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Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Lioness Jess Carter's alarming fear after first kiss with Germany's Ann-Katrin Berger
England star Jess Carter is in a relationship with Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, but she initially didn't consider the idea of a romance with her best friend England's Jess Carter is loved up with fellow footballer Ann-Katrin Berger, but before they got together, Jess had never dated a woman. The 27-year-old defender met Ann-Katrin when they both played for Birmingham City FC in May 2016. Although they were teammates, they barely spoke for the first six months. "At first, I thought she was arrogant," Ann-Katrin told The Guardian."But the more I got to know her, the more I was drawn to her." At the time, Jess was still living with her family in Barford, Warwickshire, but she was ready for independence. By 2017, she wanted to move out, and found out Ann was looking for a housemate. In February, they moved in together in Solihull and quickly became close friends, bonding over their shared love of football and films. Pizza, partying and a new mantra - How Lionesses celebrated reaching Euro 2025 Final Jess Carter's defiant racism message after starring in England's Euro 2025 win While their friendship blossomed, Jess didn't initially consider the idea of something more. She had just ended a relationship with a man and thought she was straight. That summer, while away at training, she found herself missing Ann-Katrin. Curious whether there might be more than just friendship between them, she decided to take a chance and planned a night out. "A friend encouraged me, and I thought - if I don't try, I might regret it." In August 2017, Ann-Katrin took Jess out on what she intended as a dinner date. But Jess was unaware of the romantic intention. Jess said: "When she called it a 'date', I thought she meant as friends. Even when she paid, I didn't think twice - Ann's one of the most generous people I know." Friends asked Jess how the evening went, but romance still didn't cross her mind, as she had never dated a woman. A few days later, while they were relaxing at home, Ann-Katrin took the leap and kissed her. She admitted: "I was nervous. Jess had always seemed open-minded, but I'd also heard her talk about guys, so I wasn't sure." They didn't talk about it right away, but after a second kiss days later, they had an honest conversation. "I could sense something had changed," said Jess. "Ann isn't someone who dates casually - she only kisses someone if she's emotionally invested. I cared about her deeply as a friend, but I was still trying to understand my feelings." Jess told Ann-Katrin she wanted to try, but needed time to be sure. She admitted: "I didn't want to rush into something if it was just a phase, or risk hurting her." Though Ann-Katrin was more certain early on, Jess soon caught up. Things progressed naturally and quickly, and, within a few months, they were saying "I love you." Last year, the pair announced their engagement with a heartfelt social media post. They revealed the news with a selfie of the couple in front of the Statue of Liberty in New York City after the culmination of the Women's Super League season. In a post on X, the couple posed alongside one another for a selfie, with Carter's caption reading: "7 years down forever to go" along with red heart and ring emojis.
India Today
19-07-2025
- India Today
Sex, tapes and scandal: How Ms Golf extorted millions from Thai monks
The police in Thailand have arrested a woman who allegedly had sexual relationships with several Buddhist monks and later extorted them, demanding money in exchange for not leaking explicit photos and videos. The woman, known as "Ms Golf", had sex with at least nine monks, police said at a press conference on July 15. They believe she received around 385 million baht ($11.9 million) over the past three scandal is the latest to rock Thailand's much-revered Buddhist institution, which in recent years has been plagued by allegations of monks engaging in sex offences and drug who searched her house found more than 80,000 photos and videos used to blackmail the monks, a police spokesperson said, according to a report by The Guardian."We checked her financial trail and found that it involves many temples," Jaroonkiat Pankaew from the Thai police's central investigation bureau told a press briefing on July 15."After we seized her mobile, we checked and found that there were several monks involved, and several [video] clips and Line chats," he IS THE SCANDAL INVOLVING MONKS IN THAILAND?Police said the case first came to their attention in the middle of June, when they learnt that an abbot in Bangkok had suddenly left the monkhood after being extorted by a Golf "had a relationship" with the monk in May 2024, police later claimed to having his baby and demanded child support of more than seven million baht, they then discovered that other monks had also transferred money to Ms Golf — which police called her "modus operandi".Police added they found that nearly all the money had been withdrawn, and some of it had been used for online investigators searched Ms Golf's house earlier this month, they seized her phones and found more than 80,000 photos and videos that she had used to blackmail the monks, police is facing multiple charges, including extortion, money laundering, and receiving stolen goods. The police have also opened a hotline for people to report "misbehaving monks".HARSHER PUNISHMENT: MORE JAIL TIMES AND FINEThe scandal has prompted the Sangha Supreme Council, the governing body for Thai Buddhism, to announce that it will form a special committee to review monastic government is also pushing for harsher penalties, including fines and jail time, for monks who breach the monastic week, Thailand's King Vajiralongkorn revoked a royal command he had issued in June conferring higher titles to 81 monks. He cited the recent cases of misconduct, which he said have "caused Buddhists to suffer greatly in their minds".In Thailand, where more than 90% of the population identify as Buddhist, monks are highly revered. Many Thai men also choose to temporarily ordain as monks to accumulate good HAVE PLAGUED BUDDHIST CLERGY IN THAILANDBut the Buddhist institution has been plagued by scandals in recent Sukphol, a jet-setting monk known for his lavish lifestyle, made international headlines in 2017 when he was charged with sex offences, fraud, and money in 2022, a temple in the northern province of Phetchabun was left without any monks after all four of its monks were arrested in a drug raid and were years of criticism about disciplinary and accountability issues within the Thai Sangha, many say there has been little real change in the centuries-old institution. A big part of the problem lies with its strict hierarchy, say much of the coverage has focused on the woman at the centre of the scandal, experts told several media outlets that the case raises important questions about the money and power that enable such behaviour."When the clergy's moral decay is in full view, it's the woman who takes the fall while the monks are cast as victims," wrote one commentator, Sanitsuda Ekachai, in the Bangkok Post, deriding what she said was a feudal-like system in which monks "live in privilege, surrounded by wealth and deference."Another op-ed published by Thai broadcaster PBS thanked Wilawan for her role in exposing the conduct, saying: "Without her, these deep-rooted malpractices might never have come to light."Monks in Thailand receive monthly food allowances of between 2,500–34,200 baht (57–785), depending on their rank, but temples and monks also receive donations. The latter can prove especially lucrative for monks of higher stature, who might be given tens of thousands of baht, or even more, by wealthy individuals.- Ends advertisement
Indian Express
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Smiles of Diogo Jota, tears of Darwin Nunez, how do athletes cope with tragic losses of lives?
