Tag: Prince

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Prince Harry Proclaims $1.5 Million Memoir Charity Donation

WOKINGHAM, ENGLAND - JULY 10: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex attends the King Power Royal Charity Polo Day at Billingbear Polo Club on July 10, 2019 in Wokingham, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein / WireImage)

In addition to telling us his side of the story, Prince Harry’s upcoming memoir will benefit charities as well. While participating in a polo game for Sentable on August 19, the Duke of Sussex announced that he would donate $ 1.5 million of the proceeds of his memoirs to the charity. “This is one of several donations I would like to make to charity, and I am grateful to be able to give back to the children and communities in desperate need,” Harry said in a statement.

Harry founded Sentable with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 to help children affected by the HIV / AIDS epidemic in Africa. “Our realigned mission at Sentebale is to address the urgent needs of vulnerable children in southern Africa, provide them with access to vital health services, receive the care they need and build skills to be more resilient and self-sufficient in the future,” added Harry added. In response to Harry’s donation, the charity expressed its appreciation in a statement: “Sentebale is grateful for his personal contribution, which enables the organization to continue to work fully and to continue to provide important services to vulnerable youth in southern Africa.”

The memoir, set to be released in 2022, will cover everything from Harry’s childhood and time in the military to his marriage to Meghan Markle. “I’ve worn many hats over the years, literally and figuratively, and I hope that by telling my story – the ups and downs, the mistakes, the lessons learned – I can help show them that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think, “he said in a statement announcing the book.” I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to share what I have learned in my life so far. and I am pleased that people are reading a first hand account of my life that is accurate and completely truthful. “

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Biz Markie, Hip-Hop’s ‘Only a Pal’ Clown Prince, Dies at 57

Biz Markie, Hip-Hop’s ‘Just a Friend’ Clown Prince, Dies at 57

Biz Markie, the innovative yet proudly goofy rapper, D.J. and producer whose self-deprecating lyrics and off-key wail on songs like “Just a Friend” earned him the nickname Clown Prince of Hip-Hop, died on Friday. He was 57.

His death was confirmed by his manager, Jenni Izumi, who didn’t provide a cause.

He had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his late 40s and said that he lost 140 pounds in the years that followed. “I wanted to live,” he told ABC News in 2014.

A native New Yorker and an early collaborator with hip-hop trailblazers like Marley Marl, Roxanne Shanté and Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie began as a teenage beatboxer and freestyle rapper. He eventually made a name for himself as the resident court jester of the Queensbridge-based collective the Juice Crew and its Cold Chillin’ label, under the tutelage of the influential radio D.J. Mr. Magic.

On “Goin’ Off” (1988), his debut album, Biz Markie introduced himself as a bumbling upstart with a juvenile sense of humor — the opening track, “Pickin’ Boogers,” was about exactly that — but his charm and his skills were undeniable, making him a plausible sell to an increasingly rap-curious crossover audience.

With direct, often mundane lyrics written in part by his childhood friend Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie was a hip-hop Everyman whose chief love was music, a journey he broke down over a James Brown sample on his first hip-hop hit, the biographical “Vapors”; Snoop Doggy Dogg later adapted the song for his own 1997 version.

“When I was a teenager, I wanted to be down/With a lot of MC-D.J.-ing crews in town,” Biz Markie rapped. “So in school on Noble Street, I say, ‘Can I be down, champ’/They said no, and treated me like a wet food stamp.”

But Biz Markie soon outpaced his peers commercially, becoming a pop sensation with the unlikely 1989 smash “Just a Friend,” from “The Biz Never Sleeps,” which was released by Cold Chillin’ and Warner Bros. Over a plunked piano beat, borrowing its melody from the 1968 song “(You) Got What I Need,” recorded by Freddie Scott and written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Biz Markie raps an extended tale about being unlucky in love.

But it was his pained, rough-edged singing on the song’s chorus — along with the “yo’ mama” jokes and the Mozart costume he wore in the music video — that made the song indelible: “Oh, baaaaby, you/You got what I neeeeeed/But you say he’s just a friend/But you say he’s just a friend.”

Writing in The New York Times, the critic Kelefa Sanneh called Biz Markie “the father of modern bad singing” and wrote, “His bellowed plea — wildly out of tune, and totally unforgettable — sounded like something concocted after a day of romantic disappointments and a night of heavy drinking.”

Biz Markie has said he was never supposed to be the vocalist handling those notes. “I asked people to sing the part, and nobody showed up at the studio,” he explained later, “so I did it myself.”

“Just a Friend” would go platinum, reaching No. 5 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Singles chart and No. 9 on the all-genre Hot 100. He said he realized how big it had gotten “when Howard Stern and Frankie Crocker and all the white stations around the country started playing it.” And although Biz Markie would never again reach the heights of “Just a Friend” — he failed to land another single on the Hot 100 — he brushed off those who referred to him dismissively as a one-hit wonder.

“I don’t feel bad,” he said. “I know what I did in hip-hop.”

Marcel Theo Hall was born April 8, 1964, in Harlem. He was raised on Long Island, where he was known around the neighborhood as Markie, and he took his original stage name, Bizzy B Markie, from the first hip-hop tape he ever heard in the late 1970s, by the L Brothers, featuring Busy Bee Starski. Always known as a prankster, he was said to have once given his high school vice principal a cake laced with laxatives.

