Latest news with #Calder
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Ex-Premier League star suing doctor for £7m after 'unnecessary' operation
A former Premier League footballer is suing his surgeon after alleging that his top flight career came to a premature end due to an "unnecessary" and "destructive" operation on his ankle Former Premier League striker Sylan Ebanks-Blake is suing a surgeon for more than £7million after claiming his top flight career was ended by an "unnecessary" operation. Ebanks-Blake broke his leg while playing for Wolves in the Championship back in 2013. And the 39-year-old, who started his career at Manchester United's academy, alleges that his surgeon Prof James Calder performed an "unnecessary" and "destructive" operation on his ankle. Ebanks-Blake believes this caused an early end to his top level career, having been released by Wolves in 2014 and managing just nine appearances in his sole season in the Championship with Ipswich. The player's barrister Simeon Maskrey KC told Mrs Justice Lambert at London's High Court: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Ebanks-Blake also claims that he was not asked for proper consent before the operation on his ankle. However, Prof Calder's lawyers claim that Ebanks-Blake "had an overoptimistic view of his own powers of recovery." The surgeon's barrister Martin Forde KC added: "Far from curtailing the claimant's career, the defendant will argue that his clinical skills prolonged the career of a professional footballer, who had suffered a very serious injury." After leaving Ipswich in 2014, Ebanks-Blake spent the next four years in League One before dropping down to the National League. He ultimately retired in 2019 after playing for non-league side Walsall Wood. Before suffering the initial injury, Ebanks-Blake had enjoyed three seasons in the Premier League with Wolves after helping them win the Championship in 2009. He scored 25 league goals that season and was the top scorer in the Championship. In written submissions, Forde said: "It is arguable that if Professor Calder had done anything other than what he did do, he would have been negligent for not dealing with the loose fragments and unstable cartilage." He continued: "The defendant's position is that through his judgment and skill he prolonged the claimant's career. The claimant's case quite clearly is that his career was curtailed." Ebanks-Blake's lawyers say that the operation caused "stiffness and reduction of movement" in his left ankle and claim that his decision to retire was "the result of the continuing pain and stiffness in the left ankle joint" and not due to another leg fracture he suffered in January 2019. "He was left unable to play football at all without recourse to steroid injections," Maskrey added. "When he did play, the loss of movement and pain hampered his ability to play to his previous standard. "The combination of an inability to play regularly and/or for a reasonable length of time and his reduced standard of play gave rise to transfers from the Premier League to the lower divisions of the English Football League and eventually to non-league clubs. "Following the fracture of the left fibula on the 26th January 2019, the claimant reasonably gave up playing football. He did so not because of the consequences of the fracture, but because of the pain and stiffness in the left ankle joint. "It is probable that without any intervention on the part of the defendant the left ankle joint would eventually have become symptomatic. "However, the symptomology would have been delayed, would probably have been of slow onset and would not have prevented the claimant from continuing to play in the Premier Division and/or the Championship until his mid-30s. "As it is, the claimant can no longer play football. He continues to suffer pain and stiffness in the left ankle. He has developed consequential psychiatric symptoms of depression."
Edmonton Journal
4 days ago
- Politics
- Edmonton Journal
Hamilton Labour Council wants NHL to apologize for suspending players 100 years ago
The Hamilton and District Labour Council is hoping to right a century-old grievance between the city it represents and the NHL. Article content The labour council demanded the NHL apologize on Wednesday for its treatment of players on the now-defunct Hamilton Tigers when they tried to engage in collective action during the 1924-25 season. Article content Anthony Marco, the council's president, said that when the Tigers went on strike to get better pay, they were engaging in a struggle that resonates to this day. Article content Article content 'We've got labour strife happening at a provincial level, at a federal level, at an international level, and this is a good reminder of the fact that 100 years ago, some of the basic things that these players were fighting for still exist today,' Marco said. 'It's a reflection, in my mind, on how gig work is going these days, that people are being expected to work without pay, our people are being expected to work with very little pay.' Article content Article content The Tigers played in Hamilton from 1920 to 1925 and were atop the NHL's standings that final year. The league expanded its season by six games in 1924-25 but players' pay was not increased. Article content Hamilton players demanded an extra $200 each or they would not lace up for the NHL's playoffs. Then-league president Frank Calder suspended the striking Tigers players and fined them $200 each. Article content Calder then declared the Montreal Canadiens the league champions and representatives in the Stanley Cup final. Montreal lost the cup to the Western Canada Hockey League's Victoria Cougars three games to one in the best-of-five series. Article content Article content The Tigers were then moved to New York City and renamed the Americans. Article content 'The team stuck by their guns, and they said 'this is what it's going to be,' and they probably didn't end with the result that they would have liked, but it certainly was an affront not to just those players, but to the city as a whole, who had for several years gotten behind that team, and for the first time ever saw them finish in first place at the end of the regular season,' Marco said. Article content Marco believes enough time has passed for the NHL — which ratified a new collective agreement with the NHL Players' Association on July 8 — to admit that Calder's treatment of the striking players was too harsh. Article content 'It really speaks to the fact that Hamilton, which has always been known as a union town, had the first basic attempt from the NHL players to start a collective action, it was the first players strike, and it happened at least a full generation before the NHLPA (founded in 1967) ever got into place,' said Marco. 'A hundred years is a good reminder. Article content 'I think we're at the point now where you can say that if the NHL has any moral objection to issuing an apology for this, you can say it's been a century, I think you might be able to get past it.'
