Homes Under the Hammer star Dion Dublin has lent his expertise to a fair share of house transformations, but now he is focusing on his own.
The former footballer has been on hand to offer budding property developers advice as they renovate and flip bargain properties. Typically, Dion helps those on tight budgets to transform homes for a quick profit, having joined the BBC show in 2015. However, the ex-Manchester United star is now set on building his own dream home and is set to have his say on all stages of the development.
Dion, 55, and his wife Cheryl splashed out a staggering £1.24million on a mansion in the upmarket village of Caldy on the Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside. They purchased the impressive home last year with a view of renovating it from a run-down property into a place of their own.
Their refurbishment plans were approved by council planners, yet new plans to Wirral Council shows Dion and Cheryl have changed their minds. The couple stated the 1930s house is in “poor physical condition”, meaning they have decided it will be easier to bulldoze the property and start from scratch.
Dion has plans to knock down the house and start again
A blank canvas will provide them with the perfect place to build a brand new home. According to the Daily Mail, the new property will include a cinema room, large kitchen diner, games and play rooms for their daughter Ruby, five, all on the ground floor. Upstairs will see the creation of five en-suite bedrooms and a laundry room.
Gate pillars are set to be installed at the entrance but the couple are keen to keep the existing large hedgerows “to retain the natural sense of enclosure which is enjoyed”. Off-road parking will be made for three cards, including electric vehicle charging points and cycle parking. A 715sqm garden can be accessed through a tiled terrace and steps.
Dion is keen to help protect the local wildlife as bat boxes will be installed on the outside walls. Four different species of the protected animal were sighted emerging from the eaves on the home during surveys last summer. According to the application, the new property will better reflect the family’s “needs and aspirations”.
The home has impressive views over the River Dee estuary and north Wales and will not overlook or create any “loss of privacy issues” to existing properties. Dion and his wife Cheryl live a private life away from the public eye and they tied the knot in 2017. A year after their wedding, Dion gave a rare insight into his personal life with the Mirror and how he enjoys to spend his weekends with Cheryl.
“If the weather’s right then I’d always stay in the UK. I love getting away with my wife and dog”, he said, adding that his favourite Sunday breakfast is a full English. “My wife’s a better cook than me by a million miles. She does most of the cooking as I’m out at work, and always makes sure I’m fed and watered”.
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Fans of movie star Robert Pattinson were left in stitches as the actor says he tries to avoid watching horror films.
The Batman and Twilight star suggested he does not enjoy watching scary movies and instead opts to watch lighter films. He said: “I kept thinking that someone was breaking into my house… so I was sitting on my sofa with 2 kitchen knives… then I fell asleep with them basically in my neck. It was probably a squirrel”.
The lead actor, aside from playing Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise, is best-known for his work in thrillers and unnerving features like The Lighthouse and The Devil All the Time, which left fans surprised by his desire to avoid scary movies.
One user joked: “Facts that’s why I don’t watch them. I’ve never understood how people like Stephen King sleep at night”. Another wrote: “I expected more from Batman”. A third added: “But he is Batman”.
Fans appear to find it ironic that the man who is currently portraying Batman is scared of watching horror films. One wrote: “Even Batman gets scared”. Another joked: “I hate to be repetitive but this is the most Bruce Wayne interview ever”.
Some even said he was right to avoid horror films. One wrote: “Finally someone who gets it. Anything horror or gore related. I am not built for it”. Another added: “We’re the same”. A third wrote: “R-pat just like me. I don’t watch horror films either”.
Other fans of the actor were delighted to hear him talk of horror films as they suggested he may be lying. One wrote: “Every time I read a new quote from Robert Patterson I’m always pleasantly surprised at just how real he is”. Another posted a screenshot where Pattinson had previously admitted to occasionally lying in interviews.
Pattinson made headlines for lying about an incident which involved witnessing a clown explode. In a 2011 interview, where Pattinson was promoting Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part One, he claimed the clown had blown up.
He said: “]The clown’s] little car exploded — the joke car exploded on him. Yeah, seriously. My parents had to, like— everyone ran out. It was terrifying…. The only time I’ve ever been to a circus”.
Pattinson has since claimed this is a lie, and suggested he had made it up in the interview but had no idea what compelled him to invent an exploding clown. He said: “There was absolutely no hesitation at all]in my voice]”.
Not everyone has believed Pattinson’s comments on avoiding horror films, with one fan suggesting he may be lying about this as well. They wrote: “Oh, I know he’s lying here”!
Pattinson’s comment comes as the star promotes his recent film, Mickey 17, directed by Bong Joon-ho. The Parasite film director’s latest feature is in cinemas now.
United States stock markets plummeted on Monday amid fears that President Donald Trump’s tariff policies might drive the world’s largest economy into recession. After years of impressive growth, America’s economic exceptionalism has been called into question.