He honed his act as a D.J. and beatboxer at Manhattan nightclubs like the Roxy, although his rhyming remained a source of insecurity. By the mid-1980s, he had fallen in with the Juice Crew, whose members began featuring him on records and eventually working with him on his lyrics and delivery.

“When I felt that I was good enough, I went to Marley Marl’s house and sat on his stoop every day until he noticed me, and that’s how I got my start,” he said.

In 1986, Biz Markie appeared on one of his earliest records, “The Def Fresh Crew” by Roxanne Shanté, providing exaggerated mouth-based percussion. That same year, he released an EP produced by Marley Marl, “Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz,” calling himself the Inhuman Orchestra.

“When you hear me do it, you will be shocked and amazed,” he rapped on the title track, which would also serve as a single from “Goin’ Off,” his official debut. “It’s the brand-new thing they call the human beatbox craze.”

But after the success of his first two albums, Biz Markie’s third would become a part of hip-hop history for nonmusical reasons, which would nonetheless reverberate through the genre: a copyright lawsuit.

After the release of that album, “I Need a Haircut,” in 1991, Biz Markie and his label were sued by representatives for the Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, who said eight bars of his 1972 hit “Alone Again (Naturally)” were sampled without permission on Biz Markie’s “Alone Again.” A lawyer for Mr. O’Sullivan called sampling “a euphemism in the music industry for what anyone else would call pickpocketing”; a judge agreed, calling for $250,000 in damages and barring further distribution of the album.

That ruling would help set a precedent in the music industry by requiring that even small chunks of sampled music — a cornerstone of hip-hop aesthetics and studio production — must be approved in advance. A market for sampling clearance took hold, which remains a key part of the economics behind hip-hop.

“Because of the Biz Markie ruling,” one record executive said at the time, “we had to make sure we had written clearance on everything beforehand.”

In 1993, Biz Markie responded with a pointed new album, “All Samples Cleared!” But his popularity had waned, and it would be his last release for a major label. A decade later, he returned with “Weekend Warrior” (2003), his fifth and final album, though he maintained cultural relevance as a big personality with an enduring smash in “Just a Friend.”

Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.

Biz Markie made appearances on the big and small screens, usually as a version of himself. He was seen in the movie “Men in Black II,” heard as a voice on “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and appeared on “Black-ish” and as the beatboxing pro behind “Biz’s Beat of the Day” on the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!” He also became a dedicated collector of rare records and toys, including Beanie Babies, Barbies and television action figures.

But even as a novelty throwback presence, he remained jovial, calling himself “one of them unsung heroes” and comparing himself to a McRib sandwich (“when I do pop up they appreciate everything they see”) in a 2019 Washington Post interview.

“I’m going to be Biz Markie until I die,” he said. “Even after I die I’m going to be Biz Markie.”

Michael Levenson contributed reporting.

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World News

Prince Philip Is Laid to Relaxation in a Somber 50-Minute Ceremony

Prince Philip Is Laid to Rest in a Somber 50-Minute Ceremony

LONDON – His coffin was carried by a military green Land Rover he helped design. Prince Philip was buried at Windsor Castle on Saturday in a rigorous, carefully choreographed funeral that captured his steely role in the British royal family and offered a solemn glimpse into his uncertain future.

Queen Elizabeth II said goodbye to Philip, her husband, who died of solitude in St. George’s Chapel on April 9, two months before his 100th birthday. She was dressed in a mask and kept away from her children and grandchildren by pandemic social distancing requirements that limited attendance to 30 people.

Her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry were also separated from one of their cousins ​​as they walked behind Philip’s coffin. This quirk of royal protocol dramatized the brotherhood gap that opened following Harry’s marriage to a former American actress, Meghan Markle.

That wedding took place almost three years ago in the same Gothic chapel on a similarly crystal clear Saturday. It was both a joyful contrast and a poignant reminder of the turmoil that has gripped the House of Windsor since its patriarch retired and a new generation of royals took the spotlight.

A thaw shimmered between Harry and William as the brothers walked together after the funeral and spoke softly to each other. But this was a dire occasion, a family sadly gathered to mark the death of a man who many credited with providing stability and discipline to younger kings as they struggled to face the pressures of duty and fame .

If Harry and Meghan’s wedding was a vivid depiction of a new-age royal family with a gospel choir and African-American preacher, Philip’s funeral was a throwback to the traditions of the monarchy. There was no eulogy, despite some reports that Prince Charles would pay tribute to his father.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby, and the Dean of Windsor, the Right Rev. David Conner, recited the readings and not the family members. A four-member choir, cut off by the pandemic and standing apart on a stone floor, sang hymns chosen by Philip, the voices of which echoed in the empty nave of the chapel.

The royal family listened in silence, separated in family bubbles, their faces softly lit by lamps. Harry sat alone and bowed his head during a hymn.

Less than an hour later, Philip’s coffin was lowered into the royal vault when the dean said, “Go on your journey of this world, oh Christian soul” and the pipe major of the Royal Regiment of Scotland was playing. The brisk schedule matched the uncomplicated manner of Philip, a man known for both his distant demeanor and fondness for gaffes, as well as his constant loyalty to the Queen.

