New Delhi. Indian women’s cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur and vice-captain Smriti Mandhana have congratulated the men’s team (Team India) for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Harmanpreet said that there is confidence in the ability of the entire team and they are going to win this cup. Describing the team as excellent, Mandhana expressed hope of bringing home another World Cup. Deepti Sharma also hopes that the Indian team will create history this time.
The last remaining youth centre in one of England’s most deprived coastal places has been saved from being sold after a long campaign by the charity that has for 13 years called it home.
In November the Guardian revealed how the centre in Ramsgate on the Kent coast was facing being auctioned off by Kent county council, despite an independent report that estimated the centre was saving the council more than £500,000 a year in costs, including for services in mental health, youth justice and social care.
Pie Factory Music, the charity that is based in the youth centre, has for many years provided a social space for eight- to 25-year-olds, but also offers services including counselling, employment advice, life-skills sessions, assistance for young refugees, and creative and music projects.
After a campaign that started in September 2024, Pie Music Factory has been able to buy the freehold of Ramsgate youth centre. This was partly thanks to a grant of £535,000 from Labour’s Pride in Place strategy, which aims to put significant investment into deprived communities across the country.
“Knowing our future in the building is secure fills us with hope and relief,” said Pie’s chief executive, Zoë Carassik. “We are deeply grateful to the Pride in Place programme and everyone who has helped us.”
However, she said that the government’s Youth Matters national strategy, which it announced at the end of last year, needed to come with real investment and “not just words” to stop this happening elsewhere.
“We should never have had to campaign to save Ramsgate youth centre – the last dedicated youth centre in the area – in the first place,” she said. “This must not happen again.
“Youth provision should not depend on charities like us alone. That’s why we urge local MPs and the communities minister to go further in strengthening statutory protections for youth services and review councils’ statutory duty to provide youth services,” she said.
A report released last year by the YMCA revealed a 73% decline in funding for youth services in England and a 6% year-on-year decline in Wales between 2010 and 2024. In August Labour announced it would invest £88m in youth clubs and after-school activities.
The Guardian visited Ramsgate as part of its Against the tide series, which is exploring the reality behind research that shows young people in deprived coastal areas are three times more likely to be living with an undiagnosed mental health condition than their peers in equivalent places inland. A further report by University College London found the lack of youth services and spaces was a significant problem in coastal towns.
Brian Horton, interim chair of the Ramsgate Neighbourhood Board, which signed off the grant to Pie, said: “The board is making a clear statement: we are committed to providing safe, positive spaces for the next generations to thrive.”
Reference #18.50200117.1773710540.667a346
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FIRST ON FOX: A pro-life group is releasing a new report claiming abortions have continued to rise nationwide since 2020 because of a Biden administration FDA policy that allows abortion pills to be prescribed via telehealth and shipped by mail — a move the group says the Trump administration could reverse.
In a report obtained by Fox News Digital, the Restoration of America Foundation (ROAF) argues that a COVID-era FDA policy under former President Joe Biden is driving an estimated more than 500 mail-order chemical abortions per day, citing data from Guttmacher and WeCount.
The data also shows that chemical abortions now account for the majority of abortions, making up about 63% in 2023, a jump from 39% in 2017.
The report also estimates that there were roughly 170,000 additional abortions in 2024 than would have happened if the abortion rate had remained at 2019 levels.
“Since hitting a low in 2017, the national abortion rate has seen a persistent and troubling climb,” the report states. “In 2019, the last full year that abortion by mail was clearly illegal, there were an estimated 916,460 abortions. Using our estimate for 2024, the overall growth in abortion from 2019 to 2024 was 22 percent. Over the same window, the U.S. population grew by just 2.9 percent. Had the abortion rate remained steady from 2019, there would have been 171,103 fewer abortions in 2024.”
PRO-LIFE GROUP URGES SENATE TO PRESS RFK JR ON ABORTION PILL SAFETY, DEMAND SAFEGUARDS RETURN
The ROAF found that a COVID-era policy by the FDA under former President Joe Biden was the driving force behind an estimated more than 500 mail-order chemical abortions per day. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
The findings show abortion-by-mail made up roughly one in four abortions in the U.S. in the first half of 2025.
WeCount data cited in the report also shows an estimated 244,590 do-it-yourself abortions were facilitated by telehealth in 2024, including more than 120,000 pills sent into states where abortion was restricted or banned after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in 2022, giving the power to make abortion laws back to the states.
