A stunning 3,300-year-old clay tablet has been unearthed in Turkey.

The small tablet was found in May 2023 by Kimiyoshi Matsumura, an archaeologist at Japan’s Institute of Anatolian Archaeology.

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It was found in the Hittite ruins of Büklükale, about 60 kilometers southeast of Ankara.

The tablet may offer new insights into a darker chapter in the history of the Hittite empire.

The Hittite state was a Bronze Age state centered in Anatolia (modern Turkey).

Despite its importance, much about the Hittite empire remains shrouded in mystery.

This is mainly because the language was not deciphered until the early 20th century, in the 1930s.

This particular tablet contains inscriptions in both Hittite and Hurrian languages ​​describing a devastating invasion.

The invasion hit four Hittite cities during a tumultuous period of civil war.

Researchers believe the tablet was used during a religious ceremony, possibly as a plea for the victory of the Hittite king.

Mark Weeden, associate professor of ancient Middle Eastern languages ​​at University College London, translated the first six lines.

According to Weeden, the texts say that “four cities, including the capital Hattusa, are in disaster.”

Meanwhile, the remaining 64 lines are a prayer in the Hurrian language asking for victory.

Researchers noted that the Hurrian language was probably used by the Hittites in religious ceremonies.

“The discovery of the Hurrian tablet means that the religious ritual in Büklükale was performed by the Hittite king,” he said in an email.

“It indicates that the Hittite king at least came to Büklükale… and performed the ritual.”

The Hittite Empire was a major power in the ancient world, ruling from the 18th to the 12th century BC. about Anatolia and parts of the Near East.

These fancy, highly-acclaimed restaurants have certainly left a bad taste with some customers.

DailyMail.com has analyzed reviews left by Tripadvisor users to find some the worst ratings for three-star Michelin eateries in the US.

Despite their merit and high price points, there are seven restaurants with dozens of reviews deeming them ‘poor’ or ‘terrible.’ 

Bite your way down to see some of the complaints dished out by disgruntled diners – with everything from poor customer service and inedible dishes to rip off prices and menu spelling mistakes thrown into the mix.  

Chef Daniel Humm’s New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park made its mark as the first ever vegan restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars.

The Michelin experts highlight the restaurant’s precision, with ‘nothing out of place’ and an array of ‘custom made’ features, ‘from the staff’s suits to the handblown water vases.’

Addressing the plant-based menu, they describe it as ‘a bold vision of luxury dining’ which ‘elevates the concept to unparalleled heights.’

Standout dishes, they say, include ‘the freshly baked,’ the quenelle of tonburi, mimicking caviar, and ‘toothsome braised seitan, wrapped in spinach and dressed with morels.’

Eleven Madison Park has more Tripadvisor reviews than its contemporaries, with 2,697 entries. 

While the feedback is mostly positive, 162 diners (6 per cent) have left negative reviews. 

One patron who visited the swanky spot in January claimed his wife got some kind of tummy bug after eating there. 

He revealed: ‘Unfortunately, about six hours after we left, my wife had the chills, was nauseous, threw up, and had diarrhea. 

‘After eight to ten hours of that, she was feeling better. Not sure what she had, but something at dinner was not right.’ 

Another review left in October 2023 slams the service. It reads: ‘This was our second time at Eleven Madison Park and I was very surprised we weren’t welcomed as returning guest… very disappointing for a restaurant of this caliber. 

‘From the time we stepped into the restaurant and was led to our table, the mood was off and things didn’t quite feel right. 

‘From beginning to end the service was horrible! It literally took 30 minutes for us to get our first glass of wine. We felt it was way too much unnecessary time spent between meals. So much that we kind of thought they forgot about us.’

Masa, New York: From $750 per person 

‘Taste what may be the continent’s best sushi,’ the Michelin guide declares in its overview of Masa in New York. 

Masa Takayama became the first Japanese Chef to be awarded three Michelin stars and his restaurant continues to lure diners from far and wide. 

The Japanese eatery slides in at one of the more expensive spots, with its Omakase tasting experience priced at $750 per person. 

In terms of what bites to expect, the Michelin team says some of the signature creations include ‘a sweet chunk of hairy crab meat dressed in citrusy yuzu,’ a ‘glass coupe of minced toro and a very fine and generous – pile of Osetra caviar,’ and ‘wonderous’ Maine uni ‘served in its shell with caramelized custard and paper-thin white truffle.’

On Tripadvisor, the restaurant has 298 reviews and while many are positive, there are 39 negative pieces of feedback. 

One diner who visited the restaurant this February deemed their experience an ‘absolute catastrophe.’

Detailing their disappointing evening, they wrote: ‘What should have been an exceptional evening turned into a series of disappointments. 

‘The ambiance was marred by an out-of-place chorus of Happy Birthday songs and a distracting photoshoot at the counter. Mishaps followed, from discovering a hair on one of my plates to the unexpected unavailability of a pre-ordered wine bottle.

‘The most disheartening moment came during the Toro course, where conflicting explanations about its origin cast doubt on the restaurant’s integrity. 

‘Despite addressing concerns with the director of operations, disappointments persisted.’

