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  • McCullum fired as England test coach but will continue with T20 and ODI teams

    McCullum fired as England test coach but will continue with T20 and ODI teams

    Southport, England – In a significant shake-up to English cricket leadership announced Sunday by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Brendon McCullum will step down from his position as head coach of England’s men’s Test cricket team after four years in the role. The New Zealand-born coach will, however, retain his leadership posts for England’s T20 and One Day International (ODI) white-ball sides.

    McCullum’s departure comes on the heels of back-to-back disappointing Test results for the national side, beginning with a 4-1 Ashes series loss to Australia last winter, where the team faced widespread public scrutiny over questions of inconsistent professionalism. Just two weeks before the ECB’s announcement, England suffered a home Test series defeat to New Zealand – that result marked England’s first home series loss in a three-Test or longer format since 2012. The shake-up also comes shortly after former Test captain Ben Stokes announced his retirement from international cricket following the New Zealand series, closing the chapter on the aggressive, high-risk style of play coined “Bazball” that defined McCullum and Stokes’ tenure together.

    In the official ECB statement, McCullum expressed clear disappointment over the decision to part ways with the Test program, saying he was “gutted not to be continuing” with the side – a phrasing that indicates the change was initiated by ECB leadership, not McCullum himself. “But I respect the decision,” he added. “My focus now is on giving everything I’ve got to the white-ball teams and helping England keep moving forward.”

    Even as the governing body opted for a change ahead of the 2025-26 Ashes series in Australia, ECB leaders were unanimous in praising McCullum’s transformative impact on English Test cricket. ECB CEO Richard Gould highlighted the New Zealander’s role in revitalizing the national program: “Brendon breathed new life into England men’s test team during an exciting period which saw some amazing victories, and we’re grateful for all he has given to the role.” Gould added that the decision to make a change now was rooted in the board’s goal of securing Ashes victory next summer.

    The ECB described the Bazball era, defined by McCullum’s emphasis on aggressive, fearless batting and match-risking strategy, as one of the most exciting and progressive periods in the history of England’s Test cricket. Rob Key, ECB’s men’s cricket director, echoed that praise, noting McCullum’s lasting legacy in reshaping the team’s mentality and developing a new cohort of young cricketing talent that will lead England’s program for years to come. “He leaves the test team well-set and poised to achieve great things,” Key said.

    Reflecting on his four-year tenure leading the Test side, McCullum struck an optimistic tone about his time in the role. “It’s been an absolute privilege to watch him shape the mentality of the team, to one the players have loved, and see him develop a new generation of talent who will be at the heart of England men’s teams for years to come,” he said. “There have been some unbelievable highs and a few tough days along the way, but that’s all part of taking on a challenge like this. I wish the test team nothing but success. There’s a hell of a lot of talent in that dressing room and they’re a special bunch of lads. I’ll always be backing the boys, with a smile on my face, and hoping they keep taking the game on. I know they’ll continue to make people proud.”

    McCullum has held combined red-ball (Test) and white-ball coaching roles for England since January 2025. Notably, his white-ball regime has just delivered a standout result: England’s T20 side completed a dominant 4-0 home series sweep over India earlier this month, catapulting the team to the top of the ICC men’s T20 world rankings. England’s next Test match campaign is scheduled to begin next month against Pakistan, with the ECB expected to name McCullum’s replacement for the Test role in the coming weeks.

  • Germany moves to criminalise denial of Israel’s existence while refusing to recognise Palestine

    Germany moves to criminalise denial of Israel’s existence while refusing to recognise Palestine

    Germany’s federal legislative upper chamber, the Bundesrat, has given its formal approval to a contentious draft law that would impose criminal penalties including up to five years of prison time or substantial fines for anyone who publicly denies Israel’s right to exist or calls for the abolition of the Israeli state. The proposal, which was initially put forward by lawmakers from the German state of Hesse, cleared the upper house in a vote held Friday. It will now head to the Bundestag, Germany’s lower parliamentary body, for deliberation following the body’s upcoming summer recess.

