Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is reportedly set to accompany Prince William to Mumbai, India, in November for the 2026 Earthshot Prize Awards, according to a report from the Mirror, in what would mark the couple’s first joint international visit since 2023 and Kate’s first appearance at the environmental awards ceremony since its second edition in 2022.

Kensington Palace has not officially confirmed Kate’s attendance, and did not comment when reached by PEOPLE about the report. If the trip goes ahead as described, it would represent a significant milestone in Kate’s ongoing return to public duties following her 2024 cancer diagnosis, for which she announced she was in remission in January 2025.

William launched the Earthshot Prize in 2020 as a 10-year initiative aimed at identifying and rewarding solutions to major environmental challenges, with winners across five categories each receiving £1 million, or roughly $1.4 million, to advance their work. Kate attended the inaugural ceremony in London in 2021 and the second edition in Boston in 2022, but has not appeared at the awards since, missing subsequent ceremonies in Singapore in 2023, Cape Town in 2024 and Rio de Janeiro in 2025, a period that overlapped with her cancer treatment and broader step back from public engagements.

According to the Mirror’s royal editor, Russell Myers, Kate’s involvement in the Earthshot Prize traces back further than her public appearances at the awards themselves. “The secret to the Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage is support for one another,” Myers said, crediting Kate as a driving force behind William’s decision to launch the initiative in the first place, at a time when he reportedly had doubts about whether it could achieve the scale of global recognition it has since reached.

Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond echoed that assessment in comments to the Mirror, describing the couple’s shared commitment to environmental causes as a genuine, mutual passion rather than simply a supportive gesture from Kate toward her husband’s work. “They are completely aligned in their love of nature,” Bond said, adding that concerns about the natural world and the broader climate crisis matter just as much to Kate personally as they do to William.

Myers went further in characterizing the significance of a potential November trip, describing it as more than just another royal engagement. He said Kate’s expected presence in India represents a substantial moment both for her individually and for the couple as a working partnership, framing the visit as an opportunity for renewal following a difficult stretch tied to her health. He added that when the couple appears together on the international stage, their combined presence tends to generate significantly more attention and impact than either would achieve separately.

William announced Mumbai as the 2026 host city during the first Mumbai Climate Week in February, noting that India has produced more Earthshot Prize finalists and winners than any other country to date. “India is one of the world’s most important forces for climate and nature,” William said at the time, adding that solutions successfully implemented at scale in India carry the potential to inspire similar progress in other parts of the world.

Beyond the Mumbai ceremony itself, the Mirror reported that William and Kate are also likely to spend additional time in Delhi during the trip, at the request of the U.K. government. The visit would echo a prior tour the couple undertook together in 2016, when they traveled to India and Bhutan while still holding the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, including a widely photographed stop at the Taj Mahal.

Kate’s expected trip to India follows a successful solo international visit she undertook in May, when she traveled to Reggio Emilia, Italy, for a two-day trip tied to her work on early childhood development, her first solo overseas visit since 2022. A source told Vanity Fair at the time that the Italy trip had served as something of a trial run ahead of a potential second, larger tour later in the year. The Times separately reported that Kate appeared enthusiastic following the Italy trip, reportedly asking on the flight home, “Where next?”

With the Earthshot Prize ceremony still roughly three months away, Kensington Palace has not provided an official itinerary or confirmed guest list for the November events. Should the reported plans move forward, the Mumbai trip would stand as one of the most closely watched royal engagements of the year, offering the clearest public signal yet of Kate’s continued return to a fuller schedule of international duties following her recovery.

Players of Escape from Tarkov continue to report a range of technical and gameplay problems with the hardcore extraction shooter, even as developer Battlestate Games rolls out frequent technical updates to address specific bugs and stability concerns.

Escape from Tarkov, developed by the Russian studio Battlestate Games, entered full release as version 1.0 and expanded to Steam after years in early access. The game combines realistic first-person shooting with RPG progression, inventory management and high-stakes raids in which death can mean the permanent loss of gear. Its demanding nature has built a dedicated following, yet user reports on forums, review platforms and outage trackers consistently highlight frustrations that affect the experience.

Server connection difficulties rank among the most frequently cited issues. Players describe difficulties logging in, sudden disconnects during raids and high latency that disrupts combat and looting. In June, Battlestate Games acknowledged widespread connection problems in a public statement, attributing them to network infrastructure outside the studio’s direct control. “We are aware that players are experiencing difficulties connecting to servers and logging into #EscapefromTarkov. These issues are related to network infrastructure beyond the control of Battlestate Games. We apologize for the inconvenience!” the official account posted at the time.