Another poor one out of five review left in February 2022 reads: ‘Ridiculous, bad service, fast food type of sushi… 

‘I don’t know how Michelin gives the stars!!?? Portions and plate setting were amateur.’

Addison, San Diego: From $375 per person

Addison became San Diego’s first three Michelin star restaurant in December 2022. 

The Michelin guide praises chef William Bradley for ‘transforming this Southern Californian oasis into a world-class dining destination’ since opening it in 2006. 

The food is described as combining ‘global inspiration and Californian sentimentality’ with a ‘playful yet polished’ edge. 

Example dishes given include chicken liver churros, Kumamoto oysters with pickled green strawberry and Iberian ham ‘folded over a gloriously golden potato.’

The restaurant’s ten-course tasting menu changes seasonally and is available for $375 a person. 

While the experts applaud Bradley’s innovative culinary skills, some Tripadvisor reviewers are unconvinced with 21 negative reviews out of 297 (7 per cent). 

One reviewer who visited in December 2023 deemed it their ‘worst experience in a Michelin star restaurant ever.’

They wrote: ‘For starters, a glass of champagne was between $250 and $550…

‘Then the food was mediocre at best. The fish dry, the meat rather tasteless.

‘And the background music was too loud and too “hard” for a dinner. We complained twice and were told that it was the playlist of the chef and that’s it…

‘And the whole dinner was still not finished after 3.5 hours. We left without dessert, It was well past 11pm and we were tired and disappointed.’

Another reviewer who visited Addison the previous month also seemed unimpressed, simply branding it ‘pretentious.’

Their write up reads: ‘Pretentious, uncomfortable, overpriced and food is not memorable. 

‘So much effort is expended on trying to impress rather than trying to make the customer comfortable.’

The French Laundry from chef Thomas Keller is described as a ‘legendary destination’ by the Michelin experts. 

The restaurant, located in wine country of California, has had three stars since 2006 and the late Anthony Bourdain once lauded it as ‘the best restaurant in the world, period.’

The Michelin guide praises Keller’s ability to ‘pair classic French techniques with wildly fresh ingredients in a setting that is a perfect storm of restaurant greatness,’ with some of his signature dishes including ‘oysters with white sturgeon caviar in a warm sabayon studded with tapioca pearls,’ and ‘Wolf Ranch quail is then presented with white asparagus and dark cherries.’

While the majority of diners have given The French Laundry a thumbs up, it has a total of 143 negative reviews out of 1,725 entries (8.2 per cent) with the complaints ranging from the food being ‘pretentious’ to ‘rip off’ prices. 

One customer wrote after their visit in March 2023, ‘absolutely the worst Michelin rated restaurant with any stars.’

Their main complaint was that their reservation made through American Express’ concierge service wasn’t in the system and they were made to wait for an hour.

Another diner who visited in July 2022 deemed the experience ‘nothing memorable.’

They wrote: ‘If I could rate zero stars, I would. This overpriced dinosaur is a tourist trap with unfriendly service, pretentious food from a generation ago, and a poorly executed shuffle of untrained children. 

‘I could not wait to leave. If this is a great restaurant, then American dining should be the laughing stock of the world. What an embarrassment.’

Benu, San Francisco: From $390 per person

Benu’s website notes that it was the first restaurant in San Francisco to receive three stars from the Michelin Guide in 2014. 

The guide describes the Asian eatery as an ‘oasis in the center of the city’ with chef Corey Lee whipping up ‘highly-technical small bites.’

Some of his creations are revealed as ‘barbecued quail with house-made XO sauce’ and ‘faux-shark’s fin.’

It currently has 23 ‘poor’ or ‘terrible’ reviews out of 260 on Tripadvisor (8.8 per cent) but none of these are recent. 

The last review giving the restaurant just a one rating out of five and titled ‘wildly overpriced and pretentious’ is from March 2022.

The customer vented: ‘The “meal” is not so much of a meal as it is a floorshow. It’s a theatrical experience and the dishes are merely props. 

‘If you have no palate and you are easily dazzled by unique appearing foodstuffs, this may be the place you are looking for. For me, it was a disaster.’

Other disgruntled diners previously complained of ‘bland’ food and ‘rude’ service and one entry from August 2018 deems it ‘worst restaurant ever.’ 

Single Thread, Healdsburg: From $475 per person

Single Thread in California landed three Michelin stars in 2019. The Michelin Guide reveals that the restaurant ‘combines exquisitely with the deeply personal vision of owners Chef Kyle Connaughton and head farmer Katina Connaughton.’ 

The majority of the ingredients are sourced from the neighboring 24-acre field, while the style of the Connaughton’s cooking is said to be influenced by their time in Japan.

No dishes are detailed, but the guide says the ‘expert use of the donabe (Japanese claypot) is a signature, transforming seafood and vegetables alike.’

In total, the restaurant has 13 poor and terrible reviews out of 143 (9 per cent).

One disappointed diner wrote after their visit in January: ‘While the food presentation was visually appealing, it regrettably fell short in terms of taste. The flavors didn’t live up to the promising aesthetic. Moreover, the service had a somewhat awkward vibe, which affected the overall dining experience.

