Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Indian cricket team (Agency Image)

As the Indian men’s team prepares to begin its T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, messages of encouragement have flowed in from the Women in Blue. Fresh from their historic triumph at the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in 2025, members of the Indian women’s side have extended their best wishes to the men as they look to defend their crown in the global event. India enter the tournament as defending champions after lifting the T20 World Cup in 2024 with a tense final victory over South Africa. The support from the women’s team has underlined the strong sense of unity and shared purpose that runs through Indian cricket.

Leading the messages was women’s captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who expressed full faith in the men’s squad. “Wishing Team India all the best for T20 World Cup. Play with full of your heart, enjoy, and we all know you are going to win this. Wishing all the luck,” she said. Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana also shared her encouragement, while acknowledging the expectations that come with defending the title. “Wishing the best for the Indian Team, looking really good, we all are looking forward to another cup. But no pressure, and hopefully we can play some good cricket,” she stated. All-rounder Deepti Sharma, who was a key figure in India’s ODI World Cup success and earned the Player of the Series award, highlighted the significance of the tournament being held at home. “Wishing all the very best, this is going to happen in India and it will be very special. Go get the cup home,” she said. Wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh added her voice to the chorus of support, sending a simple message of encouragement ahead of the marquee event. “Wishing you all the very best for the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, good luck guys,” she said. The Indian women’s team, which created history by winning the ICC Women’s ODI World Cup in 2025 for the first time since the competition began, has once again highlighted the collective spirit across Indian cricket. As the Men in Blue get ready to open their World Cup campaign against the USA on Saturday, the Women in Blue are preparing for their own international assignment. Their multi-format tour of Australia begins on February 15, starting with a three-match T20I series, followed by three ODIs and a one-off Test match.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has criticised The Washington Post’s decision to lay off his son, foreign affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor, describing it as a “perverse act of self-immolation”.Reacting on X, Tharoor wrote: “The bizarre thing about this so-called ‘business decision’ by The Washington Post is that @ishaantharoor’s column flourished on the Internet,” adding that Ishaan Tharoor had “500,000 (half a million plus!) individual subscribers” for his WorldView newsletter. He said he had met foreign ministers, diplomats and scholars around the world who read the newsletter daily, and argued that the newspaper could have tried monetising that reach instead of abolishing it.

Ishaan Tharoor was among those laid off as part of a major restructuring at The Washington Post that affected around 300 employees and significantly reduced the newspaper’s international coverage. Several international correspondents and editors also announced their exits on social media.In a post on X, Ishaan Tharoor said he had been laid off along with much of the international staff, adding that he was “heartbroken” for the newsroom and colleagues he had worked with over nearly 12 years. In a separate post, he called it “a bad day” and shared an image of an empty newsroom. He also wrote about launching WorldView in 2017 and thanked the newsletter’s roughly half-a-million subscribers.The Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Washington Post Guild, which represents staff, issued a statement urging continued investment in the newspaper’s journalism.The layoffs at The Washington Post are part of a wider restructuring that has seen the paper sharply scale back its global and national reporting operations. Around 300 employees were affected across departments, with the international desk among the hardest hit.As part of the overhaul, the Post has reduced its foreign bureaus and eliminated several international reporting roles, effectively shrinking its on-the-ground presence in regions including the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Multiple senior correspondents and editors confirmed their exits publicly, some noting that entire regional teams had been disbanded.The restructuring has also led to the winding down or closure of several editorial initiatives, including podcasts and specialist sections, as management seeks to cut costs and refocus resources amid sustained financial pressure on US legacy newsrooms.The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has faced declining digital subscriptions and advertising revenue in recent years, prompting repeated rounds of cost-cutting. The newspaper’s union has warned that continued reductions to reporting staff risk undermining its journalistic mission, particularly its ability to cover international affairs comprehensively.The current round of layoffs marks one of the most significant contractions of the Post’s global reporting footprint in its modern history, signalling a strategic retreat from expansive international coverage at a time of heightened geopolitical instability.

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Thursday, breaking a three-session winning streak as weak global market cues weighed on sentiment. After opening on a weak note, the 30-share BSE Sensex extended losses, falling 503.76 points or 0.60 per cent to settle at 83,313.93. During intraday trade, it dropped as much as 666.07 points or 0.79 per cent to 83,151.62. The NSE Nifty also ended in negative territory, declining 133.20 points or 0.52 per cent to close at 25,642.80.

