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Home-loan borrowers are being warned to brace for up to four rate hikes this year, with inflation expected to remain a thorny issue for years.

MAKASSAR.PAREPOS.FAJAR.CO.ID — Dalam rangka memperingati Isra’ Mi’raj Nabi Muhammad SAW sekaligus menyambut datangnya bulan suci...

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'On my way, chick xc'

'None of you are ready for this.'

'That will be a position they look at.'

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Chelsea have had to get used to life without Cole Palmer this season. While still one of the most influential figures at the club, a true ‘untouchable’ at Stamford Bridge, injury problems have been a recurring theme.

Between the opening weekend of the season and the first weekend of December, the 23-year-old started just three matches – with one of those against Manchester United in September coming to an end after just 21 minutes.

In October, the decision was made to pull Palmer out of the team so he could focus on rehabilitation with former Blues boss Enzo Maresca insisting the club must protect their talisman ‘as much as they can.’

The England international got his season back on track leading up to Christmas and started eight straight league matches across December and January, competing the full 90 minutes in two of those.

Palmer sat out of four of Liam Rosenior’s first five matches in charge but was fit enough to come off the bench for the second half of last night’s crucial Champions League clash with Napoli, turning the game around with two assists for Joao Pedro.

While his most recent absences have been attributed to a thigh issue with a freak toe injury also delaying his return in November, the vast majority of Palmer’s problems this season have been with the groin.

The specific condition Palmer has been battling with is called pubalgia, a chronic groin and lower abdomen issue that Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal also deals with.

What exactly is causing Palmer’s problems?

Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, explained it as a ‘catch all terminology’ for a set of chronic conditions afflicting some of the most creative players in the game.

‘You can have a couple of different things at play,’ Smith told Metro. ‘Your abdominal wall which goes all the way down to your pubis bone, your groin or adductors which cross over the lower part of your pelvis and you also have the ligaments and tendons around the two sides of your pelvis. Pubalgia is a type of dysfunction there.

‘That dysfunction could be you have some sort of weakness in the muscle strength on one side of your groin or adductors. It could be that you have an irritation of the tendons on the adductors or it could be, due to a muscular weakness or imbalance, that you have inflammation of the pelvis itself or the actual pubic joint. The source can be from any of those things.’

It is a complex injury and, as Palmer’s stop-start season demonstrates, can be highly disruptive. But with the right game management and rehabilitation programme, it is something that can be managed.   

‘The challenge for a professional footballer is they are running, kicking, tackling, turning and jumping all the time so their pelvis is going through lots of movement. Everything comes through there. All their force comes through there so everything you do is going to cause some level of friction or irritation.

‘It is not like a hamstring where that is torn and you can’t run, you can manage through something like this at certain grades or levels. But then it can get irritated. So it comes down to  how you treat it and, giving it enough rest. We know with Cole Palmer this is something they [Chelsea] have been managing throughout the season. It always depends on the severity of it but I think we can surmise from how much he has played recently that it is working.’

Is surgery the answer for Palmer?

Pubalgia is not a condition that disappears overnight and while surgery may once have been deemed a solution, modern approaches tend to favour alternative methods on the training ground and in the gym. Treating the condition relies on a huge amount of work for players like Palmer and the medical staff working around them, with managing their workload central to keeping them fit for as long and as frequently as possible.

‘Depending on the source, we have seen surgical interventions,’ Smith said. That was a more traditional approach but a more modern approach would be to continue to treat it conservatively with a lot of rehab. It is all about trying to find the right balance.’

When it comes to week-to-week treatment, Smith continued: ‘Managing workload is a big part of it. Rest, recovery, strength conditioning and trying to not cause too much irritation is one aspect. But they will be looking at the source of why this is happening.

‘If it is a tendon issue, there would be specific rehab measures to take. If it’s a muscular imbalance, they would be assessing those imbalances and have a strengthening programme in place to assess improvement. If it’s a joint related issue they might have something different. But in every one of those cases it will involve rest and some kind of manual therapy or treatment and rehabilitation.’

Why Man Utd will be wary of Palmer’s record

Palmer’s most challenging season at Chelsea yet has seen him linked with a sensational move to Manchester United, with reports suggesting the Mancunian is unsettled in west London. With a return to Manchester City not currently an option for him, Old Trafford could offer him the home comforts he misses.

United could soon have a vacancy to fill in their no10 role. Bruno Fernandes, restored to his best position under Michael Carrick, has cast doubt over his long-term future at the club and it may need an eye-watering new contract to retain his services.

Aside from his outstanding goal and assists output, Fernandes’ biggest value is his relentless fitness levels and match availability.

The United captain missed three games with a hamstring injury at the turn of the year before making a quicker than expected return against Burnley – typically marking it with an assist. Discounting suspensions and illness, Fernandes did not miss a single Premier League game through injury during his first four years at the club. In 312 appearances, he has missed five games through injury.

Only a small number of players can match that robust availability and when the time does come to replace Fernandes, United will want someone who can be ever-present.

Palmer may or may not be that man – it would take a colossal fee to prise him away from Stamford Bridge, not to mention United’s priorities lie elsewhere this summer.

Bis record over the last six months may suggest Palmer would struggle to be that omnipresent figure at Old Trafford. His condition has required plenty of game management but it does not automatically restrict how often he can play. And in an age where squad rotation is so fundamental for every player, not every player will be like Fernandes.

Asked whether players with Palmer’s condition can expect to play twice or even three times a week, Smith said: ‘It’s hard for us to guess. It depends on how severe it is. But modern expectations have become, regardless if they are injured are not, that not everyone is going to be playing three times a week.

