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New Straits Times
13-05-2025
- Sport
- New Straits Times
Goodbye Goodison: Everton prepare for emotional farewell to "Grand Old Lady"
Dave Bond, the manager of iconic Everton pub The Winslow Hotel, has been a supporter of the Merseyside club since his mum dug out an old long-wave radio from the attic of their home in County Clare, Ireland that broadcast the team's matches. His interest in Everton had already been sparked by a book on the team and their great 1920s and 30s forward Dixie Dean. "The signal was ever so faint, but as a nine-year-old boy I could pick up commentary of the games," Bond told Reuters. "And that was the start of my love affair with Everton, I had my ear to that radio for a good few years." Bond and thousands of other supporters will bid an emotional farewell on Sunday when Everton host already-relegated Southampton in the club's final Premier League game ever to be staged at Goodison Park, their home for more than a century. It will be a day to celebrate the "Grand Old Lady," but one many fans have been dreading. "I don't have time to process the emotions, because it's everything," said Bond. "There is no precedent, it's 133 years of match-day history. "The Winslow is six years older than Goodison (across the road) and was trading when the first ball was kicked in 1892 and will be when the last is kicked this Sunday." While the men's side are heading for pastures new, Everton announced on Tuesday that the women's team will make Goodison their permanent home from next season. MEMORY LANE The old park - inaugurated the same day as Glasgow's Celtic Park when they opened as the world's first purpose-built soccer stadiums – was a cutting-edge development that set the trend for other English football grounds but it is now something of an anachronism alongside the world's modern venues. While Everton's glittering new 52,888-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock comes with all the bells and whistles, it is the decades of memories that are virtually worn into the weathered blue seats of Goodison – which shakes during booming goal celebrations – that fans will mourn. "I can remember my first game like it was yesterday," said Steven Kelly, a member of The 1878s supporters group. "We played Swindon Town (in 1994). We won 6-2. I actually thought Everton were going to be the best team in the world. "There's no other ground like it in the country, in my opinion, even in the world," he added. Everton fan and poet Jem Joynson-Cox summed up the stadium's charm in a poem "Goodbye Goodison" which she narrated with a thick Scouse accent on The 1878s Facebook page. "Your stairs, your turnstiles, your slanty ceilings in the loo, your bellowing steels, your floodlights, and obstructed view, are etched with the deepest memories of our time with you," Joynson-Cox wrote. "Our little old lady, we're in awe of you. But it's time to move on to pastures new." The stadium has hosted weddings and funeral services, and the ground below the turf is the final resting place for the ashes of some 800 fans. The club ended the practice in 2004 due to limited space. Stephen Green has been an Everton season ticket holder for 30 years and while he was permitted to choose his seat in the new stadium due to his longevity, he will miss the fans in his Goodison section with whom he has shared songs and high-fives every weekend for years. If Everton supporters virtually bleed blue, the 73-year-old believes part of the passion stems from the region's economic hardships. "The majority of Merseyside is not wealthy, there's an awful lot of social deprivation and lack of wealth, and so it's something for these people to cling on to. They can say 'I might not have much money, but my team has just won this, or are champions of that'," Green said. When local rivals Liverpool clinched the league title last month, a cheeky Everton fan reportedly sold blue flares to Reds fans, with the labels peeled off. The plumes of blue smoke stood out amid the cloud of red. "It's an ongoing thing with Merseyside, it's like a religion, it's amazing how much it means to people," Green said. "My wife is a Red and I'm a Blue. "My eldest son is a Red and some friends of mine said, 'How come you allowed your son to become a Red?' I said 'Just took my eye off the ball for a couple of months when Liverpool were winning everything in the 1980s, and my wife was like 'Yay, Liverpool!'" With Everton's lack of success in recent years - they have not won a major trophy since the 1995 FA Cup triumph - expectation of glory has turned into nervous, but memorable, great escapes, with the team narrowly avoiding relegation with a 1-0 win over Bournemouth on the last day of the 2022-23 season. Former players and managers are expected to be among the special guests on Sunday, and The 1878s are planning a coach welcome "to give the players one big last send-off," said Kelly. The Winslow, from which Bond can hear a goal scored from his top-floor office, might never be the same after the team's departure. "Obviously we're going to lose a huge chunk of revenue, 80 to 90% of our gross turnover comes from match-day revenue," said Bond. "When you take that away, that footfall of 40,000 people on your doorstep, it's going to be detrimental if we don't do anything." The pub plans to run coaches to the new stadium for next season's games as the club enters an exciting new era.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
