We'd been lectured by military officers about our "conduct after capture" and about "dry land drowning" the effect on the body of exposure to chemical weapons We'd flown through sandstorms to join British troops who were poised on Iraq's desert border to invade We'd been told the entire battle plan because we were embedded trusted journalists and now the war was about to begin In March 2003 I was with 42 Commando Royal Marines at what they called "the tip of the spear" and they were about to lose men in the first hours of the war were the unembedded journalists: reporters and cameramen who were to be the "independent" witnesses on the battlefield A single, three-man team was chosen from ITN We'd been through two previous wars together One of those two men is alive today; one is dead the best known and ITN's most experienced war correspondent The fate of the fourth man is one of the cruellest a war can deal or exactly where or when – or who killed him The ITN men who died with him were mourned at funerals and have graves Fred has no resting place where his wife and two children can mourn His initial disappearance brought them weeks of torture Then months of dying hope and desperate frustration years of nagging questions and terrible sadness where so many trivial questions can be answered in an instant answer the questions that haunt them: how did Fred die he was the same age as me and was remarkable by any measure He'd been a soldier with the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon where he filmed memorable footage of war in Kosovo and Afghanistan Daniel and I had been in and out of scrapes together for five years; but as we waited on Iraq's border I wasn't with either of them Terry Lloyd had been chosen as their reporter and in Kuwait they hired their interpreter Hussein two vehicles and headed for the front line My last words to them days before the war began were that old journalists' cliché with Terry and Daniel in one car and Fred and Hussein following behind they drove north on the main road to Basra believing they might just get to the city before anyone else They reached an Iraqi checkpoint near Bridge Seven faster than they'd planned Daniel and Terry realising too late how far they'd gone and executing a U-turn which they hoped would save them from capture or save their lives But by the time the second car did the same the Iraqis were already giving chase in vehicles with mounted guns They stopped the two cars and questioned the team; Hussein translating and reassuring; "Sahafa Fred laughing to try to put the nervous Iraqis at their ease Fred was ushered into the rear seat of a pick-up truck mounted with a gun he hadn't let go of his camera and was last seen smiling Daniel drove the car containing Terry; both were marked "TV" in large black letters began driving back towards Allied lines on the main road but both sides were soon shooting furiously but by then Daniel was himself in the dirt the door flung open and Terry pitched out onto the road The inquest into his death concluded that Terry had been killed unlawfully by US forces the second bullet in the head as he was driven away for medical treatment The Crown Prosecution Service said later that although he had been injured by shots from Iraqi forces and killed by American fire there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against any individuals Fred's family would love to have such detail They have simply no idea how he was killed It's not as if they haven't tried to find out "I believe and hope there must still be people in Iraq who have vital information about what happened to Fred," she says "It's of great importance to me and our children to find him We think about Fred and miss him every day." Not a fragment of Fred's body or bones has been found even though his identity card was recovered Like many ITN journalists who have been back to the scene I have asked questions at hospitals and police stations and come up with nothing But it haunts his friends and family still I found it hard to strap on a flak jacket again and report war I've been back to Iraq several times with Daniel Demoustier We filmed firefights and a football match in Basra and toasted Fred at a restaurant in the city he never reached I can still hear his wonderful French accent telling me why he was attracted by warzones "I want to test myself," he said "I don't want to die in a shithole but I feel alive when I'm doing this." I can still hear him on the phone from Kosovo and Afghanistan to his children; sweet words to his little daughter Camille I'm also haunted by a joke I used to make to Fred I told him that the only Nérac I'd ever heard of was a man who disappeared and was never heard of again was a British soldier who had almost certainly been shot and his body buried in Northern Ireland I warned him that he'd better be careful in warzones This is the archive of The Observer up until 21/04/2025 The Observer is now owned and operated by Tortoise Media Her wit and style, brought to life by these directors, make for a most enjoyable evening in Ryan Coogler’s hit film is a riff on the uses and abuses of genre Two books trace the extraordinary rise and rapid fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin Robert Macfarlane and James Scott seek to understand the ways of water The greatest civilisations of the past 3,000 years were the opposite of MAGA Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther’s bold stand ignited the Reformation, but he wasn’t alone. The Reformation was a movement of many