There is a pleasing air of certainty about England’s 35-year-old spinner – a quality Shubman Gill could only admire enviously

Liam Dawson stood at his mark, ball cradled in his hands, forearms level to the ground, elbows splayed, sunglasses – completely unnecessarily – in place. There was nothing bright about the situation on this grey Mancunian afternoon except the 35-year-old’s immediate future. Eight years after his last opportunity, Test cricketer once more.

Many players give umpires items of clothing to look after while they bowl; Dawson’s habit was to hand Ahsan Raza something to take care of while he didn’t. Those sunglasses were required only when he had the ball in his hands (and eventually, late into the last session, it became so dark he let Raza keep them). Batters seeking some kind of clue as to his thinking were certainly not going to learn anything from his eyes, not if he could help it.

ASA ruling comes amid fears fashion industry reversing progress in body positivity movement

An advert by high street retailer Marks & Spencer has been banned for featuring an “irresponsible” image of a model who appeared “unhealthily thin”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the model’s pose, choice of clothing and the camera angle which seemed to tilt downwards all contributed to the impression she was too thin.

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Christian Wück, Germany coach, said:

I can already promise that we will give Spain a tough battle, just as they will fight us with everything they have. Then we’ll see who comes out on top in the end. I think [the win against France] will give us another huge mental boost. The girls really wanted to prove what they’re made of and that we can overcome such setbacks and come back.

GMB and Prospect say government needs greater focus on green energy amid political shift away from net zero commitments

The Labour government needs to ramp up the creation of green jobs or risk workers being tempted to vote for parties opposing the shift to net zero, two major unions have said.

The GMB and Prospect, who between them represent tens of thousands of energy workers, said there needs to be more of a focus on increasing green jobs as fossil fuel industry is increasingly phased out.

Condemnation is rightly growing. But until concrete action is taken, western allies will remain complicit with these horrifying crimes

July has been one of the deadliest months of the war in Gaza, with Israel killing one person every 12 minutes. The UN says more than 1,000 Palestinians have died trying to get food, mostly when they attempted to collect aid from hubs.

Behind these visible deaths lies the horror of systematic starvation: “minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed”, in the words of Prof Alex de Waal, an expert on humanitarian crises. More than 100 aid groups warned that it is spreading fast. At least 10 people died of hunger and malnutrition on Tuesday alone, said Gaza’s health ministry. Parents watch their children wither. Adults collapse on the street.

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The Conservative leader’s appointment of Sir James Cleverly to the cabinet could act as a moderating force as Faragism sweeps the party

In January, only two months after becoming Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch let it be known that she would not be reshuffling her shadow cabinet team before the next election. This implausible hostage to fortune was doubtless intended to convey Mrs Badenoch’s determination that, as she rebuilt the Tory brand after a catastrophic defeat, she would not be buffeted around by passing events.

Modern British politics don’t work like that. A year ago, the Conservative share of the vote was 24%, a desperate general election nadir. Now support for the party languishes at about 17%. In May’s local elections the Tories lost close to 700 councillors and control of 16 councils, many of them to Reform UK, which leads in the polls and is viewed by Labour as its chief electoral threat. A recent survey found that only 10% of the public think Mrs Badenoch looks like a prime minister in waiting. On Tuesday, as the House of Commons went into summer recess, she duly launched a reshuffle.

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