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Across Asia, South Korea’s Kospi ended nearly 4 per cent lower. Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Shanghai’s SSE Composite also finished lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed higher. European markets were trading in the red.“Indian equities saw consolidation, as weakness was followed by a sharp rally in recent sessions driven by optimism around the US–India trade deal, suggesting profit booking was at play. Global cues added further pressure, with concerns over a broad-based tech sell-off in international markets and heightened US–Iran tensions leading to risk-off sentiment,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said, PTI quoted .US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 1.51 per cent and the S&P 500 declined 0.51 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.53 per cent.Market participants are now turning their focus to the upcoming RBI policy meeting, Nair added.“Indian equity markets traded in a tight range, signalling a wait-and-watch phase as investors remained cautious in the absence of fresh domestic triggers. While overall sentiment remained stable, the benchmarks struggled to sustain momentum at higher levels, reflecting a lack of follow-through buying despite earlier positives,” Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, an online trading and wealth tech firm, said.Market participants are staying cautious, awaiting clearer signals from global macro trends, foreign institutional flows and developments around US–Iran negotiations to gauge the next market direction, he added.Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 29.79 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 249.54 crore in the previous session.

GHAZIABAD: Three sisters, aged 16, 14 and 12, were found dead in the early hours of Wednesday after falling from the ninth floor of their apartment building in Ghaziabad, near Delhi. The girls were discovered lying next to each other on the premises of Bharat City residential complex, directly below a bedroom window of their flat. Police say all three died on the spot. A resident of the complex, Arun Kumar, told local media he witnessed the incident at around 2am while standing on his balcony in another tower.Also read: Inside the troubled Ghaziabad home: 2 marriages, wives leaving, no schooling for kids, mounting debts and more He said the eldest girl was seated on the window ledge with her back facing the compound, while the two younger girls stood in front of her, holding her tightly.

“Suddenly, the girl on the window leaned back and fell. Within seconds, the other two jumped,” Kumar said. He added that he ran downstairs and repeatedly called for an ambulance, which arrived at around 3.15am. Police took the girls to hospital, where doctors declared them dead on arrival.Feb 41.45 am

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‘Didn’t go to school, were lonely’

