India

New Delhi, India – Blood spots on the walls, overturned barricades, shattered mirrors and sandals strewn across the road. A scarf here, broken glasses and a torn shirt there lie as remnants of the chaos that took over the Indian capital.

The heart of New Delhi – Parliament Street and Connaught Place, a colonial-era square – bears the imprint of Monday’s police crackdown on thousands of protesters, most of them students, who had shut down the capital, demanding that Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resign.

A swarm of protesters reached parliament’s doorstep before retreating as the police tear-gassed them. More than 100 students were injured.

“I still cannot believe my eyes that I’m in Delhi,” said Anshul Dev, an 18-year-old who grew up in the capital. “Part of it is because tear gas still stings,” he added, bursting into laughter with his group of friends. One of them had both legs bandaged.

“This government, whom our elders voted to power, is treating us like terrorists and criminals,” Dev said. “This is our country, and we are reclaiming it from their hateful politics. We are here to break the spell.”

Anger among India’s youth, the world’s largest Gen Z cohort, has been simmering for the past two months over a string of compromised entrance exams that affected millions of students. In some cases, exam papers were leaked; in others, students who sought copies of their answer scripts found that they had been wrongly graded. More than 20 students died by suicide, many citing the paper leaks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not addressed the protests, even as he appeared smiling on Monday in parliament, barely metres away from demonstrators at one point.

Analysts said the student protests face formidable obstacles before they can extract concessions from Modi’s government. Yet the protests, the government’s refusal to hold any of its own accountable and the crackdown have also embellished a charge that the prime minister has long faced from critics and opposition parties – that although he is elected democratically, he behaves like an autocrat.

‘Protests will continue’

After dark on Monday, Abhijeet Dipke – the leader of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a political pressure group that called the march – returned to a torn-down stage at the CJP’s main protest site near Jantar Mantar, an 18th-century observatory that is now an important location for protests.

“This barbaric Delhi police has beaten up our students and comrades. We are heartbroken,” he said, addressing about 2,000 protesters who stayed back after the crackdown. “We will continue to resist and demand accountability from the government. We will not back down until Dharmendra Pradhan resigns.”

Dipke told the protesters that the Delhi police “brutally cracked down to crush our hopes” that Pradhan would resign. “It was only our first call to march,” he said. “There will be more. Do not lose hope.”

Volunteers began to pick up rubbish, tie a tent together and sweep the road at the Jantar Mantar site. This is where more than 100 protesters from student unions have been sleeping for nearly a month to join Sonam Wangchuk, a prominent activist, on a hunger strike to seek the minister’s resignation.

The police also rampaged through these student unions’ tarpaulin tents and belongings on Monday.

The movement gained momentum last week after the police forcibly removed Wangchuk from the protest site and restricted him to a government-run hospital, where he remains. His family and the CJP have called it “illegal detention”, but the Delhi High Court has refused immediate relief.

Wangchuk, 59, broke his hunger strike before the march on Monday; however, later he said he would be at it again after “seeing the brutality” against “peacefully protesting students”.

The Delhi police have filed at least five criminal cases against protesters related to violence, stone-throwing and vandalism during the march.

Meeting with government a ‘waste of time’

Before the march, CJP leaders said the government reached out for talks.

As thousands of demonstrators assembled in New Delhi, two CJP spokespeople met JP Nadda, India’s health minister, to convey the movement’s three demands: Pradhan’s immediate resignation, Wangchuk’s discharge from hospital and compensation of nearly $105,000 for the families of those students who died by suicide.

However, they were disillusioned by sunset. “It was a waste of our time,” said Ashutosh Ranka, a CJP spokesperson. “We were made to wait for four hours, and the minister met us for 10 minutes.”

Nadda said he met with the spokespeople “in a cordial atmosphere”, adding that he “requested all the protesters to end their sit-in and assist the administration in restoring normalcy”.

Some students have been calling for the decentralisation of the protests, so they could move beyond the CJP to demand accountability from the government.

And political analysts who spoke with Al Jazeera said maintaining the credibility of the CJP’s leadership remains one of the biggest immediate hurdles for the movement in the face of an unprecedented crowd turnout for the march.

Confronting a ‘strong man’

Since the police forcibly removed Wangchuk from the protest site, the movement and demonstrators have called on Modi to resign. Slogans targeting the prime minister reverberated through central New Delhi on Monday.

The large number of protesters “is itself a big challenge to the prime minister”, said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, an author and Modi biographer.

As of now, he told Al Jazeera, “Modi has decided to continue with his instinctive response of not giving any concessions to protesters and continuing to project himself as a strong man with completely unshakeable will.”

The biographer added that the prime minister, who has been in power since 2014, “does not care before crushing a protest or using brute force until it cuts through his voting constituencies”.

“They will go by their gut response of a crackdown. Modi would not want to emerge from this with a bloody nose,” he added, “despite a lot of anger among youth, which shows the undercurrent of anti-incumbency.”

The simmering anger found a vent as Gen Z rallied behind a joke, the Cockroach Janta Party, after India’s chief justice equated government critics and unemployed youth to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.

