• Email rob.smyth@guardian.co.uk with your thoughts • Press refresh or hit the auto-update for the latest • Follow Rob Smyth on Twitter , if that’s your thing 16th over: England 48-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 16, Bell 23) Another delightful boundary from Bell, this one pushed straight back down the ground off the bowling of Sreesanth. The ball is swinging a little, but the pitch isn’t doing too much at the moment. We’re not going to have a Test like this , are we? “Wasn’t too long ago that the OBO was filled with please for rain, rain and more rain,” says Aram Gumusyan. “Now there’s heady talk of symbolic maces? Watch out for when The Man comes round, and his name is Hugh G. Bris.” Nah, I’m not having that. None of us are saying that it will happen or that it deserves to happen, but it’s close enough to make discussion of it entirely legitimate. It’s not like we’re rushing to the machine in the toilet just because a girl said hello to us. 15th over: England 42-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 15, Bell 18) Strauss drives Kumar pleasantly thorugh mid off for four. If I wasn’t terrified of being savaged by twos of readers for tempting fate, I’d say England have started the day very promisingly. ” Scyld Berry?” says Ali Kinnaird. “A name with no vowels? This is a first for me! Are there any other names with no vowels in them? Thank you.” I can’t think of any surnames without a vowel in them. 14th over: England 38-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 11, Bell 18) Bell lashes Sreesanth through the covers for four, prompting a cry of ‘Shot!’ from Strauss at the other end. He didn’t quite do the full ‘Ian Ronald Bell’, like Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks, but it was still a nice moment. “Here on Star Cricket, Sunny and Ravi Shastri had a right go at Vaughan, Sunny wanted VVS to take Michael to court,” says Vivek Radhakrishnan. “Entertaining rants by both of them. Where do stand on this issue, Rob?” I am saying absolutely nothing on this subject. Hell does hath fury like a woman scorned, and I suspect we’ll witness it at some stage before the end of August. 13th over: England 31-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 9, Bell 13) Some early swing from Praveen Kumar. Mind you, he could swing the ball in an airless bunker. Strauss tucks him through midwicket for three, and then Bell deliberately fiddles one to third man for four. England trail by 36, and will probably want at least another 285 runs in this innings. “What a glorious series this has been, like waking up after a huge bender on the first night of a holiday and realising you have no hangover, the sky is blue and you still have 5 nights to play with,” says Guy Hornsby. “It’s hard to recall it’s only 7 days old. With Trott seemingly out, today is all about our Eoin. I desperately hope he gets a big score. Having an on-song Morgan in your Test side for the next six or seven years. Imagine that!” He should come out swinging today. Forget the technical concerns and the poor form and do what he does best: just hit the ball. 12th over: England 24-1 (trailed by 67 on first innings; Strauss 6, Bell 9) Sreesanth bowls the first over of the day, trying to draw Bell into a drive outside off stump. He declines, so it’s a maiden. “First! (Sorry)” says Ryan Dunne. “Do teams still get the giant mace if they become No1 team in the world? Would it be put on display on Lord’s or the like, or would Swann be allowed to play about with it for cool Twitter photos? I remember when Duncan Fletcher said (well, he would) that his achievements with England in the 00s far dwarfed anything the country managed in the 80s; could a case be made that England deserve serious plaudits (including more gongs from the Queen) if they reach No1, or has Test cricket overall declined too much from the heady days of 2005?” I think it’ll be a huge achievement if England manage it. Fletcher was right; England were often hopeless in the 1980s. Scyld Berry wrote a fine piece on that subject in the very first edition of The Wisden Cricketer. And yeah, they do get the mace. “Good morning,” says John Starbuck. “It’s been announced that Trott will bat though no-one knows what position yet.” Crikey, that is a surprise. No10 or 11? Thought for the day This series is going to kick off very soon, isn’t it? Trottwatch He faced only two balls in practice this morning before going off for an injection. It seems very unlikely he will bat. Preamble Morning. These days everyone wants to be FIRST! We’re a culture obsessed with the first: first impression, first match of the season, first meal (Paulie Walnuts says breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and wise men don’t argue with Paulie), first date, first injunction, first pint after eight hours kissing the feet of The Man. In some contexts, however, the second is far more important. For example, a monstrous slab of lunchtime meat at The Hawksmoor trumps Frosties anyday, although you can tell Paulie that. Similarly, the second set of a tennis match is surely the most significant, when the contest is almost completed at 2-0 or comes alive at 1-1. That’s the scenario we have at Trent Bridge today, where an excellent Test match will probably be decided, if not actually completed. Either England go 2-0 up or India level it at 1-1 with power, Sehwag and Zaheer to add. The English cricket lover in me is desperate for England to win; the Test cricket lover in me is equally desperate for India to win. Think about how empty 2005 would have been had Australia gone 2-0 up at Edgbaston, and not just because England were losing. Six years ago we had the best of both worlds – an epic series and an England win. So this time we want India to win here, England to win by one wicket at Edgbaston and then by one run at The Oval, thus clinching the series 3-1 and going top of the Test Championship. Is that so much to ask? All that said, I suppose we could live with England winning by 114 runs here after a staggering 121-ball 132 from Eoin Morgan. India in England 2011 England cricket team India cricket team Cricket Over by over reports Rob Smyth Rob Bagchi guardian.co.uk
