Latest news with #hammer
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I was spending £250 a week on crystal meth and smashing up my flat with a hammer. I didn't recognise myself: Bombshell revelation by S Club 7's JON LEE on what really happened in hit band
Even if the police knew that the out-of-control 'madman' with the hammer in his hand and anger in his eyes was actually a famous pop star who had once sweetly encouraged us all to reach for the stars, they didn't comment. 'They probably didn't make the connection,' smiles Jon Lee, who became a household name as the youngest member of S Club 7 – surely one of our most wholesome, and least threatening, pop outfits.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Anika Thompson and Nicola Tuthill medal for Ireland at European Under-23 Championships
Anika Thompson and Nicola Tuthill made it an evening to remember for Irish athletes at the European Under-23 Championships in Bergen, Norway, winning gold and silver in the 10,000m and hammer respectively. Thompson, from the Leevale club in Cork, became Ireland's second European Under-23 gold medallist following Sophie O'Sullivan's 1,500m win in 2023, winning the 10,000m in an Irish Under-23 record of 32:31.47. Kira Weis from Germany was second in 32:36.47, but was no match for Thompson in the last lap burn up. Then came Tuthill in the hammer to make it a Cork medal double, as the 21-year-old from Bandon threw a best of 70.90m to win silver, the gold medal there going to Aileen Kuhn from Germany with her best of 72.53m. READ MORE Tuthill had thrown 71.33m in qualifying, just couldn't quite reproduce that form. Together they claim just the 12th and 13th medals for Ireland at European Under-23 level.
The National
14-07-2025
- Business
- The National
Celtic are spending like a club in the throes of buyer's remorse
Last summer, Scotland's champions came under pressure to smash the piggy bank with a hammer. Criticised for a lack of signings in the January window, chairman Peter Lawwell acknowledged the 'inherent inefficiencies' of hoarding £67.3million in savings. It made more sense to spend the money on players than it did to hand a chunk over to HMRC in corporation tax. To that end the Parkhead board started throwing money at players. They broke their transfer record once to sign Adam Idah from Norwich for a fee close to £9m. They repeated the trick when they took an £11m punt on Belgian midfielder Arne Engels. By the time they'd added American defender Auston Trusty for £5.5m, Brendan Rodgers looked like a man who'd rolled the dice and won a fiscal power struggle with the people who think the club should stick to buying cheap, selling big and stockpiling punts like Gustaf Lagerbielke and Yang Hyun-jun in the hope of peeling away the wrapper one day and finding a Matt O'Riley underneath. How different it all looks now. Despite a respectable tally of 21 goals, Idah is no one's idea of a first-choice starting striker. Given a full pre-season Engels may yet deliver a decent return on the sizeable investment in his services, but has still to scale the heights. If an English club offered Celtic their money back on Trusty, you suspect they'd snap their hand off. If Dermot Desmond has made up his mind that Celtic are simply no good at spending large sums of money then the solution shouldn't be a return to the days of raking around the bargain bin for players of £3million or less. In a market turbo-charged by middle eastern oil money that doesn't buy you much, and it makes more sense to fine-tune the recruitment process until they master the art of spending their Champions League windfalls wisely. It's not as if they're running out of cash. Celtic could feasibly became the first Scottish club to store up bank reserves of £100m in the near future. And, while UEFA's financial sustainability rules will limit spending on player wages, transfer fees and agent fees to 70 per cent of a club's revenue, the champions are in no danger of landing an expensive slap on the wrists from Europe's governing body. They're too cautious for that. Read more from Stephen McGowan: Infantino's latest vanity project is ridiculous – enough is enough Is Dermot Desmond absentee landlord or Celtic mastermind? The spending hasn't dried up completely. They've completed a £20m upgrade of their Barrowfield