Out of Play
Homeless mum Arsenal star Ainsley Maitland-Niles left sleeping in freezing crate
THE homeless mum of £30,000-a-week Arsenal star Ainsley Maitland-Niles is sleeping in a freezing 10ft square metal storage crate.
Jule Niles, 38, says Ainsley, 20, refuses to help her get a flat, adding: “The money’s gone to his head.”
So while he shares a luxury £700,000 apartment with brother Cordi she has to sneak past staff at the Big Yellow Storage warehouse to sleep in the freezing container.
Jule said she began living in the box three months ago after her relationship broke down with Ainsley, 20, who is rated at £15million.
She added: “It’s a metal container with no windows or carpet. There is no toilet or washing facilities.
“My son Ainsley could buy me a flat with two weeks or two month’s wages.
“But the money’s gone to his head and I’m in this position.
“My son plays for Arsenal and I am homeless and in a storage unit.
“It’s not a home. I know what home feels like — to be able to shower, brush your teeth and sit in your room.
“All that I miss — but most of all I miss my family.
“It’s horrible. I just want to know what I’ve done wrong.”
Jule said she lives in fear that warehouse staff will realise she is sleeping in the container and turn her out on the street.
She said: “I wait until everyone has gone home and slip into the unit when it is dark. It is heartbreaking.
“The area is covered in snow and it’s not been above freezing for days. I heard a homeless man died here overnight on Thursday.”
Jule sat on a bare mattress on the container’s floor and told how she struggled as a single mum to raise Ainsley and charity worker Cordi in council houses in and around Ilford, East London.
All around her are bags of family photos, including dog-eared pictures of Ainsley playing football as a toddler.
Pushed into a box are his first contracts with the Gunners.
Jule told how when the boys were growing up she was sometimes so poor that she went hungry so they could eat.
Ainsley was spotted by Arsenal scouts and signed for the club’s academy when he was six.
All her sacrifices appeared to have paid off when in December 2014 he made his debut for The Gunners aged 17 in the Champions League against Galatasaray.
Four days later he made his Premier League debut in a 4-1 victory over Newcastle United.
Afterwards he paid tribute to God and his mum in an interview on Arsenal’s website.
He said: “I want to thank my family and God mostly for putting me here.”
Asked what he would do with his match shirt, he said: “I think I’ll frame it and give it to my mum.”
This season Ainsley, who is a midfielder, winger or right back, has played nine league and eight European games for the Gunners.
The North London club are keen to secure the youngster, who has represented England from Under-17 to Under-21 level, on a long-term contract that could double his annual £1.5million wages.
He and Cordi, 23, currently live in a new development in upmarket Finchley, North London.
Jule’s padlocked crate is in an industrial unit just off the M25 in Hertfordshire.
When Ainsley’s career took off he initially paid the rent so he, Jule and Cordi could live in a three-bedroom home near Arsenal’s training centre in Hertfordshire.
But in March 2015 Jule had a bust-up with staff there during a meeting to discuss Ainsley’s future.
She was accused of clashing with the club’s chief negotiator Dick Law and arrested amid claims the row had turned violent.
Jule was released and police took no action.
The next year Ainsley joined Ipswich on loan.
Jule was accused of leaving an X-rated message on manager Mick McCarthy’s phone after he refused to let the teenager attend an England kit launch.
She denies the claims.
Soon after Jule went on an extended break to Australia, paid for by her son.
When she returned in August 2016, Ainsley picked her up from the airport.
But Jule said she noticed both her sons were being “off” with her.
She claims that days later she woke to find they had moved out of the home with their belongings.
Jule raced to Arsenal’s training ground and waited for Ainsley.
He gave her a lift back to the house but as they parted he said: “I just want to live my life.”
Jule is convinced he had been advised to distance himself from her.
The mum was given six months to find a new home — and when she could not she was kicked out.
She said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was devastated.”
Jule, a childcare worker, said she could not find anywhere to rent because she is on a zero-hours contract and her income is irregular. And she said she could not find anyone to stand as a guarantor on a flat.
As she grew up in care she has no family to turn to other than her sons.
Jule said: “I had to leave the family home because it was beyond what I could afford. Ainsley refused to be a guarantor for me.”
She lived for a while out of the back of a van and slept on sofas in friends’ homes.
But in December she moved into the container, which she had already paid rent on in advance.
She spent Christmas Day there alone, getting lunch at a nearby homeless centre.
Now she spends her days sitting in coffee shops or the local library to stay warm.
