LONDON: Queen Elizabeth has summoned her grandson Prince Harry for a crisis meeting to discuss future arrangements for him and his wife Meghan following the couple’s shock announcement that they want to step back from royal duties.
Harry’s father Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and his elder brother Prince William, will also attend the meeting, due to take place on Monday at the queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, eastern England, a Buckingham Palace source told Reuters.
Meghan, an American former TV actress, will try to join via telephone from Canada where she returned earlier in the week to rejoin the couple’s baby son, Archie.
Harry and Meghan, officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, surprised the rest of the royal family on Wednesday by publicly announcing they wanted a “new working model” that would allow them to spend more time in North America and to be financially independent.
They did not consult the 93-year-old monarch or other members of the family before making their announcement on a new website, sussexroyal.com, a move which hurt and disappointed the queen and other royals, according to a royal source.
The meeting on Monday will be the first time the senior royals have met in person to discuss the concerns raised by Harry and Meghan.
Officials had been holding talks behind the scenes since the bombshell statement to try to work out a new arrangement for the couple, and a royal source said those efforts progressed well.
The consultations, which also included the British and Canadian governments, paved the way for a face-to-face meeting between Harry and the queen.
The palace source said it remained the queen’s aim to a find a resolution to the crisis in days rather than weeks but it would require “complex and thoughtful discussions” and any agreement would take time to be implemented.
The split between Harry and the other Windsors is the latest crisis the royal family has faced in a period described last month as “bumpy” by the queen in a televised annual address.
Such is the global interest in Harry and Meghan that their news has overshadowed a scandal surrounding the queen’s second son Prince Andrew and his friendship with disgraced late US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who hanged himself in jail in August while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
In an emotional TV interview last October, Harry admitted he and William had fallen out.
The Sunday Times newspaper said the elder prince had spoken of his sadness at the rift. The brothers were close for years following the death of their mother Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997.
The newspaper quoted William as saying to an unnamed friend: “I’ve put my arm around my brother all our lives and I can’t do that any more, we’re separate entities.
“I’m sad about that. All we can do, and all I can do, is try and support them and hope that the time comes when we’re all singing from the same page. I want everyone to play on the team.”
Earlier on Saturday, the Times newspaper reported that Meghan had agreed to do voiceover work for Disney in return for the company making a donation to a charity she supports that works to protect elephants.
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the report. Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UK’s Queen Elizabeth calls Prince Harry for crisis meeting
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UK’s Queen Elizabeth calls Prince Harry for crisis meeting
- The meeting on Monday will be the first time the senior royals have met in person to discuss the concerns raised by Harry and Meghan
Ukraine marks four years since Russian invasion
- Tuesday’s anniversary is expected to see the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, in Kyiv to mark the occasion
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine was on Tuesday marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a show of solidarity from its staunchest allies and no immediate end in sight to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
Tens of thousands of lives have been lost since the Kremlin ordered troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, confident of a quick victory but not expecting the fierce resistance that followed.
The worldwide fallout of the war has been immense, with many European countries increasing their own defense spending in anticipation of a possible confrontation of their own with Russia.
But diplomatic talks between the two sides, relaunched last year by the United States, have so far failed to halt the fighting, which has devastated Ukraine and left it facing the mammoth task — and bill — of reconstruction.
Tuesday’s anniversary is expected to see the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, in Kyiv to mark the occasion.
Both said they would take part in a “commemoration ceremony” and visit the site of a Ukrainian energy facility damaged by Russian strikes before attending a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
They are also due to take part in a videoconference meeting with Kyiv’s allies — the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” which includes Britain, France and Germany.
- Impasse -
Russia, which currently occupies nearly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, bombs civilian areas and infrastructure on a daily basis.
The Russian bombardment has sparked the worst energy crisis since the start of the invasion, during a bitter winter.
Kyiv’s Western allies have slapped heavy sanctions on Moscow, forcing it to redirect its key oil exports toward new markets, particularly in Asia.
Despite heavy losses, Russian troops have in recent months advanced slowly on the frontline, particularly in the eastern Donbas region, which has been the epicenter of the bloody fighting and which Moscow wants to annex.
US-brokered talks are ongoing, with Zelensky unwavering in his demands for security guarantees from Washington before any talk of “compromise,” including on territory, with Russia.
Russia, though, has rejected Ukrainian proposals for the deployment of European troops in Ukraine after any ceasefire deal.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that he will pursue his objectives by force if diplomacy fails.
- Reconstruction -
The grinding four-year war has devastated Ukraine, which even before the fighting was one of the poorest countries in Europe.
According to a joint World Bank, European Union and United Nations report with Kyiv, published on Monday, the cost of post-war reconstruction is estimated at around $558 billion over the next decade.
Russia justified sending troops into Ukraine to prevent Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO, arguing that Kyiv’s membership of the transatlantic alliance would threaten its own security.
On Monday, during a medal ceremony to mark “Defenders of the Fatherland Day,” Putin insisted that his soldiers were defending Russia’s “borders” in Ukraine, to ensure “strategic parity” between powers and fight for the country’s “future.”
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, for its part considers the war to be a resurgence of Russian imperialism aimed at subjugating the Ukrainian people.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Sunday, Zelensky said he believed Putin had “already started” World War III.
“Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves,” he told the British public broadcaster.