Memes, online rants and students taking photos in front of police have flooded the internet in India, where they expressed anguish and took digs at the police crackdown.

Meghnad S, a YouTuber, was among the crowd of thousands in front of the Indian Parliament on Monday.

“It was insanity, and the crowd was really riled up due to police actions. It was cruel,” he told Al Jazeera from the protest site on Monday night. “But movements are always messy. This is very difficult to control. We are all cockroaches, after all. And we are still swarming here.”

By Tuesday morning, the crowd had packed the site yet again. The cockroaches had returned.

Leaders of the movement say they will continue campaigning but will not stage another march through New Delhi.

Leaders of India’s “cockroach movement” say they will continue to protest against the government but will refrain from further rallies through the streets of New Delhi because of concerns about the safety of their supporters after a violent police response when more than 10,000 people tried to march to parliament.

“We will not march again because the police will hurt the youth again,” Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke said at a news conference on Tuesday.

He said 150 protesters were wounded by police who fired tear gas and beat activists with canes and batons during Monday’s march.

The movement will continue to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who it said must be held accountable for flaws in the education system.

The movement emerged after a leak of exam papers that forced 2.2 million aspiring doctors to retake their exams, reportedly contributing to at least 12 students dying by suicide. The CJP is calling for compensation of 10 million rupees ($104,000) for each family of the students who took their own lives after the leak.

“We won’t stop. Pradhan has to be sacked,” the CJP’s Ashutosh Ranka said.

⁠Opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and his ⁠sister Priyanka along with members ⁠of their Indian National Congress party, staged a protest outside Prime Minister Narendra ‌Modi’s house, videos shared by the party showed on Tuesday.

“We have marched to PM ⁠Modi’s house to ⁠demand answers from him for the brutalities against ⁠young students yesterday,” ⁠Rahul Gandhi posted ⁠on X.

The rights group Amnesty International said in a statement late on Monday that the police action showed “how peaceful dissent is being suppressed in India.”

“They beat us black and blue, and they damaged our protest site,” Sahil Singh, a protester from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, told the Reuters news agency. “We want accountability to be set with Pradhan’s resignation.”

The number of protesters who marched on Monday was larger than expected, partly due to widespread anger after veteran 59-year-old activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been on hunger strike for three weeks in solidarity with the CJP, was seized by police and hospitalised against his will.

The Delhi ⁠High ⁠Court ruled on Tuesday that Wangchuk could be moved ⁠from a government hospital to a private healthcare facility after his ⁠wife petitioned the court, alleging he was being held in “illegal detention”, the legal news website Bar and Bench ‌said.

About 200 protesters gathered at the CJP protest site at Jantar Mantar in central New Delhi on Tuesday morning, chanting slogans under a monsoon drizzle.

Paramilitary personnel continued to patrol central parts of India’s capital, and barricades were restricting traffic.

Delhi police said nearly 180 people – 60 protesters and 118 security and police personnel – were injured in Monday’s clashes. Police also said 70 protesters were detained and legal action would be initiated against them.

Multiple videos of Monday’s clashes show police attacking protesters, but no footage has emerged of any violence by the marchers.

The CJP and its supporters remain hopeful that they may change the status quo. A representative said on Monday that a federal minister had promised the government would consider their demands.

On Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said: “I think when the talks are going on in a right direction, the atmosphere should not be vitiated.”

The CJP’s campaign initially began online with viral satirical memes mocking the government, and it quickly amassed millions of followers on social media. It has since morphed into a movement able to mobilise thousands on the streets, as Monday’s march demonstrated.

After the chief justice of India’s Supreme Court likened some unemployed young people to “cockroaches”, the protesters adopted the insult as the name of their movement.

Chaos erupted outside India’s parliament as thousands attempted to storm the building, amid growing protests challenging Modi’s government. The ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ began as a satirical online movement. Now it’s become something far bigger.

Al Jazeera’s @avawarrinerr explains.

Police used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters as tens of thousands of people joined the Cockroach Janta Party’s march on parliament in New Delhi. Protesters have been demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan following exam scandals that have triggered nationwide outrage.

Monsoon rains devastate communities, with rescue and relief operations intensifying and the death toll rising.

At least 25 people have been killed as floods and landslides have hit across north and northeastern India, local officials reported.

Several incidents were reported over the weekend in Indian-administered Kashmir and the northeastern state of Nagaland, following days of torrential monsoon rain, officials said on Monday.

In Kashmir, rain-related incidents in the Poonch, Rajouri and Doda districts killed at least 15 people, with several others reported missing, a senior police official said. In Nagaland, multiple landslides triggered by persistent rains killed nine people.

“We have recovered four of the eight bodies, and rescue work is ongoing,” Wennyei Konyak, the magistrate of Nagaland’s Mon district, told the AFP news agency, adding that at least 15 others had been injured.

In Jammu, a flash flood in Rajouri caused extensive damage to public and private property and disrupted countless lives, according to a statement from the office of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Army personnel and state emergency responders rescued 11 people, including five children.