    A key point of contention around the legislation is the unequal legal status it creates between Israel and Palestine: the draft extends unprecedented legal protections to Israel that the German government has repeatedly refused to grant to a Palestinian state. Berlin has maintained a longstanding policy of rejecting formal recognition of Palestinian statehood, continued to ship large volumes of weapons to Israel throughout its ongoing military campaign in Gaza that global observers have labeled genocide, and kept uninterrupted bilateral trade ties despite widespread international condemnation of Israel’s apartheid policies and accelerating ethnic cleansing practices in the occupied West Bank.

    The new criminal law is just one part of a broader nationwide crackdown on pro-Palestine solidarity activism across Germany. German authorities have moved to restrict peaceful demonstrations, academic conferences, and cultural events organized in support of Palestinian human rights, a pattern that drew formal rebuke from United Nations independent experts last October. Four UN special rapporteurs and two independent legal experts issued a statement at the time accusing German institutions of systematically criminalizing, penalizing, and suppressing completely legitimate activism in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The experts noted that protesters were only advancing widely recognized legitimate demands: halting German arms exports to Israel, ending the Israeli military campaign in Gaza and illegal occupation of Palestinian territories, guaranteeing unimpeded access for humanitarian aid to Gaza, securing formal international recognition of a Palestinian state, and holding perpetrators of documented international crimes accountable.

    Even independent German institutional assessments have raised red flags about the legality of the proposal. The Bundestag’s own in-house research service warned in a May analysis that the Hesse-backed draft is very likely incompatible with Germany’s post-WWII constitution. The assessment concluded the law would effectively create a legally protected special status for one specific viewpoint, directly contradicting the protections for freedom of expression enshrined in Article 5 of Germany’s Basic Law.

    The research service report explained that both denying Israel’s right to exist and calling for the elimination of the state generally qualify as subjective value judgments, not unprotected incitement. Extending the narrow constitutional exception that bans Nazi propaganda to cover this type of political speech about Israel would be extremely difficult to justify under existing German legal principles, the report added. If that extension cannot be legally justified, the resulting restriction on freedom of expression has no basis in Germany’s constitution.

    Global human rights organization Amnesty International has also publicly opposed the legislation. While the group emphasized that the protection of Jewish life in Germany carries unique historical and moral weight, it noted that this proposed initiative poses a massive threat to fundamental freedom of expression across the country. Left Party Member of Parliament Luke Hoß echoed those criticisms, describing the proposal as an obviously unconstitutional act of symbolic politics that will weaken rather than strengthen efforts to combat antisemitism in Germany.

  • Vietnam police detain captain after speedboat capsizing kills 15 Indian tourists

    Vietnam police detain captain after speedboat capsizing kills 15 Indian tourists

    A tragic maritime accident off the coast of Vietnam’s popular Phu Quoc Island has left 15 Indian tourists dead after a sightseeing speedboat overturned just minutes after departing a nearby island on Saturday afternoon. Vietnamese law enforcement has detained the vessel’s captain as investigations into the deadly incident get underway.

    The 36-passenger craft — carrying 32 Indian tourists and 4 Vietnamese crew members — flipped less than 500 meters from shore shortly after leaving Hon May Rut Ngoai, a small islet located off the southern tip of Phu Quoc, Vietnam’s largest island. Authorities confirmed Sunday that 57-year-old captain Nguyen Hong Hai has been taken into custody, facing formal investigation over suspected violations of national waterway transport safety regulations.

    All 15 deceased passengers were participants in an incentive corporate trip organized by Lava International, an Indian consumer electronics and smartphone manufacturer. The excursion was planned for the company’s employees, distributors and retail partners, the firm confirmed in statements following the accident.

    Ashish Kumar, a Lava distributor from Guntur, India who witnessed the crash from the nearby shore, recalled the chaotic scene to the Associated Press. The tour group had split into three separate speedboats to travel between the area’s islands. When the first boat departed and began to capsize, Kumar and his group immediately began shouting for help. Nearby boats rushed to the scene, but by the time rescuers arrived, many passengers had already been overcome by rough open water.

    Ha Van Loc, a local boat captain who was operating in the area at the time of the 12:40 p.m. accident, told Vietnamese state outlet VN Express that he spotted the overturned vessel with around a dozen people clinging to its upturned hull. Dozens more passengers, many of whom were not wearing their required life jackets, struggled against churning 3-meter-high waves. Loc explained that rough conditions prevented his larger vessel from getting close enough to pull all survivors aboard, for fear that his boat’s propeller would injure people floating in the water. He and his crew threw rope-tethered life buoys to struggling passengers, pulling four survivors to safety within 10 minutes. Loc then filmed the scene to alert other nearby boat operators, prompting a mass rescue response that brought nearly a dozen additional local boats and official rescue teams to the site within minutes.

