The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have wished Catherine, Princess of Wales, "health and healing" after she announced her cancer diagnosis. Prince Harry and Meghan expressed hope that Catherine and her family may heal "privately and in peace" in a brief statement, reports BBC. Catherine described the news as a "huge shock" after a "incredibly tough couple of months" on Friday. She stated that she was "well" and "getting stronger every day". The specifics of the cancer have not been disclosed. According to Kensington Palace, the princess is sure that she will fully recover, the report said. What is known about Kate's cancer diagnosis Catherine had abdominal surgery in January, although the presence of cancer was unknown at the time. Following testing indicated the presence of cancer. Harry and Meghan stood down as senior royals in January 2020. They moved to California in June, citing a need for more room to raise their son, Archie. Lilibet, the second child, was born the following year. King Charles was also recently diagnosed with cancer, and Harry went to London in early February to meet his father just one day after he began treatment. He did not meet his older brother during the trip. King Charles ‘proud of Catherine for her courage’ Harry's relationship with his brother is said to have deteriorated since he made the announcement that he was leaving his royal responsibilities, the report also said. Harry talked about his falling out with William in his book, “Spare”. In recent years, the brothers have rarely been seen together.

The memoirs of Britney Spears and the Duke of Sussex Prince Harry have been shortlisted for Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Prince Harry's Spare, the best-selling book in 2023, is nominated in two categories, reports BBC. It comes three decades after his father, the King, was crowned author of the year in 1990, the inaugural year for the awards. This is the actor Pierce Brosnan thinks would make a ‘magnificent’ Bond Other memoirs nominated include that of Star Trek's Sir Patrick Stewart and comic book figure Alan Partridge. Britney Spears' much-anticipated autobiography, The Woman in Me, released in October 2023, was one of the year's best-selling autobiographies. In the book, the pop sensation recounted her career and what it was like to be controlled by her father for 13 years while under conservatorship. Prince Harry and Meghan pursued in their car by photographers in New York She also discussed a medical abortion she had while dating Justin Timberlake in the early 2000s and the emotional impact it had on her. The shortlist reflects the growing number of author-podcasters, with Steven Bartlett garnering two nominations for The Diary of a CEO, named after his hit podcast, and former cabinet minister Rory Stewart nominated for Politics on the Edge. Yomi Adegoke's The List, which explores cancel culture and influencers, has also been shortlisted in two categories: Audiobook: Fiction and Debut Fiction. Several of the shortlisted writers have BookTok hits, a hashtag with over 200 billion views on TikTok that refers to a community of book fans sharing their favourite readings and reviews, the report said. Britney Spears' husband seeking financial support and attorneys' fees in divorce

Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan has stated that fellow Irishman and Oscar contender Cillian Murphy would make a "magnificent" 007. "Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond on His Majesty's Secret Service," Brosnan told the BBC. According to reports, Murphy might be in the running; however there have always been whispers about who could play Bond next. Brosnan was speaking at the annual Oscar Wilde Awards in Los Angeles, which honour Irish creative brilliance, reports BBC. Murphy is expected to win best actor at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday for his portrayal in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Read more: Amazon Prime Originals in March 2024: List of New Shows and Movies He stated that he had not heard the Bond speculations and that he had not given any attention to perhaps winning the Academy Award: "I just want to go in and have a good time." He faces up against Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Bradley Cooper (Maestro), and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction), said the report. Murphy also spoke about his 16-year-old son Aran, who will make his cinematic debut in Taika Waititi's Klara And The Sun. "I'm very proud of him, he's a great actor," he told reporters on the Irish-themed green carpet, adding that Aran did not need his father's instruction. Brosnan said he was "greatly honoured" to receive an Oscar Wilde award for his achievements to the cinema and television industries. He hailed the "kinship" between Ireland and America, saying he arrived to the US in 1982 "on a wing and a prayer... and then got a job, [on the drama series] Remington Steele". Read more: Prince Harry, Britney Spears’ memoirs shortlisted for British Book Awards

