AUS vs ENG Live Score, 2nd Ashes Test Day 1: England’s challenge in the day-night second Ashes Test at Brisbane’s Gabba is as much about history as it is about form. Trailing 1-0 after collapsing dramatically in Perth, Ben Stokes’ side cannot afford another defeat if they are to harbour any realistic hope of regaining the urn. Yet they return to a venue that has tormented them for nearly four decades — England have not won a Test at the Gabba since 1986, and have not won a match anywhere in Australia since the 2010-11 tour.
That task becomes tougher under lights. The pink-ball format heavily favours Australia, who have won 13 of 14 day-night Tests globally. The only blemish was at this very venue against the West Indies last year, offering England faint hope. Swing specialist Mitchell Starc is expected to thrive in the humid conditions, especially with captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood still unavailable.
England also lose their pace spearhead Mark Wood to a knee injury, replacing him with off-spinner Will Jacks, who boosts their batting depth. Stokes insists the squad has “moved on” from the Perth collapse and has prepared intensely with extra evening training sessions in Brisbane.
Australia’s only uncertainty lies at the top of their batting order, with Usman Khawaja ruled out due to back spasms. Travis Head, whose stunning hundred as a makeshift opener destroyed England in Perth, could be promoted again, despite calling fixed batting positions “slightly overrated.” The hosts also may consider Josh Inglis as an alternative opener.
For England, this is not just a Test match — it is a last chance to stop Australia tightening their grip on the Ashes.
BofA Securities has a neutral rating on PB Fintech (Policybazar) with the target price of Rs 1,980. Analysts said that the company’s management sees no GST-led negative impact on health and term policies, some impact on savings business but they’re working to address the same in the next 3-6 months. Most insurer contracts on combined operating ratio. They said that with lower operating expense and better claims ratio, PB is better placed to negotiate with insurance companies. PB is focused on driving healthy growth, they said.Jefferies has a buy on Chalet Hotels with the target price at Rs 1,070. Analyst said that the company reaffirmed its metro dominance at its analyst meet, citing institutional partnerships, mixed-use expertise and industry-leading execution. The hospitality company is focused on ‘Big Box’ city assets and leisure properties, complemented by selective commercial real estate. Since listing, Chalet has added 1,050+ keys and has another 1,180 in the pipeline. The company prefers to balance brand tie-ups with a selective rollout of ATHIVA, its new upper-upscale brand tailored to each property’s potential.CLSA has an outperform rating on Hindalco with the target price raised to Rs 965. Analysts estimate that even at an LME price of $2,600 (spot $2,850), ongoing capacity and margin expansion initiatives could double earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) in the next five years, with significant free cash flow generation in the back half. They said in the near term, concerns at Novelis (capex escalation and fire in a plant) are likely to be offset by strong aluminium price outlook. The management was constructive on aluminium price outlook, they said. The company’s capacity addition in Indonesia (as China approaches its ceiling of 45 metric tonne) could face challenges on power availability. They also said that the demand is resilient.Citigroup has upgraded HDFC AM to neutral from sell with the target price raised to Rs 2,850. Analysts upgrade the stock on a number of factors. For one, the fund house shows sustained strength in performance across most key actively-managed high-yielding categories. It has an elevated focus on scaling up non-MF businesses. Also, there’s limited visibility of any near-term regulatory overhang. On the other hand, elevated competitive pressure and reducing distribution moats for incumbents remain the key concerns.Macquarie has an outperform rating on ITC with the target price at Rs 500. Analysts believe concerns on high per-stick taxes shared in draft excise document are misplaced, as such rates represent the cap and not the applicable rates. They see potential moderation in discounting post move to GST as a percentage of retail price, and moderation in leaf tobacco costs driving 10%+ FY27 EBIT growth in cigarette business. Analysts raised ITC’s earnings per share estimates and target price by 2% and 4%, respectively, to factor in these tailwinds. They also believe a re-rating needs clarity that cigarette tax will not increase materially post levy of a new cess.
