Receive our weekly Newsletterand set tailored daily news alerts Strategic location in Europe ensures faster delivery closer collaboration and unparalleled service Interiors BIG Yarns of the Beaulieu International Group based in Waregem is to invest €25 million in new spinning technology at its plant in Comines The investment includes new one-step BCF (bulk continuous filament) lines reinforcing the company’s position in the market for three-ply yarns to meet the need for flexibility and broader design possibilities in the carpet tile segment A newly developed machine park represents a crucial step in the company’s growth strategy faster and more flexible production system By enabling smaller batch sizes and more adaptable production runs BIG Yarns will provide its contract customers with a highly competitive service programme we believe in the power of innovation and operation expertise to offer our customers best in class solutions,” said Emmanuel Colchen “This investment underscores our long-term commitment to the European market and our ability to deliver superior and sustainable yarn solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers.” BIG Yarns is making a strong statement about its dedication to local service in a highly competitive industry While market pressure continues to grow from manufacturers in the Middle East and Asia BIG Yarns leverages its strategic location in Europe – within 500 km of its most important customers – to ensure faster delivery closer collaboration and an unparalleled service level The BIG Yarns team will be at the upcoming Clerkenwell Design Week 2025 in London from May 20 to 22 showcasing its latest innovations in design colour and contrast and explaining how its advanced one-step three-layer yarns can enhance carpet tile creations www.bintg.com China’s Kingsway expands industrial yarns capacity Iserbyt takes win ahead of Niels Vandeputte in second Eli Iserbyt claimed a third career Eact Cross Kortrijk title on Saturday combining well with his Pauwels Sauzen–Bingoal teammate Michael Vanthourenhout to claim the victory The two riders attacked in tandem on several occasions during the first half of the race seeking to work over the Alpecin-Deceuninck pair of Niels Vandeputte and Jente Michels.  Iserbyt made his winning move on the sith of the race’s nine laps countering an attack from Vanthourenhout just after Michels had brought him back Opening an immediate gap as Michels hesitated to respond and soloed the rest of the race to seal the win Vandeputte and Michels remained together at the end with Vandeputte taking second-place in the sprint ahead of Vanthourenhout in third “It feels very good,” were Iserbyt’s words at the finish when asked how it felt to take what was his second win of the season.  “I think  the most important period of the season is coming with the World Cup It’s good for the head to get a victory.”  Iserbyt had made his first committed move on the third lap using the sand section to counter a move from Vanthourenhout and go clear out front his momentum stalled as he crashed going round a corner Vanthourenhout attacked again on the fifth lap gaining a lead of a few seconds and forcing Vandeputte and Michels to chase It was when Michels eventually managed to bring that move back that Iserbyt made what turned out to be the race-winning move from 13 seconds at the end of the sixth lap Iserbyt is now looking ahead to tomorrow and Antwerp But I hope to do a good race tomorrow as well.” Results powered by FirstCycling Stephen Puddicombe is a freelance writer based in Bristol and has covered cycling professionally as a freelancer since 2013 He is the author of The World of the Tour de France Outside of cycling he is a passionate cinephile You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Some parts of this site work best with JavaScript enabled This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article earned a reputation as the most original designer of his generation After a few years he left that position and began to freelance He later expanded the number of Balenciaga’s collections and continued to produce innovative designs to wide acclaim such as short gladiator-style skirts and toga dresses and a collection inspired by some of Balenciaga’s original designs In November 2012 Ghesquière and Balenciaga abruptly parted ways amid rumours of discord. A year later Louis Vuitton announced that Ghesquière would replace the departing Marc Jacobs as artistic director of its women’s collection alleging that he had violated the terms of his separation agreement when he gave an interview in which he opined about feeling as though he was being “sucked dry” at Balenciaga but in August the two sides agreed to settle out of court That year Ghesquière debuted his first collection as Louis Vuitton’s new artistic director in which he used such rich fabrics as crocodile and printed moleskin for his short A-line skirts His signature silhouette was a slight A-line inspired by designs from the 1970s and early ’80s Ghesquière garnered several awards and honours for his design acumen including the 2001 International Designer award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America In 2007 he was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in December 2014 the British Fashion Awards named him International Designer of the Year Our movie “The War To End All Wars” premieres this week The “History Rocks” project officially kicks off this week and we are excited to announce that we have hit yet another milestone Over 120 museums across 29 territories have now confirmed their participation in the global premiere of “The War To End All Wars – The Movie” The premiere of our highly anticipated animated film will take place from November 4-19 We are calling on all the awesome Sabaton fans out there to make an active effort to go and support your local museum and be part of this charity campaign Make sure to contact the museum closest to you directly to get screening dates and times 🌍BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINAHomeland Museum of Gradiška CuritibaMuseu Militar do Comando Militar do Sul PazardzhikRegional Museum of History Stara Zagora 🌍CZECH REPUBLICMilitary Muzeum Generála Sergěje Jana Ingra PilsenPěchotní srub K-S 5 “U potoka” 🌍FRANCECarrière Wellington: Mémorial de la Bataille d’Arras ArrasHistorial franco-allemand du Hartmannswillerkopf WattwillerMusée des blindés et de la cavalerie KönigsteinFlandernbunker / “Mahnmal Kilian” e.V. 