Google says it will recalibrate its AI-powered art tool, after it enthusiastically embraced diversity to the point of rewriting history. Gemini bot that generates images based on text prompts, has been churning out illustrations that are as diverse as a United Nations conference, regardless of historical context. Picture this: America’s founding fathers, but not as you know them. Instead, users were surprised to find images populated with a mix of genders and ethnicities, sparking debates about accuracy versus inclusivity. “Gemini’s AI image generation does generate a wide range of people. And that’s generally a good thing because people around the world use it. But it’s missing the mark here,” Jack Krawczyk, senior director for Gemini Experiences, was quoted by BBC. Woke revolution: The latest fad in fashion! This isn’t the first rodeo where AI has tripped over diversity. OpenAI previously faced flak for its Dall-E generator, which seemed to cast CEOs as white men, sparking discussions on stereotypes and bias in AI. This latest AI misadventure comes at a time when Google is eager to showcase its prowess in AI innovation. After the latest version of Gemini was released last week, critics slammed the bot for being overly politically correct, or as some have quipped, “laughably woke”. Debarghya Das, a computer scientist, expressed frustration over Gemini’s reluctance to depict white individuals, highlighting the tool’s overcorrection. Meanwhile, author and humorist Frank J Fleming, known for his work with right-wing PJ Media, shared his disbelief when his request for a Viking image returned results that seemed to prioritize diversity over historical authenticity. Gender Dichotomy: Woketopian Impact on Human Lifestyle The backlash gained traction in conservative circles, adding fuel to ongoing debates about perceived liberal biases in big tech. In response, Krawczyk emphasized Google’s commitment to representation and bias mitigation, promising adjustments to better honour historical context. “Historical contexts have more nuance to them and we will further tune to accommodate that,” he commented on X, encouraging ongoing feedback from users. As Google navigates the tricky waters of AI, representation, and historical fidelity, the saga of Gemini’s diversity-driven missteps serves as a reminder of the complex interplay between technology, culture, and history. The tech giant’s efforts to adjust course highlight the ongoing challenge of balancing inclusivity with accuracy, a journey that continues to evolve based on user feedback and societal expectations. OpenAI CEO warns that 'societal misalignments' could make artificial intelligence dangerous

Israel has to stop killing children and women in Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron has told the BBC.During an exclusive interview, Macron said that there was "no justification" for the attack, adding that Israel would gain from a ceasefire. While acknowledging Israel's right to self-defense, he said, "We do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza.However, he also emphasised that France "clearly condemns" Hamas' "terrorist" activities, the report said. Thousands who were sheltering at Gaza City’s hospitals flee as Israel-Hamas war closes inLike Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western countries, France views Hamas as a terrorist group.When asked about whether he wanted other world leaders to support his demands for a ceasefire, including those in the US and the UK, Macron said, "I hope they will." Civilians flee north Gaza or shelter at a hospital as Israel and Hamas battle in the cityFollowing almost two weeks of main ground incursion into the territory and a month of Israeli shelling, the health ministry headed by Hamas in Gaza said on Friday that 11,078 Palestinians had died and 1.5 million had left their homes.Israel claimed that it followed international law when attacking military targets and that it takes precautions to lessen the number of civilian deaths by alerting civilians in advance and urging them to flee.Speaking a day after a conference in Paris on humanitarian aid related to the Gaza conflict, Macron stated that all participating governments and agencies had reached the "clear conclusion" that there is “no other solution than first a humanitarian pause, going to a ceasefire, which will allow [us] to protect... all civilians having nothing to do with terrorists.""De facto — today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop," the French president said.Macron, however, stated it was not for him to determine whether or not international law had been breached. Fights in bread lines, despair in shelters: War threatens to unravel Gaza's close-knit society

