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Governments around the world are evacuating thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot. Foreigners have rushed to leave both countries after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign last Friday targeting Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, sparking retaliation from Tehran.With Israel’s air space closed and the two countries exchanging heavy missile fire, many people are being evacuated via neighbouring countries. – Europe -European countries have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens from Israel.The Czech Republic and Slovakia said Tuesday they had taken 181 people home on government planes.”It was not possible to send the army plane straight to Israel,” the Czech defence ministry said in a statement, citing the air space closure.”The evacuees were taken to an airport in a neighbouring country by buses. They crossed the border on foot.”The German government said flights were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday via Jordan, while Poland said the first of its citizens were due to arrive back on Wednesday.Greece said it had repatriated 105 of its citizens plus a number of foreign nationals via Egypt, while a private plane with 148 people landed in the Bulgarian capital Sophia on Tuesday.  – United States -The US ambassador to Israel on Wednesday announced plans for evacuating Americans by air and sea.The embassy is “working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures” for “American citizens wanting to leave Israel,” Ambassador Mike Huckabee posted on social media.- China -China has evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and several hundred more from Israel.The Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday its “embassies and consulates will continue to make every effort to assist in the safe transfer and evacuation of Chinese citizens”.- Australia -Australia has started evacuating around 1,500 citizens from Iran and more than 1,200 from Israel — but missile barrages have made it too risky for civilian aircraft to land in either country, its foreign minister said. “There’s no capacity for people to get civilian aircraft in, it is too risky, and the airspace is closed,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong told national broadcaster ABC. “We have taken the opportunity to get a small group of Australians out of Israel through a land border crossing. “We are seeking to try and do more of that over the next 24 hours.” – Pakistan -Pakistan has shut its border crossings with neighbouring Iran, except to Pakistanis wanting to return home. Around 1,000 Pakistanis have fled so far, including at least 200 students.The foreign ministry said the families of diplomats and some non-essential staff from Iran had been evacuated. – India -Around 110 students who fled Iran over the land border with Armenia have landed in New Delhi, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.There are around 10,000 Indian citizens in Iran. In Israel there are around 30,000 Indians, according to the country’s embassy in New Delhi.- Japan -Japan has ordered military planes to be on standby for around 1,000 Japanese nationals believed to live in Israel, and around 280 in Iran, according to government ministers.The Japanese embassies in Iran and Israel are preparing to use buses to evacuate citizens to neighbouring countries, a government spokesman said, as the war entered its seventh day.- Indonesia -Indonesia is preparing to evacuate around 380 of its citizens currently in Iran by land, Jakarta’s foreign minister said Thursday. “Flights are no longer possible, so the only way is land route. It will start tonight,” Foreign Minister Sugiono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said in a video.- Vietnam -Vietnam, which has more than 700 citizens in Israel and dozens in Iran, said it was working to ensure their safety.The foreign ministry said Thursday that 18 Vietnamese from Iran were evacuated, 16 of whom returned to Vietnam. It did not provide further information on evacuations from Israel.- Philippines -The Philippines is preparing to repatriate 28 Israel-based Filipino workers out of 178 who asked for help, the Department of Migrant Workers secretary Hans Cacdac said Thursday.At least 21 Philippine government officials have also crossed into Jordan by land from Israel since the conflict began, the foreign ministry said.

