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UK's Catherine Turns 43 Hoping for Better Year

Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville
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UK's Catherine Turns 43 Hoping for Better Year

Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Catherine, Princess of Wales, walks to attend the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the Royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Catherine, Princess of Wales celebrates her 43rd birthday on Thursday, seeking to turn the page on a turbulent year which saw her retreat from public life to fight cancer.

Kate, as she is commonly known, is expected to step up her royal engagements in 2025 after announcing in September that she had completed chemotherapy for an unspecified cancer, AFP reported.

Kensington Palace has not said where the Princess of Wales plans to mark the start of her 44th year but she usually spends it surrounded by family in Norfolk.

Her husband Prince William, heir to the British throne, was regularly photographed alone last year as both Kate and his father King Charles III received treatment for the disease.

But the royal couple are set to make more appearances together over the next 12 months as they eye a return to normality, with William suggesting that an overseas trip may even be on the cards.

The princess has not taken part in an official foreign visit since she attended the Rugby World Cup in France in October 2023.

"I think hopefully Catherine will be doing a bit more next year, so we'll have some more trips maybe lined up," William said during a visit to Cape Town in November.

Catherine's birthday comes almost a year since she was admitted to hospital for abdominal surgery on January 16, 2024.

She spent nearly two weeks in the London Clinic after her operation, and was recuperating at home when she discovered that she had cancer and had to begin chemotherapy.

Her lack of public appearances sparked wild speculation online about her condition and whereabouts, which Kate finally put to bed with a video message on Instagram in March revealing her diagnosis.

She won plaudits for her openness and received an outpouring of support, but the announcement also plunged the monarchy into crisis given that her father-in-law Charles was battling the disease as well.

Catherine received further praise following the release of a new video in September, in which she said that the previous nine months had been "incredibly tough".

'Brutal' year
In a touching video that featured William and their three children -- George, 11, Charlotte, 9, and Louis, 6 -- Catherine said that she was cancer free and looking forward to undertaking more engagements "when I can".

Her gradual return to public life late last year included attending the Emir of Qatar's state visit to Britain and the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies honouring the UK's war dead.

She also visited Southport in northwest England to meet people affected by a knife attack in July that killed three young girls.

Catherine reflected on "the most difficult times" as she hosted a Christmas service at Westminster Abbey last month, which came after William described the "brutal" year as the "hardest" of his life.

Catherine, hugely popular in Britain since her marriage to William in 2011, is adored by UK newspapers, who praise her elegance and warm attitude to the public during royal engagements.

The future queen is the daughter of a flight attendant and air traffic controller who went on to make a fortune from a business supplying party items.

Catherine met William in the early 2000s at the University of St Andrews in Scotland where she studied art history, before they wed in 2011.

She is seen as a key figure in maintaining the royals' position and relevance in a changing Britain.

Her public engagements this year are likely to feature the various charities she supports in early years education.

Catherine and William may also be called upon to attend the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on May 8 and Victory over Japan Day on August 15, which mark the end of World War II.

The royal couple also have their daughter's milestone 10th birthday to look forward to in May.

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Varieties

Study Documents Extinction Threats to World's Freshwater Species

African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
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Study Documents Extinction Threats to World's Freshwater Species

African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
African tiger fish (Hydrocynus vittatus) swim in the Okavango river, Botswana in this undated handout picture. Michel Roggo/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Freshwater environments cover about 1% of Earth's surface while accounting for more than 10% of known species. Like many marine and terrestrial ecosystems, however, they are in distress. A new study looking at some of the denizens of freshwater habitats offers a stark illustration of this biodiversity predicament.

Researchers assessed the status of 23,496 species of freshwater animals in groups including fishes, crustaceans such as crabs, crayfish and shrimp and insects such as dragonflies and damselflies, finding 24% of them at a high risk of extinction, Reuters reported.

"Prevalent threats include pollution, dams and water extraction, agriculture and invasive species, with overharvesting also driving extinctions," said conservationist Catherine Sayer, lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Sayer heads the freshwater biodiversity unit at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the organization that tracks the status of species globally.

Some of the freshwater species deemed at high risk bear exotic names such as the mini blue bee shrimp of Sulawesi, the Seychelles duskhawker dragonfly, the Atlantic helicopter damselfly of Brazil, the daisy burrowing crayfish of Arkansas and fishes such as the shortnose sucker of Oregon and California and the humpbacked mahseer of India.

The study filled a gap in data on freshwater biodiversity. The studied species were selected because their diverse positions within food webs present a holistic view of the health of freshwater ecosystems globally.

These species inhabit inland wetlands such as lakes, rivers, swamps, marshes and peatlands - areas that the researchers said have been reduced by more than a third since 1970. Other research has documented the status of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians that share these freshwater ecosystems and often face their own unique threats.

Of the animal groups investigated in the new study, the highest threat levels were documented in the crustaceans (30% threatened) followed by the fishes (26%) and the dragonflies and damselflies (16%).

"Freshwater ecosystems are ecologically important because of the diversity of species they support. Some of them may have high numbers of species that are restricted just to those systems - a single lake or pool or river," said Northern Arizona University freshwater conservationist Ian Harrison, a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and a study co-author.

"They are also important in terms of the ecosystem services they supply: carbon sequestration in terms of peat bogs; food in terms of fisheries; medicines from plants; as well as cultural and aesthetic values. Freshwater reeds are used for building houses in some areas. Freshwater ecosystems contribute $50 trillion in value annually by their provision of natural processes supporting human well-being," Harrison said.

The researchers identified four places globally with the largest number of threatened freshwater species: Lake Victoria in Africa, Lake Titicaca in South America and regions in western India and Sri Lanka.

Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest freshwater lake by surface area, is bordered by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The key threats identified to species were pollution, overfishing, agriculture and invasive species, particularly the Nile perch and water hyacinth. Lake Titicaca is situated on the border between Peru and Bolivia in the Andes. It was found to face a similar cadre of threats as Lake Victoria. Both lakes boast a rich diversity of fishes.

"There is an urgent need to focus on freshwater conservation to halt the decline in species, and this can be achieved through a more integrated management of water resources that can include the maintenance of ecosystem functions within the process of addressing the obviously important human needs for water," Harrison said.

"The particular value of this study is that it shows us which river basins, lakes, et cetera, are the ones where the conservation challenges are most urgent and serious," Harrison added. "And we can compare this to what we know about existing protections, and identify where there are gaps and where there are conservation needs. And it acts as a baseline of information from which we can track progress, to see if our actions are reducing threats."