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Second Test, day 3: England 427 & 251; Sri Lanka 196 & 53-2 Root’s 34th hundred beats Alastair Cook’s England record It feels like only yesterday that Joe Root walked out to the middle in Nagpur, met Kevin Pietersen with an upbeat “Eh up, lad, how’s it going?”, and calmly opened his account with a crisply driven three through the covers. England fancied they had a good ’un on their hands, although how good was still to be established. Twelve years on – a passage of time barely discernible from Root’s boyish looks and sunny disposition – the going, like the answer to that latter question, was great. Just 48 hours after matching Alastair Cook’s tally of 33 Test centuries for England, Root claimed the record outright, his second of the match lighting up a gloomy third day at Lord’s and putting a series win over Sri Lanka within touching distance. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/lFrO5Xf

Film among host of sexually explicit features on this year’s lineup as erotica returns to screens after years of chastity It’s been 25 years since Nicole Kidman starred in Stanley Kubrick’s erotic classic Eyes Wide Shut opposite her then husband, Tom Cruise. Although the Oscar-winner has evaded sexually explicit roles in recent years, she is making a comeback to the genre by playing the lead in one of the most risque feature films to premiere at the Venice film festival this year. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/LYpto9E

Anera says four men who died in Gaza were volunteers, but IDF describes them as ‘armed assailants’ who hijacked car An aid agency whose convoy was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Thursday has said that the four men killed were local community members who had asked to serve as an escort for the convoy. The four men were the only casualties from the strike, which hit the lead vehicle in which they were travelling . The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described them as “armed assailants” who had hijacked the convoy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/yoVkutR

Jas Athwal, the Ilford South MP, denies allegation from tenants that ‘ants are everywhere’ in his properties A newly elected Labour MP has been accused of renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations. Jas Athwal, the MP for Ilford South, owns 15 rental flats, according to a report by the BBC . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/KB2ZVgv

The vice-president nominee’s workwear is a central conversation on the election trail. It’s not the first time fashion has become political Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Let’s play the word association game. What do you think of when you read the following? Plaid. Workwear. Camo. If it isn’t words such as practical, hardwearing, hunting or fishing then you’ve been drinking from fashion’s well for too long. Because while in recent years luxury labels have turned all of the above into catwalk fodder, these are the clothes equivalents of agriculture, land, the great outdoors. They also just happen to be the cornerstones of vice-president nominee Tim Walz’s style. He wore an LL Bean barn jacket while on a farm last November, and was spotted in a camouflage cap after he got the call from Kamala Harris asking him to be her running buddy. His wardrobe is all Carhartt, fleeces, jeans, Red Wing boots and worn-in T-shirts. Continue reading... from The ...

Robert O’Brien says UK could face US counter-embargos and put its role in F-35 fighter jet project in danger Labour risks a serious rift in the UK’s special relationship with the US if it goes ahead with a ban on arms sales to Israel, Donald Trump’s last national security adviser has warned. Robert O’Brien, still one of the key security voices in the Trump circle, said the UK was endangering its future role in the F-35 project as well as facing the risk of US congressional counter-embargos. The F-35 fighter jets are made in part by British arms firms and are used by Israel’s air force as part of its bombing of Gaza. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/TS4CxJZ

Trumpism’s route to the White House is paved with bricks of election theft in the battleground state The latest election-protecting lawsuit filed this week in Georgia goes straight to the heart of the contest in the country over the survival of freedom’s most basic institutions: our vote and the rule of law. The suit is also vital to the more immediate outcome of this election, and whether Donald Trump can find a way to win by any means necessary. Trump and his Maga allies seek to permanently dismantle the architecture of government established by our founders 235 years ago. The route there this November runs through Georgia, a key battleground state where undoing any electoral victory by Kamala Harris would be vital to Trump’s return to power. Trump and his acolytes will do whatever it takes to win. That includes not certifying the people’s actual vote. Laurence H Tribe is the Carl M Loeb University professor and professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School Dennis Afterg...

