Category News

Peter Crouch admits he’s ‘useless’ at one thing as he made Abbey Clancy ‘cry’

By in Entertainment News, News

Peter Crouch has admitted he is “useless” at one thing in his relationship with Abbey Clancy as he conceded he made his wife “cry” when she was “pregnant and emotional”

Peter Crouch, the former England footballer, has confessed that he once made his wife Abbey Clancy “cry” due to his poor gift-giving skills.

The 44 year old sportsman has been wedded to the 39 year old ex-model since 2011, after first crossing paths in 2006 following his transfer to Liverpool. The pair are parents to four children.

Despite their long-standing relationship, Crouch confessed that he’s still “useless at buying presents”, especially with Christmas on the horizon. He once upset his wife by choosing the wrong present.

In a chat with The Times, he revealed: “I am useless at buying presents. I got Abbey an expensive handbag and it was completely the wrong colour.

“She was pregnant and emotional at the time and told me that I didn’t know her. She actually cried. I’m notoriously bad,” reports Wales Online.

“I once bought her the same jacket every Christmas for three years. I’m working with Debenhams now, so I’ve got no excuse.”

The father of four also shared his fondness for The Celebrity Traitors.

The inaugural series of the celebrity edition of the popular programme concluded earlier this month, with TV host Alan Carr emerging as the victor.

However, Crouch is uncertain about whether he would ever participate in the BBC show. He stated: ” I absolutely love The Celebrity Traitors, but I don’t know if I could go on it. I’d be a traitor – being a traitor is the one.”

This comes after Abbey expressed frustration at her husband, saying “he’s got the cheek” as she criticised one of Crouch’s habits.

The couple regularly discuss the ups and downs of their relationship on their podcast, The Therapy Crouch. During a recent episode, Abbey expressed concerns she might be experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

This led husband Peter to propose that the 39 year old mother-of-four should “save up and go on a nice holiday”. He said: “I don’t want to spend money on anything, but holidays I do.”

Peter continued, claiming there’s “nothing he really likes to spend money on”. However, the couple’s podcast producer Ross jokingly interjected that he splashes out on Abbey.

Article continues below

This prompted Abbey to fire back with a pointed remark about Peter’s extensive wardrobe. She said: “Did I tell you he’s got like 50 polo necks from Tom Sweeney, and that’s just on one rail. When I was cleaning out his wardrobe and they’ve all got the tags on.

“He’s got five of the same jumper in the same colour and he’s got the cheek to say, ‘I don’t spend anything’. I reckon there’s about £10 million of clothes in that wardrobe.”

Strictly’s Amber Davies finally reveals truth behind close Nikita Kuzmin bond

By in Entertainment News, News

Former Love Island star Amber Davies is currently taking part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing and is hoping that she makes it through to the final

Strictly Come Dancing’s Amber Davies has finally revealed the truth behind her close friendship with Nikita Kuzmin. The West End star has been impressing the judges week after week and is certainly in with a chance of getting to the final.

Viewers have noticed that she and professional partner Nikita have formed a close friendship over the weeks and now Amber has opened up about their relationship.

Amber was a last-minute addition to the show after Dani Dyer was forced to pull out due to injury. However, she has made up for it as Amber has been towards the top of the leaderboard every week.

READ MORE: ‘My suitcase never gets lost at airports and fits so much but now it’s 30% off’READ MORE: Strictly Come Dancing stars react as Ore Oduba admits porn addiction

Amber has previously said how happy she is to have paired up with Nikita and has said that he is a “dream” to work with. She got a call on the Friday before the launch show so the pair only had 24 hours to rehearse their first routine.

Speaking to The Sun, Amber has delved into what makes their friendship so special. She said: “Nikita is a dream to work with. What was unique to us as a couple was that we had to skip a million steps.

“I met him on the Friday, and we were dancing live on the show on the Saturday night in front of millions. I had to trust him immediately. But I instantly knew I was in safe hands. He believes in me more than I believe in myself.

“He tells me: ‘I absolutely know I can push you and you can do this.’ I’ve gained so much knowledge from him.” Last week saw Nikita and Amber impress the judges and the public once again.

They managed to score an impressive 38 points out of a possible 40 for their dazzling disco-infused salsa to You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester.

This put them in second place on the leaderboard for the week. The pair have been hit by Strictly curse rumours over the last couple of months but both of them have denied this.

Nikita has been in a relationship with girlfriend Lauren Jaine, 24, since 2023 while Amber has been with fellow West End star boyfriend Ben since they met on the set of Back to the Future: The Musical in 2022.

The West End star – who is about to take on the role of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde The Musical – shared a post to Instagram thanking her boyfriend for all of his support.

Article continues below

Amber gushed: “I couldn’t do any of this without you by my side @benj0yce. Thank you for going above and beyond every single day, picking me up when I’m down and being the loudest cheerleader when we celebrate.”

