LONDON (AP) — Can it be that, like many baby boomers, King Charles III feels misunderstood?
That might sound like a strange question for a man with his own public relations team and easy access to any journalist in the realm. But 16 years after he wrote a book explaining his vision for saving the planet, the king has teamed up with Amazon Prime to make a film spelling out that philosophy.
The documentary delves into Charles’ concept of “harmony,” the idea that restoring the balance between the human and natural worlds is crucial to combatting global warming and many other major problems facing humanity.
Along the way, the king also confronts his critics, who have lampooned him as a dilettante flitting aimlessly from one cause to another with no rhyme or reason. Charles believes that climate change, urban planning, sustainable agriculture, traditional crafts and fostering understanding between religions — causes to which he has devoted much of his adult life — are inter-related issues that must be dealt with to create more liveable communities.
“I think we need to follow harmony if we are going to ensure that this planet can support so many,’’ he said in a trailer for the film. “It’s unlikely there’s anywhere else.’’
To help explain these ideas, experts including Tony Juniper, the former head of Friends of the Earth in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Emily Shuckburgh, a University of Cambridge climate scientist, appear with Charles in “Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision,” available on Amazon from Feb. 6. The narrator is Kate Winslet.
The king wants people to recognize that humans are as much a part of the natural world as the birds and the trees, something that can be obscured as we rush to work in air-conditioned offices, then drive to the supermarket to buy food wrapped in plastic, Juniper told The Associated Press.
The “cycles and loops” of nature are still what govern human society, Juniper said, and reconnecting with that is critical as we confront global warming, soil erosion, ocean plastics and the chemicals building up in our food chains.
“All of that is reversible, all of that fixable,” he said. “But it’s going to require more of us to understand that we are not outside nature, we are in it.”
Juniper believes Charles is uniquely qualified to deliver this message because he has been campaigning on these issues for decades and continues to do so even as other world leaders shun environmental protection.
“If there’s one person in the world who is literally a globally recognized figure, who has authenticity derived from an incredible track record on these subjects, it is King Charles III,” Juniper said.
Charles addressed the idea of restoring balance in the natural world in his 2010 book “Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World,” written with Juniper and Ian Skelly, a former BBC presenter.
So why return to the subject now?
Part of it may be the hope of reaching a new audience through a streaming service with global reach. Prince William, Charles’ heir, ventured into the same space last year when he revealed his plans for the monarchy on comedian Eugene Levy’s Apple TV show “The Reluctant Traveler.”
But the king also wants to shift the focus back to an issue he hopes will define his legacy after two years in which the media, and the public, were distracted by other matters, said Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?”
First there was Charles’ cancer diagnosis, which forced him to step away from public duties for several months in early 2024 and raised nagging questions about his health. Then there were the continuing tensions with his younger son, Prince Harry, and the scandal surrounding his brother Andrew’s links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
With Charles apparently past the worst of his cancer treatmen t, and Andrew stripped of his titles, now may be the time to turn the page.
“Let us not be in any in any doubt, that this is a very deliberate attempt to rebrand monarchy after a couple of very difficult years,” Owens said.
Even so, the king can’t be accused of only taking up these issues recently.
Charles gave his first speech on the environment in February 1970, when he was just 21 and still a student at Cambridge.
In 1990, he founded Dumfries House, the flagship project of the King’s Foundation, to promote sustainable agriculture, traditional arts and crafts, health and well-being.
The house and surrounding 2,000-acre estate in southwestern Scotland operate as a laboratory of sorts for the philosophy of harmony, offering courses that seek to teach the principles of nature while preparing students to work on farms, in hotels and restaurants — and on construction sites.
Among those who is attending a course at Dumfries House is Jennie Regan, 45, who is training to be a stonemason after 15 years as a university administrator.
On a recent afternoon, Regan stood proudly behind a carving she created bearing the inscription “Have I not guided you well?” — a nod to the story of the benevolent Scottish fairy Ghillie Dhu who led a lost child to safety.
