Although Columbus Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier was considered a trade candidate heading into the 2024-25 NHL season, that no longer seems to be the case, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Friday. “Ongoing extension discussions between [the Blue Jackets] and Mathieu Olivier,” the hockey insider wrote on X. “Progress has been made. Virtually no chance […]
The post Blue Jackets discussing contract extension with key forward appeared first on ClutchPoints.
JESSICA O’MAHONY joked this is “what my life looks like” after sharing a video of Peter enjoying the sunshine.
O’Mahony, 35, announced his impending retirement from international rugby following the Six Nations.
And upon the end of the 2024/25 club season, he will also be hanging up his Munster boots and bidding a fond farewell to his playing career.
In a cheeky dig at her husband, Jessica shared a video to her Instagram Story of him “enjoying the sun”.
The video opens with Jess asking Peter “you’re enjoying what?” as he was lounging back on his couch.
In response, he said: “the bit of heat coming in from the sun” before he looks up and asks: “why are you videoing?”
It is a lot more humourful reaction to her initial response when she summed up the emotions of many Irish fans upon the announcement.
O’Mahony is one of three Ireland players who will be leaving international rugby at the end of the season as he is joined by Conor Murray and Cian Healy.
And at the end of the current season, he and Healy will be bidding farewell to club rugby.
With Murray leaving Munster for foreign soil at the end of the season, it represents a head ache for new Munster head coach Clayton McMillan.
The Chiefs boss will officially succeed Graham Rowntree in July.
And writing for the Irish Examiner, former Ireland and Munster out-half Ronan O’Gara urged him to try and talk O’Mahony into a U-turn.
He said: “I wonder how Clayton McMillan reacted to the news.
“That’s a lot of knowhow leaving the Munster dressing room just as he arrives to spec a three-year project.
“You could look at it two ways. Players near the end can be tough for a coach to handle.
“If they are not able to perform like they used to, you have to manage a living legend that’s dying in front of your eyes as a player.
“Depending on what your relationship is like with the guy, it’s an emotional, difficult challenge for any coach.
“Their past has to be respected and it takes a very rare player to accept that, ok, I’ve a bit-part role to play.
“That wasn’t me. I might have had that opportunity to stay on with Munster for 12 months as a club player.
“But I’m grateful I never did. You can’t remove that competitor in you, but Father Time catches everyone.
“A real leader will understand what’s best for the group.
“He’ll look in the mirror and see the truth.
“Know deep down he might only be needed every four or five matches, or whatever it is, but that he can still contribute.
“There are very few of those guys in the world, but I get a feeling Peter might just be one.
“If I was Clayton, I wouldn’t be accepting his ‘no’ just yet.
“I’d be saying, hold on, I need to speak to you.”
A CAR dealership chain that slashed six UK locations has been saved by a rival firm.
Vauxhall axed sites in Portsmouth, St Albans, Hanworth, Oprington, Wolverhampton and Doncaster after failing to keep up with rising costs and lower demand.
A dealership in Edinburgh, Scotland, was also headed for the chop but may now be able to look forward to a more positive fate.
The British car brand’s competitor, Arnold Clark, has taken over the site so trading can continue.
An Arnold Clark spokesperson told Car Dealer Magazine: “Arnold Clark can confirm the takeover of the Evans Halshaw Vauxhall dealership in Edinburgh and will begin trading this week.”
It comes after American based franchise Lithia took over Vauxhall owner Evans Halshaw’s parent company Pendragon in February 2023.
Lithia has been implementing downsizing across the UK in a bid to save the brand.
Last April the firm axed 250 jobs after shuttering the CarStore used car supermarket brand.
A spokesperson for Evans Halshaw said: “The closure of these stores aligns with our wider strategic network plans, in conjunction with our OEMs and network partners.”
Elsewhere, Evans Halshaw closed down another dealership in Northwich.
The site situated on Chester Way, Cheshire, confirmed the shutters had come down on the site for the last time via its Facebook page, but no explanation was given.
Bizarrely, when Sun Motors called the Northwich branch’s telephone, the line was redirected to the Altrincham dealership.