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to the stage at the House of Commons and made an explosive announcement by accusing “agents of Indian government” of killing a Canadian citizen – a prominent Sikh separatist whom India has accused of terrorism – on Canadian soil. The accusation, swiftly condemned and denied by New Delhi, has torpedoed the Indo-Canadian diplomatic relationship. Following Trudeau’s public accusations, the diplomatic confrontation between both countries has reached an all-time high. Also read: Intelligence from 'Five Eyes' nations helped Canada link India to Sikh’s killing, US diplomat says As part of the confrontation, the North American country has expelled the “Canadian station chief of India’s intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW),” accusing him of interfering in Ottawa’s “internal affairs.” Meanwhile, in a tit-for-tat move, India has also expelled a senior Canadian diplomat and later suspended all visa services for Canadian nationals. Amid these diplomatic measures, one thing is very significant to note that both India and Canada are allies of the United States, or in other words, the West. India is one of the most significant allies of the US and one of the important frontiers of Washington’s confrontation with Beijing. Also read: How India’s relations with Canada hit rock bottom In the midst of such cold geopolitical realities, one might wonder where Justin Trudeau stands on the world stage. According to the BBC, Trudeau has been facing the cold reality of geopolitics “alone” in the past week. “In the public eye at least, Trudeau has appeared to be left largely on his own as he goes toe to toe with India, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, with a population 35 times bigger than Canada’s,” BBC reports. It is worth noting that Canada has received the intelligence regarding New Delhi’s “spy ops” from Five Eyes intelligence alliance – made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Also read: India asks citizens to be careful if traveling to Canada as rift widens over Sikh leader’s death However, according to BBC, Trudeau’s allies in the intelligence network have provided “seemingly boilerplate public statements, all stopping far short of full-throated support.” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said his country took “very seriously the things that Canada is saying.” Using nearly identical language, Australia said it was “deeply concerned” by the accusations. Also read: Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Sikh activist whose killing has divided Canada and India? Meanwhile, Ottawa’s southern neighbour, the United States, said it expects Delhi to cooperate with Ottawa in investigating the assassination. Citing experts, BBC noted that Canada’s interests currently pale in comparison to India’s massive strategic importance. “The US, the UK, and all these Western and Indo-Pacific allies have built a strategy that largely focuses on India, to be a bulwark and counterweight to China. That’s something they can’t afford to toss out the window,” Xavier Delgado, a researcher at the Wilson Centre’s Canada Institute told BBC. “The fact that they haven’t come out and rushed to Canada’s defence is indicative of the geopolitical reality,” he added. Also read: Canada expels Indian diplomat as it investigates Sikh activist's killing

A statue has been standing — in remembrance to his loyalty towards his owner — outside Shibuya Station in Tokyo since 1948. The cream white Japanese Akita Inu — popularly known as “Hachiko” — has been memorialized in everything from books to movies to the cult science fiction for his loyalty. All these movies, books tell the true story of Hachiko, the faithful dog who continued to wait for his master at a train station in Japan long after his death. Hachiko was born in November 1923 in the city of Odate in Akita prefecture, the original home of Akitas. Read more: Benefits of Pets for Kids: Why Raising Children around Livestock? The Akita is one of Japan's oldest and most well-known breeds. For its calm, sincere, intelligent, and brave personality, they used to be taught to hunt animals like wild boar and elk. The breed was designated as a national icon in 1931 by the Japanese government, according to the BBC. The famed puppy arrived at the Ueno residence