Climbers flock to Everest before fee climbs to $15,000
Nepal is preparing for an exceptionally high number of climbers on Mount Everest this spring, before fees are set to rise by almost a third to $15,000. The number of permits issued to climb the world's highest mountain is already higher than in 2024, ahead of the usual peak demand in early May, officials have announced. As of early this week, 427 permits had been issued to applicants from 52 countries, compared to a total of 421 last year, according to figures from the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Civil Aviation (DoT). "This is not the final number, as climbers are still coming and applying for permits," said DoT spokesman Liladhar Awasthi in Kathmandu. The increase is not only due to individual schedules, said Mingma Sherpa of the private tour operator Seven Summit Treks. The planned hike in permit fees also plays a role, he added. Some of his clients are still awaiting approval for the pre-monsoon season. Standing at 8,849 metres, Mount Everest lies on the border between Nepal and China. Climbers can ascend the mountain from either country. The Nepali government plans to significantly increase climbing permit fees for foreign climbers starting September 1. The official fee of $11,000 currently charged for ascents via the so-called southern route during the main season will rise to $15,000. Additionally, a draft law, currently under consideration in Nepal's parliament, would require climbers to prove they have previously climbed a mountain over 7,000 metres before receiving a permit to climb Everest. Whether the new law will pass remains unclear. Scepticism prevails among experts. "What is the real difference between climbing a 7,000-metre peak and an 8,000-metre peak?" the newspaper The Kathmandu Post quoted the former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, Ang Tshring Sherpa, as saying. "You can die on both." Climbing fees and other expenses paid by mountaineers are important sources of revenue for the impoverished country. Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 mountains that rise above 8,000 metres. DoT figures show climbers from the United Sates hold the highest number of permits at 82, followed by India with 74 and China with 60. The United Kingdom has 28 climbers, Russia 23, Brazil 16, Ukraine, Japan and Australia 12 each. Spring, the most popular season for climbing Everest, runs from mid-April through early June, drawing climbers from around the world and sometimes causing traffic jams around the so-called death zone with low oxygen concentration. Operators said that hundreds of climbers have already gathered at the Everest base camp for acclimatization, a ritual preparation phase before summit attempts. Experienced Sherpas known as icefall doctors, have successfully opened the route up to Camp II, establishing a path through the Khumbu glacier with ladders and fixed ropes. As in previous years, new records are expected to be set. Notably, Kami Rita Sherpa, who holds the record for the most Everest ascents, with 30, is leading another expedition and could improve his record if successful. Mount Everest straddles the border between Nepal and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, with climbers able to ascend from either side. Since the first successful ascent by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary in 1953, more than 12,000 summits have been recorded, according to the Himalayan Database.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
IBM announces $150B investment in US
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), one of the nation's largest technology employers, is planning to invest $150 billion in the U.S. "over the next five years to fuel the economy and to accelerate its role as the global leader in computing," according to a media release. "We are extremely focused on leveraging American ingenuity and American innovation," IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said Monday during an exclusive interview on "The Claman Countdown." "When I think about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, mainframe computers, this R&D investment coupled with all of the associated manufacturing is going to allow the United States to be at the front of all those three technologies." IBM was founded in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, and was renamed in 1924, according to its website. The company says its innovations "enabled the U.S. social security system, the Apollo Program that put a man on the moon, and power businesses in every industry." The company manufactures mainframe high-performance computers in Poughkeepsie, New York, "that are the technology backbone of the American and global economies. More than 70% of the entire world's transactions by value run through the IBM mainframes that are manufactured right here in America." These Companies Have Announced Their Intention To Increase Us Manufacturing Amid Trump's First 100 Days IBM says it "will continue to design, build and assemble quantum computers in America." Read On The Fox Business App The company joins the list of firms investing in America under President Donald Trump. "We really appreciate this administration's focus on American innovation and helping that drive global business," Krishna said. "This investment is money that we are putting down because we believe in the economic opportunity, both here and globally." Last week, IBM released its first-quarter 2025 earnings results, which listed revenue of $14.5 billion. Hyundai's 'First-ever, 3-Row' Ev Under Production At New Georgia Plant IBM's shares have gained 12% so far this year, outperforming the benchmark S&P 500 index, which has declined nearly 9%. The company forecast June-quarter revenue of between $16.40 billion and $16.75 billion, above the analysts' average estimate of $16.33 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Click Here To Read More On Fox Business "We remain bullish on the long-term growth opportunities for technology and the global economy. While the macroeconomic environment is fluid, based on what we know today, we are maintaining our full-year expectations for revenue growth and free cash flow," Krishna said in a statement. FOX Business' Milanee Kapadia and Reuters contributed to this report. Original article source: IBM announces $150B investment in US Sign in to access your portfolio
Khaleej Times
27-02-2025
- Health
- Khaleej Times
Dubai: Do you find yourself eating away your feelings?
Food isn't just fuel. It's social. It's cultural. It's emotional. In the Gulf region — especially in Dubai — dining out is more than a habit; it's a lifestyle where indulgence is the norm. Food frames social interactions in the workplace and in our personal lives. Swanky business lunches, brunches, endless new restaurant openings, and viral food trends make food less about hunger and necessity and more about eating for the experience. Food also releases dopamine, the brain's feel-good chemical. It's why eating something we enjoy can instantly lift our mood. 'Everyone emotionally eats sometimes,' says Dr Hollie Shannon, clinical psychologist at Sage Clinics. 'It's normal to enjoy food for comfort or celebration.' What constitutes 'normal' eating is vastly complex. But experts agree that healthy eating habits include flexibility — eating for pleasure, adjusting intake based on activity levels, and sometimes indulging just because you want to. Emotional eating, on the other hand, is when food becomes a coping mechanism rather than a choice. 'When we eat in response to stress, anxiety, loneliness or boredom without actual physical hunger that's emotional eating,' Dr Shannon explained. 'It's a way to soothe emotional or psychological discomfort, rather than engage in social experiences and fuel the body. 'If food becomes the primary way to manage emotions, it can turn into a problematic cycle — momentary relief followed by guilt, shame, or loss of control,' she explained. Like other potentially harmful coping mechanisms, emotional eating can serve as both a distraction and a numbing tool for uncomfortable feelings,' she said. 'It reduces physiological arousal, meaning it literally calms the nervous system. That's why some people might reach for food when they're feeling overwhelmed.' Not everyone who eats emotionally has an eating disorder, but unchecked emotional eating can spiral into something more serious, such as Binge Eating Disorder (BED) or Bulimia Nervosa (BN).'The warning signs are when eating patterns start interfering with daily life,' said Dr Shannon. 'If someone feels out of control, preoccupied with food, or is using it as their only way to manage stress, that's a red flag.' Another key sign? Guilt. 'If someone feels a deep sense of shame after eating, or they try to 'compensate' with restrictive dieting or excessive exercise, it's time to re-evaluate their relationship with food and with themselves,' she said. Dr Shannon, who has recently moved to Dubai, has noticed the paradox being in the city has on people's relationship with stress, food and body image. 'Like many of the world's best cities, Dubai has an amazing food culture,' Dr Shannon noted. 'However, for some people, food can become an obsession. Extravagant menus and viral food trends can create a sense of pressure to 'try the latest' and anxiety about 'missing out.'' In parallel, the city operates at a fast-pace and is obsessed with hustle culture, fitness and aesthetics. 