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Former Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest midfielder Chris Bart-Williams has died at the age of 49, Sheffield Wednesday has announced. The club said he died in the US where he was a mentor and a coach. “Bart-Williams’ untimely passing mirrors that of his manager at Hillsborough Trevor Francis, who also died on this, one of the darkest days in our long history,” a statement from the club said. “Our thoughts are with Chris’ and Trevor’s families and friends at this devastating time.” The news came as the Owls and Forest were coming to terms with the death of former striker Trevor Francis, who was 69. Sierra Leone-born Bart-Williams, who began his career as a trainee at Leyton Orient, made more than 150 appearances for Wednesday, for whom he played in the Premier League as a teenager, before earning a £2.5million move to the City Ground in July 1995. He played 248 games for Forest and later had spells with Charlton and Ipswich before moving into coaching in the United States following his retirement as a player, initially working in women’s college football. Describing himself on his social media accounts as “coach, college recruiter, former footballer”, Bart-Williams was owner and chief executive officer of US College Soccer recruiting agency CBW Soccer Elite, working with college-bound players. His LinkedIn profile reads: “As a retired athlete with 35 years of international playing and coaching experience, I’m passionate about developing young adults into highly successful soccer players. “My goal is to empower kids to have the confidence and technical ability to excel in soccer while learning valuable lessons in responsibility and teamwork that will prepare them for a lifetime of success. Everything I do is designed to maximize athletes’ unique potential and propel them to their personal best in soccer and in life.” In February last year, Florida-based Dade County announced Bart-Williams had been appointed as its head coach to oversee all its football programmes. News of his death was greeted with shock by former team-mate Mark Crossley. The goalkeeper, who played with Bart-Williams at Forest, tweeted: “Devastating and I’m so upset to hear the news of Trevor Francis passing and my former team mate Chris Bart Williams, both so young, it is so sad , RIP Trevor and Chris.” Ipswich also offered their condolences, posting: “The club is saddened to learn of the passing of former player Chris Bart-Williams. Once a Blue, always a Blue.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live ‘Beyond legendary’ – Jude Bellingham pays heartfelt tribute to Trevor Francis Football remembers Trevor Francis – Monday’s sporting social James Anderson could play until he’s 50, says Saqib Mahmood

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A bride has requested a full refund after she discovered that her husband had slept with their wedding photographer. The heartbroken woman demanded her money back, saying that her man had bedded the 20-year-old snapper who he met at their big day. In a painful slap of cruel irony, she even had photographic evidence to prove the affair. However, her reimbursement request wasn’t lodged with the offending 20-year-old, but with another photographer – the man who hired her for the occasion. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The professional, who calls himself Wedding Dude, explained his predicament in a Reddit post, writing: “Earlier this summer I shot a wedding. My typical second shooter couldn’t make it, so I found someone else online who I felt did good work. “Anyways her [sic] and I did the wedding, and everything seemed business as usual. Photos were edited, delivered to client, all was good.” However, he continued: “Then this morning I got an email from the bride. She was wanting a refund because the lady I had hired as second shooter for the day ended up sleeping with her husband at some point after the wedding, and she also included photos from his phone to prove it.” Addressing his community on the Wedding Photography sub-Reddit, he then asked: “I haven't responded yet, but what's the best thing to do here? “She hired me for a job and the job was completed and product was delivered. But I also feel like this would be as if I were a professional dog walker who walked a client's dog, then came back and shot it later.” But, he pointed out: “Of course the second shooter is considered a private contractor and not an employee....” Wrapping up his story, he asked: “What is the best thing to do here? I really feel for this lady, but that's also a lot of money to have to give back for work that was done.” Fellow Redditors were quick to support Wedding Dude, insisting he shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s mistakes. “This sounds harsh, but her husband was going to cheat on her regardless of who your second shooter was. It’s not your fault that she married him,” one wrote. “Tell them you are sorry to hear that but there isn’t a way for you to refund for a service that has been completed per your contract,” recommended another, advising him to reply: “I cannot refund you because something unfortunate happened that I had no control over,” they added. Another penned a passionate defence of photographers’ rights as service providers, writing: “How about you had been the bartender... ‘Hey bartender, my husband got drunk with your booze and cheated on me, give me a refund!’ Lol no, they wouldn't even ask. It doesn't happen with other vendors. “Clients keep asking for unreasonable refunds to photographers because we keep enabling that behaviour. Job completed and delivered. You can't take out the eggs after the cake was baked.” Agreeing, another added: “We are human, and can feel remorse for others, but we are also a business. Unless there were serious issues with the work or deliverables, no person in their right mind would expect to get their money back. “If she wants a refund for a wedding service, she can sue her ex-husband. This is an open and shut no.” However, another Redditor was quick to refute their recommendations, writing: “I don't know what the people here are talking about, I would refund her fully. If she shares this story all over the place, online, reviews, podcasts, it is YOUR name on the photography contract.” They went on: “I would say, ‘I am totally sorry this happened, I had no idea. Even though I did my job properly I am going to refund you just because of the situation and I feel for you. Please also sign this NDA that you agree not to leave me a bad review of anything because of this person’. At the end of the day hiring people, especially that you don't know, its all on you.” They continued: “I have refunded weddings for less than this because reputation is everything and its just not worth it, before adding: “Also don't hire randoms from the internet.” Another endorsed this as the “smartest answer here,” stressing: “Your name is your most valuable asset. Why deliberately destroy it over a point of principle?” And a third commented: “Imagine that story being the second Google result for your business. Honesty, not worth the risk. Sometimes, through no fault of our own, we have to pay for problems to go away.” Meanwhile, others offered more jokey recommendations as to how he should respond, with one suggesting: “Offer her a discount on her next wedding.” Asked what the 20-year-old had to say when Wedding Dude confronted her about the matter, he said: “She denied it, then claimed he said he was in an open relationship.” He then offered more details on the photos the wife had sent him saying they were “pornographic in nature” and appeared to have been taken in a hotel room. One user asked if the tryst had begun “on the clock” to which he replied: “Not sure if any affair happened on the clock but he certainly established a relationship of sorts then. All the photos are from after the wedding.” It’s not clear whether he now plans to refund the devastated bride or not. Good luck to them both, we say. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and anti-woke asset manager turned Republican presidential hopeful, has a plan for ending Russia's year-and-a-half war on Ukraine – sort of. The 38-year-old political newcomer will unveil what he describes as a plan to bring the brutal conflict to a close by halting American support for Kyiv and "negotiating a peace treaty with Russia that achieves a vital US security objective: ceasing Russia's growing military alliance with China". In remarks to be delivered on Friday in New Hampshire to the Belknap County GOP Lincoln Day, Mr Ramaswamy will say his plan is the mirror-image approach of the late US president Richard Nixon's effort to break up the Soviet Union's alliance with the People's Republic of China, citing what he describes as Russian President Vladimir Putin's status as "the new Mao". The Independent obtained a copy of his speech ahead of Friday's event. It cites a two-decade-old treaty between Russia and the PRC, as well as the "no limits" partnership unveiled by Mr Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping as evidence that a Sino-Russian alliance "presents the greatest military risk the US has ever faced" and accuses President Joe Biden of "pushing Russia into a closer military alliance with China which increases the risk of nuclear war" through his quarterbacking of US and Western support for Ukraine's defence. While Mr Ramaswamy's prepared remarks call his solution to the conflict a "peace treaty," what he lays out does not appear to meet the definition of the term. Peace treaties, by and large, represent final settlements to armed conflicts. Famous examples include the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the First World War, and the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco that formally brought an end to the Second World War. What he instead proposes is an analogue to United Nations-enforced armistice that has been in force on the Korean Peninsula since 1953. Under the terms of his plan, Kyiv would legitimise Russia's occupation of Ukraine's Donbas region by ceding it to Russia. The US and the West would end all sanctions on Russia, cease defence assistance to Ukraine, and Nato would prohibit Ukraine from ever becoming a member of the 31-nation defensive pact. The alliance would also roll back troop deployments that have taken place on its eastern frontier since 2016 – including closing all bases on Nato territory in Eastern Europe. In return, he proposes that Russia would exit its 2001 treaty with China, end the "no limits" partnership while ceasing any military cooperation with Beijing, rejoin the New START arms control treaty, withdraw any forces deployed in Latin America and remove "all nuclear weapons and delivery capabilities" from Belarus, any Ukrainian territory it has annexed, as well as the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, which is Russia's only ice-free port for its Baltic Fleet. His prepared remarks do not offer any evidence that Russia would be willing to cease cooperation with China or give up its military presence in Kaliningrad, which has housed a major naval base since the Soviet