Author: quyen3

 

Prince Harry’s role at mental health firm BetterUp is to ‘advocate for mental fitness’ and ‘guide the company’s social mission’.

The Duke of Sussex is also a vocal champion for its app, described as ‘life coach Tinder for millennials’, revealing that he used it to find his own ‘truly awesome’ mental health trainer when he joined in 2021 post-Megxit.But past and present employees suggest there is much work to be done after describing the US-based business as a ‘toxic train wreck’ and ‘psychologically unsafe place to work’ where ‘everyone is uncomfortable and living in fear’.

 

There are also choice words for BetterUp’s ‘elitist club of leaders’, who according to one worker ‘have no moral compass’ and ‘lack self awareness’.

And a company chief executive who used their services recently vowed never to use them again, claiming: ‘I had concerns about the confidentiality of my discussions and privacy during coaching calls with coaches’.

Another described the sales team as ‘predatory’. ‘I am glad I backed out because I read reviews by former employees and it didn’t look good and also highlighted the poor pay pressure to sell and lay offs and that they pay Prince Harry over a million dollars a year’, they said.

Since 2021 the Duke of Sussex has been working as ‘Chief Impact Officer’ at the US-based professional coaching and mental health app.

He has made regular appearances for the company on stage and on livestreams over the past three years, including last month with a former NBA star and friend of Kobe Bryant to discuss mental fitness and helping people ‘find their flow’.

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The Duke of Sussex has held the role of chief impact officer at the US coaching and mental health firm, BetterUp since 2021. Some claim it earn him $1million-a-year

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Harry’s job at BetterUp was one of the first he secured after emigrating with Meghan in 2020 after they quit as frontline royals and seek financial independence

Harry has also been a visitor to its buildings in San Francisco, California, and Austin in Texas, where staff have office dogs to pet, yoga studios, and armchairs to unwind in during their working day..

Despite these trappings, several employees, however, past and present have been critical via Glassdoor, which publishes company ratings and reviews by employees with the aim of increasing workplace transparency.

BetterUp has a 2.8 out of five stars rating on the site based on more than 600 reviews. Just 35% of people would recommend working there to a friend.

There are complaints about ‘too much ego at the top’ – and staff under pressure to hit targets.

The most recent review is 5-stars from five days ago, where an existing account manager says is a ‘great place to work’.

But in October a former employee called BetterUp a ‘literal circus’.

‘The company is a mess. Executive leadership is so detached from everyone else, engages in weird trips and spending, constantly shifts strategy and shuffles team functions.

‘As others have mentioned, there is a rampant favoritism with select employees being able to use the company as a open playground: sidestepping any process, being put into multiple VP roles across org functions regardless of qualification, escalating (often via text) to the founders the second they don’t get what they want, never being at risk of layoffs. This often results in one person being able to single-handedly derail an org-wide project at a company of 700+ people’.

In September one current employee called the firm a ‘toxic train wreck’. ‘You work your a** off but if you’re not in the inner circle, good luck to you’, they said.

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Less than glowing Glassdoor recent reviews by past and present employees of BetterUp

BetterUp is a place ‘where people dry up and shrivel’, one former account manager said in August,

‘I am not saying this figuratively. Literally every person at BetterUp hates their job’.

In the same month a current account manager said: ‘Their existence is based on lies, no moral compass and an elitist club of leaders (if you can even call them that) that lack self awareness’.

Another person who reviewed working for the company said: ‘It’s keep your head down… do your work, don’t get on someone’s bad side. No one will go to HR as HR is close to the leaders’.

‘Cult-like facade management out of touch. Toxicity. Everyone out for themselves High burn out’, another review reads.

MailOnline has asked BetterUp to comment.

The start-up’s co-founder and CEO Alexi Robichaux has repeatedly praised Harry, citing his ‘incredible attitude’ and claiming he has been ‘energised’ by Harry’s ‘model of inspiration and impact through action’.

The Prince has settled into his role at the company, which claims to use artificial intelligence to deliver personalised coaching sessions designed to nourish ‘the whole person’.

