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Britain's Princess Kate: Love is the Greatest Christmas Gift

Visitors walk through the 'Cathedral' on the Christmas light trail as it returns for its12th year with a showcase of new installations set within the UNESCO World Heritage Site landscape of Kew Gardens in London, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Visitors walk through the 'Cathedral' on the Christmas light trail as it returns for its12th year with a showcase of new installations set within the UNESCO World Heritage Site landscape of Kew Gardens in London, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
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Britain's Princess Kate: Love is the Greatest Christmas Gift

Visitors walk through the 'Cathedral' on the Christmas light trail as it returns for its12th year with a showcase of new installations set within the UNESCO World Heritage Site landscape of Kew Gardens in London, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Visitors walk through the 'Cathedral' on the Christmas light trail as it returns for its12th year with a showcase of new installations set within the UNESCO World Heritage Site landscape of Kew Gardens in London, England, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Kate, Britain's Princess of Wales, says love is the greatest gift people can give each other in a message to guests who will attend her annual Christmas carol service next week at London's Westminster Abbey.
The Dec. 6 carol concert, the fourth she has hosted, marks Kate's most prominent return to royal engagements since she underwent a course of preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
In a letter to the 1,600 invited guests, Kate, 42, the wife of heir to the throne Prince William, returned to themes of love and the need for empathy about which she has spoken in previous very personal statements and video updates on her health.
Christmas, her letter said, was not only a time for celebration, but also for reflection and relief from the pressures of daily life.
She said the Christmas story reflected "our own vulnerabilities", and how much people needed each other despite their differences.
"Above all else it encourages us to turn to love, not fear," she wrote. "It is this love which is the greatest gift we can receive. Not just at Christmas, but every day of our lives," Reuters quoted her as saying.
William, who earlier this month said the year had been "brutal" for the royal family with Kate's treatment coming in the wake of his father King Charles' own cancer diagnosis, will give a reading at the service.
Six-time Olympic track cycling champion Chris Hoy, who revealed he had terminal cancer himself in October, will light a candle.
The "Together At Christmas" service will be broadcast on Britain's ITV on Christmas Eve.

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Shigeaki Mori, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor Embraced by Obama, Dies at 88

US President Barack Obama (L) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. (Reuters)
US President Barack Obama (L) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. (Reuters)
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Shigeaki Mori, Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Survivor Embraced by Obama, Dies at 88

US President Barack Obama (L) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. (Reuters)
US President Barack Obama (L) hugs atomic bomb survivor Shigeaki Mori as he visits Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan May 27, 2016. (Reuters)

Shigeaki ‌Mori, the survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing whom former US President Barack Obama embraced during a historic visit to the city in 2016, has died at 88, Jiji Press reported on Tuesday.

The image of Obama's arms wrapped around a tearful Mori at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial ‌Park became ‌a defining moment of that ‌visit - ⁠the first ever ⁠by a sitting US president.

Mori was eight years old when the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, flattening the city on August 6, 1945 and knocking him ⁠unconscious with the force ‌of its ‌blast.

Thirty years later, Mori embarked on a ‌multi-decade quest to find victims who ‌were cremated at his school playground. His work also identified 12 Americans who died in the bombing.

He died in ‌a hospital in Hiroshima on March 14, Jiji reported.

Many nuclear ⁠bomb ⁠survivors - known as "hibakusha" in Japanese - despite their advanced age and dwindling numbers have tried to keep alive the legacies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only two cities to ever suffer a nuclear attack.

The cities have counted some 550,000 deaths from the attacks to date, including from illnesses related to acute radiation exposure.

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People with Diabetes Have a Higher Dementia Risk

A person taking a blood sugar test (University of British Columbia) 
A person taking a blood sugar test (University of British Columbia) 
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People with Diabetes Have a Higher Dementia Risk

A person taking a blood sugar test (University of British Columbia) 
A person taking a blood sugar test (University of British Columbia) 

A US study has shown that people with type 1 diabetes are more likely to develop dementia than the general population, highlighting the importance of following up on brain health as we age.

Researchers from Boston University highlighted a potential way to thwart the disease in adults with diabetes. The findings were published on Monday at the Neurology Journal.

