The fashion firm is currently based in the Cleveland Centre but has appeared on plans for the neighbouring Hillstreet Shopping Centre. 

Floor plans show the JD logo placed on a 15,714 square foot unit next door to Boots and opposite Primark – with the shopping centre website also naming it as an “anchor retailer”.

JD Sports declined to comment when contacted by The Northern Echo about the potential relocation.

If it goes ahead, this would mark the second retailer to move from the Cleveland Centre to the Hillstreet Centre in recent months, following the footsteps of Boots. 

Boots launched its new site in February, having previously been closed at the Cleveland Centre for several months.

The firm said the new location would provide an “elevated shopping experience and an extended range of health, wellness and beauty essentials”.

Discount retailer B&M also recently returned to Middlesbrough town centre in the form of a new store at the Hillstreet Centre in February. 

JD Sports continues to operate a number of other sites in the North East including at the Cornmill Shopping Centre in Darlington, Bishop Auckland Retail Park, and Cleveland Retail Park.

Ted Lasso has unveiled the first teaser for its season four return, after two years away from our Apple TV screens.

The schmaltzy football dramedy returns this August, with Jason Sudeikis and his handlebar moustache back as the eponymous Ted, who returns to Blighty to coach the Greyhound women’s team.

The teaser is the first look at what this upheaval in the show’s premise will look like, with the Richmond FC locker-room of men, including fan favourites like Jamie Tartt, swapped out for a new cast of women players.

The teaser is set to the folksy tune of Marcus Mumford’s vocals, which is no surprise given the Mumford and Sons frontman croons over the show’s title sequence. 

Given it’s a teaser rather than a fully-fledged trailer, the one-minute clip is mostly vibes-based, but shows that the faces of the first three seasons of Ted Lasso are likely in store for more of the show’s earnest brand of good feeling.

All the main cast is there: Hannah Waddingham as club owner Rebecca, Brett Goldstein as the gruffly-spoken Roy Kent, Juno Temple as his maybe other half Keeley and Jeremy Swift as the inimitable Leslie. 

The trio of Richmond’s pint-sinking number one fans give a round of applause at a maybe-press conference. 

The women’s team lines up and runs for a series on drills on the pitch, with newcomer Tanya Reynolds on board as a coach alongside Ted and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt). Rebecca and Ted’s (recast) son Henry cheer on Richmond from the heavily merchandised stands.

Having returned from the US, we see Ted walking from the quaint streets of Richmond, where he’s approached by a fan (wearing his Richmond scarf, which seems to be locally mandated attire in those parts).

‘Welcome back coach,’ says the fan. ‘Too bad you’re coaching a bunch of girls.’ Oof! Looks like we’re tackling sexism this season. The eternal optimist Ted doesn’t look fazed. 

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How will this season follow on from season 3?

Senior TV Reporter Rebecca Cook shares her take…

Ted Lasso purists won’t want to hear this, but the last time this show was on the air, it was dreadful.

The season finale, which for a time looked like it would be the series conclusion, was like a strange CGI-looking fever dream I’ve been trying to forget ever since.

Remember Coach Beard’s wedding? No? Good for you.

I, like many, found Ted Lasso in the midst of a manic pandemic state. It was like discovering a sweet, better place I could leave my house to travel to.

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But by the third season, it was bloated with too many storylines, preachy with its need to tell us all how to live our lives and did a huge disservice to favs like Keeley.

The show had outstayed its wholesome welcome and seemed to know it. Ted was sent packing back to the US like he needed a time-out.

But now this jewel in the Apple TV mantle returns with what seems to be renewed focus and, better yet, new ideas.

Ted has been freed from the US (I can’t imagine his brand of niceness fits in over there anymore) and returns to Richmond to take on what has been touted as his ‘biggest challenge yet’: coaching a second division women’s football team.

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(The men’s team weren’t easy to turn into a winning side, but okay.)

The official synopsis reads: ‘Ted and the team learn to leap before they look, taking chances they never thought they would.’

We haven’t got a load to go on with just a teaser, but a huge shake-up of the cast and focus is encouraging.

