Post-fight quotes from David Benavidez

Endangered wild horses have returned to the Golden Steppe of Kazakhstan for the first time in at least 200 years after decades-long efforts.

The airlifts of seven Przewalski's Horses from Europe to the Central Asian country took place in early June in an operation run by Prague Zoo.

Researchers told the BBC that the horses are already doing well two weeks in: roaming around the plains and even beginning the mating process.()

Zoo officials say it's a triumph of generations of conservation work.

"This is an endangered species returning to their ancestral lands, a species which went extinct in the wild in the 1960s, last seen in Mongolia...so it's just marvellous... a miracle," said Filip Mašek, a spokesman for Prague Zoo.

While the horses have been slowly reintroduced to Mongolia and China in recent decades, this operation marks the first time they are back in Kazakhstan.()

The Przewalski's Horse is the last wild horse species on the planet, named after Russian explorer Nikolai Przewalski who was the first to identify the horse for the European science community.

The species originated millennia ago from the steppes of Central Asia and was taken by researchers to Europe and North America in the 19th and 20th Centuries, where populations were established in zoos.

Some of them ended up in zoos in Munich and Prague - it's their descendants that have now been reintroduced in Kazakhstan.(

Cultural artefacts show people in the country's north were riding and using the horses for food at least 2,000 years before records of domesticated horses in Europe.

But by the time of Przewalski's "discovery" in 1879, the horses could only be found in a small section of western Mongolia. Competition with humans and livestock, along with changes in the environment led to them dying out.

Recognising the threat, international efforts were made after World War Two to save the animals. Prague Zoo was entrusted with the "international studship" of the breed.( )

It introduced the first contingent back into Kazakhstan last week- a group consisting of one stallion and six mares. It aims to bring in at least 40 more over the next five years.

"This is an event of historical import," said the zoo's director Miroslav Bobek in a statement.

"The seven horses that we transported here by two Czech Army planes represent the first individuals of this species in central Kazakhstan in hundreds of years."

Przewalski's horse has long been considered the one true remaining wild horse species- as species such as the American mustang and Australian brumby are feral horses descended from domesticated animals.( )

The Przewalski's horse is shorter and stockier than modern domesticated horses and their genetic differences show that neither species are ancestors of the other.

Prague Zoo, which has spent the past decade and a half introducing the horses back to Central Asia, mainly in Mongolia, said the Kazakhstan operations had been in the plans since 2022 after signing a deal with the local government.

Last week saw the culmination of years of work. Prague Zoo selected horses from different programmes around Europe and put them together in the same zoo in Berlin - Tierpark Berlin - for several months to become acquainted before their journey.( )

That then kicked off in early June, with military 

Przewalski's horse has long been considered the one true remaining wild horse species- as species such as the American mustang and Australian brumby are feral horses descended from domesticated animals.( )

The Przewalski's horse is shorter and stockier than modern domesticated horses and their genetic differences show that neither species are ancestors of the other.

Prague Zoo, which has spent the past decade and a half introducing the horses back to Central Asia, mainly in Mongolia, said the Kazakhstan operations had been in the plans since 2022 after signing a deal with the local government.( )

Last week saw the culmination of years of work. Prague Zoo selected horses from different programmes around Europe and put them together in the same zoo in Berlin - Tierpark Berlin - for several months to become acquainted before their journey.

That then kicked off in early June, with military aeroplanes flying the standing horses in two groups on a 6,000km-route that included stopovers in Turkey and Azerbaijan.

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Unless you are fully loaded, fully equipped, to consistently challenge the menacing Blues forward pack, don’t bother turning up to Eden Park.()

The Blues, as they marched into their second Super Rugby final in three years with consummate ease, delivered another clear illustration of their brutal blueprint to crush the Brumbies 34-20 and prolong Australia’s wretched playoff run in New Zealand.()

One moment in the second half summed up Cotter’s hardline mantra. Replacement halfback Taufa Funaki tried an audacious backwards chip kick that backfired to turnover possession.(

The Blues were leading by 14 points but Cotter was unimpressed – letting out a spray from the coaching box. Such adventure was not in the playbook.

The Brumbies, riding a seven-game winning run, arrived with hope of upsetting the odds. Yet it was immediately evident they would suffer the same fate as 18 of their counterparts to lose finals matches on this side of the ditch.( )

That not one Australian team have managed to win a playoff match in New Zealand underlines one of Super Rugby’s glaring issues.