The company’s app – dubbed ‘life coaching Tinder for millennials’ – focuses on performance and wellbeing at work and is designed primarily for corporate use as an employee benefit.

BetterUp, founded in 2013, provides professional coaching, counselling and mentorship to your mobile phone, and is one of a handful of apps which promise to improve employee happiness, retention and – all importantly – productivity, through counselling and behavioural psychology.

Its co-founder and CEO Robichaux, a former Walt Disney employee and University of Southern California graduate, says he is on a mission to turn self-improvement into a science and ‘improve human existence’.

Its network of thousands of coaches serves a reported 100,000-plus members and offers coaching services to its own staff, including talks on ‘how to beat burnout’ and ‘build mental fitness’. There are sessions on ‘taking bold action for inclusive leadership’ and what to do if you want to ‘be you at your best’.

According to its own outcome surveys, its confidential, on-demand coaching sessions can reduce stress by 24 per cent. Some companies, says BetterUp, reported increases of performance of up to 26 per cent and a reduction in burnout of 15 per cent.

All of this comes at a hefty price for companies.

Corporate access to the app, including virtual classes and coaching sessions, reportedly costs around £2,600 per person for 12 months’ membership.

Harry himself has given the app his royal seal of approval, describing how he has found working with a ‘truly awesome coach’ to be ‘invaluable’.

He said his coach had given him ‘sound advice’ and ‘a fresh perspective’ and, explaining why he was joining BetterUp, added that ‘focusing on and prioritising our mental fitness unlocks potential and opportunity we never knew we had inside of us’.

The Duke of Sussex has held the role of chief impact officer at the US coaching and mental health firm,

When Prince Harry dramatically quit the Royal Family and moved to California with Meghan Markle in 2020, The Firm lost one of its most high-profile workers.

Royal expert and biographer Tina Brown claimed the departure means there is now a ‘Harry-sized hole’ in theAfghanistan veteran and his American wife.

 

And although the absence of Harry is having a profound effect on the professional capacity of the Royal Family, it’s also impacting them privately.

Ms Brown, who had lunch with Princess Diana just weeks before her death, claims the person who needs Harry back most is someone who now gets on with him the least: Prince William.

The former editor of Tatler and The New Yorker, 71, claims William surrounds himself with sycophants but his younger brother was good at keeping him grounded.

Writing on her Substack blog, Fresh Hell, she slammed an interview the heir did for his environmental award, the Earthshot Prize, at the end of his South Africa trip in November.

She opined: ‘William’s comment that his plans for a caring, sharing monarchy also include “throwing some empathy in there” made him sound like a performative pinhead.

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Diana’s old confidant Tina Brown has claimed the person who needs Harry back most of all is someone who now gets on with him the least: Prince William

‘In happier years, it was the irreverent Harry (or Harold as William lugubriously used to call him) who could tease the Prince of Wales and take him down a peg.

‘There are too many people around William now who, in Kara Swisher’s inimitable phrase about those who live in a gilded bubble, “lick him up and down all day”.’

Here MailOnline looks back at all the times Harry kept William in check by putting him in his place.

Showing his sporting prowess by whizzing past him in a foot race

One of the most photographed moments of Harry keeping William in check was when he trounced him in a race in 2017.

The two brothers went head to head in a sprint at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park alongside Princess Kate in front of dozens of well-wishers from the sidelines.

Harry won the race by a few metres, cheekily turning his head to look back at his brother who was grimacing as he struggled to keep pace while Kate finished last.

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One of the most photographed moments of Harry keeping William in check was when he trounced him in a race in 2017

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Harry won the race by a few metres, cheekily turning his head to look back on his brother who was grimacing as he struggled to keep the pace in second place

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The trio raced at a London Marathon Training Day for their charity Heads Together at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on February 5, 2017

The royal trio were there to spearhead the training day for their charity Heads Together, which focuses on mental heath.

The public example of Harry’s sporting dominance could have come as a shock to William, who as the elder brother was used to winning.

In a 2009 interview with BBC Newsround, he boasted that an arm-wrestling contest between them would ‘obviously’ end in his victory as ‘it’s not even a contest’.

