So why would Mel Gibson decide to produce a movie about a famed Jewish warrior given his, er, Jewish problem? Easy, explains TMZ . Gibson doesn’t think he has a Jewish problem. It quotes sources “very close” to Gibson as insisting that he doesn’t hate Jews and that, wait for it,…
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• Press refresh or turn on the auto-update for the latest • Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Get all the latest scores here 10.32pm Andy Murray walks out on court, headphones on as ever. Presumably he’s listening to this . Nadal bounces out after him. On Sky, Boris Becker, Greg Rusedski and Annabel Croft all tip Nadal to win. 10.14pm The winner of this match will play Novak Djokovic in Monday’s final. He has just completed an epic victory over Roger Federer: 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. 10.02pm “So you want to know what’s going on in the world?” says Paul Taylor. “I’ll tell you what’s going on in the world. The world is gong to hell in a handbasket, if you ask me. That nice lady who ran over Reese Witherspoon the other day is being forced to retake her driving test just because she’s 84 years old. What kind of a dumb reason is that? For Christ’s sake, leave people alone, can’t you?” 9.50pm “You ask, ‘What’s the rumpus?’” begins Mac Millings. “I’ll tell you what the rumpus is. Some people dislike Andy Murray, but I don’t. His QF victory means that I have not missed a rarely-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rubberneck the 21st Century Sideshow Attraction known as Rob Smyth’s Fumbling Foray Into Tennis Commentary. It’s just like the other kind of Smyth Fumble, in that you’re in the dark, aren’t sure of the rules, and don’t know a forehand from foreplay. At least it’ll last more than a couple of minutes, eh? Unless there’s an early groin pull. Or a premature moisture stoppage. Etc.” Oh, Millings . Anyway, enough of that tennis lark . Recent MBMs/OBOs/GBGs have been far too dull and full of, y’know, sport. What else is going on in the world? What’s the rumpus? Preamble The book says we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us . It certainly ain’t through with Andy Murray. Every time he goes into a grand slam match against one of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, he does so with a diabolical monkey on his back: a record two wins out of ten and eight sets out of 33 in slams against the big three. And that record is getting worse. Since beating Nadal in the quarter-finals of the 2010 Australian Open he has lost five in a row and trails 15-1 on sets. Murray knows that many people think the story has already been written, that he will continue to bang his heid against the brick wall for the rest of his career, and that he is never going to win a slam. Even when Federer retires he will have to find a way past Djokovic and Nadal, two men with the will of Keyser Soze. It’s enough to drive a man to the offy. For Murray, the first challenge tonight is not to beat Nadal; it’s to think he can beat Nadal. US Open 2011 US Open tennis Andy Murray Rafael Nadal Tennis Rob Smyth guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The ratings are in for President Obama’s jobs speech to Congress, and White House spin doctors will be relieved to know he outdrew the NFL opener later that night. Nuggets from USA Today and the Los Angeles Times . Nielsen says 31.4 million people watched his 7pm speech, more than…
Continue reading …David Cameron urged to get tough with Russia over Sergei Magnitsky’s death
September 10, 2011 No Comment
PM should use Kremlin visit to raise the case of whistleblower lawyer’s death, say politicians from US and UK Former US presidential candidate John McCain is among a number of senior American politicians urging David Cameron to bar from Britain dozens of Russian officials implicated in the controversial death of a whistleblower. The prime minister arrives in Moscow on Monday, his first visit to the Kremlin, amid mounting international pressure to follow the lead of the US by introducing visa bans for individuals linked to the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. The 37-year-old was working for a British company when he exposed the biggest tax fraud in Russian history . After accusing Interior Ministry officials, Magnitsky was arrested and died in police custody after being denied essential medical care. Investigators say the father of two was tortured and badly beaten in the hours before his death in November 2009. The case has become a focal point for activists seeking to highlight state corruption in Russia. Cameron is being urged to make it clear that employees of British companies in Russia cannot be abused with impunity. In July the case prompted the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, to introduce a travel ban and freeze the assets of 60 Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s death. But even though Magnitsky was directly employed by William Browder , who runs a London-based investment fund, Hermitage Capital Management, the UK government has failed to act or even criticise the Russian authorities over the affair. On the eve of Cameron’s trip, senior US officials said he needed to demonstrate his human rights credentials. McCain, a US senator, told the Observer : “We hope the British government will