India’s Gill out to avoid ‘mental fatigue’ from constant cricket

Shubman Gill said Thursday that his biggest opponent could be “mental fatigue” after the India Test captain recently took over charge of the 50-over side.Speaking ahead of Friday’s second Test against the West Indies in New Delhi, Gill conceded that it was a challenge to play all three international formats, but that was what drove him.”Physically most of the time I feel fine, but sometimes there is mental fatigue because when you are constantly playing,” Gill told reporters.”There is obviously a certain expectation that I have from myself.”India lead the two-match series 1-0 after they hammered the visitors by an innings and 140 runs inside three days in the first Test. Immediately after play ended on day three, Gill was named to succeed Rohit Sharma as ODI captain, adding to the 26-year-old’s workload.”I think that is the challenge about being able to play all the formats for India,” said Gill.”And I want to play and succeed in all the formats for the country, and win ICC titles.”Gill, who made his Test debut in December 2020, took over as Test skipper in May from Rohit.He was India’s leading scorer in the drawn five-Test series in England with 754 runs. He was also vice-captain of the Asia Cup-winning T20 team last month.Turning to the West Indies, Gill said there would be no complacency as India aim to wrap up the series against a team who are a pale shadow of the side that once ruled world cricket.”I don’t think your intensity drops down depending on the opposition,” Gill said.”It doesn’t matter who we are playing. We want to be able to play at our own intensity and we want to win.”West Indies were swept 3-0 at home by Australia in June and July. But embattled captain Roston Chase said he had been told to “keep believing” by West Indian greats, including Viv Richards, Brian Lara and Richie Richardson who were at an awards ceremony in New Delhi.”I had the privilege of meeting all three of them and they said the same thing, they told me ‘to keep believing’,” said Chase.”We are down right now but it has to change at some point. “It starts with belief and need to keep motivating the players to play positive cricket and change around our downfall.”

EU woos developing nations at investment forumThu, 09 Oct 2025 10:17:51 GMT

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen pitched the bloc as a dependable partner in a transactional world Thursday as she hosted about a dozen Global South leaders at an investment conference in Brussels.Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Angola’s Joao Lourenco were among those attending the opening of a two-day event aimed at bolstering a global …

EU woos developing nations at investment forumThu, 09 Oct 2025 10:17:51 GMT Read More »

Trump calls for jailing of Illinois Democrats as troops arrive

US President Donald Trump called Wednesday for the Democratic governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago to be jailed for resisting his mass deportation campaign, a day after armed troops from Texas arrived in the state.Chicago, the largest city in Illinois and third-largest in the country, has become the latest flashpoint in a crackdown by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that has sparked allegations of rights abuses and myriad lawsuits.Masked ICE agents have surged into several Democratic-led cities to conduct raids, stoking outrage among many residents and protests outside federal facilities.”Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump posted Wednesday on his social media platform.Trump’s attacks on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, both Democrats, follow similar extraordinary public calls by the president for his political opponents to face legal charges.Trump later hosted an event at the White House regarding left-wing Antifa groups which focused on Portland, another Democratic-run city on the US west coast which has also become a flashpoint.The roundtable featured a number of right-wing independent journalists who said they had been assaulted by left-wing demonstrators from Antifa, which Trump recently classified as a terrorist group despite its ill-defined nature.”We have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country,” Trump said.His Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who was in Portland a day earlier, said Antifa protesters were “just as dangerous” as the Palestinian militant group Hamas.”They have an agenda to destroy us just like the other terrorists,” Noem said.- ‘Full-blown authoritarianism’ -Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle the protests, but Trump claims the military is needed to keep federal agents safe, heightening concerns by his critics of growing authoritarianism.After National Guard deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, 200 troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday.”Elements of the Texas National Guard, under Title 10 authority and command and control of U.S. Northern Command, are employed in the greater Chicago area,” US Northern Command posted on X.”These soldiers are employed to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other U.S. Government personnel who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.”Chicago Governor Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has become one of Trump’s most fiery critics.He pledged Wednesday to “not back down,” listing a litany of grievances against Trump’s immigration crackdown.”What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” he wrote on X. “We must all stand up and speak out.”Chicago Mayor Johnson has announced “ICE-free zones” where city-owned property will be declared off-limits to federal authorities, following raids, including one in which Black Hawk helicopters descended on a housing complex.Johnson accused Republicans of wanting “a rematch of the Civil War.”Trump’s call for the arrests of the Illinois Democrats came on the same day that former FBI director James Comey was arraigned on charges of lying to Congress.Comey’s indictment came just days after Trump urged his attorney general to quickly take action against him and others.Trump’s immigration crackdown is aimed at fulfilling a key election pledge to rid the country of what he called waves of foreign “criminals.”But he has also faced some legal setbacks, including a judge in Oregon temporarily blocking his bid to deploy troops in Portland.Trump said this week he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to force deployments of troops around the country if courts or local officials are “holding us up.”