The carving, which will adorn the floor of a wildlife hide, a hidden woodland shelter for observing nature, is an example of what attracted her to stonemasonry: the ability to combine her love of nature with the goal of making something that will last for years.
“Things need to be sustainable,″ Regan said. “Building sites have so much waste.’′
Shuckburgh, who collaborated with the king on a children’s book about climate change, said the documentary offers a hopeful vision for addressing the challenges facing the world.
“It feels as though we’re living through difficult times,’’ said Shuckburgh, director of Cambridge Zero, the university’s effort to address the climate crisis. “Having something that provides that sense of hope and optimism is really, really important."
FILE -Britain's King Charles III waves as he arrives for a visit to University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre in London, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
Jennie Regan stands beside the stone she carved with an inscription from a Scottish fairy tale at Dumfries House in Cumnock, Scotland, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Danica Kirka)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran attacked commercial ships on Wednesday and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of bottling up the oil-rich Persian Gulf as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic.
Iran's response to the surprise Israeli and U.S. bombardment 12 days ago has upended trade routes, choked supplies of fuel and fertilizer coming out of the Gulf and threatened air traffic through one of the world's most-traveled regions. Both sides have dug in, hoping to outlast the other.
An Israeli intelligence assessment found that Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded at the start of the war — on the day when his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
An Israeli intelligence official and a reservist with knowledge of the assessment spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. They gave no details on the nature of the injuries.
The 56-year-old, whose wife was also killed in the Israeli strike, has not been seen since becoming supreme leader on Monday. Yousef Pezeshkian, the son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote on social media that he had heard Mojtaba was wounded but that friends said “he is healthy and there is no problem.”
The fallout across the Middle East has widened as Israel strikes what it says are targets connected to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The U.N. refugee agency said at least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, while more than 92,000 others have crossed into neighboring Syria.
In a separate development, Iran’s sports minister said it cannot take part in the upcoming soccer World Cup in North America in June because of the “wicked acts” of the United States. Ahmad Donyamali told Iranian state TV that “it’s not possible for us to take part in the World Cup” after the U.S. launched two wars against Iran in less than a year. He said Iranian players would not be safe in the United States.
Two Iranian drones hit near the Dubai airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and the world’s busiest for international travel. Four people were wounded but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.
A projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand’s Marine Department.
At least 12 incidents have been confirmed involving vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes, since the war began, according to two global trackers. The International Maritime Organization says at least seven mariners have been killed.
Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic through the narrow strait. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.
The United States has pledged to keep the strait open and has carried out intense airstrikes targeting Iran's navy and the port city of Bandar Abbas.
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the strait, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage.
Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the strait, making so-called “dark” transits -- meaning they aren’t turning on trackers that show where they are. Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their trackers.
The commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman. A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, it said.
Oil prices remained well below Monday’s peaks but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began. Consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.
The International Energy Agency agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the war’s impact on energy markets.
The Paris-based organization said it will make 400 million barrels of oil available from its member countries’ emergency reserves, more than twice the amount they released four years ago in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Israeli strikes set a building ablaze in central Beirut, engulfing the top two floors. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said four people were wounded.
Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Wednesday that 570 people have been killed in the country since the latest fighting began.
Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 people dead. The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
Iran’s joint military command said it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East. That would put at risk particularly Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.
The threat came after a Tehran location of Bank Sepah, a state-owned financial institution sanctioned by the U.S. over funding its armed forces, came under attack Wednesday, killing staffers there, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
This story has been corrected to fix an earlier misspelling of Mojtaba Khamenei’s first name.
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Sally Abou AIJoud in Beirut, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Cara Anna in Lowville, New York, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed to this story.
A man holds a picture of late Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh beside his coffin as mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A mourner holds a poster depicting Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, as supreme leader, during the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from a building following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and some civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji, File)
Rescue workers gather at the site where Israeli airstrikes hit apartments in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People take shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
