Podcasts about Union Jack

On The Cycling Podcast Féminin this month, Rose Manley, Denny Gray and Rebecca Charlton head back to their virtual cabana to talk about everything that happened in the Spanish racing block. With a win at Vuelta a Burgos, Marlen Reusser's ascendency continues. The Movistar rider has put a difficult 2024 behind her to become one of the very best GC stage race contenders in the world. Plus we can't agree on whether to put Team SD Worx's lacklustre GC stage racing campaign in Burgos and Itzulia down to overreaching team orders or plain old bad luck. And there are some new names to look out for in the peloton, with riders like Mie Bjørndal Ottestad and Celia Géry enjoying breakthrough performances. For this month's mini feature, we speak to two Irish riders who have joined the World Tour this season - Lara Gillespie of UAE-ADQ and Mia Griffin of Roland. The pair formed half of the quartet that made history at the Paris Olympics as Ireland's first ever female pursuit team, a feat all the more remarkable considering the country is yet to have an indoor velodrome. We hear from both riders as they turn their attentions to the road. Also on the agenda, week-long Nienke Vinke Fan Club celebrations, Denny's Union Jack bowler hat and how the TCP Féminin budget REALLY gets spent. Follow us on social media: Twitter @cycling_podcast Instagram @thecyclingpodcast Friends of the Podcast Sign up as a Friend of the Podcast at thecyclingpodcast.com to listen to new special episodes every month plus a back catalogue of more than 300 exclusive episodes. The Cannibal & Badger Friends of the Podcast can join the discussion at our new virtual pub, The Cannibal & Badger. A friendly forum to talk about cycling and the podcast. Log in to your Friends of the Podcast account to join in. The 11.01 Cappuccino Our regular email newsletter is now on Substack. Subscribe here for frothy, full-fat updates to enjoy any time (as long as it's after 11am). The Cycling Podcast is on Strava The Cycling Podcast was founded in 2013 by Richard Moore, Daniel Friebe and Lionel Birnie.

Buckingham Palace, the official London residence of the UK monarch, represents centuries of British heritage while offering visitors a glimpse into the royal lifestyle through its magnificent State Rooms and gardens. We share comprehensive insights for planning your visit, from ticket options and tour experiences to practical tips and fascinating palace facts.• Palace has 750 rooms, including 78 bathrooms, its own post office, and a cinema• Built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham, became a royal residence in 1761• Royal Standard flag indicates the monarch is in residence; Union Jack means they're away• State Rooms open July-September with standard, small group, and exclusive tour options• Essential to book tickets months in advance as tours sell out quickly• Exclusive small group tours are available at other times throughout the year• New for 2025: opportunity to enter through the iconic front gates• Highlights include the State Rooms, Throne Room, Picture Gallery, and Grand Staircase• Gardens open in summer, featuring 39 acres with a lake, rose garden, and tennis court• Green Park tube station is closest at a 6-minute walk• Photography is not permitted inside the palace, but is allowed in the gardens• Convert your ticket to a one-year pass by signing it and getting it stamped• Nearby attractions include Changing of the Guard, St. James's Park, and Westminster AbbeyIf you're planning a visit to Buckingham Palace or have questions, leave us a voice message via the SpeakPipe link in our show notes.

Join Chris Thrall as he interviews Gary Connery, the Queen's only ever stunt double, famously known for his iconic 2012 Olympics skit where he parachuted with a Union Jack parachute alongside a James Bond double. Gary, a professional stuntman from Henley-on-Thames, made history as the first person to perform a wingsuit jump without a parachute, showcasing his daring skydiving career. In this exclusive conversation, Gary opens up about his stunt career, the Olympic ceremony stunt, and the challenges he faced after being wrongly imprisoned for grievous bodily harm in a controversial domestic violence case. Despite compelling evidence, Gary reveals the struggle of being unable to overturn his judgment, shedding light on his legal battle and its impact on his mental health. This interview also touches on themes of trauma recovery and emotional resilience, offering insights into overcoming personal and professional setbacks. Don't miss this powerful story of a judicial controversy and one man's fight for justice. Socials: instagram.com/chris.thrall youtube.com/christhrall facebook.com/christhrall christhrall.com Support the podcast at: patreon.com/christhrall (£2 per month plus perks) gofundme.com/christhrall paypal.me/teamthrall Our uncensored content: christhrall.locals.com Mailing list: christhrall.com/mailing-list/ Life Coaching: christhrall.com/coach/

Happy St George's Day! To celebrate, we thought we would discuss who is the most patriotic political leader — and why some struggle to communicate their love of country. Keir Starmer declared in an interview with the Mirror this morning that Labour is ‘the patriotic party'. This follows a more concerted effort from those within the party to become more comfortable with the flag. But is Keir Starmer actually a patriot? How will the ‘battle of the Union Jack' play out at the local elections? And does Reform have a point to prove when it comes to patriotism? Oscar Edmondson speaks to James Heale and Claire Ainsley, former executive director of policy for the Labour party, now at the Progressive Policy Institute. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Firestone Walker Brewing Company's CMO says connected TV has made it easier to reach its sports-loving customers. Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.Damian (00:01):I'm Damian Fowler.Ilyse (00:02):And I'm Ilyse Liffreing.Damian (00:03):This week we're really excited to talk with Dustin Hinz, the Chief marketing officer of Firestone Walker Brewing the craft brewery based in California.Ilyse (00:12):Dustin has been the chief marketer at Firestone for almost six years. He's an award-winning marketer who knows how to build a culturally relevant brand.Damian (00:21):Also, he's a musician and he helped build Guitar Center into that powerhouse brand It is today. He worked there for 17 years and you can ask any guitarist about Guitar Center and its Importance. And then he was an Ernie Ball music man, which is famous for its guitar strings, which I love. I'm curious though, Ilyse, do you play the guitar?Ilyse (00:40):I wish, but Okay. Damian, we're here to talk beer and how to market it in a crowded marketplace. So let's begin. So Dustin, can you tell us a little bit about Firestone and the brand 805? It seems it really has a West Coast vibe just like me. I'm from the West coast so I can see that. I feel it.Dustin (01:04):Firestone Walker is the culmination of David Walker and Adam Firestone's love for beer. And they met back in the nineties when David fell in love with Adam's sister and there's great stories about that. And then they found they had this mutual love for beer and the central coast of California. David being an expat in British and Adam being a Californian, they founded this amazing brewery on the central coast and really focused on just a few craft beers. DBA was their first beer and then Union Jack and there was a lot of craft was sort of an early movement. And then back in 2012 they stumbled upon this idea of 8 0 5 and 8 0 5 is the area code for the big swath of the Central coast, a big piece of California all the way down to Ventura County where actually I grew up. We like to say that the goal of 8 0 5 is to be the most globally recognized, regionally available beer in the world.Ilyse (02:03):Very cool. But there are a lot of beers out there, even craft beers. What would you say is the point of differentiation? Is it the taste? Is it the West coast vibes? What would you say?Dustin (02:15):I think the biggest point of differentiation in beer is the brand position. Obviously great brand position and great marketing is not going to solve a lousy product, so you got to have amazing product and we're trying to focus on being odds of the evens and really investing in our own legend and trying to stand for something and be the alternative choice. And thankfully beer is so big and there's so much opportunity that you can carve out a pretty nice size of the pie for yourself if you want to focus on being the alternative premium choice.Damian (02:43):One of things that you just said about the importance of marketing and how marketing can drive the business seems key to this. Is there anything that you could point us to that you'd say, this was the moment where I created brand awareness above and beyond or something like that?Dustin (03:05):The first one with the traditional 8 0 5, the black can I was very lucky to inherit five and a half years ago a slogan called Properly Chill and Properly Chill sort of was the slogan for this idea that life on the central coast was a little different, right? And what we did last year and then going into this year, and I believe that this is going to come out right around this new campaign is going to drop, is this idea telling the story of our brand through the lens of our customer. We have this amazing roster of ambassadors, we call them Authentico and eight oh five Authentico and Professional surfers, motocross Riders, boxers, MMA, fighters, artists, tattoo artists, you name it, it spans the spectrum. There's over 50 of them and they kind of cover every single different customer group that we believe the brand represents and we tell the story of that brand through those consumers or through those athletes.(04:06):And then a couple other examples were what we did was Summer of Cervesa when we launched the extension of 8 0 5, the first extension after 10 years, which was a Mexican lagger themed version of 8 0 5 with a little bit of lime in it. And the idea at the time was when you were looking at the marketplace, Mexican laggers were really on the rise. Corona obviously as an incredible background. Modelo has now at this point become the number one brand in the US surpassing Bud Light and Consumers were definitely reaching for this idea of sort of an escapism beer. So when we launched the campaign with summer survey, so we realized that we had to do something to stand out and create some differentiation between 8 0 5 blonde and 8 0 5. And so the 8 0 5 cervesa campaign was the first time we ever showed the product in color. 8 0 5 has been black and white since its inception in 2012. And with 8 0 5 Cervesa was the first time we ever put the product in color in the advertising. And it was a game changer. I mean, we sales went from moderately successful to up 20% pretty consistently because we were able to create that differentiation in the idea that Cervesa was a light and refreshing product.Damian (05:24):Wow, I love that just by adding color. But it is interesting that you started out in black and white as a kind of campaign. Why black and white?Dustin (05:32):I think they realized they needed to do something different to stand out back then. And trust me, it is a conversation pretty regularly when we're working on new ideas of, there is a lot of consternation around the idea of how do we maintain the brand identity and not stray from it because we want to be timeless, not timely. So we're very, very focused on, hey, every decision we make is going to have an impact a decade from now, two decades from now. Because the greatest brands in beer are multi-generational.Ilyse (06:02):Totally. And I know we talked about this earlier because it can be really difficult to market alcohol products, especially on platforms like social media where there are age roadblocks. What are the channels that you decided to lean into for these campaigns and are there any that you're experimenting with now?Dustin (06:24):I'd say at-home is a good third of our total media investment and then a big shift to TV about two years ago. And with connected TV platforms continuing to become more robust, it's made it a hell of a lot easier for us to get more geo-targeted because I think that spray and prey doesn't work when you're a regional brand and you want to get really focused on zip codes and you want to try to drive measurement. And so connected TV has been huge for us and whether that's through our partnerships with the World Surf League or we're just doing a sports our brand, what we know though is that from all of our consumer data is that a huge percentage of our customers are sports fans. They watch a lot of football, they watch a lot of baseball. So what we do is we take our brand to those channels and through partnerships like ESPN, we've been able to really connect with consumers and drive some really nice measurable lift for the brand. You're watching a sports game and you're going to see beer brand X or insurance brand X with an athlete for that sport. And then you see our spot, which might have a bull rider in it or a surfer or a motocross rider, and it just stands outIlyse (07:33):With your brands embrace of sports and kind of that measurement piece of CTV, you must love that more live sports are coming into the connected TV space.Dustin (07:47):I think the beneficiaries of this sort of democratization of content and it's making things more competitive. So as you see the Disney Network, Hulu, ESPN, or you go to YouTube TV and some of the other platforms that are continuing to open up, it makes it really easy to be competitive in the space or to at least have a voice. I think our team's been really good at identifying those opportunities, proving the efficacy of those investments so that we can continue to do them.Damian (08:15):You hinted at something about the seasonality of marketing and I'm kind of interested in that as a marketer of beer and I guess in lots of ways, as you said, you're kind of marketing lifestyle, you have associations with surfers and athletes and the summer. I'm curious how often you think about the need to refresh campaigns and how do you keep them relevant to the culture cultural moment?Dustin (08:42):Yeah, great question. You definitely have to, in beer, especially with the retail partners, you need to be seasonal. I spent the first 20 years of my career on the music side as a retailer, so I know what retailers want. They're going to want, Hey, it's Memorial Day, I'm going to have a display in my store for a week and a half, two weeks. It better fit the theme of Memorial Day. Now how you do that, you can do that without just stars and stripes. There's other ways to do that, but the I idea of escapism and patriotism to a degree, but when you look at the retail calendar, there are a myriad, there's like 16 major temples that you have to win. So our team is definitely working to make sure that we're taking the overall thematic of our brand and pulling that down into those temples.(09:33):And that fits the larger brand story because obviously you don't want to have 16 different TV spots throughout the year. So we'll have several different campaigns throughout the year, but then those drop down into Cinco de Mayo or Day of the Dead or 4th of July. So you have to, depending on the channel that we're in, yeah, some stuff has to be far more granular to make sure that it's serving the need of that retailer or the desire of that retailer, and as well as making sure that we're still maintaining the brand identity that we want to have. While everybody else does Super Bowl and does football, we're doing the World Surf League pipeline, which is the Super Bowl of surf, so is the official beer of the WSL when everyone's doing Super Bowl, we're doing surfing.Damian (10:10):Now, Dustin listeners can't see this, but I know behind you you've got some fantastic vintage guitars there, which I wanted. I know that you are a musician and before you worked at 8 0 5, you worked as a marketer in the music industry, including for Ernie Ball, music Man and Guitar Center. And I'm kind of interested in the kind of synergies that you might have found there between marketing to musicians and the kind of now the position you're in now marketing beer.Dustin (10:42):It's really sort of a story of serendipity. I got my first guitar when I was 14 years old and it sort of changed my life. Music just bordered became this obsession and it's what I wanted to do, started a band and typical story, didn't go to college, was like college, I'm going to be in a band, mom, what are you talking about? So I begged her at the time she was working, she was the executive assistant to the CEO O of Guitar Center back in the nineties when they were still a small company. And I said, Hey, just give me a job in the mail room or something, and so just give me the summer. Let me prove to you that my band can be in great before I have to go to college. And so she got me a job in the mail room and said, three months, that's it. And three months turned into 18 years.(11:35):I worked my way up to vice president and that typical age old story. But what I found really early on when I got there was, and I remember there was a moment, I was there a couple of months working in the mail room, excited in the mail room is right next to the marketing department and there was a great VP of marketing. It was Mike. I still talk to him to this day, 20 something years later. He always says, his joke is, you're the best hire I ever made. But I remember looking at the marketing materials and saying to the guys like, Hey, we're not marketing to, I'm the customer. Why don't you talk to me? We should change the way that we talk to the customers because this doesn't make sense. I'm the customer, I don't want to read this. So I pitched him some ideas and he's like, yeah, that's a great idea. You want a job in marketing?(12:18):And I went from $4 and 50 cents an hour to $9 an hour. I thought it was rich. I'm 18 years old. And I started that journey. And I think what I realized really early on, and what was great about Guitar Center was that our mission was to mint new customers. We realized early on through a great visionary, CEO, we had Marty Albertson was that we had to make sure that we were creating musicians. There wasn't a lot of 'em. When you think about the population of the world, it think it's like 2% our musicians. So if you want to continue to sell guitars and you want to continue to sell instruments, you've got to inspire people to want to play music. So our mission became taking this great feeling and propelling that and perpetuating it to get more people excited about it. And we became a platform for artists and creating, over the course of my 20 years, I got to create TV shows and write documentaries and make slashes documentary.(13:09):I got to things that you would only dream of when you were a kid to make art with other artists that inspired the world. And I think the common thread through all of that was that great marketing, great brands stand for something clear and enduring. I'm very, very lucky that as a songwriter and a musician early on, that I found this extension of that creative process to sort of keep me inspired. I mean marketing in a lot of ways, your writers, your songwriters, your creatives, and you get to do that while also tackling, for me at least the necessary evil of lift analysis, analytics andDamian (13:46):Some of those things that come with the business. Our musicians have to be marketers these days anyway. Right.Ilyse (13:50):That's very true. And that 2%, we at least have two in our miss because Damian's a musician as well. But yeah, it's so interesting that you talk about that area of the population and in some ways it's almost harder to reach those very niche communities.Dustin (14:09):Yeah, there's that great quote. I don't know if it came from Nike, it was probably Nike, but what's that speak to the core loud enough that everyone else can hear? I mean, I think that's been a mission of music. I mean, remember the indie movement or the punk movement, it was like everybody didn't want to be mainstream, and it was just like, do this thing, own your audience. And then what happens is the cool thing, everybody wants to sit at the cool table. Everybody wants to be a part of the movement, but you can't market to the people that want to be in the movement. You have to market to the people who have started the movement, and then what happens is then you can maintain some credibility.Damian (14:40):I'm just curious to get your high level perspective on what do you think needs to change in the ad marketplace today, which as we all know, is very much digital programmatic.Dustin (14:52):I think product placement right now, especially on podcasts, is just incredibly oversaturated. And I understand that when you've got a major budget and you're moving money around and you're trying to do everything you can to drive eyeballs, but I have this conversation all the time with the agency. I'm not interested in the most amount of eyeballs. I want the right ones. And when I look at a podcast and I just see energy drinks on tables and then right behind it, I see a Starbucks cup and the cans aren't open, I just think there's too much of that going on. To me, there's not real connections. So I think one of the things for me that's just unfortunate is because of the amount of money and the amount of ad money that's available and it's all moving from different platforms, is that sort of approach has created, I think a really high level of high bar for entry into some of these categories.(15:40):The expectations of money that are tied to some of these opportunities are so overblown. So I think that to me, that's always been something that I've always struggled with that I always hope is going to work itself out and well. I think that you go through ebbs and flows, especially when times get tough, people will cut back on their marketing, they cut back on sponsorships, and that's when opportunities open up. And if you're smart and you manage your money effectively and you have dollars, when other brands are carving back, that's when you can start to find really interesting opportunities. But for me, yeah, influencer marketing, product seating, I've never been excited about it. One of the things that we say all the time at Firestone Walker is keep the main thing, the main thing. And by doing that, we put on ourselves from chasing too many squirrels in the backyard.Ilyse (16:30):I love that.Dustin (16:31):Yeah.Ilyse (16:32):Is there anything you are obsessed with figuring out right now?Dustin (16:35):I mean, we sell millions of cases of beer and our first party data. We've done an amazing job of our first party data, emails building customer attention, but there is this weird thing with social, and I'm just obsessed with trying to figure out what it is. And our agency's got great relationships with meta and these platforms, and nobody, one can seem to give me the answer of what is happening on the backend within the algorithms that is preventing some of the biggest brands in the world with tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of consumers. This ability to create real audiences on these platforms, because we live in a world now where all content is consumed through just a few channels. When you think about YouTube, whatever happens with TikTok, Instagram Meta, et cetera, there's a only handful of channels where a majority of all of the content consumption is taking place.(17:31):And if every single one of those has a toll booth between you and your customer, but then there's also a filter that is preventing you from really building your audience. I'm obsessed with trying to figure that out. If we do believe in this idea of the zeitgeist and that culture matters and that brands stand for something clear and enduring, the world is going to continue and down this digital path. And sure, point of sale and billboards and TV advertising are great ways to tell people about your brand, but it is the way to get your arms around them. It's going to be on these platforms and the ones that are coming. And I think that's what the industry as a whole is always the industry as a whole struggles with this. And I think it can be dangerous in the sense that you over obsess it and then you put too much money into like, well, I got to grow followers, or I got to grow my audience. Versus like, well, I just got to drive, drive affinity in purchase intent. And so that's, I think the balance of how do we focus on stuffing the funnel, creating a tremendous amount of energy for our brands. The right partnerships is omnipresent in the right cultural segments that we want to be in, but at the same time try to figure out how we can expand our tent and get more people into it.Damian (18:46):Wow. Ali, I love that conversation with Dustin. I mean, it's not every day you get to talk to somebody who's a musician and a marketer and who's able to tie both of those things together so well as he did. But what was the standout thing to you that he said?Ilyse (19:02):I think what really stuck out was kind of playing how Firestone and Dustin kind of play that fine line of keeping consistent, but also not being too rigid and trying new things with customers. I know with 9,000 plus breweries, it's kind of crazy that there's so much competition to stick out and beer brands have to stick out. But what he said was really interesting about staying consistent with an agency and measurement and really trying to find, making sure that what you're making art essentially actually makes sense.Damian (19:45):Yeah, I agree with you and I feel like one of the most powerful things he said to me was when he was at Guitar Center, when he was there for 17 years, his vision was to mint new musicians and identifying that only 2% of the world population, 2%, I think he said musicians. So you have to inspire more people to want to create music. And taking that sort of core philosophy and applying it to his current role at 8 0 5 seems to be something that's driving him as a mission driven marketer. I think as he said, great brands have to stand for something enduring. So in that regard, I think he's really smart, and to do this at this cultural moment where there's so much fragmentation, that is one way to help him clear through all the clutter and stay focused.Ilyse (20:30):Yeah, I think one of my favorite quotes too was like keep the main thing, the main thing, and that keeps us basically from chasing those squirrels.Damian (20:44):That's it for this edition of The Current Podcast. I'm Ilyse, and I'm Damian, and we'll see you next time.