Loved up Amber continued: “Always dinner on the table after rehearsals & extra plasters ready when my feet need them. I am genuinely the luckiest girl in the world and I don’t tell you enough how thankful I am, I have won in life with you. I love you with all my heart.”

Sudan’s army captures two areas in North Kordofan as RSF burns more bodies

By in News, World News

The government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have recaptured two territories in the North Kordofan state from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as the paramilitary group continues burning and burying bodies in Darfur’s el-Fasher to hide evidence of mass killings.

Footage circulating online this week showed army soldiers holding assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades celebrating their takeovers of Kazqil and Um Dam Haj Ahmed in North Kordofan, the state where intense fighting is expected to rage over the coming weeks.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

Kazqil, which had fallen to the RSF in late October, is located south of el-Obeid, the strategic capital city of the state in central Sudan, which the paramilitary group is trying to capture from the army.

The fighting between the two rival generals leading the army and the paramilitary group, which started in April 2023, has increasingly turned east over the past weeks as the RSF solidifies control over the western parts of the war-torn country, now in its third year of a brutal civil war.

The fighting, fuelled by arms supplies from the region, has created what the United Nations has called the largest displacement crisis in the world. More than 12 million people have been forced from their homes, and tens of thousands have been killed and injured. The UN has also confirmed starvation in parts of the country.

The RSF said last week it accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by the United States and other mediators, with the announcement coming after an international outcry over atrocities committed by the paramilitary group in el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in western Sudan.

But the army has refused to agree to a ceasefire under the current battle lines, and both sides have continued to amass troops and equipment in the central parts of the country to engage in more battles.

The RSF launched an offensive against the Kordofan region at the same time as it took el-Fasher late last month, seizing the town of Bara in North Kordofan state as a crucial link between Darfur and central Sudan. The army had recaptured the town just two months earlier.

Satellite images reveal mass graves

More than two and a half weeks after fully capturing el-Fasher from the army, the RSF has continued to dispose of bodies in large numbers.

An analysis of satellite imagery released by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) on Friday exposed four new locations where paramilitary fighters are disposing of bodies in and around el-Fasher.

Activities consistent with body disposal are visible at the University of Alfashir, a structure on the edge of Abu Shouk camp for internally displaced people, a neighbourhood near al-Hikma Mosque, and at Saudi Hospital, where RSF forces massacred hundreds.

The HRL could not conclude how many people the RSF had killed or how quickly, but it said the observations are alarming, given the fact that the whereabouts of many civilian residents remain unknown.

Nathaniel Raymond, the lead researcher of that report, said an estimated 150,000 civilians are unaccounted for, and daily monitoring of city streets shows no activity in markets or water points, but only RSF patrols and many bodies.

“We can see them charred. So the question is, where are the people and where are the bodies coming from?” he told Al Jazeera.

Makinde, Fintiri, Bala Mohammed, Damagum Arrive PDP Convention Venue

By in News, Nigeria News

Host of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Convention, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, has arrived at the Lekan Salami Stadium in Ibadan, the venue of the exercise.

Makinde arrived alongside Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, and the PDP acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum.

READ ALSO: Kebbi PDP Boycotts National Convention Over Turaki’s Candidacy

Other senior party officials are also expected to attend the convention, which will produce leaders to steer the affairs of the PDP ahead of the 2027 general elections.

FILE PHOTO: Governor Seyi Makinde

Channels Television reports that despite the contention and litigation that trailed it for weeks, the convention is now underway in the state capital.

Our correspondent reports that the atmosphere at the stadium is buzzing with activities.

READ ALSO: Lekan Salami Stadium Buzzes As PDP National Convention Gets Underway In Ibadan

Scores of delegates in colourful attire are pouring into the venue, while supporters move around the stadium, quietly mapping out strategies for their preferred contenders.

Security at the venue has been heavily fortified, with different law enforcement agencies present to maintain order during the convention.

Since the national convention was announced, some members of the party loyal to the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nyesom Wike, insisted that some issues, including the conduct of congresses, be resolved.

The development has led to the factionalisation of the party, with Damagum and Abdulrahman Muhammed heading the two factions of the party.

While the Damagum group insisted on the convention, the Abdulrahman camp cancelled the convention following the judgment of the Abuja Federal High Court.

The PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) insisted that the national convention will go ahead as planned, despite an order by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja restraining the party from holding its 2025 convention in Oyo State.

More details emerge of Israel’s ‘brutal’ treatment of Palestinian detainees

By in News, World News

Dozens of Palestinian prisoners are being held indefinitely in an underground Israeli detention facility, deprived of sunlight and subjected to extreme violence, Palestinian lawyers say, as more reports of abuse emerge from the devastation of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Lawyers for Palestinians held at Rakevet, an underground wing of the Ramla (Nitzan) prison complex in central Israel, said their clients have been assaulted, starved, and denied medical care despite serious injuries.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

“When the prisoners arrive for the interview [with their lawyer], their faces show what they’ve endured,” lawyer Nadia Daqqa told Al Jazeera. “Particularly in this prison, prisoners are afraid to talk. The [interview] room is one square metre and the guards refuse to leave.”

