Jose Mourinho threw his future as Roma manager into further doubt on Wednesday, saying he was "too tired" after the bitter pain of losing his first major European final to Sevilla. The Spanish team triumphed 4-1 on penalties after the game in Budapest finished 1-1, with Paulo Dybala's opener cancelled out by an own goal from Roma defender Gianluca Mancini.
Gael Monfils withdrew from the French Open on Wednesday with a wrist injury, handing second round opponent Holger Rune a free pass into the last 32. "I have a problem with my wrist that I can't overcome," the 36-year-old Monfils told reporters. "I had tests and the doctor said it was not good to play and that I should stop."
Some knocks transcend the win-loss binary. Chennai Super Kings’ five-star triumph late on Monday night captured the public imagination but did not take the sheen off Gujarat Titans’ left-handed batter Sai Sudharsan’s scintillating innings. It was an exhibition of skillful batting and immense self-belief.
India's bowling all-rounder is quite confident about the team's chances in the upcoming World Test Championship (WTC) final and also revealed that the members of the squad had started preparing for the marquee clash during the Indian Premier League (IPL) itself as the players held practice sessions with red-ball.
Carlos Alcaraz, the world number one, showcased his skills at the French Open by overcoming a challenging test against Japan's Taro Daniel. In a four-set battle, Alcaraz emerged victorious with a scoreline of 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, securing a spot in the third round in Paris.
Australia's batting star Steve Smith is expecting batting friendly conditions at the The Oval, the venue for the World Test Championship final against India.The US has come to a decision regarding the imposition of excise taxes on Bitcoin miners operating from within the country. The US will not be adding any new tax layer upon the US' Bitcoin mining sector as the proposal extended earlier this month has officially been scrapped. The development was confirmed to the media by a regulator in the US. It is noteworthy, that this decision comes immediately after US President Joe Biden clearly refused to slash the existing taxes on crypto gains. It seems, not levying an excise tax on Bitcoin miners is the US' way to keep earning from crypto taxes while also not pressurising the industry from all sides.
Earlier this month, the US' Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) floated a proposal to have Bitcoin miners pay a tax equal to 30 percent of the total energy cost that they consumed in the crypto mining process.
The decision to pull the plug on this proposal could be part of a bunch of tax-related rebates introduced by the US administration as it finalised to raise the inflation-ridden nation's debt ceiling by two years, a report by CryptoPotato said.
For now, however, Bitcoin mining businesses remain protected from any new taxes. Bitcoin mining is an energy intensive process, that requires miners to solve a series of complex algorithms on advanced computers, that need to be always connected to the power source. Miners solve these algorithms to validate transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, and earn rewards in return.
Often, areas surrounding Bitcoin mining hotspots face a shortage in electricity supply, leading to frequent power outages and causing major inconvenience to neighbouring residents.
The US authorities, previously, have said that even if clean energy is used to facilitate crypto mining, it slashes the availability of clean energy for others, increasing their reliance on electricity produced by fossil fuels while also making that energy more expensive.
In the backdrop of these issues and the environmental deterioration caused by the BTC mining process are reasons that nudged the idea of having Bitcoin miners compensate financially.
Submitting the proposal to tax Bitcoin miners, the CEA had said that an estimated $3.5 billion (roughly Rs. 28,639 crore) could be added to the US Treasury in the next decade via this Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax.
Had it been passed; it would have made running a crypto mining business extra costly and that could have dented the US' current reputation of being a safe haven for crypto miners after China shut its doors to crypto activities.
As of July 2021, 35.4 percent of Bitcoin miners were operating out of the US, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance had revealed last year. That's a 428 percent increase from September 2020, making US the biggest home for crypto miners.
American states of New York, Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky have emerged as popular hosts of crypto miners, CNBC had reported last year citing data from Foundry USA.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is reported to be wrestling with the question of what would be the best way to auction the media rights for bilateral cricket in the 2023-2027 cycle. The choice, if reports are to be believed, is between a closed process and an open e-auction.
Dhoni and Jadeja have been part of many a battle together, including a memorable partnership in the 2019 ODI World Cup semifinal against New Zealand that ended in tears for the senior pro. Despite the immense professional respect for each other, their chemistry hasn't always been a smooth one. Last year, after a disastrous campaign when he was made captain for a while only to be removed midway, Jadeja left the CSK camp in a huff.
Manchester United's talented forward Anthony Martial will miss the Saturday's FA Cup final clash against Manchester City due to a hamstring issue.
Josh Tongue is set to make his England debut after being named Tuesday in the XI to play Ireland in this week's one-off Test at Lord's. The 25-year-old Worcestershire quick was initially only called up as cover due to injury concerns over pacemen James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, both of whom are now being rested prior to the start of the Ashes next month.
