The Prince of Wales posted a birthday message for his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales to social media on Thursday to celebrate her 43rd birthday.

In the message posted to X, William praised his wife, saying: “To the most incredible wife and mother. The strength you’ve shown over the last year has been remarkable. George, Charlotte, Louis and I are so proud of you. Happy Birthday, Catherine. We love you. W.”

The message was accompanied by a previously unseen black and white portrait of the Princess of Wales taken last summer in Windsor by photographer Matt Porteous.

In the last year, Catherine has undergone treatment for cancer and spent some time out of the public eye.

In September, she announced that she had completed chemotherapy but cautioned that the road to recovery was still long.

Catherine said she was “doing what I can to stay cancer free” and starting a “new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of hope and appreciation of life.”

In October, she made her first public appearance since her treatment to meet the bereaved families of three children killed in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England.

Kate, as the princess is known, has been married to William, who is now the heir to the British throne, since April 2011.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have made it a tradition to release photos on landmark family occasions, like birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and wedding anniversaries.

In June, the family marked William’s 42nd birthday by posting a fun photo of him jumping off a sand dune, holding hands with his children – Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Lisa Kudrow has revealed that she recently found a note that Matthew Perry left inside a “Friends” prop for her 20 years ago.

The actress told “The Drew Barrymore Show” on Tuesday that the cookie jar from the set of the hit show had been gifted to her by Perry at the end of their final episode, which aired in 2004.

“I had recently found the note that he had in it (the jar) for me,” Kudrow said.

“I hadn’t opened it up or looked inside of it,” she said. “But yeah, he did. He had a note in there and I forgot about it.”

Though Kudrow did not divulge what was in the note, she echoed host Barrymore, who gave her a hug and said: “Timing is everything.”

Kudrow mentioned discovering the note after being asked by Barrymore if she had ever taken anything from set. She said she had, but refused to say what it was.

“I’m too afraid to tell you what,” said Kudrow of her secret keepsake. “I can’t say… I’m afraid… someone will come get it.”

Perry, who died age 54 in his Pacific Palisades home in October 2023, was best known for his role as Chandler Bing on “Friends,” starring alongside Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc.

Perry died because of “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report. He’d previously detailed his decades-long struggles with drugs.

In a tribute following his death, Kudrow said: “Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY.”

“Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’ Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant. Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have,” Kudrow’s Instagram post continued.

An attack on Chad’s presidential palace left 18 assailants dead and six in custody, with one soldier killed and three wounded, state media reported Thursday.

The attack on Wednesday night occurred while Chadian President Mahamat Deby Itno was inside the palace, but authorities said the situation was quickly brought under control.

“The situation is completely under control. There is no fear,” Foreign Affairs Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said while surrounded by soldiers in a live Facebook broadcast filmed inside what appeared to be a quiet presidential palace late Wednesday.

In an interview with state TV, Koulamallah praised the vigilance of the palace guards, describing the attackers as disorganized and intoxicated by alcohol and drugs. When asked if the attack was terrorism, he said it was probably not, as the attackers were local youths from the capital, N’Djamena.

The attack occurred the same day as a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who congratulated Deby Itno on reestablishing constitutional order.

In the immediate aftermath, rumors spread online that the attack was the work of Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education, seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to neighboring West African countries including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Chad, a country of nearly 18 million people, has been reeling from political turmoil before and after a controversial presidential election that resulted in Deby Itno’s victory. He had led the country as interim president during the period of military rule that followed the death of his father in 2021.

At least 10 Jewish homes and businesses around Paris and a synagogue in the northern French city of Rouen have been defaced, according to police, with antisemitism being considered as a motive.

The acts of vandalism came as France marked 10 years since the Paris terrorist attacks that shook the country. Twelve people were killed at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and five people were killed in the subsequent antisemitic attacks on a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

Buildings in the Parisian suburbs of Vincennes, Saint-Mandé and Fontenay-sous-Bois, many located near the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket where the attacks took place a decade ago, were affected on Sunday and Monday, police said. A rabbi’s home and a synagogue in Rouen were also targeted with antisemitic messages and swastikas scrawled on the buildings.

The synagogue that was vandalized in Rouen was previously a target of attempted arson in May last year and was also sprayed with graffiti in December during Hanukkah. The messages found on the synagogue walls Monday called for Jewish people to be “gassed,” according to Natacha Ben Haïm, the president of the Israelite Religious Association of Rouen, who manages the synagogue.

Ben Haïm has filed a lawsuit against the perpetrators, who remain unknown, for “public provocation of hatred.”

In the country home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, the number of antisemitic incidents recorded in 2023 almost quadrupled in a year, with 1,676 cases reported, according to data from the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France.

