BBC Sport, December 5 — Jude Bellingham’s fourth goal in four games was not enough to prevent Real Madrid falling to their second La Liga loss in an enthralling encounter at Athletic Club.
The England midfielder put Carlo Ancelotti’s side on level terms in the 78th minute after he reacted first to a poor save from Julen Agirrezabala.
However, Athletic Club surged upfield and an uncharacteristic mistake from Federico Valverde sent Gorka Guruzeta through on goal and he coolly slotted past Thibaut Courtois.
Before Bellingham’s equaliser, Kylian Mbappe was given the chance to level from the spot after Agirrezabala fouled Antonio Rudiger but the Frenchman’s penalty was well saved – as happened in last week’s loss at Liverpool in the Champions League.
“He is not at his best level, but you have to give him time to adapt. He has scored 10 goals and is working to do better,” said Ancelotti after Wednesday’s defeat.
“I haven’t spoken to him. It was a complicated match – even, competitive. When we equalised we could think of having control and small details penalised us tonight.
“We missed the penalty. I don’t have to evaluate a player’s game because of a penalty that is sometimes scored and sometimes missed. Obviously he is disappointed but we have to continue.”
It was a tough moment for Mbappe to endure at Anfield where his side fell to a 2-0 defeat, but a goal on Sunday was the Frenchman’s eighth in the league and provided a platform to build from after a shaky start to life in Spain.
However, his display at the San Mames showed there is still plenty of work for Real’s coaching staff to do if they are to fully integrate Mbappe into the European champions’ way of working.
Despite the absence of Vinicius Junior on the left, Mbappe started in his unfavoured central role and often found himself drifting wide – leaving huge gaps in Real’s attacking play.
There have been glimpses of Mbappe in full flow but they have been few and far between since his summer move from Paris St-Germain.
The hosts had taken the lead eight minutes into the second half through a tidy Alex Berenguer finish from a sumptuous cross by Nico Williams.
Real pushed hard in the final minutes for an equaliser with Mbappe coming close, but Ernesto Valverde’s side held on to send San Mames Stadium wild.
Their second defeat of the La Liga season means Ancelotti’s team remain four points adrift of leaders Barcelona with a game in hand.
Athletic Club’s first league win over Real since March 2015 moves them three points behind third-placed Atletico Madrid.
Salt enhances the flavour of our meals, bringing them to life. Without salt, dishes would taste bland and unappetizing. It also helps balance flavours, reducing excess bitterness or sweetness. In short, salt is an indispensable cooking essential. However, as much as we depend on it, salt also contains high levels of sodium, which, when consumed in excess, can lead to health issues. To address this concern, many have switched from regular table salt to alternatives like Himalayan pink salt. But is Himalayan pink salt truly a healthier choice or just another health fad? Let’s uncover the truth so you can make an informed decision. Also Read: 5 Unique Ways Salt Can Be Used In Everyday Kitchen Cleaning
So, Should You Choose Himalayan Pink Salt Or Table Salt?
Fitness coach Ralston D’Souza recently took to Instagram to clarify this question. According to him, Himalayan pink salt is not as healthy as it’s often claimed to be. He explains, “Regular table salt contains about 97 to 99% sodium chloride, with the remaining 1 to 3% made up mostly of anti-caking agents to prevent clumping. Himalayan pink salt, on the other hand, contains about 95 to 98% sodium chloride, with the remaining 2 to 5% consisting of trace minerals like iron, which gives it its distinct pink colour.” Ralston further emphasizes that the daily recommended salt intake is approximately 1 teaspoon. The trace minerals in Himalayan pink salt (2 to 5%) are too minimal to make any significant difference to your health. From a health perspective, there’s no major difference between the two types of salt. He advises sticking with regular table salt, as it contains iodine, which Himalayan pink salt lacks. For those with high blood pressure, he suggests opting for low-sodium salt.
Watch the complete video below:
Other Studies Supporting That Himalayan Pink Salt Is Not Superior
Ralston’s insights are backed by several other studies. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the mineral composition of pink salt available in Australia did show traces of essential nutrients and minerals. However, the concentrations were so low that one would need to consume approximately 6 teaspoons of pink salt to achieve any meaningful nutritional benefit-far exceeding the recommended daily intake. Also Read: Why A Low-Salt Diet Could Be Risky For Some People, According To A Doctor According to the expert, Himalayan pink salt isn’t significantly healthier than regular table salt. Both are nearly identical in their nutritional impact. Ultimately, the type of salt you choose matters less than the quantity you consume. Being mindful of your salt intake is crucial to avoid overconsumption and its negative health effects. As with many things in life, less is always more.
(Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.)
In recent months Barca president Joan Laporta has regularly boasted that he would secure a deal which would be “the biggest in all of world football”, and the extended contract could now be worth €1.7billion (£1.4bn;$1.8bn) over the next 14 seasons to 2038, bringing a major boost to the club’s troubled and complex financial situation.
Confirmation of the new arrangement ends a year-long saga which hurt relations between the Catalan club and the American sportswear giant. Yet it remains to be seen whether the deal will bring immediate relief to the team’s issues with La Liga’s salary limits — including most pressingly whether last summer’s signings Dani Olmo and Pau Victor can be registered to play for the team over the second half of this season.
The Athletic spoke to figures inside and outside Camp Nou, all of whom wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, about whether this is a good deal for Barcelona.
