Welsh war horse's heroics revealed in actor's book

Lucy Owen & Oscar Edwards
BBC News

Martin Clunes' new book details real-life tales of animal heroism, loyalty and companionship

Actor Martin Clunes has praised a Welsh war horse who survived the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, describing the blind sacrifice of animals in battle as "heartbreaking".

Sir Briggs, a champion steeplechaser who belonged to Newport landowner Lord Tredegar, was transported to Russia in the 1850s for battle.

The Doc Martin and Men Behaving Badly star feels sad many horses went into battle with no idea of what awaited them, he told Lucy Owen on BBC Radio Wales.

His new book details real-life tales of animal heroism, loyalty and companionship - and how Sir Briggs even went on to win races again after surviving the war against huge odds.

Animal-lover Clunes has kept horses for many years - and even took giant Clydesdale Bruce to meet hospice patients to cheer them up.

"We've given horses medals for gallantry, put up statues in their honour and venerated them for their service," he said.

"I feel sad when I think of all the horses who went into battle with no idea of what awaited them."

While Sir Briggs was accustomed to jumping fences and ditches in races, his fate was sealed when his owner, Godfrey Morgan or Lord Tredegar, took command of a squadron during the Crimean War.

He was then transported to Russia ready for battle - and rode in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.

Penguin Books
Martin Clunes with his first horse Chester

It was part of the Battle of Balaclava when British light cavalry took on Russian forces, and is remembered in detail partly because of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s popular poem of the same name.

In it, the poet praised the bravery of the men as they rode into the “valley of death".

Due to a miscommunication of orders, on 25 October 1854, the Light Brigade, which included the 17th Lancers led by Captain Morgan on Sir Briggs, was ordered to attack, and charged directly into Russian artillery fire.

Captain Morgan is quoted by the Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum describing the battle, as saying: "Our pace increased amidst the round shot and shell, whistling and cracking overhead.

"Horses and men dropped by scores every yard."

Describing riding Sir Briggs during the charge, he added: "Digging my spurs in my horse's sides he went at it as he has often gone at the big fences in Monmouthshire."

Despite reaching Russian positions, the Light Brigade had to retreat, making their way back through the "Valley of Death" before reaching safety.

The British Army Museum described it as "one of Britain’s most spectacular military disasters".
Advertisement

National Army Museum
Welsh war horse Sir Briggs survived the Charge of the Light Brigade

Captain Morgan had another challenge for Sir Briggs before returning home.

"They survived the Charge of the Light Brigade, which not a lot of people did," Clunes said.

"Sir Briggs got a little scratch... but before coming home he [Captain Morgan] entered him in a quick steeplechase out in France, which he won."

Sir Briggs returned home and lived a long and happy retirement, before he died aged 28.

He is buried in the grounds of Tredegar House in Newport, the Morgan family home, where his memorial stone can be seen to this day.
Advertisement

National Trust Cymru
An exact replica of Sir Briggs has been hand-woven by willow artist Sarah Hatton to commemorate the battle


Tredegar House, which is now run by the National Trust Cymru, has commemorated the 170th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

More than 4,000 hand-made poppies were draped over an exact replica of Godfrey Sir Briggs.

The willow tribute commemorates the military past of those who have lived and worked at Tredegar House.

National Trust Cymru said it also "serves as a poignant reminder of the courage and sacrifice of all who have served their country".

Traces of ancient geothermal springs find in meteorite from Mars

23 November 2024 18:41 (UTC+04:00)


By Alimat Aliyeva

Australian and European planetary scientists have found grains of minerals in the famous Martian meteorite "Black Beauty" that originated on Mars about 4.45 billion years ago, as a result of the contact between hot rocks and very hot liquid water, Azernews reports.

"Colleagues now believe that hydrothermal systems were a key ingredient for the emergence of life on Earth. The discovery of their analogues on Mars indicates that, at the very early stages of the formation of its crust, hot liquid water was present on the surface of Mars, which was necessary for the evolution and maintenance of life," said Aaron Kavosi, senior researcher at Curtin University, whose words are quoted by the university's press service.
Scientists made this discovery while studying fragments of the meteorite "Black Beauty," which was discovered in the Moroccan part of the Sahara Desert in 2011. Subsequently, it fell into the hands of American collectors of "heavenly stones," who later transferred the find to planetary scientists, who assigned it the name NWA 7034.

Recently, scientists studied several fragments of "Black Beauty" and concluded that the meteorite is a fragment of the primary Martian crust, ejected from the surface of the planet about 5-10 million years ago. During their study of the meteorite's formation history, Australian researchers found several unusual deformed grains of zircons inside it—crystals of refractory rocks that form when they "ascend" to the surface of a planet.

