Foreign
King Charles ‘sad, bewildered, frustrated’ by Prince Harry’s legal actions against UK institutions– Palace insider
King Charles III is reportedly “sad and bewildered” by the legal crusade his son Prince Harry has launched against a British newspaper group and his continued attacks on the UK’s institutions.
The estranged Duke of Sussex is embroiled in a lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers, accusing the media powerhouse of using illegal phone hacking techniques to publish dozens of stories about him between 1996 and 2011 that caused him “distress.”
His 55-page witness statement released in court last week included his opinion that the state of the press and government in England was “at rock bottom,” which violates the constitutional requirement for the royal family to be “above politics,” according to The Sunday Times.
Harry, 38, quit his royal duties three years ago and moved his family to California, citing the pressure of their public roles and alleged biases against his biracial divorcée American wife Meghan Markle.
He outlined his grievances in a memoir entitled “Spare” earlier this year, in which he wrote that he had begged his father not to marry Queen Consort Camilla, who he believed would be a “wicked stepmother.”
The prince — who is fifth in line to the throne — did not meet with Charles or his brother Prince William during his recent brief trip to the UK to testify in the case and had reportedly not been invited to his father’s 75th birthday parade later this week.
Now a source close to the palace told the Sunday Times that Harry’s rhetoric and behavior has rattled his father.
“The King brings Harry up every time I see him. I don’t think we’ve moved past sad and bewildered, but there’s a bit more frustration at his behavior because it just keeps going,” the source reportedly said.
According to the report, Harry did not consider suing the newspaper group until he ran into lawyer David Sherborne in 2018, who convinced him he had a case.
The palace insider reportedly said Harry had never broached concerns about phone hacking with courtiers when the articles in question were published and has not provided definitive evidence that journalists used the practice.
“I think he’s been sitting in the Californian sunshine for a long time, hanging out with James Corden [the actor and TV host] and has lost all the instincts on how to do this, how to conduct himself carefully, still as a member of the royal family,” a source close to the prince reportedly said.
“He’s lost the knack of what he can and can’t say and there is no one around him to say, ‘No, Harry, you can’t say that, take that bit out’. It’s embarrassing for him and for Britain, for a prince to be saying, ‘We’ve got a s**t government.’”
“I think he is seeking inner peace and this becomes the target … he thinks if he can bring the media to heel, it will cure his pain. Sadly, I don’t think it will. He’s still defending his mother,” the courtier told the paper.
“Nothing will take that pain away.”
German authorities have arrested three teenagers aged 15 and 16 on suspicion of plotting a deadly Islamist terrorist attack in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, prosecutors said on Friday.
The state’s Central Office for the Prosecution of Terrorism (ZenTer NRW) sought an arrest warrant for the teenagers over the Easter holiday.
They were suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in accordance with the aims and ideology of (extremist militia organisation) Islamic State.
The detained suspects are a 15-year-old girl from Dusseldorf, a 16-year-old girl from the Märkischer Kreis district and a 15-year-old boy from the Soest district, located about 100 kilometres to the east of Dusseldorf.
A fourth suspect has reportedly been identified in the south-western German state of Baden-Württemberg, and the local court there has issued an arrest warrant.
According to the investigators, the teenagers are accused of having agreed to commit murder and manslaughter.
This is in conjunction with the preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state.
The presumption of innocence applied in all stages of the proceedings.
Security sources told newsmen that the young people had formed a chat group, but had not drawn up a concrete attack plan for a particular time and place.
However, sources said the cities of Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Cologne were discussed as targets, and attacks with knives and Molotov cocktails on people in churches or police officers in police stations had been considered.
The sources said authorities had also conducted searches as part of the investigation.
A machete and a dagger were seized in Dusseldorf, but no evidence of the construction of incendiary devices was discovered.
Sources said the father of the Dusseldorf suspect had already attracted attention from authorities in the past because he had allegedly collected donations for the Islamic State.
The investigators declined to reveal how the suspected terrorists were tracked down, but said that foreign intelligence agencies “did not play a role.”
Russia on Monday officially recognised Vladimir Putin as a candidate for the presidential elections in March, a vote that he is all but certain to win.
The 71-year-old has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential ballots and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where opposition has become virtually non-existent.
The Central Election Commission said it had registered Putin, who nominated himself, as well as right-wing firebrand and Putin-loyalist Leonid Slutsky as candidates for the vote.
The election will be held over a three-day period from March 15 to 17, a move that Kremlin critics have argued makes guaranteeing transparency more difficult.
Following a controversial constitutional reform in 2020, Putin could stay in power until at least 2036.
Rights groups say that previous elections have been marred by irregularities and that independent observers are likely to be barred from monitoring the vote.
While Putin is not expected to face any real competition, liberal challenger Boris Nadezhdin has passed the threshold of signatures to be registered as a candidate.
However, it is still unclear if he will be allowed to run, and the Kremlin has said it does not consider him to be a serious rival.
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