Police Scotland arrest 52-year-old after decision made to open murder inquiry based on postmortem results A 52-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman in Scotland, police said. Brodie MacGregor, 23, was pronounced dead inside a flat after emergency crews were called to an address in the Springburn area of Glasgow at about 10.15am on Monday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/LJv2BA7

A man in Washington state has trademarked the phrase – but all isn’t lost for Jools LeBron, legal experts say The creator behind TikTok’s “demure” catchphrase has become more mindful of US trademark law. Jools Lebron, an influencer with over 2 million followers on the app, became an overnight sensation after advising on how to be “demure”, “mindful” and “cutesy” at work and in life. The trend picked up steam, with brands like Verizon and Netflix working with Lebron on sponsored content, and celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Olivia Rodrigo and Gillian Anderson using the phrase in their own videos. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/cCpl9rH

Exhilarating sport is guaranteed even if scepticism remains about scheduling the Games at the end of Les Vacances Plastered on the walls of every Métro station in Paris this week are adverts boasting some boundary-pushing Franglais. Alongside images of Paralympic athletes running, leaping and wheeling is a slogan directed at residents of the French capital. It reads: “Game [is not] over”. For those unfamiliar with 1980s video arcade jargon, “game over” was the message that heralded the moment a machine ate your money. The grammatically tortuous “is not” has been overlaid by organisers of Paris 2024 to remind locals that the summer of sporting excellence will continue. The Paralympic Games begin on Wednesday night, and every Parisian is welcome. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4nsoMYX

The new foreign secretary has access to data not available to the public – and has a duty to model respect for the law Sam Fowles is a barrister, author and broadcaster Britain’s history of developing and upholding international law should be a source of pride. The UK was once at the forefront of prosecuting war crimes, enshrining international human rights and developing the Geneva conventions. Recent governments, however, treated international law with contempt: successive Conservative administrations legislated to break the EU trade agreement within months of ratification, breached the refugee convention over the Rwanda plan, and repeatedly threatened to leave the European convention on human rights. The general election offered the opportunity for a reset. One of the Starmer government’s early acts was to discontinue the UK’s attempt to block the international criminal court arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. The new prime minister a...

The Welsh dancer invited a team to film her as soon as she got her diagnosis – then they followed her through every scary step. It’s a bold, uplifting and very teary journey indeed Last year, the day before Amy Dowden’s honeymoon, she felt a lump in her breast. Immediately, she knew. In that intuitive way you can tell when something’s different about your own body, it wasn’t a moment she could brush off. “I just felt a bit sick to my stomach,” the now 34-year-old Strictly Come Dancing regular tells the camera. “So I saw the doctor and he said: ‘Amy, it’s not good news – we’ve found something.’ And I just said: ‘Is it cancer?’ And he just said: ‘Yes.’” Strictly Amy: Cancer and Me, the BBC’s new documentary on the professional dancer’s cancer story, is a result of the fact that as soon as she received the diagnosis , she invited a team to start filming in the hope that it might raise some awareness about the disease. The real-time effect is exceedingly raw. You feel as if you are on t...

Largely peaceful festival marred by fresh stabbing on Monday after three people were hurt on Sunday Tens of thousands of revellers have turned out to enjoy the final day of this year’s Notting Hill carnival, flooding the streets of west London with colour, dancing and music. Dancers showed off their flamboyant costumes while floats blasted music for the spectators on the streets of W11. Vendors cooked up a mix of food on open barbecues, as sound systems played everything from rare groove to house, samba, reggae and ska. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2tkOxzW

Wigan Warriors 22-4 Hull FC ‘We need to improve,’ says coach as playoffs loom With four rounds to go before the Super League playoffs, you would be forgiven for wondering if the reigning champions are leaving it late to peak at the right time. Of course, it’s possible that when the trophy is held aloft at Old Trafford it will be Matt Peet and Wigan Warriors front and centre, having celebrated retaining the title they won last year and continuing their dominance. They have certainly done a good job of scorning their critics up to this point. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/KqH5akD

Three years on from a decision to drop the prosecution of her alleged rapist, Jade McCrossen-Nethercott received a payout from the CPS, which said the defence should have been challenged in court Thirteen days before her alleged rapist was due to stand trial, Jade McCrossen-Nethercott received devastating news. After three years of waiting, the Crown Prosecution Service was abandoning the case. It was not for lack of evidence. After the alleged attack, McCrossen-Nethercott had gone straight to the police, who took her clothes, phone, and swabbed her “head to toe”. Then there was her broken necklace, the marks on her arms, the no-comment interview the suspect gave after he was arrested and the allegation that a drink he gave her had tasted strange. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kWVt5LG

US government study finds association between high levels of fluoride exposure and potential neurological risk A US government report expected to stir debate concluded that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children. The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined – “with moderate confidence” – that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in children. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/lfdkiHy

