International
Princess Anne: Queen Elizabeth II’s loyal daughter
AFP | by Robin MILLARD
Queen Elizabeth II’s only daughter Princess Anne rarely lets her emotions show but the grief was etched on her face as she accompanied her mother’s coffin.
With her elder brother King Charles III called away to duty, the queen’s second child accompanied their mother’s coffin on its journey through Scotland and back to London.
Anne, 72, was with Queen Elizabeth on Thursday when she passed away aged 96 after seven decades on the throne.
“I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest mother’s life,” Anne said in a statement Tuesday.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.
“To my mother, The Queen, thank you.”
Anne travelled with the cortege on the six-hour drive from Balmoral to Edinburgh on Sunday.
She curtseyed as soldiers carried the casket into the monarch’s official Scottish residence, the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Anne stood guard at the coffin alongside her siblings at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday.
And the princess flew with the casket from the Scottish capital to London on Tuesday.
Anne’s role may now change depending on whether Charles, 73, pursues a slimmed-down monarchy. But he may find his closest sibling a rock of support as he adjusts to his new role.
Anne said she was “grateful for the support and understanding offered to my dear brother Charles as he accepts the added responsibilities of the monarch”.
Learning the hard way
Anne has earned a reputation as the hardest-working royal, squeezing in a career as an Olympic horse rider alongside a lifetime of public engagements.
Cast much in the same plain-speaking mould as her late father Prince Philip, Anne is reported to have once described herself as “not everyone’s idea of a fairy-tale princess”.
“You learn the hard way,” she said. “There isn’t a school for royalty.”
She never sought to please the press, saying she did not “do stunts” and once told photographers to “naff off”.
In 1974, she was the target of a kidnap attempt when her car was ambushed. Two police officers, her chauffeur and a passer-by were shot and wounded.
An account released by the National Archives said assailant Ian Ball pointed his gun at Anne and said: “I want you to come with me for a day or two, because I want £2 million.
“Will you get out of the car?”
The princess replied curtly: “Not bloody likely — and I haven’t got £2 million.”
Anne stuck to a mixture of classic chic and casual, keeping her voluminous, up-do hair style throughout her adult life.
She adopted a business-like demeanour that sometimes meant she came across as frosty, and resulted in her sharp, dry sense of humour often being mistaken.
Gifted horse rider
Born on August 15, 1950, Anne was taught at Buckingham Palace before beginning boarding school in 1963.
She inherited her mother’s passion for horses and the young princess became a skilled equestrian.
Anne won the 1971 European Eventing Championship and the British public voted her that year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
“I certainly saw it as a way of proving that you had something that was not dependent on your family and it was down to you to succeed or fail,” she said of her horse riding career.
She married equestrian Mark Phillips in 1972. The wedding was an international event watched by an estimated 500 million people.
Anne represented Britain at the Montreal 1976 Olympics, returning without a medal after a particularly nasty fall.
She became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1988 and was on the organising committee for the London 2012 Games.
Anne and her army officer first husband had two children — sports events managing director Peter and 2006 eventing world champion Zara.
Breaking with tradition, the couple decided Phillips should not accept a title so their children would be free to determine their own lives.
Divorce and remarriage
Anne was granted the title of Princess Royal, traditionally given to the monarch’s eldest daughter, in 1987.
She split from Phillips in 1989 and the couple divorced in 1992.
Nine months later, Anne married naval commander Timothy Laurence, a former equerry to Queen Elizabeth.
Anne supports more than 300 charities, organisations and military regiments, including an association with Save the Children that has lasted more than 50 years.
She regularly tops the charts for conducting the most royal engagements, and writes her own speeches.
International
Brazil’s Lula wishes Trump a successful term focused on prosperity and peace
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wished the new U.S. President, Donald Trump, a “successful” term that promotes “prosperity and well-being for the U.S. people” and “a fairer and more peaceful world.”
“On behalf of the Brazilian government, I congratulate President Donald Trump on his inauguration,” said the progressive leader on his social media, shortly after Trump took the oath of office at the Capitol in Washington.
Lula, 79, highlighted that the relationship between Brazil and the United States, one of its most important trade partners, is “marked by a history of cooperation, based on mutual respect and historical friendship.”
“Our countries maintain strong ties in various areas such as trade, science, education, and culture. I am confident that we can continue to make progress in these and other areas,” he added.
International
Iran hopes U.S. will adopt realistic approaches under Trump administration
Iran declared on Monday that it hopes the new U.S. administration under Donald Trump will adopt “realistic approaches” toward Tehran and show “respect” for the interests of the countries in the region.
