Drake Maye’s wife, Ann Michael Hudson, partnered with DoorDash, a $78.6 billion company, ahead of the Patriots’ Super Bowl matchup with the Seahawks. She shared a playful Instagram reel promoting New England cuisine while teasing Seattle. Hudson also posted weekend moments with Maye and friends and recently addressed comparisons to Gisele Bündchen with grace and humor.

Drake Maye’s Super Bowl week just got even bigger, and this time it is not about football. As the New England Patriots prepare for their title clash with the Seattle Seahawks, Ann Michael Hudson stepped into the spotlight with a brand-new commercial partnership. The lifestyle influencer teamed up with DoorDash, a company valued at $78,640,000,000, adding corporate shine to an already high-profile weekend.Hudson unveiled the collaboration through a playful Instagram reel that quickly grabbed attention. With confidence and humor, she poked fun at Seattle while celebrating New England flavors. The clip blended football rivalry with food culture, giving fans a taste of Super Bowl banter beyond the field.

Ann Michael Hudson embraces spotlight while brushing off comparisons

In the commercial, Hudson pulled an iced coffee from a DoorDash bag before praising a classic lobster roll. She wished the Seahawks luck, but her wink suggested she was enjoying the rivalry just a little too much. The timing felt intentional. With the Patriots heading into one of their biggest games, she kept the energy lively and distinctly Boston.The weekend was not all business. Hudson shared glimpses of her time in San Francisco, posting photos with Maye, friends, and fellow Patriots partners. One candid image showed the couple reading instructions while playing mahjong. Another featured a dinner spread that reflected the celebratory mood surrounding the big game.Public attention, however, has not always focused on her projects. Hudson has often faced comparisons to Tom Brady’s former wife, Gisele Bündchen. Addressing the chatter in January, she responded with grace. “Yeah, it’s always, ‘Gisele could never this, Gisele would never that.” Hudson said, via “Beyond Bakemas.” “I’m like, ‘Gisele is pretty, she’s been pretty good, guys.”Her calm response struck a chord. Instead of fueling stories of competition, she recognized Bündchen’s status while also making her own name known. Hudson seems to be able to handle the pressure of being linked to a franchise quarterback, as well as the influence and humor that come with it, now that he has a big brand deal and Super Bowl buzz.

NEW DELHI: A steep cut in NEET-PG qualifying standards has led to postgraduate medical seats in govt colleges being filled at shockingly low scores – including in high-risk clinical specialties – triggering alarm across the medical fraternity, reports Anuja Jaiswal. The impact was stark in third-round PG counselling, where candidates secured seats in govt medical colleges with scores ranging from single digits to double digits, spanning both clinical and non-clinical disciplines. Even premier institutions and core clinical branches saw seats being allotted to candidates with such scores. An MS orthopaedics seat at a govt institute in Rohtak was allotted to a candidate with just 4 marks out of 800, while obstetrics and gynaecology at a premier Delhi medical college went to a candidate who scored 44 marks. A general surgery seat was filled at 47 marks.

Removing cut-offs altogether risks patient safety, says doc

This signals a serious breakdown in medical education and workforce planning,” said a senior faculty member at a govt medical college. “Orthopaedics has traditionally been among the most demanding surgical specialties. Filling it at near-zero scores is a sign not of weaker students but a system under severe strain.”This happened following the sharp lowering of NEET-PG qualifying standards by Union health ministry for the 2025–26 academic session, with drastically reduced cut-offs across categories allowing candidates with extremely low — and even negative — scores to qualify.