According to investigators, the three sisters were sleeping with their mother in one room of the flat, while their father, Chetan Kumar, slept in another room with their son.“At around 1.45am, the girls woke up on the pretext of getting water,” said Nimish Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Trans-Hindon). “They went instead to the puja room and locked it from inside.”Police say the girls used a plastic stool to climb up to the window. Their mother woke up and knocked on the door, asking them to open it, but received no response.Also read: ‘You made Devu like Bollywood’: Did rift over youngest sibling push 3 Korea-obsessed Ghaziabad sisters to brink? Patil said that, according to the father’s statement, when he later woke up, he found the eldest daughter lying in the compound below. The two younger girls also jumped shortly after.A police field unit later broke open the puja room door. Inside, officers found childhood photographs of the three sisters scattered across the floor, along with a mobile phone and a pocket-sized diary.Police said the girls had taken their mother’s mobile phone before entering the puja room. The phone has been sent for forensic examination.Diary and note to fatherA one-page handwritten note addressed to their father was also recovered. The note contained an apology — “Sorry Papa” — and urged him to read their diary, with the words “READ NOW” written in capital letters.Police and family members say the diary offers insight into the girls’ state of mind.According to officers familiar with the investigation, the diary reveals a deep attachment to Korean popular culture, including K-pop music, television dramas and what is known as BL (boy love) content. The girls wrote that Korea had become central to their lives and expressed anger towards their father for opposing their interest.“How did you even dare to take this from us?” reads one line in the diary.Police sources say this may refer to an incident around 15 days earlier, when Kumar allegedly took away the elder daughter’s mobile phone and sold it. Police also said this could be a reference to their father Chetan Kumar, a stock trader allegedly deep in debt , taking away the elder daughter’s phone 15 days ago and selling it.He has not denied the girls’ interest in Korean culture. “They listened to Korean music, watched Korean films, dramas, web series and cartoons. They also wanted to go to Korea,” he said. “All three wanted us to accept Korean culture, but when we refused, their behaviour changed. They went into a shell and lived in their own world.”Isolation and lonelinessInvestigators say the girls had not attended school since the Covid-19 pandemic and were not being homeschooled. They also did not play with other children in the housing society.Writings found on the wall of their room point to a sense of isolation. Phrases such as “I am very, very alone”, “My life is very very alone” and “Make me a heart of broken” were scribbled on the wall.According to police, the sisters spent nearly all their time together and appeared to have withdrawn from social life. In their diary, they referred to each other by names borrowed from television shows — Maria, Aliza and Cindy — and appeared to see themselves as living in a separate world.The diary lists 19 things the girls said their parents disapproved of, including Korean dramas and music, as well as Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American and British entertainment. They also mentioned cartoons such as Shin-chan and Doraemon, and several mobile games.“You don’t know how much we loved Korea,” the girls wrote. “The way we loved Korean actors and K-pop groups, we didn’t even love family members that much.”Family tensionsThe diary also refers to tensions within the family involving a younger sibling, a four-year-old girl referred to as “Devu”.The sisters wrote that they wanted to introduce Devu to their interests, but that their parents objected and instead encouraged her to watch Bollywood films. This, they wrote, caused further distress.“You made her Bollywood, which we hated more than life itself,” the diary reads.There are also references to physical punishment, although it is unclear who the girls were referring to. “Did we live in this world to get beaten by you?” one line reads. “Death would be better for us than beatings.”Another passage mentions marriage, without detail. “The mention of marriage caused tension in our hearts,” the diary says.Police believe the diary may have been written by the 14-year-old sister and estimate it was penned one or two days before the incident, possibly after an argument with their father. It has been sent for forensic analysis.Household under strainPolice say the family’s circumstances were complex. Kumar lives with three women who are sisters and claims to have married all of them. The eldest of the three girls who died and a younger boy are from his first wife. The two younger girls who died were born to her younger sister. The four-year-old girl mentioned in the diary is the child of the youngest sister.Officers say two of Kumar’s partners left the house in May 2025, prompting him to file missing persons reports. They returned a few days later.Investigators say Kumar suffered financial losses during the Covid-19 period and took loans thereafter, adding to stress within the household.Investigation ongoingPolice say there were frequent arguments in the family over the girls’ interests and lifestyle. No foul play has been suspected so far, but officers say the investigation is ongoing and forensic reports are awaited.“This is a tragic case involving children and a family under severe emotional and financial stress,” Patil said.

Gulf Job Scams: How to Spot Fake Offers and Protect Yourself in UAE and Saudi Arabia

As the Gulf continues to attract millions of job seekers, from local professionals to expatriates and international applicants, fraudulent job offers and fake recruitment schemes have become a persistent problem in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. These scams have grown more sophisticated, leveraging social media, messaging apps and even AI-powered bots to deceive applicants into losing money or exposing their personal information.Sweat not as we spill the beans on how these scams work, what the authorities are warning about and the practical steps you can take to stay safe.

Why scams target job seekers in the Gulf

Dubai, Abu Dhabi in the UAE and other Gulf cities including Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, are magnets for global talent because of their diverse economies and high demand for skilled workers. Unfortunately, fraudsters exploit this demand by posting fake job ads that promise high salaries, minimal experience requirements and even immediate work visas.

These tactics can trap unsuspecting applicants into giving up money, documents or personal data without ever receiving a legitimate job offer. Authorities have noted that the scammers use a wide range of channels, from social media and job boards to WhatsApp, Telegram and email, to make their offers look official, often using real company names or logos to lend credibility.

Top red flags of fake job offers in the Gulf

Understanding common warning signs is one of the best defenses against job scams. Experts and police advisories in the UAE emphasise the following red flags –

How job scams are evolving in the Gulf: AI and bots

Recent reports highlight that fraudsters are increasingly using AI-powered bots to automate the creation of thousands of fake listings that look legitimate at first glance. These bots can even carry out simple “interviews” via automated chat before handing applicants over to human fraudsters. This makes spotting scams even harder without careful verification.

Official advice: How to protect yourself against job scams in the Gulf

Authorities in Dubai and across the UAE have issued clear guidance to job seekers on how to stay safe –

Verify every job offer: