England survive MCG mayhem to break Ashes drought in Australia with win in fourth Test
Stop press.Hold the back page.Drag out the dusty bunting and book three more nights in Noosa.England’s men have won a Test in Australia for the first time in nearly 15 years, chasing down 175 to win by four wickets and prevent an Ashes defeat from becoming a whitewash.Granted it was not a live victory, England merely dragging the scoreline back to 3-1 and doing so courtesy of a two-day heist on a pitch that made batting a lottery.
But given the ordeal of this tour, and that grim run of 18 Tests without a win on Australian soil, it was not insignificant either,Though robbed of three days’ play, their supporters could finally crack a smile,The moment came at 5,24pm when four leg byes deflected off Harry Brook’s pads and meant the target had been wrapped up inside 33 overs,Zak Crawley, 37, and Ben Duckett, 34, got things off to a flyer, while Jacob Bethell showed his composure – and some impishness – to top-score with 40 from 46 balls.
Even with a late wobble, it was a pretty clinical chase.As the second two-day Test of the series – a first since 1896 – this was more bad news for Cricket Australia’s finances.But for all the anger about the grassy surface prepared by Matt Page it was not dangerous.The issue, chiefly, was the lavish sideways movement that it offered two attacks with a strong command of the wobble-seam ball.It made the run chase all the sweeter for a team that has been hit with a barrage of criticism for poor decisions made on and off the field.
Whether it changes the complexion of this failed tour remains to be seen.For Ben Stokes and Joe Root, who were seen sharing a hug at the end, it at least produced the Test win in Australia both feared might never happen.England had to dig deep, their bowlers rolling Australia for 132 in their second innings by 2pm on the second day despite losing Gus Atkinson to a hamstring injury early on.Brydon Carse claimed four for 34, Ben Stokes three for 24.And Josh Tongue, fresh from a five-wicket haul 24 hours earlier, picked up two for 44 to finish as player of the match.
Australia rather lost their way with the bat, resuming 46 ahead in the morning, but losing six wickets before lunch as they became increasingly spooked by the conditions.Marnus Labuschagne had the most reason to be, rapped on the hands twice before edging Tongue low to slip.The most telling blow was Carse bowling Travis Head for a promising 46, the ball borderline unplayable as it jagged off the seam and kissed the top of the stumps.The loss of three for six in two overs before the break soon gave rise to thoughts of an achievable target for England, with Usman Khawaja among the most culpable when he holed out to long leg for a duck.With Jhye Richardson the last to fall – curiously handed the strike by Steve Smith, who finished 24 not out – it meant Australia had lasted 79.
5 overs in their two innings – the fastest they have twice been bowled out since Brisbane in 1928, when a young Don Bradman made his debut.The target was never going to be a breeze, not least given it would need the highest total of this absurdly short match.Kudos to Duckett, who swung hard, rode his luck and put on 51 with Crawley inside seven overs.As Smith said, these early exchanges dulled the seam on the Kookaburra and eased batting conditions a fraction.Much like Brook’s top score of 41 the previous day, this was not a surface to dig in on, but rather to show clarity and an intent to score.
England also mixed things up, using Carse as a pinch-hitter at No 3 after Mitchell Starc had castled Duckett with a yorker.It did not pay off, returning just six runs, but it pushed Will Jacks down to No 9 for insurance.Already up and running with an early straight six off Michael Neser, Crawley found support from Bethell and a precious stand of 47 runs developed.Though fresh air was met on plenty of occasions, and streaky edges dropped into gaps, there were some classy shots too, such as Bethell on-driving Scott Boland for a crisp four to get his innings moving.Boland prised out Crawley lbw after tea to make it four down with 63 runs required and Bethell creamed one to cover still 38 short of the target.
When Root was trapped lbw by Richardson for 15, and Stokes edged behind off Starc, there were 10 runs to get, four wickets in hand.Rather than return to the dressing room, Stokes stood on the boundary’s edge fearing a late twist, only for Brook, Jamie Smith, plus some handy extras to take his side home.It was madcap, entertaining fare and a much-needed circuit-breaker for England during an otherwise failed campaign.But it was also hard not to feel for those who had bought tickets for the remaining days of a Test that is supposed to be one of the highlights of the Australian summer.Questions, one suspects, will be asked.
