Royal family calls allegations raised by couple ‘concerning’
LONDON — Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that allegations of racism made earlier this week by Prince Harry and Meghan were “concerning” and would be addressed privately by the royal family.
The comments, made in a statement issued on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, are the first from the palace since the two-hour television interview with Meghan and Harry rocked the royal family. Meghan, who is biracial, said the palace had failed to help her when she had suicidal thoughts and that an unidentified member of the royal family had raised “concerns” about the color of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with her son, Archie.
“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the palace said. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.”
The interview, conducted by Oprah Winfrey and which aired Sunday night in the U.S. and a day later in Britain, has divided people around the world. While many say the allegations demonstrate the need for change inside a palace that hasn’t kept pace with the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, others have criticized Harry and Meghan for dropping their bombshell while Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized in London after a heart procedure.
Anna Whitelock, a professor of history and director of the Centre for the Study of Modern
Monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the palace’s brief message was an effort to quiet the controversy.
“It’s not very long, but it’s very precise and it has a clear intent — and that is to close this down as a family matter; to make clear that this is clearly a family in crisis, that there’s family issues to sort out, but to separate this very clearly from any criticism or discussion about the institution of monarchy itself,” she said. “And I think time will tell whether that’s a distinction that the public will accept.”
While the palace often tries to stay above controversy by remaining silent and riding out the storm, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s charges proved so damaging that the family was forced to respond.
The response was likely delayed by the queen’s struggle to balance her sometimes-conflicting roles as monarch and grandmother, said Angela Levin, author of “Harry, a Biography of a Prince,” before the statement was released. During past crises, the 94-year-old monarch has usually come down on the
side of the 1,000-year-old institution she has led since 1952.
“The queen has a motto: Never complain, never explain,” Levin said. “And she’s stuck with this for decades. But I think in this climate and 2021, everything goes everywhere. There’s so much social media that in this instance, she really can’t not say anything.”
Harry and Meghan married in May 2018 in a ceremony at Windsor Castle that ended with a ride around the town in a horsedrawn carriage. In the early days of their marriage, the couple were seen as the fresh young face of the monarchy for an increasingly multicultural nation.
But the story quickly turned sour.
The couple stepped away from royal duties last year and moved to California, saying they wanted to escape racist coverage and unwanted intrusions on their privacy by the British media.
Harry also revealed in the interview that the stresses the couple endured had ruptured relations with his father, Prince Charles, and his brother, Prince William.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is set to approve an extension of the National Guard deployment at the U.S. Capitol for about two more months as possible threats of violence remain, defense officials said Tuesday.
Officials said final details were being worked out, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to give final approval to have Guard troops continue to provide security in Washington at the request of the Capitol Police. Officials have been scrambling in recent days to determine if and how to fill the request for more than 2,000 Guard members, as the original March 12 deadline for them to leave Washington looms.
The decision underscores concerns about security at the Capitol, two months after rioters breached the building in an attack that left five people dead. Law enforcement has remained in a heightened security posture in response to intelligence suggesting possible threats to the Capitol by militia groups.
The request to extend the deployment met resistance last week, as some governors expressed reluctance or refused to commit their troops to more time in the city. There now appears to be enough states willing to provide Guard troops for the mission, said the defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby would not confirm the impending approval, but said Austin is expected to make a decision “very, very soon.” Asked about the security threat, Kirby said any decision would be based on local law enforcement concerns along with the needs of the Capitol Police.
Army leaders had also initially questioned whether the Capitol Police had exhausted all other options to fill the need, such as asking other federal law enforcement agencies to provide security. But officials said military leaders thought it was important to find ways to work out the details.
‘This is my job’: An Iowa journalist covering a protest for racial justice was blinded when a police officer shot pepper spray in her face and was jailed for hours despite telling him repeatedly that she was just doing her job, according to video played Tuesday at the reporter’s trial.
Body camera video captured by Des Moines Police Sgt. Natale Chiodo showed Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri in custody on May 31, 2020, her eyes burning from pepper spray. She said she was with the newspaper and asked Officer Luke Wilson why he arrested her, adding that she was in pain and couldn’t see.
“This is my job,” Sahouri says on the video. “I’m just doing my job. I’m a journalist.”
Sahouri’s defense played the video for jurors on the second day of a trial in which Sahouri and her former boyfriend, Spenser Robnett, are charged with failure to disperse and interference with official acts.
The prosecution has drawn widespread criticism from media and human rights advocates, who say the charges are an attack on press freedom and unwarranted. The two face fines
and potentially even jail time if convicted.
Officer Wilson testified Tuesday that he failed to record the arrest on his body camera and did not notify a supervisor as required by department policy. But Chiodo captured the scene shortly after Wilson detained Sahouri on his body camera.
Chiodo said he did not arrest a second Register reporter who was nearby because she wasn’t disobeying orders and “seemed very scared.”
Myanmar protests: About 1,000 demonstrators against last month’s military seizure of power in Myanmar emerged cautiously Tuesday onto the streets of the country’s second-biggest city, those in the vanguard carrying homemade shields bearing images of the three-fingered salute, the movement’s symbol of defiance.
The protest in Mandalay took place even though security forces have shown
little reluctance to use lethal force to break up crowds. Those who marched gathered for just a few minutes before dispersing to avoid a possible confrontation with riot police. Another group made a mobile protest, driving through the streets on motorbikes.
The protesters have adapted their tactics in response to escalating violence from security forces, including the firing of live ammunition at crowds. The government’s crackdown has left more than 50 protesters dead but has failed to slow the widespread protests against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Migrants die off coast: Thirty-nine African migrants, including several children, died Tuesday off the Tunisian coast after a boat carrying 93 people sank, authorities said.
Their bodies were recovered by relief units in the waters off the Mediterranean
port city of Sfax in southern Tunisia, the spokesman for the Tunisian National Guard, Houssameddine Jebabli, told The Associated Press.
A second boat also ran aground in the same area. Navy and coast guard teams and volunteer fishing boats found 39 bodies and rescued a total of 165 migrants from both vessels, according to a statement from the Tunisian Defense Ministry.
Most of the migrants were from sub-Saharan African countries, and the boats were en route to Italy, Jebabli said.
Armenian blockade: Thousands of opposition supporters blockaded the Armenian parliament building Tuesday in Yerevan to press a demand for the country’s prime minister to step down.
Nikol Pashinyan has rejected the opposition’s demands to resign over a November peace deal that ended six weeks of fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh
region, in which Azerbaijan routed the Armenian forces.
The political tensions escalated last month when the military’s General Staff demanded Pashinyan’s resignation, and he responded by firing the chief of the General Staff, Col. Gen. Onik Gasparyan.
Flint lawyer fees: Lawyers who negotiated a $641 million settlement for victims of lead contaminated water in Flint, Michigan, are seeking a judge to set aside up to 32% for fees and expenses for years of work on the case.
If granted, the request would total $202 million in fees and $7 million in expenses for dozens of attorneys who made a deal with the state of Michigan, Flint, a hospital and an engineering firm, according to a court filing Monday.
Regulators in then-Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration allowed Flint to use the Flint River in 2014-15 without treating the water to reduce corrosion.