Similar complaints surface regularly on community sites. Group play has drawn particular criticism. Some players report that the removal of a previous “waiting for players” feature leaves the first teammate to load into a raid exposed while others remain stuck in loading screens for several minutes. Scavenger runs in groups have also been reported to crash for non-host players, a problem described as persistent over extended periods.

Progress-related glitches have affected the separate PvE mode. In early June, Battlestate Games confirmed that some PvE accounts experienced progress resets or unintended transfers of PvP profile data into PvE zones. “We are aware that, due to a technical issue, progress on players’ accounts in the PvE ZONE has been reset, or profile progress in PvP mode has been transferred to the PvE ZONE. We are actively working to restore progress for all accounts affected by this issue. We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the studio stated. The company later announced that the affected progress had been restored.

Cheating remains a prominent source of player dissatisfaction. Community discussions and review aggregators frequently describe encounters with aimbot users, radar cheats and other unauthorized tools that undermine the game’s intended high-tension encounters. Battlestate Games has publicly discussed its anti-cheat efforts in developer diaries and continues to ban accounts, yet many players maintain that the problem persists at a level that impacts fair play.

Performance and client-side bugs also feature in reports. Some users experience crashes, incorrect input handling, visual culling problems on maps such as Customs and Streets of Tarkov, and issues with trader loyalty displays or side-task acceptance. Loading times, desynchronization in the hideout and problems redeeming older Twitch Drop rewards on seasonal characters have been noted as well.

Battlestate Games has responded with a series of technical updates throughout August. One recent patch fixed culling issues on the Customs location, resolved loading errors that occurred with seasonal characters or in the PvE zone, and corrected input handling for hotkeys assigned to arrow keys. Earlier August updates addressed launch-time client errors, incorrect trader loyalty level displays, Q and E key input problems, spectator-mode environment display glitches, streamer-mode activation on the character selection screen, and several animation and localization issues. Another update resolved problems with specific doors, item-use modifiers and weapon attachment icons.

Studio head Nikita Buyanov has previously addressed capacity challenges during high-load periods. Following the Steam launch, he stated that servers had been overloaded more quickly than anticipated and that the team was fully engaged in stabilization efforts. “All hands on deck, and we will not rest until we will stabilise everything,” Buyanov said.

The introduction of a seasonal character system in the major 1.1.0 update earlier in August created separate progression tracks independent of standard PvP and PvE profiles. The change, along with adjustments intended to ease certain progression elements and the addition of a spectator camera after death in parties, represented efforts to expand accessibility and variety. Technical follow-up patches have continued to target residual issues tied to the new systems.

Downdetector and similar tracking services show fluctuating volumes of user reports, with server connection problems typically comprising the majority of recent submissions when spikes occur. At other times the volume remains low, indicating that many players can access the game without interruption. Trustpilot and Steam reviews reflect a polarized community: some players praise the depth and tension of successful raids, while others cite the cumulative effect of technical interruptions, matchmaking friction and cheating as reasons for reduced engagement or negative ratings.

Battlestate Games continues to issue patch notes and social-media updates detailing fixes. The studio has emphasized ongoing work toward greater stability. For a title whose core appeal rests on realistic tension and meaningful consequences, the persistence of connection, loading and fairness complaints remains a central point of discussion among its player base.

As of mid-August, technical updates continue to roll out at regular intervals. Players are directed to download the latest client versions through the official launcher. Whether the combination of seasonal content, targeted bug fixes and infrastructure adjustments will meaningfully reduce the volume of reported problems will become clearer in the coming weeks as more players engage with the post-1.1.0 environment.

A team of physicists has resolved a long-standing scientific puzzle over exactly how diamond melts under extreme pressure, using powerful laser-driven shock waves to observe the process in unprecedented detail and uncovering behavior researchers say defied expectations.

The research, led by physicist Marius Millot at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was published this week in the journal Nature Physics. The team used the OMEGA Laser Facility at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics to blast tiny diamond samples with laser pulses, generating shock waves that produced pressures ranging from 600 gigapascals to 1.8 terapascals, more than three times the pressure found at the center of the Earth.

