King Charles
Express
KING CHARLES III has revealed his new signature and appeared to show his new royal cypher for the first time since becoming monarch.
The Queen’s royal cypher has been on our postboxes, passports, and banknotes for over 70 years, but King Charles’ new symbol will now appear all over Britain. On Saturday morning, King Charles was formally proclaimed monarch by the Accession Council at St James’ Palace in London, a historic ceremony which has taken place with every royal monarch since George I in 1714.
The former Prince of Wales wore what appears to be his new royal cypher as a tie pin during the historic ceremony.
The tie pin showed the silver jewelled letters ‘CR’, which stands for Charles Rex III, intertwined with a red and golden crown on top.
‘Rex’ means ‘king’ in Latin, and the tradition of using the initial ‘R’ goes back to at least the 12th century with King Henry I.
Mail
Britain will see a wealth of changes to everyday items as the Queen‘s image and insignia on banknotes, letterboxes and stamps are replaced with that of the new King, Charles III.
British currency won’t be replaced overnight and the change will take years as new coins and notes are created with the face of the King and the others are gradually removed from circulation.
Another change will be that while the Queen’s image faces to the right on coins, new ones will show the King facing left. This is due to a tradition dating from the 17th century to alternate the way successive monarchs are facing. The Queen’s coins did not appear until 1953 – the year after her accession.
Until British currency was decimalised in 1971, it was common to find multiple monarchs – facing both ways – in a handful of change.
The new coins and notes will need to be designed and minted or printed. Then The Royal Mint advisory committee must send recommendations for new coins to the Chancellor and obtain royal approval. Designs are then chosen and the final choices approved by the Chancellor and then the King.
Guardian
For Matthew, the Queen’s death is double edged: “There’s cause for celebration in the sense that it might kickstart the end of the monarchy – but it’s frustrating because I daren’t say that to anyone but my wife!”
He admits crafting several Facebook posts arguing that the death of Queen Elizabeth II ought to preempt the UK’s transition to a republic but has shied away from pressing send. “A lot of people seem very emotional at the moment and I don’t want to be the target of a massive pile-on by trolls,” said Matthew (not his real name).
Other republicans admit they feel bullied into supporting something they don’t believe in. “I feel unable to express an opinion without being branded disrespectful, so therefore I’ve been funnelled into complying with the country’s grief,” said Aisha, who also requested a pseudonym.
“As someone who believes the monarchy is an outdated concept that compromises our democratic right and signifies colonialism, I am suddenly being turned into the bad guy for deciding not to celebrate that aspect of the Queen’s life.
William & Harry
Mail
The King ordered his warring sons to set aside their ongoing feud ahead of the Queen’s funeral, leading the pair to reunite in public for the first time in more than a year, it was last night revealed.
Royal sources say Prince William attempted to bury the hatchet by extending an ’11th-hour olive branch’ to his younger brother Prince Harry, by asking him to join him on a walkabout outside Windsor Castle following a phone call with his father Charles.
In a scene that clearly delighted royal fans, who had come in their hundreds to the gates of the Windsor estate to mourn the Queen’s death, William and Harry walked out side-by-side with wives Kate and Meghan.
The two couples went on an 40-minute walkabout inspecting the sea of floral tributes laid outside the gates of the royal estate in honour of the much-loved monarch.
Experts predict the moment could provide a turning point in the frayed relationship between newly-titled Waleses, and the Sussexes, who have been at odds following a series of damaging interviews by Harry and Meghan.
Times
The Queen’s death led to a royal rapprochement yesterday when the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex put months of bitter discord behind them to jointly honour their grandmother’s memory.
In an unexpected show of unity, William, Harry, Kate and Meghan emerged from a car behind the gates of Windsor Castle and walked to meet cheering crowds and view the flowers left outside.
Harry placed a hand on his wife’s back as they looked at the tributes. As the group walked down the Long Walk there were dozens of shouts of “Harry” and “Meghan”. Wellwishers passed the couples bouquets of tulips and single red roses.
Sun
PRINCES William and Harry and wives Kate and Meghan dramatically reunited yesterday in tribute to the Queen.
The brothers put aside their differences as the four inspected flowers outside Windsor Castle.
A royal source said: “It was an important show of unity for the Queen.”
William’s olive branch was delivered, and accepted, less than an hour before the “Fab Four” gathered outside Windsor Castle.
Only William and Kate — newly appointed Prince and Princess of Wales — were expected to meet the public from 4.30pm.
But the walkabout was delayed until 5.15pm to include Harry and Meghan.
Telegraph
Queen Elizabeth II famously said that it was “often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change.”
