Following recent revelation that he will be leaving the club after he failed to impress at the club, Manchester United winger, Memphis Depay has begun to cut links with the Old Trafford club, according to reports from the UK.
The Sun UK reports that the Dutch international has now deleted all his Instagram pictures depicting his time at the club and also unfollowed all his teammates in an apparent attempt to rid himself of memories of his stay at the Old Trafford.
The Dutchman has been a major disappointment since moving to Old Trafford for £25million last summer, scoring just twice in the league despite firing home 22 goals the year before at PSV Eindhoven.
Depay held crunch talks with Louis van Gaal over his future at the club last week as the Red Devils line up a whopping £65m move for Atletico Madrid ace, Antoine Griezmann.
The tabloid quotes further reports as suggesting that United has grown tired with the 22-year-old’s playboy lifestyle and is ready to boot him out of the club.
Depay has since been linked with a shock move to Southampton, and the £90,000-a-week flop has now fuelled speculation that he’s heading for the exit after unfollowing all of his United teammates on social media site Instagram.
Depay has also deleted all of his pictures except for one which shows him with his partner embracing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is still being tipped to take over from Van Gaal this summer, and the Special One has shown in the past that he will not tolerate perceived slackers in his side.
Juan Mata and Kevin De Bruyne were just two of the big names to depart Stamford Bridge for failing to put in the hard work, and Depay is unlikely to make the cut at United if he shows an unwillingness to comply with Mourinho’s strict demands.
German far-right party calls for ban on minarets and burqa
Delegates from Germany’s anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) backed an election manifesto on Sunday that says Islam is not compatible with the country’s constitution and calls for a ban on minarets and the burqa.
The AfD was set up three years ago and has been buoyed by Europe’s migration crisis and the arrival of more than a million mostly Muslim migrants in Germany last year. The party has no presence in the federal parliament in Berlin but has members in half of Germany’s 16 regional state assemblies.
Opinion polls give AfD support of up to 14%, presenting a serious challenge to Angela Merkel’s conservatives and other established parties in the run-up to the 2017 federal election. Other parties have ruled out a coalition with the AfD.
In a raucous and highly emotional debate on the second day of a party congress, many of the 2,000 delegates cheered calls from the podium for measures against “Islamic symbols of power” and jeered a plea for dialogue with Germany’s Muslims.
“Islam is foreign to us and for that reason it cannot invoke the principle of religious freedom to the same degree as Christianity,”Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, an AfD politician from the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said to loud applause.
Merkel has said on many occasions that freedom of religion is guaranteed by Germany’s constitution and that Islam is welcome in the country.
As many as 2,000 leftwing demonstrators clashed with police on Saturday as they tried to disrupt the AfD conference. About 500 people were briefly detained and 10 police officers were slightly injured, a police spokesman said.
The chapter of the AfD manifesto concerning Muslims is titled “Islam is not a part of Germany”.
In Sunday’s debate, one delegate’s call for greater understanding drew jeers and loud whistles.
“I call for a differentiation and urge everybody to visit their local Muslim communities and initiate a dialogue,” said Ernst-August Roettger, a delegate from the northern city of Lüneburg.
He was speaking in support of an amendment that called for acceptance of everybody’s religious freedom and for the party not to regard all Muslims as extremists. Delegates rejected the amendment.
Germany is home to nearly four million Muslims, who make up about 5% of the population. Many of the longer established communities came from Turkey to find work, but those who have arrived over the past year have mostly been fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month the head of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims likened the AfD’s attitude towards his community to that of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis towards the Jews. Thanks for reading.
North Korea rocket launch will have 'serious consequences', US forecasts
The US vowed “serious consequences” for North Korea’s rocket launch with ballistic missile technology on Sunday, as secretary of state John Kerry called foreign ministers in South Korea and Japan to discuss actions against the pariah state.
The State Department said in a statement that Kerry reassured both foreign ministers that the US has an “ironclad commitment to the security and defense” of its allies. He told them the rocket launch, ostensibly to send a satellite into orbit, “threatened international peace and security”, according to the statement.