Hundreds of anti-government protesters gathered outside Thailand’s Government House on Thursday, demanding Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra resign over a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen that triggered public outrage.The scandal rocked Paetongtarn’s coalition after the Bhumjaithai party, a key partner, pulled out on Wednesday, accusing her of undermining the country and insulting the dignity of the military.The leaked call, in which Paetongtarn referred to the Thai army’s northeastern commander as her opponent and addressed Hun Sen as “uncle” has drawn strong public backlash.The protest, held in scorching tropical heat, drew mostly elderly demonstrators wearing yellow shirts — the colour strongly associated with Thailand’s monarchy — who accused the 38-year-old leader of “lacking diplomatic skills” and “endangering national interests”.”I was very disappointed when I heard the (leaked) audio,” Kanya Hanotee, 68, a temple worker told AFP.”She lacks negotiation skills. Who does she think she is? This country is not hers.”Protesters waved Thai flags and placards labelling Paetongtarn a “traitor”, and chanted “Get out!” and “Go to hell!” while dozens of riot police stood nearby.Many in the crowd were longtime supporters of the conservative, pro-royalist “Yellow Shirt” movement, which has fiercely opposed the Shinawatra political dynasty since the 2000s.Kaewta, 62, a housewife from Bangkok said she joined Yellow Shirt protests near Bangkok’s Democracy Monument two decades ago.”I didn’t support any political party. All I knew was that I hated Thaksin and his family,” she told AFP.”Our politicians are all corrupt.”- 20-year battle -The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin’s political movement backed by its own “Red Shirt” supporters has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.Yellow Shirts, backed by Royalists and business elites, led 2008 protests that shut Bangkok’s airports, stranded tourists, and helped topple a Thaksin-linked government. In 2010, pro-Thaksin “Red Shirt” protesters rallied in Bangkok in opposition to the military-backed government, ending in a bloody crackdown that left more than 90 people dead. “The power has been passed from her father to her aunt, and now to her,” said Mek Sumet, 59, an electrical equipment seller who took part in the 2008 Don Mueang airport occupation. “She doesn’t think of the country but only of herself,” he told AFP.The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumours that another may be in the offing.Despite Thailand’s long history of coups, some protestors openly welcomed the idea of another military intervention.”I want the military to take control,” Kanya told AFP.”We are thinking long-term. It will be positive for the country.”

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra apologised Thursday for a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen that has provoked widespread anger and put her government on the brink of collapse.Her main coalition partner has quit and calls are mounting for her to resign or announce an election, throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid US President Donald Trump’s swingeing trade tariffs.The conservative Bhumjaithai party pulled out on Wednesday saying Paetongtarn’s conduct in the leaked call had wounded the country and the army’s dignity.As pressure grew on Thursday Paetongtarn, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra — Thailand’s most influential but controversial modern politician — apologised at a press conference alongside military chiefs and senior figures from her Pheu Thai party.”I would like to apologise for the leaked audio of my conversation with a Cambodian leader which has caused public resentment,” Paetongtarn told reporters.In the call, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen — who stepped down as Cambodian prime minister in 2023 after four decades but still wields considerable influence.She addresses the veteran leader as “uncle” and refers to the Thai army commander in the country’s northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media.The loss of Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs left Paetongtarn with barely enough votes to scrape a majority in parliament, and a snap election looks a clear possibility — barely two years after the last one in May 2023.Two other coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will hold meetings to discuss the situation later Thursday.Paetongtarn will be hoping her apology and show of unity with the military are enough to persuade them to stay on board.Losing either would likely mean the end of Paetongtarn’s government, and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.- Resignation calls -Thailand’s military said in a statement that army chief General Pana Claewplodtook “affirms commitment to democratic principles and national sovereignty protection”.”The Chief of Army emphasised that the paramount imperative is for ‘Thai people to stand united’ in collectively defending national sovereignty,” it added.Thailand’s armed forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics, and politicians are usually careful not to antagonise them.The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumours that another may be in the offing.If Paetongtarn is ousted in a coup she would be the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin Shinawatra, to be kicked out of office by the military.The main opposition People’s Party, which won most seats in 2023 but was blocked by conservative senators from forming a government, urged Paetongtarn to call an election.”What happened yesterday was a leadership crisis that destroyed people’s trust,” People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said in a statement.The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023 and is headed by General Prawit Wongsuwan — who supported a 2014 coup against Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck — said the leaked recording showed she was weak and inexperienced, incapable of managing the country’s security.Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House Thursday demanding Paetongtarn quit.- Awkward coalition -Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the last 20 years battling against her father.Growing tensions within the coalition erupted into open warfare in the past week as Pheu Thai tried to take the interior minister job away from Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul.The loss of Bhumjaithai leaves Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a handful more votes than the 248 needed for a majority.The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin’s political movement has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising.The current Pheu Thai-led government has already lost one prime minister, former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was kicked out by a court order last year that brought Paetongtarn to office.