‘The letter sent to diners requesting a tip in advance is in poor taste. A gratuity is supposed to be an expression of gratitude, not a compulsory subsidy.

‘A check brought to the table before dessert is served is ludicrous.’

Another reviewer who visited in January 2023 titled their entry ‘well short of expectations,’ with their final note being: ‘Not something we would recommend for the cost vs value received in return.’

Smyth, Chicago: From $325 per person

Smyth in Chicago is the worst-rated three Michelin over all, with 19 out of 173 (10.9 per cent) of reviewers rating it poor or terrible. It gained its three stars in 2023. 

The Michelin guide describes the restaurant as ‘very chic’ with ‘lounge styling’ and an open kitchen. 

In terms of the food, chef John Shields and Karen Urie Shields are praised for their bold and creative cooking style. Some of the menu items are revealed as ‘wagyu sided by a truffle-flavored doughnut with marrow glaze’ and new potato ice cream.

Despite the praise, out of all of the three Michelin’s in the country, Tripadvisor reviewers gave Smyth the most damning reviews. 

One unhappy customer said of his experience in 2022: ‘I had very high expectations when I visited Smyth, but I have to say that I had a very poor experience (not even remotely comparable to other Michelin-starred restaurants in Chicago). 

‘The tasting menu was repetitive (three courses of lobster?) and very oily, so you could not taste the ingredients… The ‘caviar’ courses are not prepared with real caviar (from sturgeon), but with regular fish eggs – the chocolate caviar plate is inedible. 

‘The last dessert (the ‘mussel’) had a very strong bitter aftertaste. Service was rushed and inattentive.’

Another Tripadvisor reviewer wrote after visiting the eatery this January: ‘Disappointing on multiple levels; do not recommend. Top three critiques: the food started to taste the same (akin to blended seafood in salt), took four ‘courses’ and an ask to receive the martini I ordered, and a spelling error, which is ‘fine’ if you’re not a three star Michelin restaurant.’ 

With Ukraine’s much anticipated counteroffensive stalling and Western military support waning, there are now real fears that Vladimir Putin could be victorious and destroy the nation. 

Any move to halt or reduce aid packages to Ukraine – as we’ve already seen with US Republicans blocking £50billion of funding – would play into Putin’s hands by kneecapping Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield against advancing Russian troops.

A victory for Russia wouldn’t just mean the ‘destruction’ of Ukraine and its people – it would be ‘catastrophic’ to the West and turn global world order on its head, warns Oleksandr Danylyuk, an associate fellow at the defence and security think tank RUSI. 

Indeed, a win for Russia against Ukraine would ‘undoubtedly’ result in the fall of NATO, ‘economic carnage’ for the West as well as the rise of foes including China, Iran and North Korea, retired US General Ben Hodges tells MailOnline.

At the crux of this is the fact that Russia and the Global South would see a Ukrainian defeat as a military loss for the West – it would show the world that NATO, led by the US, is capable of sacrificing a European nation in order to avoid a nuclear conflict.

And once autocrats realise that the US and the West are beatable, a nuclear war would be ‘inevitable’ and the world would be consumed in bloodshed, Danylyuk says in a terrifying prediction. 

Indeed, Danylyuk says the world will have been watching as Ukraine, which gave up the world’s third-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in 1993, was defeated by Russia’s military amid daily threats of Moscow incinerating the country with nukes. 

And that would send a strong message: The only way for non-nuclear states to protect themselves against an attack by countries with nukes – like China and Russia – would be to have weapons of mass destruction of their own. 

Yet with the number of nations possessing nuclear arsenals increasing, it would be ‘only a matter of time’ before a state – or terrorist organisation – uses them, Danylyuk says. 

‘Breaking the taboo on the use of nuclear weapons would create a new reality, the tragic characteristics of which are hard to imagine,’ Danylyuk says in the RUSI report.

Ultimately, a victory would see a ‘catastrophic’ change to world order that would have devastating consequences for civilians living across Europe and the US. 

It would destroy the perception of the US as the world’s military power and encourage countries such as China, Iran and North Korea to continue their military expansion, Danylyuk says. 

‘A Russian victory would also force the countries of the Global South to seek special relationships with these countries, displacing the US as an international security broker,’ Danylyuk, who is an expert in multidimensional warfare, says.  

Gen. Hodges, the former Commanding General of US Army Europe, agrees and says a Russian victory would see the rise of the Kremlin’s allies. 

He says Iran and North Korea will most likely manage to develop effective nuclear weapons in the next few years, which will pose a direct threat to the West and could lead to a nuclear war that would see tens of thousands killed. 

‘That’s why it’s so important now to have a nuclear deterrent,’ Gen. Hodges says. ‘If we allow Iran and North Korea to develop nuclear capabilities then we are going to be regretting that forever.’ 

He said a Russian victory would also mean that nuclear states – Pakistan, India, North Korea, Iran – would become unstable and could result in terrorists getting their hands on nuclear weapons and launching terror attacks on the streets of Europe. 

‘Lots of these countries would become more unsettled and fragile,’ Gen. Hodges says.