    Despite the rapid response, choppy seas with waves reaching up to 10 feet slowed rescue operations significantly. Smaller jet skis ultimately proved far more maneuverable than larger vessels, ferrying survivors back to shore one by one. Reports from surviving passengers indicate that the captain did instruct all guests to put on life jackets before departure, but many passengers instead carried the flotation devices in their hands. When the boat overturned, multiple passengers were trapped inside the hull, forced to escape through the vessel’s bow or side windows.

    Eyewitness Kumar also noted that no dedicated emergency medical personnel were waiting on shore when survivors were brought back to land. Local tourists and tour company staff took turns administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation and oxygen to unconscious victims before emergency personnel arrived. Two emergency resuscitation doctors and a nurse were eventually dispatched to the site, and all 17 injured survivors were transported to Phu Quoc Sun Hospital for treatment.

    Updates from the Indian Embassy in Hanoi, shared via social media on Sunday, confirmed that 16 of the 17 survivors have already been discharged from medical care and are en route back to India. One survivor remains in a Vietnamese hospital in critical condition. The embassy added that the remains of the 15 deceased victims are being transferred to Ho Chi Minh City to complete official formalities before being repatriated to India by air. Officials confirmed that 10 of the dead were from India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, three from Andhra Pradesh, and two from Kerala.

    Phu Quoc Island, located off Vietnam’s southern coast, is one of the country’s top beach tourism destinations, drawing millions of domestic and international visitors annually to its white sand coastlines and clear tropical waters. Hon May Rut Ngoai, the departure point for the fatal trip, sits roughly 10 kilometers south of Phu Quoc’s main tourist areas.

    India has emerged as one of Vietnam’s fastest growing international tourism markets in recent years. Vietnamese officials project the country will welcome roughly 750,000 Indian visitors in 2025, a nearly 50% increase from 2024 numbers. Industry leaders attribute the rapid growth to expanded direct flight connections between major Indian and Vietnamese cities, as well as Vietnam’s flexible liberalized e-visa policy for Indian travelers.

  • US, UK and 12 other nations reaffirm 2016 ruling invalidating China’s claims in South China Sea

    US, UK and 12 other nations reaffirm 2016 ruling invalidating China’s claims in South China Sea

    On Sunday, a coalition of 14 nations led by the United States and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement from Manila reaffirming that China’s sweeping territorial claims over the South China Sea lack any legal foundation, in a public backing of the landmark 2016 international arbitration ruling.

    The statement was timed to mark the anniversary of the July 12, 2016, decision handed down by a permanent arbitration tribunal based in The Hague. The tribunal was convened under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the global treaty that governs all maritime activity. The joint statement describes the arbitration outcome as a definitive, final and legally binding milestone that settles core legal questions around competing claims in the strategic waterway.

    The arbitration case was first launched by the Philippines in 2013, one year after a tense months-long standoff at a contested shoal ended with China taking effective control of the feature. China declined to participate in the proceedings, and has refused to acknowledge the ruling ever since it was issued. Beijing continues to assert sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea, a critical global shipping chokepoint that has been labeled one of the most dangerous potential conflict flashpoints in East Asia.

    The waterway is claimed in whole or in part by multiple governments: China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. Repeated territorial standoffs between claimant states have played out in the region for decades, with confrontations growing more frequent and high-risk in recent years.

    Beyond the U.S. and UK, the other signatories to Sunday’s statement are the Philippines, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia. In the text, the coalition explicitly rejected “China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, including those based on ‘historic rights,’” echoing the core finding of the 2016 tribunal.

    The 2016 ruling sided overwhelmingly with the Philippines’ legal arguments, concluding that UNCLOS provides no legal support for China’s claims to historic resource rights in areas of the South China Sea beyond its internationally recognized territorial boundaries. UNCLOS, which entered into force in 1994, has been ratified by more than 170 countries and regions including both China and the Philippines.

