Duchess Sophie has quickly emerged as one of the Royal Family’s most active figures so far in 2026.

Highlighting her packed schedule, King Charles III’s office shared a new video of the Duchess of Edinburgh on the official Royal Family social media accounts on Tuesday, January 13. The footage, originally posted by England Hockey, captured moments from Sophie’s visit to the Bisham Abbey National Sport Centre the day before.

“England and Great Britain Hockey were honoured to welcome HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh to Bisham Abbey National Sport Centre yesterday,” the caption read. Sophie has served as a patron of England Hockey since 2006.

The video showed highlights from the visit, including the Duchess stepping onto the pitch and trying her hand at hockey. She was also seen touring an indoor gym facility, where she chatted with staff and gym members during the stop.

Additionally, the Royal Family’s social media also posted a photo collage of the visit with the caption, “Yesterday, The Duchess of Edinburgh visited @englandhockey to meet members of the Senior Men’s and Women’s squads.”

The outing marked Sophie’s second official engagement of the year. Just four days earlier, she visited The Lighthouse charity in Woking. During that visit, Prince Edward’s wife helped staff pack and prepare for the charity’s relocation and also toured the new site.

The Sindh government has announced a public holiday for educational institutions across the province on the occasion of Shab-e-Meraj, according to a notification issued on Tuesday.

The notification said both government and private educational institutions in Sindh will remain closed on January 17.

Muslims every year on the 27th of Rajab (Lunar calendar) observe the Shab-e-Meraj to mark the Isra (journey) and Meraj (ascension) of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), who was taken on a special journey to meet Allah Almighty, crossing seven skies on the heavenly animal named ‘al-Buraq’.

The Holy Prophet (PBUH) continued his heavenly tour until he reached very close to the Throne of Allah Almighty and attained the utmost nearness to Him. After having drunk from the Divine fountain of spiritual knowledge, he came down to impart the knowledge to mankind.

On that Night of Ascent, Allah Almighty also gave the order of the five daily Salat (Prayers) as being mandatory for the Muslims.

Faithful would gather at mosques after Isha to offer special prayers that would continue till Fajr prayer, while different gatherings and Mahafil-e-Naat are being arranged to mark the holy night.

The houses, streets and especially mosques are decorated with colourful pennants and buntings, whereas at night these are well illuminated using electric lights, candles or even oil lamps.

Besides, people visit the graves of their near and dear ones, seeking Allah Almighty’s blessings for the departed souls. 

Schools and workplaces are typically closed to observe the holiday.

Natural disaster losses worldwide dropped sharply to $224 billion in 2025, reinsurer Munich Re said Tuesday, but warned of a still “alarming” picture of extreme weather events likely driven by climate change.

The figure was down nearly 40% from a year earlier, in part because no hurricane struck the US mainland for the first time in several years.

Nevertheless, “the big picture was alarming with regard to floods, severe… storms and wildfires in 2025”, said Munich Re, a Germany-based provider of insurance for the insurance industry.

The costliest disaster of the year came in the form of Los Angeles wildfires in January, with total losses of $53 billion and insured losses of around $40 billion, Munich Re said in its annual disaster report.

It was striking how many extreme events were likely influenced by climate change in 2025 and it was just chance that the world was spared potentially higher losses, according to the group.

“The planet has a fever, and as a result we are seeing a cluster of severe and intense weather events,” Tobias Grimm, Munich Re’s chief climate scientist, told AFP.

Last month Swiss Re, another top player in the reinsurance industry, also reported a hefty drop for 2025, putting total losses at $220 billion.

According to Munich Re’s report, insured losses for 2025 came in at $108 billion, also sharply down on last year.

Around 17,200 lives were lost in natural disasters worldwide, significantly higher than about 11,000 in 2024, but below the 10-year average of of 17,800, it said.

Grimm said 2025 was a year with “two faces”.

“The first half of the year was the costliest loss period the insurance industry has ever experienced,” he said — but the second half saw the lowest losses in a decade.

LA wildfires, Myanmar quake

It is now the cumulative costs of smaller-scale disasters — like local floods and forest fires — that are having the greatest impact.

Losses from these events amounted to $166 billion last year, according to Munich Re.

After the LA wildfires, the costliest disaster of the year was a devastating earthquake that hit Myanmar in March, which is estimated to have caused $12 billion in losses, only a small share of which was insured.

Tropical cyclones caused around $37 billion in losses.

Jamaica was battered by Hurricane Melissa, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall, generating losses of around $9.8 billion.

By region, the United States’ total losses amounted to $118 billion, $88 billion of which was insured — around the same as an estimate of $115 billion total losses from US nonprofit Climate Central.

The Asia-Pacific region had losses of about $73 billion — but only $9 billion was insured, according to the report.

Australia had its second most expensive year in terms of overall losses from natural disasters since 1980 due to a series of severe storms and flooding.

Europe saw losses of $11 billion. Natural disasters in Africa led to losses of $3 billion, less than a fifth of which was insured.

The report comes at a time when scepticism towards green policies is growing, particularly since the return to power of US President Donald Trump, who derides climate science as a “hoax”.

But Grimm warned that the Earth “continues to warm”.

“More heat means more humidity, stronger rainfall, and higher wind speeds — climate change is already contributing to extreme weather,” he said.