in the Shibuya neighborhood on January 15, 1924. Ueno named him Hachi, or eight in Japanese. Ko is an honorific bestowed by Ueno's students, according to the BBC. Read more: 10 houseplants that are bad for your pets Hachi’s owner took a train to work several times a week. He was accompanied to Shibuya station by his three dogs, including Hachiko. The trio would then wait there for his return in the evening. When Ueno died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 53 on May 21, 1925, Hachiko had been with him for just 16 months. "While people were attending the wake, Hachi smelled Dr Ueno from the house and went inside the living room. He crawled under the coffin and refused to move," Prof Mayumi Itoh wrote in a biography about Hachi. Hachiko spent the next few months with different families outside Shibuya but eventually, in the summer of 1925, he ended up with Ueno's gardener Kobayashi Kikusaburo, according to BBC. Read more: First all-female police dog handler team introduced today After returning to the area where his late master Ueno lived, Hachiko soon resumed his daily commute to the station, rain or shine. According to Hachiko’s biographer, Hachi used to stand on four legs at the ticket gate and look at each passenger “as if he were looking for someone." He gained nationwide fame after Japanese daily Tokyo Asahi Shimbun wrote about him in October 1932. The station started receiving donations from across the country. Later, a fundraising event in 1934 to make a statue of him reportedly drew a crowd of 3,000. Read more: Gulistan blast: RAB dog gets award for heroic role Hachiko's eventual death on March 8, 1935 made the front page of many newspapers. At his funeral, Buddhist monks offered prayers for him and dignitaries read eulogies. Thousands visited his statue in the following days. Every year on April 8, a memorial service for Hachiko is held outside Shibuya Station. His statue is often decorated with scarves, Santa hats and, most recently, a surgical mask.

The same day (March 23, 2023) that Italy submitted pasta carbonara for inclusion on Unesco’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the Financial Times published an article in which Italian culinary expert Alberto Grandi claimed that carbonara was developed by Americans residing in Italy shortly after WWII. The claim sparked outrage throughout Italy. “A surrealist attack!” – said the agriculture organisation Coldiretti, as heated social media discussion ensued nationwide, according to a BBC article. So who really created the original carbonara? Italian food author Eleonora Cozzella says, “It was a combination of Italian genius and American resources.” Cozzella spent six years covering National Carbonara Day on April 6, and eventually wrote The Perfect Carbonara, which earned a Gourmand World Cookbook Award in 2020, says the BBC. Read More: Activists target Salt Bae’s upscale London steakhouse She interviewed the descendants of innkeepers who fed American soldiers in the neighborhood of Trastevere, just over the Tiber river in Rome, in the late 1940s. US soldiers apparently asked for “spaghetti breakfast” that should have eggs and bacon. Even during the desperate times, Italians could acquire military rations in the black market, including bacon from Americans and egg powder from the British. In 1952, the first recipe for pasta carbonara was published in the United States. Author Patricia Bronté mentioned the Italian restaurant Armando’s, run by chefs Pietro Lencioni and Armando Lorenzini, among her favorite spots in her book “Vittles and Vice: An Incredible Guide to What’s Cooking on Chicago’s Near North Side”. She included recipe of the restaurant’s famous dish, carbonara. “No one has a trademark on the recipe,” Alessandro Pipero, chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Pipero in Rome and one of the “carbonara kings” told BBC. “Honestly, I don’t care who invented it,” he said. The first Italian recipe for carbonara was published in August 1954 in La Cucina Italiana magazine. “And it is a strange one,” Cozzella said in the BBC report. “It has parsley and even gruyere as cheese!” Read More: Homemade Ice Cream Recipes Using Seasonal Fruits for This Summer  “This debate is ridiculous and dangerous,” said Michele Fino, a law professor at Pollenzo's University of Gastronomic Sciences, calling it “old news”. According to Fino, the discussion is harmful because a toxic type of nationalism may be lurking between the pecorino and a piece of guanciale, or maybe deep inside the tubular rigatoni. “It is a sort of banal nationalism that runs through food,” he told BBC. “People consider it unimportant, but it creates a certain climate – we shouldn’t ignore it.”