🌍HUNGARYHM Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum PastrengoMuseo Nazionale Risorgimento Italiano 🌍MALTABattlefront Malta hosted at Malta College of Arts 🌍NETHERLANDSNationaal Militair Museum Soesterberg 🌍POLANDMuseum of Military Technology / Muzeum Techniki Wojskowej SzczecinMuzeum Górnośląskie / Upper Silesian Museum BytomMuzeum Marynarki Wojennej / Naval Museum Gdynia DąbrówkaMuzeum Techniki Wojskowej w Zabrzu ZabrzeMuzeum Twierdzy Kostrzyn / Fortressmuseum of Kostrzyn Kostrzyn nad OdrąMuzeum Wojsk Lądowych w Bydgoszczy/Army Infantry Museum BydgoszczRzeszowskie Piwnice / Resov Cellars 🌍ROMANIA“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Palace of Ruginoasa RuginoasaMNIR / National History Museum of Romania BucharestNational Military Museum “King Ferdinand I” BucharestPalace of Culture / Complexul Muzeal Național „Moldova” Iași 🌍SERBIAMuseum of Rudnik and Takovo Region (Музеј рудничко-таковског краја) Gornji MilanovacNational Museum in Leskovac LeskovacNational Museum of Serbia/Народни музеј Србије 🌍SLOVAKIAMúzeum Slovenského Národného Povstania Banská BystricaSlovakia Bytča The Wedding Palace in Bytča – hosted by Považské múzeum BytčaSpiš castle hosted by Slovak National Museum – Spiš Museum 🌍SLOVENIACity Museum of Ljubljana / Mestni muzej Ljubljana LjubljanaPark vojaške zgodovine Pivka /Park of Military History 🌍SPAINMuseo Histórico Militar de Canarias Santa Cruz de TenerifeMuseo de Historia Militar ÖstersundMaritiman – Göteborgs maritima centrum 🌍UNITED KINGDOMBlack Country Living Museum DudleyBodmin Keep – Cornwall’s Army Museum BodminCMSM Combined Military Services Museum KirknewtonNational Museum of the Royal Navy Hartlepool EssexRoyal Welch Fusiliers Museum,CaernarfonThe Staffordshire Regiment Museum Mesa – Mesa Public Library – Red Mountain BranchCA Ellicott City – Howard County Historical SocietyMD Newburg – Maryland Veterans Museum at Patriot ParkMI Jackson – Michigan’s Military Heritage MuseumMN Marshall – Lyon County Historical Society MuseumMO Kansas City – The National WWI Museum and MemorialNC Fort Bragg – 82nd Airborne Division War Memorial MuseumNE Lexington – Heartland Museum of Military VehiclesNH Sea Girt – National Guard Militia Museum of New JerseyNV Las Vegas – Las Vegas-Clark County Library District: Sahara West LibraryNY Albany – USS Slater – Destroyer Escort Historical MuseumOH St Paris – Wright Stuff Squadron Living History MuseumSC Greenville – Military History Center of the CarolinasTN Johnson City – Tipton-Haynes State Historic SiteTX College Station – Museum of the American G.IUT Virginia Beach – Military Aviation MuseumWA Oak Harbor – Pacific Northwest Naval Air MuseumWI If you’re craving more Sabaton content and want to learn more about the “History Rocks” project, watch The National WWI Museum and Memorial’s recent interview with Pär you’ll be the first to know when new Sabaton music and tour tickets are available We will also contact you from time to time about new merchandise Our new song “Templars” is now available on all music streaming services & YouTube I found them mesmerising; not because I enjoyed knowing where I was as we crossed town borders and city lines in my parents’ car Often under the message to watch your speed as well as notifying you of what council you were entering you were also presented with what to my child eyes seemed like completely made up places It was a captivating concept for an eight-year-old; that somewhere else in the world was another town that was somehow related to the one I was in The first “Welcome to” sign that caught my eye didn’t even allude to a twinning The hyphens and the ‘le’ made it look very foreign to me and as we drove through the surrounding towns I began noticing the names of other places alongside little flags Botley is twinned with Saint-Jean-Brévelay has a sister city in Belgium called Comines-Warneton Supposedly based on legal or social agreements between towns or cities to promote cultural and commercial ties who knows what half of these places actually offer each other Comines-Warneton stood out by simply not being in France – even Southampton as a whole has a French fraternity with Le Havre Comines-Warneton is a Belgian city in the French community of the country and although at the last census it had a population of just under 17,500 it has managed to bag itself another two sister cities alongside Hedge End: Argenton-les-Vallées in France and Wolverton in the United Kingdom – or to be more precise The trend for twinned status began towards the end of World War Two and was started by Coventry who partnered with Stalingrad  (now Volgograd) in an act of solidarity from one war-town city to another and Coventry’s rather impressive and infidelity-ridden list of 26 partners – a record – makes Comines-Warneton’s foursome seem tame Wolverton twinned with Comines-Warneton – later the village of Ploegsteert – thanks to a growing bond the two shared over a First World War soldier from the English town who was buried at Hyde Park Corner Cemetery in the Belgian city Albert French was born on 22 June 1899 in New Bradwell Buckinghamshire (now part of Milton Keynes) and grew up at 60 Young Street had passed away sometime between 1905 and 1911 and thus it was his aunty who acted as the housekeeper Read  |  Ivan Broadis: the wartime pilot who later became an England international Albert’s father was listed in the 1911 census as a drilling machinist at the Railway Works; certainly the Wolverton Railway Works which at the time was the largest carriage works in the UK and today the home of the British Royal Train no surprise that in 1913 Albert was working as an apprentice fitter at the works and a year later he was working in their fitting shop As you’d expect from the once-largest carriage works in the country Wolverton’s railway sheds were – and still are – massive and backed onto the London North & Western Railway Sports Ground a football ground built in the year of Albert’s birth – 1899 – whose occupants were the railway works side Wolverton London & North Western Railway By the time Albert joined the works as an apprentice the football club had shortened its name to Wolverton Town and that season won the United Counties League to secure a return to the Southern Football League (today known as the Evo-Stik League) it is hard to imagine that Albert wasn’t in some way involved with the football His brother George remembered him as “tall and dark-haired looking older than he really was” in a 1980 Radio 4 interview “He was a chap who had to shave pretty quick of course there were no questions about his age A youth spent in the Church Lads’ Brigade corroborated George’s physical description of his brother with the group taking the motto ‘Fight the Good Fight’ and their regular activities including drill In the summer of 1914, with the First World War just a month old, the railway works’ staff was decimated with young men in their droves enlisting in the army. It was the fittest first, so it is likely the sports clubs and their teams were the first to be gutted, and on Albert’s employment card, it reads: “Date of Leaving: 16.10.15 Albert was just 16-years old and his method of joining may have indicated he didn’t leave with his family’s explicit blessing Middlesex and entered the recruiting offices of the King’s Royal Rifle Regiment most likely influenced by his Lads’ Brigade close relationship with the King’s Royal Rifles His Attestation Form shows he joined two days after leaving the works, listing his age as 19 and giving his occupation as labourer. His medical examination references a “distinctive mark” – a scar on his left thumb – likely the injury he picked up at work four months earlier which was recorded on Accident Report 7/229 