NEW DELHI: India will lead sales of scotch globally as rising disposable incomes and lower import duty — once the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) comes into play — will spur demand and drive greater engagement between whisky companies of the two countries, the top body representing Scotch whisky makers has said.The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), that has global giants such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard, William Grant & Sons, Whyte & Mackay and Suntory Global Spirits as members, however, continues to remain cold to demand of Indian makers to recognise spirit matured for less than three years as whisky. “If it doesn’t meet the parameters of our domestic (UK) legislation, it can’t be called whisky,” Mark Kent, chief executive of SWA told TOI recently.Speaking on the trade agreement, which is likely to come into force around the middle of next year after ratification from the UK Parliament, Kent said CETA will not only help in lowering prices but will also lead to creation of new jobs and investments across the UK and India.The new jobs are going to be not just in the distilleries, but even in farms that are growing barley. “So, all through the value chain, from farmers planting barley to the people serving the whisky, you will see a boost. You’ll be looking at jobs getting created through bottling, through the hospitality sector, tourism upskilling. This goes in both directions.”Speaking about the importance of this engagement for scotch makers, Kent said India is their biggest market. “We export to 180 different markets around the world, so we’re global. However, the Indian whisky industry is twice as big as the Scotch industry. The market is going to be even more important in the future as the economy grows and we see more disposable incomes. India is the biggest. So, that’s very important.”He said that SWA expects a 9-10% reduction in scotch prices once the deal is in force. “Apart from being affordable for Indians, the lower prices will also help Indian makers who import bulk scotch for IMFL… It gives you an opportunity to improve the quality of your products because you can add more scotch.”Also, he said that newer scotch brands will also be interested in coming to India. “Also, there are Indian companies who are looking at setting up distilleries in Scotland. So, we are starting to really see a build-up of partnerships.”
A Pakistan-origin man studying at the University of Delaware was arrested after police discovered a large collection of guns, ammunition and body armour, along with a manifesto that allegedly described plans to “kill all” and seek “martyrdom” in a mass shooting on the University campus, The New York Post reported.Police arrested 25-year-old Luqmaan Khan just before midnight on November 24. Officers found him sitting in his pickup truck in a park after closing hours, and decided to search the vehicle because he was acting suspiciously.Inside the truck, officers allegedly found a .357 Glock pistol, several loaded 27-round magazines, body-armor plates, binoculars, a laptop and a marble composition notebook. Prosecutors said the pistol had been placed into a kit that turned it into a semi-automatic rifle.The police also recovered a notebook reportedly describing a plan to attack his former school’s campus police department, including a drawn-out map of the police headquarters with marked entry and exit points. The plan included evading law enforcement team after attack.ABC 6 reported that the writings included phrases like “kill all – martyrdom,” explained how to escape after the attack, and described how several weapons would be used. Police said the notes clearly showed “premeditated assault plans” and “warfare techniques.”The exact reason for the planned attack is still unknown, but Khan allegedly told police after his arrest that becoming a martyr was “one of the greatest things you can do.”
“This case is a quintessential example of federal and state law enforcement collaborating to neutralize a grave threat to Delaware before the worst could come to pass. I want to thank our dedicated law enforcement partners at the FBI and the NCCPD for their exceptional work. As always, we are proud to work with them to keep Delaware safe,” said Acting US Attorney Murray. One campus police officer was specifically mentioned in the notes, but the reason is not yet known.
Who is Luqmaan Khan?
Police told The Post that Khan was born in Pakistan but has lived in the United States since he was a “youth,” and he is now an American citizen.After his arrest, the FBI searched his home in Wilmington and found even more weapons. Agents recovered an AR-style rifle with a red-dot scope and another Glock pistol, which had an illegal device that turned it into a fully automatic machine gun capable of firing 1,200 rounds per minute.Khan was taken to the New Castle County Police Headquarters and charged with resisting arrest, carrying a concealed deadly weapon, multiple weapon violations and related offenses. He was arraigned, given a $107,200 cash bail, and then handed over to the FBI, which may file additional charges.
