Author: The Guardian

If anything, the weather was perfect. Even on Trent Bridge, if you closed your eyes you were pretty much on your own, such was the silence in the crowd when the game started the next day. Some 17,000 supporters seethed silently in the sunshine, perhaps wondering if they could stop themselves from sweating and shrinking pores through sheer force of will if they could eliminate all distractions and just focus.For a while, England received little encouragement in the stands and none on the pitch. CricViz analysis shows the swing of the new ball is lower than in any Test in…

I enjoyed reading your story about parenting in Norway: (How to be a Norwegian parent: let your kids roam free, stay home alone, have fun – and fail, 11 July). As parents from India and the US who have brought up a toddler in Stavanger and are moving to Oslo this summer, we love the child‑centric family lifestyle that Norway enables.With two active working parents with demanding jobs, and grandparents who live 7,000km away east or west, our daughter enjoys amazing kindergarten experiences, camaraderie with neighbours and their children in our sustainable collective called Vindmøllebakken (where 60 to 70 people…

Tadej Pogacar is unstoppable. The Giro d’Italia champion finally has a firm grip on the yellow jersey with two stages remaining in the 2024 Tour de France after another solo victory on stage 19 to Isola 2000 .Emirates Team’s Pogacar once again put on a formidable display, beating his closest rivals Visma Lease-a-Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard and Soudal Quick Step’s Remco Evenepoel on the high-altitude pass of the Mercantour Alps. This is the Slovenian’s 10th Grand Tour stage victory in 2024.This was Pogakar’s revenge for past humiliations at the hands of Vengergaard and his team. In 2022 and 2023, the 25-year-old…

You can see why they think he’s God’s anointed one. You can understand why Republicans cheered when Donald Trump repeatedly claimed the divine as his number one supporter, declaring with certainty that he had God on his side. To the faithful gathered at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee on Thursday night, none of that would have sounded like exaggeration – and not only because their nominee for the US presidency had survived an assassin’s bullet. It’s also because Trump has been on a run of extraordinary good fortune – one that might be just about to end.Of course, it…

You’ll find all sorts of characters hanging around the bottom of the Open leaderboards. Denwit Boriboonsub is a 20-year-old Thai player who qualified for the Malaysia Open by shooting 28 on the back nine. Altin van der Merwe is a South African amateur who has just quit his day job as a waiter to focus on golf. Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open last year, his only top-30 finish in a major. Todd Hamilton, 58, who scored his one-man grand slam at Royal Troon 20 years ago, still bowls every summer to make the most of the exemption he gets…

The top United Nations court has ruled that Israel’s settlement policies and use of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories violate international law.The international court of justice said “the transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel’s maintenance of their presence, is contrary to article 49 of the fourth geneva convention”.The panel of 15 judges from around the world also said the use of natural resources was “inconsistent” with its obligations under international law as an occupying power.The ICJ president, Nawaf Salam, was reading out the court’s full opinion in a Friday…

“When I get on the block I motivate myself and think: “Let’s go, one shot, no second chance”. But when I got on the phone, my mind went blank. I don’t want to get too focused on anything. It was just a reaction to the gun. Hay is in the barn. You have completed all training. It should be muscle memory at this point. Thinking too much will only strain your body and slow you down.Gabby Thomas wants you to know exactly how she felt in the seconds leading up to her Olympic final. Adrenaline flooded her body with dam-breaking…

Two and a half years ago, I had a serious accident on my bike. I shattered some bones (the surgeon gave me 10 out of 10 for how badly I’d broken them) and I had a procedure to put the bones back in place and had plates put in.The A&E visit was horrific with me overdosing on the gas, and a nasty trip on the ketamine. I had a cast on longer than usual because of how bad it was, then I spent several months doing regular physio to get movement back.Now though I simply cannot get back on my…

UK Olympics TV viewers could miss out on exciting live moments from the Games if several key events happen at the same time, the BBC’s head of Olympic coverage has warned.The BBC is limited to showing live broadcasts on one linear channel and one digital channel because the main Olympic broadcast rights have been owned by the US pay-TV giant since 2018, meaning viewers would be spoiled if Team GB’s three big moments happened at the same time. May wait for a replay.At Tokyo 2021, the first Summer Olympics where the current deal is in place, the BBC has received…

The naturistMy advice would be to spend time naked alone at home, which will help you start to feel comfortable in your own skin. When you feel ready, consider joining like-minded people in a safe environment to do naked activities you enjoy. You could go to a naturist beach or naked sauna, or go skinny dipping. You’ll soon realise there is no such thing as the perfect body – everyone has lumps and bumps. Being with other naked people makes you realise that it really doesn’t matter.Anne NisbetThe fashion modelSo many of us are scared to try something because we…