But as William and Harry aged, the latter seemed to excel at their shared sporting hobbies, including boxing and polo – with him playing the elite sport at a professional level since moving to California.

Having digs at his baldness in an interview showing brotherly ‘banter’

Another memorable occasion when Prince Harry burst the heir’s bubble was during a joint interview in 2009 while training to be helicopter pilots.

In the ten-minute chat they traded several jibes about living together, which was seen as good-natured banter.

In Harry’s memoir Spare, he wrote that he and ‘Willy’ – who were in their mid-20s at the time – shared a cottage ten minutes away from RAF Shawbury in their first time living together since attending Eton College.

During the free-flowing chat, Harry complimented William by saying: ‘I think out of both of us, he’s definitely got more brains than me. We’ve established that from school.’ William then rolled his eyes jokingly.

Harry then teased about his brother’s ‘baldness’, but William laughed and snappily replied: ‘Pretty rich coming from a ginger.’

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The brothers traded several jibes about living together during a 2009 interview

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Although it was regarded as good natured at the time, Harry later wrote that William was perhaps feeling frustrated he would be unable to see combat like him

William also claimed he had to ‘cook and feed him every day’ and said Harry ‘leaves washing up in the sink’ and ‘snores’, but the younger brother responded by saying ‘oh, the lies’.

He continued: ‘The first and last time we will be living together, I can assure you of that,’ before William sarcastically interjected ‘it’s been a fairly emotional experience’.

But the friendly sibling rivalry displayed in the interview seemed to have been covering up a more deeply rooted resentment, according to Harry in his memoir Spare.

He wrote: ‘When I look back on it now, I can’t help but wonder if there wasn’t something else at play.

‘I was training to get to the front lines, the same place Willy had been training to get, but the Palace had scuttled his plans.

‘The Spare, sure, let him run around a battlefield like a chicken with its head cut off, if that’s what he likes. But the Heir? No.

‘So Willy was now training to be a search and rescue pilot, and perhaps feeling quietly frustrated about it.’

Pushing back on how best to manage wildlife conservation projects in Africa

The brothers reportedly had a falling out over their differing approaches to wildlife conservation in Africa.

A source told The Times in February that, despite sharing a passion for preserving protected species, William is said to support community-led initiatives to help locals conserve the land while Harry favours a more interventionist approach.

The firm-handed approach favoured by Harry is better for ensuring habitats are protected quickly, but it requires generous donations.

The method has also fuelled tensions with communities who have been cut off from age-old grazing and herding routes.

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Prince Harry also disagreed with his brother over the best way to conserve locations in Africa

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The Duke of Sussex’s hands-on approach is reliant on funding from donors

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Prince Harry (pictured with armed rangers) was African Parks president for six years until moving to its governing board last year

The disagreement over wildlife seems to go back a long way, with Harry describing ‘almost coming to blows’ with William in front of childhood friends in his autobiography.

In response to a question about why the two brothers both worked in Africa, the Prince of Wales is said to have replied ‘Because rhinos, elephants, that’s mine!’.

Prince Harry once exposed the infamous text message argument between Kate Middleton and his ‘sobbing’ wife, Meghan Markle.

Writing in his bombshell memoir, Spare, which came out back in 2023, the Duke of Sussex opened up about the chaos surrounding his and Meghan’s wedding day which took place in 2018.

At the time of the wedding, there were tabloid reports that Meghan made Kate cry in the run-up to the ceremony.In her infamous Oprah interview, Meghan insisted it was the other way around, but added: “I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details, because she apologized. And I’ve forgiven her.”

 

Harry, however, was more than happy to get into the details.

In his book, the father-of-two claimed that his wife-to-be and sister-in-law had a falling out over bridesmaid dresses for Kate’s second-eldest. Princess Charlotte.

Prince Harry opened up about the infamous bridesmaid dress debacle in his 2023 memoir, Spare (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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With Kate and William’s daughter, Charlotte, set to be part of their big day, Harry claimed that there was a spat over the fit of her dress.

