Prince Harry to Discover Outcome of UK Tabloids Case

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry departs after attending court for his appeal against the rejection of his legal challenge to the British government's decision to take away his police protection when he is in Britain, outside the High Court in London, Britain, April 8, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry departs after attending court for his appeal against the rejection of his legal challenge to the British government's decision to take away his police protection when he is in Britain, outside the High Court in London, Britain, April 8, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo
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Prince Harry to Discover Outcome of UK Tabloids Case

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry departs after attending court for his appeal against the rejection of his legal challenge to the British government's decision to take away his police protection when he is in Britain, outside the High Court in London, Britain, April 8, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry departs after attending court for his appeal against the rejection of his legal challenge to the British government's decision to take away his police protection when he is in Britain, outside the High Court in London, Britain, April 8, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo

Prince Harry was in Britain on Tuesday as a court was set to rule in his case against the Daily Mail's publisher for alleged unlawful information gathering.

A judge at London's High Court was due to publish a written decision at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT), following an 11-week trial earlier this year in Harry's claim against Associated Newspapers.

The prince gave emotional testimony during the proceedings, in which several high-profile figures, including pop star Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley, accused the tabloid publisher of invading their privacy.

Harry's lawyers have said the claimants are seeking "substantial" damages for their claims, which relate to articles dating from 1993 to 2018.

It is the third, and set to be final, case brought by the Duke of Sussex in his acrimonious legal battle with British tabloids, which has further strained relations with the royal family.

Harry, 41 - the youngest son of King Charles III - has also been involved in other legal spats, including over his police protection in Britain following his dramatic departure from frontline royal duties six years ago.

The prince, now living in California, arrived in Britain on Monday for a five-day visit expected to go ahead mostly without his wife and children after the family was refused police protection.

The trip, to mark the one-year countdown to next year's Invictus Games for wounded veterans, which Harry founded, was meant to be his first family trip back to the UK in four years.

But a source close to the Duke of Sussex told AFP that Harry's wife Meghan, son Archie and daughter Lilibet would not accompany him on the London leg of the trip after the family was refused security.

Arrangements for the rest of the trip were still under consideration, the source said, leaving it unclear whether the whole family would visit but stay outside the capital.

Contradictory statements about plans to stay at Buckingham Palace while in London added to the prince's headaches.

Just ahead of Harry's arrival, Buckingham Palace contradicted the duke's team to say that he would not be staying at the palace after missing a deadline to accept the accommodation offer.

Harry's spokesman said it was "disappointing" the offer to be hosted by his father had been "withdrawn at the last moment", in a statement sent to AFP.

- Security woes -

It was unclear whether the prince would meet his father during the trip. He is last understood to have met Charles, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, at the monarch's London residence Clarence House in September 2025.

Harry and Meghan left Britain for North America in 2020 amid a bitter feud with his family, which worsened as Harry published his tell-all memoir "Spare".

The prince has since said he wishes to reconcile with his father, but the confusion over where Harry was going to stay in London suggest relations remain difficult.

According to his spokesperson, Harry had to make "alternative security arrangements" for the trip after publicly funded protection was refused, contributing to the delay in accepting Buckingham Palace's accommodation offer.

"It is therefore unclear why, having formally accepted the accommodation offer, it has now been withdrawn at the last moment," the spokesman said.

Beyond logistical complications, the palace believed the legal judgement expected Tuesday had complicated matters as it could compromise the king's constitutional position, the PA news agency reported.

Last year, Harry said he felt unable to bring his family to Britain after losing a court case to have his security restored during visits home.

Harry has long blamed the media for the death of his mother Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while trying to shake off the paparazzi.

"He understands how that protection can fail and how catastrophic, therefore, those results can be," Simon Morgan, a former bodyguard for the royal family, told AFP on Monday.



Prince Harry and Others Ordered to Pay Initial £9.54 million over Failed Lawsuit

FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Friday, June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)
FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Friday, June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)
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Prince Harry and Others Ordered to Pay Initial £9.54 million over Failed Lawsuit

FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Friday, June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)
FILE - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave after a service of thanksgiving for the reign of Queen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London, Friday, June 3, 2022 on the second of four days of celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, Pool, File)

Prince Harry and other high-profile claimants must make an interim payment of £9.54 million towards the legal costs of the Daily Mail publisher after losing their privacy lawsuits, London's High Court ruled on Friday.

Last month, judge Matthew Nicklin comprehensively rejected the case brought by King Charles' younger son, singer Elton John and five other figures, rejecting allegations that the Mail titles had engaged in widespread unlawful activities, such as phone hacking.

Friday's judgment on costs also delivered another damaging blow to Harry and the others, ruling that the outstanding amount should be paid on an "indemnity basis".

This means that as the losing party the prince and the others must pay towards Associated's costs without the publisher needing to show these were reasonable and proportionate.

Associated had said after the judge's initial ruling that it was an overwhelming victory for its newspaper and journalists, and "for a free press generally", while the prince, 41, described the ruling as a "complete and obvious whitewash".

 

 

 


UK Met Office: El Nino to be 'Biggest for Over a Century’

FILE PHOTO: The London skyline is seen with the financial district in the background, in London, Britain, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes./File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The London skyline is seen with the financial district in the background, in London, Britain, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes./File Photo
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UK Met Office: El Nino to be 'Biggest for Over a Century’

FILE PHOTO: The London skyline is seen with the financial district in the background, in London, Britain, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes./File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The London skyline is seen with the financial district in the background, in London, Britain, March 25, 2026. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes./File Photo

This year's El Nino weather pattern will be the biggest in over a century, warming sea surface temperatures to an "unheard-of" level, Britain's national weather agency predicted Friday.