In the neighbouring state of Assam, one person died in flooding on Sunday, according to the state disaster management body, which said more than 57,000 people across seven districts had been affected.

India’s weather office warned of the potential for more extremely heavy rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir over the coming days, with active monsoon conditions likely to persist across the region for up to a week.

Authorities also announced the temporary suspension of the annual Amarnath pilgrimage, which drew more than 400,000 Hindus last year, and the Vaishno Devi pilgrimage in Jammu, citing the safety of devotees until routes are declared safe.

Floods and related accidents are an annual occurrence across India during the monsoon months, which follow the region’s long summers, with many parts of the country also facing severe water scarcity and drought.

Rohit Sharma becomes the first Indian to score a one-day century at Lord’s as he scored 138, in an innings that included 22 boundaries, to give India hope of chasing down a record 388 in the decisive third and final One Day International against England.

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A protest by India’s youth-led Cockroach Janta Party has intensified after activist Sonam Wangchuk was forcibly moved to a hospital on the 21st day of his hunger strike. Party founder Abhijeet Dipke was splashed with ink after beginning a fast in solidarity.

PM Narendra Modi says successful launch will ‘encourage countless youngsters to dream bigger and innovate fearlessly’.

India has successfully tested its first private-sector orbital rocket, marking a milestone in New Delhi’s ambition to become a major player in the global space economy.

The three-stage 22-metre Vikram-1 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and deployed customer payloads into a 450km (280-mile) low-Earth orbit, making India the third country to achieve orbital launch capability through private enterprise.

Vikram-1 can carry a payload of up to 350kg (772lb) and is equipped with robotic arms that can clear space debris.

It also carried experimental equipment, a lab-grown diamond and a miniature 18-carat gold sculpture commemorating India’s national space programme.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the achievement, saying that it will “encourage countless youngsters to dream bigger and innovate fearlessly”.

The test validated the rocket’s propulsion, avionics, telemetry, guidance, navigation and control systems during flight, according to manufacturer Skyroot Aerospace.

Founded in 2018, Skyroot is among a new generation of Indian space startups that have attracted backing from global investors following the sector’s liberalisation.

It became the first space-sector company in the ⁠country to hit a $1bn valuation earlier this year.

Skyroot celebrated the successful mission with a post on X stating: “Hello space, we have arrived!”

Vikram-1 improves upon Skyroot’s Vikram-S mission in 2022. That suborbital flight reached space but did not place payloads into orbit.

The company plans further test flights before starting routine commercial missions. It is another milestone for India’s burgeoning private and public space programmes.

India’s national space programme previously launched 104 satellites into orbit on one rocket in 2017, setting a record at the time.

Six years later, India became the fourth country in the world to complete a lunar landing when Chandrayaan-3 landed near the moon’s south pole.

“Us vs them”

Kolkata football has, over the past century, come to revolve — much like in Madrid, Merseyside and Manchester —  around intense local derbies. In this case, the rivalry between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal draws crowds of more than 50,000 and dominates football conversation in the city.

“There is a great passion for football in other parts of India too – Goa in the west, Kerala in the south and Sikkim and Manipur in the northeast,” said Kolkata-based football analyst Debanjan Banerjee.

“But the longstanding rivalry between two great clubs in Kolkata has created not just a binary structure for fandom, but an intellectual capacity for football that is of a different order to the rest of India. It means that football is discussed seriously all year long in Kolkata. Football is often the thread connecting the generations. The middle-aged East Bengal or Mohun Bagan supporter of today was one even at the age of ten.”

Had Mohun Bagan or East Bengal existed in isolation, Banerjee explained, neither club would have become as big as it is today. He noted that football in Kolkata shapes how fans think far beyond the pitch.

“It influences how they see politics, art and even history,” he added.

Unusually for a Kolkata fan, Banerjee saw himself more as a student of football fandom – its tribal nature, its irrationality, its love-at-first-sight origins, its feeling for the underdog – than of football itself. He even contributed a video essay on the rivalry between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal to the popular YouTube chronicle of football fan culture COPA90.

Last December, Messi made a much-anticipated visit to a few Indian cities. His appearance in Kolkata turned chaotic when he left early, prompting angry fans to breach barricades and rush onto the field.

Banerjee said the chaos reflected a deeper emotional pull around football icons in Kolkata.

“The city administration was blamed for not organising the event properly,” he observed. “But the minister, the policeman, the volunteer at the stadium … they all had the same identity as the fan who paid big money for a ticket. When you have larger-than-life idols, you cannot draw boundaries.”

Yet even Messi is not wholly responsible for Kolkata becoming a suburb of Buenos Aires every four years. Some veteran Argentina fans, such as the voluble novelist and football journalist Indrajit Hazra, 55, can remember a time in the 1980s when supporting Argentina was not the default position in Kolkata, as it is today, but was actually unusual.