seriously consider visa bans and asset freezes on the Russian government officials implicated in the torture and murder of Sergei Magnitsky, as we have proposed in Congress.” Democrat senator Benjamin Cardin, who tabled the Sergei Magnitsky rule of law and accountability bill , backed by 18 other senators, added: “I encourage the British and other governments to join the United States in imposing sanctions against the people who were involved in the death of Magnitsky. It is when allies work together on human rights that we can be most effective.” Pressure is also building on Cameron closer to home. Labour MP Chris Bryant, a former Foreign Office minister, said: “Britain should be making it absolutely clear that anybody involved in the corruption that Magnitsky revealed, or in his murder, is quite simply not welcome in this country. I hope Cameron is not going to be as gullible to swallow bland assurances by [president) Dmitry Medvedev and [prime minister] Vladimir Putin or be so eager to please that he fails to raise the important human rights abuses in relation to Magnitsky and [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky.” Khodorkovsky, the former chief executive of the oil company Yukos, was found guilty last year of theft and money laundering by a Moscow court, but is deemed a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Cameron’s meeting with Putin will be the first official Russian contact with Britain since an unproductive bilateral meeting with Tony Blair during a G8 summit in 2007. Anglo-Russian relations remain tarnished by the murder of British citizen and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 with a radioactive isotope. Britain has repeatedly asked without success for the extradition of the chief suspect in the Litvinenko case, former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, who has since been elected to the Russian parliament. Another former Foreign Office minister, Denis MacShane MP, believes Cameron should concentrate on bringing those responsible for Magnitsky’s death to justice. “After grandiose claims about promoting human rights in Libya, David Cameron should not wimp out of supporting human rights in Russia, especially when it concerns a British citizen, a London-based firm and his murdered lawyer. It would be deplorable if the US and other EU states took the lead while Cameron refused to take similar action.” Browder said: “The prime minister has a very simple decision to make. Does he want the Russian officials who sadistically tortured and murdered a lawyer working for a British firm to be allowed to enter our country and use our banks? This is not a question that the government can avoid by hiding behind bureaucratic language. How the government answers this question will send a strong message to dictators around the world.” Downing Street declined to say whether Cameron would raise the case with Putin. Russia David Cameron Human rights Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Europe Mark Townsend guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …In the let-no-stone-go-unturned spirit of 9/11 coverage, AP catches up with the Florida second-graders who were sitting around President Bush as he read My Pet Goat and got the news about the World Trade Center attacks. Samples: “It was like a blank stare. Like he knew something was going on…
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Some parents and education experts believe the programme has failed to raise standards and caused segregation All over the Swedish port city of Malmö last week there were gaggles of students clutching brand-new laptops given to them on loan for the start of the school year. As schools fight over what, due to a demographic blip, is a declining number of students, the device you get has become a keen area of competition. “I’ve just got a mini-HP, but you can pay a bit more and get a Mac or an iPad,” says Mua Stanbery, 16, who has just started at ProCivitas, the most popular of the town’s profit-making free schools. Students arriving at the Thoren Business School have to make do with a Dell. But Pauli Gymnasium, the biggest municipal-run school, this year decided to give MacBooks to all its students to stave off private competition. What few of the students know is that the ultimate cause of their good fortune – the competitive system of free schools Sweden pioneered in the early 1990s – is under assault. SNS, a prominent business-funded thinktank, issued a report last Wednesday that sharply reversed its normal pro-market stance. The entry of private operators into state-funded education, it argued, had increased segregation and may not have improved educational standards at all. “The empirical evidence showing that competition is good is not really credible, because they can’t distinguish between grade inflation and real gains,” Dr Jonas Vlachos, who wrote the report on education, told the Observer . The report had a huge impact. It was a top story on Swedish television, and was hotly debated the next day in the newspapers. How the debate plays out will be watched carefully by education experts in the UK, where 24 free schools, built on the Swedish model, opened this year. Peje Emilsson, the founder of Kunskapsskolan, a private school company, attacked the research, deriding it as the worst report the thinktank had