    The 14-nation statement condemned destabilizing unilateral actions across the disputed waters, singling out the use of coast guard vessels, military assets and maritime militia to intimidate and obstruct lawful maritime and air operations conducted by other states. “Such actions endanger the safety of personnel and fishermen and seriously degrade regional peace and security,” the statement read.

    The coalition stressed that freedom of navigation and overflight, as enshrined in UNCLOS, must be protected and preserved, and called for all territorial disputes to be resolved through peaceful diplomatic means consistent with the 1982 UNCLOS framework.

    China had not issued a public response to Sunday’s joint statement as of press time. But in recent public comments through its embassy in Manila, Beijing has repeatedly made clear it will never recognize the 2016 ruling, which it labels “illegal, null and void.” “The award will not alter the historical and factual basis for China’s sovereignty over the islands of the South China Sea and their adjacent waters,” the embassy said in a previous statement, adding that the outcome “will not weaken China’s resolve and determination to safeguard its sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”

    Territorial tensions in the South China Sea have spiked in recent years, most frequently involving Chinese forces and vessels alongside Philippine and Vietnamese fishing fleets and government vessels. Chinese coast guard vessels have been documented using high-powered water cannons, military-grade laser dazzlers, and dangerous blocking maneuvers against Philippine vessels and fishermen from other claimant states. These actions have led to high-seas collisions and multiple high-risk near encounters between aircraft and vessels in the area.

    Washington has repeatedly pressured Beijing to comply with the 2016 arbitration ruling. Both the current Biden administration and previous Trump administration have reaffirmed that as part of the long-standing mutual defense treaty between the U.S. and the Philippines — America’s oldest treaty ally in Asia — Washington is legally obligated to come to the Philippines’ defense if Filipino forces, civilian or military vessels, or aircraft come under armed attack in the South China Sea.

  • Typhoon Bavi brings strong winds and rain to eastern China as more than 2 million people evacuated

    Typhoon Bavi brings strong winds and rain to eastern China as more than 2 million people evacuated

    BEIJING – In the wake of its landfall in China’s eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, Typhoon Bavi has downgraded from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm, though the system continues to batter large swathes of eastern China with gale-force winds and torrential downpours as of Sunday.

    China’s National Meteorological Center confirmed the storm’s weakening in the early hours of Sunday, reporting that maximum sustained winds near the system’s center clocked in at roughly 101 kilometers per hour (63 miles per hour). Meteorologists project the storm will continue tracking northwestward across the eastern half of the country in the coming days.

    Before reaching mainland China, Bavi passed just north of Taiwan on Saturday without making a direct landing on the island. Even so, the storm’s outer bands brought hazardous conditions that left more than 130 people injured across Taiwan, according to the island’s fire department. As of 7 a.m. Sunday, the agency confirmed 134 injuries, most of which occurred when residents fell from motorcycles or bicycles amid strong winds or on rain-slicked roadways.

    The National Meteorological Center has warned that hazardous wind and rain conditions will continue to disrupt daily life across dozens of major eastern Chinese cities through Sunday, prompting widespread emergency preparations from regional authorities. State media reports confirm that Shanghai has evacuated more than 290,000 residents from low-lying coastal and flood-prone areas, while Zhejiang authorities have relocated roughly 2.2 million at-risk residents to emergency shelters. Neighboring Fujian province has also evacuated more than 180,000 people to avoid storm-related harm.

    Air travel across the Shanghai region has been heavily impacted by the storm. Official state news outlet Xinhua News Agency reports that the city’s two major international airports – Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao International Airport – have canceled approximately 653 incoming and outgoing flights as of Sunday, with more schedule adjustments possible as the storm progresses.

    In Yueqing, a coastal Zhejiang city directly in the path of Bavi’s landfall, storm damage has already been extensively documented. State broadcaster CCTV reports that more than 1,300 trees were toppled by the storm’s strong winds, with at least 700 of those trees completely uprooted from city streets and green spaces.

  • West Indies beats New Zealand by 7 wickets in the 1st ODI to lead the 5-match series

    West Indies beats New Zealand by 7 wickets in the 1st ODI to lead the 5-match series

    PROVIDENCE, Guyana – The West Indies kicked off their five-match one-day international series against New Zealand with a confident seven-wicket victory on Saturday, built on a match-defining 131-run third wicket stand between Keacy Carty and Shai Hope that anchored the hosts’ run chase.