He recalled Kate contacting Meghan just four days before the wedding to say that the ‘French Couture’ dresses needed remaking.

He writes that Kate became frustrated because Meghan didn’t get back to her immediately.

“Meg didn’t reply to Kate straight away,” says Harry. “Yes, she had endless wedding-related texts, but mostly she was dealing with the chaos surrounding her father. So the next morning she texted Kate that our tailor was standing by.”

The text message exchange took place just four days before Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding (WPA Pool / Pool / Getty Images)
“This wasn’t sufficient,” he adds.

Meghan’s father Thomas Markle Snr had to undergo heart surgery back in 2018, and was ultimately unable to attend the wedding.

Harry says that Kate later complained: “Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long, too baggy. She cried when she tried it on a[t] home.”

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To which Meghan replied: “Right, and I told you the tailor has been standing by since 8am. Here. At KP. Can you take Charlotte to have it altered, as the other mums are doing?”

However, Kate reportedly disagreed, saying: “No, all the dresses need to be remade.”

The tiff was apparently over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress (WPA Pool / Pool / Getty Images)
Harry says: “Meg asked if Kate was aware of what was going on right now. With her father. Kate said she was well aware, but the dresses. And the wedding is in four days!”

To which Meghan snapped back: “Yes, Kate, I know… “

A pizza delivery woman has been accused of stabbing a pregnant mum multiple times in front of her daughter – allegedly over a dispute about a tip.

Brianna Alvelo, 22, was arrested on suspicion of home invasion with a firearm, attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault violations after the alleged attack on Sunday evening. Police responded to the shocking incident at a motel in Kissimmee, Florida and, ppon arrival, say they found the victim who had been stabbed multiple times.

The woman was rushed to a hospital where she is currently stable. Detectives from the force’s Violent Crimes Unit quickly identified Alvelo as a suspect and detained the woman.

It’s claimed she became angry over the tip the victim gave her after ordering a pizza from a restaurant earlier in the day. Local paper WESH reported that the meal cost $33.10, and the victim paid with a $50 bill but asked Alvelo for change. When Alvelo said she didn’t have any, the victim later paid for the meal with smaller bills, tipping her $2, reports the Mirror US.

This image shows the arrest of Alvelo moments after the alleged offences

Alvelo is accused of stabbing the woman several times ( 
Image:
Osceola County Jail)

Alvelo reportedly went back to the hotel room where she had earlier delivered pizza, this time with an unidentified male suspect brandishing a gun. Police have accused Alvelo of slashing her victim multiple times and stealing items from the room they were staying in.

A spokesperson for The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook: “It was discovered that the victim had ordered pizza from a local restaurant earlier in the evening, and Alvelo became upset about the tip she had received. Alvelo later returned to the victim’s motel room with an unknown male suspect, who was armed with a firearm, and forced their way into the room. Alvelo, who was armed with a knife, began attacking one of the victims. The victim was stabbed multiple times, and items were taken from within the room.”

Detectives subsequently issued a warrant for her arrest and launched a manhunt. Alvelo was apprehended by officers on Monday and is now held at the Osceola County Jail without bond.

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson continued: “This was an isolated incident at this address, and the matter remains under investigation.”

A smug mugshot of Alvelo has been circulated by the sheriff’s office. Authorities are also seeking information on her alleged male accomplice, believed to be with her during the commission of the violent act. They stated: “If you have information regarding this incident, please contact Crimeline at (800) 423-8477.”

The clock will start its countdown to World War Three in 2025 ahead of a “big grab” by Vladimir Putin which will force the UK to use force, warns a global affairs expert.

Tensions are simmering around the world with war between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East as well as the conflict in Ukraine while China is being accused of espionage in the UK and other Western countries. And as we head into the New Year two experts in international relations agree that 2025 is only likely to see the situation deteriorate with the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House.

Prof Anthony Glees from the University of Buckingham believes that Putin will stick to his long term plan of taking back all the countries which were part of the USSR. And Prof John Strawson from the University of East London says 2025 will see the “greatest challenges to international order since World War 2 ended 80 years ago”.