produced in 20 years. But Vlachos, an associate professor of economics at Stockholm University, is standing his ground. His argument is based on his finding that students who entered gymnasium [sixth form] from free secondary schools on average went on to get lower grades over the next three years than those who had entered with the same grade from municipal secondary schools. Vlachos suspects that, because schools rather than external examining boards mark students, free schools are more generous than municipal schools in the grades they give. “There’s been tremendous grade inflation in Swedish schools,” he said. Sweden’s path-breaking educational reforms of the 1990s have come under question since last December when the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment . This showed that Swedish students had dropped to 19th place out of 57 countries for literacy, to 24th in maths, and to 28th in science. This compared with 9th, 17th and 16th in studies done in 2000, 2003 and 2006 respectively. And Swedes, used to coming near the top of just about every human development index, were appalled. Jan Björklund, the minister of education, moved to tighten central control over schools and is soon to launch a parliamentary inquiry into competition and free schools. “Loopholes in the legislation have meant that free schools can elect not to have a library, student counselling and school nurses,” he complained. “And as they get just as much money as the municipal schools, the owners have been able to withdraw the surplus.” For now, Swedish parents and students still support the 1990s reforms and neither Björklund, nor the opposition Social Democratic party, are considering reversing them. But a poll carried out this year by Synovate found that Swedes who want to ban companies from operating schools for profit now outnumber those that don’t. Vlachos believes that the economic thinking underlying free schools is simply wrong. “It’s very difficult for people to make an informed choice of what’s a good school and that’s not conducive to a well-functioning market,” he said. Part of the problem is that students’ priorities aren’t always economic priorities. “There’s been an explosion of media courses and arts courses such as singing and dancing,” Vlachos said. “They’re not necessarily bad, but it’s not obvious that all these things are stuff that we want to subsidise with taxpayers’ money.” The other problem is unintended side-effects that damage society, such as increased segregation. This issue becomes glaringly obvious if you visit the two sixth forms in Malmö’s Western Harbour, a development of IT office space and tasteful eco-housing built on the city’s redundant shipyards. The first, ProCivitas, has some of the highest entry grades of any school in the city, and draws in some of the most ambitious teachers. There are only a few immigrant faces, teachers wear suits and the atmosphere in its bright, airy central lobby is like that of a trendy design company. At Kunskapsgymnasiet, just five minutes’ cycle ride away, the atmosphere could hardly be more different. Students lounge around in groups smoking and playing cards. Well over 60% are from immigrant or refugee families. Kristoffer Osterman, one teacher I spoke to, sports a hippie beard, long ginger hair, jeans and clumpy boots. ProCivitas students have an average of 280 out of 320 points, the highest in the city, whereas at Kunskapsgymnasiet the average for social sciences is only 180, with some students getting in with just 65 points. This has nothing to do with the schools’ managements. In Sweden, schools are only allowed to say how many places they have free. Each student gets their grades at the end of secondary school and lists the sixth forms they want to go to. The Malmö municipality fills the places in each school, both free and municipal, in order of grade. So if ProCivitas has 300 places, but 1,000 students want to attend it, then the municipality gives the places to the 300 students with the best marks. If on the other hand Kunskapsgymnasiet has 400 places and only 360 students want to go, the municipality will give them all places, even if they have rock-bottom marks. Per Ledin, Kunskapsskolan’s managing director for Sweden, argues that it is unfair to judge his company’s 32 schools by Kunskapsgymnasiet. “We have a surplus of capacity in Malmö, so we get people coming into our school who can’t get into other schools,” he said, adding that on average his students get 11 points higher than would be predicted by their socio-economic background. But when I visited the Malmö school, it was hard to see how. It was so noisy that I thought it must be break time. “Students here, they don’t have to do every task if they can show that they know it,” a teacher said. “English for example, they can learn from the TV and other places.” Much of the learning at the 32 schools in Sweden run by the company is done alone by students, using an online system, with one-on-one guidance from teachers once a week, interspersed with lectures in classes of up to 60 students. If students prefer to play cards and chat all day, it’s up to them. In his study, Vlachos argued that such systems were brought in as much to save costs as to improve education. Kunskapsgymnasiet’s IT-based teaching system allows it to cut the number of teachers it employs in Malmö to 