Those who spread confusion and misinformation do not like that Bangladesh is prospering, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud. He made the remark during an exchange of views with journalists on current issues at his residence in Chattogram city on Friday (March 31, 2023) afternoon. Hasan, also Joint General Secretary of Awami League, said that as the country continues to progress, the prosperity and wealth of every citizen also increases. He alleged some newspapers intentionally publish negative news: “Many individuals do not like the economic prosperity of Bangladesh under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina. Therefore, some newspapers intentionally publish negative reports, while identified foreign individuals spread misinformation against Bangladesh." Read More: BBC film on India's PM Modi, 2002 riots draws government ire Despite these efforts, Bangladesh remains indomitable, he said. The information minister also criticized 12 countries, including the USA, that issued a statement on the arrest of Prothom Alo journalist Shamsuzzaman Shams, stating that it was tantamount to “interference in the country's internal affairs.” He highlighted the contrast between the response to this incident in Bangladesh and the “lack of concern” expressed by countries when the BBC office in India was searched. He reminded diplomats of the Vienna Convention that sets the rules and limits on their conduct while stationed abroad and asserted that the government would continue to ensure freedom of media. Read More: Indian officials search BBC offices for second straight day Mahmud also criticized the opposition party for going to foreign diplomats and requesting “intervention” instead of engaging with the people of the country. He stated that it was "anti-national and involved a conspiracy against the country" to meddle in internal affairs. Hasan Mahmud referred to a recent report by Bloomberg, a renowned US media organization, that praised the economic prosperity achieved under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the ability to maintain economic stability even during the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession. According to the report, there is a possibility of Sheikh Hasina winning the next election and serving a fourth term as prime minister. Mahmud also shared statistics demonstrating Bangladesh's economic growth and stability under the current government. Read More: Indian officials probe BBC for 3rd day, alleging tax dodge He stated that the percentage of people living below the poverty line stands at 16% despite the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession. Additionally, Bangladesh's per capita income has surpassed that of India during the pandemic, and the country has risen from the 60th to the 35th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP, he added. The Acting President of Chattogram Metropolitan Awami League, Mahatab Uddin Chowdhury, former Mayor AJM Nasir Uddin, North District President MA Salam, South District Acting President Motaherul Islam, and other party leaders were present at the event. read More: Tax officials search BBC's Delhi offices weeks after Modi documentary

The references seem endless, and they can come from anywhere. In recent days, Pope Francis compared Nicaragua's repression of Catholics to Hitler's rule in Germany. In Britain, a BBC sportscaster likened the nation's asylum policy to 1930s Germany, resulting in his brief suspension and a national uproar. For Holocaust and anti-Nazi scholars and organizations, the two sentiments were understandable — but concerning. Invoking Hitler and Nazi Germany, they warn, often serves to revive a familiar and unwelcome line of argument. “We have to be aware of, and confront, contemporary instances of discrimination, hate speech and human rights abuses across the world,” says Rafal Pankowski, a Polish sociologist who heads the anti-Nazi NEVER AGAIN Association. But he added: “Of course, the historical analogies must not be overused and devalued. The label `Nazi' should not be trivialized and reduced to a term of abuse against anybody we don’t like.” Also Read: BBC crisis escalates as players, stars rally behind Lineker Last week, Pope Francis was quoted as criticizing the government in Nicaragua, where religious leaders have been arrested or fled, for acting as “if it were a communist dictatorship in 1917 or a Hitlerian one in 1935.” Nicaragua responded by proposing to suspend Vatican ties. Around the same time, the BBC's Gary Lineker tweeted that a plan announced by Britain's Conservative government was “immeasurably cruel” and included language "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s.” The bill, intended to stop tens of thousands of migrants a year from reaching the country in small boats across the English Channel, would bar asylum claims by anyone who reaches the United Kingdom by unauthorized means and compel the government to detain and deport them “to their home country or a safe third country.” Also Read: Lineker off flagship BBC soccer show after Twitter posts At first, the broadcaster suspended Lineker, its highest paid TV commentator. But