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This is huge news: Rebecca is seen kissing the incredibly charming Dutch boat guy, who she spent a magical evening with while the team played away in Amsterdam. Hurrah! 

Roy, sat next to Keeley in an SUV, smashes through the skylight window with a (checks notes) black stiletto. Okay… Ted laughs with a maybe-love interest. Rebecca has herself a drink. Ted and Coach Beard attend what looks like some postdramatic theatre. The score swells.

And last of all, Ted sits in Rebecca’s office with Leslie and Keeley (can’t see any biscuits in sight) and delivers a string of acronyms, while still managing to say ‘pretty please’. 

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As for the nitty-gritty of how all of this folds together, we’ll have to wait for a full trailer.

Ted Lasso season 4 will be available to stream on Apple TV from August 5.

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Multiple young men were drugged and raped at Jeffrey Epstein’s remote New Mexico ranch, it has been claimed, as local authorities continue to investigate historic allegations of abuse.

Democrat congresswoman for New Mexico Melanie Stansbury, fighting for justice for survivors, says one alleged victim claimed he had been invited to a party at the late pedophile’s 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch, where he said he was plied with drugs and raped.

In the recently released 60 Minutes Australia episode, Stansbury says the unnamed man described “multiple young men… raped at the ranch in front of him after he was drugged”.

“Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were serial abusers; they really were super predators, and it was just how they lived their lives,” she added.

Harrowing testimonies heard in Sunday’s documentary aired as state authorities pressed on with their reopened probe into allegations of abuse at the compound.

Authorities in New Mexico are now trying to determine how many local women and girls were abused at the ranch, after a number of residents came forward with fresh allegations. To date, only one resident was known to be from the state.

But state representative Marianna Anaya, who co-sponsored the state’s Truth Commission probe into Epstein, said Monday that the group has been in contact with a number of locals who now say they were also abused at the ranch.

“I can confirm that we have been reached out to by local alleged victims,” she told Reuters. It marked the first time the commission has acknowledged contact with locals who say they were abused at the ranch during the quarter-century Epstein owned the property.

The Truth Commission is working with the New Mexico Department of Justice to help survivors who may have viable criminal cases bring charges against Epstein’s co-conspirators, Anaya added.

Horrific claims of abuse have come into focus since New Mexico reopened its investigation into allegations of child sex trafficking at the ranch in February, citing the U.S. Justice Department’s release of millions of files on Epstein, including allegations that he buried the bodies of two girls in hills outside the property.

That tip off, claimed to have been written by a former ranch staffer, alleged that “two foreign girls” had been buried near the ranch, having died “by strangulation during rough fetish sex”.

The note sent to the FBI was seemingly never investigated, and the state of New Mexico shelved its probe into the ranch in 2019, following a request from federal prosecutors in New York.

Chauntae Davies, who has previously spoken out about her alleged abuse at the ranch, detailed her experiences to 60 Minutes Australia.

“Zorro Ranch was probably the most eerie, just giant and quiet, and literally in the middle of nowhere, and miles and miles of just mountains and dirt for miles,” she said.

She went on to describe hearing of other victims “waking up in a dark room with a female doctor standing over them, feeling like maybe there is some kind of procedure that had happened.”

Davies, who says she was abused by Epstein between 2001 and 2005, remained haunted by her time at the isolated ranch, where she said no matter how loudly you screamed, nobody could hear you.

The sprawling property includes a 21,000 sq-ft mansion, a log cabin, a guest house, a pool and an airstrip on part-private, part-public land. State officials told CBS in 2019 that Epstein was so secretive about it that they had very little access or knowledge about what was happening there.

Davies said she spent a lot of time in her room “like a mouse in a trap, waiting for a knock on the door and for someone to say, ‘Jeffrey is ready for his massage now’”. She said that would mean rape.

She said she remembered overhearing conversations about “trying to create the perfect baby” and “a ‘hunt’, if you will, for the perfect gene pool”.

She told CBS News in 2019 that she often saw “random young women, some models, other women” at the ranch, but was unsure whether they were sexually abused.