Pakistan says it has expelled more than a million Afghans in the past two years, yet many have quickly attempted to return — preferring to take their chances dodging the law than struggle for existence in a homeland some had never even seen before.”Going back there would be sentencing my family to death,” said Hayatullah, a 46-year-old Afghan deported via the Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in early 2024. Since April and a renewed deportation drive, some 200,000 Afghans have spilled over the two main border crossings from Pakistan, entering on trucks loaded with hastily packed belongings.But they carry little hope of starting over in the impoverished country, where girls are banned from school after primary level.Hayatullah, a pseudonym, returned to Pakistan a month after being deported, travelling around 800 kilometres (500 miles) south to the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan, because for him, life in Afghanistan “had come to a standstill”.He paid a bribe to cross the Chaman frontier, “like all the day labourers who regularly travel across the border to work on the other side”.His wife and three children — including daughters, aged 16 and 18, who would be denied education in Afghanistan — had managed to avoid arrest and deportation.- Relative security -Hayatullah moved the family to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a region mostly populated by Pashtuns — the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.”Compared to Islamabad, the police here don’t harass us as much,” he said.The only province governed by the opposition party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan — who is now in prison and in open conflict with the federal government — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is considered a refuge of relative security for Afghans.Samad Khan, a 38-year-old Afghan who also spoke using a pseudonym, also chose to relocate his family to Peshawar.Born in eastern Pakistan’s Lahore city, he set foot in Afghanistan for the first time on April 22 — the day he was deported. “We have no relatives in Afghanistan, and there’s no sign of life. There’s no work, no income, and the Taliban are extremely strict,” he said.At first, he tried to find work in a country where 85 percent of the population lives on less than one dollar a day, but after a few weeks he instead found a way back to Pakistan. “I paid 50,000 rupees (around $180) to an Afghan truck driver,” he said, using one of his Pakistani employees’ ID cards to cross the border.He rushed back to Lahore to bundle his belongings and wife and two children — who had been left behind — into a vehicle, and moved to Peshawar. “I started a second-hand shoe business with the support of a friend. The police here don’t harass us like they do in Lahore, and the overall environment is much better,” he told AFP.- ‘Challenging’ reintegration – It’s hard to say how many Afghans have returned, as data is scarce.Government sources, eager to blame the country’s problems on supporters of Khan, claim that hundreds of thousands of Afghans are already back and settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — figures that cannot be independently verified.Migrant rights defenders in Pakistan say they’ve heard of such returns, but insist the numbers are limited.The International Organization for Migration (IOM) told AFP that “some Afghans who were returned have subsequently chosen to remigrate to Pakistan”. “When individuals return to areas with limited access to basic services and livelihood opportunities, reintegration can be challenging,” said Avand Azeez Agha, communications officer for the UN agency in Kabul.  They might move on again, he said, “as people seek sustainable opportunities”.

Fast bowler Asitha Fernando finished with four wickets as Sri Lanka wrapped up Bangladesh’s first innings for 495 early on day three of the opening Test in Galle on Thursday, capping off a dramatic late-order collapse. Bangladesh, resuming at 484 for nine, added just 11 runs before folding in 16 deliveries. Last man Nahid Rana feathered a short ball to wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis as Asitha completed a return of 4-86 from his 29.4 overs. The visitors had been cruising at 458 for four on Wednesday before losing five wickets for 26 runs in the final hour of the rain-hit day two. The slide began when Fernando, generating reverse swing, trapped Mushfiqur Rahim leg before for a marathon 163, breaking a 149-run fifth-wicket stand with Litton Das. In the next over, debutant Tharindu Rathnayake struck as Das, on 90, gloved a reverse sweep to the keeper to herald a collapse.Rain and poor light restricted play to 61 overs on day two.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra faced mounting calls to resign on Thursday after a leaked phone call she had with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen provoked widespread anger and a key coalition partner to quit.The coalition government led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party is on the brink of collapsing and throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid US President Donald Trump’s swingeing trade tariffs.The conservative Bhumjaithai party, Pheu Thai’s biggest partner, pulled out on Wednesday saying Paetongtarn’s conduct in the leaked call had wounded the country and the army’s dignity.Losing Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs leaves Paetongtarn with barely enough votes to scrape a majority in parliament, and a snap election looks a clear possibility — barely two years after the last one in May 2023.Two coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will hold urgent meetings to discuss the situation later on Thursday.Losing either would likely mean the end of Paetongtarn’s government and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.- Resignation calls -The main opposition People’s Party, which won most seats in 2023 but was blocked by conservative senators from forming a government, called on Paetongtarn to call an election.”What happened yesterday was a leadership crisis that destroyed people’s trust,” People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said in a statement.”People want a government that can solve problems and only way to do that is to have a legitimate government.”The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023 and is headed by General Prawit Wongsuwan — who supported a 2014 coup against Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck — called for the premier to resign.A statement from the party said the leaked recording showed Paetongtarn was weak and inexperienced, and incapable of managing the country’s security.Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House demanding Paetongtarn quit.In the leaked phone call, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen — who stepped down as Cambodian prime minister in 2023 after four decades but still wields considerable influence.She addresses the veteran leader as “uncle” and refers to the Thai army commander in the country’s northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media, particularly on Pheu Thai page and Royal Thai Army page.Thailand’s armed forces have a long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics, and politicians are usually careful not to antagonise them.The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumours that another may be in the offing.If she is ousted she would be the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin Shinawatra, to be kicked out of office by the army.- Awkward coalition -Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the last 20 years battling against her father.Growing tensions within the coalition erupted into open warfare in the past week as Pheu Thai tried to take the interior minister job away from Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul.The loss of Bhumjaithai leaves Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a handful more votes than the 248 needed for a majority.The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin’s political movement has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising.Thaksin returned to Thailand in 2023 as Pheu Thai took power after 15 years in self-exile overseas.The current Pheu Thai-led government has already lost one prime minister, former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was kicked out by a court order last year, bringing Paetongtarn to office.