This comes as the company announced it is closing one of its biggest UK factories, putting 1,000 jobs at risk.
The move has been slammed by furious MPs who say the closure of the 120-year-old hub is set to “massively impact the whole town”.
The Luton factory will close in April 2025.
The plans were first announced in November 2024 and the company blamed the UK’s switch to electric vehicles and the ZEV Mandate.
After the closure in Luton, the machinery will be transported to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, where electric vans are already being produced.
Vauxhall owner Stellantis, the second-biggest maker of cars in Europe, has said it will invest £50million in Ellesmere.
The decision comes months after the multi-national firm, which also owns the likes of Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Peugeot and Maserati, warned it may halt production in the UK.
Back in June, the company’s UK boss, Maria Grazia Davino, said: “Stellantis UK does not stop, but Stellantis production in the UK could stop”.
Now, in an update made during the Paris Motor Show, boss Carlos Tavares further urged ministers to relax the rules around EV production in a warning that potentially puts 2,500 workers at risk.
Speaking to Bloomberg TV he said: “We are now reaching a point where we have to make a decision, and that will happen in the next few weeks.”
This comes at a time when demand for electric cars across Europe is experiencing a downturn, with consumers seemingly hesitant to switch from combustion motors to EVs due to their high prices and concerns around charging infrastructure.
Meanwhile Donald Trump revealed his plan to introduce a 25 per cent tariff on cars and other good from the EU.
European autoshares fell after the move and EU boss Ursula von der Leyen described a “deep and disruptive transition ahead”.
Internation car sales faced a steep decline last year, with French and German manufacturers affected the worse.
According to an Allianz Trade report, European manufacturers had been edged out by US and Chinese rivals including Tesla.
LOVE Island star Mitch Taylor has broken his silence over the text message row as he took a swipe at Grace Jackson.
In a new interview with The Sun, Mitch, 28, denied he fabricated the alleged texts which exposed Grace as a “gameplayer”.
The ITV2 contestant first backed All Stars alum Olivia Hawkins, 29, after she claimed she’d seen text messages from Grace, 25, where she appeared to declare she would “do anything to win the show this time.”
Mitch’s name was then unexpectedly dragged into the drama, with fans saying he had “faked the messages” to stir up trouble.
But Mitch, who first appeared on the 2023 series of Love Island, has now vehemently denied his involvement and said he took it as a “compliment” that fans thought he had the power to sway the public vote.
The reality star, who earned himself the nickname ‘Messy Mitch’, has now revealed why he did not take to social media instantly to clear up the confusion.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Mitch said: “Everyone in my DMs and TikTok are saying I made them and gave it to Liv – this is all a big compliment because everyone thinks I’ve somehow sabotaged all of All Stars.
“I’ve been doing Love Island reviews on my Snapchat for my followers to watch.
“After what Liv said, I said to everyone ‘send me the screenshots if you’ve got them and we’ll talk about it’, just me and my followers, that’s all it was.
“Obviously that got blown up into me making them.
“I was sat with my girlfriend and she said take it as a compliment because people think you can edit that well. Everyone thinks I’ve faked them or given it to Liv, it’s not.”
Mitch explained that his name was dragged into it after he posted a Snapchat video which was misconstrued by his followers.
“If you go on my Snapchat you can see on my public profile I’ve got episodes of every single episode, I’ve been reviewing this throughout,” he said.
“I was just being innocent me or messy me – just making episodes.”
It comes after Grace, who remains coupled up with show partner Luca Bish, 25, told how she broke down in tears and didn’t sleep for three nights following Liv’s allegations.
Some fans blamed Mitch for causing Luca and Grace to lose All Stars after Gabby Allen and Casey O’Gorman pipped them to the post.
But the Sheffield lad admitted he’s not interested in sorting things out with them – saying “I’ve done nothing intentional to hurt them”.
He said: “I ain’t spoken to either of them because my intentions wasn’t what happened, so I’m not gonna apologise for something that wasn’t my intentions type of thing.
“So to be fair to like Luke and Grace, I’ve got nothing against him, and they probably don’t like me, but what they’ve done is they’ve come off a big TV show and just read news articles.
