Category Archives: Monarchy

Lidia Thorpe defiant after Senate censures her protest against King Charles: ‘I’ll do it again’

Posted on by

Senator rips up paper copy of motion against her and says she was ‘denied my right’ to be present during vote

Lidia Thorpe has ripped up a paper copy of the Senate motion censuring her protest against King Charles, promising “I’ll do it again” and saying she is not concerned about the parliamentary rebuke.

The independent senator was censured by the Labor and Coalition on Monday, as was the United Australia party senator Ralph Babet after he posted a tweet containing several offensive slurs.

Continue reading...

Mysterious 300-carat diamond necklace fetches £3.8m in Geneva auction

Posted on by

Worn at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, the necklace has possible links to the downfall of Marie Antoinette

A mysterious diamond-laden necklace with possible links to a scandal that contributed to the downfall of Marie Antoinette has sold for $4.8m (£3.8m) at an auction in Geneva.

The 18th-century item of jewellery containing approximately 300 carats of diamonds had been estimated to sell at the Sotheby’s Royal and Noble Jewels sale for $1.8-2.8m.

Continue reading...

Exiles ask King Charles to rescind honour awarded to king of Bahrain

Posted on by

Buckingham Palace accused of ‘burying’ news of GCVO bestowed on King Hamad, whose regime is accused of torturing opponents

King Charles has been asked by exiles from Bahrain to rescind an honour he bestowed this week on the ruler of the Gulf kingdom.

Charles was told in a letter by the exiles: “It is personally difficult for us to view this honour as anything other than a betrayal of victims who have suffered at the hands of King Hamad and his brutal regime.”

Continue reading...

King Charles to lay wreath and lead nation in Remembrance Sunday silence

Posted on by

Prince and Princess of Wales will join the king and senior politicians to remember those who have died in conflict

King Charles will lay wreaths at the Cenotaph and lead the nation in a two-minute silence at 11am to remember the dead who gave their lives in two world wars as well as those who have died in other conflicts involving British and Commonwealth forces.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will join the king and senior politicians for the national service of remembrance at the Cenotaph to honour all those killed.

Continue reading...

Prince William says he wants to carry out duties with a smaller ‘r’ in the ‘royal’

Posted on by

Prince of Wales says he wants to approach engagements differently and to focus on helping people

Prince William has said he wants the monarchy to evolve and for him to carry out his duties with a “smaller r in the royal”.

Speaking at end of a major visit to South Africa where he mixed the informal with traditional elements of the monarchy, the Prince of Wales said he was trying to do things differently.

Continue reading...

Queen Camilla to miss remembrance events due to chest infection

Posted on by

Doctors advise queen not to attend Remembrance Day activities to ensure full recovery from seasonal illness

Queen Camilla will not attend Remembrance Day events this weekend as she recovers from a chest infection, Buckingham Palace has said.

Camilla was due to attend the Royal British Legion festival of remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday evening, and to honour the war dead at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall.

Continue reading...

Prince William describes ‘brutal’ impact of wife’s and father’s cancer diagnoses

Posted on by

Royal says ‘it’s probably been the hardest year in my life’ as Catherine and King Charles underwent cancer treatment

Prince William has described the past year as “brutal” and “probably the hardest year in my life” as he dealt with his wife and father having cancer.

In a video interview to mark the end of his week-long visit of Cape Town in South Africa for the Earthshot prize awards ceremony, William was asked about his year. “Honestly, it’s been dreadful,” he said. “It’s probably been the hardest year in my life. Trying to get through everything else and keep everything on track has been really difficult.

Continue reading...

King and Prince William’s estates ‘making millions from charities and public services’

Posted on by

Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster likely to make at least £50m from leasing land to services such as NHS and schools, according to investigation

King Charles and Prince William’s property empires are taking millions of pounds from cash-strapped charities and public services including the NHS, state schools and prisons, according to a new investigation.

The reports claim the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which are exempt from business taxes and used to fund the royals’ lifestyles and philanthropic work, are set to make at least £50m from leasing land to public services. The two duchies hold a total of more than 5,400 leases.

Continue reading...

Prince William: ‘I’ll show people how to prevent homelessness’

Posted on by

Heir to the throne responds to criticism about his Homewards programme in two-part ITV documentary

Prince William has said criticism about his privileged lifestyle and many residences drives him to try to end homelessness in Britain.

The heir to the throne was challenged to respond to jibes about his three homes and 135,000-acre Duchy of Cornwall estate for a two-part ITV documentary airing this week.

Continue reading...

King Charles to resume regular overseas trips in 2025 after cancer hiatus

Posted on by

Royal visits to resume in spring subject to doctors’ approval, official says as trip to Australia and Samoa concludes

King Charles will return to regular overseas trips next year after the hiatus from official foreign duties he has taken since his cancer diagnosis, a palace official said.

Charles will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official overseas royal visits, provided that doctors approve the travel.

Continue reading...

Selfies, hugs and protests: King Charles’s new approach in spotlight during ‘fast and furious’ royal tour of Australia

Posted on by

Issue of Aboriginal sovereignty front and centre during head of state’s whirlwind first visit

King Charles and Queen Camilla have left Australia after more than 30 official engagements – and a fair share of controversy – packed into just four full days on the ground.

In the stage-managed whirlwind were churchgoers, bushfire scientists, a violinist, authors, dancers, architects, chefs, surf life savers, schoolchildren, republicans and monarchists – and unscripted discordance as activists took up Aboriginal sovereignty directly with the crown.

Continue reading...

