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Stargazers across the globe managed to capture the “comet of the century” as it whizzed across the northern hemisphere. 

Comet A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, did not disappoint astronomers who were anticipating how bright and visible it might be as it came within approximately 44 million miles of Earth on Saturday.

Snaps from across the UK, US and Asia showed the comet within the inner solar system.

The phenomenon roughly occurs every 80,000 years – meaning the comet would have last been visible from Earth when the Neanderthals were walking the planet.

It is believed the comet came from the Oort Cloud – a giant spherical shell that surrounds our solar system and contains billions of objects including comets – according to the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).

The comet has been billed as the “comet of the century” in some quarters, the RAS said.

It was discovered independently in January 2023 by two observatories – China’s Tsuchinshan (Purple Mountain) Observatory and South Africa’s ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) – and was named after them.

The comet A3 was previously visible from Earth between 27 September and 2 October when it travelled across the southern hemisphere.

And don’t worry if you missed it last night, it should still be visible until 30 October.

Dr Robert Massey, deputy director of the RAS, said getting a photo of the comet may be possible, particularly if using a digital single-lens reflex camera.

If you have a good mobile phone camera and a small telescope, he added, you can “hold the mobile phone against the eyepiece of the telescope and try to take a picture that way”.

Dr Massey said that method “worked well” with comets like NEOWISE in 2020.

This post appeared first on sky.com

The U.S. congressman representing one of the areas hit hardest by Helene is raising concerns about the deadly storm’s impact on voter access in the region.

‘There will likely be some people out there that, for one reason or another, will not be able to exercise their most important constitutional right,’ Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital in an interview Friday.

Edwards is urging his constituents to make plans now, sending out a press release to residents of his district roughly three weeks before Election Day, asking those who intend to vote to start figuring out how they will do so.

‘I’ll also follow up with folks in the area and make offers to help get transportation for those folks that feel like they might not have a normal life or a transportation style to make it to the polls,’ Edwards said.

‘I’m concerned. But I also have a lot of confidence with the folks in the area to help folks exercise that constitutional right. We just have to start thinking about it now. We can’t wait till the last minute, as too many times we’re accustomed to doing.’

Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast two weeks ago, leaving billions of dollars of destruction and more than 230 people dead across multiple states.

Edwards estimated his district alone has seen ‘about 100 deaths’ but noted many were still missing.

‘About 9,200 acres of western North Carolina was affected in 28 counties. About 6,000 of that is right here in my district,’ he said.

In addition to the devastation to life and property, however, the storm could have potentially severe ramifications for the election. North Carolina and Georgia, two of the hardest-hit states, emerged as battlegrounds in the 2020 presidential race.

About 17% of North Carolina’s registered voters are in the counties designated as Helene disaster areas, according to Michael Bitzer, a professor of politics and history at Catawba College.

‘Folks are still in the process of putting their lives together, desperately trying to get their power back on, trying to get in touch with their loved ones, trying to dig out from the debris and not really thinking that there’s an election coming up here in three weeks or so,’ Edwards said. 

‘So, what I’m encouraging everyone to do is to start thinking about that now, to request an absentee ballot if you don’t think you’re going to be able to get to a poll or to plan to vote early.’

The North Carolina state legislature is already moving to mitigate possible issues. 

State lawmakers approved $5 million in emergency funding for the State Board of Elections to deal with the storm’s effects, and they also expanded emergency measures put in place by the election board that allow counties to modify early voting days and locations.

On the federal level, Edwards said he would give the government’s response a ‘C-minus.’

‘This storm was over about 10 a.m. on Friday, and it was into Tuesday before we saw the first boots on the ground from FEMA, before we saw the first helicopters with food and water,’ he said.

Asked about outreach from U.S. leaders, Edwards said President Biden called him earlier on Friday but left a voicemail. He did not indicate whether he’d return the call.

‘It was maybe a 10-second clip going, ‘Attaboy. Keep up the good work. We’re thinking about you,’’ Edwards said.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Vice President Kamala Harris will release a report detailing her medical history and health information on Saturday in an effort to prompt the same from former President Donald Trump.

The detailed report will conclude, ‘She possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,’ according to a senior campaign aide.

