England beat India by 22 runs on a final day of simmering tension and high drama in the third Test at Lord’s to move 2-1 up in the best-of-five series.
Shoaib Bashir bowled Mohammed Siraj for four to seal victory, India’s number 11 playing a defensive stroke before the ball trickled down the face of his bat and rolled on to the stumps as he watched on in disbelief.
As the England players celebrated wildly late on Monday, Ravindra Jadeja trudged off the field after making a valiant unbeaten 61 to take India to the brink of an extraordinary win.
The hosts had looked on course for a far more comfortable victory when they reduced India to 112-8 at lunch, but Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah battled for nearly two hours to inch their team towards a target of 193.
Jadeja was given out leg before wicket to Chris Woakes by the umpire. But the decision was overturned on review, and the left-hander heaved the next delivery over mid-wicket for six, prompting loud cheers from the Indian fans.
England finally made the breakthrough when Bumrah, on five, skied an attempted pull off Ben Stokes and was caught by substitute fielder Sam Cook.
The majority of the crowd erupted with a mixture of joy and relief, but Jadeja continued to frustrate England, reaching his 50, off 150 balls, by edging Stokes over the slips for four.
Siraj survived 30 deliveries for his four runs as Jadeja farmed the bowling and took a succession of singles off the fourth ball of the over to dominate the strike.
Siraj suffered a painful blow to his shoulder after being struck by a Jofra Archer delivery and shortly afterwards his resistance was finally broken.
Ravindra Jadeja top-scored for India in the second innings with a patient 61 runs and was not out at the end of play [Peter Cziborra/Action Images via Reuters]
A good morning for England
England had claimed four wickets in the morning to take charge of the match after India resumed on 58-4.
Rishabh Pant played an extraordinary one-handed straight drive for four off Archer to move to nine, but the fast bowler responded two balls later with an excellent delivery which uprooted his off stump.
Stokes snared KL Rahul lbw for 39, the England captain dropping to his knees and imploring the umpire to give him out.
He refused to do so, but England called for a review and the decision was overturned to huge cheers from the crowd.
Washington Sundar was next to fall for a duck, Archer leaping to his right to take a superb one-handed catch off his own bowling.
Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy frustrated England with solid defence in a partnership of 30 until Woakes found the edge of Reddy’s bat just before lunch to give the hosts a huge lift as they left the field to warm applause from a packed crowd.
The fourth Test will begin on July 23 at Old Trafford in Manchester.
England’s Jamie Smith and Ollie Pope celebrate after Shoaib Bashir takes the last wicket of India’s Mohammed Siraj, centre, to win the third Test [Peter Cziborra/Action Images via Reuters]
Protesters at Piraeus Port in Athens rallied against unloading a shipment they claim includes steel destined for Israeli military projects. They denounced the Greek government’s complicity in the war and vowed to block another ship expected Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has recommended Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to become prime minister in a significant political shake-up for the war-scarred country.
The announcement on Monday could herald a wider reshuffle in the government, three and a half years into the Russian invasion.
“I have proposed that Yuliia Svyrydenko lead the government of Ukraine and significantly renew its work,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “I look forward to the presentation of the new government’s action plan in the near future.”
The recommendation is part of what he called “a transformation of the executive branch” of government in Ukraine.
The two discussed “concrete measures to boost Ukraine’s economic potential, expand support programs for Ukrainians and scale up our domestic weapons production”, Zelenskyy said.
Svyrydenko, 39, gained prominence this year during fraught negotiations around a rare minerals deal with the United States that nearly derailed ties between Kyiv and its most important military ally.
If the change is approved, she would replace Denys Shmyhal, who became prime minister in 2020.
“The government needs a change because people are exhausted,” said Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former economy minister who worked with Svyrydenko.
Mylovanov, who now heads the Kyiv School of Economics, said the changes would likely bring “a sort of freshness” after more than three years of war.
Zelenskyy is also considering naming Defence Minister Rustem Umerov as Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, he said at a news conference last week.
Zelenskyy met Umerov over the weekend, after which he said, “Ukraine needs more positive dynamics in relations with the United States and at the same time new steps in managing the defence sector of our state.”