The Biden administration policy removed safety standards that required women to see a doctor to be prescribed mifepristone, allowing it to be prescribed through telehealth and sent by mail. The report argues that the FDA under Biden justified the change using limited studies and adverse-event data, despite most mandatory reporting requirements for mifepristone complications being removed in 2016 under the Obama administration. A research paper in 2021 additionally compared adverse-event data with Planned Parenthood data and concluded that the system is “inadequate” to evaluate the safety of mifepristone abortions.
“People are calling up and saying whatever they need to say to get the drug in the mail,” ROAF CEO Doug Truax said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “The point that we’re making is that abortions are on the rise dramatically. 874,000 in 2023, up to 1.1 million in 2024. Then on this trajectory, by the time President Trump leaves office, it’d be about 1.4 million a year. And so it’s largely driven by the drugs going out in the mail.”
PLANNED PARENTHOOD DROPS LAWSUIT CHALLENGING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S MEDICAID CUTS
“There’s about 150 women a day that are being seriously harmed by this drug,” Truax continued. “So we need to get them to go see the doctor. The doctor needs to verify where they’re at with the pregnancy. Obviously, if it’s an ectopic pregnancy, it means they could take this drug, and they could die from it, which has happened. But there are all kinds of sepsis and rupturing and hemorrhaging and everything going on with this drug.”
“So there are two angles to this. We’re very pro-life over here. We want to go to zero abortions in the country. But the other angle is that this is a women’s health issue. So we need to decrease the number of abortions, and we need to basically save women from being harmed by this,” he added.
Truax also noted that states with higher populations are receiving the most abortion pills through the mail and that Democrat-led states have enacted shield laws preventing GOP-led states from taking legal action against providers.
DOJ WALKS BACK BIDEN-ERA ABORTION POLICY, BARS VA FROM FUNDING PROCEDURES
The ROAF said the Trump administration could immediately reverse the Biden-era policy. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“For instance, Texas, they don’t have abortion anymore, but they sure do,” he said. “People think it’s down to zero. It’s not at all. It’s about where it was. So you have all these abortionists in, to name a few, Massachusetts and California. There’s dispensing organizations now around the country and around the globe that will mail these things out. They’re very active getting these abortion drugs into states that said, ‘we don’t want abortion here.'”
The FDA continues to keep the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone suspended — a safety rule that had been in place for roughly 20 years before Biden’s FDA permanently removed it following a COVID-era suspension.
The policy was met with legal challenges under the previous administration, but the Supreme Court allowed it to remain in effect after ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the FDA’s action under Biden was likely “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Truax said that the Trump administration has the authority to nix the policy, and urged the federal government to do so.
“I think that from a political standpoint, they’d rather not talk about it. But our point is, from a political standpoint, it’s going to start hurting. Pro-life Americans are really grateful to the president for the Supreme Court that we have, they got Roe thrown out, as it should have been a long time ago. But there’s more work to be done. We’re grateful for defunding Planned Parenthood. That’s great for a year. But the bottom line is, if the number of abortions is actually going up and there’s a step you could take to stop it, we got to do that,” he said.
HAWLEY BLASTS FDA APPROVAL OF NEW ABORTION DRUG, CITES SAFETY AND TRUST CONCERNS
ROAF CEO Doug Truax urged the Trump administration to scrap the FDA policy. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“There’s a massive number of pro-life Americans that are base supporters of the president who may say, ‘wait a minute, we’ve been in power for this entire time and the number of abortions keeps going up, and we could have stopped it,'” he added.
Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill and state officials have been calling on the Trump administration to take action.
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Last summer, more than 20 attorneys general urged Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to complete a safety review of mifepristone and consider reinstating safeguards or removing the drug from the market. Kennedy and Makary vowed to conduct a new review of the safety of the drug, but they have not released a timeline for the results.
“President Trump, Secretary Kennedy, and Commissioner Makary already have the tools at their disposal to reverse the legally and scientifically dubious decisions of the Biden Administration’s FDA and to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement. The Trump Administration must act swiftly to restore commonsense medical safeguards to the chemical abortion pill,” the ROAF report says.
Reference #18.57200117.1773713325.54575b2
https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.57200117.1773713325.54575b2
Pakistan’s cricket team will boycott their match against India at the T20 World Cup in support of Bangladesh, who were ousted from the tournament for refusing to travel to India for their games.