Maria Jose Rodriguez Cadiz, who heads Solace Sexual Assault Services in Santa Fe, the only such support centre in the region, said in 2019 that around 45 people had approached the centre to seek information, therapy and other services in relation to alleged sexual abuse at the ranch.

She estimated that between a quarter and a half of those contacts were from women who said they had been abused at the ranch, although she added that the centre did not keep detailed records.

A manhunt has been launched for an 89-year-old man accused of opening fire on people in government buildings with a shotgun in central Athens, wounding at least four people.

The attacker opened fire at a social security agency in Petralona this morning before travelling to a nearby courthouse and injuring several more people, police said.

An employee of the agency wounded during the rampage was hospitalised after being treated at the scene by police as the suspect made his escape.

At least three female court employees were slightly wounded by ricocheting shotgun pellets at the courthouse, while media reports said a fourth employee was taken to hospital without physical injuries.

Television footage showed ambulance crews transporting at least three people from the courthouse to waiting ambulances.

A motive for the attack remained unclear as police established a heavy presence at the scene. State broadcaster ERT reported that the gunman had reportedly left envelopes with documents at the courthouse after the shooting, claiming the motive was linked.

The outlet identified the suspect as an 89-year-old, saying he disappeared after abandoning his firearm in a photocopier. Authorities later found the gun, police said.

Alexandros Varveris, head of the National Social Security Fund, known by its Greek acronym EFKA, said the gunman had gone to the fourth floor of the social security fund’s offices in the Kerameikos area of central Athens and opened fire after calling out to an employee to duck.

His shot hit another employee, who was wounded in the leg, Varveris said, adding that the gunman had been wearing a trenchcoat under which he had hidden the shotgun.”

“He went in, went up to the fourth floor, raised his shotgun, told an employee to duck, and hit another one,” Varveris told ERT radio. He said the gunman didn’t appear to specifically target the employee he hit.

The wounded employee was transported to hospital after police applied a tourniquet to his leg at the scene. Gun violence is relatively rare in Greece, where firearm ownership is allowed but tightly regulated.

Earlier, Sir Philip Barton, the top civil servant at the Foreign Office at the time, told the committee Downing Street had been “uninterested” in the vetting process and the focus was on making sure Lord Mandelson was able to start his job by the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The first modern mention of the Flemish painter Michaelina Wautier (1614–1689) introduces an artist who defies expectation. Referring to her monumental Triumph of Bacchus (1655–59), Gustav Glück, the first art historian to serve as curator of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, wrote in 1903 that “even in an age of female emancipation, one would hardly wish to ascribe this picture, which shows a highly vigorous, almost coarse conception, to a woman’s hand”.

And thereby hangs the achievement of Wautier: she may have been able to paint “like a man”, but in most of her works, she does not feel the need to do so. Instead, Michaelina Wautier emerges as an artist with a distinctive style of her own.

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London is currently host to the most complete representation of her work to date. It is a landmark exhibition that reintroduces an artist who in her day was highly successful and championed by the court and elite in Brussels; but, who subsequently almost disappeared from public and scholarly notice for close on 300 years.

Restoring Wautier to a place in the artistic canon through an exhibition in the Royal Academy of Arts seems especially apt for an artist who defies expectation. The RA was the first institution to provide professional training for artists in Britain. Wautier’s work and the RA’s presentation of it shows clear evidence of the sort of training that was at the time the exclusive prerogative of male artists.

The point on her training is made straight away through the image that opens the show, a graceful and confident Study of the Medici Ganymede Bust (1654). The drawing depicts the famous ancient Roman sculpture, which was at the time in Rome. Drawing competently was a much valued skill and the Ganymede suggests not only a meticulously trained artist, but one whose work is up-to-date and reflects contemporary trends.

Many will be questioning where she sits in relation to the titan of Baroque painting and her contemporary, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1654) – the favourite subject of feminist art history. Both women disappear from view after the 1650s, both worked with close relatives (Wautier with her brother, Gentileschi with her father), both were championed by high-ranking patrons. But this is where the similarities end.

Gentileschi’s violent personal history has often overshadowed the discussion of her consummate skill and mastery of her craft. For instance, works like the Beheading of Holofernes (1612) are frequently interpreted as responses to her experience of sexual violence.

