Clare County Council approves Zimmer Biomet expansion plans
A planning permission application for the works was submitted in November 2024 by the American company.
The now-approved development will consist of a two-storey manufacturing expansion adjoining the existing facility, and a single storey electrical room constructed from block cavity construction and completed with a built up concrete flat roof adjoining the new development.
The plans also include a single storey metal clad steel structure to house new equipment adjoining the new development and a new perimeter roadway.
There are approximately 550 people currently employed by the Shannon facility.
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Rhyl Journal
22 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Exports to US slump at record pace in ‘payback' after rush ahead of tariff hikes
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the value of goods exported to America tumbled by £2 billion in April – the fastest pace since records began in 1997. The drop was led by machinery and transport, including cars, according to separate trade figures from the ONS on Thursday. Exports of goods to the United States fell by £2.0 billion in April, with decreases across most commodities. This is the largest monthly decrease since records began and follows four consecutive monthly increases. — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) June 12, 2025 The value of goods exports to the US are now at their lowest level since February 2022, it added. In total, exports of UK goods in April fell 8.8%, or by £2.7 billion, to £13.7 billion. It follows four months in a row of rising US exports as American importers stocked up ahead of Mr Trump's tariff rises, which came into effect at the start of April. Commenting on today's trade figures, ONS Director of Economic Statistics Liz McKeown said: (quote 1 of 1) Read more ➡️ — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) June 12, 2025 Imports of goods from the US, including precious metals, also fell in April, down by £400 million. ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: 'After increasing for each of the four preceding months, April saw the largest monthly fall on record in goods exports to the US with decreases seen across most types of goods, following the recent introduction of tariffs.' Exports to the US of machinery and transport equipment, and material manufactures, both tumbled by £800 million in the month, with car exports heavily down. But the ONS said there was also a significant drop in car exports to the European Union in April, with a £900 million decline for machinery and transport. Overall, total goods exports to the EU fared even worse in April, down by £2.1 billion or 12.6%. Mr Trump unleashed so-called reciprocal tariffs on America's largest trading partners at the start of April, including the UK. Britain has since struck a deal that will see UK exports avoid the worst of the trade duties, with a baseline tariff of 10% and exemptions for some key goods, such as steel and aluminium and removing tariffs on UK aluminium and steel exports. But these tariff reductions have not yet come into effect, with aims to finalise the deal by July 9. Experts said last month saw 'payback' for a rush to beat the US tariff hikes earlier in the year. The total underlying trade deficit widened £4.9bn to £11.5bn in the 3 months to April 2025, because of a larger rise in imports than exports. — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) June 12, 2025 Sandra Horsfield, an economist at Investec, said: 'Distortions around known deadlines were always going to take place and always going to be followed by payback – no matter where, in the end, tariffs landed. 'The bigger question will be how output fares in the coming months, once these temporary effects fade. 'The UK may have secured an agreement to shelter the first 100,000 of cars (roughly the existing level of its car exports to the US) at lower tariffs than other countries face, but this is yet to be signed off by President Trump. 'What will remain is uncertainty over tariffs more widely and importantly the indirect impact this will have on the UK economy,' she added. The ONS figures showed the total goods and services trade deficit widened by £4.9 billion to £11.5 billion in the three months to April, as the rise in imports outweighed the rise in exports. The trade in goods deficit widened by £4.4 billion to £60 billion in the three months to April, while the trade in services surplus is estimated to have narrowed by £500 million to £48.5 billion.
