England reinforced their bowling attack by recalling veteran fast bowler James Anderson in place of Ollie Robinson for the fourth Ashes Test against Australia that begins on Wednesday at Old Trafford.
Anderson returns to his home ground where England will aim to win and level the series. Australia lead the contest 2-1 and even a draw will see them retain the urn.
Robinson paid the price for his fitness issues in the third Test in Leeds, which England won by three wickets to come back in the series. There the right-arm seamer suffered from back spasms and bowled only 11.2 overs in the first innings. He did not bowl in the second innings, with Chris Woakes sharing the new ball with Stuart Broad.
Anderson, England's leading wicket-taker in Tests with 688 scalps, was rested for the third Test after the 40-year-old struggled to make an impact in the series with just three wickets in the first two matches.
Another change to the side sees all-rounder Moeen Ali promoted to bat at number three, with Ollie Pope ruled out for the rest of the series.
With Anderson returning on what is expected to be a livelier surface compared to the opening two games, England will be confident of keeping Australia's batting in check, with Woakes and Mark Wood proving particularly effective with the new and old ball.
Meanwhile, Australia batsman Usman Khawaja revealed he talked directly to the world governing body, the ICC, to take a more pragmatic approach to over rates after heavy fines during the World Test Championship final and the opening Ashes Tests.
The governing body said at its annual general meeting that it was reducing the penalty from 20 per cent to five per cent for every over a player's team is found to be behind.
Both England and Australia were fined 40 per cent of their match fees in the Edgbaston Test and were also docked two WTC points each. This after India were fined 100 per cent of their match fee for the WTC final that they lost, while the Aussies were docked 80 per cent.
"I was pretty frustrated with what was happening," Khawaja was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia's website in Manchester.
"I'm an ACA [Australian Cricketers' Association] board member and just thought someone has to find a way to speak to the ICC about it.
"We had played three games and they'd been three really good games with results, entertainment, the WTC [final] was the highest-watched Test match ever or something like that.
"Just really good stuff – and we were getting fined 80 per cent of our match fee. It's a lot of money.
"Just really frustrating as a player. You are giving it your all out there, providing entertainment, then you are getting stung for it. Just felt like I needed to speak and Wasim [Khan, ICC's general manager] was really good."
Under the revised ICC rules, over-rate penalties for innings that last less than 80 overs have been voided while match fee fines have been capped at 50 per cent.
Buy farm-fresh food
The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.
In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others.
In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food.
In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
