LONDON: Catherine, Princess of Wales, on Thursday received a visit from her husband Prince William as she recovered in hospital from surgery that will prevent her from undertaking frontline royal duties for several months.
Her father-in-law, British head of state King Charles III, is also facing a medical procedure for an enlarged prostate, forcing him to cancel some engagements.
But his wife, Queen Camilla, said he was in otherwise good health.
Asked about her 75-year-old husband on a visit to Aberdeen, northeast Scotland, Camilla, 76, said: "He's fine, thank you very much. Looking forward to getting back to work."
Palace officials on Wednesday issued two statements within 90 minutes, disclosing that the 42-year-old princess had undergone abdominal surgery on Tuesday and that she faced up to two weeks' recuperation.
The operation was a success and not linked to cancer, they said, without elaborating.
Charles, who succeeded his mother Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, will have a "corrective procedure" for a benign enlarged prostate next week.
The health scares leave the already slimmed-down monarchy without three of its most senior figures. Camilla is now the most visible working royal over the coming weeks.
"It is unheard of, I think, to have three of the most senior royals temporarily out of action, postponing engagements," Sky News' Royal Correspondent Laura Bundock noted.
William, Charles's elder son and heir to the throne, was seen driving away from The London Clinic on Thursday lunchtime.
The 41-year-old Prince of Wales has postponed upcoming public engagements to be at her side at the private hospital, and to care for their three children, Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five.
The couple's Kensington Palace office has said they will not be issuing rolling updates about the princess's health.
But that has not stopped huge media interest, with photographers and film crews stationed outside the facility, which has previously treated the late queen's husband Prince Philip.
Her younger sister Princess Margaret and former US president John F Kennedy have also been patients.
The disclosure about the king's imminent procedure appears to have boosted prostate-related health awareness.
The state-run National Health Service (NHS) saw a significant increase in searches for an "enlarged prostate" on its website Wednesday, with more than 11 times as many visits compared to Tuesday.
Charles, who is also head of state of 14 other countries outside the United Kingdom, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand, inherited the throne at an age when most men in developed countries have retired.
His last public appearance, alongside Kate and other senior family figures, was at a Christmas Day service at his Sandringham estate in eastern England.
The unexpected health announcements -- a rare show of transparency from royal officials about personal health matters -- scupper several overseas trips that had been in the planning, according to reports.
William and Kate had reportedly been set to travel to Rome in the coming months for their first joint overseas visit in two years.
There has also been speculation that Charles and Camilla would visit Australia this year.
Charles's sister Princess Anne, 73, who recently completed a tour of Sri Lanka, is said to be ready to stand in for her brother at scheduled events in the next weeks.
The sudden shortage in frontline working royals follows three years of upheaval. Royal patriarch Prince Philip died in 2021, then the queen herself the following year.
Charles's younger son Prince Harry -- fifth in line to the throne -- and his wife Meghan quit their roles in 2020 and relocated to California.
The king's younger brother Prince Andrew, now eighth in the line of succession behind William's three children and Harry's two, has also been sidelined.
That followed Andrew's disastrous handling of questions about his friendship with the convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and his decision to settle a US civil claim for sexual assault without admitting liability.
Health scares for king and Kate disrupt UK royal duties
https://arab.news/zbfwb
Health scares for king and Kate disrupt UK royal duties
- King Charles III is also facing a medical procedure for an enlarged prostate
- The 42-year-old princess had undergone abdominal surgery on Tuesday
2025 among world’s three hottest years on record, WMO says
- All eight datasets confirmed that the last three years were the planet’s three hottest since records began, the WMO said
- The slight differences in the datasets’ rankings reflect their different methodologies and types of measurements
BRUSSELS: Last year was among the planet’s three warmest on record, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday, as EU scientists also confirmed average temperatures have now exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming for the longest since records began.
The WMO, which consolidates eight climate datasets from around the world, said six of them — including the European Union’s European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the British national weather service — had ranked 2025 as the third warmest, while two placed it as the second warmest in the 176-year record.
All eight datasets confirmed that the last three years were the planet’s three hottest since records began, the WMO said. The warmest year on record was 2024.
THREE-YEAR PERIOD ABOVE 1.5 C AVERAGE WARMING LEVEL
The slight differences in the datasets’ rankings reflect their different methodologies and types of measurements — which include satellite data and readings from weather stations.
ECMWF said 2025 also rounded out the first three-year period in which the average global temperature was 1.5 C above the pre-industrial era — the limit beyond which scientists expect global warming will unleash severe impacts, some of them irreversible.
“1.5 C is not a cliff edge. However, we know that every fraction of a degree matters, particularly for worsening extreme weather events,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF.
Burgess said she expected 2026 to be among the planet’s five warmest years.
CHOICE OF HOW TO MANAGE TEMPERATURE OVERSHOOT
Governments pledged under the 2015 Paris Agreement to try to avoid exceeding 1.5 C of global warming, measured as a decades-long average temperature compared with pre-industrial temperatures.
But their failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions means that target could now be breached before 2030 — a decade earlier than had been predicted when the Paris accord was signed in 2015, ECMWF said. “We are bound to pass it,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. “The choice we now have is how to best manage the inevitable overshoot and its consequences on societies and natural systems.”
Currently, the world’s long-term warming level is about 1.4 C above the pre-industrial era, ECMWF said. Measured on a short-term basis, average annual temperatures breached 1.5 C for the first time in 2024.
EXTREME WEATHER
Exceeding the long-term 1.5 C limit would lead to more extreme and widespread impacts, including hotter and longer heatwaves, and more powerful storms and floods. Already in 2025, wildfires in Europe produced the highest total emissions on record, while scientific studies confirmed specific weather events were made worse by climate change, including Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean and monsoon rains in Pakistan which killed more than 1,000 people in floods.
Despite these worsening impacts, climate science is facing political pushback. US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change “the greatest con job,” last week withdrew from dozens of UN entities including the scientific Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The long-established consensus among the world’s scientists is that climate change is real, mostly caused by humans, and getting worse. Its main cause is greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, which trap heat in the atmosphere.
