An unusual asteroid traveling near Earth is thought to be a chunk of the moon, but exactly how it ended up zooming through the solar system has remained a mystery. Now, researchers say they’ve made a key connection in this cosmic puzzle.

The space rock, known as 2016 HO3, is a rare quasi-satellite — a type of near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun but sticks close to our planet.

Astronomers first discovered it in 2016 using the Pan-STARRS telescope, or Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, in Hawaii. Scientists call the asteroid Kamo’oalewa, a name derived from a Hawaiian creation chant that alludes to an offspring traveling on its own.

While most near-Earth asteroids originate from the main asteroid belt — between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter — new research has revealed that Kamo’oalewa most likely came from the Giordano Bruno crater on the moon’s far side, or the side that faces away from Earth, according to a study published April 19 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

It’s the first time astronomers have traced a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid to a lunar crater, said lead study author Yifei Jiao, a visiting scholar at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and a doctoral student at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“This was a surprise, and many were skeptical that it could come from the moon,” said study coauthor Erik Asphaug, professor at the University of Arizona’s laboratory, in a statement. “For 50 years we have been studying rocks collected by astronauts on the surface of the moon, as well as hundreds of small lunar meteorites that were ejected randomly by asteroid impacts from all over the moon that ended up on Earth. Kamo’oalewa is kind of a missing link that connects the two.”

In addition to helping confirm Kamo’oalewa’s potential relationship to the moon, the findings could ultimately lead to other revelations — including how the ingredients for life made their way to Earth.

Once upon a crater

Measuring between 150 and 190 feet (46 and 58 meters) in diameter, Kamo’oalewa is about half the size of the London Eye Ferris wheel. During orbit, it comes within 9 million miles (14.5 million kilometers) of Earth, making it a potentially hazardous asteroid astronomers keep track of and learn more about in case it ever strays too close to our planet.

Previous research focused on the asteroid’s reflectivity, which unlike typical near-Earth asteroids is similar to lunar materials, as well as the space rock’s low orbital velocity in relation to Earth, a quality that suggests it came from relatively nearby.

For the new study, astronomers used simulations to narrow down which of the moon’s thousands of craters could have been the asteroid’s point of origin.

Based on the modeling, the team determined that the impactor that potentially created the asteroid would need to be at least 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in diameter to dislodge such a massive fragment. When the object hit the moon, it likely dug Kamo’oalewa out from beneath the lunar surface, sending the space rock flying and leaving a crater larger than 6 to 12 miles (10 to nearly 20 kilometers) in diameter.

These simulations also helped the team search for a relatively young crater, given that the asteroid is only estimated to be a few million years old, while the moon is believed to be 4.5 billion years old.

These parameters helped researchers zero in on Giordano Bruno, a 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater estimated to be 4 million years old, as the likely spot where Kamo’oalewa started its journey.

The anatomy of an impact

The study’s simulations showed that Kamo’oalewa was excavated from the lunar surface at several miles per second.

“You’d think the impact event would pulverize and distribute the (lunar material) far and wide,” Asphaug said. “But there it is. So, we turned the problem around and asked ourselves, ‘How can we make this happen?’”

Based on their models, the team believes the impact event sent tens of hundreds of 32.8-foot (10-meter) fragments flying into space. Yet Kamo’oalewa survived as a massive, singular fragment.

“While most of that debris would have impacted the Earth as lunar meteorites over the course of less than a million years, a few lucky objects can survive in (sun-centric) orbits as near-Earth asteroids, yet to be discovered or identified,” Jiao said.

Understanding how such a giant chunk of the moon could remain intact enough to become an asteroid could help scientists studying panspermia, or the idea that the ingredients for life may have been delivered to Earth as “organic hitchhikers” on space rocks such as asteroids, comets or other planets.

“While Kamo’oalewa comes from a lifeless planet, it demonstrates how rocks ejected from Mars could carry life — at least in principle,” Asphaug said.

Kamo’oalewa specimen: A connecting puzzle piece

Studying crater impacts on the moon can also help scientists better understand the consequences of asteroid impacts should a space rock pose a threat to Earth in the future.

“Testing the new model of Kamo’oalewa’s origin from a specific, young lunar crater paves the way for obtaining ground-truth knowledge of the damage that asteroid impacts can cause to planetary bodies,” said study coauthor Renu Malhotra, a planetary sciences professor at the University of Arizona, in a statement.

