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If the British royal family was looking for a public relations win after Princess Catherine’s Photoshop fails, the unveiling of King Charles’ newest royal portrait was not it.
“I’m sorry, but this portrait looks like he’s in hell,” one person posted in comments under artist Jonathan Yeo’s and the royal family’s joint Instagram post revealing and explaining the image. “Without sounding rude this is the worst royal portrait I’ve ever seen,” another added. “It looks like he’s bathing in blood,” a third concluded. The painting, which stands at an impressive 2.6 by 2 metres (8½ by 6½ feet), was commissioned three years ago by the Worshipful Company of Drapers, a medieval guild of wool and cloth merchants that now focuses on philanthropy. The piece will hang at the gallery in Drapers’ Hall in downtown London, Yeo wrote. King Charles sat for four sessions with the artist, a trustee at the National Portrait Gallery who has painted Queen Camilla when she was duchess of Cornwall as well as Charles’ father, the late Prince Philip, albeit in much more flattering tones. Charles had a creative say in the project, suggesting the artist include the butterfly landing on his shoulder, doing double duty as a symbol of his commitment to the environment and to show his transformation as he ascended to the throne. “When I started this project, His Majesty The King was still His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and much like the butterfly I’ve painted hovering over his shoulder, this portrait has evolved as the subject’s role in our public life has transformed,” Yeo wrote. “I do my best to capture the life experiences and humanity etched into any individual sitter’s face, and I hope that is what I have achieved in this portrait. To try and capture that for His Majesty The King, who occupies such a unique role, was both a tremendous professional challenge, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed and am immensely grateful for.” Despite his involvement in the project, King Charles was “initially surprised by the strong colour,” the artist told the BBC, and TikTok royals commentator @matta_of_fact noted that the king appeared to jump a bit when he pulled the cloth away to reveal the painting. The online opinions didn’t stop at hellfire, however. Allusions to the royal family’s bloody colonial past, Charles and Camilla’s infamous tampon scandal and the family’s current woes, including the king’s recent cancer diagnosis, ran rampant. But not everyone seemed bothered. Queen Camilla took one look at the painting, the BBC reported, and said, “Yes, you’ve got him”. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Putting British or other NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine would not make sense, but there are other ways of helping Kiev, British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said.
Some officials in Kiev have proposed sending Western military veterans as civilian contractors to train Ukrainian soldiers inside the country in order to quickly raise enough brigades to offset battlefield losses. “I don’t want to step over that line that puts British, sort of, troops on the ground in Ukraine. I don’t think that makes sense to do. But what I do think is sensible is potentially moving training closer,” Shapps said on Wednesday, speaking to a Telegraph podcast about the situation in Ukraine. “There may be other models that we could look at. Not something I would want to go into in detail currently,” the defence minister added. He pointed out that the UK has already trained 65,000 Ukrainian soldiers since 2014, most of them since February 2022, and that London’s commitment to Kiev “is absolutely rock-solid.” Shapps admitted that the situation north of Kharkov is rather dire for the Ukrainian military and blamed it on “the civilized world” not paying attention. “I think the world took its eye off the ball,” Shapps told the Telegraph, but added, “I think it’s rescuable, at this stage.” According to Shapps, other “civilized” countries should follow the UK´s lead and send even more money to Kiev, to ensure that Ukraine has all the weapons, training and equipment it needs to defeat Russia. Earlier this week, Shapps told Times Radio that London saw “no sense at all” in persuading or “strong-arming” Kiev into accepting any peace conditions and “giving up some of their territory” to Moscow. Boris Johnson, who was the British prime minister at the time, made a similar argument during his visit to Kiev in April 2022, which was seen as crucial in persuading Ukraine to reject a proposed armistice with Russia and continue fighting. Shapps was appointed defence minister last August. Unlike his predecessor Ben Wallace, he has no military experience, having been a printing salesman before entering politics. He has served in a variety of cabinet posts under several Tory governments, from housing and transportation to Home Office and net zero. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Airports across the United Kingdom were struck with delays on Tuesday evening after a nationwide “technical issue“ made the UK Border Force electronic systems glitch for more than four hours.
