Category Archives: King Charles III

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

Posted on by

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).

Continue reading...

Sunak accused of retreating from global climate leadership at Cop28

Posted on by

PM attracts cross-party criticism with claim that ‘climate politics is at breaking point’ during combative summit visit

Rishi Sunak has been accused of “shrinking and retreating” from global leadership as he used the Cop28 summit to claim that “climate politics is at breaking point” because of the costs of net zero.

While many other world leaders, including King Charles, spoke of the urgency of action on the climate, the prime minister used his brief appearance at the summit in Dubai to promote his approach to slowing the pace of net zero policies and reducing pressures on family finances.

Continue reading...

King Charles to give ‘call to arms’ Cop28 opening statement, says PM

Posted on by

Rishi Sunak’s attendance comes after he scaled back pledges to help the UK reach net zero by 2050

King Charles will give a “call to arms” in his Cop28 climate summit opening statement, Rishi Sunak has said, expressing delight over the monarch’s record championing the issue.

Sunak said it was a “proud moment” for him to witness Charles deliver his speech on Friday, which “speaks volumes about our type of leadership as a country”.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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”.

Continue reading...

‘It’s not clear we can control it’: what they said at the Bletchley Park AI summit

Posted on by

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man; Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind; and King Charles among those weighing in

The global AI safety summit opened at Bletchley Park on Wednesday with a landmark declaration from countries including the UK, US, EU and China that the technology poses a potentially catastrophic risk to humanity.

The so-called Bletchley declaration said: “There is potential for serious, even catastrophic, harm, either deliberate or unintentional, stemming from the most significant capabilities of these AI models.”

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump calls billionaire Anthony Pratt ‘red haired weirdo from Australia’ as he denies discussing submarines

Posted on by

Ex-president lashes out at ‘fake news’ amid reports Pratt used wealth to cultivate close relationship between the pair

Donald Trump has described Anthony Pratt, one of Australia’s richest men, as a “red haired weirdo” as he lashed out at extraordinary reports about their personal conversations.

Earlier this month, reports suggested Trump had shared top-secret details of US nuclear submarines with Pratt, an Australian billionaire who runs the paper and packaging giant Visy.

In private conversation, Pratt claims Trump had told him in 2019 of ordering an airstrike on Iranian-linked militants in Iraq, before it hit the headlines, and said that Iraq’s president had called him to complain. Pratt says Trump responded: “I [Trump] said to him [Iraq’s leader], ‘OK, what are you going to do about it?’”

Pratt said Trump also told him about a phone call he made to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy asking for him to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Trump said: “You know that Ukraine phone call, that was nothing compared to what I usually do.”

Pratt also said Trump pushed the boundaries in his dealings as president and that “he knows exactly what to say and what not to say so that he avoids jail … but gets so close to it … that it looks like to everyone that he’s breaking the law”.

Pratt boasted of paying “about a million bucks” to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, to attend his birthday party. Giuliani didn’t attend but the pair spoke regularly on the phone. The recordings suggest Pratt said: “Rudy is someone I hope will be useful one day.”

Pratt had made a payment to then Prince Charles of $182,000 in 2021, according to documents cited by the Nine papers, and said: “My superpower is that I am rich. So I am useful to him [Prince Charles], right?” He also said of Charles: “What I’m trying to do is network with people who can be useful. Prince Charles said when he introduced me to Camilla, ‘He’s [Pratt] been very useful.’ And I thought, that’s an insult. And then I thought, it is better than being irrelevant” and “I see him as an undervalued political stock. It is just that he is a laughing stock now. But when he is king, [they] won’t be laughing.”

Pratt made consulting payments to former Australian prime ministers Tony Abbott and Paul Keating. Abbott was hired after losing his seat in 2019 on a retainer of $8,000 a month, the Nine newspapers reported, and Keating was receiving $25,000 a month.

Continue reading...

Royal Mint unveils new coin design inspired by King Charles

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

King Charles to acknowledge ‘painful’ colonial past on state visit to Kenya

Posted on by

Monarch’s recognition will come as country prepares to celebrate 60 years of independence from Britain

King Charles will acknowledge the “painful aspects” of Britain’s past actions in Kenya during a state visit later this month.

The visit follows an invitation from the country’s president, William Ruto, whose country will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain on 12 December. The two countries have enjoyed a close relationship in recent years despite the violent colonial legacy of an uprising in the early 1950s, which led to a period known as “the emergency”, which ran from 1952 until 1960.

Continue reading...