Prof Strawson explained: “The dangers stem from the rise of great power rivalry and the decline of international cooperation. In 1945 the Allies created the United Nations even before the war ended with the aim of promoting a new world order, in the 2020’s that order has effectively collapsed as we can see in the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and the tensions over Taiwan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ( 
Image:
Getty Images)

“Trump’s victory in the US elections is a symptom that international instability is having an impact on domestic politics. Donald Trump’s well-known unpredictability symbolizes this and underlines how the domestic situation of the main powers has an impact on international relations. All this makes 2025 a dangerous year.” Prof Glees is sure that Trump will seek to impose a peace on Russia and Ukraine but he believes that a deal will not affect Putin’s expansionist ambitions. And the West is better off preparing for war, which he says is the “most important thing we can do to prevent one”.

Trump is confident of agreeing a peace in Ukraine ( 
Image:
AFP/Getty Images)
Trump repeatedly said during presidential campaigning that he could settle the conflict in Ukraine in just one day. And his staffers have been widely reported as saying that his plan is to freeze the current front line in place between Russia and Ukraine, and introduce an 800 mile buffer zone between the two countries.

While another crucial element to the alleged proposal would be an agreement that Ukraine would not join NATO for another 20 years. It has been said that this would save face for Putin, not least as it would more or less guarantee that Ukraine doesn’t join NATO in his lifetime. And it would likely mean that the US would heavily arm Ukraine so that Russia did not attempt to invade.

But Prof Glees believes we will move closer to war in 2025 even if it doesn’t break out so soon. “I do not believe for one second that Putin will stop with this deal. Putin also said today that Russia was now well-placed to ‘establish our primary goals in Ukraine’,” he stated.“Please note the word ‘primary’ because there are also ‘secondary’ goals. They are even more horrific than his ‘primary’ ones. By 2027 he will be busily undermining the rump Ukrainian state in all the usual ways and I also think we will go out of his way to kill Zelensky.”

And then Putin will carry out his “big grab” which will lead to WW3, said Prof Glees. “He will turn to his strategic plan of re-establishing the USSR and its satellite system in all but name by turning on all the post-1997 NATO states,” he continued. ” He’s said it is his intention to force them to leave NATO and I believe we should take the threat very seriously, as we should have taken all his threats seriously but signally failed to do.

“We’re talking about Finland, Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia; Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and West Macedonia. In other words, a really big grab by Putin, so big that I am confident we will oppose him by force and that will be how WW3 will develop. This will shape our deteriorating relations with Russia. Trump’s foolish and false peace deal will start the clock for the countdown to war.”

A husband who filmed heartbreaking final message for his wife as he prepared to die in the fiery wreckage of the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on Christmas Day has miraculously revealed that he survived the ordeal.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 crashed in Aktau, Kazakhstan on Christmas Day after initiating an emergency landing en route from Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, to Grozny, in Chechnya, Russia. Kazakh authorities have estimated that 38 people died during the crash, which tore the plane in half, and many others were injured.

Passengers who survived the horror ordeal could be seen milling around the area in footage taken after the incident, which investigators now fear could have resulted from a Russian air defence missile rather than bird strike as was initially believed. Among those who survived was Subkhon Rakhimov who has told how he survived after he filmed a heartbreaking message for his wife.

Subkhon Rakhimov captured the aftermath of the crash ( 
Image:
X)
Mr Rakhimov recorded a video for his wife telling how the plane was losing altitude after attempting to land several times, adding that people onboard heard a loud bang. New footage recorded by the passenger shows his miraculous survival, with Rakhimov seen walking around the plane’s wreckage in Kazakhstan.

The smiling man appeared visibly bloodied as he films the wreckage and praises a flight attendant aboard the aircraft for keeping him alive. His video also captures rescuers attempting to access the plane and recover potential survivors, with overlaid text reading “Allahuv Akber” a phrase that translates to “God is Great”.

Mr Rakhimov’s video also showed rescuers combing the aircraft wreckage ( 
Image:
X)
Azerbaijani officials have since launched an investigation into the crash after Russian officials insisted the aircraft was downed by a “flock of birds” One Azerbaijani source familiar with the investigation told the Reuters news agency that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S missile air defence system.