The move will disrupt the T20 World Cup as the India-Pakistan fixture has historically been the most lucrative and widely followed pre-knockouts game of any cricket tournament.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has warned the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) of “significant and long-term implications for cricket in its own country” and an impact on the global cricket ecosystem.
But what are these implications and how could this boycott affect the future of cricket?
While the global cricket body has responded to Pakistan’s boycott by saying the decision could damage the game and it hopes to resolve the matter with the PCB, the ICC hasn’t explicitly laid out a plan of action in case a resolution is not achieved.
Al Jazeera reached out to the ICC for a comment but has not received a response.
Cricket experts believe the ICC would have set a plan in motion by reaching out to the PCB and calling a board meeting to resolve the crisis.
“The ball is in the ICC’s court now,” Sami Ul Hasan, former head of the ICC’s media and communications department, told Al Jazeera.
“The ICC will call a board meeting and convene all members to help resolve this situation.
“All the powers of the ICC rest with its board, who will decide on the next step.”
With the tournament’s opening match less than two days away, Hasan urged swift action from the ICC.
“Pakistan are already in Sri Lanka and will play on the opening day of the tournament. The meeting should take place as soon as possible.”
Being the sport’s global governing body, the ICC enjoys full control over the game, its tournaments and how the game is run.
“The ICC has wide-ranging powers,” Hasan said.
“They could go all the way from slapping fines to suspending the membership of a board,” he explained, adding that as a former cricket administrator, he hoped the ICC would not go down that road.
“Suspensions and sanctions are not the solution as extreme steps weaken the small cricketing fraternity.”
“I’d like to see them resolve this so it doesn’t turn into a major crisis which can have long-term effects on cricket.
All member boards participating in an ICC event sign a participation agreement that outlines the rules, laws and provisions for the member boards and ICC.
According to Hasan, the Pakistani board could rely on one such provision to defend its case with the ICC.
“The force majeure clause, which is available to all nations, explicitly states that if the government of any participating nation stops its team from participating, the team cannot play,” he explained.
“We don’t know how the ICC’s legal team will interpret this law,” Hasan said.
He explained that if both parties reach a deadlock and the matter turns into a legal battle, the ICC’s dispute resolution committee could take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The CAS is an independent organisation that resolves sports disputes.
Hasan warned against such a move, saying it would not be a good advertisement for the game of cricket.
Pakistan’s boycott is not the first instance of a country refusing to play a match upon the directives of their government. The 1996 Cricket World Cup, cohosted by Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, was the first one to be hit by a boycott when Australia and the West Indies refused to travel to Sri Lanka over security concerns and forfeited their match points.
In 2003, New Zealand and England pulled out of their games in Kenya and Zimbabwe due to their governments’ deadlock with the administrations of the African nations.
However, Hasan believes Pakistan’s boycott against India will have far bigger ramifications on the tournament and the sport.
“The value of this game is far too big for the ICC to overlook,” he said.
According to Hasan, who has worked at multiple ICC World Cups, the governing body will incur severe losses if India vs Pakistan does not happen as scheduled.
“The biggest hit, if the biggest game of the tournament does not take place, will come from media rights, which form the main chunk of the revenue for the ICC,” he explained.
“The ICC sells media rights for all the games, of which India-Pakistan is the biggest and most valued.
“If the match doesn’t take place, the sponsors will not pay for the rights of that match, and the ICC will incur losses. While we don’t know the figures, the loss will be significant.”
The ICC operates as a nonprofit global sports body that earns revenue from its various events and distributes it to its member boards.
Therefore, Hasan explained, the ICC itself will not incur a loss but the blow will be felt by member boards.
“It [a boycott] can lead to financial and legal implications, which will have a knock-on effect on future ICC tournaments as well.
“The financial implications will be hard for certain countries – barring India, Australia and England – that rely on the ICC’s revenues to ensure the game continues to progress.”
The previously forfeited matches did not result in financial blows or bans for the boycotting teams, but given the massive financial losses feared by this boycott, the ICC might make the PCB pay.
“The ICC could go back to the PCB and pass on the loss to them,” Hasan said.
The former cricket administrator believes Pakistan’s government must have weighed all possible punitive measures when it decided to boycott the game.
“It wouldn’t have been an easy decision [for Pakistan].”
If there is no India-Pakistan game on February 15, it will be the first instance of the blockbuster match being forfeited at an ICC World Cup.
