A week on from A-levels come the GCSE results. Like the A-levels, the overall pass rate has gone up (97.6% to 97.8%) and the familiar criticisms that rising grades mask falling standards are making a reappearance. One of the more concerning items to emerge from the results is that modern languages are in decline and entries for Spanish, French and German GCSEs are all falling.
At Trent Bridge, England are scoring at a quick rate on a remarkably dry pitch as they attempt to go 2-1 up against Australia in the Ashes series. Glenn McGrath is out, giving a psychological boost to England fans. You can follow the day's play over by over with Guardian Unlimited Sport.
Elsewhere, oil has hit $68 a barrel, EU vets are meeting to discuss their response to bird flu, and Iraqi politicians may agree on a constitution. We also have pieces looking at how Yahoo! is dealing with Google's recent spate of activity, and how animal rights extremists use the internet to plan their campaigns.