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Strap in because the latest episode of the RevLimiter is firing on all cylinders and 'confecting' all the stories from a big weekend of motorsport!We kicked things off under the Bahrain lights, where Oscar Piastri was cooler than a cucumber in the sand, delivering a textbook takedown of McLaren teammate Lando Norris. Some say it was domination, others say it was daylight robbery — either way, poor Lando looked like his spirit had been quietly escorted out of parc fermé. Meanwhile, Gorgeous George Russell was driving a wounded Mercedes but still managed to fend off Norris for P2. We're not saying George's defence was heroic... but somewhere, a Union Jack just fluttered with pride.Was it genuine pace, team strategy, or just a bit of well-timed confecting from the pit wall? We don't know, but it tasted sweet for Oscar either way.Back on home turf — well, close enough — it was a Kiwi cash grab in Taupō as Matt Payne cleaned up with two wins, the Jason Richards Trophy, and presumably a new savings account. Chaz Mostert kept it interesting by pinching one of the wins, but Payne was the local hero with the Midas touch.We also dive into Tony Quinn's bold call to rotate the New Zealand round between the country's four big tracks — because, as he puts it, NZ can only support one round a year, but why not let everyone have a turn?Plus, we round out the episode with the latest from overseas: NASCAR and IMSA winners get their dues, and Marc Márquez proves once again he's not just back — he's back on top in MotoGP.Catch all the banter, breakdowns and a few dodgy predictions on the RevLimiter. It's like a warm-up lap for your ears.

Fáilte ar ais chuig eagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo ar an 11ú lá de mí Aibreán, liomsa Lauren Ní Loingsigh. I 1975 bhí rúndacht ordaithe I bhfiosrúchán a bhí ann faoin gharda óg a chuaigh ar iarradh mar níor chonaic aon duine é. I 2003 chuir Bertie Ahern agus Tony Blair cheist ar an IRA chun teacht amach leis an tsoiléireacht dá ghealltanas do shíocháin. I 2010 bhí a lán áiteanna chun dul don deireadh seachtain – bhí seó ómóis de Father Ted san Aonach Urmhumhan, bhí Mike Denver ag canadh agus chomh maith bhí Craobh na hÉirinn den Karaoke ar siúil sa teach tábhairne Talbot. I 2014 nuacht iontach do chamógaíocht Béal Átha Gabhann mar bhuaigh siad don chéad uair san Fhéile Tiobraid Árann nuair a bhí siad ag imirt I gcoinne Éire Óg Aonach Urmhumhan Sin The Bay City Rollers le Bye Bye Baby – an t-amhrán is mó ar an lá seo I 1975. Ag lean ar aghaidh le nuacht cheoil ar an lá seo I 1994 tháinig Oasis amach lena chéad singil Supersonic – a shroich uimhir 31 ar na cairteacha sa Bhreatain. Ach I rith am dhíol sé níos mó ná 215,000 cóip – mar sin bhí sé a 13ú hamhrán is mó sa Bhreatain. Bhí an t-amhrán a chéad Singil chun a bheith ar na cairteacha Billboard I Meiriceá agus shroich sé uimhir 11. I 2001 d'ardaigh Robbie Williams 165 míle punt do charthanas leis an airgead ag dul chuig a shean scoil I Stoke chun áis taibhealaíona a thógáil Dhíol sé a lán rudaí cosúil le leithreas a bhí ar an stáitse leis, bhí bicíní leis an bhratach den Bhreatain ar, liricí de a amhrán Angels a dhíol do 27 míle punt agus a lán rudaí eile. Agus ar deireadh breithlá daoine cáiliúla ar an lá seo rugadh Jeremy Clarkson sa Bhreatain I 1960 agus rugadh amhránaí Duncan Laurence san Ísiltír ar an lá seo I 1994 agus seo chuid de a amhrán. Beidh mé ar ais libh an tseachtain seo chugainn le heagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo. Welcome back to another edition of Ar An Lá Seo on the 11th of April, with me Lauren Ní Loingsigh 1975: tight secrecy was ordered in an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a young garda who has not been seen. 2003: Bertie ahern and tony blair issued the ira with a final demand last night for absolute clarity about its commitment to peace. 2010 – Places to go the weekend, A father ted Tribute Roadshow headed to Nenagh, Mike Denver was another offering of entertainment in the county and those could sing were attending the All Ireland Karaoke Championship in Talbot Bar. 2014 – Silvermines Camogie created their own piece of history when they were crowned Tipperary Feile champions for the first time by the narrowest of margins over Nenagh Eire Og.  That was The Bay City Rollers with Bye Bye Baby – the biggest song on this day in 1975. Onto music news on this day In 1994 Oasis released their first single 'Supersonic' which peaked at No.31 on the UK charts. However, over time it has amassed sales of over 215,000, making it their 13th biggest selling single ever in the UK. 'Supersonic' was also the band's first single to chart in the United States, where it peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. 2001 Robbie Williams raised £165,000 at a charity auction with the money going to his old school in Stoke to build a performing arts block. The items sold were Robbie's possessions, including a toilet from a stage show, a Union Jack bikini, Tiger's head briefs, a Millennium jet pack and the hand written lyrics to 'Angels' which sold for £27,000. And finally celebrity birthdays on this day – Jeremy Clarkson was born on this day in the UK in 1960 and singer Duncan Laurence was born in the Netherlands on this day in 1994 and this is one of his songs. I'll be back with you next week with another edition of Ar An Lá Seo.

Die Vereinigung zweier Reiche kann man mit der Fusion zweier Firmen vergleichen: wenn man nicht höllisch aufpasst, gibt es Probleme mit dem Logo.

Fáilte ar ais chuig eagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo ar an 11ú lá de mí Aibreán, liomsa Lauren Ní Loingsigh. I 1975 bhí rúndacht ordaithe I bhfiosrúchán a bhí ann faoin gharda óg a chuaigh ar iarradh mar níor chonaic aon duine é. I 2003 chuir Bertie Ahern agus Tony Blair cheist ar an IRA chun teacht amach leis an tsoiléireacht dá ghealltanas do shíocháin. I 1975 tháinig Dr P.J Power amach le foláireamh den riosca d'alcól mar dúirt sé go raibh a lán daoine ag dul chuig na n-ospidéal síciatrach de bharr go raibh daoine ag ól an iomarca alcól sa chontae. I 1986 bhí forbairt nua ar thaobh an chláir den Inbhear na Sionainne chun bád mór a dheisiú. Sin The Bay City Rollers le Bye Bye Baby – an t-amhrán is mó ar an lá seo I 1975. Ag lean ar aghaidh le nuacht cheoil ar an lá seo I 1994 tháinig Oasis amach lena chéad singil Supersonic – a shroich uimhir 31 ar na cairteacha sa Bhreatain. Ach I rith am dhíol sé níos mó ná 215,000 cóip – mar sin bhí sé a 13ú hamhrán is mó sa Bhreatain. Bhí an t-amhrán a chéad Singil chun a bheith ar na cairteacha Billboard I Meiriceá agus shroich sé uimhir 11. I 2001 d'ardaigh Robbie Williams 165 míle punt do charthanas leis an airgead ag dul chuig a shean scoil I Stoke chun áis taibhealaíona a thógáil Dhíol sé a lán rudaí cosúil le leithreas a bhí ar an stáitse leis, bhí bicíní leis an bhratach den Bhreatain ar, liricí de a amhrán Angels a dhíol do 27 míle punt agus a lán rudaí eile. Agus ar deireadh breithlá daoine cáiliúla ar an lá seo rugadh Jeremy Clarkson sa Bhreatain I 1960 agus rugadh amhránaí Duncan Laurence san Ísiltír ar an lá seo I 1994 agus seo chuid de a amhrán. Beidh mé ar ais libh an tseachtain seo chugainn le heagrán nua de Ar An Lá Seo. Welcome back to another edition of Ar An Lá Seo on the 11th of April, with me Lauren Ní Loingsigh 1975: tight secrecy was ordered in an investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a young garda who has not been seen. 2003: Bertie ahern and tony blair issued the ira with a final demand last night for absolute clarity about its commitment to peace. 1975: A warning on the inherent risk in taking alchol was given by Dr.P.J power when he said that the nationwide large increases in admissions to psychiatric hospitals as a result of alcohol applied to co.clare. 1986: New devlopments on the clare side of the shannon estuary provided facilities for ship repairs on the estuary. That was The Bay City Rollers with Bye Bye Baby – the biggest song on this day in 1975. Onto music news on this day In 1994 Oasis released their first single 'Supersonic' which peaked at No.31 on the UK charts. However, over time it has amassed sales of over 215,000, making it their 13th biggest selling single ever in the UK. 'Supersonic' was also the band's first single to chart in the United States, where it peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. 2001 Robbie Williams raised £165,000 at a charity auction with the money going to his old school in Stoke to build a performing arts block. The items sold were Robbie's possessions, including a toilet from a stage show, a Union Jack bikini, Tiger's head briefs, a Millennium jet pack and the hand written lyrics to 'Angels' which sold for £27,000. And finally celebrity birthdays on this day – Jeremy Clarkson was born on this day in the UK in 1960 and singer Duncan Laurence was born in the Netherlands on this day in 1994 and this is one of his songs. I'll be back with you next week with another edition of Ar An Lá Seo.

In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1921, Michael Collins is sent to London to meet Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and other British officials to negotiate a treaty.  After weeks of travelling back and forth across the Irish Sea, Collins and his fellow Sinn Féin negotiators return with a deal. Ireland would become a Free State, but it would remain in the British Empire, and the Irish must swear an oath of allegiance to the King. Eamonn De Valera, the president of the republic, refuses to accept. De Valera and Collins, who were on the same side, are suddenly enemies. A rift tears through the republicans, splitting them into pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty forces. Families are divided, and soldiers who once fought together are on opposite sides. As the Irish tricolour replaces the Union Jack above Dublin castle, war breaks out between the two factions. Will Collins and De Valera survive their third war on home soil? Listen as William and Anita are joined once again by Diarmaid Ferriter, author of A Nation Not A Rabble, to discuss how the Anglo-Irish Treaty descended into civil war.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Main Image Monthly: Click-through Rate DOUBLED from 7% to 14% The team is back for Main Image Monthly, diving into the art and science of Amazon listing images. This episode focuses on real-world testing, image optimization, and how small changes can lead to massive improvements in conversion rates.  