Svyrydenko, who is also a deputy prime minister, was appointed to manage Ukraine’s struggling economy months before the Kremlin launched its full-scale assault in February 2022.
We, the presidents of Gaza’s three non-profit universities— Al-Aqsa University, Al-Azhar University-Gaza, and the Islamic University of Gaza — together accounting for the vast majority of Gaza’s students and faculty members, issue this unified statement to the international academic community at a time of unprecedented devastation of higher education in Gaza.
Israel’s ongoing genocidal war has brought about scholasticide—a systematic and deliberate attempt to eliminate our universities, their infrastructure, faculty, and students. This destruction is not collateral; it is part of a targeted effort to eradicate the foundations of higher education in Gaza—foundations that have long stood as pillars of resilience, hope, and intellectual freedom under conditions of occupation and siege. While academic institutions across Palestine have faced attacks for decades, what we are witnessing today is an escalation: a shift from repeated acts of destruction to an attempt at total annihilation.
Yet, we remain resolute. For more than a year, we have mobilised and taken steps to resist this assault and ensure that our universities endure.
Despite the physical obliteration of campuses, laboratories, libraries, and other facilities, and the assassination of our students and colleagues, our universities continue to exist. We are more than buildings — we are academic communities, comprised of students, faculty, and staff, still alive and determined to carry forward our mission.
As articulated in the Unified Emergency Statement from Palestinian Academics and Administrators issued on May 29, 2024, “Israeli occupation forces have demolished our buildings, but our universities live on.”
For over a year, our faculty, staff and students have persisted in our core mission — teaching — under unimaginably harsh conditions. Constant bombardment, starvation, restrictions on internet access, unstable electricity, and the ongoing horrors of genocide have not broken our will. We are still here, still teaching, and still committed to the future of education in Gaza.
We urgently call on our colleagues around the world to work for:
A sustainable and lasting ceasefire, without which no education system can thrive, and an end to all complicity with this genocide.
Immediate international mobilisation to support and protect Gaza’s higher education institutions as vital to the survival and long-term future of the Palestinian people.
Recognition of scholasticide as a systematic war on education, and the necessity of coordinated and strategic international support in partnership with our universities for the resilience and rebuilding of our academic infrastructure and communities.
We appeal to the international academic community — our colleagues, institutions, and friends — to:
Support our efforts to continue teaching and conducting research, under siege and amidst loss.
Commit to the long-term rebuilding of Gaza’s universities in partnership with us, respecting our institutional autonomy and academic agency.
Work in partnership with us. Engage directly with and support the very institutions that continue to embody academic life and collective intellectual resistance in Gaza.
Last year, we formally established the Emergency Committee of the Universities in Gaza, representing our three institutions and affiliated colleges — together enrolling between 80 and 85 percent of Gaza universities’ students. The committee exists to resist the erasure of our universities and offer a unified voice for Gaza’s academic community. It has since established subject-focused subcommittees to serve as trusted and coordinated channels for support.
We call upon academic communities around the world to coordinate themselves in response to this call. The time for symbolic solidarity has passed. We now ask for practical, structured, and enduring partnership.
Work alongside us to ensure that Gaza’s universities live on and remain a vital part of our collective future.
Bitcoin has scaled $120,000 for the first time, a major milestone for the world’s largest cryptocurrency in the run-up to what could be a landmark week.
Starting July 14, “Crypto Week” will see the US House of Representatives debate three industry-friendly bills that are likely to provide cryptocurrencies with the US regulatory framework that crypto insiders have long demanded.
US President Donald Trump has urged policymakers to revamp their rules, away from the plethora of lawsuits brought against crypto firms by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under former President Joe Biden (2021-2025), in favour of the industry.
Expectations of further tailwinds helped propel Bitcoin, up 29 percent so far this year, to a record high of $122,055 on Monday. Bitcoin, the very first cryptocurrency, began trading in January 2009, when it was valued at just $0.004.
The surge has sparked a broader rally across other cryptocurrencies as Ether, the world’s second-most popular token, reached a five-month high of $3,048.2 on Monday.
More generally, the sector’s total market value has swelled to roughly $3.8 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Cryptocurrencies are a form of monetary exchange that allows people to bypass central banks and traditional payment methods.