heroes, known and unknown, who shaped history. Explore the full collection of our Here We Stand resources With a millennium of Roman Catholicism under its crown early sixteenth-century France was hardly a friend to Protestant proselytes The French king would have his Roman Catholic way — that is Marguerite de Navarre received an education fit for an heir presumptive seemed to spare no text or philosophy when it came to both her children’s instruction Perhaps Louise was the first to expose Marguerite to the controversial figure of Erasmus and Marguerite found herself with not only a husband with open access to her new spouse’s resources She would spend most of her time in Alençon When her brother donned the French crown in 1515 Marguerite’s newfound Catholic limelight did not stop her from reading “dangerous” Protestant works The same year his Ninety-Five Theses shook Germany His writings confirmed what Marguerite’s own reading had begun to uncover: God’s word and Christ’s work the nature of forgiveness and saving faith — they were not exactly as the Catholic Church and Latin Vulgate made them seem When Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther in 1521 but why did they hate the priest and professor she so admired — better yet The conflicted Marguerite sought counsel from members of the Circle of Meaux a group of French evangelicals who embraced many Reformation teachings like justification by faith alone and sola Scriptura Marguerite proved herself more sensitive to Scripture’s truths and the Spirit’s leading than France’s religious and social standards Marguerite possessed her own degree of power She began to wield it not merely to pursue her convictions from within the Catholic Church but to shield French Protestants who stood Marguerite was more than family to the French King — she was a beloved, even esteemed sister. Francis dismissed complaints of Marguerite’s Protestant bent, saying, “If what you say is true, I love her too well to allow her to be troubled on that account” (Reformation Women Francis would do far more than let Marguerite alone She could speak openly of Christ in the Catholic court winning other nobles to Reformed convictions And were those same nobles to find themselves imprisoned for their newfound faith they could expect Marguerite to plead freedom on their behalf she added “queen” to her list of high stations a mountainous region situated between Spain and France she gained another kind of protective power: the power of asylum her new kingdom was historically tolerant of other religions Marguerite extended Nérac as a city of refuge for those fleeing persecution None other than John Calvin himself once met safety at Marguerite’s hands Though Marguerite never ceased to enjoy personal safety and freedom of speech her footing in others’ well-being would slip as time went on In what is known as the Affair of the Placards posters disparaging the Mass were secretly hung across France the king would now allow far greater violence against Protestants Perhaps Marguerite’s Reformed convictions also waned as she aged She cut ties with Calvin after he publicly criticized men she trusted And though Marguerite’s writings had long rejected unbiblical Catholic rituals Was she endorsing the cult of the saints or appeasing a brother and king What we do know is that Marguerite de Navarre desired to see God’s word accessible much more — might be said of her only surviving child one day will carry forward the work He has permitted me to commence and my place will be more than filled by my daughter future Queen of Navarre and lionhearted defender of the French Reformation God would indeed carry forward the work of Marguerite The French Huguenots and Wars of Religion by Stephen M Women and the Reformation by Kirsi Stjerna A 31-day Journey with Heroes of the Reformation Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news You are receiving this pop-up because this is the first time you are visiting our site You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker) we are relying on revenues from our banners So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.Thanks Most carrot traders have no other products in their trade portfolios "It's such a specific job you genuinely don't have time for other things," says André Louwerse of Fa André Louwerse Wortelen in the Netherlands "There used to be three of us in this area but some commission agents are dropping out André has answered this calling for more than 30 years He started as a carrot trader employee in 1989 founding his own business five years later I can already see which processor or end client the batch will suit We only do the trading; sorting and packaging are our buyers' responsibility," he says André trades carrots from about 600 hectares Some have cooling facilities; others sell their carrots directly from the field to buyers There aren't fewer growers; their numbers remain fairly constant so I know how to maximize the yield to 90 or even 100 tons per hectare With his two daughters' helpAndré's two daughters André Louwerse Wortelen trades are destined for the fresh market "Most Dutch growers cultivate the Nerac variety You can store those grown in the polders' clay soil in cold stores until June," André explains The colored carrots' market share is probably less than one percent and parsnips also comprise a tiny share of our assortment we offer CD carrots – the large carrots – and beautiful early varieties in both B carrots and CD carrots Early varieties are processed after harvesting and are