China’s Tianwen-2 mission, launching in 2025, will visit Kamo’oalewa with the aim of collecting samples from the asteroid and eventually returning them to Earth.

“It will be different in important ways from any of the specimens we have so far — one of those connecting pieces that help you solve the puzzle,” Asphaug said.

Studying a sample excavated from the lunar far side could reveal insights into a part of the moon that has been less studied and shed light on the composition of its subsurface. Given that the impact likely happened a few million years ago — relatively young on astronomical timescales — the samples could also help scientists study how space radiation causes weathering and erosion on asteroids over time.

“The exciting thing is that when a space mission visits an asteroid and returns some samples, we have surprises and unexpected outcomes, that usually go beyond what we were anticipating,” said study coauthor Dr. Patrick Michel, astrophysicist and director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France. “So, whatever Tianwen-2 will return, it will be an extraordinary new source of information, as all asteroid missions so far.”

For a long time, astronomers thought it was impossible for meteorites to come from the moon until lunar meteorites were found on Earth, said Noah Petro, NASA project scientist for both the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Artemis III. Petro was not involved in the study.

The hope is that future samples could confirm the lunar origin of Kamo’oalewa.

“Going there and finding out is absolutely a way to go about it now,” Petro said. “It’s a great, great reminder that we live in a very exciting solar system and we live in a very exciting corner of the solar system with our moon. There’s no other place, no other planet in our solar system with a moon like our moon. And things like this are great reminders of how special the Earth-moon system is.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is coming under fierce pressure from far-right members of his government not to agree to the ceasefire proposal currently on the table, which could prevent an Israeli military offensive in Rafah from moving forward.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday capped off his seventh round of shuttle diplomacy in the region since Hamas’ October 7 attack, as the Biden administration continues to push for a “ceasefire that brings the hostages home.”

But a far-right Israeli government minister said the proposed deal was “terrible” and would throw the sacrifices of Israeli soldiers “in the trash,” causing outrage among some Israeli lawmakers and highlighting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s struggle to appease the most extreme wing of his coalition.

“The deal [is] horrible and terrible. A government that throws everything in the trash in order to return 22 or 33 people has no right to exist,” settlement minister Orit Strook, a member of the far-right Religious Zionism party, told Israel’s Army Radio (GLZ) on Wednesday.

Strook’s remarks come as Netanyahu mulls an incursion into Rafah, the southernmost point of Gaza to which more than 1 million Palestinians have fled after being displaced and where Hamas is believed to have regrouped after Israel’s destruction of much of the north of the Strip.

Despite domestic and international pressure to agree to a hostage-ceasefire deal, a vocal part of Netanyahu’s coalition have urged Israel’s military to continue into Rafah, prioritizing the destruction of Hamas over the return of Israeli hostages.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, said Tuesday that accepting the proposed deal would mean “raising a white flag, and a victory for Hamas.”

“We have reached a crossroad in which Israel should decide between a clear victory and being defeated in this war with humiliation,” he said, urging Netanyahu not to accept the deal.

Former Israeli Prime Minister and opposition leader Yair Lapid hit back at Strook’s remarks.

“A government with 22 or 33 extreme coalition members has no right to exist,” he wrote on X.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet but widely seen as Netanyahu’s most formidable rival and a potential successor, said over the weekend that the return of the hostages held in Gaza was more pressing than an operation in Rafah.

“Entering Rafah is important in the long struggle against Hamas. The return of our hostages, abandoned by the 7.10 government, is urgent and of far greater importance,” said Gantz, referring to the October 7 Hamas’ attacks on Israel when more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 people taken hostage.

“If a responsible outline is reached for the return of the hostages with the backing of the entire security system, which does not involve the end of the war, and the ministers who led the government on 7.10 prevent it – the government will not have the right to continue to exist and lead the campaign.”

Strook accused the radio station of misrepresenting her remarks and later sought to clarify her comments, saying that a deal would “finally abandon many of the hostages.” Any deal with Hamas would also see Israel abandon its efforts to “destroy the Hamas regime,” she said.

The latest proposal, which Israel helped craft but has not fully agreed to, is laid out in two phases.