“They don’t know the truth.
“A lot of fans were saying that I said that I faked them on my Instagram live. I sat back and went ‘I didn’t’.
“I was sat with my girlfriend and said ‘did I actually say I made these to sabotage them?’ and she said no.
“So I just thought, whatever, let the haters hate and let that one die out naturally.
“If my actions have hurt Grace, obviously I had no intention of doing. I’ve been through it, I don’t want her to go through it.
“I don’t know her personally. It’s hard for me to feel bad because the fans made it up not me.
Mitch also brought up his ongoing feud with Luca.
In recent weeks Mitch took a savage swipe at Luca who claimed the ‘Messy’ star was only offered the show after he turned it down.
Discussing how the text row spiralled, Mitch said: “Don’t get me wrong, I will add this in that in, I’ve got ADHD and I got excited and I was like ‘get him out of here with his fake teeth‘, but it’s just northern banter. I’m not saying his teeth are bad, my girlfriend’s got fake teeth. That could have offended him, probably not, I don’t think Luca even cares.
“When it got to the end of it and I was getting hate, I just wanted to say to people to look back on my public reviews and you’ll see that I backed him. I’ve got no problem against him, Scott’s like the middle man between me and Luca and Scott said if you two didn’t have that beef, you’d be two peas in a pod.
“But because so much has gone on without us talking face-to-face, I called him out this time last year, I’d see him at boxing and I’d fight him. It’s literally nothing personal towards either of them.”
In the biggest Love Island scandal to date, Olivia told her co-stars: “Erm, so I’ve seen text messages of Grace just saying to someone that she would do whatever it takes to win the show this time.”
Grace looked horrified at Olivia’s comment, before she yelled: “Wait, what? From who?”
Olivia continued: “So I was just a bit confused,” as Grace screamed: “From who?”
Liv reinforced her stance in the final when grilled by host Maya about the receipts.
Liv was then backed by Samie Elishi who agreed “everyone” from Love Island All Stars had seen the screenshots.
And Reuben Collins, who dated Grace when she first appeared on the show in series 11, was one of many to back her in the fight, declaring on Instagram the accusation was: “FAKE NEWS!!!”
Yet Mitch previously shared what appears to be messages from Grace to a mystery pal.
Commenting on news Grace was heading to South Africa as a bombshell, the mystery person wrote: “You’re my winner regardless.”
The post Grace replying: “Aww thank you babe.
“I will win this time. I’ll do anything.”
At the time, a rep for Grace told The Sun: “Grace has said several times she hasn’t sent messages of this nature.”
Last week, Grace returned to social media following the fracas.
She posted a smiling shot to her Instagram page accompanied by a sweet message to fans.
Fresh out of South Africa, she and Luca went on Made In Chelsea’s Sophie Habboo and co-host Melisa Tattam’s podcast, Wednesdays, and made some shocking revelations about their time in the villa.
Talking of the alleged screenshots, Grace said: “Whatever she was trying to do there completely backfired. I felt so humiliated, like publicly humiliated.
“I was sat there trying to defend myself, everybody around the fire pit was nodding like ‘yeah we’ve seen the screenshots’.
“I just felt so embarrassed and I felt because that’s not in my character.”
“All I could do was defend myself with words. I didn’t have my phone, I didn’t have a clue what was going on on the outside.
“Then I’m saying who’s fabricated these screenshots. Who’s got it in for me.”
Luca then revealed how Grace ‘burst into tears’ over the incident, saying: “It wasn’t on camera but at dinner, they keep girls and boys separate I could see she was upset.
“I went over and they (producers) were like please, leave Grace alone and then she burst into tears.
Luca also confessed how Grace had many sleepless nights in the villa because of the text scandal, he said: “She didn’t sleep for three nights.”
A HEARTBROKEN daughter relived hearing her dad’s screams after he was “beaten to death” by a teenage boy as a girl, 12, filmed.
Bhim Kohli, 80, was allegedly murdered and racially abused as he walked his dog in a park, a jury had been told.
Leicester Crown Court heard the pensioner was targeted in Franklin Park in Braunstone Town, near Leicester, on September 1 last year.