The effect was visible across disciplines. Seats were filled at 10 marks in transfusion medicine, 11 marks in anatomy, and minus 8 marks in biochemistry, many under reserved and PwD categories. While the revised cut-offs ensured that seats did not remain vacant, doctors warn the policy risks trading competence for convenience.“Allowing surgical and clinical branches to be filled at zero or near-zero percentile represents a serious erosion of standards,” said a senior doctor at a govt medical college. “Marks as low as 4, 11, 44 or 47 out of 800 point to a lack of basic aptitude. Removing cut-offs altogether directly risks patient safety.”The current policy marks a sharp shift from govt’s earlier stand. In July 2022, opposing a plea to lower NEET-PG cut-offs in Delhi HC, Centre had argued that minimum qualifying percentiles were essential to maintain education standards. The court agreed, warning that lowering medical education standards could “wreak havoc on society”, as medicine involved matters of life and death.Defending the present framework, a senior health ministry official said PG seats are allotted strictly under revised eligibility rules, and competence is intended to be ensured through training and exit exams, not entry cut-offs alone. Colleges are certified by regulators and are responsible for failing unsuitable candidates, the official said.Medical educators, however, say the trend reflects deeper structural problems — rapid seat expansion without a matching rise in trained faculty, overcrowded classrooms and eroding bedside skills. “Without strong faculty, robust exit exams and a system to weed out unsuitable candidates, anyone who enters medicine eventually gets a degree,” said a senior academician.Faculty members say the consequences are already visible. Many postgraduate students arrive without strong theoretical foundations, clinical skills or discipline. Pressure to pass students, weak exit mechanisms and over-reliance on online learning have further diluted training quality.“Easy entry has reduced seriousness even at top institutions,” said another doctor on condition of anonymity. “Numbers are rising, but training quality is falling — and that poses long-term risks to patient care.”Doctors caution that the branch of medicine does not reveal its failures immediately. Gaps in training today may surface years later, when these doctors practise independently — with serious implications for patient safety and public trust in the healthcare system.

NEW DELHI: NSA Ajit Doval’s first bilateral visit to Canada since the diplomatic strife over the killing of a Khalistani separatist in 2023 rocked the relationship between the countries saw both sides agreeing to a “shared workplan” to guide bilateral cooperation on national security and law enforcement issues, and to enable “practical collaboration” on respective priorities. Doval is learnt to have strongly conveyed to Canada that violent extremist groups should not enjoy any form of support from the Canadian govt. According to an Indian readout, both sides acknowledged progress on initiatives aimed at supporting the safety and security of their countries and citizens. The national security advisor met his counterpart Nathalie Drouin on Saturday, during a visit that the Indian govt described as part of regular bilateral security dialogue between the two sides. While there have been several high-level exchanges between the two sides in the recent past, including a visit to India by Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand, Doval’s presence in Canada is being seen as an important confidence-building measure ahead of PM Mark Carney’s visit to India next month. According to a ministry of external affairs (MEA) statement, it was agreed that each country would “establish security and law enforcement liaison officers and that their respective agencies would build on working relationships”. “This important step will help streamline bilateral communication and enable timely information sharing on issues of mutual concern to Canada and India, such as the illegal flow of drugs, particularly fentanyl precursors, and transnational organised criminal networks,” said the statement. During her visit, Anand had told TOI that Canada is following a twin-track approach to India: active law enforcement dialogue to address security concerns and expanded cooperation in trade, technology and energy. The visit also saw both sides launching a new roadmap to revive economic ties amidst increasing global uncertainties. Both sides also committed to formalising cooperation on cybersecurity policy and information sharing on cybersecurity issues, as well as continuing talks on cooperation over fraud and immigration enforcement, consistent with domestic laws and international obligations, according to the readout. Doval also had a meeting with Gary Anandasangaree, the Canadian minister for public safety, on Friday.

NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump’s threat to bring back the 25% “penalty” if India does not stop buying Russian crude has deepened the question mark on the operations of Nayara refinery in Jamnagar. The crisis facing the refinery has triggered talks about change of ownership. While the refinery, under normal circumstances, would qualify to be a good buy, US’s hardline stance may prove to be a dampener for prospective buyers, something which is going to persist unless there is a dramatic breakthrough in the talks to get Russia to pause its aggression against Ukraine. Rosneft – Russia’s state-run energy giant that has been sanctioned by the Trump administration in order to pressure Vladimir Putin into agreeing to pause his offensive against Ukraine – owns majority stake in the 20 million metric tonnes per annum refinery. Located at Vadinar (Gujarat), Nayara, the country’s second-largest single-site refinery, specialises in processing heavy crude. Until the US sanctions were imposed, it was almost entirely dependent on Russian crude as feedstock. Analysts said with the immediate future of the refinery in mind, India may continue negotiating with the Trump administration to allow import of smaller volumes of Russian crude. Indian refineries have been cutting down on purchase of Russian crude. Though observers said India cannot immediately halt purchases even if it decides to reduce dependence on Urals as refiners have already booked Russian cargoes for the next eight to 10 weeks and cancelling them is not feasible, it does not remove the uncertainty about the fate of Nayara. “My sense is that India will still bargain with the US to import some amount of oil from Russia, especially for Nayara refinery,” said Prashant Vasisht, senior V-P at ratings agency ICRA. Energy expert Narendra Taneja said India will continue importing oil from Russia too, though volumes would decline. “India will continue to get oil supplies from Russia for two reasons – to assert its strategic autonomy and to maintain the right optics for domestic political consumption,” he said. “Since India has to make purchases of $500 billion from the US over a period of five years – imports of oil, gas and LPG are the best way to clock the numbers up quickly, which overall is not a bad idea since what we are going to back in return (capital, technology and bigger access to American markets) is quite attractive,” he said. India imports almost one-third of its crude from Russia, and purchases fell to $2.7 billion in Dec 2025 – the lowest monthly value of shipments in the last three years – and nearly 27% lower than the $3.7 billion recorded in Nov, according to commerce department data. Despite the decline, Russia remained the largest crude supplier to India in 2025-26, accounting for 31.5% of purchases worth $105.1 billion during April-Dec.

NEW DELHI: In a giant leap for the Indian space sector, domestic aerospace company Azista Space has demonstrated a new indigenous capability in space by taking images of objects in orbit from another satellite, a first by any space company in the country. This is often called “in-orbit snooping or space watch”.Using its 80-kg earth-observation satellite ABA First Runner (AFR), Azista Space took images of the International Space Station (ISS), which is orbiting at an altitude of around 400 km from the Earth’s surface.AFR, which was launched in space by SpaceX’s Falcon-9 as part of the Transporter-8 mission on June 13, 2023, has already completed 2.5 years in orbit.In a post of X, Azista Space, which has a manufacturing facility for satellites and payloads in Gujarat’s Sanand, said it has “successfully executed a challenging near-horizon demonstration targeting the ISS. Operating in sunlit conditions at ranges of approximately 250 km and 300 km, the AFR sensor was precisely tasked to track ISS, capturing it in 15 distinct frames. Two independent attempts were conducted, both achieving 100% success.”“The resulting acquisition resulted in the image with 2.2m sampling, validating our tracking algorithms and imaging precision. To our knowledge, AFR is the only Indian built and operated satellite to have demonstrated such a feat,” said the company, which is Asia’s first private satellite factory that annually produces 50 satellites.India currently has more than 50 operational satellites — for communication, navigation, earth observation, and surveillance purposes. Protecting these space assets requires timely information about the activities of other satellites in the vicinity, especially during heightened geopolitical tensions.The rare feat is a key step towards strengthening India’s space situational awareness (SSA), which means comprehensive monitoring, tracking and prediction of man-made satellites, space debris, and natural objects (like asteroids) in Earth’s orbit. It is critical to ensure the safety and sustainability of space activities by analysing potential collisions and enabling avoidance maneuvers. “Azista Space also brings strong electro-optical payload, image processing and satellite bus engineering capabilities, enabling the design, development, and delivery of end-to-end SSA satellites and payloads tailored to customer mission requirements,” the company said.The company undertakes design, development, manufacturing and integration of satellites, space-borne systems and payloads, and also manufactures tailored-made satellites and satellite subsystems. Its personnel are also involved in over 12 Isro missions.

Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga, center, celebrates with teammates (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Sri Lanka began their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup campaign on a confident note, overcoming Ireland by 20 runs in their opening fixture on Sunday, thanks to a composed unbeaten half-century from Kamindu Mendis and a clinical display from their spinners. Asked to bat first, the hosts were rocked early when Mark Adair removed Kamil Mishara for six in the fourth over. Despite the early setback, Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis ensured Sri Lanka finished the powerplay on solid footing, taking the score to 50 with a blend of caution and timely aggression.