era. Nor does he provide any evidence to support his claim that Moscow would be willing to cut off decades of warm relations with Beijing in return for an end to Western sanctions, particularly since the Sino-Russian relationship has existed since the dawn of the 21st century. Despite multiple credible reports from US officials and other Western governments which say Kyiv's defence forces have dealt a major blow to Russia's conventional warfare capability, he plans to say that he believes Ukraine "will not defeat Russia militarily" without "extraordinary intervention" on the part of the United States, which he claims would lessen America's ability to respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. "Under my peace plan, Ukraine will still emerge with its sovereignty intact and Russia permanently diminished as a foe. Ukraine's best path to preserving its own security is to accept a US-negotiated agreement backstopped by Russian commitments to the US," he will say. The rollout of his plan for the Ukraine conflict represents the political neophyte's first foray into foreign policy waters since he launched his presidential campaign earlier this year. His opposition to continuing US defence assistance to Kyiv is in line with much of the pro-Trump wing of the GOP, which tends to view Russia far more favourably than the general US population. In a press release, the Democratic National Committee condemned the plan as "siding against our ally as Vladimir Putin wages an unjust and violent war in Ukraine" and derided Mr Ramaswamy as a "MAGA Republican presidential hopeful". "Vivek Ramaswamy is promising to end America's support of Ukraine – posing a threat to our allies on the ground and democracy itself," the DNC said. The DNC also pointed out that Mr Ramaswamy's position syncs up with much of the GOP presidential field, including the two highest-polling candidates: Mr Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Mr Trump, who has long professed an affinity for Mr Putin and has described him in positive terms despite his having ordered an unprovoked invasion of another country, praised the war crime-laden invasion as "savvy" and "genius" just days after Russian tanks crossed over the Ukrainian border. Mr DeSantis, who is a distant runner-up to Mr Trump in most polls of the GOP primary electorate, downplayed war – the largest land-based conflict on the European continent since 1945 – as a "territorial dispute" and a flight over "borderlands". But James Stavridis, a retired four-star US Navy admiral who served as Nato's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe from 2009 to 2013, was far more generous in his reaction to the plan. Mr Stavridis told The Independent in an email that he is "all for creative ideas in international diplomacy" and said he "would love to be able to say that there is a chance of this type of settlement occurring". But he added that he could not say there would be such a chance. For one, the former Nato commander said Mr Putin is "so deeply invested in the relationship with China" that there is "zero chance" he'd abandon his partnership with Mr Xi. He added that in his estimation, Russia would "never" agree to give up Kaliningrad as a base for nuclear-capable forces, and said there is also no chance that Kyiv would agree to cede approximately 20 per cent of its territory to Moscow. "Nor do I think that the west would be willing to completely walk away from Ukraine and deny providing them appropriate security guarantees, or even membership in NATO. The red lines for both sides are significant," he said. But Mr Stavridis did say he believes a "Korean-style armistice" is the most likely outcome of the 14-month-old conflict, with the caveat that "it's too soon to know where those boundary lines might be or where the trade-offs could occur". "Our job in the west is obvious, which is to give the Ukrainians everything they need in terms of material and training, so they can be at the best position when the negotiations ultimately begin," he said, adding later that "one thing [he knows] for sure" is that the Ukraine war presents "deeply complex issues with enormous, competing equities on all sides," with the chances of a simple settlement "within 24 hours" as Mr Trump suggested at a recent CNN town hall "approach[ing] negative infinity". While the ex-Navy admiral was measured in his evaluation of Mr Ramaswamy’s plan, a prominent GOP foreign policy veteran was far less generous when asked to opine on his proposal. Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime member of the upper’s chamber’s foreign relations committee, told The Independent on Thursday that the anti-woke businessman’s plan amounted to “rewarding aggression” and called him “somebody who really doesn’t understand how the world works”. He added that rewarding Mr Putin for his aggression would result in China feeling empowered to take Taiwan. “You know, I’m glad people don’t think that way when it came to our freedom,” he said. “Go study history and give me an example where aggression was rewarded where you got less of it”. Senior Washington Correspondent Eric Garcia contributed reporting from Capitol Hill Read More Trump's welcome of Scott into 2024 race shows his calculus: The more GOP rivals, the better for him Zelensky salutes ‘powerful support’ from allies at Moldova summit – as he increases pressure over jets A six-year-old Ukrainian girl saved by adoption or a murderous adult imposter: Who really is Natalia Grace? The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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