Harris advisers insist that the report is an opportunity to spotlight Trump’s health and mental acuity, since the 78-year-old Republican nominee would be the oldest president at the end of his potential second term, the aide said. 

President Biden, 81, withdrew from the 2024 presidential election in July amid pressure from the Democratic Party given concerns over his advanced age and visible fatigue. Since then, Democrats have sought to go on offense against Trump with what was once their election vulnerability.

The decision to release Harris’ medical information comes after a New York Times report asserted that Trump has not been transparent with his own health, even after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his head at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania this past July.

Trump did not release his medical records in his first White House campaign in 2016, the report notes. Neither did the Trump White House release accurate updates on his condition after a 2020 COVID diagnosis, with reports detailing that the president was more sick than his doctors said in public, according to the report.

‘In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview,’ the report said. It goes on to quote several medical experts who raise concerns that Trump could enter the Oval Office in a second term with several ‘potentially worrisome issues.’ 

The last health update from Trump came in November 2023, when his personal doctor, Bruce Aronwald, said in a letter Trump’s ‘overall health is excellent.’ 

‘His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,’ Aronwald wrote.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

During an August interview with CBS News, Trump insisted that he would ‘gladly’ release his medical records, noting at the time that he had a ‘perfect score’ on a recent medical exam. 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

The White House on Saturday released a report from Vice President Kamala Harris’ doctor declaring her to be in ‘excellent health.’ 

The report, which was previewed by a senior Harris campaign aide, comes as the 59-year-old Democratic nominee seeks to contrast herself with former President Trump, 79, who has not made recent health disclosures. 

‘Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,’ wrote her Army physician, Dr. Joshua R. Simmons. ‘She possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.’ 

Advisers to Harris encouraged her office to release her medical history and health information to put a spotlight on Trump’s health and mental acuity, since the 78-year-old Republican nominee would be the oldest president at the end of his potential second term, according to a senior aide.

President Biden, 81, withdrew from the 2024 presidential election in July amid pressure from the Democratic Party given concerns over his advanced age and visible fatigue. Since then, Democrats have sought to go on offense against Trump with what was once their election vulnerability. 

During an August interview with CBS News, Trump insisted that he would ‘gladly’ release his medical records, noting at the time that he had a ‘perfect score’ on a recent medical exam. He has not yet done so. 

READ THE REPORT BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

The letter from Dr. Simmons calls Harris’ most recent medical exam in April 2024 ‘unremarkable.’ The vice president has no major health issues and ‘maintains a healthy, active lifestyle despite her busy schedule,’ including daily exercise. Harris eats a ‘very healthy diet,’ does not smoke and drinks ‘only occasionally and in moderation,’ according to her doctor.

‘Vice President Harris is a healthy 59-year-old female who has a medical history notable for seasonal allergies and urticaria,’ the letter states. Urticaria is a common skin condition that can cause itchy, red raised bumps or welts to appear on the skin. It can be triggered by certain foods, medications or stress. Harris takes Allegra to manage her allergies and urticaria, and for the past three years she has undergone allergen immunotherapy (ATI).

Other details from the report include that Harris is nearsighted and wears corrective contact lenses, that she has a family history of colon cancer (her mother died of colon cancer in 2009) and that she is ‘up to date on all preventative care recommendations, including colonoscopy and annual mammograms.’ 

The decision to release Harris’ medical information comes after a New York Times report asserted that Trump has not been transparent with his own health, even after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his head at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania this past July.

Trump did not release his medical records in his first White House campaign in 2016, the report notes. Neither did the Trump White House release accurate updates on his condition after a 2020 COVID diagnosis, with reports detailing that the president was more sick than his doctors said in public, according to the report.

‘In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview,’ the report said. It goes on to quote several medical experts who raise concerns that Trump could enter the Oval Office in a second term with several ‘potentially worrisome issues.’ 

The last health update from Trump came in November 2023, when his personal doctor, Bruce Aronwald, said in a letter Trump’s ‘overall health is excellent.’ 

‘His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,’ Aronwald wrote.

In response to a request for comment, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pointed to the letter released by Aronwald and reports from former White House doctor Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who treated Trump after the failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.

‘President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson who treated him after the first assassination attempt,’ Cheung said. 