The move, Hasan believes, could damage the sport.
“Global cricket will take a big hit if the right decisions are not made behind closed doors,” he said.
Hasan pointed towards the incident that caused the chain of events leading up to boycott, saying one official’s statement could have avoided the turmoil.
Star Bangladeshi fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman was ousted from the Indian Premier League (IPL) upon instructions from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), due to the ongoing political tensions between the two nations.
“Due to the recent developments which are going on all across, BCCI has instructed the franchise KKR to release one of their players, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh, from their squad,” BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia said last month.
Hasan lamented the timing and the wordings of the statement.
“We must remember that this situation arose due to one player’s removal and one administrator’s statement – the player was Mustafizur Rahman and the statement was made by the secretary of the BCCI.
“From there, we have arrived at this point.”
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A University of Notre Dame law professor as well as a research professor emeritus told Fox News Digital they are cutting ties with the university’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies in protest over the institute’s appointment of a professor who has publicly supported abortion.
“I confirm that I submitted my resignation to the University President, Provost, Keough School Dean, and the current Liu Institute Director, giving up my appointments as a Faculty Fellow and member of the Faculty Executive Committee of the Liu Institute yesterday,” Diane A. Desierto, professor of law and global affairs, told Fox News Digital in a statement Wednesday.
Additionally, in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Robert M. Gimello, research professor emeritus of theology, informed Michel Hockx, director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame, that he does not want to be affiliated with the institute following the appointment of Susan Ostermann.
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY IN CHICAGO COVERS ‘ABORTION CARE SERVICES’ THROUGH STUDENT HEALTH PLAN
Fox News Digital obtained a letter from Robert M. Gimello, where he stated he no longer wants to be affiliated with the university. (Getty Images)
Notre Dame announced Jan. 8 that Ostermann, who joined the university in 2017 as a global affairs professor, will assume her role as director of the Asian studies center in July.
“Dear Michel: In dismay, and with regret, I write to tell you that the recently announced appointment of your successor as Director of the Liu Center compels my resignation from my position as Emeritus Fellow of the Center,” Gimello wrote in the letter emailed to Hockx on Monday.
“Please remove my name and photograph from the Liu Institute’s roster,” Gimello added. “I can only hope —and I will pray — for a future in which the Institute fulfills its proper role as a faithful instrument of our University’s Catholic mission.”
Gimello is not listed as a Liu Institute emeritus fellow on his university biography page, but other profiles of Gimello list him as having been a fellow.
In 2022, Ostermann co-authored an article titled, “Lies about abortion have dictated our health policy,” with former Notre Dame professor Tamara Kay.
In the article, Ostermann and Kay argued, “Almost 90% of abortions occur during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy when there are no babies or fetuses. There are only blastocysts or embryos so tiny they are too small to be seen on an abdominal ultrasound.”
They also called it a “lie” that abortion is dangerous, writing, “This could not be further from the truth. Research shows abortion is safe and does not have long-term effects on physical or mental health.”
The University of Notre Dame Campus with the Golden Dome, Basilica of the Sacred Heart, and Washington Hall. (Aaron Yoder via Getty Images)
The authors further wrote that abortion “doesn’t cause cancer, it doesn’t affect future fertility, and most people feel relief after an abortion and do not regret their decision. Up to 11 weeks, medication abortions are generally performed using mifepristone and misoprostol, which are safer than taking Tylenol.”
In another 2022 article published by Salon, titled “Forced pregnancy and childbirth are violence against women — and also terrible health policy,” Ostermann and Kay wrote, “Criminalizing abortion results in irreparable harm. In fact, it actually has the opposite policy effect that anti-abortion advocates say they want: It can increase abortion rates, unintended pregnancies and infant mortality.”
Additionally, they wrote, “Abortion access is freedom-enhancing, in the truest sense of the word. Consistent with integral human development that emphasizes social justice and human dignity, abortion access respects the inherent dignity of women, their freedom to make choices and to evaluate medical and other risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth.”
Gimello told Fox News Digital in a statement that his resignation was driven by Ostermann’s public advocacy for abortion.
