England call up Gus Atkinson to bolster bowling ranks after India defeat
England have called up Gus Atkinson for Thursday’s third Test against India as they seek to refresh a bowling group that toiled through 234 overs at Edgbaston in a losing cause,Ben Stokes admitted his side’s travails on the way to a humbling 336-run defeat had left them needing to repair both their bodies and their morale, with barely 72 hours in which to do it,“We’re disappointed, but we’ve got three days to turn around, so we need to get over this one just like we got over the enjoyment and the excitement of winning the first game – we need to flip our heads around,” the England captain said,Atkinson’s own fitness is not entirely certain, although he should certainly not be fatigued: the 27-year‑old has not played since May, having sustained a hamstring strain during England’s one-off Test against Zimbabwe,A tight turnaround before the series resumes at Lord’s – the team will have only two days off, though many plan to play golf together on Tuesday before a single day’s training before the next game – leaves little time for recuperation.
India rested their premier bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, in Birmingham, and in the series so far all of England’s frontline seamers have bowled more, and spent considerably longer in the field, than any of their opponents.England’s squad for the third Test also includes the two seamers that went unused at Edgbaston: Essex’s Sam Cook, who played his first and so far only game for the side against Zimbabwe, and Jofra Archer, whose appearance for Sussex against Durham last month marked a return to first-class cricket after a four-year absence and is now in line for a first Test cap since February 2021.Stokes said: “The efforts we all put in as a bowling unit there, especially the big quicks – they keep charging in but it’s no secret that we have spent some time in the field and bowled some overs in the first two games, and we’ll have to see how everyone pulls up over the next two days.With it being a quick turnaround there probably will be a decision we have to make.”Both teams expressed surprise and disappointment in the pitch that was produced at Edgbaston, even if the fact that England’s top four averaged just 12 suggests they did not find it too placid.
Stokes said that “as the game got deeper it was pretty obvious it was not playing the way we thought it was going to”, and that “the longer it played out, the more it was suiting the Indian team over our team”,The England coach, Brendon McCullum, said the team was flexible with its plans but admitted that the decision at the toss to bowl first had been “slightly wrong”,Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotion“I think as the game unfolded we probably looked back on that toss and said: ‘Did we miss an opportunity there?’ We didn’t expect that the wicket would play quite as it did, and hence we probably got it slightly wrong,” he said,“We’re not rigid with our plans, it’s just we thought this pitch might get better to bat on as we went through the five days, but as we saw it didn’t,”
EU leaders race to secure a deal as deadline looms in Trump trade talks
The EU is entering a crunch week with only two days of talks left to secure a trade deal with Washinton to avert Donald Trump’s threatened 50% tariff on its imports into the US.According to the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, on Friday, the negotiations – which continued over the weekend – are focussed on 15 to 18 agreements with important partners, while Trump warned of import tax rates of up to 70% on others.The uncertainty created by Washington has sent shock waves through the global economy. Businesses have paused investment and the dollar posted its worst performance in 50 years in the first half of the year.With the clock ticking down to Trump’s 9 July deadline, the European Commission remains uncertain how he will treat the bloc, threatening €1
Born into crisis, gen Z is saving for retirement like no other generation | Gene Marks
Research published at the end of last year by the Investment Company Institute with help from the University of Chicago found that gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – are “outpacing” earlier generations in contributing to retirement, having more than three times more assets in their 401(k) retirement savings accounts than gen X households had at the same time in 1989, adjusted for inflation.This mirrors a 2023 study from the TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies, which found that gen Z is doing a “remarkable job” saving for retirement with many putting away as much as 20% of their income towards the future.It’s no wonder why.The oldest of this generation probably have early memories of the 2009-2010 financial crisis. They have lived through a global pandemic
Skirting the issue: Designer dress goes missing from Bezos-Sánchez wedding
Lauren Sánchez packed 27 designer dresses for her wedding to the billionaire Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, in Venice last week, but left with only 26 after one went missing.The couple, who are now honeymooning in Taormina, Sicily, were wed during a star-studded three-day celebration in the lagoon city.They left Venice on Sunday, but mystery over the missing dress has generated chatter in Venice, with Corriere della Sera claiming that it was stolen, possibly by someone who evaded security and gatecrashed a party on the tiny island of San Giorgio, where the couple exchanged rings, on Friday. The newspaper said the number of gatecrashers to the event was such that officers from the local unit of Italy’s anti-terrorism squad, Digos, were called to the island.The newspaper also alleged a vintage Dolce & Gabbana-designed dress, either worn by the bride or wedding guest Ivanka Trump, was torn and caught fire during another party
Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories
A decision by Elon Musk’s X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of “lies and conspiracy theories”, a former UK technology minister has warned.Damian Collins accused Musk’s firm of “leaving it to bots to edit the news” after X announced on Tuesday that it would allow large language models to write community notes to clarify or correct contentious posts, before users approve them for publication. The notes have previously been written by humans.X said using AI to write factchecking notes – which sit beneath some X posts – “advances the state of the art in improving information quality on the internet”.Keith Coleman, the vice-president of product at X, said humans would review AI-generated notes and the note would appear only if people with a variety of viewpoints found it useful
Remorseless Australian bowling onslaught blows away West Indies in second Test
The second Test in Grenada finished like the first in Barbados, with a batting performance as shambolic and uninspired from the home side as their bowling had been impressive. Everybody is bored of the eulogies for West Indies cricket: we’ve all been reading them for 25 years, and some of us have been writing them for what feels as long. But it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen The Shawshank Redemption, you still feel a pang of sadness when Tommy Williams steps out to meet Warden Norton for a midnight chat.Australia shot down West Indies with as little remorse, all out for 143 in less than 35 overs on day four, the visitors winning by 133 runs at the Grenada National Stadium and going 2-0 up to win the series. It’s not that the scoreline is a surprise, given the resource disparity between the teams and administrations, but it still feels wrong to feel that a Test side has no chance of chasing once a target approaches 250
‘All the hard work paid off’: Norrie says tough times make Wimbledon run even better
Cameron Norrie said his spectacular run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals, where he will face the defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, has been made even more satisfying by his recent struggles with form and injury, which led to him falling down the rankings.Norrie, the last British singles player standing, held his nerve to defeat Nicolás Jarry 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (5), 6-3 in an epic four-hour 27-minute battle to reach his second quarter-final at the All England Club. The left-hander had held a match point on his serve at 6-5 in the third set tie-break before Jarry turned the match around with his enormous serve, eventually forcing a five-set shootout.“It feels a little bit better and more deserved coming back from the injury and kind of coming back and trying to push back into the top of the game,” said Norrie. “So all the hard work, it’s paid off
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