A balaclava clad boy struck him in the face with a shoe while a girl videoed the assault on her phone, jurors were told.
Mr Kohli died a day after being rushed to hospital with a spinal cord injury and broken ribs.
A 15-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, is on trial charged with one count of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.
A 13-year-old girl, who also cannot be named, is charged with manslaughter.
Jurors were read a gut-wrenching statement from Mr Kohli’s daughter, Susan Kohli on trial day four.
She wrote: “Whilst by his side, I knelt down and said, ‘Dad, what has happened?’
“He screamed, ‘My neck. my neck, my neck, lift my neck’.
“This was not his normal tone. He was in agony, almost screaming.
“I have never heard him cry out in pain about anything like that before.”
In a second statement from the heartbroken daughter, she said: “While we were on Franklin Park my dad told me that they had called him a P***.”
A statement from Simranjeet Kohli, Mr Kohli’s grandson, who was in the park after the attack, said: “My granddad was yelling in pain as he was laying there.”
Statements were also given by police officers in a report after the alleged assault.
Jurors heard in the report a witness said she described “seeing the boy forcefully pushing the old man on to his back”.
The court hears how the witness described the old man as “ending up on the floor screaming”.
Pc Rachelle Pereira said in a statement: “Mr Kohli was repeatedly screaming out in pain, shouting out ‘My neck’.”
Pc Pereira’s statement also referred to the witness and said she told the police officer she saw a young white boy wearing a black balaclava “shove the old man to the floor and sprint”.
Meanwhile paramedic Michael Thrift said in his statement Mr Kohli appeared to be in a lot of pain.
He said: “He was screaming throughout dealing with him.”
According to Mr Thrift, Mr Kohli said that he was called a “P***” before he had been pushed and hit by the boy, but did not say who had called him that word.
“What sticks in my mind is that the patient appeared to be upset greatly by being called P***,” Mr Thrift said.
The trial continues.
A MAN in his 70s, who was murdered at a flat in Co Tyrone, was found with serious injuries on the floor of the property, police have said.
A murder investigation has been launched following the report of a fatal assault in the Lisnahull area of Dungannon just after 8pm on Thursday.
A senior officer said on Friday he would not speculate on the motive for the attack at Corrainey Park, but confirmed the victim had lived in the area for more than 20 years.
No arrests have been made.
Providing an update, Superintendent Peter Stevenson said: “Yesterday, a man tragically died following a serious assault inside a flat in the Corrainey Park area of Dungannon.
“Detectives from our major investigation have today launched a murder inquiry.
“We received a report yesterday evening at approximately 8pm and our officers attended along with colleagues from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service.
“The man, aged in his 70s, was found seriously injured on the living room floor of the property.”
The officer said the victim was pronounced dead shortly after the arrival of emergency services.
He added: “Our thoughts are very much with the man’s family and friends at this time as they struggle to come to terms with what has happened.
“Officers are at the scene today and are working to establish the full circumstances that led to this senseless attack.
“We are appealing to anyone who has information to come forward to speak to us.
“I want to provide reassurance to people in the local area that our officers will be doing everything in their power to conduct a thorough investigation into what happened.
“We would urge members of the public not to speculate.
“Cordons remain in place today and local residents will continue to see an increased visible police presence in the area.
“We understand the Corrainey Park residents and the wider Dungannon community have been left shocked and saddened by what has happened.”
Making an appeal for information, Mr Stevenson said: “Any detail, no matter how small, can be invaluable to police.
“I would urge anyone who thinks they might know something to speak to us.”
A significant police presence remained in the area where the victim died throughout Friday.
SDLP Dungannon councillor Karol McQuade said people in the town are in shock following the death.
He said: “The local community in Dungannon are in shock at this incident that has claimed the life of a man in the area.
“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends as they come to terms with what has happened here.
“The public are concerned that this has taken place in their town, nobody expects something like this to happen on their doorsteps, but I have spoken to police and would urge people to remain calm.
“I would also ask people to remember there is a grieving family at the centre of this, and not to share rumours or videos on social media and to give the police space to carry out their investigation.”