Israel, Hamas agree to hostage release, ceasefire deal

Israel and Hamas on Thursday agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living hostages, in a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.Israel’s cabinet will meet at 1500 GMT to discuss a plan for the release of all hostages, while a deal should be signed later Thursday in Egypt, where indirect negotiations are under way.The agreement follows a 20-point peace plan for Gaza announced last month by US President Donald Trump, under which Israel should withdraw from Gaza and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.After more than two years of war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, the deal also envisions a surge of aid into Gaza, where the UN has declared famine.The Israeli army said it was preparing to pull back troops in Gaza, in line with the agreement, while the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement would only take effect with cabinet approval.Trump’s plan also calls for the disarmament of Hamas and for Gaza to be ruled by a transitional authority headed by the US president himself, though these points have yet to be addressed in any discussions.A source within Hamas told AFP the group will exchange 20 living hostages all at the same time for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal’s first phase, with the swap to happen within 72 hours of its implementation.”The 72-hour countdown will begin only after the agreement is approved in the cabinet meeting, which is expected in the evening hours,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.- ‘Tears of joy’ -The announcement sparked waves of joy in Gaza, much of which has been flattened by bombardment and most of whose residents have been displaced at least once over the past two years.”Honestly, when I heard the news, I couldn’t hold back. Tears of joy flowed. Two years of bombing, terror, destruction, loss, humiliation, and the constant feeling that we could die at any moment,” displaced Palestinian Samer Joudeh told AFP.In Israel, thousands of people gathered in a Tel Aviv square, many wearing stickers reading: “They’re coming back.” Others held photos of hostages still in Gaza and waved Israeli and US flags.”We have been waiting for this day for 734 days. We cannot imagine being anywhere else this morning,” said Laurence Ytzhak, 54, a Tel Aviv resident.The deal is being thrashed out in indirect negotiations behind closed doors in a conference centre in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort town on the Red Sea.While Arab leaders including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said they hoped the ceasefire would lead to a permanent solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, there was no indication the talks were addressing any of the deeper issues at stake.Still, it was feted by governments around the world, with mediator Qatar saying the deal was the “first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which will lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid”.The hostages are to be freed in exchange for 250 Palestinians sentenced to life imprisonment and 1,700 others arrested by Israel since the war began, according to the Hamas source.- ‘With God’s help’ -Netanyahu said he would bring the hostages home “with God’s help”, while Trump said earlier he may travel to the Middle East this week.The fast-paced developments came after AFP journalists saw US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupt a White House event on Wednesday and hand Trump a note about the progress of negotiations in Egypt.Hamas has submitted a list of Palestinian prisoners it wants released from Israeli jails in the first phase of the truce.In exchange, Hamas is to free the remaining 47 hostages, both alive and dead, who were seized in October 2023.The talks were taking place under the shadow of the second anniversary of the Hamas attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.Militants also took 251 people hostage into Gaza, where 47 remain, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,183 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.Gaza’s civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas’s authority, reported several strikes on the territory after the announcement of the deal.- Protests, prisoners -Pressure to end the war has escalated massively in recent weeks, and a UN probe last month accused Israel of genocide, a charge the government rejected as “distorted and false”.Hamas has also been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.One key to the negotiations was the names of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas pushed for.High-profile inmate Marwan Barghouti — from Hamas’s rival, the Fatah movement — is among those the group wanted to see released, according to Egyptian state-linked media. Hamas’s top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, also said the group wants “guarantees from President Trump and the sponsor countries that the war will end once and for all”.burs/ser/csp