In the first phase, between 22 and 33 hostages are to be released over several weeks in exchange for the pause and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In the second phase, which sources have described as the “restoration of sustainable calm,” the remaining hostages, captive Israeli soldiers and bodies of hostages are to be exchange for more Palestinian prisoners.

Blinken met with Netanyahu in Tel Aviv Wednesday, following stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan earlier this week.

“We’re determined to get a ceasefire that brings the hostages home, and to get it now,” Blinken said during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, adding the “only reason that wouldn’t be achieved is because of Hamas.”

“We also have to be focused on the people in Gaza who are suffering,” he added, saying the focus also needs to be on “getting them the assistance they need, the food, the water, the medicine, the shelter.”

Outside the building where Blinken and Herzog met, protesters gathered outside holding posters and chanting, urging US President Joe Biden to “stop the war,” “save the hostages” and “bring them home.”

Nineteen people have been killed after a highway collapsed in China’s Guangdong province on Wednesday, according to the country’s state broadcaster, CCTV.

A section of the express highway connecting Meizhou City and Dapu City in Guangdong Province collapsed at around 2:10 a.m. on Wednesday, leaving eighteen cars trapped, CCTV reported.

Widely circulated social media videos shot in darkness showed a raging fire beneath where the road would have been and emergency service workers at the scene.

Images taken after daybreak showed cars piled up at the bottom of a ravine.

As of 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, 30 people were receiving medical care in hospitals, and they were “without immediate risk,” CCTV said without specifying their injuries.

The Guangdong provincial government had dispatched a rescue force of approximately 500 people, the state broadcaster said.

Rescue efforts were still underway, according to the update from the local police department.

Southern China has been bombarded with heavy rain in recent weeks.

Guangdong province, an economic powerhouse home to 127 million people, has seen widespread flooding, which has forced more than 110,000 people to relocate, state media reported, citing the local government.

The floods have killed at least four people in Guangdong, including a rescue worker, state news agency Xinhua reported Monday. At least 10 people remain missing, it added.

China’s newest, largest and most-advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, took a big step to joining the world’s largest naval fleet on Wednesday as it set out from Shanghai for its first sea trials.

The naval assessment is expected to take place in the East China Sea, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the Jiangnan Shipyard where the carrier has been under construction for more than six years, according to Shanghai’s Maritime Safety Administration.

“The sea trials will primarily test the reliability and stability of the aircraft carrier’s propulsion and electrical systems,” read an announcement from the state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.

The warship was launched in 2022 and has “completed its mooring trials, outfitting work and equipment adjustments” working up to the latest sea trials, Xinhua said.

With a displacement of 80,000 metric tons, the Fujian dwarfs the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) two active carriers, the 66,000-ton Shandong and the 60,000-ton Liaoning. Only the United States Navy operates bigger aircraft carriers than Fujian.

“The Fujian’s sea trials represent an important milestone for the PLAN, marking its entry into the small club of top-class carrier aviation-capable navies,” said John Bradford, a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow.

The Fujian’s key feature is an electromagnetic catapult system that will enable it to launch larger and heavier aircraft than the Shandong and Liaoning, which use a ski-jump style launch method.

Analysts say the Fujian’s ability to launch larger warplanes carrying higher munitions loads to farther distances will give the carrier a greater combat range than its predecessors in the Chinese fleet, providing the PLAN with so-called “blue-water” capabilities.

“These sea trials mark the first major step in China’s developing the capacity to project sea-based air power into deep ocean areas,” said Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center.

Comparison to US carriers

The electromagnetic catapult system puts the Fujian on par with the US Navy’s newest carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, the only active carrier in the world with an electromagnetic catapult system. The US Navy’s 10 older carriers, the Nimitz class, rely on steam-powered catapults to launch aircraft.

All the US carriers, however, will retain two key advantages over the Fujian: power and size.

The US carriers are nuclear powered, giving them the ability to remain at sea for as long as crew provisions last, while the Fujian is powered by conventional fuel, meaning it must either make a port call or be met by a tanker at sea to refuel.

As for the US Navy’s size advantage over the Fujian, the Ford displaces 100,000 tons and the 10 Nimitz-class ships 87,000 metric tons. The larger US ships can take on more aircraft, around 75 compared to an expected complement of 60 on the Fujian, according to estimates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Analysts have also noted that the US carriers have more catapults, a larger airway and more elevators to allow for quicker deployment of aircraft from the hangar deck below.