And as the West descends into years of instability while Russia casts its iron grip over Ukraine, Gen. Hodges says Putin will set his sights on launching an attack on NATO soil.

He says a Trump presidency would open the door even further for Putin to launch his attack on Europe because of the Republican’s lack of support for NATO. 

Gen. Hodges says if Donald Trump is elected in November, it would weaken NATO and could leave Europe as ‘sitting ducks’ for Putin and his forces without any protection.

Gen. Hodges says if Putin believes that NATO is becoming ‘disunified’ due to a Trump presidency, the Russian warmonger would think ‘we can attack now’. 

Indeed, he believes that if Trump was president, the likelihood of Putin launching an invasion and sparking WW3 would massively increase. 

And without the protection of US troops – especially the US nuclear umbrella – European countries ‘will not be able to defend themselves in the event of a full-scale war’ with a nuclear state such as Russia, Danylyuk says.

Gen. Hodges says it would be ‘foolish’ to assume that Putin could not invade a Baltic country – like Lithuania, Poland or Estonia – and wreak havoc on civilians across Europe.

In one scenario, Gen. Hodges says Moscow could first attack the narrow strip of land known as Suwalki Gap, sandwiched between Poland, Lithuania and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. 

Even a small attack on this weak point – the only land border between mainland Europe and the Baltic States – could cause huge problems for NATO.

Gen. Hodges said if Putin was successful in blocking the Suwalki gap, Russian forces would use that strip of land and Belarus as a launchpad for the second phase of their offensive. 

And that second phase would involve sending thousands of Russian soldiers, tanks and special forces, to attack one of the Baltic states on NATO’s eastern flank – most likely either Lithuania, Poland or Estonia.

William Freer, a research fellow at the think tank Geostrategy, says Russia could likely launch a ‘mass hypersonic attack early in the conflict’ to ‘sow chaos and open vulnerabilities’.  

Gen. Hodges says how NATO responded to an attack on an allied soil will determine the future of Western civilisation and could ‘destroy’ the alliance. 

‘If we hesitated, that failure to live up to our obligations under Article 5 to protect member states, it would break the alliance,’ Gen. Hodges tells MailOnline from his home in Frankfurt, Germany.

Indeed, Gen. Hodges said if it just came down to military capabilities, NATO forces –  with their better soldiers and equipment – would defeat Russia in an all-out war. 

But, he said: ‘The way we would lose is if we failed to respond, if we failed to stick together, if we moved too slowly to protect our NATO members.’ 

Gen. Hodges said it ‘worries him a lot’ that NATO forces ‘cannot move very quickly across Europe’ due to the terrain and how built up much of the area is. 

‘The way we would fail would be if we didn’t react quick enough or hesitated,’ Gen Hodges says. 

‘If the Russians were able to accomplish some penetration of a NATO state of the eastern flank – like Estonia or Lithuania – and then Moscow dared us to do something about it, that would be the real test.’

The retired US General says that if NATO did hesitate, Putin would not stop there. He would deploy his Russian Navy for a vital mission: taking control of the northern Arctic route and reaping in the economic benefits while leaving the West out cold. 

Gen Hodges warns that a win for Russia against a NATO state would mean further  ‘economic carnage’ for the West, the rise of foes including China and the end of the international rules-based order as we know it. 

‘If Russia was successful and won the war, from an economic standpoint, it would be carnage,’ Gen. Hodges tells MailOnline. 

‘The international-rules based order from which the US and the UK have benefited for the last 80 years would be turned upside down,’ Hodges says in an ominous prediction. 

‘Financial markets, control of energy resources, all of this would be in a completely precarious and different state,’ Gen. Hodges says. ‘A big part of a successful economy is confidence – and Russia breaking NATO would shift that. 

‘That would be a major problem for the economy and the various international organisations – like the UN – which make up the rules-based order,’ Hodges says, referring to the international liberal order established by the victorious allies after the Second World War.

‘It would all be turned on its head and there would be chaos and we’d have to try to find another way back to stability,’ Hodges says.

He said Putin would focus his efforts on taking control of the northern Arctic route. With the polar ice cap melting due to climate change, new shipping routes are becoming all the more accessible.

‘Russia will want to dominate that northern route, it would make it much quicker for them to sail over the top of the world and benefit Moscow economically,’ Gen. Hodges said. 

‘With their long-range weapons, they would be able to dominate what goes in and out of the North Atlantic from the Arctic,’ he added, saying this would be economically catastrophic for the West. 

And as West descends into economic turmoil and Russia continues to cast its iron grip over eastern Europe and the Arctic, Gen. Hodges says China will be watching eagerly from the side-lines.

He said Beijing could launch an attack of its own on Taiwan if it saw that the US and its allies had been unsuccessful in defending Baltic states from a Russian invasion. 

‘If China saw that the United States and its allies were unsuccessful against a Russian invasion, that we lost – and the losses that we would have sustained would have been enormous – then I think Beijing will not feel restrained to do what they want,’ Gen. Hodges says.

‘If China saw that Russia could create carnage, China would take advantage of this and could launch their own attack on Taiwan for instance,’ Gen. Hodges adds.