Such concerns are irrelevant for the Blues, though.

Cotter’s Blues won’t win any beauty pageant prizes. No one in Auckland’s long-suffering rugby region will care, though, if this team break their 21-year drought for a fully fledged Super Rugby crown.( )

With an extra day’s rest before next week’s finale the Blues have the benefit of sitting back to watch the Hurricanes and Chiefs take lumps out of each other in Wellington on Saturday to earn the right to join them and contest this year’s title.

A Chiefs upset would allow the Blues to return to Eden Park, where they have won their past 15 matches in a row, next week.( )

Should the Hurricanes ride their compelling campaign to defeat the Chiefs for the third time this year, they will retain home advantage for the decider.

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Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison Monday for her conviction on second-degree murder and other charges stemming from a crash that killed two young boys in Westlake Village.

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Prosecutors had asked Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino to sentence Grossman, who will turn 61 on Friday, to a longer term of 34 years to life in state prison for the September 2020 deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8. The young boys were in a marked crosswalk with their family in the community northwest of Los Angeles when they were struck by Grossman's white Mercedes-Benz SUV.

Defense attorneys were asking for a sentence of either probation or the lower state prison term of just over 12 years on the less serious vehicular manslaughter charges.

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Grossman, wearing a brown jumpsuit, shook her head and cried during the sentencing hearing as victim impact statements were delivered in court. A judge asked that the statements, usually delivered by family members, friends and others who knew the victims, remain short because there was a long list of speakers.

Speakers included Mark and Jacob's mother, uncle, grandmother, teachers, a pastor and neighbors who shared stories about the boys.

Prosecutors said Grossman will be eligible for parole in about nine years. Her attorneys have 60 days to appeal.

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Grossman was convicted Feb. 23 of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving. The judge ordered her to be taken into custody minutes after the jury's verdict, rejecting a request by one of her trial attorneys to allow her to remain free on $2 million bond while awaiting sentencing.

In a typed letter to the judge, Grossman wrote, "I am not a murderer, and I ask you to recognize that true fact. My pain, my recognition of the pain the Iskanders suffer, and the pain I watch my family endure, are punishments that I already suffer and will for the rest of my life. Please consider this suffering when you consider what more punishment to impose on me in this case.

"As God is my witness, I did not see anyone or anything in the road. I swear to you, I would have driven my car into a tree to avoid hitting two little boys."

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She wrote that the tragedy haunts were every day.

"I can only imagine the pain that (the boys' parents) Nancy and Karim Iskander feel minute by minute," she wrote. "I will carry my pain for the rest of my life."

Grossman wrote that she left roses at the scene of the crash.

She has maintained that she was not driving under the influence of alcohol, impaired or racing.

"From the very beginning, the facts have been distorted and misrepresented, turning the tragic accident into murder and me into a cold-blooded killer," she wrote in the letter to the judge. "The voices demanding vengeance and retribution are reacting to the tragic loss of Mark and Jacob, but they do not fairly describe me or who I am. I am not a murderer."

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Deputy District Attorneys Ryan Gould, Jamie Castro and Habib Balian wrote in their sentencing memorandum that Grossman's actions since the night of the crash show a lack of remorse and "narcissistic superiority that leads to only one conclusion, that she is undeserving of any leniency."

"She has blamed the victims, arguing that they were out of the crosswalk, jetted out in front of her car, and that their mother was careless in walking with her children across the street when it was starting to get dark outside," prosecutors said in the memo.

They also said she blamed ex-boyfriend, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, prosecutors said. She claimed that he hit the children first, but prosecutors said there is no evidence to support that claim.

Prosecutors said Grossman was driving a high speeds, was impaired and had both alcohol and valium in her system. Evidence at trial suggested she was traveling 73 to 81 mph in a 45 mph seconds before the crash, prosecutors said.

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Grossman did not return to the crash, which triggered the SUV's airbag, scene or offer medical aid to the boy, prosecutors said. They said the SUV's engine stopped about a quarter-mile from the intersection.

In their sentencing brief, her new defense attorneys James Spertus and Samuel Josephs countered that the crash was a terrible accident.

"Ms. Grossman is responsible for causing the accident, but the offense conduct does not warrant a life sentence or the type of lengthy prison term reserved for the most callous, heinous crimes, they wrote in the brief.

The defense attorneys wrote in their motion that the judge could impose probation with a suspended state prison sentence. The

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