The official added that its communications were paralysed by electronic warfare systems as it attempted to approach Grozny, but they added there were not claims the attack was launched on purpose. They said: “No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft.”

The doomed Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed on Christmas Day was allegedly “shot down” by Russian air defences, government sources have claimed.

The statement by the Azerbaijani government comes following an investigation into the crash. The government report claimed the aircraft was hit by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system, according to The Sun.

Russian media downplayed the incident as having been caused by a flock of birds, a claim that was strongly disputed by Ukrainian government officials. The flight crashed in a fireball near the Kazakhstan city of Aktau on Christmas Day morning.

Originally, the flight had taken off from Baku in Azerbaijan and was en route to Grozy in Russia’s southern Chechnya region. After making distressing calls to air traffic controllers, pilots went hundreds of miles off course toward Kazakhstan.

At least 38 people are believed to have been killed in the crash ( 
Image:
MChS Kazakhstan/e2w)

At least 38 people are understood to have been killed in the crash. The plane was carrying dozens of passengers, including several children.

It has been reported that at least seven people were taken to a nearby hospital with severe injuries. Among those injured are two children.

Dozens of emergency responders raced to the scene of the crash and were seen battling flames as thick black smoke rose from the wreckage. They later found the black box, which later revealed the final transmissions from the pilot to air traffic controllers.

Pilots said the plane had suffered “control failure” and that they believed the incident was due to a “bird strike.” The pilot then said he intended to return to the much closer airport of Baku.

At 8:20am local time, the flight’s scheduled arrival time, the pilot says: “Left 360, my plane is losing control.” According to leaked transcripts, one minute later the crew decided to make for Makhachkala, a Russian airport on the Caspian Sea.

The plane crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day morning ( 
Image:
east2west news)
Following the crash, Kazakhstan refused Russia and Azerbaijan were denied permission to examine the crash site. “This way we will have all the facts, the black box and the evidence,” said a member of the Kazakhstan investigation commission.

Amid ongoing speculation, independent investigative journalists from Volya Telegram said a drone in Grozny triggered air defence systems. “The Pantsirs began shooting down everything that was in the air at that moment. Grozny airport was closed for flights…

“But the passenger plane was already landing, which [air traffic control] prohibited at the last moment. The crew, according to the passengers, made two more attempts to land, after the last of which something exploded near the plane.

“The damaged Embraer was prohibited from landing in Grozny and tried to reach the airport in Aktau, Kazakhstan, but crashed nearby. The crew did everything possible not to crash the plane, but to land it.”

A ship said to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” has been detained by Finnish authorities after a deep sea cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged.

Officials in Finland have launched an investigation after its Estlink 2 subsea electricity cable sustained damage on Christmas Day, which has been blamed on Russia’s Eagle S vessel. They say they boarded the tanker to probe the “grave sabotage”. The 105-mile cable has a 650-megawatt transmission capacity and was installed around 10 years ago to link electricity between Finland and the Baltic states.

The damage was so severe that officials believe it could take several months to repair, reports say. Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid representative, Arto Pahkin, said intentional malicious action has not been ruled out. He said: “This is one of the versions we are considering. Because two vessels are in the area where the cables are located.”

The Eagle S crude oil tanker ( 
Image:
Vessaltracker; e2w news)
Parkin added: “The possibility of vandalism cannot be ruled out. However, we are currently studying the situation as a whole and will inform you of the cause of the malfunction as soon as we know it.” Some reports say the Eagle S slowed down to a quarter of its speed a few minutes before it crossed Estlink 2.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the authorities are “investigating the matter.” Estonian network operator Elering said there was sufficient spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side. Suspicions have focused on Chinese-linked vessels and an alleged hybrid war by Russia over several incidents involving Baltic undersea cables.

Putin’s Russia has been accused of carrying out a hybrid war ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November. Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius said officials had to assume “sabotage”. He warned about hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

Earlier, the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines built to supply natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. There has been no conclusive finding as to who was responsible. Estlink-2 had returned to commercial use at the beginning of September after being out of service since the end of January due to a failure.