When scientists tried to uncover the history of these crystals' formation, they found evidence that these zircons contained inclusions of iron, aluminum, sodium, and some other elements not typically found in such refractory mineral grains. Subsequent study of their structure and location indicated that these inclusions were the result of the zircons' contact with very hot water.

The temperature of this water, according to scientists' calculations, was about 500-800 degrees Celsius, suggesting the existence of hydrothermal vents on ancient Mars. These vents are believed to have been the main "factories" for the simplest organic molecules on ancient Earth. Their presence on Mars implies that, in the distant past, suitable conditions existed on the fourth planet of the Solar System for the origin of life, the scientists concluded.

Over the past two decades, planetary scientists have discovered a wealth of evidence that rivers, lakes, and entire oceans of fresh water existed on the surface of Mars in ancient times. According to current estimates, they contained about the same amount of water as the terrestrial Arctic Ocean. However, scientists cannot yet say for sure where this water went or when it appeared on the surface of the fourth planet in the Solar System.

France marks 80 years since Strasbourg's World War II liberation

French president pays tribute to WW2 veterans and victims of Nazi Germany

| AFP |

An army veteran (2ndR) walks past a US tank set up for the ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Strasbourg. Photo: Abdesslam MIRDASS / AFP.

French President Emmanuel Macron marked on Saturday the 80th anniversary of Free French troops liberating the eastern city of Strasbourg from Nazi occupation and called for overlooked victims of World War II to be honoured.

The president reviewed troops and attended a military ceremony at the Broglie Square in central Strasbourg, bowing before a monument to General Philippe Leclerc who led Free French troops into the city on November 23, 1944.


"When we knew the flag was up on the cathedral, we had reached our objective; freedom, freeing Alsace," said Roger Le Neures, a 101-year-old veteran of the fight present at the ceremony.

France's colours flew from the cathedral's spire during the ceremony in homage to the city's liberators.

Macron was also to visit Natzweiler-Struthof, around 60 kilometres west of Strasbourg, the only concentration camp built by the Nazis on French soil. Around 17,000 of the 50,000 people interned at Struthof and its satellite camps died or disappeared.

The president highlighted the fate of tens of thousands of Alsatian men forcibly enlisted into the German army.

"These children of Alsace... were captured, dressed in a uniform they loathed in the service of a cause that made them slaves, instruments of a crime that killed them too, and threatened with reprisals if they attempted to flee," he said.

The conscripts' "tragedy must be named, recognised and taught", Macron added.
'Against our will'

Alsace had been fought over for decades by the neighbours and was annexed by Germany following France's defeat in 1940.

The forced conscription is "something that's always been misunderstood", said 99-year-old Jean-Marie Hostert, a surviving member of the group known as "Malgre-nous" ("against our will").

"We didn't want to go" to fight for Germany, added Hostert, speaking during the Strasbourg commemorations in Strasbourg.

French colours fly from the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Strasbourg on Saturday. Photo: Abdesslam MIRDASS / AFP.

Some have tied the "Malgre-nous" group to the 1944 massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane, one of the worst mass killings of civilians by the Nazis in western Europe.

"Following the war, people wanted to highlight the memory of heroes, resistance fighters, everything that could bind France together again," said historian Christophe Woehrle.

"In that whole story, the 'Malgre-nous' are a bit of a stain. It's not glorious. It's not something you can build a national memory from," he added.
Resistance hero

Macron announced that scholar and Resistance fighter Marc Bloch, tortured and executed by the Gestapo in 1944, would be reinterred in the Pantheon — the Paris monument to France's greatest citizens.

Bloch would be honoured "for his work, his teaching and his courage," the president said, calling him a "man of the Englightenment in the army of the shadows" — the nickname for the French Resistance.

Born into a Jewish family, decorated First World War veteran Bloch revolutionised his field of medieval history by bringing in ideas from sociology, geography, psychology and economics.

His 1940 book L'Etrange Defaite ("The Strange Defeat"), only published after the war, blamed France's elites for failing to prepare adequately for war with Nazi Germany.

Bloch's family was "very moved" by the move to honour Bloch, his great-granddaughter Helene Seguret, 50, said following Macron's speech.


The family also asked Macron in a letter seen by AFP that "the far right in all its forms should be shut out of any participation in the ceremony" at the Pantheon.

Their request highlighted France's political divisions with the far-right National Rally — one of whose founding members had been in the Waffen-SS — is the single largest party in a fragmented parliament.

Trump picks America First Policy Institute chief as agriculture secretary

The America First Policy Institute is a right-leaning think tank whose personnel have worked closely with Trump's campaign to help shape policy for his incoming administration.