Pro-Palestine movement and Israelis share common goal for Gaza ceasefire at Kamala Harris’s nomination It was late in the evening when Ruby Chen, whose son Itay was kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October and later killed, approached and kneeled down next to Abbas Alawieh, a delegate from the “Uncommitted” pro-Palestinian movement who was planning to bed down for the night on the cement outside the venue where Kamala Harris this week formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination . For the four days of the Democratic National Convention, while many visiting delegates were popping bottles of champagne at parties across Chicago, the two men were busy working the rooms at delegate breakfasts, juggling media interviews and courting high-profile Democrats to try to influence the administration’s policies in Gaza. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/CLByiIX

Your loss deserves to be acknowledged, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith . If your family are not providing you with this, find ways to mark it without them Read more Leading questions I’m a 50-year-old gay man . My partner, who I was with for 21 years, died suddenly 10 years ago. My family have all but ignored the anniversary of my partner’s death since it happened. My father died the year after my partner and I always send my mother a card or flowers on their anniversary, and ring to check in on his death day and birthday. With it being a decade since I woke up to find my partner dead, I thought that my family would at least send a text or call. There was a total silence. I feel if I had married a woman and been with her for 21 years, or indeed had children with her, then my family would behave very differently. My mother is constantly asking me to order flowers in remembrance of friends of hers whose husbands have died, including on the anniversary of my partner’s de...

Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh It starts with boundless energy … then gathers momentum, as this comic’s silliness builds a tale of desperate ambition Rob Copland rockets into the room, pure energy. We’re clapping, he’s dancing. He’s clapping, someone else is dancing. When the music dips, the energy doesn’t. He steals about the stage, raising an eyebrow, clawing at the air, swinging his mic in precarious arcs, promising us he has never once dropped it. He draws our attention to a bar stool – some comics would take a seat, he scoffs, but this is standup. His mesmerically physical delivery elevates every punchline. At Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh , until 25 August Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/jI3tsDH

Family of Jessie Peterson, 31, spent a year searching for her before learning hospital had shipped body to storage facility Jessie Peterson’s family spent a year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out of a California hospital against medical advice – before they learned that she had been dead all along. The 31-year-old died in the care of Mercy San Juan medical center in Sacramento in April 2023. The hospital shipped her body to a storage facility and did not inform her mother and sisters. The family only learned her fate the following April after months of trying to find her, according to a civil lawsuit against the hospital. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Ug0EQxz

People of ancient Clovis culture could have impaled huge animals on pikes rather than throwing spears, finds study When it came to taking down giant animals, prehistoric hunters would quite literally have faced a mammoth task. Now researchers have shed fresh light on how they might have done it. Experts studying sharp stone points made by the Clovis people, who lived in the Americas from about 13,000 years ago, say that rather than hurling spears at enormous animals such as giant bison, mammoths or ground sloths, the tribes could have planted their weapons point-up in the ground to impale charging creatures. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/cop5BYw

All the jobs I wanted to do – from fixing the tap to replacing the shower curtain – are done. Why? Because of the terrifying prospect of strangers coming to look at it Here is a short and by no means comprehensive list of things that have been at the bottom of my fruit bowl for about a year: two screwdrivers, a small plastic Pikachu, four marbles, the inner mechanism of a door handle, a drawing of a clown, an unidentified key, the receipt for our wedding wine and a pipe cleaner. Today, after at least 12 months of wishing someone would rid me of this troublesome shrapnel, I finally cleared out the bowl. Why? An attack of efficiency? Is someone’s grandma coming to stay? Have I discovered a wealth of spare time? No. We are trying to sell our house. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UN1QeqP

John Boland and Chris Bryant use their garden to shade their house from Australia’s hot summers – and it helps feed them as well As soon as John Boland moved into his house in inner-city Adelaide he got rid of the concrete and sheds and planted fruit trees. In the thirty years since, those trees have provided him with a third of his food and cooled his home so well that he doesn’t need air conditioning. Deciduous trees on the western side of the house bathe the house in shade in the hot South Australian summer while letting in afternoon sun during winter. They also block hot breezes in summer and cold winds in winter. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Flf5MCn

Food scientists and chefs have been investigating and comparing the flavor compounds in various ingredients For some, recipe writing is an art, born of intuition and pragmatism. But like most disciplines, the culinary world has become susceptible to the pull of data. In recent years, food scientists and chefs have begun studying the flavor compounds that appear in certain ingredients and searching for similarities elsewhere. Sites like Foodpairing.com even offer paid AI services to chefs looking for new combinations, as well as to customers seeking to better understand their own palates. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/SGWH48c