A new Chinese fighter jet that can reportedly fly on the edge of space has raised concerns that it can now strike targets in the US once out of range.

The new aircraft was seen alongside China’s current Chengdu J-20 generation of fighters, which are compared to the US Air Force’s F-22. It appeared in social media posts shared online that showed a large, three-engine warplane with a cockpit as well as diamond-style winds that had no vertical tails that could help it avoid being detected by radars.

Defence news website The War Zone claimed the fighter was designed to target US early warning aircraft and tankers that were previously out of reach. The outlet said the aircraft was seen carrying out daytime test flights with its landing gear open, a standard practice during early testing stages.

There are concerns that the fighter jet could strike targets once thought to be out of range ( 
Image:
X)
The War Zone said on its website: “But above all else, if procured in an operation form by the PLAAF, it would be able to fly over long regional distances and loiter for extended periods on station far from home without tanker support – something China lacks in terms of capacity versus the United States.

“It would also presumably be able to do this in closer proximity to threats than any other manned aircraft in China’s arsenal.” According to Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, the aircraft is likely part of China’s development plans for current bombers and strikers rather than a whole new generation of fighter jets.

He added the aircraft does not match the performance expectations that is set by the US and its drive for air superiority. But Bronk added the development could indicate a lead in its tactical airpower capabilities.

Aviation Weekly said the jet’s engines are fed by single dorsal inlets complete with two ventral inlets. Images of the fighter jet also indicated that there are possible missile and bomb loading hatches under the fuselage that further compliment its stealth capabilities.

“Clearly, this aircraft incorporates significantly greater low observable technologies that are a leap ahead of the J-20, beyond its tailless design,” Aviation Weekly went on to say. The website later added: “[It] would seem to reflect an overarching concern with long endurance with comparatively massive internal volume to accommodate a very large fuel load, as well as weapons and sensors.”

According to MailOnline, now-retired US Air Force General Mark D. Kelly said it would not be a surprise if China had been working on a completely new generation of fighter jets. He added the Chinese leadership “are not dummies. They know what they are doing.”

Kelly added he believes the next generation of Chinese air combat programme that will feature an “exponential” improvement to its stealth capabilities.

A mass jail break has seen at least 6,000 people escape from a maximum security facility – leaving 33 prisoners dead and 15 others injured after violent clashes with security forces.

Inmates escaped from the jail in Mozambique’s capital Maputo on Christmas Day after a rebellion, the country’s police chief said, as widespread post-election riots and violence tear through the country.

Police chief Bernardino Rafael said 33 prisoners died and 15 others were injured during a confrontation with the security forces. The prisoners fled during violent protests that have seen police cars, stations and infrastructure destroyed after the country’s Constitutional Council confirmed the ruling Frelimo party as the winner of the Oct. 9 elections.

Thousands of prisoners spilled on to the streets following the jail break ( 
Image:
AP)

There were clashes with security forces after the mass jail break ( 
Image:
AP)
The escape from the Maputo Central Prison, located around 9 miles southwest of the capital, started around midday on Wednesday after “agitation” by a “group of subversive protesters” nearby, Rafael said. Violence has engulfed Mozambique since the country’s highest court confirmed ruling Frelimo party presidential candidate Daniel Chapo as the winner of disputed Oct. 9 elections on Monday.

Some of the prisoners at the facility snatched weapons from the guards and started freeing other detainees. Rafael added: “A curious fact is that in that prison we had 29 convicted terrorists, who they released. We are worried, as a country, as Mozambicans, as members of the defence and security forces.”

Videos on social media show the moment inmates left the prison ( 
Image:
AP)

A prisoner still with handcuffs on his right wrist says he was held n the disciplinary section of the prison before being released by other inmates ( 
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AP)“They (protesters) were making noise, demanding that they be able to remove the prisoners who are there serving their sentences”, said Rafael, adding that the protests led to the collapse of a wall, allowing the prisoners to flee. He called on the escaped prisoners to surrender to authorities and for the population to be informed about the fugitives.