What did Barcelona say?
Announcing the contract on Saturday, Barca said in a statement: “This new partnership consolidates Nike as a main partner of the club and official technical partner across all professional and amateur teams, bringing a unique model that strengthens the brand association and fuels the global retail and licensing business growth.”
What are the financial details?
Barca officially told The Athletic that the details of the deal were confidential, but club sources stated a total figure of €1.7bn over the next 14 years.
The new contract will have two phases. The first is from 2024 to 2028, the latter year being when the previous agreement was to expire. Club sources say that for each of the next four years, the income will now be around €108million (£90m;$115m), close to doubling what the club had been earning in recent seasons.
From 2028, that figure will increase to around €120m each campaign over the following decade, according to the club sources.
Barcelona president Joan Laporta (Eric Alonso/Getty Images)
These sources said that Barcelona would also receive a ‘signing bonus’ of €158m which will be divided over the 14 years of the deal, including the current season’s accounts.
Barca consider it to be a big victory for Barca following tough negotiations, guaranteeing that most of the promised annual income will be received, regardless of the team’s performances on the pitch.
When previous president Josep Maria Bartomeu’s board signed the previous deal in 2016, a headline figure of €105m a year was trumpeted. However, under that deal, when the team were not as successful as hoped, for instance dropping out of the Champions League early, the club actually received only €50-60m from Nike.
What are Nike saying?
Nike and Barca have worked together closely since their first deal was signed in 1998. When asked by The Athletic to comment on the new deal extension, Nike said it was delighted to continue this deep and meaningful relationship.
A Nike spokesperson said: “We are excited to progress our work together at all levels, from grassroots football initiatives that inspire and empower young players, to elevating FC Barcelona as a global icon of style and culture. Together, we are particularly passionate about advancing the growth of the women’s game, and our partnership with FC Barcelona’s women’s team is a testament to our shared dedication to equality and inclusivity in sport.”
Nike said they could not confirm details of the financial or business sides of the agreement.
What’s the optimistic view?
The €1.7bn headline figure is huge, even by the standards of multi-million kit deals at the elite level in club football. It would be a huge improvement on Barca’s previous earnings from Nike, a significant boost in revenues which would help improve the club’s financial situation over the coming years.
Importantly for many around Camp Nou, with the signing bonus included it would also mean that Barca have achieved Laporta’s often-stated ambition to top Real Madrid’s €120m-a-year agreement with Adidas, currently accepted as the most lucrative in world football.
This would back the current board’s case that they are working successfully to fix the financial problems they inherited from their predecessors.
Barca need cash to be able to play Dani Olmo in the second half of the season (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
What’s the reality of the situation?
It is not typical in football for a club to renegotiate a kit deal with four years still to run. But the agreement with Nike was identified by Barca’s board as a potential way to increase their revenues by ‘levering’ more money into their annual accounts.
Nike were only going to agree to a new deal if it suited them, and there had been anger within the U.S. multinational at how they had been treated through the whole negotiation process, including the Catalan club trying (unsuccessfully) to find a legal way to exit their previous agreement.
Laporta and his closest executives took charge of the negotiations which finally led to the weekend’s announcement. Full details of the agreement were not even shared with the board before last Friday’s vote to accept.
Some industry sources consulted by The Athletic were sceptical about the figures being claimed, with doubt from some in the Spanish capital about whether Barca’s deal really was going to be bigger than Madrid’s.
There were also concerns voiced about the effect of the new arrangement on the Catalan club’s Barca Licensing and Merchandising (BLM) arm, with the statement announcing the deal appearing to suggest a deeper role for Nike in this area of Barca’s business.
Since its launch by Bartomeu in 2018, BLM has been a big success. The €179m that Barca earned from kit and merchandising revenues was the most of any European club according to UEFA.
There are concerns that Nike playing a greater role in the many ‘casual’ ranges of clothing and other merchandise sold in official club shops will mean less of the profits end up in its coffers. Club sources have denied that this will be the case.
GO DEEPER
Barcelona and Nike’s breakdown in relations reveals deeper problems at Catalan club
What’s the latest on Barca’s salary limit?
As so often in recent years, Barca had to work hard this summer to be able to register all their current squad members with La Liga, including Spain international playmaker Olmo, a €60m arrival from RB Leipzig, and young striker Victor, a €2.7m signing from Girona.
Both were only registered at the last minute, using La Liga’s financial rule 77, which allows for the temporary replacement of injured players (in this case Andreas Christensen). That meant they were only registered with La Liga until December 31. For either or both to feature after the winter break, the club must find more money from somewhere.
Victor is another player experiencing uncertainty at Barcelona (Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
During a press conference in early September, Laporta said that Barca were “€60million away” from returning to a situation where La Liga would let them sign and register players as normal.
A few weeks later it emerged that Barca’s auditors had required a write-down in its 2023-24 accounts of the value of the club’s troubled ‘Barca Vision’ subsidiary, which holds its current and future media rights and activities.
This meant that Barca now needed to raise an estimated €120m to get back within its allowed salary limit for the current campaign.
GO DEEPER
Reading Barca’s accounts – and why a ‘€12m profit’ is actually a €91m loss
How could the new Nike deal affect the situation?
When Laporta has been asked about the Barca Vision problem, he would often mention the bumper benefits of a new kit deal as at least part of the solution.