Jule said she sent pictures of her living at the Big Yellow unit to both her sons.
She said Ainsley replied saying: “What’s your situation?”
He offered her £1,200 but after that she heard nothing.
“Jule said that since the rift Ainsley has occasionally sent her money, giving hundreds of pounds each time.
But she added: “I believe there are very dark forces operating within football.
“They want to see me down, because the longer Ainsley is away from me the less of a positive influence I can exert over him.
“There are times when I have sat on my own and cried.
“It wouldn’t matter if Ainsley lost all the money tomorrow. He and Cordi are my sons and I love them. I just want them to know that.”
Jule has spent the past three nights in a hotel paid for by The Sun on Sunday after we became aware of her plight.
A source close to Ainsley said he was unaware Jule was living in a storage container.
The source said he has given her money — and continues to do so.
Arsenal and Maitland-Niles declined to comment.
A night guard at Ibuowo Estate, Okinni, Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, on Saturday, allegedly shot dead a 40-year-old man, Badmus Mohammed.
The guard, Rasaq Moshood, DAILY POST gathered, shot Mohammed, a tenant, who is popularly called Lasgidi dead with his dane gun.
His Landlord, Kazeem Jimoh told DAILY POST that he was at a bar with the deceased till midnight on Friday, before he was called on phone about his death.
According to Kazeem, his tenant was killed at the front of the house, while his door was left open.
“I and Kazeem were at a bar till past 12 when I left him.
“I didn’t sleep at home but I got a call around 1 a.m. that Lasgidi was killed by a guard. When i got home, I saw his door open, while his corpse was outside,” he said.
The Police spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola confirmed the incident.
She noted that three night guards have been arrested with their dane guns.
According to her, “one Babatunde Olumide, the Chairman of Ibuowo Estate Okinni reported at dada Estate Divisional Police Hqts., that their night guard, one Moshood Rasaq used his dane gun to shoot one Mohammed Badmus, aged 40 years and he died instantly.
“Suspect has been arrested, gun used has been recovered, while the corpse has been taken to UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital morgue for autopsy.”
Opalola added that the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation.
Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after 183 days in space, ending China’s longest crewed mission as it continues its quest to become a major space power.
The Shenzhou-13 spacecraft was the latest mission in Beijing’s drive to rival the United States, after landing a rover on Mars and sending probes to the Moon.
Live footage from state broadcaster CCTV showed the capsule landing in a cloud of dust, with the ground crew who had kept clear of the landing site rushing in helicopters to reach the capsule.
The two men and one woman — Zhai Zhigang, Ye Guangfu and Wang Yaping — returned to Earth shortly before 10 am Beijing time (0200 GMT), after six months aboard the Tianhe core module of China’s Tiangong space station.
Ground crew applauded as the astronauts each took turns to report that they were in good physical condition.
Zhai was the first to emerge from the capsule roughly 45 minutes after the landing, waving and grinning at cameras as he was lifted by the ground crew into a specially designed chair before being bundled into a blanket.
“I’m proud of our heroic country,” Zhai said in an interview with CCTV shortly after leaving the capsule. “I feel extremely good.”
The trio originally launched in the Shenzhou-13 from China’s northwestern Gobi Desert last October, as the second of four crewed missions during 2021-2022 sent to assemble the country’s first permanent space station — Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace.”
Wang became the first Chinese woman to spacewalk last November, as she and her colleague Zhai installed space station equipment during a six-hour stint.
Mission commander Zhai, 55, is a former fighter pilot who performed China’s first spacewalk in 2008, while Ye is a People’s Liberation Army pilot.
The trio have completed two spacewalks, carried out numerous scientific experiments, set up equipment and tested technologies for future construction during their time in orbit.
The astronauts spent the past few weeks tidying up and preparing the cabin facilities and equipment for the crew of the incoming Shenzhou-14, expected to be launched in the coming months.
China’s previous record spaceflight mission length was set by last year’s Shenzhou-12 deployment, which lasted 92 days.
Six months will become the normal astronaut residence period aboard the Chinese space station, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Space race
The world’s second-largest economy has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a permanently crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the Moon.
The country has come a long way in catching up with the United States and Russia, whose astronauts and cosmonauts have decades of experience in space exploration.
But under Chinese President Xi Jinping, the country’s plans for its heavily-promoted “space dream” have been put into overdrive.
Besides a space station, Beijing is also planning to build a base on the Moon, and the country’s National Space Administration said it aims to launch a crewed lunar mission by 2029.