As we are saturated with horror, it gets normalized – and Israel’s assault continues unfettered. A Palestinian American poet on dehumanization Back in May, when the image of a decapitated child in Rafah started circulating, my friend texted: This is the image. This is the one. Now the world’s going to roar . For many of us, this has been the reality of the last months: waiting for the image that will shake complacency and complicity; waiting for the image so staggering it’ll be non-negotiable. An amputated toddler. A blown-apart body. A girl hanging from the side of a building. We are still waiting. ~ Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/YdaJg7D

Invincibles (147-9) beat Brave (130-7) by 17 runs Mahmood takes three wickets for champions Lord’s is a place of joy for the Oval Invincibles once again. Saqib Mahmood was the chief menace, taking three wickets and conceding just a single in the space of seven deliveries to set up a 17-run victory over Southern Brave, back-to-back titles secured for the men’s side. The game was the Brave’s under lights at HQ, close to 29,000 watching, chasing a tough ask of 148 but well-settled at 95 for three, 30 balls still left to play with. Leus du Plooy and Laurie Evans’ partnership was growing as Mahmood returned to the attack, his captain, Sam Billings, needing something, anything. Please. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/34mD6AF

This misty-eyed homage to Bonnie and Clyde star Faye Dunaway (with her involvement) papers over her reputation for being difficult – but is still a troubling portrait She was one of the worst people in Hollywood, according to Bette Davis. To Jack Nicholson, she was “the Dreaded Dunaway”. Steve McQueen unflatteringly nicknamed her Done Fadeaway on the set of The Thomas Crown Affair, either due to her extreme weight loss or because he thought she was a no-mark. She wasn’t. Faye Dunaway remains an icon of Hollywood’s second golden age, a fantastically talented actor and a central figure in the celebrity gossip sphere. But behind the delicious anecdotes was a woman struggling with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, a darkness that is hinted at but never fully explored in this documentary from the director Laurent Bouzereau. Our first encounter with Dunaway, now 83, provides a presumably tongue-in-cheek demonstration of her trademark belligerence (or is she genuinely this rude?), as she demand...

Women’s final: London Spirit, 118-6, bt Welsh Fire, 115-8, by 4 wkts Knight hits 24 to finish second highest run-scorer overall London Spirit won a nerve-shredding final against Welsh Fire at Lord’s in the Women’s Hundred, chasing down their target of 116 with just two balls to spare. The match set an attendance record for a women’s game at Lord’s, with 22,000 spectators treated to a thriller in which Spirit limped across the line, breaking Welsh hearts in the process. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Or7kAgl

It was the canny finish Unai Emery no doubt expected from his “finisher” after the Villa manager returned Ollie Watkins to his usual club role as a starter. All summer, Watkins seemed to be Gareth Southgate’s go-to striking understudy. But it was only when he was replaced by Jhon Durán that Villa were able to spoil Julen Lopetegui’s first game in charge of a revamped West Ham. It was no more than Villa deserved after dominating the game either side of a controversial penalty decision against Matty Cash that could so easily have robbed Villa of a win. Replays showed there was very little in the coming together between the defender and Tomas Soucek that gave Lucas Paquetá the chance to level from the spot. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VGogC2t

While the intention behind buying preloved is often rooted in sustainability, I’m uncomfortable enabling our culture’s shopping addiction Change by Degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com I once fancied myself a savvy secondhand shopper, diving into thrift stores and online marketplaces with a sense of purpose. Armed with the goal of being eco-friendly, I was determined to give preloved clothes a new lease on life. It seemed like a win-win: unique pieces and a reduced environmental footprint. But after a few years of this pursuit, I faced an inconvenient truth: secondhand shopping wasn’t working for me. First, let’s talk about the wardrobe explosion. My closet became a museum of mismatched pieces, each with a quirky backstory but collectively forming a chaotic narrative. The dream of a curated wardrobe qu...

Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Dressed as the publisher’s emblem, in orange flippers and not much else, the ingenious comic delivers a dizzy series of droll visual routines Some shows have “Edinburgh fringe” scored through them as if through a stick of rock. Garry Starr ’s latest, Classic Penguins, is one, an absolute festival home-banker in the party-time vein of those gigs The Boy with Tape on His Face once performed at this same address. The high concept is that Starr (AKA Damien Warren-Smith), who has previous with Complete Works of Shakespeare-style acts of comedic compression, will now stage every single Penguin Classic novel in 60 minutes. That he will do so naked save for a tailcoat and a pair of orange flippers – well, that’s just a bonus. To watch this idea work itself out for an hour, in constant playful dialogue with the audience, couldn’t be more ticklish. Warren-Smith has it neatly set up. There’s a bookshelf arrayed with the distinctive orange spines of two dozen cl...