available from late June," Caroline concludes FreshPublishers © 2005-2025 FreshPlaza.com SARASOTA -- During all those rides with the Bikesenjava crew out to Longboat Key 30 miles of cardio cruelty for the heart and lungs 16-year-old Bobby Sweeting had one not-so-simple objective Hang with the more-experienced riders for whom their bicycle was like a second appendage "I wasn't sure I was a decent rider,'' said Sweeting now 18 "until those bike shop rides and people started actually telling me.'' "You have the talent,'' was the common refrain "He came out of nowhere,'' said Tony McEachern and a fourth-place finish at the prestigious Tour de L'Abitibi in Quebec Sweeting inched up the Florida racing ladder a freshman rider at the University of Florida a former cross-country runner at Sarasota High who adopted cycling only because Osgood-Schlatter's disease made running painful Bobby is the first cyclist here in Sarasota to ever sign a pro contract,'' said Jim Sweeting "It rarely happens to somebody who's only been on the bike two years so new to the team that on Nerac's Web site there is no accompanying personal information "Some of the guys on the team could be my dad.'' He still needs to learn the nuances of the pro game -- when to jump "Just like the Daytona 500,'' his dad said Sweeting served as the "rabbit'' for a teammate in a criterion race which usually features a circular course where the riders often reach speeds in excess of 30 mph But during a road race in Jacksonville two weeks ago Bobby hurt his hip and suffered "a lot of road rash.'' But the experience taught him a valuable lesson "A lot of the guys that are tops in the country were in the Jacksonville race,'' he said but it's in perspective now and I can ride with them.'' who can compete both professionally and collegiately competes in the SEC championships this weekend at Auburn That means more weeks of spending up to 25 hours on the bike Bobby can pedal more than 400 miles a week but Sweeting doesn't plan on going anywhere "They are going to take good care of me and I'm sure I'll like it there.'' Comment: Ex-ITV News managing editor Robin Elias recalls the terrible day in Basra It’s not easy to identify ITN’s finest hour over 65 rich years of broadcasting history It is easy for me to remember its most traumatic and I was the duty manager sitting on the Foreign Desk in the ITV Newsroom when an early morning call came through from southern Iraq she told me that an ITV News team had come under fire south of Basra she said: “I think Terry Lloyd may have been killed.” my years sitting in the safe and comfortable chair of the programme editor were catapulted forward into the real world of personal tragedy In the brief and frantic preparations for covering the war we’d put into place a detailed ‘to do’ list in the event of any of our teams being hurt.  We’d devised a strict ‘reference up’ protocol to report events rapidly to the right people in the right order; every manager had been assigned next-of-kin contacts so that they’d hear any bad news first and direct from someone they knew; we’d been instructed to keep a contemporaneous note of all communication with the front line.  That careful planning stood us in good stead but nothing could adequately prepare us for the agonising task of breaking the news We’d had plenty of experience dealing with “the bereaved” – now we found them within our own ranks Managers were dispatched to visit the families of Terry Lloyd his camera operator Fred Nerac in Belgium and his translator Hussein Osman in Lebanon I’d always regarded him as the classic ITN reporter He had an easy confidence about him – always smiling always willing to put his hand to any task but his unfailing good humour belied a gritty determination to get the story His news agency background taught him guile and a street-wise shrewdness he’d broken the news that Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons in Halabja His camera team of Fred and Daniel Demoustier made a formidable alliance How I envied their closeness – the bond that is unique to news teams in the field and a world away from that cosy chair in Gray’s Inn Road I was later assigned to the family of Hussein Osman That took me on a journey like no other in my comfortable career The children were full of fun and mischief apparently resilient to what had befallen their family Terry’s body had been identified pretty swiftly Fred and Hussein were officially “missing” This introduced me to the world of military investigations and forensic examination ITN lobbied vigorously with the Ministry of Defence but it was a long and painful year later that military investigators finally recovered a body fragment we were told that it matched Hussein’s DNA: a final and devastating blow for his loyal family I travelled back to Lebanon for the funeral and this time left the comparative safety of Beirut for a nervous journey through the lush vineyards of the Bekaa Valley to the dusty town of Baalbek My fears of a cold and hostile reception were quickly dispelled A chair was reserved for me in the front row hundreds of men and boys chanted their respects I was shielded from the throng of mourners and then carefully escorted back to my car and driver There was a great pride that Hussein had worked for a renowned British news organisation Everyone thanked me for the support we gave the Osman family As his coffin was lowered into the ground amid chaotic scenes Each year at the RTS Television Journalism Awards in London journos in evening dress stand to recognise a