Santé: les médicaments devraient être au rendez-vous cet hiver

L’hiver s’annonce sous de meilleurs auspices que les précédents, dans un “contexte favorable” de disponibilité des médicaments les plus couramment utilisés pendant cette période, a annoncé jeudi l’Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament (ANSM).”Après plusieurs saisons hivernales marquées par des pénuries, cette saison 2025-2026 débute dans un contexte de disponibilité des médicaments au niveau national favorable”, a indiqué l’autorité sanitaire à l’occasion du lancement de son plan hivernal visant à surveiller les stocks et les approvisionnements des médicaments hivernaux afin d’anticiper toute difficulté.Depuis trois ans, l’agence déploie chaque hiver un plan destiné à éviter les pénuries de médicaments à une période marquée par une forte circulation de diverses maladies, qu’elles soient bactériennes (nécessitant des antibiotiques) ou virales comme la grippe saisonnière.Depuis 2023, 13 molécules sont surveillées, parmi lesquelles des antibiotiques, des médicaments contre la fièvre, des corticoïdes et des traitements de l’asthme.Cette année, une 14ᵉ molécule (l’amoxicilline/acide clavulanique 1000 mg/125 mg) s’ajoute à la liste des antibiotiques suivis en réponse aux difficultés signalées par les professionnels de santé l’hiver dernier et à “l’augmentation habituelle des prescriptions sur la période”, selon un communiqué de l’ANSM.Le plan hivernal prévoit aussi la surveillance de “dispositifs médicaux indispensables”, comme les matériels de réanimation pédiatrique et adulte ou les tests rapides d’orientation diagnostique (Trod), ajoute l’institution.Le début des années 2020 avait été marqué par la pénurie de certains traitements, dont des antibiotiques courants comme l’amoxicilline, en particulier dans leurs versions destinées aux enfants.

RDC: à Bruxelles, Tshisekedi tend la main à Kagame pour faire “la paix”

Le président congolais Félix Tshisekedi a appelé jeudi à Bruxelles son homologue rwandais Paul Kagame à avoir “le courage” de travailler avec lui pour faire “la paix des braves” et cesser les violences dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC).”Je prends à témoin l’assistance ici présente et le monde entier (…) pour lancer un appel à la paix, lui tendre la main et demander à ce qu’on arrête cette escalade”, a-t-il déclaré lors d’un forum diplomatique auquel participait également M. Kagame.”Aujourd’hui (…) nous sommes les deux seuls capables d’arrêter cette escalade”, a-t-il ajouté, en référence aux violences qui se poursuivent en dépit d’un accord de paix signé fin juin à Washington.L’est de la RDC, région riche en ressources naturelles et frontalière du Rwanda, est en proie à des conflits depuis 30 ans. Les violences se sont intensifiées depuis janvier avec la prise des grandes villes de Goma et Bukavu par le groupe armé antigouvernemental M23, soutenu par Kigali et son armée.- “Passer à autre chose” -A Bruxelles, Félix Tshisekedi a souligné que la paix ne pourrait être envisagée qu’à condition que son homologue rwandais donne expressément l’ordre aux troupes du M23 de cesser les hostilités.”L’Afrique a besoin de passer à autre chose monsieur le président Paul Kagame et nous en sommes capables”, a-t-il encore déclaré.Présent à la tribune quelques instants auparavant, le président rwandais n’a pas explicitement évoqué ces efforts de paix. Il a simplement fait part d’une “énergie positive” concernant “les affaires, les investissements, la paix”. Sans donner davantage de détails.Depuis sa résurgence fin 2021, le groupe armé M23, soutenu par le Rwanda, s’est emparé de vastes pans de territoires dans l’est, riche en ressources naturelles, de la RDC, notamment des grandes villes de Goma en janvier et Bukavu en février.Kinshasa et le M23 ont signé une déclaration de principes à Doha le 19 juillet, dans laquelle les deux parties ont réaffirmé “leur engagement en faveur d’un cessez-le-feu permanent”, dans la foulée de la signature d’un accord de paix entre la RDC et le Rwanda à Washington fin juin. Mais sur le terrain, les violences se poursuivent.Durant son discours, le dirigeant congolais a pris le soin de saluer l'”implication” de Donald Trump dans les efforts de paix.Le président américain, de son côté, s’attribue régulièrement le mérite d’avoir mis fin à ce conflit. Il n’hésite pas à l’évoquer lorsqu’il se félicite d’avoir conclu “sept guerres”, un argument qu’il présente volontiers comme faisant de lui un candidat idéal au prix Nobel de la paix.

Five things to know about CameroonThu, 09 Oct 2025 09:58:39 GMT

Ruled with an iron fist by President Paul Biya for 43 years, Cameroon is central Africa’s most diversified economy.   In recent years, the country has battled violence from a separatist movement among its English-speaking minority in the western regions and jihadist attacks in the north.- Wealth and diversity -Cameroon derives its name from a river …

Five things to know about CameroonThu, 09 Oct 2025 09:58:39 GMT Read More »