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Birmingham: Indian Commonwealth Games champion and Olympian Lakshya Sen bowed out of the All-England Open 2025 after losing his men's singles quarter-final match in Birmingham on Friday.Lakshya Sen, 15th in the men's singles badminton rankings, lost 21-10, 21-16 against reigning Asian Games champion and world No. 6 Shi Feng Li of the People's Republic of China, as per Olympics.com.Sen matched the sixth seed Shi Feng Li shot for shot in the early exchanges to lead 4-3 before the latter picked up nine successive points and took control of the game.The Indian badminton player managed to pick just six points for the rest of the first game as Shi Feng Li comfortably wrapped out the opener.Lakshya Sen mounted a brief comeback to lead Shi Feng Li 11-8 at the second-game interval. However, Shi Feng Li switched gears after the break to win the contest in 45 minutes. This was Lakshya Sen's third defeat in seven meetings against Shi Feng Li.Lakshya Sen reached the semi-finals at the All England Open last year and made the final in 2022.In the women's doubles section, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand were beaten 21-14, 21-10 by the world No.2 pair Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China in the quarter-finals.Liu Sheng Shu-Tan Ning had a 3-0 advantage in the opening exchanges, but Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand pulled things back to trail by a point at the mid-game break.Second seeds Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning then upped the ante and dominated proceedings by conceding just four more points en route to sealing the opener.The second game was more of a lop-sided affair,with the Chinese pair dominating from start to finish and eventually winning the match in 46 minutes.Earlier in the tournament, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu crashed out of the women's singles event in the first round on Wednesday.Meanwhile, world no. 28 Malvika Bansod and men's doubles duo Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy exited the tournament on Thursday, as per Olympics.com.Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had to pull out of their round of 16 match after Chirag suffered a back muscle strain midway into the contest.

Washington, Mar 14, 2025 -The US Senate appeared closer Friday to avoiding an economically damaging government funding shutdown after the Democrats' leader shied away from a major confrontation with President Donald Trump.Democrats are smarting over Trump's radical spending cuts which have shredded entire sections of government and seen Congress largely bypassed in what critics say is an unconstitutional exercise of power by the White House.Many in the party argue that refusing to back the Republican bill funding the US government for another six months would be a chance for Democrats to demonstrate opposition to the Trump project. Republicans have a slim majority with 53 of the 100 senators, but need some Democratic support to reach the necessary 60 votes for getting their bill through.Ahead of the Friday midnight deadline, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer -- who has long insisted that it is bad politics to shut down the government -- said he would support the bill.A Democratic blockade of the bill and the ensuing chaos of the entire US government temporarily being out of funds would be "a gift" to Trump, he said.Many senior Democrats were furious at Schumer but early Friday, Trump signaled his pleasure at the climbdown."Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing - Took "guts" and courage!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.Schumer has been joined by Pennsylvania's Democratic Senator John Fetterman. However, Schumer has not explicitly told his troops which way to vote, leaving it unclear whether enough Democrats will join Republicans.- Defying Elon Musk? -There have been four shutdowns where operations were affected for more than one business day, with the last occurring during Trump's first term.During the disruption, up to 900,000 federal employees can be furloughed, while another million deemed essential workers -- from air traffic controllers to police -- work without pay.Back salaries are paid once Congress agrees to a funding bill.Meanwhile, Americans have to contend with a paralyzed government. Social Security and other benefits are protected, but there are typically delays in a variety of services while parks shut and food-safety inspections are halted.The latest tussle is focused on the far-reaching program run by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Trump's advisor and top donor, billionaire Elon Musk.DOGE aims to cut federal spending by $1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of more than $100 billion, although verified cost savings amount to less than a tenth of that figure.Grassroots Democrats, infuriated by what they see as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO's lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy, want their leaders to fight hard to defy DOGE and Trump.But several top party figures have warned that a shutdown could play into Musk's hands, distracting from DOGE's most unpopular actions and making it easier for him to announce more layoffs.Republicans voiced confidence that the needed Democratic support would be available, with several opposition senators facing challenging reelection fights in the 2026 midterms and wary of being blamed for chaos in Congress.One of the most vulnerable Democratic senators, Georgia's Jon Ossof, said however that he was a firm no.He berated the Republican authors of the bill for failing to "impose any constraints on the reckless and out-of-control Trump administration."John Thune, the Republican leader of the Senate, said Friday he had not spoken with his Democrat counterpart Schumer yet, telling Punchbowl News: "Passing this and getting this behind us is the best thing that can happen right now for everybody."ft/jgc/sms