In the end, all it took was several steps up Windsor’s historic Long Walk for the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex to finally put their differences aside.
Accompanied by their wives, the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex, Saturday’s surprise reunion of the so-called “Fab Four” provided us with one of the most remarkable walkabouts in modern royal history.
They say monarchy packs a soft power punch – but this was a knockout PR blow intended to stop 10-days of national mourning being overshadowed by tales of the on-going rift between the royal brothers.
Seemingly mindful of the optics of Harry flying to Balmoral alone, after Meghan had initially been said to be joining him, only to remain at home at the last minute, it was William who took the decision to change the narrative.
As the quartet emerged together from a blacked-out car, driven by the heir to the throne, a source confirmed: “The Prince of Wales invited the Duke and Duchess to join him and the Princess of Wales earlier.
“The Prince of Wales thought it was an important show of unity at an incredibly difficult time for the family.”
ITV News
Despite all the headlines you might read about reconciliation and reuniting in memory of the Queen, William and Harry’s coming together in Windsor might prove to be very short lived.
That’s not to underplay the significance of the two brothers being able to at least breathe the same air on the Long Walk in Windsor.
And it was clear how much the crowd appreciated the gesture from William, Kate, Harry and Meghan.
But this was a last-minute decision taken by the new Prince of Wales on Saturday afternoon.
He did it for his grandmother and for his father.
In memory of the late Queen, he had just called “Grannie” and to ensure the smoothest possible transition for King Charles.
At a moment of great uncertainty for the country, William knows the strength of his father’s fledgling reign will be greatly helped by the images of the two couples – once dubbed the Fab Four -meeting the crowds of mourners.
Lookalike
Independent
A lookalike of Queen Elizabeth II has said she is quitting the job after 34 years “out of respect” following the monarch’s death, but will still keep her outfits in memory of a woman who “felt like part of the family”.
Mary Reynolds, 89, who lives in Epping, Essex, first became a lookalike in 1988 but was first told she looked like the late monarch when she was 17.
She has appeared in television and film, with some of her standout moments including starring in the 1990 comedy film Bullseye with the late Sir Roger Moore, as well as an episode in the 25th anniversary series of Doctor Who in 1988.
Ms Reynolds told the PA news agency she felt “lucky” to look like the Queen, but that her days as a doppelganger are to come to an end.
“It’s been a great privilege to look like her because I think she’s so incredible,” Ms Reynolds said.
“I mean, it’s a change of an era now, it’s all going to be very weird.
“I was watching the television the day before and felt that there was going to be some bad news, which of course eventually came and it makes you feel very, very, very sad.
“And then you do sort of realise that will be the end as far as I’m concerned… out of respect, I don’t think one should do anything.”
Jewels
Mirror
One of Princess Diana’s most-prized heirlooms has been earmarked for Princess Charlotte, it has been claimed.
The seven-year-old daughter of William and Kate – the new Prince and Princess of Wales – is now set to be given “the pick of the palace jewels”.
This is thanks to her being the only daughter of the now next in line to the throne following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s daughter Lilibet, one, is unlikely to be afforded a share due to her standing within the line of succession, reports the Daily Star.
A royal insider said this will include a piece worn by the People’s Princess who tragically died in 1997, aged 36.
The show-stopping Spencer Tiara was worn by Diana on her wedding day to Charles in 1981.
The headpiece had been in her family for almost a century before she tied the knot and became a Windsor.
It had previously been worn by Diana’s two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes.
The then-20-year-old had opted to use the family heirloom rather than borrow one of the Queen’s for the ceremony as Meghan did when she tied the knot with Harry in 2018.
Paddington Bear
ITV News
Alongside the more sombre traditions witnessed in the days following the Queen’s death on September 8, there’s also been room to allow one unlikely partnership to shine.
Created by Michael Bond, Paddington Bear made his first appearance five years after the Queen’s coronation in the 1950s.
The pair’s relationship blossomed after a comical sketch together as part of celebrations for the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
While on a visit of Windsor Castle, the Prince of Wales, accompanied by his wife Kate, now Princess of Wales, was handed another Paddington as he greeted children along the fence.
The marmalade sandwiches they shared at Buckingham Palace now feature not at the dining table but along the gates to the Queen’s residences as tributes continue to build.
Now Paddington Bears have been added to the hoards of flowers and notes left for the Queen outside locations such as Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Sandringham.
NHS
Guardian
Nurses will vote to go on a national strike for the first time in their history because the NHS has “gone over the precipice” and may not survive, the leader of the UK’s largest nursing union has told the Observer.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said there is anger among nurses, who feel that ministers do not believe they are important.