What is at stake?
US lawmakers will discuss three key pieces of legislation during “Crypto Week”:
The GENIUS Act aims to clarify when digital assets like crypto tokens are considered securities or commodities, helping startups avoid legal uncertainty by providing clear regulatory rules. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act has already passed the Senate.
The Clarity Act would block federal agencies from using court rulings to overextend regulatory power, ensuring that Congress – and not courts – defines how crypto assets are classified and governed.
The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), arguing it could enable government surveillance of Americans’ financial activity and threaten individual privacy.
This marks a sharp reversal for a sector that once threatened to do its business outside the US, citing a hostile environment and heavy-handed enforcement.
Crypto companies have long accused US financial regulators (like the SEC) of enacting confusing or conflicting rules.
“We expect capital that was previously sidelined due to regulatory uncertainty to re-enter … even if final passage stalls,” Jag Kooner, head of derivatives at Bitfinex crypto exchange, told Reuters.
This week’s decisions could make it easier for companies to launch new digital asset products and to trade in crypto.
Does the proposed legislation have critics?
Democrats are expected to offer amendments to the GENIUS and Clarity Acts.
Critics have argued that the Trump administration is conceding too much ground to the crypto industry.
“I’m concerned that what my Republican colleagues are aiming for is another industry handout,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on July 9 at a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing.
She urged Congress to bar public officials, including Trump, from issuing, backing or profiting from crypto tokens.
Warren also argued that new crypto rules should not “open a back door to destroy” longtime securities laws, or allow volatility in the crypto market to spill over into the traditional financial system.
Finally, she underscored that anti-money laundering rules should apply to the industry. Crypto users are identified by alphanumeric wallet addresses, not their names, allowing bad actors to obscure the source of their illicit funds.
The Biden administration adopted a tough regulatory stance towards cryptocurrencies, aiming to oversee the digital assets as securities subject to the same regulations as stocks and bonds.
(Al Jazeera)
What’s Trump’s interest in crypto?
Trump, once a crypto sceptic, became a major promoter during his presidential campaign last year, even becoming the first major-party presidential candidate to accept campaign donations via crypto.
During the 2024 campaign, crypto insiders spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, according to Federal Election Commission data, in support of crypto allies – and to try and weed out antagonists.
In March, Trump said he would create a crypto reserve that would include five cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin), adding he would make the US “the crypto capital of the world”.
Meanwhile, Trump’s family business has launched several cryptocurrency meme coins, flash-in-the-pan assets inspired by internet jokes or cultural references, such as $Trump and $Melania.
Trump has faced criticism over conflicts of interest regarding his family’s ventures. For instance, World Liberty Financial – a crypto group backed by Trump and his sons in 2024 – has earned the president $57m.
Elsewhere, Trump Media & Technology Group filed paperwork with the SEC in July seeking approval to launch its own “Crypto Blue-Chip ETF”, an exchange-traded fund holding Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
How has Bitcoin performed since Trump was re-elected?
If Bitcoin were a country, it would rank in the top 10 by gross domestic product, roughly on par with countries like Brazil ($2.17 trillion) and Canada ($2.14 trillion).
Since Donald Trump’s re-election in November 2024, Bitcoin has surged by 75 percent, rising from about $69,539 at close on Election Day to its current record level. It rallied to above $100,000 for the first time last December.
The cryptocurrency briefly dropped below $90,000 on February 25, amid market jitters triggered by Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on multiple countries and industries worldwide, before recovering after Trump’s “crypto reserve” announcement.
Bitcoin’s rise also arrives amid a wider backdrop of economic uncertainty, notably the global turmoil from Trump’s steep – and on-again, off-again – tariffs imposed on key trading partners worldwide, in addition to ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir for decades, and Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control, a de facto border that cuts Kashmir into two, are caught in the middle of it all.
Why do India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir? And what do Kashmiris want? #AJStartHere with Sandra Gathmann explains.
This episode features:
Sumantra Bose – Professor of international and comparative politics, Krea University
Hafsa Kanjwal – Associate professor of South Asian studies, Lafayette College
Amitabh Mattoo – Professor, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