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the insulin making cells of the pancreas.

It is often diagnosed in children and adolescents, characterized by the pancreas producing little to no insulin, and often requires lifelong management, including daily insulin injections (or pumps) and frequent blood sugar monitoring to avoid dangerous complications.

The study was conducted on about 284,000 people, with an average age of 64, including 5,442 suffering from type 1 diabetes, and about 51,000 with type 2 diabetes.

Over an average of 2.4 years follow-up, the researchers examined cases of dementia, a brain disorder that slowly destroys a person's memory and thinking skills.

They found that 2,348 people developed dementia, including 144 with type 1 diabetes (2.6%) and 942 with type 2 diabetes (1.8%), while only 1,262 cases were recorded among non-diabetics (0.6%).

Taking into account factors such as age and education, researchers found that individuals with type 1 diabetes face a significantly elevated risk of developing dementia, with estimates suggesting they are up to three times more likely to develop the condition compared to those without diabetes, while individuals with type 2 diabetes were nearly twice as likely to develop dementia.

The researchers noted that previous studies have shown a link between type 2 diabetes and an increased risk of dementia, but the new findings suggest that this link may be stronger in people with type 1 diabetes.

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Budapest’s Vintage Freight Trams Celebrate 100 Years in Service

Two century-old freight trams are parked in the Kelenfold tram depot in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP)
Two century-old freight trams are parked in the Kelenfold tram depot in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP)
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Budapest’s Vintage Freight Trams Celebrate 100 Years in Service

Two century-old freight trams are parked in the Kelenfold tram depot in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP)
Two century-old freight trams are parked in the Kelenfold tram depot in Budapest, Hungary on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP)

With the toot of a horn, the ring of a bell and the hiss of air brakes, an unusual rail vehicle pulls out of a depot in Budapest to serve the Hungarian capital's public transit system, a job it has done for a century.

The so-called freight trams, known as mukis, run on electricity provided by overhead wires and travel on Budapest's vast tram rail network, one of the busiest in the world. But unlike the hundreds of iconic yellow trams in the passenger fleet, they don’t carry commuters.

Acquired by the city in 1926, the wood-sided trams were initially products of necessity: They brought goods and raw materials to and from Budapest's factories after much of the local freight infrastructure had been destroyed during World War I.

"Engineers at the time designed an electric drive system mainly using parts from vehicles damaged in the war, as well as parts from vehicles that had already been designated for scrapping," said Ádám Zadravecz, the head of tram vehicle development and technology at Budapest's public transit company BKV.

"Their primary purpose was freight transport, but after World War II, these vehicles were also used for removal of the war ruins," he said.

Over time, the mukis' function changed as Hungary recovered. In the 1960s, some of the original 40 trams were equipped with a snowplow, enabling them to clear the city's tram tracks in winter, as they do today.

They also perform nighttime maintenance runs, and transport broken-down trams into depots for repairs.

Various parts on the trams were gradually replaced, resulting in a mishmash of components. By 2018, the mukis were due for a more comprehensive refurbishment.

"When they were manufactured in the 1920s, they were extremely simple, extremely puritanical devices," said Nándor Meixner, head of vehicle maintenance at Budapest's Ferencváros depot. "During the refurbishment, we strove to make our colleagues’ work easier. That is why, for example, a seat was added to the vehicle, so that the driver can at least sit down."

Another addition: The trams were equipped with heating in the cabin.

Despite the changes over the last 100 years, Zadravecz said the trams' overall nature remained the same.

"Their maintenance costs is almost zero because these trams are very easy to maintain. Compared to the complex electronics of today’s vehicles, there is very little in them that can break down," he said. "People say that it can be repaired with a hammer and a file, and that’s absolutely true."

Driving them requires special training, however, as well as what Meixner called a certain "feel" for the vehicle.

"It is not enough to just drive, to know the signs and instructions, you also need to know the vehicle itself," he said.

Of the original fleet of 40 mukis, only six have survived the last 100 years in Budapest, with three in active use.

"The value of these vehicles lies precisely in their simplicity, in the pure fact that they exist and are available to us," Zadravecz said.