terrifyingly long list of those killed doing their job it’s not so hard to recognise great journalism We’ve always been pretty good at hero-grams But the proudest memory I will take from my 38 years at ITN will be our response to the events of 2003 It was when the strength and camaraderie of the ITN family was truly tested And – in great sorrow – I believe we passed the test Mei Gray and Will Maltby unveiled as winners of its children’s journalism competition Bodyguard writer decries ‘terrible state’ of affairs  Tracing ITN’s 65-year history has reaffirmed its public service core says departing chief executive Anna Mallett ITN is a shining example of a British television success story and will remain vital to the health of the sector in the future Scoops: from reporting amid a terror attack in Paris to the conflict in East Timor walking towards the action is now part of a journalist’s role Getting Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn to abandon the script and offer a soundbite that turns an interview into a story Site powered by Webvision Cloud 2012 at 9:50 pm ET.css-79elbk{position:relative;}So just how popular is biking in town there's a very large following of not just road bikers Gehring Road and Weigold are also very quiet during the day "I have to give a shout out to Nerac, too. Nerac has a large bicycle contingent up there. They have a club, called Nerac Earth which is a bicycle advocacy club and not a racing club They did a lot of the rides out of there to figure out which roads are appropriate for family riding." DB: "The shop in Vernon (Vernon Cycle) had a lot of the bicycle community going there and when Jeff left More people are getting involved in the charity tours The other thing that's happening is the mini-triathlon series is getting more and more popular Once people are on bikes they figure out it's not the same pounding as running." Nancy and I had owned a shop previously in Willington that we sold when we began a family Nancy and a friend of hers said that we should open up another bike shop.. But she got a position that allowed us to do what we do now What does Tolland Bicycle offer to all of the biking enthusiasts in the area We consider ourselves more of a barber shop than just a bicycling shop." And a thank you from Dave: "The community at large we have to thank them because they've been truly wonderfully supportive of the shop Without the community and the surrounding communities we wouldn't be here and that goes for the town offices and the other businesses in town." Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. Georges Berthoin, one of the last living architects of the European Union, passed away earlier this summer, on July 27 2024, at the age of 99 (obituaries in The Times, The Telegraph) His legacy is tied to the creation and development of the European Economic Community (EEC) Berthoin’s life and work offer valuable insight into the early challenges and successes of European integration particularly in connection with the United Kingdom Berthoin joined the French Resistance at 15 during World War II he studied at the University of Grenoble and Harvard Berthoin’s career took a decisive turn in 1952 when he became the Head of Cabinet of Jean Monnet at the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) One of Berthoin's most significant roles was his involvement in the UK’s relationship with Europe Berthoin worked as the Deputy Head of the Delegation of the ECSC then the European Communities to the United Kingdom he became EC’s Chief Representative to the UK and played a crucial role in the diplomatic work that ultimately resulted in the UK's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 Berthoin’s influence extended far beyond Britain’s entry into the EEC he resigned from his position as the EC’s Chief Representative in the UK but continued to advocate for greater international cooperation He became a founding member and co-chair of the Trilateral Commission an organisation aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan Georges Berthoin's life was dedicated to the cause of European unity As one of the last witnesses to the birth of the European project but his vision for a united and peaceful Europe continues to live on All of the staff of the EU delegation to the United Kingdom as well as the many friends of the EU across the UK pay homage to his visionary and inspiring work and to his precious legacy who was killed in a "friendly fire" incident two weeks ago The broadcaster has hired private investigators to try to ascertain what happened to cameraman Fred Nerac and translator Hussein Osman who are still missing 12 days after the attack In a thinly veiled attack on the lack of government help said: "We know US and British units were on the spot but 12 days after the event we still do not have any kind of official account "We're now clear that somebody in the American or British military knows what happened next but they have not come forward "We need details of the incident and the immediate aftermath to understand what happened to Fred and Hussein and to ease the anguish of their desperate families." today issued a personal appeal to the US government saying: "I believe you may know the answer to so many of our questions to break your silence and tell me what happened that day." is expected to discuss the investigation today when he meets the US secretary of state Lloyd and his crew came under fire from allied forces near Basra after they edged towards Iraq's second city in the wake of the military advance