Join us this week as Adam Slack unveils his dream collaboration with Rock and Roll Relics, introducing his signature guitar, the Union Slack. Featuring a striking black-and-silver Union Jack design, semi-hollow body craftsmanship, and vintage-inspired specs, this guitar delivers Adam's iconic rock-and-roll energy and stage presence. Adam shares exclusive insights into the creative journey behind this standout instrument, including the meticulous design process, sonic versatility, and why this guitar will dominate The Struts' upcoming tour performances. Guitar enthusiasts and fans of rock artistry won't want to miss this behind-the-scenes deep dive into Adam Slack's ultimate rock guitar collaboration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From battling vampires to fighting to save London from a terrorist onslaught, this self-titled mini-series is Mission Impossible meets Knights of Pendragon!  Seek us out under the Field of Geeks umbrella wherever you podcast, YouTube, or www.fieldofgeeks.com. We are also available on Facebook and Gmail under The Number 1 Comics Podcast.   Huge thanks to Raven Xavier for crafting our awesome theme. Check Raven out at https://ravexmusic.bandcamp.com/). #unionjack #captainamerica #bravenewwolrd #vampire #missionimpossible #marvel #marvelcomics #comicbook #comics #chrisgage #mikeperkins #theinvaders #mi5

It only took us eight years but we finally reached 150 episodes. How about that? To celebrate, we squeeze into matching Union Jack dresses and slam our bodies down and wind them all around to discuss Spice World (1997), the notoriously bad (but secretly good?) Spice Girls movie.   To elder millennials, this movie's a big honking deal, folks, and we pull out all the stops to unpack exactly why that is. And to then marvel at how, of all the directions they could have gone with a Spice Girls movie, this is what they made.    Bonus video: We name our favorite movies about bands, real or fictional. Watch it on our Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.   Next week: Our Oscars special, previewing the 2025 Academy Awards with a cavalcade of superstar guests    Subscribe to our Patreon, Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition for $5 a month to get two extra episodes! patreon.com/loadbearingbeams    Time stamps: 00:06:13 — Our personal histories with the Spice Girls 00:16:06 — History segment: What is “Cool Britannia”?; a brief history of the Spice Girls; how the Spice Girls made a movie  00:44:12 — In-depth movie discussion 01:17:53 — Final thoughts and star ratings   Sources: “How the ‘Spice World' Movie Became a Deranged, Postmodern Masterpiece” by Sirin Kale | Vice, 2018 - https://bit.ly/41qK2nx  “When the Spice Girls hit Cannes: the inside story of Spice World, 'the worst film ever made'” by Alice Vincent | The Telegraph, 2019 - https://bit.ly/3Qrjdua  Roger Ebert's half-star review of Spice World - https://bit.ly/4i0PKTB    Artwork by Laci Roth.   Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).   Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode: “Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM “Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg “The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ   Follow the show! Twitter: @LoadBearingPod | @MattStokes9 | @LRothConcepts Instagram: @loadbearingbeams TikTok: @load.bearing.beams | @mattstokes9 Letterboxd: @loadbearinglaci | @mattstokes9 Bluesky: @loadbearingbeams.bsky.social  

On the 61st Episode of the Album Review Crew of Shout It Out Loudcast, Tom, Zeus & special guest, the producer of Ace Frehley's "10,000 Volts" and founder, guitarist and songwriter of Trixter, and a former Def Leppard touring member, Steve Brown review the 1981 breakthrough album from Def Leppard, "High 'n' Dry." High 'n' Dry was Def Leppard's second studio album. This was the band's first collaboration with legendary producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange. They would form a partnership like no other and dominate the hard rock scene. High 'n' Dry was Def Leppard at its hungriest. Led by the underrated lead singer, Joe Elliott, two guitar attack from Steve Clark and Pete Willis (this would be his last full time album), and rhythm section of Rick Savage on bass and Rick Allen on drums. The band broke through in American with their melodic rock songs and videos, which were all over early MTV. The album went to number 38 on US Billboard charts and eventually double platinum. Led by songs like Let It Go and High 'N' Dry (Saturday Night) and their breakthrough hit Bringin' On The Heartbreak, Def Leppard was heading for superstardom. As usual the boys breakdown and dissect the tracks and rank the songs. They then rank the album and the album cover against the previous albums reviewed on the Album Review Crew. This was the Tom's pick. So grab your white sailor's slacks and little Union Jack tight shorts and Let It Go! To Purchase Def Leppard's “High ‘n' Dry” On Amazon Click Below:   Def Leppard's "High 'n' Dry"   To Purchase Shout It Out Loudcast's KISS Book “Raise Your Glasses: A Celebration Of 50 Years of KISS Songs By Celebrities, Musicians & Fans Please Click Below:   Raise Your Glasses Book   For all things Shout It Out Loudcast check out our amazing website by clicking below:   www.ShoutItOutLoudcast.com   Interested in more Shout It Out Loudcast content? Care to help us out? Come join us on Patreon by clicking below:   SIOL Patreon   Get all your Shout It Out Loudcast Merchandise by clicking below:   Shout It Out Loudcast Merchandise at AMAZON   Shop At Our Amazon Store by clicking below: Shout It Out Loudcast Amazon Store   Please Email us comments or suggestions by clicking below: ShoutItOutLoudcast@Gmail.com   Please subscribe to us and give us a 5 Star (Child) review on the following places below: iTunes Podchaser Stitcher iHeart Radio Spotify   Please follow us and like our social media pages clicking below: Twitter Facebook Page Facebook Group Page Shout It Out Loudcasters Instagram YouTube   Proud Member of the Pantheon Podcast click below to see the website: Pantheon Podcast Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the 61st Episode of the Album Review Crew of Shout It Out Loudcast, Tom, Zeus & special guest, the producer of Ace Frehley's "10,000 Volts" and founder, guitarist and songwriter of Trixter, and a former Def Leppard touring member, Steve Brown review the 1981 breakthrough album from Def Leppard, "High 'n' Dry." High 'n' Dry was Def Leppard's second studio album. This was the band's first collaboration with legendary producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange. They would form a partnership like no other and dominate the hard rock scene. High 'n' Dry was Def Leppard at its hungriest. Led by the underrated lead singer, Joe Elliott, two guitar attack from Steve Clark and Pete Willis (this would be his last full time album), and rhythm section of Rick Savage on bass and Rick Allen on drums. The band broke through in American with their melodic rock songs and videos, which were all over early MTV. The album went to number 38 on US Billboard charts and eventually double platinum. Led by songs like Let It Go and High 'N' Dry (Saturday Night) and their breakthrough hit Bringin' On The Heartbreak, Def Leppard was heading for superstardom. As usual the boys breakdown and dissect the tracks and rank the songs. They then rank the album and the album cover against the previous albums reviewed on the Album Review Crew. This was the Tom's pick. So grab your white sailor's slacks and little Union Jack tight shorts and Let It Go! To Purchase Def Leppard's “High ‘n' Dry” On Amazon Click Below:   Def Leppard's "High 'n' Dry"   To Purchase Shout It Out Loudcast's KISS Book “Raise Your Glasses: A Celebration Of 50 Years of KISS Songs By Celebrities, Musicians & Fans Please Click Below:   Raise Your Glasses Book   For all things Shout It Out Loudcast check out our amazing website by clicking below:   www.ShoutItOutLoudcast.com   Interested in more Shout It Out Loudcast content? Care to help us out? Come join us on Patreon by clicking below:   SIOL Patreon   Get all your Shout It Out Loudcast Merchandise by clicking below:   Shout It Out Loudcast Merchandise at AMAZON   Shop At Our Amazon Store by clicking below: Shout It Out Loudcast Amazon Store   Please Email us comments or suggestions by clicking below: ShoutItOutLoudcast@Gmail.com   Please subscribe to us and give us a 5 Star (Child) review on the following places below: iTunes Podchaser Stitcher iHeart Radio Spotify   Please follow us and like our social media pages clicking below: Twitter Facebook Page Facebook Group Page Shout It Out Loudcasters Instagram YouTube   Proud Member of the Pantheon Podcast click below to see the website: Pantheon Podcast Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've arrived for a big one! We're going back to the 90s when the Spice Girls formed to recount their journey. This is part one of a two part special. The Spice Girls' journey began on March 4, 1994, when 400 hopefuls answered an ad to form a girl group. Over time, the group's lineup evolved, culminating in the iconic quintet: Mel B, Mel C, Victoria, Geri, and Emma. Early rehearsals, demos, and auditions set the stage for their rise, though challenges like lineup changes and disagreements with management revealed their determination to chart their own path. As they found their footing, the Spice Girls staged a daring escape from management control, reclaiming their music and signing with Simon Fuller. His strategic moves, including their electrifying showcase at Virgin Records, propelled them into the public eye. Industry insiders couldn't resist the charisma and energy of these five women, leading to a competitive bidding war that secured their record deal and launched their debut single, Wannabe. The making of Wannabe reflected the Spice Girls' quirky creativity and tenacity, with their patchwork approach to songwriting and their insistence on perfection during production. Despite initial doubts, the track became a global sensation, marking the start of “Spicemania.” By the end of 1996, the group's infectious energy, chart-topping hits, and bold personalities had captured the hearts of fans and critics alike. Integral to their success was the concept of “girl power,” a rallying cry for individuality, empowerment, and camaraderie. The term, championed by Geri Halliwell, struck a chord with audiences worldwide, offering a spirited counterpoint to the male-dominated pop culture of the time. This ethos cemented the Spice Girls as more than a band—they became a cultural phenomenon. As the decade closed, the Spice Girls had achieved unprecedented global success. From record-breaking album sales to unforgettable moments like Geri's Union Jack dress at the Brit Awards, they dominated the music and fashion landscapes. With Spiceworld: The Movie on the horizon, the Spice Girls' meteoric rise was far from over—proving they weren't just a pop group but a pop culture revolution. Talk2TheHand is an independent throwback podcast run by husband and wife, Jimmy and Beth. Obsessed with 90s nostalgia and 90s celebrities, we'll rewind the years and take you back to the greatest era of our lives.   New episodes bursting with nostalgia of the 90s released on Tuesdays. Please subscribe to our podcast and we'll keep you gooey in 1990s love. Find us on Twitter @talk2thehandpod or email us at jimmy@talk2thehand.co.uk or beth@talk2thehand.co.uk

There were some heroes from the Second World War that didn't get much further than a few miles from home to perform a service that resonated from the Heartland of America to halls of power in London. This is a story about quiet duty and humility, about the work of half of one's life and the British Plot in a part of Oklahoma that is Forever England.   SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTIST! Check out all we have to offer at withinpodcast.com! Want to advertise, sponsor or otherwise support Within The Realm? Visit with us at contact@withinpodcast.com or Support Within The Realm  Our wonderful sponsors!: jandjpoolsafety@gmail.com katchakid.com Katchakid has a 100% safety rating and have maintained that for over 50 years. That's a lot of safety and plenty of peace of mind when it comes to your pool and your family. Music: The Right Direction by Shane Ivers Martin Mountain Coffee: Small Batch Roaster for an Artisan Cup of Coffee! Check out Martin Mountain Coffee's signature Within The Realm Blend "Story Teller's Roast!" We won't be mad if you try the other great blends and roasts! Better yet, try a sample pack! It's better on the Mountain! Contact Us! Facebook: @withintherealm1 Instagram: within_the_realm contact@withinpodcast.com Now on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/sfg64.bsky.social   Within The Realm is a fiercly Independent podcast written and produced by Steve Garrett for the enjoyment of the curious soul. WTR intro: Sweat Shirt (S. Garrett) WTR outro: Baby Boy (S. Garrett) Available for speaking engagements! Check out the website for details. withinpodcast.com Want to advertise, sponsor or otherwise support Within The Realm? Visit with us at contact@withinpodcast.com or Support Within The Realm   

Ideas, experiments, imagination.So, what was the optimum Britpop™️ year? Academics, thinkers and BBC documentary makers have wrestled over this question for many a year. Possibly even as long as it takes to listen to Be Here Now.1993 - Yanks, go home?1994 - Maybe, perhaps definitely?1995 - Different class, I'd suggest?So where were we by the spring of 1996? Three years of evolution, trademarked Beatles and Kinks mimicking, and countless cans of Red Stripe had taken it's toll. Would it be perceived wisdom, or 21st century hallowed hindsight, to suggest the original spark of Britpop was beginning to flicker as the winds of pop change were ‘spicing' themselves up in the wings?There's no doubt that the all conquering 94/95 pop of Pulp, Supergrass, blur and Oasis were still casting a huge Union Jack shaded shadow over the charts. But, oh, there was so much more! (We've been here before, haven't we?)Big dance acts! (Some faceless, some disguised as wrestlers!)Big pop acts (Some a bit cheesy, some disguised as Eternal and Lighthouses!)Big legacy acts (Some a bit past it, some disguised as Queen, some having soap stars being sick in their hair!)But lest we forget, as 1996 got underway and the first BIG NOW of the year presented 4o Top Chart Hits for our delectation - whether your ‘flava' was pop, rock, dance or hippy - there was an unbridled swagger and confidence to the music. The decade had shaken off any allusions of baggy or grunge and was telling us we could indeed live forever. Viva Forever, as some might (and indeed will) say! Join author and all round 90s pop kid Neil Collins as we revisit NOW33 and the spring of 1996. 'Neil's new book International Velvet: How Wales Conquered the 90s Charts revisits the unforgettable Cool Cymru era when the Manics, Catatonia, Stereophonics, Super Furry Animals, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and many more won over the masses!Along the way rediscover how TV adverts were still providing a soundtrack to our denim purchases and drink breaks. How dads were very well catered for in the mid 90s (rock bands, not Louise!), what cassettes were in Neil's parents car as they attempted to break the traffic system of Paris, and why NOW33 has the best ending of ANY compilation EVER. And there's even honourable mentions for the Smurfs and Robson & Jerome! Don't look back in (too much) anger! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marvel Tales Ep #94: Captain America #253 & #254 Welcome back to Marvel Tales! This time, Phil and Justin review Captain America #253 & #254 (January & February 1981) featuring Captain America coming to the aid of his old WWII ally Union Jack to battle the Nazi vampire Baron Blood.   Tune in today and don't forget to review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you can!     Marvel Tales Links  → Twitter http://www.twitter.com/MarvelTalesPod → Instagram https://www.instagram.com/capeslunatics/ → Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MarvelTalesPod → YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/CapesandLunatics   ==================  