European leaders condemn US visa bans as row over ‘censorship’ escalates
European leaders including Emmanuel Macron have accused Washington of “coercion and intimidation”, after the US imposed a visa ban on five prominent European figures who have been at heart of the campaign to introduce laws regulating American tech companies.The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.The other individuals targeted were Imran Ahmed, the British chief executive of the US-based Center for Countering Digital Hate; Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of the German non-profit HateAid; and Clare Melford, co-founder of the Global Disinformation Index.Justifying the visa bans, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: “For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose. The Trump administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship
‘A gamechanger’: 200,000 UK small businesses sign up to TikTok Shop
It is better known for its viral dances and for making hits out of forgotten songs, but the social media site TikTok is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a shopping platform.Major retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Samsung, QVC, Clarks, and Sainsbury’s are now selling their wares on the site’s e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, alongside more than 200,000 UK small and medium businesses.Launched in Britain in 2021, TikTok Shop recorded its biggest sales day in the UK on Black Friday, with 27 items sold every second. Across the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, sales were up by 50% on last year.The service works by letting brands sell directly inside TikTok through videos and livestreams with embedded links to items for sale, as well as through a separate shop tab on their profiles
Former EU commissioner and activists barred from US in attack on European tech regulators
The state department has barred five Europeans from the US, accusing them of leading efforts to pressure tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints, in the latest attack on European regulations that target hate speech and misinformation.Secretary of state Marco Rubio said the five people targeted with visa bans – who include former European Commissioner Thierry Breton – have led “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”“These radical activists and weaponized NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states – in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Rubio said in an announcement.In recent months, Trump officials have ordered US diplomats to build opposition to the European Union’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), which is intended to combat hateful speech, misinformation and disinformation, but which Washington says stifles free speech and imposes costs on US tech companies.Late on Tuesday night, Breton posted on social media: “Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?”Tuesday’s move is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions
Elon Musk, AI and the antichrist: the biggest tech stories of 2025
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy and healthy end of the year. I myself have a cold.Today, we are looking back at the biggest stories in tech of 2025 – Elon Musk’s political rise, burst and fall; artificial intelligence’s subsumption of the global economy, all other technology, and even the Earth’s topography; Australia’s remarkable social media ban; the tech industry’s new Trumpian politics; and, as a treat, a glimpse of the apocalypse offered by one of Silicon Valley’s savviest and strangest billionaires.At the close of 2024, I wrote that Elon Musk’s support of Donald Trump had made him the world’s most powerful unelected man
Activist group says it has scraped 86m music files from Spotify
An activist group has claimed to have scraped millions of tracks from Spotify and is preparing to release them online.Observers said the apparent leak could boost AI companies looking for material to develop their technology.A group called Anna’s Archive said it had scraped 86m music files from Spotify and 256m rows of metadata such as artist and album names. Spotify, which hosts more than 100m tracks, confirmed that the leak did not represent its entire inventory.The Stockholm-based company, which has more than 700 million users worldwide, said it had “identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping”
Chinese robotaxis due in London next year as Lyft and Uber reveal tie-ups
Chinese robotaxis are due to be on the streets of London next year after the US ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber announced tie-ups with Beijing-based Baidu to deploy its self-driving technology.Lyft is the third firm to announce plans to introduce self-driving taxis to the UK capital next year, after Uber and Waymo, the main operator of robotaxis in the US.Its ride-hailing services are the major rival to Uber’s in the US and Canada, and this year Lyft expanded into Europe after acquiring the Freenow app in the summer.While Uber had signed a deal to work with Baidu in the summer in other global markets, it had not until now said that the Chinese tech company’s Apollo Go cars were planned for London. It had previously announced its services would be operated with self-driving technology from the UK-US firm Wayve
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