The El Nino weather pattern is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific rise 0.5C above the baseline average, triggering worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall patterns, and causing warmer global temperatures overall.

Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, told the BBC that "We are expecting the biggest El Nino for over a century, peaking at something over three degrees -- that is unheard-of in modern climate records."

According to AFP, he called it "an unprecedented event", adding that "I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts."

The anomalous warmth, which is "up to nearly two degrees already,” will have particularly strong effects throughout the Tropics, Scaife said, "where we expect really severe droughts in places like South America, and the West Pacific.”

Temperatures in the region are currently running about 2.6C above a rolling 30-year average, according to the Climate Brink dashboard.

"These are not short-term weather forecasts. We're talking about really long-term, persistent conditions here. There are well-known impacts on other systems including food, food security," said Scaife, a physicist who specializes in climate modelling.

The weather pattern is also expected to cause "increased rainfall and storminess in the autumn here in the UK around November time,” Scaife said.


Europe’s Hottest Town Says Climate Change Is Reshaping Daily Life

A drone view of the Sicilian town of Floridia where five years ago a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature officially registered in continental Europe, was recorded, Italy, August 19, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view of the Sicilian town of Floridia where five years ago a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature officially registered in continental Europe, was recorded, Italy, August 19, 2026. (Reuters)
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Europe’s Hottest Town Says Climate Change Is Reshaping Daily Life

A drone view of the Sicilian town of Floridia where five years ago a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature officially registered in continental Europe, was recorded, Italy, August 19, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view of the Sicilian town of Floridia where five years ago a temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature officially registered in continental Europe, was recorded, Italy, August 19, 2026. (Reuters)

Five years after Floridia registered Europe's highest-ever temperature, residents say extreme heat is no longer measured by records but by its impact on daily life, keeping people indoors, reducing social interaction and threatening livelihoods.

The August 2021 record of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 degrees Fahrenheit) turned the Sicilian town into a symbol of Europe's warming climate as the continent emerged from COVID-19 restrictions.

Today, increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves are driving people indoors, leaving streets and piazzas deserted and prompting some residents to compare the extreme heat to a new form of lockdown.

The shift is visible across the town of 20,000 on the outskirts of Syracuse, the ancient Greek city on Sicily's southeastern coast. Piazza del Popolo, long Floridia's social hub and lined with cafes, palm trees and municipal buildings, is nearly empty for much of the day.

The ‌heat lingers well ‌into the evening, disrupting a cherished local tradition known as "pigghiari u frescu", when families pull ‌kitchen ⁠chairs outside their ⁠homes to catch the breeze and socialize.

"It's awful because many people end up shut indoors. In a way, we are all experiencing another kind of lockdown," Floridia's culture councilor Serena Spada told Reuters.

"Even people with small children find themselves in this situation. Children cannot go to the park or play outside because, until late afternoon, temperatures are genuinely hostile."

A WARNING THAT DID NOT GO AWAY

On August 11, 2021, Sicily's Agrometeorological Information Service (SIAS) measured a temperature of 48.8 C in Monasteri, a rural district about 5 km (3 miles) from Floridia's center. In 2024, the World Meteorological Organization certified it as the highest temperature ever recorded in continental Europe, a mark that still stands.

"As ⁠I walked, I began struggling to breathe and thought: 'I could die here in the street, ‌with no one around to help me'," said resident Ugo Tomasello.

Many residents assumed ‌the record would prove an isolated event. Instead, hot summers became the norm.

"It turned out to be a very sad warning ‌sign," Spada said.

While the temperature record drew international attention, climate scientists say individual extremes are less significant than the steady ‌rise in average temperatures.

Reuters Climate Monitor data showed Floridia reached 33.3 C (92 F) on August 12, 2026, 4.1 C (7.4 F) above the average for the 1961-1990 historic norm.

"It is really the increase in average temperatures that worries us," SIAS director Luigi Pasotti said.

"We are no longer talking about extreme temperature peaks lasting one or two days, as happened in 2021. We are talking about entire weeks, even months ‌during which temperatures remain consistently high."

Night-time temperatures are climbing too, leaving little respite from the daytime heat.

"This year in particular, we are recording exceptionally high numbers of tropical nights in ⁠some parts of Sicily, as ⁠well as super-tropical nights," Pasotti said.

FOR BEEKEEPERS SUMMER HAS BECOME A SEASON TO DREAD

Across Europe, climate change has been linked to increasingly frequent and intense weather extremes, from drought and wildfires to torrential rainfall.

Sicily has emerged as one of Europe's climate frontlines.

In January, Cyclone Harry produced a record 16.66-meter (55-foot) wave between Sicily and Malta. Wildfires have taken a growing toll with the island accounting for roughly 70% of southern Italy's burned area between January and July, according to a Legambiente analysis based on EFFIS-Copernicus data.

Agriculture, a pillar of the island's economy, is increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

In 2021, more than 3,000 beehives were lost in the area of Floridia and honey production plunged by 80%.

"The decline in bee populations and the number of beekeepers, together with the loss of pollinators due to climate change and the widespread use of pesticides, is leading to a reduction in biodiversity and lower quality and yields in agricultural production," agronomist Francesco Bellomi said.

For beekeepers in Floridia, summer has become a season of anxiety.

"There's much more concern about getting through the summer than there used to be," said beekeeper Francesco Pappalardo, 33, who began working with his father as a child.

"The heat can cause individual colonies to collapse and sometimes entire apiaries can be lost, as happened to me in previous years."