AU Financial Review
6 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Viridian using ‘no dickheads' scale to rate financial advisers
With blood in the streets in the aftermath of the banking royal commission, Glenn Calder was buying. His Viridian Advisory hoovered-up talent from Westpac's 2019 exit from providing financial advice. Calder reportedly travelled the length of the country to offer Westpac-aligned advisers – several hundred of them from Securitor and Magnitude – a spot on his life raft. Calder knew where the talent was in Westpac's then-sprawling adviser network. He came up through it. So too did Viridian co-CEO Raamy Shahien and his other co-founder Jim Tellis. Viridian's three amigos have now negotiated a life-changing pay day.
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Travel + Leisure
07-07-2025
- Travel + Leisure
I've Never Owned a Car, but I Rented an RV to Explore Utah's National Parks—Here's What I Learned
I live in New York City and take the subway. I've never owned a car in my life. So, what was I doing piloting my family around Utah in a 24-foot-long Class C RV, hitting as many national and state parks as we could in a week? Blame my son, Calder, who, it turns out, may be a genius. As far as we can tell, he got bitten by the RV bug after seeing the classic Disney short 'Mickey's Trailer' at age 5. He immediately begged to go on an RV trip, which we forgot for a few years until we clambered into our Airstream rental during a stay at AutoCamp in Joshua Tree and Calder all but burst into tears at the discovery it was stationary. He got his revenge this year, when he suggested we turn our spring break tradition of visiting national parks into a real RV adventure. 'Think of the money we'll save on hotels,' he said. Instagram overheard us and I got served up a sponsored post for the German-based company Roadsurfer, promising a 20 percent discount. Next thing I knew, we were in Las Vegas, checking to make sure our black water tank was empty before hitting the road in a 12,000-pound vehicle with no rearview mirror. Was it amazing? Yes. Were there things I wish I'd known ahead of time? Yes. And fortunately I'm here to share them with you. A group photo at Dead Horse Point State Park. Ellen Carpenter/Travel + Leisure As I planned our trip from the comfort of a Manhattan apartment, Utah's parks didn't appear too far apart from each other. Google Maps assured me we could make it from Zion National Park to Dead Horse Point State Park in four hours. Doable, I thought. We'd have plenty of time to explore the sculpted canyons and hike the six-mile loop trail. Google did not share with us its assumption we'd be cruising along at the Utah speed limit of 80. Since our RV started to shake above 65, the drive took us well over six hours, landing us at Dead Horse at 4 p.m., utterly exhausted and only able to shuffle our way along the one-mile Colorado River Overlook trail. We wound up spending most of our time sitting and taking in the epic beauty of the seemingly endless canyon. It was lovely, but had I known how long we'd be driving, I'd have extended our trip by at least a day, gone at a more leisurely pace, and incorporated more stops. By the time we arrived at Zion National Park on our first day, the visitor's parking lot was full, so we were forced to park in Springdale, the adjacent town, and take the free shuttle bus. This was a good thing as the park was packed, with cars slowly snaking their way up the narrow, winding roads—not ideal for RV driving. Plus, RVs have to pay $15 and be 'escorted' through the tight Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel in the upper part of the park. The shuttle, meanwhile, takes you everywhere you need to go—Angels Landing, Emerald Pools, the Narrows—and for free. We made the mistake of driving into Bryce Canyon National Park, only to discover RVs are forbidden at basically every major viewing point from April to October. We inched our way up to Rainbow Point, where we were finally able to park and venture out for a hike. But I kept thinking about all the magical hoodoos and photo ops I was missing. We only booked our trip two months in advance, and all of the state and national park campgrounds were full. But it turned out for the best. Since it wasn't yet the high season, prices at the private RV parks were reasonable (from $37 to $68 per night), and they came with great amenities, including showers, pools, Wi-Fi, even mini golf. The brand-new Zion White Bison had a herd of white bison. While it would have been nice to stay at the national parks, most campgrounds don't have electric and sewage hookups. As first-time RVers, these little luxuries were key. RV parks