Analysts believe Putin intends to destroy Ukraine – which is relying heavily on support from its allies, particularly the US – before setting his sights beyond Ukraine’s western borders, with the Baltic states in particular under threat. 

With his invasion in Ukraine at a stalemate, Putin has also switched his economy onto a war footing, meaning weapons factories are producing arms around the clock.

What’s more, Putin’s allies in Iran and North Korea are also propping his forces up with arms, meaning Russia can build up its defences faster than previously thought.

A series of military officials from across NATO and Europe have warned that this means that Putin could be ready to wage a war against the West in the next two or three years. 

Meanwhile Admiral Rob Bauer, the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, warned last week that the alliance must brace itself for an all-out war with Russia in the next two decades. This came as secret plans were leaked revealing that Germany is preparing for Putin‘s forces to attack NATO as early as 2025.

Gen. Hodges said for NATO to be able to respond effectively, the military alliance needs to move more troops to the eastern flank along with equipment and arsenal. 

If the alliance does this now, in 2024, it could stop Putin from ever invading one of the countries on NATO’s eastern flank as the despot will know he couldn’t take the West by surprise, Gen. Hodges says. 

Norway’s defence minister Eirik Kristoffersen said last week that Europe has a matter of years – maybe as little as three – to prepare for a war against Russia. 

Kristoffersen pointed out that Moscow has built up its military stockpiles far quicker than expected.

‘Russia has increased production significantly,’ Kristoffersen told NTB.

‘They have also collaborated with countries such as Iran and North Korea, which means that we can get a faster build-up of the Russian defence than what we envisioned just last year,’ he added.

‘So we must use the time well now to strengthen our own defence.’

Norway also shares a border with Russia at Europe’s most northern point and is thus vital to the continent’s defence strategy against Putin’s forces.

Relative peace in Europe was shattered in February 2022 with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and kicked European nations into action. 

Germany, for example, dramatically ramped up its defence spending, while Finland swiftly joined NATO. Sweden is set to follow once its application is approved. 

However, Kristoffersen warns that much of Europe’s military supply is being sunk into Ukraine to support Kyiv’s forces in their fight against the invading Russians.

He points out that the same can be said of Russia, which has sunk vast supplies of military hardware – as well as soldiers – into its war, with limited success.

With Russia having found ways to quickly replenish and expand its supply of weapons, Kristoffersen says it is vital for NATO to continue to support Ukraine – currently Europe’s the first line of defence – ‘for as long as it takes’. 

‘This is a calculated risk,’ he says. ‘If the danger was imminent of an attack by Norway right now, then we could not have given so many weapons. But that is not the case.’

Gen. Hodges echoes this sentiment, and says if we want to ‘avoid this terrible scenario’ of Putin invading a NATO county, ‘we need to help Ukraine win’. 

‘We need to help Ukraine push Russia into the abyss and defeat them,’ Gen. Hodges says, adding that if the West does not increase its spending and supplies to Ukraine, a country on NATO’s eastern flank will be next on Putin’s list. 

Ahead of last week’s NATO meeting in Brussels, NATO Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer urged countries to ensure they are prepared conflict.

‘We need public and private actors to change their mindset for an era in which everything was plannable, foreseeable, controllable and focused on efficiency to an era in which anything can happen at any time. An era in which we need to expect the unexpected,’ he said as he opened the meeting.

‘In order to be fully effective, also in the future, we need a warfighting transformation of NATO,’ Bauer added.

Kristoffersen echoed this comments when asked what this means for Norway and other NATO countries. 

‘Concretely, this means that we must fill NATO’s plans with content and provide the necessary capacities,’ he told the Norwegian press agency. ‘The challenge for NATO now is that there are some gaps here.’

Specifically, he warned that air defence and long-range weapons are lacking.

‘More investment must be made in air defence,’ he said. ‘It also means that we have to have more in stock, both when it comes to ammunition and spare parts.’

He also agreed with his Swedish counterpart, Commander-in-Chief Mikael Bydén, who recently called on all Swedes to prepare for war.

‘What the Norwegian population should think about is their own preparedness, which was actually what Bydén was also talking about. We recommend everyone to have three days (worth of supplies at home) to manage themselves.

‘And we also recommend increasing it if you are very vulnerable,’ he added.

That urgency for governments and civilians to prepare for war has since crossed over the Channel to Britain. 

On Wednesday, General Sir Patrick Sanders, the head of the UK’s army, said Britain should ‘train and equip’ a ‘citizen army’ to ready the country for a potential land war. 

But Sanders, the outgoing Chief of the General Staff (CGS), said even that would be ‘not enough’ as he pointed to allies in eastern and northern Europe ‘laying the foundations for national mobilisation’.

The military top brass said increasing Army numbers in preparation for a potential conflict would need to be a ‘whole-of-nation undertaking’, meaning that men and women across the UK should be ready for a call-up to the armed forces. 

It comes after Defence Secretary Grant Shapps in a speech last week said the world is ‘moving from a post-war to pre-war world’ and the UK must ensure its ‘entire defence ecosystem is ready’ to defend its homeland.

