How Do the Queen and Royal Family Travel Abroad?

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)
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How Do the Queen and Royal Family Travel Abroad?

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, stand with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for a Commonwealth Day service in London, Britain March 11, 2019. (Reuters)

It's no surprise that members of the British royal family are among the world's most well-traveled individuals. They frequently jet overseas on official business, and are also no strangers to holidaying in far-flung, and, of course, secluded destinations.

Sometimes, this is by private plane, but the Queen's relatives have also been spotted on budget airlines, scheduled trains, and behind the wheel themselves, reported the Town & Country website.

Travel arrangements for official visits are determined by the Royal Travel Office, which takes into account security, cost and logistics before coming up with a plan.

Sometimes, this involves a charter plane which allows royals and their entourage to more easily stop off in multiple countries or islands, such as when Prince Charles and Camilla visited Cuba and the Caribbean earlier this year.

For that trip, which cost £416,576 (roughly $506,286), Prince Charles used the UK ministerial jet, the Royal Air Force's VIP Voyager, which is available to royals and British government officials.

For other visits, commercial flights are deemed more appropriate, like when Prince Harry and Meghan traveled first class with Qantas for their tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2018.

During this trip they also used a charter plane, which cost £81,002 (roughly $98,444) to travel to Fiji and Tonga.

Usually, the British public pick up the bill for official overseas travel except when the royals are visiting Commonwealth Realms (countries where the Queen is also Head of State), in which case the host country pays. While off-duty members of the royal family have been known to use both private planes and budget airlines.

Prince William and Kate, for example, have borrowed the private jet belonging to the Duke of Westminster for family vacations in Europe. When they holiday on the Caribbean island Mustique, they usually travel first class with British Airways to St. Lucia before taking another 30 minute flight to the private island. However, the couple has also been spotted on the budget airline EasyJet while heading on a skiing break.

Harry and Meghan were also seen sitting in economy on a scheduled British Airways flight to Nice in December 2017 en route to ring in the New Year. However, they have also both used private jets, with Harry recently taking one to Google's Climate Change summit and Meghan returning from her baby shower in New York on one.

No one covering Prince Harry and Meghan's trip to Cardiff in January 2018 could forget the stormy look on Harry's face when he stepped out of the car an hour late thanks to a train delay. The couple had boarded the first class carriage of a regular rail service from London Paddington that morning but found themselves held up when the train was moved to a slower track.

Other regular train journeys have gone more smoothly and the young royals in particular often choose this mode of transport, especially to visit major cities.

The Queen also uses a regular train service every year to start her Christmas break at Sandringham, boarding at London's King's Cross and disembarking at Norfolk's King's Lynn station. This all appears pretty frugal; however, there is also the small matter of the Royal Train, which is still occasionally used by members of the family.

Regulations permit the royals to use public funds to travel from residence to residence, trips they often make by helicopter. The Queen's Helicopter Flight currently has two helicopters in operation, which are based at RAF Odiham.



Thai Cops Go Undercover as Lion Dancers to Nab Suspected Thief

People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
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Thai Cops Go Undercover as Lion Dancers to Nab Suspected Thief

People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)
People gather to watch performers outside Emsphere shopping mall on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Horse, in Bangkok on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)

Thai police donned a lion dance costume during this week's Lunar New Year festivities to arrest a suspect accused of stealing about $64,000 worth of Buddhist artifacts, police said Thursday.

Officers dressed as a red-and-yellow lion made the arrest on Wednesday evening after receiving a report earlier this month of a home burglary in the suburbs of the capital, Bangkok, AFP reported.

Capital police said the reported break-in involved "numerous Buddhist objects and two 12-inch Buddha statues", along with evidence of repeated attempts to enter the house, according to a statement.

With few leads, police kept watch for weeks before hatching an unusual plan to join a lion dance procession at a nearby Buddhist temple.

"Officers gradually moved closer to the suspect before arresting him," police said.

A video released by police showed the festive lion dancers approaching the suspect before an officer suddenly emerged from the head of the costume and, with help from colleagues, pinned him to the ground.

Police estimated the value of the stolen items at around two million baht ($64,000).

The suspect, a 33-year-old man, has a criminal record involving drug offences and theft, police added.


Sudan's Historic Acacia Forest Devastated as War Fuels Logging

Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
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Sudan's Historic Acacia Forest Devastated as War Fuels Logging

Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
Little is left of the once sprawling acacia forest south of Sudan's capital. Ebrahim Hamid / AFP

Vast stretches of a once-verdant acacia forest south of Sudan's capital Khartoum have been reduced to little more than fields of stumps as nearly three years of conflict have fueled deforestation.

What was once a 1,500-hectare natural reserve has been "completely wiped out", Boushra Hamed, head of environmental affairs for Khartoum state, told AFP.

Al-Sunut forest had long served as a haven for migratory birds and a vital green shield against the Nile's seasonal floods.

"During the war, Khartoum state has lost 60 percent of its green cover," Hamed said, describing how century-old trees "were cut down with electric saws" for commercial timber and charcoal production.

Where tall acacias once cast cool shade over a wetland just upstream from the confluence of the Blue and White Nile, barren ground now lies exposed, criss-crossed by people gathering whatever wood remains.

Hamed called it "methodical destruction", though the perpetrators remain unknown and there has been no investigation.

Similar devastation is unfolding across several regions -- including western Darfur, neighboring Kordofan and the central states of Sennar and Al-Jazirah -- as insecurity and economic collapse drive unchecked logging, according to Sudan's Forests National Corporation.

According to a 2019 study by the Nairobi-based African Forest Forum, Sudan had already lost nearly half of its forested land since 1960 due to agricultural expansion, firewood collection and overgrazing.

By 2015, the country ranked among Africa's least forested nations, with around 10 percent of its territory still covered by woodland, the study said.

The report had also warned of further degradation if reforestation and sustainable management efforts were not implemented -- concerns now compounded by the ongoing conflict.

- 'Barrier' -

Aboubakr Al-Tayeb, who oversees Khartoum's forestry administration, said the damage "affects not only Khartoum, but Sudan and the wider African continent."

"The forest was home to several migratory species from Europe," he told AFP.

More than a hundred bird species, including ducks, geese, terns, ibis, herons, eagles and vultures, had been recorded in the area, alongside monkeys and small mammals.

Al-Nazir Ali Babiker, an agronomist, said the loss of tree cover could cause more severe seasonal flooding because the "forest acted as a barrier" against rising waters.

Flooding strikes Sudan every year, destroying homes, farmland and infrastructure and leaving many families with no choice but to flee to safer areas.

The war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has already killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and shattered critical infrastructure.

Before the fighting, forests supplied roughly 70 percent of Sudan's energy consumption, primarily through charcoal and firewood, according to data from the African Forest Forum.

Al-Sunut had also been a popular leisure spot for Khartoum residents.

"We used to come in groups to study and have a good time," recalls Adam Hafiz Ibrahim, a student at Omdurman Islamic University.

Today, wood gatherers have supplanted the usual walkers. Disregarding army notices alerting them to landmines, men and women traverse the dry, open ground that now stands where the ancient forest once grew.

"We're not cutting the trees. We just pick up whatever wood's already on the ground to use for the fire," said Nafisa, a woman in her forties navigating the dry grasslands.

"We found the trees down. We collect the wood to sell to bakeries and families," said Mohamed Zakaria, a construction worker who lost his job because of the war.

Experts say that the economic hardship caused by the war combined with a lack of enforcement has encouraged logging.

"The logging continues, because those responsible for forest protection cannot access many areas," said Mousa el-Sofori, head of Sudan's Forests National Corporation.

Efforts to replant acacias are underway, Tayeb of the Khartoum forestry administration said, but seedlings grow slowly and can take years to mature.

Restoring the lost woodlands would be "long and costly", said Sofori.

"Some of these forests were centuries old," he added.


Coffee Regions Hit by Extra Days of Extreme Heat, Say Scientists 

17 April 2012, North Rhine-Westphalia, Vluyn: A general view of Arabica Coffee beans. (dpa)
17 April 2012, North Rhine-Westphalia, Vluyn: A general view of Arabica Coffee beans. (dpa)
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Coffee Regions Hit by Extra Days of Extreme Heat, Say Scientists 

17 April 2012, North Rhine-Westphalia, Vluyn: A general view of Arabica Coffee beans. (dpa)
17 April 2012, North Rhine-Westphalia, Vluyn: A general view of Arabica Coffee beans. (dpa)

The world's main coffee-growing regions are roasting under additional days of climate change-driven heat every year, threatening harvests and contributing to higher prices, researchers said Wednesday.

An analysis found that there were 47 extra days of harmful heat per year on average in 25 countries representing nearly all global coffee production between 2021 and 2025, according to independent research group Climate Central.

Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia, Ethiopia and Indonesia -- which supply 75 percent of the world's coffee -- experienced on average 57 additional days of temperatures exceeding the threshold of 30C.

"Climate change is coming for our coffee. Nearly every major coffee-producing country is now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can harm coffee plants, reduce yields, and affect quality," said Kristina Dahl, Climate Central's vice president for science.

"In time, these impacts may ripple outward from farms to consumers, right into the quality and cost of your daily brew," Dahl said in a statement.

US tariffs on imports from Brazil, which supplies a third of coffee consumed in the United States, contributed to higher prices this past year, Climate Central said.

But extreme weather in the world's coffee-growing regions is "at least partly to blame" for the recent surge in prices, it added.

Coffee cultivation needs optimal temperatures and rainfall to thrive.

Temperatures above 30C are "extremely harmful" to arabica coffee plants and "suboptimal" for the robusta variety, Climate Central said. Those two plant species produce the majority of the global coffee supply.

For its analysis, Climate Central estimated how many days each year would have stayed below 30C in a world without carbon pollution but instead exceeded that level in reality -- revealing the number of hot days added by climate change.

The last three years have been the hottest on record, according to climate monitors.