Diamond, the hardest naturally occurring mineral on Earth, is notoriously difficult to melt, requiring conditions far beyond anything found naturally at the planet’s surface. Scientists first successfully melted diamond in a 2007 experiment using a laser to strike it with a shock wave at 750 gigapascals of pressure, more than double the ambient pressure at Earth’s inner core. A follow-up study in 2009, led by LLNL physicist Jon Eggert, directly measured diamond’s melting temperature for the first time, but that measurement created a new problem: it disagreed with quantum-mechanical theoretical predictions by roughly 20%, a gap that persisted despite years of increasingly sophisticated computer modeling.

Millot’s team set out to resolve that discrepancy using significantly improved diagnostic tools that allowed them to track diamond’s atomic structure in real time as it melted, something earlier experiments lacked the sensitivity to capture. Using X-ray diffraction, the team measured how the diamond’s crystal structure evolved as pressure increased, alongside measurements of shock speed, temperature, density and optical reflectivity, all captured within a window lasting only a billionth of a second.

The new measurements placed diamond’s melting temperature at approximately 7,300 Kelvin at 1 terapascal of pressure, a figure notably lower than earlier experimental results and one that, for the first time, closely matched theoretical predictions. Eggert, a co-author on the new study, acknowledged the significance of the correction. “It was frustrating to discover that our original temperature measurements were off,” Eggert said, adding that the improved data quality made possible by the team’s updated diagnostics ultimately made the correction worthwhile.

Beyond resolving the temperature discrepancy, the experiment answered a second long-standing question about diamond’s behavior under extreme pressure. Theoretical models had predicted that, at pressures around a terapascal, diamond’s rigid atomic lattice should temporarily shift into a different crystalline form of carbon known as BC8 before fully melting into a disordered liquid. Some earlier experiments had been interpreted as possible evidence of that transition occurring above roughly 900 gigapascals.

Millot’s team found no evidence of a substantial BC8 phase. Instead, the X-ray data showed that diamond’s crystal structure remained in its familiar cubic lattice for as long as any solid structure could be detected at all, with solid diamond and liquid carbon simply coexisting until the material had fully melted. Millot attributed the finding to the extremely rapid, single-shock nature of the experiment. “We think that is because the sample does not have time to change when it only experiences a single shock,” Millot said, explaining that the diamond effectively becomes trapped in its original structure rather than transforming into the intermediate BC8 phase theory had predicted.

The researchers say that outcome likely reflects the sheer energy required to break and rearrange diamond’s unusually strong carbon-carbon bonds, a process theory suggests would be needed to form the BC8 structure. Under the fleeting timescale of the shock-compression experiment, the diamond appears to melt before that structural rearrangement has any opportunity to take place.

The findings also revealed an unexpected parallel between diamond and ordinary water ice. Under the extreme pressures studied, solid diamond proved less dense than the liquid carbon it melts into, mirroring the way conventional ice is less dense than liquid water and floats on its surface. The researchers say this implies solid diamond could similarly float atop a pool of molten carbon under the right conditions, and it also produces a related counterintuitive effect: across part of diamond’s melting range, increasing pressure actually lowers the temperature required for it to melt.

Beyond its implications for fundamental physics, the research carries direct practical applications. Diamond is used to encase fuel pellets in inertial confinement fusion experiments, where the material is compressed under pressures similar to those studied in the new experiment. More accurate models of how carbon behaves as those capsules implode could improve the design of future fusion experiments. According to the study’s authors, simulations incorporating the corrected carbon behavior suggest that predicted fusion energy gain could increase by up to threefold. Millot said the findings suggest researchers could achieve full diamond melting in fusion experiments using somewhat slower initial shocks, a change that would make the fusion fuel more compressible and could increase the maximum energy yield achievable using the same amount of laser energy.

The research also carries implications beyond Earth. Scientists believe carbon experiences pressure and temperature conditions similar to those recreated in the experiment deep inside ice giant planets such as Neptune and Uranus, meaning the improved understanding of diamond’s high-pressure behavior could help refine models of those planets’ internal structure and composition.

Separately, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have conducted related diamond-compression experiments using the extreme magnetic fields generated by that facility’s Z machine, and have reported experimental signatures suggesting diamond may take an additional intermediate step on its way to melting, a finding that appears to differ from the Livermore team’s conclusions and suggests the full picture of diamond’s high-pressure behavior may still require further study to fully resolve.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Disney gave fans their first extended look at “Frozen 3” on Friday night, revealing that Anna and Kristoff’s long-awaited wedding will open the film before a mysterious new villain and an unexplored, dangerous realm pull the characters far from their kingdom of Arendelle.