But Downing Street ruled out any move towards a conscription model, saying that Army service would remain voluntary. 

Sir Patrick said on Wednesday Britain could not rely on its navy and air power, arguing ‘we must be able to credibly fight and win wars on land’.

He said: ‘We need an Army designed to expand rapidly to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon and train and equip the citizen army that must follow.

‘Within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000, folding in our reserve and strategic reserve. But this is not enough.

‘Our friends in eastern and northern Europe, who feel the proximity of the Russian threat more acutely, are already acting prudently, laying the foundations for national mobilisation.

‘As the chairman of the NATO military committee warned just last week, and as the Swedish government has done, preparing Sweden for entry to NATO, taking preparatory steps to enable placing our societies on a war footing when needed are now not merely desirable but essential.

‘We will not be immune and as the pre-war generation we must similarly prepare – and that is a whole-of-nation undertaking.

‘Ukraine brutally illustrates that regular armies start wars; citizen armies win them.’

He also made a pitch for more backing for the Army, saying those serving ‘rightly want the equipment that enables them to deliver lethal capability’.

Last week, a former chief of the general staff of the British Army said the UK risks a repeat of the 1930s unless more is invested in its armed forces.

General Lord Dannatt hit out at the shrinking size of the army, which he said has fallen from 102,000 in 2006 to 74,000 today and is still ‘falling fast’.

He drew parallels with the 1930s when the ‘woeful’ state of the UK’s armed forces failed to deter Adolf Hitler, saying there is ‘a serious danger of history repeating itself’.

It comes as NATO this week mobilised 90,000 troops in its largest military manoeuvre since the Cold War, with the war games aimed at deterring Putin from targeting a member country. 

The alliance announced the exercise would begin this week, with the months of drills aimed at showing the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia. 

The exercises – dubbed ‘Steadfast Defender’ – will run until late May and involve units from all 31 NATO member countries plus candidate-member Sweden, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US General Christopher Cavoli, said.

The exercises will involve 90,000 troops rehearsing how U.S. soldiers could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance’s eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a ‘near-peer’ adversary. 

The wargames are meant as a fresh show of strength from NATO and its commitment to defend all allied nations from attack.

‘The Alliance will demonstrate its ability to reinforce the Euro-Atlantic area by a transatlantic movement of forces from North America,’ Cavoli told reporters in Brussels after a two-day meeting of national chiefs of defence last week. 

The UK is sending 20,000 troops with the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers, eight warships, as well as the RAF’s F-35 lightning attack aircraft, which will practice flying in imitated conflict scenarios.

In response, Russia said the NATO exercises mark an ‘irrevocable return’ of the alliance to Cold War Schemes. 

‘These exercises are another element of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against Russia,’ Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushk said on Sunday. 

‘An exercise of this scale… marks the final and irrevocable return of NATO to the Cold War schemes, when the military planning process, resources and infrastructure are being prepared for confrontation with Russia.’

By Ashley Nickel and Candace Sutton for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 04:46 EST, January 15, 2024 | Updated: 06:24 EST, January 15, 2024

Of all the fictionalizations and inaccuracies in The Crown, none has caused more offense than the claim that a young Prince Philip was somehow to blame for the death of his favorite sister, Cecilie.

Princess Cecilie, the third of the five children of Princess Alice of Battenberg and Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, died in a plane in November 1937.. She had been eight months pregnant.

Cecilie also witnessed the Balkan Wars, in which the Turks were eventually driven out of Europe, and the First World War, which led to her family’s exile to Switzerland and then France.

Prince Philip was the youngest child and the only boy.

In 1931, Cecilie married Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and Rhine, her cousin once removed, and was swept up by the fascist currents of pre-war Germany.

She joined the Nazi Party together with her husband in May 1937.

The princess was pregnant with her fourth child when she boarded a plane in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, on November 16 that same year, bound for London, where she was to attend the wedding of her brother-in-law Prince Ludwig and Margaret. Campbell-Geddes.

But the plane crashed after hitting a factory chimney in the fog near Ostend.

The fatal accident killed Cecile, her husband, her mother-in-law, as well as their sons, aged four and six, their maid of honor and the best man for the wedding.

The pilot and two crew members also died,

While searching through the rubble, firefighters also found the body of a newborn baby, who appeared to have been delivered prematurely when the plane crashed.

The child was found lying next to his mother, leading to the conclusion that the pilot had attempted to land because Cecile unexpectedly went into labor.

Their youngest daughter and Prince Philip’s niece, Joanna of Hesse and by Rhine, who was just over a year old at the time, were deemed too young for the journey and were left at home.

She was the only surviving member of her immediate family and was later adopted by her uncle Prince Ludwig and his wife Princess Margaret. However, she unfortunately contracted meningitis and died in June 1939, three months before her third birthday.

Due to the tragedy, wedding plans for November 20 were scrapped and the following day, Prince Ludwig and Margaret married in a private ceremony.

The couple then collected the bodies of the princess and her family in Belgium and returned to Darmstadt.

Prince Philip, then 16, was close to his sister, Princess Cecilie, and recalled being told to go to the headmaster’s study in Godonstoun, where he was told the tragic news.

