Britain’s Catherine, Princess of Wales, who is recovering from cancer, has pulled out of attending the Royal Ascot race meeting, her Kensington Palace office said on Wednesday.

The famed sporting event in Berkshire in southern England is a key event in the royal calendar.

Catherine, also known as Kate, would not be attending Royal Ascot with her husband Prince William, King Charles III and Queen Camilla as she continued to “find the right balance following her battle with cancer” the domestic Press Association news agency added.

The 43-year-old future queen has been making a gradual return to public duties since she announced she was cancer free in September 2024.

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In March that year, the mother-of-three revealed she was undergoing a course of “preventative chemotherapy” for an undisclosed cancer.

Kate, who in January revealed she was in remission, was said to be disappointed not to able to attend Royal Ascot, a renowned social and sporting occasion for which the royal family come out in force.

The annual five-day race meeting was said to be the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite sporting event.

Royal Ascot begins each day of the week with the Royal Procession, a historic tradition in which the monarch and various accompanying members of the royal family arrive along the track in horse-drawn carriages.

They then watch the racing from the exclusive Royal Enclosure.

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The enclosure operates a strict dress code of top hats and morning coats — jackets with a long “tail” — for men and hats and knee-length or longer dresses or skirts for women.

Charles, 76, has also faced his own cancer battle.

The king announced in early 2024 that he too had been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer.

He has since returned to public duties, but is still undergoing treatment.

Catherine on Saturday appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the rest of the royal family following Charles’s annual birthday parade.

On Monday she was photographed attending an official royal event at St George’s Chapel on the royal family’s Windsor estate, west of London.

AFP

WhatsApp has said it is “concerned” that its services could be blocked in Iran after a state broadcaster urged the public to delete the messaging app, claiming it was sharing data with arch-rival Israel.

State television IRIB appealed to Iranians on Tuesday to delete WhatsApp from their phones, alleging that the app collects users’ personal data, including “last known locations and communications”, and shares them with Israel.

On Wednesday, Israel and Iran exchanged fire for the sixth consecutive day, with Israel stating it had struck a nuclear site near Tehran.

A WhatsApp spokesperson dismissed the IRIB’s claims, saying all messages sent on the app are “end-to-end encrypted”, with only the sender and recipient able to access them.

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“We’re concerned these false reports will be used as an excuse to block our services at a time when people need them most,” the spokesperson told AFP.

“We do not track your precise location, we don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging, and we do not track the personal messages people are sending one another,” they said.

WhatsApp also does not “provide bulk information to any government”.
Israel launched a massive bombing campaign against Iran on Friday, targeting nuclear and military facilities as well as residential areas.

Iran has responded by launching missiles and drones, and early on Wednesday said it had fired hypersonic missiles at Israel.

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Tehran announced on Friday that it was placing temporary restrictions on the internet for the duration of the conflict.

Numerous sites and apps have since become at least partially inaccessible.

The authorities appealed to the public on Tuesday to “minimise their use of equipment connected to the internet and to take appropriate precautions” online.

For their own safety, civil servants and their security teams have been banned from using any connected devices, including smartphones, watches, and laptops, during the Israeli air offensive.

In the wake of nationwide protests triggered by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, Iranian authorities blocked several apps and online services, including WhatsApp.

AFP

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States Mediation and Security Council, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, has raised concerns over the apparent inclusion of all ECOWAS member states in a new wave of United States visa restrictions, describing the policy as a significant barrier to trade, diplomacy, and regional prosperity.

Speaking at the opening of the 54th Ordinary Session of the Mediation and Security Council at the Ministerial Level in Abuja on Wednesday, Tuggar warned that such restrictions could stifle efforts to deepen US-West Africa relations, particularly at a time when the region is ripe for economic cooperation and security collaboration.

The minister expressed concern, “It would be most unfortunate if it comes to pass, because we are a region of opportunities ready to do deals.

“We would like to do deals with the US, but visa restrictions are non-tariff barriers to deals.”

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Tuggar framed the policy not only as a diplomatic misstep but also as an economic missed opportunity, especially given ECOWAS’s vast resource base.

“We possess critical minerals and even rare earths such as Samarium from the Monazite found in my home State of Bauchi.

“We in this part of the world are students of the Art of the Deal and have been part of the international trading system even before the modern state system,” he added.

He further called on Washington to re-evaluate its approach, stressing that West Africa is not lacking in potential partners.

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“ECOWAS countries and the US have a rare opportunity to create a partnership based on principles of need. We are also a strategic alternative to more distant and politically divergent energy producers.

“We will do deals for our prosperity; the only question is with whom? Who takes up the opportunities in our region by allowing government officials and technocrats, business executives and entrepreneurs to travel freely back and forth to close the deals?” he questioned.

United States President Donald Trump is considering imposing a travel ban on Nigeria and a host of other countries, mostly from Africa.

The affected countries are expected to meet new requirements laid down by the State Department within 60 days.

“The new list includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

“The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet. Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from widespread government fraud.”