Still, the ceremony was rich in symbols of the military career that Philip, whose official title was Duke of Edinburgh, abandoned when his young wife unexpectedly ascended to the throne in 1953 after the death of her father, George VI.

The Duke’s coffin was wrapped in his personal standard and carried his sword and naval cap. On nine pillows on the altar were military insignia, including the wings of the Royal Air Force of Philip and the staff of the field marshal, as well as the Order of the Elephant given to him by Denmark and the Order of the Savior of Greece. These symbolized his royal ancestry as Prince of Denmark and Greece.

After Philip was buried, the Royal Marines trumpeters played “The Last Post” and “Action Stations,” a call to battle stations that is seldom played at funerals but can be requested by a Royal Navy veteran. During World War II, the Duke saw combat aboard a British destroyer and battleship.

Updated

April 17, 2021, 10:28 p.m. ET

Nothing captured the military feel of the day quite like the bespoke Land Rover Defender that carried Philip on his final trip to the chapel. The Duke tinkered with the vehicle’s design for 18 years, settling on an open back and metal pins to secure his coffin. He asked for the military green paint.

At 3 p.m. after the Land Rover had passed under Windsor’s crenellated towers and arrived at the chapel – to the metronomic crack of cannons and bells – there was a national minute of silence.

The BBC and other broadcasters respectfully covered the ceremony but avoided the blanket programming that generated more than 100,000 complaints last week when the BBC anticipated popular shows to analyze every aspect of Philip’s life. Some compared the wall-to-wall approach to that of North Korea.

Yet for a country that worships its queen, her husband’s funeral was a truly national moment – as some have said, with the funeral of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002 that saw more than a million people attending Her Cortege Pass from Westminster Abbey to Windsor Castle.

“There is a tremendous, almost subconscious sense of the monarchy in Britain that is not appreciated by the metropolitan media,” said Vernon Bogdanor, a research professor of British Politics and Government at King’s College London. “It’s inarticulate, but it comes out at those crucial moments.”

Philip’s funeral, however, did not attract the crowd of other royal ceremonies. Because of the pandemic, Buckingham Palace urged people not to come to Windsor, the city west of London that the castle overlooks. On a quiet Saturday, it seemed like most people had followed this advice.

The restrictions meant Philip’s converted Land Rover made a journey of just a few hundred meters, rather than the 22 miles from Buckingham Palace to Windsor. Instead of crowds lining the route, the focus was on troops from the Royal Navy, Marines, Highlanders and the Knights of Windsor in passing.

Queen Elizabeth, who will turn 95 next week, followed the procession in her shiny eggplant Bentley, not at the head, as would have been the custom for a sovereign. Charles, her heir, led the procession, along with his sister, Princess Anne.

These boundaries also meant a circumscribed guest list within the chapel. Among those who weren’t in attendance: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who, according to Downing Street, gave up his seat so the royal family could invite an extra guest, and Meghan, who is pregnant and was not there on her doctor’s advice.

The Queen invited three German relatives of Philip, a reminder of his non-British roots and a sign of the march of history. In 1947, in the shadow of World War II, the Duke’s German family was kept away from the couple’s wedding.

The Queen had other delicate protocol decisions to make. She decreed that none of the male family members would wear military uniforms at the ceremony – a decision that saved Harry the outrage of appearing in civilian clothes despite serving in Afghanistan. As part of the agreement with the palace under which he retired from royal life, Harry was stripped of his military honorary degrees.

The British news media reported that Prince Andrew, the Queen’s second son, had forced the problem by demanding that he wear an admiral’s uniform, a title he was supposed to acquire on his 60th birthday last year. He moved for the appointment to be postponed after he became embroiled in a scandal over his friendship with disgraced financier and sex predator Jeffrey Epstein that led to Andrew’s exile from royal duties.

The scandal that erupted after an interview Andrew gave the BBC in 2019 sparked a tumultuous time for the royal family. Two months later, Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step down from their official duties and leave the UK.

They settled in Southern California and reappeared last month for an extraordinary interview with Oprah Winfrey in which Meghan said a member or members of the royal family raised concerns about the skin color of the couple’s unborn child.

Royal observers have attributed some of the family’s dysfunction to the diminishing role of their patriarch. Philip retired from his duties in 2017 and moved to a cottage on the grounds of one of the Queen’s estates, Sandringham, where he painted in oils and pursued his hobby of driving carriages.

At the funeral there was a slight nod to Philip’s hobby: as his coffin drove through the square in Windsor, he passed a polished dark green car with his two beloved ponies Balmoral Nevis and Notlaw Storm.

Stephen Castle contributed to the coverage.

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Business

The BBC coated Prince Philip’s dying for hours. Cue the complaints.

The BBC covered Prince Philip’s death for hours. Cue the complaints.

Shortly after Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II passed away last Friday, the BBC cut its schedule to cover its television channels and radio stations all afternoon and night.

When popular shows went off the air – including the Friday episode of EastEnders, a soap opera that has aired since 1985, and the final episode of MasterChef, a cooking contest show – expressions of displeasure flooded the BBC. To be precise, 109,741 complaints were received, the BBC said on Thursday, making it the most complained moment in BBC history.

As a UK public broadcaster, the BBC has a prominent position in the UK media and it is difficult to fund it through a license fee. It is often attacked for being too liberal and too conservative, while its access to public funds is controlled by the government, which is currently a Conservative government.

