Today’s briefing:
— India’s wild new cockroach party
— The 144 year wait
— When the world serves you cables
Your Insider’s briefing:
— India’s wild new cockroach party
— The 144 year wait
— When the world serves you cables
Good morning {{first_name | Intriguer}}. For all its faults, I’ll always forgive the internet for its unmatched ability to turn ordinary humans into accidental legends:
Maybe you’re a retired Hungarian engineer doing a few stock photos for pocket money… and you wake up as Hide the Pain Harold.
Or you’re a teen who throws one legendary house party, only to end up on national TV defiantly declaring, “I’ll say sorry… but I’m not taking my glasses off”.
Or you’re an American chemistry professor humbly suggesting a pinch of salt for the perfect cup of tea, only to end up igniting some kind of World War Tea.
All of which is the perfect warm-up for today’s main dish, about how one offhand judicial dunk in India has exploded into something way, way bigger.
 | Managing Editor Jeremy Dicker |
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Number of the day
$2.3B
That’s how much the Trump family has made from crypto ventures since 2024, according to a Reuters investigation. That’s more than any other US-listed crypto firm.
Joke’s on you
There's nothing new or remarkable about joke parties, whether Britain's Monster Raving Loonies (all-day pubs!), or Canada's Rhinoceros Party (repeal the law of gravity!).
But we know of only one party that's gone from non-existent to 23 million Insta followers in three weeks — surpassing what the ruling BJP nationalists have racked up in a decade!
So it's worth a quick look at India's new Cockroach Janta Party ('janta' = people), and what it might reveal about India, no?
The origin story actually begins in the country's supreme court, where the newish chief justice seemingly* compared young activists to "cockroaches" last month — lazy folks with "spurious degrees" who protest rather than get a job.
That's when a 30-year-old India-born and Boston-based political comms strategist (Dipke) flipped the insult into gold via his new CJP, as a play on the ruling BJP. Its mascot? The cockroach, of course: reviled, indestructible, and now organised.
He went on to release a manifesto pledging to curb post-retirement perks for judges, ending India's media mogul stranglehold, and demanding a new 50% quota for women in parliament and cabinet.
Throw in some quality memes about unemployment, college entrance scandals, and fuel prices, and things soon escalated into opposition endorsements, websites getting blocked on spurious ‘national security’ grounds, and Dipke himself then flying to India on Saturday!
But... what might this all reveal about India?
First, there's PM Modi's grip: today (Wednesday) he actually becomes India's longest-serving PM in history. But after three terms and some clipped electoral wings, the ability of such a quirky, cockroach-themed upstart movement to beat the world's largest political party on its strongest social media platform realistically exposes some cracks.
Recall that India's under-30s make up more than half the population — we're talking 700+ million people. And yet this CJP wave suggests…
a) many are unhappy, whether it's job scarcity, governance failures, or inequality
b) Modi's strongman development + nationalism story (backed by his media mogul friends) isn't always cutting through, and
c) his vaunted demographic dividend is neither automatic nor guaranteed.
And that last one takes us to...
Second, there's Modi's economy: those sexy headline figures (~8% GDP growth earlier this year!) are still not translating into enough quality jobs: ~20 million or so young folks enter the workforce each year, but the formal economy is only absorbing maybe ~2.8 million. So there's a sense folks got sold a meritocratic dream that's now evaporating into a cloud of connections, plus a structural education-employment mismatch.
Meanwhile, other clouds still gather on the horizon: the Hormuz crisis is forcing India to pay more for its energy imports, driving the rupee to record lows and inflation back up.
And yet… amongst it all, it's also important to maintain a bit of...
Third, some perspective: Mr Dipke (of cockroach party fame) held a big weekend rally shortly after returning to India, but guess how many folks actually showed up? Maybe a thousand? So it's a reminder there's still a massive gap between digital energy and reality.
Recall also that, even amid today's shocks, India is still the world's ~fastest-growing major economy, it's still sitting on a forex fortress of ~$680B, and it's still managed to reroute most of its crude imports via non-Hormuz sources like Venezuela, Africa, and beyond.
So this isn't some 1991-style economic crisis nor 2020-era rural distress. Not even close. Modi still has runway (growth, reserves) to course-correct before this alienation deepens.
But that might first involve listening to these young folks, not geo-blocking their memes.
Intrigue’s Take
Remember the classic old Simpsons joke where aliens seize control of the two main parties then mock the idea of voting for a third party? "Go ahead, throw your vote away!"
Maybe it's just us, but that joke lands differently now…
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Intrigue’s Take
Remember the classic old Simpsons joke where aliens seize control of the two main parties then mock the idea of voting for a third party? "Go ahead, throw your vote away!"
Maybe it's just us, but that joke lands differently now. Whether it's Reform topping polls in the UK, One Nation climbing in Australia, or National Rally keeping lawmakers on their toes in France, more voters now seem to answer those 1990s-era aliens with "okay, we will". And while some (like France's RN) are outperforming among young folks, even the older-led insurgent parties elsewhere are growing their appeal among the young.
So while we Intrigue nerds naturally froth over international boundaries, capitals ignore these emerging intergenerational fault-lines at their own peril. There are ~2.5 billion folks now aged 10-29, comprising the largest youth cohort in human history. Lots have been sold the "study hard, get ahead" dream, but we're seeing what happens when that contract breaks or even wobbles. It turns creative, viral, then organised. And that's before AI potentially wipes out entire segments of the jobs market younger folks were chasing.