Years later he said it was one of the worst moments of his life. He wrote: ‘I remember well the deep shock with which I heard the news of the accident and death of my sister and her family.’

Cecile was buried with her husband and her three sons in Darmstadt at the Rosenhöhe, the traditional cemetery of the Hesse family.

Photos from the funeral show the young Prince Philip surrounded by grieving relatives, many wearing distinctive Nazi uniforms.

One is dressed in the uniform of the Brown Shirts, while the other wears full SS regalia.

The street in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, was packed with crowds, many giving the “Heil Hitler” salute.

The Crown’s depiction of the aftermath of her death was criticized for wrongly suggesting that Philip had been blamed for her death by his father.

Prince Philip was reportedly upset by the “shockingly vicious” episode in which his father angrily blamed him for his sister’s death in a plane crash, according to two royal biographers.

The authors said Philip was hurt by the way Princess Cecilie’s death was depicted in the drama and called on Netflix to apologize and add a disclaimer to the credits (making it clear that the drama.

Hugo Vickers, a royal biographer who has dissected The Crown’s untruths, described the portrayal of Cecilie’s death as “disgraceful”, adding that Philip had been “very appalled” by it.

‘How disgraceful it was [of The Crown] to make Prince Philip a caricatured person – he never did any work in the series. The portrayal was cruel and deeply unfair. The least Netflix could do was warn viewers with a disclaimer.”

By Madeleine Achenza for Nca Newswire

Published: 05:55 EST, November 21, 2023 | Updated: 06:49 EST, November 21, 2023

By Padraig Collins for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 10:07 PM EST, November 20, 2023 | Updated: 10:35 PM EST, November 20, 2023

Optus could face millions of dollars in legal ramifications in the wake of the catastrophic network outage after healthcare was disrupted across the country.

The beleaguered telecoms company has been hit hard a few weeks ago after top bosses, including CEO Kelly Bayer-Rosmarin, led a Senate investigation in addition to the class action lawsuit filed in the Federal Court following a massive data breach last September .

Last week’s outage paralyzed millions of customers, who were left without cell phone or internet reception for hours.

Thousands of businesses were also affected; some lost thousands of dollars when payment systems that relied on Optus connections crashed.

It even affected Victoria’s rail system, with Metro Trains revealing the outage prevented the control center from communicating with trains.

Legal expert Samantha Pillay said the outage has not only exposed healthcare providers to legal action, but Optus is also open to consequences from healthcare providers seeking to recover any losses.

“Healthcare providers have reported that telehealth appointments have been cancelled, on-call midwives and anesthetists were unreachable and triple-0 emergency call services were unavailable from landlines,” said Ms Pillay, insurance and healthcare director at law firm Barry Nilsson.

‘The impact of these types of events could be much greater in the future as healthcare increasingly moves online to make it more accessible to rural and regional communities.’

Ramsay Health Care reported that phone services were knocked out across the country during the national outage.

In South Australia, the Department of Health said hospital telephone exchanges had been affected.

Other hospitals in Melbourne – including Northern Hospital Epping, Broadmeadows Hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre, Kilmore District Hospital and Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED) – also had their phone lines affected.

Ms Pillay said new technologies in healthcare allow doctors to monitor patients’ vital signs and track important factors such as blood pressure and glucose.

They are automatically alerted when a patient’s condition worsens.

Ms Pillay said the failure of these technologies due to network disruptions such as Optus’s could lead to “serious or even catastrophic harm” to patients, especially in regional or rural communities.

“Healthcare providers, on the one hand, can take action to recover losses incurred by their businesses,” she said.

‘On the other hand, they may have to deal with claims from patients who suffered damage as a result of the event.

‘Even with a federal government investigation and an Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation into the Optus outage, this type of ‘black swan’ event is likely to continue to occur as new technologies develop and our dependence on them increases .

‘In the not-too-distant future, telesurgery, aided by next-generation 5G, could become a reality in Australia.

“But what happens when a surgeon thousands of miles away, possibly in another country, is taken out of a real-time remote operating room due to a telecommunications failure?”

On Monday, Optus revealed the national outage had been caused due to changes in ‘routing information’ after a software upgrade by the telecom provider.

About 10.2 million customers had no internet or mobile access for about 13.5 hours last Wednesday.

Services were lost around 4:05 a.m. and were not fully restored until 5:35 p.m.

In a statement, Optus said its network received “changes to routing information from an international peering network following a routine software upgrade.”

“These changes to routing information propagated through multiple layers in our network and exceeded preset security levels on key routers that could not handle them,” their statement said.

‘This resulted in those routers disconnecting from the Optus IP Core network to protect themselves.’

Optus said the restoration required reconnecting or restarting routers in a number of locations across Australia.

“This is why the recovery was gradual throughout the afternoon,” their statement said.

Optus has since apologized to customers and is offering eligible postpaid customers an additional 200GB of data as a compensatory offer.

The telco’s turbulent week has only worsened as the chaotic outage is triggered by a Senate inquiry led by Greens communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young.