Hundreds of UK online safety workers at TikTok have already signed agreements to leave the company, whistleblowers have told Sky News, despite the firm stressing to MPs that the cuts were “still proposals only”.
More than 400 online safety workers have agreed to leave the social media company, with only five left in consultation, Sky News understands.
“[The workers have] signed a mutual termination agreement, a legally binding contract,” said John Chadfield, national officer for the Communication Workers’ Union.
“They’ve handed laptops in, they’ve handed passes in, they’ve been told not to come to the office. That’s no longer a proposal, that’s a foregone conclusion. That’s a plan that’s been executed.”
Image: Moderators gathered to protest the redundancies
“Everyone in Trust and Safety” was emailed, said Lucy, a moderator speaking on condition of anonymity for legal reasons.
After a mandatory 45-day consultation period, the teams were then sent “mutual termination agreements” to sign by 31 October.
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Sky News has seen correspondence from TikTok to the employees telling them to sign by that date.
“We had to sign it before the 31st if we wanted the better deal,” said Lucy, who had worked for TikTok for years.
“If we signed it afterwards, that diminished the benefits that we get.”
Image: Three former moderators at TikTok have spoken to Sky News on camera
Despite hundreds of moderators signing the termination contracts by 31 October, Ali Law, TikTok’s director of public policy and government affairs for northern Europe, said to MPs in a letter on 7 November: “It is important to stress the cuts remain proposals only.”
“We continue to engage directly with potentially affected team members,” he said in a letter to Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, innovation and technology committee.
After signing the termination contracts, the employees say they were asked to hand in their laptops and had access to their work systems revoked. They were put on gardening leave until 30 December.
“We really felt like we were doing something good,” said Saskia, a moderator also speaking under anonymity.
“You felt like you had a purpose, and now, you’re the first one to get let go.”
Image: TikTok moderators and union workers protested outside the company’s London headquarters in September
A TikTok worker not affected by the job cuts confirmed to Sky News that all of the affected Trust and Safety employees “are now logged out of the system”.
“Workers and the wider public are rightly concerned about these job cuts that impact safety online,” said the TUC’s general secretary, Paul Nowak.
“But TikTok seem to be obscuring the reality of job cuts to MPs. TikTok need to come clean and clarify how many vital content moderators’ roles have gone.
“The select committee must do everything to get to the bottom of the social media giant’s claims, the wider issues of AI moderation, and ensure that other workers in the UK don’t lose their jobs to untested, unsafe and unregulated AI systems.”
Image: Moderators and union representatives outside TikTok’s offices
When asked if the cuts were in fact a plan that had already been executed, Mr Law said there was “limited amounts” he could directly comment on.
TikTok told us: “It is entirely right that we follow UK employment law, including when consultations remained ongoing for some employees and roles were still under proposal for removal.
“We have been open and transparent about the changes that were proposed, including in detailed public letters to the committee, and it is disingenuous to suggest otherwise.”
The three whistleblowers Sky News spoke to said they were concerned TikTok users would be put at risk by the cuts.
The company said it will increase the role of AI in its moderation, while maintaining some human safety workers, but one whistleblower said she didn’t think the AI was “ready”.
“People are getting new ideas and new trends are coming. AI cannot get this,” said Anna, a former moderator.
“Even now, with the things that it’s supposed to be ready to do, I don’t think it’s ready.”
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Is TikTok improving safety with AI?
Lucy also said she thought the cuts would put users at risk.
“There are a lot of nuances in the language. AI cannot understand all the nuances,” she said.
“AI cannot differentiate some ironic comment or versus a real threat or bullying or of a lot of things that have to do with user safety, mainly of children and teenagers.”