So that's partly how we see this new cockroach party in India, and why it's worthy of your attention, dear Intriguer — it feels like the same global story, just with a new local spark. And even if this all ends up a mere story about a Boston-couch meme flipping an elite insult into a digital identity, our sense is the free world’s political class should really start listening while the joke is still funny.
Sound even smarter:
*India’s chief justice (Kant) later tried to walk back his comments, clarifying he never meant to disparage all of India’s young people, and was referring more specifically to grifters with fake degrees.
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Meanwhile, elsewhere…
🇮🇷 IRAN — Apache down.
Iran has carried out more attacks on US targets across the region, after the US conducted another round of what it’s calling proportional self-defence strikes following the downing of an Apache helicopter patrolling Hormuz! (Independent)
Comment: When we warn of ‘miscalculation’ in a high-stakes world, this is what we mean — each new twist risks another. And tweets aside, nobody seems to have an exit.
🇬🇧 UNITED KINGDOM — Violence in Belfast.
A wave of unrest has hit the Northern Irish city of Belfast, with houses, cars, and buses torched after video of a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum-seeker carrying out a brutal knife attack went viral. Police say they’re still working on a motive. (BBC)
🇷🇺 RUSSIA — The latest.
A presumed Ukrainian car bomb has killed the head of Russia’s main missile and artillery directorate in Moscow, while Ukraine’s new Flamingo cruise missile just scored its deepest hit yet, taking out a plant 1,000km+ into Russia. (KyivPost)
Comment: This will only get worse for Putin.
🇮🇩 INDONESIA — Raise those rates!
Indonesia’s central bank has unexpectedly raised rates again in an attempt to defend the rupiah, which continues to hit new lows against the dollar. (Reuters)
Comment: That’s a cumulative 75bp rate rise in three weeks, signalling a pretty strong degree of urgency. But only time will tell whether it’s enough to counter the core drivers, including a mix of external shocks (Hormuz energy prices) and domestic pressures (jitters over Prabowo’s fiscal profligacy and central bank independence).
🇨🇳 CHINA — On the list.
The Pentagon has added China’s Alibaba (e-commerce), Baidu (search), and BYD (EVs) to a blacklist of companies the US says are working with China’s military. The firms have denied the accusations and are pledging legal action. (Al Jazeera)
Comment: It’s symbolic at this stage, though for the first time now includes massive civilian-facing giants, per DC’s warnings of China’s ‘military-civil-fusion’. The timing makes us wonder if it’s to nudge China to resume rare earth exports to Japan, slated for discussion at Monday’s G7 summit in France. There’s also the risk China might respond with its own blacklist of US firms selling to the Pentagon (though these US defence ties tend to be more voluntary, commercial, and transparent).
🇨🇩 DR CONGO — Regional huddle.
A Kinshasa military court has found a colonel guilty of orchestrating the 2017 murder of two UN experts who were investigating reports of state-linked mass killings in the southern-central Kasai region. (Reuters)
Comment: It’s a rare step towards accountability for a high-profile case that embarrassed the Congolese state, particularly as it seeks more regional and international help tackling its overlapping Ebola and security crises. But it all risks giving off selective justice vibes: throw a mid-level officer under the bus for international optics, while protecting those higher up the chain.
🇧🇬 BULGARIA — No more military aid.
The new Bulgarian defence minister has announced he’s halting military transfers to Ukraine, in line with newly-installed PM Radev's campaign pledge. (Politico)
Comment: It’s really a symbolic move (Bulgaria has been a minor supplier lately), framed more as “Ukraine needs more people, not arms” together with “this war won’t be resolved on the battlefield”. It might encourage Putin’s hopes of Western disunity, and rattle those fearing Radev could be Orbán 2.0, though it reflects domestic drivers around inflation and corruption, as much as any foreign policy pivot.
Extra Intrigue
Meanwhile, in other worlds
Sports: In more World Cup drama, FIFA has had to remove a Somali referee after US immigration officials barred him from entering.
Architecture: After 144 years, Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia church will finally inaugurate its new central tower during the pope’s visit today (Wed), marking 100 years since the death of the structure’s famed architect (Gaudí).
Tech: Apple’s stocks have fallen after the tech giant’s latest AI move (a new Siri update) again failed to wow investors.
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Nest of the day
Credits: Oleg Malchenko.
When Google launched its ‘Nest’ smart-home range, you think they had this in mind?
Ukraine’s soldiers have started observing birds using metres of fibre-optic drone cables to build their nests! This particular type of cable is thin, flexible, and durable, making it a pretty attractive material for any ambitious avian species.
Unfortunately, however, its microscopic shards also pose a hazard to the little critters.
And yet, here’s where we get soppy: yes, the picture here is a heart-breaking reminder of what conflict means for humans, animals, and our land. But as tireless optimists, we also see a hopeful reflection on how a new future might rise from the rubble.
Today’s poll
What do you think governments should prioritise *first* to tackle youth disillusionment?
Yesterday’s poll: Who do you think now has more influence over North Korea?
🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin (29%)
🇨🇳 Xi Jinping (59%)
✍️ Other (write in!) (2%)
Your two cents:
🇨🇳 H: “Moscow is a long way away. Its military and economic interests are dwarfed by China and current gains from present events are very short term.”
🇷🇺 B.D: “Putin is supplying the goodies that Kim desires. Xi, not so much.”
✍️ L.D: “I'm not so sure either does. Ol' Kim seems to be the one with the upper hand.”
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