Renewed calls for PM to resign over parties on eve of Philip funeral

Queen followed Covid rules at husband’s funeral, sitting alone in face mask away from rest of family

Further allegations of Downing Street parties taking place on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s socially distanced funeral have been met with widespread anger across the political spectrum, bookending a turbulent week for Boris Johnson, who is facing renewed calls to resign.

Prince Philip’s funeral took place in the private chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday 17 April, the day after two leaving dos were reportedly held at No 10 at a time when such mixing was banned. The Queen, in mourning black, wearing a face mask and sitting alone to maintain social distancing, became one of the defining images of the national lockdown.

Covid restrictions had a substantial impact on the proceedings, with the guest list trimmed from 800 to 30.

The Queen attended the funeral wearing a face mask and socially distanced from the rest of her family, who were seated in their respective household bubbles, at the service in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Those in the funeral procession were required to put on face masks before entering the chapel.

Bottles of hand sanitiser featured alongside the traditional dressing of floral arrangements and family wreaths.

Original plans for military processions through London or Windsor were scrapped, with the royal family asking the public not to gather at the castle or other royal residences.

The choir was also limited to four singers, while the few guests were banned from singing in line with Covid regulations.

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Virginia Giuffre praises ruling to allow Prince Andrew lawsuit to go to trial

Giuffre says she will ‘continue to expose truth’ and ‘seek justice from those who hurt me and others’

Virginia Giuffre has praised a court ruling enabling her sexual assault civil lawsuit against the Duke of York to proceed to trial and said she will “continue to expose the truth”.

Giuffre wrote on Twitter she was “pleased” with the ruling, adding: “I’m glad I will have the chance to continue to expose the truth & I am deeply grateful to my extraordinary legal team.

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Platinum pudding for Queen’s jubilee to follow 1953’s coronation chicken

Fortnum & Mason’s judges include Mary Berry and event will form part of celebrations for 70-year reign

Fortnum & Mason is launching a competition to find a dish celebrating the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, marking the beginning of official jubilee festivities.

Much like Poulet Reine Elizabeth, more commonly known as coronation chicken, invented by Le Cordon Bleu London for the Queen’s coronation banquet in 1953, it is hoped the Platinum Pudding competition will serve as a long-lasting reminder of the 95 year-old monarch’s reign.

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Royals await anxiously the fallout from Prince Andrew’s disgrace

The Queen’s favourite child, under siege in the press as he awaits a critical court ruling, is not the first obnoxious royal. But he has damaged ‘the Firm’ – and it will have to change

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, KG, GCVO, CD, ADC, turns 62 next month. It is long past the age at which a man is expected to stop being a cause of concern and embarrassment to his parents. And yet Andrew, who is said to be the Queen’s favourite child, has exposed his mother to the greatest threat to the royal family’s reputation in living memory.

As he awaits the decision of a New York judge, Lewis Kaplan, in the sex assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre, the prince finds himself in the deeply unedifying position of trying to evade court with a secret silencing deal struck by his late friend and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

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Hiding behind the loophole of a dead sex trafficker? Stay classy, Andrew | Marina Hyde

‘Potential defendants’ are sweating (if they can) over whether Virginia Giuffre’s settlement with Epstein will protect them

Where does Prince Andrew drive to in his brand new, £80,000 Range Rover – seemingly his only appearances these days in anything that could be considered the outside world? The duke is often pictured motoring broodingly out of his Royal Lodge home in Windsor at the wheel of this high-performance vehicle, perhaps making his in-car security detail listen to a podcast about putting, or a funny song about a whoopee cushion. (The precise contours of Andrew’s cultural life have always remained a tantalising mystery.) Some local visits to his mother at Windsor Castle have been chalked up, as well they might be. But we’ll come to the duke’s ominous financial reliance on the Queen in a minute.

Were The Artist Formerly Known as Airmiles to take an aimless intra-Berkshire spin this morning, he would be able to listen to news reports concerning the newly unsealed settlement his accuser reached with Jeffrey Epstein in 2009. Virginia Giuffre signed a $500,000 deal with Epstein, and Andrew’s lawyers believe her agreement not to sue anyone who could be described as a “potential defendant” could get HRH off the hook of having to face, in civil court, her claims that he sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was a minor. (He denies everything, vehemently.)