    New Zealand won nothing but regret after being sent in to bat first upon winning the toss. All-rounder Daryl Mitchell, fresh off a match-winning century that secured a test series victory over England just weeks prior, carried the Black Caps’ batting lineup with a top-scoring 65 runs. Will Young chipped in with 49, combining for an 80-run opening partnership with Henry Nicholls who made 27, but the rest of the batting order failed to convert promising starts into big scores. Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Tom Latham and Mitchell Santner all reached the 20s but could not push on to match-defining contributions.

    By the 40th over, New Zealand sat comfortably at 216 for four, on track to post a total in excess of 300 that would have put the West Indies under serious pressure in home conditions. But a catastrophic late-order collapse changed the entire course of the game: the Black Caps lost their final six wickets for just 33 runs, folding all out for 267. Debutant West Indies bowler Vitel Lawes was the star of the collapse, claiming three key wickets – Nicholls, Chapman and Bracewell – to finish his maiden international outing with figures of 3 for 54.

    The West Indies got off to a solid start in their run chase, reaching 92 for two in the 19th over with opener Akeem Auguste contributing 38 runs from 58 deliveries before Carty and Hope came together at the crease. The pair controlled the tempo of the innings perfectly, keeping the required run rate below one run per over by ticking along at between five and six runs per over, eliminating any sense of urgency or pressure from the chase.

    Carty, who hit his fourth ODI century exactly one year ago, survived a controversial mid-innings scare when he appeared to dislodge the bails with his bat after hitting a six off Jacob Duffy’s bowling. Umpires ruled the shot had been completed before the stumps were disturbed, allowing Carty to continue batting. He made the most of the let-off, moving to 95 off 112 deliveries – just five runs short of his fifth international century – before holing out to Nathan Smith off Michael Bracewell’s bowling.

    After Carty’s dismissal, Hope anchored the remaining overs to see the West Indies across the line, finishing unbeaten on 87. He shared an unbroken 45-run stand from just 31 balls with Sherfane Rutherford, who ended the innings not out on 22. Even with 37 runs needed from the final five overs, the pair remained unflustered, steadily bringing the target within reach before closing out the win. A six from Hope from the first ball of the 49th over and a second six from Rutherford to the fifth ball of the same over wrapped up the chase with seven full deliveries remaining.

    The second match of the five-match ODI series will return to the same Providence venue on Monday, with the West Indies looking to extend their early series lead.

  • Muslim judge in India faces death threats after convicting ‘cow vigilantes’

    Muslim judge in India faces death threats after convicting ‘cow vigilantes’

    A Muslim judge in central India has been subjected to widespread online religious abuse, death threats and rape threats after issuing a life imprisonment verdict against 14 Hindu cow vigilantes convicted of a 2022 mob lynching. The targeted attacks have sparked national outrage over threats to judicial independence and the growing influence of communal rhetoric in the country’s legal system.

    On June 12, Tabassum Khan, additional district and sessions judge in Madhya Pradesh state, delivered a guilty verdict on 14 men on charges including murder, attempted murder, rioting and wrongful confinement. The case stems from a fatal 2022 attack: 50-year-old Nazir Ahmad, a Muslim man, was intercepted by a mob of self-proclaimed ‘gau rakshaks’ (cow protectors) while transporting cattle at night. The mob dragged Ahmad and two companions from their vehicle, beat them brutally with sticks and rods over suspicions of cow smuggling. Ahmad died from his injuries, while his surviving companions testified to the violence in court. In her ruling, Khan explicitly categorized the killing as a clear act of mob lynching.

    Almost immediately after the verdict was announced, unrest erupted. Family members of the convicted men gathered outside the courtroom to protest the ruling, blocking police convoys transporting the defendants to jail and claiming the men were wrongfully punished for ‘protecting cows’. What began as in-person protest quickly escalated into a coordinated online campaign of religiously charged hate targeting Khan personally.

    Multiple videos shared across social media platforms feature Hindu right-wing influencers hurling communal slurs at Khan, issuing violent threats including public calls for her rape and murder. One video even threatened widespread bloodshed across India if the convicted men were not released within 10 days. As of this reporting, many of these threatening videos remain publicly accessible, having amassed thousands of likes and shares, with the perpetrators’ identities and social media accounts clearly visible in the content.