are social spaces. If you're used to solitary hotel stays like me, it can take some time to embrace this community mentality. But you should. As soon as we'd pull in and find our designated spot, a smiling stranger would amble over and ask us where we were from. Thirty minutes later, we'd still be standing there discussing the hikes we took, wildlife we spotted, and where we stopped for lunch. At Spanish Trail RV Park in Moab, what I thought would be a five-minute dip in the hot tub turned into an hour-long gabfest with newly empty nesters from Tucson. Meanwhile, Calder did cannonballs in the pool with a slew of kids. At the KOA campground in Hurricane, an older couple helped me back into our site (reverse parking is hard) and then told us about their cross-country adventure from Tennessee to California, dog in tow. When you're hiking through Arches National Park in 80-degree weather, it's difficult to imagine you'll need to turn on the heat at night. But you will. I woke up shivering at 4 a.m. and had to stumble out into the freezing cold to turn the knob on the propane tank so I could switch on the heat. Just be sure to shut it off before heading out in the morning. One cost-saving benefit of traveling in an RV is you can cook your own meals. After picking up our RV in Vegas, we stopped to stock up on coffee, granola, sandwich ingredients, frozen turkey burgers, and a box of Utah's beloved FatBoy ice cream sandwiches. The money we saved on breakfast alone was eye-opening. At Arches, after doing the Delicate Arch hike—a trip highlight—we came back to our RV, made sandwiches in our air-conditioned 'kitchen,' and then headed back out to explore some more. That night, we grilled up turkey burgers and ate at the picnic table by our site under a clear, star-studded sky. But one can't live on turkey burgers alone. We ended up having two wonderful meals at family-owned spots. One night in Moab, we feasted on ribs and fry bread at Susie's Branding Iron, conveniently located across the street from our RV park. On our way to Bryce the next day, we stopped for gas in the tiny town of Loa and ended up wandering into Marinia's Country Cafe next door. An episode of Little House on the Prairie played on the TV hanging over the counter as we dug into the best chicken noodle soup of our lives, Reuben sandwiches, and sky-high slices of coconut cream pie. I think about that soup often.
Gulf Today
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Thousands of Afghans flee Iran to escape war
Thousands of Afghans are fleeing Iran every day to escape deportation and war, a major international aid agency and Taliban official said Friday. Millions of Afghans have called Iran home for decades. But they have been leaving in large numbers since October 2023, when authorities announced a crackdown on foreigners who it said were in the country illegally. Neighbouring Pakistan launched a similar campaign around the same time. Iran's war with Israel, which started last Friday, is also forcing them to flee as Israeli strikes target the country. Some 5,000 Afghans are returning daily through the Islam Qala crossing in western Herat province, according to the aid agency World Vision International. There were people 'at risk, distressed, and in great need' among the 500,000 forcibly returned from Iran to Herat this year, the agency said. 'Many require support to find food and shelter, get hold of everyday essentials, and connect with their families before travelling to their hometowns or villages,' said Mark Calder, the agency's communications and advocacy director for Afghanistan. 'But they are returning to a country in which basic services are already in crisis.' Swinging US aid cuts and a shortfall in funding for humanitarian assistance have closed hundreds of health facilities and reduced other essential services like education. The UN said on Thursday that the Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan had received just 18% of its annual funding by June 19, disrupting the delivery of aid to millions, including women and children, returnees, refugees, displaced communities and other vulnerable and marginalized groups. Calder warned that the number needing lifesaving aid could 'spiral further' if the international community did not look to support emergency needs and Afghans' efforts to start over in their homeland. Ahmadullah Muttaqi, head of Herat's Refugee Information and Public Affairs Committee, on Friday told The Associated Press that before June 13 between 3,500 and 4,000 Afghans without documentation were entering the province daily because of Iran's deportation drive. This figure has doubled since the outbreak of the war. Associated Press