‘All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief. He has maintained an extremely busy and active campaign schedule unlike any other in political history, whereas Kamala Harris has been unable to keep up with the demands of campaigning and reveals on a daily basis she is wholly unqualified to be President of the United States. Her schedule is much lighter because, it is said, she does not have the stamina of President Trump. Polls are reflective of this.’ 

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

In every election there are moments, some obvious at the time, some less so, that shape the state of the race, leaving public opinion on the ground, and eventually in the polls, very different from how they found it.

This year is no exception and since the contest hit the final stretch under early September skies, there are five events — twists in the road — that have led to the general sense of panic we see among Democrats, and renewed confidence for the Republicans.

It is worth remembering that at the end of August, Kamala Harris was firmly leading, Donald Trump was being bashed, even by some on the right, for choosing JD Vance as his running mate, and frankly, the picture was looking really rosy for the Democrats. But that was all about to change. 

Here are the five moments that wrought that change.

1. RFK Jr Endorsing (And Normalizing) Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s endorsement of Donald Trump at the end of August was the moment that Trump regained momentum in the election. Harris had flatlined, albeit with a narrow lead, but the Trump campaign was also stalled out.

RFK Jr did two things. First, he brought along most of his voters, as polls now show us, to Trump, and these are people who aren’t big fans of Trump or Harris, but trust the Kennedy scion to demand accountability from either. Second, the endorsement was an arrow to the heart of the argument that Trump is some fascist, or threat to democracy. If Kennedy wasn’t buying it, then neither were most Americans in the middle.

2. The Harris Debate Victory Mirage

In the minutes after last month’s debate between Harris and Trump, Democrats and their media allies were over the moon about Kamala speaking her truth to power and stylistically trouncing the bad orange man. 

Others weren’t so sure. Yes, Trump seemed flat, and Harris did better than many expected, but she had a unique job to do, which was to tell the American people who she is and what she stands for, especially given that she had no primary cycle in which to do so. On this count she squarely failed, and the voters I spoke to all knew it. It was the biggest missed opportunity of the race by either side. There was no bounce for Harris. In fact, it was when polls started moving to Trump.

3. JD Vance Strikes Back

As I have insisted in these pages for months, the media’s farcical attack on JD Vance for being weird never landed with voters, but it was enough, early on to be a stumbling block, leading the punditry to declare his selection a mistake. Then he debated Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz, coming away with a clear, if not overwhelming, victory.

Before and after the debate, Vance sought out every tough interview he could get and proved himself deft and able at defending Trump and populism, even in the teeth of left-wing talking points. Today, it is obvious that his selection was a boon to the ticket.

4. Joe Biden Voters Jumping Ship

Of all the hard turns and switchbacks of the past month, the one that nobody I talked to saw coming, be they voters, pundits, consultants or clairvoyants, was that there a significant number of voters, especially in Pennsylvania, who would have voted for Scranton Joe, but aren’t voting for Harris.

The bombshell moment that revealed this was the Teamsters refusal to endorse Kamala after the union’s internal polling showed that while Biden beat Trump, Trump trounced Harris among its members. According to Pew Research, Trump now has the lead in the bellwether Catholic vote, which Biden won in 2020. This as Harris refuses to attend the Catholic Al Smith Dinner and Gov Gretchen Whitmer mocks the Eucharist on tik tok with a Harris Walz hat on. 

This could all spell revenge for Joseph Robinette Biden.

5. Harris’ Embarrassing Media Gauntlet

Over the past week, as concern turned to panic in Democratic circles, the Hidin’ Harris 2024 campaign realized it had a problem, that nobody knows who she is, and she had better go get on TV. It did not go well.

First, she did so poorly on ’60 Minutes’ that CBS News had to surreptitiously edit her real response to a question about Israel when her ham-fisted actual response was a rank slurry of jingoistic buzzwords.

Then Harris took to ‘The View,’ where she couldn’t think of anything the Biden administration should have done differently, and then hours later, failed to answer the same softball question on the Stephen Colbert show. Harris isn’t just not ready for prime time, she isn’t ready for daytime or late-night either, and boy, did it show.

