UK's King Charles Cancels Appointments after Cancer Treatment 'Side Effects'

Britain's King Charles III on Thursday was forced to cancel his appointments for the rest of the day and Friday after suffering "side effects" from his cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said.

"Following scheduled and ongoing medical treatment for cancer this morning, the king experienced temporary side effects that required a short period of observation in hospital," the statement said.

"His Majesty's afternoon engagements were therefore postponed," the statement added, saying that the 78-year-old UK head of state had since returned to his home in Clarence House.

"As a precautionary measure, acting on medical advice, tomorrow's (Friday's) diary program will also be rescheduled."

The king had experienced temporary and relatively common side effects, the BBC reported, quoting sources, adding that it had been a very minor bump in his recovery.

The king was said to be on good form at home where he was working on state papers and making calls from his study, the PA news agency added.

Charles, who walked most of his life in the shadow of his mother, the nation's beloved Queen Elizabeth II, became king after her death on September 8, 2022.

In a break with the palace's past silence on personal health matters, Charles, however, decided to go public with his cancer diagnosis in February 2024.

But he has never revealed what kind of cancer he is suffering from, with the palace just confirming that his treatment would continue into 2025.

'Apologies'

Buckingham Palace on Thursday said that the monarch "would like to send his apologies to all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed as a result".

Charles had been due to receive the credentials from the ambassadors of three different countries on Thursday, and had four engagements planned on Friday during a trip to Birmingham.

Charles's coronation in May 2023 as monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth countries was the first in Britain in seven decades.

It also saw his long-time love and his wife of almost 20 years crowned as Queen Camilla -- a once-unthinkable scenario after Charles's first marriage to Princess Diana collapsed in acrimony and scandal.

It is understood that Charles and Camilla's scheduled trip to Italy in early April will go ahead as planned.

No new dates have been confirmed yet after they postponed a planned meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican following the advice of the pontiff's doctors. The meeting had also been scheduled for the start of the April trip.

The UK's head of state wrote to Francis when the 88-year-old pontiff was struck down with pneumonia in both lungs in February, amid fears that he might not survive.

Francis was discharged on Sunday following almost 40 days in Rome's Gemelli hospital.

'Transparent'

Charles returned to work within two and a half months of his cancer diagnosis and gradually ramped up his duties during the rest of 2024, including making several foreign trips which even took him as far as Australia and Samoa.

The king's daughter-in-law, Catherine, Princess of Wales, who is married to Charles's eldest son Prince William, in January said that she was now in remission after also having been diagnosed with cancer last year.

Buckingham Palace previously said the king wished to be transparent about his cancer diagnosis to "prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer".

That has chimed with his desire for a more modern, open and slimmed down monarchy to keep the ancient institution relevant, particularly to younger Britons, and as republican sentiment mounts in the 14 other countries outside the UK where he is also king.

But a rift with his youngest son Harry and his wife Meghan has blighted the start of Charles's reign.

Harry's score-settling in his autobiography "Spare" and a Netflix series grabbed headlines.

And the prince has only rarely seen his father since he dramatically quit royal duties for a new life in the United States with his wife and young son in 2020.

As well as being head of the Church of England, Charles also heads the 56-nation Commonwealth grouping, which comprises about a quarter of the world's population.

Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to experiments with over 200 eggs.

What does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out.

But scientists said it could help with hard-boiling eggs in a pot: Dropping eggs in horizontally may be less likely to cause a stray crack that can unleash the egg's insides in a puffy, cloudy mess.

It's commonly thought that eggs are strongest at their ends — after all, it's how they're packaged in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.

But when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.

"The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another," said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.

The researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).

The egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less.

"The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that's not the case," said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.

Scientists found that the egg's equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.

Eggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It's not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.

It's a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Countless broken eggs show "the courage to go and challenge these very common, accepted notions," Cohen said.

UK's King Charles Cancels Appointments after Cancer Treatment 'Side Effects'