TikTok has been asked by MPs for evidence that its safety rates – which are currently some of the best in the industry – will not worsen after these cuts.
The select committee says it has not produced that evidence, although TikTok insists safety will improve.
“[In its letter to MPs] TikTok refers to evidence showing that their proposed staffing cuts and changes will improve content moderation and fact-checking – but at no point do they present any credible data on this to us,” said Dame Chi earlier this month.
“It’s alarming that they aren’t offering us transparency over this information. Without it, how can we have any confidence whether these changes will safeguard users?”
Image: Dame Chi Onwurah speaks at the House of Commons. File pic: Reuters
TikTok’s use of AI in moderation
In an exclusive interview with Sky News earlier this month, Mr Law said the new moderation model would mean TikTok can “approach moderation with a higher level of speed and consistency”.
He said: “Because, when you’re doing this from a human moderation perspective, there are trade-offs.
“If you want something to be as accurate as possible, you need to give the human moderator as much time as possible to make the right decision, and so you’re trading off speed and accuracy in a way that might prove harmful to people in terms of being able to see that content.
“You don’t have that with the deployment of AI.”
As well as increasing the role of AI in moderation, TikTok is reportedly offshoring jobs to agencies in other countries.
Sky News has spoken to multiple workers who confirmed they’d seen their jobs being advertised in other countries through third-party agencies, and has independently seen moderator job adverts in places like Lisbon.
Image: John Chadfield, national officer for technology at the Communication Workers Union
“AI is a fantastic fig leaf. It’s a fig leaf for greed,” said Mr Chadfield. “In TikTok’s case, there’s a fundamental wish to not be an employer of a significant amount of staff.
“As the platform has grown, as it has grown to hundreds of millions of users, they have realised that the overhead to maintain a professional trust and safety division means hundreds of thousands of staff employed by TikTok.
“But they don’t want that. They see themselves as, you know, ‘We want specialists in the roles employed directly by TikTok and we’ll offshore and outsource the rest’.”
Mr Law told Sky News that TikTok is always focused “on outcomes”.
He said: “Our focus is on making sure the platform is as safe as possible.
“And we will make deployments of the most advanced technology in order to achieve that, working with the many thousands of trust and safety professionals that we will have at TikTok around the world on an ongoing basis.”
Asked specifically about the safety concerns raised by the whistleblowers, TikTok said: “As we have laid out in detail, this reorganisation of our global operating model for Trust and Safety will ensure we maximize effectiveness and speed in our moderation processes.
“We will continue to use a combination of technology and human teams to keep our users safe, and today over 85% of the content removed for violating our rules is identified and taken down by automated technologies.”
*All moderator names have been changed for legal reasons.
Chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board Mohsin Naqvi, centre, chats with Pakistan’s Babar Azam, left, as head coach Mike Hesson watches (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Pakistani cricketers will give precedence to their national duties in the upcoming T20 series against Sri Lanka in January over their Big Bash League commitments.According to a report from Pakistani media outlet Geo Super, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has issued conditional No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to national players for overseas leagues, requiring them to prioritise national responsibilities.Several prominent Pakistani players have received NOCs for the Big Bash League spanning December 14 to January 28. The list includes Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Shadab Khan, and Hasan Ali.The BBL’s 15th season will run from December 14, 2025, to January 25, 2026. The tournament will feature 44 matches in prime early-evening time slots.Babar Azam is scheduled to make his first BBL appearance with Sydney Sixers in the opening match against Perth Scorchers at Perth Stadium.Other Pakistani players have secured positions with various BBL teams. Brisbane Heat has signed Shaheen Afridi, Melbourne Renegades acquired Rizwan, Melbourne Stars secured Rauf, Sydney Thunder picked Shadab Khan, Adelaide Strikers drafted Hasan Ali, and Hassan Khan joined the Renegades.Pakistan’s T20 team will tour Sri Lanka during this period for three matches scheduled for January 7, 9, and 11 in Dambulla.The series will help Pakistan prepare for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, which Sri Lanka and India will jointly host from February 7 to March 8.Sources indicate that players selected for the national squad must choose the Sri Lanka tour over BBL participation. Regular T20 squad members are unlikely to receive exemptions from the series.Australia will visit Pakistan for three T20 internationals in late January, following the Sri Lanka series.Additionally, NOCs valid until January 4 have been issued to Fakhar Zaman, Naseem Shah, and Hasan Nawaz for their participation in the IL T20 league.
