It was raining hard in Birmingham on Sunday morning. A weight of great black clouds broke over the city while it was feeling its way into the day. On the streets people pressed themselves together under the cover of bus stops and awnings: revellers off to the Queens Heath pride festival, heavy metal lovers making their way home after Black Sabbath’s farewell gig at Villa Park the previous evening, and cricket supporters bound for the ground, most of them with last-minute tickets, split between anxious Indian and wry English fans, the only people in the city who were happy enough to be getting wet.
The bad weather was about the only way England were going to get out of this match with a draw. A team who have spent three years learning how to do the improbable were in no position at all to attempt the unremarkable and bat out the match, even after the rain had washed out the first hour and a half of the day.
Their attempt to play out the remaining 80 overs of the game was as good as up by the lunch break, broken by a superb spell of fast bowling by Akash Deep, who had played only seven Tests before this, but is 28 and has spent years in Indian first-class cricket learning how to get every last bit out of unhelpful pitches such as this one.
Deep took as many wickets in this match as England’s four quicks managed between them and gave them one long lesson in how to bowl in their own conditions. He produced more good balls in his first spell on Sunday than they had between them in the match. One of them got Ollie Pope, dismissed playing the sort of janky defensive shot that makes people question his spot in the order all over again, and another did for Harry Brook, who was beaten by a jaffa that nipped back off a crack and smacked into his thigh bone.
So in came Ben Stokes, England’s last hope now the clouds had blown over. Strange to say about a man who’s performed so many wonders, but it felt like no hope at all. Stokes is just the sort of man you might hire to slay the Nemean lion, but it’s less obvious that he’s the one you would send in with a shovel to muck out the Augean stables.
Time was when he could do it for you. It’s easy to forget, among everything else he’s done for England, that he’s played a series of rearguard innings over the years for captains before him, 66 off 188 balls against New Zealand in 2018, 62 off 187 against India at Trent Bridge later that same year.
But anyone who’s watching knows those days are a way behind him. On Sunday, Stokes managed just over 90 minutes of batting. There was one of those familiar pull shots against Prasidh Krishna, like a lumberjack making the last cut on a California redwood, and a couple of crisp glances to fine leg, but that was about the best of it.
He was, he always is, bamboozled by Ravindra Jadeja’s way of bowling into the rough outside off stump. It’s like watching a grizzly bear try to solve a Rubik’s Cube. He was eventually done, in the last over before lunch, by one of Washington Sundar’s innocuous off-breaks.
Akash Deep (centre) produced a superb spell of fast bowling to lead India to victory. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Stokes has such a big influence as captain that it goes almost unnoticed that he has so little influence as a batsman. He has made one century in the past three years, and that was a bar-room brawl in a losing cause against Australia at Lord’s, when he was furious that Alex Carey had run out Jonny Bairstow.
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Since then, he’s scored six fifties in 33 innings, none bigger, or better, than the 80 he made in the first innings of an English victory in Christchurch last November. His batting average was 39 in the first year of his captaincy, but was 28 last year and is just 19 in this one.
Among all the other records Shubman Gill set this week, he outscored Stokes by 397 runs in the match, which is the largest gap between two captains in the history of Test cricket. Gill, of course, doesn’t have to do any of his team’s bowling. Stokes was superb with the ball at Headingley just last week.
For all the hard work he’s put into that over the past 12 months, you wonder how he would be batting now if he had been willing, or able, to put the same sort of time into the other side of his all-round game. He didn’t play at all for Durham this year and, aside from his England commitments, he’s had exactly one red ball innings in the past year.
It’s asking a hell of a lot of him to bat as well as he bowls, and bowl as well as he leads, but that’s what England need.
Mexico fought back from conceding an early goal to beat Mauricio Pochettino’s United States and defend their Gold Cup title in Houston, Texas.
Former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Pochettino saw his team gain a fourth-minute lead through Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards. He headed in from Sebastian Berhalter’s free-kick, with the ball bouncing down off the underside of the crossbar and just crossing the line.
But the US advantage only lasted 23 minutes as Fulham striker Raul Jimenez equalised with a first-time shot on the turn into the roof of the net from eight yards out, following Marcel Ruiz’s intelligent reverse pass.
Jimenez celebrated the goal by sitting on the turf with a ‘Diogo J 20’ shirt in front of him as a tribute to his former Wolves team-mate Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash on Thursday aged 28.
Mexico dominated the second half and got the winner in the 77th minute with a diving header from Edson Alvarez, although it had originally being ruled out for offside before the video assistant referee showed the West Ham defender was onside.