Concern over an economic downturn has driven a stock market rout that wiped $1.7 trillion from the S&, P 500 – the world’s most-watched equity index. It fell by 2.7 percent, dragging it 9 percent below the all-time high it reached on February 19.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 posted its worst day since 2022, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value. Investors sold shares in the so-called “magnificent seven” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla.
Traders signal offers in the S&, P 500 Futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange]File: Scott Olson/Getty Images]
What caused the slump?
The market selloff comes as Trump’s back-and-forth tariff announcements have unnerved investors and stoked fears that the US economy could be headed for a major slowdown, or even a recession.
Last week, Trump slapped a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada and doubled the rate on Chinese goods to 20 percent, only to announce two days later that he would delay some Mexican and Canadian tariff hikes until April 2.
Trump has also threatened to impose a global regime of reciprocal tariffs: every country will face the same levy it chooses to impose on US goods from April 2. A 25 percent tariff on imports of steel and aluminium is also set to take effect on Wednesday.
Tariffs look set to increase inflation and consumers will bear the brunt of the higher costs. Many Americans could be forced to tighten their belts, which would lower growth and raise unemployment.
Ongoing public sector cuts and geopolitical tensions have also amplified US policy volatility. On CNBC, Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, described Trump as an “agent of chaos and confusion”.
“What is coming out of the Oval Office … is just complete indecisiveness, confusion and mixed messaging and the investing community losing confidence”, Peter Tuchman, a stock exchange trader, said in a video posted on X.
What did Trump actually say?
In an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday, Trump suggested that the risk of an economic downturn – if it were to happen – would be worth it in the cause of the broader economic shifts he is trying to engineer.
“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big”, Trump said. “We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing … It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us”.
Asked whether he thought tariffs on US imports would increase inflation, he said, “You may get it. In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down”.
He also doubled down on his trade protectionist agenda, saying, “We]the US] have been ripped off at levels never seen before, and we’re going to get a lot of it back”.
How has the White House responded?
As Wall Street panicked yesterday, the White House maintained an optimistic outlook, pointing to major investment pledges from corporate leaders.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said on Monday that CEOs had responded to Trump’s “America First” agenda, which is marked by tariffs and deregulation, by pledging “trillions in investment commitments”. These commitments, he said, “will create thousands of new jobs”.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNBC on Monday, Kevin Hassett, the head of Trump’s National Economic Council, played down financial market wobbles as “blips in the data”.
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, told NBC’s Meet the Press: “There’s going to be no recession in America … you are going to see over the next two years the greatest set of growth coming from America”, Lutnick said.
Have Wall Street jitters spread elsewhere?
Asian stocks fell sharply on Tuesday morning, as the previous day’s US market selloff extended globally. Japan’s Nikkei stocks slid about 3 percent, hitting their lowest level since September.
Chinese stocks were also not immune to the downbeat mood. The blue-chip index fell 0.5 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was 0.8 percent lower. Australia’s benchmark index also dropped by 0.8 percent.
Safe haven assets – which investors flock to in periods of market uncertainty – are now in demand, with the Japanese yen touching a five-month high against the dollar, at 147.07 per dollar. The Swiss franc has also strengthened. Both currencies are considered stable due to their predictable economic backdrops and low inflation environments.
Gold, long considered financially secure, inched up to $2, 895.75 per ounce, within touching distance of the record high it hit last month. Gold is now up 10 percent so far in 2025, after climbing 27 percent last year.
Oil prices, which typically move in tandem with global gross domestic product, fell for a second day on Tuesday. Brent futures, the global benchmark, dropped by 0.65 percent to $68.83 a barrel.
What will happen next?
Unlike Trump’s first term, when cracks in the economy or stock market wobbles often led to policy pivots, the US president seems determined to follow through on restrictive trade arrangements this time around.
In turn, Citi analysts cut their recommendation for US stocks to “neutral” from “overweight”, arguing the US economy may no longer outpace the rest of the world in the coming months.
Goldman Sachs economists last week raised its odds of a recession within the next 12 months from 15 percent to 20 percent, while JPMorganChase has lifted the probability from 30 percent to 40 percent “owing to extreme US policies”.
The yield (or rate of return) on a two-year US government bond, which moves in step with interest rate expectations, fell 0.05 percent yesterday to a five-month low. As such, many expect the US Federal Reserve to lower borrowing costs.
The Fed’s benchmark rate currently sits at about 4.3 percent, which is high by recent historical standards.
Traders are now pricing in a 0.85 percent cut in interest rates from the Fed this year, compared with 0.75 percent basis points on Monday, according to the London Stock Exchange Group. Lower borrowing costs are designed to help spur growth in a slowing economy.