The BBC tries to reflect the mood of the nation, but recently, after Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, a heated debate erupted over the role of the royal family.

Too little coverage of tributes to the Duke and the BBC would have run the risk of not properly respecting his life. Even so, the station received so many online complaints that it set up a streamlined process on Friday – a special online form – that people could use to register their disappointment with the scope of their coverage.

The BBC said Thursday that the Duke of Edinburgh’s death “was a momentous event that generated great interest both nationally and internationally” and that the decision to change the schedule was made with careful consideration of what “the role of the BBC reflects “as a national broadcaster in moments of national importance. “

Two commercial broadcasters took different approaches. ITV, like the BBC, reportedly saw a sharp drop in viewership last Friday due to many hours of coverage of Prince Philip. Kanal 4 had special programming, but gave viewers a break by broadcasting a popular program called “Gogglebox” at 9pm, which broadcasts television viewers.

On Saturday, the BBC and ITV will broadcast the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, which will not be open to the public due to pandemic restrictions.

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For Prince Philip, Royal Household Plans Pandemic-Muted Honors

For Prince Philip, Royal Family Plans Pandemic-Muted Honors

As they mourned Prince Philip, who through 73 years of marriage to Queen Elizabeth II helped maintain a monarchy that many in the modern world saw as out of place, the royal family and nation struggled to give him their final honors pay amid a pandemic when mass gatherings are banned.

Honors and condolences came from all over Britain and around the world, and small crowds gathered in front of Windsor Castle, where the 99-year-old prince died, and in front of Buckingham Palace in London, despite rules that forbade gatherings of more than six people outside . Many of the gathering put bouquets of flowers at the boundary gates.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will not be in public. His funeral takes place in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle rather than a much larger and more public venue like Westminster Abbey in London. Due to the pandemic, it will not be open to the public. Further details are expected to be released on Saturday.

His death follows a traumatic 13 months in which Covid-19 killed more than 150,000 Britons – by far the highest official number in Europe – and social distancing requirements have taken the usual commemorations from millions of survivors. Now it is the nation’s most prominent family dealing with the same subject. The UK currently does not allow more than 30 people to attend a funeral.

The hushed treatment of Philip’s death not only reflects the time, but also the prince, who occasionally enjoyed draining the stuffy pomp that surrounds the monarchy as well as the self-important expressions of others, pointing out that he was only showing himself to be significant viewed as an extension of his wife.

His predilection for abusive and bigoted comments and the image of him as a cold father made Philip a somewhat problematic public figure for the now 94-year-old Queen and the royal family. However, by the 1990s, his controversies were overshadowed by those of his children, and his growing age made his sharp tongue irritating or simply more irrelevant than offensive to many people.

The prince’s devotion to the queen during the longest marriage in British royal history, despite some rocky times at the beginning, and the maintenance and modernization of the monarchy enhanced his popularity, as did his persistent adherence to a schedule of charities, ribbon cuts, and travel right up to his 90s. He received support from the popular series “The Crown”, in which he matured into a wise and committed, if emotionally distant, figure.

Again and again people who pay tribute on Wednesday quoted Philip’s obligation to duty.

“I just have so much respect for Prince Philip and everything he’s done,” said Britta Bia, 53, in front of Buckingham Palace, the headquarters of the royal household. “I have so much respect for the royal family. I think they did so much for charity, and I think they were senior citizens of the Commonwealth. “

Philip served in the Royal Navy and saw combat during World War II. “Out of this conflict, he adopted an ethic of service that he applied during the unprecedented changes of the post-war era,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at 10 Downing Street.

In a statement, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said: “The impact of his decades of dedicated public service is evident in the worthy causes he has given, as the patron of the environmental efforts he advocates, to the members of the armed forces he serves supported, among the young people he inspired, and much more. “

Chancellor Angela Merkel quoted the Prince’s “straightforwardness and his sense of duty”.

Last month, the royal family experienced an unusually painful and public outpouring of inner tensions when Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, gave Oprah Winfrey an interview explaining their clashes at the palace and their decision to move to California. Philip, Harry’s paternal grandfather, was not mentioned as a factor, but royals defenders attacked the young couple for stressing the family at a time when Philip was hospitalized and appeared to be ill.

The decision not to give Philip a state funeral and leave him in the state is what he wanted, according to the College of Arms, part of the royal household that helps organize state events. The last wife of a late monarch, Queen Elizabeth’s mother, also known as Elizabeth, was in the state after her death in 2002.

“It is regrettably asked that the public not attempt to attend or attend any of the events that make up the funeral,” the College of Arms said in a statement.

The palace said Philip died peacefully and did not cite a specific cause, but he did not have a coronavirus. He had been hospitalized several times in the past decade, including one for treatment for a blocked coronary artery. In an increasingly frail condition, he resigned from his public duties in 2017.

That year he was hospitalized for four weeks and had an operation on March 3, which the palace described as just pre-existing heart disease. He was also treated for an unspecified infection. He was released on March 16, just 24 days before his death.

Elian Peltier, Stephen Castle, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Geneva Abdul, Alex Marshall and Daniel Victor contributed to the coverage.