In the heart of the crumbling remains of London, three friends huddled around a flickering monitor, their faces illuminated by the eerie glow of the post-apocalyptic world that stretched out before them. Slade, Joey, and Alex had been eagerly anticipating Fallout: London for months, and now, as they finally played together, their excitement was palpable.Slade, always the strategist, was meticulously planning their next move. “Alright, we need to head to the British Museum. I've heard there's a cache of rare artifacts there, and we could use the supplies. Plus, we'll get a ton of XP if we clear out the raiders.”Joey, the group's enthusiastic role-player, was busy customizing his character's attire, adjusting his Union Jack-themed power armor. “I love how the game blends British history with the Fallout universe. It's like walking through a twisted version of a history book.”Alex, who was more of an explorer at heart, was already roaming the wasteland, scanning the derelict streets of London. “I'm checking out this old tube station. There might be some hidden loot or side quests. You never know what you'll find in these ruins.”As they navigated through the desolate landscape, the London Eye's skeletal structure loomed in the distance, a haunting reminder of a world that once was. Their characters weaved through abandoned vehicles and crumbling buildings, their footsteps echoing in the silence of the wasteland.Their journey was interrupted when they stumbled upon a small enclave of survivors. The survivors, desperate and wary, pleaded for help against a band of hostile raiders that had taken over the nearby Trafalgar Square. The trio exchanged glances, weighing their options.“Helping them could lead to valuable allies and more quests,” Slade suggested, eyes focused on the quest log.Joey nodded, leaning into the role-playing. “Plus, it's the right thing to do. Imagine the stories we'll have if we save Trafalgar Square.”Alex, always ready for a challenge, grinned. “Let's do it. I'm itching for some action.”With a plan in place, they approached the raider stronghold. Slade's tactical mind guided them through a series of well-coordinated moves, Joey's charisma negotiated with the survivors to keep them safe, and Alex's keen sense of exploration led them to a hidden entrance that bypassed most of the raider defenses.The battle that followed was intense. The air crackled with energy weapons and the clang of melee combat. Joey's character, wielding a makeshift battering ram, charged into the fray with fierce determination, while Alex expertly navigated the chaos, picking off enemies from the shadows. Slade's strategic commands kept them all in line, ensuring their victory.After the dust settled, the survivors expressed their gratitude, offering rare items and information about other hidden treasures in London. The trio collected their rewards and looked out over the reclaimed Trafalgar Square, a small beacon of hope in the desolate city.As they sat back, catching their breath, Slade smiled. “That was epic. We make a pretty good team.”Joey nodded, adjusting his character's gear. “And we've only scratched the surface of what this game has to offer.”Alex, eyes still bright from the adventure, added, “Can't wait to see what's next. London's full of surprises.”And with that, they delved back into the ruins of a city reborn through their imagination, ready for whatever the wasteland had in store for them next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was once said that the sun never set on the British Empire. The island nation had expanded its reach around the world for hundreds of years, and the Union Jack flew over many countries. But as happens with earthly kingdoms, the sun did set. Today, the British are back to being basically just that island nation. The Bible talks about a kingdom that will have no end. What do we mean when we talk about that Kingdom? The Kingdom of God. The concept is found in the New Testament and refers to the entrance of God into the world again, through His Son, Jesus. They will be fully established at the end of history when God reconciles all things to Himself, and opens a glorious eternity for believers. Christians are invited to participate in making sure the Kingdom of God is heavily populated. We do this not in our own strength, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. For 300 years, the Roman Empire tried to kill Christianity, but by the end of the first century, there were 500,000 Christians throughout the empire. By the Middle Ages, with all its terrors and plagues and wars, the Kingdom of God had increased to 50 million. And today, even in oppressed areas like China, Christianity is experiencing explosive growth. Worldwide there are 2.2 billion Christians. When times are tough, people turn to the living God. And as we've discussed, God invites us to participate in building His kingdom. We have daily opportunities to talk freely about what Jesus Christ has done for us.Talk about a purpose-driven life—making your life count for something eternal. Share the Good News so much that when eternity comes, you'll have no regrets. Revelation 21:23 says, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp,” and that is a kingdom that will never sit in twilight. Let's pray. Father, you are always adding to your kingdom, drawing people to you. Thank you that we can participate with you by sharing our faith in all the diversity of our days. In Jesus' name, amen.Change your shirt, and you can change the world! Save 15% Off your entire purchase of faith-based apparel + gifts at Kerusso.com with code KDD15.

Our dear friend John Cassaday passed away on September 9th. As many know, Jimmy was one of his best pals. As you can imagine, he is devastated. We are doing a couple of special episodes to honor his memory. John was a big supporter of our podcast from the very beginning. He came on only a handful of times or so in the early days and let us find our feet after that. He was always one to let his work speak for itself and we respected that. We put together a compilation of some of the episodes he was on including Episodes 18, 50, 100 and 200. As said, early days. We think you'll love hearing John talk about his work back then as these date from 2005-2009. Such an incredibly talented and kind man. One of the best comic book artists ever and a true friend. His work will live on.  Next episode, Jimmy asked some of John's friends/colleagues to send in their memories of him. How they met, his work, a favorite story and more. Jimmy talks of their friendship and shares a few stories as well. It will be an emotional one for sure. Come back later this week to listen.  Also, get a hold of us! Thanks for listening!

Send us a textLost in a hostile forest, the Marquis d'Arkham Josh, a noble emissary of the King of Rhode Island, finds refuge in the company of a strange collection of characters. On Trick or Treat Radio Episode 633 we are joined by our good bud Arkham Josh to discuss the French horror film The Vourdalak from director Adrien Beau! We also have an extended Coffin Corner this week as we honor the fallen, discuss upcoming horror conventions, and dissect and breakdown the king of on stage banter! (Oh Yeah!) So grab some white pancake makeup, paint your face like a French Aristocrat, and strap on for the world's most dangerous podcast!Stuff we talk about: Creep, Jay and Mark Duplass, Peachfuzz, The Creep Tapes, RIP James Earl Jones, Coming to America, Star Wars, good voices, CNN, Darth Vader, Gilbert Gottfried, Grand Moff Tarkin, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Star Wars Holiday Special, A Disturbance in the Force, Chad McQueen, Martial Law, Silver Scream, Terror-Con, MonstaXpo, Cannibal Holocaust, “They're eating your dogs, they're eating your cats”, Eli Roth, Knock Knock, Borderlands, Green Inferno, Welcome to the Jungle, Demons I & II, Fat Albert, Mutter Museum, Presidential Debate, endorsing a candidate, Hannibal Lecter, Taker's Streak, RIP John Cassady, Capri Sun, Planetary, Warren Ellis, Transmetroplitan, Union Jack, Captain America, KISS, Paul Stanley stage banter, Discogs, Deadpool and Wolverine, Suspiria, The Vourdalak, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Boris Karloff, Night of the Devils, Mario Bava, Black Sabbath, 70s style euro-horror, Super 16mm, Marquis, french films, marionettes, main characters that are puppets, Adrien Beau, Bela Lugosi, Fellini's Casanova, Donald Sutherland, Chesty Morgan, Morganna the Kissing Bandit, Aleksei Tolstoy, The Family of the Vourdalak, MaXXXine, Ti West, Angel, Angel Heart, Oddity, and uncrustables.Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/trickortreatradioJoin our Discord Community: discord.trickortreatradio.comSend Email/Voicemail: mailto:podcast@trickortreatradio.comVisit our website: http://trickortreatradio.comStart your own podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=386Use our Amazon link: http://amzn.to/2CTdZzKFB Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/trickortreatradioTwitter: http://twitter.com/TrickTreatRadioFacebook: http://facebook.com/TrickOrTreatRadioYouTube: http://youtube.com/TrickOrTreatRadioInstagram: http://instagram.com/TrickorTreatRadioSupport the show

Was Tony Blair a political visionary who transformed Britain - or a warmongering hypocrite with a God complex?As the former prime minister publishes a new book about his lessons on leadership, Camilla, Kamal and Tim Stanley go head-to-head on Blair's hotly contested legacy.Plus, it's the issue that got you talking: when is a Union Jack actually a Union flag?We want to hear from you! Email us at TheDailyT@telegraph.co.uk or find us on X, Instagram and TikTok @dailytpodcastProducers: Lilian Fawcett and Georgia CoanSenior Producer: John CadiganPlanning Editor: Venetia RaineyExecutive Producer: Louisa WellsStudio Operator: Meghan SearleVideo Editor: Luke GoodsallSocial Media Producer: Niamh WalshEditor: Camilla TomineyOriginal music by Goss StudioHosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 157Ah, Britain—a land of rolling hills, quaint tea shops, and, apparently, rioting racists who couldn't run a mile even if you promised them a free sausage roll at the finish line. Yes, the recent uproar in some corners of the nation has done more than just disrupt the peace. It's exposed the far right for what they truly are: a motley crew of pie-pinching, high-blood-pressure enthusiasts who wouldn't look out of place on the set of a particularly greasy episode of "Britain's Got No Talent."Let's be honest here—nothing says "serious political movement" quite like a bunch of middle-aged men huffing and puffing their way down the high street, red-faced and sweaty, looking like they've just polished off the last steak bake at Greggs. If you squint, you could almost mistake them for disgruntled customers who've just found out that Greggs is all out of cheese and onion pasties. But no, these chaps have a cause, though it's hard to take them seriously when half of them look like they'd trade their Union Jack flags for a half-price deal on sausage rolls.It's not just the waistlines that are expanding; it's the irony too. Here we have a group of people who, on the one hand, preach about the purity of the nation, and on the other, seem to spend an inordinate amount of time loitering outside Greggs, clutching brown paper bags filled with the very pastries they've just nicked from under the nose of the bewildered cashier. Their so-called "uprisings" often seem to coincide with a shortage of steak bakes, as if their fury is fueled not by some misguided ideology, but by hunger pangs.You can almost picture the scene: a local pie shop, the heart of the community, suddenly overrun by an army of red-faced, heavy-breathing blokes in ill-fitting tracksuits. "Give us our country back!" they bellow, but their words are muffled by the mouthfuls of flaky pastry they've just inhaled. It's a sight to behold—a patriotic protest turning into a pie-eating contest before your very eyes. If only the revolution were televised; the nation could tune in, popcorn in hand, to watch as these self-styled saviors of Britain struggle to button their trousers.One can't help but marvel at the sheer audacity. These are the people who claim to protect British values, yet they can't seem to walk past a Greggs without succumbing to the lure of a hot, buttery pastry. Perhaps they're just misunderstood; maybe their entire movement is just an elaborate ploy to protest the lack of gluten-free options. It's not xenophobia—it's dietary distress!Their rallies, if you can call them that, are less a show of force and more a parade of poor life choices. The aftermath often resembles the aftermath of a particularly rowdy office Christmas party—except instead of photocopied body parts and bad karaoke, you're left with a trail of discarded pastry wrappers and the faint smell of indigestion.And so, as Britain watched these "patriots" huff and puff their way through the streets, one thing became clear: the far right isn't just dangerous, it's also delightfully absurd. They may talk big, but their actions—particularly the ones involving baked goods—speak louder than words. In the end, it turns out that the greatest threat to Britain's far-right isn't immigration or multiculturalism; it's a well-stocked Greggs and the rising threat of heart disease.Music:The Loving Spoonful - Summer in the CityThree Dog Night - Joy to the WorldSupport the Show.Insta@justpassingthroughpodcastContact:justpassingthroughpodcast@gmail.comArtwork @digitalnomadicart on Insta

 In this episode, we'll travel back to the 1990s and uncover the story of "Cool Britannia," a time when Britain experienced a cultural renaissance.  From Oasis to Tony Blair, The Spice Girls to Damien Hirst, we'll learn how politics, music, fashion, and art intertwined to create one of the most vibrant eras in recent British history.  Cool Britannia: A 1990s British cultural renaissance Vanity Fair's iconic 1997 cover: Liam Gallagher, Patsy Kensit Tony Blair's "New Labour" and political change in 1990s Blair's 1997 Downing Street party with cultural icons Britpop bands: Oasis, Blur, Pulp The Spice Girls' impact and Union Jack symbolism Young British Artists: Tracy Emin, Damian Hirst London as the creative and affordable cultural hub Economic influence of Britain's creative industries Criticisms and nostalgia for the Cool Britannia period Full interactive transcript, subtitles and key vocabulary available on the website: https://www.leonardoenglish.com/podcasts/cool-britannia ---You might like:

Anyone who's been to the United States knows that each state has its own flag. Texas has the Lone Star Flag, a remnant of its days as an independent nation. Hawaii's has the Union Jack in its upper left-hand corner, a reminder that a Brit, Captain Cook, was the first European to "discover" the islands in the 18th Century. And California has the so-called "Bear Flag." Depicting the now extinct California grizzly Bear on a patch of grass, the words "California Republic" are written in black letters underneath. But the Golden State was never its own self-governing nation...or was it? Find out in this week's episode! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/historylovescompany/support

Today, we as Americans come together in order to honor and reflect on our nation's flag, the proud symbol that has inspired us throughout our history, embodying our spirit of unity, resilience, and identity. As we explore its origins and history, we first focus on the early flags that accompanied our quest for independence and the crucial role they played in shaping our nation.Let us turn our attention to the Grand Union Flag, also known as the Continental Colors. This flag was first raised on December 3, 1775, by the Continental Army under General George Washington. At this critical moment in history, the 13 original colonies were fighting as a united front, even though all the while a significant number of the colonists were professing loyalty to the British Crown. This flag's design—a combination of thirteen red and white alternating stripes representing the thirteen colonies, and the British Union Jack in the canton—reflected this awkward and contentious duality. The stripes signified unity and common cause among the colonies, while the Union Jack symbolized continued allegiance to the British crown and their hopes for a peaceful resolution within the Empire.A common misconception about our flag pertains to the colors red, white, and blue. Many believe that these colors were chosen for symbolic meaning—red for valor, white for purity, and blue for vigilance. However, these meanings were actually ascribed years later. It is more pragmatically thought that red, white, and blue were chosen simply because they were the king's colors. In fact, the flag of each colony that flew over every colonial capital bore those colors. It's only natural, since these colors were, of course, very familiar, and moreover represented authority, making them a logical choice for the early American flags.Next, let us turn our attention to another significant flag in our nation's history — Washington's Headquarters Flag. During the harsh winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, General George Washington and his Continental Army faced severe hardships, including cold weather, lack of supplies, and disease. Despite these immense challenges, this period was crucial for the army's training and cohesion, largely thanks to the efforts of Baron von Steuben.Washington's Headquarters Flag is notable for its simplicity and distinctive design. The entire field of the flag is blue, featuring 13 white six-pointed stars arranged in a 3-2-3-2-3 pattern—five rows of alternating stars. This design marked the first use of the multi-star pattern as an American flag, a precursor to the stars on our current flag. Unlike today's five-pointed stars, the six-pointed stars in this flag may have been influenced by European heraldic traditions. It's also quite likely that Washington specified six-pointed stars as a way to thank and pay homage to Haym Salomon, a Jewish patriot, who provided crucial financial support for the war.This flag carried a profound meaning. It symbolized unity and Washington's leadership during a critical time in the Revolutionary War. The stars clearly represented the original 13 colonies and their collective struggle for independence. Today, a replica of this flag hangs in front of Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge, commemorating his leadership and the resilience of his troops during this pivotal period.As the colonies' desire for independence increased, the need for a new symbol became apparent. The Union Jack's presence on the Grand Union Flag became increasingly incongruent with their quest for independence. This led to the Flag Resolution of 1777, passed by the Continental Congress on June 14 of that year, which established the first official national flag. Its design comprised 13 stripes, alternating red and white, and a union of 13 white stars arranged in a circle on a blue field. An interesting detail is that the outermost stripes are specified to be red.The Stars and Stripes emerged as a powerful symbol of the 13 colonies' unity and resolve. The stripes, representing the original colonies, and the stars, arranged in a circle, signified a new constellation and a unified, equal status among the colonies. Over time, as new states were admitted to the Union, the number of stars increased, while the 13 stripes remained to honor the original colonies.In conclusion, the development and adoption of the American flag reflect our nation's journey from a collection of colonies to a united, independent country. The flags used during the Revolutionary War, such as Washington's Headquarters Flag and the Grand Union Flag, played crucial roles in rallying unity and resolve. The Stars and Stripes, adopted in 1777, embodied the emerging identity of the United States and continues to serve as a powerful emblem of our nation's enduring spirit and values.Steel News is hosted by Ann Vandersteel, one of the premiere investigative journalists within Conservatism. Ann is a DAR [Daughter of the American Revolution] and finds studying the constitution and conservate activism her civic duty.Her career as a new media journalist began on a podcast in 2016 called Your Voice America. Before censorship, the show had 300K live views/night. 2017 Ann started her own show called Steel Truth which ran until 2022. Brighteon TV picked Ann up where she has been delivering nightly news weeknights on a show called Right Now with Ann Vandersteel.Subscribe to Freedom First Network on Rumble to watch all of our shows LIVE at https://freedomfirst.tv.Protect your financial future with precious metals! Download your FREE Gold and Silver Guide from Genesis Gold today and take control of your financial destiny!  https://pickaxgold.comElevate your meals with Freedom First Beef… even if you find yourself in the middle of the apocalypse! Use code FFN for 25% off and enjoy high-quality beef whenever you crave it – today or tomorrow! https://freedomfirstbeef.comBe ready for anything life throws your way with The Wellness Company's Medical Emergency Kit. Order today using code FFN for a 10% discount at https://twc.health/ffn.Unleash the spirit of liberty in every cup with Freedom First Coffee's Founders Blend. Order now using code RIGHTNOW and savor the unparalleled taste of freedom in every patriotic sip. https://freedomfirstcoffee.com

BRIT PICK! Stand up and salute the Union Jack, 'cause Jason keeps us seaborn with this week's film THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE! Can it hang with the other films? Did Paste Magazine even watch this one? It's Powell and Pressburger, for chrissakes. Next week: The director of Kanal is BACK... in pog form. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? You can always shoot us an e-mail at forscreenandcountry@gmail.com   Full List: https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/war-movies/the-100-greatest-war-movies-of-all-time Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forscreenandcountry Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/fsacpod Our logo was designed by the wonderful Mariah Lirette (https://instagram.com/its.mariah.xo) The Battle of the River Plate stars Bernard Lee, Peter Finch, John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Patrick Macnee, Andrew Cruikshank, Anthony Newley and Christopher Lee; directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Image-O-Rama: Ice Cream Man #39 by M. Maxwell Prince, Martin Morazzo, and Chris O'Halloran and G.I. Joe + Destro + Scarlett, Blood Hunt and Union Jack the Ripper: Blood Hunt, Kneel Before Zod by Joe Casey and Dan McDaid, Eden II by Kay Wroten from Fantagraphics and The Great Beyond by Léa Murawiec from Drawn & Quarterly, Ms. Tree, Action Comics, Bea Wolf by Zack Weinersmith and Boulet from :01, plus a whole mess more!