Prashant Newnaha, a senior Asia Pacific rates strategist at TD Securities, told the Reuters news agency that “markets have now gotten the memo that the administration is intent on ripping the band-aid off”.
Since his first day in office, Trump has stated his desire to tame US inflation. At the same time, he’s made trade tariffs central to his presidency. He’s unlikely to achieve both policy aims at the same time.
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed the appeal filed by Agboola Ajayi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, against the candidacy of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
In the lead Judgement delivered by Justice Lawal Garba, the apex court dismissed Agboola Ajayi’s appeal on the ground that it was filed out of time and that he lacked the right to file the lawsuit being from another party.
The court added that the matter is an internal affair of the defendant’s party.
The apex court held that the appellants lacked the locus standi to pursue the case, rendering the appeal unsustainable.
The apex court further affirmed that the case was statute-barred, upholding the decisions of the lower courts.
READ ALSO: Court Adjourns Natasha’s Suit Against Senate To March 25
The judgment emphasised that the cause of action arose on May 20, 2024, when the nomination forms were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), while the appellants filed their suit at the Federal High Court on June 7, 2024, well beyond the 14-day limit prescribed by law.
Consequently, the appeal was dismissed, with the court ordering Agboola Ajayi to pay the ₦2 million in costs to each of the four respondents.
Ajayi had sought to nullify the election of Deputy Governor, Olayide Adelami, over allegations of discrepancies in his name change, as well as challenging the legitimacy of Aiyedatiwa and the APC in the case.
Ajayi’s argument centred on the claim that Adelami, who previously had “Jackson” as his middle name while in secondary school, had changed it to “Owolabi” without proper documentation.
However, the Supreme Court found no legal basis to disqualify the deputy governor on these grounds, emphasizing that name changes, when properly documented, do not constitute electoral fraud or disqualification.
Ajayi filed the case at the Federal High Court, Abuja on 7th June 2024, challenging the nomination of Aiyedatiwa on the technical ground of alleged non-qualification of his Deputy. Upon the petition of the defendants, the case was transferred to the Akure judicial division of the Court by the Chief Judge.
The Federal High Court dismissed the case in the judgment delivered by Justice T. B. Adegoke on December 2, 2024. The trial Court relied on the case of APC v Obaseki to hold that since the plaintiff (Agboola) made criminal allegations of forgery, perjury and impersonation against the Deputy Governor, he should have commenced the suit by way of writ of summons.
Dissatisfied with the judgment of the Federal High Court, Agboola Ajayi appealed against it to the Court of Appeal, Akure Division, through a Notice of Appeal filed on December 13, 2024.
In a unanimous judgment delivered by Honourable Justices Oyebisi Omoleye, Hadiza Shagari and Fadawu Umaru, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld the findings and decisions of the Federal High Court with an award of N500, 000: 00 costs against the appellant
Kyiv, Ukraine – On Sunday, a top Russian security official in Moscow lauded dozens of servicemen who used an abandoned natural gas pipeline as a tunnel to infiltrate a Ukraine-occupied area in the western Russian region of Kursk.
“The lid of a boiling cauldron is almost closed! Good job”! Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president and prime minister before becoming deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram.
But a Ukrainian serviceman deployed in Kursk offered a starkly different version of how the Russians barely got out of the pipeline on Saturday – only to be reportedly killed en masse.
“Some suffocated right]in the pipeline], some turned back. About a hundred came out in our rear, split into two groups and were almost immediately ambushed by our special forces. And]also killed by] a massive squall of artillery”, Evhen Sazonov wrote on Telegram.
However, the Ukraine-occupied area of Kursk shrank last week as Russians retook several villages and farms and moved to encircle Kyiv’s forces in the town of Sudzha.
In part, that happened because United States President Donald Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine – including the sharing of data from reconnaissance satellites, according to a former deputy head of Ukraine’s general staff of armed forces.
The suspension “affects the organisation of warfare in Kursk for Ukraine’s armed forces”, Lt Gen Ihor Romanenko told Al Jazeera.
Trump froze the aid on March 3, five days after a spat with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House over the latter’s alleged “ingratitude” to Washington.
The suspension also included the delivery of all weaponry and ammunition commissioned by Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, that was in transit in Europe.
In the 1990s, the West urged Kyiv to destroy most of its Soviet-era weaponry and ammunition, and only two-fifths of the arms Ukraine uses these days have been domestically manufactured.
Kyiv is adamant that Trump’s decision will only benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.
“We count on the US aid. I think the suspension of this aid would help Putin”, Zelenskyy said on March 3 during an emergency meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Kursk is by far not the only place where Ukraine is facing potential disasters.
Without the satellite data, Ukrainian air defence forces have less time to detect and respond to the launch of swarms of Russian drones that attack civilian areas, Romanenko said.