America First Policy Institute chief Brooke Rollins during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in New York. (Reuters/file)

Reuters
Washington, Nov 24, 2024 
Posted By: Vivek Kumar

In Short

Brooke to spearhead effort to protect farmers, says Donald Trump

America First Policy Institute worked closely with trump during poll campaign

Brook Rollins to guide negations on US-Mexico-Canada trade deal

US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Brooke Rollins, president of the America First Policy Institute, to be agriculture secretary.

"As our next Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke will spearhead the effort to protect American Farmers, who are truly the backbone of our Country," Trump said in a statement.

If confirmed by the Senate, Rollins would lead a 100,000-person agency with offices in every county in the country, whose remit includes farm and nutrition programmes, forestry, home and farm lending, food safety, rural development, agricultural research, trade and more. It had a budget of $437.2 billion in 2024.

The nominee's agenda would carry implications for American diets and wallets, both urban and rural. Department of Agriculture officials and staff negotiate trade deals, guide dietary recommendations, inspect meat, fight wildfires and support rural broadband, among other activities.

"Brooke’s commitment to support the American Farmer, defence of American Food Self-Sufficiency, and the restoration of Agriculture-dependent American Small Towns is second to none," Trump said in the statement.

The America First Policy Institute is a right-leaning think tank whose personnel have worked closely with Trump's campaign to help shape policy for his incoming administration. She chaired the Domestic Policy Council during Trump's first term.

As agriculture secretary, Rollins would advise the administration on how and whether to implement clean fuel tax credits for biofuels at a time when the sector is hoping to grow through the production of sustainable aviation fuel

The nominee would also guide next year's renegotiation of the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal, in the shadow of disputes over Mexico's attempt to bar imports of genetically modified corn and Canada's dairy import quotas.

Trump has said he again plans to institute sweeping tariffs that are likely to affect the farm sector.

He was considering offering the role to former US Senator Kelly Loeffler, a staunch ally whom he chose to co-chair his inaugural committee, CNN reported on Friday.

New Yorkers protect wild turkey roaming the city

Guatemalan journalist dedicates career to giving indigenous groups a voice military

Guatemalan journalist Quimy de León wanted to amplify the voices of those affected by environmental issues and human rights, so she helped found a media outlet that focuses on marginalized and indigenous communities. Now she is being recognized for that work with an international press freedom award   

Japan will hold Sado mines memorial despite South Korean boycott amid lingering historical tensions

Japan will go ahead with a memorial ceremony on Sunday near the Sado Island Gold Mines, despite South Korea’s last-minute boycott of the event that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site 


By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

 and KIM TONG-HYUNG

 Associated Press
November 23, 2024,



SADO, Japan -- Japan will go ahead with a memorial ceremony on Sunday near the Sado Island Gold Mines, despite South Korea’s last-minute boycott of the event that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site before and during World War II.

South Korea’s absence at Sunday’s memorial, to which Seoul government officials and Korean victims’ families were invited, is a major setback in the rapidly improving ties between the two countries, which since last year have set aside their historical disputes to prioritize U.S.-led security cooperation.

The Sado mines were listed in July as a UNESCO World Heritage site after Japan moved past years of disputes with South Korea and reluctantly acknowledged the mines’ dark history, promising to hold an annual memorial service for all victims, including hundreds of Koreans who were mobilized to work in the mines.

On Saturday, South Korea announced it would not attend the event, saying it was impossible to settle unspecified disagreements between the two governments in time.

Masashi Mizobuchi, an assistant press secretary in Japan’s Foreign Ministry, said Japan has been in communication with Seoul and called the South Korean decision “disappointing.”

The ceremony will be held as planned later Sunday at a facility near the mines.

The 16th-century mines on the island of Sado, off Japan’s north-central coast, operated for nearly 400 years before closing in 1989 and were once the world’s largest gold producer.

Historians say about 1,500 Koreans were mobilized to Sado as part of Japan’s use of hundreds of thousands of Korean laborers, including those forcibly brought from the Korean Peninsula, at Japanese mines and factories to make up for labor shortages because most working-age Japanese men had been sent to battlefronts across Asia and the Pacific.

Japan’s government has maintained that all wartime compensation issues between the two countries were resolved under a 1965 normalization treaty.

South Korea had long opposed the listing of the site as World Heritage on the grounds that the Korean forced laborers, despite their key role in the wartime mine production, were missing from the exhibition. Seoul's backing for Sado came as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol prioritized improving relations with Japan.


