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The destination of the Ashes urn was ultimately settled by the weather.

Not even the fearless positivity of England’s ‘Bazball’ tactics could beat the rain to complete the fourth test.

But weather is always a factor to consider.

When to declare?

Too early, certainly, in the first test – allowing Australia to complete a thrilling run chase at Edgbaston.

Wrongly not, perhaps, by captain Ben Stokes and holding on to reach 592 in the first innings on Friday at Old Trafford.

A determination only clear after the lack of play on Sunday produced a draw.

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Australia take a 2-1 lead to the Oval finale next week with the urn retained with at least a series draw.

An 8-8 draw retained the women’s series for Australia, as the tourists took part in a multi-format series.

So all that is left to fight for now is denying Australia a first men’s Ashes series win in England in 22 years.

But the washout seemed such an unsatisfactory way to decide a series.

Fans sheltering from the relentless rain expressed frustration over the lack of extra reserve days being built into the Ashes programme to complete tests.

And the forecast for Monday after a weekend drenching? Sunshine all day in Manchester.

But this is already a congested series – squeezed into six weeks by the end of July to allow the ECB to give its Hundred competitions a window to shine.

‘It’s reaching people it’s never reached before’

This, though, has been an Ashes that has showcased the exhilarating best of the five-day format.

The daring, bolder style encouraged by Brendon McCullum has captivated audiences beyond the cricket diehards in the brief window when domestic football is not completely dominating the sports agenda.

Stokes recalled a conversation in a spa changing room – a man who popped into the pub for the first test for a quick drink.

“He ended up having a few more and said he was just transfixed on the game,” Stokes recalled.

“So when you hear stuff like that, it obviously makes you feel good about what we’re doing, that it’s bringing a new fanbase to the game and it’s reaching people that it might never have reached before.”

England's Ben Stokes watches on at Old Trafford

Test cricket has been made more attractive and approachable – that’s the verdict of former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara.

“That has made it completely palatable to a larger audience – the newer generation, the younger generation,” the Sky Sports pundit said.

Controversies have taken cricket to the front pages, producing sledging between politicians – with Rishi Sunak joshing with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about Australia’s contentious stumping of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s.

That second Test had already seen the moment of drama with Bairstow’s unexpected catch of the series – stopping Just Stop Oil protesters rather than the Australian attack.

And for all Bairstow has been maligned for his ability to keep wicket, memories of the fumbles were replaced by flashes of battling brilliance in Manchester.

His 99 not out from 81 balls here powered England to the 592 that registered their highest home Ashes score since 1985.

Dazzling cricket but without the recent series successes produced in New Zealand and Pakistan.

Read more:
How the fourth Test unfolded

‘Bazball’ is going nowhere

“We stuck by our guns all the way through,” Bairstow said. “We’ll continue to play as we are, as we know the direction we want to go, and there’s a bigger picture with the game of Test cricket.”

That is to maintain Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport – with the Twenty20 revolution seeing the United States this summer tap into the expansionist opportunities with Major League Cricket.

So ‘Bazball’ will persist as England’s flamboyant approach.

Zak Crawley champions that approach – even if his 189 at Old Trafford ultimately counted for little.

He said: “We’ve shown that being positive suits our players. At other times we absorb pressure.

“But most of the time we try and put pressure back on them.”

England will rue missed opportunities.

“They played some good cricket, but they were sloppy,” said Nasser Hussain, the former England captain turned Sky Sports pundit.

He added: “Wickets off no-balls, they were too ultra-aggressive with the batting at Lord’s, almost believing the hype that they are here to entertain.

“They will look back on these moments and feel they could have done better but you do make mistakes.

“You have to learn from them. If you give Australia a sniff, they will take it.”

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after ‘prolific’ rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after 'prolific' rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.

Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.

“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
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Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth

Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.

Read more: How a student described as ‘smart and charming’ was unmasked as a prolific sexual predator

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He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.

“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.

“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES***It is feared Zou may have carried out dozens more sex crimes. Pic: Met Police
Image:
Pic: Met Police

Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.

He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.

Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

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Moment police arrest rapist student

Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.

“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.

“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.

“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”

Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”

Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”

The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.

An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.

Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.

A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.

Location of Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich, where 11-year-old girl Kaliyah Coa went into the River Thames on 31/03
Image:
Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames

Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.

He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.

He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”

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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”

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On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.

When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.

Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.

Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.

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Planning reforms to ‘rewire the system’ and get Britain building – all while protecting wildlife

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Planning reforms to 'rewire the system' and get Britain building - all while protecting wildlife

Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment. 

A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.

But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.

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These lie at the centre of the controversy of a £120m bat tunnel – the shed in Aylesbury which protects a rare breed from future high speed trains.

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The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.

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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.

Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.

The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.

“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.

“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”

Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.

It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.

“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”

The review will mean:

• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion

• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves

• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth

Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.

“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”

However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.

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