5.1 teachers per 100 students, compared to an average of 8.2 teachers per 100 students at municipal schools. “Many municipal schools are horrendously bad,” Vlachos said. “But the difference between the free schools and the municipal schools is that the free schools actually have a profit incentive to reduce quality.” Kunskapsskolan can point to strong evidence that it works, but according to Daniel Rosen, a Spanish teacher at a state-run sixth-form college in the city of Uppsala, some Kunskapsskolan graduates who come to him have alarming gaps in their knowledge. “Some do have problems with handling their freedom,” admitted Osterman. “Freedom gives them less fact-based knowledge.” Peter Connée, who runs ProCivitas, argued that segregation was an unavoidable side-effect of the system. “Fifteen years ago in Sweden, we had segregation based on where you live, now it’s based on ambition and ability.” Osterman also doesn’t believe it’s necessarily a bad thing. “We are becoming a school for ambitious immigrants,” he said. But as I was leaving his school, one of his students, Mohammed Mahmoud, put it differently. “This is a school for criminals,” he declared, to laughter. “Nobody’s working in this school, because no one here has any future.” Sweden Free schools Europe guardian.co.uk
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Moves to keep up with ‘express train’ of life expectancy could mean retirement age rising to 67 as early as 2026 The government will bring forward an increase in the state pension age to 67 under radical plans designed to prolong the working life of millions of people aged 50 and under. Ministers are already pushing controversial changes through parliament to raise the age at which men and women can claim a pension to 66 by 2020. Now, as the government moves to keep up with the “express train” of life expectancy, the retirement age could rise to 67 as early as 2026. Steve Webb, the pensions minister, has told the Observer that further moves are necessary and the coalition government will rip up the former administration’s timetable, under which the pension age was to be increased to 67 in 2036 and 68 by 2046. Webb, a Liberal Democrat, indicated that he was not seeking merely to tinker with the timescales. He said: “The timescales for 67 and 68 are too slow. If it is 67 in the mid-2030s we will be going backwards in terms of share of your life in retirement. I mean the problem would be worse than 20
Continue reading …“Money is the root of all evil,” a concerned friend recently wrote to Christian Science Monitor financial blogger Trent Hamm, wondering why Hamm would devote his blog to helping people accumulate wealth. But that phrase, which you’ve probably heard or even said yourself, is actually a misquote, Hamm explains. Timothy…
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• Bash F5 or use auto-refresh for the latest updates • Send your US Open chatter to john.ashdown@guardian.co.uk • Or get in touch via Twitter at @JohnAshdown Third set: Federer* 7-6, 6-4, 3-5 Djokovic Federer holds to 30 – an important hold because it means if Djokovic serves this out, Federer will be serving first in the fourth set. Third set: Federer 7-6, 6-4, 2-5 *Djokovic This is a crucial game for Djokovic. If he holds here, you back him to take the set. If he’s broken the match could be Federer’s. The Serb shows no sign of pressure, though, finding the corners with precision and easing into a 40-0 lead before thumping down a serve that oozes authority. Another love hold. Third set: Federer* 7-6, 6-4, 2-4 Djokovic Federer holds to love after a display of hitting so clean you could eat your dinner off it. Third set: Federer 7-6, 6-4, 1-4 *Djokovic Federer gets the better of an arm-wrestle from the baseline, whumping a forehand past the Serb to make it 15-15. The edge has just gone from the Swiss player’s game, though – he’s made eight unforced errors in this set alone. Djokovic roars his pleasure after a forehand down the line brings up 40-15 and another crunch at Federer’s toes takes the game. Third set: Federer* 7-6, 6-4, 1-3 Djokovic Djokovic has very much got his dander up once more – a delicious dropshot brings him back to 40-30 and some remarkable baseline agility forces Federer to another deuce. There’s no drama this time, though, and Federer holds. Third set: Federer 7-6, 6-4, 0-3 *Djokovic We had pyrotechnics in the first set, Federer on fire in the second, now it’s slowed down and Djokovic is grinding his into the ascendancy. Grinding is probably doing him a disservice actually. He’s really digging in deep and has rediscovered his serve. A straightforward hold there. Third set: Federer* 7-6, 6-4, 0-2 Djokovic A couple of loopers off the net bring us to 30-30. Federer produces a 129mph serve, his fastest of the day, but then miscues to bring up deuce. Djokovic is fizzing and popping around the back of the court like a grasshopper in a deep fat fryer, and he takes Federer to a third deuce without gaining a break point of his own. A sumptuous return finally gives him that chance, though, but even Federer’s second serve has the smothering quality of a duvet dunked in chloroform. The Serb battles back to another advantage, another break point, another second serve, but walks right into another second serve that kicks up into his teeth (figuratively at least). Incredibly he