Shubman Gill will be in the spotlight as a new-look India, without star batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, bid to end their 18-year wait for a Test series win in England.Gill succeeded Rohit as captain after the latter announced his retirement from Test cricket last month.Just days later, Kohli said he was bowing out of red-ball internationals as well.Gill also has the additional responsibility of filling Kohli’s shoes at number four in the batting order.India vice-captain Rishabh Pant on Wednesday revealed that was where his new skipper would bat in the first of a five-Test series against England starting at Headingley on Friday.The 25-year-old Gill has a modest Test batting average of 35 in 32 matches, a figure that drops to 29 in away games and declines even further to under 15 in three matches in England.India’s number four position has been dominated during the past three decades by all-time batting great Sachin Tendulkar and Kohli, who in that specific position scored 21,056 runs between them in 278 Tests.Gill’s first challenge will be ensuring the demands of captaincy don’t detract from his batting in England, where India have won just three Test series — in 1971, 1986 and 2007.Thus far Gill has made all the right noises, saying last month: “I believe in leading by example — not just by performance, but, I think, off the field by discipline and hard work.”He will have the ebullient Pant to lean on after the wicketkeeper-batsman’s return from a life-threatening car crash in 2022, while opener Yashavsi Jaiswal is one of the game’s rising stars.But it is not just in batting where India — who have had limited warm-up time in England — must cope without stalwart performers.Jasprit Bumrah is arguably the best all-format bowler in world cricket at present but, following a back injury lay-off, the quick may only play in three of the five Tests given the tight schedule.Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has retired from Test cricket, while experienced Mohammed Shami, not fully fit following ankle surgery last year, has been omitted.- ‘They have enough ammunition’ -If there are concerns about India’s ability to take the 20 wickets they need to win a match, those doubts apply to England as well.Beaten 4-1 in India last year, Ben Stokes’ men are tipped to turn the tables on home soil in a series that launches the new cycle of the World Test Championship following South Africa’s dramatic defeat of Australia in last week’s final at Lord’s.England, however, are without the retired duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, their two most successful Test bowlers of all time with a combined 1,308 wickets between them.”It feels so good when both of them are not there,” said Pant, adding: “But at the same time, they have enough ammunition in the England bowling line-up.”We don’t want to take anyone lightly because our team is also young and still looking to develop themselves.”England’s desire to field an attack including both Jofra Archer and Mark Wood has been hampered by repeated injuries to the fast bowlers.Both Archer and Wood will be missing at Headingley, where Durham paceman Brydon Carse is set to make his home debut in an attack where Chris Woakes, who missed most of the start of the season with an ankle injury, is the senior seamer.”There’s no hiding away from the fact that, over a number of years, England have had Broad and Anderson as the main two bowlers, so it is slightly more inexperienced,” said Carse.The 29-year-old added: “I think it’s a good chance for a couple of younger players, with slightly less experience, to stamp down some authority throughout the series.”Broad, however, told The Times: “Looking at England, with all the injuries they’ve got — where are they getting 20 wickets?”