Reform UK leader banked £1.2m from role as presenter on GB News and payments from social media Nigel Farage appears to have become the highest-earning MP, having made almost £1.2m a year from GB News. In the first register of interests of the new parliament, the Reform UK MP declared that he was earning £97,900 a month as a presenter for GB News, the channel co-owned by the hedge fund billionaire Paul Marshall. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/maSyPtv

New Meta security report finds that AI-powered deception campaigns ‘provide only incremental’ results for bad actors Russia is putting generative artificial intelligence to work in online deception campaigns, but its efforts have been unsuccessful, according to a Meta security report released on Thursday. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram found that so far AI-powered tactics “provide only incremental productivity and content-generation gains” for bad actors and Meta has been able to disrupt deceptive influence operations. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/kyWFbu8

Fans in sequins and cowboy hats arrive undeterred at first of five Taylor Swift concerts in London Thousands of fans have arrived at Wembley stadium in London to see Taylor Swift perform for the first time since her shows in Vienna were cancelled after a foiled terror attack. Despite heightened security concerns, fans have arrived unfazed, wearing sequins, cowboy hats and friendship bracelets. Angelina Morris, 20, said her mum had spent more than 50 hours hand-sewing her outfit and had not thought twice about attending the concert after the attack plot. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mVCu8Sj

Fede Álvarez’s effort is scrappier than Ridley Scott’s grandiose efforts – but everyone involved would have been better employed working on something new Fede Álvarez’s new instalment in the Alien franchise presents as a younger, grungier, back-to-basics effort, moving away from the grandiose cosmic reach of Ridley Scott’s films Prometheus (from 2012) and, five years later, Alien: Covenant while attempting a return to the downbeat conspiracy paranoia and anti-corporate satire that made the original so unforgettably good. It also, very startlingly, brings back a major character from the 1979 Alien, the actor involved having perhaps signed away CGI image use rights at the time, or conceivably their descendants have been paid a royalty fee. The resulting movie is a technically competent piece of work; but no matter how ingenious its references to the first film (let down, however, by borrowings from the A Quiet Place franchise) it has to be said that there’s a fundamental lack of orig...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts Who first made calculating numbers a discipline and called it mathematics? Matilda Day, aged 10, Dordogne, France Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/k4KLp1u

Damage to the smaller housebuilder’s reputation will take time to heal but a takeover deal isn’t a deal until it’s signed Bellway’s plan to buy smaller housebuilder Crest Nicholson for £720m-ish in shares was proceeding smoothly as recently as last Thursday, or so we were told. “Good progress has been made on reciprocal due diligence with a number of elements satisfactorily completed by both parties,” purred the two boards in harmony . Five days later, the bidder has picked up its trowel and scarpered without offering a public explanation. Bellway merely said it won’t be making a firm offer , a surprising U-turn given that it started its pursuit in April and was previously so determined that it made three proposals before landing the desired “minded to recommend” statement from its target a month ago. This was not an adventure undertaken on a whim. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/PGS2e5j

The England goalkeeper says decision is example of how she and the Lionesses ‘break barriers and push boundaries’ England goalkeeper Mary Earps has become the first professional female footballer to have a wax figure at Madame Tussauds London. Members of the public voted for the 31-year-old to be added to the attraction after the Lionesses’ success in reaching the final of the 2023 World Cup and winning the 2022 European Championships. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/68CqhD9

With five extra sports at LA 2028, events that feel peripheral, repetitive or involve horses should face the chop Behold the giant feast. Courses upon courses. Over the past 17 days this has been a city engorged, its every nook and crevice stuffed with sport, to the point where they had to parcel some of it off to the outskirts and even wrap some of it up in a doggy bag and send it to Tahiti. Are we not sated? As we stagger down the boulevards with a toothpick and a smug burp, trying not to think of the indigestion of Monday morning, the memory of Paris 2024 remains fresh and pristine. This remains the greatest sporting event on Earth, having weathered terrorism, plague, Nazis and the 1904 marathon, when several competitors were chased off the route by dogs and the man who finished first turned out to have had a ride in a car. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/KdS8pWE

Exclusive: MPs leaving platform or scaling back use over its ‘deterioration’ under Elon Musk’s ownership Labour MPs have begun quitting X in alarm over the platform, with one saying Elon Musk had turned it into “a megaphone for foreign adversaries and far-right fringe groups”. Over the weekend, newly elected MPs took to WhatsApp groups to raise growing concerns about the role X played in the spread of misinformation amid the far-right-led riots in parts of England and Northern Ireland. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/clAjtqd