The US carriers “remain in an echelon of their own,” Bradford said.

Schuster said the current round of sea trials for Fujian are expected to last three to six days and would not include flight operations.

“Radars and communications equipment will get some testing, but the first sea trials always focus on hull integrity, propulsion and engineering since problems there prevent everything else from working well,” Schuster said.

In total, analysts expect the Fujian’s sea trials to take at least a year, with its commissioning likely to come next year or in 2026. A story on the website of the Chinese Defense Ministry in January noted the Liaoning underwent 10 sea trials and the Shandong nine before entering service.

When it joins the PLAN fleet, the Fujian will become the icon of what is now the world’s largest naval force,with more than 340 warships and counting as Chinese shipyards turn out new warships at a frenetic pace.

“It will be the most visible symbol of China’s growing naval power,” said Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the CSIS.

Meanwhile, the announcement of a fourth carrier for the Chinese fleet could come soon, PLAN political commissar Yuan Huazhi said in March, according to a report in the state-run Global Times.

When that announcement is made, the answer as to whether China will have a nuclear-powered carrier will be answered, the report said.

The US Navy already has three new Ford-class carriers under construction, the future John F Kennedy, Enterprise and Doris Miller.

In the early days of 2020, as science looked for answers to a mysterious viral outbreak in central China, a prominent Chinese virologist stepped forward to share critical data with the world.

Zhang Yongzhen’s disclosure of the genome of the virus that causes Covid-19 was a crucial step in the race to combat the pandemic, helping researchers globally to identify the pathogen and create vaccines to counter it.

He was lauded for his integrity by the scientific community, but in the years since, people who know Zhang say he has faced a series of unprecedented roadblocks in his career in China – with yet another barrier placed in front of his research over the past week.

On Sunday and Monday, Zhang, 59, slept overnight in protest outside his lab at the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center after administrators closed the facility abruptly for renovations, according to accounts posted on his Weibo social media page.

A post on his page early Wednesday said a “tentative agreement” had been reached for Zhang’s team to resume their scientific work at the lab, some of which is related to tracing the origins of Covid-19.

The ordeal is just the latest hindrance to Zhang’s research since 2020, according to a colleague who has been in contact with the Chinese scientist in recent years.

An account by Zhang’s research students posted online also laid out a litany of challenges faced by the scientist since the formal transfer of his official employment to the Shanghai center in 2020, when his 19-year tenure at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention also ended.

“That a top scientist in his field, a person who has made contributions to the country and mankind should have fallen to this point – is really sad and chilling,” the post read.

In a statement Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said it had closed some labs for renovation due to safety concerns and claimed it had provided additional office and experimental spaces for Zhang and his team.

The “institute always respects … and supports scientific researchers and students in carrying out normal research work,” the statement said.

Images posted on social media this week appeared to show Zhang wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the doorstep of the lab building as security guards hovered over him.

More than a dozen students’ research had been impacted by the lab closure, he said, adding it was “inconvenient” to say more at that time.

The earlier post by Zhang’s students said the two days originally allocated by the center for them to move their scientific work was insufficient. Their lab had been renovated as recently as 2020 and a second lab hadn’t been in use since the pandemic, they added.

Neither Zhang nor the online post detailing the circumstances leading to his protest connected the lab closure to his sharing of the coronavirus genome sequence in 2020.

‘Broken machine’

Zhang became the first scientist to share Covid-19’s genomic sequence on January 11, 2020 as the World Health Organization waited for China to provide the data following its announcement nearly two weeks earlier of a viral outbreak in the central city of Wuhan.

He was hailed internationally for his work and named by Nature as one of 10 people who helped shape science in 2020.

In an interview with the journal that year, Zhang reflected on his global recognition.

“They say, ‘January 11 was a turning point for understanding that this is serious. It was a turning point for China. It was a turning point for the world,’” he said.

But in China, Zhang faced challenges to his work that stemmed from that moment, according to his long-time collaborator Edward Holmes, a University of Sydney professor who published the genome with Zhang’s permission on an international data sharing website.

Following the release of the data, Zhang’s lab had limitations placed on it, which barred it from isolating the Covid virus, Holmes said.