The smile of Diogo Jota will not leave the heart of Darwin Nunez. Both were strike partners, sometimes vying for the same spot, thick friends. Andy Robertson would miss the 'bloke he loved' and the one he confided in hours of self-doubts. 'We'd watch the darts together, enjoy the horse racing,' he penned a touching tribute. Luis Diaz remembers the evening Jota, after scoring a goal, held out Diaz's jersey and waved to the crowd. The Colombian's father was kidnapped. 'There are gestures that one never forgets, and Diogo had one with me that will accompany me all my life,' Diaz wrote on Instagram. The reality of his loss would sink in only when they assemble for the pre-season on Tuesday. They would miss not just the selfless and gifted player that he was, but the empathetic and friendly person he was. They could feel him watching from the corner of the room, bantering around, or listening patiently to the woes of a teammate, or chipping in with a piece of advice to a young colleague. Tears would be shed, bottles would be kicked and the walls would be banged. Losing a colleague, a sweet one at that, would haunt them not for a match, a month, or a season. But until they live. They could channel the inner pain and angst to something substantial. A trophy, a clutch of them perhaps. 'For the team and the club, we'll try to cope with this together…however long that takes,' Robertson would say. But the best therapy to overcome the grief is returning to the ground, to do what they love the most. To play football. Last year, Jota himself had spoken about the game as a refuge from the woes of life during a 30-minute documentary for World Mental Health Day. 'Obviously everyone has things going on in their lives, business or family or whatever. I still feel like when I enter the pitch everything clears,' he would say. In the past too players who have endured loss of colleagues have talked about returning to training as the best way to cope with loss. Eight Manchester United teammates of Harry Gregg died in the tragic plane crash on the Munich runway. For days, he locked himself in the room, cut off from even his family. But he realised that soon he would be killing himself. So one day, he just took his boots and goalkeeping gloves and drove to the training ground in White City Stadium in Manchester. 'If I had to sit in my home I would have gone mad. Sitting there with the thoughts of all that had happened, all those terrible things I had seen, I just knew that I had to get out. That was the best thing that happened to me and I think the other survivors; to get down to White City and kick the living shit out of each other on the training field once more,' he later told The Guardian.. 'To get into the White City actually saved me. To argue, to fight, to train on the pitch and to be involved once more in training. It stopped me from going insane over what had happened to us all out there on the Munich runway,' he added. One of the fellow survivors was the late Bobby Charlton, who battled post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life. His family still funds research into PTSD under the Sir Bobby Charlton Centres for Support and Rehabilitation programme. He claims he kept seeing ghosts of his departed friends and would hear their sound. 'For a little while, you see, football, all of life, had seemed to lose meaning. You think to yourself 'why should it be me?' he said before on his 80th birthday. For months Andres Iniesta couldn't reconcile with the death of his friend and Espanyol footballer Daniel Jarque, who died of heart attack during a preseason trip to Italy. 'Not depression exactly, not illness either, not really, but an unease,' he wrote in his autobiography, The Artist. He flunked training sessions, skipped team talks and even though he never mulled retiring. He eventually sought medical help. 'When you need help, you have to look for it: at times it's necessary. People are specialists; that's what they're there for. You have to use them,' he said. Memories of Jarque rushed back the night before the World Cup final. He woke up at 4 am and slipped out for a sprint along the empty but dangerous streets of Johannesburg. The next evening, when he scored the goal that won his country the World Cup, he lifted his shirt to show a message on his under-shirt, written in blue marker by Hugo the kit man:'Dani Jarque siempre con nosotros' ('Dani Jarque, always with us') But intermittently, Jarque's memories would pop up. Perhaps, they never really get over the pain, because they are forever connected with the men with whom you play. It's a unique bond, because their experience has been collective, they spend more time together with teammates than families. Often the best coping mechanism is to return to the dressing room and training ground. To purge sorrow with sorrow. The former Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke once said he dealt with the loss of Phil Hughes, his teammate and friend who fell to a bouncer, by clinging to the happy times they had together. 'I try to on a daily basis think about the times we celebrated, we partied, we sat on the couch, we went for coffee or had breakfast,' Clarke once said. Former West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle used to visit the grave of his friend Runako Morton, who died in a car crash in 2012, in Nevis and share a glass of whiskey, which was Runako's favourite drink. Different coping mechanisms, but Jota's teammates would carry his memories for as long as they live. The smile, the kind words, the goodwill gesture. Far more precious than the goals he scored or the assists he made.