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Republicans say they are confident a deal to raise the US debt ceiling can be reached as last-minute talks continue The White House and Republican leaders in Congress have made significant progress toward a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic default, according to officials familiar with the talks. Under a plan negotiated late on Saturday night, the ceiling would be raised in two steps by about $2.4tn (£1.5tn) and spending would be cut by a slightly larger amount, the officials said. The first stage – to raise the ceiling by about $1tn – would take place immediately and the second later in the year. Congress would be required to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, but none of the debt limit increase would be contingent on its approval. President Barack Obama is seeking legislation to raise the government’s $14.3tn debt limit by enough to tide the US treasury over until after the 2012 elections. He has threatened to veto any proposals that might lead to a recurrence of the current crisis next year but has agreed to Republican demands that deficits be cut – without tax increases – in exchange for authorising additional US borrowing. Without a compromise in place by Tuesday, administration officials say the treasury will run out of funds to pay the nation’s bills. The subsequent default, which would be the first in US history, could prove catastrophic for the US economy by causing interest rates to rise and financial markets to sink, and sending shockwaves around the world. With financial markets closed for the weekend, the parties to the negotiations had a little breathing space, but not much. Asian markets open for the new working week late Sunday afternoon Washington time. “There is very little time,” Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address on Saturday. He called for an end to political gamesmanship, saying: “The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now.” One official commenting on the late night negotiations said the two sides had settled on general concepts, but that there were numerous details to be worked out – and no assurance of a final agreement. “There are many elements to be finalised,” Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate said. “There is still a distance to go.” Still, word of significant progress after weeks of stalemate offered the strongest indication yet that a default might be averted. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said at a joint news conference with the House speaker John Boehner that he was confident a deal could be reached “in the very near future”. After a meeting at the White House with Obama and the House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Reid initially disagreed with that optimistic assessment. Past increases in the US debt ceiling have been routine, but Republicans, citing the giant US deficit, have demanded huge spending cuts as a condition for approving the increase this time. After weeks of intense partisanship, there was renewed talk of compromise as both the House and Senate convened for extraordinary Saturday sessions. McConnell and Boehner held their news conference shortly after the House of Representatives had rejected a Senate Democratic bill drafted by Reid to raise the government’s debt limit by $2.4tn and cut spending by $2.2tn. The House vote was 246-173, mostly along party lines and after a bitter debate. The vote was unusual in that Republicans lined up to kill Reid’s legislation before it had even cleared the Senate. It was orchestrated as political payback because late on Friday Reid had engineered the demise of Republican proposals hours after it they were passed in the House. Before the House vote, Republicans said Reid’s proposals were full of gimmicks and would make unacceptable reductions in defence spending. Pelosi said Boehner had chosen “to go to the dark side” when he changed his own legislation to satisfy the Tea Party movement and other critics, who insist taxes must not be raised to cut into federal deficits, even for the wealthiest US companies and individuals. US politics United States US economy Economics Republicans Democrats Tea Party movement guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …It’s either a sign that a last-minute deal is truly in sight or one last tease: Harry Reid has postponed a 1am procedural vote on his plan to raise the debt ceiling until tomorrow afternoon, reports the Hill . Reid says the delay is intended to give negotiations with Republicans under…