China has been excluded from the International Space Station since 2011 when the US banned NASA from engaging with the country.
While China does not plan to use its space station for global cooperation on the scale of the ISS, Beijing has said it is open to foreign collaboration although the scope of that cooperation is not yet clear.
The ISS is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA has said it could remain functional until 2030.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday with explosions heard soon after across the country and its foreign minister warning a “full-scale invasion” was underway.
Weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter Putin, who had massed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along the borders of Ukraine.
“I have made the decision of a military operation,” Putin said in a surprise television announcement that triggered immediate condemnation from US President Joe Biden and sent global financial markets into turmoil.
Shortly after the announcement, explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, according to AFP correspondents.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his address to the nation at the Kremlin in Moscow on February 21, 2022. Alexey NIKOLSKY / Sputnik / AFP
Putin called on Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms and justified the operation by claiming the government was overseeing a “genocide” in the east of the country.
The Kremlin had earlier said rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv.
The extent of Thursday’s attacks was not immediately clear, but Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the worst-case scenario was playing out.
“Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes,” Kuleba tweeted.
“This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
Biden immediately warned of “consequences” for Russia and that there would be a “catastrophic loss of life and human suffering”.
NATO’s chief condemned Russia’s “reckless and unprovoked attack” on Ukraine.
Putin’s move came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional appeal late on Wednesday night to Russians not to support a “major war in Europe”.
Speaking Russian, Zelensky said that the people of Russia were being lied to about Ukraine.
Zelensky said he had tried to call Putin but there was “no answer, only silence”, adding that Moscow now had around 200,000 soldiers near Ukraine’s borders.
Earlier on Wednesday the separatist leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk sent separate letters to Putin, asking him to “help them repel Ukraine’s aggression”, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The two letters were published by Russian state media and were both dated February 22.
Their appeals came after Putin recognised their independence and signed friendship treaties with them that include defence deals.
– ‘Moment of peril’ –
Putin had for weeks defied a barrage of international criticism over the crisis, with some Western leaders saying he was no longer rational.
His announcement of the military operation came ahead of a last-ditch summit involving European Union leaders in Brussels planned for Thursday.
The 27-nation bloc had also imposed sanctions on Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and high-ranking figures including the commanders of Russia’s army, navy and air force, another part of the wave of Western punishment after Putin sought to rewrite Ukraine’s borders.
The United Nations Security Council met late Wednesday for its second emergency session in three days over the crisis, with a personal plea there by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Putin going unheeded.
“President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine, give peace a chance, too many people have already died,” Guterres said.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned that an all-out Russian invasion could displace five million people, triggering a new European refugee crisis.
Before Putin’s announcement, Ukraine had urged its approximately three million citizens living in Russia to leave.
“We are united in believing that the future of European security is being decided right now, here in our home, in Ukraine,” President Zelensky said during a joint media appearance with the visiting leaders of Poland and Lithuania.
Western capitals said Russia had amassed 150,000 troops in combat formations on Ukraine’s borders with Russia, Belarus and Russian-occupied Crimea and on warships in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has around 200,000 military personnel, and could call up to 250,000 reservists.
Moscow’s total forces are much larger — around a million active-duty personnel — and have been modernised and re-armed in recent years.
– High cost of war –
But Ukraine has received advanced anti-tank weapons and some drones from NATO members. More have been promised as the allies try to deter a Russian attack or at least make it costly.
Shelling had intensified in recent days between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists — a Ukrainian soldier was killed on Wednesday, the sixth in four days — and civilians living near the front were fearful.
Dmitry Maksimenko, a 27-year-old coal miner from government-held Krasnogorivka, told AFP that he was shocked when his wife came to tell him that Putin had recognised the two Russian-backed separatist enclaves.
“She said: ‘Have you heard the news?’. How could I have known? There’s no electricity, never mind internet. I don’t know what is going to happen next, but to be honest, I’m afraid,” he said.
In a Russian village around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the border, AFP reporters saw military equipment including rocket launchers, howitzers and fuel tanks mounted on trains stretching for hundreds of metres.
Russia has long demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining the NATO alliance and that US troops pull out from Eastern Europe.
Speaking to journalists, Putin on Tuesday set out a number of stringent conditions if the West wanted to de-escalate the crisis, saying Ukraine should drop its NATO ambition and become neutral.
Washington Wednesday announced sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which Germany had earlier effectively suspended by halting certification.
Australia, Britain, Japan and the European Union have all also announced sanctions.
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