The Japanese government said Sunday’s ceremony was to pay tribute to “all workers” who died at the mines, but would not spell out inclusion of Korean laborers — part of what critics call a persistent policy of whitewashing Japan’s history of sexual and labor exploitation before and during the war.

Preparation for the event by local organizers remained unclear until the last minute, which was seen as a sign of Japan’s reluctance to face its wartime brutality.

Japan’s government said on Friday that Akiko Ikuina — a parliamentary vice minister who reportedly visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine in August 2022, weeks after she was elected as a lawmaker — would attend the ceremony. Japan’s neighbors view Yasukuni, which commemorates 2.5 million war dead including war criminals, as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Ikuina belonged to a Japanese ruling party faction of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who led the whitewashing of Japan's wartime atrocities in the 2010s during his leadership.

For instance, Japan says the terms “sex slavery” and “forced labor” are inaccurate and insists on the use of highly euphemistic terms such as “comfort women” and “civilian workers” instead.

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said Saturday that Ikuina’s Yasukuni visit was an issue of contention between the countries’ diplomats.

“That issue and various other disagreements between diplomatic officials remain unresolved, and with only a few hours remaining until the event, we concluded that there wasn’t sufficient time to resolve these differences,” Cho said in an interview with MBN television.

Some South Koreans had criticized Yoon’s government for supporting the event without securing a clear Japanese commitment to highlight the plight of Korean laborers. There were also complaints over South Korea agreeing to pay for the travel expenses of Korean victims’ family members to Sado.

___

Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea.

Tiger comeback highlights successes, challenges in China's wildlife conservation

Xinhua, November 23, 2024

Photo taken with a monitoring camera shows wild Siberian tigers in the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park in northeast China, April 14, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

Liu Guifu, 74, never imagined that one day he would come face to face with a Siberian tiger in his own yard.

Liu is a villager from Changtai Village in Boli County, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. A surveillance video captured his encounter with the tiger on Monday morning, when the tiger dashed past Liu's house. After stepping out of his yard for a quick look, Liu retreated to the yard and pulled the gate shut. The tiger, however, turned back and lunged at him, denting the iron gate before it left.

"I thought that by closing the gate, the tiger would be kept out," Liu told Xinhua, recalling the incident. "When the tiger charged at me, I was so scared!"

The video has gone viral online, with netizens expressing concern about such incidents.

Another villager was injured by the same tiger that morning as he was walking back home after giving some hay to the cattle. The tiger pounced on him, bit his left hand, and clawed his head and body. He is now being treated at a medical facility, and his condition is stable.

This marks the first recorded sighting of a Siberian tiger in Boli County's documented history. According to the Heilongjiang Forestry and Grassland Administration, the county is outside the key distribution ranges of Siberian tigers.

Over 500 personnel from relevant county government departments have been mobilized for deployment and control, working around the clock to carry out investigations and try to track the animal.

The management bureau of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park (NCTLNP), about 200 km away from the village, announced Tuesday that it has activated the emergency response plan and insurance claims procedure.

The national park has coordinated with the insurance company to send a working group to the village to assist the local forestry and grassland department in conducting investigations. If the tiger is confirmed to be a wild Siberian tiger, the insurance claims process will be immediately initiated.

Conservation efforts paying off

Thanks to China's continuous efforts, the population of the Siberian tiger, one of the world's most endangered species, has grown significantly in recent years, while their range of activity has expanded.

In 1998, only 12 to 16 wild Siberian tigers were believed to be living in China. The NCTLNP, established in 2021 and spanning Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, now provides a sanctuary for around 70 wild Siberian tigers.

"With an improved ecological environment, the number of wild tigers is increasing, which shows that we have achieved good results in protecting wild animals," said Hu Huijian, a council member of the China Zoology Society.

In recent years, with the implementation of projects such as natural forest protection, wild animal and plant protection, and the construction of a national park-based nature reserve system, the quality of wildlife habitats has continued to improve, with continued growth in the populations and range of activities of wild animals.

China has been prioritizing eco-environmental progress and pursuing green development for biodiversity conservation. In 2021, China established its first batch of national parks, protecting 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of key terrestrial wild animal and plant species. The land area of the country's nature reserves accounts for nearly 18 percent of its total land area.

Conservation efforts have significantly boosted the number of wild animals. A white paper titled "Biodiversity Conservation in China," released in 2021, shows that the population of giant pandas in the wild grew from 1,114 to 1,864 over the previous four decades. The crested ibis population increased from only 7 to over 5,000, with wild species and artificial breeds counted. The Asian elephant population in the wild grew from 180 in the 1980s to about 300.