Earlier on Sunday, the 15 representatives of the United Nations security council held an emergency meeting to discuss the launch, and unanimously condemned North Korea for defying sanctions against it.
Standing alongside her counterparts from South Korea and Japan, American ambassador Samantha Power told reporters: “We will ensure that the security council imposes serious consequences. DPRK’s latest transgressions require our response to be even firmer.”
“The members of the security council strongly condemned this launch,” said Rafael Dario Ramírez Carreño, the Venezuelan ambassador and president of the council this month. He told reporters the launch was “a serious violation”.
Ramírez Carreño said the council “restated their intent to develop significant measures” against North Korea, as a consequence of a nuclear test in January and Sunday’s rocket launch.
Power said she hoped the council would vote on a draft resolution to expand existing UN sanctions on North Korea “as quickly as possible”.
“It is urgent and overdue,” she said, adding that she hoped China would put pressure on the isolated country.
“We are hopeful that China, like all council members, will see the grave threat to regional, international peace and security, see the importance of adopting tough, unprecedented measures, breaking new ground,” Power said.
Diplomats said Washington is closely consulting with Japan, South Korea, Britain and France on its discussions with China, while Beijing is keeping in close contact with Russia, another nation with veto powers over resolutions.
Kerry and Ramírez Carreño also stressed the importance of a united international response.
Japan’s ambassador, Motohide Yoshikawa, said the draft under discussion would have “much more strengthened measures” against Pyongyang.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one senior western diplomat said he hoped the council would be able to vote on a new sanctions resolution this month.
He said the Americans have been pushing for tough new measures that went beyond targeting North Korea’s atomic weapons and missile programs, while China wanted any future steps to focus on the question of nonproliferation.
One diplomat said that Washington hopes to tighten international restrictions on North Korea’s banking system, but that Beijing is reluctant to support the measure for fear of worsening conditions in its neighbor and provoking a refugee crisis across its borders. China is responsible for about 70% of North Korea’s trade volume, according to Seoul.
“There will eventually be a sanctions resolution,” the diplomat said. “China wants any steps to be measured but it wants the council to send a clear message to DPRK that it must comply with council resolutions.”
China expressed regret and concern over Sunday’s rocket launch, which employed ballistic missile technology. China is North Korea’s main ally but, like most of other nations, disapproves of its nuclear weapons program.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the closed-door session, France’s UN ambassador, François Delattre, described North Korea’s launch as an “outrageous provocation”.
British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday he had spoken with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, and they had agreed the council should take strong action.
On Saturday, North Korea abruptly changed its launch window for an attempted satellite launch, and did not inform international organizations of any other changes of its plan, said South Korean defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang Gyun.
The launch came just weeks after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. Outside experts and officials say that each nuclear test and long-range missile launch brings the North closer to creating a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on an intercontinental missile capable of reaching targets as far as the US west coast.
Following the announcement that the launch window had been moved, Japan set up an emergency response desk to monitor the launch. Japan had already deployed Patriot missile batteries in Tokyo and on the southern island of Okinawa to shoot down any debris from the rocket that might threaten to fall on its territory.
Seoul’s defense ministry said that South Korea and the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in the South as a buttress against any North Korean aggression, are deploying Aegis-equipped destroyers and radar spy planes to track the North Korean rocket after its launch.
The South is also prepared to shoot down any rocket or debris that infringes on its territory, the defense ministry said, although security experts believe the country’s Patriot missiles, with an interception range of about nine miles, would be ill-equipped for the job. Thanks for reading.
‘We’ve had massacres all week’: Aleppo on fire again as Assad consigns ceasefire to history
The president of Aleppo city council, Brita Haji Hasan, had a picture on his phone. It showed the corpse of Hasan Amory, 29, a father of two and council engineer who that morning had been killed by a Syrian air force missile as he headed into work in the opposition stronghold.
“We have had massacres on a daily basis for six or seven days,” Haji Hasan told the Observer, during an interview in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, 30 miles from the Syrian border.