In Wautier’s case, however, there just isn’t much known about her life beyond bare facts such as who her parents were, that she shared a studio with her brother in Brussels and that she never married. This lack of information is partially due to the artist’s will going up in the flames of the French bombardment of Brussels in 1695.

So where for Gentileschi it feels as if we can’t separate the art from the biography; in Wautier’s case, there is nothing but the art. And, what wonderful art it is too.

Wautier excelled in portraiture, with her elegant palette and her mastery of textures – be it hair or textiles. In her portraits, especially in the depiction of children, she is vivacious and lively and so observant of quirks and foibles. You can see this in her Five Senses (1650) series. For instance, Smell features a little blond boy clutching a rotten egg in one hand and pinching his nose shut with the other, recoiling from the egg’s stench.

Despite their brilliance, however, she never signed her portraits. She did, however, sign two large-scale religious paintings, a Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and an intriguing and unusual panel depicting the Education of the Virgin. Both panels centre around educated, confident, elegant female protagonists, defined by their actions.

These paintings defy contemporary ideas that women artists excelled at imitation but lacked the capacity to imagine and create a subject from scratch. Wautier signs these paintings “invenit et fecit”, which translates as “invented and executed”. Here she is staking her claim to possessing the imagination to execute significant work at large scale. She attests to be a master of her craft, and this is nowhere more apparent than in the centrepiece of the Royal Academy’s exhibition, her immense Triumph of Bacchus.

Here, Wautier tackles the epitome of artistic mastery: a large-scale mythological subject that featured in the work of her most significant contemporaries, such as Andrea Mantegna, Titian and of course the artist who dominated the market in Flanders and the Netherlands, Peter Paul Rubens.

Wautier’s Triumph of Bacchus is larger than that of her male competitors, and she combines in her image the fleshiness of the central male nude with the grace and the elegance of Titian. She presents the viewer with a powerful image of a flabby Bacchus reclining in a wheelbarrow, surrounded by his followers. Wautier’s skill in painting a variety of male nudes in a range of poses looks effortlessly competent, with the Bacchus becoming the work that firmly places her within art history, a masterpiece designed to defy the challenge that a woman can not paint like a man.

This one can, but she takes the challenge up a notch with the intriguing inclusion of a self portrait. Wautier depicts herself as an elegant, bare-breasted Bacchante, a female follower of Bacchus, clad in a striking robe of salmon-pink, looking out at the viewer, the only person to do so in the array of figures depicted. Wautier’s Bacchante stands tall and proud, inviting the viewer to look at her. But it’s Wautier who controls this gaze; in the painting, a sallow-skinned faun attempts to grab the Amazonian, composed woman. She shrugs off his leering, and ignores him grabbing her hair. She is in charge.

Michaelina Wautier is on at The Royal Academy in London until June 21, 2026

Manchester City are locked in a thrilling title race with Arsenal and Erling Haaland, on course to again be the Premier League’s top goalscorer, insists they’ll be even better next season

Erling Haaland has warned his Premier League rivals Manchester City will be even better next season – with or without Pep Guardiola.

City are locked in a thrilling title race with Arsenal as the season reaches a dramatic climax. Guardiola’s men trail Arsenal by three points, but still have a game in hand as City look to win a domestic Treble.

Haaland appreciates Guardiola has had to integrate several new signings into his team in the last 18 months. It remains to be seen of Guardiola extends his stay at the Etihad beyond this season, when he will have completed a decade in charge.

But whatever happens, Haaland has told the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United that City will be stronger next season, having got used to playing with each other.

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Haaland said: “It’s been a lot of change now the last couple of years, I would say in the last year. There’s been lots of players that have been here for a long time. So with new players, it takes time.

“It’s not easy to come into a new league for someone, new country, all of this. It takes time to adapt. I think exciting times (are ahead) and I’m looking forward to being a part of it.”

Haaland has been linked with a move to long-time admirers Real Madrid and Barcelona, despite signing a record 10-year-deal with City in 2025. But Haaland insists he is going nowhere.

