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Following the Princess of Wales' statement that she had cancer, King Charles said he was "so proud of Catherine for her courage in speaking as she did." Charles, who was also diagnosed with cancer following a treatment for an enlarged prostate, is still in "closest contact with his beloved daughter-in-law," according to Buckingham Palace, reports CNN. Prince Harry, Meghan hope Kate and family can heal ‘privately and in peace’ "Both Their Majesties will continue to offer their love and support to the whole family through this difficult time," said the palace. The princess's health status was updated following her successful operation on her abdomen on January 16. She stayed in a London hospital for 13 days after the operation and, per the doctor's suggestion, has been away from the public eye during her recovery, the report said. What is known about Kate's cancer diagnosis Kate was seen in public for the first time since January, when she went to a farm store with her husband Prince William last weekend. Kate, Princess of Wales, says she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy

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.

After weeks of speculation about her whereabouts, Kate, the Princess of Wales, announced in a video message Friday that she is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Kate, 42, was hospitalized in January for unspecified abdominal surgery and until this week hadn’t been seen publicly since Christmas, sparking a frenzy of conjecture about her health. That didn’t stop after Kensington Palace released a photo of Kate and her children on March 10 to coincide with Mother’s Day in the U.K. The move backfired when The Associated Press and other news agencies retracted the picture from publication because it appeared to have been manipulated. Kate issued a statement acknowledging she liked to “experiment with editing” and apologizing for “any confusion” the photo had caused. What is known about Kate's cancer diagnosis This week, video surfaced of her with her husband, Prince William, at a farm shop near their Windsor home, which set off another round of wild rumors. The royal family announced last month that King Charles III was being treated for an unspecified type of cancer. Charles’ relative openness about his diagnosis was a departure for the generally secretive royal family. The former Kate Middleton, who married William in a fairy-tale wedding in 2011, has boosted the popularity and appeal of the British monarchy worldwide more than any royal since Princess Diana. Kate, Princess of Wales, says she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy Kate and William moved with their three children — George, 10, Charlotte, 8, and Louis, 5 — from Kensington Palace in central London to a cottage near Windsor Castle in 2022, emphasizing their desire to raise the children in relative privacy.

Kate, the Princess of Wales, has disclosed that she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy — though in a video announcement Friday, she did not say what kind of cancer or reveal details of her treatment. Here's what is known: What kind of surgery did Kate have?Kate had what was described as abdominal surgery on Jan. 16. The news wasn't announced until the next day, when Kensington Palace revealed that Kate was recovering from a planned operation. At the time, officials said her condition wasn't cancerous but did not specify what kind of surgery, saying only that it was successful. When was Kate's cancer found?During the video announcement Friday, Kate said: “Tests after the operation found cancer had been present,” and that she was in the early stages of treatment. Kate, Princess of Wales, says she has cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy She didn't say what kind of cancer was found, nor did she give details of her chemotherapy. The statement from Kensington Palace said Kate found out about the cancer after post-surgery tests were done. Is it unusual to find cancer after surgery?While it's rare to find cancer after surgery for a noncancerous problem, it does happen in about 4% of such surgeries, said Dr. Yuman Fong, a surgeon at City of Hope cancer center in Southern California. “That 4% figure represents someone who’s going to the operating room for what is thought to be benign disease” such as a procedure to remove the gallbladder or ovarian cysts, Fong said. Is it unusual to find cancer in someone so young?Yes, cancer is rare in young adults. But in developed countries, rates of some cancers are rising among younger adults. Kate is 42. “We hate it when young people get cancer, but at the same time, they are the ones that recover best,” Fong said. What kind of treatment is Kate having?The palace statement said no details would be provided about her cancer or her treatment, other than she started it in late February. Princess Kate says sorry for manipulated family photo, saying she was experimenting with editing “We will not be sharing any further private medical information. The Princess has a right to medical privacy as we all do,” the statement said. After successful surgery, chemotherapy is often used to help kill any stray cancer cells and to prevent the cancer from coming back. Treatments have evolved, and when chemo is used now, it’s sometimes for shorter periods or lower doses than it once was. What are the side effects of chemotherapy?Fatigue, nausea, tingling in the hands and feet, and sometimes hair loss are side effects of chemotherapy, said Dr. Monica Avila of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. But there are medications for improving these side effects. And cold caps that cool the scalp can prevent hair loss, Avila said. “A patient can take anywhere from a few weeks to a month or two to recover from those effects,” Avila said. Numbness and tingling can take longer to disappear, she said. How long will Kate's treatment last?The palace statement said that will be up to her doctors. "The princess is now on a recovery pathway,” the statement said.  