survived and has said he believed it was allied forces who attacked them who was shot and apparently thrown from one vehicle has been presumed dead after an al-Jazeera cameraman was allowed to film in the Basra hospital his body was taken to But in the immediate aftermath ITN said they had more "optimistic" information about Nerac and Osman Today ITN said a preliminary investigation carried out by security firm AKE established the ITV News team came under fire from both allied and Iraqi forces But it said it had found no fresh evidence of what happened to Nerac and Osman "AKE said the burned-out wrecks of Terry Lloyd's car and two Iraqi vehicles were still at the scene of the incident," the broadcaster said "They also found evidence to suggest the vehicle in which Lloyd was travelling had been hit a large number of times by firing from allied forces "It had also been hit from the opposite direction by gunfire from Iraqi weapons." ITN added the new evidence pointed to an "urgent need for more information" The International Press Institute has also appealed to the American defence secretary The broadcaster today renewed its appeal to the army for information about the incident a metals trader living in a smart house in a Brussels suburb took her 13-year-old daughter Camille shopping for clothes There hadn't been the daily call that morning from her husband Fred, a French jazz musician and fresco-painter turned ITN cameraman. But this was nothing to worry about. The night before, Fred, 43, had crossed the border from Kuwait into Iraq with reporter Terry Lloyd sleeping in the desert behind coalition soldiers At the shops, Fabienne's mobile rang. It was the ITN office in Brussels "Can I meet you at home?" asked one of Fred's colleagues "But we're shopping and going straight on to a dinner party," she protested had disappeared in the "friendly fire" incident that killed Lloyd The ITN team was driving down the road to Basra in a two-Jeep convoy when they spotted approaching cars full of Iraqi soldiers The journalists turned round and headed back towards Kuwait Demoustier rolled into a ditch and scrambled away It is assumed that the others were taken to the al-Jumhuriya hospital in Basra which paid a private security firm to search the whole area found no evidence that Nerac or Osman had been at the hospital Signs of Iraqi and coalition fire were found at the scene and much of what could be salvaged from other cars had been looted The surrounding desert had not been disturbed ITN has distributed hundreds of leaflets in Arabic and English offering cash rewards for information that two men could vanish in front of coalition troops Fabienne sat by the phone for a day then woke at 5am thinking that she should contact Jacques Chirac I can't just carry on living a normal life I have to search for the truth," she says "I was quite surprised how easy it was to contact the French government and meet them." and has worked every day on what has turned out to be a massive campaign to discover what happened to the men She has paced the corridors of ministries in several states was "rather silent" and has done nothing to help she has become a symbol in the French media of the struggle against allied intransigence; like Jill Morrell who once tirelessly campaigned for the release of the journalist John McCarthy She has been compared to the mothers of Latin America's disappeared: suspended from grieving in a tortured limbo a stubborn presence on television and outside government palaces an ITN journalist smuggled Fabienne into a press conference held by the US secretary of state They had trained her to wait her turn and ask a professional-sounding question after his speech Close to the front and in Powell's line of vision Fabienne stood up and said: "Your forces shot my husband two weeks ago and I still haven't had any news I want to know if you will help me find my husband and what happened to him." The cameras of the world's media pack swung on to her face I went so blank I didn't hear his reply," she says Powell gave his "personal promise" that everything would be done to find out what happened "Weeks have passed since he gave me that promise and I have heard nothing," says Fabienne in London to develop a campaign strategy with ITN "I've written to him and he's replied saying that he greatly understands how difficult it is for me The US and Britain have done nothing to provide information I'm angry at both governments but I feel powerless against them a mother so obviously trying to be strong for her children appealing to people like Powell and his humanity It's taught me there isn't actually that much humanity out there." when the Neracs heard of what they now call "the accident" Doctors were called and preparations were made to take her to hospital locked himself in his room and refused to return to school the muffled sounds of sobbing from behind his door haunted the house launching his own website with a snapshot of his father caught off-guard at home looking down at the camera and forgetting to hold his belly in Fabienne must resent her husband a little for taking such risks in going to war He had huge energy and his job was a passion I never could find the right arguments to convince him of the contrary I was supportive of his career because he was very supportive of mine she adds: "There is a break in the family a crack in the family because he is missing she's very angry that the suspense has gone on for so long I don't know if my husband would have expected me to do all this He knows