Britain’s royal family has publicly wished Prince Harry a happy birthday, their first such message since 2021 to mark the milestone of him turning 40.

A post was shared on X and Instagram with the message: “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”

It was accompanied by an image of Harry smiling, and a birthday cake emoji.

An hour later, the post was shared by Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who added their own message: “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex!”

The public well-wishes could come as a surprise with Harry known to be estranged from his brother and having difficult ties with his father, King Charles III.

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been living in California since 2020 after stepping down as working members of the British monarchy.

Since then relations have been strained, in particular over the release of Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ which among other bombshells saw Harry call William his “arch-nemesis” and allege he was attacked by him.

Interactions between Harry and other senior royals have been scant: Harry visited Charles following the King’s cancer diagnosis earlier this year but spent just 45 minutes in his company. He also briefly returned to London to mark the 10th anniversary of his Invictus Games but did not see any of the Windsors during the whistle-stop visit.

Harry is thought to be spending his 40th with the Duchess of Sussex and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. He is then understood to be taking a trip with close friends.

This week Harry told the BBC in a statement he was “excited” about the milestone, in contrast to turning 30 when he felt “anxious.” He continued: “Whatever the age, my mission is to continue showing up and doing good in the world.”

The duke also touched upon how fatherhood has changed him, saying: “Being a dad is one of life’s greatest joys and has only made me more driven and more committed to making this world a better place.”

A Russian strike on an apartment block in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has injured at least 41 people, with fears others are trapped under the rubble, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.

Three of those who were injured when a guided aerial bomb hit the 12-story building were children, the head of the Kharkiv city military administration Oleh Syniehubov said.

At least 14 people have been hospitalized as a result of the strike and one person has been reported missing.

“There may be people under the rubble,” Syniehubov said. “The search and rescue operation continues.”

One of the residents refused to evacuate without his dog, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. “Every life is important to our rescuers, so they rescued both the man and his pet from the smoke-filled apartment on the 12th floor,” he added.

Video shared online by the minister showed the dog being lifted in the air by one of the emergency cranes before reaching the roof of the building and being received by one of the rescuers.

The strike sparked a fire on the ninth floor. Three apartments were completely destroyed. Dozens of cars have been damaged from the strike, which also left hundreds of windows shattered.

“Residents are being evacuated. Specialized, humanitarian, international and Ukrainian organizations are responding to the scene,” Syniehubov said.

“This is civil infrastructure,” the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said. “Russia massively violates human rights and international humanitarian law. The reaction must be here and now.”

Kharkiv lies near the border with Russia and has seen frequent attacks since the full-scale Russian invasion began in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated his call for more military support from allies following the attack.

“The world must help us defend ourselves against Russian military aircraft and the dozens of guided aerial bombs that claim Ukrainian lives every day,” Zelensky said in a social media post on Sunday.

“This terror can be stopped. But to stop it, the fear of making strong, objectively necessary decisions must be overcome. Only decisiveness can bring a just end to this war. It is decisiveness that most effectively protects against terror,” he said.

Ukrainian authorities earlier put the toll from Russian strikes over a 24-hour period at nine, including a man and a woman in their 60s killed in Odesa.

Zelensky said that over the past week “the Russians have launched around 30 missiles of various types, more than 800 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 300 strike drones against Ukraine.”

The Israeli military says that three Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza in December were “most likely” killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike.

The hostages were two soldiers – Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman – and and civilian man, Eliya Toledano.

Recovering the hostages captured by Hamas on October 7 is one of the main goals of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and the government is under intense domestic pressure to secure their release.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the families of all three were informed Sunday after the conclusion of the investigation, which involved intelligence and operational research efforts and considerations of the security of the hostages.

“It is estimated that the three were most likely killed as a by-product of an IDF airstrike, during the assassination of the commander of the northern division of Hamas, Ahmed Andor, on November 10, 2023.”

“This is an estimate with a high probability in view of all the data, but it is not possible to determine with certainty the circumstances of their death,” the IDF said. “This determination is based on the location where their bodies were found in relation to the impact of the attack,” as well as intelligence findings and pathological reports.

“The investigation shows that the three hostages were held in the tunnel complex where Andor operated. At the time of the attack, the IDF did not have information about the presence of hostages in the compound that was attacked, and moreover, there was information that indicated their location elsewhere.”

The IDF said that throughout the war, it has not attacked in areas where there are indications or suspicions about the presence of hostages.

The bodies of the three hostages were retrieved from the tunnel where Andor had been staying on December 14. Later that month Hamas claimed that the three hostages were “killed by IDF weapons.”

A total of 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). 35 of those are believed to be dead.

Hostage release efforts are ongoing and gained new urgency earlier this month with the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah, including the Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

US officials are trying to get both sides to agree to a deal first laid out by US President Joe Biden in May. The three-phase proposal pairs the release of hostages with a “full and complete ceasefire.”

Since then talks have stuttered and both sides have pointed to what they see as glaring holes in the framework, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that Israel’s forces will never leave the stretch along the Egypt-Gaza border known as the Philadelphi Corridor.

At least eight people died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said Sunday.

The tragedy occurred Saturday just before midnight when authorities spotted a boat, carrying dozens, in distress near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse.

A French rescue ship was deployed to the area and rescue services offered medical assistance to 53 migrants on the beach, a statement from the French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said.

“Despite the emergency care provided, eight people have died,” the statement said.

No people were discovered during the search at sea, it added.

Six people were taken to hospital “in relative emergency,” including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, Jacques Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect, told French media on Sunday. He said that survivors came from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran.

The inflatable boat, carrying 59 people, set sail from the beach near the town of Vimont and ran aground soon after, the prefect said. “The boat was clearly torn apart on the rocks,” he added.

Fifty-one survivors have been taken to a reception center in the city of Toulouse, according to local authorities. The prosecutor’s office in Boulogne-sur-mer has opened an investigation.

The deaths on Saturday occurred nearly two weeks after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead, officials said.

British officials were quick to express sadness over another English Channel tragedy.

“It’s awful,’’ Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC. “It’s a further loss of life.”

The new Labour Party government has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs and had discussed with European partners “how we go after those gangs, in cooperation upstream.’’

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north. At least 46 migrants had died while trying to cross to the UK this year, said Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect.

At least 137,563 people have reached the United Kingdom after crossing the Channel from France since 2018, according to UK Home Office figures. On Saturday alone, 14 boats carrying 801 migrants reached Britain.

French coast guard and navy vessels on Saturday rescued 200 people from the treacherous waters in the Pas-de-Calais area, according to a report sent by French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea.

They said they observed 18 attempts of boat departures from France to Britain on Saturday.

Other surveillance and rescue operations are underway Sunday along the entire Pas-de-Calais coast amid stormy weather conditions and agitated sea, French maritime authorities said. They warned anyone who tries to cross the Channel on flimsy and overloaded boats and in often difficult weather conditions of “significant risks.”

In July, four migrants died while attempting the crossing on an inflatable boat that capsized and punctured. Five others, including a child, died in another attempt in April. Five dead were recovered from the sea or found washed up along a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the dark and winter cold of January.

At least 274 inmates have escaped from a prison in Nigeria’s Borno state following heavy flooding, the Nigerian Correctional Service said Sunday.

“The flood brought down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the medium security custodial center Maiduguri (MSCC) as well as the staff quarters in the city,” the service spokesman Abubakar Umar said in a statement.

According to Umar, at least 281 inmates managed to escape while they were being transferred to “a safe and secure facility” and seven of them were recaptured later.

Umar said that the service is aware of escapees’ identities, including their biometrics and made this information “available to the public.”

The search for the inmates is ongoing, he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.