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkHTY1eNYHr9JoTndx_m6kA/join New T-shirts & more are now available! http://tee.pub/lic/BAMG John is joined by special guest host Evan The DC Guy for a new episode packed with comic book collecting tips & chat! Doom #1 is our Hot Book of the Week, but why? Then we hit the Viewer Mailbag where we answer questions about when collecting gets boring, when your collecting focuses shift & more. The Old Fart Rule takes us to the last days of Charlton Horror comics. Finally, our Underrated Books of the Week include a DC Bronze Age first and *gasp* a NEW comic book from last week! Bronze and Modern Gods is the channel dedicated to the Bronze, Copper and Modern Ages of comics and comic book collecting! Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/BronzeAndModernGods Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bronzeandmoderngods #comics #comicbooks #comiccollecting --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bronzeandmoderngods/support

Today, we're talkin'. WHY? Becuase theres new stuff to talk about each and every week, and its the duty and responsibility of the First Issue Club to keep the conversation going. These conversations include topics like Tom King writing an Archie comic, an upcoming Avengers/Ultraman crossover mini, the impending return of the Green Goblin in the pages of Amazing Spider-man, and wether or not Jean, Logan, and Scott were ever really in a throuple during the Krakoan era of X-Men.  After the yackin', Greg walks us through the Blood Hunt tie-in Union Jack the Ripper from Marvel Comics, and the eerie indie Butchers Boy out on Darkhorse Comics.  Hop over to our Patreon for this weeks bonus where we talk first appearances and lucky finds. 

CultPop Presents a brand new episode of Fresh Floppies, where we (spoiler-free) discuss and review some of the comics out THIS WEEK, TODAY! Only the freshest of floppies, so listen on your way to the comic shop. Blood Hunt #2 – 02:22 Amazing Spider-Man #50 – 06:15 Nightwing #114 – 12:50 Archie Comics: Judgement Day... The post Fresh Floppies 52 – Blood Hunt 2, Amazing Spider-Man 50, Union Jack, Nightwing, Archie, Rook, Cobra, and more! appeared first on CultPOP!.

Jack McGlynn and The Union are in desperate need of a win Ft. Sam Minton The Union's run of form has been rough to watch as of late... WIinless in their last 6, and now are looking to bounce back against The Revs. JP Zapata is joined by Sam Minton of The Blazing Musket, this preview this match. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Avec l'hymne national, le drapeau représente un des symboles essentiels de l'identité d'un pays. Or, certains de ces pavillons se ressemblent beaucoup. C'est le cas des drapeaux de l'Australie et de la Nouvelle-Zélande qui, de fait, sont très similaires.Anciennes colonies britanniques et membres du Commonwealth, ils arborent tous les deux, sur le coin gauche de l'étendard, l'"Union Jack", le drapeau britannique.Pour le reste, les deux drapeaux affichent des étoiles : sept étoiles blanches pour le drapeau de l'Australie, quatre étoiles rouges, avec un liseré blanc, pour la Nouvelle-Zélande.Sur le drapeau australien, six des branches de l'étoile située sous l'"Union Jack" représentent les six premiers États australiens, la septième symbolisant les futurs États. Quant aux étoiles situées sur la partie gauche des deux drapeaux, elles représentent la constellation de la Croix du Sud, présente dans l'hémisphère Sud.La similitude entre ces deux drapeaux est d'ailleurs telle qu'elle suscite un différend entre les deux pays. En effet, les autorités néo-zélandaises demandent à l'Australie de modifier son drapeau, au motif qu'il est trop proche du drapeau de la Nouvelle-Zélande.Et elles font cette requête au nom de l'antériorité de leur étendard national. En effet, même s'il n'est vraiment devenu officiel qu'en 1902, il existe sous sa forme actuelle depuis 1869. Alors que le drapeau fédéral australien n'a été adopté, avec son dessin actuel, qu'en 1901, pour devenir l'emblème national officiel en 1954.Les Néo-Zélandais soutiennent d'ailleurs cette initiative de leur gouvernement. Selon un récent sondage, en effet, plus de 60 % des personnes interrogées pensent que l'Australie doit changer son drapeau.En revanche, les habitants de la Nouvelle-Zélande ne semblent pas prêts à modifier leur propre drapeau. En effet, le gouvernement avait proposé que l'Union Jack, qui, selon ses dires, exprime une dépendance symbolique par rapport au Royaume-Uni, et ne représente plus vraiment l'identité néo-zélandaise, soit remplacé par d'autres motifs.Mais, finalement, près de 57 % des électeurs se sont prononcés pour le maintien du drapeau actuel. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

The Union Jack represents many things for many people, linked to historical pride – but also shame. And, unfortunately, it's become somewhat synonymous with the political Right. So what is Labour's relationship with the flag? Andrew Harrison asks The People's Flag and the Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party co-author Gerry Hassan if Labour can reclaim Britishness.     • “I don't think anyone in the UK can be completely objective about the Union Jack. Flags are things we have emotional connections with. The Union Jack's meaning has evolved over centuries.” – Gerry Hassan  • “Lots of people say we have to either identify and feel pride in it, or loathe it – but it's important we allow for a polarity of meanings.” – Gerry Hassan  • “In our current age of culture wars, symbols really matter. And symbols like national flags are highly contested.” – Gerry Hassan  • “Flags are part of who we are as human beings.” – Gerry Hassan      Buy The People's Flag and the Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party through our affiliate bookshop and you'll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org's fees help support independent bookshops too.    We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit.    Support us on Patreon     Written and presented by Podmasters Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Instagram | Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Union Jack - Two Full Moons & a Trout (Save the Robot Remix) Two Full Moons & a Trout (Save the Robot Remix) - IbogaTech IBOGATECH185 1. Union Jack - Two Full Moons & a Trout (Save the Robot Remix) 2. Save the Robot - Elephant (Original Mix) Fresh off their debut remix in the Iboga family back in 2023, Save the Robot returns with a bang. First in line, Union Jack's classic gem 'Two Full Moons and a Trout' undergoes a futuristic makeover courtesy of Save the Robot. Imagine yourself lost in a trance, grooving under the double lunar glow with a trout as your dance partner. That's the vibe! It's not just a remix; it's a sonic supernova poised to explode on your playlist. But wait, there's more! Dive deep into 'Elephant' by Save the Robot, where every beat is like a mammoth stomp and every melody a majestic trumpet call. So, if you're ready to take your ears on a cosmic joyride, hop aboard the 'Two Full Moons and a Trout' express. Warning: may cause spontaneous dance floor eruptions and an uncontrollable urge to howl at the moon.

There's a lot of madness orbiting the rocket this week as your co-pilots tackle the latest ghastly news from the NHS and author JK Rowling's reaction to the latest SNP legislation, not to mention the redesign of our Union Jack for the Olympics.Allison thinks we could be on the way to a ‘backdoor blasphemy' law in light of Scotland's hate crime bill.Whilst Liam agrees and is disappointed with the Scottish media's coverage of the law maker's decision.Returning to the rocket for his second voyage this week is Tory peer, Dr Tony Sewell, who discusses his reaction to the most recent race report from Kemi Badenoch, as well as his latest book, Black Success: The Surprising Truth.Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ |Read Sarah Knapton ‘Number of patients waiting four weeks to see GP soars all over England': https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/02/patients-waiting-four-weeks-for-gp-appointment-soars-nhs/ |Read Allison ‘The new Team GB flag trashes everything that's iconic about the Union Jack': https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/04/03/the-team-gb-flag-rebrand-olympics/ |Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ |Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |For 30 days' free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal | Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From her iconic Union Jack dress and Girl Power persona to her current all-white dress code and role as the “devoted wife”, today we are exploring the online reactions to Geri Halliwell's transformation. Has she really abandoned her working class roots by “marrying up”, or is this just part of growing up and evolving? And are commenters justified in questioning her authenticity and “girl power” values, based on rumours she may have ‘stolen' her husband? We also touch on what Saltburn has to say about class, and discuss the trend of roughing up your “backstory” to tap into mass appeal and acceptance as an artist. Join us as we go straight to comments and discuss the complicated topic of class in the UK today Questions for us or comments you want us to review? We love answering your questions and analysing stories you have found. Send them to us over on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s2tcpodcast/ If you enjoyed the show, please give us a 5* review on Spotify and review on Apple. This series is produced by Emily Crosby Media.

In An Empire of Laws: Legal Pluralism in British Colonial Policy (Yale University Press, 2023), Dr. Christian R. Burset presents a compelling reexamination of how Britain used law to shape its empire. For many years, Britain tried to impose its own laws on the peoples it conquered, and English common law usually followed the Union Jack. But the common law became less common after Britain emerged from the Seven Years' War (1754–63) as the world's most powerful empire. At that point, imperial policymakers adopted a strategy of legal pluralism: some colonies remained under English law, while others, including parts of India and former French territories in North America, retained much of their previous legal regimes. As legal historian Dr. Burset argues, determining how much English law a colony received depended on what kind of colony Britain wanted to create. Policymakers thought English law could turn any territory into an anglicized, commercial colony; legal pluralism, in contrast, would ensure a colony's economic and political subordination. Britain's turn to legal pluralism thus reflected the victory of a new vision of empire—authoritarian, extractive, and tolerant—over more assimilationist and egalitarian alternatives. Among other implications, this helps explain American colonists' reverence for the common law: it expressed and preserved their equal status in the empire. This book, the first empire-wide overview of law as an instrument of policy in the eighteenth-century British Empire, offers an imaginative rethinking of the relationship between tolerance and empire. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In An Empire of Laws: Legal Pluralism in British Colonial Policy (Yale University Press, 2023), Dr. Christian R. Burset presents a compelling reexamination of how Britain used law to shape its empire. For many years, Britain tried to impose its own laws on the peoples it conquered, and English common law usually followed the Union Jack. But the common law became less common after Britain emerged from the Seven Years' War (1754–63) as the world's most powerful empire. At that point, imperial policymakers adopted a strategy of legal pluralism: some colonies remained under English law, while others, including parts of India and former French territories in North America, retained much of their previous legal regimes. As legal historian Dr. Burset argues, determining how much English law a colony received depended on what kind of colony Britain wanted to create. Policymakers thought English law could turn any territory into an anglicized, commercial colony; legal pluralism, in contrast, would ensure a colony's economic and political subordination. Britain's turn to legal pluralism thus reflected the victory of a new vision of empire—authoritarian, extractive, and tolerant—over more assimilationist and egalitarian alternatives. Among other implications, this helps explain American colonists' reverence for the common law: it expressed and preserved their equal status in the empire. This book, the first empire-wide overview of law as an instrument of policy in the eighteenth-century British Empire, offers an imaginative rethinking of the relationship between tolerance and empire. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Most know the United States entered World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Just a few months before that fateful December morning, folks in Miami, Ok were already hearing the engines of foreign pilots over head. Miami was home to Churchill Field, a training school for British pilots. Over 2,100 would-be pilots came to this corner of the Sooner State for training, a handful never left. withinpodcast.com The British Plot in the GAR Cemetery at Miami, Oklahoma.   Sound effect London Air Raid provided by Scottish Person from Pixabay. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTIST! Check out all we have to offer at withinpodcast.com! Want to advertise, sponsor or otherwise support Within The Realm? Visit with us at contact@withinpodcast.com or Support Within The Realm  Our sponsors:  jandjpoolsafety@gmail.com katchakid.com Music: The Right Direction by Shane Ivers Katchakid has a 100% safety rating and have maintained that for over 50 years. That's a lot of safety and plenty of peace of mind when it comes to your pool and your family. Martin Mountain Coffee: Small Batch Roaster for an Artisan Cup of Coffee! Check out Martin Mountain Coffee's signature Within The Realm Blend "Story Teller's Roast!" It's an artisan cup of coffee. Contact Us! Facebook: @withintherealm1 X: @realm_within Instagram: within_the_realm contact@withinpodcast.com Within The Realm is a fiercly Independent podcast written and produced by Steve Garrett for the enjoyment of the curious soul. WTR intro: Sweat Shirt (S. Garrett) WTR outro: Baby Boy (S. Garrett) Want to advertise, sponsor or otherwise support Within The Realm? Visit with us at contact@withinpodcast.com or Support Within The Realm 

The top United Nations court on Friday issued a ruling that stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. But the International Court of Justice at The Hague also ordered Israel to do more to prevent civilian deaths in the Palestinian enclave. Also, NATO kicked off its largest military exercises since the Cold War. It involves all 31 NATO member countries and 90,000 troops. Plus, Australia Day commemorates the day in 1788 when British colonists arrived and raised the Union Jack. And every year, it sparks a public debate about cultural identity, history and what it really means to be Australian. 

