Kate Middleton returns to work with meeting at Windsor Castle
Catherine, Princess of Wales attends day fourteen of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 14, 2024 in London. (Karwai Tang/WireImage via Getty Images, FILE)
(LONDON) — Kate, the princess of Wales, held a meeting Tuesday at Windsor Castle, marking a milestone in her recovery from cancer.
The meeting, which focused on Kate’s passion project of early childhood development, was officially recorded in the court circular, the official record of engagements carried out by working royal family members.
It is the first meeting recorded for Kate since she announced in March that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Kate, the wife of Prince William, shared in a video message released on Sept. 9 that she has completed chemotherapy.
In her message, Kate, a mom of three, said her focus has now shifted to staying “cancer free” and gradually returning to work.
“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus. Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes,” she said. “I am however looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”
Kate announced her cancer diagnosis in March after undergoing what the palace described at the time as “planned abdominal surgery” in January.
She has not revealed publicly what type of cancer she faced, nor exact details of her treatment beyond that she was undergoing “preventative chemotherapy.”
Since March, she has been seen only a few times publicly, including attending Trooping the Colour in June and watching the men’s singles final at Wimbledon in July alongside her daughter Princess Charlotte.
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
Hamas denies that leaders relocated from Qatar to Turkey
Hamas denied reports in Israeli media that its leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey amid a breakdown in Doha-supported cease-fire talks earlier this month.
Hamas dismissed the news reports as “rumors” spread by Israeli authorities in a statement posted to its official website.
Qatar told Israel and Hamas earlier this month it could not continue to mediate cease-fire and hostage release talks “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith.”
Doha is under U.S. pressure to expel Hamas leaders. A senior administration official told ABC News earlier this month that the group’s “continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.”
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Shannon K. Kingston and Somayeh Malekian
Gaza death toll nears 44,000, health officials say
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 43,922 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, with nearly 104,000 more injured.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 96 people and wounded at least 60 in Gaza through the weekend, officials said. The dead included 72 people in north Gaza and more than 20 from other areas of the strip.
Most of those killed were displaced women and children sheltering in residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.
Beit Lahiya is at the heart of the Israel Defense Forces’ recent northern offensive, which has been accompanied with sweeping evacuation orders and spiking civilian casualties.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara and Joe Simonetti
Hezbollah positive on US cease-fire proposal, reports say
Hezbollah responded positively to the U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese media reported Monday.
U.S. special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before heading to Israel to speak with leaders there.
The proposal is reportedly based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701 that sought to end the last major cross-border conflict in 2006.
That deal ordered Hezbollah to withdraw all military units and weapons north of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. The resolution also prohibited Israeli ground and air forces from crossing into Lebanese territory.
Israeli leaders have demanded open-ended freedom to act against threats in Lebanon, a stipulation reportedly opposed by Hezbollah and Lebanese leaders.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Khamenei meets with ambassador injured in pager attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, as the latter continues his recovery from injuries sustained during Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in September.
Khamenei’s official X account posted a short video of their interaction on Monday, in which Amani told the Iranian leader he lost around half of the vision in his right eye in the attack.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah media relations chief killed in Israeli strike
Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, was killed in an Israeli strike Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed.
The strike on central Beirut partially collapsed a building and injured three others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed Afif’s death. In a statement, the IDF said he joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to become a “central and veteran figure in the organization who greatly influenced Hezbollah’s military activity.”
Citing one particular incident, the statement claimed that he had played a key role in the drone attack on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea in October.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Pope calls for investigation to determine whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are ‘genocide’
Pope Francis, in an upcoming book to be released ahead of his 2025 jubilee, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to the Vatican.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” he wrote in a passage released by the Vatican.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope wrote. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
(LONDON) — Donald Trump’s election has already triggered intense discussion of how he will impact the war in Ukraine, with all sides now preparing for potential negotiations once he takes office.
In Ukraine Trump’s victory has been met with mixed reactions. But while his threats to cut U.S. aid and his suggestions he could force Kyiv to give up territory have provoked obvious anxiety, perhaps surprisingly many Ukrainians have welcomed Trump’s win.
Some Ukrainian officials, commanders, soldiers, as well as public commentators, have told other media and ABC News they had hoped Trump would win the election, seeing it as at least a chance to end the war that they feel is not going in Ukraine’s favor, even if it an opportunity also fraught with risks.
That sentiment reflects the deep disillusionment with the Biden administration widespread in recent months among Ukrainians, many of whom view its policy as giving Ukraine enough to barely survive but not to achieve victory or even force fair negotiations. Though grateful for the huge support provided early in the war, many Ukrainians express frustration at what is termed Biden’s “self-deterrence,” imposing restrictions on some weapons and sometimes slow-rolling aid over what they see as overblown fears Russia will further escalate the war.