UK’s Network Rail found itself at the center of a public debate after a sign displaying an Islamic message for Ramadan was posted at London King's Cross station and subsequently removed. The message, intended to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan, drew both criticism and praise from passengers who shared their views on social media, according to BBC reports. Network Rail clarified that the message was inadvertently displayed on the main train departure board, which is traditionally reserved for train schedules and information. Network Rail said it is investigating the oversight, particularly why standard celebratory messages for Ramadan were not utilized. “We celebrate all the major religious festivals, from Christmas to Ramadan, at King's Cross to mirror the diverse backgrounds of both our passengers and employees,” a spokesperson for Network Rail explained to BBC. The spokesperson added, “Our main departure board should be reserved for train information and our general Ramadan celebratory messages weren't used for some reason, which we're looking into.” The issue has been resolved, with Network Rail confirming that the appropriate corrections have been made. The display sparked controversy on the social media platform X, where some users criticized the decision to post the passage. Humanists UK expressed its disapproval, stating that public rail stations should not promote religious messages urging “sinners” to repent. The organization announced plans to contact the transport secretary to voice their concerns, labeling the incident as “obviously inappropriate and profoundly misjudged.” Conversely, the message received accolades from some quarters for highlighting the spirit of Ramadan in a public space. The Islam Channel lauded the initiative on X, commenting on “The beauty of Ramadan in unexpected places” and acknowledging the reminder of the holy month's blessings and wisdom provided by the hadith displayed at King's Cross station.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to extend nearly a quarter century of rule for six more years on Sunday after wrapping up an election that gave voters no real alternatives to an autocrat who has ruthlessly cracked down on dissent. The three-day election that began Friday has taken place in a tightly controlled environment where no public criticism of Putin or his war in Ukraine is allowed. Putin’s fiercest political foe, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month, and other critics are either in jail or in exile. The 71-year-old Russian leader faces three token rivals from Kremlin-friendly parties who have refrained from any criticism of his 24-year rule or his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Putin has boasted of Russian battlefield successes in the run-up to the vote, but a massive Ukrainian drone attack across Russia early Sunday sent a reminder of challenges faced by Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, including four near the Russian capital. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties or damage. Russia’s wartime economy has proven resilient, expanding despite bruising Western sanctions. The Russian defense industry has served as a key growth engine, working around the clock to churn out missiles, tanks and ammunition. Russia’s scattered opposition has urged those unhappy with Putin or the war to express their protest by coming to the polls at noon on Sunday. The strategy was endorsed by Navalny not long before his death. Voting is taking place at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine, and online. Despite tight controls, at least a half-dozen cases of vandalism at polling stations were reported Friday and Saturday. A 50-year-old university professor was imprisoned Saturday for 15 days after she tried to throw green liquid into a ballot box in the Urals city of Ekaterinburg, local news site Ura.ru reported. In Podolsk, a town close to Moscow, a woman was fined 30,000 rubles ($342) and charged with “discrediting the Russian army” after spoiling her ballot with an unspecified message, according to OVD-Info, a police monitoring group. Ahead of the election, Putin cast his war in Ukraine, now in its third year, as a life-or-death battle against the West seeking to break up Russia. Putin has boasted about recent gains in Ukraine, where Russian troops have made slow advances relying on their edge in firepower. Ukraine has fought back by intensifying cross-border shelling and raids, and by launching drone strikes deep inside Russia. Air raid sirens sounded multiple times Saturday in the Russian border city of Belgorod, where two people were killed by Ukrainian shelling, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had thwarted attempts to enter the country by “Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups,” following claims by Ukraine-based Russian opponents of the Kremlin last week that they had made an armed incursion into the Belgorod and Kursk regions. Western leaders have derided the election as a travesty of democracy. Beyond the lack of options for voters, the possibilities for independent monitoring are very limited. No significant international observers were present. Only registered, Kremlin-approved candidates, or state-backed advisory bodies, can assign observers to polling stations, decreasing the likelihood of independent watchdogs.