The Tamil Nadu cricket circuit knows it. So do Ranji players who saw him bat the previous season. Sai Sudharsan is a special talent, waiting to be discovered by the rest of the world, they felt.
The scenes of Chennai Super Kings' captain MS Dhoni lifting Ravindra Jadeja after the all-rounder's match-winning cameo in the IPL 2023 final against Gujarat Titans will remain etched in memory forever. And with Dhoni's participation in another IPL season not certain, Jadeja dedicated the win to the talismanic CSK skipper.
Gujarat Titans have been the team to beat since their title-winning IPL debut last season, and they played the same brand of fearless cricket in the 2023 edition before being stopped in their title defence by MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings on Monday.
Chennai Super Kings' batter Ambati Rayudu couldn't have asked for a better finish to his IPL career as he signed off on a title-winning note, with CSK clinching its fifth IPL trophy after a thrilling win over Gujarat Titans in the final on Monday in Ahmedabad.
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World number one Carlos Alcaraz started his campaign for a second Grand Slam title with an emphatic victory over Italian qualifier Flavio Cobolli in the first round of the French Open. The Spaniard showcased his formidable skills and dispatched Cobolli 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 in a commanding fashion.
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La Liga champions Barcelona enjoyed a series of emotional goodbyes in their final match at Camp Nou before the stadium is rebuilt, thrashing Real Mallorca 3-0 on Sunday.China will send its first civilian astronaut into space as part of a crewed mission to the Tiangong space station on Tuesday, its Manned Space Agency announced, as Beijing pushes ahead with its extra-terrestrial ambitions.
The world's second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars into its military-run space programme, trying to catch up with the United States and Russia after years of belatedly matching their milestones.
Until now, all Chinese astronauts sent into space have been part of the People's Liberation Army.
"Payload expert Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics," China Manned Space Agency Spokesperson Lin Xiqiang told reporters Monday.
Gui will be "mainly responsible for the on-orbit operation of space science experimental payloads", Lin said.
The commander is Jing Haipeng -- on his fourth mission into space, according to state media -- and the third crew member is engineer Zhu Yangzhu.
They are set to take off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China on Tuesday at 9:31 am (0131 GMT), the Manned Space Agency said.
Gui's university, known as Beihang University in English, said he hailed from an "ordinary family" in western Yunnan province.
He "first felt the attraction of aerospace" listening to the news of China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, on campus radio in 2003, the university said in a post on social media.
'Space dream'
Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China's "space dream" have been put into overdrive.
China is planning to build a base on the Moon and the country's National Space Administration said it aims to launch a crewed lunar mission by 2029.
The final module of the T-shaped Tiangong -- whose name means "heavenly palace" -- successfully docked with the core structure last year.
The station carries a number of pieces of cutting-edge science equipment, state news agency Xinhua reported, including "the world's first space-based cold atomic clock system".
Once finished, Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit at between 400 and 450 kilometres (250 and 280 miles) above the planet for at least 10 years -- realising an ambition to maintain a long-term human presence in space.
It will be constantly crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts, who will conduct scientific experiments and help test new technologies.
While China does not plan to use Tiangong for global cooperation on the scale of the International Space Station, Beijing said it is open to foreign collaboration.
It is not yet clear how extensive that cooperation will be.
China has been effectively excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from engaging with the country.
India, who are likely to top the four-team Pool A with 10 points from four games after victories over Chinese Taipei, Japan and Thailand and a 1-1 draw against Pakistan, were unstoppable with Angad Bir Singh scoring four goals (13th, 33rd, 47th, 55th min).
With the IPL final between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday night being pushed to the reserve day due to heavy rain, there is a growing concern on whether venues in the country are well-equipped to ensure that play starts as soon as showers stop, especially in the light of the fact that the ICC ODI World Cup in India later this year will be played in the months of October and November, a time when the North East monsoon is active.
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Lionel Messi found the back of the net as Paris St Germain bagged a record-breaking 11th Ligue 1 title with one game to spare with a mediocre 1-1 draw at Racing Strasbourg on Saturday.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was handed a three-place grid drop for his home Monaco Grand Prix for impeding McLaren's Lando Norris in qualifying on Saturday, meaning he will start sixth instead of third.
There is no trophy in the annals of cricketing history that MS Dhoni has not laid his hands on. But come Sunday at the Narendra Modi Stadium, he would like to give one final push to bring home the fifth IPL title for the Chennai Super Kings.
Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Saturday said that he is ready to undergo a narco test and urged the protesting wrestlers not to hold any kind of agitation near the new Parliament building, which will be inaugurated on Sunday.