The Gold Cup featured 16 nations, 15 from North and Central America as well as Saudi Arabia, who had been invited to compete. All but one of the matches have been held in the United States, with the other one staged in Vancouver, Canada.
Pochettino took Tottenham to the Champions League final in 2019 and had been appointed boss of the US national team in September 2024, four months after being dismissed by Chelsea.
Forget the usual salted caramel or white chocolate. A new wave of Indian chocolatiers and pastry chefs is infusing flavours like paan, kaapi, gulkand, and even imli into European-style bonbons, truffles, and ganaches. The result? Artisanal chocolates that surprise, comfort, and stir a deep sense of nostalgia. This Chocolate Day, we explore some bold desi flavours redefining the cocoa experience. Smriti Bhatia, chocolatier, says, “Our choco-paan wraps, chocolate chutney tadka and kabuli chana chocolates are absolute bestsellers. These flavours may sound experimental, but they’re deeply familiar to Indian palate.” Ananya Deshpande, chocolatier, adds, “Indian flavours like cardamom and masala chai work beautifully with chocolate – they add warmth, depth, and a familiar comfort that people instantly connect with.”
Flavours that are getting a gourmet spin:
Paan: Betel leaf, gulkand, and fennel in dark ganacheFilter coffee: South Indian kaapi reduction in milk chocolateKesar-pista: Saffron-pistachio pralines in white chocolate shellsJamun: Tart fruit purée folded into ruby chocolateNolen gur: Bengal’s winter jaggery in caramel trufflesMasala chai: Black tea and spice blend in semi-sweet ganacheKaala namak & imli: Tangy bonbons with tamarind caramel
For generations, humans have gazed at the stars and wondered about the ultimate fate of the Universe. Will it expand forever into the cold emptiness, or meet a more dramatic end?
A new study published by physicists from Cornell University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and other institutions suggests we may finally have an answer, and it’s surprisingly specific.
Using data from a number of astronomical surveys including the Dark Energy Survey and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, the researchers have developed a model that predicts our Universe will end in a “Big Crunch” in approximately 33.3 billion years.
Related: The End of The Universe Could Come ‘Much Sooner’ Than We Thought
Since the Universe is currently 13.8 billion years old, this gives us roughly 20 billion years before the curtain falls!
This prediction challenges the long held assumption that the Universe will expand forever. Instead, it suggests that after reaching maximum expansion in about 7 billion years, the Universe will begin contracting until everything collapses back into a single point.
Illustration of DESI in the dome of the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab/KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)
The key lies in understanding dark energy, the mysterious force that makes up about 70 percent of the Universe and drives its expansion. It’s long been assumed that dark energy behaves like a cosmological constant, maintaining steady pressure that pushes space apart indefinitely.
However, recent observations suggest dark energy might actually be dynamic. The researchers propose a model involving an ultra light particle called an axion, combined with what’s known as a negative cosmological constant.
Estimated division of total energy in the Universe into matter, dark matter, and dark energy. (NASA/WMAP Science Team)
Think of it like a great big rubber band. Initially, the Universe expands as this “rubber band” stretches. But eventually, the elastic force becomes stronger than the expansion, causing everything to snap back together.
According to the new model, the Universe continues expanding but at a gradually slowing rate until reaching maximum size, about 69 percent larger than today, in roughly 7 billion years. Then gradual contraction begins as gravitational forces and the negative cosmological constant take over, leading to rapid collapse in the final moments.
It’s important to note that this prediction comes with significant uncertainty. The researchers acknowledge their model has large margins of error due to limited observational data. The negative cosmological constant that drives their prediction remains highly speculative, and alternative scenarios including eternal expansion are still possible.
What makes this research particularly exciting isn’t just the prediction, but that we may soon be able to test it. Several major astronomical projects launching in the coming years will provide much more precise measurements of dark energy’s behaviour, potentially confirming, refining, or ruling out the Big Crunch scenario entirely, once and for all.
Even if confirmed, a 20 billion year countdown hardly constitutes an immediate crisis. For perspective, complex life on Earth has existed for only about 600 million years. Twenty billion years represents a timespan so vast that the Sun will have died and our galaxy will have collided with Andromeda long before any cosmic collapse begins.
Nevertheless, this research represents a remarkable achievement in our understanding of the cosmos. For the first time, scientists have developed a specific, testable prediction about the ultimate fate of everything that exists, giving us a concrete timeline for the most dramatic event possible; the end of the Universe itself!
This article was originally published by Universe Today. Read the original article.
On Monday, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the USD/CNY central rate for the trading session ahead at 7.1506 as compared to Friday’s fix of 7.1535 and 7.1626 Reuters estimate.