Two of the biggest industry bodies in India — BIF and COAI are fighting again. This time over the government’s new circular mandating SIM Binding for OTT platforms. Broadband India Forum or BIF represents major technology companies such as WhatsApp parent Meta, Google and others; while Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is the country’s biggest telecom body, whose members include Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea. BIF has flagged “serious concerns” regarding the government’s recent directive mandating a continuous, active SIM connection for the use of messaging applications. The forum has urged the Centre to pause implementation timelines and immediately hold stakeholder consultations on the issue. COAI on its part has welcomed the new DoT guidelines. Indian telecom companies body COAI said that making SIM binding mandatory would keep a reliable link between the user, the number, and the device, which could help reduce spam, fraud calls, and financial scams. BIF has stated that while the directive is “well-intentioned” in its goal to curb cyber-fraud, it raises significant questions regarding jurisdiction, consumer impact, and technical feasibility. Last month, the government issued directions that would ensure app-based communication services, such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and others, remain continuously linked to users’ SIM cards — a move that would make it impossible to access these apps without an active SIM associated with a registered mobile number.BIF termed it “disappointing” that directions of such far-reaching operational impact have been issued with such short implementation timelines, “without any form of public consultation or user-impact assessment”. BIF argues the move creates obligations extending “far beyond the mandate of the Telecom Act.” “BIF expresses serious concern over the directions for SIM binding issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on 28 November 2025, mandating that app-based communication services remain continuously linked to the specific SIM card installed in the user’s device and forcing periodic six-hour logouts for web/desktop versions,” BIF said in its statement.
What is SIM Binding that Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Reliance Jio have congratulated DoT for
Telecom department recently issued a directive that mandated that the user’s Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) used at registration must be bound to the services of web-based platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Arattai, Snapchat, Sharechat and others. According to Department of Telecom (DoT) circular, within 90 days, users will no longer be able to access these apps unless the original SIM is present in the device. This means that messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Snapchat, ShareChat, JioChat, Arattai need to ensure that their services cannot be used unless the user has an active SIM card in their device. Under the new rules, apps will now be required to automatically log users out every six hours and ask them to log in again through a QR code, when accessed on a device without SIM card.
BIF calls SIM Binding problematic
BIF in its statement added, “It becomes imperative that DoT pause the current implementation timelines, open a formal stakeholder consultation, constitute a technical working group of OS providers, Telecommunication Identifier User Entities, licensees, and security experts, and ultimately adopt a risk-based and proportionate framework consistent with constitutional standards of necessity and least intrusive means.” “The Telecommunications Act does not authorise the regulation of OTT communication platforms, nor does it provide the legislative basis to impose telecom-style operational mandates upon them,” the industry body said, adding that under the guise of the Telecom Cyber Security Amendment Rules and without any public consultation, the present SIM-binding directions extend precisely such obligations on a “select set of applications”.“The directions go beyond the statutory remit, blur settled jurisdictional boundaries between the Telecom Act and the IT Act,” BIF said, dubbing it a “problematic instance of regulatory overreach by the executive without legislative sanction and, unfortunately, any stakeholder engagement”. “By covering some services and excluding others that operate in an identical manner, the approach could have the effect of bad actors simply migrating to platforms not subject to these obligations,” according to BIF.