“Discovering these tags in Rouen, it’s a double symbol, a symbol because it falls on the anniversary of the Hyper Cacher attack, and a symbol because it targets the Rouen synagogue, which was the victim of arson a few months ago,” said the president of Representative Council of Jewish institutions in France, Yonathan Arfi, on French radio RTL on Tuesday.

French interior minister Bruno Retailleau denounced the vandalism targeting the French Jewish community, and the growing antisemitism.

“The Jewish community represents less than 1% of the population, and is the victim of 57% of all anti-religious attacks,” Retailleau told French media Tuesday.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has arrived back in the country’s capital after being freed from an Iranian prison where she had spent weeks in detention.

Sala is a reporter for the Italian daily Il Foglio, which said the journalist landed in Rome on Wednesday afternoon.

“Our journalist landed in Ciampino (airport), after being released this morning from Evin prison in Tehran after 21 days of detention,” the newspaper posted on X, accompanied by a photo of the journalist on the runway.

Il Foglio also reported that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister and Deputy Minister Antonio Tajani, as well as Sala’s parents, welcomed her at the Roman airport.

Il Foglio had previously said the journalist was held in Tehran’s Evin prison after being detained in mid-December while covering “a country she knows and loves.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Meloni’s office said: “The plane that is bringing journalist Cecilia Sala home took off a few minutes ago from Tehran.

“Thanks to intense work on diplomatic and intelligence channels, our compatriot has been released by the Iranian authorities and is returning to Italy,” the statement added.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella informed the journalist’s parents of the news during a phone call on Wednesday morning, according to the statement.

The Italian outlet Chora Media, where Sala also works, said that she had left Rome on December 12 “with a valid journalistic visa and the protections of a journalist on assignment.

“She conducted several interviews and produced three episodes of the Stories podcast for Chora News,” the media outlet said in late December, adding that it was making Sala’s detention public weeks later because her parents and Italian authorities had initially asked it to remain silent, hoping for a swift release.

Iranian state news agency IRNA, citing the Iranian Ministry of Culture, said last month that Sala was arrested after “violating the laws of the Islamic republic of Iran,” but Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said several days after her detention that “we still don’t know the charges.”

Iran’s regime is one of the most repressive in the world on press freedom, particularly cracking down on media rights after a wave of protests rocked the country in 2022.

Only four countries – North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea – have worse records on press freedom, according to an annual tally compiled by non-profit organization Reporters Without Borders.

Acrid smoke shrouded the sky in Altadena, California, as Gail watched flames from the raging Eaton Fire swallow her next-door neighbor’s house.

Each ember carried by powerful gusts of wind could be the spark that ignites the home she has lived in for the past decade – and all she can do is watch.

Several fires are raging around Los Angeles, devastating neighborhoods and straining firefighting resources. At least five people have died, and multiple others have sustained “significant injuries,” authorities have said.

As flames spread to Gail’s property, burning down her garage, community members came to help.

“I don’t know who all these guys are who are helping to save my house right now but I’m very grateful,” she says.

Volunteers have grabbed water hoses and are trying desperately to keep the flames at bay by dousing Gail’s roof and yard. But as the wind shifts, a sobering reality sets in.

“I’m happy that it’s standing right now, but I don’t have a lot of hope,” she admits.

The wildfires in Los Angeles County together consumed thousands of acres in just over a day, with the blaze near Altadena quadrupling in size in a matter of hours Wednesday. To the west, the Palisades Fire is already among the most destructive fires in California history – and none of it has been contained.

But even as the fires rage, stories of heroism are beginning to emerge.

Thousands of local firefighters and first responders are trying to contain the flames and evacuate residents – even as their own homes ignite.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said several of his employees have lost their homes to the flames.

His deputies were forced to evacuate the Altadena sheriff’s station in the middle of the night, he said at a Wednesday news conference. As they fled, “residents were running up from different locations … asking them for assistance in getting them out of their structures,” Luna said.

“They were barely able to get people out before these structures started burning.”

Working under immense heat and thick smoke, some firefighters and first responders are pulling 48-hour shifts, pivoting their efforts between battling the flames and evacuating residents and protecting lives.

As the fires burn throughout Los Angeles County – and edge closer to historic Hollywood symbols – the National Guard has been deployed to help with the response to the fires.

“This is a tragic time in our history here in Los Angeles, but a time when we’re really tested and see who we really are,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

The infernos were fueled by powerful gusts of wind of up to 100 miles per hour that grounded flights and briefly halted any efforts to douse the flames from the air.

Some firefighters have had to take shelter from the flames in vehicles as winds picked up, McDonnell said.

“The winds were like something that I’ve never seen before. Firefighters, police officers, deputies, they’re out there sheltering in their vehicles, in their trucks and their cars, so that they don’t end up getting burned from the fire,” McDonnell said.

“They were there until they could get out of the car and go back to doing their work.”