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Prince Philip Has Died at Age of 99, Palace Confirms

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 4: Prince Philip in naval uniform with medals in St Paul's Cathedral on the day of the Golden Jubilee Service - the 50th anniversary of the reign of the monarch. (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

The Royal Family confirmed that on April 9, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Patriarch of the British Royal Family, died at the age of 99. Buckingham Palace issued a brief statement in which it said: “It is with great sadness that Her Majesty the Queen announced the death of her beloved husband, HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. HRH is at peace this morning died at Windsor Castle. The Royal Family and people around the world mourn his loss. Further announcements will be made in due course. “

Born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, gave up his Greek and Danish titles to become a naturalized British subject when he became engaged to Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of King George VI. Just before the couple married in 1947, he became Baron Greenwich, Earl of Merioneth and Duke of Edinburgh. After the death of George VI in 1952, Elizabeth ascended the British throne and Philip became her consort. Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation took place in June 1953, and as chairman of the coronation commission, Philip was instrumental in organizing the day.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 2: Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prince Philip, waves to the crowd after being crowned at Westminter Abbey in London on June 2, 1953. Elizabeth married the Duke of Edinburgh on November 20, 1947 and was made Queen in 1952 at the age of 25. Her coronation was the first global television event. (Photo credit should be STF / AFP / Getty Images)Image Source: Getty Images / OFF / AFP

Although their marriage was not without its ups and downs, the Queen and Prince Philip had been married for over 70 years and had four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. They in turn gave the couple eight grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

The Duke resigned from his official royal duties in 2017 and his last official engagement was in August of that year, although this was by no means the last time we saw him. After undergoing successful hip replacement surgery in April 2018, Philip was in good spirits at his grandson Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle in May this year, despite skipping both the Trooping the Color ceremony and the christening of his Great-grandson, Prince Louis. He resigned for Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s wedding in October, despite previous reports that he might decide to skip it. In 2019 we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of him hanging out with his eighth great-grandson, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born in May 2019. The Duke was also in a good mood attending Lady Gabriella Windsor’s wedding to Thomas Kingston.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Duke and Queen have stayed at Windsor Castle since lockdown restrictions were first introduced in March 2020. In the summer, as coronavirus lockdowns eased across the UK, Prince Philip was able to attend the private wedding ceremony of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who were married on July 17 at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at the Royal Lodge in Windsor. And while he couldn’t meet his ninth grandchild – Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank – the couple honored the Duke by naming him after his great-grandfather. In February 2021, the Duke was hospitalized, where he later underwent a successful procedure for an existing heart disease.

The palace has not yet released any further information about the prince’s death, but as the monarch’s consort he is entitled to a state burial.

– Additional reporting from Sophia Panych and Tori Crowther

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Business

Prince Philip of Britain dies at age 99

Prince Philip of Britain dies at age 99

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 2015.

Matt Dunham | WPA pool | Getty Images

LONDON – Prince Philip, the Greek-born king who was the longest-serving consort of a British sovereign as the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, passed away on Friday. He was 99 years old.

“HRH passed away peacefully at Windsor Castle this morning,” announced the Royal Family. “Further announcements will be made in due course. The royal family and people around the world mourn his loss.”

The Duke of Edinburgh’s death came 12 days before Queen Elizabeth’s 95th birthday on April 21st. Following a long-running plan known as Operation Forth Bridge, his death heralds a time of national mourning.

Philip, whom the Queen described as “my strength and my stay,” was hospitalized in February after “feeling unwell” and being treated for an infection and pre-existing heart disease, Buckingham Palace said. He was released a month later after heart surgery.

Philip, who popularized the sobriquet “The Firm” for the family firm Windsor, finished his official duties in the fall of 2017. Months earlier, in June, he was hospitalized for an infection and missed the Queen’s speech re-elected Parliament opened this month.

Two days after the absence of Easter 2018 In St. George’s Chapel he was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital for a previously planned hip operation, the palace announced. This 10-day hospitalization came weeks before the birth of Prince William and Kate’s third child, Prince Louis Arthur, and Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018 in St. George’s.

In January 2019, Philip was uninjured after being involved in a collision while driving a Land Rover near the Queen’s Sandringham Estate at the age of 97. According to witnesses, the vehicle overturned and two women were treated for injuries. Weeks later, he decided to surrender his driver’s license.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Philip and Elizabeth lived at Windsor Castle, west of London.

The Duke of Edinburgh supported his wife in an unprecedented time of social, economic, technological, political change and family crises.

Fourteen prime ministers held their office, while Philip was British consort – companion of the sovereign – under Winston Churchill in 1952 through the incumbent Boris Johnson.

Both the Duke and Queen, the world’s longest reigning monarch, saw the transformation of a once global British Empire into a Commonwealth of 52 independent member states, a free association under the Queen’s direction.

Philip’s public statements had been rare in recent years, and his direct contact with the media was even rarer. Previously, the Duke was known to express his opinion in public engagements, often with terrifying remarks that went beyond the boundaries of humor.

For example, during the 1981 recession, he said, “Everyone said we needed more free time. Now they are complaining that they are unemployed.”

“Aren’t most of you descended from pirates?” Philip asked a wealthy Cayman Islands resident in 1994.

“You are too fat to be an astronaut,” he said in 2001 to a 13-year-old boy.