PBOC FAQs
The primary monetary policy objectives of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) are to safeguard price stability, including exchange rate stability, and promote economic growth. China’s central bank also aims to implement financial reforms, such as opening and developing the financial market.
The PBoC is owned by the state of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), so it is not considered an autonomous institution. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Committee Secretary, nominated by the Chairman of the State Council, has a key influence on the PBoC’s management and direction, not the governor. However, Mr. Pan Gongsheng currently holds both of these posts.
Unlike the Western economies, the PBoC uses a broader set of monetary policy instruments to achieve its objectives. The primary tools include a seven-day Reverse Repo Rate (RRR), Medium-term Lending Facility (MLF), foreign exchange interventions and Reserve Requirement Ratio (RRR). However, The Loan Prime Rate (LPR) is China’s benchmark interest rate. Changes to the LPR directly influence the rates that need to be paid in the market for loans and mortgages and the interest paid on savings. By changing the LPR, China’s central bank can also influence the exchange rates of the Chinese Renminbi.
Yes, China has 19 private banks – a small fraction of the financial system. The largest private banks are digital lenders WeBank and MYbank, which are backed by tech giants Tencent and Ant Group, per The Straits Times. In 2014, China allowed domestic lenders fully capitalized by private funds to operate in the state-dominated financial sector.
Cole Swider finishes 7-for-10 from the field for the 2nd consecutive day at Summer League.
• Download the NBA App • Summer League: Complete Coverage
NBA Summer League action continued on Sunday with a California Classic doubleheader featuring Spurs-Warriors and Lakers-Heat. Here’s a look at the top individual performers:
Cole Swider, L.A. Lakers
Swider showed out well for the second consecutive Summer League game, shooting an identical 7-for-10 from the field in each contest en route to 20 points in L.A.’s 103-83 win over Miami. The 26-year-old forward did most of his damage inside the arc, flashing the mid-range shooting skill that could be valuable in the right setting. Another positive sign: just three turnovers in nearly 60 total minutes of action. The 6-foot-8 Swider has bounced around the league since going undrafted in 2022, but the same Lakers franchise that took the first NBA look at him is getting another one now.
Cole Swider shined for the @Lakers today in their California Classic win!
The 23-year-old Jones-Garcia showed a little more of the scoring efficiency that marked his impressive G League rookie season with Mexico City. He shot 9-for-14 in Sunday’s win over the Warriors, finishing with a game-high 25 points. He looked as comfortable hoisting from outside as he does attacking the rim; the multi-level offense is intriguing if the turnovers (nine over the first two games) can be trimmed down.
LJ Cryer
Teams that hold to the idea that “too much shooting” doesn’t exist may take a look at Cryer. The undrafted guard made his name as a pure 3-point marksman in college, and it’s translating so far at Summer League. One day after a modest 2-for-3, eight-point outing off the bench, Cryer started and lit up the nets for five 3-pointers and 19 points in under 23 minutes.
As news spread that Vietnam would become just the second nation to reach an initial tariff agreement with Washington, shares in the clothing companies and manufacturers that have a large footprint in the country rose with optimism.
Just hours later though, they declined sharply, as it became clear that the devil would be in the detail, and the most striking part of the deal might in fact be aimed at Vietnam’s powerful neighbour China.
Dodging the severe levy of 46% that was threatened in April, Vietnam is instead facing a tariff of 20% for many goods, and in return US products coming into the country will have zero tariffs placed on them.
However, a 40% tariff will remain for so-called transshipments – a provision that is aimed at Chinese companies accused of passing their products through Vietnam, or elsewhere, to avoid US tariffs.
Businesses worry that “transshipment” is a politicised term, and that if the US defines it too broadly, many goods could be unfairly targeted.
“Vietnam is a manufacturing hub – and as a hub you take inputs from other countries and make value-added stuff in Vietnam, and then export it to other countries,” says Dr Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at the ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
It is unrealistic, he adds, to expect most Vietnamese goods, other than agricultural products, would be made entirely in Vietnam. What remains to be decided is: what proportion of a product should be?
How transshipments will be defined under the agreement – and how this policy will be enforced – remains to be seen, but it could have significant implications for global trade and tensions with China.
Workers at a garment factory in Vietnam’s Thai Nguyen province. Photograph: Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images
“One lesson for other countries is that the US intends to use these deals to apply pressure on China,” said Stephen Olson, a former US trade negotiator.
Vietnam, a booming manufacturing hub, benefited during the last Trump administration when punishing tariffs placed on China prompted many Chinese companies to shift their supply chains.
However, this caused the Vietnamese trade surplus with the US to surge, attracting US ire and allegations that Vietnam was wrongly acting as a conduit for Chinese companies wanting access to the US market.