it reversed itself on Monday and praised Lineker as a “valued part of the BBC.” ALTERNATIVE WORDING Peter Fritzsche, author of “An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler,” among other books, calls Lineker's comments poorly expressed and misguided, given that "Nazi Germany had no immigration policy"." Rather than comparisons to the Nazis, Fritzsche believes Lineker would have been better off describing the policy with the words "racist” or “inhumane.” “Great Britain, in its rhetoric about immigrants and its policies regarding asylum-seekers ... generates quite rightly enormous outrage, because we believe Great Britain is in the family of democratic humane nations,” says Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois. “The sportscaster’s sentence is inaccurate. The spirit is laudable.” Sometimes, scholars and activists say, events do call for Nazi comparisons, whether it's the white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 or the annual Independence Day march in Warsaw, Poland organized by extreme-right groups. But Nazi references have also been used to criticize fiscal policy (anti-tax activist Grover Nordquist once invoked the Holocaust when criticizing estate taxes) or insult rival heads of state (Saudi Arabia and Iran recently re-established diplomatic ties, six years after Prince Mohammed bin Salman referred to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the “new Hitler”). On the Internet, Nazis have been mentioned so often, and for so long, that in 1990 author-attorney Mike Godwin formulated “Godwin's Law” for them: “As an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or Nazis approaches 1.” They come up so often that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. has crafted a standard response, which it cited when contacted this week by The Associated Press. "Nazism represented a singular evil that resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews and the persecution and deaths of millions of others for racial and political reasons," the statement reads. “Comparing contemporary situations to Nazism is not only offensive to its victims, but it is also inaccurate and misrepresents both Holocaust history and the present," the statement says. "The Holocaust should be remembered, studied, and understood so that we can learn its lessons; it should not be exploited for opportunistic purposes.” A RANGE OF REFERENCES Nazi references can be outlandish (actress Megan Fox once compared “Transformers” director Michael Bay to Hitler); self-evident (Kanye West, who years ago complained of being looked at like “he was Hitler,” declared in 2022 that there were “good things about Hitler"); and strategic (Russian President Vladimir Putin listed “denazification” of Ukraine as one of the main goals of his “special military operation,” falsely alleging that there are Nazis in Ukraine’s leadership). The Putin accusation isn’t new. It has been part of the Kremlin’s propaganda effort for years, used to justify a Moscow-backed insurgency in Ukraine’s east and bash Kyiv’s pro-Western government, which took over after a popular uprising ousted a pro-Russian president in 2014. Analysts say the narrative appears to play well in Russia, where the Soviet army’s defense against Nazi Germany forces in World War II is still a fundamental part of the national identity. Officials and state media routinely use the term “Nazi” to describe the Ukrainian government and its army. Moscow’s rhetoric has prompted some international backlash. Asked in an interview with an Italian news channel about Russian claims that it invaded Ukraine to “denazify” the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ukraine could still have Nazi elements even if some figures, including the country’s president, were Jewish. “So when they say, ‘How can Nazification exist if we’re Jewish?’ In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything. For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish,” Lavrov said, speaking to the station in Russian, dubbed over by an Italian translation. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called Lavrov’s statement “unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error,” adding that “the government of Russia needs to apologize.” In Israel, the Holocaust is seen as unique, and comparisons to the Nazis or Nazi Germany in the modern context are typically dismissed as cheapening the victims' memory. But comparisons do happen. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has likened Iran to Nazi Germany, and ultra-Orthodox protesters call the police in Israel “Nazis” when they arrest people. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, says Lineker’s comparison is flawed. The Conservatives’ proposal, he says, is more like the British policy toward Holocaust survivors who tried to enter British Mandate-era Palestine after 1945 on boats such as the Exodus — and were turned back. The larger issue, Zuroff says, is that people like Lineker cite the Holocaust to draw attention to their own issues. Perhaps, Zuroff says, the BBC figure “should be punished by being put in a library and forced to read 10 accurate history books.”