Read  |  Corinthian Football Club: the legendary 19th-century globetrotters His medical also contradicts his brother’s description quite considerably giving his height as just under five foot four inches When he wrote home at some point between Christmas 1915 and May 1916 asking if Wolverton was “still as quiet as usual” and already informing his family that he “shan’t stop in the army after the war” “We shall be popping away at the Germans pretty shortly,” closes his letter “and as long as I don’t get popped it will be alright it was the only headstone without the age of death engraved At home, the communities in Wolverton continued to support the war effort through fundraising events, and one successful method was the holding of football matches, with the proceeds donated to the Red Cross. In the Wolverton Express on 24 November 1916, just over a year since Albert enlisted, an advert was placed for a charity game taking place the next day Harvey’s Sewing Class for the RED CROSS (sp)” and promoted Wolverton Juniors facing Northampton St James End Stars at 14:30 at Wolverton Park the next day and in Wolverton that was the London North & Western Railway Sports Ground Its centrepiece was the grandstand that lined the football pitch the wooden stand had a seated capacity of 100 and was painted a vivid green Its structure was purpose-built to account for the sloped ground surrounding the pitch Devastated by the war – and more than most due to the railway works – Wolverton Town struggled in the years that followed going until the 1938/39 season before their next honour That year they won the South Midlands League a competition on par with the Counties League title they had won in 1914 World War Two then forced football across the country to a halt they were once more champions of the South Midlands League “I’d go to Wolverton home games on a Saturday,” Jack Little told Milton Keynes Living Archive but you could not get in it anyhow because it was packed It was a penny extra and we couldn’t afford that and then in 1992 it became home to Milton Keynes City Football Club Read  |  Politicians and the futile art of fabricating commonality through football fandom because you couldn’t see as well as from on the side where the railings were … and the little drop onto the track You’d see them coming from the dressing room So when it was set to be demolished in September 2006 to make way for a housing estate there was understandably unrest in the local community The entire London North and Western Railway Sports Ground was redeveloped and in 2009 the victims and survivors were clear to see at a 12 September unveiling The original sports ground area was retained and put to use as open space a model car club and the bowls club were all relocated The old Royal Train shed that stood back-to-back with the stand survived – guaranteed by its status as a Grade II listed building – but the stand built in 1899 and in active use for 104 years The world’s oldest covered football stand was In its place is a replica in the same painted green but without its original features borne out of necessity for the landscape. With the stripping of the football pitch it once served, it is without its purpose too. It stands as a pseudo-historical feature among an albeit well-meaning and much-needed regeneration project An opportunity to honestly embrace the past was missed “There were attempts to have the stand listed back in 2001, but these failed,” Played in Britain series editor Simon Inglis said in 2009 “We also hoped that the sports ground itself would be deemed sufficiently rare and important to be entered on English Heritage’s Register of Historic Parks and Gardens the park’s entrance lodge was then listed and the Royal Train Shed that overlooks the ground was already listed Grade II Both these structures appear to have been treated rather more sympathetically than the grandstand “Admittedly the original was in a parlous state after years of neglect and this left the structure highly vulnerable to vandals and water penetration it was a handsome building and it is most disappointing that its future role will be a token one and that the sports ground itself is now unsuited to field sports or track cycling presumably because the developers did not want the residents in the new flats and townhouses to be disturbed.” In the same way that an iteration of Wolverton existed prior to the rail company development that birthed modern Wolverton in the 1840s the present-day town has carried on just fine without it over the past decade and the written records still contain the history of the old one a small 100-capacity wooden stand had to go with it As for Albert Smith’s legacy, it lives on strongly. In July 2018, the latest bi-annual visit from Wolverton to Ploegsteert took place and at the heart of the itinerary was a commemoration of the 16-year old soldier from Wolverton at his graveside So the next time someone says to you that Milton Keynes has no football history tell them it was home to the oldest covered football stand in the world and that its grounds served King and Country By Jordan Florit @thefalselibero How do you learn the stories of people who are too impoverished or uneducated to write their stories themselves through leaps of empathetic imagination—as Harriet Beecher Stowe did with Uncle Tom’s Cabin awakening the conscience of the nation by exposing the cruelties of American slavery or as Jane Wagner did with her 1969 children’s book calling attention to the plight of the urban poor in a novella about a boy who rescues a stray cat whose miseries resemble his own authors who have overcome daunting circumstances emerge from profoundly adverse environments to give voice to personal travails in their own words The experiences they describe land in us with disturbing power and commanding authenticity Consider Jeanette Walls’s The Glass Castle Her novels and short stories about the Italian immigrant community in France in the middle of the 20th century resurrect a transitional era that might otherwise have passed without leaving a trace which won France’s Prix Roger Nimier in 1973 offers an insider’s view of what it feels like to be an outsider not only in the land in which you live but in the family to which you were born an unprecedented “massive” and “sudden” wave of immigration flooded the southern French region of Aquitaine moved to the severely underpopulated departments of Lot-et-Garonne and Midi-Pyrénées and “dreams of El Dorado.”