does it again, another advantage, another break point, another second serve … and this time he survives the smother and watches Federer slap one into the net from the baseline. Djokovic goes a break up. Third set: Federer 7-6, 6-4, 0-1 *Djokovic The courtside Greg Rusedski reckons this is the best he’s seen Federer play in years. But then he also reckons Djokovic has Star Power in his box. Expect the Serb to begin flashing random colours and leaving trails of stars as he runs, enemies tumbling in his path. A little Mario Bros. reference for you there. He’s taken his first service game of the third set to love, at least. Roger Federer wins the second set 6-4. Federer leads 7-6, 6-4 Second set: Federer* 7-6, 6-4 Djokovic Federer, then, serving for a two-set lead. Djokovic looks like he’s trying to get himself pumped up, but the technique isn’t coming with him – it’s 30-0 in the blink of an eye. A hammer … No scratch that … An anvil-off-the-roof of a serve makes it 40-15 and another unreturnable effort is enough. ADVERTS, ADVERTS, ADVERTS … (a précis) Buy a car! Gamble! Get some stuff delivered somewhere! Second set: Federer 7-6, 5-4 *Djokovic Djokovic was just feeling his ankle at the end of that game, but looks unaffected as he races into a 30-0 lead. The scowl returns after he lets a backhand slip wide. The scowl deepens after a double fault makes it 40-30, but Federer drags a forehand into the net. He’ll have to serve out if he wants this set. Second set: Federer* 7-6, 5-3 Djokovic At 15-15 Federer splats an ace down the centre, with Djokovic groping at thin air. A poor volley from Federer allows Djokovic to make it 30-30, before a smash and another thumping serve allows the No3 seed to consolidate the break. Second set: Federer 7-6, 4-3 *Djokovic Djokovic drags a forehand a foot wide – that’s a chasm in this match – and Federer has the advantage at 0-30 and facing a second serve. More otherworldly stuff from the back of the court – his backhand down the line is astonishing – makes it 0-40 and again a bullying rally gives Federer the break. In the first set neither player came close to breaking – we’ve had three breaks in the opening seven games of the second. Second set: Federer* 7-6, 3-3 Djokovic What with all this high-quality tennis action I’ve not been able to bring you any Worms updates. I’m hearing the Utensils team is on top, although Spoon has taken refuge under a girder. Momentum is hugely important in any sport, but it really seems to weigh heavily on tennis. And Djokovic seems to have dragged it back. He’s 15-30 up and playing superbly again. A shoddy Federer forehand five the Serb a break point at 30-40 … and the Swiss goes wide. A break back. You really couldn’t see that coming two games ago. Second set: Federer 7-6, 3-2 *Djokovic There’s a pause as someone in the crowd is taken ill. After a short break Djokovic begins the unenviable task of fighting his way back into this match, with the frightening tennis robot from the future at the other end. The Serb goes 40-15 ahead thanks to a couple of Federer backhands that drift long and with a wonderful pick up of the soles of the soles of the soles of his shoes he whacks home a winner to stop the rot. Second set: Federer* 7-6, 3-1 Djokovic While Federer has remained on that other tennis planet, Djokovic has edged back towards earth. Only edged – he plays a wonderful backhand to drag things back to 30-30 – but Federer is still in orbit. Mind you, that forehand he’s just hit isn’t far from heading into orbit – somehow it’s deuce. Federer bosses another rally … in fact, make that another couple of rallies … to take the game. Second set: Federer 7-6, 2-1 *Djokovic Djokovic hammers a forehand into the net – and he’s beginning to look a little irked at himself. No wonder – he’s been playing wonderfully but not getting close to a break. He follows up with a stress-relieving ace, but then nets another forehand. It’s 15-30 on the Djokovic serve and a breathtaking backhand gives Federer two break points. The serve is still working just fine – he saves one break point with another crunching first serve – but the Serb is struggling to get the upper hand in the rallies. Still, Federer goes too long to bring up deuce, the first deuce by my reckoning, but another nervy shot gives the Swiss another break point. No mistake this time and Federer has the break. Second set: Federer* 7-6, 1-1 Djokovic That was a bit too easy. Djokovic’s level drops off just a touch and Federer holds to love. Second set: Federer 7-6, 0-1 *Djokovic These two are playing at such a high level. You simply can’t play tennis much better than this. Anyway, Djokovic needs to pick himself up after that. He’s done a decent job of it here, racing into a 40-0 before a whipped forehand from Federer puts the brakes on the momentum. Still, it’s a straightforward hold. Roger Federer wins the first set 7-6 (9-7) 1st set: TIE BREAK Djokovic goes narrowly wide on Federer’s second serve and then nets a forehand to give Federer a mini-break at 2-0 … but he drags a backhand wide on his own serve to level it up at 2-2 … Federer again gets the upper hand at 4-2 with a lovely backhand down the line … and under pressure Djokovic double-faults. Federer leads 5-2 with two serves to come … But Federer throws in his own double-fault … Djokovic nets the next, though, to give Federer three set points at 6-3 … a crunching Djokovic serve saves one … and after another rally-to-end-all-rallies Federer clips the net cord and Djokovic puts it away. 6-5, but two serves for Federer … Djokovic saves the third set point with a hammering forehand. 