UR MAG

MORBI, India (AP) — Morbi, a vibrant industrial hub that produces over 80% of India's ceramic tiles, has been unusually quiet for the past month or so.

India Iran War Abandoned Factories Photo Gallery

Since the war inIranstarted there has not been enough fuel for the kilns used to make the tiles, and whatever is available is too expensive for the factories in Morbi to stay competitive. Most of the natural gas used is imported via the Strait of Hormuz.

The city in Gujarat state has thrived as a major export center due to its proximity to ports on the Arabian Sea, and the ready availability of raw materials locally.

Advertisement

Now some of Morbi's workers have been forced to find alternative employment while others have returned to their homes in nearby states. Only a small fraction of the workers have been retained to carry out maintenance work in the factories.

“Out of the odd 650 or 700 manufacturing units, only four to five large ones are operational as they can afford to use the more expensive propane gas,” said Hareshbhai Bhadja, one of the partners in the manufacturing unit GC Granito.

However, the recent ceasefire has brought some hope to the city’s manufacturers.

A few factories are beginning to open after supply assurance from the state government’s Gujarat Gas. Whether prices will drop to pre-war levels remains to be seen.

The NCAA is considering a significant change to its eligibility rules.

An NCAA committee next week is expected to explore a new age-based standard for athlete eligibility as part of a proposal that’s been in the works for weeks, but only recently has been socialized with high-level conference and school administrators.

Those with knowledge of the proposal spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity.

According to the concept, NCAA athletes would have five full years of eligibility from the time of their 19th birthday or their high school graduation, whichever is earliest. No waiver requests, redshirts or exceptions will be permitted, except for a small group of outliers (those on maternity leave, military service or religious missions).

Members of the NCAA Division I Cabinet are set to review the proposal at their meeting next week. While a timeline for approval remains unclear — it is likely weeks or months away — the legislation is considered an urgent matter with potential for implementation as soon as this coming academic year (fall 2026).

Any implementation is expected to be phased in as is the case with most new NCAA policy. For instance, leaders will take strides to avoid adversely impacting any current athlete’s long-term eligibility under existing rules. What’s unclear is if those players completing or having completed their final, fourth season of eligibility will regain a fifth season if they fall within the new policy’s five-year window.

The policy seeks to bring some semblance of stability to a growing landscape of inconsistent court rulings regarding eligibility. Though it predatesPresident Donald Trump’s executive order, the proposal aligns with a concept embedded in Trump’s Friday announcement, which instructed the NCAA to pass legislation over a variety of issues, including a five-year eligibility standard for athletes.

For months now, conference executives and school administrators have urged NCAA officials to find a solution for what’s evolved into one of college athletics’ most festering issues.

The NCAA is fighting dozens of lawsuits from athletes seeking extended eligibility, some of which their own member schools support. Differing rulings from federal and local judges have left in their wake a divided and frustrated membership. While the NCAA has won more than half of eligibility lawsuits in which a judge has issued a preliminary ruling, the new age-based standard is expected to provide a step toward avoiding future costly and burdensome legal challenges.

The proposed change is a dramatic move away from long-standing policy.

Advertisement

Under current NCAA rules, athletes are granted four playing seasons over a five-year calendar, with the option to regain a season of eligibility through a redshirt or waiver request. While the new policy would grant athletes a fifth season of eligibility, the proposal sets a starting date of the five-year clock: age 19 or high school graduation.

Most notably, as currently written, the proposal eliminates the ability for athletes to regain seasons of eligibility through redshirts (even for medical reasons) and waivers, which have complicated the eligibility system and resulted in many of the organization’s legal entanglements.

Those having had their waiver requests denied have lawyered up in an effort to regain years of eligibility — some of them asking for a ninth season in college. The wave of lawsuits has left eligibility in the hands of various judges whose inconsistent rulings ushered into the industry a new kind of inequality.

For example, while a Mississippi judgeextended the eligibility of Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chamblissin February, a Tennessee judge less than a month laterdenied a request from Vols quarterback Joey Aguilar.

“The phone calls I get from coaches and ADs are pretty consistent: ‘I don’t like it when what judge ends up in front of and what state they're in determines whether somebody gets to play another year. That’s not fair,’” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in January from the NCAA convention. “I have a hard time arguing with that.”

But in an era when college athletes are legally compensated by schools, cash has incentivized players to seek longer college careers, many of them even delaying their NFL careers.

For instance, most of the seasoned power conference quarterback transfers this past cycle sought more than $4 million in annual compensation from their new teams. Some are believed to be making closer to $6 million. Because of the NFL’s rookie salary structure, a player would need to be drafted in the top half of the first round to earn that kind of annual money in their first year.

While athletes’ pursuit of compensation is understandable, the granting of extended eligibility to one player takes a roster spot from a younger transfer, high school recruit or junior college prospect. In fact, more than ever, roster spots are finite as theHouse settlement set strict roster limits.

Last academic year, the NCAA received 1,450 waiver requests for extended eligibility. The association has granted two-thirds of those. Of those not granted (around 500), more than 70 have resulted in lawsuits.

Despite the NCAA’s success in many of those cases — the association won two more cases last Friday — several of the suits are expected to go to trial. That’s an endeavor that stands to cost millions of dollars in legal fees. In fact, the association has spent at least $16 million on eligibility cases alone over the last year.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, April 9 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial will resume on Sunday, the courts' spokesperson said on Thursday, ‌hours after Israel lifted a state of emergency imposed over its war ‌with Iran.

Iran began targeting Israel with ballistic missiles and drones after Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump ​launched air strikes on Iran on February 28, citing the aims of preventing it projecting force abroad, ending its nuclear programme and encouraging the overthrow of its rulers.

The emergency, which had closed schools and workplaces, was lifted on Wednesday evening as no incoming ‌Iranian missiles had been reported ⁠since 3 a.m. (midnight GMT) after a ceasefire was agreed. Extensive Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the presence there of Iran-backed Hezbollah ⁠have since jeopardised the truce.

"With the lifting of the state of emergency and the return of the judicial system to work, hearings will resume as usual," a statement from the ​Israeli ​courts said, adding that they would take place ​between Sundays and Wednesdays.

Netanyahu, the ‌first sitting Israeli prime minister to be charged with a crime, denies charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust brought in 2019 after years of investigations. His trial, which began in 2020 and could lead to jail terms, has been repeatedly delayed due to his official commitments, with no end date in sight.

Trump has echoed ‌Netanyahu's calls on Israel's President Isaac Herzog for ​a pardon, citing the impact of regular court ​appearances on his ability to carry ​out his duties.

Herzog's office has said the justice ministry's pardons ‌department would gather opinions to submit to ​the president's legal adviser, ​who will formulate a recommendation, as per standard practice. Pardons are not usually given mid-trial.

The charges against Netanyahu, along with the Hamas attacks on Israel ​in October 2023, have ‌damaged his standing. Israel is due to hold elections in October that ​Netanyahu's coalition, the most right-wing in Israel's history, is likely to lose.

(Reporting ​by Steven Scheer; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

• About our ads

The Big Ten Conference amassed nearly $70 million from NCAA distributions that will be paid for team appearances and performances in the2026 men's and women's basketball tournaments.

NCAA UConn Michigan Basketball

That is by far the most among conferences, largely because the Big Ten swept the national championships —Michigan won the men'sandUCLA the women's— and had Illinois advance to the men's Final Four.

The NCAA, which has multibillion-dollar broadcast deals for the two tournaments, since 1991 has rewarded conferences for their number of tournament bids and how far those teams advance in the men’s tournament.A similar systemfor the women’s tournamentbegan in 2025.

The dollars are piling up:

— For this year's tournaments, nine men's teams and 12 women's teams from the Big Ten combined to make at least $69.4 million, with $63 million coming from the men's side.

— The Southeastern Conference, which had 10 teams in each tournament, totaled at least $56.2 million ($50.4 million for men, $5.8 million for women).