One hope was that a ‘bonus’ of €100m-plus could fill most or all of the immediate holes in the club’s accounts caused by the failure of the Barca Studios lever. The agreed deal now divides this bonus over its 14-year term — meaning only an estimated €9m extra in 2024-25 (plus the extra €40m in normal revenues over the course of the season).
Club sources have told The Athletic that the new Nike deal helps but does not resolve the Barca Vision issue. So the search continues for more investors in that project. There is confidence at the highest level at Camp Nou that this will be successful, and player sales will not be required in the winter transfer window. However, as so often under the current regime, it looks likely to go right down the wire.
And over the longer term?
The general impression is that this new Nike deal fits well with Laporta’s policies during his second presidency. The club is gaining upfront money which it can use to fix holes in the accounts and continue to spend on the squad.
A longer-term issue with the new Nike contract flagged in multiple conversations with industry sources is that Barca are now locked into this deal for another 14 years. Given the inflation in the market, €127m a year may not look so good by 2034. “This deal could tie the hands and feet of the next president,” an ex-Blaugrana board member told The Athletic.
However, there is also an understanding that Barca are where they are, and the numbers coming from the club are impressive and necessary. “Financially this new Nike deal is a tremendous boost of oxygen,” said one influential figure in the club’s ‘entorno’ who has not always backed Laporta’s lever policies.
(Additional reporting: Pol Ballús)
(Top photo: Alvaro Medranda/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Struggling Real Madrid has blocked one of its first team players, who has at least two potential … [+] suitors, from leaving the club in the upcoming January transfer window according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
UEFA via Getty Images
Struggling Real Madrid has blocked one of its first team players, who has at least two potential suitors, from leaving the club in the upcoming January transfer window according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Dani Ceballos joined Los Blancos in 2017, and, with a loan spell at Arsenal wedged between, renewed his contract until 2027 when it was approaching expiry in summer last year.
This warded off several clubs interested in signing the 28-year-old for free. But the arrival of Jude Bellingham in mid-2023 from Borussia Dortmund resulted in the Andalusian having even less prominence than before.
During the current campaign, Ceballos has managed just 110 minutes spread across six appearances – one as a starter and five as a substitute – and there are reportedly at least two outfits willing to give him more playing time.
These are namely his boyhood club Real Betis and Real Sociedad. Yet according to SPORT, Madrid will block any potential exit and doesn’t even want to listen to proposals that come its way regarding the former Premier League star.
Though used sparingly by the Italian, Ceballos is considered a useful resource for head coach Carlo Ancelotti, who offers something different to most of his midfielders – especially in terms of physicality.
Ancelotti is struggling to find the right balance in his side which hasn’t managed to compensate for the loss of Toni Kroos after the German announced his shock retirement leading up to a 15th Champions League win at Wembley achieved against Borussia Dortmund back in June.
Any January reinforcements greenlit by President Florentino Perez are likely to be made in defence, where Ancelotti needs another center back and perhaps a right back with Dani Carvajal out injured for the rest of the season.
It wouldn’t make sense to further deplete midfield, where Aurelien Tchouameni is struggling with injuries and Ancelotti can’t currently get the best out of Bellingham and Fede Valverde because of the ripple effect that Kylian Mbappe’s arrival from Paris Saint-Germain has caused.
Notching his 153rd appearance during the 3-1 UCL loss to AC Milan on Tuesday, Ceballos might be rewarded playing time at home to Osasuna in La Liga this weekend.
Fifty years ago, on November 7, 1974, the dead body of a children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was discovered in a mail sack in the basement of a Belgravia townhouse.
The chief suspect was the father of the children, an Eton-educated gambler called Richard John Bingham, the seventh earl of Lucan, who had vanished.
While most of Lord Lucan’s friends and family insisted that he had taken his own life, no body has ever been found. The manhunt for Lucan has lasted decades.
Read More: Is Lord Lucan alive? Computer expert says elderly man in Australia’s face is ‘conclusively’ same as vanished killer
Read More: Three missing Cluedo cards discovered in Lord Lucan’s car deepen nanny murder mystery
Who was Lord Lucan?
Richard John Bingham was the seventh Earl of Lucan, whose great-great-grandfather ordered the Charge of the Light Brigade, and whose father was a socialist peer who served in Clement Atlee’s government.
Born in 1934, Lucan went to Eton, did National Service in the Coldstream Guards, and briefly worked at Brandt’s merchant bank in London.
A spectacular win at chemin de fer (worth £26,000, when his annual salary was only £500) convinced him to become a professional gambler. He did not thrive: his nickname, “Lucky”, was ironic.
Even so, he lived a ritzy lifestyle, driving powerboats, racing bobsleighs and owning race horses; his suave demeanour led to him apparently being considered for the screen role of James Bond.
How was his marriage?
Lord Lucan was a snob who reportedly refused to talk to people who “didn’t have proper shoelaces”, but he still married a middle-class woman, Veronica Duncan, in 1963; she was the sister-in-law of his friend Bill Shand-Kydd.
Soon after, his father died and he succeeded to the earldom. The couple had three children, but Lady Lucan suffered from postnatal depression and the marriage gradually fell apart.
He tried to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital, and they separated in 1973. A bitter custody battle ensued; Lucan became obsessed with the idea that she was incapable of raising his children, but he lost the court case, running up huge legal fees in the process.
