State Man won the Champion Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival as Constitution Hill came home in fifth place.
Despite falls in consecutive races at Cheltenham and Aintree, Constitution Hill was an 8-13 favourite to get back to winning ways at Punchestown.
However it was State Man, who also fell at Cheltenham, who stormed to victory with Paul Townend on home soil, while eight-time Grade One winner Constitution Hill drifted away to a fifth-place finish.
It was a third Champion Hurdle victory at the festival for the Willie Mullins-trained horse, who came home ahead of Cheltenham winner Golden Ace.
“It’s the performance we always thought he had in him”, Mullins said about State Man on RTE.
“In fairness to Constitution Hill, I don’t think he turned up on the day. It’s very hard to travel from England after having two falls and things just didn’t go right for him.
” Our fella has run his true race and that’s been a constant thing in his racing life, he always turns up and runs his race. It was a huge performance. “
Townend and Mullins combined to win the Grade One Novice Hurdle on Final Demand, ahead of Lovely Hurling and Tripoli Flyer.
Fountain House won the opening race of the day in the Hunters ‘ Chase, while Its On The Line came home in the Champion Hunters ‘ Chase.
Sea Music won the Novice Handicap Chase, Gordon Elliott’s Casheldale Lad claimed the Novice Hurdle and Soldier In Milan won the Flat Race in the final outing of the day.
Russell Brand, a former comedian and actor, appeared in front of Westminster Magistrates’ Court today and was given conditional bail. He appeared to be holding his arms and legs straight.
Russell Brand faced charges of rape and sexual assault(Image: PA)
Russell Brand kept his arms crossed as he sat in court during his 12-minute hearing. The former comedian and actor appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today to face charges of rape and sexual assault and was granted conditional bail.
According to a court sketch, Brand was giving the full charge to the clerk. In alleged assaults that date back 26 years, he was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault, and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault relating to four different women. Brand was standing with his arms folded as he watched in the image. He wore a pair of black pants and a black shirt with a midriff buttoned only to his midriff.
Brand sat with his arms and legs crossed(Image: PA)
The comedian was dressed casually in court while sporting a brown belt, a distressed black denim shirt, and a pair of distressed black jeans.
While seated in a row of chairs, Brand crossed his legs straight and kept his gaze straight. Brand also stepped up in front of Chief Magistrate Goldspring during the hearing.
Brand’s case was transferred to the Old Bailey, where he is scheduled to show up on May 30 but the clerk did not ask him to enter any pleas. Brand slowly walked away from the court and glared straight ahead.
Continue reading the article.
He confirmed his name and address (Image: PA)
In September of this year, several women accused him of being a spy. Detectives launched an investigation. In April, Brand, a resident of the US, was given the Crown Prosecution Services’ permission to charge him.
The Met police’s Det Supt Andy Furphy stated at the time that “trained officers continue to support the women who make reports.” Anyone who has been impacted by this case, or anyone with any information, is still asked to come forward, and the Met’s investigation is still ongoing.
A team of investigators can be reached at CIT@met.police via email. uk. Contacting the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line also offers support. We have authorized the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offences, according to Jaswant Narwal of the CPS.
The court sketched showed what happened in the hearing(Image: PA)
He vehemently denies any wrongdoing and insists that all of his relationships have been consensual following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches following the 2023 allegations.
Continue reading the article.
If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
Russell Brand, a former comedian and actor, appeared in front of Westminster Magistrates’ Court today and was given conditional bail. He appeared to be holding his arms and legs straight.
Russell Brand faced charges of rape and sexual assault(Image: PA)
Russell Brand kept his arms crossed as he sat in court during his 12-minute hearing. The former comedian and actor appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today to face charges of rape and sexual assault and was granted conditional bail.
According to a court sketch, Brand was giving the full charge to the clerk. In alleged assaults that date back 26 years, he was charged by post last month with one count each of rape, indecent assault, and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault relating to four different women. Brand was standing with his arms folded as he watched in the image. He wore a pair of black pants and a black shirt with a midriff buttoned only to his midriff.
Brand sat with his arms and legs crossed(Image: PA)
The comedian was dressed casually in court while sporting a brown belt, a distressed black denim shirt, and a pair of distressed black jeans.
While seated in a row of chairs, Brand crossed his legs straight and kept his gaze straight. Brand also stepped up in front of Chief Magistrate Goldspring during the hearing.
Brand’s case was transferred to the Old Bailey, where he is scheduled to show up on May 30 but the clerk did not ask him to enter any pleas. Brand slowly walked away from the court and glared straight ahead.
Continue reading the article.
He confirmed his name and address (Image: PA)
In September of this year, several women accused him of being a spy. Detectives launched an investigation. In April, Brand, a resident of the US, was given the Crown Prosecution Services’ permission to charge him.
The Met police’s Det Supt Andy Furphy stated at the time that “trained officers continue to support the women who make reports.” Anyone who has been impacted by this case, or anyone with any information, is still asked to come forward, and the Met’s investigation is still ongoing.
A team of investigators can be reached at CIT@met.police via email. uk. Contacting the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line also offers support. We have authorized the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offences, according to Jaswant Narwal of the CPS.
