering concerns it could lead to the exclusion of vulnerable groups, especially those who are unable to produce the paperwork required to prove their citizenship.

Some of the documents required include birth certificates, passports and matriculation records.

Critics and opposition leaders said they are hard to come by in Bihar, where the literacy rate is among the lowest in India. They said the exercise will impact minorities the most, including Muslims, and bar them from voting.

India does not have a unique national identity card. The widely used biometric-linked identity card, called Aadhaar, is not among the documents listed by the Election Commission as acceptable proof for the electoral roll revision.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called the opposition leaders’ protest a “well-thought-out strategy” to create a “state of anarchy”, the NDTV reported.

‘Intensive revision’ needed, Election Commission says

The election body has denied the voter disenfranchisement allegations and has promised to ensure that no eligible voter is “left behind”. It has also said the “intensive revision” is a routine update needed to avoid the “inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants”.

According to the commission, 49.6 million voters whose names were included in a similar exercise in 2003 are not required to submit any further documents. But that still leaves almost 30 million other voters potentially vulnerable. A similar roll revision of voters is scheduled to be replicated across the entire country of 1.4 billion people.

Bihar is a crucial election battleground where the BJP has only ever governed in a coalition. Election results there could likely impact the balance of power in India’s Parliament.

The BJP has backed the revision and said it is necessary to update new voters and delete the names of those who have either died or moved to other states.

It also claimed the exercise is essential to weed out undocumented Muslim immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh. But many Indian citizens, most of them Muslims, have been arrested and even deported to Bangladesh as part of a campaign launched by the BJP.

Critics and opposition leaders have also warned that the exercise is similar to that of a 2019 citizenship list in eastern India’s Assam state, which left nearly 2 million people at risk of statelessness.

Many of those left off the final citizenship list were Muslims who were declared “foreigners”. Some faced long periods of detention.

An Indian opposition lawmaker reacts as she tries to cross a police barricade during a protest against what they say are electoral malpractices, in New Delhi, India, August 11, 2025. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
An Indian opposition lawmaker tries to cross a police barricade during the New Delhi protest  [Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Funerals held for Al Jazeera journalists assassinated by Israel in Gaza

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Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza City have attended the funeral of five Al Jazeera staff killed in an Israeli air strike outside al-Shifa Hospital.

On Monday, large crowds joined the funeral procession, carrying the journalists’ bodies from al-Shifa Hospital to Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in central Gaza.

Colleagues, friends, and relatives embraced in grief, while a man lifted a “press” flak jacket high above the crowd.

The strike late on Sunday killed seven people, including prominent correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Moamen Aliwa, and Mohammed Noufal. Freelance reporter Mohammed al-Khaldi was also among the dead. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said three more journalists were wounded.

Mourners bid farewell to the bodies of the Al Jazeera journalists who were killed in an overnight Israeli strike on their tent in Gaza City, before their burial at the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in Gaza City on August 11, 2025 [Omar AL-Qattaa/AFP]

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed mourners chanting against the killings, with some pledging, “With our soul and blood, we sacrifice for you, Anas,” in reference to the slain journalist.

Al Jazeera Media Network condemned the “targeted assassination” by Israeli forces, accusing the military of deliberately striking the journalists’ position. “The Israeli military admitted to their crimes,” the network said, describing the attack as “another blatant and premeditated assault on press freedom”.

Al-Sharif was “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”, said Al Jazeera, adding that the attack was “a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza”.

A flak jacket and a Palestinian flag are placed on the body of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif, during the funeral for him, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and another colleague, who were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City August 11, 2025. [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]
A flak jacket and a Palestinian flag are placed on the body of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif during the funeral for him, Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, who were killed in an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, August 11, 2025 [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was “appalled” by the killings. “Israel’s pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom,” said CPJ’s regional director, Sara Qudah. “Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable.”

Media watchdog RSF also condemned what it described as the “acknowledged murder by the Israeli army” of al-Sharif, calling him “one of the most famous journalists from the Gaza Strip (and) the voice of the suffering Israel has imposed on Palestinians in Gaza”. The group said the attack mirrored the 2023 killing of Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul, who was also labelled a “terrorist” by Israel.