As the Eaton Fire advanced on homes, police officers went door to door to evacuate people, including elderly residents and people with mobility limitations, officials said Wednesday.

“They saved many, many lives in the last 22 hours,” Pasadena City Manager Miguel Marquez said at a news conference. “Their efforts were heroic.”

Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said the department responded to over 3,600 calls for service in 24 hours – more than double the number of calls received on an average day.

Harsh winds have made the fires unpredictable. Driving through neighborhoods in Altadena, homes on either side of the street can be seen engulfed in flames, while others sit untouched. Then, in a matter of minutes, everything changes. Trees, cars and buildings ignite, and the air becomes heavy and metallic, filled with chemicals and smoke.

Tires pop, gas tanks explode and power lines crumple, all while residents stand by helplessly and watch as their entire lives are swallowed by the blaze.

“Last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we’ve seen in any part of our city, at any part of our history,” Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles City Council, said at the news conference Wednesday.

“Fire literally jumping roads, taking out structures, and our public safety professionals created an environment where injuries were kept to a minimum. Fatalities were kept to a minimum,” he added.

“We wake up this morning with a renewed spirit that we can defeat this fire and move on to a brighter day.”

Mozambique’s main opposition leader returned from exile Thursday as security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of his supporters who gathered near the main international airport to welcome him home.

Venancio Mondlane was seen walking off a plane at Mavalane International Airport in the capital, Maputo. He had left the country in October following a disputed election that has sparked months of violent protests and thrown the country into turmoil.

Mondlane said he left Mozambique fearing for his life after two senior members of his opposition party were killed in their car by unknown gunmen in a late-night shooting in the aftermath of the election.

Police on Thursday also blocked roads leading to the airport after Mondlane said on social media earlier this week he would return to the southern African country. Tear gas drifted over the airport and surrounding roads and a helicopter hovered overhead.

Thousands of Mondlane’s supporters were expected to gather in Maputo for his return, prompting the clampdown by security forces.

More than 100 people have been killed by security forces since Mozambique erupted in protests that Mondlane called for after the long-ruling Frelimo party was declared the winner of the Oct. 9 election.

Mondlane and other opposition candidates accused the ruling party of rigging the election and international observers reported irregularities in the vote and the alteration of some results.

Mozambique’s Constitutional Council upheld Frelimo’s victory last month, making its candidate, Daniel Chapo, the president-elect. He is due to be inaugurated next week to succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who has served the maximum two terms.

Frelimo has been in power in Mozambique for 50 years since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The party has often been accused of rigging elections since Mozambique held its first democratic vote in 1994. The latest street protests in several major cities have been the biggest threat to Frelimo’s rule.

The mayor of a small town in southern Italy has issued an unusual proclamation: “Getting sick is prohibited.”

Residents of Belcastro in the southern region of Calabria have been “ordered to avoid contracting any illness that requires medical assistance, especially an emergency,” a decree from Mayor Antonio Torchia stated.

Torchia told local television that while “we take (the decree) with a bit of irony,” it is intended to highlight the town’s inadequate access to healthcare.

Belcastro, a town of about 1,300 people of whom half are elderly, has a health center that is often closed, and on-call doctors are not available on weekends, holidays or after hours, the mayor said.

The closure of nearby healthcare centers, and the fact that the nearest emergency room is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) away in the city of Catanzaro, led the mayor to believe it necessary to “adopt an urgent and non-deferrable act of a precautionary nature,” he said.

“This is not just a provocation, the ordinance is a cry for help, a way to shine a spotlight on an unacceptable situation,” Torchia told local news outlet Corriere della Calabria.

In his decree, the mayor asked people not to “engage in behaviors that may be harmful and to avoid domestic accidents,” and “not to leave the house too often, travel or practice sports, and to rest for the majority of the time.”

It’s not clear if, or how, the ordinance will be enforced.

The mayor said the order was aimed at provoking regional authorities and health officials to address the issues. The ordinance will stay in effect until the town’s public health center is open regularly, the mayor said.

“Come and live a week in our small village and try to feel safe knowing that in the event of a health emergency the only hope is to get to Catanzaro in time,” he said while speaking to local media. “Try it and then tell me if this situation seems acceptable to you.”

The sparsely populated Calabria region is one of Italy’s poorest and has been susceptible to desertification and brain drain, with many young people moving out of rural communities to live in cities.

Over 75% of Calabria towns – roughly 320 – currently had fewer than 5,000 residents in 2021, sparking fears that some communities could die out completely without regeneration. Some towns have even started offering to pay people to live there in an effort to reverse their population decline.

Belcastro’s mayor knows that many of the towns face similar healthcare access issues.

“I am a drop in the ocean,” Torchia told local broadcaster LaC News24. “The province of Catanzaro has 80 municipalities, and I believe that most of them suffer from the same problems.”