training centre. The wages committed to Kieran Tierney's return, meanwhile, represent a significant financial commitment for a team in the Scottish Premiership. Throw in the signings of Swedish attacker Benjamin Nygren, Fulham prospect Calum Osman, back-up keeper Ross Doohan and Japanese defender Hoyata Inamura, and they've gone earlier than usual. Rodgers claims there is still plenty going on in the background and perceptions of a window can change quickly. By the end of August they could add another three or four marquee signings and supporters could be cock-a-hoop over with the business done. Given the lack of trust fans have in the board, few are getting their hopes up. Over the years Celtic's fear of missing out on Champions League money has fostered a level of caution which makes that very scenario more likely. Hoarding millions in the bank further risks nudging Rodgers towards the door next summer. The current window is likely to have a bearing on his decision and they're hardly going the extra mile to keep him. Financially secure, he doesn't need the job or the pressure. Family factors and the familiarity of six years in Glasgow will be other considerations and, while he deliberates, Celtic might be reluctant to hand millions and millions of pounds to a manager yet to commit. Ironically, that reluctance to give him the backing he needs to sign the players that he wants makes it more likely that he'll leave. He did it once before. And the longer this situation rumbles on, the more Rodgers' words, soundbites and body language will be studied with forensic intensity for evidence of a clue to his innermost thoughts. When Inamura, a 23-year-old defender from Japan, pitched up before the pre-season friendly against Queen's Park, the manager gave the impression that his input into the signing had been limited. Asked if Inamura would be ready to go straight into the first team Rodgers replied: 'No, he won't be. He's a part of the investment of the club.' While he softened his comments after a promising debut for the Japanese defender against Cork City, the episode felt like a flashback to Marian Shved the Ukrainian winger who came, saw, and left after three appearances. While Tierney and Nygren should improve the team which finished the Scottish Cup final defeat to Aberdeen with Jonny Kenny up front, Greg Taylor in midfield and Yang shanking cross after cross off the pitch, it's hard to say for certain that the starting XI is significantly better. Online, fans are already bickering over the area where the need to strengthen is most great. Some say attack, some say defence. Despite winning a double last season, there's a case for saying they're both right. Two wingers, a central defender, a contingency for the potential departure of Reo Hatate and a proper goal scorer is baked in. Depending on how Inamura shapes up, they could still bring in another left-back with reports in Belgium linking Flavio Nazinho of Cercle Brugge. Do all that for less than the £17m they've raked in for Kuhn and fiscal caution will start to look like a high-risk gamble. In the summer of 2014, Celtic lost a Champions League qualifier to Maribor of Slovenia and 200 angry supporters gathered in the car park. Frustrated by a perceived lack of spending on players, Lawwell was forced to address the frustration by making a commitment. In a question-and-answer session, the current chairman pledged that every penny Celtic earned would be reinvested. 'In terms of investment our policy, our commitment, is that every penny that comes into the club will be reinvested, it will go back into the club,' said the then CEO. 'I do not think we can be clearer than that. There is no pile of cash sitting there that we can look at, watch, feel and touch. It doesn't exist.' Fast-forward 11 years and Celtic's rainy day fund could insulate them from the impact of a tsunami. While cash in the bank dropped to £65.4m at December 31 last year, they've since raked in tens of millions from the Champions League. They've sold their top striker Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes for £10m, Kuhn to Como, and cashed in a hefty £5m sell-on clause from Jeremie Frimpong's move to Liverpool. That's a lot of money to reinvest in the club. If keeping the manager is the name of the game, they really should get cracking.