    Mainstream right-wing media figures have also amplified the backlash. A leading anchor with Sudarshan News, a prominent right-wing Hindi news outlet, publicly expressed solidarity with the convicted men’s families, claiming the men had sacrificed everything to protect cows and urging viewers to mobilize in protest. Several major cow protection advocacy groups and Hindutva organizations have held large public demonstrations against the verdict across multiple states. On June 22, the Gau Raksha Parishad held a protest in Punjab where demonstrators burned an effigy of Khan and assaulted it in effigy. Three days later, the Rashtriya Bajrang Dal organized a parallel protest in Uttar Pradesh, demanding the immediate release of all 14 convicted men.

    Critics across India’s legal community have emphasized that the attacks on Khan are not rooted in legitimate criticism of her legal reasoning, but are exclusively rooted in religious bigotry targeting her Muslim identity. Retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju highlighted this dangerous trend in a public post on X, noting that protesters and online abusers have sought to delegitimize Khan’s authority solely by reducing her professional identity to her religion.

    “Her Muslim identity became the principal basis upon which the legitimacy of the judgement was questioned. This represented a dangerous inversion of justice. Judicial decisions are meant to be evaluated through legal reasoning, not through the religious identity of the individual delivering them,” Katju wrote. In subsequent comments, Katju shared that Khan had reached out to him to say the relentless abuse had left her traumatized, leading her to question whether she had done something wrong by upholding the law.

    Leading Indian judicial bodies have rallied to Khan’s defense, condemning the threats as an attack on the foundation of democratic governance. The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have both issued formal statements denouncing the harassment and calling for immediate legal action against the perpetrators. Vikas Singh, president of the SCBA, told reporters that threats against sitting judges represent an existential threat to democracy itself.

    “If we allow this to happen, no judge will be able to dispense justice. In a democracy, a judge must be able to perform their duty without fear or favour,” Singh said.

    Local law enforcement officials confirmed that they have registered a criminal case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, with two arrests made so far in connection with the threats. State cyber cells are currently tracing all individuals who have shared the inflammatory videos and are conducting ongoing monitoring of social media platforms to remove additional hateful content.

    Still, prominent legal advocates argue that authorities have not done enough to guarantee Khan’s safety. Senior Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Hegde pointed to a recent precedent involving another targeted judge to argue that equal protection must be extended regardless of judicial rank. In 2024, former Bombay High Court judge Gautam Patel and his family received constant threats for more than 10 months after delivering a verdict in a Muslim community succession dispute. After three judicial organizations filed a public interest litigation, the Bombay High Court ordered the Maharashtra government to provide enhanced security to Patel, ordered the Mumbai police commissioner to supervise the investigation and demanded regular status updates.

    “If a retired judge of a high court deserves state protection and judicial supervision of his case, so does a serving sessions judge in a district court. The principle cannot bend to rank. It cannot bend to religion. It cannot bend to the political weather around a particular verdict,” Hegde wrote in a piece for legal news outlet Live Law.

    In recent weeks, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has stepped in to escalate the response, ordering senior state officials to submit a formal explanation of the steps they have taken to protect Khan and identify the organizers of the hate campaign. The court has also issued a formal order requiring Khan’s enhanced police protection to continue indefinitely. The case has reignited longstanding national debates over the violence of cow vigilantism, the targeting of Muslim public figures, and the protection of judicial independence in an increasingly polarized political climate.

  • India’s T20 blueprint rattled as England’s 4-0 sweep rewrites the script at Southampton

    India’s T20 blueprint rattled as England’s 4-0 sweep rewrites the script at Southampton

    In a dominant display that upended pre-series expectations, England has delivered a resounding 4-0 whitewash of India in their bilateral T20 series, sending a stark wake-up call to the Indian side as it begins a two-year rebuilding process ahead of the co-hosted 2026 T20 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

    The decisive final match at Southampton on Saturday sealed England’s historic win, after India conceded more than 250 runs in a T20 on home soil for the first time in the side’s history. India, a two-time T20 World Cup champion, looked flat and disorganized across every department of the game throughout the five-match series, a performance that laid bare deep structural issues in the newly restructured squad.