The Republican tycoon will take the oath for his second term as president of the United States on Monday at noon Washington time (17:00 GMT).
“We hope that the approaches and policies of the new U.S. government will be realistic and based on respect for the interests… of the countries in the region, including the Iranian nation,” said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baqaei, during a weekly press briefing.
During his first term (2017-2021), Trump implemented a “maximum pressure” policy toward Iran.
In 2018, under his administration, the United States withdrew from the international nuclear deal with Iran, concluded three years earlier, which offered Tehran relief from sanctions in exchange for assurances that the country would not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. Tehran denies any such intentions.
In response, Tehran significantly increased its stockpile of enriched materials and raised the enrichment threshold to 60%, approaching the 90% required to produce an atomic bomb, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Tehran, which has expressed a desire to relaunch negotiations to revive the deal, defends its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop nuclear weapons.
International
Trump to sign executive order recognizing only two sexes
Donald Trump will sign an executive order instructing his administration to “recognize” the existence of only “two sexes,” future White House officials announced on Monday, just before the Republican’s inauguration.
“What we are doing today is defining that the policy of the United States is to recognize two sexes: male and female,” said the official, speaking to the press on the condition of anonymity.
The aim of the decree is “to defend women against the ideological extremism of gender and to restore biological truth within the Federal Government,” the official added, explaining that a person’s sexual identity will be defined solely by the gametes they possess.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to put an end to the “transgender delusion.”
The elected president also plans to eliminate federal funding for programs supporting diversity in the administration, the same officials from his incoming cabinet stated.
“We are going to end this type of funding, we are going to put an end to these programs,” said one source from the future team, speaking anonymously about antiracism and diversity training courses.
Brazil’s Lula wishes Trump a successful term focused on prosperity and peace
Iran hopes U.S. will adopt realistic approaches under Trump administration
Trump to sign executive order recognizing only two sexes
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
-
International4 days agoThe Government of Israel accuses Hamas of wanting to modify the truce agreement and postpones its vote
-
International4 days agoRussia attacks Kiev in the middle of British Prime Minister Starmer’s visit
-
International4 days agoAn Australian influencer is accused of poisoning her baby to earn money
-
International3 days agoNoboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
-
International4 days agoFar-right Israeli minister will leave the Netanyahu government if his country does not resume the war after the truce
-
International3 days agoMusk’s Starship was lost after a smooth takeoff
-
International3 days agoMark Carney announces his candidacy to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
-
International3 days agoHRW assures that Sheinbaum “inherited a crisis” from López Obrador due to “extreme violence” in Mexico
-
International4 days agoPope Francis suffers a fall without fractures and his arm is immobilized as a precaution
-
International3 days agoThe Prosecutor’s Office asks Boluarte to hand over the documents that justify the surgery he kept hidden
-
International2 days agoTrump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
-
International2 days agoLatin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
-
International4 days agoEmotional support dogs help firefighters fighting fires in California
-
International4 days agoIndigenous peoples of Mexico help migrants stranded in the south far from the border
-
International4 days agoRussia and Iran will sign a strategic agreement three days before Trump’s inauguration
-
International3 days agoAntony Blinken assures that the Panamanian sovereignty of the Panama Canal “will not change”
-
International3 days agoEdmundo González Urrutia’s team says that the anti-chavista will attend Trump’s investiture
-
International4 days agoFrench justice saves a domesticated boar threatened with euthanasia by the authorities
-
International22 hours agoTrump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border
-
International3 days agoChina, Israel and Burma, the countries in the world with the most journalists imprisoned in 2024
-
International3 days agoAt least five peace signatories and social leaders are killed in fighting in Colombia
-
International4 days agoSeparate negotiators and last-minute details, this is how the ceasefire in Gaza was negotiated
-
International4 days agoThe ‘Supersopa’, created during the great crisis of 2002, returns to the canteens of Argentina
-
International6 hours agoPope Francis hopes Trump will build a more just society free of hatred
-
International4 days agoCarlos Correa, director of the Venezuelan NGO Espacio Público, has been released from prison
-
Sin categoría22 hours agoParaguayan president Santiago Peña meets Venezuela’s opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia in Washington
-
International3 days agoForeign Affairs confirms the kidnapping of a Spaniard in North Africa by a jihadist group
-
International6 hours agoTrump to sign executive order recognizing only two sexes
-
International6 hours agoIran hopes U.S. will adopt realistic approaches under Trump administration
-
International6 hours agoBrazil’s Lula wishes Trump a successful term focused on prosperity and peace