Police officer outside the home where Sandra Rivett was murdered.
Picture:
Getty
What happened on the night of Thursday 7 October 1974?
At around 9:45pm, Lady Lucan stumbled from her home on Lower Belgrave Street into the nearby Plumber’s Arm. drenched in blood and screaming: “Help me, help me, help me! I have just escaped from being murdered! He’s in the house! He’s murdered the nanny!”
It transpired that at around 9pm, she had asked her nanny, Sandra Rivett, 29, to make a cup of tea. Rivett had gone down to the basement kitchen. When she did not reappear, Lady Lucan had gone down to investigate, and had been attacked by a man whose voice she said she recognised as her husband’s.
After fighting him and convincing him to stop the attack; she said that he admitted to having killed Rivett (by mistake). After he had taken her up to her bedroom, she managed to escape. When the police arrived, they found Rivett’s body in a sack, with a bloody lead pipe that had been used to beat her to death.
What Lucan did after the attack?
He left London and arrived at his friend Ian Maxwell-Scott’s home, in Uckfield in Sussex, at 11:30pm.
His told Susan Maxwell-Scott that he had had a “traumatic night of unbelievable coincidence.” While passing the family house he seen an intruder struggling with his wife in the basement. He had run in to help, and the man had run off.
Realising that his wife would accuse him of being responsible and that the evidence looked damning, he said he had decided to “lie doggo for a while”.
The last confirmed sighting of Lucan was him leaving Uckfield in the early hours of Friday. His car was found near the harbour in Newhaven, 16 miles away; it had been parked between 5am and 8am.
What is the evidence against him?
In a landmark inquest in June 1975, it took a jury just 31 minutes to find that Lucan had murdered Rivett. This was based on Lady Lucan’s testimony, and on a wealth of other details.
The car Lucan was using, a Ford Corsair, was found splattered with blood types matching both Rivett and Lady Lucan, along with another length of pipe, similar to the murder weapon.
Lucan had borrowed a car, perhaps because it was less conspicuous than his Mercedes, and had found out from his daughter that the nanny’s night off was on Thursdays, though she in fact swapped her days that week.
He knew that his wife made a cup of tea at 9pm; a light bulb had been removed in the basement.
Lucan’s friend Greville Howard later told police Lucan had told him that killing his wife would save him from bankruptcy, because he would reclaim his house, and that he could dump her body in the Solent; she “would never be found”.
What happened to Lucan?
Initially police believed he had fled to Africa. Some speculated that the peer’s wealthy friends, dubbed “the Clermont set”, had helped spirit him away, and perhaps killed him because he had become an embarrassment, or at least encouraged him to shoot himself before his body was fed to tigers owned by John Aspinall at Howletts, his private zoo in Kent.
There have been ‘sightings’ of the missing peer as far away as India, Mozambique and Australia.
The most plausible theory remains that he committed suicide shortly after the nanny’s death. Lady Lucan believed that he took a ferry from Newhaven and threw himself into the Channel.
In 2016, his son George Bingham said he believed his father had been dead since 1974, and that it was time to find “another Loch Ness monster out there”.
Neil Berriman, son of Sandra Rivett.
Picture:
Alamy
Why are people still fascinated by the case?
There has been a real human cost in this case and tragically people often forget that Sandra Rivett is the real victim
The BBC is to air a documentary series looking to solve the mysterious disappearance of Lord Lucan following the murder of his children’s nanny Sandra Rivett almost 50 years ago.
The three-part series follows Ms Rivett’s son, Hampshire builder Neil Berriman, who has been consumed by the case since he discovered his mother’s identity at the age of 40, having been put for adoption as a baby. In 2016, Lord Lucan’s son Lord George Bingham inherited his title as the eighth Earl after he applied for a death certificate 42 years after his father vanished, under the Presumption of Death Act, which came into effect in 2014.
Lady Lucan was estranged from her children and lived as a recluse, before killing herself in 2017.
Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti said that he “doesn’t feel like talking about football” with … [+] respect to a flooding tragedy in the Valencia region.
Anadolu via Getty Images
Emotional Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti said that he “doesn’t feel like talking about football” with respect to a flooding tragedy in the Valencia region.
The flood has claimed over 200 lives thus far, and resulted in Los Blancos’ La Liga fixture against Valencia at the Mestalla on Saturday being postponed.
Addressing the media in a prematch press conference to preview Tuesday’s Champions League encounter with former club AC Milan, Ancelotti said he and his squad “have sadness” because of the tragedy.
“This is the emotion we have, we are very close to all the people who have been affected. Hopefully this can be resolved soon and in this sense, I hope you can understand, talking about football is very complicated.
“We are part of this country and all this affects us a lot. Out of respect for you and also not to disrespect people, I will try to make it easy because I don’t feel like talking about football. For me, tomorrow’s game is a very special one… but I will try to talk as little as possible.” Ancelotti added.
Asked how difficult it is to prepare for a match in such circumstances, Ancelotti responded by saying: “This affects everyone because you listen, you read… And what has happened is something terrible. We have prepared for it because we are professionals and we will try to win it obviously. This is what we have to do.”
“Everyone has been clear. Nobody wanted to play. It seemed like the right decision to me, but we are not the ones in charge. Those who are at the top make that decision,” he stated on this.
“There are many ways to help, I think this is different. Football had to stop and then football can and should help.”