* Illiterate for the most part and unable to speak French many of these economic refugees found work on marshy rocky farmland that had been abandoned by Frenchmen who had fallen in the Great War or who had moved to the city The arrival of the Italians revived a failing region but it also prompted French anxieties about alien invasion and cries for quotas How did the French farmers in the region treat the economic refugees How did the Italian newcomers treat one another And what were the actual conditions of daily life in the tightly knit rural communities where the newcomers settled a symposium in Bordeaux addressed these questions The historians and sociologists in attendance concurred that Cagnati’s “lucid and unsparing” fiction was an “indispensable” resource and built upon it by soliciting oral histories of other first- and second-generation Italo-French southerners of course (population figures and percentages) the scholars needed to speak with individual men and women who remembered what it had been like to be a child in that time of privation “A child is life’s memory of itself.” And for those stories to gain a human complexion “It’s important for every thing to have its own name,” Cagnati emphasized people can know them and talk about them.” In Free Day she gives names to the unnamed and voices to the voiceless she tells her story from the point of view of a little girl—as helpless as the child narrator of François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows—who relates her daily life without judgment and with brutal unrestrained truthfulness that kindles pathos in the reader white-skied winter weekend in southern France in the 1950s Fourteen-year-old Galla is cycling the twenty miles between the Catholic girls’ school she attends where she is scorned as an uncouth scholarship student and mocked for her ugly homemade clothing and the remote hardscrabble farm where her family lives Her parents had not wanted her to go to school at all; they needed her at home to do the work that her addled perpetually pregnant mother was no longer capable of doing Galla has always been the family’s workhorse and looking after her four little sisters (especially the youngest and deflecting the fury of her brutal father in an act of rebellion and self-preservation stubbornly insists on pursuing her education squealing bicycle that is her only reliable companion and support The bike’s wheels are caked with icy mud from the riverine path that laces through the fields and bogs that lie between the farm and the road to town the fields and the ditches gone wild with flowers and all their mingled scents.” But it is winter now Whenever the bike hits a patch of black ice and shoots off the asphalt skidding down sleet-encrusted slopes towards the riverbank sometimes getting off to gently guide my bicycle.” She sees the bicycle as her friend I would have liked to be able to sing  to cheer us up This is a journey Galla usually makes every two weeks But this particular journey cannot be repeated The reasons why emerge through recollections and reveries that race through Galla’s mind as she rides some of them fanciful dreams of lands “where the days are gilded with sunshine where you sleep at night cradled in the blue of the waves of the sea.” Like another unhappy literary child but they cannot analyze their feelings,” and “know not how to express the result of the process in words.” Free Day reflects a good deal of the author’s own history was born in the French town of Monclar-d’Agénais Her parents were both Italian—her father from Treviso her mother from Vicenza—and she would never consider herself French In one of her extremely rare television appearances Les Pipistrelles (named for a species of  bat common in southern France) speaking fluent French that retained an Italianate stamp she and her family and their immigrant neighbors “had the misfortune of being foreigners and always being regarded as strangers.” “But So I was nothing.” “Was childhood a happy time for you?” asked the benighted moderator and only learned French upon arriving at school because adults objectify children as something “little,” something other Children and the elderly (the subject of her 1979 novel or The Lizard That Cried”) or “crazy people” (the subject of her 1977 novel Génie la folle) are “not like other people they’re not perceived to be like other people,” she explained seems to be the family unit.” “Yes,” she agreed “because it’s the only foothold you have in the world even if they did not do for you what they could have done given her success on the French literary scene Cagnati often addresses the specific hardships faced by immigrant girls and women of her era both in the wider society and in their own households Barred from full inclusion in their new country they also suffered in their villages and homes from a sexism that limited their freedoms and blamed them if they were sexually attacked Galla fears a sexual predator who lurks in the marshes near her home; she knows that if he attacks her or her sisters In an introduction to her novel Génie la Folle who didn’t know how to protect her virtue outside of marriage is seen as guiltier than the man who raped her; who was only fulfilling his role as a male.” She asks: “Where is common sense to be found?” Galla does not ask that question; she simply accepts that this is how things are The scholars in Bordeaux buttressed their research and the oral histories they had collected with an interview Cagnati gave to a regional newspaper in 1984 she spoke at length about the difficulties that she had encountered as an immigrant high-school student my world turned upside down,” Cagnati told the reporter I didn’t know what they wanted.” The French schoolchildren made fun of her I didn’t understand their language or their rules or what I was supposed to do in order to be tolerated or at least to be pardoned for being myself “I think it was the same for the others.” She added “I think we were rejected more because we were poor than because we were Italian.” Cagnati’s impressions were confirmed by the accounts of several of her immigrant contemporaries “You can’t say they were mean,” countered another At a contemporary geopolitical moment when populist leaders across the globe are demonizing immigrants and outsiders and when the xenophobic rhetoric and punitive inhuman policies of President Donald Trump target the foreign-born Cagnati’s searing evocation of the immigrant experience in Free Day moves the heart and stirs the conscience Cagnati was luckier than today’s immigrants In spite of the rough transition period that shaped her and some of her peers the integration of the interwar Italian boom generations into the French community proceeded with remarkable smoothness No anti-immigrant protests broke out in Lot-et-Garonne or Midi-Pyrénées; the Italians were needed such that today young generations of Italian-descended French in the southwest don’t question their nationality can understand the distance that their predecessors—like Galla like Cagnati—traveled to earn their sense of belonging *From a study of the 20th-century Italian immigration wave in southwestern France “L’arrivée et l’implantation des Italiens dans le sud-ouest (1920–1939)” by Monique Rouch in Les Italiens en France de 1914 à 1940 (Rome: École Française de Rome From Free Day by Inès Cagnati Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature Masthead About Sign Up For Our Newsletters How to Pitch Lit Hub Privacy Policy Support Lit Hub - Become A Member Lit Hub has always brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall you'll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving The French production site Ideal Fibres & Fabrics Comines is