The court sketched showed what happened in the hearing(Image: PA)
He vehemently denies any wrongdoing and insists that all of his relationships have been consensual following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches following the 2023 allegations.
Continue reading the article.
If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
A United States man has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy, after being found guilty of hate crime charges and murder.
Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak announced the sentence on Friday in the case of 73-year-old Illinois landlord Joseph Czuba.
On October 14, 2023, just days after the start of Israel’s war in Gaza, Czuba attacked two of his tenants, Hanan Shaheen and her young son Wadee Alfayoumi.
Police say Czuba arrived at their door angry about the war and proceeded to force his way inside, strangling Shaheen and holding her down before pulling out a military-style knife.
Shaheen suffered more than a dozen stab wounds before escaping to a bathroom to call 911 for help. Alfayoumi, meanwhile, was stabbed 26 times. He did not survive.
Czuba’s trial featured audio from Shaheen’s panicked 911 call, as well as testimony from the mother herself. Speaking from the witness stand in English and Arabic, she described Czuba becoming increasingly paranoid and Islamophobic as the war progressed.
For nearly two years before the attack, the family had rented a pair of bedrooms in Czuba’s house in Plainville, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.
But after the war began on October 7, Shaheen recalled Czuba telling her to move out of her lodgings because Muslims were not welcome.
Then, during the attack, she once again heard him citing her Muslim faith. “He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shaheen.
The incident was one of the highest-profile acts of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence in the US after the war in Gaza broke out.
But advocates say it is part of a trend of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic hate that has swept the country in recent months.
Wadee Alfayoumi’s father, Oday Alfayoume, and his uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, attend a vigil on October 17, 2023 [Nam Y Huh/AP Photo]
After the attack, police found Czuba sitting on the ground outside of the home, his hands and body bloody. Czuba pleaded not guilty, and his defence team has sought to vacate his conviction on the grounds that the prosecution played to the jury’s emotions.
Some of the images of the crime scene were so graphic that the judge ordered the court’s television screens to be turned away from the audience. Jury members heard Shaheen telling 911 operators in fear, “The landlord is killing me and my baby!”
During his opening statements, Michael Fitzgerald, the assistant state’s attorney for Will County, described Alfayoumi’s final moments as full of horror.
“He could not escape,” Fitzgerald said. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
In February, the jury took less than 90 minutes to return a guilty verdict.
On Friday, Judge Bertani-Tomczak rejected the defence’s bid to overturn the conviction. In announcing the sentence, she called Czuba’s actions “brutal” and “heinous”.
She said a 30-year prison sentence was given for Alfayoumi’s murder, plus another 20 years for the attack on his mother and three years for committing a hate crime.
Hela Yousef, second from left, prays for her slain cousin, six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi, outside the Will County Courthouse on February 28 [Nam Y Huh/AP Photo]
Alfayoumi’s great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, was the only family member to speak at the sentencing hearing. He said no amount of prison time could ever make up for the loss his family has suffered.
He also explained that Alfayoumi had seen Czuba as a grandfather figure, and he questioned what “fake news” about the war in Gaza could have prompted such violence.
“Some people are bringing this war to this country,” Yousef said. “We cannot do that. We can’t bring the war here. We cannot bring hatred to this country.”
In March, the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a report saying it had received 8,658 complaints of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab incidents in the last year alone, a 7.6 percent rise.
The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) confirmed on Friday the relegation of a Kenyan club, Muhoroni Youth, after world governing body FIFA found the second-tier team guilty of match manipulation.
It is the latest scandal to hit the sport in the east African country, long plagued by match-fixing.
In a decision published on Friday, FIFA found Muhoroni Youth “guilty of activities related to the manipulation of football matches and competitions”.
It expelled the club’s senior team from the FKF’s second-tier National Super League and ordered their relegation to the third-tier Division One League ahead of next season.
The FKF said it “fully supports FIFA’s decision” and reiterated “its zero-tolerance stance on match-fixing and all forms of manipulation that threaten the integrity of the game”.
The move follows the suspension of former national team goalkeeper Patrick Matasi at the end of March over allegations he helped rig a 2025 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Cameroon in Yaounde last year.
Kenya lost 4-1 to diminish their chances of qualifying for the finals in Morocco in December.
In February 2020 FIFA banned four Kenya-based players — one for life — over an “international conspiracy” to fix league matches.
Five Kenyan referees were later suspended over the same scandal.
Prince Harry spoke with the BBC and expressed hopes for a “conciliation” with his family, but royal expert Jennie Bond explains why this is off the table.
A royal expert has stated that Prince Harry is “ruining” after losing his Court of Appeal challenge regarding his security arrangements while in the UK.
Following today’s ruling, the Duke of Sussex gave an emotional interview about how the decision will impact his family’s chances of visiting his beloved homeland. He previously disclosed his desire for Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, to know their UK heritage.
However, he feels he has no option but for his wife, Meghan Markle, and his children to stay out of the UK unless they have taxpayer-funded police protection. Speaking just hours after the “devastating” blow, Prince Harry spoke to the BBC about his hopes of a “reconciliation” with his family, despite claiming his father, who was diagnosed with cancer last February, “refuses” to talk to him.