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

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US judge delivers double setback to Prince Andrew’s abuse case battle

Pressure grows on duke to settle alleged victim’s claim before key hearing this week

Two of Prince Andrew’s efforts to prevent or stall the progression of Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s sex assault lawsuit against him were blocked on Saturday when a US federal judge ordered the prince’s lawyers to turn over key legal documents, increasing pressure to settle claims before a crucial court hearing this week.

Judge Lewis A Kaplan, in a written order, told the prince’s lawyers they must turn over documents on the schedule that has been set in the lawsuit brought by Guiffre who claims she was abused – aged 17 – by the prince on multiple occasions in 2001 while she was being sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein.

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Elton John’s Your Song originally slated for Diana funeral

Goodbye England’s Rose was included in 1997 service after dean of Westminster urged ‘boldness’

Westminster Abbey originally anticipated that Elton John would sing Your Song at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, rather than Goodbye England’s Rose, his reworking of Candle in the Wind, newly released records show.

An early order-of-service draft included the lyrics of Your Song, although it was mistitled Our Song. A second draft, sent for approval to Buckingham Palace by the dean of Westminster Abbey, Dr Wesley Carr, substituted Candle in the Wind.

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Prince Andrew lawyer seeks to halt US case as accuser ‘lives in Australia’

Lawyer argues court does not have jurisdiction as Virginia Giuffre’s ties to Colorado are ‘very limited’

Prince Andrew’s lawyer has called for the US civil case against the royal over alleged sexual assault to be stopped because his accuser is “actually domiciled in Australia”.

Virginia Giuffre is suing the Queen’s son for allegedly assaulting her when she was a teenager. Andrew strongly denies the allegation.

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Armed intruder arrested at Windsor Castle as Queen celebrates Christmas

Police say suspect was carrying an offensive weapon and royal family have been informed

An armed man was arrested after attempting to break into Windsor Castle where the Queen was celebrating Christmas with her family.

Police said the intruder was carrying an offensive weapon but did not break into any buildings on Saturday morning.

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Queen expected to strike personal tone in Christmas Day message

Photograph of TV address released by palace shows Queen sitting next to a portrait of her and Prince Philip

The Queen’s Christmas Day message is expected to be a particularly personal one this year, her first since the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.

A photograph released by Buckingham Palace ahead of her televised address shows the Queen sitting behind a desk in the White Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, accompanied by a single, framed picture of the couple taken in 2007 at Broadlands country house, Hampshire, to mark their diamond wedding anniversary.

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Harry and Meghan release first photo of Lilibet on Christmas card

Image taken at home shows daughter held up by her mother, as prince sits with son Archie on his knee

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have released the first picture of their daughter, Lilibet, with Meghan holding up the laughing child in an image on their Christmas card.

The photo, which also shows Prince Harry with curly haired Archie on his knee, was taken by Alexi Lubomirski this summer at the couple’s home in Santa Barbara, California.

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Meghan calls for tabloid industry overhaul as Mail on Sunday loses appeal

ANL had brought appeal after duchess sued publisher over articles relating to letter she sent to estranged father

The Duchess of Sussex called for a reshaping of the tabloid newspaper industry and said she had been patient in the face of “deception, intimidation, and calculated attacks” as the Mail on Sunday lost its appeal in its three-year privacy battle with her over a letter to her estranged father.

Meghan sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), also the publisher of Mail Online, over five articles reproducing parts of the “personal and private” letter to Thomas Markle, 77, in August 2018.

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Donald Trump accuses Meghan of disrespect towards royal family

Former president says Prince Harry ‘has been used horribly’ in interview with Nigel Farage

The former US president Donald Trump has accused the Duchess of Sussex of being “disrespectful” to the Queen and the royal family.

In a wide-ranging interview with the politician turned broadcaster Nigel Farage, Trump said he thought the Duke of Sussex had been “used horribly”.