Relatives of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, carry his 15-month-old son Salah (L) and 4-year-old daughter Sham (R) during his funeral in Gaza City on August 11, 2025. [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]
Relatives of Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif carry his 15-month-old son Salah (L) and 4-year-old daughter Sham during his funeral in Gaza City on August 11, 2025 [Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP]

“Without strong action from the international community… we’re likely to witness more such extrajudicial murders of media professionals,” RSF warned, urging the United Nations Security Council to intervene.

Al-Sharif’s assassination comes more than a year after Israel bombed his family home in a refugee camp, killing his 65-year-old father.

The killings of the Palestinian journalists come days after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to occupy the Gaza Strip. The operation aims to seize Gaza City and forcibly clear nearly one million Palestinian residents.

Israel kills Anas al-Sharif and four Al Jazeera staff in Gaza: What we know

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Late on Sunday, an Israeli strike shook al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, targeting a journalists’ tent by the gate.

As people rushed to help, it became apparent that five Al Jazeera staff had been killed, including Anas al-Sharif, one of the most famous faces of Arabic reporting from Gaza.

Why did Israel want to kill journalists? What happened that night? Here’s what we know:

Who were the five Al Jazeera staff Israel killed?

Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, 28, was one of Gaza’s most recognisable faces for his constant reporting of the reality on the ground over the last 22 months. The father of two was born in Jabalia refugee camp and graduated from Al-Aqsa University’s Faculty of Media. His father was killed by Israel in an air strike on the family home in December 2023.

Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, 33, made his last live report on air only shortly before his assassination, speaking in his trademark eloquent manner. Qreiqeh was born in Gaza City in 1992 and lived in the Shujayea neighbourhood. He earned a BA in journalism and media at the Islamic University of Gaza. Israel killed his brother, Karim, in March in an air attack on Gaza City.

(Al Jazeera)

Al Jazeera cameraman Ibrahim Zaher, 25, was from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Al Jazeera cameraman Mohammed Noufal, 29, was also from Jabalia. He lost his mother and one brother in earlier Israeli attacks. His other brother, Ibrahim, also works as a cameraman for Al Jazeera.

What were they doing when they were killed?

They were working.

The team was in a tent by the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital late on Sunday evening.

The tent was where they worked, as journalists in Gaza have gathered at hospitals to seek better electricity and internet connections, a fact that has been well-known since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

“I’m not far from al-Shifa Hospital, just one block away, and I could hear the massive explosion that took place in the past half an hour or so, near al-Shifa Hospital,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported yesterday.

“I could see it when it lit up the sky and, within moments, the news circulated that it was the journalist camp at the main gate of the al-Shifa Hospital.”

What happened?

Al Jazeera’s reporter Hani al-Shaer said an Israeli drone hit the journalists’ tent at approximately 11:35pm (20:35 GMT) on Sunday night.

Shortly before being killed, al-Sharif wrote on X that Israel had launched intense, concentrated bombardment – also known as “fire belts” – on the eastern and southern parts of Gaza City.

Journalist Amer al-Sultan was in a neighbouring tent when the attack took place.

“I came to the scene and saw all the destruction,” al-Sultan told Al Jazeera Mubasher, standing amid the tent’s wreckage, his back to a concrete wall pocked and splattered from the attack. “[I thought] all our colleagues were martyred.”

Al-Sultan added that he wasn’t sure who the journalists were who were in the tent, but “when I started filming, I saw our colleagues Anas al-Sharif was on the ground and Mohammed Qreiqeh, who was on fire.

“We started to pull him out and try to put out the fire.”

The people gathered there tried to get Qreiqeh inside al-Shifa Hospital, but he succumbed to his wounds before they could get him treatment, al-Sultan said.

Mohammed Qeita, a freelance journalist, was also nearby.

“I was not just a witness to the event, I was part of it…The fire was very strong.

“Even now, I can’t believe it,” he said.

“We knew Anas was the target… He was our voice.”

How did Israel explain deliberately killing journalists?

It said one of them wasn’t really a journalist.

Israel’s army posted about deliberately killing the journalists, claiming it had wanted to kill al-Sharif, who it accused of being an armed commander for Hamas only posing as a journalist.

In the statement, it accused al-Sharif of “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and troops” and alleged it had documents providing “unequivocal proof” of this.

Muhammad Shehada, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said there was “zero evidence” that al-Sharif took part in any hostilities.

“His entire daily routine was standing in front of a camera from morning to evening,” he told Al Jazeera.