If anything, Messi represents the high point of a long era in Bengal-Argentina relations. (Not just in Indian West Bengal, but also across the border in Bangladesh, which is similarly pro-Argentina). That era began in 1986 – the first World Cup tournament to be widely seen on television in India, and therefore a landmark year in the lives of most over 50-year-old Indian football fans. That year, Kolkata pulsed to the magic of another Argentine midfield virtuoso: Diego Maradona.

Before 1986, Hazra explained, Brazilian football was the gold standard for Kolkata for over three decades.

“Pele, who came to Kolkata in 1977 with the New York Cosmos to play an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan, was thought the greatest player of all time. Maradona changed all that with his remarkable feats in 1986. We didn’t read about him; we saw him with our own eyes on TV.”

“To this day, those images are imprinted on my mind and those of millions of my generation.” he added.

Asked whether he thought Messi was the greatest player of all time, he replied with a laugh, “Yes, Messi is great, but Maradona …”

He didn’t need to say more.

Kashmir clashes have killed 31 since June, leading UN rights chief Volker Turk to appeal for calm

The United Nations human rights chief has called for an independent investigation into deadly unrest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

On Friday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, urged Islamabad to launch “prompt, thorough and impartial investigations” into all civilian and security force deaths. At least 31 people have been killed in clashes since last month, in the run-up to regional elections at the end of this month.

The unrest has involved the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), an umbrella group of traders and activists.

While the movement initially formed to protest against rising food prices and utility tariffs, the current flashpoint centres on a legal dispute over legislative seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees. The JAAC demands the abolition of those seats, arguing they allow non-residents to alter local political outcomes.

UN officials expressed alarm over Pakistan’s decision to classify the JAAC as a proscribed “terrorist” organisation under domestic anti-terrorism laws.

The global body warned that utilising anti-terror mechanisms to criminalise peaceful assembly and enforce widespread internet blackouts raises severe freedom of association concerns.

The crisis has amplified the long-running diplomatic feud between nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan, which have both claimed the disputed Himalayan territory in full since their independence in 1947.

According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, the crisis hit a deadly new peak on July 14 during intense clashes in the Poonch division, where security forces attempted to clear roadblocks ahead of a planned JAAC “long march” to Muzaffarabad. The escalation resulted in nine deaths – seven civil activists and two law enforcement officers.

Defending the state actions during the violence, Poonch Divisional Commissioner Waheed Khan told Reuters that protesters had blocked a security convoy and attacked officials. “Police and security officials responded in self-defence.”

In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in an official statement released on Wednesday that the unrest was a “direct consequence of Pakistan’s decades-long systemic exploitation” of the region.

Turk has appealed for immediate calm, pushing for “meaningful and inclusive political dialogue” over security-led measures to defuse deep-seated grievances regarding regional autonomy and inflation.

India joins a handful of countries that have successfully deployed the zero-emission technology in their rail networks.

India has launched its first domestically built, hydrogen-powered train, as it pushes its efforts to expand clean energy use.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the locomotive ahead of its first trip on Friday, hailing the event as a significant day for India’s drive to become self-reliant and sustainable. The introduction of the train sees India join just a handful of countries that have successfully deployed the zero-emission technology in their rail networks.

Dubbed the “NaMo Green Rail”, including an abbreviation of the PM’s first and last names, the train will make two return trips each day along a 90km route linking the cities of Jind and Sonipat, in the state of Haryana. The 10-coach train can seat about 2,600 passengers and can travel at speeds of up to 75km/h.

Designed, engineered and built in India, the NaMo produces only heat and water vapour when running, making it an attractive alternative to diesel.

While India has already electrified almost all of its 70,000km railway network, one of the largest in the world, hydrogen trains can plug the gap where electrification is not possible.

Other countries operating hydrogen-powered trains include Japan, China, the United States and Germany, which launched the world’s first hydrogen-powered fleet in 2022.

The rollout is part of India’s wider push to expand use of hydrogen and cut its carbon emissions, with the government aiming to make the country’s railways net-zero by 2030.

Prime Minister Modi has long pushed other clean-energy efforts too, from expanding renewables to advancing India’s nuclear energy programme.

While the country still struggles with enacting effective climate policy, the launch of NaMo Green Rail marks another step towards a green transition.

Joe Root says some England players are having to “learn on the job” in 50-over cricket because of a lack of exposure to the format.

Root was a class apart in the second one-day international at Cardiff with a chanceless 99 that led England to a four-wicket win in tricky conditions.

In domestic cricket, the One-Day Cup is played in the same window as The Hundred and has therefore become more of a developmental tournament.

Collectively, England’s top six batters on Thursday had played more than 400 matches fewer than their India counterparts in List A cricket (which combines one-day internationals with major domestic white-ball competitions).

“I think that’s one of the biggest challenges for this team and the young guys coming through,” Root, 35, said after England’s win.

“Not just now, but in the next little while, anyone coming into this team does not have the wealth of experience and understanding of 50-over cricket because we are not exposed to it any more.

“There is not that element of grounding that happens before you get to this level, which happens elsewhere around the world, so it’s understanding that there are going to be times where guys have to learn on the job and they have to learn quickly.”