China’s commerce ministry spokesperson He Yongqian responded to the US-Vietnam deal on Thursday stating: “We firmly oppose any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests. If such a situation occurs, China will resolutely counter it to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
Vietnam’s manufacturing industry is closely intertwined with both the US and China. US exports account for 30% of Vietnam’s GDP, while China is Vietnam’s top import source, relied on for raw materials used to make anything from footwear to furniture and electronics.
Vietnam is not alone in relying on China for such components, especially across electronic sectors. “[China] is completely interwoven into global supply chains,” says Dan Martin, international business adviser at Dezan Shira and Associates, based in Hanoi.
If companies are expected to prove the origin of all goods, this could place an unwelcome burden on those in sectors such as textiles where margins are low, says Martin.
However, he cautions that it remains to be seen whether the higher 40% tariff on transshipments will be actively enforced. It is also possible that Vietnam could benefit if US policy encourages suppliers to set up shop in Vietnam, Martin adds.
Workers at a garment factory in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Businesses are largely pausing decisions until a clearer picture emerges, say analysts.
Policymakers in Hanoi remain on a diplomatic tightrope. Vietnam has long sought to balance relations with Washington and Beijing. It considers the US not only a key export market but a security partner that serves as a counterbalance to China’s assertiveness.
However, if Beijing considers that Hanoi is helping Washington constrain it, this risks antagonising Vietnam’s northern neighbour. It could lead to economic measures from China, or pressure over the disputed South China Sea, a major flashpoint in the region, says Peter Mumford, head of practice for south-east Asia at Eurasia Group.
As things stand, “aggressive retaliation” by Beijing against Hanoi is unlikely, he says: “Hanoi may even have given Beijing a rough indication of the steps it would have to take to secure a US trade deal.”
Vietnam has made efforts to show goodwill towards China over recent months, while also courting Trump.
In exchange for the 20% tariff rate, Trump said Vietnam would open up its market to US goods. US-made SUVs, “which do so well in the United States, will be a wonderful addition to the various product lines within Vietnam”, said Trump.
However the market for cars remains small in Vietnam, where city streets are famously crammed with millions of motorbikes.
HONG KONG, July 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — TECNO, an AI-driven innovative technology brand, today officially launched the new SPARK 40 Series, leading the class with exceptional slimness and performance. This latest line-up includes four devices that take SPARK Series to the next level: SPARK 40 Pro+, SPARK 40 Pro, SPARK 40, SPARK 40C — each designed to serve the evolving demands of users across global markets. Featuring class-leading slimness, flagship-grade AMOLED displays, superior performance and durability, the SPARK 40 Series sets a new benchmark for entry-to-mid-tier smartphones, all at an unbeatable value.
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Tyagi, 49, shared a video montage of his pictures alongside Jariwala on his Instagram handle on Sunday morning.
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Actor Parag Tyagi penned a heartfelt note remembering his late wife, Shefali Jariwala, days after her death.
Popular TV actor Jariwala, who shot to fame with her breakout appearance in the remix track “Kaanta Laga”, passed away on June 27.
Tyagi, 49, shared a video montage of his pictures alongside Jariwala on his Instagram handle on Sunday morning.
Tyagi wrote- “PARI I WILL FIND YOU EVERY TIME YOU ARE BORN AND I WILL LOVE YOU IN EVERY LIFETIME ❤️😘 I LOVE YOU ETERNALLY MERI GUNDI MERI CHOKRI 😘❤️🤗
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#shefalijariwala #meri”
Shefali Jariwala’s untimely death has left the industry and media members shocked. As per reports, the 42-year-old star was taking anti-ageing treatment. After her demise, the debate of whether these drugs should be taken or not heated up on social media.
Amid this, Kareena Kapoor’s statement, where she spoke against botox treatment, grabbed eyeballs on social media. “I am against Botox. I am for natural remedies and self-defence to stay healthy, feel good. Self-defence also means protecting yourself and your talent… because this is my weapon,” said Kareena while talking to Barkha Dutt.
“This means defending myself and my talent, because it is my biggest weapon. Instead of going under the needle and knife, a better way to protect yourself is to take a vacation and spend quality time with your friends and family,” she added.
During the investigation, one of the biggest details that came out was
Shefali’s unsupervised and long-term usage of skin whitening and anti-ageing treatments, particularly glutathione and Vitamin C.
She was taking these treatments for eight years without active medical supervision after initial consultation, said police sources.
As per reports, a stockpile of anti-ageing pills, multivitamins, and glutathione vials was found in Shefali’s room, which was on her table, and even inside her fridge.
