- Tampa zoo rushes Chompers the porcupine and others to safety as Milton nears
- Shanghai stocks pare early surge on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- New Japan PM to hold talks on ASEAN sidelines
- Record number of climbers chase 14-peak dream in Tibet
- Former South Korea clinic for US 'comfort women' to be demolished
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
- Chiefs battle past Saints to stay unbeaten
- Deal on climate aid hangs in balance at UN COP29 summit
- Royals hit back against Yankees, Tigers maul Guardians
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case faces verdict in sex crimes trial
- Top economic official 'confident' China will hit 2024 growth target
- COP29 fight looms over climate funds for developing world
- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Australia moves to expand Antarctic marine park
- Tragedy of Madrid street sweeper highlights how heatwaves kill
- Survivors wait for aid as Trump's lies help cloud Helene response
- Fleeing Israeli bombs, Lebanon's displaced met with suspicion
- Jila Mossaed, from refugee poet to Swedish Academy
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- Drugs, people smuggling at heart of Mexico's raging violence
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Musk says he is 'all in' on Trump in US election
- Category 5 Hurricane Milton roars towards storm-battered Florida
- Carpenter bomb stuns Guardians as Tigers level series
- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
- Nobel scientist uncovered tiny genetic switches with big potential
- Grammy-winning Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, dies at 91
- UN biodiversity summit in Colombia aims to turn words into action
- Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights multi-front war
- Mexican mayor murdered days after taking office
- Intensifying to Category 5, Hurricane Milton targets Florida
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
RBGPF | 100% | 60.52 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.15% | 6.87 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ |
UK forgets crisis to party for queen's jubilee
Putting aside a biting inflationary crisis and doubts over the monarchy's future, Britons are set to party this week to mark a record-breaking 70 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth II.
The Platinum Jubilee offers a four-day respite from a surge in prices not seen since the 1970s, with accounts emerging daily of people struggling to put food on the table and clothe their children.
With two public holidays from Thursday and then the weekend, pubs, restaurants and retailers are hoping for a timely sales boost, after a difficult period including the Covid pandemic.
"With the sun set to shine across the four days we're hoping to see pub gardens filled with people raising a toast to Her Majesty the Queen and showing their support for two great British institutions," the British Beer and Pub Association said.
There are thousands fewer pubs in Britain than when the queen ascended the throne amid gloomy post-war rationing in 1952.
And support for the monarchy itself is an open question once the increasingly frail, 96-year-old monarch departs the scene.
- The coming change -
With Prince Charles taking over more of his mother's duties for occasions of state, there is a sense that the first -- and possibly the last -- Platinum Jubilee in British history marks a turning of the page.
A poll for The Sun newspaper this week gave the queen a 91.7-percent approval rating. But Charles commanded only 67.5 percent, behind his son Prince William on 87.4 percent.
Historian Anthony Seldon, addressing a discussion at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said the monarchy's centuries-old power to adapt and survive should not be underestimated.
But he added: "And how traumatic it's going to be when it unravels, as well as it might in the next two, three, four years when the change comes."
Unlike the vocal Charles, the queen has rarely vented an opinion in public, and her sheer longevity means that she has been a fixture of the lives of nearly every Briton alive.
She has overcome numerous family traumas, including Charles' very public split from Princess Diana, and personal heartache when her consort Prince Philip died aged 99 last year, modernising the monarchy along the way.
- Spitfires and Sheeran -
The jubilee events begin on Thursday with Trooping the Colour, the military parade that has officially marked the British monarch's birthday for more than 250 years.
A fly-past will include Spitfires, the iconic fighter plane that helped win the Battle of Britain and fend off Nazi Germany in 1940.
The aerial display is expected to be watched by the queen and senior royals from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Numbers have been limited to "working royals" only, leaving no place for self-exiled grandson Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan, nor Elizabeth's disgraced second son Prince Andrew.
Patriotic nostalgia runs red, white and blue throughout the four days of festivities, culminating in Ed Sheeran singing "God Save the Queen" in front of Buckingham Palace on Sunday.
Participants in a giant public parade through central London on Sunday will be familiar to anyone acquainted with British popular culture since 1952.
But Bollywood dancers and a Caribbean carnival will also reflect the changes in British society since then, from one that was predominantly white and Christian, to one that is multicultural and multi-faith.
Britain's Empire has given way to a Commonwealth of nations -- 14 of which still count the queen as their head of state, including Australia and Canada.
But recent royal tours of the Caribbean have laid bare growing tensions about the British monarchy's status further afield.
"This queen has been a significant glue within that Commonwealth," said Michael Cox, emeritus professor of international relations at LSE.
"Whether, how successfully, Charles is going to play the same role, I don't know," he said.
P.Stevenson--AMWN