    England’s attack was unplayable from the first ball, not only containing India’s much-vaunted IPL star lineup including Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and new captain Shreyas Iyer, but also shattering the confidence of highly touted 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Indian selectors’ decision to fast-track Sooryavanshi’s international debut following a breakout IPL 2025 campaign backfired dramatically. The teenage left-hander, dismissed twice by his Rajasthan Royals teammate Jofra Archer with aggressive short-pitched bowling, managed only a combined 42 runs across three innings, failing to live up to the hype surrounding his call-up.

    India’s poor form is not an isolated slump. Prior to the England tour, the side suffered a shocking 2-0 home series defeat to Ireland, a result that already signaled deep flaws in the squad. Key regulars Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya missed the series through injury, while 2024 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar Yadav was dropped from the squad entirely. Star batter Shubman Gill, captain of the IPL’s Gujarat Titans, was also left out of the traveling side, a decision that now looks increasingly questionable as selectors are expected to reconsider his position in future squads ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

    The whitewash has left India with a string of unwanted negative records. This marks the first time the side has dropped six consecutive T20 matches, ended a 16-series unbeaten streak in T20 bilateral cricket, and is the first time India has been swept in any T20 bilateral series against England that featured more than two matches.

    Batting struggles plagued India from the opening game. All three of the side’s opening batters failed to find consistent form across the series, while the middle order lacked any clear identity, with constant reshuffling of batting positions between spots five through eight. Promising young left-hander Tilak Varma, who has piled up runs in spin-friendly Asian conditions, managed only 104 runs across the series, with his only half-century coming in the dead-rubber final game at Southampton.

    In the aftermath of the final defeat at Bristol, India assistant batting coach Ryan ten Doeschate acknowledged that the side needs far more than superficial changes to turn its form around, particularly in foreign conditions. “I guess we have spoken so much about adaptability, but I think it’s got to the point now where you actually have to unpack that suitcase,” he told reporters after the match. “It’s easy to say we need to adapt. We need to assess and adapt. Every coach from under-nine cricket says that about every department of the game. It’s got to a point now where we actually have to really unpack what that means and understand the process that’s needed to be able to make those adaptations, so to speak.”

    ten Doeschate emphasized that India must confront its consistent underperformance in overseas conditions and build a new mentality to adapt to different pitch and weather conditions around the world. “Do we want to be a team that smashes 250 in India and looks great when you hit 80-meter sixes at Eden Gardens? Or do we want to come to places like this and places like Manchester and places like Southampton where things are slightly different?” he said. “And again, thinking further down the line, the MCG and those sort of places, do we want to be the team that actually excels in different conditions and do we have the mentality to make those adjustments? And that’s the mental challenge and that’s what we need the players to be able to take on.”

    Following the clean sweep, England has also climbed to the top spot in the ICC men’s T20 world rankings, capping off a historic series for the side.

  • Israeli settlers held US lawmaker Ro Khanna at gunpoint in occupied West Bank

    Israeli settlers held US lawmaker Ro Khanna at gunpoint in occupied West Bank

    A high-profile progressive Democratic U.S. Congressman Ro Khanna was held at gunpoint by armed Israeli settlers wielding American-made firearms during a fact-finding visit to a displaced Palestinian community in the occupied West Bank, an incident that has reignited scrutiny of U.S. military support for Israel and shifting partisan attitudes toward the Israeli government.

    Khanna, who represents a California district, shared the details of his detention in a public post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, July 11, 2026. “Israeli settlers, brandishing American made M4s, detained me & other Americans on my trip to Palestine,” he wrote. “When the IDF arrived, they sided with the settlers & continued our detention. They made a huge mistake. You will be hearing more soon.”

    The lawmaker’s visit was centered on Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian Bedouin community that has been systematically displaced by repeated violent attacks from Israeli settlers. According to on-the-ground accounts, settlers have driven out most residents through a campaign of intimidation and property destruction: they have burned the local school, looted private homes, assaulted local people with rifle butts and stones, smashed residential windows and community solar panels, drained local water storage tanks, and dumped raw sewage onto agricultural land that local families depend on for livelihoods.