The slowed service led to delays and long queues among arrivals in airports around the country. Footage circulating online showed the extensive queues that built up as services slowed to a crawl. Some customers complained that the unexpectedly long queues were straining infrastructure, reportedly leaving some customers without adequate water and toilet access. Others also showed blank screens at the eGates. Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh airports confirmed problems with the Border Force system, which resulted in the long delays with arriving travelers on Tuesday, the BBC wrote. The system network issue was detected at 7:44 on Tuesday evening, the Home Office said in a statement on Wednesday. “E-gates at UK airports came back online shortly after midnight,” they announced, adding that “at no point was border security compromised and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity.” But it still stays open what really happened. There are 3 options:
In the course of the day it will clear which of the 3 really happened. The effected airports didn't give any update so far. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The UK Conservative Party has suffered its worst local election defeat in decades, losing more than half of its council seats during this week’s vote in England and Wales. The results of Thursday’s local elections are “disappointing,” Sunak said The opposition Labour party saw strong gains, including in key battlegrounds needed to secure victory at the general election, expected to be held later this year. With almost all authorities declared as of Saturday night, the Tories had conceded 473 of their 985 councillors, while Labour had gained 185 council seats to reach a total of 1,140. The Liberal Democrats also made a strong showing, and now have 521 councillors, putting them ahead of the Conservatives for the first time since 1996. “It appears to be the worst local elections for the Conservatives since the final years of the era of Margaret Thatcher and John Major,” said Robert Hayward, a polling expert and a member of the House of Lords, as quoted by the New York Times. Also this week, Labour politician Chris Webb won the Blackpool South by-election, beating Conservative David Jones. “This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today,” Labour leader Keir Starmer told reporters, adding that the win “shows that we are firmly back in the service of working people.” Further good news for Labour came from London, where Mayor Sadiq Khan was re-elected for a third term. “Londoners voted to give their city a fairer, safer, greener future,” Khan wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The campaigning was centered on inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, as well local issues, such as housing and the worsening state of the NHS. Sunak acknowledged on Friday that it is “disappointing to lose good hardworking Conservative councillors.” He insisted that he remains “focused completely on the job at hand – that’s delivering for people across the country.” Despite the upset, prime minister said he is hopeful that the voters “are going to stick with us” in the general election. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Ukraine has the right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets on Russian territory, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron has declared, in an interview with Reuters on Thursday during a visit to Kiev.
The senior diplomat, who also served as UK Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal and Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, promising London’s “unequivocal support” and annual military aid payments. “We will give three billion pounds ($3.74 billion) every year for as long as is necessary. We’ve just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment,” Cameron told the outlet, noting that some of the British weapons earmarked for Ukraine would be arriving to the country during his visit. The foreign secretary noted that among the weapons donated to Kiev are precision-guided bombs, air defense missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defence teams. Cameron stated that Ukraine has the “right” to use arms provided by London to strike targets inside Russia if that’s how it wants to use them. “Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it’s defending itself,” the diplomat said. Shortly after publishing its original article, Reuters deleted the interview with Cameron’s statements, indicating that a “revision of certain details” in the text was underway. Some, like Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, suggested that the revision may have had to do with the backlash caused by the diplomat’s statement regarding the use of British weapons. However, the article was later re-uploaded on Friday without any apparent visible changes. The Foreign Secretary’s statement has been met with condemnation in Moscow. Zakharova suggested that London should prepare itself for the possibility that Kiev could eventually use the weapons it has received to attack the UK, “as was done by Western-raised Al Qaeda terrorists.” Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has described Cameron’s words as “yet another very dangerous statement,” noting that there has been a noticeable verbal escalation on the part of Western officials. “This is a direct escalation of tensions around the Ukrainian conflict, which could potentially pose a danger to European security, the entire European security architecture,” Peskov warned. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The United Kingdom has sent its first asylum-seeker to Rwanda under a voluntary scheme, British media reports said on Tuesday, a week after the UK government adopted a controversial law allowing irregular migrants to be deported to the East African nation.
The voluntary scheme is separate from the government's forced deportation program that seeks to deter asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats to live in the UK. The contentious law allows the UK government to expel undocumented migrants to Rwanda, where they would be allowed to remain if their asylum applications are successful. They would not be allowed to return to the UK. British authorities have detained the first migrants set to be removed to Rwanda under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's flagship illegal migration policy, the government said on Wednesday. Sunak's Conservative government plans to begin the expulsions by July. Meanwhile, the unnamed man — who left the UK on Monday — is the first to have voluntarily moved to Rwanda after being offered up to 3,000 pounds (€3,515, $3,740) of financial aid as part of the separate scheme, media reports said. He had agreed to be sent to Kigali after his asylum request was rejected late last year, several media outlets reported. The man — who is not Rwandan but said to be of "African origin" — left on a commercial flight to Kigali, The Sun newspaper reported. Looming elections The news comes just days before local elections in England and Wales in which the ruling Conservatives are expected to suffer major losses to the opposition Labour Party. Sunak has made "stopping the boats" one of his five promises to the public, with the asylum-seeker's removal seen as a signal to voters that his government's wider migration plan can be made to work. "We are now able to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda under our migration and economic development partnership," a government spokesperson said. "This deal allows people with no immigration status in the UK to be relocated to a safe third country where they will be supported to rebuild their lives," the spokesperson said. The government's forced deportation plan has come under fire from the United Nations and rights groups. On Monday, a British government document showed that the first asylum-seekers to be deported from the UK to Rwanda would come from a group of 5,700 people that Kigali has agreed in principle to accept. More than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year, making it a record high for the first four months of a calendar year. Rwanda — which has a population of 13 million people —claims to be one of the most stable nations on the African continent and has been praised for its modern infrastructure. However, rights groups have accused President Paul Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has for the first time admitted that its Covid-19 vaccine could cause a rare side effect that could lead to blood clots and death, according to court documents.
The company is fighting a class action lawsuit alleging that its inoculation, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford, can result in death and serious injury. The legal battle was initiated by Jamie Scott, a father of two, who suffered a blood clot that left him with brain damage after he was inoculated in April 2021 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. He is seeking compensation over claims that the AstraZeneca vaccine is “defective” and less safe than expected, an allegation the company denies. In May 2023, AstraZeneca also insisted that “we do not accept that TTS [Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome] is caused by the vaccine at a generic level,” as quoted by The Daily Telegraph. TTS is a rare condition, in which a person has blood clots, which could reduce the blood flow, combined with a low platelet count, which could prompt difficulties in stopping the bleeding. TTS symptoms include severe headaches and abdominal pain. Despite previous denials, AstraZeneca said in court documents, which were submitted to the UK High Court in February but received media attention only recently, that “it is admitted that the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS. The causal mechanism is not known.” “Further, TTS can also occur in the absence of the AZ vaccine (or any vaccine),” the company added, as quoted by the Telegraph. At the same time, AstraZeneca insists the available data shows the drug has “an acceptable safety profile,” and that “regulators around the world consistently state that the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of extremely rare potential side effects.” Dozens of Western countries suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the spring of 2021 over fears it may have caused some patients to develop blood clots. At the time, the head of the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) vaccines strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said that there was an evident link between AZ vaccine intake and blood clots in the brain, but maintained that the benefits still outweighed the risks. According to World Health Organization data, the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has an efficacy of 72%. As of April 2021, over 17 million people had received the jab in the EU and the UK, with just under 40 cases of thrombosis, according to the company. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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A pocket watch that belonged to the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic sold for £1,175 million (€1,38 million, $1,46 million) at auction Saturday, smashing a pre-sale estimate. Henry Aldridge & Son, the auction house that sold the watch, had predicted it would sell for between £100,000 and £150,000. The auction for John Jacob Astor IV's 14-carat gold Waltham pocket watch had a starting bid of £60,000. It was sold to an American buyer. The watch, engraved with the initials JJA, was found with Astor's body when it was recovered several days after the Titanic sank in April 1912. He was also found with a diamond ring, gold and diamond cufflinks, 225 pounds in English notes, and $2,440. "The watch itself was completely restored after being returned to Colonel Astor's family and worn by his son," the auction house wrote in a statement. "Astor is well known as the richest passenger aboard the R.M.S. Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time, with a net worth of roughly $87 million (equivalent to several billion dollars today,)" the auction house wrote. Astor died after helping his pregnant wife escape into the last lifeboat and she survived the accident. The previous highest amount paid for Titanic artefacts was £1.1 million for a violin that was played as the ship sank - which sold at the same auction house in 2013, according to the auctioneers. The case for the violin was sold at the same auction as the pocket watch for £360,000. The prices fetched by the Titanic memorabilia at the sale were "absolutely incredible," auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said. "They reflect not only the importance of the artefacts themselves and their rarity but they also show the enduring appeal and fascination with the Titanic story," he said.
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Brexit pays off. No ties to European Union set the United Kingdom free to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda by plane. Parliament has passed the controversial law allowing this. Rwanda has now been declared a safe country to avoid objections to deportations. The law has been the subject of long debate in Britain. The government has been trying to get the plan through for years, but has always encountered resistance. The law was announced two years ago. This was followed by a long parliamentary process, partly due to legal setbacks. For example, an earlier version was blocked by the judge, because Rwanda was not a safe country. That problem for British Prime Minister Sunak has now been resolved. In November, the UK's highest courts ruled that Rwanda is not safe, but with the new legislation the Prime Minister has achieved, among other things, that this is no longer an obstacle. The House of Commons has now declared Rwanda safe. This was preceded by a marathon fight between the House of Lords (House of Lords) and the House of Commons (House of Commons) that lasted well into the night. The law is likely to be signed by King Charles on Tuesday. The law is intended to deter migrants who want to cross the Channel, but there is a lot of opposition to the controversial plan. Two years ago, a plane carrying asylum seekers about to depart for Kigali was stopped on the runway by a European judge. The British plan is being followed with great interest by other European countries. It may set a precedent on how to deal with asylum seekers. The whole idea behind this is to deter people. The British are looking for a new model to discourage people from making the dangerous crossing to the UK. This outsources the asylum procedure to a completely different country. This law is a big victory for Prime Minister Sunak made this his promise even before he became Prime Minister. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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The history of the first bank in the world is a narrative intertwined with the rise of the Rothschild family, a dynasty synonymous with banking prowess and financial influence.
The story of the Rothschild bank is not merely about the establishment of a financial institution but also about the ingenuity, shrewdness, and determination of its founders, who revolutionized the landscape of international finance. The origins of the Rothschild banking dynasty can be traced back to the late 18th century, when Mayer Amschel Rothschild, born in 1744 in Frankfurt, Germany, laid the foundation for what would become one of the most powerful banking houses in history. Mayer Amschel, a shrewd businessman with a keen understanding of financial markets, started his career as a dealer in rare coins and antiquities. Through astute investments and strategic alliances, he gradually amassed a significant fortune and gained prominence in the banking circles of Frankfurt. In 1769, Mayer Amschel established a banking business in Frankfurt, which served as the precursor to the Rothschild banking empire. However, it was his five sons—Amschel Mayer, Salomon Mayer, Nathan Mayer, Carl Mayer, and James Mayer—who would propel the Rothschild name to international acclaim and reshape the financial landscape of Europe. The Rothschild brothers were not only astute bankers but also visionaries who recognized the potential of international finance. They capitalized on the political upheavals and economic transformations of the time, leveraging their extensive network of contacts and their expertise in finance to facilitate trade, fund infrastructure projects, and finance wars. One of the key strategies employed by the Rothschilds was their adeptness in international communication and transportation, allowing them to transmit information and capital across borders with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the Rothschild family to the financial world was their role in the development of government bonds and the establishment of a secondary market for sovereign debt. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Rothschilds played a pivotal role in financing various European governments, providing loans and purchasing government bonds. Their expertise in evaluating credit risk and their willingness to take calculated risks allowed them to profit immensely from these ventures while simultaneously assisting governments in funding their war efforts. The Rothschilds' influence extended far beyond the realm of banking and finance. They wielded considerable political power, often acting as intermediaries between rival governments and playing a behind-the-scenes role in diplomatic negotiations. Their network of agents and correspondents spanned the major capitals of Europe, giving them unparalleled access to valuable information and insights into geopolitical developments. Moreover, the Rothschilds' philanthropic endeavors left a lasting impact on society, with contributions to education, healthcare, and cultural institutions. Their patronage of the arts and sciences helped foster intellectual and cultural advancements, leaving an indelible mark on the societies in which they operated. Despite facing occasional setbacks and challenges, such as anti-Semitic sentiment and political opposition, the Rothschild banking dynasty persevered and thrived, expanding its influence and diversifying its business interests across continents. Today, the Rothschild name remains synonymous with wealth, power, and influence, embodying the legacy of innovation and entrepreneurship that defined the early days of modern banking. In conclusion, the history of the first bank in the world is inseparable from the story of the Rothschild family and their indelible impact on the financial markets. Through their vision, expertise, and entrepreneurial spirit, the Rothschilds transformed the world of banking and finance, leaving a legacy that continues to shape the global economy to this day. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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