Forgotten Artemisia Gentileschi painting found in Hampton Court storeroom

Posted on by

The very personal work, owned by Charles I, discovered after being left in storage for years

“A woman’s name raises doubts until her work is seen,” wrote the artist Artemisia Gentileschi to a collector of her paintings in 1649, going on to assure him that her canvases “will speak for themselves”. It took three-and-a-half centuries for the name of Gentileschi to triumphantly step out from the shadows of art history, but it has taken even longer for one of her forgotten paintings to re-emerge from the dark. A remarkable find made in a royal storeroom at Hampton Court, followed by hours of careful conservation effort, has led to the unearthing of Susanna and the Elders, a genuine lost Gentileschi.

“It really is super-exciting,” Anna Reynolds, the deputy surveyor of the king’s pictures, told the Observer. “You just could not see the quality of the painting beneath the grime until now, but absolutely it is true and this find has come about as a result of Artemisia’s recently restored reputation. It had been misattributed and left in storage for many years and no one had taken a closer look.”

Continue reading...

Stars join King Charles at Versailles banquet during French state visit

Posted on by

Trip designed in part as show of friendship to reset UK-French relationship after Brexit years

King Charles was welcomed at a lavish state banquet at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday night, at the start of a state visit to reinforce the renewed London-Paris relationship after the near total collapse in trust during the Boris Johnson years after Brexit.

In Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, the famed 17th century gallery built by the “Sun King” Louis XIV to project the power and majesty of the French monarchy, King Charles and Emmanuel Macron were to make toasts celebrating French-British relations after a pre-dinner music recital.

Continue reading...

Caribbean nations set to demand royal family makes reparations for slave trade

Posted on by

Lloyd’s of London and Church of England also to be approached over role in past exploitation

Caribbean nations are preparing formal letters demanding that the British royal family apologise and make reparations for slavery.

National reparations commissions in the region will also approach Lloyd’s of London and the Church of England with demands of financial payments and reparative justice for their historic role in the slave trade.

Continue reading...

King Charles pays tribute to his mother ‘with great affection’ on anniversary of death

Posted on by

Monarch writes of ‘great affection’ for Queen Elizabeth II and releases a favourite official portrait of her

King Charles III has paid tribute to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II and re-pledged his own service to the nation in a message marking the first anniversary of her death and of his accession.

In a signed message he wrote: “In marking the first anniversary of her late Majesty’s death and my accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us.

Continue reading...

Royal family announces state visit to France during Rugby World Cup

Posted on by

King Charles and Queen Camilla to dine at Palace of Versailles banquet and meet sports stars

King Charles will address members of both houses of the French parliament and will have a bilateral meeting with French president, Emmanuel Macron, during a state visit to France with the queen later this month.

The visit, originally due in March, was postponed when pension-reform protests in France spiralled into violent clashes.

Continue reading...

Downing Street plays down reports of UK-US split over Ukraine Nato membership after Sunak-Biden meeting – UK politics live

Posted on by

No 10 spokesperson says UK ‘certainly’ wants to support Ukraine on the pathway to joining Nato after reports of rift

Joe Biden has arrived at Downing Street for his first time as president ahead of tomorrow’s Nato summit in Lithuania.

After stepping out of US presidential vehicle “the Beast”, he shared a warm handshake with Rishi Sunak on the doorstep and smiled to press before disappearing behind the door to Number 10.

Continue reading...

Biden heads to Europe amid questions over cluster munitions and Nato unity

Posted on by

US leader’s three-country tour aims to ‘showcase the president’s leadership on the world stage’ at a key time for the war in Ukraine

Joe Biden heads to Europe on Sunday for a swift tour dominated by the war in Ukraine, with membership of the expanding Nato military alliance and the US approval of cluster munitions likely to be key talking points. His national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the trip would “showcase the president’s leadership on the world stage”.

The US president will arrive at night in London, ahead of meetings with the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and King Charles, and then head to a key Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, before travelling to Helsinki to welcome Nato’s newest member, Finland.

Continue reading...

Crown estate enjoys huge rise in profits thanks to offshore wind

Posted on by

Fees for accessing UK seabeds help boost profits to £443m while King Charles says some of surplus will go towards public good

The crown estate has generated record profits of almost half a billion pounds from Britain’s offshore windfarms, as talks continue over how much of the windfall should be shared with King Charles.

The royal property manager made £443m in profits in its last financial year, up by almost £130m from the year before, in large part thanks to payments made by renewable energy companies for the right to access the seabed.

Continue reading...

‘Bittersweet’: bereaved charity founder honoured in King’s birthday list

Posted on by

Bullying campaigner and founder of UK buddy system for Ukrainian refugees also among hundreds recognised

Suzanne Richards lost her son Joel, 19, brother Adrian, 49, and father, Pat, 78, in the 2015 terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia. Her other son Owen, then 16, was also shot and injured by the gunmen but survived the attack in which 38 people were killed.

Their memories live on in the Smile for Joel charity, supporting families who are victims of homicide, which she and Owen run from her home in Wednesbury, West Midlands.

Continue reading...