PRINCESS Kate made a surprise trip to the ballet in her first public outing since the end of her chemotherapy treatment.
The Princess of Wales penned a heartwarming message to performers and directors of the English National Ballet on X, formerly Twitter.
The sweet message was posted on the official joint Twitter account for the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It read: “Congratulations and thank you to @ENBallet and @Sadlers_Wells for the wonderfully powerful, moving and inspiring performance of Akram Khan’s Giselle.
“Creativity at its best! C”
Akram Khan’s astonishing reworking of the popular classic ballet is currently on at Sadler’s Wells in London.
Khan’s iconic work was first created in 2016.
TNT SPORTS pundits revealed they had to abandon their car and leg it on foot to make Tottenham’s delayed Europa League tie.
Peter Crouch revealed how he and fellow ex-Spurs star Glen Hoddle were stuck in the same travel chaos that opponents Qarabag as well as fans.
Qarabag arrive at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium with kick-off delayed by more than half an hour after being stuck in London traffic
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 26, 2024pic.twitter.com/WJ1Ucawt4H
The kick-off was put back to 8.35pm due to severe rail AND road problems.
The Azerbaijan side’s squad only arrived at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium close to the original planned sart of 8pm.
And as TNT Sports showed the frustrated players walking around the pitch, Crouchie told of his own issues in getting there.
Looking at the stony-faced Qarabag squad, the ex-England striker said: “Hopefully they ran down the High Road like me and Glenn!”
TNT’s presenter chipped in: “You had to abandon the car, didn’t you?”
And a laughing Crouch replied: “Ah, we did. We gave up with the car.”
Formre Three Lions’ midfielder Hoddle joked: “Peter ran and I limped.”
ONE of China’s most sophisticated nuclear-powered submarines has sunk with the Communist Party covering up the major blunder for months.
Chinese authorities were reportedly left scrambling to try and conceal the worrying setback to one of their newest priority weapons programs from foreign officials.
The sinking corpse of the sub was reportedly first uncovered by US officials through satellite imagery which showed it being sneakily salvaged from a shipyard near Wuhan in early June.
It comes as China continues to expand their navy fleet – especially the nuclear submarines, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The country claims to be building a world-class military in order to deter away aggression and safeguard its own overseas interests.
Officials are still unsure if the submarine was carrying nuclear fuel on board at the time it sank.
Several experts outside of the Pentagon have speculated that it more than likely was, say the WSJ.
The Chinese are not yet believed to have sampled the water for raised radiation levels, according to US officials.
They are also yet to rule out the possibility that military personnel or those working on the sub were killed or injured when it sank.
The Zhou-class vessel was part of Beijing’s big arsenal of attack ships.
They had 48 diesel-powered attack subs and six nuclear-powered attack submarines by the end of 2022, according to a Pentagon report last year.
The Zhou-class model that sank is the latest in a fresh set of Chinese nuclear-powered submarines.
It features a distinctive X-shaped stern which makes the sub more manoeuvrable in the water.
It was built by state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp and was first seen on the Yangtze River in May.
Officials say it was undergoing a final equipping test before heading off to the sea.
Details around why it sank to the river bed are yet to be disclosed.
Large floating cranes were seen on satellite images arriving in Wuhan back at the start of June.
This sparked people to start wondering why the unusual cranes were patrolling the pier where naval activity is known to take place.
Brent Sadler, a retired US Navy nuclear submarine officer, said the major error in letting it sink has slowed down Chinese military efforts in the months since.
Sadler, now a a senior research fellow at Washington think tank Heritage Foundation, called it a “significant” moment.
This is in part to how hard the Chinese military and the People’s Liberation Army have tried to cover up its mystery disappearance.
The incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry, which has long been plagued by corruption
Senior US defence official
A senior US defence official explained: “It’s not surprising that the PLA Navy would try to conceal the fact that their new first-in-class nuclear-powered attack submarine sank pierside.
“In addition to the obvious questions about training standards and equipment quality, the incident raises deeper questions about the PLA’s internal accountability and oversight of China’s defense industry, which has long been plagued by corruption.”
Thomas Shugart, a former US submarine officer, was one of the first to speak about the sub disaster after analysing the satellite images.
He said that despite the Zhou-class vessel being rescued from the depths it will be out of action for some months to come.
Shugart said: “The whole boat would be full of water.
“You’d have to clean out all the electronics. The electric motors may need to be replaced. It would be a lot of work.”
It comes less than a year after a similar sub blunder took place in China.
Tragedy struck in October 2023 when 55 Chinese sailors were feared to have died after their nuclear submarine reportedly got stuck in its own trap and they ran out of oxygen.
The sub was snared by it’s own chain and anchor device meant to catch Western vessels lurking off China’s coast, according to UK intelligence.
The crew are said to have suffocated to death onboard after the 351ft Shang class type-093 sub’s oxygen systems failed.
Despite the rumours Beijing said that news of the sub’s destruction was “completely false”.