England reached their target of 234 in the 45th over in a game which resembled a more traditional ODI, where Root’s knock – alongside Virat Kohli’s 65 in India’s innings – was based on strike rotation, playing the ball late and punishing anything loose.

Due to the conditions, it was a stark contrast to some of the batting produced by England’s World Cup-winning squad of 2019, but Root highlighted the importance of being able to adapt.

“You’ve got to be brave and know that you can absorb pressure, because you have always got more time than you think and you can really make things up,” Root added.

“The more gears you can have, then it’ll make you a better player in the long run.

“Some guys will get out their tricks, sometimes you’ll be on a pitch where 400 is a par score which can happen.

“But you have got to have range and the hardest bit for guys coming through in English cricket is that everyone who plays T20 cricket can manipulate the field and take the game on – but when you find yourself in a situation like that, a wicket like that, can you find a way of doing it ugly and just getting over the line?”

Virat Kohli survives an umpire review before being dismissed with the very next ball as Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid combine to give England an “important breakthrough” against India during the second one-day international in Cardiff.

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The 14-team 2027 ODI tournament in Africa will have a Super Seven stage but no quarterfinals.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced a revamped format for the men’s 2027 one-day international World Cup that could lead to an additional fixture between India and Pakistan.

The restructure, revealed on Wednesday, comes after concerns were expressed about the prospect of too many dead rubbers, which in turn would lead to sparse crowds at venues, and the number of foregone conclusions at the recent T20 World Cup.

While next year’s edition in Southern Africa remains a 14-team competition, the three lowest-ranked qualifiers will now take part in a preliminary round, and just one of them will progress to a 12-team main group stage.

That will now feature just two pools of six teams with a new “Super Seven” stage replacing the previous “Super Six” round robin.

Significantly, there will be no quarterfinals with the 50-over tournament denied the further jeopardy and interest that comes with an extra round of clear-cut knockout matches.

The ICC, however, insisted in a statement that the new ODI World Cup structure “creates greater context, competitiveness and consequence during the event”.

An additional team in the round-robin phase also increases the prospects of an extra match between India and Pakistan, who share a bitter rivalry that has been soured further in recent years.

The passion for cricket on the subcontinent, which in turn generates lucrative broadcast rights and huge commercial revenues for the ICC, makes a match between India and Pakistan the most valuable in the sport.

But India and Pakistan no longer meet outside ICC events as political tensions between the border nations mean they are in effect barred by their own governments from facing each other.

The last bilateral series India played in Pakistan was in 2006 (Test and ODI series).

Another change approved last week at the ICC’s annual board meeting in Edinburgh will see the next men’s T20 World Cup in 2028 remain a 20-team competition but with 10 sides qualifying from the group stage rather than eight.

The two best-performing teams in the “Super 10” will automatically secure a semifinal spot with a new eliminator stage to decide their opponents.

ICC loans Cricket West Indies $12.82m

In a separate announcement, the ICC said it had approved a $12.82m loan to Cricket West Indies (CWI) “to support the member board”.

Unlike other leading international cricket teams, the West Indies are a regional side, and the relative economic weakness of its constituent Caribbean islands and territories along with the travel distances involved puts the CWI at a considerable financial disadvantage compared with the “Big Three” of India, England and Australia.

During the recent women’s T20 World Cup in England, West Indies captain Hayley Matthews lamented an “unfair” funding ecosystem after her cash-strapped side’s eight-wicket semifinal thrashing by Australia.

“The reason we were so successful back in 2012 to 2016 is because women’s cricket was based off pure talent at that time,” Matthews said.

“The minute that investment comes into the picture, we’ve seen the gap widen a lot. … I feel like it’s a bit unfair sometimes.”

From Gaza to India, this is how the world paid tribute to Qatar’s Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

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In the final innings of her international career, Tammy Beaumont is bowled first ball by India’s Kranti Gaud at Lord’s on day three of the one-off Test, with England needing 457 to win.

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Lauren Bell bowls Jemimah Rodrigues with a brilliant delivery to give England a small glimmer of hope on the morning of day three against India, with the tourists falling to 177-3, their lead just short of 300 in the off-one Test at Lord’s.

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Kranti Gaud takes five wickets and makes history, before Smriti Mandhana frustrates England with an unbeaten 69 as India close on 154-1, giving them a lead of 269, with the tourists in complete control of the one-off Test at stumps on day two at Lord’s.

DAY REPORT: England toil as India take control on day two

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India slumped to a nine-wicket defeat in the fourth T20 against England, following a 2-0 series whitewash in Ireland.

India’s cricket board will review the T20 team’s performance after a dismal run that saw the world champions lose successive series in Ireland and England, a top official said.

India slumped to a nine-wicket defeat in the fourth T20 against England on Thursday, handing the hosts an unassailable 3-0 lead with one match remaining after the opener was washed out.

The loss was India’s fifth straight defeat, following a 2-0 series whitewash in Ireland last month.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will meet to discuss the reasons for the team’s performance after the England tour ends on July 19, secretary Devajit Saikia said on Friday.