6-6 now … ‘COME ON!’ urges Federer after forcing another error. 7-6 another set point … saved once more by Djokovic, forcing Federer to hit long … a clever return puts Federer 8-7 up and he’s got two serves once more … this time he only needs one! Federer wins the first set 7-6 (9-7) 1st set: Federer 6-6 *Djokovic It’s 0-15 early doors, but Djokovic produces yet another fantastic serve to level it up. Federer caresses the next into the foot of the net, lofts the next long and goes back to the net with the next. 6-6 we’re going to a tie-break. 1st set: Federer* 6-5 Djokovic A cracking return on Federer’s first serve puts Djokovic 15-0 up, but a shuddering serve evens it up. They really are playing astonishing tennis. Save one, or possibly two, others, every player on the ATP tour must watch these two and shake their heads at their play. It’s on a different plane. Another couple of mini-classic rallies later Federer is 40-15 up and a long return means Djokovic is going to have to hold for a a tie-break. 1st set: Federer 5-5 *Djokovic The first nine games have taken just 27 minutes and in that time the clouds have been shooed away and the sun has very much got his hat on. Hip-hip-hip hooray and all that. WHAT A RALLY THAT WAS! The first point is surely the longest of the match so far, Federer fending off Djokovic’s laser-guided forehands to Federer’s backhand. Eventually, with the Serb at his mercy, Federer smacks one long. This really has got ‘Epic’ written all over it. In fact, if you got a moment, it’s a twelve-storey epic with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying ‘This Is an Epic’. Get me two pencils and a pair of underpants. Djokovic holds to 15. 1st set: Federer* 5-4 Djokovic Federer raises to a 40-0 lead, thanks in part to a couple of serves that kick like a mule angered by rising house prices. A misjudged drop shot gives Djokovic a sniff at 40-30, but, despite the tricksy intervention of a net cord, Federer thumps a forehand past his opponent to hold. Again. 1st set: Federer 4-4 *Djokovic WHUMP! Ace. 15-0. BLAMP! Net. 30-0. SKEW! Long. 40-0. DINKY DROP! Net. 40-15. (Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce) FLAP! Wide. Game Djokovic. 1st set: Federer* 4-3 Djokovic Federer drags a forehand off towards Texas and, for the first time in the game I think, one of these players leads on the opponent’s serve. It doesn’t last long, though, and the Swiss gets the better of a couple of hard-hitting rallies to go 30-15 up. A stunning cross-court passing shot brings parity once more, but then Djokovic semi-shanks a forehand long and it’s another hold. This couldn’t be more even if it were a surface plate . Yes, I had to Google that. 1st set: Federer 3-3 *Djokovic The Arthur Ashe Arena is one of sport’s great arenas – from above it looks like a giant satellite dish filled with humanity (er, albeit one with a blue tennis court in the middle). Djokovic again needs a couple of early seconds serves and it’s 15-15 before a whistling, unreturnable serve down the middle and a Federer forehand into the net gives him breathing space. You definitely get the sense that Djokovic is working the hardest in the rallies but he’s plenty good enough to stay in the points. Another netted return, another hold. 1st set: Federer* 3-2 Djokovic Federer charges the net and forces the Serb to panic a backhand well long. And he mixes it up again – after picking up one Djokovic forehand from around his ankles, a delicate drop-shot (one you might even call Murrayesque) is enough to make it 30-0. A thunking exocet of a backhand from the Serb drags it back to 30-30 but Federer finishes the job courtesy of a stray Djokovic backhand and an ace. 1st set: Federer 2-2 *Djokovic Djokovic needs second serves on each of the first two points – Federer is wild with his return on the first but from the second Djoko puts Federer’s return into the net. Finally, from the 14th point of the game, we have a point against serve. Djokovic slows it down in response – Bounce, bounce, bounce. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Bounce, bounce, bounce before the serve – and a couple of streaky returns from Federer gives Djokovic 40-15. A pounding, insistent two-handed backhand down the line gives him the hold. 1st set: Federer* 2-1 Djokovic There’s barely a breath between games. Both players seem intent on obliterating the other with their intensity and tempo. In the blink of an eye it’s 40-0 to Federer. And in two blinks, despite a second serve, it’s all over. Twelve points, three games … thunderous, ruthless stuff. 1st set: Federer 1-1 *Djokovic The Serb kicks things off with an ace arrowed down the centre and there’s no let-up, a wonderful forehand that has Federer watching on in admiration (and, I’m sure, a soupçon of disgust) puts Djokovic 40-0 up and Federer nets to concede the hold. Neither player has dropped a point on serve. 1st set: Federer* 1-0 Djokovic Federer opens up with a crunching cross-court forehand to go 30-0 up, and produces another superbly judged forehand to go 40-0. And after 90 seconds or so, the Swiss is 1-0 up. Here’s Gary Naylor’s answer. 