The drones that distract air defence forces are routinely followed by missiles launched from Russian bombers whose liftoff is also detected by US military satellites, he said.
The lack of satellite data also translates into Kyiv’s diminished capabilities to send its long-range drones to strike military sites, airstrips, ammunition and fuel depots deep inside Russia and in Russia-occupied Ukrainian regions.
“We partially try to solve this by using our data and the data from our allies, the real ones”, Romanenko quipped, referring to the United Kingdom and France – nations that are still aiding Ukraine.
On Sunday, Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil refinery in the Volga River region of Samara that sits more than 900km (560 miles) east of the border and produces fuel for fighter jets and bombers.
The attack was pinpointed and did not hit residential areas, according to Russian and Ukrainian media reports.
On Tuesday, Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones, killing at least two people.
But the aid freeze will affect the most crucial element of Ukraine’s defence of residential areas – the Patriot air defence systems that shoot down most of Russia’s cruise and ballistic missiles.
Ukraine has no stockpiles of missiles for Patriots that cost several million dollars each and are produced only in the US.
Since March 3, Russia has launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles.
Trump is ‘ rotten to his very core ‘
Some everyday Ukrainians feel gutted by the aid freeze and Trump’s reported demands to recognise the occupied Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.
“Every time I hear explosions, I think – how many more]Patriot] missiles do we have left? When is the roof of my house going to collapse”? Mariya Minchenko, a 27-year-old ambulance paramedic, told Al Jazeera, referring to two massive bombings of Kyiv since March 3.
Standing outside a kindergarten in central Kyiv before picking up her two children, she said her colleagues noticed a spike in the number of heart and panic attacks among the elderly during and after the bombings. “4am is our darkest hour, and now it’s way worse than before” the aid freeze, she added.
“Trump is not just a bad president, he’s a bad human being, rotten to his very core”, Minchenko said.
Ukrainian arms developers have long been trying to wean off Western weaponry.
They boosted the development and production of inexpensive drones that dominate today’s battlefield, largely replacing the traditional, much pricier artillery and tanks.
Ukrainian developers also found themselves on the cutting edge of the development of electronic jamming systems that make enemy drones lose contact with operators and crash.
The area is completely independent of US military aid, according to Yaroslav Filimonov, the CEO of Kvertus, a Kyiv-based company that churns out thousands of advanced jamming systems a month.
“Our enemy is strong, they have strong brains, they’re quick to copycat and scale up our findings”, he told Al Jazeera. “But we win with quality, not quantity”.
Despite the freeze, Kyiv can boast a tiny victory on the eastern front line.
Last week, Ukrainian forces regained the town of Kotlyno near the strategic city of Pokrovsk, where a third of Russian attacks took place in February, according to Oko Gora, an analytical Telegram channel.
The move prevented the Russian takeover of a strategic highway that leads to the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Observers attribute the success to Major-General Mykhailo Drapatyi, who became a new land forces commander in November and managed to streamline coordination between military units.
Oil marketers have cried out about the negative impacts of unstable prices of Premium Motor Spirit or petrol in the country on their businesses.
President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gilly-Harris raised concern during Channels Television’s Business Morning on Tuesday.
According to him, fluctuating petrol prices in the last few weeks are constituting potential threats to the survival of businesses of its members.
Gilly-Harris ‘ concern comes on the heels of ongoign price war between the Dangote Refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Following the announcement of a price cut by the Dangote Refinery by N65 at the ex-depot price, the retail price at filling stations affiliated with Dangote dropped from N925-N930 to N860.
No sooner after, the NNPCL also reduced its price at its retail stations, further deepening rivalry between the two dominant players.
Billy-Harris said “In our consistently weekly reviews, we discovered that the size of loss, and the possibility of most of us getting out of business is glaring at us in the face. Because in today’s Nigeria, we have collaborative efforts being made between all the stakeholders, and we reach out to one another to know how the businesses are doing.
” As much as we are making efforts to make sure that Nigerians have product affordability from our end as the last mile in the industry, we also want to stay afloat and liquid.
“The challenge we have is that we buy products at a price today, and before the close of business, the price has reduced. We thought there should be a mechanism by which prices are analysed and ensure it doesn’t impact negatively on the industry.
” I have always said that every business can only survive by making some minimal profits that are commensurate to the price of paying the cost of doing business.
“We are fully aware that the international prices of crude oil and other related expenses are also being reduced. But when we invest to buy products at say N880, we are not going to sell at that price. And if such products become reduced to N840, N850, N860 or even N870 per litre, it becomes challenging how we will be able to recover our costs”.
READ ALSO: NNPCL Clarifies Naira Crude Contract With Dangote Refinery
Commenting on price monopoly in the downstream sector, Gilly-Harris said its members can either import products or buy from local refineries, however, it would not sell products at the expense of the survival of PETROAN members ‘ businesses.