“They are destroying schools and civilian targets using barrel bombs, airstrikes and machine guns. Another colleague of mine was killed yesterday while I spoke to him on Skype.”
As the most senior civic leader in Aleppo, Haji Hasan has been trying to make life livable in the most impossible and dangerous of circumstances. “It is a terrible situation,” he said. “But we are trying to live.”
Syria’s largest city is once again under bombardment: its residents are, once again, exposed to pitiless, wanton attack as the world looks on. The ferocity and cruelty of the bombing of Aleppo by Bashar al-Assad’s air force has shocked even those familiar with the worst of this conflict.
Since breaking its ceasefire eight days ago, the regime has launched more than 260 airstrikes, 110 artillery strikes and 18 missiles, and has dropped 68 bombs, according to the civil defence organisation in opposition-controlled Syria known as the White Helmets.
Aleppo has been excluded from a partial ceasefire agreed elsewhere in the country late on Friday evening. On Saturday the regime’s airstrikes began at around 10am with a volley of seven missiles hitting civilian areas in the space of half an hour, killing at least six people and injuring 20. That came after attacks on Friday left at least eight people dead and destroyed a medical facility and a water pump, threatening the city’s vital supplies, according to reports.
On Thursday, bombs destroyed a hospital backed by Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Committee of the Red Cross, killing the city’s last remaining paediatrician, along with 26 other people, including three children.
Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Syria, declared the cessation of hostilities agreement brokered by the US and Russia as “barely alive” as a result.
The UK’s special representative for Syria, Gareth Bayley, tweeted: “#Russia needs to get control over the #Assad regime’s attacks on civilians.”
US secretary of state John Kerry meanwhile urged a return to the nationwide ceasefire in Syria and said attacks on Aleppo must stop immediately.
“The secretary expressed his deep concern about the deteriorating situation in Aleppo, where the ... regime (of President Bashar al-Assad) continues to escalate the conflict by predominantly targeting innocent civilians and parties to the cessation of hostilities,” his spokesman John Kirby said.
Kirby said work was taking place to defuse tensions and the hope was that “tangible progress” would be made soon.
Such is the onslaught that the Observer understands humanitarian organisations are considering pulling out of Syria’s biggest city. A draft statement being circulated among NGOs warns of a “complete absence of the fundamentals of safe humanitarian intervention, and the absence of a clear mechanism to monitor and document violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law”.
It further claims that there is “growing, recurrent targeting of humanitarian organisations, teams, and the vital centres that provide services to civilians in the province, by the Syrian regime and its allies”.
It goes on: “The most recent assaults included the shelling of Syrian civil defence centres, al-Quds children’s hospital, NGOs’ ambulance systems, and a number of administrative offices of the NGOs operating in the province.”
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, on Saturday condemned the “monstrous disregard for civilian lives” by all parties to the conflict and called for urgent de-escalation.
Analysis Aleppo is a such a prize for both sides that its suffering just goes on
The west’s lack of appetite for military intervention has left Syria’s rebels feeling they have nothing left to lose
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, puts the civilian death toll in government and rebel bombardments of districts in Aleppo since 22 April at nearly 250.
This figure includes around 140 people killed by government-aligned forces in airstrikes and shellings of rebel-held areas, 19 of them children, it said. Insurgent shelling of government-held areas was said to have killed 96 people, including 21 children, according to a report from Reuters.
Al Hussein also made reference to widespread rumours that new Russian artillery sites were being established on the outskirts of Aleppo. “The violence is soaring back to the levels we saw prior to the cessation of hostilities,” he said. “There are deeply disturbing reports of military build-ups indicating preparations for a lethal escalation.”
In his interview with the Observer, Haji Hasan confirmed that Aleppo was under partial siege, and that the last remaining road had been under almost constant attack since the two-month ceasefire between opposition and regime forces was broken by Assad. He said that he had heard about the Russian build-up on the periphery of the city but that he could not confirm this presence.