When Philip met a mayor in 2012 who was using a mobility scooter, he asked him, “Did you run over someone?”

Early life

Philip was born on June 10, 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu as the youngest child and only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice von Battenberg. Andrew, whose father, King George I of Greece, was murdered in 1913, was the commander of the Greek army during the war with Turkey from 1919 to 1922. After the defeat of Greece, Andrew and the family were exiled in 1922 and settled in France.

Philip’s maternal grandfather, Prince Ludwig von Battenberg, renounced his German title, took the surname Mountbatten, an Anglicized version of the German Battenberg, and became a British citizen.

At the age of 7 in 1928, Philip was sent to school in England. He lived with his maternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, and his uncle, George Mountbatten.

Philip’s four sisters married German aristocrats, and three of them – Sophie, Cecilie, and Margarita – joined the NSDAP. Of course, one of his brother-in-law was among those involved in the 1944 conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler.

In an interview with historian Jonathan Petropoulos, published in his 2006 book Royals and the Reich, Philip noted that he was never “aware that someone in the family was actually expressing anti-Semitic views,” but admitted that there was “inhibitions against the Jews” and “jealousy of their success. “

As a teenager, Philip joined the Royal Navy and served in World War II, including participating in the battles of Cape Matapan and Crete and the invasion of Sicily. He was in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945 because of the Japanese surrender and later received the Greek War Cross of Valor for his service in the Navy.

Royal marriage

In 1947, 26-year-old Philip married his third cousin, Princess Elizabeth, 21, renouncing his Greek title in order to become a naturalized British subject. He was later made Duke of Edinburgh by Elizabeth’s father, King George VI.

The royal marriage was controversial at the time as Philip was not a native son. The Queen Mother is said to have called him “the Hun”. Even so, the couple married at Westminster Abbey and received more than 2,500 wedding favors from around the world. A year later, the son and heir to the throne, Charles, was born, followed by Anne, Andrew and Edward.

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Queen’s coronation celebrations on June 2, 1953.

Keystone | Getty Images

Philip’s maritime career, during which the newly married couple were briefly stationed in Malta, later ended when George VI died on February 6, 1952 and Princess Elizabeth became Queen.

The Duke assumed his new role as wife and accompanied Her Majesty on domestic trips, state visits and Commonwealth tours around the world.

Elizabeth was officially crowned Queen in the first live television coronation broadcast worldwide in 1953. Shortly thereafter, Philip and Elizabeth embarked on a seven-month international tour, visiting 13 countries and covering over 40,000 miles.

“Nobody has ever forgotten to meet him”

In addition to his royal obligations, the Duke became a qualified pilot and played polo regularly until his 50th birthday. Philip achieved many flight qualifications that earned him his Royal Air Force wings in 1953, his helicopter wings two years later, and his private pilot’s license in 1959.

In an official capacity, Philip has traveled to more than 140 countries.

“The great thing about my dad is that nobody ever forgot to meet him, so they all have their stories,” said Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, during an engagement at Windsor Castle in May 2017.

“Wherever he’s been, wherever in the world – people remember him. You can’t really get a better award,” he added.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip also had to survive times of crisis, including the fact that the British monarch was fired with spaces in 1981. Two years earlier, the Queen’s art advisor, Anthony Blunt, was exposed as a communist spy and Philip’s uncle Louis “Dickie” Lord Mountbatten was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb.

In 1992 the marriages of three of her children broke down. Andrew and Anne divorced their spouses, and Charles and Diana began a separation that ended in divorce four years later. Also in 1992, Windsor Castle, one of the couple’s official residences, was destroyed by fire. The Queen described this 12 month period as “annus horribilis”.

During Charles and Diana’s troubles, Philip reportedly advised the couple to reconcile, but to no avail. A year after their 1996 divorce, Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed were killed in a car accident in Paris while photographers chased their limousine. Before the funeral, Philip successfully encouraged his 15-year-old grandson William to walk behind Diana’s coffin. Sixty years earlier, Philip, then 16, marched behind his sister Cecilie’s coffin after she was killed in a plane crash.

“If you don’t go, you will probably regret it later,” Philip told William, according to British media reports. “If I go, will you go with me?”

Fayed’s father claimed Philip ordered the couple’s execution, but in 2008 a London medical examiner dismissed Mohamed al Fayed’s allegations of conspiracy and ruled that there was no such evidence. The jury ultimately decided that the crash was due to grossly negligent driving of the couple’s chauffeur and paparazzi chasing their limousine.

“I … owe him a debt greater than he would ever say.”

Queen Elizabeth II sits with Prince Philip as she delivers her speech during the Opening Ceremony of Parliament at the House of Lords in Westminster on June 4, 2014 in London.

Getty Images

In the decades following his marriage to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh had made more than 22,000 individual engagements, made 637 overseas visits, made an estimated 5,493 speeches, and acted as a patron of nearly 800 organizations, according to the royal website.

One of his most successful associations has arguably been the creation of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, a youth self-improvement program that has been running for 65 years.

In May 2017, the palace announced that the then 95-year-old prince would finally cease his royal duties from autumn. Philip and his wife had gradually passed on some of their respective workloads over the past few years. Their son and heir, Prince Charles, as well as grandchildren, Princes William and Harry and other family members, assumed more collective responsibility until Andrew was effectively stripped of royal duties in 2019 for being linked to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Harry back as a senior Royal in 2020.