The Sun
10-07-2025
- The Sun
Greggs worker ‘attacked with HAMMER' in horror bakery raid as cops release CCTV in urgent hunt for ‘balaclava-clad man'
POLICE are hunting a man after a Greggs worker was assaulted with a hammer during a botched attempted robbery at one of the chain's bakeries. Cops say a man wearing a balaclava approached the store in Handforth, Cheshire, from the rear before assaulting one of the bakery's workers with a hammer. While the staff member then ran to the front of the shop to alert his colleagues, the suspect attempted to open a safe within the store. He, however, failed to break into it and subsequently ran off. Now, Cheshire Police has released CCTV images of a man it wishes to speak to as part of its investigation. is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video. Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun. 1
Sunday World
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Sunday World
UVF leadership launches witch-hunt for mole leaking false ‘plans for transition'
Paramilitary sources have told the Sunday World the claims 'are for the birds' Paramilitary sources, reacting to the latest speculation surrounding UVF conditions for the terror group to move away from criminality, have told the Sunday World the claims 'are for the birds'. And security sources have rubbished any prospect of the government rubber-stamping plans that would allow the UVF to retain a 240-strong armed 'close protection team'. The UVF has been locked in negotiations with the government over a number of years in an attempt to hammer out conditions in which they could honour repeated pledges to stand down. They have come under increasing pressure in recent months, with the government and security services running out of patience. In his latest post on social media, author and historian Dr Aaron Edwards said the terror group is close to agreeing a General Order of Disbandment. And that would include what Dr Edwards has described as a 'praetorian guard'' of 30 to 40 volunteers in each area who would be armed and act as close protection for high-ranking UVF leaders. He referenced a leading member of the organisation as asserting such a body of men would be needed to deal with 'criminality'' in loyalist areas. But the proposal has been described has 'fanciful'' by loyalist and security sources. 'It's incredibly detailed,' said our source, 'and very specific, not even the most optimistic and dedicated UVF man would believe that the government would allow to keep their own armed 'police force'.' The source – who has intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the UVF – said only a handful of people from Chief-of-Staff John 'Bunter' Graham down would have any knowledge of the content of discussions with British government representatives. As previously reported, it is known that a sizeable number of UVF members and sections of the UDA have been negotiating a pathway out of the paramilitaries, but they do not represent the entirety of the organisations. They are believed to be close to agreeing the terms of their transition but their priority in discussions has been to maintain the flow of public money into community-based jobs – many of which are occupied by paramilitary members – and immunity from prosecution for historical crimes. In February it was announced that the British and Irish governments were to jointly appoint 'an Independent Expert to carry out a short scoping and engagement exercise to assess whether there is merit in, and support for, a formal process of engagement to bring about paramilitary group transition to disbandment. This will include examining what could be in scope of such a formal process'. Lord Alderdice, the former Alliance Party leader who was chair of the Independent Monitoring Commission, said talks about loyalist transition should stop. 'A halt should be called, and you can't call a halt now sooner than today,' he said. 'There comes a point when you have to say no, this hasn't been delivered.' This week Dr Edwards, who has written a book on the UVF and who broke the news that former UVF commander Winston 'Winkie' Irvine had been court-martialled and stood down in the wake of his conviction on arms charges, said the details were an attempt to put the organsation in 'cold storage'. 'I have been told how the UVF Brigade Staff has explicitly requested the retention of 30-40 active 'volunteers' in each of their 'battalion areas' to act as a 'Praetorian Guard' — or 'Close Protection team' in security parlance — for its more prominent members,' he wrote. There are six UVF 'brigade' areas which would mean the government would have to agree to a 240-strong armed militia to act as a vigilante army to protect the organisation's ageing leadership. The Sunday World understands a sticking point in discussions are calls for the UVF to be de-proscribed so that the name can continue to be used legally at memorial and other events. And also in the naming of veterans clubs, the complication being that those who will continue to use the UVF name as a cover for their involvement in drugs and other crimes. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said: 'Without wishing to comment in detail on what are only second-hand reports, it should be obvious that any process of disbandment which involves the continuation of armed structures of any kind would by definition not be disbandment.' The UUP's Doug Beattie said: 'Any pledge from the UVF to completely disband is welcome. The reality being they should have disbanded many years ago, indeed they should never have existed in their terrorist form. 'However, any notion that 40-60 active UVF members, per brigade, should be retained to act as some kind of close protection for former senior UVF leaders is just ridiculous. 'The UVF need to disband and in doing so allow communities and its membership to leave the intimidation, drug dealing, prostitution and money laundering behind. 'Any notion that the UKG would allow an armed militia to continue with some random title or societal role in law enforcement is a farcical concept. 'I hope the UVF have the courage to issue a general disbandment order, but it cannot be conditional in any way.' Armed UVF men on the streets of Belfast during the Troubles Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 8th