“In 2013 there were two million people in and around the city,” he said. “There are 400,000 right now. Some people just fled, but these 400,000 won’t leave – even though they know that at any time they could be bombed or killed. It is semi-siege right now. The only road connecting Aleppo is always targeted by airstrikes, the Castello road. This road is targeted by airstrikes and snipers, too. It is a dangerous road, but we have to use it, there is no other. If that goes, we will be besieged. It will be a disaster.”
Late last week, in another illustration of just how dangerously fraught the politics of the city are becoming, Haji Hasan was seized by Kurdish secret police at his home at 9am on Thursday after having made the 10-hour trip back through the badlands of northern Syria.
He was subsequently detained in the police station before being taken to the Kurdish city of Afrin, in north-west Syria. His whereabouts on Saturday were unknown.
Sources close to Haji Hasan, who has sought to build a consensual council for the crisis-stricken city, said it was unclear why the Kurdish forces would interfere in the civilian government. The vice-president of Aleppo’s city council, Zacharia Amino, condemned Haji Hasan’s detention as a violation of human rights. The father of eight, who had been keeping services running in the city, had been taken from the citizens when they needed him most, said friends. A statement on Saturday said: “We firmly condemn this violation and we demand the democratic council to release immediately the president of the local council of the city of Aleppo and to explain this precedent and to offer official excuses.”
A temporary “regime of calm” announced by the Syrian army late on Friday appeared to have taken hold in two other areas blighted by recent fighting: in the north-western coastal province of Latakia and on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus. The Syrian government said the “regime of calm” – from which a military source said Aleppo was excluded – was an attempt to salvage a wider ceasefire deal reached in February.
Aleppo has been divided for years between rebel and government zones. Full control would be the most important prize for Assad. He claims the fighters in the city are al-Qaida extremists.
The UN has called on Moscow and Washington to help restore a comprehensive ceasefire to prevent a collapse of talks aimed at ending a conflict in which more than 250,000 people have been killed and millions displaced. In Aleppo they will not be holding their breath. Thanks for reading.
Van Gaal VERY Confident Of Keeping Man United Job
Manchester United manager, Louis van Gaal has again reiterated how confident he is about retaining his job after telling a press conference on Saturday that he will still be at the club next season, no matter what happens at the end of the season.
The Dutchman has revealed he had wanted only a two-year deal but was persuaded by the suits at Old Trafford to stay on board for three years.
“I knew it would be like this. That’s why they hired me and we spoke about it,” he told reporters.
“We always knew that the process would take three years. I wanted to sign only for two years.
“The club wanted me to sign for three years, not me. I signed for three years – so next year you will see me again.
“Every week for six months I have been sacked – and yet I am still here. But this has happened to me at every club I have been at.
“I am doing the same job at United that I was hired to do at every club.
“People should assess the squad that I took over and make a comparison to the players we have now in terms of age.
“There is a big difference between what the people in the street think and the media. A big difference. I can only tell you my experiences and I don’t have to defend myself. I am a realistic man and so I only speak about facts.”
“The fact is that we finished fourth last year. At the moment we are fifth, but we are still able to finish third. On May 15 we will know for sure,” he added.
“The fact is that we are in the FA Cup Final. The fact is that we were in the Champions League. We didn’t do that last year.
“The fact is that we went further in the Capital One Cup. So there are a lot of pluses. Yes, we are in fifth and we are fighting for the one position that is the most important.
“We also have the best home record in the league, but we are one of the lousiest away teams of the top clubs and that is something we need to improve.”
SHOCKER! Man United Legend, Ryan Giggs’ Marriage CRASHES Over INFIDELITY!
The marriage of the assistant coach of Manchester United, Ryan Giggs, who was initially tipped to take over from Dutchman Louis Van Gaal should he be sacked at the end of this season or leave after his contract ends by the next one, has CRASHED!