There’s just over three weeks until Election Day, and a lot can change, but over the past month and a half, all the breaks have gone Trump’s way, and Harris’ willful refusal to define herself or her policies has kept her from fighting back.

The Harris campaign needs some major late-game changes, but after the five twists that put Trump back in command, all he needs to do is stay the course.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he shares a “very close” worldview with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian, as the sanctioned leaders held a friendly inaugural meeting just as the Middle East braces for Israel’s response to Tehran’s largest-ever missile attack last week.

The meeting at a regional summit in Ashgabat, the capital of the Central Asian country Turkmenistan, also comes against a backdrop of closer military ties between Iran and Russia’s military in recent years, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“We are actively working together in the international arena and our assessments of events taking place in the world are often very close,” Putin said during the landmark meeting, according to Russian state media outlet TASS.

“Since Ukraine, the two countries have been more equal in terms of both needing each other and relying each other on specific issues. And that, I think, has been seen as beneficial from the Iranian side,” said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, senior analyst and associate fellow, at UK think tank Chatham House.

Moscow and Tehran have a de facto military alliance in the region to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Analysts say the countries have found further common ground as they are increasingly isolated by global sanctions.

There is a perception in Moscow that Iran can teach Russia about the tools to evade sanctions, Bassiri Tabrizi noted, adding, “I think it’s overall a goal from the Iranian side, so that has been part of the broader conversation about being part of the BRICS,” the bloc of major emerging economies that Iran formally joined early this year.

Pezeshkian, a reformist who won Iran’s election in July following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, has already emphasized his desire to strengthen bilateral cooperation with Russia to counter the “cruel” sanctions of the West.

In a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Tehran last week, the Iranian leader called for accelerating joint projects. Meanwhile, Russia expressed interest in expanding trade and economic cooperation as well as diversifying its bilateral trade with Iran.

The Russian prime minister also invited Pezeshkian to attend the October BRICS summit in Russia, where the two countries are expected to sign a comprehensive strategic agreement.

The Russian foreign ministry has touted these meetings as evidence that Russia-Iran relations are at an “all-time high,” according to TASS.

Ahead of the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the agenda will focus on “primarily bilateral Russian-Iranian relations,” according to TASS. “But, of course, the situation in the Middle East will not be ignored, it will also be on the agenda. In any case, there will be a serious conversation.”

There have also been reports of Russian involvement in arms transfers to the Iran-backed Houthis. Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer who was exchanged in a prisoner swap for American basketball star Brittney Griner, has allegedly reentered the arms trade to broker the sale of $10 million worth of automatic weapons to the Yemen-based rebels, The Wall Street Journal and other Western media outlets reported this week, citing unnamed Western officials. Bout has denied that.

However, developments in the Middle East have not necessarily strengthened Iran-Russia relations, Bassiri Tabrizi noted, and some analysts argue that Russia stands to benefit from the conflicts involving Iranian proxies distracting from the war in Ukraine on the international stage.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

A United Nations inquiry has accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza during its year-long conflict with Hamas in attacks it said amount to war crimes.

Israel’s actions in the besieged Palestinian enclave “constitute the war crimes of willful killing and mistreatment and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the commission said in a statement Thursday.

“Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles” in Gaza, according to the report by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The Israeli attacks resulted in “fuel, food, water, medicines and medical supplies not reaching hospitals, while also drastically reducing permits for patients to leave the territory for medical treatment,” it said.

The Israeli foreign ministry called the accusations “outrageous” and said they were “another blatant attempt by the (commission) to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel and obstruct its right to protect its population while covering up the crimes of terrorist organizations.”

“This report shamelessly portrays Israel’s operations in terror-infested health facilities in Gaza as a matter of policy against Gaza’s health system, while entirely dismissing overwhelming evidence that medical facilities in Gaza have been systematically used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terrorist activities.”

Hamas, it said, uses medical facilities to conceal operatives, store weapons, conduct attacks and hide hostages. Hamas has repeatedly denied that it uses hospitals for military activity.

The UN report also accused Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups of committing war crimes of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, rape and sexual violence” for their treatment of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza. It also investigated “institutionalized mistreatment” of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected “accusations of widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees,” saying Israel is “fully committed to international legal standards” on treatment of detainees.