Optus vice-president of regulatory and public affairs Andrew Sheridan said the company would cooperate with any proposed reviews by the Australian Federal Communications Department and the ACMA into the network outage.

“As a provider of critical infrastructure, we understand the importance of ensuring continuity of service and any lessons learned are likely to be useful to both Optus and others in our industry,” he said in a statement.

The Australian Business Network reports Optus could be forced to pay up to $400 million in compensation if it strikes a deal with the regulator.

In addition, thousands of customers have joined a class action lawsuit against the telco after their personal data was hacked in 2022.

Up to nine million Aussies were affected by the data breach, with their names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses and, for some customers, addresses and ID document numbers such as a driver’s license or passport number exposed.

A hacker believed to be behind the attack demanded a ransom of $1.5 million on a forum for the return of the data.

But bizarrely, the post was deleted and the author apologized for his actions.

Slater and Gordon’s class action lawsuit alleges that Optus failed to “protect, or take reasonable steps to protect, the personal information of its current and former customers.”

“The type of information that was made accessible put affected customers at greater risk of being defrauded and having their identity stolen, and Optus should have taken adequate measures to prevent that,” said Ben Hardwick, leader of the class actions practice.

‘The data breach may also have compromised the safety of many particularly vulnerable groups of Optus customers, such as victims of domestic abuse, stalking and other crimes, as well as those working in frontline professions including defense and police. .’

An Optus spokeswoman said: ‘As the matters are currently before the courts, we will not be commenting at this time.’

By Eliza Mcphee for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 4:47 PM EST, November 8, 2023 | Updated: 8:05 PM EST, November 8, 2023

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submarine, said in a statement that all five people on the ship, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, were “sadly lost.”

A submarine carrying five people to the Titanic imploded near the wreckage site, killing everyone on board, authorities confirmed, bringing a tragic end to a story that sparked an urgent 24-hour search and global vigil for the missing ship. included.

The glimmer of hope that remained in finding the five men alive was wiped out early Thursday, when the submarine’s 96-hour oxygen supply was expected to run out after launching on Sunday and the Coast Guard announced debris had been found at about 1,600 feet (600 feet). 488 meters) of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.

“This was a catastrophic ship implosion,” said Rear Admiral John Mauger of the First Coast Guard District.

After the craft was reported missing, the U.S. Navy went back and analyzed the acoustic data and found an anomaly that was “consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submarine was operating when communications failed,” a spokesman said. senior naval officer. official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive acoustic detection system.

The Navy passed that information on to the Coast Guard, which continued its search because the Navy did not consider the data to be definitive.

OceanGate statement

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned and operated the submarine, said in a statement that all five people on the ship, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, were “sadly lost.”

The others on board were two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” OceanGate said in a statement. “We grieve for the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”

OceanGate has been recording the decay of the Titanic and the underwater ecosystem around it through annual voyages since 2021. The company did not respond to additional questions about the Titan’s voyage this week.

The Coast Guard continues to search for more clues about what happened to the Titan.

While the Navy likely detected the implosion via its acoustic system on Sunday, the underwater noises heard Tuesday and Wednesday — which initially raised hopes of a possible rescue — were likely unrelated to the submarine. The potential Navy designation was not publicly known until Thursday, when The Wall Street Journal first reported on it.

With a search area of ​​thousands of miles — twice the size of Connecticut and in waters four miles deep — rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to the scene of the disappearance all week.

Broadcasters around the world began broadcasting news about the submarine at the critical hour on Thursday. The Saudi satellite channel Al Arabiya showed a clock on the air counting down to their estimate of when the air could possibly run out.

The White House thanked the US Coast Guard, along with Canadian, British and French partners who assisted in the search and rescue efforts.

“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives on the Titan. They have been through a harrowing ordeal in recent days, and we keep them in our thoughts and prayers,” it said in a statement.

The Titan launched at 6 a.m. Sunday and was reported overdue about 430 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, that afternoon. By Thursday, when oxygen supplies were expected to run out, there was little hope of finding the crew alive.

Successful OceanGate mission to the Titanic site

At least 46 people successfully traveled on the submarine from OceanGate to the Titanic site in 2021 and 2022, according to letters the company filed with a U.S. district court in Norfolk, Virginia, which oversees cases related to the shipwreck. But questions about the submarine’s safety were raised by former passengers.

One of the company’s early clients compared a dive he made to the site two years ago to a suicide mission.

“Imagine a metal pipe a few meters long with a metal plate as a floor. You can’t stand. You cannot kneel. Everyone is close or on top of each other,” says Arthur Loibl, a retired businessman and adventurer from Germany. “You can’t be claustrophobic.”

During the 2 1/2 hour descent and ascent, the lights were off to save energy, he said, with the only illumination coming from a fluorescent glow stick.

The dive was repeatedly delayed to resolve a problem with the battery and balancing weights. In total, the trip took 10 1/2 hours.

Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, England, said the Titan’s disappearance highlights the dangers and unknowns of deep-sea tourism.

“Even the most reliable technology can fail, which is why accidents happen,” Roterman said. “With the growth of deep-sea tourism, we should expect more incidents like this.”