Reflecting again on the tragedy, Ancelotti quipped that, “What I think is that football is a party, but you can [only] do it when you’re well.
“If your family is well, then you have a party. But when people are not well, there is no need to have parties. Football has to stop because football is the most important thing… of the least important things in life.”
While Ancelotti was pushed to reveal how the group has handled the past week, he admitted that it had “been a difficult week because the atmosphere is not normal”.
“But it’s nothing that has to do with the Ballon d’Or. [It’s because of] the sadness and the different atmosphere of what is happening in Spain,” he concluded on this.
Fifty years ago, on November 7, 1974, the dead body of a children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, was discovered in a mail sack in the basement of a Belgravia townhouse.
The chief suspect was the father of the children, an Eton-educated gambler called Richard John Bingham, the seventh earl of Lucan, who had vanished.
While most of Lord Lucan’s friends and family insisted that he had taken his own life, no body has ever been found. The manhunt for Lucan has lasted decades.
Read More: Is Lord Lucan alive? Computer expert says elderly man in Australia’s face is ‘conclusively’ same as vanished killer
Read More: Three missing Cluedo cards discovered in Lord Lucan’s car deepen nanny murder mystery
Who was Lord Lucan?
Richard John Bingham was the seventh Earl of Lucan, whose great-great-grandfather ordered the Charge of the Light Brigade, and whose father was a socialist peer who served in Clement Atlee’s government.
Born in 1934, Lucan went to Eton, did National Service in the Coldstream Guards, and briefly worked at Brandt’s merchant bank in London.
A spectacular win at chemin de fer (worth £26,000, when his annual salary was only £500) convinced him to become a professional gambler. He did not thrive: his nickname, “Lucky”, was ironic.
Even so, he lived a ritzy lifestyle, driving powerboats, racing bobsleighs and owning race horses; his suave demeanour led to him apparently being considered for the screen role of James Bond.
How was his marriage?
Lord Lucan was a snob who reportedly refused to talk to people who “didn’t have proper shoelaces”, but he still married a middle-class woman, Veronica Duncan, in 1963; she was the sister-in-law of his friend Bill Shand-Kydd.
Soon after, his father died and he succeeded to the earldom. The couple had three children, but Lady Lucan suffered from postnatal depression and the marriage gradually fell apart.
He tried to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital, and they separated in 1973. A bitter custody battle ensued; Lucan became obsessed with the idea that she was incapable of raising his children, but he lost the court case, running up huge legal fees in the process.
Police officer outside the home where Sandra Rivett was murdered.
Picture:
Getty
What happened on the night of Thursday 7 October 1974?
At around 9:45pm, Lady Lucan stumbled from her home on Lower Belgrave Street into the nearby Plumber’s Arm. drenched in blood and screaming: “Help me, help me, help me! I have just escaped from being murdered! He’s in the house! He’s murdered the nanny!”
It transpired that at around 9pm, she had asked her nanny, Sandra Rivett, 29, to make a cup of tea. Rivett had gone down to the basement kitchen. When she did not reappear, Lady Lucan had gone down to investigate, and had been attacked by a man whose voice she said she recognised as her husband’s.
After fighting him and convincing him to stop the attack; she said that he admitted to having killed Rivett (by mistake). After he had taken her up to her bedroom, she managed to escape. When the police arrived, they found Rivett’s body in a sack, with a bloody lead pipe that had been used to beat her to death.
What Lucan did after the attack?
He left London and arrived at his friend Ian Maxwell-Scott’s home, in Uckfield in Sussex, at 11:30pm.
His told Susan Maxwell-Scott that he had had a “traumatic night of unbelievable coincidence.” While passing the family house he seen an intruder struggling with his wife in the basement. He had run in to help, and the man had run off.
Realising that his wife would accuse him of being responsible and that the evidence looked damning, he said he had decided to “lie doggo for a while”.
The last confirmed sighting of Lucan was him leaving Uckfield in the early hours of Friday. His car was found near the harbour in Newhaven, 16 miles away; it had been parked between 5am and 8am.
What is the evidence against him?
In a landmark inquest in June 1975, it took a jury just 31 minutes to find that Lucan had murdered Rivett. This was based on Lady Lucan’s testimony, and on a wealth of other details.
The car Lucan was using, a Ford Corsair, was found splattered with blood types matching both Rivett and Lady Lucan, along with another length of pipe, similar to the murder weapon.
Lucan had borrowed a car, perhaps because it was less conspicuous than his Mercedes, and had found out from his daughter that the nanny’s night off was on Thursdays, though she in fact swapped her days that week.
He knew that his wife made a cup of tea at 9pm; a light bulb had been removed in the basement.
Lucan’s friend Greville Howard later told police Lucan had told him that killing his wife would save him from bankruptcy, because he would reclaim his house, and that he could dump her body in the Solent; she “would never be found”.
What happened to Lucan?
Initially police believed he had fled to Africa. Some speculated that the peer’s wealthy friends, dubbed “the Clermont set”, had helped spirit him away, and perhaps killed him because he had become an embarrassment, or at least encouraged him to shoot himself before his body was fed to tigers owned by John Aspinall at Howletts, his private zoo in Kent.
There have been ‘sightings’ of the missing peer as far away as India, Mozambique and Australia.
The most plausible theory remains that he committed suicide shortly after the nanny’s death. Lady Lucan believed that he took a ferry from Newhaven and threw himself into the Channel.