In a statement accompanying the 24-page report, which does not have the force of law, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Israel “must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction” in Gaza.

“Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system,” she said.

As part of the report, UN experts investigated the killing of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who made headlines in late January after a recording emerged of her pleading to emergency workers to rescue her and her family after they became trapped in their car due to Israeli shelling.

Despite an ambulance arriving at the scene while the girl was still alive, the presence of Israeli security forces effectively “prevented access,” meaning the bodies of Rajab’s relatives “could not be retrieved from their bullet-ridden car until 12 days after the incident,” the report said.

The report “determined on reasonable grounds that the Israeli Army’s 162nd Division” which operated in the area at the time is “responsible for killing the family of seven, shelling the ambulance and killing the two paramedics inside.”

The incident was just one of several alleged attacks on health care in Gaza, amid broader wartime conditions.

The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on October 30.

The commission previously alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also amounted to crimes against humanity.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Russia has confirmed that Donald Trump sent the Kremlin sample Covid-19 tests in the early days of the pandemic, after revelations in veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book raised further questions about the former US president’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The Trump administration “sent us several samples of test kits,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, broadly supporting Woodward’s claim. His intervention comes after Trump denied the claims, telling ABC News they were “false.”

Legendary reporter Woodward wrote in “War” that Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”

“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump, according to Woodward. “I don’t care,” Trump replied. “Fine.”

“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”

Peskov did not confirm whether or not those tests were specifically for Putin’s own use, as Woodward writes.

The Kremlin’s press secretary said: “At that time, the pandemic was starting, and the situation was very difficult for all countries.

“Of course, initially, all countries tried to exchange aid shipments with each other,” he continued. “At that time, we sent a shipment of ventilators to the United States, and the Americans sent us several samples of test kits, as those were practically unique items. Many countries were doing the same.”

The Kremlin’s response seemingly contradicts Trump’s denial of Woodward’s claims.

“He’s a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles,” Trump told ABC News of Woodward on Tuesday. In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump gave Woodward “absolutely no access” for the book. “None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true,” he said.

Citing a Trump aide, Woodward also reported that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021. Peskov denied those claims, saying: “That is not true; it did not happen.” Trump also denied those claims to ABC News.

The frantic first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a diplomatic opening for Putin; the Trump White House was criticized at the time for purchasing medical supplies from Moscow, a move that was described by experts as a propaganda win for the Kremlin.

The Trump administration also spent $200 million sending thousands of ventilators around the world, starting weeks after the former president touted America as the “king of ventilators,” but without any established way to locate them, the Government Accountability Office found in a report. Russia was among the countries to receive those ventilators.

Woodward’s claims once again throw scrutiny on Trump’s relationship with Putin, weeks before the US presidential election.

They were quickly seized on by Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in an interview with Howard Stern: “People were dying by the hundreds. Everybody was scrambling to get these (test) kits … and this guy who was President of the United States is sending them to Russia? To a murderous dictator, for his personal use?”

“You’re getting played,” Harris said of Trump.

Trump has, for his part, continued to speak fondly of his relationship with Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made him a pariah among Western leaders.

“I got along well with him. I hope to get along well with him again,” Trump said during an interview on X with billionaire Elon Musk. Trump added that getting along well with strongmen world leaders “is a good thing.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Catherine, Princess of Wales delighted royal-watchers this week with an unexpected appearance alongside her husband, Prince William.

The couple popped up in Southport, a town in the northwest of England, on Thursday, where the community is still grieving after the murders of three young girls this summer.

William and Kate are thought to have spent around 90 minutes with the families of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, who lost their lives in July when they were attacked while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

It was also an opportunity for the pair to sit down with some of the emergency services personnel who responded to the scene and hear about their experiences and the mental health support they have received in the months since.

It was an emotional conversation that saw the princess express the couple’s gratitude to the first responders, before comforting and hugging some of those grappling with the traumatic impact of the incident.

“The Princess of Wales broke off and came back into the building to give a hug to the people who responded because she could see the emotion in them and could see it was difficult for them to relay their feelings and to say how impactful events have been,” Phil Garrigan, chief fire officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, explained after the engagement, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency.

“I think that just shows a really caring side and is very, very touching for them.”