On numerous occasions over the last 22 months, Israel has justified killing reporters by claiming they belonged to armed groups. Groups focused on press freedom and media workers’ rights have said for months that Israel is deliberately targeting journalists in Gaza.

Two of the most prominent incidents included journalist Hamza Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Dahdouh, and journalist Hossam Shabat, who were both assassinated by Israel and accused of being members of Hamas without any evidence.

What did Al Jazeera say?

Al Jazeera called the killing of its staff a “targeted assassination … in yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom”.

It said the journalists “were among the last remaining voices from within Gaza, providing the world with unfiltered, on-the-ground coverage of the devastating realities endured by its people”.

Israel has banned international media from entering Gaza since October 2023, but “Al Jazeera journalists remained within besieged Gaza … [delivering] searing eyewitness accounts of the horrors unleashed over 22 months of relentless bombing and destruction,” the statement said.

Why did Israel want to assassinate Anas al-Sharif?

Al-Sharif was the face of Al Jazeera Arabic in Gaza and of iconic moments as he reported on Israel’s atrocities in the besieged, bombarded enclave.

For months, Israeli officials had threatened him, demanding that he stop reporting, but he refused, pledging to stay in northern Gaza and continue his coverage.

Numerous rights groups and press freedom groups called for al-Sharif’s protection after he was directly threatened by Israel.

Israel ramped up a smear campaign on al-Sharif in recent months, with army spokesperson Avichay Adraee calling out al-Sharif by name in a video on X last month, accusing him of being part of Hamas’s military wing.

INTERACTIVE_Journalists_killed_Gaza_Israel_war_August11_2025-1754903798
(Al Jazeera)

Irene Khan, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, said last month that Adraee made “an unsubstantiated claim” and called the smear a “blatant assault on journalists”.

Israel killing al-Sharif was a targeted attempt to shut down coverage of its atrocities, former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Ken Roth said.

“This is not an accidental killing. This is not a journalist who happened to get caught in Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinian civilians in general.

“This was a targeted killing,” Roth told Al Jazeera.

Colombia senator, 39, dies weeks after being shot at campaign event

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Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who had been fighting for his life since he was shot in June during a campaign event, has died, according to his family.

Uribe, a 39-year-old senator and a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogota on June 7 during a rally and underwent multiple surgeries before his death.

“I ask God to show me the way to learn to live without you,” his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, wrote on social media. “Rest in peace, love of my life, I will take care of our children.”

Uribe enjoyed a rapid political rise, becoming a recognised lawmaker for the Democratic Centre party. He was seeking to run in the 2026 presidential election.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested at the scene with a “9mm Glock-type firearm” and has pleaded not guilty after being formally charged on June 10 with attempted murder, the prosecutor’s office said. Five other suspects have also been arrested.

“Today is a sad day for the country,” Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez wrote on X.

“Violence cannot continue to mark our destiny. Democracy is not built with bullets or blood, it is built with respect, with dialogue,” she said.

‘Security beefed up’

President Gustavo Petro had previously blamed an international crime ring as being behind the attack on Uribe, without providing details or evidence, and has beefed up security for government officials and opposition leaders since it happened.

The assassination is reminiscent of political violence in Colombia during the 1980s and 1990s, when four presidential candidates were murdered in separate attacks blamed on drug cartels allied with right-wing paramilitary death squads.

Uribe’s death also adds to his family’s fraught history, with relatives prominent in Colombian politics.

His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 during a botched rescue mission after she was kidnapped by the Medellin cartel, headed by drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Meanwhile, Uribe’s maternal grandfather, Julio Cesar Turbay, served as Colombia’s president from 1978 to 1982, while his paternal grandfather, Rodrigo Uribe Echavarria, headed the Liberal Party and supported Virgilio Barco’s successful 1986 presidential campaign.

Uribe was elected to Bogota’s city council at 25. In 2016, at 30, he was appointed city government secretary, the youngest person to hold the position. He resigned from that post in 2018 to launch an unsuccessful bid for mayor of Bogota as an independent.

In the 2022 legislative elections, Uribe led the Senate slate for the Democratic Center party with the slogan “Colombia First”, winning a seat in the chamber.

There, Uribe cemented his role as one of the primary opposition voices to Petro, criticising the government’s peace strategy aimed at ending Colombia’s six-decade armed conflict.

Former right-wing President Alvaro Uribe, leader of the Democratic Center party with no relation to the deceased senator, called Miguel Uribe “a hope for the homeland”.