It’s unclear if this move was separate from a Chinese government “rectification” order received by Zhang’s team that reports at the time said resulted in the temporary closure of the lab a day after the sequence release. Zhang told Nature in 2020 that the order merely required his lab to update its biosafety protocols after moving equipment during construction work.

Zhang, a scientist with China’s CDC since 2001, was also forced out of the agency in September 2020, according to a person familiar with the situation.

These changes for Zhang came as China – already known for top-down control on the academic sector – tightened oversight of scientific information related to the virus. That included imposing restrictions by April 2020 on the publication of academic research on the origins of the novel coronavirus.

Beijing has repeatedly defended its scientific transparency and data sharing related to the outbreak.

“In the old days, pre-Covid … he was like a machine and now the machine is broken. He’s just been slowly crushed by this.”

‘No regrets’

In the months after he shared the Covid-19 sequence, Zhang’s employment was transferred to the Shanghai Public Health Center, where he had held a five-year cooperation agreement and part-time professorship since 2018. It’s unclear if this move was already in the works prior to January 2020.

Since then, he has continued to publish in journals such as Cell and Nature Microbiology on the presence of viruses in animals and nature in China and received at least two international awards.

The most recent of his international publications in March looked at coronavirus variants in Shanghai in the initial months of the Covid-19 outbreak, and Zhang’s team continues to work on research related to the virus and its emergence.

Ongoing research includes a National Natural Science Foundation of China project at the laboratory, the post said.

In a Weibo post on January 11 marking the fourth anniversary of his Covid disclosure, Zhang appeared to allude to the challenges he has faced in the years since.

“Four years ago this morning, on behalf of the research team, we insisted on putting life first and made the right choice,” Zhang wrote.

“Despite going through continuous ups and downs, experiencing the warmth and cold of human emotion, and the harshness of the world, we have no regrets.”

But recent years have taken a steep toll on Zhang, according to Holmes.

“He’s not the same in terms of his productivity, he’s completely different – not the same person at all. It’s just been extraordinary to watch and extraordinary that it’s come to this,” he said.

Holmes, who had limited email contact with Zhang during his protest this week, said the Chinese virologist had told him he recently failed in his pursuit of a legal case against the Shanghai center for its handling of his contract.

“(All this has) gone on for a long time … but I hadn’t realized how bad it had got,” Holmes said.

A transitional council responsible for choosing Haiti’s next leadership has named one of its members as council president and proposed a new interim prime minister amid efforts to control the gang violence in the Caribbean nation.

The council, which is responsible for paving the way for elections and addressing the country’s deteriorating security situation, on Tuesday named Edgard Leblanc Fils as its president and proposed former sports minister Fritz Bélizaire as new interim prime minister.

The nine-member council, which was sworn in at the National Palace last week, consists of seven voting members and was established with the help of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). It is tasked with the responsibility of naming a new prime minister and cabinet.

The committee will exercise certain presidential powers until a new president-elect is inaugurated, which must take place no later than February 7, 2026.

The country’s former prime minister, Ariel Henry, resigned last week as the council was sworn in and the former finance minister, Michael Patrick Boisvert, has been filling the role on a temporary basis.

Still to come are the tasks of appointing a new head of government and a cabinet; coordinating the arrival of a multinational security force to reclaim the capital; and eventually holding long-overdue elections.

The gangs oppose the council, he added, saying it was more of the same, and it was time for the old political elites to go – a view held by many in Haiti.

Since February, attacks by an insurgent alliance of gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince mean the city’s international airport and seaport have ceased to function, breaking vital supply lines of food and aid and triggering an exodus of evacuation flights for foreign nationals.

With the city virtually cut off from the outside world, hospitals have been vandalized while warehouses and containers storing food and essential supplies have been broken into as the social fabric frays.

According to the UN, nearly 5 million people in Haiti are suffering from acute food insecurity – defined as when a person’s inability to consume adequate food poses immediate danger to their lives or livelihoods.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A nearly 300-year-old settlement once submerged beneath a major dam in the Philippines has reemerged as sweltering heat and drought dry up the reservoir.

Structures, including part of a church, tombstones and a municipal hall marker, reappeared in the middle of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija province in March after months of almost no rain, Marlon Paladin, a supervising engineer for the National Irrigation Administration, told AFP.

The area was deliberately flooded in the 1970s in the dam’s construction. But a drought currently affecting about half of the country’s provinces has pushed the dam’s water levels down, according to AFP.