I'm a very determined person." The two met near Fred's home town of Chambery in the the French Alps when they were both 25 through a mutual friend from military service Fred was a jazz drummer and trained painter who earned commissions for vast frescos of Italian-style landscapes in public spaces and private houses around Grenoble they moved to Madrid and Fabienne supported him while he took lessons in jazz drumming where so many artists were competing for work A journalist friend suggested video editing and later - noting Fred's good eye - camera work He won awards for his footage of football hooligans during the world cup in France staying in Pristina without water or electricity the night Nato bombing began his car was ambushed by civilians trying to steal equipment until a group of Taliban fighters approached and shooed them away before smiling and walking on He loved recounting these tales to old friends Fabienne never once watched the news from Iraq "I have to cope by cancelling certain images from my brain I don't visualise what might have happened to him not even to book an appointment for tomorrow I do think about the moment that he might walk back into our house It's not the right time to think about it." where you would expect to find every memory constantly revisited and clung to What about the last time they saw each other his ITV News cameraman Fred Nerac and local translator Hussein Osman were killed near the Shatt al-Basra bridge outside Basra on 22 March The veteran ITV foreign correspondent was not embedded with the US or UK military and his four-strong ITN team was caught in crossfire between US and Iraqi forces an inquest recorded a verdict of unlawful killing by US forces but two years later the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against any individuals At the time, the CPS said forensic evidence indicated Lloyd was injured by shots from Iraqi forces and then by US fire follows the journalist's daughter Chelsey as she retraces his final movements in Iraq looking for answers her family has been seeking for a decade She is accompanied by ITV News presenter Mark Austin who also covered the start of the Iraq war as a reporter The pair also visited America to try to meet the US Marines involved in the incident that led to Lloyd's death The ITN Productions documentary was commissioned by Ian Squires ITV controller of current affairs and news operations To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857 For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000 If you are writing a comment for publication please mark clearly "for publication" To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook Fighting for quality news media in the digital age Tim Singleton remembers working with ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed in Iraq on 22 March 2003 alongside translator Hussein Osman Cameraman Fred Nerac is still officially classed as missing Here, Lloyd’s editor at the time Tim Singleton writes about the tragedy 20 years on – and how he has thought of Lloyd often since the war in Ukraine began Terry and I would seek each other out for a coffee most mornings in Kuwait’s Sheraton Hotel Some hours later there would be a cheery greeting in the restaurant where we ended the day swapping the latest stories about who was where and what triumphs and disasters had occurred that day a triumph is an exclusive and a disaster is a silly mistake on screen we joked about which reporters were up or down ITN were having problems at the time arranging frontline access with the Americans and another star correspondent had just turned up to find he was stationed with an air defence battery far away from the Iraqi border as we charted the luck and misfortune of others We were just days away from understanding what a disaster really was My job was to run a large newsgathering operation looking after a dozen or so reporters spread across the desert But Terry and his team were my biggest challenge… and also my biggest opportunity Their role was to operate independently of British and American forces and try and get to Basra when it was liberated cameramen Daniel Demoustier and Fred Nerac We added into the mix a local Lebanese taxi driver Hussein Othman could get things done and a relative had a farmhouse up near the border The trick was to get through the roadblocks The special talent Terry had – like all great hacks – was not just to know a story when he saw it caught in the crossfire between American and Iraqi forces The day they came under fire was my sixth wedding anniversary I knew how to change a nappy and raise a glass; now this I sat the whole ITV team down in my hotel room – newscasters producers – and tried my best to tell them what we thought had happened And then when Terry’s body was found a day or so later Twenty years have now passed, and I work for Sky News. Everything has changed and yet nothing has changed. We now have GPS trackers, better training, more effective kit, instant communications And yet. Every day of the last year we have had a team in harm’s way in Ukraine. As have many other news organisations. There are still very determined people trying to stop us from reporting the truth There are still very determined people trying to GET the truth I did keep that message Terry sent me as he left for the border until a phone company carelessly wiped my SIM card It felt like my last connection with Terry had gone as well – it was a devastating moment with conflict again part of our daily news diet it feels like he’s back with