In 2016, his son George Bingham said he believed his father had been dead since 1974, and that it was time to find “another Loch Ness monster out there”.
Neil Berriman, son of Sandra Rivett.
Picture:
Alamy
Why are people still fascinated by the case?
There has been a real human cost in this case and tragically people often forget that Sandra Rivett is the real victim
The BBC is to air a documentary series looking to solve the mysterious disappearance of Lord Lucan following the murder of his children’s nanny Sandra Rivett almost 50 years ago.
The three-part series follows Ms Rivett’s son, Hampshire builder Neil Berriman, who has been consumed by the case since he discovered his mother’s identity at the age of 40, having been put for adoption as a baby. In 2016, Lord Lucan’s son Lord George Bingham inherited his title as the eighth Earl after he applied for a death certificate 42 years after his father vanished, under the Presumption of Death Act, which came into effect in 2014.
Lady Lucan was estranged from her children and lived as a recluse, before killing herself in 2017.
Data released today by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) shows that in the three months ending September 2024, there were 1,400 lifestyle property sales, an increase of 45 sales or 3.3% compared to the previous three months. This represents an 11.8% rise from 1,252 sales during the same period in 2023.
Over the year leading up to September 2024, 5,699 lifestyle properties were sold, 234 more than the year ending September 2023, marking a 4.3% increase. The total sales value of these properties sold was $6.34 billion.
The median price for all lifestyle properties sold in the three months leading up to September 2024 was $945,000, an increase of $35,000 compared to the same period in 2023, or 3.8%. The median price for Bareland lifestyle properties was $450,000, a slight increase of $500 or 0.1% compared to 2023.
Similarly, for Farmlet lifestyle properties, the median price in the three months leading up to September 2024 was $1,050,000, showing an increase of $27,196 compared to 2023, a 2.7% rise.
“The September sales results reflect a continuation of the positive momentum in the market as we approach spring. The recent reduction in interest rates and indications of further decreases are boosting buyer confidence. This positive trend is expected to persist throughout the spring and summer selling season, leading up to Christmas,” commented REINZ Rural Spokesperson Shane O’Brien.
Seven regions recorded an increase in sales compared to September 2023, with Northland (+63 sales) and Waikato (+42 sales) observing the biggest increases. Taranaki (-18 sales) and Bay of Plenty (-8 sales) recorded the biggest decreases in sales in the three months to September 2024 compared to the three months to September 2023. Compared to the three months to August 2024, 8 regions recorded increased sales.
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Ten regions saw the median price of lifestyle blocks increase between the three months ending September 2023 and the three months ending September 2024. The most notable examples were in the West Coast (+74.3%) and Taranaki (+21.2%), with
the most significant decreases being in Auckland (-4.5%) and Nelson/Marlborough/Tasman (-2.7%).
The median number of days to sell for lifestyle properties was 18 days more in the three months to September 2024 than in the three months to September 2023, sitting at 95 days. West Coast (65 days) recorded the shortest number of days to sell in September 2024. Auckland (114 days) recorded the longest number of days to sell.
“Buyers have access to a good selection of listings across all markets, and the upward trend in median sale prices for both Farmlets and Bareland is encouraging. However, the increase in the average days on the market suggests that buyers are still cautious when purchasing,” comments O’Brien.
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The scope of her ambitions appears to know no bounds, as was memorably observed by her friend, Kim Kardashian, who said that Meghan Markle was intent on ‘changing the world’.
But are those dreams destined to be for ever foiled?
The question is prompted by a development which will dismay fans who yearn to taste the Duchess of Sussex’s jam or any of the other goodies which she envisages offloading to the public via American Riviera Orchard, the ‘lifestyle brand’ which she unveiled in April.
Her bid to trademark the American Riviera Orchard name has run into what might be described as a multi-billion dollar problem.
It comes in the uncompromising form of a protest lodged with the United States Patent and Trademark Office by a firm owning the trademark ‘Royal Riviera’.
Meghan Markle’s bid to trademark the American Riviera Orchard name has run into a problem. A firm owning the trademark ‘Royal Riviera’ have lodged a protest with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
The protest, deemed ‘relevant’ because of ‘likelihood of confusion’, has been referred to Marco Wright, the Trademark Office’s Examining Attorney (pictured: American Riviera jam)
The owner, Harry & David, is an American institution, founded in 1934, with annual sales of £1.7billion and 3,300 staff.
The protest, deemed ‘relevant’ because of ‘likelihood of confusion’, has been referred to Marco Wright, the Trademark Office’s Examining Attorney.
It’s the latest bit of bad luck for Meghan, 43.
A year ago, her bid to secure a trademark for her lifestyle blog, The Tig, hit a snag when she failed to submit a ‘statement of use’ with her application, thereby obliging her attorney, Danielle Weiss, to seek a six-month extension.
American Riviera Orchard was similarly afflicted last month when, as I disclosed, the trademark office informed her that ‘American Riviera’ was too vague a term, stipulating that she had three months to provide clarification, as well as paying an additional $700 (£535) to continue her application.
Tina Brown, erstwhile editor of Vanity Fair and author of a dazzling biography of Princess Diana, fears that this isn’t bad luck. Meghan, Brown declared last week, is ‘flawless about getting it all wrong’, adding that ‘all of her ideas are total c**p’.