In an exclusive interview with the Observer before the ballot on industrial action, Cullen recalled a conversation with frontline staff at a major hospital: “They said to me, ‘We’re not important to the government. We were seen as important during the pandemic, but we’re not important now. We don’t think the government will do anything for us’
“When I talked to them about being a demoralised workforce, they said: ‘we’re not just a demoralised workforce. We have given up. No one seems to care any longer.’ There is an anger that they have been pushed to this position.
Pollution
BBC News
Researchers say they have cracked how air pollution leads to cancer, in a discovery that completely transforms our understanding of how tumours arise.
The team at the Francis Crick Institute in London showed that rather than causing damage, air pollution was waking up old damaged cells.
One of the world’s leading experts, Prof Charles Swanton, said the breakthrough marked a “new era”.
And it may now be possible to develop drugs that stop cancers forming.
The findings could explain how hundreds of cancer-causing substances act on the body.
The classical view of cancer starts with a healthy cell. It acquires more and more mutations in its genetic code, or DNA, until it reaches a tipping point. Then it becomes a cancer and grows uncontrollably.
But there are problems with this idea: cancerous mutations are found in seemingly healthy tissue, and many substances known to cause cancer – including air pollution – don’t seem to damage people’s DNA.
Social care
Express
CARE HOME bosses fear they will be crippled by soaring energy bills as some providers admit they won’t be able to pay this winter.
The cost of gas and electricity is set to reach record levels, but care homes are yet to receive any financial support to stem the mounting cost of energy. Energy bills have doubled at at Gorsey Clough, a nursing home in Bury, Greater Manchester, where they have no choice but to put the heating on 24 hours a day for seven days a week.
Craig Priestley, manager of the care home, said: “It’s absolutely shocking. Our bills have doubled and it’s becoming an increasing worry. We went through covid and didn’t do too badly but it’s one issue after another.
“I want to maintain high standards of care and I don’t want to cut back on food or nursing staff to pay for energy bills. I can only hope that the government introduces support like they did during the pandemic.
“We care for vulnerable people with dementia and we have the heating on 24-7 and that’s not negotiable. I just don’t want to be cutting down on quality and I don’t think it’s fair to increase prices.”
Prostate cancer
Telegraph
Death rates among men with prostate cancer tripled during the first year of the pandemic, according to “extremely worrying” new data.
The figures show almost 5,000 extra deaths of men with prostate cancer during the pandemic – at a time when the number of diagnoses fell. Only around 1,000 were caused by Covid, researchers said.
The major study of NHS hospital data by charity Prostate Cancer UK shows alarming changes in diagnosis and treatment of the disease, with cases spotted far later, when the disease is less treatable.
Experts warned that the failings could cut thousands more lives short, with an estimated 14,000 men with the disease having missed a diagnosis during the pandemic.
When prostate cancer is caught in the first two stages, survival rates are close to 100 per cent.
But they drop to around 50 per cent for those treated at stage four.
The new research shows that even when men received a diagnosis, they were less likely to receive life-extending treatment, as hospitals came under pressure from Covid, the research shows.
Overall, deaths among men with prostate cancer rose from seven per cent before the pandemic to 26 per cent in the first nine months of the pandemic, the analysis shows.
Even in the next nine months, covering the period up to September 2021, deaths remained high, with an 18 per cent fatality rate.
The vast majority of the rise was not caused by Covid deaths, researchers said.
Nuclear power plant
Express
NUCLEAR fears have skyrocketed after shelling at the Zaporizhzhia power sparked a blackout, which the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned has compromised the site’s safety.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which is the largest in Europe, has been operating in emergency mode ever since the power line connecting the plant to the Ukrainian electricity grid was cut on Monday. While this left the plant without an outside source of electricity, it had been sourcing its power for its own safety systems from the last remaining reactor still intact.
But on Friday, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that shelling in the nearby city of Enerhodar where the plant is operated from, has caused a blackout and sent safety concerns soaring.
The IAEA chief Rafael Grossi called for the shelling at the plant to stop immediately, as well as shelling in the nearby city of Enerhodar. The Russian envoy to the IAEA also supported the appeal.
Mr Grossi, responding to the increasingly precarious situation there, said in a statement: “This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious. Enerhodar has gone dark. The power plant has no offsite power. And we have seen that once infrastructure is repaired, it is damaged once again.
“I therefore urgently call for the immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area.”
He added: “Only this will ensure the safety and security of operating staff and allow the durable restoration of power to Enerhodar and to the power plant.