Figures from the Philippine government’s weather agency, PAGASA, show those levels on April 30 were nearly 50 meters (160 feet) lower than normal.

Paladin told AFP that this is the sixth time the settlement has resurfaced since the creation of the reservoir, but “this is the longest time [it was visible] based on my experience.”

When water levels drop, the ruins become a popular tourist attraction, according to AFP.

Like much of Southeast Asia, the Philippines has for the past several weeks been hit by scorching heat, leading schools to suspend classes after temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit).

Although April and May are normally the hottest months in the Philippines, with temperatures averaging in the mid-30s (high 80s to mid 90s Fahrenheit), much of the country has seen even hotter temperatures.

In the past five days, the heat index in some areas has exceeded 40 degrees (104 degrees Fahrenheit), figures from PAGASA show. Heat index is a calculation of what the human body feels the temperature is like. It takes into account the actual temperature and humidity, which affects the body’s ability to cool itself.

The town of Muñoz near the dam has seen heat index over 41 degrees (106 degrees Fahrenheit) the last five days. On Sunday the temperature felt like 47 degrees (117 degrees Fahrenheit) because of other contributing factors. As of the end of March, drought covered much of northern and central Luzon, including Nueva Ecija province where the dam is located, according to PAGASA.

April has remained dry across the country, with portions of central and southern Luzon seeing less than 25% of the rainfall they should receive at this time, according to the US Climate Prediction Center.

This year, the El Niño climate pattern has exacerbated those conditions, according to AFP. This natural fluctuation comes on top of planetary warming caused by human-driven climate change.

Last spring, several countries in Southeast Asia experienced record-breaking heat well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

A 2023 report from the World Weather Attribution described that heatwave as a once-in-200-years event that would have been “virtually impossible to have occurred without climate change.”

King Charles III, who is being treated for an unspecified cancer, returned to public duties on Tuesday with his first official engagement since his diagnosis after his doctors were said to have been “very encouraged” by his progress.

The 75-year-old monarch revealed he was battling cancer in early February and is continuing his treatment as he restarts his public-facing engagements.

The first fresh entry in his diary was a visit to a cancer treatment center in London, where he was expected to meet patients and staff.

The King, who has been patron of Macmillan Cancer Support for nearly three decades, was accompanied by his wife, the Queen. The pair smiled and waved at well-wishers gathered nearby upon arrival before being welcomed to the hospital by medical staff.

Camilla, 76, has been president of cancer care and support charity, Maggie’s since 2008.

The King has largely remained out of the public eye during his treatment so far, apart from an outing on Easter Sunday when he delighted crowds with an impromptu walkabout after attending church with several family members.

Tuesday’s visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre was to reiterate the value of early diagnosis and focus attention on some of the innovative research taking place there.

The King’s outing came as he was announced as the new patron of Cancer Research UK. While at the center, he was due to meet with the organization’s chief clinician, Charlie Swanton, who has led a project called TRACERx, which is focused on lung cancer.

While Buckingham Palace announced on Friday that the British sovereign had been given the green light to return to public duties, it will be a cautious return.

It said that forthcoming events would be adapted where necessary to minimize any risks to his convalescence.

The palace did not specify how many engagements were being added to the King’s diary or whether he would be able to attend his birthday parade in London or the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations in Normandy in June.

However, it has been confirmed that he will welcome Japan’s Emperor and Empress for a state visit later that month.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Duchess of Edinburgh has become the first member of the British royal family to visit Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Buckingham Palace announced on Monday.

Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, who is the wife of Prince Edward, King Charles’ youngest sibling, travelled to Ukraine on Monday to “show her solidarity with survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and torture,” the palace said.

The duchess is a champion of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

Sophie met survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and torture, as well as children who were allegedly forcibly separated from their families by Russia, according to Buckingham Palace.

“Survivors here and around the world have spoken out so bravely about their experiences,” the Duchess of Edinburgh said. “They are the most powerful advocates who remind us all that we must not turn our backs on the horrors of this crime, we must never forget survivors.”

“Rather, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with all survivors to secure justice and holistic redress, and ensure that this crime isn’t an accepted part of conflict,” she said, adding that the survivors’ “rights and their voices must be at the heart of all our efforts to consign conflict-related sexual violence to the history books.”