Megs could do worse than checking out Harry & David. Its fortune was established when its founders hand-delivered exquisite comice pears to city businessmen.
The fruit was so good that they took out a trademark – for Royal Riviera® Pears. No jokes about things going pear-shaped for Meghan, please.
Mourning Madonna’s hug for Rocco
Family is proving to be a comfort for Madonna, mourning her brother – the artist Christopher Ciccone – who died from cancer this month.
The singer, 66, was in Paris this week to visit her son’s art exhibition and was snapped with her arms wrapped around Rocco, 24, whose father is film director Guy Ritchie.
‘Perfect antidote for sadness,’ she wrote alongside the picture she shared online. Rocco paints under the name Rhed and his artwork has sold for five-figure sums.
Madonna, 66, was in Paris this week to visit her son’s art exhibition and was snapped with her arms wrapped around Rocco, 24, whose father is film director Guy Ritchie
Olympia’s mammoth job – bathing an elephant
King Charles and Queen Camilla marked their tenth anniversary last month as the joint Royal Presidents of the Elephant Family – a charity dedicated to preserving endangered Asian wildlife.
And the couple aren’t the only royals who have a soft spot for pachyderms. His Majesty’s goddaughter, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, 28, has been bonding with the beasts at their bathtime.
On a trip to Thailand, the London-based socialite and model shared a video of herself bathing an elephant in the river at the Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary in Bangkok.
‘Out of office’, says the model, who is the only daughter of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife, Marie-Chantal Miller.
Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark at a Chanel and W Magazine dinner in New York
On a trip to Thailand, the London-based socialite and model shared a video of herself bathing an elephant in the river at the Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary in Bangkok
The model, who is the only daughter of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife, Marie-Chantal Miller and is King Charles’ Goddaughter
Peter Capaldi Doubted
The old adage that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach was once advised to Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi while trying his hand at being an artist in his youth.
‘No one ever said: ‘Go to art school you can be an artist.’
They said: ‘You could be an art teacher.’
The old adage that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach was once advised to Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi while trying his hand at being an artist in his youth
Vanessa’s savage salvo at ‘one-hit wonder’ ex
Vanessa Feltz pulls no punches in her new memoir which recounts the breakdown of her relationship with Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu in excruciating detail.
In Vanessa Bares All she labels her former partner of 17 years a ‘one-hit wonder’, and is particularly scathing of the song Turn Around’s merits.
‘He didn’t even write Turn Around and didn’t have any royalties from the bloody hit. Every time we had to hear that damn song again, he didn’t get fourpence for it, so it was particularly annoying.’
But the broadcaster, 62, doesn’t fear any fallout from her remarks, as she assures me at the Wimbledon Bookfest in London: ‘I don’t think he can read.’ A representative for Ben Ofoedu was unavailable for comment.
Vanessa Feltz pulls no punches in her new memoir which recounts the breakdown of her relationship with Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu in excruciating detail
Al Fayed Crown Controversy
Some of Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged sexual assault victims have been angered by his positive portrayal in The Crown.
It has also had a distressing effect on Egyptian actor Amir El-Masry, who plays the disgraced Harrods boss in the drama. ‘It’s been upsetting to learn of all these allegations,’ Amir tells me at the El Gouna film festival in Egypt.
Some of Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged sexual assault victims have been angered by his positive portrayal in The Crown
‘I’ve had to veer away from watching all these stories coming out about him.’ However, El-Masry, 34, says the production shouldn’t be blamed for featuring Al Fayed, father of Princess Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed.
‘Bad behaviour shouldn’t be excused on any level but actors play villains and questionable people all the time, and if anything The Crown is one of the most successful TV shows out there.’
Swimwear designer Melissa Odabash is dedicated to maintaining her beach body all year round and says celery juice is her secret
Odabash’s slim tip: a pint a day
The nights are drawing in, but swimwear designer Melissa Odabash is dedicated to maintaining her beach body all year round.
‘Drinking 16 ounces of celery juice every day detoxes your whole body and gives you a flat stomach,’ she tells me at the Global Gift Gala in the Kimpton Fitzroy hotel, London.
Odabash, 59, says: ‘My models do it before a shoot, and I’ve just taken up what they do.’ But she insists: ‘I eat everything. I’m a foodie. I used to live in Italy.’
The scope of her ambitions appears to know no bounds, as was memorably observed by her friend, Kim Kardashian, who said that Meghan Markle was intent on ‘changing the world’.
But are those dreams destined to be for ever foiled?
The question is prompted by a development which will dismay fans who yearn to taste the Duchess of Sussex’s jam or any of the other goodies which she envisages offloading to the public via American Riviera Orchard, the ‘lifestyle brand’ which she unveiled in April.
Her bid to trademark the American Riviera Orchard name has run into what might be described as a multi-billion dollar problem.
It comes in the uncompromising form of a protest lodged with the United States Patent and Trademark Office by a firm owning the trademark ‘Royal Riviera’.
Meghan Markle’s bid to trademark the American Riviera Orchard name has run into a problem. A firm owning the trademark ‘Royal Riviera’ have lodged a protest with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
The protest, deemed ‘relevant’ because of ‘likelihood of confusion’, has been referred to Marco Wright, the Trademark Office’s Examining Attorney (pictured: American Riviera jam)
The owner, Harry & David, is an American institution, founded in 1934, with annual sales of £1.7billion and 3,300 staff.
