LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has given her formal consent for her grandson Prince Harry to marry US actress Meghan Markle, according to a transcript of a meeting with her advisers released on Thursday.
“I declare My Consent to a Contract of Matrimony between My Most Dearly Beloved Grandson Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales and Rachel Meghan Markle,” the Queen said at a meeting of her Privy Council in Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.
She said her consent would be “signified under the Great Seal” and entered into the register of the Privy Council, an ancient body of councilors that dates back hundreds of years.
Prince Harry and Markle, who starred in the US television drama “Suits,” will marry on May 19 at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, a royal residence located west of London.
British law states that the monarch must give their consent for the marriage of the six people next in line for the throne.
Harry is fifth in line after his father Prince Charles, brother Prince William and William’s children George and Charlotte.
He will be bumped down to sixth place when William’s wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, gives birth next month.
The Privy Council is a kind of royal advisory body and has around 400 members, including religious and political leaders.
Markle was baptized by the leader of the Church of England earlier this month ahead of her marriage to Harry out of respect for the Queen’s role as head of the denomination.
I do: Queen Elizabeth II gives formal consent to Prince Harry, Markle wedding
I do: Queen Elizabeth II gives formal consent to Prince Harry, Markle wedding
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