Liquid amounting to a 1-2km-deep ocean may be frozen up to 20km below surface, calculations suggest Vast amounts of water could be trapped deep within the crust of Mars, scientists have said, raising fresh questions about the possibility of life on the red planet. Scientists say that more than 3bn years ago, Mars not only had lakes and rivers but oceans on its surface – however, as the planet lost its atmosphere these bodies disappeared. All that is visible today is permafrost ice at the planet’s poles. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/od3ctgI

BOA chief executive Andy Anson praises 65-medal tally ‘Eighteen sports represented on medal table is brilliant’ Britain’s performance at the Paris Olympics was incredible and should be celebrated, despite falling from fourth in the medal table in Tokyo to seventh. That was the bullish message emanating from Team GB house after an extraordinary 16 days of action came to an end on Sunday. While there were only 14 gold ­medals for Team GB in Paris – the lowest since Athens in 2004 – ­senior officials stressed that the overall tally of 65 medals was behind only the USA and China and so should be regarded as a success. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/YUNJI6u

Whole neighbourhoods are being evacuated from around capital as firefighters mount huge effort to put out blazes Greek authorities have warned people to stay indoors with their “windows closed” as 400 firefighters battled to contain blazes on the outskirts of Athens that were forcing the evacuation of entire communities. Huge clouds of billowing smoke had by mid-afternoon on Sunday darkened the skies above the capital as 10 groups of “forest commandos” backed by water-bombing aircraft, helicopters and fire engines tried to douse flames fanned by gale-force winds. Volunteers had also joined the fight near the village of Varnava about 35km (21 miles) north of the city. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/diNl8Lj

Serbia 13-11 Croatia in front of fiery crowd at La Défense ‘This is for my people,’ says Serbia top scorer Milos Cuk With an almighty splash Milos Cuk barrelled one last ball into Croatia’s net and, at that moment, Serbia knew. So did their opponents, judging by the red and white-checked caps that sank into knees on the bench at the far side of the pool. Serbia were three goals clear in the dying moments and about to match the best tally in Olympic men’s water polo history, a third title in a row enshrining them in greatness. It was lost on nobody that their bitterest rivals were the ones forced to endure the celebrations. Did it mean something extra to Serbia’s players to win another gold against their neighbours, with whom such a turbulent history runs deep in and away from the sporting arena? “Yes,” Cuk said simply, after a medal ceremony prefaced by ecstatic celebrations with a sizeable travelling support. “Yes, yes, and yes.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://i...

Tokyo winner fights back from bad start to finish ninth Choong upset his brother and girlfriend weren’t picked Joe Choong was not ranting. That does not appear to be his style. The modern pentathlete was, instead, calmly articulating a series of grievances after finishing ninth in the grounds of the Château de Versailles. Choong’s sentiments were only intensified by a medal ceremony taking place on a screen within view of where he spoke. In no particular order: Choong was upset his brother, Henry, could not compete for Slovakia at the Olympics despite switching national allegiance. He was angry about Team GB not selecting his girlfriend, Olivia Green, for the Games. And Choong is one of umpteen athletes angry about the upcoming removal of showjumping from this event, a process accelerated after a German coach punched a horse at the last Games. “A happy athlete is a good athlete,” said Choong. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QvmTFVe

Labour minister says she removed social media platform’s app from her mobile phone when Elon Musk took over A government minister said she has scaled back her use of social media platform X, arguing it had become “a bit despotic” and was “a place of misery now”. Jess Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said although she had previously been “massively addicted to Twitter”, referencing the former name of X, she had removed the app from her phone after Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2Z78Oh3

US going for fifth straight gold medal at Games Email beau.dure@theguardian.com with your thoughts The latest medal table | Live schedule | Full results Who’s who FRANCE Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/9gI8uaV

Duo admit they ‘had a target on our back’ Jack Carlin seals fractious bronze in the men’s sprint Team GB’s Elinor Barker and Neah Evans rallied to claim a last-gasp silver medal in the women’s Madison race in the Olympic Velodrome, while Jack Carlin took a hard-fought and fractious bronze medal in the men’s individual sprint. Evans and Barker were still in the bronze medal position with six laps to go before an inspired acceleration from Barker took the final sprint, which was worth double points, and secured Team GB the silver medal. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/6lXL3Wk

