A BELOVED restaurant in Birmingham’s city centre will close its doors for good this week, after serving the community for over 14 years.

Bodega Cantina, located on Bennetts Hill, announced the closure, blaming the financial strain caused by rising costs and tax hikes.

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The final service at the Bennetts Hill location will take place on Saturday, March 15[/caption]

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Bodega Cantina has struggled to cope with the pressures of the current economic climate[/caption]

In a heartfelt message on social media, the owners revealed the tough challenges behind their decision to close.

“It is with sadness that we announce the closure of Bodega Cantina on March 15.

“Like many others in hospitality, we’ve been significantly affected, first by Brexit taking away much of the staffing resources that our industry relies upon, and then the various dramas brought about by Covid.

“More recent factors such as the large increase in utility bills, ‘cost of living crisis’, double-digit inflation and upcoming increases in minimum wage and NI costs have now made the venue financially unsustainable.

“It’s been a great journey, these last 14 years, and we hope we’ve provided a great South American-inspired experience to our customers along the way.

“We also hope that we might see some of you again in our last week of trading.”

The latest increase in utility bills and the upcoming rise in national insurance and minimum wage costs made the venue financially unsustainable.

Despite its long-standing popularity, Bodega Cantina has struggled to cope with the pressures of the current economic climate.

The restaurant, known for its vibrant South American-inspired dishes such as tacos, burritos, and Brazilian fish stew, had already closed its Sutton Coldfield location after just two years.

Fans flooded social media with messages of sadness, expressing their deep appreciation for the restaurant’s impact on their lives.

One user wrote: “Absolutely gutted.”

Another shared a sentimental message: “Big love guys, you were a big part of my transformative years growing up in Brum x.”

A third added: “So sad, end of an era.”

The final service at the Bennetts Hill location will take place on Saturday, March 15, marking the end of an era for the much loved restaurant.

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Many food and drink chains have been struggling in recently as the cost of living has led to fewer people spending on eating out[/caption]

SIR JIM RATCLIFFE laid bare the huge problems facing Manchester United in a series of bombshell interviews on Monday.

The Ineos chief, who bought a minority share in the club just over a year ago, addressed a range of topics.

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Sir Jim Ratcliffe addressed a number of topics since his arrival at Man Utd[/caption]

These included the shocking performances on the pitch, the unpopular decisions he has made with regards to cost-cutting and the errors already made since his arrival.

We have looked at ten of the main takeaways from Ratcliffe’s candid set of interviews.

Squad ‘not good enough’

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Ratcliffe blasted the squad as ‘not good enough’ and highlighted five stars not up to scratch[/caption]

Ratcliffe, 70, made it clear in no uncertain terms he doesn’t think the current playing squad are up to scratch.

The British Billionaire said: “Some are not good enough and some probably are overpaid, but for us to mould the squad that we are fully responsible for, and accountable for, will take time.”

He named five players – Antony, Andre Onana, Casemiro, Rasmus Hojlund and Jadon Sancho – who his team “had to buy” when he invested in the club due to the significant fees and wages splashed out on these stars.

The huge fees paid out for increasingly poor returns have been one of the driving forces of United being in the mess it is in.

However, Ratcliffe believed progress was slowly happening with summer signings like Joshua Zirkzee and Matthijs de Ligt.

He added “fantastic” stars such as Bruno Fernandes would be needed to emerge from this darker period.

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Running out of cash by Xmas

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Poor ownership has left the club on the brink of financial ruin, with Ratcliffe claiming Man Utd would have run out of cash by Christmas[/caption]

Man Utd have a huge cash problem. That is a fact which is well documented and in the public record.

However, the severity of the issue from years of negligence under the ownership of majority owners, the Glazers, was laid bare by Ratcliffe with a stunning claim the club was set to run out of money by Christmas without drastic cost-cutting measures.

He told the BBC: “The simple answer is the club runs out of money at Christmas if we don’t do those things,” before adding to The Telegraph: “It (United) goes bust at Christmas (without change).”

That claim of United ceasing to exist is a little wide of the truth, although the comment about the lack of cash is true, with Ratcliffe putting in $300m (£232.72m) since arriving which has left the club with £74m in cash.

What he thinks of Ruben Amorim

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Ruben Amorim has the full backing of Ratcliffe and the management team despite less than ideal results[/caption]

Amid the raft of issues at United, Ratcliffe does not believe Ruben Amorim is one of them, and insists he will be at Man Utd “for a long time”.

United sit 14th in the Premier League under the former Sporting Lisbon with his arrival in November not providing the uplift in form many would have hoped for.