“The BCCI is currently observing the performance of the Indian T20 team which has not been up to the mark in the ongoing series against England,” Saikia, who is in Edinburgh for the annual conference of the International Cricket Council, told the news agency AFP in a phone interview.

“We will have a review meeting with the core members of the team to discuss what went wrong in England.”

India, who lifted the T20 World Cup in March, have endured a dramatic dip in form. On Thursday, they managed 158-7 in Bristol, a target England chased down with nine wickets and more than six overs to spare.

The defeat came days after India were dismissed for just 76 in Nottingham, suffering their heaviest T20 loss by a margin of 125 runs.

Saikia described the slump as a temporary setback.

“This is not something abnormal and can happen in international cricket. We consider it as a purely bad phase,” he said.

India, coached by Gautam Gambhir, has been without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Hardik Pandya because of workload and injury-management concerns.

Teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, handed his long-awaited debut aged 15, has struggled to make an impact, with scores of 14, 13 and 15 in his three innings.

The teams meet in the fifth and final T20 in Southampton on Saturday before a three-match ODI series.

England host India in a women’s Test at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground – the first of such a kind at the venue.

Lord’s will finally host a women’s Test, 142 years since staging its first such men’s match, when England face India in a four-day game at the “Home of Cricket” starting on Friday.

“It just boggles my mind that it is just the first (women’s) Test match here at Lord’s,” said India coach Amol Muzumdar.

“It is a great occasion, and we are looking forward to it.”

The match takes place just more than 50 years since the first women’s match of any kind at the renowned London venue, with England beating Australia by eight wickets in a one-day international on August 4, 1976.

England’s captain at Lord’s that day was the late Rachael Heyhoe Flint, a pioneering figure in a women’s game where players were still wearing skirts rather than white or coloured trousers, as they do now.

Heyhoe Flint, who died in 2017, now has a gate named after her at Lord’s.

But in 1976, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the owners of Lord’s, were still decades away from admitting women as members, with the thought of females walking directly through the Long Room of the pavilion before taking the field a distant dream.

England’s No 5 that day, Megan Lear, compared the experience to the moon landing, telling The Guardian: “On that day in 1976, to walk on to the hallowed turf at Lord’s, it was like one small step for us women cricketers, but one giant leap towards the future of women’s cricket.”

It is a sign of how things have changed from those amateur days that a Test between two professional sides will also be England’s second fixture at Lord’s in less than a week, following Sunday’s defeat by Australia in the women’s T20 World Cup final – a match that attracted a capacity crowd.

Nine of England’s World Cup squad are included for the Test, including captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is “hoping to play” despite a nagging calf injury.

‘History in the making’

“We’ve always known this has been on the calendar,” said England coach Charlotte Edwards.

“A lot of our players have been doing Test match prep throughout the T20s, so we’re really looking forward to it,” added Edwards, England’s captain when they won the 2009 Women’s T20 World Cup final at Lord’s.

“It’s a historic Test match for us as a group and for the Indian team, and we can’t wait to play in front of a lot of people again over the next four days.”

Teenage England spinner Tilly Corteen-Colman is well aware of the importance of the occasion.

“I remember speaking to Lottie (Edwards) about when she used to play here and they weren’t allowed in the Long Room,” said the 18-year-old.

“The first women’s Test at Lord’s is history in the making, so to be involved would be incredible. It would mean the absolute world.”

As well as a breakthrough, the game will also mark England batter Tammy Beaumont’s farewell to international cricket.

Beaumont has made 260 appearances for England since her debut 17 years ago, and she was the first English woman to score a double century in a Test – 208 against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2023.

“When I fell in love with playing cricket as a young girl, I barely knew that playing cricket for England was an option,” said Beaumont.

The 35-year-old, who will continue to play domestic cricket, added: “Our first ever women’s Test at Lord’s feels like the perfect occasion to sign off on a career that I could never have dreamt would be as special as it has been.”

Netflix has released its highly anticipated reboot of Little House on the Prairie – and fans of the original series have been left wondering what happened to the beloved cast

It’s one of the most beloved TV shows of the 1970s – and now it’s getting a modern makeover. Netflix has finally released its highly anticipated reboot of Little House on the Prairie today (July 9), with fans eager to see whether it can live up to the original.

Based on the iconic books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the new series promises to retell the family’s story for a new generation while staying true to its roots. Netflix’s official synopsis reads: “Part hopeful family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West, this fresh adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical Little House books offers a kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs of those who shaped the frontier.”

Set in 1869, the reboot followed the Ingalls family as they left their cabin in Wisconsin’s Big Woods and headed to Kansas in search of a better life.

Along the way, they built new friendships, overcame hardships and worked to create a home in the town of Independence.

While the new cast steps into some of TV’s most iconic roles, many viewers have been left wondering what happened to the original stars who made the 1970s series such a success.

Here’s what became of the Little House on the Prairie cast:

Michael Landon (Charles Ingalls)

While Little House on the Prairie was based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Michael Landon quickly became the driving force behind the hit TV series.