The protesting wrestlers said late on Saturday evening that there was a lot of "pressure" to call off the Mahila Mahapanchayat they have planned in front of the new Parliament building on Sunday, but they will go ahead with the "peaceful" march come what may. The agitating wrestlers, demanding the arrest of former Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Singh who they alleged sexually harassed several women grapplers, had given a call for a Mahila Mahapanchayat on Sunday, the day the new Parliament building will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For two consecutive seasons now, Hardik Pandya has led Gujarat Titans to an IPL final, and the all-rounder's leadership skills have commanded respect from all quarters, including the legend Sunil Gavaskar, who has likened Hardik's calmness to that of 'Captain Cool' MS Dhoni.
Novak Djokovic will bid for a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam title at a French Open without his old rival Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, while Iga Swiatek attempts to become the first woman to defend the title in 16 years.
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Shubman Gill's prolific run in IPL 2023 landed him a third century of the season on Friday, when his 60-ball 129 took Gujarat Titans to their second consecutive IPL final with a 62-run win over Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad.
Both India and Australia faced injury concerns as Ishan Kishan and Cameron Green suffered nasty blows during the IPL Qualifier 2 match between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans on Friday, casting doubts over their availability for the upcoming World Test Championship final.
Red-hot Shubman Gill slammed his third century of the IPL 2023 season for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Qualifier 2 match against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu advanced to the semifinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament with a hard-fought win over Yi Man Zhang of China in the women's singles here on Friday.
The 29-year-old pacer from Uttarakhand has been trained by his state coach Manish Jha to “just bowl fast and not worry about leaking runs”. Akash has imbibed that philosophy wholly and backs his skills wherever he goes.
Indian cricketer Virat Kohli has achieved yet another remarkable milestone by becoming the first and only Indian personality to amass a staggering 250 million followers on Instagram. In terms of athletes, he holds the third position worldwide, trailing behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in terms of Instagram followers.
Queensland wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson will be joining the Australian squad ahead of the second Ashes Test at Lord's. He will be replacing Josh Inglis, who is set to return home for the birth of his first child.
Manchester United secured a return to the Champions League next season after a 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea on Thursday. The goals from Casemiro, Anthony Martial, Bruno Fernandes, and Marcus Rashford propelled the Red Devils to the third position in the Premier League standings.Google has begun rolling out new personalisation features for its Chrome Web browser on desktop. The browser, that is estimated to be used by over 2.65 billion people from around the world, will now let community members experiment with more themes and colours. In order to suggest customisation options to the liking of the users, Chrome will track previous selections and show options accordingly. For now, these new customisation options are only reaching desktop users of Chrome.
The new side panel on Chrome browser is being loaded with multiple gradients of hues, that could change the overall appearance of the browser as per the preference of the user.
“You can test out different colours, themes and settings in real time by opening a new tab in Chrome and clicking the ‘Customise Chrome' icon in the bottom right corner. A new side panel will open with the available customisation features. Here, you can experiment with different features and easily see how they will show up on your New Tab page as you make changes. Our new side panel remembers your customisation edits as you go,” the official blog post by Google read.
The existing range of background image options for the Chrome browser has also been expanded with newer options.
Along with ‘Landscape' and ‘Seascapes', Chrome users will have other categories sorted according to the location and heritage of the artists.
Native American Artists, LGBTQ Artists, Latino Artists Collection, and Black Artists Collection are among the new categories showing background image options for Chrome users.
Pictures clicked or inspired by more artists and communities are also in the pipeline to make it to Chrome's customisation settings in the coming days.
Google has shared a glimpse of what Chrome users might want to be on a look out for on Twitter, making the official announcement.
Pro tip: Mix and match colors with your theme from the side panel view in #Chrome. Try it out, and show us which new combo is your favorite :eyes:
— Chrome (@googlechrome) May 23, 2023
Explore all the different ways you can customize the look and feel of your browser on desktop: https://t.co/mfZ068KZhD pic.twitter.com/9dY34Xc0Fr
“If you have trouble picking just one image, you can enjoy a rotating background by clicking on any theme collection and turning on the ‘Refresh daily' toggle. Or, if you use Profiles to keep your work and personal accounts separate, try giving each Profile a distinct background and colour to differentiate between them,” the blog further noted.
The search engine giant has been loading up its Chrome browser with newer features, to deliver a more personalised experience its users around the world.
In March this year, for instance, Google updated Chrome for Android users with a new feature for the New Tab page that lets users quickly navigate to past search queries.
Google is also reportedly working on letting Android users clear their browsing history for the last 15 minutes.