Men’s Olympic football final: France 3-5 Spain (aet) Mateta penalty forces extra time before Camello double There will be no home gold for France’s male footballers at Paris 2024, as instead Spain produced a first-half performance of great incision, a second half of constant defence, then claimed a 5-3 extra-time win with a wonderful double by Sergio Camello at Parc des Princes. This was a genuinely astonishing final, an eight-goal, 120-minute see-saw thriller, decorated with brilliant strikes, misses, saves, comebacks, and a mind-blowing added-time VAR-assisted equaliser for the hosts. France will feel unlucky not to have made a long spell of sustained pressure tell. The greatest compliment for this Spanish performance was that it was in its best moments just very Spanish. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/5zprlWj

Dreams of a title at the Games can be dashed by a slip or one bad performance. But some argue that such jeopardy is what makes sport compelling By any objective measure, Great Britain’s Emma Wilson dominated the women’s Olympic windsurfing competition in Marseille. She won eight of her 14 races, took second in two more and was third in another three. Her net score of 18 was 31 points ahead of second-placed Sharon Kantor of Israel. But in the convoluted windsurfing format this year, her work merely earned her a bye to the final, in which she was up against competitors who had already developed a feel for the conditions. Wilson took bronze, one year after taking silver in similar circumstances in the world championships. She wasn’t shy about criticizing the format , saying that seeing all her previous efforts in the competition count for nothing in the final affected her mental health. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GM03ds9

Briton says missed test was due to dehydration training Bradly Sinden pulls out of bronze fight due to injury The double Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones denied ever taking performance-enhancing drugs after a shock first-round exit that came months after she escaped sanctions for missing a test in December. Jones was beaten 2-1 by the Macedonian Miljana Reljikj, afterwards saying she “didn’t have the balls” to compete at her best. But she had arrived in Paris with lingering question marks around the saga, which saw her briefly suspended earlier this year until the UK Anti-Doping Agency (Ukad) ruled she had committed a no-fault doping violation on confidential medical grounds. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/AfdmOk0

Ethan Hayter’s slip on last lap proves costly Great Britain also win bronze in women’s team pursuit Great Britain’s track cyclists secured Team GB’s 1,000th medal in sporting competition at the Olympic Games, as Australia held on to a hair’s breadth advantage to win gold in the men’s team pursuit. In a final that was almost too close to call, Ethan Hayter, Dan Bigham, Charlie Tanfield and Ethan Vernon had to settle for silver after Hayter slipped off his saddle on the last lap. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/QzMlxp8

The athlete is the first Palestinian to qualify directly for the Games and had dreamed of reaching the podium As his dreams of competing for a taekwondo Olympic medal evaporated in the frantic final seconds of his second contest of the day, Omar Yaser Ismail fell to his knees in disbelief. Even after his opponent, Adrián Vicente, comforted him and the audience recognised his immense efforts with a long, warm ovation, he remained rooted to the spot, unable to come to terms with defeat. Ismail’s ambitions were far greater than his final result in the taekwondo 58kg weight division on Wednesday, but as one of eight athletes representing Palestine at the Olympic Games, simply making it to Paris was a significant feat. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/S983mTg

How best to cope with China’s economic slowdown, high cost of living and soaring youth unemployment? Roost in your bedroom Name: Human birds. Age: SQUAWK! Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/XbRledT

Paris Olympics semi-finals: USA 1–0 Germany (aet) Emma Hayes leads US to final in first tournament Like the arduous quarter-final win over Japan, this edgy victory was a reality check after the exuberant thrashings the US have doled out in the sunrise phase of the Emma Hayes era . But a win will do, any which way – especially when it means the USWNT are in the Olympic final. A year to the day since one of their lowest ebbs, the loss on penalties to Sweden in the first knockout stage of the 2023 World Cup, a hard-fought and sometimes hard to watch 1-0 extra-time victory over Germany sent the US into Saturday’s final at the Parc des Princes, ensuring the Americans at least a silver medal. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Nrx9lW0

Kimberly Woods’ gamble for gold falls short Event makes Olympic debut to entice TikTok generation They plunged down a 45‑degree ramp and three metres into the maelstrom below, battling the elements and grappling Gladiators-style with their rivals. Through the foamy bedlam there was to be no gold medal for Team GB with Joe Clarke and ­Kimberley Woods emerging with silver and bronze respectively, but kayak cross is surely here to stay after arriving at the ­Olympics with a resounding splash. “We’re just getting started here, aren’t we?” said Clarke, who had been favoured to win the men’s final but trailed New Zealand’s Finn Butcher throughout that minute or so of fight and froth. The 2016 ­slalom gold winner , who finished fifth in that event last week, is back at the top and voiced few regrets. After the medal ceremony he lifted his young son, Hugo, aloft and told everyone who would listen of his desire for this discipline to push kayaking into the wider consciousness. Continue r...