the second in the Beaulieu International Group to reach HPR status Transport/​Aerospace a leading supplier of high-quality polyamide and polypropylene yarns has announced the achievement of Highly Protected Risk (HPR) status for its French production site HPR designation means a facility meets the highest industry standards for property protection “This HPR yarn production site reinforces strongly our supply chain security and demonstrates our engagement towards our customers and partners Our contingency planning and risk management are essential well-considered elements within our long-term business strategy to demanding sectors such as Automotive and Commercial & Residential floor covering contracts,” said Emmanuel Colchen Global Sales Director Yarns within BU Beaulieu Engineered Products Beaulieu International Group’s (B.I.G.) industrial property and business interruption insurer for the past two years offers a unique concept that supports the Group in reducing its exposure to loss and increases its business resilience A dedicated team of engineers focuses on providing assistance and protection of its assets helping the Group to achieve a higher level of risk protection The Ideal Fibres & Fabrics Comines site produces high quality yarns for a large variety of application and market segments It scored well in its FM Global assessment which focused on aspects including fire protection mechanical breakdown of machinery and also cyber risks Its overall risk mark of 76 ranks it within the top 25% of its industry for fire risk prevention and protection Ideal Fibres & Fabrics Comines is the second facility in the Group to attain HPR status Pinnacle Polymers LLC in the USA also achieved the HPR as a chemical plant which is a rare achievement within the chemical business Fire risk prevention is part of the Group’s broader risk management activities is investing in increasing the level of protection at all B.I.G plants in order to protect its business continuity are also implementing a number of safety programmes to raise awareness of workplace safety and to maintain strong safety records “I am proud of Beaulieu Yarns for achieving the highly-regarded FM Global HPR Award and setting an example for the whole Beaulieu International Group This positive step reflects the strong commitment of the Engineered Products division and the rest of the Group to improving safety and protecting our workplaces and our production facilities,” said Karena Cancilleri Vice President BU Beaulieu Engineered Products Beaulieu Yarns received the HPR Award at a ceremony on 7 November Beaulieu Yarns Management and FM Global Management www.beaulieuyarns.com BFI site awarded Highly Protected Risk status Beaulieu International safety-awareness initiatives in full swing John Deere announced the newest S-Series combines will have a new suspension track system and harvest-specific enhancements to the MyOperations app Natalina Sents Bausch is the Digital Director for Successful Farming and Agriculture.com She manages the daily newsroom-style digital content creation and distribution strategy for Agriculture.com She has covered stories ranging from infrastructure and young farmers to new machinery introductions and USDA programs Natalina joined the Successful Farming team in 2017 to cover new farm machinery and news coverage for Agriculture.com It's hugely influential even though the vast majority of the drills only have a tangential relationship to the game of football Here's a perfect example of how the Combine is dumb: Tyrann Mathieu — the former LSU Heisman Trophy finalist who was kicked off the team for using marijuana — only bench-pressed 225 pounds four times yesterday That number tied for the weakest weight-lifting showing of any defensive back at the Combine Even though bench pressing is meaningless when it comes to playing cornerback Michael David Smith at PFT said: "It’s easy to scoff at the bench press as irrelevant to what a defensive back does on a football field but an extremely low bench press is indicative of a player who isn’t working hard enough in the weight room." The twisted logic here: Even though the bench press is irrelevant it reflects poorly on Mathieu that he didn't work harder at the bench press NFL.com's Gil Brandt viewed it different. He says that the poor bench can only be remedied by a strong 40-yard dash: Tyrann Mathieu about to run his 40 at #NFLCombine Had just four bench reps and needs to run well today This is the stupidity of the NFL Combine in a nutshell.  The point of the Combine is to do well at the Combine. Everyone, like Smith concedes that the drills themselves are "irrelevant." But at the same time the drills come to represent something incredibly meaningful to NFL insiders Suddenly the bench press at the NFL Combine isn't about judging strength it's about judging "work ethic" — which is actually more important than strength.  Since the drills themselves tell you nothing from an objective football standpoint you make the drills stand-ins for something the they were never meant to quantify.  Last year linebacker Vontaze Burfict — a standout at Arizona State — did horribly at the Combine. He was slow and out of shape and petulant and he went undrafted as basically a direct result of being awful at these drills he was starting for the Bengals and playing better than any linebacker on the team.  NFL commentators take banal exercises and construct false (yet meaningful) narratives out of them at the Combine the fact that Mathieu can't lift weights well means nothing it will legitimately affect on NFL people view him • Ghesquière was born in Comines, Province, in 1971. • At the age of 15, he interned at Agnès B in Paris during his school summer holidays. "I watched, I photocopied, I made the coffee," he told the New York Times. • After leaving school, Ghesquière achieved his childhood dream: scoring an internship with Jean Paul Gaultier. • His creations went down as well with Balenciaga's loyal following as they did with the fashion press. His collections were in such high demand that the label's flagship store in Paris was unable to meet the demands of the crowds that gathered there daily. • His hobbies extend beyond fashion. "I love art. I love music. It's more about the lifestyle you yourself have-that's the most inspiring thing," he has said. "The way you share relationships with the people around you." • On October 28 2010, Ghesquière was crowned Fashion Group International's Superstar. "Nicolas Ghesquière defines the word 'superstar,'" FGI president Margaret Hayes told WWD. "Said to be one of the most intriguing and original designers of his generation, he has reinvented the House of Balenciaga and endowed its legacy with a cool, modern edge." On November 5, 2012 it was announced that Ghesquiére was to leave his role as creative director of Balenciaga after 15 years in the role. The designer was praised by François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of PPR, who said: "With an incomparable creative talent, Nicolas has brought to Balenciaga an artistic contribution essential to the unique influence of the house." Almost a year to the day later, on November 4 2013, it was announced that Ghesquiére was the new artistic director of Louis Vuitton - just weeks after Marc Jacobs had announced that he was retiring from the house after his swan song Parisian show during the spring/summer 2014 season. "Louis Vuitton has always incarnated for me the symbol of ultimate luxury, innovation and exploration," he said. "I am very honoured of the mission that I am entrusted with, and proud to join the history of this great maison. We share common values and a vision." Many Cork and Irish lives were lost in the Battle of France, writes Damian Shiels the new Christopher Nolan epic set against the backdrop of the 1940 British military evacuation from France It is a rare moment in the spotlight for this ‘glorious defeat’ so often overshadowed by the war’s later events such as D-Day While the majority of the film’s cast are British the production has notable Irish interest with the presence of Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan Their participation offers an opportunity to recall the many real-life Irish who gave their lives during those tumultuous weeks of May and June 1940 The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission records almost 80 men associated with Ireland’s 26 counties who lost their lives during the Battle of France many more whose memorials bear no indication of their Irish birth The majority hailed from Cork and Dublin — as do Murphy and Keoghan — and many had elected to serve in Irish units what is most striking about these Irish members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were how desperately young so many were Among them are boys like 19-year-old Thomas Downes of the 1st Ox and Bucks he died on May 28 struggling to keep open the corridor to Dunkirk at the Ypres-Comines Canal He was just 17 when he was killed in service with the 6th Anti-Aircraft Regiment on May 16 beside thousands others who gave their lives in those early efforts to stem the German tide Among the Irish dead we find reminders that the fighting did not discriminate based on age or class The grave of Longford native Bertha Violetta Walsh also memorialises her 64-year-old husband Mainwaring Another of the fallen was 25-year-old Captain Jenico William Richard Preston who lost his life while engaged with German forces around Igoville and who is remembered on the Dunkirk Memorial Jenico’s death represented only a beginning to the anguish the war would visit upon them They were far from the only Irish family with cause to dread the arrival of telegrams Flying officer Charles Bomford was the son of the former town surveyor for Kells the 25-year-old Bristol Blenheim pilot was sent on a mission to destroy German tanks when his plane was downed by flak and destroyed died in the confused fighting around Dunkirk with the 2nd Northamptonshire Regiment; his brother Patrick The operations of British forces in France and the Low Countries in 1940 are often remembered only for the Dunkirk evacuation there was much heavy fighting between the start of the German offensive on May 10 and the first evacuations from the channel port more than two weeks later Some of the earliest into the fray were members of the 2nd Irish Guards who were part of a daring mission deployed to the Netherlands As the Germans swept across the Dutch countryside the Irishmen were among a small group who landed at the Hook of Holland on May 13 With the situation in the country rapidly disintegrating their job was to aid the escape of some key individuals several guardsmen were killed during Luftwaffe bombing raids on their positions Included among them were 24-year-old John McWalter The German onslaught in the west had caught the French and British forces ill-prepared and their blitzkrieg tactics allowed them to punch rapidly and deeply into Allied territory there was no want of courage on the part of many of the troops Few examples compare with that of the light bombers of the RAF the airmen clambered aboard their woefully outclassed Fairey Battles and Bristol Blenheims again and again to embark on doomed missions to stem the German advance This culminated on May 14 when the RAF launched a series of desperate raids around Sedan to aid their French allies and attempt to destroy key bridges being used by the Germans the worst reversal of its type in the history of the RAF both died that day in Fairey Battles; wireless operator Patrick Aherne took his Fairey Battle out to bomb targets in the Ardennes As he carried out the mission his aircraft was swarmed by no less than six Me109 fighters early thoughts of a successful counter-thrust against the Germans quickly turned to desperate defence as the army fought to hold open a corridor of retreat westward So rapidly was the front line moving that British units often found themselves unexpectedly thrust into the battle zone or engaging in self-sacrificing holding actions to buy time for their comrades The 7th Royal Sussex and 21-year-old Corkonian Daniel Foley were one such unit rushed into the line near Amiens on May 20 Barely had they arrived before German panzers crested the hill A member of Foley’s company recalled the aftermath: “Men I knew had bloody holes where their eyes had been They [were] lying spreadeagled in their bloodstained uniforms was among the men of the 2nd Dorsetshires who died facing wave after wave of German attacks at the La Bassée Canal in late May In 1919 the body of his father Christopher had been taken home to the family in Lyre after he had died in Royal Naval service but with Timothy there would be no remains to mourn He has no known grave and is today remembered on the Dunkirk Memorial Eventually the BEF found itself holding a perimeter around Dunkirk more than 300,000 Allied personnel were successfully evacuated as part of Operation Dynamo But many had to die in order to make the escape possible Heavy fighting along the Dunkirk perimeter continued to cost lives even as thousands of men embarked for home only a couple of miles away Dubliners Christopher Bradley and James Brennan both gave their lives defending the perimeter on June 1 while serving with the 1st Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) As scores of German bombers sought to disrupt the evacuation the RAF took to the skies in an effort to provide some air cover to those on the beach One of them was Flight Lieutenant Dudley Persse Joynt from Sandymount He was last seen alive at the controls of his Spitfire over Dunkirk on May 31 It was little safer on the ships themselves was a stoker aboard the minesweeper Pangbourne when she was attacked by Stukas off Dunkirk on May 29 The ship leapt into the air with the ferocious impact One crewman saw “blood and flesh… everywhere; mutilated bodies that ten seconds ago were men I knew personally are flung in grotesque heaps all about me” William was among those dangerously wounded When the Pangbourne limped back to England he was taken ashore Another of the Irish sailors at Dunkirk was Patrick Stanton of Rostellan he and his shipmates had already rescued hundreds of soldiers from Dunkirk when she was beset by Stukas on June 1 She was making for England with her latest human cargo when the bombs struck the engine room They included leading stoker Patrick Stanton that was not the only place where British troops needed to be extracted Operation Dynamo was followed by Operation Cycle at Le Havre and Operation Ariel at the French Atlantic ports these efforts came too late for Cork men John Healy of Spangle Hill and David Fox of Boyce’s St Both were in their 40s and served in the same Royal Engineer stevedore unit and their remains rest side-by-side at Le Havre’s Ste Marie Cemetery The largely successful escape from Dunkirk did not bring an immediate respite from military setbacks Only days after the last boat slipped away from the French port a naval engagement brought what was surely the greatest single-day loss of Irish lives in Allied service during the Second World War the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her two destroyer escorts HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta were steaming for Scapa Flow when they were intercepted by the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau The Commonwealth Wargraves Commission records 37 men from the 26 counties among the dead though there were still many dark days ahead The majority of BEF servicemen from Ireland made it through the Battle of France and a number were recognised for their gallantry regional newspapers began to carry news of the missing Those fortunate enough to avoid capture were granted leave and many took the chance to return and visit family The majority probably shared the outlook of Joseph Johnstone of Bailieborough who “went through a gruelling time during those awful days but is more inclined to forget his experiences than to talk about them” Although the campaign had been an abject failure the successful rescue of so many Allied troops from the jaws of defeat was a vital boost for British morale The triumph over adversity that became known as the Dunkirk Spirit would eventually pass into legend Importantly a significant proportion of the British army had survived to fight another day The Second World War would continue to bring fresh horrors for a further five years as those who fell in the Battle for France were joined by countless others theirs was a sacrifice that would never be forgotten Every year anniversaries of the fighting regularly brought mention of the Dunkirk dead Memories of men such as 19-year-old Kevin James Spratt of 98 North Brunswick St who was “sadly missed by his loving parents 23-year-old Joseph Sheridan of 20 Prison Avenue and 24-year-old Christopher (Cockle) McDonnell of Killester who was “never forgotten by his parents All are individuals who deserve our continuing remembrance Damian Shiels is a military historian and archaeologist who runs irishamericancivilwar.com and midletonheritage.com From as little as €1 a week with our digital introductory offer Already a subscriber? Sign in more courts articles There is a significant opportunity for the State right now to ensure justice for Grace as the new National Disability Strategy is in the final stages of its completion Every disabled child and adult who is at risk of abuse or neglect should have access to an advocate UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE IRISH EXAMINER FOR TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONSFIND OUT MORE money and jobs from Munster and beyond by our expert team of business writers The ad-free version is ready for purchase on iOS mobile app today we couldn't find that page";var n=e.querySelector("h2");return n&&n.remove(),{staticContent:e,title:t}},d=function(e){var t=document.createElement("button");return t.innerText=e,t.classList.add("error-page-button"),t},f=function(e){var t=document.createElement("div");t.id="recirculation-404",t.classList.add("brand-hint-bg");var n="\n \n \n Tick here if you would like us to send you the author’s response A row of giant Easter eggs is gliding towards me in a perfect line – and it takes all my will power not to reach out The heady smell of melted chocolate fills the air and I feel like I’m on the set of Charlie and the Chocolate factory with real life Willy Wonka Pieter Libeert making sure I don’t do an Augustus Gloop and start slurping from the vats but at the Italo Suisse chocolate factory in the Belgian town of Comines – 10 miles from Lille across the border in France – the atmosphere has eggs-factor the 200 staff are making Asda’s £10 egg which recently scooped an industry award from Good Housekeeping It saw off competition from Fortnum & Mason’s £25 Eggsploding Egg and the £26 Eggsibitionist Egg from Hotel Chocolat Shoptalk was invited behind the scenes to see how the 1kg Belgian treat for Asda’s The Collection is created as Brits get ready to scoff £280million of eggs this Easter Pouring out a bowl of melted chocolate onto a marble table master chocolatier Stefaan Gillioen uses a supersize scraper to shape a small river of chocolate He then ripples the liquid backwards and forwards before expertly folding it and scraping it back into the bowl shaken to make sure the chocolate is distributed evenly and popped into the fridge for 50 minutes to cool and set before it’s ready to be packaged “Conching and tempering is the key to great chocolate,” says Pieter gives it the gloss and how it feels in your mouth When the chocolate arrives in heated tankers at 45C in the machines to give it shape so it doesn’t crumble.” While Stefaan demonstrates the painstaking method by hand the machines are working away churning out 1,000 giant eggs an hour I man the production line for a shift to open the moulds and put on a purple bow as a finishing touch Eggs are coming at me so fast I miss a few There are five packing stations with two workers at each ready to add the Cellophane I struggle for around ten minutes to gather the edges evenly secure the top and add a bow and label before the eggs are bar coded covered in bubble wrap and boxed ready to be ferried to Asda stores the wrap-to-box process should only take three Asda’s chocolate expert Julia Willows first dreamt up the idea of a giant egg a year ago She told me: “It doesn’t matter who you are or what mood you’re in “But we are mindful of the economic climate and have mini eggs in nets for £1 and hollow bunnies for £2 Join the Secret Elves for celebration inspiration - and brilliant gift ideas and reviews S�rie realizada por Patr�cia Sequeira com In�s Aires Pereira como protagonista Rita acabou de perder a melhor amiga e companheira de casa quando descobre no telem�vel uma aplica��o que lhe permite viver a vida de outras pessoas decide instalar a Appy e embarcar nas v�rias experi�ncias que a aplica��o tem para lhe oferecer Rita n�o percebe que os erros da aplica��o ainda em fase experimental provocar�o consequ�ncias irrepar�veis na sua vida Mégane Lourenco La Luck - InstagramOn fait quoi cet automne/hiver à Lille tantôt activités indoor !  si vous voulez passer une soirée dans une ambiance chill pour boire un verre et même dîner Véritablement devenu incontournable à Lille cette ludothèque vous promet de folles soirées entre amis On profite d'une bonne bière et on se régale de la poutine du moment (leur plat chouchou) Une publication partagée par La Luck Lille (@lalucklille) La Wilderie est un coup de coeur ultime pour les amoureux de plantes Lieu hybride qui fait shop de choses green et aussi bonne table pour se régaler on aime y flâner même pour du coworking dans un spot bien cocooning la carte ultra courte change toutes les 2 semaines afin d’utiliser des produits frais et locaux pour réduire l’empreinte carbone de nos plats Un vrai lieu pour se ressourcer et se faire plaisir  Une publication partagée par La Wilderie (@lawilderie.lille) Pour ceux qui veulent sauter l'étape automne et filer tout droit sur les pistes de ski on vous conseille Ice Mountain à quelques minutes en voiture de Lille à la frontière belge fausse piste de ski pour faire du sport d'hiver mais aussi un snowpark du gellyball et même du indoor skydiving (simulation de vol) De quoi y passer une journée entière et profiter des restos montagnards sur place  Une publication partagée par Ice Mountain Adventure Park (@icemountainadventurepark) Ice Mountain16 rue de Capelle, 7780 Comines, BelgiqueSite web Une publication partagée par La Croix ou Pile (@aubergelacroixoupile) Comme un goût d'été en plein automne  Une publication partagée par RODIZIO BRAZIL 1ER DE FRANCE® 🇧🇷 (@rodizio.brazil) La brioche c'est ... tout moelleux, tout doux, tout réconfortant... Pile ce qu'il nous faut pour l'automne ! Tant mieux car la première briocherie de Lille a ouvert ses portes. Un vrai temple de douceur pour pimper vos petits dej' ou vos goûters Elle est aussi twistée en version salée 3 formats de brioche seront à découvrir pour les petits et grands plaisirs : la joufflue la gonflée et la queen (celle-ci une taille XXL à partager) De quoi se goinfrer sur son canapé toute une soirée  Une publication partagée par 🍞Sylvana - Briocherie Gonflée (@briocheriesylvana) Al'Carbone est un restaurant à volonté situé à Lomme, à deux pas de Lille Le concept est doublement intéressant puisqu'il s'agit d'un établissement qui fait la part belle aux carbonades (toujours 6 carbonades différentes à déguster) tout en vous plongeant dans l'univers de la mafia "AL'CARBONE vous propose d'entrer dans l'univers de la mafia et de déguster 6 carbonades différentes aux noms de crimes qui peuvent varier au fil des saisons." De quoi satisfaire les gros mangeurs et se réchauffer avec pleeeein de carbonades ! Le plus ouf  Ce buffet à volonté est au prix de... 15,70€  une fois passée la porte de La Petite Auberge vous vous retrouverez directement en Haute-Savoie Obligé de mettre Hall U Need dans ce top Devenu une valeur sûre en métropole Lilloise ce complexe indoor ne désemplit pas ! Inspiré du concept Nord-Américain du "Eats and Entertainment" c'est pourtant un concept tout à fait inédit en France. Alors que trouve-t-on dans ce gigantesque site ? Resto des jeux interactifs ou à sensation... En bref Le site a de quoi plaire à tous : réalité virtuelle Certains jeux sont même accessibles au public pour la première fois en France parfait pour une journée d'activités en famille ou amis  Une publication partagée par Hall U Need (@halluneed) Piscines : notre top 5 pour faire un plongeon à Lille et ses alentours 5 balades en Belgique à faire pour se déconnecter sans s’éloigner de Lille Les plus belles escapades à moins d'1h de Lille sans voiture In order to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele one of the bloodiest battles of World War I professional photo colorizer has Tom Marshall restored some remarkable images that reveal the living and fighting conditions of British and Commonwealth troops from Canada This is not the first series of historic photographs restored by Marshall he colorized a handful of photos from another infamous World War I encounter The Vintage News asked him to colorize a selection of portraits of immigrants who had arrived in the United States through Ellis Island during the early years of the 20th century Marshall’s most recent selection of colorized photos from the Battle of Passchendaele show soldiers resting “I decided to colorize these images as a tribute to the men pictured because I believe that color adds another dimension to historic images and helps modern eyes to connect with the subjects more than with a black and white photo,” explains Marshall on his website but he hopes that his work will help change that fostering more interest in learning about the subjects and what the men went through during the Great War but there was nothing familiar about the Battle of Passchendaele which has been described as a vivid symbol of the mud and senseless slaughter of the First World War The scale of casualties in Passchendaele is what makes this battle so infamous but the fighting conditions and the incredible challenges soldiers had to face is beyond the imagination British and Commonwealth troops spent over three months on the muddy battlefield of Passchendaele and heroically managed to overcome almost intolerable levels of hardship before they eventually won an impressive victory in November 1917 The road to victory was not an easy one and it cost an incredible number of human lives but most agree that during the three months of fighting there were around 325,000 Allied and over 260,000 German casualties The village of Passchendaele is located in the Ypres area of Belgium where several more battles were fought during the war Officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres have come to represent the horrors of World War I Little did they know that the Germans were not their only enemy at Passchendaele; they were also forced to struggle through stinking mud while being under constant heavy fire from the enemy The attack at Passchendaele was Douglas Haig’s decision the commander of the British armies in Europe The main goals were to take the pressure off the French forces to the south and to destroy the German submarine bases along the coast Check out Marshall’s website or Facebook page to see more of his work The Allies opened the attack with a pounding artillery barrage but heavy rains filled the shell holes with filthy water It’s been more than 30 years since the Ypres area suffered heavier rain than the summer of 1917 and many soldiers lost their lives by drowning in the swamp this wasn’t their biggest problem because many soldiers were under constant threat by the German machine gunners Despite the fighting conditions and the lack of success at the beginning the Allied forces continued their offensive and by September the authorities in London advised Haig to halt the offensive Read another story from us: Brazilian artist brings the past to life by colorizing old black & white photos Australian and New Zealand divisions joined the effort in September but it wasn’t until Haig asked Canadian Forces for help that they managed to capture what remained of Passchendaele and claimed victory Goran Blazeski is one of the authors writing for The Vintage News Join 1000s of subscribers and receive the best Vintage News in your mailbox for FREE