In addition, Google Chrome is also working on introducing a mouse input shortcut that enables users to close tabs with a double-click.
Uttar Pradesh has become a 'sangam' of sportspersons from across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday after inaugurating the Khelo India University Games.Meta Platforms started carrying out the last batch of a three-part round of layoffs on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter, as part of a plan announced in March to eliminate 10,000 roles.
Meta in March became the first Big Tech company to announce a second round of mass layoffs, after showing more than 11,000 employees the door in the fall. The cuts brought the company's headcount down to where it stood as of about mid-2021, following a hiring spree that doubled its workforce since 2020.
Some employees took to platforms such as LinkedIn on Wednesday to announce that they were laid off in a round that was expected to cut deeply into the ad sales, marketing and partnerships teams.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in March said that the bulk of the layoffs in the company's second round would take place in three "moments" over several months, largely finishing in May. Some smaller rounds could continue after that, he said.
Overall the cuts hit non-engineering roles most heavily, reinforcing the primacy of those who write the code at Meta. Zuckerberg pledged in March to restructure business teams "substantially" and return to a "more optimal ratio of engineers to other roles."
Even among cuts aimed specifically at technology teams, the company eliminated non-engineering roles like content design and user experience research most severely, according to executives speaking at a company town hall afterward.
About 4,000 employees lost their jobs in the April layoffs, Zuckerberg said during the town hall, following a smaller hit to recruiting teams in March.
Meta's layoffs followed months of waning revenue growth amid high inflation and a digital ad pullback from the pandemic e-commerce boom.
The company also has been pouring billions of dollars into its metaverse-oriented Reality Labs unit, which lost $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,13,359 crore) in 2022, and a project to whip its infrastructure into shape to support artificial intelligence work.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Lautaro Martinez scored twice as Champions League finalists Inter Milan came from behind to beat Fiorentina 2-1 and retain their Italian Cup title on Wednesday.
Goals by Karim Benzema and Rodrygo earned Real Madrid a 2-1 win over mid-table Rayo Vallecano in LaLiga on Wednesday as fans and players showed their support for Vinicius Jr who was subjected to racial abuse over the weekend.
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Five-time champions Mumbai Indians thrashed Lucknow Super Giants by 81 runs on Wednesday to eliminate them from the IPL and keep alive their own hopes of making the final. Seamer Akash Madhwal claimed five wickets while conceding only five runs in his 3.3 overs to skittle out Lucknow for 101 in 16.3 overs after Mumbai had posted 182/8.
Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, who won silver at the Commonwealth Games, showcased his exceptional skills once again by clinching the gold medal with a season's best performance of 8.18m at the International Jumping Meeting held in Kallithea, near Greece's capital, on Wednesday.
The 38-year-old basketball icon stunned everyone on Monday when he commented that he was mulling retirement, following Lakers' 4-0 loss to Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.Netflix on Tuesday expanded its crackdown on password sharing to the United States and more than 100 other countries, alerting users that their accounts cannot be shared for free outside of their households.
The streaming video pioneer has been looking for new ways to make money as it faces signs of market saturation, with efforts including limits on password borrowing and a new ad-supported option.
Netflix on Tuesday said it was sending emails about account sharing to customers in 103 countries and territories, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Mexico and Brazil.
The emails state that a Netflix account should only be used in one household. Paying customers can add a member outside of their homes for an additional fee. In the United States, the fee is $8 (roughly Rs. 700) per month.
Members can also transfer a person's profile so the user can keep their viewing history and recommendations.
Netflix last year said it was going to limit account sharing and was testing various approaches in some markets.
The company had estimated that more than 100 million households had supplied their log-in credentials to friends and family outside their homes. As of the end of March, Netflix's paying customers totalled 232.5 million globally.
Under the new policies, people within the same household can continue sharing a Netflix account and can use it on various devices when travelling, the company said.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
This season saw a number of players from outside the usual cricketing powerhouses making an impact for their teams. The Afghans, naturally, rule this space.
The Haryana Hurricane, who was in Ahmedabad for an event, spoke to us about the recent Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir face-off, why “playing cricket is not pressure” and more
Chennai Super Kings powered their way to a record-breaking 10th Indian Premier League final with a 15-run win over defending champion Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday. Gujarat will have another chance to meet Chennai in the final when they take on the winner of Wednesday's Eliminator between Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants.
Juventus suffered a 4-1 defeat against Empoli in a Serie A match on Monday. This loss came in the wake of a recent ruling that penaliaed Juventus with a 10-point deduction due to their transfer activities, significantly diminishing their chances of qualifying for the Champions League.
There's a feel of a final before a final to this one. If ever there were two teams evenly matched on all fronts in the IPL, it's Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans.