Category Archives: Monarchy

Prince Harry returns to UK after King Charles’s cancer diagnosis

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Duke of Sussex makes journey alone, with wife and children remaining at home in California

The Duke of Sussex has enjoyed a brief reunion with the king after taking an overnight flight from California to visit his father following Buckingham Palace’s announcement of the monarch’s cancer diagnosis.

Prince Harry landed at Heathrow shortly after midday following an 11-hour flight from Los Angeles. Travelling alone, the Duchess of Sussex having stayed in the US with the couple’s two children, Harry was pictured being driven from the airport in a black Range Rover with a police escort.

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King Charles: Prince Harry to travel to UK to see father after cancer diagnosis – as it happened

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King Charles ‘wholly positive about treatment’ but will postpone public-facing duties

Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf said he wished the king a “speedy recovery” following his cancer diagnosis.

He said: “My thoughts and prayers are with His Majesty The King and I hope for a speedy recovery and return to public life.

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Charles’s cancer diagnosis will cast doubt on his future role

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The king’s illness comes just as he was making a mark and as his popularity was growing, and means postponing public duties

Last Monday, King Charles emerged from a private clinic alongside Queen Camilla to smile and wave to a small crowd.

The message that Buckingham Palace wished to convey was obvious – the monarch is strong and will carry on his duties, despite the health setback.

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Ben Elliot’s Quintessentially warns £29m liabilities could threaten its future

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Concierge service for super-rich co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew lost £1.5m in latest financial year

Quintessentially, the concierge service for the super-rich co-founded by Queen Camilla’s nephew, Ben Elliot, lost £1.5m in its latest financial year and warned investors it is struggling with £29m of liabilities that could threaten its future as a going concern.

The company that Elliot, a former co-chair of the Conservative party, set up in 2020, reported pre-tax losses of £1.5m in the year to the end of April 2022, compared with a £3.8m loss a year earlier. However, its post-tax losses increased to £12.9m, up from £8m the previous year.

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Man jailed for record 50 years for criticising Thai monarchy

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Mongkol Thirakot receives record sentence under kingdom’s strict lese-majesty laws for posts on personal Facebook account

A Thai man has been given a 50-year prison sentence for criticising the monarchy – the longest jail term handed down under the kingdom’s strict lese-majesty laws – a legal rights group said.

The record-breaking sentence comes after several years in which Thailand has ramped up use of the legislation against pro-democracy protesters in what critics say is a tactic to silence dissent.

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Portrait of King Charles for public buildings unveiled in £8m scheme

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Move to offer the monarch’s photograph to UK bodies has been described as a ‘shameful waste of money’ by critics

A new official portrait of the king has been unveiled, created to hang in public buildings across the UK under an £8m government-funded scheme that an anti-monarchy campaign group has described as a “shameful waste of money”.

The Cabinet Office announced last year that it had set aside funds to offer every public body – local councils, courts, schools, police forces, and fire and rescue services – a free portrait of King Charles.

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Danes are cheering their new king Frederik X, but republicanism is stirring

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There will be protests at the coronation in Copenhagen, but support for the royals remains high in Denmark

When the Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen appears on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen on Sunday afternoon to announce the new monarch, she is expected to be met by a sea of cheering faces.

But one figure in the crowd who will not be showing support for new king Frederik X as he takes the reins from his mother, Queen Margrethe II, who is abdicating after 52 years, is Mads Rundstrøm.

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‘The high life can be low carbon’: the European royals taking on the climate crisis

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Despite leading lavish lifestyles, some monarchs are influencing people to make greener choices

When Prince Frederik takes the throne on Sunday, the Danish crown will pass from his mother, Queen Margrethe II, a monarch who has cast doubt on the fact that human pollution is heating the planet, to one who feels bound by duty to call for stronger action on climate breakdown.

“I think it’s important for me to have a message for other people,” he told the Financial Times in 2010 after a trip to the melting Arctic with the heirs to the Norwegian and Swedish thrones, “to convince the broader population there are changes happening and that we are making the change.”

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King Charles’s Christmas message rules TV ratings, with 5.9m viewers

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BBC showed nine out of 10 most popular shows, according to overnight data, with Strictly coming second and Doctor Who third

King Charles’s Christmas broadcast came top of the TV ratings on Christmas Day, with the BBC showing nine out of the 10 most watched shows.

The king’s message, which reflected on the “increasingly tragic conflict around the world”, attracted an average of 5.9 million viewers, according to overnight ratings.

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King Charles praises ‘selfless’ people who form ‘backbone of society’ in Christmas speech

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Monarch says in his second Christmas Day message that his coronation was ‘a call to us all to serve and care’

King Charles has praised the work of volunteers, calling them a “selfless army of people” who form an “essential backbone of our society”.

In his second Christmas speech, the king said he was delighted that hundreds of volunteers and their representatives attended his coronation in May, saying their presence “emphasised the meaning of coronation itself, above all, a call to us all to serve one another, to love and care for all”.

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Barbados PM says country owed $4.9tn as she makes fresh call for reparations

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Mia Mottley tells London audience that King Charles’s comments about slavery’s impact were welcome

King Charles’s comment that the “time has come” to acknowledge the enduring impact of slavery has been welcomed by the prime minister of Barbados as she spoke in London about the need for reparations.

Mia Mottley said Barbados was owed $4.9tn (£3.9tn) by slave-owning nations, noting that conversations over how this debt should be repaid would “be difficult and will take time”, she said on Wednesday evening.

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What is the royal race row and why is it back in the news?

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A book has named Charles and Catherine as royals alleged to have discussed skin colour of Harry and Meghan’s unborn son

The royal race row that erupted more than two years ago, when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that a member of the royal family had remarked on Prince Archie’s skin colour before he was born, has simmered ever since. Now it has exploded once more as the Dutch version of a new book appears to have named King Charles and the Princess of Wales as family members alleged to have made such remarks.

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Demand soars for Dutch first editions of book naming UK royals in race row

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Copies of book about British monarchy changing hands on resale websites for up to €175

Dutch first editions of the book Endgame, which names two members of the British royal family alleged to have discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s unborn baby, are selling online for many times above the original retail price of €22.99.

As parts of the British press reached fever pitch trying to find out whether the Dutch version had contained a mistranslation, or had failed to adopt final excisions or was running a strange publicity stunt, bids for a Dutch version on Marktplaats on Thursday reached €175 (£150).

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Blouse worn by Diana in 1981 royal engagement portrait to be auctioned

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Pink top designed by David and Elizabeth Emanuel among the famous items of clothing to be sold

A top worn by Diana, Princess of Wales for her engagement portrait in 1981 is among the items in an auction of famous clothing.

The pink crepe blouse with ruff-like collar and loose pleats to the front, worn by Diana, was captured by royal photographer Lord Snowdon and is being put up for sale by Julien’s Auctions.

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The Crown actor says events leading to Diana’s death must have been ‘unbearable’

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Elizabeth Debicki has spoken about filming car chase through Paris that led to Diana’s death for final season of royal drama

The actor who played Diana in The Crown said the moments leading up to her death must have been “completely unbearable” after the cast reenacted the car chase through Paris that led to her death for the final season of the divisive royal drama.

The sixth season of The Crown deals with the weeks preceding Diana’s death, as well as the fallout, after a car crash in Paris in August 1997. The first instalment of the season is released on 16 November.

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Keir Starmer dismisses king’s speech as ‘exercise in economic miserabilism’ – politics live

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Labour party leader criticises speech as ‘admission that government has no faith in Britain’s ability to avert decline’

Here is Ben Quinn’s guide to what will be in the king’s speech.

In a statement about the king’s speech issued overnight, Keir Starmer said:

Britain is crying out for the long-term change that harnesses the ambition of our young people, the innovative drive of our businesses, and the ordinary hope and optimism that exists around every kitchen table.

A government acting in the national interest would deliver a big build programme to kickstart growth in every region and begin to turn around 13 years of decline with a plan for a decade of national renewal.

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King Charles’s ‘deep regret’ for colonial atrocities was a ‘miss’, Kenyans say

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Rights groups repeat calls for apology while President William Ruto says ‘much remains to be done to achieve full reparations’

King Charles’s expression of “greatest sorrow and deepest regret” over colonial atrocities committed by British forces in Kenya has been criticised as a “miss” in the east African country.

Reactions to the king’s statement were mixed, with the president, William Ruto, diplomatically welcoming Charles’s “courage and readiness to shed light on uncomfortable truths that reside in the darker regions of our shared experience”, but calling Britain’s colonial suppression of Kenya’s freedom movement “monstrous in its cruelty”.

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King Charles stops short of apology for ‘abhorrent’ colonial violence in Kenya

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Visiting monarch speaks of sorrow and deepest regret for past ‘wrongdoings’ under British rule

King Charles has spoken of Britain’s “abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence” committed against Kenyans during their fight for independence, but stopped short of an apology despite human rights groups demanding one.

The monarch made the comments in a speech, delivered during a banquet in Kenya held in his honour, in which he referred to the “greatest sorrow” and “deepest regret” for the “wrongdoings” of the past.

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King Charles asked for ‘unequivocal apology’ by Kenya’s rights commission

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King urged to offer apology while in Kenya for UK’s ‘brutal and inhuman treatment’ during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has called on King Charles to offer an “unequivocal public apology” for colonial abuses, during his visit to the country this week.

“We call upon the king, on behalf of the British government, to issue an unconditional and unequivocal public apology (as opposed to the very cautious, self-preserving and protective statements of regrets) for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens,” the KHRC said.

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Royal Mint unveils new coin design inspired by King Charles

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Animals and plants feature heavily in coinage that allows ‘everyone to celebrate British nature’

A new collection of coins bearing the face of the king has been unveiled by the Royal Mint, breaking tradition with designs inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations.

The eight designs, overseen by King Charles, depict the flora and fauna found in different parts of the UK and reflect his interest in conservation and nature.

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