Chelsey joins the show to discuss how the major construction projects in Broad Ripple has hurt not only her business, but everyone in the village with no answers from local government. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March 1957, Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence and a new flag was unveiled marking a fresh start for the former British colony known as the Gold Coast. The woman behind the design was Theodosia Okoh, an artist and former teacher who won a government competition for a new emblem which would signify the end of British rule. Her flag had red, gold and green horizontal stripes with a black star in the centre and it replaced the symbol of an elephant encircled in front of a palm tree below the Union Jack. Theodosia's son Kwasi Okoh was a young boy at the time of independence, he speaks to Reena Stanton-Sharma about the inspiration behind his mother's creation. (Photo: Ghanaian football fans with the flag at the 2006 World Cup. Credit Joerg Koch/DDP/AFP via Getty Images)

Last time we spoke about the battle for Tientsin. Tientsin had be relieved momentarily of its siege, but the Boxers and Qing forces quickly went back to work assaulting the foreign held part of the city. Forces from the great powers began arriving at Taku, heading for Tientsin to finally lift its siege once and for all. The battle against the Chinese held part of the city was to be the bloodiest battle of the Boxer Rebellion and it was the Japanese who ushered in victory. The southern and eastern gates of Tientsin were breached as the foreign troops sent the Qing and Boxer forces fleeing. Now with Tientsin firmly in their hands and with even more troops arriving by the day, the new 8 Nation alliance was preparing for a march upon Beijing. Would this new international force be able to get to Beijing quickly enough to save the besieged foreign community there?   #66 The Boxer Rebellion part 6: The Fall of Beijing   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. German Field Marshal Alfred von Waldersee was chosen to be the supreme allied commander, but he was in Germany with his soldiers set to depart on August 18th. Meanwhile Lt General Sir Alfred Gaselee was at Tientsin and he managed to get the Americans to back him temporarily to be the leader of the new 8 Nation alliance. I would like to note, General Yamaguchi Motomi was the highest ranking officer present at Tientsin during this time, but non-white racism disallowed the other commanders to allow him to take command. It was estimated by most of the great powers that some 50-70 thousand troops would be necessary to march upon Beijing, Gaselee had 22,000. 10,000 Japanese, 4000 Russian, 3000 British, 2000 Americans, 800 French, 200 Germans, 100 Austrians and 100 Italians. Telegraph lines were cut, the railway was damaged and many of the Great powers advised waiting for more troops before marching. But the British and Americans threatened to go it alone if they did not march at once.  Back in Beijing the truce had gradually died down and now the foreigners lived in a confused paradox. At one moment the Zongli Yamen would send them gifts of food and assure them protection, the next they were plotting their death. The hostilities had resumed while the Zongli Yamen began publicly stating any soldier caught firing on the legations would be beheaded. It was unbelievably contradictory. Rumor also had it Li Hongzhang had been appointed the negotiator for peace talks and would soon send telegrams to the foreign governments. On August 12th, Prince Qing sent a message indicating the Zongli Yamen intended to have a meeting with the ministers the very next day. The foreign community hoped this meant a relief force was close to Beijing and that the Qing were panicking. They had all received information two days prior from General Gaselee stating “Strong force of Allies advancing. Twice defeated enemy. Keep up your spirits.” They also received a message from General Fukushima stating “Probable date of arrival at Peking August 13 or 14.” The legation defenders morale had thus boosted considerably, but they were still under a violent siege taking the lives of people every day. Bullets and shrapnel peppered them each day and the Qing forces seemed even more aggressive, planting their banners just 20 yards from the defenders outposts. In fact some of the banners bore the name of a General they had not heard of until that point, it was our old friend Yuxian. Yuxian had been appointed governor of Shanxi province and reigned a campaign of terror against Christians and foreigners there. On July 9th, it was rumored Yuxian had executed 44 foreigners including women and children from some missionary families whom he had personally invited to the provincial capital, Taiyuan under the guise he was going to protect them. It is disputed by historians who were the actual culprits who killed the foreigners, but the incident became known as the Taiyuan massacre. What is known, by the later half of 1900, Shanxi saw as many as 2000 Christians murdered. It seemed Empress Dowager Cixi brought Yuxian over to Beijing as a last-ditch effort to overrun the foreigners.  The tenacity of the besiegers had increased exponentially, as told to us by Lenox Simpson “all thoughts of relief have been pushed into the middle distance—and even beyond—by the urgent business we have now on hand. . . . What stupendous quantities of ammunition have been loosed-off on us . . . what tons of lead and nickel! Some of our barricades have been so eaten away by this fire, that there is but little left, and we are forced to lie prone on the ground hour after hour.... The Chinese guns are also booming again, and shrapnel and segment are tearing down trees and outhouses, bursting through walls, splintering roofs, and wrecking our strongest defenses more and more.”  The commanders of the Gaselee force figured they would be facing roughly 70,000 Qing soldiers and anything between 50-100 thousand boxers between them and Beijing. They had roughly 70 artillery pieces, and lacked any real cavalry, aside from a few Cossacks. There was some Japanese cavalry, but their horses turned out to not be able to face the heat, 60 out of 400 of them would not make it to Beijing. So they were going to be mostly an infantry force. The commander chose to take the exact same route to Beijing that the British and French took during the second opium war, rather fitting if you ask me. They departed on August the 4th and the first battle they would face was at Beicang. Their intelligence reported General Dong Fuxiang had deployed roughly 20,000 troops at Beicang, though in reality it was around 11,000. The British, Americans and Japanese advanced along the west side of the river, while the French and Russians marched on its east. As the army approached Beicang on August the 4th they camped outside near the Xigu fort arsenal, the very same arsenal Seymour and his expedition had come across. The commanders planned to have the British, Americans and Japanese turn the right flank of the Qing while the Russians and French turned their left flank on the opposite side of the Hai river. At 3am the Japanese launched their attack under the cover of allied artillery and they quickly seized a Qing battery on the extreme right of their defense lines. They then pushed forward on the flank as an artillery duel between the Qing and allies raged for half and hour. During the duel, a Japanese regiment performed a direct assault on a Qing position along the river. The Japanese requested some cavalry aid from the British, but it failed to reach them on time, leading the Japanese to take heavy casualties. None the less the Japanese stormed some Qing entrenchments forcing the defenders to retreat. On the east bank of the Hai river, the French and Russians were unable to hook around the Qing left flank due to flooded terrain, but the Japanese victory in the west broke the Qing's will to fight as a general retreat was sounded. The allies lost 60 men dead, all Japanese with 240 wounded. Around 50 Qing were killed in the battle that lasted until 9am, it was a relatively easy victory, though the Japanese paid heavily for it. American medics notably treated the Japanese wounded. The Qing forces retreated 12 miles back to Yangcun where they took up positions between the east bank of the Hai river and its railroad embankment. Yangcun was heavily fortified and the Qing forces led by Generals Ma Yukun and Song Qing hoped to halt the allied advance there. The British and Americans took the vanguard this time advancing on Yangcun by August 6th. The Japanese advanced along the west side of the Hai river, but would not find themselves taking part in the battle. The Qing numbered nearly 11,000 again, though its unknown how many actually took part in the battle. The allies faced something nearly as bad as bullets that day, tremendous heat. Indeed during the Gaselee expedition the weather often reached 42 degrees, or 108 freedom units for your americans. 20% of the men who marched on Yangcun fell out of rank, and a ton of sunstroke related deaths occurred. The allied forces advanced within 5000 yards of the Qing positions. The Russians were on the easternmost, followed by the British, then the Americans. The assault began at 11am, and soon it became an endurance competition between both sides. Men clutched their water canteens as they marched. The Americans bore the brunt of the Qing resistance as they hit the strongest held position behind the railroad embankment. Men were seen collapsing from sunstroke as Qing artillery and rifle fire poured upon them. The Americans were advancing in open terrain and had to run to avoid being hit. As the Americans charged over the railroad embankment they would find most of the positions abandoned. The battle ultimately became one enormous rearguard action. As the Americans advances so rapidly, the British and Russian artillery began to mistake them for retreating Qing forces and shells began to be lobbed over the US 14th infantry. 4 Americans were killed with 11 wounded as the Americans frantically signaled back to stop the shelling.Placing a handkerchief on the point of a sword an American commander galloped up the embankment waving it at the artillery fire. To make matters worse, upon seeing the shelling, the French joined in also firing upon them. By the late afternoon the battle for Yangcun was over, the Qing took very few casualties as they had abandoned their positions fairly early on. The Americans had 9 dead, 64 wounded, 15 of which would die later on. The British had 6 dead, 38 wounded and the Russians 7 dead, 20 wounded. Within Yangcun the allies found the trains Seymours expeditionary forces had abandoned, as told to us by Frederick Brown “Still standing on the embankment were the boilers and wheels of the engines used in that fruitless attempt to reach Peking. How the Boxers must have gloated in their hate when they rushed upon these inventions of the ‘foreign devils'! They had burned the woodwork . . . looted the brasses, nuts, and bolts, and had even torn up and buried the rails and sleepers. But the wheels and boilers remained there in defiance”.  The route to Beijing was a nearly treeless plain, the landscape was littered with fields of 14 foot high corn. It was actually terrifying because one could not see over the corn fields for possible enemies lurking about. On one occasion Lt Roger Keyes of the HMS Fame was horrified to see “the banners of a large body of Tartar cavalry and the pennons of our Bengal Lancers showing above the standing maize, and within a mile of one another, apparently unaware of each other's proximity, but closing fairly rapidly.” Keyes galloped over to warn the Bengals, but it was like finding a needle in a haystack. The Japanese actually began carrying bamboo ladders so they could peak over the corn, must have been silly as hell to watch this march. The heat was a constant enemy, as the commanding officer of the US 14th infantry, Colonel Dagget recalled “a fierceness in that China sun's rays which none had experienced in the tropics or our Southern States during the Civil War.... Its prostrating effect was unaccountable, and caused our men to fall by hundreds. The dust of ages . . . rose at every footstep. The corn obstructed the breeze, and did not allow it either to blow away the dust or fan the burning faces of the fainting soldiers.” The men would abandon countless blankets, greatcoats, haversacks and such along the roads. Even the British Indian troops were suffering from the heat. Lt Steel remarked “The heat was awful, the whole road being littered with men fallen out, Americans, Japs, and ours. The country is so dense with crops we couldn't see anywhere, and the flies and bad water made life pretty sickening. Everywhere one came across dead bodies of Chinese and mules and horses in various degrees of foul composition. I nearly catted [vomited] dozens of times.”  Despite the conditions, the 8 nation alliance marched 25 miles and won two easy victories. After a council of war on August 7th, the commanders had all agreed to continue the march and not wait for reinforcements. The Italians, Austrian and Germans had returned to Tientsin to reequip themselves as they had greatly miscalculated the gear needed for the expedition. Many French likewise would have to turn back. The field was thus set for the Russians, British, Japanese and Americans to push on. The Qing who saw them march would simply flee, seeing countless villages abandoned along the way. In some villages, a few Chinese civilians would be found, and as noted by Dagget “the villages were all deserted, except occasionally a Chinese man or woman would be found crouching in some hidden corner, expecting to be killed every moment. And, to the disgrace of humanity . . . some of these innocent, unresisting people were shot down like beasts but not by Americans.” British journalist Henry Savage-Landor traveling with the expedition would write “the majority of the “American boys” were “as a rule extremely humane, even at times extravagantly gracious, towards the enemy.” Henry would also claim his countrymen showed more humanity than the other nationalities. Many prisoners were taken, some Qing troops, some Boxers. The Chinese regiment was in charge of prisoners, but the other troops sometimes grabbed prisoners and abused them. Henry wrote of how a Boxer prisoner was dragged away by some French and Japanese troops and shot in the face “The poor devil, who showed amazing tenacity of life, afterwards had all his clothes torn off him, the soldiers being bent on finding the peculiar Boxer charm which all Boxers were supposed to possess. The man lived for another hour with hundreds of soldiers leaning over him to get a glimpse of his agony, and going into roars of laughter as he made ghastly contortions in his delirium.” On August 8th a message came from MacDonald to Generals Gaselee and Chafee. The message was accompanied by a map of Beijing, advising them to enter Beijing through the south gate of the Chinese city, then to advance up the main street, before turning towards the Tartar wall. MacDonald promised they would mark portions of the Tartar wall with American, British and Russian flags to help them. Unfortunately the notes were written in cipher, but the Gaselee force had left the key back in Tientsin. Captain Griffin of the 1st Bengal lancers was given the task of running back to Tientsin to get it deciphered.  The army found themselves halfway to Beijing at the town of Hoshiwu. There they found written plans that the Qing forces sought to flood the countryside and drown them out. Lt COlonel Vaughan of the 7th Rajputs recalled “We found the cutting nearly completed, and the workmen's tools and baskets lying in it, so precipitately had they fled. However, although the thing didn't come off, the Chinese general informed his government that he had cut the banks of the Peiho, and inundated the country, drowning 25,000 of the foreigners, at which, he naively concluded, ‘they are much disheartened.' We read this account of our being drowned some months later in a Chinese paper, and were much amused,”. On August 12th, the allies came across the sealed gates of Tungchow. The Qing garrison fled upon their arrival too which Frederick Brown would write .“As we followed the retreating army, we came across pots, pans, umbrellas, and fans, the necessary paraphernalia of a Chinese army, scattered about in all directions. . . . It seemed, therefore, that there would be no serious stand till Peking should be reached,” The south gate of Tungchow was blown up, allies pouring in and began looting. Gaselee tried to control the men and reassure the local population who were terrified and hiding in their homes. Meanwhile Li Bingheng who had promised to repel the foreigners at the first sign of a battle on August 11th he wrote to Empress Dowager Cixi .“As we followed the retreating army, we came across pots, pans, umbrellas, and fans, the necessary paraphernalia of a Chinese army, scattered about in all directions. . . . It seemed, therefore, that there would be no serious stand till Peking should be reached,” After the fall of Tungchow, Li Bingheng killed himself. On the 12th the commanders held another war council. General Linevitch of the Russians argued they would be too exhausted to perform an assault upon Beijing immediately upon arrival. The other commanders agreed to a three phase operation. Each nations army would send a cavalry reconnaissance on the 13th, followed by the main bodies expected to arrive on the 14th and the general attack would commence on the 15th. The French commander General Frey had just returned to the force with an additional 400 French troops from Tientsin making them 5 national armies. The general attack called for a simultaneous advance with each national contingent aiming for a particularly gate in the eastern wall of Beijing. The Russians took the furthest north position on the right flank; then the Japanese, then the French, then the Americans and last the British on the southern most left flank. Their intelligence reported the Qing were concentrated on the south and southeast portions of the city, thus Gaselee chose to have the British take the most exposed position. The Russians were assigned the Dongzhi gate, Japanese Chaoyang gate, Americans Dongbien gate and the British the Guangqui gate, while the French were simply left out of the planning all together ahaahah. On the evening of the 13th, rumors suddenly emerged that the Russians were breaking the plan and making a wild dash for Beijing. As told to us by Keyes  “A message has just come from the Russians that some Cossacks have pushed on to within a mile and a half of Peking, and the gates are open. I wonder if it is true; if so we are properly left behind.” What actually occurred is unclear, but Russian scouts were well ahead of everyone else on the night of the 13th and sent word that Dongbien, the gate the Americans were to attack, was lightly defended. General Lineivitch sent a vanguard under General Vassilievski with some artillery to secure the approach to Dongbien. Apparently it was Vassilievski who saw an opportunity so instead of waiting he charged with his men over the moat bridge taking the 30 or so Qing defenders by surprise in their outer guardhouse. The Qing tried to raise an alarm but it was too late as the Russian artillery blasted a hole right through the Dongbien and before dawn of the 14th were the first to enter the city. The Russians would soon find themselves in a crossfire however between the courtyard and inner/outer door killing 26 Russians and wounding 102. The survivors would be pinned down for many hours. MacDonald got his men together to raise the Stars and Strips, Union Jack and Imperial eagle of Russia atop the Tartar Walls to signal the advancing allies. Upon seeing this the Qing siege forces went into a frenzy last ditch assault upon the legations. It was to be known as “the three terrible nights”, as Captain Poole wrote “Legation full of danger, up all night, fiercest attack I can remember, let them do their worst.”. The Qing artillery began smashing the Fu palace as Qing riflemen fired upon anyone they could see. In the midst of the chaos a messenger from the Zongli Yamen showed up bearing a note stating “dating from today, neither Chinese nor foreigner would ever again hear the sound of a rifle.” Meanwhile Colonel Shiba was ordering men to bang pots and pans while the Italians shouted and whistled trying to convince the Qing soldiers they were a larger force than they were. MacDonald called up reserves three times trying to rush forces to critical points. Qing rifleman armed with Mannlicher carbines were storming through the Mongol Market with a large modern piece of artillery that was deployed upon a high point on the Imperial cities wall. It was a two inch quick firing Krupp gun which did more damage in 10 minutes than the Qing had done in 5 weeks. The foreigners unleashed their colt machine gun and Maxim gun upon it, but were met back with Mannlichers, Mausers, Jingals and older muskets. Bricks and stones exploded, hand to hand combat erupted. Then suddenly through the chaos, the sound of heavy artillery could be heard coming from the east. A sudden lull began on both sides, until the foreigners in the legations realized it was the relief force outside the city, they were engaging the Qing troops! The news spread from building to building, MacDonald watched as the legation guards all suddenly became alive again, everyone was joyous. They all wondered whose national army would come first. As news spread that the Russians had already stormed the Dongbien gate the race began. The Japanese march turned into a rapid sprint, followed by the Americans. General Gaselee refused to believe the Russians had abandoned the plan but when he himself heard the sounds of artillery hitting Beijings walls, he was livid. At 3:30am on August 14th the British main body was 6 miles outside Beijing. They marched upon Guangqui and General Gaselee had two artillery piece brought up. According to Lt Steel “The battery fired some dozen shots, and the Chinese scuttled, and we burst the door open and were inside.” Keyes took a Union Jack and scaled the wall just right of the gate placing it atop the wall. Keyes had hoped to hop down and open the gate for his comrades, but they busted it open before he could do so. Gaselee dispatched two detachments through the breach to seize the Temples of Heaven and Agriculture as the rest of the main body proceeded westwards to the Tartar Wall. Lt Colonel Vaughan described the scene “Not a Chinaman was to be seen, but the banging of doors was heard, and many of the rings hanging from the door knobs were shaking as we passed, showing that the doors had only just been shut. At last we entered a long and broad street, and while going up it saw hundreds of Chinamen running down the side streets away from us.” The British forces estimated they were lined up with the “Sluice” gate also called the watergate which led to the legations quarter. They turned north as Qing troops fired down upon them from houses, but as noted by Keyes “we saw no troops and there was no real opposition.” As they approached the Tartar wall they came under fire from the outer gate of Hatamen. The Qing were using smokeless powder, making it very difficult to see where shots were coming from. As the British got closer to the legations they saw the American, Russian and British flags atop the Tartar Wall indicating where the Sluice gate was.  Lt Steel described the scene as the men went towards the Sluice gate “we all dashed across the canal, bullets fizzing and spitting all round, a small shell exploding in front of my nose, no harm done.” It's unclear who exactly was the first man to enter the British legation, but according Mrs Ker, a British diplomats wife “it was a Sikh, an unforgettable sight, naked to the waist, sweating like a pig, hair tumbling on his shoulders. He kept waving his rifle and shouting ‘Oorah!' . . . and in a bunch, with officers and men, that old darling, General Gaselee, about twenty-five yards behind.” The besieged foreigners were in a daze, shortly before 2pm MacDonald received news that foreign troops were beneath the Tartar Wall opposite of the Sluice gate. MacDonald rushed over just in time to greet General Gaselee. MacDonald led the force to the British Legation. Two hours after the British arrived, General Chaffee and the 14th US infantry arrived who were also quickly brought over to the British legation. The Americans led by the 14th infantry had reached the walls of Beijing only to find the Russians stuck in the Bongdien gate. The Russians had assumed they would strong right into the city, but instead they were being torn to pieces from the wall top riflemen. General Vasilievski was hit in the chest by a Mannlicher as he tried to rally his men on the lower parts of the wall. The main body of Russians only reached his vanguard force at 10am. The Americans proceeded to scale the wall south of Dongbien, taking some of the pressure off the Russians.  A 20 year old bugler, Calvin Titus volunteered to scale the wall first. Unarmed he climbed the wall, earning himself the Congressional Medal of Honor and an appointment at West Point for the action. When he got to the top he signaled the rest to start climbing and by 11am the regimental flag was flying over the walls of Beijing. By 12 US forces were charging Qing soldiers atop the walls around Dongbien. The Americans advanced through the southeast of the Tartar city too which they were embroiled in street fighting. It took hours for them to work their way to the Tartar Wall. When they got through the Sluice gate, they then realized the British had won the race after all. The Japanese encountered stiff resistance at their assigned gate, the Chaoyang. The Qing hit the incoming Japanese with artillery, greatly stalling them. Despite the relief forces getting into the legations, the siege was still raging on. As Lt Steel remarked “everyone was talking and cheering and waving their hats whilst the bullets were flying thick overhead and banging on the roofs all high, no one caring a hang! The Chinese simply went mad when they realized we were in and let off every bally gun they had at random.” Colonel Shiba launched a final attack on the Qing barricades at the Fu, driving off the soldiers. The relief forces went to work clearing snipers out of the Mongol Market who were shocked upon seeing the soldiers, they had no idea Beijing had been breached. As Captain Poole blasted a hole through the Imperial Carriage Park wall and stormed through it with 60 marines he discovered two mines with the powder and fuse lying about. He would later remark “If the troops had come one day or one night later, God only knows what the result would have been!” Upon seeing the British troops enter the Sluice gate, the Qing began lowering banners atop the Tartar wall and withdrew. American and Russian forces surged forward as hundreds of Qing soldiers fled. The British, Russians, Japanese, Americans and French forces went to work securing gates of the city and were actively fighting their way to the imperial court. Lenxo Simpson was at the Hotel de Pekin where he found Russian soldiers getting drunk and openly discussing plans, he had this to say “the Russians had attempted to steal a march . . . on the night of the 13th, in order to force the Eastern gates, and reach the Imperial City and the Empress Dowager before anyone else. That had upset the whole plan of attack, and there had then simply been a mad rush, everyone going as hard as possible, and trusting to Providence to pull them through.” The Russians had managed to enter the legations an hour before the Americans, while the Japanese had the most frustrated time getting in. George Lynch accompanying the Japanese described their attempts to blow the Chaoyang gate “The Japanese engineers went forward one by one until twenty minutes passed and expanded into half an hour. With cheerful and unwavering gallantry these men went forward to blow up that gate, across the open space over the bridge, from which they could be fired on by hundreds of Chinese. The attempt was absolutely hopeless. It was not that there was any wavering amongst them after ten had been shot. . . . But it was a task that the bravest man could not accomplish. Working like marionettes, they fired their guns again and again, but they were of very light caliber—little war dogs, spat their rather impotent projectile against that great mass of centuries-old masonry, they might as well have been firing peashooters”. It took the Japanese until 9pm to blast their way through the wooden doors. They then stormed the city skewering Qing soldiers upon their bayonets until they reached the legation. The French were the last, they only arrived to Beijing a day late because their route went through a marsh. The battle to seize Beijing claimed 66 foreign lives and 150 wounded, simply astonishing when you think about it. The losses to the Qing are unknown, but expected to be quite high. While Beijing was being seized, the work of the 8 nation alliance was not done just yet. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so at last the 8 nation alliance had made it to the great walled city of Beijing. The British, Russian, Japanese, American and French stormed Beijing's outer walls to rescue the foreign legations, but what of Empress Dowager Cixi?  