'Everyday life in a busy city undeniably brings a certain level of stress. At the same time, people are bombarded with messages about body ideals — stay fit, look perfect, don't gain weight,' she added. 'I can see how, for many, this push-and-pull leads to guilt, restrictive dieting, and then overeating or bingeing, reinforcing a cycle of emotional eating.' For those struggling, self-awareness is the first step. 'Recognising the pattern is key,' she emphasises. 'Once you do, you can start shifting towards healthier ways to manage emotions without relying on food.' Dr Shannon suggested several practical strategies for breaking the habit of emotional eating. A simple strategy is to pause before eating and ask yourself: Am I actually hungry, or am I feeling stressed, anxious, or emotional? Recognising these cues can help distinguish between physical and emotional hunger. Practising mindful eating is another approach. When you eat, don't do anything other than that: slow down, remove distractions, and pay attention to how food tastes, smells, and feels. This can enhance control over eating habits and make you more attuned to hunger cues. Expanding coping strategies beyond food is crucial, whether through movement, journalling, deep breathing, or social connection. Lastly, she warns against using restrictive dieting as a quick fix, as it often backfires and fails to address the root causes behind emotional eating. Food and emotions are deeply linked, but food shouldn't be the only coping tool. 'Enjoying food is normal,' said Dr Shannon. 'Recognising patterns, developing alternative coping strategies, and fostering balance can help prevent emotional eating from becoming harmful.'
The Guardian
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘He said if I divorced him, he'd kill us all': Candi Staton on abuse, alcohol and the story of Young Hearts Run Free
Candi Staton is part-way through a sprawling history of the days when she worked in a nursing home by day and sang in a bar by night, chasing her dreams of stardom while supporting her kids. She's describing her one-time home – a $65-a-month apartment in 'the worst part of Cleveland, Ohio' – when she pauses. 'Oh my God,' she says, catching her breath for a second. 'I'm telling you a lot!' But there's a lot to get through. There's the sheer breadth of her work, for starters. Often dubbed 'the queen of southern soul', she started out in gospel before making forays into Americana, R&B, house, and just about everything in between, her career threatening to judder to a standstill several times over many decades, before speeding up once again. Staton's voice is rich and warm, but there's a bluesy, plaintive quality that underpins it; the singer Beverley Knight once summed up her hit You Got the Love as sounding like Staton was 'looking at God and telling him: 'Drag me through this, mate.'' Then there's her complicated personal life: Staton has five children, five ex-husbands, and has overcome horrendous domestic abuse. But, really, she packs a lot in because she is an excellent raconteur, an 84-year-old who seems to have forgotten to age (see also: her denim Gucci loafers and big sparkly elephant ring), and who possesses a quiet sense of steeliness and a ridiculously quick wit. Best known to many for the 90s remix of You Got the Love and her disco classic Young Hearts Run Free, she says the latter's message of doomed romance and years 'filled with tears' continues to bring new listeners her way. 'The young people now, they listen to the lyrics, and that's what they're going through,' she says. 'That's why [the song's writer/producer] David Crawford said it was gonna last for ever – because every generation goes through the same thing.' She quotes its lyrics: 'You'll get the babies, but you won't have your man,' adding, 'You'll really get the babies now because they won't let you have an abortion. In America? Forget it!' Staton has travelled from her home in Atlanta to London for the UK's Americana music awards, where she will be awarded a lifetime achievement gong. She will attend the premiere of a new documentary, I'll Take You There, about the Alabama music scene, in which she features – and we meet in a dimly lit nightclub where the afterparty is due to take place later that night. It's a busy few days, but Staton says she's excited to be in town. Besides, it's great timing: she's also got a new album to promote, Back to My Roots, showcasing the kind of blues, gospel and country music she grew up on, alongside some original numbers. In recent years, the likes of Lil Nas X and Beyoncé have ushered in the era of mainstream black representation in country, but Staton – who was born into a still-segregated Alabama in 1940 – was there long before, covering Dolly Parton's Jolene and Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man. Before that, she was a gospel star. Even as a little girl, she would keep the whole house awake, she says, crooning with her older sister Maggie, who features on the new album. 