Guardian
A vital offsite electricity supply to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been destroyed by shelling and there is little likelihood a reliable supply will be re-established, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief has said.
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said shelling had destroyed the switchyard of a nearby thermal power plant.
The plant has supplied power to the nuclear facility each time its normal supply lines had been cut over the past three weeks. The thermal plant was also supplying the surrounding area, which was plunged into darkness.
Local Ukrainian officials said work was under way to restore the connection, which has been cut multiple times this week.
Grossi, who said he had been informed of the situation by IAEA representatives at the plant, called for an “immediate cessation of all shelling in the entire area”. “This is an unsustainable situation and is becoming increasingly precarious,” he said, without apportioning blame for the shelling.
Who’s mourning the Queen then?
At the end of the day who really cares what the make up of a queue is at Buckingham Palace or anywhere else, and most of us with half a brain have realised what the BBC have been up to for years now. I wouldn’t mind betting that quite a lot of the queue that the video presenter was talking about were made up of people who came from well outside London. Some people like standing in queues but personally I’m not one of them, and certainly from my experience in the Police, quite a few people are prepared to set up camp at the roadside for several nights just to get a good vantage point at Royal Weddings etc, and the same could be said at New Years Day sales as well. I have spoken to several people where I volunteer today and one or two of them are prepared to stand in a queue for perhaps hours on end waiting to see a glimpse of the late Queen lying in state at Westminster Hall. For me, I have better things to do with my time than to wait in a queue to catch the sight of a deceased person lying in state because the whole thing in my eyes at least is a bit morbid. However, waiting patiently in a queue at the supermarket, at a railway station, in traffic at a junction or at the petrol station seems to be part of the British psyche, whereas in other cultures/countries everyone seems to want to do something at the same time with the frantic impatient pushing in that goes on, so queueing patiently is not intrinsically part of their psyche.
As far as I can see. Tidal or Hydro give a partial answer answer. Pollution free, Reliable. Dirt Cheap. Available to anybody. What is the problem? Why is there a problem ? is there something we do not know.? There are various schemes around the world, what do they show ? In GB various schemes have been considered , but are clearly blatantly pure get rich quick schemes, but they do not need to be. So why ?…Could they slow rotation ? Could it just be that it is too cheap and easy to undercut traditional methods with valuable return on investments being put out of business ( Protectionism ? )
Yes, well. This ‘breakthrough in the causes of cancer’ has some elements of truth in it BUT . . . .
It is not so much the AIR that is polluted, it is our whole modern environment. We have polluted it by the overuse of chemicals and drugs all round us.
And when I say chemicals, I do NOT mean CO2!
To some extent it has been unavoidable and to some extent we have now reduced, for instance, particulates in the air.
Our water supplies are polluted. The food we eat is polluted. (It is not meat that causes cancer it is the food and drugs forced upon the meat animals.)
So what does Charles Swanton say? ‘Produce more drugs’!! Heaven save us from Big Pharma!
I admit I have read (and re-read), a lot of Vernon Coleman’s work on this subject but I am by no means easy to fool.
Nearly all the time he substantiates his views with facts and reasoned argument.
So now it is my opinion.
Today’s Daily Sceptic opens with a very interesting article about Covid 19 vaccinations and just how much damage they have done worldwide. Very well worth reading for more news.
Also Rodney Atkinson on Free Nations is worth reading today about the death of our Queen and about our Constitutional Monarchy.
Thank you Phil; a prescient reminder of the coming reality.
PoS / JT – Agreed. After all the Bliar era of education x 3, clearly some missed out on schooling.
It should not be up to Ind-Day posters to fill the gap.
Reality – I see the California State has rolling blackouts mainly due to air-conditioning loads.
The electrical company output is insufficient to satisfy demand. Now how about charging millions of batteries on top?
More of my predictions confirmed then.
https://independencedaily.co.uk/pollution/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDEPENDENCE+Daily+Newsletter1
You read it first in Independence Daily.
You overlooked these in your list, Nostradamus.
Cobalt
https://www.cfr.org/blog/why-cobalt-mining-drc-needs-urgent-attention
Lithium
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact
Even the Guardian in a rare slip of their mask:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/14/electric-cost-lithium-mining-decarbonasation-salt-flats-chile
Neodymium
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
And then there’s those ultra clean (not!) EVs.
All smoke and mirrors; shift the pollution out of sight out of mind.
Phil O’S. Makes you think, doesn’t it.
Us naked apes really should not have eaten from the tree of knowledge.
Harryagain………..booooring. Lord Nostradamus, have you offered your services to HM King Charles III as one of his advisors?