The Queen said in honor of her husband on their golden wedding anniversary on November 20, 1997: “Quite simply, he was my strength and stayed all these years and I and his whole family in this and many other countries owe him a debt that is greater is than he would ever ask, or we will ever know. “

The couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in November 2017. During their private ceremony at Windsor Castle, Elizabeth presented him with the Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order for “Services to the Sovereign”.

Survivors include his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, and their children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. The Queen and Philip also had eight grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, including Augustus Philip Hawke Brooksbank, who was born on February 9, 2021 to Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, and was named in part in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh.

Philip had insisted that, according to The Times of London, he didn’t want the “excitement” of a state funeral at Westminster Hall. Instead, his body is expected to be in St. James’s Palace, where Prince Diana’s body lay prior to her burial.

– CNBC’s Marty Steinberg is based in New Jersey.

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U.S. intel says Saudi crown prince authorised killing of Jamal Khashoggi

U.S. intel says Saudi crown prince approved killing of Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation to arrest or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. This emerges from a US intelligence report that could have far-reaching implications for US-Saudi Arabia relations.

The report released on Friday by the Office of the Director of the National Intelligence Service mentioned the Crown Prince’s control over decision-making in Saudi Arabia, as well as the involvement of a key advisor and members of his protection department in the operation in which Khashoggi was killed.

“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control over the kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, so it is highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this type without the Crown Prince’s approval,” the report said.

The CIA-led assessment that had so far been classified comes from President Joe Biden, who aims to reshape US relations with Saudi Arabia after years of the Trump administration’s condemnation of the kingdom’s human rights abuses despite condemnation in Congress and ignored at the United Nations.

Khashoggi, a 59-year-old U.S. citizen and Washington Post employee who criticized the Saudi royal family, entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2, 2018 and never left the country. He was killed by a group of assassins who then dismembered his body. His remains were never recovered.

“The Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the kingdom and largely supported the use of violent measures to silence him,” the US intelligence report said. “Although Saudi officials planned an unspecified operation against Khashoggi in advance, we don’t know how far in advance Saudi officials decided to harm him.”

In a diplomatic reprimand to the Crown Prince this week, the White House made it clear that Biden does not see 35-year-old bin Salman as his counterpart and will instead have relationships through his aging father, King Salman. The younger bin Salman has been the public face of the kingdom since he became crown prince in 2017.

Robert Mahoney, Deputy Executive Director of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, speaks during a press conference to appeal to the United Nations on the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the United Nations in New York, United States on October 18, 2018.

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

“Regarding Saudi Arabia, I would say that we made it clear from the start that we would recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday from the White House.

On Thursday, in his first conversation with the 85-year-old King, Biden reiterated “the importance the United States attaches to universal human rights and the rule of law,” according to a White House ad.

Biden also told Salman that he “will work to make bilateral relations as strong and transparent as possible,” the White House said. Khashoggi’s name was not mentioned in the advertisement.

The chairman of the Intel Committee of the House of Representatives, Rep. Adam Schiff, called on the White House to impose “serious repercussions on those responsible for Khashoggi’s assassination” and to reassess US relations with Saudi Arabia in the course of the intelligence service Report.

“We need to make sure that foreign governments targeting journalists just for their jobs are not immune from severe repercussions and sanctions, because to restore confidence in American leadership we must act in accordance with the values ​​that America sets.” for a long time, “said the Californian Democrat.

“The government should take further steps to reduce the United States’ dependence on Riyadh and reaffirm that our partnership with the Kingdom is not a blank check,” added Schiff.

The Saudi authorities initially denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s death and later claimed that the journalist was involved in a fight at the consulate and died in the clash. The Saudi authorities eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed in a “rogue operation” while denying bin Salman was involved.

A United Nations investigator concluded in a June 2019 report that Khashoggi was “the victim of a premeditated, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible under international human rights law.”

Trump publicly tried to cast doubts about the Crown Prince’s involvement in Khashoggi’s death, even after multiple outlets reported that the CIA bin Salman itself had concluded that the journalist had been killed. Trump said the CIA had “nothing in particular” while claiming the oil-rich kingdom would remain a “steadfast partner” with the US

“It could very well be that the Crown Prince was aware of this tragic event – maybe he did it and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said less than two months after Khashoggi’s death. Trump’s conciliatory stance contrasted sharply with outrage from members of Congress and the media over the Khashoggi assassination.

The Trump administration maintained relationships through the Crown Prince, who maintained close personal relationships with members of the Trump family, particularly Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.

Trump made Saudi Arabia his first stop in the Middle East when he made his debut in the region in 2017. The kingdom rolled out the red carpet for the former reality star.

The Trump administration used its ties with the Gulf monarchies to normalize relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The former president also vetoed attempts by Congress to block billions in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and an attempt to end US involvement in the war in Yemen.

Biden’s review of relations with Saudi Arabia is part of a broader US foreign policy shift in the Middle East.
The president has ended US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen and is trying to return to the negotiating table with Iran, Riyadh’s enemy, through its nuclear program.

The US president called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, his first conversation with a Middle Eastern leader since taking office. The Saudis and Israelis are de facto allies, although they do not have formal diplomatic ties to counter Iranian influence in the region.

