India activists challenge Modi’s removal of 130 million from voter rolls
The global developments in the roundup included a major espionage detention in Germany, a cross-border Ebola case that ended in death in Nairobi, and the awarding of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, according to the Wall Street Journal’s worldwide news roundup. The same roundup reported France’s signal it could bypass Parliament on spending, India’s challenge to a voter-roll removal, and a failed lethal-injection execution in Tennessee.
German police detained the former head of Germany’s foreign-intelligence service on suspicion of espionage and attempted treason, in what the Journal described as one of the biggest scandals to engulf the spy agency since its creation in the mid-1950s. The detention marks a legal action against a former leader of the service; the roundup did not name the official or detail the allegations.
In East Africa, Kenyan officials said a man who fell ill with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo crossed three countries and boarded a commercial flight to Nairobi, where he died of the disease.
In science, Belgian particle physicist Francis Halzen was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to astronomy and his work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole.
In fiscal policy, France’s finance minister said the government was prepared to bypass Parliament to approve billions in spending cuts if negotiations stall over next year’s budget.
In India, activists and others are challenging a voter-roll removal by the Modi government that has removed about 130 million people from voter rolls, a step the roundup described as a “purge.” The challenge follows the government’s removal of about 130 million names from the rolls.
In Tennessee, inmate Christa Pike, who survived the state’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, was conscious and speaking at the hospital where she is being treated, the roundup reported.