DRIVERS are furious after a popular automaker failed to deliver on last year’s promise to bring their vehicles to online stores.
Hyundai and Amazon announced their partnership last year, leaving car lovers excited to see what online vehicle sales would look like – but the program never launched.
In November 2023, the giant companies promised that auto dealers would be able to sell cars on Amazon’s US store in 2024.
With less than four months left in the year, dealerships are frustrated as it seems the calendar will close without any movement in the pilot program, which was set to make Hyundai the first brand available to buy online.
Mike Stanton, CEO of the National Automobile Dealers Association, told Automotive News that the failure to launch is causing tension in the auto industry.
“Amazon announced this about a year ago and they’re still not out of pilot,” Stanton said.
“What I am hearing right now is that the dealers are frustrated.
“They’re not there yet with the agreement,” the CEO added.
“It appears to be another digital retailing tool at the moment and probably not top tier.”
Hyundai seems to still be holding out hope that the feature will roll out before the new year, according to the Korean company’s website.
“Launching later in 2024, our next-gen Amazon partnership will not only give you an entirely new approach to finding your ideal car or SUV, it will also streamline the most tedious steps in buying a vehicle—from filling out paperwork to applying for financing,” the website currently says.
“After that, you can simply visit your local dealer to finalize your purchase and pick up your Hyundai.
“Best of all, this will be part of the Amazon shopping experience you already know and trust.”
“We are very excited about making vehicle shopping available on Amazon, however this experience is still in development,” an Amazon spokesperson told The U.S. Sun.
“We look forward to providing more details as we get closer to rolling out this new shopping experience for Amazon customers.”
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Hyundai for comment.
In November 2023, Hyundai and Amazon announced their partnership.
The collaboration between the Korean automaker and online shopping giant promised to bring “innovative new experiences” to customers.
The pilot program said that Amazon would launch online vehicle sales in the US, starting with Hyundai in 2024.
“Customers will be able to search on Amazon for available vehicles in their area based on a range of preferences, including model, trim, color, and features, choose their preferred car, and then check out online with their chosen payment and financing options—all within the Amazon experience they already know and trust,” the companies announced in a press release.
On top of the move to online car sales, Hyundai named Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider to help with operations. Plus, the companies said that Alexa would be built-in to Hyundai’s next-generation vehicles.
“Hyundai is a very innovative company that shares Amazon’s passion for trying to make customers’ lives better and easier every day,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said at the announcement at the 2023 Los Angeles Auto Show.
“Our broad, strategic partnership should do just that, from changing the ease with which customers can buy vehicles online, to making it simple to use Alexa in Hyundai vehicles for entertainment, shopping, smart home adjustments, and calendar checks, to enabling Hyundai to transform their customer experiences and business operations by moving to AWS.
“We look forward to inventing together for many years.”
Jaehoon Chang, President and CEO of Hyundai Motor Company, shared a similar statement.
“Partnering with one of the world’s most customer-centric organizations unlocks incredible opportunities as we continue to expand our portfolio, grow our sales network, transition to electrification and realize the future of smart mobility,” Chang said.
“Amazon is the ideal partner to help realize our vision of progress for humanity, including improving how people and goods move more efficiently and sustainably.
“Hyundai is the first automotive company available for full end-to-end transactions in Amazon’s U.S. store and this is another example of how we continue to push for ways to elevate the customer journey together with our outstanding retail partners.”
Amazon’s Hyundai showroom, called Hyundai Evolve, is similarly stuck with the same statements that were posted when the announcement was made nearly a year ago.
However, a further look at the vehicles advertised on the hub reveals that there’s only an option to buy the cars on Hyundai’s main site.
We are very excited about making vehicle shopping available on Amazon, however this experience is still in development.”
An Amazon spokesperson
Stanton reported that dealers worry that the program isn’t fully deliberated.
“They still haven’t set up a situation where the dealer can deal with multiple banks or work on trades, so I think more will come,” he said.
Other platforms, like Carvana, already let people shop for used cars online.
However, the pilot program would make history by allowing customers to shop for vehicles on Amazon for the first time.
While the program would streamline the car buying process, experts warned earlier this year that the move would spell doom for salesmen.
Zach and Ray Shefska, the father-son duo that make up the new car sales platform CarEdge, told The U.S. Sun that the switch to online buying would eradicate jobs.
“I think it’ll get rid of salespeople one day,” Zach said.
“Because there’s no, ‘Let me ask my manager,’ or anything like that, there’s no human element to buying a car, and while the online purchasing is great for customers, it could be bad for salesmen.”
He went on to say that buying a car online might leave customers with questions about their big purchase.
“If people are going to be spending $40,000 to $50,000 on a new car, they’re naturally going to have questions,” Zach continued.
Hyundai and Amazon’s partnership also allowed for in-vehicle cloud-based services, meaning engineers will soon be able to use AI to help bring new features to vehicles.
Plus, the collaboration promised that Hyundai drivers will be able to use Amazon’s hand-free Alexa services in new-generation vehicles starting in 2025.