Finucane, Marchant and Capewell in thrilling victory World records beaten in all three rounds on Monday Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell won gold for Great Britain in the women’s team sprint at Paris 2024 after breaking the world record in all three rounds on Monday. Team GB clocked a time of 45.186 seconds to beat New Zealand by five tenths of a second, claiming Britain’s first ever medal in an event in which they failed to even qualify at the last two Olympics. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/uJpjN9d

Concerns have been raised over water quality in Seine Swiss triathlete also falls ill before mixed relay Belgium’s Olympic committee announced on Sunday that it would withdraw its team from the mixed relay triathlon after one of its competitors who swam in the Seine fell ill. Claire Michel, who competed in the women’s triathlon in Paris on Wednesday, “is unfortunately ill and will have to withdraw from the competition,” the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee said in a statement. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/s0qogRU

Sprinter Julian Alfred and triple jumper Thea LaFond both win gold on Saturday There was jubilation in the Caribbean on Sunday after St Lucian sprinter Julian Alfred and Dominican triple jumper Thea LaFond secured their countries’ first ever medals, both golds. From entering the Games as a little-known competitor, Julian Alfred demonstrated immense athletics prowess by winning the women’s 100-metre finals on Saturday, in 10.72sec. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NepAvai

Imane Khelif, guaranteed a medal after beating Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori, dominated the fight to deafening cheers A boxer at the centre of the gender eligibility storm at the Paris Olympics wrote her name on the floor of the ring on Saturday, and burst into tears after securing an Olympic medal. Algeria’s Imane Khelif was overwhelmed with emotion and repeatedly slammed the floor of the ring with her hands, having beaten the Hungarian fighter Anna Luca Hamori convincingly in the quarter-final of the 66kg category. After the fight, Hamori congratulated her opponent and wished her luck for the remainder of the competition. Asked about the controversy, she said: “I don’t care.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Cr9X8S6

First Chinese Olympic tennis champion since 2004 ‘I feel like I had special energy and lots of support’ Zheng Qinwen became the first Chinese player to win an Olympic ­tennis singles gold medal when she held off Croatia’s Donna Vekic for a 6-2, 6-3 win in a tense final on Saturday. The 21-year-old sixth seed was given raucous support by a sizeable Chinese contingent inside Roland Garros’s Court Philippe-Chatrier and responded with a composed performance. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Ip638hu

A Washington Post report details that an Egypt-linked group withdrew funds days before Trump’s inauguration A spokesperson for Donald Trump blamed “Deep State Trump-haters and bad faith actors” for a bombshell report on Friday about a secret criminal investigation into whether Abdel Fatah al-Sisi , the authoritarian ruler of Egypt , sought to give the former president $10m during his victorious 2016 White House run . “The investigation referenced found no wrongdoing and was closed,” Steven Cheung told the Washington Post, which published the report on Friday . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/mKzRvd8

Hugely complex, essentially irresolvable issues have been flattened in the toxic furore over the inclusion of Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif in the women’s competition On a packed Friday afternoon at the low-fi North Paris Arena, essentially a reconfigured trade fair hall, the Paris 2024 boxing programme staged the most wildly politicised, toxic and largely misunderstood event of these Olympics. Yes: this was a travesty. But not perhaps the travesty many people might have had in mind. Definition: a distorted or false version of events. All that was really certain in Paris was that we definitely got one of those. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ZSNsqzi

Acting director Ronald Rowe says ‘this was a failure’ and admits errors in communications and surveillance The US Secret Service takes “full responsibility” for the events that led up to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump last month, the acting director of the agency said on Friday. In a press conference in Washington, Ronald Rowe, who replaced Kimberly Cheatle after she stood down from her position as director of the service after Trump was shot, said: “This was a failure.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/hQwSOmx

American captures her sixth overall Olympic gold Latest medal table | Live Paris schedule | Full results Simone Biles won her sixth Olympic gold medal, and her second of the Paris Games, on Thursday, seeing off a stiff challenge from Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade to capture the women’s all-around final for a second time. The 27-year-old returned to the summit of world gymnastics eight years after winning her first Olympic all-around title in Rio, becoming only the third woman in history to earn the sport’s most prestigious title more than once, after Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union (1956 and 1960) and Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia (1964 and 1968). Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2YivsCk