New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
The life lessons of Sam Long, triathlon's tortoise and hare all in one
A pretty weird thing has been happening these days at the races on the top professional triathlon circuit. Coming out of the water, the big cheers aren't for the frontrunners. The roars come loud for the guy who's almost always in last place after the first leg of the swim-bike-run. That would be Sam Long, a Colorado native who lives and trains in Arizona and, in most races, struggles with competing as an amphibian. Advertisement Put simply, Long, one of the world's top Half Ironman competitors and a top American on the Professional Triathletes Organization T100 Tour, kind of stinks at swimming — relatively speaking, of course. But that would be your thought if you watched Long dragging his water-logged frame out of the drink anywhere from two to four minutes behind the leaders. And then — in a reasonably remarkable display of mental fortitude, leg strength, foot speed and aerobic efficiency — Long starts picking off racers one by one, until sometimes there aren't any more cyclists or runners to pick off. He is the tortoise and the hare all at once. 'A mantra I tell myself is, like, it's not about being the best swimmer, it's about being the best triathlete,' Long said during a recent interview from his Tucson home. 'So I do still have a lot of belief in myself overall as a triathlete.' As well he should. Long, 29, might be the 170th-ranked swimmer on the PTO T100 tour. But he's ranked eighth on the bike and fifth on the run. That tallied to a fifth-place finish on last year's worldwide T100 tour, which has a format similar to auto racing's F1 and races that include a 2-kilometer (1.24-mile) swim, an 80-kilometer (49.7-mile) cycle, and an 18-kilometer (11.2-mile) run. He won three Ironman 70.3 races last year and finished second in the Ironman 70.3 North American Championship last month. The longer run (13.1 miles) and bike ride (56 miles) in the Half Ironman races give him more time to catch the leaders. In the Half Ironman races, where the swimmers are generally not as fast as they are on the elite T100 Tour, which includes just 20 entrants in each race, he can be in the middle of the pack of swimmers and go on to win, though sometimes he pulls off some seeming miracles in those races, too. At the Ironman 70.3 Eagleman last weekend in Maryland, he finished 21st in the swim — 4 minutes, 32 seconds back — then pedaled and ran them down for the win. But every time he enters a T100 race, he knows he is going to be spotting some of the best of the best in the world roughly several hundred yards by the time he gets on his bike. Advertisement That makes Long something like the most extreme version of plenty of weekend warrior triathletes. They've been running since they were toddlers. A good set of lungs, lots of training and a nice bike can make the cycling segment comfortable. But swimming fast is an extremely technical activity that often requires years of practice, preferably from a young age, to develop what swimmers refer to as the ability to 'feel the water.' Long has spent years trying to get to that point, with multiple swim coaches. Hope springs eternal because triathlons often come down to the run. No one wins the race in the water, but you can lose it there. In a pool at the local YMCA, he looks like an elite swimmer. In a T100 race against some of the fastest swimmers in the sport, not so much. 'I encourage him to try to keep things realistic,' said Lara Gruden, Long's wife and a former competitive triathlete herself. 'He will tell me he really wants to make the pack, but that's not a realistic goal. So how about trying to shrink the gap, because when you want to make the pack and you don't, you feel defeated.' And yet, a reprieve might arrive this Saturday. The T100 heads to Vancouver and a swim in the ocean — where currents pushing the swimmers can level the field for a slower swimmer like Long and get him closer to the pack, if the current is heading in the right direction. Also, since Long is so used to swimming alone, he's really good at navigation and finding the most direct route to the transfer station. An ocean swim brings all that into play. The temperature should also work in his favor. He swims best in cold water. Vancouver waters check that box, and the cycling and running courses play into his speed on land. There are lots of rolling hills instead of steep climbs, which are helpful for a bigger athlete who can struggle to drag his body up a steep incline but loves rolling downhill. So why can't Long swim faster? That goes back to his childhood in Boulder, Colo., where he was on a junior swim team but never pursued it in any serious way, not after the age of 10. He played football in high school and ran track, and he skied and mountain biked a lot, too. He didn't swim very much for the next nine years until he tore his medial collateral ligament in a ski crash. Swimming with a pull buoy was the first endurance exercise he could do during rehab. Advertisement He was pretty good at it, and he still loved to cycle and was decently fast. His dad suggested he try doing a triathlon. And then the journey began. He did his first Ironman in 2014. He was just 18. His goal was to break 10 hours for the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and full, 26.2-mile marathon. He finished in 9 hours, 27 minutes, despite being basically clueless about training. The swim never came easily though, and still doesn't, but Jeff Utsch, his swim coach the past three years, has watched him progress. 