More than 200 victims of last week’s Air India jet crash have been identified through DNA testing, a hospital official said Wednesday, inching towards ending an agonising wait for relatives.   There was one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew on board the London-bound plane on Thursday when it slammed into a residential area of Ahmedabad, killing at least 38 people on the ground. Distraught relatives have been providing DNA samples to help identify their loved ones, in a painstakingly slow process. As of Wednesday, 208 victims had been identified, the civil hospital’s medical superintendent Rakesh Joshi told journalists.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner erupted into a fireball when it crashed moments after takeoff, with witnesses reporting seeing badly burnt bodies and scattered remains.Indian authorities are yet to announce the cause of the crash and investigators from Britain and the United States have joined the probe.Investigators are aiming to retrieve vital information from both black boxes recovered from the site — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau upgraded a laboratory this year where black boxes can be analysed.Following the crash, the civil aviation regulator ordered inspections of Air India’s Dreamliners. Air India said Wednesday it would also carry out “enhanced safety checks on its Boeing 777 fleet”, in a note announcing a decision to cut its international flights on widebody planes by 15 percent until mid-July.Routes affected include those flown by the Boeing 787-8 and 777 models. The move follows 83 cancellations since the crash, due to “compounding circumstances”, according to Air India.”Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, night curfew in the airspaces of many countries in Europe and East Asia, the ongoing enhanced safety inspections, and also the necessary cautious approach being taken by the engineering staff and Air India pilots,” have led to the spate of scrapped flights, the airline said.Initial checks on Air India’s fleet “did not reveal any major safety concerns”, the civil aviation regulator said late Tuesday.”The aircraft and associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards,” it said.

India has a “clear intent” to target members of a Sikh separatist movement in North America, a Canadian intelligence report said Wednesday after leaders of the two nations agreed to turn the page on a bitter spat over an assassination.Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in March, welcomed his counterpart Narendra Modi to the Canadian Rockies as a guest at a summit of the Group of Seven major economies.They agreed during bilateral talks on Tuesday to name new high commissioners, as ambassadors are known between Commonwealth nations, in hopes of restoring normal operations for citizens and businesses.A rift had emerged after Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil and expelled the Indian ambassador, triggering a furious reciprocal response from India.In a report published on Wednesday, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver signaled “a significant escalation in India’s repression efforts against the Khalistan movement and a clear intent to target individuals in North America.”CSIS also identified India as a persistent foreign interference threat, along with China, Russia and others.”Canada must remain vigilant about continued foreign interference conducted by the government of India, not only within ethnic, religious and cultural communities, but also in Canada’s political system,” CSIS said.The agency said it would continue to monitor India’s activities in Canada, while a police investigation into Nijjar’s murder continued.Canada is home to the largest Sikh diaspora outside India. Making up about two percent of the Canadian population and clustered in suburban swing areas, the community has exerted growing political influence.Nijjar, a naturalized Canadian citizen who advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, was shot dead in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in British Columbia in June 2023.India has denied involvement in the killing and said Canada should take more action against violent advocates for Khalistan, which has been reduced to a fringe movement inside India.The United States has also accused an Indian agent of involvement in an unsuccessful plot against a Sikh separatist on US soil.At the conclusion of the G7 summit in Kananaskis, all of the leaders issued a statement that condemned state-sponsored “transnational repression,” including targeted assassinations.

Rishabh Pant hopes his side’s Test series in England can start to “make India happy again” after one of the world’s worst plane crashes left the country in mourning.A total of 279 people were killed when an Air India flight heading to London’s Gatwick Airport crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad last Thursday.There was only one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew, with at least 38 people on the ground dying as well when the plane slammed into a residential area of the western city.The Indian team wore black armbands and observed a minute’s silence during an intra-squad warm-up match in Beckenham.And India vice-captain Pant hopes they can do something to raise national morale when the first Test of a five-match series starts at Headingley on Friday.”What happened with the aircraft, the whole of India was saddened by it,” Pant told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.”The only thing for us is how can we make India happy again? The emotion is going to be high always because of what happened in the crash, but at the same time we are going to put our best foot forward for the country.”How we can make them happy is an added responsibility.”India have arrived in England without two star names in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma after both batsmen retired from Test cricket last month.Shubman Gill has succeeded Rohit as captain, with Pant saying Wednesday the new skipper would replace Kohli at number four in the batting order. “Obviously, it’s a new start for us,” said Pant. “Big people have left, definitely.”Yes, there will be a gap, but at the same time it’s an opportunity for us to build a new culture from here or take a culture forward from there.”The 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman added: “I think the idea is very simple: look to play positive, brave cricket, but at the same time, know you’ve got to respect the conditions.”