As well as starring as Charles ‘Pa’ Ingalls, the devoted husband, father and hardworking farmer, Landon also worked behind the scenes as a producer, writer and director, helping shape the show throughout its nine-season run.

However, fans were surprised when he stepped away as a main cast member ahead of the final season, despite continuing to work behind the scenes.

Before finding fame, Landon shot to stardom as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza after landing the role at just 22 years old.

His acting career had started a few years earlier with I Was a Teenage Werewolf and several guest appearances on TV.

After Little House came to an end, Landon went on to star in the popular TV series Highway to Heaven. He was also due to write, direct and star in a new CBS drama called Us, but sadly never got the chance.

In 1991, Landon died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 57, before the show’s two-hour pilot had aired.

Away from acting, Landon was married three times. His third wife was Little House makeup artist Cindy Clerico, who he met on set.

He was also a father to nine children, including filmmaker Christopher Landon and Jennifer Landon, who is best known for playing Teeter in Yellowstone.

Karen Grassle (Caroline Ingalls)

Karen Grassle became a household name playing Caroline ‘Ma’ Ingalls, the loving matriarch of the Ingalls family and Charles’ devoted wife.

While Little House on the Prairie remains by far her best-known role, Grassle was already an experienced theatre actress before landing the part and returned to the stage after the series ended.

She later stepped away from mainstream Hollywood, moving out of Los Angeles to focus on theatre work around the US.

Although she appeared in a handful of films over the years, including Wyatt Earp alongside Kevin Costner, as well as Lasso and Not to Forget, she largely stayed out of the spotlight after Little House ended.

Away from acting, Grassle has been married three times and is mum to two children – a son and a daughter.

In 2021, she released her memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma, which revealed she and Michael Landon had a difficult working relationship during parts of the show’s run.

However, she has since said the pair reconciled before his death in 1991.

Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Melissa Gilbert was just 10 years old when she was cast as Laura Ingalls Wilder, the adventurous, animal-loving daughter at the heart of Little House on the Prairie.

She remained on the show until it ended nine years later, by which point she was 19. Her performance made her one of the series’ biggest breakout stars, earning her a Golden Globe Awards nomination in 1981.

While starring in Little House, Gilbert also built an impressive career away from the show. She appeared in TV adaptations of The Diary of Anne Frank and Splendor in the Grass, while her portrayal of Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker earned her an Primetime Emmy Awards nomination.

After Little House came to an end, Gilbert remained a familiar face on television for decades, starring in numerous TV films and series. She also served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 2001 to 2005 and even launched an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2016.

She later returned to her Little House roots by taking on the role of Ma Ingalls in the touring production of Little House on the Prairie, The Musical, before appearing on Dancing with the Stars.

More recently, Gilbert made headlines in 2025 after responding to comments from Megyn Kelly about Netflix’s upcoming Little House reboot, after Kelly said she hoped the streaming giant wouldn’t “wokeify” the beloved series.

Gilbert replied: “Ummm… watch the original again,” arguing the show had always tackled difficult subjects including racism, addiction, misogyny and domestic abuse.

Away from acting, Gilbert has two sons – one with her first husband, Bo Brinkman, and another with her second husband, Bruce Boxleitner.

She has been married to Timothy Busfield since 2013 and is also stepmother to his five children.

Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary Ingalls Kendall)

Melissa Sue Anderson played Mary Ingalls, Laura’s intelligent older sister whose life changed forever after losing her sight following a bout of scarlet fever.

The emotional storyline earned Anderson an Primetime Emmy Awards nomination and remains one of the most memorable moments from the series.

Mary endured some of the show’s toughest storylines, including blindness, being held hostage, suffering a miscarriage and tragically losing her baby in a fire.

Away from Little House, Anderson starred in Midnight Offerings and Happy Birthday to Me, while also appearing in TV favourites including Murder, She Wrote, The Equalizer and X-Men: The Animated Series.

In more recent years, the actress has largely stepped away from the spotlight, making only the occasional on-screen appearance.

She married TV writer and producer Michael Sloan in 1990 and the couple had two children before becoming Canadian citizens. Sloan sadly died in 2025.

Rachel Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush (Carrie Ingalls)

Identical twins Rachel Lindsay Greenbush and Sidney Greenbush shared the role of Carrie Ingalls, the youngest member of the Ingalls family until baby Grace arrived in season four.

The sisters were just three years old when they joined the show. Before landing their breakthrough role on Little House on the Prairie, the twins appeared in the TV film Sunshine.

After Little House came to an end, the pair stepped away from acting to focus on school and have largely stayed out of the spotlight ever since.

Away from Hollywood, Sidney married veterinarian and horse breeder William “Rocky” Foster in 2000 before he sadly died in 2009.

Rachel later reconnected with childhood friend Danny Sanchez – who she first met on the Little House set – and the pair married in 2014, more than 30 years later.

Dean Butler (Almanzo Wilder)

Dean Butler joined Little House in season six as Almanzo Wilder, the farmer who eventually won Laura Ingalls’ heart.