Last time we spoke about the darkest days of the siege of the foreign legation quarters in Beijing. The Hanlin Academy was burnt down taking with it irreplaceable books. The Fu Palace and French Legation were falling to pieces. Colonel Shiba and his men fought for weeks without changing their closes or sleeping more than 3-4 hours. Countless friends and colleagues were dead or wounded, funerals were becoming a daily event. Ammunition was running low, men were running low, medical supplies were running low, everything was running low. Suddenly some messages began to trickle in allegedly from Prince Qing. The Ministers were weary to trust them, but gradually pushed Prince Qing to show the Qing's good faith by establishing a truce. It seemed the darkest hours were just before the dawn as Prince Qing established a truce on July 17th, and now all wondered, what was next?    #65 The Boxer Rebellion part 5: The Battle for Tientsin   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The July 17th truce came at a perfect time, the defenders were exhausted. Food had become so scarce, they had begun sending raiding parties to the Mongol Market, but for most the regular diet consisted of horse, pony, mule meat and rice. Random note, I am from Quebec and we eat horse meat here, typically for tartar, not all the time, but if you go to the grocery store 9/10 its there, apparently this is pretty weird for everyone else in North America, I dunno, a bit on the dry side as meat goes. One thing that was easy to come by was champagne and wine, there was a enormous supply of it in the legation buildings. As Lenox Simpson put it “had it not been for the Monopole, of which there are great stores in the hotel and the club—a thousand cases in all . . . I should have collapsed.” There was a enormous concern for the Chinese Christians in the Fu Palace who were constantly attacked and very isolated. Lenox Simpson investigated them and wrote this “The feeding of our native Christians, an army of nearly two thousand, is still progressing, but babies are dying rapidly, and nothing further can be done. There is only just so much rice, and the men who are doing the heavy coolie work on the fortifications must be fed better than the rest, or else no food at all would be needed. . . . The native children, with hunger gnawing savagely at their stomachs, wander about stripping the trees of their leaves.They had terrible water-swollen stomachs and “pitiful sticks of legs. To the babies we give all the scraps of food we can gather up after our own rough food is eaten, and to see the little disappointed faces when there is nothing is sadder than to watch the wounded being carried in. . . . Thus enclosed in our brickbound lines, each of us is spinning out his fate. The Europeans still have as much food as they need; the Chinese are half starving.” The CHristian Chinese laborers complained about working for the British legation telling supervisors “the work at the British legation is crushing and they don't feed you enough. And if you do not carry out their orders to the letter, they flog you. . . . Therefore, we don't want to go there.” The Chinese CHristian laborers preferred working for the non-Christian Japanese and Colonel Shiba even raised a force of Christian Chinese volunteers as riflemen who he trained personally. There were also incidents of Chinese Christian girls being sexually assaulted, particularly by Russian guards whose barricades were close to their girls lodgings. A written notice was erected forbidding anyone to approach the girls lodgings prompting the Russian commander Baron von Rahen to quote “Take off his cap, and assuming a very polite air of doubt and perplexity, he inquired of the lady missionary committee which oversees the welfare of these girls: ‘Pardon, mes dames,' he said purposely in French, ‘cette affiche est-ce seulement pour les civils ou aussi pour les militaires?'”—“Excuse me, ladies, does this apply only to civilians or also to the military?” Sexual assault was not the only thing going on, apparently the British legation gardens saw people come together each night to make romance.  Over in Taku forces were coming over to help lift the siege of Tientsin. Men of the US 9th infantry came over from the Philippines. Now that the situation looked more land based than naval, Vice Admiral Seymour was sent back to his squadron on July 11th, leaving Brigadier General Dorward in command of British forces, but there was no supreme allied commander. There were tremendous delays as each nations officers argued who should lead and finally it was agreed the Qing held part of Tientsin had to be taken before any talks of marching upon Beijing. A plan was formed to attack the Qing held part of the city beginning on July 13th. They were widely outnumbered, around 6900 to a Qing force of around 30,000, half of which were Boxers. There were 2500 Russians, 2000 Japanese, 900 Americans, 800 British and 600 French. They would be facing the formidable walls of Tientsin, which were 20 feet high and 16 feet thick. Within the city and nearby forts were around 12,000 Qing soldiers well armed with artillery, machine guns and modern rifles.  The French, Americans, British and Japanese were to advance upon the south gate in three columns while the Germans and Russians circled around to hit the east gate. The approach was a flat marshy plain, intersected by canals and lagoons, by no means ideal. Herbert Hoover knew the land quite well and volunteered to guide forces and had this to write of his experience  “We came under sharp fire from the Chinese located on its old walls. We were out in the open plains with little cover except Chinese graves. I was completely scared, especially when some of the Marines next to me were hit. I was unarmed and I could scarcely make my feet move forward. I asked the officer I was with for a rifle and at once I experienced a curious psychological change for I was no longer scared, although I never fired a shot. I can recommend that men carry weapons when they go into battle—it is a great comfort.” Hoover described how the attack was badly coordinated, riddled with miscommunication and ill tempered men. The main force was pinned down in front of the south gate taking fire from the city walls. The allied forces were huddled face down in mud with the American troops standing out like sorethumbs wearing their dark blue uniforms. The Qing wielding Winchesters, Mannlichers and Mausers were exacting terrible casualties upon them. Lt Harry Rotherham of the Royal Welch Fusiliers recalled “the whole of the city wall was lined with Chinese firing through loop-holes and they just fired all day as hard as they could. They also attacked our left flank and we were told off to keep them back, so we were under fire all day from the front and the left flank as well. I never want anything quite so warm again.” Captain David Beatty noted the British forces took a entirely exposed position while the 9th US infantry were extremely exposed to Qing sharpshooters. Their commander, Colonel Emerson Liscum was fatally shot as he was trying to grab the regimental flags from a standard bearer who was falling. His dying words were “keep up the fire, men!” Beatty led a company of British to rush over to help the Americans and gradually they pulled back as it got dark. They had no news on how the Russians were doing with the east gate.  It was to be the Japanese who turned failure into success. General Fukushima Yasumasa who had fought the Chinese during the first sino-Japanese war sent word to some of the other commanders that Qing forces would fight to the death if they were trapped, but if you left an escape route, like two gates open, they would retreat. At 3am the Japanese blew up the south gate, in a scene I can only describe as the one Uruk-hai in the film the Lord of the Rings the Two Towers. The Japanese had been trying to light fuses to explode bombs, but the Qing kept stopping them so one Japanese soldier ran with a short fuse to blow up the gate and was killed by the explosion. He would have made Saruman proud. As told to us by Herbert Hirschinger of the US Marines “The Japanese had been trying to accomplish it for some time, but the Chinks would cut the fuse. In the end a Japanese officer volunteered to light a short fuse. The gate was blown in . . . but the officer went up with the gate. This only goes to show the mettle of which the little fellows are made.” After the breach was made, the Japanese stormed into the city followed by the second battalion, the Royal Welch Fusiliers and Beatty's men. A bit later that morning  the Russians charged the esat gate on July 9th led by General Anatoly Stessel, General Nie Shicheng personally led a counterattack to try and stop them. An allied artillery shell exploded nearby him, showering him with shrapnel and fatally wounding him. As the Russians broke through the east gate prompting the Qing soldiers to withdraw from the city. French doctor Matignon was irritated to see that although the Japanese did the lionshare of work in the southern sector, the Union Jack was flying side by side with the Rising Sun over the south gate. In his words “trois ou quatre soldats anglais . . . flegmatiquement, fument leur pipe”—“three or four English soldiers . . . calmly smoking their pipes.” Sounds like Merry and Pippin after Isengarde fell, what is with the LOTR references?  Countless Boxers and Qing soldiers slipped away, leaving little fighting over the city. The civilians bore the brunt of what became an orgy of looting and murder. A Chinese eyewitness had this to say “People rushed about in all directions in dread of what was to come next. When someone shouted that the North gate was open and that it was possible to leave by it, the whole city converged on the North Gate. In an instant the press of the crowd was such that one couldn't move.... The foreigners and Christians . . . fired repeatedly on it [the crowd], each volley resulting in the deaths of several tens of people.... The greater the numbers of people killed, the greater became the numbers of those fighting to escape. . . . Dead from bullets, dead from artillery shells, dead from swords, dead from trampling. It was horrible. . . . The corpses were piled several feet high. After three days of cleaning up, following the foreigners' entry into the city, the streets still were not clean.” The photographer James Ricalton stormed into the city as well to record what he say.  “a holocaust of human life, lines of homeless, weeping human beings—their homes in ashes, without food, friendless, and, in many cases, their kindred left charred in the ruins of homes. Doors were smashed; shops were entered and plundered; men and women were fleeing, carrying their precious heirlooms—their jewels, their silks, their embroidery, their money. These much-prized valuables were snatched from them, and they dared not protest.” American Marine Harold Kinman recalled “the streets wet and slippery with blood” while a British sailor described “brains strewn over the streets and dead Chinese pinned to the walls by Japanese swords and bayonets”. Many of the accounts place atrocities upon the Russians and Japanese. But soldiers from each nation took part in the orgy and there are many photographs for those with the stomachs to google them,  On July 15th, in an attempt to stop the looting, the British put up pickets with orders to not allow anyone to get past except for the French whose authorities had not agreed to suppress looting, haha. So as a result many British just pretended to be French, apparently doing bad french singing impressions to get by and spoke terrible French phrases to another. Notably British civilians took part in this as they knew which houses and shops had the best goods. It was to be the bloodiest battle for the 8 nation alliance during the Boxer rebellion. 250 allied soldiers had died with 500 wounded. Of this the Japanese paid the most with 320 casualties, the Russians and Germans around 140, the Americans 25 dead, 98 wounded, the British 17 dead, 87 wounded and the French 13 dead with 50 wounded. There was no official calculation of the losses for the Boxers and Qing forces, but it was expected to be very heavy. I think for you long time listeners you can see a distinct difference now from our Opium Wars days to the turn of the 20th century. Warfare had changed considerably, casualties were much higher now, something that would be proved to a horrifying extent during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, or as many like to call it World War Zero. Tientsin was now being secured as a launching point for the future advance upon Beijing. Back over in Beijing, the foreign community found it surreal after the July 17th truce was announced. The sudden silence of guns was more disconcerting than comforting, some even found it difficult to sleep. The Qing war banners were brought down and white flags were hoisted all around in their place. Countless Qing soldiers began peering over walls and barricades to look at the legations. Likewise the defenders looked out into the desolate landscape around them, corpses were everywhere, dogs were picking at them. As everyone's confidence built up some Qing soldiers went over to the defenders positions and began fraternizing with the foreigners. Many began to talk to the foreigners, giving them news the Taku Forts and Tientsin had fallen to the allied nations and that General Dong Fuxiangs Kansu army and many Boxers were now performing offensives between Tientsin and Beijing. Many of the Qing troops who came forward explained they did not want to be part of the battle, but were being were being coerced into it. The foreigners were beginning to suspect the truce had been made because of the Qing losses at the Taku forts and Tientsin, perhaps a relief force was already on its way.  