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Scores killed and wounded as President Bashar al-Assad’s troop launch assault on opposition stronghold ahead of Ramadan Syrian troops in tanks have stormed the flashpoint city of Hama, killing and wounding scores of people in a barrage of shelling and gunfire that left bodies scattered in the streets. Residents shouted “God is great!” and threw firebombs and stones at the tanks as they pushed through the city before dawn on Sunday. “It’s a massacre, they want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan,” an eyewitness who identified himself by his first name, Ahmed, told the Associated Press by telephone. Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties and were seeking blood donations, he said. Activists have predicted that demonstrations will escalate during Ramadan, which starts on Monday, as protesters and government forces try to use the Muslim holy month to tip the balance of the uprising that began in March in their favour. Ahmed, a Hama resident, said he saw up to 12 people shot dead in the streets in a district known as the Baath neighbourhood. Most had been shot in the chest and head, he said. “Troops entered Hama at dawn today,” another resident told AP by telephone. “We woke up to this news, they are firing from their machine guns randomly and there are many casualties.” A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the city’s Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals had received 24 bodies. There were scores of wounded people and a shortage of blood for transfusions, he said by telephone from the city, which has a population of around 700,000. “Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machine guns randomly and overrunning makeshift roadblocks erected by the inhabitants,” the doctor said. Machine gun fire could be heard in background as he spoke. “There are bodies uncollected in the streets,” said another resident, adding that army snipers had positioned themselves on the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison. Tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around northern Hama, residents said, and electricity and water supplies to the main neighbourhoods had been cut off – a tactic used regularly by the military when storming towns. During Ramadan, Muslims throng mosques for special night prayers after breaking their daily dawn-to-dusk fast. The gatherings could trigger major protests throughout the predominantly Sunni country and activists say authorities are moving to try to ensure that does not happen. An estimated 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime since the uprising began. Most of the dead were killed in shootings by security forces at anti-government rallies. Hama, about 130 miles (210 kilometres) north of Damascus, has become one of the hottest centres of the demonstrations. In early June, security forces shot dead 65 people there, and since then it has fallen out of government control, with protesters holding the streets and government forces ringing the city and conducting overnight raids. The city has a history of dissent against the Assad dynasty. In 1982, Assad’s late father, Hafez al-Assad, ordered his brother to quell a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement. The city was sealed off before air strikes destroyed parts of the city. As many as 25,000 people, human rights groups say. The real number may never be known. Then, as now, reporters were not allowed to reach the area. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had compiled the names of 13 dead from hospitals and residents in Hama, but the figure could not be independently confirmed. The Syria-based Local Coordination Committees said it had the names of four victims, but thatthere were more bodies still to be identified. Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …A new study about teen fiction raises a familiar alarm bell: The books have too much sex. Roughly half of young-adult titles have some kind of racy content, which runs the gamut from kissing to intercourse, warns the study from Brigham Young University. Oh, please, writes Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon…
Continue reading …Prosecutors at Amanda Knox’s appeals trial battled it out today with independent forensic experts who say some of the key DNA evidence used to convict her of murder is bogus. Prosecutor Manuela Comodi sought to undermine the experts’ conclusions and show that the forensic evidence used to convict Knox could…
Continue reading …The debt rhetoric seems to have taken an optimistic turn: “Our country is not going to default for the first time in history; that is not going to happen,” GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared at a news conference. Republicans were now “fully engaged” with President Obama on a…
Continue reading …A report on Iraq five months before the US withdrawal doesn’t exactly inspire confidence: “It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago,” declares Stuart Bowen, the official appointed by Congress to keep an eye on the transition. He cites an increase in bombings and assassinations, rampant corruption,…
Continue reading …The latest Rich Person Trend: Buying your own private island in the Exuma Cays, a little-known cluster of 365 small and mostly uninhabited islands in the Bahamas. Tyler Perry, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill are among the newer buyers, joining older purchasers including Johnny Depp and David Copperfield. But what…
Continue reading …Don’t expect to see any Casey Anthony interviews (or photo spreads ) anytime soon. TMZ reports that she will get treatment for mental health issues before entertaining the possibility of going public with her story. “Sources close to Anthony” say she never properly dealt with Caylee’s death, and spending three…
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