Resolving human-animal conflicts 

Such scenes as wild animals damaging crops and injuring livestock -- and even people -- are no longer rare. The roaming tiger represents an extreme example of human-animal conflict.

Besides tigers, wild boars have also disrupted agricultural production, traffic and daily life, appearing on farmland in rural areas and in residents' homes in urban areas.

Statistics show that the population of wild boars has grown quickly to 2 million due to protection measures, and the animal has been sighted in 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country.

Cases of damage involving the animal have been recorded in 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. In Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, more than 2,000 wild boar cases were reported over the past three years.

In 2023, wild boars were removed from China's list of terrestrial wild animals of important ecological, scientific and social value, as they no longer face threats to their survival as a species.

"How to alleviate human-animal conflicts, ensure the safety of local residents and protect their property, while at the same time protecting the authenticity and integrity of the ecosystem, to achieve harmony between human and nature, is worthy of in-depth exploration and research," said Guan Yun, deputy director of the NCTLNP management bureau.

Nature and humanity in harmony

China has been making efforts to reach harmony between humanity and nature.

Experts suggest increasing investment in scientific research to enhance ecological corridors for the reproduction and spread of large wild animals, and to strengthen habitat protection for wild animals, especially endangered ones.

"Connecting the fragmented habitats is the fundamental way to solve the problem. The construction of ecological corridors for Siberian tigers and Amur leopards along the China-Russia border should be accelerated, and a cross-border nature reserve network should be built," said Jin Yongchao, a member of the wild tiger conservation expert team of the World Wildlife Fund.

Jin said that strengthened patrols by local teams and technical devices such as infrared cameras should be combined to dynamically track and monitor the activity range of wild Siberian tigers to avoid the overlapping activity areas of the tigers and humans.

The NCTLNP, for example, has set up over 20,000 smart infrared cameras. These cameras connect to the internet to transmit high-definition images and videos in real-time. They also use artificial intelligence technology for species recognition, monitoring the activities of Siberian tigers and other large animals.

Many places in China have also explored strategies to prevent and control damage by wild animals. Northwest China's Shaanxi Province has started to build isolation and protection facilities, such as pulse electric fences and vegetation isolation belts, to control damage by wild boars. Nearly 400 infrared cameras have also been set up in the hills and mountains in Jiangsu Province to monitor wild boars.

Thermal imaging drones also proved important in protecting a herd of wandering Asian elephants in southwest China's Yunnan Province in 2021. With the help of thermal imaging drones, the provincial forest fire brigade was able to locate the elephants at night, helping them return to a suitable habitat safe and sound without conflicts with local residents.

 Indian submarine collides with fishing boat off Goa, 2 fishermen missing

Two Indian fishermen are missing after an Indian Navy Submarine collided with a fishing vessel, off the coast of Goa.

The accident occurred during the Sea Vigil Coastal Security and Defense exercise by the Indian Navy.

Rescue efforts are underway for the missing fishermen.

This is not the first occurrence of such an event as a ship of the Indian Navy met with an accident every five years between 1990 and 2024.

Defence experts have raised questions on the competency of Indian Navy following the fresh Incident.

Man in India regains consciousness before his cremation on funeral pyre: reports

The man, who was deaf and mute, was reportedly declared dead without a post-mortem exam

 By Brie Stimson Fox News
Published November 23, 2024 

A 25-year-old man who was declared dead and about to be cremated in India this week was found to be still alive by witnesses, according to reports.

Rohitash Kumar, 25, who was deaf and mute, was declared dead at a hospital in the state of Rajasthan in the northwestern part of India without a post-mortem examination, according to The Times of India.

Once it was clear Kumar was alive at his cremation on Thursday afternoon, his family reportedly took him back to a hospital where he died early Friday morning.


A crematorium in India. (Rupak De Chowdhuri/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Three doctors involved in declaring Kumar dead at the Bhagwan Das Khetan district hospital have since been suspended, the newspaper reported.

Kumar had suffered an epileptic seizure and was declared dead after he flatlined while doctors were performing CPR on him, the Daily Mail reported, citing the AFP news service.

Relatives carry the body of a person who died of COVID-19 as multiple pyres of other victims burn at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, in 2021. (AP Photo/Amit Sharma, File)

"The situation was nothing short of a miracle," a witness at the funeral pyre told local news outlet ETV Bharat. "We all were in shock. He was declared dead, but there he was, breathing and alive."

Ramavtar Meena, a government official in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district, called the incident "serious negligence."
The state of Rajasthan in northwestern India. (Vishal Bhatnagar/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

"Action will be taken against those responsible. The working style of the doctors will also be thoroughly investigated," he said.

Meena added that a committee had been formed to investigate the incident.