Ukraine launched a new massive wave of drone attacks Sunday as Russians cast ballots on the final day of a presidential vote set to extend President Vladimir Putin's rule for another six years. The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, including four in the Moscow region. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there were no casualties or damage. According to the Defense Ministry, another two drones were shot over the Kaluga region just south of the Russian capital and the Yaroslavl region northeast of Moscow. The attacks on the Yaroslavl region, which is located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border, were some of the farthest launched by Ukraine so far. More Ukrainian drones were downed over the Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions that border Ukraine and the southern Krasnodar region, the Defense Ministry said. The attacks followed a series of other Ukrainian drone raids and other attacks over the past few days that Putin described as an attempt by Ukraine to frighten residents and derail Russia's presidential election. “Those enemy strikes haven’t been and won’t be left unpunished,” he vowed during Friday's meeting of his Security Council. “I’m sure that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to that with even greater cohesion." As the war dragged into a third year, Russian forces have made some slow and incremental gains along the front line, relying on their edge in firepower, while Ukraine has fought back with more drone attacks deep inside Russia and cross-border raids. On Saturday, two people were killed and three others were wounded in the Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod which has faced regular attacks. The Russian military also claimed it thwarted another attempted cross-border incursion by Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance groups” on Saturday. The Russian Volunteer Corps — which includes Russians fighting alongside Ukrainian forces — released a video on social media Saturday alleging to have captured 25 Russian soldiers. The claim couldn't be independently verified. Cross-border attacks in the area have taken place sporadically since the war began and have been the subject of claims and counterclaims, as well as disinformation and propaganda.