It was a big moment for the popular 42-year-old royal – her first public outing since wrapping up her chemotherapy treatment.

But wanting to be there and carrying out the engagement are two very different things. Ultimately, her appearance came down to whether she felt well enough on the day.

King Charles previously visited the area in August and it’s clear that the royal family don’t want the town to feel forgotten as the weeks and months pass.

The Southport engagement was designed to be a low-key event and, in fact, had not been previously announced either to the public or the press. However, it quietly supported the princess’ own words from a month ago when she revealed she had completed her cancer treatment.

In a video message, Kate had thrilled royal fans by saying she was “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

Since then, she’s undertaken private meetings on some of her projects at Windsor Castle and carried out a few private visits. It all signals that her recovery is going well.

While aides would not want to jeopardize her recovery by pushing her to appear before she’s ready, the Princess of Wales’ latest appearance shows that she’s back at work, steadily increasing her workload while she continues to get stronger.

This all means she’s likely to keep her workload lighter and that we’ll continue to see these unexpected pop-ups as she makes daily decisions on engagements on a case-by-case basis. And if all continues well, it could mean she takes on more in the new year and perhaps, even, starts traveling again.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

The man wore camouflage gear, a long beard protruding below a mask. His features were hidden, but when New Zealand police saw the video showing three figures walking behind him, one name came instantly to mind.

Fugitive Thomas Callam Phillips has been evading police for three years since disappearing with his children Ember, Maverick and Jayda – now 8, 9 and 11 – into the rugged wilderness of the country’s North Island during a bitter family split in December 2021.

At first Phillips was wanted for failing to appear in court on charges of wasting police resources but, three years on, his charge sheet has grown longer and more serious, with allegations that he robbed a bank in May 2023 with an unnamed female accomplice.

Police have scrambled search teams, helicopters and planes to investigate sporadic sightings but have failed to find them.

Last week’s sighting is believed to be the first of all three children since 2021.

“The guy had a big, long beard, and the kids were all masked up, and they were carrying packs, and they weren’t very keen to talk to them at all,” McOviney said.

Instead, his grandson filmed them on his phone, providing the first proof of life of the missing Phillips children that their mother Cat has seen since they left.

The entire country wants to know where they are, and why it’s taking police so long to find them.

“This is not a big country we’re talking about,” said Lance Burdett, a former detective inspector and lead crisis negotiator for New Zealand Police. “It’s very surprising that they haven’t been found, particularly since the number of sightings are in a very similar area.”

Max Baxter, mayor of the Otorohanga district that includes Marokopa, a rural community home to fewer than 100 people, says authorities believe Phillips is receiving help.

“We absolutely believe that somebody, or some people, are helping them,” said Baxter. “Tom still has a number of supporters out there believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.”

A family missing in wild terrain

New Zealand’s North Island is home to the wild, awe-inspiring landscape that formed some of the backdrop to Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies.

Steep hills with sweeping views drop away into deep valleys, dotted with caves covered by a blanket of dense forest. Marokopa is the type of place where it’s easy to get lost – and even easier to hide.

“There’s a reason why people live at Marokopa,” said Baxter. “It’s because they love the isolation. They love the fact that they’re on the rugged west coast, that they can go fishing, they can hang out with like-minded people.”

Phillips was raised in the area and his parents still live there in the family home. In a statement provided to TVNZ last year, his mother denied any knowledge of her son’s whereabouts and said the family would “like nothing more” than for the four to return.

It’s not the first time Phillips has disappeared with Ember, Maverick and Jayda. In September 2021, his car was reported abandoned on a beach, prompting a large police search of land and sea.

For three weeks, a police helicopter and drones scoured the coastline, while rescue teams searched on land, but just as the operation was winding down – with fears the family was lost at sea – they suddenly reappeared.

Phillips reportedly told police he and the children had been camping in bushland. He was later charged with wasting police resources and given a date to appear in court.

But before that day came, he disappeared again with the three children. Some assumed he’d “gone bush” again, and would later emerge – but this time, they haven’t come home.

Three children isolated from society

Ember, Maverick and Jayda were just 5, 7 and 8, when they vanished. For more than two years, their mother kept a low profile, releasing written statements through police, appealing for help to find them.