Ostermann and her co-author Kay wrote that it is a “lie” that abortion is dangerous, writing, “This could not be further from the truth. Research shows abortion is safe and does not have long-term effects on physical or mental health.” (iStock)
“You would be correct to assume that the principal reason for my resignation is the sad fact that administrators of the world’s preeminent Catholic university have chosen to appoint, as director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, a scholar who has repeatedly, publicly, and adamantly proclaimed her opposition to (verging at times, it seems to me, on contempt for) the Catholic Church’s firm teaching that protection and nourishment of human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is a sacred duty incumbent upon the whole human community,” Gimello said.
He added, “Continued formal association with a unit of the University led by such a person is, for me, simply unconscionable — this regardless of whatever considerable talents and accomplishments the appointee might otherwise bring to the job.”
Gimello also expressed concern that Ostermann’s appointment would confuse those outside of Notre Dame about the university’s adherence to Catholic identity.
“Moreover, I am myself a scholar whose work focuses chiefly on Asia, particularly Asia’s religious and intellectual traditions, both in themselves and in comparison with Christianity,” he said. “The Liu Institute, for its part, is not only Notre Dame’s principal organ for the study of Asia; it is also its chief conduit for institutional relations with Asia. It is, as it were, Notre Dame’s ‘Asian face.’”
Gimello said he is concerned that Ostermann’s appointment will confuse those outside of Notre Dame about the university’s adherence to Catholic identity. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
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“Questions and controversies regarding the nature and value of human life (not least questions concerning abortion, population control, euthanasia, etc.) are, of course, central to the intellectual, religious, and ethical traditions of all Asian countries, all the more so in these troubled and contentious times,” Gimello said.
“I believe, therefore, that it is essential to Notre Dame’s Asian outreach that it faithfully represent to its Asian and Asian Studies interlocutors the Catholic Church’s views on these most fundamental matters,” he added. “I doubt that anyone so hostile to, or dismissive of, those views — as this newly appointed person seems clearly to be — even if she were to try to muffle her hostility, could do justice to Notre Dame’s properly Catholic endeavors in and about Asia. I fear now that this appointment will suggest to our Asian associates, and to scholars of Asia at other institutions here and abroad, that Notre Dame is deeply at odds with the Church that it claims to represent in the realms of higher education.”
Notre Dame told Fox News Digital that it stands by their previous statement about Ostermann’s appointment.
A representative affiliated with the university said that “Gimello retired from the Department of Theology in 2017 and has not been an active member of either the Theology Department or Liu Institute since then. Until recently, he was listed as an emeritus fellow with the Liu Institute as a professional courtesy.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Ostermann for comment.
Swan Defense and Heavy Industries Limited has secured a defense export contract from the Government of Sultanate of Oman to supply a training ship for the Royal Navy of Oman, the company announced today.
The Mumbai-based shipbuilder will deliver the vessel within 18 months. The training ship measures 104.25 meters in length with a beam of 13.88 meters and displacement of up to 3,500 tonnes.
The vessel will be equipped with classrooms, training offices, and an auditorium capable of accommodating up to 70 officer cadets. It will feature a modern navigation system, advanced communications suite, and helicopter operation capabilities.
“This contract stands as a testament to our advanced technical expertise and world-class shipbuilding capabilities that meet global benchmarks,” said Rear Admiral VK Saxena (retd), CEO of SDHI.
The order marks a significant export achievement for India’s shipbuilding sector, which has been receiving strategic support from the Ministry of Defense under the country’s broader maritime vision. The contract aligns with India’s Amrit Kaal Vision aimed at establishing the country as an exporter of indigenously built vessels.
SDHI, formerly known as Reliance Naval and Engineering Limited, operates India’s largest dry dock measuring 662 meters by 65 meters at its facility in Pipavav, Gujarat. The company has an annual fabrication capacity of 164,000 tonnes.
The shares of Swan Defense and Heavy Industries Limited ended on the BSE today at ₹1841.30 up by ₹30.85 or 1.70%.
Published on February 5, 2026
What happens to your suitcase after check-in? The man put a camera in his bag, the reality was visible!
What happens to your suitcase after check-in? The man put a camera in his bag, the reality was visible!
While traveling by flight, we deposit our luggage at airport check-in. After this, after reaching our destination, we get our luggage. But have you ever wondered what happens to our luggage from the airport to the entire flight? This journey was shown on an account named @wealth on social media site Instagram. A camera was installed in one of the luggage, after which the luggage was shown passing through various conveyor belts and reaching the plane. People are surprised to see this video. How is our luggage, which we pack very carefully, carried in the flight?
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https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.50200117.1774082138.7db6df8