According to The Sun UK, Gigg’s wife, Stacey has abandoned the union after telling the Man Utd legend that she’s had enough of his serial flirting
The tabloid reports that Giggs’ wife, who has been long-suffering decided to call it quits with their marriage after hearing he was flirting with waitresses at a restaurant he owns.
“A source said the rumour was the last straw for Stacey, 37, after her efforts to keep the marriage going in the wake of the Manchester United legend’s affairs with TV’s Imogen Thomas and his brother’s wife Natasha.”
Ryan Giggs and Wife
Giggs and Stacey during the good old days.
The Sun’s source said: “Word got back to Stacey that Ryan had been flirting with some of the waitresses at his restaurant George’s and she’s had enough.
“At one stage she is said to have told him to pack his bags and get out.
“But for the moment they both still seem to be living in the same house. She is upset to say the least and feels very alone.”
Friends yesterday said Stacey and United assistant manager, Giggs split three months ago but kept it secret and have both remained in the marital home.
One said: “They have stayed in the house as it is so big and because of the children.
“But it is over and has been for some time.
“They are not together any more and it is definitely the case that Stacey wants to divorce Ryan.”
Giggs, 42, is also said to have confided in pals: “It’s over for good.” Friends said the couple tried to save their eight-year marriage after the revelation of his affairs for the sake of their two children.
But after months of soul-searching they decided to part.
Giggs and Stacey, happy.
Giggs and Stacey, happy.
A source said: “Both Ryan and Stacey promised to make a fresh start and that’s what they did. They became great friends again and were getting on really well.
“They wanted it to work for each other but also for their son and daughter who are the most important thing in their lives.
“They both dote on the kids and made a real effort to get back on track. But about a year ago it all started to cool a bit and the marriage has not recovered.
“The reality was that time hasn’t exactly proved a great healer.
“In the early days, once the flak over Natasha and Imogen Thomas passed over, Ryan and Stacey began building bridges and it looked really good for them.
“But, as bizarre as it sounds, once they were out of the limelight and things had quietened down, their relationship started to struggle.
“Stacey obviously has trust issues after what happened with the affairs and that caused problems. And Ryan has now said to people he thinks the marriage is all over and that there is no saving it.
“He has put a lot of effort into saving the marriage but now seems to have given up.
“Perhaps there had been too much water under the bridge.”
Giggs is said to have admitted during a chat at his restaurant that his marital situation was grim.
A source said: “Someone at George’s asked him how things were going with Stacey. He simply replied, ‘Not good, not good at all.’ It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it.
“The other week one of Stacey’s relatives was on holiday with a friend and said, ‘It’s over. They’re separating’.”
Giggs and Stacey’s relationship began in 2002. Their daughter Liberty Beau was born the next year and their son, Zachary in 2006 and the next year Giggs and Stacey married.
But behind the scenes he was having an affair with younger brother Rhodri’s wife Natasha — and had been doing so since 2003.
Natasha, Giggs sister-in-law, with whom he had a relationship for eight years.
Natasha, Giggs sister-in-law, with whom he had a relationship for eight years.
Giggs’ squeaky clean image was shattered in June 2011 when Natasha told of their eight-year affair. Natasha revealed Giggs got her pregnant and gave her £500 in cash for an abortion.
She said: “I was to blame for what happened but I was at his beck and call.
“It went on for eight years and I learned to live with the lies and the guilt.”
At the time of her revelation Giggs was being named online as the mystery footballer who had an affair with Big Brother star Imogen Thomas.
Giggs is the most decorated player in football history. He has won 13 Premier League medals, four FA Cups, three League Cups, two Champions Leagues, a World Club Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Uefa Super Cup and nine FA Community Shields. He was the first player to win the PFA Young Player of the Year award consecutively — in 1992 and 1993.
Giggs was appointed player-coach at Manchester United in July 2013 under Sir Alex’s Ferguson’s managerial successor David Moyes. After Moyes was sacked in April 2014, Giggs took over as interim player-manager.
When Louis van Gaal became manager in May 2014, Giggs was made his assistant.