me and everyone else working to bring truth out of the dark Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog Nadine Wojakovski How fitting that sculptor David Breuer-Weil’s Philosopher — a mammoth bronze head assembled from smashed-up and reconstituted plaster — should be made following his discovery that he is a direct descendant of philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel “You can imagine my surprise when I learned in a recently published book that the Maharal was my great-grandfather 14 generations down,” he tells me “It puts a different emphasis on making figurative sculptures if you are related to the Maharal who Perhaps it is not entirely coincidental that the golem — the mythical giant made from clay — has fascinated Breuer-Weil for many years And knowing of his family connection has reinforced his conviction that creating art is as much a philosophical as an aesthetic enterprise: “Some people are uncomfortable with paintings that ask questions It’s not about decoration and it’s definitely not about money.” Breuer-Weil’s artistic inspiration stem from a fantasy world he began when “I was put in a class where I didn’t know anyone so I created imaginary friends through drawings in the margins of my exercise book They were creatures from a world of bizarre prophecy which I called the Kingdom of Nerac.” This was the focus of a documentary about Breuer-Weil — The King of Nerac together with his childhood memories and family history that has sustained his creativity to this day Breuer-Weil sees himself not merely as a craftsman but as a witness to world history in his lifetime He was born in 1965 to a father who had escaped Vienna in 1938 and a Danish mother whose father had been murdered by the Nazis “I was born 25 years after the beginning of World War Two and I can’t help being profoundly affected by what happened My vision of the world is coloured by that.” is a panoramic cycle of works exploring the human condition as a whole with a substantial section dedicated to the Holocaust Inspiration for the works came from witnesses to the horrors Primo Levi and Breuer-Weil’s friend Sam Pivnik His artistic influences are apocalyptic medieval and Renaissance artists with images that confront the future impact of technology After studying at the Central Saint Martin’s School of Art Breuer-Weil worked for nine years at Sotheby’s with a passion for the Jewish artefacts of destroyed communities he is committed to his daily study of the Talmud which he says is filled with “the most tremendous imagery” of every aspect of life He credits the Talmud with fuelling his creativity resulting in paintings with “multiple layers of meaning and complex imagery” Breuer-Weil’s art constitutes “ways of philosophising about life in a visual way” this has culminated in a series of monumental sculptures their fragility and vulnerability is rendered through texture and context currently exhibited in London’s Portman Square displays a figure emerging from under the ground it recalls the origins of Adam from the earth drawings and scribblings that attest to the scars and lessons we receive and learn throughout life depicting a humanoid figure crash landing head first on earth close to home: Breuer-Weil’s grandfather was labelled an “enemy alien” during the war following his arrival to London from Vienna in 1938 He believes that immigrants sometimes hide their true identity His engagement with this theme is again linked to his fascination with the golem legend a myth about creating a human form out of the earth and breathing life into it “That’s a metaphor for what a sculptor does,” he observes “He creates the semblance of a living form.” Says Breuer-Weil: “It is an image of endurance a human being weathering the storm – being broken up and being reassembled.” The sculptures in this series aptly have the names of philosophers scratched into their surfaces he has actually amended and personalised their famous sayings Descartes’ “I think therefore I am,” becomes “I want therefore I am.” Indeed this statement embodies his personal mission “I create artworks because of an instinctive daily desire to do so this ‘want’ seems to define reality for me.” David Breuer-Weil’s sculptures are on display in various London venues during July and available for private sales via Christie’s.www.christies.com Today is the tenth anniversary of the death of ITV News reporter Terry Lloyd an ITV documentary shows his daughter Chelsey retrace his last steps and talk to the US commander who ordered the attack on Terry's convoy A ITV documentary has followed the daughter of ITV News war reporter Terry Lloyd as she retraces his final steps in Iraq as part of her deeply personal search for the truth about the circumstances surrounding his death Terry was killed in southern Iraq ten years ago along with cameraman Frederic Nerac and translator Hussein Osman after their convoy came under attack by the US Army Cameraman Daniel Demoustier - who was driving the vehicle carrying Terry when they were initially fired upon - survived Chelsey Lloyd has returned to where he was shot dead along with Daniel and presenter Mark Austin who was also in the country covering the start of the war “I need an understanding of what happened that day because I wasn’t there and because it was so far away," she said "I need to piece together the events of those days to create a kind of timeline The Death of Terry Lloyd is on ITV at 10.35pm tonight Read Mark's account of finding out about Terry's death and the filming the documentary