    Speaking to Reuters after his release, Khanna described the sequence of events: “We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it. And these hoodlums come in with machine guns – M4, an American-made machine gun – and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.”

    Cameron Kasky, an aide who was part of Khanna’s traveling delegation, confirmed that the group was held for more than an hour. Kasky added that during their detention, the delegation made repeated attempts to contact the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem to request official assistance. It was ultimately Israeli police, not the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), that stepped in to secure the group’s release, according to Kasky.

    As of now, there is no public confirmation of whether U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a known hardline supporter of Israeli settlement expansion, chose to intervene on the delegation’s behalf or issue any public criticism of the incident. The IDF has issued a muted public response, acknowledging that settlers blocked vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta but claiming its own forces were responsible for de-escalating the confrontation – a claim that contradicts accounts from Khanna and his delegation.

    The incident draws particular attention to the longstanding U.S. military aid package to Israel, which provides $3.8 billion in annual funding for Israeli military equipment – including the M4 rifles that the settlers used to detain the congressional delegation. This connection comes at a time of rapidly shifting public opinion within the U.S. Democratic Party, where support for Israel has fallen sharply amid growing public awareness of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and its discriminatory apartheid policies in the occupied West Bank.

    Recent polling from Reuters/Ipsos underscores this shift: Israel’s favorability rating among Democratic voters dropped from 59% in 2018 to just 22% by May 2026, reflecting a growing backlash against continued unconditioned U.S. military support for the Israeli government amid widespread allegations of human rights abuses against Palestinian people.

  • Iran’s supreme leader vows killers of father ‘will be held accountable’

    Iran’s supreme leader vows killers of father ‘will be held accountable’

    Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have taken a sharp turn after Iran’s newly installed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei publicly pledged retribution for the death of his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on February 28. In a formal written statement released to Iranian media via the supreme leader’s official Telegram channel Saturday, Mojtaba Khamenei framed vengeance for his father’s killing as an unnegotiable national mandate, stating that freedom-aligned people across the globe would soon begin executing key parts of the revenge campaign.

    The pledge comes one day after state-led funeral commemorations for the former supreme leader concluded, wrapping up a week of cross-national memorial events held across Iran and neighboring Iraq. Ali Khamenei was laid to rest Friday at the Imam Reza shrine in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in global Shia Islam. The funeral procession first launched a week prior in the Iranian capital Tehran and the holy city of Qom, before commemorations extended to major Iraqi Shia centers Najaf and Karbala.

    In his statement, the new supreme leader expanded his vow of revenge beyond his father’s killing, promising to hold responsible parties accountable for the deaths of a martyred commander and all Iranians killed in the two most recent regional conflicts. He emphasized that the campaign of accountability is not contingent on his personal participation or the presence of other senior Iranian officials, stressing that retribution is unavoidable and that Iranian sympathizers across the world would contribute to fulfilling the mission. “The killers of the late leader should know that they will be held accountable for their crimes,” Mojtaba Khamenei said.

    Since taking office after his father’s assassination, the new supreme leader has not made any public appearances. Multiple unconfirmed reports indicate he was wounded in the same airstrike that killed Ali Khamenei. In a report citing senior anonymous sources based in Tehran, global news agency Reuters confirmed that Mojtaba Khamenei is currently recovering from his injuries, but has not regained enough strength to appear before the public. The report added that Iranian security officials have also intentionally restricted his public exposure, amid ongoing credible threats of follow-up targeted attacks against the country’s new leadership.

    The latest statement from Tehran comes at a moment of already extreme friction between the United States and Iran, with a recently agreed temporary ceasefire outlined in last month’s memorandum of understanding rapidly falling apart. Iranian officials confirmed that US airstrikes carried out across six Iranian cities earlier this week killed 17 people and wounded 115 more. On Friday, one day before Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement, the US Treasury Department announced a new round of harsh economic sanctions targeting a key financial backer of the new Iranian supreme leader, alongside 13 additional individuals and entities with ties to the Iranian government.

    Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi issued a sharp rebuke of the US actions, accusing Washington of deliberately violating the terms of the interim ceasefire agreement. Araghchi argued that the recent airstrikes and new sanctions prove the United States has abandoned its previously established diplomatic commitments, further eroding trust between the two long-adversarial nations.