6.20pm: Alicia Keys warbles ‘New York, New York, New Yooooorrrrrkkk’ as the players go through their warm-up. That’s a little self-referential isn’t it. Can’t see Wimbledon blasting out ‘Waterloo Sunset’ or Pulp’s Mile End before a semi-final. Though wouldn’t it be brilliant if they did. Right here we go. Federer to serve … 6.15pm: The players are knocking up out on court – Federer in red and grey, Djokovic all in white. 6.14pm: Roger Federer is being interviewed outside the dressing rooms. Looks like we might have some play in the next 20 minutes. Whenever I see Federer I’m always struck by the fact that he’s almost exactly six months younger than me because a) he somehow manages to look both much older and much younger than me and b) he’s won 16 grand slams and I’m yet to get off the mark. 6.08pm: A quiz question from Gary Naylor: “Which group’s first single was a Number One, but they did not release their second single for another twelve years (it went top five) by which time they had a completely different line-up?” I have a hunch (which the more I think about, the more wrong it seems). But I’ll wait for Gary to send over the answer. 6.05pm: This is the latest rainfall radar from intellicast.com . As you can see, it’s hardly a blanket. And, as if by magic, the rain has stopped at Flushing Meadows. 5.55pm: Sky are now showing the 1976 final. Still pouring at Flushing Meadows, but looking a little brighter. Even so there’ll be no play for a good hour I’d say. Anyone fancy a game of I spy? No? Kerplunk then? Mr Pop? Tell you what would be handy – I’m doing one of my largely ignored hugely popular pub quizzes at the Rose and Crown on Tuesday 20 September (come one, come all, fine ales, wines of the world, cash prizes, etc, etc). Has anyone out there got any superb questions that I can steal wholesale consider for selection? 5.40pm: “Hey John – 24 has to be the worst offender,” writes Alex Hanton. “An entire anti-terrorism group spending a day without relieving themselves? No wonder Jack Bauer is always so angry. The best aversion is probably Pulp Fiction.” Good call. See also: Lethal Weapon 2.ui 5.35pm: Rain continues to thunder down in New York. “The opening scene of Barbarella sent a lot of teenage boys to the ba…” Behave yourself Gary Naylor. 5.30pm: Sky Sports have settled in with a Hard-Fi backed montage – Hard To Beat, aptly enough – of Federer’s tournament so far. He has been imperious – he’s only dropped one set at Flushing Meadows this year. 5.22pm: As we’ve got this delay, we can expand on our theme. Of the top of my head, the only sci-fi film I can think of with what we’ll call, for want of a better phrase, a “toilet scene” is Jurassic Park. And that ends with your man getting chomped by a Tyrannosaur. Obviously you’ve got to make allowances. It’s all about escapism so you don’t want to ruin the viewer’s pleasure by sending people off to the bogs all the time. But just the odd reference, here and there. That’s all I’m asking for. For example: Darth Vader: I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master. Obi-Wan: Only a master of evil, Darth. Darth Vader: I tell you what was evil, that mushroom stroganoff I had at lunchtime. Can you give me a minute? Obi-Wan: No worries. I’ve got to stretch first anyways. 5.21pm: It looks like this might be a heavy shower only, rather than a prolonged downpour. Here’s hoping anyway. 5.15pm: WEATHER NEWS! It’s just started absolutely wellying it down. There’ll be a delay. 5.04pm: Something that has been on my mind today: I watched Aliens last night. Great film. Lovely stuff. But at one point Hicks turns to Ripley and says: Hicks (in husky US marine voice): How long has it been since you slept? 24 hours? You should get some rest. Ripley: Yeah. It’s not a classic exchange but it got me thinking. In that sort of stressful situation, sleep is going to be tricky. But what about going to the loo? You’ve been chased around by insectoid killing machines with acid for blood for the best part of a day, but at some point you’re going to need a comfort break. A more realistic exchange would be: Hicks (in husky US marine voice): How long has it been since you slept? 24 hours? You should get some rest. Ripley (looking slightly pained): I’ll be alright. But do you know where the facilities are? I’m busting. In fact, this unstoppable human need is largely ignored. I think it would add another layer of realism: Balrog: GRRRRR!!! Gandalf: You cannot pass! I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow. YOU SHALL NOT PASS! And if you could direct us to your restrooms, I’m sure we’d all really appreciate it. Gimli drank several gourds at lunchtime, hasn’t stopped going on about it, and Pippin says he’s had enough of squatting behind rocks. You see? Anyway. Glad to have got that off my chest. Right, tennis … Preamble Evening all. Today the men’s draw at the US Open gets interesting, because, at last, the four players who dominate the game come face-to-face. The quartet’s record in the last six grand slams is remarkable: Wimbledon 2010 Three out of four reached the semi-finals (with Federer absent) US Open 2010 Three out of four reached the semi-finals (Murray absent) Australian Open 2011 Three out of the four reached the semi-finals (Nadal absent) French Open 2011 All four reached the semi-finals Wimbledon 2011 Three out of the four