Biden “discussed regional security” in his appeal Thursday with King Salman, referring to his government’s efforts to end the war in Yemen “and the US commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory since it did Exposed to attacks by Iranian-centric groups, “the White House ad said.

Biden and Salman “also affirmed the historical nature of the relationship and agreed to work together on issues of mutual interest and concern,” according to the White House.

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Biden’s snub of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a ‘warning’

Biden's snub of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a 'warning'

The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will take part in a meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 14, 2019.

Alexei Nikolsky | Sputnik | Kremlin via Reuters

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – President Joe Biden’s press secretary delivered a powerful message this week to the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Jen Psaki told a press conference in diplomatic language that relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia – especially with the Crown Prince of the kingdom – are being downgraded.

“Regarding Saudi Arabia, I would say that we made it clear from the start that we would recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” said Psaki from the White House on Tuesday.

When asked if Biden would speak to the Crown Prince, she replied: “Part of this is due to the juxtaposition. The President’s colleague is King Salman, and I expect he would in due course.” have a conversation with him. I don’t have a timeline for this. “

The quotes immediately caught the attention of regional analysts and foreign policy experts, as well as probably executives in the Gulf as a blatant nudge of the 35-year-old heir to the monarchy in Saudi Arabia and arguably the most powerful man in the region.

“Well, I think what Jen said, I know the president would get in touch with his counterpart and that his counterpart is the king,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Wednesday.

Price added that Foreign Minister Antony Blinken will work in a similar manner with his counterpart, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

“President Biden has said that we will review the entire relationship to make sure it serves interests, is respectable, and respects the values ​​we bring to this partnership,” Price said.

“We know, of course, that Saudi Arabia is an important partner on many different fronts. Regional security is just one of them,” he added.

“It’s brave and it will hurt”

“The nudge against MBS is a warning to Saudi Arabia,” wrote Torbjorn Soltvedt, MENA chief analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, in an email on Wednesday in which he referred to the crown prince with his initials. “It is viewed as a disapproval of the leadership of MBS, which has been characterized by unpredictable decisions and a much less advisory approach than in the past.”

And the government’s apparent intention to get the Crown Prince out of the way represents a dramatic departure from the White House by Trump, which made Saudi Arabia the former president’s first overseas visit, signing and signing major arms deals with the kingdom despite opposition from Congress it failed to criticize the kingdom for its human rights violations.

This shouldn’t come as a big surprise, as Biden early promised a tougher line for the oil-rich Islamic monarchy. During a major debate in early 2020, Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah they are”.

“This is not a surprising move, but it is brave and will hurt,” Michael Stephens, an analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNBC. “There is no doubt that Psaki’s comments were directed at the Crown Prince, even though he is in every way the man in charge of the kingdom.”

A number of scandals and crises that have emerged from the kingdom since the Crown Prince came to power have been condemned not only by Democrats but also by Republicans.

A former Obama administration official said anonymously for professional reasons: “The Saudis in Washington are in the worst position they have ever been. They were only covered up by Trump’s White House.”

The Saudi government did not respond to CNBC requests for comment.

Can Biden really get MBS out of the way?

Biden has already paused on a major arms sale to the Kingdom and other Gulf allies signed under the Trump administration, and has ordered an end to U.S. support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen that created that has what the UN calls the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis.

And the kingdom was internationally condemned because the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by state agents in 2018. US intelligence linked the killing to the Crown Prince, which Riyadh vigorously denies.

“With the ongoing war in Yemen, crackdown on prominent members of the country’s political and business elite in 2017, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, and the oil price war last year, there is no shortage of raw materials for the Biden government Kick off, “wrote Soltvedt.

But how realistic is the Biden team’s goal of bypassing the Crown Prince – who is also the Secretary of Defense, who is next to the throne and who made most of the kingdom’s most important decisions?

According to Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst near the kingdom’s royal court, this is not at all realistic.

“You can’t do anything if you don’t deal with MBS,” Shihabi was quoted as saying when telling Politico. “The king works, but he’s very old. He’s the chairman of the board. He’s not involved in day-to-day affairs. After all, you’ll want to speak to MBS directly.”

King Salman, the ruling monarch since 2015, is now 85 years old.

President Donald Trump holds a chart of sales of military hardware as he greets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA on March 20, 2018.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Verisk’s Soltvedt agrees. “King Salman is the head of state and ultimately controls the levers of power. But it is MBS that has direct control over the kingdom’s major portfolios and institutions,” he wrote. “A change in Washington’s approach to dealing with the Saudi leadership will not change that.”

The Biden administration is expected to give the Gulf States a lower priority than its predecessor, but they remain America’s preeminent arms customers and regional counter-terrorism partners, as well as oil suppliers – albeit less the latter from year to year.

While the Biden team signals a postponement, many foreign policy experts believe it will not be a break in relations.

“I think the most important thing is that US policy towards Saudi Arabia has been relatively consistent over the years, regardless of which party was in power,” said Tarek Fadlallah, CEO for the Middle East at Nomura.

“There will be a slightly different tone between this White House and the last White House,” said Fadlallah. “But I don’t think that will have any consequence in terms of politics towards the region or politics towards Saudi Arabia.”

Amanda Macias of CNBC contributed to this report from Washington.