'He has a growth mindset, and that is part of what makes him who he is, believing he can accomplish things and setting his goals,' said Utsch, who mainly works with masters swimmers and members of the military. 'He's open. He's humble.' To swim fast, you have to remove resistance and increase power, which involves becoming more 'slippery' and understanding what being efficient in the water means. Don't use your arms and legs to position your body. Use them for propulsion. Get the hips up by pressing the lungs and head down. Streamline the body and pull. Be like a boat that planes out of the water. 'It doesn't come naturally,' Utsch said. 'But I have seen people not raised swimming do their best times into their early to mid-40s. I think Sam is going to continue to improve as he gains experience.' That's the physical part. For help with his mind, to learn how to manage swimming in last place without getting depressed, he has turned to Brandon Thielk, a Nashville-based high-performance and life coach who once played independent league baseball and now works with athletes and business leaders. They get together before the season for several days and then do video sessions and calls throughout the year. Thielk tells Long to go get experiences and then unpack the emotions he felt during races. Advertisement 'We're trying to make his system immune to the stress response of the things that emotionally lowered him,' he said. 'It's getting to the core of the issue where he can understand why he feels that way.' Those issues could be anything. A deeply felt inferiority complex left over from childhood, or anxiety about performing poorly and then not being able to support his family financially. Thielk says Long has to constantly remind himself that he didn't start swimming at 4 years old, and he can't get lost in a game of comparing himself to competitors who did. He doesn't have to finish the swim feeling like a king. Neutral is just fine. 'Our goal is to really just get him to the place of when he gets out of the water, he's not at an emotional deficit, where his mindset is not negative, so that he can go into attack mode once he gets onto the bike,' Thielk said. Listening to Long and Gruden and Utsch and Thielk, it's impossible not to draw some life lessons from all of this. Be kind to yourself. Accept who you are. Work on your weaknesses, but don't let them define you because you have strengths, too. We're all works in progress. Long says he has tried to practice a kind of dual existence — his training self and his starting-line self. In the build-up to a race, it's all about wanting to be a better swimmer and working as hard as he can. 'Then once I actually get to the event itself, and I'm standing on that start line, it's like, 'This is where my swim is, I feel good about the work I've done in my swim, I'm going to execute the best possible swim I can,'' he said. 'And then it's also having this overarching belief in myself as a triathlete.' And also a human. (Top photo of Sam Long after taking second place at the Ironman 70.3 North American Championship earlier this month: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images for IRONMAN)
Edinburgh Reporter
25 minutes ago
- Edinburgh Reporter
Filming in Edinburgh this week
Actor Glen Powell was filming on Wednesday night in Candlemaker Row for JJ Abrams upcoming sci-fi film Ghostwriter. Powell is American and recently played Lieutenant Jake 'Hangman' Seresin in Top Gun: Maverick. The area near the Grassmarket where crews were filming was turned into a futuristic and dystopian street with atmospheric lighting. The film also stars Acting legend Samuel L. Jackson along side Wednesday lead Jenna Ortega and Sex Education's Emma Mackey. If you are wondering what else has been filmed in Edinburgh the list is long and includes Avengers: Infinity War, Fast & Furious 9, Outlander and Outlaw King in recent years. Department Q the most recent Netflix crime thriller was filmed and set in Edinburgh basing itself at FirstStage Studios in Leith. The studio extends to 8.5 acres and is self-contained with 24/7 security. It was also the site for filming and production of The Rig, the creation of Portobello based writer David MacPherson. Candlemaker Row – PHOTO Craig Duncan PHOTO Craig Duncan Photo Craig Duncan Like this: Like Related