Ratcliffe said of the 40-year-old: “I think Ruben is an outstanding young manager. I really do. He’s an excellent manager and I think he will be there for a long time.

“You are beginning to see a glimpse of what Ruben can produce. Ruben is doing a super job…

“He is, as most great coaches are, an emotional character. Ruben is not perfect but I am a great supporter of Ruben.”

Ratcliffe also revealed Amorim is no-pushover and is willing to tell him to “f*** off” when they meet up.

Meeting with Fergie

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Sir Alex Ferguson was left ‘grumpy’ after being told the club could not afford to continue paying him[/caption]

One of the most controversial decisions made since Ratcliffe’s arrival was the ending of a multi-million pound commitment to Sir Alex Ferguson, which Ratcliffe said left Fergie “grumpy” to begin with.

He said: “I sat down with (Sir) Alex, just the two of us in the room and I said, ‘Look, the club isn’t where you may think it is.

“It is spending more than it’s earning and we’re going to finish up in some difficulties. Honestly, we can’t really afford to continue to pay you £2m a year’.

“I said I’m going to ‘leave it with you, let you have a think about it’. It was very grown-up.

“Maybe a little bit grumpy at the beginning but he got it, and he came back three days later, after talking to his son, and said, ‘Fine, I’m going to step away from it. My decision’.

“I think it reflects really well on Alex, because he put the club before himself.”

How much club still owe on transfers

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Ratcliffe revealed the club will have to pay £89m on transfers next summer even if they do not sign a single player[/caption]

Ratcliffe revealed on The Overlap that Man Utd would be signing a cheque of £89m for player transfers this summer, even if they did not sign a single player.

He lamented huge fees still owed for big investments on players before he arrived, including making an example of a £17m payment still to be made for Sancho in the summer.

Indeed the five names he explicitly mentioned have combined transfer fees of well over £300m.

He said: “These are all things from the past, whether we like it or not, we’ve inherited those things and have to sort that out.”

The staggering fees owed on transfers is one of the main reasons the club are losing money year on year, with savage cost-cutting decisions being made.

Cutting free lunches

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Ratcliffe’s decision to cut free lunches for staff at Man Utd was very controversial[/caption]

The swathe of cost-cuts made at Man Utd since Ineos arrived have most notably included the removal of free lunches for staff.

His philosophy of “you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves” may ring true in other forms of business, but at a financial juggernaut like Man Utd it seems a bit extreme.

Ratcliffe said: “At INEOS, we run a lean organisation. As my mother said, you look after the pennies, the pounds look after themselves.

“We can sound flippant about free lunches but if you give all these perks, first-class train fares, free taxis, it’s not coherent. It goes bust at Christmas.”

Awkward chat with Neville over £40k cut to ex-players

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Gary Neville left Ratcliffe looking visibly uncomfortable when grilling him about the £40,000 donation to the Former Players Association[/caption]

Probably the most damning showing of Ratcliffe in the interview, he was visibly uncomfortable when discussing the £40,000 donation to the Former Players Association with Gary Neville on The Overlap.

Neville asked why, if the club could not afford the payment, they had not arranged for a major star like Fernandes or Harry Maguire to have a fund-raising dinner for the organisation.

Like a scene out of The Office, Ratcliffe responded by saying no one had thought of it but he would have supported it and would reconsider the decision in the future.

Neville responded by saying that “alarms” him, and it was the most damning reflection of the new management team at United so far.

Body language consultant – Ratcliffe’s ‘bugbear’

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Ratcliffe emphasised the need for cost cuts with United having some staff he deemed unnecessary[/caption]

While Ratcliffe has taken some flak for the brutal cost-cuts done at United since his arrival, in some cases he believes those decisions are more than worthwhile for what he deems are unnecessary roles.

During his interview he highlighted the club having a “body language consultant” on £175,000 a year, almost scoffing at the suggestion such a role could be useful.

Admitting Ten Hag and Ashworth error

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Ratcliffe admits the costly decisions to sack Erik ten Hag and Dan Ashworth were ‘errors’[/caption]

For all the cost-cutting Ratcliffe and his team have done since arriving, there is also the very expensive “errors” made from the decisions to bring in Dan Ashworth and also to keep Erik ten Hag.

The decisions to sack the pair and then bring in Amorim cost around £20m – which is a whole lot of free lunches – though he insisted those decisions were made before the full management team were in place.

Ratcliffe said: “I agree the Erik ten Tag and Dan Ashworth decisions were errors.

“I think there were some mitigating circumstances, but ultimately they were errors. I accept that and I apologise for that.

“If you look at the time we made the decision about Erik the management team hadn’t been in place more than five minutes.

“It became clearer three months later and we got it wrong, but we’d moved on. I think we corrected it and we are in a very different place today.”

Rashford verdict

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Marcus Rashford’s departure in the summer will help to rebuild the squad in Ruben Amorim’s mould, according to Ratcliffe[/caption]

Marcus Rashford‘s omission from the Man Utd squad by Amorim before his loan transfer to Aston Villa in January was a real head scratcher.

It was made even worse considering United’s struggles in the final third and the fact Rashford has already managed three assists in Villa colours.

However, while Ratcliffe said he was “pleased” the Man Utd academy graduate was doing well on loan, he reiterated that Amorim had his full backing over squad matters, citing a need for all players to give 100 per cent.

He said: “He (Amorim) wants a dressing room that is full of people who are totally committed to winning football matches.

“He won’t tolerate people who don’t have 100% of that attitude. The players have to be in the same box.”

On Rashford himself, he added: “He’s moved out of Manchester and maybe that’s a good thing for him.

“I am very pleased he is doing well. It’s good to see because he has got tremendous talent, but for whatever reason it wasn’t working in Manchester for the past couple of seasons.

“But he is a very talented footballer, Rashford.”

Ratcliffe also suggested Rashford’s future would lay away from Old Trafford from the summer, with the attackers sale set to be a part of the budget to help Amorim refurbish his squad.

LADIES, we’ve all been there.

A friend is going through a messy relationship break-up and – several Proseccos in – spills all about her former man’s poor performance in the bedroom.

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Lily Allen mocked her exes’ ability in the bedroom after her split from husband David Harbour – it was embarrassing and shameful[/caption]

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Lily, 39, and Stranger Things actor David Harbour, 49, recently split[/caption]

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Lily made the shock confession live on stage at the Hackney Empire in London[/caption]

It’s bitchy, hilarious and cathartic. But crucially, it’s between mates. And it goes no further.

Not, that is, unless you’re Lily Allen.

Late last year, the 39-year-old singer split from her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, after she apparently discovered his profile on the elite celebrity dating app Raya.

The couple were, at this point, still together – so it’s no wonder she was heartbroken.

If true, Harbour behaved terribly. We can only imagine how betrayed poor Lily must have felt. So it’s hardly surprising the mum-of-two wanted her spill-all moment.

With Harbour now dating a much younger model, she’d have to be a saint not to want revenge. And Lily is certainly no saint.

But unlike the rest of us who gather friends in the kitchen, or head to a fancy cocktail bar, Lily has a podcast.

So now the whole world knows she is “not over it”.

What if a male celeb took to the airwaves to slam his former lovers for being bad in bed? He would rightly be vilified as a sexist cad and promptly cancelled.

Joanna Williams

And, what’s more, we all now know about her exes’ failures between the sheets.

With the opportunity to vent on a recent live recording, Lily dished the dirt.

And she didn’t restrict the tongue lashing to her ex-hubby but took aim at all her exes.

“I don’t think there has been one person that has been remotely interested in my pleasure,” she told the audience and, via her podcast, the entire world.

“I have actual d**k blindness. I can’t even picture, not even my ex-husband’s or boyfriends. I can’t picture them at all. Apart from one as I have pictures of it on my phone.”

Lily, you should be ashamed. It’s all just TMI.

One day your kids will stick their mum’s name into Google.

Do you really want them to know you carry around a picture of an ex-lover’s crown jewels on your phone? I’m embarrassed on their behalf.

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Singer Lily previously revealed she was going to seek help after her split from David Harbour[/caption]

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The pair married in 2020 but in December, friends confirmed they had split after ‘living separate lives’ for months[/caption]

It seems only fair to ask what if this was the other way round.

What if a male celeb took to the airwaves to slam his former lovers for being bad in bed?

If body shaming is bad, why is sex shaming acceptable? If fat-shaming is a no-no, why is d**k shaming fine and dandy?

Joanna Williams

He would rightly be vilified as a sexist cad and promptly cancelled.

The #MeToo brigade would complain about women being publicly shamed and humiliated. Rightly so.

But if it’s not okay for men to do this, why is it not just acceptable, but actually praised as ‘empowering’ when women behave in the exact same way? These double standards shame women.

Yet there are examples everywhere. Just look at feminist complaints about body shaming. Lily herself has been swept up in this trend.

Back in 2021, after she shared a video of herself on Instagram, fans expressed concern that the singer was becoming too thin.

Lily, who has spoken of her struggles with alcohol and mental health problems, was quick to slap them down.