“Trump’s rise to power gave Ukraine hope,” a commander of a drone unit fighting in eastern Ukraine told ABC News. “He is too straightforward a person who will not pretend to help us, as the Democrats did. He is stronger than Biden and is ready to make strong decisions,” said the commander, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump during the election campaign repeatedly vowed to end the war in “24 hours” by forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine to negotiate. He and members of his campaign have previously suggested that might be required to accept territorial losses.
While many Ukrainians worry Trump may still cut aid, some are ready to gamble on him, believing it’s better than continuing on a path that is bleeding the country and which many think is unlikely to regain Ukrainian territory in any case.
Russia is slowly advancing at multiple places on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, with Ukrainian troops stretched thin, reporting dangerous shortages of manpower.
“The only way left is the diplomatic path,” the commander in eastern Ukraine told ABC News.
Other Ukrainians are much more fearful, worried with Putin in a strong position he will succeed in imposing his terms in negotiations. A senior Ukrainian military official told ABC News he feared negotiating now could be a “fatal mistake”, that could see Ukraine lose territory permanently while receiving little future protection.
“You understand why Russia is agreeing to negotiations,” the official said. “They’re also run into the ground and tired. They want a breather and to regroup.” Putin would use any ceasefire now to re-arm and then re-invade Ukraine, the official warned, saying instead the U.S. should strengthen Ukraine and negotiate once Russia’s military further cracked.
Others believe that Trump, who prizes a strongman image, is unlikely to simply capitulate to Putin. Instead, they hope if Putin refuses to negotiate, Trump might supply Ukraine with more weapons with fewer restrictions to force Russia to the table.
“Do you think Trump will agree to be brought to his knees by Putin? I doubt it,” said Oleksandr Chalyi, Ukraine’s former ambassador to Washington. “Donald Trump, who says ‘let’s make America great and strong again, America first’ is not ready for a dialogue where he will be humiliated.”
Trump’s selection of Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida as his national security adviser and potential pick of Sen. Marco Rubio for his secretary of state, offered some potential encouragement to those who hope a Trump administration might take a tough line on Russia during negotiations.
Both Waltz and Rubio have been strong supporters of Ukraine during the war, while vehemently criticizing the Biden administration’s strategy and insisting NATO countries should do more.
Waltz, a former Green Beret with a reputation as a China hawk, wrote in an op-ed for The Economist magazine this month that a Trump administration should use economic pressure, in particular through reinforced sanctions on Russia’s oil exports, to force Putin to negotiate. If Putin refuses, the U.S. should increase weapon supplies to Ukraine, he wrote. He also told NPR that the U.S. could lift restrictions on Ukraine using Western long-range weapons to hit deep inside Russia, to pressure Putin to a deal.
The current Biden approach would still end in a stalemate with Rusia occupying some Ukrainian territory, Waltz wrote in The Economist, saying that it “will just take more time, blood, and treasure to get there.”
Trump has yet to formally announce he will select Rubio as his Secretary of State and he would need Senate approval.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has spoken to Trump by phone since his election, so far has publicly rejected giving up any territories and last week warned that a quick peace deal would likely end badly for Ukraine.
“We all want to end this war, but a fair ending,” Zelenskyy told journalists during a European summit in Budapest. “If it is very fast, it’s going to be a loss for Ukraine.”
The head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s parliamentary party, David Arakhamia, told ABC News last week it was too soon to discuss specific plans. But he warned Ukraine could only accept freezing the war if the U.S. provided “real security guarantees” that would prevent Russia from simply using a ceasefire to re-arm.
“We have to find the solution that guarantees people that once the war is over, it’s not going to be repeated again,” said Arakhamia, saying real security guarantees were Ukraine’s “number one” priority. But, he said, it was “good” that the U.S. is thinking seriously about the resolution to the war.
(LONDON) The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Security Agency said Thursday they are “checking the possibility” that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was among three people killed in the Gaza Strip.
“At this stage, the identity of the terrorists cannot be confirmed,” the IDF wrote in a post to X. “In the building where the terrorists were eliminated, there were no signs of the presence of hostages in the area. The forces that are operating in the area are continuing to operate with the required caution.”
Israeli authorities said they are currently working to confirm identification through dental images and DNA testing.
“Upon completion of these processes, we will be able to confirm the assassination. Further information will be released when available,” the IDF and Israel Police said in a statement.
The 62-year-old has served as Hamas’ leader in Gaza since 2017 and assumed leadership of the group’s Political Bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Iran this July.
He has been credited as the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that led to the deaths of 1,200 people, the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history.
The Israelis notified U.S. Department of Defense officials, including Secretary Lloyd Austin, about Sinwar’s potential death, a U.S. defense official said per a pool report. The department is awaiting updates from the Israelis, the official said.
In 1989, an Israeli court sentenced Sinwar to four life sentences for his role in killing suspected Palestinian informers and plotting to murder two Israeli soldiers.
Sinwar spent the following 22 years in prison before becoming one of more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees released in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