Despite that, Daqqa and other lawyers have collected testimonials from prisoners held at Rakevet.

One detainee, referred to by the initials YH, had a broken jaw, shoulder and ribs, yet had received no medical treatment. Another, known as KHD, said Israeli prison guards punish the prisoners “by breaking their thumbs”.

The reports are the latest to detail wide-scale abuse in Israel’s prison system, as the country has ramped up its arrests of Palestinians amid its two-year genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

More than 9,200 Palestinians are currently detained in Israeli prisons, according to the latest figures from Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer. The majority are in what’s known as administrative detention, held without charge or trial.

Scores of detainees from Gaza have also been held in a notorious Israeli military detention camp known as Sde Teiman, where reports of killings, torture and sexual violence, including rape, have been rife since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

While the Israeli authorities have denied allegations of abuse, Palestinian prisoners who were recently released from the facilities as part of last month’s Gaza ceasefire deal described harrowing abuses.

The bodies of slain Palestinian detainees returned to the coastal Palestinian enclave under the ceasefire agreement also showed signs of torture, mutilation and execution, with some returned with ropes still tied around their necks.

Several human rights groups in Israel have described the country’s prisons and detention facilities as a form of torture and cruel and unusual punishment.

“Human rights organizations documented widespread abuses, including physical beatings, sexual violence, harassment, and threats – pointing to systemic and deliberate mistreatment,” the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) said in June.

The wave of abuse also comes amid a push from within Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to harden its policies towards Palestinian detainees.

Earlier this week, the Israeli parliament advanced a bill that would impose the death penalty for so-called “terrorism” offences based on “racist” motives against Israelis.

The move, which rights groups have condemned and said would exclusively target Palestinians, has been championed by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians, which have been burgeoning in the occupied West Bank and are carried out with impunity and often backed by the Israeli military, would not apply.

“The enactment of a new law imposing the death penalty exclusively against Palestinians marks a new episode in the ongoing series of oppression and constitutes a grave escalation in Israel’s widespread violations against Palestinians, including hundreds of extrajudicial executions,” Addameer said on November 9.

Basil Farraj, a professor at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, said the underground Rakevet facility is just one part of this wider system of abuse.

“This secret centre is in fact a symptom of the broader phenomenon of Israeli carcerality, where Palestinians continue to be treated in a violent and, in fact, an extremely brutal way that denies and negates all of their rights,” Farraj told Al Jazeera.

He explained that many Palestinians have been arrested under Israel’s so-called “unlawful combatants” law, which allows the authorities to detain them indefinitely on security grounds without having to prove any allegations.

Panic Attack triumphs for Skeltons at Cheltenham

By in News, Sports News
PA Media
Frank Keogh

BBC Sport Senior Journalist

Jockey Harry Skelton saluted a big win at Cheltenham on Panic Attack and then revealed he is awaiting news on the arrival of his second child.

Skelton gave an aeroplane celebration with his outstretched arms as he crossed the line after triumphing aboard the 6-1 chance in the Paddy Power Gold Cup for his trainer brother Dan.

Favourite Vincenzo was second, while the winning trainer’s Hoe Joly Smoke was third as he boosted his bid for the British trainers’ championship.

“Bridget’s due date is today,” said Harry, who has an 18-month-old son Rory with his wife, fellow jockey Bridget Andrews.

Dan Skelton has just missed out on the British title to Irish trainer Willie Mullins for the second year running and is bidding to go one better this season.

“I’m chuffed to bits. Harry gave her a great ride. Hopefully Bridget doesn’t go into labour too quick,” he said.

Panic Attack is the first mare to win the big race since Happy Diva in 2019.

It was a first success in the £160,000 chase for the brothers, who had finished second with Spiritofthegames in 2020 and Protektorat the following year

Saturday’s showpiece is one of the first big races of the British jumps season, which concludes at the end of April.

The action went ahead at Cheltenham after the course passed a morning inspection, following heavy rain in the previous 24 hours as Storm Claudia hit the UK.

Racing took place on Friday, the opening day of the three-day meeting, but 35mm of rain fell throughout the day, with the going changed to heavy, soft in places.

The bend turning into the home straight was reconfigured to avoid unraceable, waterlogged areas and the penultimate fence on the chase course will be bypassed.

Related topics

  • Horse Racing

More on this story

    • 4 hours ago
    A woman dressed in a brown coat with a wide-brimmed brown felt hat clutches a black umbrella as she struggles through the wind at Cheltenham racecourse. She carries a brown handbag and has a fur stole around her neck.