France to speed up opening of archives on Algerian War

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a decision Tuesday to speed up the declassification of secret documents related to Algeria’s 1954-62 war of independence from France.

The measure comes amid a series of steps taken by Macron to reconcile France with its colonial past and address its brutal history with Algeria, which had been under French rule for 132 years until its independence in 1962.

The French presidency said in a statement that archive services will now be allowed to use a new procedure to declassify documents from 1970 and earlier that were previously being held secret for national security purposes.

Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that allegations of racism made 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 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 son Archie.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging

U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry traveled to Brussels on Tuesday to relaunch trans-atlantic cooperation with European officials in the wake of President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the global effort to curb climate change.

Like EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Biden has said that fighting global warming is among his highest priorities. Biden had the U.S. rejoin the Paris climate accord in the first hours of his presidency, undoing Donald Trump’s withdrawal.

Kerry was welcomed by the EU