Butler landed his first major role in the 1978 adaptation of Forever by Judy Blume.

After Little House ended, he went on to star in The New Gidget, performed on Broadway in Into the Woods and later appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Buffy’s father, Hank Summers.

Away from acting, Butler has been married to actress Katherine Cannon since 2001. The couple first met while auditioning for Michael Landon’s TV series Father Murphy.

Katherine MacGregor (Harriet Oleson)

Katherine MacGregor became one of Little House’s most memorable stars thanks to her portrayal of Harriet Oleson, the shopkeeper who quickly became one of TV’s most love-to-hate villains.

Harriet was originally only meant to appear as a guest character, but proved so popular with viewers that she was promoted to a series regular.

Prior to Little House, MacGregor performed on and off Broadway and she appeared in a handful of TV movies and guest starred on All in the Family and the original Ironside.

She was a convert to Hinduism and very devoted to her faith. She was unable to appear in the Little House finale because she was on a pilgrimage to India at the time.

She died in 2018 at the age of 93.

Victor French (Isaiah Edwards)

Victor French played Isaiah Edwards, the ‘rugged mountain man’ and one of Charles Ingalls’ closest friends.

Although fiercely loyal and kind-hearted, the character also battled depression and alcoholism, giving viewers some of the show’s most emotional storylines.

After Little House ended, French reunited with Michael Landon to co-star in Highway to Heaven.

He enjoyed a long television career, with roles in popular series including Gunsmoke, Carter Country and Get Smart.

French also appeared on the big screen alongside Elvis Presley in Charro! and starred opposite John Wayne in Rio Lobo.

Away from Hollywood, French was married twice and had three children. He died from lung cancer in 1989 at the age of 54.

Richard Bull (Nels Oleson)

Richard Bull played Nels Oleson, the long-suffering husband of Harriet Oleson and the patient co-owner of Oleson’s Mercantile.

While the pair constantly clashed on screen, Bull and Katherine MacGregor were said to be close friends in real life.

Little House on the Prairie was one of Bull’s longest-running television roles, alongside his stint as Doc on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Across a career spanning more than four decades, Bull appeared in countless hit TV shows, including The Fugitive, The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, Mission: Impossible and Hill Street Blues.

He also appeared in films including The Thomas Crown Affair, The Andromeda Strain, High Plains Drifter and The Parallax View.

Away from acting, Bull was married to actress Barbara Collentine for more than 65 years, from 1948 until his death.

He died from pneumonia in 2014 at the age of 89.

July 8 (UPI) — A Nicaragua-flagged oil tanker under investigation for allegedly transporting fuel subject to U.S. sanctions ran aground off India’s western coast after breaking free from its anchor during severe weather.

India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence said the vessel was unmanned when it ran aground, according to Nicaraguan news outlet 100% Noticias.

Indian authorities have identified the 597-foot MT Al Jafzia as part of a suspected “shadow fleet” used for clandestine maritime operations.

According to the investigation, the tanker allegedly switched off its tracking system to conduct ship-to-ship fuel transfers at sea, a practice commonly used to conceal the origin of oil cargoes.

The vessel ran aground near Manori Beach, north of Mumbai, drawing renewed attention to the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Nicaraguan economist and opposition figure Juan Sebastián Chamorro wrote on X that the Al Jafzia’s use of the Nicaraguan flag showed Ortega’s government had joined what he described as a “shadow fleet” transporting Russian and Iranian oil to evade sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries.

“Ortega is now selling the Nicaraguan flag and joining the shadow oil fleet,” Chamorro wrote. He added that the case “demonstrates Ortega’s ties with Putin to evade sanctions.”

Press reports said the MT Al Jafzia was one of three vessels detained by Indian authorities after investigators detected suspected fuel smuggling, fuel theft and illegal ship-to-ship transfers at sea.

Such operations are commonly associated with networks that help sanctioned countries, including Iran and Russia, sell energy exports through illicit channels by using flags of convenience to avoid international scrutiny.

The incident prompted criticism from Nicaraguan opposition leaders and political analysts in exile, who said the case exposed what they described as the Nicaraguan government’s involvement in illicit international activities.

Political scientist José Antonio Peraza told 100% Noticias that the operation appeared to be an illegal transaction intended to evade sanctions or obtain favorable transport terms for the fuel.

“Nicaragua does not have a long tradition of merchant ships sailing under its flag around the world. Therefore, it is very difficult to believe this could happen without the involvement of the Nicaraguan authorities or the Ortega dictatorship,” Peraza said.

Economic analysts warned that the incident could increase the risk of additional international financial and commercial sanctions against Nicaragua if foreign governments conclude the country’s flag is being used to facilitate shipments of sanctioned Iranian oil.

Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa reported that Ortega’s government had not commented publicly on the incident.

Nicaragua maintains close ties with Russia and Iran. Nicaraguan Vice Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke was in Iran this week to attend the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ortega has previously described Nicaragua’s revolution as the “twin” of Iran’s revolution.