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Praise for Prince Charles after ‘historic’ slavery condemnation

Equality campaigners say remarks made as Barbados became a republic are ‘start of a grown-up conversation’

The Prince of Wales’s acknowledgment of the “appalling atrocity of slavery” that “forever stains our history” as Barbados became a republic was brave, historic, and the start of a “grown-up conversation led by a future king”, equality campaigners have said.

Uttering words his mother, the Queen, would be constitutionally constrained from saying, Prince Charles’s speech, at the ceremony to replace the monarch as head of state in the island nation, did not demur from reflecting on the “darkest days of our past” as he looked to a bright future for Barbadians.

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Queen congratulates Barbados as it becomes a republic

Monarch sends message marking ‘momentous’ day and wishing Barbadians peace and prosperity

As Barbados removes the Queen as its head of state and becomes a republic, the monarch has sent her congratulations on the nation’s “momentous” day.

Prince Charles arrived on the Caribbean island on Sunday to join the inauguration ceremony of the president-elect, Sandra Mason, who replaces the Queen as head of state overnight as Barbados sheds the vestiges of a colonial system stretching back 400 years.

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Reporter denies William tacitly approved leak of Meghan bullying claims

In BBC documentary, Times journalist Valentine Low plays down rumours of briefing war between royal brothers

Allegations that the Duchess of Sussex had “bullied” two members of staff at Kensington Palace were “absolutely not” leaked with Prince William’s tacit approval, according to the journalist who reported them.

The final part of a controversial BBC documentary on the relationship between Prince William, Prince Harry and the media examined allegations of a briefing war between the brothers.

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Claim Prince Charles speculated on grandchildren’s skin colour ‘is fiction’

Clarence House denies claim in new book that Charles asked about ‘complexion’ of Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s future children

The private office of the Prince of Wales has dismissed as “fiction” claims in a new book that Prince Charles was the royal who speculated on the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s future children.

The American journalist and author Christopher Andersen, a former editor of the US celebrity news magazine People, alleges in the book that Charles made the comment on the day Harry and Meghan’s engagement was announced in November 2017.

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Nelson, BLM and new voices: why Barbados is ditching the Queen

Michael Safi reports from the ground as island nation prepares to declare itself a republic

The first time, he stumbled on it by accident, after following a dirt track through fields of sugar cane that came to a clearing. There was a sign, Hakeem Ward remembers, beneath which someone had left an offering.

“The sign said it was a slave burial ground,” he says. “We went and Googled it, and then I realised it was actually one of the biggest slave burial grounds in the western hemisphere.”

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Readers reply: which monarchs would have lived longer if modern medicine had been available?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Which British monarchs would have survived their illness or wounding if today’s medical knowledge had existed then? (Bonus question: which monarchs would we have had but for illnesses that are now easily preventable?) Jane Shaw

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

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The Princes and the Press review – more degrading airing of the royal dirty laundry

BBC programme is a compelling analysis of the troubled relationship between media and monarchy

A few days before her wedding, Meghan decided she wanted to wear a particular tiara with emeralds. True, this isn’t the sort of issue that should trouble citizens of a mature democracy but when it comes to royals, Britain is neither mature nor, let’s face it, democratic. Indeed, Amol Rajan, the BBC media editor who presented the Princes and the Press (BBC Two), is a declared republican who once branded the royal family as “absurd” and the media as a “propaganda outlet” for the monarchy. As his measured, compelling analysis of the troubled relationship showed, he may have been right about the former, but the latter? Not so much. The media, we might conclude from his programme, may be driving the monarchy to self-destruct, which would, ironically enough, suit his earlier republican views.

Back to tiaras. There was a problem: the Duchess of Sussex could not be allowed to wear the emerald tiara because it had some unfortunate history to do with Russia, according to the Sun’s former correspondent Dan Wootton. We never learned what that history was nor why it should matter. What we did learn from Wootton’s report is that Harry reportedly shouted at a royal dresser (who is a person, not a thing) that “whatever Meghan wants, Meghan gets.” This in turn prompted the Queen to tell somebody off.

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