The reveal came during Disney’s D23 Entertainment Showcase at the Honda Center in Anaheim, where stars Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell walked onto the stage together and performed a rendition of “Frozen Heart,” the song that opened the original 2013 film, before discussing the upcoming threequel in detail. Bell confirmed that Anna will marry Kristoff, referring to her love interest by his familiar nickname. “This royal wedding has been a long time coming,” Bell told the crowd, noting that Elsa will be by her sister’s side for the ceremony.

According to descriptions from outlets present at the event, the footage shown to the D23 audience opened on the night of Anna and Kristoff’s wedding, when the newlyweds come upon Elsa on a dock, studying a mysterious stone that appears to open a portal into an entirely new, snow-covered dimension. Menzel, who plays Elsa, described the realm awaiting the characters as considerably more perilous than anything her character has previously encountered. “A frozen land more wild and dangerous than anything Elsa has ever created,” Menzel said, teasing the scale of the adventure awaiting Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven in the new film.

Once the characters step through the portal, they are quickly confronted by a new antagonist. Outlets in attendance described the character as a woman with short black hair and a dark, dramatic cape, though her face was not shown during the footage. In the scene, the new villain approaches the group from atop a snowy peak and addresses Anna and Elsa directly, acknowledging their identity as Arendelle’s ruling sisters in a tone that made clear she was not a friendly presence.

The presentation also confirmed a lighter subplot involving fan-favorite snowman Olaf. Josh Gad, who voices the character, joined Bell and Menzel on stage to perform a new song dedicated to a character named Samantha, described as Olaf’s love interest in the upcoming film. The addition appears to be a nod to a running joke from “Frozen 2,” in which Olaf briefly mentions an imaginary friend named Samantha during the film’s post-credits scene.

“Frozen 3” is scheduled for release November 24, 2027, timed to arrive just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, mirroring the release strategy Disney used for the franchise’s two previous installments. The returning voice cast includes Bell as Anna, Menzel as Elsa, Jonathan Groff as Kristoff and Gad as Olaf, with the story once again centered on the fictional kingdom of Arendelle, even as this chapter is expected to take the characters well beyond its borders for much of the film.

Friday’s reveal builds on concept art Disney first showed for the project two years earlier, also at D23, depicting Elsa and Anna riding separately toward a distant white palace, with Elsa mounted on the water spirit Nokk and Olaf perched on the back of Anna’s horse. At that earlier presentation, “Frozen 3” co-director Jennifer Lee said the story had grown complex enough that it would take two films to resolve the questions left open at the end of “Frozen 2,” a comment that first confirmed a fourth “Frozen” film was also in development alongside the third.

Kristen Bell has previously discussed the film’s development in press interviews, telling Variety in October 2025 that production was getting underway, though she had not yet heard any of the film’s music at that point. Bell also used that interview to deny reports claiming she would be paid $60 million to reprise her role as Anna, though she did not disclose her actual compensation for the film.

The “Frozen” franchise ranks among Disney’s most commercially successful properties, with its first two films combining for more than $2.76 billion in worldwide box office receipts and two Academy Awards. “Frozen 2,” released in 2019, remains one of the highest-grossing animated films in box office history.

With “Frozen 3” still more than a year from release, Disney has not yet revealed the new villain’s identity, name or full motivations, nor detailed the specific nature of the frozen realm introduced in Friday’s footage. For now, fans have confirmation of a wedding, a new romance for Olaf, and the outline of a threat serious enough to pull Anna and Elsa away from Arendelle once again, with additional details expected to emerge as the film moves closer to its Thanksgiving 2027 release.

Dr. Bill Conerly connects the dots between the economy and business decisions. He has the unique combination of a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University and over 30 years’ experience helping companies adapt to changing economic conditions. He has worked in economics and corporate planning at two Fortune 500 corporations and at a major bank, where he was senior vice president. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.   Companies have used Dr. Conerly’s expertise to help with decisions regarding capital expenditures, inventory levels, expansion into new markets, pricing, business models and financial structure. Dr. Conerly is an on-line contributor to Forbes.com and the author of The Flexible Stance: Thriving in a Boom/Bust Economy (2016) as well as Businomics (2007). He had been interviewed on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CNN and CNBC. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and USA Today.