Australian senator Lidia Thorpe confronted King Charles with a string of claims. How do they stack up?

Posted on by

The Gurnai Gunditjmara and Djab-Wurrung woman accused the crown of a range of crimes against Indigenous people at Parliament House

Independent federal senator Lidia Thorpe’s forthright haranguing of King Charles during his visit to the Australian parliament has made global headlines.

Reactions have been mixed. Many have criticised Thorpe’s decision to disrupt the event, labelling the 51-year-old’s behaviour as “disrespectful” and “grandstanding”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Barbecue, kangaroo pies and Jimmy Barnes: Charles and Camilla go quintessentially Australian for final day of tour

Posted on by

The royals get on the tongs, banter with surf lifesavers and meet massive crowds at the Sydney Opera House

Just as King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at a barbecue picnic in western Sydney, the strains of the Jimmy Barnes anthem, Working Class Man, wafted mysteriously and humorously above the crowd.

As Barnsey rasped out the opening lyrics of the Aussie classic, Charles and Camilla greeted hundreds of invited guests in the punishing Parramatta Park heat. Muster dogs waited patiently atop barrels and a windmill slowly twirled above a pile of hay.

Continue reading...

Thousands greet royals at opera house – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog has now closed

The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has been speaking with ABC RN about a range of issues – including Lidia Thorpe’s actions at King Charles’ parliamentary reception yesterday.

Dutton argued that “sometimes people make it all about themselves, and I think that’s what yesterday was.” He said it “didn’t advance anyone’s cause” and “add[s] to the self promotion … that she seeks.”

The vast majority of people have been very welcoming the king’s visit, and I think it’s been an opportunity to underscore the stability in our democracy, our rule of law, separation of powers, all of those institutions that we inherited from our British heritage.

That’s part of the success story of our country, and it’s a good reminder during his visit [that] if we change it, I think we want to be very careful about the system we’re changing to and whether or not we would be a safer, more secure, community and environment for decades to come or not.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer praises Charles after king was heckled in Australia

Posted on by

UK PM says monarch is doing ‘a fantastic job’ after protest by senator in Australian parliament

King Charles is doing a “fantastic job”, particularly in the context of his “health challenges”, the prime minister has said after the royal was heckled by the Indigenous Australian senator Lidia Thorpe.

Charles had just finished addressing MPs and senators at Parliament House in Canberra, as part of his five-day tour of Australia with Camilla, when he was approached by Thorpe, who yelled: “This is not your country.”

Continue reading...

Indigenous elder scolds Lidia Thorpe for yelling ‘disrespectful’ comments at King Charles

Posted on by

Aunty Violet Sheridan says the Victorian senator ‘does not speak for me and my people’ and called Thorpe’s yelling of ‘fuck the colony’ inappropriate

A Ngunnawal elder has rebuked Lidia Thorpe over her confrontation with King Charles, saying the Victorian senator doesn’t speak for her people and that her comments of “fuck the colony” were “disrespectful”.

Aunty Violet Sheridan, 69, met the royals as part of an official greeting party on Monday and was sitting near the king in Parliament House when Thorpe “jumped out”, marched forward and started shouting at the royals. Thorpe yelled at the king to “give us our land back”, and shouted “fuck the colony” and “you are not my king”.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: king meets Hephner the alpaca en route to war memorial; Sussan Ley declares purchase of Cessna plane

Posted on by

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have greeted the crowd at the Australian War Memorial, shaking hands and high-fiving kids. Follow the day’s news live

Independent Kooyong MP responds to Victorian government rezoning plan

Monique Ryan, the federal member for Kooyong, was up on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss the Victorian government’s rezoning plan:

The announcement this weekend from the premier was for nine massive new developments just in the electorate of Kooyong. That’s huge. These could be up to 20 storeys high. Of course that will cause some concern from people who live in the area, who have chosen to live there, because it’s a beautiful part of the world.

We’re not saying we don’t want it, I think people in my part of the world are welcoming it. We’d also like some assurances from the government they will include social and affordable housing in these developments. We really don’t have any detail as of yet and that’s the stuff that’s missing at this point.

Continue reading...

King Charles makes relaxed start to Australian tour but spends less than 10 minutes at lunch in his honour

Posted on by

After a day of rest, monarch appears at Sydney lunch in his honour and gives hosts an hourglass while joking about swift passage of time

King Charles III did not linger long at the luncheon put on in his honour, at the second scheduled event of his short Australian visit. And his gift to the gathering was a reminder of the fleeting passage of time.

There was a menu fit for a king, and very Sydney: chargrilled asparagus and olive dust; marinated octopus and squid ink wafer; barramundi and duck confit.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

King Charles’s visit puts the monarchy’s Australian future back in focus

Posted on by

Hopeful Republicans are calling it the ‘farewell tour’, as the king toes the tried and tested constitutional line

As the king arrives in Australia for the first time as head of state, republican rumblings are once more on the media radar.

Will it be, as the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) optimistically opines, the monarchy’s “farewell tour”?

Continue reading...

In the rain of King Charles: royal couple touch down in Australia

Posted on by

Amid a downpour at Sydney airport, the monarch arrives with Queen Camilla for a five-day visit

Minutes after a drenching downpour came to an end at Sydney airport, King Charles and Queen Camilla stepped on to Australian soil for their first visit as reigning monarchs.

The five-day trip is the couple’s first Australian visit since the King ascended to the throne in 2022 and the first by a reigning monarch since his mother Queen Elizabeth toured the country in 2011.

Continue reading...