‘The levels of performance that teams want to maintain sees managers and their coaching staff rotating their players regardless. So for players dealing with this, there will be a smart strategy in place to get the right performance level out of them and balance that specific issue. And with Palmer, Chelsea have done a very good job with that.’

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Uyghur activists living in exile in London have accused Sir Keir Starmer of turning a blind eye to ‘genocide’ by visiting China for trade talks.

The Prime Minister has become the first UK leader to visit China since 2018, despite backing calls five years ago for China’s treatment of the Uyghur minority to be formally recognised as genocide.

Rahima Mahmut and Aziz Isa Elkun say they feel ‘betrayed’ by Starmer’s ‘U-turn’ attempts to bolster economic ties with the Asian power during the three-day trip.

Rahima told Metro: ‘Claiming economic benefit while shaking hands with those responsible for mass repression sends a devastating message to victims.’

Metro understands Keir Starmer raised the treatment of the Uyghur people, as well as the detention of pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, in talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing today.

China has detained the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population in the north-west region of Xinjiang for years and has faced allegations of torture, forced labour and sexual abuse.

Numerous bodies, including the United States State Department and the UK-based Uyghur Tribunal, have labelled their actions a genocide, but China strongly denies these accusations.

While Keir Starmer was leader of the opposition, Labour backed a Commons motion that declared China’s conduct genocide and vowed to make sure Britain ‘never turns a blind eye to genocide’.

But Rahima, who fled China in 2000 to live in the UK, says the prime minister is doing just that with his ‘cost three-day visit’ to China.

The executive director of Stop Uyghur Genocide said: ‘For the Uyghur community, this trip is deeply troubling. It is very disappointing.

‘When Labour was in opposition, senior ministers promised a tougher stance on China. That moral clarity appears to have been abandoned in favour of pragmatic engagement and trade rhetoric.’

Rahima said that she has had no contact with her family members in China since January 2017.

Her last phone call was with her brother, who ‘bravely’ answered the phone and told her ‘Leave us in God’s hand’.

Since then, she’s learned that he was put inside three different camps for over two years.

Rahima claims other family members have died in Chinese detention.

The campaigner said she had ‘high hopes’ when the Labour government came to power in 2024 after a track record of standing up for the Uygher people.

This included a pledge by then Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy to seek recognition of China’s actions as genocide through the international courts.

She is now devastated the government has ‘abandoned its values and moral leadership’, saying it will only encourage China to continue repression of the Uyghur people.

Rahima added: ‘This trip is a propaganda opportunity for the Chinese government to claim that everything is normal.

‘When there are no consequences, then it will continue.’

In 2022, UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said allegations of torture, ill-treatment and other human rights abuses were ‘credible’.

Starmer’s visit to China comes just seven days after the United Nations Human Rights Commission again expressed ‘deep concern’ about ‘persistent allegations of forced labour’ against Uyghur and other minority groups.

Experts appointed by the commission also pointed to reports that Uyghur people have been ‘subjected to systematic monitoring, surveillance and exploitation.’

Aziz Isa Elkun, a Uyghur who is living in exile from Xinjiang after leaving in 1999, has said the British government ‘cannot do normal business with a country committing genocide’.

The activist told Metro: ‘Shame on him. Shame on Labour. Labour is meant ot be concerned about human rights and be on the side of oppressed people.

‘I feel betrayed. I feel betrayed for humanity.’

He called on the prime minister to raise the Uyghur situation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which Metro understands he did do.

Aziz added: ‘Starmer must ask Xi Jinping to release all Uyghur detainees, who are innocent Chinese citizens. Ask him to give Uyghurs fundamental human rights.

‘He must ask about the forced labour of Uyghurs and the travel restrictions.’

Aziz spent seven years not knowing whether his mother Hepizikhan was alive after she was placed in a camp in  Xinjiang province in 2018.

She was released around six months later, but Aziz he has no way to contact her independently.

The last time they spoke was last year when a Chinese policeman called him and handed over the phone to his mum.

‘They are not allowed to speak freely,’ he says, ‘they cannot tell me about what they experienced in the camps.’

Aziz also described how just three years after his father died in 2017, he saw on Google Earth that their family home had been flattened.

As part of Starmer’s visit to China, both countries have agreed that UK citizens visiting China on business or as tourists will be able to travel visa-free for trips under 30 days.

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will also invest £10.9bn in China until 2030.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: ‘The Prime Minister met the Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing today.

‘The Prime Minister thanked the President for a warm welcome to China, and both leaders affirmed their shared commitment to building a consistent, long-term, and strategic partnership that will benefit both countries.

‘They agreed they would continue to enhance co-operation on areas of mutual interest, while maintaining frank and open dialogue on areas of disagreement. The Prime Minister raised areas of concern to the United Kingdom. 

‘Accompanied by a delegation of nearly 60 of Britain’s biggest businesses and cultural organisations on his visit, the Prime Minister added that he hoped new partnerships could be forged and new opportunities unlocked for them in China. 

‘Growth and prosperity at home is directly linked to our engagement with the world’s biggest powers abroad, the Prime Minister added. 

‘The Prime Minister said he looked forward to the rest of his visit.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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Her final storyline will play out in the summer.

CLEVELAND — Lakers star LeBron James wiped tears from his eyes before tucking his face in his jerseys while the Cavaliers played a tribute video of the four-time NBA MVP during the first stoppage in the first quarter of Wednesday’s blowout loss at Rocket Arena.  And before he got off the bench to get back...