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...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...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”.
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Continue reading...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.
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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...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...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...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...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.
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Continue reading...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...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...Sydney and Canberra are on the royal couple’s itinerary, with opportunities for the public to see them between official functions
King Charles and Queen Camilla have touched down in Australia for the couple’s first visit to the country since Charles became its reigning monarch.
They were last in Australia in 2018, when then Prince Charles opened the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. This shorter, more compact tour will take in just Canberra and Sydney, with dozens of engagements packed into the pair’s four days on the ground.
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Continue reading...Republic movement hopes to reignite conversation, but monarchist league says current constitution ‘best protects our democracy’
Debates around Australia’s continued future under the British monarchy have flared ahead of King Charles’ first visit to the country since he ascended the throne.
Charles and Queen Camilla will arrive in Australia on 18 October, with stops in Sydney and Canberra during their six-day visit.
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Continue reading...Royal family had pledged to declare all presents received in an annual list, after several controversies
King Charles and his family have failed to reveal their official gifts for the past four years, despite previously promising to publish an annual list.
Palace officials have blamed the pandemic, the change of reign, and then planning for last year’s coronation for their inability to publish details of the gifts received by members of the royal family.
Continue reading...Charles said to be adopting ‘anti-confrontational approach’ to republican campaigners before visit
King Charles has said he will not stand in the way if Australia wishes to replace him as the country’s head of state, it has been reported.
Ahead of his visit later this month, the king is said to be adopting an “anti-confrontational approach” to Australian republican campaigners, the Daily Mail reported.
Continue reading...Some jewellery historians believe it features diamonds from infamous piece at centre of Marie Antoinette scandal
An antique diamond necklace worn at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and may be linked to a French scandal involving Marie Antoinette could fetch as much as £2m at auction.
The necklace, made of 300 carats, was also worn to King George VI’s coronation by members of the Marquess of Anglesey family, who owned the diamonds until the 1960s when they sold them.
Continue reading...Prince and Princess of Wales echo birthday wishes sent from royal family’s X account despite strained relations
The Prince and Princess of Wales have delivered a small peace offering in their rift with the Duke of Sussex by wishing Prince Harry happy birthday for the first time in three years.
In a post on X, the royal family shared a photograph of a smiling Harry to mark his 40th birthday, complete with a cake emoji. The message said: “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”
Continue reading...Living among film stars and estranged from his father and brother, Harry’s milestone birthday may bring moment of reflection
Ten years ago, Prince Harry was given the run of Clarence House for his 30th birthday. Guests headed by Prince William and including long-standing childhood friends enjoyed a black-tie dinner where they were reportedly serenaded by Ellie Goulding while Charles and Camilla discreetly decamped to their Scottish hideaway.
Such a family celebration now seems unthinkable as Harry prepares to mark his 40th on Sunday.
Continue reading...Unconventional marriage of Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Vellet celebrated with three-day schedule of events and a documentary to follow
She is the clairvoyant daughter of one of Europe’s longest-serving monarchs; he is a self-styled sixth-generation shaman from California. The wedding of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway to Durek Verrett on Saturday on Saturday afternoon wasn’t your conventional royal affair, but that didn’t stop spectators lining the overcast streets of Geiranger in the hope of catching a glimpse of the bride.
The eldest daughter of Crown Prince Harald and Queen Sonja, 52-year-old Märtha Louise is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne. She married Verrett, 49, in a traditional church of Norway ceremony attended by royals and celebrities at the four-star Hotel Union in a small village beneath the Geiranger fjord.
Continue reading...Design with bees on reverse, part of collection inspired by plants and animals, was voted people’s favourite
The first £1 coin bearing the official portrait of King Charles III has entered general circulation as part of a collection inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The latest design, featuring two bees, has been issued to Post Offices and banks, with nearly 3m coins making their way into tills and pockets.
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