— Distributions will total at least $42.9 million for the Big 12, $34.2 million for the Atlantic Coast Conference and $22.2 million for the Big East.

The NCAA sends payments directly to the conferences, which distribute the money among their teams according to their policies. Payments for the 2026 tournament will begin in April 2027.

Advertisement

How the NCAA pays tournament teams is based on ‘units’

Teams in each tournament earn what's known as a “unit” for making the field of 68 and an additional unit for each round in which it appears. The national champion is awarded an extra unit. The value of a unit increases each year. A portion of revenue from the tournaments' broadcast agreements are directed to distribution payments, 24% for the men and 41% for the women.

The estimated value of a unit for the 2026 men’s tournament will be about $350,000, an NCAA spokeswoman said, and that amount will be paid annually for six years. So a single unit earned in 2026 would have a total value of at least $2.1 million over those six years and probably more because Division I distribution funds — including the basketball funds — are scheduled to increase each year, typically by 2.9%.

For the women's tournament, full funding for units earned will be achieved in 2027. Payments for each unit earned will be made for three years rather than six. The unit value was $75,000 for 2026 and will decrease to about $63,000 next year as part of the NCAA’s formula for getting the fund fully up and running. Using $63,000 as an estimate for the 2028 value, a single unit earned in 2026 would be worth at least $201,000 by the time it is paid off over three years.

Breaking down the money from 2026 March Madness

The Big Ten's nine teams in the men's tournament appeared in 29 games. Michigan earned $14.7 million for the conference by playing in six games and receiving a seventh unit for winning the championship. Illinois earned five units for making the Final Four ($10.5 million) and Iowa and Purdue four apiece for reaching the Elite Eight ($8.4 million each).

The Big Ten landed 12 teams in the women's tournament, and they combined to play in 31 games. UCLA earned just over $1.4 million by playing in six games and receiving an extra unit for winning the championship. Michigan's four games earned $804,000 and Minnesota's three earned $603,000.

The championships in men's and women's basketball continued what's been a banner 2025-26 for the Big Ten. Indiana won the conference's third straightCollege Football Playoff, and other national championships have been won inmen's wrestling(Penn State),women's ice hockey(Wisconsin),men's water polo(UCLA),men's soccer(Washington) andfield hockey(Northwestern).

AP college basketball:https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-pollandhttps://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Out with a lower-body injury since March 15, Edmonton Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl might miss the beginning of the Stanley Cup playoffs, coach Kris Knoblauch told reporters on Monday.

"Leon is going to be on the ice this week and I don't anticipate him playing any games in the regular season, and in the playoffs, sometime in the first round if things go well," Knoblauch said. "I'm not ruling that out (first game of the playoffs), but I would just anticipate sometime in the first (round). There's a period of time we anticipated his return and we said it was going to be right around the end of the regular season, at the start of playoffs."

Despite missing the last nine games, Draisaitl entered Monday as the NHL's fifth-leading scorer this season, posting 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists) in 65 games.

With five games left in the regular season, the Oilers (39-29-9, 87 points) are tied atop the Pacific Division with the Anaheim Ducks entering the week, and begin a three-game road trip Tuesday in Utah against the Mammoth. Edmonton closes the regular season on April 16, two days before the start of the postseason.

Advertisement

A three-time All-Star, Draisaitl has been a beast in the past two postseasons, helping Edmonton advance to the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and 2025, losing to the Florida Panthers both times. In the 2025 playoffs, he compiled 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists), following a 31-point postseason (10 goals, 21 assists) the previous spring.

Fellow Oilers forward Zach Hyman, who is out with an undisclosed injury, will likely miss the road trip, which includes games at the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings. The 33-year-old has 51 points (31 goals, 20 assists) in 57 games this season.

"Hyman, I would think he's going to play one if not two games before the end of this season," Knoblauch said. "So, this week he's out and not playing."

Last season, Draisaitl missed the final seven games with an undisclosed injury, but returned for the opener of the postseason to help lead Edmonton back to the Cup Final.

--Field Level Media