He added: “I’m super happy and I’m looking forward to what’s next, because I think it’s exciting times for City as a club and also me as a player. I’m looking forward to continuing with City.”

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John Stones will leave Manchester City in the summer after a glittering 10-year career at the Eithad

Unlike some of his more celebrated team-mates, John Stones might not get cast in bronze outside the Etihad. But during his illustrious decade-long spell at Manchester City, for long periods Stones was pure gold.

He arrived from Everton at the same time as Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2016. In the previous months, even though he hadn’t officially taken charge, Guardiola had been instrumental in the signing of Stones. He wanted Stones for a reason. Quite simply, he rated him as the best footballing centre half in English football.

Over the next 10 years, Stones proved Guardiola right.

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He has suffered some cruel luck with injuries, but Stones has stood shoulder to shoulder with Guardiola in the process of turning City into the greatest club side of a generation. Perhaps the best of all time in English football.

Stones was part of the side which claimed a historic Treble in 2023, crying on the pitch in Istanbul when attempting to sum up the achievement and has won 16 major trophies during his stint at the Etihad.

Guardiola once said: “Since I arrived, he arrived. The many good things and the sad things, we lived together. We share it. He’s an incredible human being.”

There was a reason he earned the nickname the Barnsley Beckenbauer. Because he is as comfortable on the ball as the German legend used to be. So much so that during the Treble success, Guardiola deployed Stones in a hybrid midfield role, operating in front of the back four alongside Rodri. Not a role your average defender would be trusted with.

At his best, Stones was a classy combination of composure, speed, vision and calmness under pressure.

“You don’t quite appreciate him until tore playing alongside him,” said Kyle Walker, who shared countless moments with Stones for both club and country. “He rarely gets beat, is great on the ball and very calm and level headed.”

Stones, who also appeared in two European Championship finals with England and a World Cup semi final, will leave City in June when his contract expires. Due to long standing fitness issues, he has not been handed an extension.

Given City’s need to keep evolving and with Stones turning 32 next month, it’s an understandable decision. His best times are now behind him. But my how good they were. They should never be forgotten.

Barry McLeod’s victim needed 24 staples in a head wound on one occasion, Airdrie Sheriff Court was told.

A Cumbernauld brute is behind bars after repeated attacks on his partner who finally reported him because she feared for her life.

Barry McLeod’s victim needed 24 staples in a head wound on one occasion, Airdrie Sheriff Court was told.

McLeod, 26, was jailed for 22 months after he admitted a course of abusive behaviour towards the woman.

Annette Ward, prosecuting, outlined a number of assaults, the first being in March 2024.

She told the court: “They had an argument in a close. McLeod hit her with such force that she fell and struck her head on a wall.

“She sustained a large wound to the back of her head that required 24 staples.

“She didn’t report this to the police and told family members she had fallen.”

Two months later the couple were in Millcroft Road, Cumbernauld, and McLeod asked his partner for a vape. She refused and he punched her on the face, leaving her covered in blood.

She again went to hospital for treatment. There was “significant” bruising around her eye.

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Then, on May 12 last year, McLeod and his partner were in a house in Cuilmuir Terrace, Croy, when he punched and choked her, leaving her struggling to breathe. He then pushed her down a set of stairs.

The final straw for the victim came on August 19 last year when another argument started, this time at an address in Beechwood Court, Cumbernauld.

She punched McLeod and he responded by throttling her, restricting her breathing.

Ms Ward said: “She pleaded with him to stop and he released his grip.

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“At this point she believed McLeod wanted to seriously harm her. She was in fear for her life.

“The following day she disclosed the assault to her mother and sister.

“She was distressed and had red marks on the side of her neck.

“She and McLeod had been in a relationship since 2019 and had two children.

“The woman told police he had been aggressive towards her on a regular basis. He would kick and punch her, especially after drinking or taking drugs.”

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Defence lawyer Ross Brown said McLeod wanted to plead guilty after seeing photographs of the woman’s injuries.

Mr Brown stated: “His partner is in court today. She was not overly supportive of this prosecution and it appears she is still supportive of him.

“When sober he is respectful, a decent individual, but that changes when he is under the influence.”

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