But this June, she introduced herself in an emotional video posted to Facebook.

“Hello world,” she said. “My name is Cat … I’m standing here before you today, begging you for your help to bring my babies home.”

The eldest child, Jayda, had just turned 11. “She will be a young woman now, and she needs her mother,” said Cat, who has not publicly revealed her surname. “Ember is asthmatic as am I … she needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land.”

“I can only imagine how Maverick is coping,” she added.

At the time the video was released, police had just offered a reward for 80,000 New Zealand dollars ($48,000) for information leading to finding the children. It flushed out reports of sightings, but no breakthrough.

The children’s older sister, Jubilee Dawson, made a separate appeal in an interview last year, sharing memories of her siblings.

“Jayda is the more outgoing one … she’s definitely the most confident of the three … loves talking to everybody,” Dawson told a Mata Reports documentary. “Maverick is more introverted, I’d say he’s more shy … Ember is the youngest, and more sweet and bubbly.”

Dawson fears the children may now be “traumatized and scared” and worries that they don’t know that their family is looking for them.

“We love them very much, and we are just waiting for them to come home,” she said.

An alleged bank robbery

Authorities are concerned that Phillips is not just hiding the children, but encouraging them to engage in criminal acts.

In May 2023, two masked people held up a branch of the ANZ bank, escaping on a motorbike with cash. New Zealand Police later named Phillips as the suspect, and said he was aided by a female accomplice. Both were said to be armed.

A witness told local media the accomplice was small, “even shorter than me.”

Phillips is now wanted for aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

Burdett, the former detective inspector, said if Phillips carried out the bank robbery, it suggests the fugitive father was desperate for cash.

“They have to be surviving on something. You do need money. You can only live so much on the land, and particularly with three young kids,” Burdett said. “They’re going to be growing in three years.”

In November 2023, Phillips and an unnamed child are also alleged to have smashed the window of a shop at 2 a.m., before fleeing on a stolen quad bike. Phillips has also been seen on CCTV, with his face covered, buying supplies in a hardware store.

“We know Tom has been sighted at retail locations across the Waikato region disguised with various masks,” police said in a statement. 

Burdett said police need more resources to search the area and suggested a general call-out might help boost numbers on the ground.

“Let’s get in there and saturate the area. I’m sure if you asked a lot of locals – can you spend one or two days walking across these hills? – a lot of people would do it. Not just locals,” he said.

However, Mayor Baxter suggests venturing into the dense bushland around Marokopa is not a good idea for those unaccustomed to the terrain.

“For an inexperienced person out there, you could find yourself two meters off the track and may not find the track again,” he said. “We’re talking very, very deep bush and rugged countryside.”

Have they been living rough?

Their most recent statement says the “credible” sighting of Phillips and the children on October 3 prompted a three-day search but “nothing further of significance was located.”

“Police continue to urge those in the Marokopa community to remain alert and report any suspicious activity, no matter how minor, to us,” the statement added.

Mayor Baxter said the search had divided opinion in the community between those who believe Phillips should give the children up and others who defend his rights as a father.

Many just want the entire police operation to go away, he said.

Baxter said he finds it hard to believe the children have been living rough for three years in an area frequently pelted by wind and rain, where winter temperatures dip below freezing. That’s why he believes Phillips and the children must be receiving help.

“We all know it, but it just gets very uncomfortable when it’s raining day after day after day,” he said.

“I think there has to be either a shearer’s quarters, another house somewhere, a woolshed where they’ve been holed up for extensive periods of time, and they’ve been given supplies,” he said.

McOviney, whose grandson took the recent footage, posited a similar theory, noting that woolsheds and houses are dotted across the remotely populated area, used by workers tending livestock that graze in the hills.

“I think they’ve got help. I don’t know that for sure, but to keep little kids like that isolated from the family and from everybody else, you’d think they’d need some help, wouldn’t you?”

In her video message, Cat hinted at resistance in the community to the search from people who don’t believe her children need saving.

“Many of you say that the children are fine, that they’re being well looked after. How do you know, have you seen them, or is it just bush talk?” she said.

“What Thomas is doing is not okay…  It is not okay to isolate and control. It is child neglect. It is child endangerment … None of this is okay.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com