Sophie paid her respects to those who died in Bucha, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, which was briefly occupied by Russia at the start of its full-scale invasion. Hundreds of civilians, including women, children and the elderly, were killed indiscriminately during the month-long occupation.

The duchess also met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska to discuss support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, as well as the role of women in ensuring that Ukraine’s “recovery and reconstruction is effective and long-lasting,” Buckingham Palace said.

Sophie has previously visited countries including Kosovo, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia to highlight the impact of conflict on survivors, hearing first-hand accounts from those who have experienced conflict-related sexual violence.

In March 2023, Prince William visited the Ukrainian-Polish border to meet British and Polish troops and learn more about their collaboration in supporting Ukraine.

Around 47 children vanish every day in Europe, according to new research by cross-border journalism collective Lost in Europe showing more than 50,000 child migrants went missing after arrival over the past three years.

Data requested from 31 European countries, including Austria, Germany, and Italy, show at least 51,433 unaccompanied refugee minors were registered as missing between 2021 and the end of 2023. The actual figure could be higher due to inadequate documentation of cases, with some countries not collecting data on such children at all.

The research builds on findings released in 2021 that revealed at least 18,000 child migrants disappeared upon arrival in Europe in the three years from January 2018 to December 2020.

Aagje Ieven, secretary general for Missing Children Europe, a federation bringing together grassroots organizations across the continent, said the increased number of reported cases revealed by the research serves as a sharp reminder of the many instances  yet to be uncovered.

“More of the iceberg is becoming visible, and that is a positive evolution,” she said, comparing the unreported cases to the bulk of the ice below the water’s surface. Out of 31 contacted countries, Lost in Europe received 20 responses, with seven lacking required data and 11 not responding — representing an improvement from 12 responses overall in 2021. Lost in Europe was able to find the data needed for two of the countries that did not respond, Italy and Slovakia, in official reports.

Italy and Austria lead in registrations of missing unaccompanied minors, with 22,899 and 20,077 cases respectively, followed by Belgium, Germany and Switzerland with between roughly 2,200 and 1,200 reported cases.

The fate of missing unaccompanied migrant children is worrying, Ieven said. “They are at a higher risk of being targeted by traffickers, if not already exploited by smugglers to pay off debts, or because they hold control over their loved ones or their passports.”

Multiple factors contribute to the disappearance of migrant children. There are concerns that some may have fallen prey to human traffickers or been subjected to exploitation in the sex industry. Others disappear voluntarily because they do not trust the authorities or to escape unsafe reception conditions.

Many move to other countries to reunite with relatives or friends without registering it, Ieven said.

Ieven pointed out that the scarcity of opportunities for minors makes them vulnerable to exploitation, alongside the numerous traumas they endure prior to reaching Europe. A 2022 Ghent University study found that 84% of children experienced physical violence during their migration to Europe, with over 90% witnessing it.

Children make up around 40% of the world’s displaced people, according to the United Nations. While fleeing wars and conflicts, thousands of children find themselves separated from their families and relatives, and others travel alone, sent ahead by parents seeking to ensure their survival.

Afghanistan was the country of origin for at least one in three unaccompanied minors who went missing in Europe between 2021 and 2023. The number of Afghan children arriving there increased following the Taliban takeover of power in August 2021.

Other significant countries of origin include Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco, according to the data collected by Lost in Europe.

Patricia Durr, chief executive of ECPAT UK, a children’s rights organization, emphasized in comments to Lost in Europe that the situation represents a crisis in child protection, “exacerbated by punitive border policies and the lack of safe and legal routes for children in Europe to move between member states safely.”

An Austrian Ministry of the Interior spokesperson noted that the substantial influx of asylum applications from unaccompanied minor refugees presents specific challenges regarding legal representation and reception, Lost in Europe said.

Patricia Durr raised further concerns about the impact that the EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum, approved by the European Parliament in April 2024, will have on children on the move. “Measures such as including children within detention for screening purposes is a clear breach of their rights under international law and will increase their vulnerability to going missing, abuse and trafficking,” she said.

According to Ieven, registering migrant children and acknowledging their rights, including access to education, is crucial for their safety. “What will keep them safe is understanding that there is a future for them in the system, rather than outside of it,” she said.

Lost in Europe is a not-for-profit cross-border journalism project investigating the disappearance of child migrants in Europe.