He also admitted that he “doesn’t know how much longer my father has”. The Duke continued, “Of course, some members of my family will never pardon me for writing a book.” They will never, after all, forgive me for many things. But you know, I would love reconciliation with my family. There is no point in fighting any longer, as I’ve always said.
Life is precious, I said, and I was right. I don’t know how much longer my father has he, he won’t speak to me because of this security stuff, but it would be nice to reconcile. “
Harry says it’s ‘impossible’ for his family to come to the UK(Image: ARCHWELL)
Continue reading the article.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond told Sky News:” He does not believe he can bring his children back to meet their grandfather even though, in his words, he doesn’t know how long his father has got to live. I assume Harry is more knowledgeable about the health of the King than the rest of us.
She then went on to explain why the Duke might not know about his father’s health. Jennie explained:” The family, they do not trust him to keep private conversations private. And now that he has made such a public outcry about this, I believe that will reinforce that.
When Harry was asked if the security issue was the final step in improving relations with his family, he responded, “100%,” adding that “everything that is being created, every story that has been written, has always been the sticking point.
“Put yourself in my shoes, if you step back to try to create a different role, the same official role, but a different working relationship with the institution that you were born into, for the sake of your wife and your own mental health and your child, which now a lot more has come out, because I felt as though it needed to come out – the other side of the story needed to be told, God forbid anything should happen. And I have no regrets about it.
“But I couldn’t believe it when that decision came about in 2020.” I actually couldn’t believe it. With all the disagreements and the current chaos, I believed that my family would be the one thing keeping me safe.
“And they not only decided to take my security out of the UK, but they also sent a message to every other country in the world that we shouldn’t be protecting.” Commenting on the “sad and sorry saga”, the expert continued: “He’s bristling, bristling with anger, isn’t he, Harry, and resentment. and distrust of the royal family. And, I suppose, sadness over his father’s attitude.
” I had hoped eventually there might be some kind of reconciliation, but clearly, although Harry says he wants reconciliation, he doesn’t see he can do that now. He is incredibly angry. And I’m not sure where he’ll end up.
He claims the King ‘refuses’ to talk(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
He feels that there is currently some untruth occurring. He believes that within the palace walls there is some kind of conspiracy involving him and others. Because he has been so brazen as to escape, he is now being punished. He feels that way, after all.
In the bombshell chat, Harry said he “can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point. The things they’re going to miss, well, that’s everything.
I have always cherished my country. Despite what some people there have done. I miss the UK, of course I do. He continued, “I think it’s really sad that I won’t be able to show my kids my homeland.”
The Duke claimed that because of his security arrangements in the UK, he had not asked his father to intervene. He continued:” I’ve never asked him to intervene. I’ve asked him to leave. I let the experts do their jobs by going outside the box. The Ravec committee is an expert committee full of professionals plus the royals. “
He continued, “Every visit I make back to the UK must pass through the royal household,” five years later. The royal household is still my Ravec committee representative today. That’s not a decision that I choose. I have to go through the royal household to understand that they are discussing and considering my best interests.
“I haven’t asked my father to intervene,” I replied. When asked by the BBC what about his current security arrangements made him feel unsafe, the Duke of Sussex replied: “Everything”. There are still many questions marks that many people will have as they continue, “I would not have taken this far if I did not have compelling evidence of facts that explain why the decision was made.” We have lost the appeal, but the other side has prevailed in keeping me unsafe.
Prince Harry is “devastated” about losing a legal challenge over his security in the UK(Image: BBC)
” I have all of the truth, I have all of the knowledge now, throughout the legal process. Based on this ruling, I have my worst fears known, and I haven’t learned that until this legal process in 2021.
“Did you know that the royal household sat on Ravec?” was one of the first things my lawyer said to me as the disclosure process began. ‘, and my jaw hit the floor”. The Duke of Sussex felt disrespected by the system, according to Sir Geoffrey, who praised the arguments made by Harry’s barrister, Shaheed Fatima KC, as being “powerful and moving.”
However, he continued, “I could not conclude, having examined the specifics of the extensive documentation, that the duke’s concern for the decision challenge resulted in a legal justification.” He continued: “The duke was in effect stepping in and out of the cohort of protection provided by Ravec. Although he was outside the cohort when he was in the UK, his security would be regarded as appropriate.
He continued, “It was impossible to say that this reasoning was illogical or inappropriate; in fact, it seemed reasonable.” Sir Geoffrey also said Ravec’s decision was “understandable and perhaps predictable”. At Friday’s brief hearing, Harry was not present.
The Home Office, which is legally liable for Ravec’s decisions, opposed the appeal, whose attorneys previously claimed that Ravec’s decision was made under a “unique set of circumstances” and that there was “no proper basis” for contesting it.
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A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the court has found in favour of the Government’s position in this case. The UK Government’s security measures are fair and effective. We’ve always had a policy of not providing detailed information about those arrangements because doing so could compromise their validity and affect people’s security.
In response to the Duke of Sussex’s failed legal challenge over his security in the UK, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”