'My mother would come in and say, 'Y'all trying to sing all night?'' she laughs. 'Maggie and I have been harmonising together for ever.' The Staton sisters grew up in the small country town of Hanceville with little money and few distractions, and singing became a beloved hobby. The pair were discovered by a preacher, Bishop Jewell, and dispatched to Jewell's school in Nashville. There, along with Jewell's own granddaughter, Naomi, the sisters were fashioned into the Jewell Gospel Trio. It was the beginning of a starry tweenage era for Staton, who – from the age of 11 – was 'travelling all over the country, in limousines, on big stages, with big crowds … I was famous in the gospel industry.' Audiences lapped up the pigtailed trio's performances supporting Sam Cooke and Mahalia Jackson, with crowds dancing and jumping around frantically, sending chairs flying, and even rushing the stage. But, behind the scenes, things were less fun. As well as the rigours of travelling through the south as a group of black singers – which involved regular police harassment – the sisters were being exploited by Jewell. Candi and Maggie received no wages – not even a bit of change to buy an ice-cream cone, says Staton. She also recounts a dreadful episode involving an untreated tooth cavity she suffered in her teens, with nerve pain so bad that a fellow performer would hold her cheek on car rides between venues. Jewell's solution, says Staton, was to put lye into the cavity, with cotton wool stuffed on top; Staton ran to the bathroom before the caustic substance could slip down her throat and potentially fry her vocal cords. Eventually, the police were called due to allegations of child maltreatment; Candi and Maggie lied and said they were happy with the Jewells. 'I didn't know how to deal with it as a child,' says Staton. After that episode, the sisters didn't stay with the group for much longer and, at the age of 17, Staton wound up back in Hanceville. Oil lamps still lit the streets and the bright neon lights of her travels – to New York and California, Cuba and the Bahamas – became a distant memory. Her mother had put the brakes on a mooted move to Los Angeles with Sam Cooke and another singer, Lou Rawls, a decision Staton now understands ('She said: 'You're not leaving at 18 with strange men,'') but one that left her hurt and adrift at the time. 'I was back home with my mom,' she says. 'It was a culture shock. I was so bored.' Boredom gave way to her first relationship, dancing the jitterbug with her boyfriend, a church minister named Joe Williams, on a Friday night and driving to get hamburgers and french fries on the weekend in his Chevy. A baby was conceived and born – the first of four with Williams, who would become her husband at her mother's insistence. After seven years in an abusive marriage to Williams, Staton eventually got out, clawing her way back into the music industry, her children dispersed across different relatives' homes without any support from their father. 'I'm supermom,' says Staton. 'I had to be mom and dad. I gathered strength from the weakness that people thought I was supposed to have.' A more stable marriage – albeit adulterous, on his side – to fellow musician Clarence Carter followed, along with another child, and Staton's ascent began again alongside the legendary producer Rick Hall at Fame studios in Muscle Shoals. Grammy nods accumulated, but it was with her next collaborator that she would be catapulted into superstardom, with a song that laid bare the horrific abuse she was suffering at home. By then, Staton was signed to Warner Bros and married to the music promoter Jimmy James. She has said in several interviews that James threatened her life. Today she explains that he was 'real, real abusive and controlling. He said if I ever divorced him, he would kill my mama, kill my children, kill me, kill us all. [He said] don't even mention the word divorce.' Recounting the situation to Crawford, she was unaware that her producer and friend was writing a song about what she was enduring: Young Hearts Run Free. She recorded it in one take. 'I listened back to that song and the feeling was there: the intensity, the hurt, the pain,' she says. 