The protest, deemed ‘relevant’ because of ‘likelihood of confusion’, has been referred to Marco Wright, the Trademark Office’s Examining Attorney.
It’s the latest bit of bad luck for Meghan, 43.
A year ago, her bid to secure a trademark for her lifestyle blog, The Tig, hit a snag when she failed to submit a ‘statement of use’ with her application, thereby obliging her attorney, Danielle Weiss, to seek a six-month extension.
American Riviera Orchard was similarly afflicted last month when, as I disclosed, the trademark office informed her that ‘American Riviera’ was too vague a term, stipulating that she had three months to provide clarification, as well as paying an additional $700 (£535) to continue her application.
Tina Brown, erstwhile editor of Vanity Fair and author of a dazzling biography of Princess Diana, fears that this isn’t bad luck. Meghan, Brown declared last week, is ‘flawless about getting it all wrong’, adding that ‘all of her ideas are total c**p’.
Megs could do worse than checking out Harry & David. Its fortune was established when its founders hand-delivered exquisite comice pears to city businessmen.
The fruit was so good that they took out a trademark – for Royal Riviera® Pears. No jokes about things going pear-shaped for Meghan, please.
Mourning Madonna’s hug for Rocco
Family is proving to be a comfort for Madonna, mourning her brother – the artist Christopher Ciccone – who died from cancer this month.
The singer, 66, was in Paris this week to visit her son’s art exhibition and was snapped with her arms wrapped around Rocco, 24, whose father is film director Guy Ritchie.
‘Perfect antidote for sadness,’ she wrote alongside the picture she shared online. Rocco paints under the name Rhed and his artwork has sold for five-figure sums.
Madonna, 66, was in Paris this week to visit her son’s art exhibition and was snapped with her arms wrapped around Rocco, 24, whose father is film director Guy Ritchie
Olympia’s mammoth job – bathing an elephant
King Charles and Queen Camilla marked their tenth anniversary last month as the joint Royal Presidents of the Elephant Family – a charity dedicated to preserving endangered Asian wildlife.
And the couple aren’t the only royals who have a soft spot for pachyderms. His Majesty’s goddaughter, Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark, 28, has been bonding with the beasts at their bathtime.
On a trip to Thailand, the London-based socialite and model shared a video of herself bathing an elephant in the river at the Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary in Bangkok.
‘Out of office’, says the model, who is the only daughter of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife, Marie-Chantal Miller.
Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece and Denmark at a Chanel and W Magazine dinner in New York
On a trip to Thailand, the London-based socialite and model shared a video of herself bathing an elephant in the river at the Pattaya Elephant Sanctuary in Bangkok
The model, who is the only daughter of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife, Marie-Chantal Miller and is King Charles’ Goddaughter
Peter Capaldi Doubted
The old adage that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach was once advised to Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi while trying his hand at being an artist in his youth.
‘No one ever said: ‘Go to art school you can be an artist.’
They said: ‘You could be an art teacher.’
The old adage that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach was once advised to Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi while trying his hand at being an artist in his youth
Vanessa’s savage salvo at ‘one-hit wonder’ ex
Vanessa Feltz pulls no punches in her new memoir which recounts the breakdown of her relationship with Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu in excruciating detail.
In Vanessa Bares All she labels her former partner of 17 years a ‘one-hit wonder’, and is particularly scathing of the song Turn Around’s merits.
‘He didn’t even write Turn Around and didn’t have any royalties from the bloody hit. Every time we had to hear that damn song again, he didn’t get fourpence for it, so it was particularly annoying.’
But the broadcaster, 62, doesn’t fear any fallout from her remarks, as she assures me at the Wimbledon Bookfest in London: ‘I don’t think he can read.’ A representative for Ben Ofoedu was unavailable for comment.
Vanessa Feltz pulls no punches in her new memoir which recounts the breakdown of her relationship with Phats & Small singer Ben Ofoedu in excruciating detail
Al Fayed Crown Controversy
Some of Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged sexual assault victims have been angered by his positive portrayal in The Crown.
It has also had a distressing effect on Egyptian actor Amir El-Masry, who plays the disgraced Harrods boss in the drama. ‘It’s been upsetting to learn of all these allegations,’ Amir tells me at the El Gouna film festival in Egypt.
Some of Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged sexual assault victims have been angered by his positive portrayal in The Crown
‘I’ve had to veer away from watching all these stories coming out about him.’ However, El-Masry, 34, says the production shouldn’t be blamed for featuring Al Fayed, father of Princess Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Al Fayed.
‘Bad behaviour shouldn’t be excused on any level but actors play villains and questionable people all the time, and if anything The Crown is one of the most successful TV shows out there.’
Swimwear designer Melissa Odabash is dedicated to maintaining her beach body all year round and says celery juice is her secret
Odabash’s slim tip: a pint a day
The nights are drawing in, but swimwear designer Melissa Odabash is dedicated to maintaining her beach body all year round.
‘Drinking 16 ounces of celery juice every day detoxes your whole body and gives you a flat stomach,’ she tells me at the Global Gift Gala in the Kimpton Fitzroy hotel, London.
Odabash, 59, says: ‘My models do it before a shoot, and I’ve just taken up what they do.’ But she insists: ‘I eat everything. I’m a foodie. I used to live in Italy.’