“Seriously where do you get off?” she asked. “You know nothing about me or my lifestyle. How dare you.”

She has a point. But if body shaming is bad, why is sex shaming acceptable? If fat-shaming is a no-no, why is d**k shaming fine and dandy?

It seems that nothing is private anymore.

Just occasionally, what happens behind closed doors is best kept behind closed doors.

Yet when it comes to discussing her sex life, attention-seeking Lily has no boundaries.

Back in January, she told The Times that Harbour was the first man she had ever slept with while sober, adding, “it’s been helpful to do it with someone that’s long-in-the-tooth in that game.”

Not the most flattering thing to say about a man 10 years her senior.

In a previous edition of her podcast, talk also turned to the couple’s sex life.

“I wonder if I kink-shame my husband?” she mused, “Because he quite often asks for things and I’m like ‘no babe it’s not happening.’”

Lily, enough already! Airing such private conversations in public is pure cringe.

And dressing-up man bashing as some kind of sex-positive feminism is particularly nauseating.

But from narcissism to hypocrisy, many things are odd about Lily’s sex talk.

Here’s another: she takes her audience for fools.

Are we really expected to believe that someone so confident at discussing all things intimate in public, and so forthright when it comes to calling out bad sex in front of a live studio audience, cannot communicate her needs and desires with one man in the bedroom?

But perhaps this is the problem.

Today’s culture tells us to spill-all in public, whether that’s on TV shows and podcasts if you are a celeb, or on social media if you’re not.

But when we do this, there’s nothing left that’s private. There’s no longer any room for trust and intimacy.

Take it from me, it’s trust and intimacy, more than anything else, that are the secret to great sex.

So Lily, I know you’ve not asked for it, but here’s my advice. The next time you’re tempted to d**k shame just put a sock in it.

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Lily’s man bashing should be called out[/caption]

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Lily hosts the BBC’s Miss Me? podcast with pal Miquita Oliver[/caption]

ILLEGAL streaming services used by thousands have been shut down in the latest effort against dodgy TV boxes.

Anti piracy chiefs have warned that the fresh crackdown “is not scaremongering” after turning up at more than a dozen households.

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Illegal streaming is a particular problem for sports broadcasting[/caption]

While serious action has largely focused on those behind these illegal sites, users have been warned of the hidden dangers they face for using them.

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) – backed by Sky, the Premier League and others – issued legal notices to 13 alleged IPTV operators across Ireland alone urging them to shut up shop or risk a criminal prosecution.

There were knocks at the door to people living in Dublin, Cork, Donegal, Offaly, Limerick, Louth, Clare, Westmeath and Laois.

This is the fourth wave of enforcement action to date since March 2023, and has resulted in the closure of almost 70 illegal services across Ireland.

Experts have warned anyone using illegal streaming platforms that they’re at “real risk” of devastating crime such as identity theft.

“Together with our partners we will continue to identify and take action against Illegal IPTV service providers,” said Kieron Sharp, Chairman of FACT.

“They are breaking the law, making criminal profits and putting consumers at real risk of malware, data loss and identity theft.

“We want to protect consumers from these risks and operations such as this ensure the message goes out.

“It is not scaremongering; these are real criminal actions which consumers and their families are exposed to.

“These investigations and operations will continue this new year.”

The action comes days after similar anti piracy efforts stepped up a level across the pond.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) recently filed two separate federal US lawsuits against alleged IPTV operators located in California and Pennsylvania.

The first is accused of running Outer Limits IPTV while the other is alleged to be behind a number of services including Beast Mode Live, GreenWing Media, Viking Media, BTV, Shrugs, and Zing.

“These lawsuits demonstrate ACE’s unwavering commitment to protecting the creative industry from digital piracy from coast to coast and around the world,” said Karyn Temple, Senior Executive Vice President and Global General Counsel for the Motion Picture Association.

“Illegal IPTV services not only harm creators and legitimate streaming platforms but also expose consumers to potential security and fraud risks. We will continue to take decisive legal action to shut down these operations and hold infringers accountable.”

GLOBAL CRACKDOWN

Last year, a major series of raids across Europe took place leading to a huge network used by 22million people being shut down.

Five addresses in the UK were stormed, along with suspects in Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.

The biggest part was carried out in Italy, where 270 officers searched 89 properties in 15 Italian regions.

Nick Herm, chief operating officer at Sky, recently warned that illegal viewing of its subscription content was costing “hundreds of millions of dollars”.

He accused tech giants including Amazon of failing to tackle the problem, saying modified Fire Sticks “probably” make up “about half of the piracy” in the UK.

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