reached the semi-finals (Federer absent). And now at the US Open 2011 All four have reached the semi-finals once more. Djokovic is, increasingly, the man to beat. He’s reached six successive grand-slam semis, and three of the last four finals, winning two of them. The last man to deny the Serb a place in a final was his opponent today. Federer beat the Joker in the last four at the French Open earlier this year. The pair have met 23 times, with Federer winning 14 to Djokovic’s nine, but in the past two years it’s a much closer 5-4 to the Swiss and in 2011 it’s 3-1 to Djokovic with that defeat on the red clay at Roland Garros the only blemish. In other news , thanks to a slight diary error, I’m missing a retro Worms and whiskey marathon at a friend’s house tonight. Maybe we’ll get an update from there as we go along. US Open 2011 Roger Federer Novak Djokovic US Open tennis Tennis John Ashdown guardian.co.uk
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Fashion-conscious coach parties expected to keep shopping giant running until 2012 Olympics The largest urban shopping mall in Europe will open in east London this week amid hopes that foreign shoppers might bring in the cash that British shoppers seem unwilling to part with. One financial expert said experts could not say that the project would have been cancelled had anyone been able to predict the economic slowdown, but with the capital awash with rising numbers of tourists, it could well be down to London’s cachet with fashion-conscious Europeans to keep our stores afloat. The massive new Westfield Stratford City mall – with its 300 shops, 70 restaurants and bars, a 17-screen cinema and 1.9m sq feet of retail space – opens on Tuesday in Stratford at the site of next year’s Olympic Games, at a time when o ne in seven shops in Britain are boarded up as retailers struggle. Richard Dodd of the British Retail Consortium said: “Any retailer or developer would want to be able to choose a time to open, and we wouldn’t choose the conditions we have now. But that doesn’t mean that if they knew in the past what it would be like now they would have cancelled.” Dodd added: “Consumer confidence is very weak. Our own figures for August showed that spending was only 1.5% higher than in August a year ago, but that is less than inflation and we’ve had a VAT rise. People bought less stuff this year than a year ago. And all the indicators are that people feel their own costs are rising.” But with the Australian-based Westfield company – which has another, slightly smaller mall in west London – bringing in 10,000 jobs to what is one of the most deprived parts of the city, it is not just big businesses that hope the glamour of Tuesday, when pop star and occasional X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger will open the shopping centre, will stick with it. In total, £1.45bn and 40,000 tonnes of steel have gone into construction – Marks & Spencer and John Lewis have taken huge outlets. They will be joined by names such as Topshop, River Island, Primark, Boots and Goldsmiths, which will be selling some of its jewellery from vending machines. Westfield will undoubtedly benefit from the Olympics, and developers expect around 70% of the 10 million visitors to the Games to pass through. “Westfield is not being built solely for the Olympics, but it’s a major long-term investment by retailers for that part of east London, and it needs to be successful well outside of any Olympic considerations,” said Dodd. There has been a surge in European tourists in London this year, mostly French, German and Spanish, many attracted by the spending power of their euros against a weak pound, and this has kept many retailers in the capital afloat. Westfield will be hoping for a share of the continental visitor spending power, much of which at the moment is spent in the West End triumvirate of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street. Jace Tyrrell, of the New West End Company, said there is no fear that the West End will lose custom to the new project. “We’re relaxed about Stratford. We’ve seen a huge rise in European shoppers and I don’t think we’ll lose too many to a mall.” But coaches are already offering direct runs from Paris to Stratford. Eurostar, which is also reporting a rise in the popularity of London as a destination for its passengers, will not stop at Stratford International at the very least until after the Games, when the train operator will review its decision. But the transport links from other parts of London are fast and varied and as the 150 cleaners put the final polish on the site, shops and developers at Westfield Stratford City are hoping for a brighter, long-term future. Westfield facts 40,000 tonnes of structural steel was used in the construction – equivalent to the weight of 80 million medals. 10,000 permanent jobs have been provided – 2,000 of which have gone to local unemployed people. 4 million people live less than 45 minutes away and have £3.24bn to spend. 1.25m metres of cable is in the centre. Plus 30,000 metres of piping. 150 cleaners are clearing the site to be ready for Tuesday’s opening. 75% of Stratford City’s electrical power will be met by an onsite power plant. Retail industry Olympic Games 2012 London Tracy McVeigh Simon Goodley guardian.co.uk
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