Russia began three days of voting Friday in a presidential election that is all but certain to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule for six more years after he stifled dissent. At least half a dozen cases of vandalism at polling stations were reported, including a firebombing and several people pouring green liquid into ballot boxes — an apparent nod to the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who in 2017 was attacked by an assailant splashing green disinfectant in his face. Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons if threatened, Putin tells state media Voting is taking place through Sunday at polling stations across the vast country’s 11 time zones, in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine and online. Putin cast his ballot online, according to the Kremlin. The election comes against the backdrop of a ruthless crackdown that has crippled independent media and prominent rights groups and given Putin full control of the political system. Donald Trump again compares his criminal indictments to imprisonment and death of Putin’s top rival It also comes as Moscow’s war in Ukraine enters its third year. Russia has the advantage on the battlefield, where it is making small, if slow, gains. A Russian missile strike on the port city of Odesa killed at least 14 people on Friday, local officials said. Ukraine, meanwhile, has made Moscow look vulnerable behind the front line with long-range drone attacks deep inside Russia and high-tech drone assaults that put its Black Sea fleet on the defensive. Death of Kremlin foe Alexei Navalny provokes Western outrage but few concrete actions to stop Putin Russian regions bordering Ukraine reported a spike in shelling and repeated attacks this week by Ukrainian forces, which Putin described Friday as an attempt to frighten residents and derail the vote. “Those enemy strikes haven’t been and won’t be left unpunished,” he vowed at a meeting of his Security Council. “I'm sure that our people, the people of Russia, will respond to that with even greater cohesion,” Putin said. "Whom did they decide to scare? The Russian people? It has never happened and it will never happen." By the time polls closed Friday night at Russia's westernmost region of Kaliningrad, more than a third of the country's eligible voters had cast ballots in person and online, according to the Central Election Commission. Online voting, which began Friday morning, is available around the clock in Moscow and 28 other regions until 8 p.m. local time Sunday. Officials said voting proceeded in an orderly fashion, but in St. Petersburg, a woman threw a Molotov cocktail on the roof of a school that houses a polling station, local news media reported. The deputy head of the Russian Central Election Commission said people poured green liquid into ballot boxes in five places, including Moscow. News sites also reported on the Telegram messaging channel that a woman in Moscow set fire to a voting booth. Such acts are incredibly risky since interfering with elections is punishable by up to five years in prison. The election holds little suspense since Putin, 71, is running for his fifth term virtually unchallenged. His political opponents are either in jail or in exile; Navalny, the fiercest of them, died in an Arctic penal colony last month. The three other candidates on the ballot are low-profile politicians from token opposition parties that support the Kremlin’s line. Observers have little to no expectation the election will be free and fair. European Council President Charles Michel mordantly commented Friday on the vote’s preordained nature. “Would like to congratulate Vladimir Putin on his landslide victory in the elections starting today. No opposition. No freedom. No choice,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Beyond the few options for voters, the possibilities for independent monitoring are very limited. No significant international observers were present. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s monitors were not invited, and only registered candidates or state-backed advisory bodies can assign observers to polling stations, decreasing the likelihood of independent watchdogs. With balloting over three days in nearly 100,000 polling stations, any true oversight is difficult anyway. “The elections in Russia as a whole are a sham. The Kremlin controls who’s on the ballot. The Kremlin controls how they can campaign. To say nothing of being able to control every aspect of the voting and the vote-counting process,” said Sam Greene, director for Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington. Ukraine and the West have also condemned Russia for holding the vote in Ukrainian regions that Moscow’s forces have seized and occupied. In many ways, Ukraine is at the heart of this election, political analysts and opposition figures say. They say Putin wants to use his all-but-assured electoral victory as evidence that the war and his handling of it enjoys widespread support. The opposition, meanwhile, hopes to use the vote to demonstrate its discontent with both the war and the Kremlin. Two anti-war politicians were banned from the ballot after attracting genuine — albeit not overwhelming — support, depriving the voters of any choice on the “main issue of Russia’s political agenda,” said political analyst Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter. Russia’s scattered opposition has urged those unhappy with Putin or the war to show up at the polls at noon on Sunday, the final day of voting, in protest. The strategy was endorsed by Navalny not long before his death. “We need to use election day to show that we exist and there are many of us, we are actual, living, real people and we are against Putin. ... What to do next is up to you. You can vote for any candidate except Putin. You could ruin your ballot,” his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said. How well this strategy will work remains unclear. Golos, Russia’s renowned independent election observer group, said in a report this week that authorities were “doing everything so that the people don’t notice the very fact of the election happening.” The watchdog described the campaign ahead of the vote as “practically unnoticeable” and “the most vapid” since 2000, when Golos was founded and started monitoring elections in Russia. Putin’s campaigning was cloaked in presidential activities, and other candidates were “demonstrably passive,” the report said. State media dedicated less airtime to the election than in 2018, when Putin was last elected, according to Golos. Instead of promoting the vote to ensure a desired turnout, authorities appear to be betting on pressuring voters they can control — for instance, Russians who work in state-run companies or institutions — to show up at the polls, the group said. The watchdog itself has been swept up in the crackdown: Its co-chair, Grigory Melkonyants, is in jail awaiting trial on charges widely seen as an attempt to pressure the group ahead of the election. “The current elections will not be able to reflect the real mood of the people,” Golos said in the report. “The distance between citizens and decision-making about the fate of the country has become greater than ever.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action in the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy said that the number was far lower than estimates given by Russian President Vladimir Putin's government. “31,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us”, Zelenskyy said at the “Ukraine. Year 2024” forum in Kyiv. The Ukrainian leader said that he wouldn't disclose the number of troops that were wounded or missing. He also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied areas of Ukraine, but said that no exact figures would be available until the war was over. “We don’t know how many of our civilians they killed. We don’t,” he said. Read: US and EU pile new sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine war's 2nd anniversary and Navalny's death It's the first time that Kyiv has confirmed the number of its losses since the start of Russia’s full-scale war on Feb. 24, 2022. Russia has provided few official casualty figures. The most recent data from the Defense Ministry, published in January 2023, pointed to just over 6,000 deaths, although reports from U.S. and U.K. officials put that number significantly higher. A U.S. intelligence report declassified in mid-December 2023 estimated that 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in Ukraine. If accurate, the figure would represent 87% of the roughly 360,000 troops Russia had before the war, according to the report. Read: US and EU pile new sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine war's 2nd anniversary and Navalny's death Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona said Saturday that about 75,000 Russian men died in 2022 and 2023 fighting in the war. A joint investigation published by Mediazona and Meduza, another independent Russian news site, indicates that the rate of Russia’s losses in Ukraine is not slowing and that Moscow is losing about 120 men a day. Read more: Canada sending more than 800 drones to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia

The Eiffel Tower reopened to visitors on Sunday after a six-day closure because of striking employees demanding better maintenance of the historic landmark, showing traces of rust, and salary hikes. The operator of the 330-meter (1,083-foot) tower said in a statement it reached an agreement with unions representing the workers after promising to allocate an “ambitious 380 million euro (about $412 million) investment by 2031” for renovation work. This week, it also launched salary negotiations, expected to be finalized next month, after employees on strike demanded an increase proportionate to revenue from ticket sales. Read: France requires COVID pass for Eiffel Tower, tourist venues The 135-year-old tower will feature prominently in the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Games and the following Paralympics. The Olympic and Paralympic medals in Paris are being embedded with pieces from a hexagonal chunk of iron taken from the historic landmark. The Eiffel Tower is typically open 365 days a year. Last year, the monument was closed to visitors for 10 days during massive protests across France against the government’s plan to reform the country’s pension system. Read more: Eiffel Tower says "Merci" to health workers fighting virus