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Pakistan captain Babar Azam, opening batter Abdullah Shafique and several bowlers made notable gains in the latest ICC Test rankings following the national side’s two-match series against the West Indies, which ended 1-1. Babar, who was the leading run-scorer and Player of the Series with 193 runs in four innings, climbed five places to 10th in the Test batting rankings with 716 points. Saud Shakeel, meanwhile, dropped two places to 26th with 634 points, while wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan slipped one place to 27th. Abdullah made a major jump after returning to Test cricket and scoring a century in the second…

England captain Joe Root said there would be no team curfew during next week’s home Test series against Pakistan, backing players to act responsibly despite recent off-field incidents that have put the team’s culture under scrutiny. The 35-year-old’s remarks come amid the intense scrutiny surrounding England’s dressing room culture over the past year under former coach Brendon McCullum and former captain Ben Stokes. Root, England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer, returned to the captaincy following Stokes’ retirement in June amid the Test series against New Zealand, during which the all-rounder was suspended for a Test along with pacer Gus Atkinson for…

A threat that Air Force One could be targeted by a shoulder-fired missile prompted the Secret Service to secretly move President Donald Trump onto a smaller government jet during a trip to Turkiye last month, a person briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. The threat emerged on the final day of Trump’s visit to Ankara for the NATO summit amid heightened tensions with Iran, the source said. The Secret Service deemed the threat to be credible and imminent, prompting an extraordinary operation to conceal the US president’s movements. The source declined to say where the intelligence came from but…

Colombia’s President Abelardo De La Espriella on Wednesday vowed to set up an emergency fund to help rebuild hospitals, schools, homes and infrastructure destroyed by Monday’s earthquake, which killed 265 and left nearly 500 people unaccounted for. “This is undoubtedly a tragedy of immense proportions,” De La Espriella, who was inaugurated three days before the 7.4 magnitude-quake collapsed buildings across major cities in western Colombia, said in a national address. “Our efforts are focused on those who remain missing.” De La Espriella announced an economic emergency in the country to address damages caused by the earthquake, but did not clarify…

Iran and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a time frame to implement it. The comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump issued yet another broadside against Iran’s leaders, dealing a further blow to hopes for a resolution to the crisis, following new attacks on shipping in the region on Tuesday. The deal agreed in June declared an “immediate and permanent termination…

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave her role at the end of August, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. The imminent departure of one of the president’s closest allies inside the White House marks a major shakeup for the president’s press operation, with less than three months until the midterm elections. Describing her as “one of my most trusted aides,” Trump said in a social media post that Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and…

The Chinese and Indonesian navies have completed a naval navigation exercise in waters east of China’s Taiwan Island on Wednesday, according to Chinese military authorities. The exercise involved the Chinese naval vessel Honghe and Indonesian Navy frigate KRI I Gusti Ngurah Rai, a military statement said. During the exercise, the two warships formed a naval formation and conducted practical drills covering maritime communications, formation maneuvers and underway replenishment. Following a prearranged exercise plan, the two sides maneuvered flexibly, coordinated closely and successfully fulfilled all scheduled objectives, the statement said. It added the exercise demonstrated the two navies’ willingness and capability…

China’s domestically developed C919 large passenger aircraft has officially begun regular international commercial operations, with its inaugural flight departing from Beijing for Ulaanbaatar . Air China’s CA723 took off from Beijing Capital International Airport at 3 p.m. local time for the two-hour trip. Upon arrival in the capital of Mongolia, the aircraft is expected to receive a water cannon salute, the highest ceremonial honor in civil aviation, to mark the historic milestone. As of August 10, the C919 had served 57 routes linking 25 cities and had handled more than 7.5 million passenger trips, official data showed. The aircraft has…

Former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji died of illness at the age of 98 in Beijing at 11:06 a.m. on Wednesday. Zhu had served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 14th and 15th Central Committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC). An obituary, jointly issued by the CPC Central Committee, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, extolled Zhu as an excellent Party member, a time-tested and loyal communist fighter, and an outstanding proletarian revolutionist, statesman and leader…

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson urged relevant countries to stop abusing multilateral arms control mechanisms. According to reports, during the Conference on Disarmament held on Tuesday, the US and relevant countries made a joint statement alleging that recent missile testing activity in the Pacific area did not follow the “standard practices” to provide advance notice, which increases the risk of miscalculation and undermines stability in the region, and that relevant countries should implement the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation. It is believed that the joint statement is directed at China’s test fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile in…