'It told my life story in three minutes.' As well as the abuse from James, she was also in the grip of alcohol addiction. It was at a record label party some years earlier that she'd had her first drink of champagne. After a welcome toast, she had continued to drink, 'and I started feeling a little more sociable. I wasn't as nervous, I started smiling and shaking hands. And I took another drink, and another drink …' Soon, she says, 'Johnnie Walker was my boyfriend … I would have it in my dressing room, on my rider. I would have it before I went on stage. I couldn't go to sleep without it, couldn't wake up without it.' In 1982, Staton – who was no longer with James by this point – says she 'decided I didn't wanna do this any more. My kidneys hurt so bad that I would black out sometimes. I was like: 'I got to stop.'' Her mother pleaded with her to give up drinking, lest it killed her 'like it did your daddy'. Staton went cold turkey, although she doesn't necessarily endorse the approach, and became a committed Christian (as she remains today), going to church with Chaka Khan's sister, Taka Boom. Staton retreated from secular music in the 80s, releasing gospel songs and presenting religious TV shows alongside her then husband John Sussewell for the best part of two decades. All was well, until she and Sussewell divorced in 1998. The Christian music world got word of the split, and the distributor of her upcoming album pulled out, leaving Staton's career to stall once again. 'I started screaming and crying like I'd been beaten,' she says. 'I said: 'God, I don't have a thing. What are you gonna do?' I stood up and said: 'God, anything, any doors that open, I'm walking through them.'' A European tour proved the answer to her prayers, and kickstarted a career resurgence on the other side of the Atlantic. It helped, too, that Staton had just had an unexpected hit in the UK: You Got the Love, originally recorded for a documentary charting one man's weight loss, was gaining ground as what can only be described as a club banger. Originally remixed over a version of Your Love by Frankie Knuckles, a version by the British group the Source landed the song its highest chart position – No 3 – in the UK in 1997. Staton wasn't overly impressed at first, telling the Guardian in 2014 that she had 'forgotten about [it] and they'd remixed it to such an extent I wasn't even familiar with the changes and the chords … I thought: what in the world have they done to this song?' Slowly, though, she warmed to her new hit. It would go on to become an even bigger deal when Florence + the Machine put their indie rock spin on it in 2009 (at the time of writing, that version has been streamed on Spotify more than 687 million times). '[Florence Welch] taped it while I was doing the Glastonbury festival [in 2008],' she explains. 'We worked on that arrangement for three days, and she had it on her phone and went in the next week and did [the same one]. I don't care, because I own half the publishing. So anyway, great Florence – I'm glad you did it. We still make money off of it!' Now in her 80s, and having been given the all-clear from breast cancer in 2019, you could forgive Staton for slowing down. Instead, Back to My Roots, produced alongside her son Marcus, sees her giving her all on songs such as Peace in the Valley – made popular by Elvis Presley, later a gospel standard – and the Rolling Stones' Shine a Light. Of the original tracks, 1963 is the most striking – a rousing spoken-word tribute to the four young girls killed in the racist bombing that took place that year at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in which she also pays tribute to other children killed in tragedies such as the Sandy Hook and Uvalde school shootings. Staton was a young mother at the time of the Birmingham attack, and was in the city with her two eldest sons that day. She adopts the brace position as she demonstrates how they sheltered from the blast, which was orchestrated by local KKK members. She didn't like the way that the media described the victims – Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Roberston and Denise McNair – as 'four little girls; they didn't name them. They had futures, they had purpose, and it was taken from them. At least call their names. I cried through recording it all. When it was over, my kids were looking at me, saying, 'Mom, are you OK?' I said, 'Not right now, I'm not.' It was like a grief.' In I'll Take You There, she walks around the church, quietly taking in the spot where – eerily – only the face of Jesus had been blown out of the stained glass by the bomb. It's hard to believe that so much has changed – and that so much has grimly remained the same – in Staton's lifetime. While Beyoncé was arguably snubbed by the CMA awards for her Cowboy Carter album, black artists are certainly more prominent in Americana and country now. How does it feel for Staton to get more recognition in an area where black artists haven't always got their dues? 'Timing is everything,' she says. 'They were not ready to accept us. Now the music industry has changed so much … back then, Rick Hall had confidence in me, but promotion and radio were not ready for me to sing [Jolene] because it was considered white music.' As for newer artists, she says that it feels 'great' to see them embrace Americana, and shake it up. 'I think it's about time,' she adds. If anyone knows about the importance of timing, it is Candi Staton. Candi Staton's new album, Back to My Roots, is out 14 February on Beracah Records.