Synthetic cannabis 'having a devastating impact in UK prisons'
Synthetic cannabis is having a “devastating impact” in British prisons and making it difficult for normal life to continue in some facilities, the chief inspector of prisons has said.
Sold as “spice” and “black mamba”, synthetic cannabis has been blamed for deaths, serious illness and episodes of self-harm among inmates, and some prison officers have reported falling ill from exposure to the fumes.
High demand for the compounds has fuelled more severe problems in the prison system than officers have faced from any other drug, with prisoners racking up greater debts, and suffering worse bullying and violence, Peter Clarke told the Guardian.
“Prison staff have told me that the effect on individuals and prisons as a whole is unlike anything they have seen before,” said Clarke, who took up the post in February.
Synthetic cannabis is an umbrella term for hundreds of chemical compounds that mimic the effects of THC, the active ingredient of cannabis, in the brain. The synthetic forms are often extremely potent, making them a greater threat to users and those around them. A report from the prisons and probation ombudsman last year linked 19 prison deaths between 2012 and 2014 with synthetic cannabis, by far the most common of the new psychoactive substances (NPS).
Unlike traditional resin and weed, synthetic cannabis is manufactured in labs and is usually odourless, making it hard for prison staff to tell when inmates are smoking the drugs. While NPS are banned in prisons, large quantities continue to find their way inside.
“NPS is having a devastating impact in some of our prisons, more severe than we have seen with other drugs,” Clarke said. “Their presence in prisons has given rise to debt, bullying and violence. They are destabilising some prisons, making it difficult for normal prison life to continue.
“Both at local and national level there needs to be clear strategies to deal with the supply of these drugs into prisons, and to care for those who suffer from their effects,” he added. “At the moment the situation appears to be getting worse, not better.”
The 2015 ombudsman’s report urged the prisons service to ensure staff had more information about synthetic cannabis and the signs that prisoners were taking them. It called on governors to put in place strategies to reduce the supply of NPS and the violence associated with the drugs.
But Steve Gillan at the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said the prison service was failing in its duty of care for prisoners and prison staff by not adequately dealing with synthetic cannabis. “We don’t think they, or the government, are taking it seriously enough. Our prisons are awash with synthetic cannabis and prisoners are so out of their heads they don’t know what they are doing sometimes. They are a danger to themselves, they’re attacking staff, and they are attacking other prisoners.”
Gillan said the problem was exacerbated by a shortfall in staff needed to perform perimeter checks and thorough searches of prison cells and exercise yards. “We want prisons properly searched because these drugs are getting dropped in by drones, catapulted over fences, and there are not enough staff to deal with it,” he added. More sniffer dogs are due to be brought into service, but Gillan said it was “too little, too late”.
Last year’s report from the prisons ombudsman highlighted a number of cases of prisoners dying after using synthetic cannabis. What role the drugs played is unclear, however. One man died apparently after smoking spiked cigarettes he had been given by inmates who wanted to test a new batch of synthetic cannabis. Another man, whose behaviour had previously been “exemplary”, shouted at a prison doctor, and was found to have hanged himself in his cell the next morning. He had recently developed a heavy synthetic cannabis habit and had been forced to sell possessions to pay off his debts. A woman described as “fun-loving” appeared to have a psychotic episode after taking synthetic cannabis, and possibly other drugs, and died after she severed an artery in an unprecedented act of self-harm.
The POA is so concerned about the growing problem that it has begun to compile a dossier on incidents where synthetic cannabis is involved. “We are looking at various different avenues to make our employer actually wake up and smell the coffee,” said Gillan. “It’s at a problematic level and worsening.”
A prison service spokesperson said governors use sniffer dogs, cell searches and mandatory drugs tests to find drugs in prison and punish those responsible. The service has legislated to make smuggling NPS into prisons illegal. “Those caught trying to throw packages over prison walls can now face up to two years in jail,” the spokesperson said. “However we must do more, which is why we are investing £1.3bn to transform the prison estate, to better support rehabilitation and tackle bullying, violence and drugs.” Thanks for reading.
