LONDON: It was one scandal too many.
After emails emerged this week showing that Prince Andrew remained in contact with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein longer than he previously admitted, the House of Windsor finally moved to insulate the monarchy from years of tawdry headlines about Andrew’s dodgy friends and suspicious business deals.
Buckingham Palace on Friday released a statement from Andrew saying that he had agreed to give up use of his last remaining royal titles so that continued allegations about him “don’t distract from the work of His Majesty.”
This week’s revelations demonstrated that Andrew had committed the unforgivable sin of misleading the British public, said Craig Prescott, an expert on the monarchy and constitutional law at Royal Holloway University of London.
“To say something which is proven not to be true, I think, is the straw that broke the camel’s back,’’ he said.
Signs of a new direction
The move comes as Charles, who is 76 and undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, works to ensure the long-term stability of the monarchy under his son and heir Prince William.
William recently gave an interview in which he set out his vision for the monarchy, saying that the institution needed to change to make sure that it is a force for good.
“In some ways, Prince Andrew has been the exact opposite of that,” Prescott said. “And there is no space for that in the modern monarchy.”
Andrew, 65, is the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II. He spent more than 20 years as an officer in the Royal Navy before leaving to take up his royal duties in 2001.
Following Friday’s announcement, Andrew will no longer use his remaining royal titles, including the Duke of York, though he technically retains them. Formally stripping him of those titles would be a time-consuming process requiring an act of Parliament.
A long time coming
Andrew’s banishment completes a process that began in November 2019, when he gave up all of his public duties and charity roles.
That was triggered by a disastrous interview Andrew gave to the BBC as he sought to counter media reports about his friendship with Epstein and deny allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein in 2001. The prince was widely criticized for failing to show empathy for Epstein’s victims and for offering unbelievable explanations for his friendship with the disgraced financier.
The interview also sowed the seeds of this week’s upheaval, when Andrew told the BBC that he had cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010.
British newspapers on Sunday revealed that Andrew wrote an email to Epstein on Feb. 28, 2011. Andrew wrote the note after renewed reporting on the Epstein scandal, telling him they were “in this together” and would “have to rise above it.”
Andrew has recently faced another round of grimy stories as newspapers release excerpts of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, which will be published on Tuesday. Giuffre died by suicide in April at the age of 41.
Andrew in 2022 reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre after she filed a civil suit against him in New York. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, Andrew did acknowledge Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
Front-page fodder for wrong reasons
The prince has been the subject of tabloid stories stretching back to at least 2007, when he sold his house near Windsor Castle for 20 percent over the 15 million pound asking price. The buyer was reported to be Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, then-president of Kazakhstan, raising concerns that the deal was an attempt to buy influence in Britain.
Last year, a court case revealed Andrew’s relationship with a businessman and suspected Chinese spy who was barred from the United Kingdom as a threat to national security. Authorities were concerned that the man could have misused his influence over Andrew, according to court documents.
While the palace said Andrew had decided to give up his royal titles, royal commentator Jennie Bond said the king and Prince William exerted “enormous pressure” on him.
“We could say he has fallen on his sword, but I think he’s been pushed onto it,” Bond told the BBC. “I don’t think this is a decision that Andrew, quite an arrogant man — very, very fond of his status — would have willingly made without a lot of pressure.”
Insulating the monarchy at a delicate time
While the cumulative weight of Andrew’s scandals demanded a response from the royal family, this week’s revelations came at a particularly sensitive moment for the king as he prepares for a state visit to the Vatican, where he is expected to pray beside Pope Leo XIV.
The visit is very important to Charles, who has made the bridging of faiths an important part of his “mantra,” said George Gross, an expert on theology and the monarchy at King’s College, London.
“I think this was the speediest, really the quickest way of lowering his status even more without having to go to Parliament,” Gross said. “Even if Parliament would have approved, it takes time.’’
Charles may also have been motivated by a desire to protect the work of Queen Camilla, who has made combating domestic violence one of her signature issues, and the Duchess of Edinburgh, who has sought to combat sexual violence in war zones such as Congo.
The king will hope that this move finally draws a line between Andrew and the rest of the royal family, Prescott said.
“If there are allegations, or further stuff comes out, it will all be on Prince Andrew,” he said. “They’ve severed the connection between Prince Andrew and the monarchy as an institution.”
One scandal too many forces UK monarchy to sideline Prince Andrew
https://arab.news/c8srr
One scandal too many forces UK monarchy to sideline Prince Andrew
- This week’s revelations demonstrated that Andrew had committed the unforgivable sin of misleading the British public, said Prescott
- Following Friday’s announcement, Andrew will no longer use his remaining royal titles, including the Duke of York
North Korean leader Kim inspects new warship, claims progress toward nuclear-armed navy
- Kim has hailed the development of Choe Hyon as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military
SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected his new destroyer for two straight days ahead of its commissioning and observed a test of cruise missiles fired from the warship, vowing to accelerate the nuclear-armament of his navy, state media said Thursday.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim, during his visits to the western shipyard of Nampo on Tuesday and Wednesday, also inspected the construction of a third destroyer of the same class as his 5,000-ton warship, the Choe Hyon, first unveiled in April 2025.
Kim has hailed the development of Choe Hyon as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military. State media says the ship is designed to handle various weapons systems, including antiair and anti-naval weapons, as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. South Korean military officials and experts say Choe Hyon was likely built with Russian assistance amid deepening military ties, but some have raised doubts about whether it’s ready for active service.
North Korea unveiled a second destroyer of the same class in May last year, but it was damaged during a botched launching ceremony at the northeastern port of Chongjin, triggering a furious reaction from Kim, who called the failure “criminal.” North Korea has said the new destroyer, named Kang Kon, was relaunched in June after repair, but outside experts have questioned whether the ship is fully operational.
After observing Choe Hyon’s sea trials on Tuesday, Kim said the ship met operational requirements and called it a symbol of the country’s expanding naval capabilities. He called for building two warships a year over the next five years of the same or higher class as the Choe Hyon.
Kim came back Wednesday to observe a test launch of cruise missiles from the Choe Hyon. State media published photos of him watching from shore as several projectiles rose from the vessel in plumes of white smoke and described the weapons as “strategic,” a term used for nuclear-capable systems.
After years of spurring ballistic missile development, Kim has shifted his focus more toward naval capabilities, including an ongoing construction of a nuclear-powered submarine. KCNA said the third destroyer under construction at the Nampo shipyard is expected to be completed by the ruling Workers’ Party’s founding anniversary in October.
Naval capabilities were also a key focus when Kim outlined his five-year military goals at last month’s Workers’ Party congress, which included calls for intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of being launched from underwater.
Kim on Tuesday claimed that his efforts to arm his navy with nuclear weapons were “making satisfactory” progress. He said those purported advancements would “constitute a radical change in defending our maritime sovereignty, something that we have not achieved for half a century.”
KCNA did not elaborate on what Kim meant. Some analysts say North Korea may be preparing to formally declare a maritime boundary that could encroach on waters controlled by rival South Korea.
As inter-Korean tensions worsen, Kim has repeatedly said he does not recognize the Northern Limit Line, drawn by the US-led UN Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The poorly drawn western sea boundary has been the site of several deadly naval clashes in past years.
At the party congress, Kim doubled down on plans to expand North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, which already is equipped with various weapons systems threatening the United States and US allies in Asia, and confirmed his hard-line view of rival South Korea.
But he left the door open for dialogue with the Trump administration, reiterating Pyongyang’s demand that Washington drop its insistence on denuclearization as a precondition for resuming long-stalled talks.