The partnership added 34 for the second wicket before George Dockrell broke through in the ninth over, dismissing Nissanka for 24 off 23 balls. Dockrell struck again soon after, sending Pavan Rathnayake back for 5, leaving Sri Lanka wobbling at 68 for three after 11 overs. Ireland tightened the screws through the middle phase, drying up the boundaries and forcing Sri Lanka to crawl to 95 for four by the 15th over. The momentum shifted dramatically thereafter. Kamindu Mendis and Kusal Mendis counter-attacked with a vital 67-run stand that revived the innings. Kamindu changed the complexion of the match with a blistering burst, smashing 44 off just 19 balls, before settling into a mature unbeaten 56 off 43 deliveries. His knock guided Sri Lanka to a competitive total of 163. In reply, Ireland lost skipper Paul Stirling early, trapped by Maheesh Theekshana in the fourth over. Ross Adair showed intent but was bowled by Wanindu Hasaranga for 34, while a promising 49-run stand between Harry Tector and Lorcan Tucker briefly kept Ireland in the hunt. Sri Lanka’s spinners then took control. Hasaranga removed Tector for 40 and Dunith Wellalage accounted for Tucker, triggering a collapse. Theekshana struck twice late to seal the contest as Ireland were bowled out for 143. Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga claimed three wickets apiece, underlining Sri Lanka’s all-round dominance.

PM Modi with Japan PM Sanae Takaichi (Image/PTI)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on her landmark victory in the elections to Japan’s House of Representatives, expressing confidence that bilateral ties between India and Japan would further deepen under her leadership.Congratulating her on the outcome, PM Modi underlined the importance of India–Japan ties, which are anchored in a Special Strategic and Global Partnership and play a key role in regional and global stability.In a post on X, he wrote, “Congratulations Sanae Takaichi on your landmark victory in the elections to the House of Representatives. Our Special Strategic and Global Partnership plays a vital role in enhancing global peace, stability and prosperity. I am confident that under your able leadership, we will continue to take the India-Japan friendship to greater heights.”Takaichi secured a sweeping mandate in the snap lower house elections, consolidating her position just months after becoming Japan’s first woman prime minister. Her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), along with coalition partners is expected to command a strong two-thirds majority, giving her government a decisive edge to push its legislative agenda.Takaichi, 64, emerged as Japan’s prime minister in October after winning the leadership of the LDP, becoming the country’s first woman to hold the office.Also Read | Japan snap elections: PM Sanae Takaichi’s LDP secures majority in lower house – top developmentsKnown for her tough stance on defence, economic security and China, she has positioned herself as a strong advocate of closer cooperation with the United States and like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific region.Her victory marks a turnaround for the LDP after years of political turbulence marked by inflation, funding scandals and voter discontent. The decisive mandate is expected to give Takaichi greater authority to pursue policy reforms, including increased defence spending, economic stimulus measures and a more assertive foreign policy.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Britain’s ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned on Sunday after taking responsibility for advising the prime minister to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to the United States, despite Mandelson’s past links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a statement, McSweeney said the decision had proved damaging. “The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself. When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice,” he said. Starmer is under mounting pressure following the release of newly published documents in the United States, part of a large cache of Epstein-related files made public by the US Justice Department. The documents suggest that Mandelson, while serving as the UK’s business secretary during the 2008 financial crisis, shared market-sensitive information with Epstein. The revelations have triggered a political storm in the UK, raising sharp questions about Starmer’s judgment in appointing Mandelson, 72, to one of Britain’s most important diplomatic posts in 2024. Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and senior figure within the Labour Party, has not been arrested or charged. Starmer’s government has said it will release its own emails and documentation related to Mandelson’s appointment, maintaining that these records will show Mandelson misled officials about the extent of his contacts with Epstein. Mandelson was removed from his ambassadorial role in September following earlier disclosures about his Epstein ties. However, critics argue that the latest documents have intensified concerns and that Starmer should not have approved the appointment in the first place. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that officers searched Mandelson’s London residence and another property linked to him on Friday. Police said the investigation is complex and will require “a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis.” The resignation of McSweeney marks the most serious political fallout so far for Starmer, as scrutiny grows over how Mandelson’s appointment was approved and whether warning signs were ignored.