Within the Qing court, the loss at Tientsin had proved the progressive and moderates right that joining the Boxers was a doomed cause. This was a view shared by most of the governors and viceroys in the southern and eastern provinces who were actively holding their troops back, not daring to attack foreigners. Going back to early June when edicts were being made declaring war, most viceroys and governors ignored it and refused to send troops. In fact, the foreign community had no idea, but their most valuable allies were amongst the Qing high command. The Manchu General Ronglu, whom Empress Dowager Cixi appointed as Imperial Commissioner in command of the Wuwei Corps consisting of the 5 most modern armies led by Nie Shicheng, Dong Fuxiang, Song Qing, Yuan Shikai and Ronglu himself was helping the foreigners! When the Boxer rebellion broke out, Prince Duan was pressuring Dong Fuxiang and his Kansu Army to seize the foreign legations. It was Ronglu who behind the scenes was sand bagging the entire situation. At first he tried to countermand orders to Dong Fuxiang, trying to stop him from attacking the foreign legations, but that gradually failed when Prince Duan began ordering anyone hampering the war effort to be arrested or killed. Then when Dong Fuxiang requested artillery to breach the legation defenses, Ronglu began blocking the transfer of artillery pieces and constantly made up excuses. Ronglu and Prince Qing coordinated efforts to sneak some food into the legations and even used their most loyal Manchu bannermen to perform minor attacks on the Kansu army and Boxers who were besieging the foreigners. Ronglu also withheld orders that were to be sent to General Nie Shicheng in Tientsin, telling him they were at war with the foreigners, so for the majority of the time Nie Shicheng had thousands of his men still fighting the Boxers! Seymour getting past Nie Shicheng and the Tientsin settlement surviving as long as it did was specifically because of this action. Ronglu even tossed blame for inaction all upon Nie Shicheng, who luckily for Ronglu ended up dying before he could explain what had occurred. During the siege of the legations the major reason so many riflemen were aiming so high was because of Ronglu countermanning orders. As Dong Fuxiang would order the men to kill the foreigners, Ronglu continuously ordered men to just make it seem like they were helping the siege but not to kill the foreigners.  Yes one can argue the MVP of the 8 nation alliance was Qing Generals like Ronglu or Prince Qing.  The foreigners knew none of this, but they would received enormous intelligence on July 18th from one of Colonel Shiba's messengers who went over to Tientsin and returned confirming it was in allied hands. The messenger also told them a force of 11,000 British, Russian, Japanese, American and French would begin a march upon Beijing, starting on the 20th. MacDonald then invited a nearby Kansu officer to parley with him and the man reluctantly acquiesced. The men shared cigars and spoke using an interpreter. The officer asked MacDonald who the men wearing the big funny hats were and MacDonald explained they were American marines. The officer shrugged and stated his men were afraid of them because they were good shots. The officer then explained his superior was not Dong Fuxiang, but General Ronglu who had overall command. He also stated Ronglu wished the fighting to stop. MacDonald was puzzled by this and explained the fighting was never started by the foreigners. The officer was puzzled by that statement and said perhaps he should write to Ronglu to explain his views. Both men shook hands and departed. MacDonald before departing the wall took one last look at the scenery and described the situation “I could see the enemy's positions stretching away to the north until they disappeared in the direction of the Imperial City. There were barricades in the streets below the wall; a large temple was loopholed and . . . full of men; more men were amongst the ruins west of the Russian Legation and a species of mound which commanded this Legation and the Mongol Market was gay with the uniforms of hundreds of Imperial infantry. Following the line west of the Mongol Market, the tops of the houses carried nests of these bright-coated soldiery; altogether from my position I saw some 1,500 to 2,000 men, and many more must have been hidden behind the walls and ruined houses.” MacDonald wrote to Ronglu proposing rules of conduct going forward. He promised the foreigner forces would only fire if being attacked, except in the case of seeing Qing forces building barricades closer to them. Any unarmed persons who approached the legation defenses could do so safely but only two men at a time. MacDonald gave the letter to the officer he had talked to who delivered it to Ronglu. The very next day Ronglu sent a man carrying a flag of truce who came over to officially accept the proposals. However there was a catch. The man explained this would be on behalf of the forces loyal to Ronglu and Prince Qing, they were commanding the south and eastern portions of the siege, but Dong Fuxiang's troops held the north and west. In fact the officials explained the officer whom MacDonald had spoken to was one of the very few Kansu soldiers who was willing to follow commands from Ronglu, Dong Fuxiang was quite the renegade. It became clear after a few days the word truce was a bit of a misnomer, it was more of a half armistice. Some Qing were still mining close to the Hanlin and various barricade forces continued to fire upon the legations. Some Qing soldiers east of the Fu Palace began using a dog to send communications to the Japanese as noted by their officers “One day a large dog trotted into the Japanese barricade with a note tied round its neck; this was from the Chinese general commanding in that quarter pointing out the futility of further defense and recommending unconditional surrender. A reply, declining the suggestion in somewhat forcible terms, was tied on the dog's neck, with which it trotted back, this was repeated several times, the dog seeming to enjoy the fun, the advisability of surrender being urged with greater insistence each time, the answers varied only in the strength of their language.” Some Qing troops began offering fruit, vegetables and chickens to the foreigners, bargaining for money. The Japanese even were able to barter for rifles and ammunition from some Qing soldiers. The Zongli Yamen began sending gifts of fruit, vegetables, even ice to the besieged, all in the name of Emperor Guangxu. Many worried the food was poisoned so they first gave it to a dog. A constant stream of letters began to go back and forth between the foreigners, Prince Qing and other moderate Qing officials. The recurring theme on behalf of the Qing was that the foreigners needed to depart Beijing and that the Zongli Yamen would provide protection to Tientsin. This was constantly ignored. The Qing government also began mediating on behalf of the ministers and their governments, ferrying messages back and forth. On July 28th, the foreigners received word from the Shandong youth who had been sent out to Tientsin. He sent a letter back to them stating this “Your letter 4 July. There are now 24,000 troops landed, and 19,000 here. General Gaselee expected Ta-ku to-morrow. Russian troops are at Peitsang. Tientsin city is under foreign government and ‘Boxer' power here is exploded. There are plenty of troops on the way if you can keep yourselves in food. Almost all the ladies have left Tientsin.” On August the 1st, another letter arrived dated from July 26th addressed to the Japanese Minister Baron Nishi. It officially stated troops were on their way, but they were delayed because of the railway damage, but their vanguard should arrive in two to three days. The foreigners checked their food stores noting they had 600 lbs of white rice, 11,5000 lbs of yellow rice and 34,000 pds of wheat left. They estimated it would last them 5 more weeks of siege alongside the 30 ponies they had left…poor ponies. Nigel Oliphant also noted “cigars and tobacco are running out, which is more serious to some of us than want of food.” The condition of the Christian Chinese at the Fu was horrible. As written in the diary of Lenox Simpson on July 24th “the miserable natives imprisoned by our warfare are in a terrible state of starvation. Their bones are cracking through their skin; their eyes have an insane look; yet nothing is being done for them. They are afraid to attempt escape even in this quiet, as the Water Gate is watched on the outside night and day by Chinese sharpshooters....Tortured by the sight of these starving wretches, who moan and mutter night and day, the posts nearby shoot down dogs and crows and drag them there. They say everything is devoured raw with cannibal-like cries.” I should note, while you hear sympathies from some accounts by the foreigners in regards to the Christian Chinese, by no means were they distributing out food equally amongst them. As you can only imagine with the 19th century attitudes, the Chinese were treated like subhumans. After a few days it seemed the half armistice was fading away. The Qing were constructing a large barricade across the north bridge which the foreigners began to use the International gun against. Qing sharpshooters took up positions to thwart the men using the international gun. The barricade reached 6 feet high over the length of the bridge. The foreigners reacted by building their own barricade over the south bridge securing communications between the British and the other legations. All the while the Zongli Yamen was sending reassurances and advising the foreign community to take their offer to depart under their protection. By August the 4th, there was still no sign of a relief force and the truce was certainly all but over as artillery were pounding the legations heavily. Back on July 26th, the former governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng had come to Beijing and began pressuring the Boxers and Qing to ramp up the siege efforts. Empress Dowager Cixi favored Li Bingheng and gave him the rare honor of riding within the forbidden city before the received the promotion to Deputy commander of the Northern armies. Two days after he showed up, two moderate Qing officials were executed as traitors for criticizing the Boxers and advocating to lift the siege. Three other moderate officials would follow days later in what was becoming a purge within the court. More Boxers began to flood Beijing, cowing the surviving moderates into submission. A very nervous Prince Qing wrote to some southern viceroys and governors who all agreed the Boxers needed to be suppressed, but Prince Qing did not dare publicly give the order. When Vice Admiral Seymour  was rescued from his rescue attempt he sent word to the British admiralty that at least 40,000 troops would be needed to lift the siege at Beijing. The other nations such as American thought it should be 80,000, Japan estimated 70,000. But the logistics of mounting an international rescue became difficult quickly. Not all the great powers involved could afford to muster troops at this time, hell America was fighting a war in the Philippines; Britain was fighting the Boer war; the French were fighting in IndoChina and the Russias had a full on war in Manchuria, that we will tackle later. Japan was one of the few nations free and quite able to send a large force, so the other nations appealed to Japan who agreed to send an additional 20,000 men to Tientsin. Then there was the issue of a supreme allied commander. Kaiser Wilhelm, as usual sought to grab the reigns for Germany and used von Ketteler's murder as justification. Kaiser Wilhelm nominated Field Marshal Count von Waldersee whom would go on to say of the appointment “a Japanese Supreme Command, no less than an American, was out of the question from the start. The French had not made any effort to get the Supreme Command, leaving only Russia and Britain as Germany's rivals. But, neither would concede it to the other, and, moreover, no one favored England, as the reputation of the English Generalship had suffered a set-back in the Boer War.” The Kaiser persuaded Russia and Japan to back his nominee and everyone abided by the decision. Von Waldersee was set to depart for China on August 18th. Meanwhile in Berlin, the Kaiser gave a speech, tossing away the prepared text for his own words “You must know, my men, that you are about to meet a crafty, well-armed foe! Meet him and beat him! Give no quarter! Take no prisoners! Kill him when he falls into your hands! Even as, a thousand years ago, the Huns under their King Attila made such a name for themselves as still resounds in terror through legend and fable, so may the name of Germany resound through Chinese history . . . that never again will a Chinese dare to so much as look askance at a German.” Ironic he made the link about the Huns and Attila haha. By the end of July, 25,000 men were at Taku and Tientsin with a lot more on the way. Britain was calling up forces from India, America from the Philippines. Tientsin was swimming with foreign troops, so much so, Doctors began vaccinating their men against smallpox. Tensions were mounting, as most of these nations were in proxy wars with another. The Russians and Japanese particularly did not like each other.  Then on July 27th, as quite a cheeky maneuver, the British commander in chief General Gaselee, began to argue there was a need for quick action. He was met by resistance from the French and Russians who cautioned delay, but Gaselee argued “The rainy season will set in in a few day and the whole place will be under water.” Gaselee determined to take control of the situation suddenly told the other leaders Britain would go it alone if necessary. The Americans backed him thus forcing the hand of the others, for none of the other great powers wanted to see Britain and America steal the glory. It was agreed they would all march on August 5th as an international relief force and they would be quite a sight to behold as told to us by US Marine officer Smedley Butler :“French Zouaves in red and blue, blond Germans in pointy helmets, Italian Bersaglieri with tossing plumes, Bengal cavalry on Arabian stallions, turbaned Sikhs, Japanese, Russians, English. we are going to fight the greatest battle at Pekin that has been fought for one hundred years.” I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Qing were at war with 8 different great powers and even amongst themselves in many ways. The Taku forts had fallen, Tientsin had fallen and now the 8 nation alliance was going to march upon Beijing, by all means it was time to toss in the towel wasn't it?  

WHERE MY MOMS AT!? It's the show by the Moms for the Moms. Hosted by everybody's favorite "cool mom" Christina P! Not only the most REAL show for moms, but the most interactive. An open place to admit no one really knows what they're doing.This week on Where My Moms At, Christina P is joined by comedian Chase O'Donnell who features for her on tour. Christina and Chase discuss Sex and the City and Golden Girls and how aging has changed with time. They also chat about unnecessary plastic surgery and body issues, Christina's plan to make Chase the “derby hat”/“Union Jack” comic, and how Chase needs to be meaner. They respond to listener follow ups about things that make their kids crazy and Pazsitzky Effects people have been having.Christina P. wants to hear from you since she is seriously lacking in cool mom friends. If you want to share a "Pazsitzky Effect" or "Mom Hack" please call into our voicemail (213)375-5184 and let Christina know! We want to talk to as many moms across America as we can.WhereMyMomsAt@gmail.com(213) 375-5184https://christinaponline.com/tour-dateshttps://store.ymhstudios.com/